Dan Berger hardly needs introduction if one knows about wine. As a wine columnist since 1976, the Los Angeles Times wine writer (1988-1996) and award-winning journalist has lived here in Sonoma County since 1986. He is an international competition judge, author, speaker and professor, as well as a member of the Hall of Fame of the New York Wine Writers’ Circle.
Amber Turpin: How did you get into this work?
Dan Berger: I’ve been a professional writer since 1967.
Did you ever have an ‘aha’ moment with a certain beverage? If so, tell us about it.
In 1976, I was working at Associated Press, and a good friend of mine found out that Moët & Chandon had opened a California operation, the first time a French company had ever come here to make wine in California. This friend of mine had acquired a bottle and opened it up for me one evening, and I tasted and smelled something I had never experienced before… It made me realize that if the French came in here using their technology and our grapes, it was a whole new direction.
What is your favorite thing to drink at home?
Riesling. I think it is one of the greatest wines in the world because it can be made dry or sweet and can be so transparent, meaning that it shows off where it came from. It isn’t covered up by dark flavors; it doesn’t have high alcohol. Rieslings are structured by having high acidity, and I’m an absolute lover of wines with good acidity.
Where do you like to go out for a drink?
Nowhere. My wine collection is better than any restaurant in the world. I typically don’t go to restaurants for the wine list; I go for good food. I’m not a huge drinker of wine, more of a wine evaluator. I think that all great wine is better if it’s been in the bottle for two or three years, sometimes more… My favorite thing coming out of my cellar is maturity.
The whole idea is that wine is a living product, and the more you can understand the changes that take place in the bottle, the more you understand why wine is so infinitely interesting.
If you were stuck on a desert island, what would you want to be drinking (besides fresh water)?
If somebody said you can take 10 cases of wine to a desert island, I would take 120 bottles of different things. I just wouldn’t drink the same thing every day. What excites me is all the differences, all the different wines from all the different places. For me, that’s the most interesting thing: the diversity, the sense of place, the sense of personality, its uniqueness.
For more information, visit vintageexperiences.com.
