Mitch RABINOWITZ

I’m a retired university professor with a Ph.D. in cognitive and developmental psychology. I taught cognition and education starting in 1984. In retirement I decided to take wine seriously, and I’ve been using AI to help me learn faster and create better. I’ve also learned you can’t just ask AI one question and call it done. For me, an essay usually takes a number of iterations. I create a draft, then I check accuracy, hunt for gaps, revise the structure, and do it again until the piece feels coherent and useful. I also use other AIs as collaborators. It is an extensive process creating the essays. I try to create these as stories because that is the format that sticks for most of us. Facts land better when they have a sequence and a few turning points.

LEARNING ABOUT WINE: Albariño Across Rías Baixas

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Albariño Across Rías Baixas Albariño is often introduced as a single Galician white wine: crisp, aromatic, coastal, and useful at the table. That description leaves out the local differences that shape the grape. Rías Baixas is divided into five subzones, and those subzones do not behave alike. Val do Salnés, O Rosal, Condado do Tea, … Read more

LEARNING ABOUT WINE: Albarino Grapes

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Albariño: Coastal Farming and Atlantic Viticulture In Galicia, vines grow under Atlantic moisture, where rain is not an interruption but one of the governing facts of agriculture. The coast is cut by rías, the long tidal inlets that bring ocean air inland and keep humidity high through much of the growing season. In this setting, … Read more

LEARNING ABOUT WINE Rías Baixas: Atlantic Wine in Galicia

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Rías Baixas: Atlantic Wine in Galicia Rías Baixas begins with water. The Atlantic reaches into Galicia’s western coast through long estuaries called rías, where river water, sea air, fog, and rain meet before they move inland across small vineyards. This is one of Spain’s wettest wine regions, and the problem of ripening grapes here has … Read more

LEARNING ABOUT WINE: Galicia: Atlantic Weather, Fragmented Vineyards, and the Long Recovery of a Wine Region

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Galicia: Atlantic Weather, Fragmented Vineyards, and the Long Recovery of a Wine Region Galicia occupies the northwestern corner of Spain, facing the Atlantic and bordered by Portugal to the south, Asturias to the east, and the inland lands of Castile and León beyond its mountain barriers. That position has always set it slightly apart from … Read more

LEARNING ABOUT WINE Spain’s DOs: Why Spain Has So Many Wine Regions?

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Spain’s DOs: Why Spain Has So Many Wine Regions? In Spanish wine, place often comes before country. Rioja, Rías Baixas, Ribera del Duero, and Jerez appear first. Those names belong to a legal system. In Spain, the most familiar unit in that system is the DO, short for Denominación de Origen. A DO ties a … Read more

LEARNING ABOUT WINE What is Orange Wine?

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What Is Orange Wine? Orange wine is often misunderstood before it is even poured. The name does not refer to oranges, orange flavour, or citrus infusion. It refers only to the colour that can appear when white grapes are fermented with their skins. Even that colour can vary widely, from pale gold to deep amber. … Read more

LEARNING ABOUT WINE Crémant de Bourgogne

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Crémant de Bourgogne Crémant de Bourgogne is easier to understand when it is treated as one of Burgundy’s wine categories rather than as a secondary alternative to more famous sparkling regions. It is made by the traditional method, and it shares Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with Champagne, but those facts do not tell the reader … Read more

LEARNING ABOUT WINE Why Should You Care How Old the Vines Are?

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This week we welcome a new contributor, Mitchell Rabinowitz. Watch for LEARNING ABOUT WINE every Monday. Why Should You Care How Old Vines Are? You should care about vine age when it tells you something concrete about how a vineyard behaves, how it handles difficult weather, and what kind of wine it can produce without … Read more