My draft-a-wine-column ritual: leave the house at 7:30 a.m. and walk to a coffee shop that serves loose-leaf tea in a real cup and something good for breakfast.
(I tend to alternate between Delta of Venus, Mishka's, and Temple—and, since the patio opened, Upper Crust Baking). Sip my drink and eat my food while reading the day's New York Times. (I like Wednesday's, so I can linger over the “Food” section.
) Refresh my tea and pull out a sheet of paper. Then I'm ready to write. Occasionally, the inspiration comes directly from the newspaper, especially if it contains an Eric Asimov wine column.
Recently, for example, he came out with the “hot weather edition” of one of his periodic “20 wines under $20” columns. Sometimes those columns are frustrating — Asimov lives on the East Coast and has access to thousands of wines that I don't. He does, though, usually include a West Coast wine or two; for this particular column (19 June, if you're interested) his only California white was “White Light” from Folk Machine.
Because I so often write about Kenny Likitprakong's wonderful wines, I'll let Asimov praise him for a change: “Folk Machine comes from the excellent Hobo Wine Company, which, under Kenny Likitprakong, offers a variety of labels that showcase different parts of California, all made from organically grown grapes. White Light is a blend of white grapes from all parts of the state, including verdelho, tocai friulano, vermentino, albariño and sauvignon b.