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By Jerry Kolins, MD, DipWSET, Certified Sommelier The Vine Society of Davison, North Carolina brought us the Greater Lake Norman Wine Summit on Friday, December 12, 2025. This symposium featured three master sommeliers, wine producers from around the world, and about 184 wine enthusiasts who yearned to learn. Let me say a few words about the term symposium. Many of us attended symposia in our professional life. Usually, these were events that consisted of didactic presentatio

Fresh into my new role as the Wine Director, I see a table bring in a bottle of Antinori’s Tignanello. A smile can’t help but cross my face - one of my epiphany wines, my second one to be exact. Years ago, one sip of a 1997 Tignanello awoke my palate and I swear timelines shifted. Colors seemed brighter. The world felt larger. This is what an epiphany wine can do for your palate, brain, and in my case. . .life. It led me to think about epiphany moments; the wine, the conversa

In much of Europe, November 11 begins in silence. At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, bells ring and ceremonies pause to mark the Armistice that ended the First World War. Names are read. Wreaths are laid. Even in wine country, the day often starts in stillness. But November 11 also holds an older meaning. It is the feast day of St. Martin of Tours, the patron saint of winemakers, whose life and legacy still echo through vineyards and cellars at th