Hands down the best perk of my job at the Chronicle was the fact that I got to explore vineyards constantly. My camera roll over the last decade is a mosaic of grapevines!
If you’d like to stay in the loop with any wine-focused newsletters or other things I may launch down the line (no concrete plans yet — for now I’m going to focus on starting my new job!), you can sign up at esthermobley.com/newsletter
And if you’re on the Drinking with Esther newsletter list, don’t unsubscribe!! Jess Lander (@willwrite4wine ) has just relaunched it under a new name. Can’t wait to see where she and @sfchronicle_food take the paper’s wine coverage!
From wildfires, climate change, natural wine, to a global downturn in consumption, the changes to California wine over the past decade have been monumental.
When Chronicle wine critic @esthermob first joined the Chronicle in 2015 to cover the beat, wine in America felt ascendant. It was a decade during which California retail wine sales within the U.S. ballooned from $30 billion in 2010 to $47 billion in 2020, according to the Wine Institute — a nearly 57% jump. The beverage finally seemed to be shedding its reputation as an obsession for snobs and was instead becoming a worthwhile interest for people of all stripes.
No one could have known it at the time, but the wine industry was approaching the end of innocence.
Read more via the link in our bio.
🎬: @sarahrosemcgrew
There will be a 3.5 lb, $180, bone-in beef shank burger at the Super Bowl this weekend (I tried it in slider form). What a fun assignment to get to taste all of this stunty stadium food in Santa Clara yesterday!
With clear bottles and jewel-toned pours, you’d swear this beverage was pet-nat (crown cap and all). But it’s not wine.
It’s sparkling, fermented tea from Brooklyn’s Unified Ferments (@unifiedferments ), crafted in a former Pfizer plant — and it might be the most elegant, complex alcohol alternative out right now.
Along with the Chronicle’s Food & Wine team, Senior Wine Critic Esther Mobley tasted six of the brand’s food-friendly varieties: Soba, Hojicha, Rhododendron, Wen Shan Bao Zhong, Jasmine Green and Kukicha.
For Esther’s full story on these sparkling teas, head to the link in our bio.
📸 +🎬: @vanessa.labi
The Bay Area’s best new bar of the year was a viral hit that garnered attention for its showmanship-heavy drinks and memorable bar food. Here's Senior Wine Critic Esther Mobley’s take on Shoji (@shoji_sf ) 📝:
“Shoji, which opened downtown in April, is a place that prizes details. Glassware is fine, service is crisp, drink recipes are carefully calibrated. During a year in which many new bar openings took a casual turn — bring your dog to the wine bar! — it marked a return to something more sophisticated, and along the way became a poster child of downtown San Francisco’s vaunted revival.
The buzz was so potent in its early months that you either had to be lucky or Kamala Harris to nab a spot. Getting a reservation is a little easier now, though there’s still often a wait on weeknights. Like another chic Japanese bar, Bar Iris, Shoji is the rare San Francisco watering hole that inspires people to dress up; coming here feels like a night out.”
Read the full story via the link in our bio. 🍸
📸: @esthermob@fukufoodz@jbitker
🎬: @vanessa.labi
Today is my 10-year anniversary at the San Francisco Chronicle. This first photo was taken by @lhafalia during my first week (back then, photographers were supposed to capture candids of new reporters to use as headshots). In case it isn’t clear from my face here, the job intimidated me!
The second photo is my first print byline (I made it onto A1, but below the fold). It’s not every year that you get to write a harvest story in early August, but 2015 was a strange vintage.
I couldn’t have anticipated then just how rich and complex the California wine beat would turn out to be. I’ve driven into wildfire evacuation zones, traveled past the gates of a cult, interviewed undocumented workers in Spanish, and explored so many amazing hidden corners of California.
I’m so grateful to the Chronicle for taking a chance on me. It changed my life.
This California region was once a wine paradise, but now it’s all but disappeared. Can a group of devoted vintners save it? Read my story, with visuals by @_erik.castro_ , now at sfchronicle.com/wine.
I was lucky to spend some time in the Cucamonga Valley this spring, learning about one of California’s wildest — and most endangered — wine regions. I hope you’ll read my story, with extraordinary photos from @_erik.castro_ , about the people who have devoted their lives to saving these vineyards. Link in bio. 📸: @ginofilippiforcommunity
This Chronicle Food & Wine team we’ve had over the last few years has been a special one. So special that both our editors @jlbitker & @calaesthetic just got big promotions! Going to miss this crew.
