Meg Bernhard

Meg Bernhard is a writer from California's Inland Empire who spent several years living in Spain and Belgium. She's written for the Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, the Virginia Quarterly Review, Guernica, and others. An essay she wrote for Hazlitt about finding meaning in shared grief will be published in the 2021 Best American Travel Writing anthology. She is currently working on a book about wine and power.

Stories

Cover Photo: A photograph of a small vine in a vineyard, buried in dry-looking light brown soil. In the background, the sky is dark and filled with clouds.

Working on a Vineyard Taught Me to Slow Down and Pay Attention

We had no sense of “ecological time,” the cadence of the natural environment. Mostly, I experienced the natural world as lack.

May 12, 2022

Columns | Through The Grapevine

Cover Photo: A photograph of a path on a vineyard, with rows of grapes planted along either side. Beyond the path, in the distance, is a deep green valley.

Losing My Religion and Finding Faith on Spanish Vineyards

My family’s understanding of religion was too individualistic for my liking. But I still wanted to hold faith in something bigger than myself.

Mar 21, 2022

Columns | Through The Grapevine

Cover Photo: A photograph of a white sculpted hand holding a white sculpted bottle, protruding from a white wall. Just below the neck of the bottle is a real wine glass, full of red wine, held by another sculpted white hand that protrudes from the wall.

Who Can Afford to Make and Drink Wine?

If someone paid half a million for a single bottle of wine, how much did the grape harvesters earn making it?

Jan 12, 2022

Columns | Through The Grapevine

Cover Photo: A line drawing of women drinking glasses of wine, colored in a soft watercolor rainbow palette. Around them in the air swirl words of various flavors and memories, like "apples and "summer's storm."

Making the Language of Wine More Inclusive

Often, the vocabulary of wine is only accessible to people who have the time and money to learn it.

Nov 16, 2021

Columns | Through The Grapevine

Cover Photo: A photograph of a vineyard against an orange sky as the sun sets beneath heavy clouds.

The Climate Crisis Is Changing the Taste of Wine

When the fires come, as they have for the past five years in California wine country, there is little winemakers can do.

Sep 09, 2021

Science | Columns | Through The Grapevine