Megan Krigbaum

Title: Associate Wine Editor

At Food & Wine since: 2005

Born and raised: Clarkston, MI

Background: Just before coming to Food & Wine, I worked in the publications office for the James Beard Foundation. Preceding that, I poured wine in a tasting room at a winery in Napa Valley. And before that, I studied literature and writing at Bennington College.

What I do at Food & Wine: Cover wine and spirits for our News & Notes section, research (and sometimes write) wine stories, seek out innovative winemakers and trends, meet up with winemakers when they come to New York and do my best to corral the caseloads of wine that come into our tasting room every day.

Wine I’ve Obsessed Over the Most: Axel Prüfer’s Les Temps de Cerises Fou de Roi from France’s Languedoc region. I fell in love with this natural wine at Le Verre Volé, a terrific wine bar in Paris, a few years ago. On returning to New York I searched and searched for it, but it wasn’t available in the U.S. About a year later, it showed up on the shelf at my neighborhood wine shop. Not only did I systematically buy up their stock, but I also hunted down the importer in New York and took him out for breakfast.

Most Naive Wine Moment: One fall morning, while driving to work in Napa, I noticed that many of the wineries had tied glittery strips of foil to vine trellises all throughout their vineyards. I assumed this was a celebration of the upcoming harvest, but when I asked about it, I was told this was done to keep birds from eating the grapes. That was the day I fully understood that growing grapes is, in fact, farming.

Best Wine Memory Thus Far: Once I stayed with my friend Linda, who lives in the middle of a vineyard in Rutherford. When I went to sleep, there were Cabernet grapes on the vines outside my room. When I woke up at seven the next morning, they were all gone, and I hadn’t even heard a sound.

Dream Wine Travel Spot: I’d love to visit the Loire Valley. There are a ton of winemakers that are producing wines biodynamically and naturally there—something I’m quite excited about.

Favorite Cocktail: Rye Old Fashioned

Favorite Beer: Bell’s Oberon from Kalamazoo, MI