Come Over October: Wine’s Best Story

Karen MacNeil reminds us that wine’s essence lies in generosity, authenticity and human connection

Come Over October is designed for friends to share a bottle.

Karen MacNeil has spent her career writing about wine with clarity and conviction. But in the spring of 2024, she felt a growing frustration.

“A lot of the wine industry challenges were starting to roll up together into a giant ball of problems,” MacNeil said. “I began to get frustrated the wine industry wasn’t in a sense fighting back. It wasn’t telling its own best story.”

That story, in MacNeil’s view, is simple but profound. For 8,000 years, wine has been a beverage of connection, generosity and authenticity. It’s a product of agriculture that respects both nature and the farming communities that nurture vineyards.

“Every wine drinker in the world has had the experience of sharing wine with someone who was a stranger and after that, they are now a friend of that person,” MacNeil said. “Try doing that with a taco..well maybe you can.”

Her idea was equally simple: What if everyone who drank wine invited a neighbor, friend or colleague over for a glass?

In a world of social isolation, that act could remind people that wine’s essence lies in bringing us together.