Thirty five of us climbed a stairway to our balcony seating perched above Cole’s Chop House’s main dining room in downtown Napa. The wine service table was crowded with a military style line up of thirty bottles of three different California Cabernets; an admittedly and deliberately ignored wine category since a self-imposed hard stop in […]
Brovia Barolo Cures Wine Absurdity
When you get serious about wine, humorous elements popping up on the edges of its universe can seem absurd. By serious, I don’t mean snobby seriousness, but instead serious appreciation. Take this weekend for example. Sixteen of us blind tasted these 2008 Brovia Barolos. They are all beautiful, significant, complex, educational, mysterious beings that make […]
Breakfast Wine
Is there hope for wine becoming a tightly woven staple inside the fabric of all meals; consumed sans any hint of pomp and circumstance? While the prospect is mesmerizing, it feels more countercultural than any of my 1970’s teenage years ever did. Can Americans honestly aspire to adopt a European wine-as-food lifestyle? Or, is the thought […]
Advantage: Female Wine Drinkers
There is an inexorable connection between wine and good health which has been written about here. I have been working under the assumption that the benefits, primarily associated with the resveratrol compound , lacked gender discrimination and manifested in lower rates of cancer, heart attacks, diabetes, and other killer diseases for men and women alike. As a […]
Zen, Hot Dogs, and Albarino
Yes, as the post’s title reflects, there is wine involved. But this simple, value infused story of Willy completely transcends the bottle of Rias Baixas blended white varietals I presented to him a few mornings ago in our annual Christmas gift exchange (I always get his wife’s heavenly spiced papaya dish) on a beach we ritually retreat to near San Juan, Puerto Rico. At the end […]
A Twist on Wine and Health
His laugh can cure most anything and his joie de vivre will lift all spirits. The bottled energy of Lewis Cellars Cabernets and Chardonnays combines with a legacy marquis flashing Randy’s European race car roots driving Formula Threes and his tasting experiences with local wines before returning to the US behind the wheel of Indy Cars and ultimately a successful family wine business. Feeling lucky to have spent so many magical moments sharing […]
Slurping Soba for Grace and Wine for Life
It was my first time. The sounds inside the small, ancient, wooden Kyoto noodle restaurant were deafening. The weather outside was 32C with 90% humidity. Inside were tables of men dressed in uniform grey salaryman suits and ties, sticks snatching clumps of chilled Soba, dipping once quickly in tsuyu sauce before bowing their heads over bamboo plates and viciously sucking the living buckwheat out of this ultimate […]