Cows in Berkeley? Wine in Slovenia? Well… Alas, there are no real grazing cows in the People’s Republic of Berkeley (California), but in Slovenia there is wine, and it has a long and heralded history in this new country. Post a thorough tasting and discussion with Emil Gaspari, the walking sandwich board for Slovenian wines, I think that you can add another new and worthwhile wine number to your proverbial dance card.

Over an email exchange a few months back, Jancis Robinson MW queried me about Slovenian distribution in the USA, so charmed was she having recently come back from tasting in this newly sovereign nation (having achieved such independence in June of 1991). While I have had some experience with wines from Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and indeed Moldova and Croatia, Slovenia had not yet crossed my radar screen. Since that cyber dialogue with Jancis, my antennae have been tuned for Ljubljana Free Radio, or more seriously, any tasting opportunities for Slovenian wines that would present themselves. As luck would have it, I was contacted via Emil’s West Coast distributor, Blue Danube Wine Company, and I jumped at the opportunity to taste and learn. Continue reading »

From and food and wine standpoint, this question must be asked. As you are well aware, I do have strong thoughts on the subject and those thoughts have been compelling enough for me to write not one, but soon two books on the topic. I believe that there are clear guidelines but not “rules” to maximizing your wine and food pleasure at table. If there are not, how do you know what to do? It’s epicurean blinking in the dark. So, you can correctly surmise that, when someone takes the bully pulpit to say that “Wine and food matching has become a tyranny of the minority,” I simply can’t sit on my hands.

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For years I have always been somewhat suspect of the concept of the “happy hour.” On one side, it makes sense to bring in folks on these days during slower times to ramp up biz and fill otherwise empty seats to capitalize on “open windows.” On the other hand, happy hours have been known, especially in more bar oriented concepts, to bring in customers who you otherwise wouldn’t care to have patronize your establishment. Bluntly stated, those customers who overindulge and force restaurants and bars to heavily practice their “how do we handle inebriated customers” protocols, and those who come in, nurse one drink forever, and eat their weight in freebee food. Continue reading »

Like many of my wine geeky friends I will often pick the wine I want to enjoy first, and then decide what I am going to order (in a restaurant) or cook (if at home). While some think it’s peculiar, many of my compadres think it fun, and even the less wine nerdy find it a different way of thinking that, at the very least, is tasty.

In July of 2008, my dear friend Fiona Beckett wrote an article in Decanter about a restaurant in Paris doing just that. She put forward the program of one Enrico Bernardo and his Michelin starred eponymous restaurant, Il Vino d’Enrico Bernardo. And he’s opening a second one (likely has already done so) in the ski resort of Courchevel. Besides the food and wine pairing stuff, in his own sommelier right Mr. Bernardo is very accomplished: “Best Sommelier in Italy” at age 20, chef sommelier at the renowned George V in Paris at the age of 24, youngest ever “Best Sommelier in the World” at age 27. For some that would be enough. Not he… Continue reading »

I knew that it was true, but had been waiting for the proof. If I had a dollar for each and every question pertaining to wine sales and the economy that I have been asked over the recent months, I may well have been immune to the economic downturn! Of course I have my own opinions which are both personal (asking close friends, industry colleagues, and consumers at events in which I participate) and anecdotal, through the proverbial grapevine. That said, I was heartened to find my visceral impressions validated by none other than the venerable New York Times on January 1 in an article written by Catherine Rampell.

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I had to snicker when recently driving my son and a few of his teammates back to San Francisco from a soccer tournament. They play for a 12U travel team and were having a serious discussion about age. It was clear from the conversation that being older was something of bravado. My son claimed to one of the players “You may be 12, but your birthday is in December and mine is in November, so I am older.” I had to laugh! Another subsequent comment included the fact that the 11-year-olds that were playing on the opposing team were clearly not as good because they weren’t really ‘old enough’ to be playing at this level. My, how time changes things.

When we are young, we want to be older. It is, I suppose, something to aspire to be. High school freshmen dream of dating Seniors, while apparently 12-year-old soccer players don’t want to be eleven for any more time than they have to be. And for us adults, well, we all want to be younger… 40 is the new 30, 50 the new 40. When we look in the mirror we perennially want to see ourselves as those fearless twenty-somethings we once were. My, how time changes things in our minds.

With wine it’s also odd, especially for bottles that are supposedly age-worthy. When they are young in bottle, we cringe asking ourselves the ‘what if?’ Continue reading »