So you are trying to make a comment about pairing wine with fish crudo and a stingray comes by and steals your thunder. No, really.

It was the evening of Tuesday, August 11^th and I was indeed leading a food and wine dinner in the Ithaa restaurant at the Conrad Resort on Rangali Island in the Maldives. This oasis is amazing, and not just because of the undersea restaurant- the world’s only one I would add. The food here in Rangali is, across all units, spectacular, the service professional and the wine program is undeniably the best in the Maldives, an island nation archipelago that sits off India’s southwestern coast about two hours as the Maldivian Airlines plane flies. Continue reading »

I just came back from a marvelous, and much-needed, vacation in India and the Maldives. I know, you’re feeling for me. It was mostly pleasure though I did some work in the Maldives (next blog) and some in India, this blog. Since we had only a week in India, we decided to be stealth about it and rather than spending our entire time in transit, we chose to focus on one region- Kerala on the southwestern coast. Continue reading »

What really does work to mitigate those post vino headaches and hangovers? If I have been asked once, it has been asked of me a hundred plus times and frankly there’s no clear panacea for everyone. First and foremost, I am no expert on these things personally (I rarely, if ever, get to that point of no return) and of course, I ain’t a doctor. That said, it came up at a dinner recently so I thought I would put forward my advice. For what it is worth… Continue reading »

Sometimes dramatic things happen with very little fanfare. Such is the case of a fairly significant change in law in France that went into effect on July 1st. According to a little box I came across when reading Gourmet Magazine’s July 2009 issue (page 25 to be exact!), the new VAT (Value Added Tax) on food (but not on alcohol) has been reduced from a very high 19.6% (where alas it still will be for wine) to a far more modest 5.5%. This is a huge victory for French restaurateurs who have been lobbying for years that they should be levied at the same rate as fast food outlets which were only being levied that 5.5%. Does this mean that fast food wasn’t considered food? Hmm… one has to wonder… Continue reading »

Let me start off by saying that I think it is very admirable. I read with great interest about this new food and wine pairing engine developed by the wine retailer Snooth.com for Epicurious, a leading recipe website. You can read about it at SF Gate’s SIP: Software Sommelier. Anything that ultimately helps to demystify wine and food pairing for people is good and, as you know, I have been writing, preaching, and speaking about it for many years. Continue reading »

I recall when I cut my teeth on California wines close to 30 years ago that any real tasting could only be done by going straight to the source- up to wine county. There were no complete wine bars in the San Francisco area, less the now-closed London Wine Bar in San Francisco’s financial district, Premier Cru on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland and one or two others. Even then, you got to taste several wines but never got to chat with the winemaker, experience barrel tasting or do any of those types of activities without a minimal one hour schlep in the car. Well, that was then and this is now. Continue reading »