Call me a prude, conservative, right of Rick Santorum when it comes to wine, but there are certain things one simply doesn’t do. Naked wine, depending on the wine, is often sublime. Many cultivars don’t require much to show them off and indeed when they are over made, they are, in my humble opinion, less interesting. Case in point—most all aromatic white wines (Riesling, Albariño, Grüner Veltliner, Torrontés, etc.) want to be pure and unadulterated examples of themselves. Even some reds can show wonderfully left alone (Grenache, Dolcetto, and Gamay for example).  Add a little oak- fine. Blend with other grapes- fine. But add cream? Continue reading »

The New Year always starts out with folks wanting to make prognostications as to what the forthcoming twelve months will bring. Financial people look at indicators from the opening day on Wall Street (up 150’ish for those who don’t recall) to consumer confidence numbers. Retailers take physical and emotional inventory of the ‘OND’ (October-November-December) and especially the holiday ‘D’ numbers while restaurateurs intuitively get a hit from the level of consumer happiness they detect in the dining room, the number of private parties booked at holiday and what they were spending, and bullishly anticipate what the first few weeks of the year will bring. Continue reading »

So here it is… my very first post. Even though wine blogging is becoming increasingly popular and there is even a second annual American Wine Blog Awards, this is my first attempt to host a blog. Late to the party? Maybe. But excited about the opportunity to share my thoughts about wine, food pairings and the industry? Definitely!

I have been in the restaurant and wine industry for 26 years, with the last 18 years spent in the corporate wine world. After living through two mergers and acquisitions and about to go through a third (Seagram-Diageo, allied Domecq-Jim Beam, Beam wines-Constellation), it just felt like the right time has come for me to branch out on my own. At some point, doing the same job in different corporate environments, the professional equivalent of re-seasoning and re-heating the same pot of soup, just doesn’t seem as exciting as going the more entrepreneurial route!
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