Amazon Wine
You may be just a few clicks away from buying decent wine at an affordable price. Amazon Wine simplifies wine buying. Enter the web page, click on your preferred grape variety,…
The Origin of the ‘Margarita’ Cocktail…Also, Mexican Winemakers
A recent article in the New York Times tells of Mexican winemakers getting established in northern California. No surprise. Their families have picked grapes, worked cellars, and grown accustomed to…
California Central Coast Wine Tastings
Before exploring the topography of taste, it pays to learn general geography. So I bought a map. Then another. Before venturing out to taste wines within Central California, it…
Coravin Review…and Random Red Tasting
There's a new wine toy on the market. This gadget appears stellar for those who can exercise restraint. The Coravin device extracts wine from your bottle - without you having…
Women and Wine
Here are some excerpts from the book Vino Voices, which includes sparks of wisdom whittled from women who bent their backs, tasted bankruptcy, abandoned careers, and jumped on a lifestyle…
Guys and Grapes
Flavio Fennochio - Barolo Winemaker from the Piemonte Region of Italy We receive the grapes from God...There’s a little part of me in this wine. I didn’t build the car,…
Beyond Bordeaux, Burgundy, and – Peru
Years ago, my sister and her German husband-to-be lived in a farmhouse in rural Ireland. There, amid beaten glens on this rain-soaked misty isle, they met an American traveler named…
An Asian Surprise – Thai Wine
In a supermarket on the Thai island of Koh Samui I spotted a bottle of Thai wine and bought it. It cost about $15 - labelled PB Khao Yai Reserve -…
Ordering Some More on Samui
I took a morning shuttle bus from the silence of Mae Nam beach to the bustling town of Cheweng on the tourist laden isle of Koh Samui in Thailand. Trucks…
Yosemite, Sonoma, and Mighty Characters
A recent trip to California taught me about large characters who forever changed our literary and physical landscapes. One wrote of frigid terrain and cunning wildlife, while the others delivered…