The Wine Idea

WE WERE ON A ROAD TRIP recently that took us from New Orleans to St. Augustine, FL and thence up through Savannah, GA and Charleston, SC. It was an eye-opener for … Does this wine make my butt look big?Read more

I WENT OUT ON A LIMB last week trying to come to terms with what quality amounts to in wine – in some cases backing into it by suggesting what quality … <span class="entry-title-primary">What makes it good?</span> <span class="entry-subtitle">Part Two</span>Read more

THE BELIEF THAT A FORTUITOUSLY-SITED vineyard can consistently produce wines of exceptional quality is at the very root of the notion of cru and appears to reach back to Pharaonic times. … <span class="entry-title-primary">What makes it good?</span> <span class="entry-subtitle">Part One</span>Read more

THE COLLECTION of open wine bottles at left was shot in my kitchen this week.  There are usually four to six there at a time.  All are in the process of … The wine cellar in your kitchenRead more

IN MOVIES OF A CERTAIN KIND (the kind I most like) fog plays a prominent role. I’m thinking of films like The Third Man,  Quai des Brumes, and Brief Encounter.  Fog … The fog of wine</br>Read more

Former Classics professor Michel Bettane may be the most influential writer on wine in France today. With colleague Thierry Desseauve, he publishes Bettane & Desseauve’s Guide to the Wines of France. … Michel Bettane on terroirRead more

THE COLLECTION of open wine bottles at left was shot in my kitchen this week.  There are usually four to six there at a time.  All are in the process of … The wine cellar in your kitchenRead more

I GET ASKED which alcoholic beverage first passed our greedy little lips – beer or wine. Since it’s not a case of needing to have one before you can have the other, the first-drink … Grapes, grains, and the priority puzzleRead more

SHOPPING FOR WINE IS THIRSTY WORK, so sipping an ounce or two while you scan the shelves mulling over varietals and vintages can only make an already pleasant task more enjoyable. … Not to diss the sip, but . . .Read more

THE PICTURE ABOVE ISN’T some abstract expressionist art you might encounter in a Soho gallery. It’s a thermal image of a section of the North Atlantic  (Credit: NASA JPL). The warm Gulf … Wine as signRead more

THAT’S STANLEY TUCCI (left) and Anthony Shaloub as a pair of devoted but mismatched brothers running an Italian restaurant in the film Big Night. Primo (Shaloub) is a gifted chef who … When food satisfies – and when it doesn’tRead more

THIS FOURTEENTH CENTURY manuscript illumination shows just-picked grapes being hustled from the vineyard and dumped into vats where empurpled treaders are already frantically at work.  It was customary for medieval artists … Please have snow and mistletoe and claret under the tree . . . .Read more