Wine + Spirits
Having just returned from the annual Sicilia en primeur event, I find myself swimming in impressions about what’s happening on this island. Or is it a continent on its own? The further from the mainland you get, the more you feel you’re on a separate continent, a crosswind of cultures set out in the Mediterranean [...]
Continue reading about Two Sicilies – Wines from Etna and Ragusa
Listening to people making plans for Vinitaly – the frighteningly large, annual Italian wine fair in Verona — reminds me that I met the organizers, CEO Giovanni Mantovani and Stevie Kim in New York this winter. Along with Cristina Mariani-May of Banfi and Marilisa Allegrini of Allegrini Wines, they co-hosted fundraising events that culminated in [...]
Continue reading about Vinitaly, NASDAQ, Banfi, Allegrini — and me
What’s going on in Burgundy right now? Here’s a photo Alex Gambal sent of the first day’s work in one of his newly-acquired vineyards – in the areas of Batard-Montrachet, Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet. He also bought a house “on the square in Santenay that will be turned into a guest and rental residence.” Hoping it’s [...]
I’m trying to remember the story of these little glasses. They came from the apartment of my friend’s mother. It was a pre-war co-op on Central Park West, always decorated in the earthtones she loved, mid-century modern with a 1960s artistic overlay. When the décor was new, I picture these glasses stowed in the freezer [...]
Just caught up with Chateau Roubine’s Valerie Rousselle today at the “Provence in the City” aka Rosé wines tasting in Boston. In addition to her “new name” (as she describes her divorce) she has several new wines and a charmingly renovated, rentable house on the property, “in the midst of the vines,” she says. And [...]
Continue reading about Provence with a dynamic blonde – and wine, of course
I like the way marketing spirits and wines is changing. Instead of summoning the press to a morning seminar or mid-afternoon comparison tasting, some companies are demonstrating the way their wines or spirits fit into our lifestyle. They’re doing this especially for younger bloggers, I think, but it works for me. Last week I went [...]
On the appointed day in mid-November, no one was more surprised than I was, to find myself exactly in the right place at the right time: in the medieval hamlet of Canale, north of Asti, where Enrico Serafino’s offices are. (Hooray for Verizon GPS – it even works in Piedmont!) My tasting there ranged from [...]
It’s Godiva. The Vodka, not the truffles. Well, we might have had the truffles, if there had been any left. But we ate them as soon as we opened the box. The Godiva people sent over chocolate and chocolate-raspberry truffles with samples of their chocolate infused and chocolate raspberry infused vodkas. Often, when a company [...]
When I was young, I eyed the long, tall, yellow Galliano liqueur bottle with suspicion, when I saw it on people’s home bars. Rather than a mark of sophistication, I looked at it as a demonstration of ego. Which it probably was, for most of those guys. Anyhow, I was too young to drink it, [...]
