Billy’s Best Bottles
For the second year in a row, I’ve picked up Billy Munnelly’s excellent annual wine handbook, Billy’s Best Bottles. Billy is a local writer who writes about wine in the most sensible, unpretentious...
View ArticleMovie Night
Brooke is away until tomorrow, so tonight I invited Brent (my ex-roommate and best man) over to sample my latest culinary triumph, Apple and Caraway Stuffed Chicken Breasts (I changed the recipe to...
View ArticleMe? A Wine Snob?
Lest you think, from my last entry, that I’m becoming a wine snob, I found Calvin Trillin’s piece about wine snobs being unable to distinguish between red and white wines pretty funny. Even though I’ve...
View ArticleChristmas Cheer and Cheese
Last night, we hosted about a dozen friends for an informal Christmas get-together. Since we were opening up some wine, I went in search of some interesting cheeses to pair with them. Though I love...
View ArticleBook Review: Ancient Wine
Review Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture, by Patrick E. McGovern. (Princeton University Press, 365 pages, 2003). $42.00. Have you ever wondered how the human race figured out how...
View ArticleBook Review: The New Italy
Review The New Italy: A Complete Guide to Contemporary Italian Wine, by Daniele Cernilli and Marco Sabellico. (Mitchell Beazley, 224 pages, 2000). $60.00. This gorgeous book tackles the most exciting...
View ArticleBook Review: The Accidental Connoisseur
Review The Accidental Connoisseur: An Irreverent Journey Through the Wine World, by Lawrence Osborne. (North Point Press, 262 pages, 2004). $36.00. What is taste? Is it the physical sensation of...
View ArticleBook Review: The Making of a Chef
Review The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America, by Michael Ruhlman. (Henry Holt, 305 pages, 2001). $23.95. Although I’ve never seriously considered becoming a chef, I...
View ArticleBook Review: The Hachette Guide to French Wines 2004
Review The Hachette Guide to French Wines 2004: The Definitive Guide to Over 9,000 of the Best Wines of France. (Mitchell Beazley, 1,019 pages, 2003). $50.00. Boasting over 9,000 entries, the annual...
View ArticleBook Review: The World Atlas of Wine, Fifth Edition
Review The World Atlas of Wine, Fifth Edition, by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson (Mitchell Beazley, 352 pages, 2001). $75.00 As I was reading Kermit Lynch’s book, I realized just how indispensible a...
View ArticleBook Review: Adventures on the Wine Route
Review Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer’s Tour of France, by Kermit Lynch (HarperCollins, 288 pages, 1988). $24.00 Kermit Lynch is in the same business as Lifford. He imports and sells wine....
View ArticleBook Review: A Tale of Two Valleys
Review A Tale of Two Valleys: Wine, Wealth, and the Battle for the Good Life in Napa and Sonoma, by Alan Deutschman. (Broadway Books, 221 pages, 2003). $22.95. With such an unwieldy title, I feared...
View ArticleBook Review: Wine Report 2005
Review Wine Report 2005, by Tom Stevenson. (Dorling Kindersley, 432 pages, 2004). $20.00. This annual guide was one of my favourite finds last year. Its aim, as described by editor Tom Stevenson, is...
View ArticleWine Geek Insecurity
Slate’s wine columnist Mike Steinberger weighs in on Sideways, perhaps my favourite film of 2004. Though he generally likes it, he can’t help but display some typical wine geek insecurity. He worries...
View ArticleMother Jones on Organic Farming
Over the past few years, I’ve become a lot more conscious of what I eat. It may have started when Brooke and I took up running a few years ago. Or maybe it was after reading Fast Food Nation, or seeing...
View ArticleFree Wine for Bloggers!
If you’re one of those lucky bloggers who lives in the U.S., the Mankas Hills winery will send you a free bottle of wine. The winery is fairly new and is trying to get the word out on their wines. It’s...
View ArticleWine-ing on the Web
I posted the following entry last June on my company’s blog: Early last year, I pointed to the excellent Cellar Tracker web site, where the hardcore wine geek (or aficionado, if you please) could keep...
View ArticleCharlie Rose Interviews Chef David Chang
I had the amazing experience of eating at Momofuku Ssam Bar a few weeks ago while I was in New York. My friends Dan and Kathryn took me and I let them order whatever they thought was good. I have to...
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