Nov 2, 2011
I understand the basic principles of food and wine pairing. But the question I have that I've never found a consensus answer on is this: What is the best way to combine food and wine on one's palate to have the ultimate pairing experience? Does one place the food in the mouth, then take a sipe of wine, combining the two on the palate? Does one take a sip, swallow, then place the food on the palate? Or, does one…
Aug 15, 2011
———————————————————————————— When I entered the wine business in 1990 at the PR firm of Gracelyn and Associations, Gerald Asher was an "A" Writer. It was the term we gave to those writers and journalists that carried weight or an audience. As the wine writer for the esteemed Gourmet Magazine, Mr. Asher carried both. More important than anything else when I joined the fraternity of flacks was to learn as much as I could about the wine writing world. Not…
Jul 5, 2011
Somehow the conversation strayed into "wine and literature." A crew of us wine geeks were gathered for the purposes of enjoying our geekishness when one of our gathering was provoked to ask: "Can someone tell me why there is not really good literature that has wine as its focus or at least as its setting?" This led us to think if the premise was correct and we decided it was. But the answer to the question couldn't be that it…
Dec 1, 2010
Some Assessments of my wine reading in 2010 and a look forward to 2011. FAVORITE WINE BOOKS OF 2010 New Connoissuers' Guide to California Wine and WineriesBy Charles OlkenAn outstanding guide to California's wine industry by a long time veteran observer. Required reading. Reading Between the WinesBy Terry TheiseA provocative narrative of the importers experience and opinions on the world of wine. Matt Kramer on Wine: A Matchless Collection of Columns, Essays, Observations By America's Most Original and Lucid Wine…
Nov 9, 2010
Allow me to quote Charles Olken from the preface of his newest book "The New Connoissuers' Guidebook to California Wine & Wineries": "It is now three decades since my first book, The Connoissuers' Handbook of California Wine, appeared in print." Olken, through numerous editions of that original Handbook, and through his newsletter, The Connosseurs' Guide To California Wine (born in 1974), has been regulatory and habitually chronicling the California wine landscape longer than anyone I know. He understands its evolution,…