S itting at a table earlier this week with a handful of new wines to taste, I started to think “What’s new about these wines?” I really was ...

Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo T his past week it seemed I had been trapped in a time warp. I’m sure the deaths our family...

T his week, while doing a wine dinner for a private group, the subject of where I liked to go in Italy was asked. I hesitated for a moment...

Sara Maule of Nino Negri at Caracol in Houston w/wine director Sean Beck I n the past week, while on the road with Sara Maule of Nino N...

In Memory of Mario Messina 1916-2014 W e have finally arrived. I started with eleven others, wrapped ever so carefully in soft, white t...

Born to be Delectable T here are so many wines available in today’s world that just weren’t around 10 or 20 years ago. In our flatter wo...

A Cautionary Tale from the Langa M ariondino was beginning to feel the winter thaw in his loins. He longed to jump into one of his Cars...

Letter from a half-full bottle to an apostle of wine I see you, sitting there on the deck of your house overlooking the peaceful valley...

"For I have known them all already, known them all" - Eliot H ow often is it one can be with acquaintances, colleagues and fri...

I struggle with pork. If there is a plate of prosciutto nearby, I’m in trouble. “Waste nothing,” the angel whispers in my ear. And then I ...

"I'd suggest that many young wine drinkers do not have access to the great benchmark wines, the paradigms of profundity that are al...

W e took the back road up to the hilltop village. Peeking behind the sets. The road was in poor shape, potholes and missing pieces of the ...

F orgive me, dear readers. I have been in deep-brain storming meetings off and on for several weeks and my head is bursting with new and ...

A nyone who reads this blog, they know how I feel about bragging. That said, I do live in Texas, and bragging rights are part of our patrimo...

B y my purely unscientific reckoning I’ve participated in over 400 “winemaker” dinners over time. For the most part these have been pleasu...