T his month, while traveling in Connecticut, I was in a little wine shop in Madison, chatting with a salesperson. She was a self-described...

I n the last two weeks, I’ve been on both sides of the northern corners of America. It must be my busy time of retirement. And it appears ...

The Flying Wallendas L ife-changing. It’s a pretty tall order. I’ve had some things that have happened that were life changing. Two year...

I t’s 4:00 AM and I’m staring at the ceiling in bed, eyes wide open. And I’m thinking about wine. Wine, wine, wine. It wasn’t supposed to be...

I t is not without the slightest tinge of envy, that I read the many people who work so hard to taste wine, write about it and share their...

I ’ve been in Italy for three weeks now. It has been more than 40 years that I have spent this much time in Italy in one, uninterrupted pe...

A million years ago, KPFK in Los Angeles aired a story about the Rolling Stone performer, Brian Jones, who found a tribe of master musici...

(Traveling now and am thinking about this subject, first posted in 2011 and which will have a follow up post.) Pan di sudore, miglior sa...

Dateline: Barolo, Italy and Ian D'Agata's 1st Indigena Symposium L et’s say you’re 25, finished with formal schooling, looking for...

O f the epiphanies I had at Vinitaly this year, one of them was over Prosecco. Watching the Prosecco phenomenon over the last 25 years ha...

F or my first time in 34 years, Vinitaly was an exploration of a different kind. While, previously, I have attended as a tradesperson, now...

F or years, the Italian winemaker has sought to please the global wine lover with a spectrum of flavors, from the rustic and feral to the ...

W e’re only a week into this next chapter, and I’m bushed. And I’m also relieved and excited, like I just crossed over on a tightrope, wit...

Eo Romam iterum crucifigi H ow easy it is, these days, to give in to the dark and destructive tendencies which seem to be roiling the bi...

From the Navel-gazing Observatory on the Italian wine trail R ecently, I peered into the petite armoire of a colleague in wine who pass...