For Roger… T here are those moments that sneak up and drop a lifechanging effect on you. It might be something as simple as the change of ...

I’ ve wandered so far off the island, at this point, for those of you who are still stopping by, here goes nothing. I’m fixated on this rel...

I’ m kinda in a mood. Not the Glenn Miller kind. More of a Billie Eilish/David Byrne kinda mood. I’m played out with wine writing. Can’t rea...

From the archives "They say that life itself is really just the dead on vacation." - Tom Waits O ver the years my ideas about w...

From the archives A s I look through the wines in my closet, or study a wine collection from a deceased doctor or lawyer that the widow is...

Wine lovers on wine and the vinous life. Antarctica 2021 I think it was at a Society of Wine Educators conference where I first encountere...

I t’s quite easy to consider the time we are living in is somehow unique. A world-wide health crisis, both physical and psychological. Fluid...

Wine lovers on wine and the vinous life. Jeff Siegel is the Rubik’s Cube of wine writers. Every time I think I’ve getting close to having th...

I t had been almost a month since I’d first arrived into Italy. I’d crisscrossed the country - down, then up, then down again - and now back...

W ine lovers on wine and the vinous life. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle I met Esther at the Symposium for Professional Win...

Positano ~ 1971 I t had been several weeks since I’d first landed in Italy. I’d seen Rome, I’d seen Florence, I’d visited my family and seen...

Wine lovers on wine and the vinous life   I’ve known Carmen for awhile now. He’s one of the best storytellers in the wine biz. He knows eve...

S aying goodbye to my Sicilian family at the dock, I got on the boat and returned to Naples. From there I took a train to Florence. I was an...

Wine lovers on wine and the vinous life. I met Emily in Barolo a few years ago, where we were both attending Collisioni at the invitation ...

A fter booking passage on the ship from Naples, I spotted the bay of Palermo, the Conca d’Oro. My family was supposed to be meeting me at th...