M. Senegor

"LaToya Jackson drinks a lot of white wine," said Jerrus about one his regulars at Fig & Olive, a swank West Hollywood restaurant. "She usually comes in with two other chicks and the three of them pound five bottles of white wine together."A local Stockton kid with youthful, infectious enthusiasm about wine, Jerrus Roxas is a graduate of our Friday night wine group, now a professional sommelier in Los Angeles. He recently re-visited his old haunts, still at home at Wine Wizard's, still amazed at the quality of bottles that appear in our blind tasting, especially Bordeaux. He was a[...]

There is a tired old joke about a tourist lost in upper Manhattan who asks, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" A local New Yorker answers, "practice, practice, practice." I can say something similar to wine tasters who want to achieve a certain level of acquaintance with the subject, "taste, taste, taste."A case in point.In  a recent blind tasting I took a smell and  sip  of a wine and I proclaimed, "2007 Vacqueras." Others around the table did the same and a discussion ensued, entertaining various guesses. When unveiled, it was indeed 2007 Vacqueras. A homerun!Impressed, my mates asked,[...]

When judging subjective entities such as art, food or wine, most seem blindly beholden to pundits that set tastes and act as kingmakers. Skepticism and critical thinking is at a minimum; so is self reliance and confidence. All this was underscored by a  recent restaurant experience.It turns out that a local chef in a nearby town won a competition in an episode Chopped, a Food Network show. He became locally famous as a result; so did hid restaurant. My wife, an avid follower of the Food Network has been clamoring to visit this restaurant for a while. Since it is[...]

Long time Californians are accustomed to the ups and downs of drought and flood cycles, especially in my area in the Northern Central Valley, dependent on water-hungry agriculture, yet fearful of high water networking around low-land in the Sacramento River Delta. Between years of overabundance and shortage, there are a few, optimal, calm ones.Presently we are three years into an epic drought - all our droughts are, at some point Biblical - and down-in-the-dumps. It is therefore much gratifying to receive elated news that the drought is actually doing some good.It was recently announced that 2014 will go down as[...]

 "It's treacherous out there," said the young man pouring samples of pinot noir at John Tyler, "every year several bikers get killed, mostly mowed down by trucks." We sampled the delicious pinot, the Russian River flowing within, and we ignored the warning. We mounted our bicycles and headed deeper into Westside Road, toward Gary Farrell. No amount of admonishment could counter the allure of  this wine trail.We first rode this road four years ago on a lengthy 45 mile day coming in from the chilly, foggy Pacific Coast at Bodega Bay - on a typical mid summer there - through[...]

A patient of mine gave me a bottle of Rombauer Cabernet Sauvignon as a Christmas present on the eve of her death. She was a diminutive, late middle-aged lady with a raspy voice and cheerful disposition. Many years earlier I had saved her from certain paralysis of her legs with a spine operation, and she was grateful. Thereafter she saw me regularly for lesser, chronic spine ailments. We became friends. In various office visits we discussed family, photography, wine and, most precious to her, European travel. Then one day she announced that she had cancer. When she told me the[...]