M. Senegor

A rare New Year's Eve experience for me in San Francisco last night; we found ourselves in a venue (Ritz-Carlton Hotel) where the wine list was awful and the cocktails $25 apiece. I came home sober! I actually drove our party of 6 home! Those who know me can attest to how unusual this is for the occasion.My Christmas gift to myself (& birthday, since Christmas is my birthday) was 5 cases of wine, mostly Bordeaux and Chateauneuf and a case of Central Coast Pinot Noir. During the process of picking up the wine I heard a comment from an[...]

In 2007 my financial advisor, anticipating the coming recession, sent me an article analysing how various economic parameters rise and fall in a recession. The main point was that the stock market recovers early, before anyone is aware of the coming end of the recession; unemployment, on the other hand recovers late, after the recession is officially over. The article featured numerous graphs from past recessions charting the courses of these events in various lines. As it so happened the great recession of 2008 precisely followed the predictions of this article.There was one item missing from the analysis: wine prices.[...]

Last night I experienced the deep satisfaction that I imagine missionaries and prosletizers experience on the moment when they convert someone. The occasion was our usual Friday night wine tasting. A new member named Jerrus has been coming to the tastings for a few weeks and he showed up. A pleasant young man (compared to the rest of us now oldies), Jerrus seems well versed in wine, except that his knowledge is solely in the area of Napa and Sonoma.The first wine that came up on our blind tasting was a 99 Chateauneuf du Pape Vieux Telegraph. It was lovely[...]

After a long hiatus in which I visited Spain I am back. More about Spanish wines in future blogs; I am still trying to digest my experience there, no pun intended.Yesterday I took my parents out for Thanksgiving dinner at Mimi's Cafe, a new chain restaurant that opened on Robinhood & Pacific. On first impression it looked like a sligtly more upscale version of Marie Callendar's with a Parisian Bistro decor. Their prices were very reasonable; a 3 course traditional turkey meal was $15. I generally do not order wine in chain restaurants such as Chili's, Applebee's etc. because they[...]

The latest issue of the Wine Spectator features an interview with author Jim Harrison who apparently has written successful novels, some made into movies. He seems well off and well connected. He is also down to earth. I loved his answer to a question about his thoughts regarding wine-food pairing. He invoked his friend Jack Nicholson in an anecdote that exemplified his approach to this subject. At Gibson's, a steak house in Chicago, Nicholson, whom he described as "not a big drinker, but he really likes nice wine", ordered and enormous prime rib steak and proceeded to wash it down[...]

Recently I participated in an Australian Shiraz tasting. A BYOB affair with no other subthemes . Seven bottles showed up mostly from Southeastern appellations around Sydney, Canberra and Perth, the best known region of the country. While the vintages and soils were different, there was one common denominator in four bottles that appealed to my fellow tasters. These were:2003 Reynella Shiraz, McLaren-Vale ($25)2006 Two Hands Shiraz, McLaren-Vale ($33)2005 Archetype Shiraz, Barrosa Valley ($30)2004 Fireblock Shiraz, Claire Valley ($20)Their common denominator, as I perceived it, was that they wore too much "make up".Allow me to explain. These were all dark, maroon[...]