A UNIQUE DINNER WITH OLD BORDEAUX
We opened the outdoor evening by the poolside with a 1999 Billecart-Salmon Brut, one of four champagnes our guest Alan Cooper brought. It was [...]
A SPARK OF INSPIRATION
All fictional stories start with a spark of inspiration, often small ones. For example, Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina was inspired by a news account he [...]
OPEN THAT BOTTLE (VEUVE CLIQUOT, GRANDE DAME)
The Wall Street Journal used to have an annual Open That Bottle event. Invented by their then wine columnists Dorothy J Gaiter and John Brecher, [...]
PHOTOGRAPHY AND WRITING; TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN
Nearly a year after I published my memoir Dogmeat I sent my editor Mim her first photo of Dr. Wilson, the mentor and tormentor so [...]
CHIANTI CLASSICO RISERVA
Chianti is the Bordeaux of Italy. Really?As a major fan of Bordeaux and lukewarm to anything Italian, it takes some significant rationalization to make this [...]
AN INVITATION BY JANE JAFFE
I knew something was amiss when I received an invitation to the Jaffe's house. Peter Jaffe is the conductor and musical director of the Stockton [...]
MIM’S BRAVO, CLAUDY HANIM, AND TURKISH CURIOSITY AMID REVISIONS
"I really liked this one," said the brief e-mail from Mim, "Bravo!"An attachment to her e mail contained my story entitled "On the Night Bus [...]
BACIGALUPI AND TO KALON; TWO FAMED VINEYARDS
Bacigalupi has become to the Russian River what To Kalon is to Napa.I have gradually reached this realization after several years of regular visits to [...]
BILLECART BONANZA
At first I thought it was a fluke, possibly some post-New-Year's overstock sale at K&L, my main San Francisco wine shop. I happened to be [...]
SUBLIME WINE MOMENT, LIKE AN ENCOUNTER WITH RACQUEL WELCH
During a rather academic tasting of 2009 Bordeaux I was suddenly struck with a sensual pleasure, a sublime wine moment of the kind that is [...]