Le Goût de la Lumière – Light Strike in Wine

Le Goût de la Lumière – Light Strike in Wine

“Wine is complicated. Almost impossibly so.” Jamie Goode from his book, Flawless: Understanding Wine Faults Unless you’re a winemaker or chemist, there’s a lot we take for granted about wine. At the very least, you can buy a random bottle off the shelf and odds are it...
Café Exotique

Café Exotique

Praveenp, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Over the years I’d heard rumors about a mysterious coffee from the mystic east. It was said that this particular coffee was made from the berries of the coffee plant eaten by wild creatures, with the cherries excreted and...
My First Durian Experience

My First Durian Experience

It was February, 2013. I was in Singapore teaching an MS class. At some point near the end of  dinner one night, fellow MS, Brian Julyan, and I suddenly thought we smelled natural gas in the restaurant where we were dining. Or mercaptan, to be precise, which is added...
El Poncho Perdido

El Poncho Perdido

In the early 70s, there was a time when the gaucho look was all the rage in women’s fashion. Suddenly, suburbs were afloat in bolero hats, leather boots, and gaucho pants, which always looked like bloomers that had somehow lost their bungee. My mom even had a poncho...
Master the World–Wine Tasting Kit and Webinar

Master the World–Wine Tasting Kit and Webinar

One of the questions I’m most often asked is about the meaning of life. Which, as anyone knows, is 42. Sorry, inside joke. Actually, the most often asked wine question is a variation of how someone can learn more about tasting. Or how someone studying wine can get...
Romaines of the Day

Romaines of the Day

Happy New Year to all. I hope you were able to enjoy some quality down time during the holidays. Pictured above is our New Year’s eve dinner. Beverage choices for the evening included a pre-meal glass of NV Laurent-Perrier Brut La Cuvée, followed by a...