On a wind-swept April afternoon, Jonathan Sack paused for a moment to stare at the waves lapping against the limestone cliff below. The mistral was blowing, as it often does in the seaside town of Cassis, tucked tight against the Mediterranean. At 36 years old, Sack had come home to
“When people visit Soave Classico for the first time they always say things like ‘I didn’t realize how beautiful it is here’,” said winery owner Meri Tessari, as we took the ten minute drive up the hill from the Medieval walled town of Soave to the tiny hamlet of Fittá,
Imagine if BMW’s design chief admitted that Ford produces some of his favorite cars. Or if the CEO of Coca-Cola confessed that every now and then, he craves a Pepsi. Pure fantasy, of course. But with wine, such admissions happen daily. And now, a website has launched -- WinemakersRecommend.com --
For many years, German wines made my head hurt. No, not the headaches that some complain about when they imbibe wine. I mean the unique and sometimes confusing classification system. Of course, every country, state, and county has a different system. But the German one is unique, based on ripeness
Sicily is a cornucopia of beauty, art, history, landscape, delightful food and wine. It's almost impossible to list all of them in a few lines. However, there are at least three things you absolutely cannot miss, if you are going to travel in Western Sicily, between Marsala and Menfi. I discovered
No, not that CIA—the other one, in Hyde Park, New York: the Culinary Institute of America. I’m an experienced cook. I’ve done my 10,000 hours in the kitchen, maybe even 10,000 hours chopping onions. I know about mise en place. I know how to mince a shallot. I have decent
There are now eighteen vineyards with sustainable practices in Long Island, and Barbara Shinn is leader of the pack. Shinn is a modest woman, thin and deeply tanned, with dirty blonde, shoulder length hair. She probably never intended to be a groundbreaker (pun intended) for Long Island vineyard farming. In
Producers of the French digestif are blending in with the cocktail crowd Flanked by barrels of gently slumbering brandy, Jerome Royer is talking about cognac — his passion and his business — with all the gallant gestures and mustachioed enthusiasm of a Frenchman straight out of Central Casting. But what he has