One Closing Thought

As we bid farewell to this, the thirteenth annum of the 21st century there are memories to cherish, actions to regret, a need to reflect and much to learn from doing just that. When Descartes said, “Je pense, donc je suis” – I think, therefore I am – he advanced what is for many, a metaphysical […]

The Republic of Venice – part one.

This is the first in a two-part series on the wines of the Veneto. The Republic of Venice, through commerce and conquest, flourished for nearly eleven-hundred years! From the late seventh-century until its collapse in the late eighteenth century the Venetian city-state was one of great power and influence. Its strategic position at the intersection […]

The Art of Observation

I recently sat on the tasting panel of a leading, national wine magazine to blind taste fifty wines. As each taster assessed the wines’ merits and provided their personal analysis I was thrust back several years to a time when I had led a series of wine classes. Each session began with the importance of […]

Gay Paris!

Slave to the grape – worse fates there have been! Paris, the city of lights, seduction, mirth and madness – just when you think you’ve understood her sultry pout she changes visages and saunters off, cloaked in the balmy summer night’s air, turning for one, final, lusty stare that drives you mad! The year is […]