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Arizona Wine Diary: Day 7 – Unsung Winemaker Heroes of the South (Part 1)
Kent Callaghan isn’t claiming to be the founder of the Arizona wine industry, but it strikes me that he’s the person with the longest experience of wine growing in the state, having founded his 25 acre vineyard between Sonoita and … Continue reading
Arizona Wine Diary: Day 4 – Singer-Winemaker Maynard James Keenan, or Quo Vadis AZ Wine (Part 4)
No direction but to follow what you know, No direction but a faith in her decision, No direction but to never fight her flow, No direction but to trust the final destination. You’re a stranger ‘til she whispers you can … Continue reading
Arizona Wine Diary: Day 2 – Singer-Winemaker Maynard James Keenan, or Quo Vadis AZ Wine (Part 3)
By 10:30am yesterday, the only hints of the huge electrical storm of the previous evening were a few wisps of white and grey cloud slowly dissolving into the azure above the Verde Valley. That’s when the Maynard James Keenan and … Continue reading
Arizona Wine Diary: Day 1 – Singer-Winemaker Maynard James Keenan, or Quo Vadis AZ Wine (Part 2)
Yes, I know, this is supposed to be a story about the Singer-Winemaker Maynard James Keenan, the wines he’s making in Arizona and the work he’s doing to move that state’s embryonic wine industry forward, and, of course the above … Continue reading
Arizona Wine Diary: Day 0 – Singer-Winemaker Maynard James Keenan, or Quo Vadis AZ Wine Industry? (Part 1)
I’m just about to jump on a plane to Phoenix and until June 13th will be reporting from the wine trail of Arizona. I am returning to the same places I visited for the first time six months ago. This … Continue reading
New York Riesling Diary: Day 21 – Essex Street Market is 75!
Essex Street Market at 120 Essex Street in the Lower East Side (LES) is celebrating its 75th birthday, having opened back in 1940 when the LES was anything but cool. I bumped into it back in May 2012 shortly before … Continue reading
New York Riesling Diary: Day 18 – Downtime on Fire Island, or What Journalistic Independence Really Means
I spent an oddly wonderful weekend on the construction site on Fire Island, New York pictured above. I’d not only never been to Fire Island, a long sandbar off the southern coast of Long Island before, in fact, I didn’t … Continue reading
New York Riesling Diary: Day 14 – The New Hugel
Maison Hugel of Riquewihr long seemed like the bastion of tradition in Alsace/France, but last night at the tasting dinner they and their US importer Frederick Wildman staged at Zuma Restaurant at 261 Madison Avenue that image cracked, dissolved and … Continue reading
New York Riesling Diary: Day 13 – 55 and Still Alive / Frappato, Egon Müller Riesling & American Grooner
Yes, that crazy color is very real! This picture was taken with the iPhone of the Special Person who generously took me out to dinner at Gramercy Tavern at 42 East 20th Street last night. The wine in that glass … Continue reading
New York Riesling Diary: Day 9 – Proud to be a Small Cog in the Great Machine that is SUGAR AND SWEETS!
I just received my copy of The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, edited by Darra Goldstein, one of the world’s best food writers. I received it, because I was one of the 265 experts who contributed to this comprehensive … Continue reading