Category Archives: Gonzo
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
Berlin Riesling Diary: Day 20 – Billy Wagner’s Restaurant Nobelhart & Schmutzig is Some-thing/where Else (Part 2)
The photograph above is a Portrait of the Gastronomic Artist as a Young Man, which is to say the previous incarnation of Billy Wagner just before he started seriously planing what became his new restaurant Nobelhart & Schmutzig (N&S) on … Continue reading
Berlin Riesling Diary: Day 19 – Billy Wagner’s Restaurant Nobelhart & Schmutzig is Some-thing/where Else (Part 1)
I don’t normally do restaurant reviews, but occasionally my visits to restaurants were so exciting that I ended up writing some kind of “review”. This is such a case thanks to restaurateur Billy Wagner (left), dishwasher Samuel Teye-Osom (centre), chef Micha Schäfer … Continue reading
Berlin Riesling Diary: Day 17 – The Vanishing Wine Journalist: Good, Bad or Flaky?
As you can see from the title of this posting it’s Day 17 for me in Berlin this time around, but sometimes it felt like Day minus 17. Several times I’ve walked into wine stores, wine bars or wine tastings … Continue reading
Berlin Riesling Diary: Day 10 – Champagne, Gossip & Decadence (according to Frank Krüger)
I know that this blog is sometimes very serious, even dead serious, but this is not one of those days. Today, it is literally dead funny. You see, I’m still on this God-awful VIP-trip and many of today’s VIPs, are … Continue reading
New York Riesling Diary: Day 8 – That Strange and Rare Substance Called TRUTH
Yes, this blog is all about that strange and rare substance called truth. Sometimes, I feel as if truth has become something seriously dangerous to be found in possession of. Political leaders of all persuasions, but particularly those of a … Continue reading
New York Riesling Diary: Day 36 – Arizona Dreaming – “There are no Facts, only interpretations”
A brief philosophical intro: There’s no way around the fact that the context (the natural and human aspects are so interwoven it’s almost impossible to separate them) in which a wine is produced shape it. However, there’s also no way around … Continue reading
New York Riesling Diary: Day 3 – Looking Back in Space-Time at Maynard James Keenan
TIME PAST AND WINES PAST! There’s no way round it, now I’m looking back both in time, and across diverse mountains, plains and rivers between my desk on the East Coast and the American Southwest and my actual Gonzo #AZwine … Continue reading
Arizona Riesling Diary: Day 5 – Drawing Big Conclusions about #AZwine on Down South Road Trip
The official program of the A2Z press trip to the wine regions of Arizona ended last night when I got back to the Four Points Hotel next door to Tuscon Airport from dinner at Augustin Restaurant. Full stop, end of … Continue reading
Arizona Riesling Diary: Day 2 – How AZ is About to Change the Way We Think about American Wine
Fully aware of the journalist’s saying that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, I must report that during a generous and rather tasty dinner last night at The Asylum Restaurant in the Jerome Grand Hotel I had a … Continue reading