Travel

I’m back from a brief hiatus. I went back down to Tasmania recently to visit two winemakers I’m exporting into the USA for AOC Fine Wines/SObER Imports: Guy Wagner of Bass Fine Wines and Brian Franklin of Apsley Gorge. As usual, it was quite chilly and the search for fireplaces was on again. Guy Wagner,…

Touching down in Hong Kong after a whirlwind trip in Burgundy and Paris I was feeling like I’d been rode hard and put away wet. Fortunately, I had little thinking to do once I was at the airport, since I’d arranged for a ride to my hotel on Hong Kong Island. This was a godsend.…

What better way to begin Paris than with a kiss? After touring the beautiful oak forests of the Loire and the chilled vineyards of Burgundy, I had two days to visit with old friends and new chefs in the art capital of the world: Paris. As a young lad of 20 I lived in Paris…

The cold weather has hit Burgundy this winter. It doesn’t freeze here every year, but this year the vines are covered in ice. According to Maxime Cromier, my host and a trained oenologist, the cold will kill off some of the bad microbes and will benefit the vineyards when they begin to shoot in Spring.…

This past week I visited the major oak producing forest in Nevers, France to see how oak barrels are made. The region is about 2 hours south of Paris by train just on the Eastern border of the Loire Valley and nestled in the heart of Burgundy. I was the guest of Tonnellerie Ermitage and…

Coming home is a great feeling. After travelling for 10 months in Australasia, I was again back in my old stomping grounds of NYC and, more importantly, the Long Island wineries. Just an hour and a half east of Manhattan, you can find yourself in some of the country’s most promising vineyards and pristine nature…

On the rugged western coast of Australia lies a sleepy little surfing community that makes some seriously fine wine. Margaret River, or “Margs” as it’s fondly called, is a 3.5 hour drive south of Perth on the Leeuwin Peninsula in the SW corner of the country. It’s still pristine land with little industry but surfing,…

I’ve tasted a lot of different Central Otago pinot noirs, but I never imagined how extreme a climate it is for this temperamental grape to grow until visiting the area firsthand. “How do these New Zealanders pull it off?”, I asked myself. They get lucky, for starters. The frosts here in the world’s southern most…

We climbed higher into the mountains on the motorbikes, covering a lot of ground everyday. The Minsk’s were noisy bikes on the way up, but you could shut them off on the descent just by holding the clutch in and taking your hand off the throttle. That was the best, silently coasting down the sides…