Jackie Summers was hosting an in-store tasting at the wine shop I help manage in Brooklyn, and I was badgering him with the usual questions: What inspired you to start distilling? What’s your secret recipe? What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream? Etc. I forget his favorite flavor of ice cream, and he was less forthcoming with his […]
Monthly archives for November, 2014
A Case of Vitis Vitiligo: Zýmē “...
Azienda Agricola Zýmē sits in the heart of Valpolicella. where Amarone, Italy’s grandest red, is produced. Zýmē, the brainchild of Celestino Gaspari, produces an excellent Amarone and a phenomenal Amarone Riserva, but my wallet’s not deep enough to enjoy them. Luckily, due to a genetic mutation, Zýmē also produces a wine that is not only affordable, […]
A Lucid Afternoon in New Orleans
Our last afternoon in New Orleans found Michael Graves and I drinking absinthe around the corner from Faulkner’s house. It was early November — the sunny, dry sort of day that lends itself to open-air alcohol consumption, a cultural staple of the Big Easy. A professionally trained chef, Mike is the food guy to my booze […]
Bruno Trapan “Terra Mare”...
Monday night, after a day spent glued to the keyboard, I went to Amali, a sustainable Mediterranean restaurant on the Upper East Side, to taste a few wines by Bruno Trapan, the winemaker at Trapan Winery in Istria, Croatia. I went in knowing as much about Croatian wine as I do about neurosurgery, but I […]