Supped at my stepson and future daughter-in-law’s recently. There were too many good wines on the table to taste with mozarella di bufala and hanger steak: Alice de Moor’s Tirage de Printemps A Ligoter (Aligoté at its best and available ...

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Indulged in a bottle of C. Pacalet Côte de Brouilly on Saturday night (I love his Chroubles). It started like many a good Brouilly  – light, showing purity of fruit. I was enjoying its seemingly uncomplicated character and then bam ...

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My blog has been neglected, sorely neglected. I returned from Mauritius 3 weeks ago. My heart was broken many times over as my father experienced one complication after another. Somehow he made it through. And he’s getting better.   One evening in ...

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If the Jura is Middle Earth, the Loir-et-Cher is surely Avalon. Louis/Dressner Selections held their annual fall tasting last week. Loir-et-Cher winemakers and supporters were present to pour and share phenomenal wines. The delightful Catherine Roussel poured her Clos Roche Blanche wines, while partner, Didier Barrouillet, remained at Avalon tending ...

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I nicked the title for this post from a friend who works in the industry. This is what she said when I broke news of my plans to travel to Jura and Paris. Middle Earth was a dream on the west side of the mountains that separate the French Jura ...

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SELECTION PAS MAL Two days after Alice's champagne tasting, I descended upon the Selection Pas Mal champagne and Burgundy tasting (more about the Burg later). These were new discoveries for me and it was a case of too much good wine under one roof. Plus, we got to chat to the ...

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When Jim and I were going through our honeymoon period we had a champagne Sunday ritual. We’d purchase different bottles of champagne on our Astor Wines employee discount and lie in bed for the better part of the day drinking bubbles. Some bottles made repeat visits, like Krug (this was ...

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Autumn was in the air. There was a nip to the breeze and Labor Day was closing in. The day was September 2nd and it marked the beginning of trade-tasting season frenzy and what an auspicious start it was at the Jenny & Francois Selections tasting. I tasted, almost, everything. Among ...

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It is no secret that I have a taste for innards. Long before guts became trendy, I grew up munching on bone marrow (my favorite), fish eyes, tripe and I once ate some delectable sheep’s balls at the age of seven but my aunty didn’t tell me because I was ...

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My mother used to shop at Brixton market a couple of times a week for Indian and Caribbean food supplies that she wasn’t able to find in Balham. Years later the same neighborhood became my nightlife outlet (The Dogstar and The Fridge for after-hours), now I visit Brixton whenever I’m ...

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