As a recent Chicago transplant and non-stop lover of wine and food, I was ecstatic to discover the large number of great BYOB restaurants scattered around this city. I lived in New York City for several years before relocating to the Midwest and, while the restaurant scene in Manhattan is undeniably a food lover’s dream, [...]

I just read, “Donn Reisen, president of Ridge Vineyards in Cupertino, was found dead in his car Monday in Portola Valley, an apparent suicide.” Ridge is one of my favorite Zinfandel producers. This is very sad news for our industry. Who out there has had an awesome bottle of Ridge wines?

I recently attended a 2006 Vintage Tasting of Bordeaux Wines at the Palmer House. Many stand-out producers were in attendance and, as always, it’s a rare and welcome opportunity in my world to get to taste a large number of wines – in a row – from the same appellations. This led me to brush [...]