Olfactory Epiphany

Olfactory Epiphany

As Frenchmen go, he wasn’t exactly Maurice Chevalier or Gérard Depardieu. But what he lacked in charm or good looks he more than made up for in expertise in smelling and tasting spirits–and I will forever be in his debt. I only wish I had learned his name so I...
Gritty Chicken

Gritty Chicken

The floor was greasy that day my friends.   There’s an old saying that goes something like this. Comedy is when you stub your toe. Tragedy is when I stub my toe. The incident that night in the kitchen was actually both. But it made my wife Carla laugh. In fact,...
Vin Blanc

Vin Blanc

Photo by Andy Anderson “Whenever life begins to crush me I know I can rely on Bandol, garlic, and Mozart.”   Jim Harrison   Recently I reread Jim Harrison’s last book called “A Really Big Lunch.” If not familiar, Harrison was a prolific writer of poetry and...

Me and Ashurnasirpal

Tom Standage’s “History of the World in Six Glasses” is a good read. Standage writes for The Economist and has published several books. This is by far my favorite. The book frames history from the stone age to the 21st century through each of...

Wordless Wines

Though it may surprise you, I’ve only been to Paris twice. Both times were on the same trip in the fall of 1987 when my wife Carla and I went to Europe together for the first time. We stayed in the City of Lights at the beginning and end of our trek. Never...