by admin | Feb 12, 2025 | Blog
The image in the middle of this post is decidedly out of focus. I took it in Hong Kong in February of 2013 when I was there to do an MS class and exam. Tommy Lam, our local contact, insisted on taking us to his favorite hole-in-a-wall noodle joint for lunch. It was...
by admin | Jan 29, 2025 | Blog
I call them the aromatics, the most floral and flamboyant of all white wines. If they lived in a visual world, it would be somewhere between the saturated Peter Max-like design of the Beatle’s Yellow Submarine and the Barbie movie. In other words, glorious shocking...
by admin | Jan 15, 2025 | Blog
Tasting fortified wines in a double blind scenario for an exam presents its own unique set of challenges. But as with tasting still table wines, focusing on color, age and/or the level of oxidation, the use of oak, and method of production are key to being able to...
by admin | Jan 2, 2025 | Blog
*Photo by Peter Granoff, MS Wine, as with love, is a many splintered thing. Or at least that’s what a daytime soap from back in the day told me. But wine is complicated, also like love. Take price, for instance. Why is it that some bottles cost a few shekels while...
by admin | Dec 18, 2024 | Blog
The experience was like boarding a plane in China or riding the 30 Stockton on Muni in San Francisco. Both require the tenacity of a Blue Heeler, complete disrespect for social distancing, and the use of one’s elbows. But instead of pushing my way to an aisle seat on...
by admin | Dec 4, 2024 | Blog
This post is another chapter from my new book Strong Water: Tales of a Master Sommelier’s Life in Food and Wine. One of the sections of the book is about stories from my days as a sommelier. This one has always stuck with me. My reward for passing the Master Sommelier...
