The Wine We’ll Never Drink Together
“To arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time” — T.S. Eliot
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“Old Wood to Burn, Old Wine to Drink, Old Friends to Trust.” — Francis Bacon, Apophthegmes
An evening at Circa 1918 in Hilton Village with Lisa, Rich, and Bridget — Le Rêve, Palmaz Brasas, Hope & Grace, and the lesson long marriages share with long-aged wines: give it a minute, let it open up.
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“Drink Your Wine with a Merry Heart.” — Ecclesiastes 9:7
“Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.” — Ecclesiastes 9:7 There is something fitting about the name. A cloister, in its oldest sense, is a covered walkway enclosing a quiet courtyard — a place monks built not to escape the…
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“We Will Pay the Price, But We Will Not Count the Cost.” — Rush, “Bravado”
“We will pay the price, but we will not count the cost.” — Rush, “Bravado” There is a bottle of 2019 Barolo in my cellar — a Serralunga from a small producer I found on our last trip through Piedmont — that I have been thinking about opening for the better part of six months….
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“Even if we’re just dancin’ in the dark”
There are evenings that feel composed rather than simply lived—like a song that knows exactly where it’s going, yet lingers just long enough on every note. Tonight is one of those evenings. Lisa and I sit across from one another, a bottle of 2017 Dancing Heart from Cliff Lede Vineyards open between us, and already…
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Tignanello: A Super Tuscan Worthy of Celebration
There are wines you admire. There are wines you collect. And then there are wines you celebrate life with. For Lisa’s birthday the last couple of years, we’ve slipped into a booth at Dallas’ Il Bracco, ordered something beautifully simple—often steak, sometimes pasta—and asked for a bottle of Tignanello. It has become our tradition. And…
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Raising the Bar in the Lone Star State
Why Texas Wine—and Benjamin Calais—Deserve a Second Look I’ve been fortunate to taste wine in some of the great regions of the world. From the Rhône to Barolo, from Paso Robles to Hunter Valley, I’ve stood in cellars old and new, listened to growers talk about soils and seasons, and learned to appreciate how deeply…
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The Pope’s New Castle and the Old Art of Friendship
There are wines you analyze—and wines you enter. Châteauneuf-du-Pape has always belonged to the second category for me. Not because it demands reverence, but because it invites memory. The story begins in the early 14th century, when the papacy relocated from Rome to Avignon. Pope John XXII looked across the Rhône Valley and saw a…
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“Beauty awakens the soul to act.” – Dante Alighieri
Prologue: The Sun Rises over Alta Langa As dawn painted the sky in hues of rose and gold, we awoke in the embrace of Villa Alta Langa. The promise of a day in Barolo, a realm synonymous with sublime wines and rolling vineyards, lay ahead. The air was thick with anticipation, and the echoes of…
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“Oh the places you’ll go ….” -Dr. Seuss
Our epicurean ensemble, spirits high and palates primed, we bade farewell to the romantic realms of Valpolicella, a veritable garden where Bacchus himself would have reveled in ruby red rapture. Our compass pivoted east, and the lure of Piedmont’s liquid treasures steered us through the undulating embrace of Northern Italy’s winelands. Descending from the autostrade…
