A dozen years ago my wife and I visited a couple who had renovated a hoary old estate in the Perigord, deep in the Mother Goosiest part of the French southwest. They subsequently fitted out the house and stables as an upscale B&B with fixtures and amenities charming enough to wring tears of joy from…
All posts in September 2013
Wine’s old frenemy
Earlier this year I was on the island of Vulcano, one of a flotilla of small land masses that poke up from the Tyrrhenian Sea off the northeast coast of Sicily. It’s the place that gave European languages the word volcano, and one of four of Italy’s active, above-ground volcanic centers is located here. The…
Beyond swirl, sniff and sip
Drop by the Central Bottle tasting table any Thursday, Friday, or Saturday (or any night at Belly Wine Bar, below) and you’re likely to see a crowd of regulars milling about and repeating a series of gestures that by now must seem perfectly routine — even second nature: pick up a glass holding a couple…