As a chick, I face prejudice everyday in this business. Just last week an older man asked me (in an undeniably condescending tone), “Do they let you help pick out any of the wines here?”; By they; do you mean the boss? Because that would be me.
Now, I’m not a Doogie Howser by any means. […]

 You get invited to an obscene amount of lunches in this business that is wine. The trick is, knowing when to say yes. So when I was asked to lunch with Giuseppe Mazzocolin of Felsina, I said "hell yes."
Felsina is the benchmark by which I judge all other Chianti. Set on the southern-most edge […]

It seems like I’m obsessed with value these days. Not really. But I am getting a bit pissy about the giant balls it takes for some wineries to charge what they’re charging for their product (notice I use the word product, and not wine). If we weren’t so brand obsessed, they wouldn’t be able to […]

Repeat after me:
I will never feel bad about how much money I’m willing to spend on a bottle of wine ever, ever again.

Good, hopefully you said it like you meant it. I get so aggravated telling people it’s OK to tell me that you only want to spend $9 or $15 or whatever! I […]

I don’t have many comments on my website, but man o man am I getting email. Especially regarding my post alluding to nefarious waiter sabotage. A lot of people wanted to know where it is safe to eat and what makes you a target.
Do you really want me to answer that? I […]

   
Cigarette companies target advertising towards young people because they realize that children are their future … customers.
So why is the wine industry so stuck on baby boomers? They’ve been targeting the same demographic for years. It shows in the numbers, too.
From the mid-80s to the mid-90s wine drinkers over the age […]

OK, no a finger in your ear doesn’t help you when smelling wine. And yes, I liked Sideways. But loved it? Best movie of the year? Isn’t that a little much? It’s quaint, a little movie about two fucked up middle aged white guys–one guy is  a total schlub and the other is going through […]

Everyone goes on and on about Mario Batali. But if they ever had any of his dad Armandino’s homemade salami or prosciutto, they’d forget all about the tubby  NYC chef. I now regulate my visits to the lunch counter, but I always go back to my old standby: a succulent sliced porchetta sandwich […]

One downside to getting back into the grind after the holidays–sales calls.
I hate salesmen. I get frustrated when customers shirk me off with a curt "just looking." But I’m guilty of the same thing. I sweat anxiety when I enter a store, knowing that sick fake greeting is coming. So I try to approach people […]

A Google search reveals that the phrase nice cup of tea appears about 24,000 times on the internet, whereas good cup of tea appears only about 5,300 times. However, good cup of coffee appears just over 18,000 times, whereas nice cup of coffee appear 5,200 times. All in all, tea is nice 4 times more […]