This year was a tempered down version of my past 7 Thanksgivings, but also one of the best. Being an ex-pat always meant 3-4 turkey spreads: one the Saturday before (friendsgiving and usually the largest at ~30 people), Thursday the day of (bests include dinner at Nina's and dinner at Christina's), Friday night (Boda's annual … Continue reading Thanksgiving

After 16 days on the road in Australia I have a few new thoughts on the place. More than just a few, in fact. #1 Wine Australia did a spectacular job of putting together a program for 10 geeky wine nerds. Between the logistics of just getting us around, to having everything on time and … Continue reading Aussie Take Aways

Day 2 in McLaren Vale started with a mucho necessary 10 mile run to the ocean, breakfast, and a little 10 am speed wine dating. We broke into pairs and met with one producer at a time to hear about what's shaking in the world of McLaren Vale Shiraz. Australian Shiraz is not my favorite … Continue reading Shiraaaz 

An early morning flight, diverted drug bust (ask James), and bus ride later these 10 winos hit the ground running at the Australia Wine Research Institute in Adelaide. We had a fascinating seminar and tasting with Peter Godden where he highlighted some of the recent work of AWRI, which is one of the world's foremost wine … Continue reading McLaren Vale

After a pretty brutal 25+ hour slog from (delayed) New York to  (delayed) LA to Sydney, I made it to Australia and quickly met one of my fellow travelers, Doug, a Master of Wine based in Kansas City. We went to our very lovely hotel downtown and then met the rest of our group so … Continue reading Right-O

Apparently it's not just Simone and Craig that read my blog, but also Brian and Jordan. Thanks, guys! It's been brought to my attention that I have been a bit slag on posts, so here we are. A wee catch up... What feels like years ago (1.5 weeks), I was (last minute) invited to a … Continue reading A Brief Catch Up.