The world has become a complicated place. I have more passwords than quiet moments and the pressure to do mindfulness meditation only makes me feel worse. What the world (or perhaps my world) needs now is to slow down. To…
Wild fires are just that: wild. They devastate some areas yet weave past others leaving them apparently untouched. But of course even the ‘untouched’ areas of Napa and Sonoma have been touched by smoke in the air, by uncertain futures,…
On tasting a full-bodied, gutsy, dark red Gigondas in Paris one summer, I developed romantic ideas of visiting the wine-making region of Gigondas in France’s Southern Rhône Valley. A few years later, I made my first trip to Gigondas, where…
When I think of the Aperol Spritz, I think of friendship. I think of sharing laughter and stories with new friends as burnt orange light dips below the Venetian skyline and peers through the lane-ways. When I drink an Aperol…
The canals, lane-ways, bars, and restaurants of Venice (or Venezia in Italian) have an addictive rhythm, a cadence, that might convince us this lagoon city has all the possible answers to the question of what it means to be human. As…
The rosés of Tavel were a favourite drink amongst the likes of Honoré de Balzac and Louis XVI. American journalist A.J. Liebling who reported on the liberation of Paris in 1944 also wrote of Tavel rosés in his Paris memoir, Between Meals.…
Moscato d’Asti is a charming and refined effervescent sweet wine that has a strong sense of place. Moscato d’Asti (which means, Moscato of Asti) is produced around the town of Asti in Piemonte, Italy, and is not to be mistaken for…
Lisbon, Portugal, is the oldest city in Western Europe and it exudes Old World charm against a bohemian backdrop of colourful street art and modern tapas bars. Amongst the live rock music, hipsters, and sushi restaurants, tradition shines through. There’s a…
The elegant and seductive red wine, Barolo, is well-known the world over as the King of Wines (and Wine of Kings); but this noble Italian wine made from 100% Nebbiolo grapes is used to make an aromatised, fortified wine that…
Seville (or Sevilla in Spanish), the capital of Spain’s southern community of Andalucía, is a captivating, intoxicating sprawl of colourful buildings with exotic tiled patios and protruding balconies. In the spring, the purple flowers of the Jacaranda trees dot the…
Surely there is nothing wrong with a bit of alliteration if I get to use the word ‘sumptuous’ next to ‘Sangiovese’? The sultry grape variety of Sangiovese (and the wines produced from it) provides yet another example of how the…