The first time I stood on the hill, I didn’t think much of it.  It’s a quiet place just outside of the famous French wine town, Saumur.  To tell you the truth, there wasn’t much to admire besides a quaint, but lifeless, chateau sitting on top of it. This insipid wonder attracts droves of tourists every year to snap photos...[ read more ]

For many years, I knew of this great geologist working her way through Burgundy. I saw her work for the first time when I received a disc, via Wasserman and Co., that Bruno Clair sent to help me with a Côte de Nuits educational seminar I was putting on. The disc, a dossier commissioned by the town of Marsannay, contains...[ read more ]

I met Peter for the first time in a small and unassuming house, deep in the Austrian wine country.  He lives in a quiet town, Spitz, tucked into the far western end of the country’s most famous wine region, the Wachau.  The first time I heard about Peter was from my friend Sariya, who supplies me with great Austrian wines. ...[ read more ]