I love Thanksgiving! And hate it. The holiday itself is a wonderful excuse to gather ’round family and friends for a conveniently short amount of time. Just enough hours to get in, reminisce for a day, get a ridiculously sized meal into your gullet and leave before the fam starts to work your nerves. Read more

My friend Chris looked up from his glass of Yellowtail Chardonnay (which I did not buy). He squinted at me, pointed and creaked out, “I think you wine people are totally full of BS.” To his surprise, I nodded and replied, “Yeah, your pretty right on...mostly.” Read more

When is a Montepulciano not a montepulciano? When it’s a montepulciano, and not from Montepulciano. Confused? So are most people when trying to buy Italian wine. The amount of grape varietals grown in the big, European boot is staggering—estimated at more than 2,000—and the regions are just as prolific. Read more

Weekends are like mini-vacations for my wife and I. We walk around as though visiting some quaint New England town, perusing the Housing Works Thrift Shop on East 77th Street as if it were a clandestine, highly sought after antique boutique. During a recent Sunday afternoon visit, the shop was having one of its frequent “All Books for $5” sales. Read more

Last week, I featured part one of my interview with Frank Prial, former wine columnist for the New York Times and author of the books Wine Talk and Decantations. His column, “Wine Talk,” which ended in 2005, was the go-to resource to learn about trends in wine making and to read travelogue accounts of his fantastical epicurean excursions. Read more

For more than 30 years, one man has had the privilege of experiencing the greatest marvels the wine world had to offer, and he wrote about them for the New York Times. That man is Frank Prial, and his column, “Wine Talk,” which ended in 2005, was the go-to resource to learn about trends in wine making and to read travelogue accounts of fantastical epicurean excursions. He was also unafraid to deflate and demystify a great many myths that kept the wine world at an arm’s length from the common man. Read more

I have had a sweet tooth since I was a little kid. Despite working briefly as a waiter at the cloying Upper East Side dessert destination Serendipity (so many bar mitvahs, so little patience), my cravings for the sweet stuff have not been deterred. If anything, they’ve evolved. Read more

It was a hot summer afternoon at the wine shop and the A/C had broken...again. We coped with the heat and the complaining customers the only way we knew how: by pouring out samples of ice-cold white wine. As I popped open a crisp, thirst quenching bottle of a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, I poured a taste for myself, and a little for my fellow manager, Remy. Read more

The wine-bar boom of the early 2000s was one part culinary fad and one part symptom of an over-indulgent and bloated economy. To most New York City diners, wine bars were never viewed as a place to get a serious meal. The wine lists were often voluminous and confusing, the bite-sized “tapas style” snacks were expensive and the vibe was exclusive—and not in a fun way. Read more

Whether it’s an over-priced bottle of Louis Roederer’s Cristal Champagne being held aloft in some Manhattan club, or just a humble bottle of Prosecco being mixed with peach nectar on a laz Read more