Random thoughts as Thanksgiving approaches...
Yep, it's that time of year again. Everyone's writing articles about what wine to pair with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. I have drunk everything from Champagne to the deepest, darkest Zinfandel with Thanksgiving dinner, and I have never found anything that doesn't work. So drink what you like!JD and I are starting the holiday season at Ian Blackburn's 13th annual Night Before Thanksgiving Dinner. This year it will be at Mo-Chica, a new Peruvian restaurant in LA. Ricardo Zarate and Mario Orellana, both formerly of Zu Robata and various other high-end dining establishment

A WineShop at Home tasting...
Did a WineShop at Home tasting last Saturday. Drove south to Buena Park in Saturday afternoon rush hour traffic using Google Maps instructions. Got a bit lost. The map left out an important left turn. This is the second time Google's done that to me. Not amused.Got to my hostess's home. She was partially set up, so we worked together. I asked what was the final count for the tasting. She said there would be 8. It got to the hour of the tasting. No one had arrived...sigh...Now this is not unusual these days. It's odd to me because I was raised to believe that on time was late - you were supposed to be a bit early for

Glimpses into other lives...
Last Saturday I worked a private wine event with Ian Blackburn of LearnAboutWine.com. As always, the private events hold different challenges - logistics, specific agendas, trying to pour Champagne in large format bottles. You know, the usual.This event was to support a local school - the organizers and hosts of the event are active in their community, and this is one of their ways of giving back. I'm not going to divulge what community or who the hosts were, because it was a private event, but I will say, the rich are different. Not in a bad way; just working from a different place of reference. This was the home to which they ha

San Antonio Winery
Took a vacation day from the earth job on Friday, and headed downtown to the San Antonio Winery for lunch and wine tasting. The San Antonio Winery is the oldest winery in the greater Los Angeles area - established 1917, and the only one actually making wine in the heart of the city.As the wine industry of California moved from Southern to Central and Northern California in the mid 1900’s, founder Santo Riboli and his nephew Stefano Riboli had no intention of leaving their home in LA. While Santo and Stefano lived and developed their business in Los Angeles, they kept their focus on the burgeoning wine regions in the North and ove

STARS of Cabernet
Last Thursday, JD and I were privileged to attend LearnAboutWine's seventh annual STARS of Cabernet event at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. We were joined by our friend, Debra B., which whom we had dined at Palate a couple of weeks ago. Ian assembled a truckload of some of the most interesting producers in California. We did our best, but I'm pretty sure we weren't able to taste half of the wines there. We did, however, taste some GREAT Cabernets and blends, and got the chance to refresh or develop relationships with some terrific wine folks.On the way in, we somehow skipped the first table and went directly to A. Rafanelli,