Occitanie, the administrative region in France that covers a good portion of the country’s southwest, from the right bank of the Rhône River to the east, to the eastern edge of Aquitaine to the west, contains several wine-producing zones that remain relatively unknown.  It’s hard to put a finger on

Roussillon is one of those places in which one realizes that France is not just France.  That is, that France, one of the oldest coherent nation states in Europe – or possibly, in the world, in fact, contains several different cultures within it.   Within modern memory, say the past century,

Cahors was one of the first French wine regions – other than Bordeaux, Burgundy, or Champagne – that I came to know by name. If memory serves, my acquaintance came courtesy of Kermit Lynch in the late 1980s. I had heard of Cahors and was fascinated by the moniker some

Hello everyone! Taking advantage of all the out-of-the-office time we have been given, I am conducting a series of short (15-20 minute) Instagram live broadcasts on Wednesdays and Fridays, at 1pm EST (that’s 19h in France, 10am in California) on the wines of the Occitanie region in the south of

Wine is a marvelous, bewildering thing. It can be so easy to enjoy, yet also, so intimidating. There is much to know: grape varieties, vintages, regions, white, red, pink and now, orange(!), organic, biodynamic, ‘natural.’ And, God-forbid you choose the wrong wine with dinner! Fortunately, a bit of lively information,

Whatever one thinks of the ascent of Michel Aoun to the presidency of the Lebanese Republic and the return of Saad Hariri as prime minister (see post below), one must say that in the realm of wine, the Lebanese have come together as never before.   The challenges they have faced

On the eve of the US presidential elections, we might well envy the state of affairs that existed in Lebanon – being free of an open campaign for president for over two and a half years.  Granted, there was a downside to all this, namely, Lebanon was without a president

Wine & Spirits Magazine recently published a piece I wrote on Lebanese wine: “Cinsault Rising: Lebanon’s Search for a Flagship Red.”  I am grateful for the opportunity to write about the wines of Lebanon, something I have paid close attention to for a long while.  In 2001, as I wrote

Earlier this week, I was saddened to learn of the passing of Michel de Bustros, the founder of Lebanon’s Château Kefraya.  With the loss of Château Musar’s Serge Hochar at the end of 2014, Mr. de Bustros is the second iconic person Lebanon’s wine industry has lost in as many

It occurs to me as I post the article on Long Island wine that I wrote last fall for Gilbert & Gaillard International now, that Long Island wine launched my career as a wine writer. In 1999, I was working at the New York Times website www.nytoday.com (now defunct) and