The impact of the lunar eclipse on my glass of wine was zero because I was wisely sipping hot lemon and ginger tea at 4:30 this morning, a chilly wind rustling the nearby palm trees loudly. I had slept for 4 hours, then woke up to see if the moon show was worth my time. […]
Food & dining
Chef of the year Giovannini, on pistachios
The year the second chef became the owner Yesterday I learned I am one of the 80-85% of people who eat at the Hôtel de Ville Crissier who, as it turns out, are local folk, not tourists from abroad at all. Franck Giovannini, head chef, gave some of us the figure when we spoke after lunch, […]
They were right: small yields, great old wines
A remarkable tasting session Monday 12 November, of older wines from Valais, made by a group of small independent vignerons-encaveurs, members of the Charte de qualité St Théodule. The oldest wine was 1964, just two years before a handful of pioneers, intent on making quality wine, created the charter. They were firm in the belief […]
The backbone of Swiss wines: vignerons-encaveurs
A glass wine jar for a drum, women on stilts to welcome us, and a man with a long unwieldy Alpine horn that he suddenly picks up and starts to hurl jazzy notes into a bright blue Alpine sky – what a way to start a celebration! Above us a glass dome by contemporary Swiss […]
Verona: relearning Valpolicella
Welcome to the 21st century! Valpolicella was one of my first wines, along with Chianti, drunk with pizzas as a student in Milwaukee – the cheaper the better. You can’t really blame the Verona area, home to these wines, for my youthful folly in drinking some of the worst of its products. This was 40 […]