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, […]
Search Results for: Swiss Wine Guide
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 […]
Travels in Sardinia: a tourist’s tips
Where is this place? Personally, and I blush to say it, a year ago I was sure only that Sardinia was an island, part of Italy, somewhere near Sicily. Obviously, I have never sailed in the Mediterranean. When I was invited on an educational trip to learn about Cannonau wines, I dashed to Google Maps. I then […]
Jancis Robinson, Vineglorious book review
(Update, 29 December: many thanks to Jancis Robinson for permission to republish in its entirety a new review of my Swiss wine book ). A series of reviews by JR staffer Tamlyn Currin includes a review of Vineglorious! Switzerland’s Wondrous World of Wines, published 27 December. Currin ran a series of year-end book reviews in 2015 and they were so popular […]
Ellen’s bicycle diaries: Cuba 2
Note: The American Embassy in Havana re-opens today, 14 August, after 55 years. This is the day when Switzerland, now my home country, ends the longest “protecting power role” mandate it has had, a job that involves representing two nations who are not on speaking terms. It’s a moving moment, a time when common sense […]