Is there such a thing as the perfect wine for Monday? Or, can there be a specific perfect wine for every day of the week? Yes and no. The answer is yes if you feel like it. You can create your own tradition – for example, “every Friday I drink Cabernet Sauvignon”, or “every Sunday I drink Chardonnay”. Sure, you can create such a tradition, but why? A better answer is “no, there is no specific wine for every day of the week”, there is only wine you want to drink today. On second thought, maybe? Just for Monday? There is an abundance of jokes about Monday – purportedly the most difficult day of ..read more

Chicago might be my second favorite big American city after New York. Of course, this is a business traveler’s opinion (planned many times to visit the city of Chicago as a tourist, but this never happened so far). Situated largely around the Chicago River, the city offers magnificent views all around (just scroll down :)). The city also played a cornerstone role in American history, so you can’t help but think about all that was happening on those streets… I spent pretty much an entire [work] week in the city, and had an opportunity to walk around a bit (mostly in the evenings). I stayed ..read more

About a year ago, I tried for the first time the wine deliberately produced to be in the “low calorie, low alcohol” category – you can find the story here. You might want to refer to that article as I made an effort there to explain how calories are calculated in wine, which I’m not planning to repeat today. Back in April, I was offered to taste two of the low-calorie, low-alcohol wines – and this is where the story started. To put things in perspective – the “low calories, low alcohol” Pinot Noir I tasted a year ago had 124 calories per standard glass – versus 154 calories in the glass of ful ..read more

And now it is the time for pictures – lots and lots of pictures – from our European adventure 2024, starting from our first stop – Paris. Paris needs no introduction – an eternal city of love, a source of inspiration for all things art, a coveted destination for millions every year. So what did we do in Paris? First, I have to mention the hotel where we were staying. Whenever possible, I’m the Marriott guy. During this trip, I used a serious number of points to pay for our stays in Paris and Rome. In Paris, we stayed at the Marriott Ambassador Opera Hotel, and I have to say that this was one ..read more

It’s been two weeks since the Chardonnay Day (May 23rd). So far I missed all the grape holidays this year, so why bother bringing it up, right? Well, there are a few reasons. First, after carefully checking the blog, I realized that I never wrote about Chardonnay Day, which is a pity, because… And here is the next reason – Chardonnay is one of my most favorite grapes. Of course, as a wine lover, you can say that I share this sentiment about every grape. Somewhat true, and yet in my book Chardonnay is different than most other white grapes. While considered to originate in France, Chardonnay to ..read more

The European family trip was fully planned – Paris, Milan, Tuscany, Rome. Hotels and airline tickets were booked, and only train tickets remained to be put in place. This will be a great trip. July 2020 was shaping up to be a great time. Yes, you read it correctly. July 2020. The month that never happened. along a few years. But the desire to have the family trip to Europe never went away. The original idea behind the trip was to celebrate two important events in the youngest kids’ lives – graduation from university and high school. 4 years later, that was the time to celebrate another univers ..read more

Ahh, the difference between the picture in your head and the reality. I know that I’ve written “Month in Wines” posts in the past, to discuss the wines I had during a given month. What I didn’t realize was that the last “Month in Wines” post was written 9 years ago, in 2015. Oh well, such is life. Let’s get to our subject – the wines I had during January of this year. I would say that January, and December for that matter, are usually a bit more special, as both months are centered around holidays and celebrations. For a variety of reasons, we got to celebrate New Year, our most favorite holid ..read more

Do you ever get the feeling that you already did something, and then, after spending a good half an hour looking for it you realize that you only thought about doing that but actually you never have? This is my story with the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux tasting – I already had 3 opportunities to write about this Bordeaux Grand Crus tasting, and have not done that – and was sure that I did – but only in my mind. Thus finally I want to correct the situation so I will have an actual record. Let’s start with a short explanation of UGCB, the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux. UGCB was founded ..read more

Italian wines are special. Well, this statement says a lot and nothing at the same time. Remember, wine is personable and subjective. Everyone has a right to have their own opinion, and that opinion can only be subjective. What makes Italian wines special? I will allow myself to make a bold claim – Italian wines are distinguishable. At least the well-made Italian wines produced from the core Italian grape varieties. What I’m saying is that when you taste Chianti, Brunello, Nero d’Avola, Montepulciano, Barolo and others, you might not identify the exact wine and the exact producer, but you woul ..read more

“Uncovered” is an interesting word. On one side, it means that something is simply not covered, like a grill left uncovered for the night. Uncovered also means that a discovery will be made, a secret will be revealed, something will “lose its cover”. I intend to talk about both meanings. Let’s talk about revealing. I have a secret closet – compartment, shelf, what have you. I don’t like it. It bothers me. I always remember it exists, and it is daunting and depressing. This closet contains posts that should’ve been written and never were. I’m not talking about just some interesting post ideas w ..read more