Full disclosure: Charlie Olken, the driving force behind The Connoisseurs’ Guide to California Wine, is my dad. Not my biological father, mind you. In fact, he’s not related to me in any way; he’s not my adoptive father, either. It happened back in February: I was sitting at one of the evening dinner events at…
Category: wine publications
The World of The World of Fine Wine Magazine
I receive quite a bit of wine for which I pay nothing. I have never bothered to measure the volume of influx of wine samples to my door, but it is high enough that whenever the doorbell rings in the afternoon, my toddler daughter now exclaims “more boxes of wine, daddy!” Generally this volume of…
Whence Cometh Napa Cabernet?
Today I’ll be starting my week-long Napa excursion (the itinerary of which I’d hoped to have posted today, but since all those West Coast hippies are so damn laid back, as of the time of this writing my schedule still isn’t totally finalized… if I’d been dealing with uptight, anally-retentive East Coast types I would…
The $97.18 Wine List
In its December 2009 issue, the fine wine industry mag Sommelier Journal decided to take an interesting and unique angle on the ‘year end wine recap.’ Instead of compiling a year-end best-of list, Editor David Vogels asked a hand-selected group (consisting primarily of wine directors, sommeliers and other wine pros) to contribute what they thought…