Writing is a conversation, to me. The best kind. You can't get interrupted.

A restaurant wine list is praised and given awards for reasons that have little to do with its real purpose, as if it existed only to be admired passively, like a stamp collection. A wine list is good only when it functions well in tandem with a menu.

I made a mental note to watch which bottle became empty soonest, sometimes a more telling evaluation system than any other.

It needs only a good bottle of wine for a roast chicken to be transformed into a banquet.

Wine ... changing even as we taste it, delivers a message with meaning only in our response. If we are in the right key when we receive it, our eyes will shine and we shall radiate pleasure.

One thing I don't think that we have enough of in wine writing is the use of cause and effect. Whatever wine tastes like, whatever you're going to do with it, it is as it is for a reason.

Writing is a conversation, to me. The best kind. You can't get interrupted.