When I gave winemaker Rui Cunha my card, he laughed and said that I would find the wine muses at Ramos Pinto, the next stop on our trip.  Imagine my delight when Ramos Pinto descendent Joao Almeida told me about the ‘inspirational’ images founder Adriano Ramos Pinto used for marketing wines beginning in the 1890′s to seduce a new generation of buyers in export markets.
The House of Adriano Ramos Pinto was founded on exports to the growing Portuguese colony of Brazil.  So when Adriano devised his marketing strategy, he searched …

Women don’t make better wine, or more feminine wines, they just have a different approach.  As I wrote last year, consortiums of women winemakers like Wine Entre Femme were “borne out of the desire to reach out to other women and do what we do so well – help each other.”
In France, there is an organization called Femmes de Vin (Women of Wine) which consists of regional groups of over 90 women winemakers from Burgundy, Beaujolais, Rhone, Provence and Languedoc, among others.  They forged a unified front at the recent …

It only takes 10 days to get a real sense of the unpredictability of Burgundy weather and why vintages matter so much here.  Unlike Bordeaux, whose climate is relatively moderated by its coastal location, Burgundy is semi-continental with only about 25″ of rain per year – much less than Napa Valley’s average.  But unlike Napa Valley’s predictable rainfall during the winter and spring, Burgundy’s precipitation can also fall during the growing season – and with force.
Until the day I arrived on June 4th, Burgundy had been experiencing a two-month “drought” …

Whether you visit Paris as a long weekend trip or stop over for a day or few before you continue on to French wine regions, Paris holds a special allure in itself.  It’s a beautiful city with tree-lined boulevards, imposing monuments, serene rivers and manicured public parks.  The scent of freshly-baked breads and savory meats follow you down each street where beautiful Parisians sit outdoors at charming cafes to sip their coffee and stare – at your shoes.
Yes, one can feel a little insecure sometimes under a Parisian’s scrutiny, but …

One of my favorite foods is a simple one – bircher muesli.  It’s a concoction of whole grains, nuts and maybe dried fruits soaked overnight in a mixture of milk and yogurt and then topped with fresh berries and honey.  So simple, but packed with so many good things and so appealing that it was always easy to choose this over bacon and eggs.   It was created by a Swiss physician named Maximilian Bircher-Benner for hospital patients, but has since become a breakfast staple at top hotels around the world and I order …

Today’s global wine is market is in net oversupply, but in specific markets, it is still growing.  The US is the world’s leading wine consumer by value and growing.  According to the 2009 Impact Databank, Americans are buying more of the big “brands” – the everyday, fruit-driven, easy-drinking and inexpensive wines.  In Germany, demand exceeds supply by 2 to 1, at average prices of a meager €2.00/liter primarily purchased at discount chains.  Over the past 25 years, demand has shifted from sweeter whites to red wines.  Asia is the fastest growing market and the major …

Is it the sommelier, the “established critical media”, the hand-selling of fine wine retailers, or producers?  I recall one of the earliest pieces I read regarding the value of wine – and implied salability - came from a UC Davis AIC (Agricultural Issues Center) report in 2003 that used empirical data to assign values to wine attributes such as vintage, grape varietal, appellation and Wine Spectator scores at release.  In that study, the price of an average bottle of California wine increased by 5% for every Wine Spectator point. 
In today’s rapidly changing world, such studies are archaic.  Today, wine …

Taxes being one of them.  Upon visiting the Rheingau, one will notice all the magnificent castles on the hillsides along the river.  These were owned by the most influential Dukes from the 12th to 15th centuries.  For centuries, the Rheingau River was the major route for transporting wines from the city of Mainz in the Rheingau downriver to Cologne, which was an important trading center for wines.  The Dukes participated in this commerce by exacting tolls for all ships that passed along this route, which effectively doubled the cost of wines, including those of …

My favorite time to travel to wine regions is the spring; its not too hot, not too cold, and not too frenetic such as around harvest.  Airfares and hotels are reasonable and winemakers have time to meet with you.  There are other interesting things that go on around springtime.
The first time my friend and I visited Rioja in the spring, my friend looked up and asked what those gigantic birds were on the roofs of the buildings.  Being a New Yorker, I glanced up and with the gravest certainty and without …