Category: Wine & Spirits

Quick question – what’s the least known and least expensive of the world’s great wines? The answer is Sherry! From bone dry to super sweet there’s a Sherry for every occasion, especially Christmas. Sherry is a fortified wine from Jerez, a magical city of 3,000 years history and tradition that’s located in southwestern Spain. In […]

Fresh back from my Spanish wine and food trip, my memories of tasting beautiful wines and cheeses are vivid. The pairing of wines and cheeses is always a good idea and especially so in the cold winter months. Whether at a meal or as an afternoon snack with friends, this is an ideal way to […]

Wine and travel have long been great partners. For those of us who make their living writing and talking about wines, travel is not a luxury but an essential. When you read this column, I’ll be flying back to Shanghai from a one week trip to Spain’s historic first kingdom, the region of Castilla y […]

When addressing wine professionals and wine enthusiasts around the world, I am fond of saying that ultimately we are in the business of creating memories. For the thousands of wine events that I have planned and conducted over the years, my goal has always been to create a special memory that participants will never forget. […]

When paring wines with Chinese food in Shanghai there are two unavoidable realities. Firstly, red wine is quite popular and secondly, there are many delicious seafood dishes. Dare we break the historical anecdote, “white wines with fish and red wines with meat”? My answer is an emphatic yes. While it is true that most white […]

Wine knowledge necessitates a familiarity of different grapes. One of my favorite white wine grapes is Sauvignon Blanc. This variety is used to make some of the world’s greatest and costly white wines as well as good value wines that feature a range of different characteristics depending on the climate and soil. In general, wine […]

No one loves Champagne more than I do; I absolutely adore the stuff but not the price tag. The cost of Champagne makes it a wine almost exclusively for special occasions, not everyday drinking. What are lovers of bubbles to do? The answer is Prosecco, Italy’s charming and affordable sparkling wine. First let’s learn a […]

Have a spicy tooth? Do you crave the scintillating spicy dishes of the Szechuan, Hunan, Thai or Korean cuisines? The topic of pairing wines with spicy foods always creates some controversy. On one hand you have some “old-school” wine connoisseurs, including some of the most famous contemporary western wine critics who insist wine is too […]

My sincere greetings to all the readers of Shanghai Daily. I’m excited to have this new column and be able to share my global wine adventures with readers in Shanghai. My goal is to help make wine appreciation easier and more fun. I will also introduce some of my favorite wines and wine styles as […]

Later this week, Beaujolais Nouveau madness hits Shanghai. Therefore it’s a good time to take an honest look at this much-hyped and often misunderstood wine. This is not a great or classic wine and most wine snobs won’t go near a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau. But that’s what makes this wine so fun. Wine people […]