Wine and restaurant reviews
Recently Gabriele and I enjoyed a true dining experience at Brabo, a Belgian restaurant in Alexandria next to the Lorien Hotel and Spa. We have enjoyed their Tasting Room bar area next door a few times, but this was the first time in the restaurant itself. We had a great meal. The appetizers were a…
In recent weeks I’ve enjoyed three Cabernet Sauvignons from the B.R. Cohn winery in Sonoma, California. Bruce Cohn purchased the property in 1974 and is the manager of the Doobie Brothers band. He started the winery in 1984. All three bottles were excellent examples of quality California Cabernet. We’ve enjoyed the 2014 Silver Label, the…
Living in Alexandria, VA, my wife and I usually head north when going out to dinner, either Old Town or D.C. Recently we headed the other way and drove down to Woodbridge for a quality French experience at Bistro L’Hermitage. Good friends of ours recommended it, and we’re glad they did. The restaurant is an…
This week Gabriele and I attended a wine dinner at River Bend Bistro, a favorite neighborhood spot. The featured wines were from Crivelli, a producer specializing in lesser known varietals from Monferrato, in the Piedmont region of Italy. Crivelli wines are distributed by Downey Selections, and owner Brennan Downey sat with us for dinner. Downey…
This weekend we caught up with some old friends over dinner at Le Diplomate. This relatively new French place in the Logans Circle area of DC has received a lot of good press and it was on our list for places to try. So when my best friend’s wife picked it for his surprise birthday…
A fantastic source for information on Pinot Noir is The Prince of Pinot, published by retired physician William “Rusty” Gaffney. Since retiring from his practice in 2001, Dr. Gaffney has written the PinotFile, an online newsletter exclusively devoted to Pinot Noir. As a retired doctor, Gaffney has long been interested in research attempting to document…
Last week Gabriele and I enjoyed a special wine dinner event. Merry Edwards, one of the most respected and recognized producers of California Pinot Noir, was in town and attending a dinner featuring her wines. The event was held at La Bergerie in Old Town Alexandria. Merry Edwards was a pioneer in producing high quality…
Having grown up in Connecticut, I’ve always loved fall. One fall tradition I really enjoy here in the greater Washington, DC region is the Calvert Woodley fall wine sale. When the weather turns cooler, I know their impressive catalogue will soon be arriving at my door. More than just a listing of sale items, it’s…
The rise of the Internet made popular the concept of the long tail — serving a great number of interests and niches individually small in number but collectively making up a significant population. A long tail strategy is the opposite of offering a few products broadly popular to a mass market. Long tail in the…
My latest WashingtonExec column published today. I was in Canada earlier this month and had a chance to visit some vineyards on the Niagara peninsula. Vineyards reviewed are Peller Estates, Trius Vineyards and Inniskillin. None of these three offered a red that I found impressive, but there were some very enjoyable Rieslings and ice wines….
It’s rare for me to do a story on a single wine. But recently my wife and I enjoyed the 2009 Accordini Ripasso Valpolicella and she pronounced it “the best Italian wine I’ve ever had.” So clearly a post was required! I’ve written previously about some Ripassos that were good wines and also good values….
My latest Wine and Dine column published yesterday in WashingtonExec. It’s a Q&A with David White, founder of the popular Terroirist wine blog and chief operating officer of DC-based Keybridge Communications. I really enjoyed this interview, because it was a “two-fer” for me. In less than four years David has built the “Best Overall Wine…
