Wine and restaurant reviews
One of the wine bloggers I follow is Joe Roberts, of 1WineDude. Together with Tara O’Leary, aka the Wine Passionista, he has launched a video series interviewing major influencers in the world of wine. Recently they featured an interview with Gary Vaynerchuk, one of the true trail blazers in wine marketing. After shooting to social […]
Last year I wrote about the white varietal Viognier, spurred by my Mom drinking a favorite of hers over the holidays. It was from Bonterra in California, and we taste tested it against two French Viogniers. Last weekend my folks were in town, and I purchased some 2011 J.V. Fleury Cotes du Rhone for the […]
My March Wine and Dine column published today in WashingtonExec magazine. My focus this month is wine dinners, and in particular one we attended that featured the wines of Holloran Vineyards. The dinner was held at the Del Ray Cafe in Alexandria, and put together by Bill Holloran and Jane Cahill, an ex-neighbor and former […]
Last year my wife Gabriele and I visited Sonoma, and enjoyed a number of excellent Zinfandels. A number of those Zinfandels were from Ravenswood, which is a well known name for Zinfandel but doesn’t ship a lot of its smaller production wines to the east coast. There’s nothing wrong with the Ravenswood wine you can […]
My latest WashingtonExec Wine and Dine column published today. It features my review of the Curious Grape, in the Shirlington area of Arlington, VA. The Curious Grape is a combination wine shop and restaurant. The wine discussed in the review is the Andrew Murray 2011 Esperance, a nice Rhone style blend from central California. While […]
Joe Roberts has a good story this week at 1WineDude that mixes wine, economics, demographics and a failure to adopt social media marketing. Add these elements up, and he predicts hard times for the U.S. wine business as Boomers continue to age, retire and pass on. He cites a report put out by the Silicon […]
My latest Wine and Dine column published today in WashingtonExec magazine. It’s a review of Virtue Feed and Grain, the latest Cathal and Mechelle Armstrong restaurant in Old Town, Alexandria. Virtue Feed and Grain is another strong addition to the local culinary scene. Here’s a video from Cathal Armstrong that describes the thinking behind the […]
Merry New Year to all! Yesterday I received what will be my last WordPress.com annual traffic report, since I moved this site to chrisparente.com in early October of this year. It’s a good looking report and a nice little extra for wp.com bloggers — here’s my story on my 2011 report. According to WordPress I […]
WashingtonExec published my December Wine and Dine column today. I share some proven holiday wine performers from my Christmases past. If you’re scrambling to finish your holiday preparations and need some good, reasonably priced wine give this list a read. I’ve included wines to suit many palates, and if you try any please share your […]
Huge news in the wine world broke yesterday. Robert Parker, founder of the Wine Advocate and the world’s most influential wine critic, announced plans to sell a portion of the business to three unnamed investors and to step down as editor-in-chief. (Here’s an interview in MarketWatch from last month with good background, with Parker’s assurance […]
Recently Gabriele and I had dinner at Proof in downtown Washington. It’s a stylish, wine-centric hot spot that has garnered a lot of praise in the last two years, including a “100 Best Restaurants” from Washingtonian. I respect any restaurant that treats wine as seriously as Proof does. One thing I’d suggest would be to […]
My lastest WashingtonExec column published yesterday. I was invited to attend the opening night of Vino Volo, a high-end wine bar/restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland. Since 2005 the company has operated wine bars in airports and is currently in 18 nationwide, but the Bethesda restaurant is their first freestanding location. The Vino Volo approach stresses fun, […]