Cristal Showdown
This Thanksgiving I was down in the Bahamas, escaping from the onset of cold weather back home. The Bahamas is where Las Vegas meets the Carribean and quickly becoming the epicenter for the entire region with much development in process. A good friend, client and fellow Angry Manner, Roger, was also there for the weekend, [...]
Too Good and True
I was on the road for two weeks since the day after the Golden Cellar auction, and it has been a bit relentless. Post-auction action is always a bit hectic, as was starting to make the November auction simultaneously, as well as packing up our first million-dollar cellar for 2008 already. It’s a beauty. November’s [...]
From the Golden Cellar
My two weeks working in the “Golden Cellar’ were basically sitting at a desk and checking bottles. I was cutting capsules, looking at corks, labels and the color of wines at a methodical pace. My first day was twelve hours; I inventoried about thirty plus cases. That’s about a bottle every two minutes. The tortoise [...]
Weekend in Macau
I scraped myself up and out of Hong Kong to go grab the ferry to Macau. I later found out that helicopters are also available and a lot faster, although the boat trip wasn’t that bad, lasting only an hour. The ferries leave from Hong Kong every thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day, and [...]
Shanghai Nights
Greetings from Asia. I have begun my first tour of duty here in the Pacific Rim, and I started my trip off with a weekend in Shanghai. The fourteen plus hour flight did not seem so bad since I was able to sleep for close to nine hours of it; of course, that was only [...]
Happy Birthday Eddie
One of New York’s most renowned and important collectors celebrated his 50th birthday in fine fashion recently at Bouley’s private “Test Kitchen’ here in New York City. David was at the top of his game for the twenty-some-odd courses that came out. Although the tables were set, it ended up being more of a cocktail [...]
1947 Bordeaux
Kansas City, there I came, for an evening of 1947 Bordeaux assembled by one of the Midwest’s top connoisseurs, Mark. When it comes to Kansas City and wine, there is only one Mark. It was actually a wine weekend, but I could only get away for a Saturday night due to a June catalog production [...]
Double blind dinner of a lifetime
…Big Boy style
Rob had been planning this event seemingly all his life, and twelve very fortunate guests were invited to the private room at Cru one innocent Spring evening for this once-in-a-lifetime event, making me the resident Chesire Cat. For those of you that might not know or forget, double-blind means you do not know [...]
The Doctor Is Still In
A recent stopover in LA had me dining with the one and only Dr. Conti. I can safely say that reports of his demise are greatly exaggerated, and that there are still a few jewels left in the cellar. Quite a few. We were joined by the Burghound, always on the scent of the best [...]
La Paulee, Part Two
It was time for the main event, and there must have been four or five hundred giddy people gathered in downtown Manhattan. One or two of dozens of Burgundy’s elite winemakers sat at each table in anticipation of this Bacchanalian orgy. The long, army-style lunch room seating had to have about forty people per table, [...]
La Paulee Part One
After a year hiatus in Aspen, Daniel Johnnes brought the glory of La Paulee back to where it belongs in New York City, and over 500 hundred of the country’s most eager and avid collectors descended upon Manhattan like phylloxera to old vines for a celebration of what many feel are the world’s most desirable [...]
Mt. Sinai Benefit
In a short period of time, Mount Sinai has created the premier wine-related charity event in New York City. This month in Manhattan, $1.5 million was raised to support the renovation of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit with only 100 people in the Grill Room of the hallowed Four Seasons.
The ghosts of business past cowered [...]
Chicago, Chicago
A casual conversation turned into a weekend road trip to Chicago in search of some grub. It was supposed to be an Alinea and Trotter’s weekend, as I had been lamenting how I had never eaten at Trotter’s, and also wanting to see what the fuss was about over Alinea. However, Trotter’s has a strict [...]
Auction and Charity Imbibing
The first auction of the year saw me drinking a bit more than usual on the job. It was a big sale and by the time lunch rolled around, it was also looking like a successful sale. Since I was right on schedule, I decided to sit down to lunch with a few friends and [...]
First Tasting of The Year
I know everyone thinks that I am out every night of the week drinking like I am starring in “Leaving Las Vegas 2.’ Well after the last three months of 2005, I felt like I had been on about twenty too many auditions, and I started to lay low, save new Year’s Eve as you [...]
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