It’s Finally Here : My Wine Book (Second, Updated Edition)

In 2002, during the busy Holiday Season and in between helping thousands of customers, I would run to my computer and write my first book, which focused on wine. Somehow, I managed to finish it in only 4 weeks. I chose to self-publish it in 2004 but Continue reading

(77)

CAPERS : BUDS, BERRIES, AND LEAVES

 

The caper bush produces a bud that eventually becomes a flower. If picked before developing into a flower, it’s a caper bud. Caper buds are what we normally think of when we hear about capers and the ones most often used. If left untouched, the bud becomes a flower that eventually dies off and produces a caper berry. Caper berries are Continue reading

(951)

I want to be exiled

IMG_4869

 

Napoleon was exiled to the picturesque island of Elba, off the Tuscan coast of Italy. After failing to kill St. John with poison, the Apostle was exiled to Patmos, a Greek Island. That was their “punishment”. So, let me get this straight. If you do what is deemed wrong, you are FORCED to spend the rest of your life on a beautiful Mediterranean island? And to make matters “worse”, you must subsist on a diet of wild vegetables, fish, sheep-milk cheeses, and wine? And your desserts are all natural, being honey-based? And you must suffer by the sea?!?!  And you have minimal contact with people? If that’s the punishment for exile, who do I kill? Please, I want to be exiled. Please exile me now.

Photo is mine from Positano, Italy, close to where my mother was born and raised, close to where my wife is from, close to where I was married, and it blends into the beautiful Mediterranean Sea, where I hope to be cremated when I die and my ashes thrown into water.

(2105)