Sur Le Zinc

Late Summer in Long Island

Long Island in the summer is about four things: -Traffic -Local produce -Local fish and shellfish -Rosé Our local produce is swinging through the season,  first from the north fork and as summer winds down the south fork farms begin to produce more. Corn is finally in season here on the south fork, and that’s a… READ MORE

A Grand Dinner in Grand Company at IPNC

It was a pleasure to return this summer to IPNC. At the Grand Dinner on Friday, I got right to work rounding up all those interested in tasting some top quality wines with me. Together we enjoyed a superb line up from Martine’s Wines, including cuvées from one of the newest producers, Domaine des Ardoisières, from the steep and rocky slopes… READ MORE

Napa Valley Summer Tasting

We couldn’t have chosen a better venue for our first Napa Valley area tasting than TORC on Main Street in the town of Napa in late June. The high ceilings and airy space helped to accommodate a sizable crowd of sommeliers, retailers and winemakers. Napa may be synonymous with American wine production but there are… READ MORE

Wine and Port Seminar with Dirk Niepoort

Our first seminar in the upstairs private dining room at Verbena was a cozy squeeze; we didn’t want to turn away any who came out to taste and discuss a collection of Douro wines with Dirk Niepoort. This was his first visit to the US in a while, and sadly a short one, so we… READ MORE

The Best of Martine

No one is better at promoting than Martine, and she has long enjoyed a great relationship with the press. Thus it was a pleasure to pull together the top Martine Saunier articles from recent years. Enjoy!

NYC Spring 2014 Portfolio Tasting

We were grateful for a sunny day on April 1st in Union Square. While the calendar date of our event may have given pause to some, our customers are no fools, and these wines were no joke! There are a number of exciting new producers for us in the New York and New Jersey portfolios… READ MORE

2012 Harvest Report

The Most Dreary Growing Season in Champagne and Burgundy Results in an Outstanding Vintage 2012 After All! Last March, I spent 10 days in Burgundy, enduring summer temperatures over 80F, as I was equipped for cold weather. Incredible and worrisome for producers. April 1st (for my second movie “A Year in Champagne”) we filmed Stéphane… READ MORE

2010 Harvest Report

When I arrived in Burgundy at the end of August, no one was very cheerful. After a very cold winter, some of the vines had died, a frost had formed during flowering which greatly reduced the future crop, and a lot of millerandage occurred. Then, after a scorching heat-wave from the end of June to… READ MORE

2008: Another Miraculous Harvest

Every one talks about the year of the 13 moons greatly affecting the climate: too hot, too wet, too stormy, too cold. In fact, this is a year of uncontrollable weather affecting every region of France. I arrived in Burgundy on September 1st, having calculated the dates of my trip according to the date of… READ MORE

Harvest 2007

There is a saying in Burgundy “Septembre fait le vin,” September makes the wine. It applied in 1978 when the entire summer was overcast with cool temperatures, and by the end of August, the grapes looked like little green English peas.  This year, as the growers came back from their short vacation in anticipation of… READ MORE