The Grapes Unwrapped

06/14/2025

Sucking wind for a good Fathers Day gift idea? Want to treat yourself to a fun event regardless of Fathers Day? Want to attend a private event in the new cool Wheelhouse Cheese and More space at Food Corner (or FoodDen Ave. - trying to think of a good name for it) in Maplewood? Want to meet and hear and taste with Ben Jordan of Lightwell Survey, one of the winemakers recently featured in Eric Asimov's NY Times column on the ascension of Virginia wine? Want to hear him in conversation with me? (OK, maybe I pushed it a bit with that last one.)

Wednesday June 25, 6pm to 8pm. Wheelhouse Cheese and More. 417 Boyden Ave. This is a private, prepaid event. $55 plus tax and Square fees. Any additional costs are the wines you order or Wheelhouse goodies you purchase. 50 slots. That's it. Be a slot. Bring a slot.

Reach out to me with any questions.

Link for purchase (through my friends at Village Wine Shop who so capably and amiably handle my wine club):
https://checkout.square.site/merchant/7E4GFP5559406/checkout/2LDHPYOOTLOO2RTONCRFMVKN?fbclid=IwY2xjawK6XX1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFqSUpsMktBdWZHcm5ZZm1YAR4YYV96aBJ0sB_oB6vm5NqbKY3XOcfUZ_d1tX

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01/31/2025

Next Friday night! If you love wine, this is the event for you!

A wine tasting with more than 40 wines curated by Hank Zona, craft cocktails, light fare, sweet treats and a wine pull!

09/18/2024

100,000 cars drive into the Holland Tunnel every day, drivers usually pi**ed off or beaten down by traffic by time they pass the subject of my latest piece for Jersey's Best. Almost none of those driving in realize they are passing a storage facility that is safely and securely housing wine collections valued at tens of billions of dollars.

Yes, billions.

I got to visit Mana Wine Storage...and now know exactly where it is, but I'm not telling.

One-hundred-thousand vehicles drive through the Holland Tunnel every day, all of them passing one of the best maintained, most secure and highly valued wine collections in the world. Housed in a 20,000-square-foot high-rise facility, it goes largely unnoticed by frustrated drivers more focused on jo...

07/30/2024

As some of you know, I post a lot about the intersection of wine and art. I love both, having been to over 20 museums, galleries and exhibits this year alone. I kind of like wine too. I even put together a wine-themed art show a decade ago and am in talks with people to do it again.

Because I post a lot about wine in art, I have posted numerous depictions of Dionysus, or the name eventually attached to him, Bacchus, because, you know, being the god of winemaking, festivity, and other passions of mine - music and theatre. Dionysian festivals included performances of dramas enacting his myths, an early force in the development of theatre in "Western" culture.

This depiction of Dionysus (the guy with the grapes) is in "Le Festin des Dieux" or Feast of the Gods, by Jan van Bijlert (1630s). It represents a wedding banquet on Mount Olympus attended by many Greco-Roman gods. Thats a crowned Apollo in the middle.

Dionysus/Bacchus is traditionally depicted as either an older bearded god or a younger long haired god with some feminine features, described in Ancient literature as "man-womanish." Eventually, Bacchanalias, the gatherings of those who followed the religion of Dionysus/Bacchus (sometimes referred to as cults) were eventually restricted in ancient Rome. It always seems to come down to control. The powers that be - politicians and intellectuals - didnt like the mingling of sexes and classes and seen as subversive. He represented freedoms but of course, but those in power believed it was subversive and not everyone is, I mean, was entitled to them.

Ironically, while some have found a recent depiction of him problematic on religious grounds, Dionysus is also the god of ritual madness and religious ecstacy. Go figure.

06/09/2024

A week from Thursday, June 20, the first night of summer, come celebrate a LoveLee Summer, a 5 course, 4 wine dinner at Bistro d'Azur, with me, featuring local winemaker Aamira Garba and her line of LoveLee wines.

Aamira is an Orange resident, a mom, a marketing executive and makes really good wine in California from grapes she sources. This is truly small batch craft level wine that is not available enough. Not only will you get to hear her story (and it's a good and lively one), you'll have opportunity to purchase her very limited production wines too.

The cost will be $149 all in which includes dinner, wine, tax, service and fees. Reservations are live at the link below on the Bistro d'Azur website. The reservation says $95. Tax, service and fees bring it to around $121. There will be a wine charge the night of the event for $28. (NJ laws, folks).

Not only have I written about her, but so has Forbes and the Washington Post. The link to my article will be in the comments.

I anticipate this selling out. Come support this talented up and coming Black female winemaker who happens to also be a local business. If you have any questions, shoot me a message.

Bistro d'Azur uses the freshest locally sourced ingredients to express the diverse flavors of the Cote d'Azur and the entire Mediterranean region; based in classic French style with influences from Spain, Greece, and the Middle East. Bistro d'Azur is a BYOB and our menu is always a prix fixe of two....

05/28/2024

When someone follows me on social media, since I am nowhere near influencer levels (and never will be), I have the time to look them up too. When Alla Jackelli started following me, I not only followed her back, I knew I wanted to develop a piece that included what she does, I was so taken with it. I then met Daniele Boglivi-Fiori at an event I did and started following her. Then a restaurant owner I respect brought Nettie Fletcher to my attention.

What do these women all have in common? They have combined a talent for art with a talent for baking. Their creations don't only look great, but as important to them, they taste great too. This isn't kitschy concoctions for reality tv that no one really eats. Their stories were all even more impressive to me than their baked goods.

Having talked about the intersection of art and wine for years, it was fun to do something about the intersection of food (baking, in this case) and art. If you think the pictures in the linked article and print magazine are great, they don't even do them justice. Follow them all on Instagram to really be wowed.

Thank you to Jersey's Best for again allowing me to write about something that caught my interest, in hopes it catches yours.

New Jersey has no shortage of bakers. Traditional multigenerational establishments, new and hipper shops, home-baking specialists, farmers market mainstays, above average hobbyists who share with family and friends — you can find any type within a short trip from wherever you are in the state. The...

05/21/2024

While I was away, with this latest emergence of cicadas happening in parts of the country already, I noticed the The New York Times did a piece on chefs and their cicada preparations. Meh, I say. (It is tiring being consistently far ahead of the curve, I have to admit.) I was up on that buzz over a decade ago!

This week in 2013, Nancy Solomon, who deftly covers the noisy brood that is New Jersey politics for WNYC, interviewed me for a cicada segment for "All Wings Considered"...I mean, "All Things Considered". At that time, another cicada brood was about to launch its cacophony throughout the state (see - the NJ politics analogy works!) and many of you will remember, I ran a contest. If you harvested cicadas and cooked them up, I'd bring along the wine to pair with it and do a video shoot.

Below is the link to the write-up and recording of that episode. Amusingly, as it ran, I got phone calls and texts and messages during from people who were listening to it in their homes and cars.

I suppose I need to do another contest for this emergence. If you herd (and heard, I reckon) a bunch of the "lobsters of the insect world", and let me know how you will prepare them, I will bring the wine and at least arrange a photo shoot if not a video segment. Really.

A great source of protein is coming to a backyard near you as millions of cicadas are beginning to emerge from their 17-year incubation.

05/15/2024

This slowed down my drive on my way to a business meeting today...

05/11/2024

Yesterday I visited the medieval town my grandfather left early last century to come to America. I was choked up much of the day, appreciative of my good fortune to be able to visit again 40 years after my first time, then with my brother. Dambach-la-Ville is now the largest wine producing commune in Alsace, France, and sure enough, farm vehicles easily moved along the roads, at a pace consistent with everyone else's in a town, between the Vosges Mountains and Black Forest, ringed by vineyards and other farmland.

I went into the church in which he was baptized. Saw names of his family members injured and killed in wars on the walls there. Met people who knew his brother and sister, long deceased. Coincidentally learned from a winery owner (pictured with me), she not only knew the family but was friends growing up with my grand aunt's daughter. I had planned to visit a number of wineries but didnt. My wine story yesterday was about more than wine. Most of them are, but none more so than this story. Now to find the outlet that will allow me to share it in greater detail some day.

Wine is personal. Wine is connective. To my past.

04/27/2024

My previously alluded to first piece for Eater NY, co-written with Valerie Stivers, a tour of the new wave of restaurants in Newark's Ironbound. While many establishments are having a difficult time still post-pandemic, and the dining scene has seen a rise in corporate-group ownership, the food scene in the Ironbound and Newark in general is vibrant and growing, yet also retains a real personal feel.

I was thrilled to do a New Jersey piece for Eater too because a lot of folks follow them or find them a best source in a lot of markets, not just New York. If you want to see more Jersey coverage (regardless of who writes it), read this piece to show there is interest or let them know.

Institutions and newcomers in one of the city’s most dynamic neighborhoods

04/22/2024

Hello to those local and relatively local. Last call for this Wednesday night's South Orange-Maplewood Adult School tasting and talk with me, along with Jonathan of Lum's Cellars on Springfield Ave in Maplewood, and Angela DeLuca of Bonhomie Wine Imports at Lum's.

We'll be talking about how wine gets from the winery to store shelves and restaurant lists. We'll be tasting a handful of wines from the Bonhomie portfolio, a boutique importer domiciled in South Orange, owned by two women who both live in West Orange. We'll be munching on cheese and other good stuff from the very good, in fact most excellent folks at Maplewood Wheelhouse. Over 30 people have signed on so far, and we added more slots because we all like a good crowd, and this supports the Adult School. So there you have it...support three local businesses (Im a local bricks and mortar-less business!) and the Adult School and hang out with a bunch of good people, drinking good wine, eating good things, learning good stuff.

Netflix will still be there when you get home.