Yesterday I was chatting with an old pal, recounting my stops in seven countries over the last ten weeks. Chuckling, Alaric replied, “You’ve always had a tendency to wanderlust, Christy.” I travel frequently to visit vineyards and to speak about wine, and my love for exploration extends beyond well beyond border controls.
Read MoreIn the heart of Istanbul’s trendy Beyoğlu district, Mikla’s wine list represents a wide array of Turkish producers, including wines made from both local and international grapes. Impressively, no borders exist on this list; you will find representation from every major wine-producing country, including Austria, Portugal and the USA.
Read MoreHaving bought for restaurants and a retailer and being someone who attends trade tastings regularly, I have a good feeling for wine mark-ups. Naturally, I want to pay as little mark-up as possible. I do most of my wine shopping online.
Read MoreLast weekend twenty judges from Europe, Russia and the US gathered in the name of wine at the inaugural Balkans International Wine Competition in Sofia, Bulgaria. Two days of judging followed by two days of wine festival called for frequent reaching across the table - and not just to pour wine. The discoveries were enticing for palates, engrossing for wine nerds and intriguing for history and politics buffs.
Read MoreNext Wednesday I head to the Balkans International Wine Competition. So, what great timing to be invited this week to a Wines of Macedonia tasting? I couldn’t miss it. I wouldn’t miss it. I felt this way not only because I’m landing there in a week’s time. I’m always pursuing my relentless curiosity of lesser-known - and even unknown - varieties.
Read MoreJudging many wine events, I was thrilled (no exaggeration) by his use of statistics to prove the coherency of our tasting results. Not only did he use statistics to prove inarguably whether or not our scores meant something, he imbedded two sets of eight blind wines in our tastings that were not Turkish wines to judge our consistency.
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