Last Thursday, Markus Stolz invited me to attend a tasting of Xinomavros, followed by a dinner at Bar Boulud in New York City. The invite came on the heels of my latest blog post about a magnificent Xinomavro from Thimiopoulos Vineyards. This was my chance to taste more than a […]
The most exciting part about my journey of discovering wines has been getting to taste varietals I’d never heard of. Take Xinomavro, for example. The name itself is intriguing enough to make me want to explore. Xinomavro is the aristocratic black grape of Greece. It means “acid black” and it […]
Last year, my husband Marc and I made our very first trip to the Finger Lakes. Evan Dawson, the brilliant wine writer for The New York Cork Report, was entirely responsible for the decision to head north. His passion for the wines of the Finger Lakes convinced me that I […]
Surrounded by dazzling turquoise-blue waters, the mountainous island of Cephalonia is the largest of the Ionian islands in western Greece. It’s also an island with its very own white grape variety: Robola.
There are certain things that happen in life that are so completely unforeseen, and yet so completely enriching, that you wonder what life would have been like without them.
I discovered Paumanok Vineyards last January when the New York Cork Report team graciously invited me, my husband Marc and Markus Stolz (the guru of Greek wines) to join them for a lunch and tasting at the winery.
Don’t think this martini is going to be syrupy-sweet! It’s off-dry – intensely flavorful, luscious and only sweet enough to be impossibly decadent. The dark chocolate cayenne-spiked rim brings a touch of spicy heat, making you want to take each sip from a new spot on the rim (at least […]
Last May, an extraordinary thing happened: Randall Grahm, the iconic winemaker of Bonny Doon Vineyard, came for dinner. With him arrived a caravan of 14 wines – wines that echoed through the last 25 years of his astonishing journey as a winemaker.
When it came time to choosing wine for the latkes I created for my Hanukkah feature in Rockland Magazine, I didn’t hesitate for even half a second. Sparkling wine was in order – after all, what holiday party is complete without a glass of bubbly?! And it just so happens […]
On a beautiful day in late September my husband and I decided to take a little road trip to the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. Although we very much needed a break from our relentlessly hectic schedules, the truth is that I had an ulterior motive: I wanted […]
A special dinner to celebrate Randall Grahm, the self-proclaimed “founder, winemaker, terroirist-vinarchist and prez-for-life” of Bonny Doon Vineyard.
When she’s not creating recipes, Viviane loves to invent cocktails. Here she demos how to make a cocktail with a single malt Scotch and champagne: her take on the classic French 75… and a little history lesson thrown in!