It was December 1998. My father had recently passed away and my mother was having a hard time dealing with his loss.    She was one of the most charismatic happy people on earth who always had a glow about her, and it was difficult seeing her in such a funk.  She was in her early 80’s  was feeling her age and let me know that in addition to the loss of her husband she was having a hard time dealing with the fact that she would never see her brothers/sister nieces/nephews again.  We could not bring my dad back but we could do something about having her see her family.  Along with my wife and two sons, who had never met their Sicilian family, my mother and I traveled to Sicily the for Easter 1999.   When they heard about our visit our 60 or so aunts/uncles/cousins could not agree on who would host us for Easter dinner (they all WANTED to host us not the other way around).  Their solution was that they would rent out a banquet room at a l...

Mrs. Wine Guy was throwing a bridal shower for the future daughter in law recently.  My hope was that I would get to go visit one of my buddies or head over to the sports bar and watch a game on TV, or do some other manly pursuit.  That hope was short lived when the Mrs. WG asked “would you mind being the bartender”.  Knowing that no was not an option I lied and said “I’d be happy to honey.”  So there I was, committed to using up a perfectly good Sunday afternoon serving wine to 14 ladies.  I did not know about half of the ladies attending and I knew that at least four of them did not drink at all.  So I was selecting wine for at most 10 ladies.  Two were Mrs. Wine Guy and the bride’s mother both of which who have fairly sophisticated palates.  I have a niece that is a fan of Pinot Noir, and the bride to be that will only drink sweet wine , but the rest of them were uncharted territory.  I had to put my wine guy skills to the ...

Have not blogged in a bit because Mrs. Wine Guy and I do what wine couples do and took a River Cruise in Bordeaux.  The Mrs. went for the sites, the sounds, and the history, while I went for the wine and that is what I am going to discuss.  The French think that they do all things better than anyone else on earth.  After almost being crushed to death trying to see the Mona Lisa and the chaos at Charles de Gaulle airport I’m not sure I agree but the French may have a point when it comes to their love of wine.  Wine is the centerpiece of most of their meals, and they take maintaining their quality standards very seriously.  Many people thing the best wines in France come from Bordeaux. The wines in Bordeaux are not named after the grapes used to make them  but after the area where they are grown.   The grapes for wines labeled “Bordeaux” can be grown anywhere in the region while wines made from grapes grown only in a smaller sub-region u...