Mendoza’s Melbecs
Wines of Argentina’s press junket to Mendoza and Patagonia leaves a lingering memory and taste: that of the food-friendly and flavorful Malbec. At nearly every winery the tasting presentation is methodical, thoughtful, well-paced, considerate, intelligent, hospitable, earnest yet pleasant, and generally convincing – and the star of the show is... Read More
Good Luck Jim Tye
The role as ambassador for United Liquors is certainly not a new one for Jim Tye. With his ‘retirement’, that role is just a little more expanded, as he will be casting a wider if more informal net. Tye, a graduate of University of Miami and Columbia University School of... Read More
Riccetelli and Lopez
Master and apprentice, behemoth and beauty, yin and yang: two complementary personalities and temperaments make this newly formed team creating wine at Bodega Norton. The winery was founded by Edmund James Palmer Norton, an English engineer who’d come to Argentina to help in the gargantuan task of building the Transandean... Read More
Frank DePasquale
FRANK De PASQUALE • 53 • Restaurateur • Bricco, Umbria, Mare, News, Express, Trattoria Il Panino Since launching his first Trattoria Il Panino in 1989, Frank De Pasquale has opened a basketful of 21 diversely styled restaurants. Though the self-made restaurateur holds fast to the uncompromising ideal of serving authentic... Read More
Erok Johnson
ERIK JOHNSON • 37 • Beverage Manager/Sommelier • L’Espalier and Sel de la Terre • Boston Sel de la Terre, located opposite the Aquarium T-stop, is admirably positioned to do a booming lunch trade and tourist business for its Mediterranean cuisine. L’Espalier, tucked in toney Back Bay, enters its third... Read More
Tiffany
TIFFANY TAYLOR • 35 • Wine Director & Restaurant Manager • Rialto Restaurant, Charles Hotel, Cambridge, MA Even the elegant places suffer stressful moments; Rialto, the Charles Hotel’s flagship destination dining room – since its 1994 opening the bailiwick of award-winning Chef Jody Adams – has weathered wintry changes. Restaurateuse... Read More
A Couple of Cape Codders
BILL and DENISE ATWOOD • 54/51 • Chef/Owners • The Red Pheasant, Dennis, MA Patti Page sang about it in 1957 – “If you’re fond of sand dunes and salty air, quaint little villages here and there.” How many of us today remember Old Cape Cod? Bill and Denise Atwood... Read More
team Argentina
NICOLAS and LAURA CATENA • 7O/38 • Owner/Export Manager • Catena Zapata Winery, Mendoza, Argentina Father and daughter teams are old hat in American wineries (think Mike and Violet Grgich, David and Kim Stare, even grandpa Julio and Gina Gallo) but they are something rare and wonderful in Argentina. Nicolas... Read More
Profile: Kim Stare Wallace
KIM STARE WALLACE Vice-President & Director of Marketing • Dry Creek Vineyards, Sonoma, CA Thirty five years seems a long time to own a California vineyard. Kim Stare was just 8 when her family packed everything into a station wagon and headed from Wellesley, Massachusetts to Davis, California. Dad was... Read More
On Organic Wine
It should surprise nobody in the trade that Cambridge be the quietly self-designated hotbed of a pop in the still small niche explosion of biodynamic wines. Where but in that socio-political cauldron of Cantabrigia could such extremism grip sommeliers’ and diners’ imaginations? Violette Imports’ eclectic and discerning portfolio has played... Read More









