My exposure to South African wines has been somewhat limited. Aside from some very delicious Cabernet Sauvignon, my exposure has usually consisted of overripe, yet somewhat dilute "Steen", and overcropped, poorly made Pinotage. On a recent trip to South Africa to attend Cape Wine 2006, I was drawn a very clear and altogether different picture of the newfound identity of South African wines...

Biodynamic Viticulture is a method based on the work of Austrian philosopher, Rudolf Steiner. He is considered to be the father of anthroposophy, which is a broad-based philosophy relating education, health and the attunement of man to the spirit of the earth and the entire universe. In 1924...

For every Wine Experience staged by the Wine Spectator, 30 sommeliers from around the country are assembled as the "Wine Team"; responsible for the tasting & preparation of over 6,000 bottles of wine to be poured over the course of the weekend. This year, the unforgettable highlight was the Chateau d'Yquem tasting of eight vintages dating back to 1962.

Is this cult wine, whether it be from a top region, first growth Bordeaux or any great Burgundy: "Is it
really worth the money?"

Depends on the wine in question...But, let's face it, as sommeliers who are
blessed with the opportunity to taste priceless wines, how do we really know
weather something is worth it or not? Furthermore, it is not as much aboutwhat is in the bottle as it is the experience of how, where and when the wine was enjoyed....One of the best wines I ever tasted...

I have many stelvin closure wines on the list. I do not indicate them on the wine list itself. I have recently developed some sort of sommelier arthritis in my hands, so I try and have as many screw cap wines as possible, to make my night go that much easier, and pain-free! All kidding aside, my customers are finally getting used to screw cap wines for the most part. All it takes is getting a corked bottle at the end of a very long day- and it is your only chilled bottle of white...what a bummer!

A brief trip to California, to do some consulting on the Sonoma Coast, is what brought Mounir into Jack Falstaff, one of the PlumpJack restaurants where I occasionally work the floor as sommelier. Mounir Saouma, founder of the Beaune-based "micro- negociant" firm Lucien Lemoine, came in to have dinner with his importer, George Derbalian of Atherton Imports. With him, came several 2002 and 2003 white and red Burgundies "raised" by Mounir and his Israeli girlfriend Rotem. There were some stunning wines.

was a Gewurztraminer Spatlese Trocken 2003 from the Haardter Burgergarten vineyard in the Pfalz region of Germany- small producer by the name of Weegmuller- a pristine wine, with Great precision and depth of flavor- by no means heavy and fruity like some gewürztraminer's in warmer years- still light with acacia and orangeblossoms on the nose; citrus and lychee fruit on the palate and a zesty finish-

A recent trip up to Peay Vineyards on the Sonoma Coast was quite a revelation.

As a sommelier, I see more great wines hailing from this region everyday, and yet have not, until recently, even begun to understand the geography of this vast AVA known as Sonoma Coast. Sprawling over 480,000 acres of land from the north of the Green Valley area all the way down to Carneros, the boundaries, identified in 1987, were created primarily to suit Sonoma-Cutrers' desire to include all of it's major Chardonnay vineyards into one boundary, for use in it's "estate-bottled" label.