By Panos Kakaviatos Each year, I am lucky enough to be invited to a special post holiday dinner with fellow wine lovers from the Washington D.C. area. We each bring superb wines. This holiday dinner – in January 2014 – was no exception. Below the notes to the dinner, as published previously on Cellar Tracker.   BORDEAUX MATTERS, ALONG WITH BURGUNDY AND […]

By Panos Kakaviatos After having started an informal club of wine lovers in Strasbourg, France this past summer, it was great to organise a bona fide “dîner-dégustation” with Château Sociando Mallet on Friday 18 October at the Vino Strada Stub at 1 Rue du Temple Neuf. Many thanks to Isabelle Kraemer and her excellent staff […]

By Panos Kakaviatos When I suggested to a work colleague that we try some of the great cheeses aged by Bernard Antony and his son Jean-Francois, he jumped at the idea. We both love good food and wine, and noticed that the father and son team propose a “Ceremony of Cheese” of three servings of […]

I had a wonderful dinner this past Monday evening (14 January) at one of Washington D.C. finest restaurants, Black Salt, to co-host Château Daugay and Château Angélus on behalf of MacArthur Beverages. Many interesting people took part, including the brother of Alex Gambal, who makes fine wines in Burgundy, as well as fine wine lovers […]

Well, just one day after a tasting dinner with fellow wine lovers in Washington D.C. to taste overlooked vintages in Bordeaux, this evening featured the single vintage of 1998 across France. We thought we would peek at this vintage almost 15 years later, as we are – nearly – into 2013. We focused on various […]

A fine tasting of vintages in the shadows!  It was great to join old friends and fellow wine lovers in Washington D.C. one week after arriving here from France. I have to say – yet again – I sometimes drink better here than in France. In one evening… we had 21 truly fine wines for […]

Three wine evenings through Germany: Frankfurt, Bonn, Berlin. With sommeliers, wine merchants, wine association tasters, restaurant owners – and just plain old wine lovers with no links to the industry. Three venues where excellent food was paired well with Château Sociando Mallet. We enjoyed six vintages, eight wines: 2010 and 2009 Demoiselle de Sociando (second […]

Vino Strada has become a wine staple for me – and for many other wine lovers – in Strasbourg, France. Owned by Stephan and Isabelle Maure, a couple whose passion for wine is manifest. What makes Vino Strada so much fun is that it brings professionals young and old together in a fun space on […]

What a great pleasure it was to dine this evening at the Steigenberger Graf Zeppelin in Stuttgart. Twenty-nine year old executive chef Nico Burkhardt took over the kitchen of the Gourmet-Restaurant Olivo just one year ago and deserves all the praise he gets. Having earned one Michelin star already, his style can be described as […]

What a great pleasure to have enjoyed a home-cooked meal by my sister Tina, who could have gone into the restaurant business, not just because she has a knack for making great food but also because she is very meticulous about what she buys and how she prepares her ingredients. On 13 January 2012 she invited me and […]