Guido Van Imschoot is president of Professional Sommeliers Flemish. His intent with this book is to make us share his passion for wine and gastronomy. Taking advantage of its extensive experience in the field of wine and agreements, we will better understand how to approach wine and thus better appreciate them.
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Denis is a columnist Hervier passionate about wine and gastronomy and it is constantly seeking new agreements with the “black diamond”, the black truffle is so rich in opportunities for associations and opening the doors of ecstasy great taste.

His books Truffle form a small book of a hundred pages introducing us into the world of melanosporum: small interviews with chefs, like Michel Portos, one of the best truffle in the Hexagon, or Pierre- Jean Pebeyre, a truffle trader who gives us a lot about the difficulty of the current market for truffles. On the menu, it also gives us some recipes … and especially his favorite heart for wines that occupy the greater part of this little book.
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Eventually, you may find yourself turning from a wine connoisseur to a wine collector. It’s not just that you want to preserve bottles of terrific vintages, storing them up against the lean years. You’ve suddenly realized that a bottle of great wine might be as strong an investment as a block of Microsoft stock. Collecting wine is a lot different from just buying wine. For one thing, it’s going to cost more.

On the other hand, collectors have an opportunity to get their hands on wines that most people can only dream about tasting–rare vintages of such depth and complexity that their proper accompaniment is the roasted haunch of some extinct animal. That bottle of ’85 Cabernet that you paid $35 for can now be worth as much as several hundred dollars.
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One sunny day in 1979, when Del and Ray Lewand were on a wine tasting tour of the Alexander Valley they decided to stay overnight at a local inn. That stay triggered an idea. Both were Los Angeles natives, but with their children pretty well grown they were beginning to think of a move away from southern California. “We hadn’t settled on a way to support ourselves,” says Ray, “but after the night at the inn we looked at each other and said, ‘Hey, this is something we could do.”
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There is a winemaker in the Russian River valley who is marking her ninth Pinot Noir vintage this year, and she seems to have charmed this recalcitrant grape into allowing her to produce wines that sell out as soon as the waiting world hears another is on the way. Eugenia Keegan, owner and winemaker of Keegan Cellars is the person whose name is on the label of these Pinot Noirs, and that’s all that many people need to know before heading to their favorite wine shop.
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If you fancy fine wines, are delighted to spend an overnight or more in a cozy bed and breakfast, enjoy walking through acres of flowering and fruiting plants, and find joy in browsing displays of tantalizing foodstuffs or racks of unique gift selections, you will find any or all of the above when you visit the Fetzer Vineyards Tasting Room and Visitors Center at Valley Oaks just east of Hopland. And, lest you fear there will be large crowds and little elbowroom, you’d be only half right. People do flock to Valley Oaks, but with 95 acres to ramble around and an enormous picnic area under a cool, leafy trellis, finding quiet paths to stroll and a spot to settle down for a sandwich, salad and a glass of wine is no trick at all.
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Six miles west of the tiny town of Philo in Mendocino County the traveler comes to a sign announcing that he/she has arrived at Handley Cellars, where Milla Handley is winemaker. As the great great granddaughter of Henry Weinhard of Oregon brewery fame, Milla must have had some bubbles in her genes and, thinking in terms of wine, not beer, Milla enrolled in fermentation science courses at the University of California at Davis.
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Not too many moons ago, those wishing to try Blackstone Winery wines would have to consult their maps and head for the tiny hamlet of Graton in western Sonoma County. Wine tasting premises were shared with a couple of other wineries, and while the building was quaint and beautifully restored, there was no winery to tour, or winemaker to meet.
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Although Fritz Winery, in Cloverdale is probably best known for its outstanding Chardonnays and prize-winning Zinfandels, a new star has risen that is proving to be just as dazzling. It is the Dutton Ranch Pinot Noir – vintage 2000 now in release. This particular vintage is a blend of grapes from two of the famous Russian River Valley vineyards owned and farmed by the Dutton family, and winemaker Christina Pallmann says that this wine makes a “powerfully explosive statement, with its strawberry, sour cherry, cinnamon and vanilla mix of aromas and flavors.”
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Since 1971 the two Geyserville wineries, Geyser Peak and Canyon Road (formerly Nervo Winery) have been under a single ownership, although that owner has changed several times over the years. Today these charming sister wineries are owned and operated by Jim Beam Brands Co. Pretty much at the helm is executive vice president Daryl Groom who is also a member of the quartet of winemakers who guide spectacular grapes through their evolution into elegant wines. The other three winemakers are vice president Mick Schroeter, Ondine Chattan and Chris Munsell.
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