Some people count out-of-state license plates on car trips, I enumerate abandoned houses. 
You're listening to W-R-I-T 
You don't have to be perfect for me to love you.
I notice
2009 is a year that a lot of givens will change to possibilities. It is possible that we will continue to eat out a couple of times a week/month/day, but it's likely more entertaining will be done at home. My new column, Bee Box, is dedicated' [...] 
Caught "Sunday Morning" today and noticed that Mickey Rourke is playing "Dog the Bounty Hunter" opposite a forever-typecast Miss Piggy as his wife. Confession: I spent Christmas Eve watching the Dog, dressed in the vest and pants Travolta wore in "Saturday Night Fever" (no shirt), [...] 
Which Richmond restaurants go short on profit margins? How much is wine marked-up on area lists? find out here [...] 
in Nolita, NYC
It's officially brown -drink season in Richmond, Va. It's snowing spidery, first-of-the-winter flakes that dissolve into the weekend. The kind of snowflakes that hit warm cheeks and slide under scarfs and into the warm divot of your neck. These are brown-drink snowflakes. 
Pomegranate tree in Williamsburg,Va, late September
Todd you are one funny man. Martha Stewart (MS for short) and Snoop Dog and cognac mashed potatoes. Wish I'd opened this last week.' [...] 
Occasionally, these thoughts have crossed my mind: What happened to Coolio? What about that "Gangster's Paradise" video with Michelle Pfeiffer, was that cut'N'paste from a Movie-of-the-Week? What-Is-Coolio-doing-now? 
The port of Setubal
Fruity and easy drinkin' from a DOC near Gattinara--an area that used to be the bargain basement for the nebbiolo grape, now nearly cheek-to jowl with Barbaresco and Barolo in price--this wine sees no oak and attains a modest alcohol percentage of 12.5. The wine is [...] 
Last night I attended the 20th Anniversary celebration of the Virginia Wine Industry held at the VA. capitol--designed by good ol' TJ-- and wondered why Richmond doesn't support Virginia wine as well as the structure was supporting all of us. The neoclassical rotunda was filled with [...] 
I'm fond of this picture of a government official demonstrating how to [...] 
The menu for a wine dinner is birthed one of three ways:
I am hosting a Wine Century Club tasting along with the folks at The European Market the first Friday in September. The concept of the tasting is simple. We will drink unusual grape varietals in hopes of attaining centurion status. As far as status [...] 
For an extravagantly thoughtful gift, consider a birth-year, or coming-of-age riesling.Currently available are back vintages from Rudi Wiest. They can be had for little more than a fifty, a pittance when one considers how much a Bordeaux or Burgundy in the same graduating class would cost. [...] 
Restaurant Eve in Washington is well-known for its food, its wine list and its Cocktail King, Todd Thrasher. Thrasher makes his own tonic, bitters and and a mean martini garnished with these guys. Who does this in Richmond, VA? [...] 
"Clos Nardian is the product of a wager between our Consulting Oenologue, Gilles Pauquet, who consults also to Ch. Cheval Blanc, Ch. Figeac and Ch Canon, and ourselves that a low cropped white would see similar benefits to a red wine. The first wine was produced [...] 
Dominic, Happy Birthday. I don't think you liked the cremant we toasted with, next time I'll make it Bordeaux. (Bordeaux is better with chocolate cake.)
A former employer once described Chateau Suduiraut, the 1er cru Sauternes adjoining Yquem, as LPR, "liquid panty remover", because it's a "wine that works". A wine bartender I know swears by Cakebread Chardonnay and candle light when his bar is full of the opposite sex. For [...] 
I had the priviledge of tasting everything made by McCrea vineyards yesterday. All the wines but one were exceptional. The syrahs, well, they were heartbreakers. Almost every wine would retail for about $50. After tasting so many outstanding, and expensive wines, my thoughts circle around [...] 
What is attractive about "The Elements of Cooking" by Michael Ruhlman isn't the author's Top-Chef status nor his butch meets metro-functional kitchen, but the color orange. The cover of the book is tangelo and I am cuckoo for this shade of orange. While I appreciate [...] 
January is the hottest month in Mendoza. Febuary is the wettest. Somewhere between the hottest and the wettest is the harvest. Picking the right moment, the right balance is tenuous--'sometime too hot the eye of heaven shine"--and the resulting pinot grigio is flabbier than Bea [...] 
