On a recent archaeology trip to Iraqi Kurdistan, I fell in love… with tamarind! So why did I never encounter tamarind during my 15 years working in Syria? The pulp of the tamarind fruit manages to have an earthy soul, with a delicate, floral aura,…
I love my jobs – that doesn’t mean I love every minute of each workday, but I’m pretty thrilled with both archaeology and the wine and food business. So, that makes it all the better to be able to put them together. This is a…
I’ll soon be heading back to one of my favorite areas of Italy: the Maremma. It is a beautiful part of Tuscany, including a large portion that borders the Tyrrhenian Sea. As always, I’ll be working in Ansedonia at the ancient Roman site of Cosa….
Tbilisi has an amazingly (to me) large number of wine bars and shops. It seemed there was at least one on nearly every block. With only a few, short days to sample them, I clearly didn’t visit them all. Nonetheless, I came home with some…
My very first introduction to Georgian wine was via the Finger Lakes; 6 or 7 years ago, I tasted Dr. K Frank’s 2008 Rkatsiteli and absolutely fell in love. As a result, I sought the grape from other producers. That led me to Chateau Mukhrani,…
As part of my summer travels for work, I found myself in Italy for 3 weeks. Of course I had fantastic wine and fabulous food, but I also decided to count how many cities in which I drank an Aperol Spritz. It almost needs no…
Give me your outlandish, eccentric, and bizarre. When I travel, that is what I want. The Schönbrunn Gardens in Vienna are beautiful, yes, but so are the Longwood Gardens — just over 50 kilometers away from my home in Philly. Instead, give me Bomarzo and its Parco…
There is a whole heck of a lot of good wine being made in California; so much so that it is difficult to narrow the field down to just 5 wines — as required for the tastings I conduct at Jet Wine Bar. Fortunately, there all sorts…
Archaeology is a fascinating field that makes for a wonderful career. We uncover the material worlds of people to whom no modern links may exist. We ponder questions of their existence, interactions, and cultures. My archaeological work has taken me to live in Syria, Turkey, Iraq,…
The mythical Hercules – seeking penitence for some very bad deeds – was tasked with 12 labors by King Eurystheus. Accomplishment of these tasks took our hero across the known world, passing through or leading to many great wine regions. Where did he go? And…