By Andy Abramson Yesterday, the Santa Barbara Vintners Road Trip stormed Los Angeles for a trade tasting that was a chance to meet, taste and talk about the wines they are producing and selling this year. Usual suspects Margerum, Qupe, Hitching Post/Hartley – Ostini, Andrew Murray, Brander, Foxen and Ampelos were all there, as was … Read more
MAY 15 – ISSUE #83 Could Y Combinator’s Sam Altman be in the running for Governor of California? As a state which has seen actors ascend to the top spot at least twice, don’t rule it out….Telco operation 8×8 adds more Reguslocations around the world…Lyft plays let’s make a deal…Those stories … Read more
Last night the "Weekend Flight Club" gathered for some home made Indian food and wine. The evening started off with two really tasty Rose wines, as May for me, is when you start to dig into Rose and enjoy them for as long as you can. Up first was the stunning 2016 Domaine du Mourchon … Read more
TechCrunch broke the news on what I'm going to name, "ALEXA CALLING" a new feature from Amazon for the Echo line of digital assistants. Now a few hours later the service is up and running. Clearly, it's a first generation service, and in many ways it's nothing new, just Novel. Right now the service is … Read more
Often friends and readers will catch mention of the phrase, "the joys of a deep cellar." Nothing could be more true than last nights two bottle dinner wines, the 2006 Dehlinger Sonoma County Chardonnay and the 2007 Grand Veneur Vieilles Vignes Chateauneuf du Pape. In the case of the Chardonnay, a wine I drink less of … Read more
I originally wrote and posted this over on the Xceptional blog. In thinking about it, I decided that the VoIPWatch audience should see it to. After having GoogleFi on my Google Pixel for a few months, I finally got to use the service outside the United States on an extended three-week trip to the UK, … Read more
Maybe Donald Trump is right about bringing jobs back home. Let me compare two experiences I recently had with British Air under the exact same scenario. My flight to Marseille from LAX was on two separate record locators. In the past all that took to correct was a call to BA’s executive club desk and … Read more
This is one of the most controversial tech subjects I know of. VoIP on airplanes. A recent survey in the APAC region shows that 42 percent of the travelers there would like to see VoIP calling allowed in-flight. That's 2 out of every five traveler who want to be able to make a call from … Read more
Michel Smith started his career as a journalist in Paris and began to write about wine. His well storied career has led to his being one of the leading proponents of wines from both the Languedoc and Roussillion regions, and unquestionably is one of the most well informed and witty wine and food writer/critics around. … Read more
It has been a long time since I did a deep dive into any one wine region. Back in the day I would spend a week or more going from village to village tasting many different producers. Other times it would be at massive wine events like Vinisud and Decouvertes du Rhone where I had … Read more
