Tim Gaiser MS

I’m finishing up this post while on a plane to Portland, Oregon. Tomorrow, I’ll help adjudicate the annual Master Sommelier Diploma theory examination for dozens of candidates from the U.S., Canada, and beyond. It’s an oral examination comprising over 75 difficult questions about wine, spirits, and more. For some students, especially those who didn’t spend a lot of time a...

Eons ago, at my last restaurant gig, one of the investors regularly came in with his wife to have dinner. We’ll call him Carl. Carl owned a construction company that did commercial work all over the Bay Area. To say that Carl was successful is a major understatement. He also loved wine and had a good palate with the cellar to match. More often than not, he brought an old ...

Last night at dinner, I told Carla that I was considering having a dead bottle party. Her response was something along the lines of “what?” So I had to explain the concept. But even before I could do that, I had to provide some background.

To begin, there’s an innate curiosity that children seem to have in sharing anything food or beverage-wise ...