'President Francois Hollande has many notale differences from his predecessor. But the one that most concerns us: he actually likes wine. So it may come as somewhat of a surprise that he is trimming the presidential wine cellar, putting 1,200 bottles–about 10 percent of the stash–on the block. Estephe? Burghound? MORE >>

'Finger Lakes wines, particularly Rieslings, have gotten a lot of recent attention. So I thought I would check in with them for a piece currently on wine-searcher.com. One wine that came up repeatedly was the Ravines Dry Riesling (as well as their Argentsinger Vineyard one). picked up two bottles of the 2012 for $14.99 All hands went up. MORE >>

'Can''t believe it''s already May and another International wine day is coming up soon. On May 9th we will be celebrating Albariño Day. It does pose a question as to "do we have too many wine days?" So far this year, we had a Cab Franc day and a few weeks ago we celebrated Malbec Day. Also coming up on May 23rd is National Chardonnay day. MORE >>

'A celebrity in Bordeaux and throughout the wine world, Professor Denis Dubourdieu has been Professor of Oenology at the University of Bordeaux since 1987. Each year at En Primeur, he gives a welcome talk to journalists and members of the trade about the previous vintage. They will pay a key role in the final blend. MORE >>

'Thanks again to you all for your thoughtful recommendations. General impressions? From the very small sample I experienced, SF chefs are clearly concerned with the freshest and most seasonal of produce, and they clearly have access to high quality material. Seafood was uniformly excellent. Service was uniformly friendly and competent. begin. MORE >>