Let's raise our glasses to our dreams

Whenever I get the chance, I try to visit my parents in New Jersey. It gives me a solid batch of hours to enjoy the comfort of the house I grew up in, allowing me to reconnect with my family and lineage. It is also at home where I enjoy the fine and enjoyable bottles my father stores in his cellar. A cellar legendary to colleagues and fellow enthusiasts. It is early May, and the tulips have long gone, as are the late harvest cherry blossoms of Chapel Avenue. Cherry Hill, New Jersey is finally starting to warm up, in time for people to slow down on the red wine and enjoy the comfort crisp whites have to offer when outdoors.

South Jersey is also where some of my fondest memories involving wine stem from. My mother and I will stand in front of the refridgerator and look at pictures of my nieces; growing and becoming prettier with each new photo, over unoaked chardonnay from Burgundy. Or I am seated opposite my father in our living room, discussing (often critiquing) the Philadelphia Eagles or Flyers, or inquiring into how my cousins are in the Philippines, after he comes home from one of his business trips. If I'm lucky, we'll be sipping a gran reserva from Rioja as we talk. But I'd still consider myself extrodinarily forunate even if we're drinking a delightful inexpensive pinot blanc from Washington State. Wine, as I will repeat over and over, is meant to accentuate whatever experience you're undergoing. And there will be many examples to come.

Today I live in New York City, the Wine Capital of the World. New York has a healthy plethora of wine shops, boutique and mass volume, as well as one of the biggest dining scenes the world has seen. When I was 18 and getting prepared to graduate high school, I worked in a wine shop in South Jersey. I decided then that for the rest of my life, I wanted to work with Wine. New York City provides me with plenty opportunities to continue learning the whole field that is wine, and continue my education. This all accumulates to the creation of this blog, named after my great grandfather.

This blog is dedicated to my father. For without him, I have no true aspiration to rise to become a man worthy of proper admiration. He was my first and greatest instructor of wine, and I shall pass on what I have learned from him to my friends and viewers.