By Patrick Hunt – In the Engadine Valley of Switzerland’s Graubunden Canton below the Alps, the town of St. Moritz and villages like Sils alongside Lake Silvaplana and Lake Sils are justifiably renowned since Celtic and Roman times for Roman stone roads sloping down the mountains to mineral springs, and […]
By Patrick Hunt – One of the oldest and respected domaines in Alsace, already known for some of the oldest continuing wineries in the world, is Domaine Albert Seltz in Mittelbergheim from 1576, with fourteen generations of wine production for highly sought-after wines. The current patriarch Albert took over from […]
By Patrick Hunt – Everyone knows Veuve Cliquot Champagne – now in the prestigious LVMH Group – and most know the story of Nicole Barbe Ponsardin, daughter of Baron Nicholas Ponsardin, who founded this grand maison champagne in the 19th century as both a visionary pioneer who helped put champagne […]
This lake exceeds anything I ever beheld in beauty. Shelley “When you write the story of two happy lovers, let the story be set on the banks of Lake Como.” Franz Liszt By Patrick Hunt – For millennia Lake Como in the foothills of the Italian Alps has offered so […]
By Patrizia Passerini – A land surrounded by woods and hills, composed of vineyards and lush fruit trees, overlooked by beautiful and imposing castles, embellished by ancient churches. It’s Roero, in the heart of the Piedmont wine region, in northern Italy. Roero is situated between Langhe and Monferrato, in the […]
        View up Riquewihr’s central street, Rue de General de Gaulle (Photo P. Hunt 2016) By Patrick Hunt - Those who love the best of Alsace know that although it is now part of France, it has been fought over though history, involuntarily […]
Vosne-Romanée  (Photo P. Hunt, 2015) By Patrick Hunt - Vosne-Romanée may be known to many connoisseurs as the most exclusive wine village not only in the Côte-d’Or and perhaps all of Burgundy, but it is even more valuable historically as its name preserves its distant past. The Romans were indeed […]
By Catherine Clover – “Remember gentlemen, it’s not just France we are fighting for, it’s champagne!†_Winston Churchill, WWII As the year 2014 comes to a close, it is a most fitting time to reflect upon the year in review and prepare resolutions for the year ahead. After meeting […]
By Patrick Hunt How many wines can compete with the renown of Burgundy for Pinot Noir?  To many, Maienfeld in the Canton of Graubunden in Switzerland is famous as the setting for Johanna Spyri’s 1880 novel of Heidi, so this lovely and picturesque part of the Rhine Valley has even […]
By Patrick Hunt – Chocolate is perhaps one of the most intriguing foods in history, prized for thousands of years and now a global passion. Possibly originating in the understory Amazon rain forest, the small tree sought out by monkeys and other animals has produced a substance that has become […]