USA Today City Guides Feature Philly Museums, NYC Chestnuts

USA Today the newspaper also prints newstand publications including major city travel guides. The two guides just stocked on the stands each has an article by me - one about Philadelphia's wealth of small museums, another about an old chestnut - roasted chestnuts dispensed by Manhattan street vendors.

Two Features in Latest Drinks

Here are the opening pages of my two articles in the Winter 2014 edition of Drinks magazine.

In Go Escape: Beach Resorts Cover

Now on newstands - the winter 2014 issue of Go/Escape, USA Today's glossy travel mag, with my cover article on 7 dream beach resorts in the Caribbean, the U.S., and Mexico. On the cover - Peter Island. Others in the 8-page spread are Jade Mountain, Little Palm Island, Maroma, Eden Rock/St. Barths, Casa Ybel and Four Seasons Hualalai.

Brandywine Book of The Seasons: Perfect Holiday & Visitor Present

It's here! The Brandywine Book of the Seasons! In time for the holidays, we've stocked all our partner shops, museums, wineries and stores with our book about Brandywine's regional chefs, artisan food and wine producers and just plain foodies with 45 illustrated recipes. The book is glossy stock with full color photos and illustrations on every page. Buy them at these places which accept money (no euros or bitcoins, please!): Centreville Cafe, Bakers at Doe Run, Longwood Gardens, Talula's Table and Talula's Daily (Philadelphia), 9th Street Books, Chester County Books, Winterthur Museum & Gardens, Brandywine River Museum, Hagley Museum, Apropos, The Mushroom Cap, Va La Vineyards, Fairville Inn, Willowdale Shop, Capers & Lemons, Twelves, Harvest Market, The Kitchen Sink. If you don't live near any of these shops, send us an e-mail at londonbritain@msn.com for shopping by mail info.

New 'The Daily Meal' Slide Show: Golden Wine in the Venice Lagoon

I have a new slide show posted to The Daily Meal on the Venissa estate in the Venice Lagoon where the Bisol family has resurrected a golden, ancient grape - Dorona - and is making delicious wine from it. And Venissa is a great launching pad with its quiet guest house and elegant restaurant if you are exploring Venice. More at http://www.thedailymeal.com/golden-wine-forgotten-grape-island-near-venice/110513

In the Writer's Yearbook 2014: Grow Your Freelance Business

The Writer's Yearbook 2014 is now on newsstands with my article containing ideas on how independent writers can better grow their business. Here's the opening page:

A Drinker's Notebook #12: Cortaccia's Stations of the Glass

The mountains of Alto Adige around Bolzano produce some of the prettiest scenery and best wines in the world. Cortaccia winery, a top-quality co-op, invited me to participate in one of its programs that makes the best of both. One day each month, they invite customers from near and far to take a somewhat scary ride to the top of a prominent escarpment and drink their way down, guided through vineyards and on trails to drink four different wines beside the vineyards where the grapes for each wine were grown. They are accompanied by someone from the winery who carries the bottles in his backpack, in my case wine expert Michael Anrather. "Where we are starting, at about 850 meters in the village of Graun, we had snow last week," Anrather tells me as we drive up mountain tracks. As with most wine trails in Alto Adige - also called the Sud Tirol, there are stations of the cross leading the faithful through the mountains to ancient churches in the highland villages. In our case, I think, we are enjoying stations of the glass - the first one a Muller-Thurgau grown at Graun. Anrather pauses for a view from above the filtering clouds. By the time we get to the second station of the glass, we have descended through a cleft in the cliffs and are at the small village of Hofstatt, where Anrather tests the wine - a 2012 Hofstatt Weissburgunder or Pinot Bianco - while we read the sign that tells its origin. It is delicious, with lots of chalk and acidity to balance the floral and creamy notes and the crisp-apple fruitiness. It is by far the best wine I have ever tasted while taking a arduous, if downhill, hike. Anrather recorks the bottle, and we are ready to move on - still high above the valley floor and two more stations to go.