Month: June 2026

In the wine trade we celebrated Randal Grahm who was known as the Rhone Ranger in California. Well, Itay Lahat is Israel’s very own Rhone Ranger! His Lahat Winery has become a pioneer of Rhone varieties and Rhone style blends.

Many wine articles focus on matching wines to individual dishes. It is not that practical, because in real life, we tend to choose wines for a meal, and not for every course. For the first part of my professional career, I was involved with restaurants and hotels in the world of wine education, sommeliers and wine waiters. Matching wine to food was an intricate, fun and pretentious sport. All wine professionals did it. Often, we had to match wines to every course of a banquet. That was fun! To do this successfully, one would need to know the ingredients, cooking procedure and dominant features of each dish on the menu, and also be able to deconstruct the various aspects of the wines. The challenge of finding a match is to elevate both the wine and the food. When you get it right, both will taste better. It is a case of 1+1=3! The Sommelier Derek Todd has said “There is a magic space in that distance between the food and the wine. The ideal match fills in that space.”