Portugal

He's been named as one of the “fifty most influential people in the wine world" by Decanter Magazine. The company he founded was nominated "Importer of the Year for 2005" by Wine Enthusiast. Prior to launching his own firm, he worked for a "Who's Who" list of the world's elite wine establishments with names like Harrod’s, Harvey’s Fine Wine Merchants, and Christie’s in London, the Rothbury Estate and Yalumba Winery in Australia, Hennessy and L’Academie du Vin in France, and Schenley in Canada, gracing his resumé. His work in Canada even resulted in the Canadian press labeling him the "Wayne Gretzky of Wine". He's widely considered to be one of the world’s foremost authorities on Port and Madeira. He's also credited for the growth of North American Port consumption during the mid 1980’s and was responsible for the re-introduction of Madeira to North America in 1989.

Any regular readers of this column know that my wife, Emily, is pregnant with our first child. Upon hearing this news in June, I promptly began preparing to lay down a case of wine to enjoy with my unborn son 25 years down the road. Two months ago, I wrote about the process of aging wine – how to select it, where to store it, when to drink it, and so forth. Last month I delved into the all-important question of which wines are worth aging by cataloguing five of the wine categories that made their way into the mixed case I put together. This column finishes that project by reporting on the four remaining categories of wine I’ve chosen for my son’s case. In so doing, hopefully I’ll lend some help to others who are searching for wines to put away for a special occasion.

Something about August makes summer’s days feel numbered, though here in California the hot weather often lasts all through October. The combination of the back-to-school buzz and department stores’ jump-start on fall fashions gives you the sense that summer is already a thing of the past. And while I’m a big fan of autumn’s allure, there’s also much to be said for enjoying the radiance and candor of a summer day. And what better way to complement the delicious spirit of waning summer than with a picnic and a cold bottle of Vinho Verde?