I love creating special moments for close friends. For these special gatherings I sometimes spends hours getting the aura and occasion just right.

Whenever I can I cook and love to serve my own wine to accompany meals. I believe La Tache is the best wine ever created on earth. It is an elegant and complex wine with a huge long finish which changes every minute.

I am also a great fan of Burgundy and collected over 60,000 bottles of wine.

I started collecting wines at 17 inspired by my father who shared the first glass of wine with me.

Drinking wine was never an issue in my family – my father always encouraged me to drink openly in front of him.

My wine journey started with Heights and Harlem Phelps and then I looked at delicious and beautiful Cabernets, Merlots, Cab Franc and blends.

Then I moved to Italy to discover the Sangiovese grape as well as Gaja. This was followed by Bordeaux where I discovered unforgettable 82 chapeau Blanc. Subsequently I got into old wines such as Petrus, le Pin, Left Bank and Bordeaux lower and discovered the Rhone Valley southern and northern.

I was only the third American to be knighted for my love of Burgundy wine by Fraternity of Knights of the Wine-Tasters’ Cup (Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin)