Wine and Food

Grüß Gott, hello, and welcome!

Welcome to my modest blog about wine and food.

I enjoy good food and like to drink good wine. My friends do seem to take my restaurant recommendations most of the time, and they always ask me to choose the wine. So, I thought, why not share some impressions with a wider audience?

I live in Berlin, one of the most exciting cities for food. I am not a professional tester, sommelier or chef, so please do not expect reviews as you would find them in food journals or professional wine blogs. I work in a completely different field, but due to my job I need to travel a lot and so I get the chance to try out many interesting places and to taste a wide range of cuisines.

There are few professionals that I very much admire as chef Ana Ros (Hisa Franko), chef Marco Müller (Weinbar Rutz), the sommelier Billy Wagner (Nobelhart & Schmutzig), winemakers as Marco Fon (Vino Fon). Sitting down with them and spending some time talking is always very inspiring and informative. Aside from the ones I’ve just mentioned, I’ve also had the pleasure to meet many people who are entrepreneurs or authorities on food, wine, and fine dining, such as Peter Tsebelis who runs the impressive steak house Jacobs & Co in Toronto, and Joanna Dubrawska who is in charge of marketing and sales at the famous COS winery. They are trendsetters and of course there are thousands more that I don’t know.

Finally, and importantly, I am fortunate enough have some friends who like food and wine as much as I do. One of them I’d like to highlight here: Grant Hill. He is in the same business as I am: film, but he is also an excellent wine expert and generous friend. Without him, my life would be poorer in terms of experiencing rare and hard-to-find wines, in particular from the new world.

I do not follow any special plan or system in my the selection of wines or restaurants. Some of these reviews happen very spontaneously, sometimes I’m really eager to share an experience I’ve had — because the wine and food is very special, very good or once in a while even very bad.

The way I am writing is personal, subjective and sometimes political incorrect. I do not differentiate between cheap or very expensive places (It can be Vietnamese street food, an American Burger place, or the highest awarded Michelin cuisine), although you will not find a review of a wine which costs more than around €300 a bottle or a meal that costs more than €150. I honor wine-makers if they make great wine below €10 as much as I honor great food at an affordable place.

I am not a vegetarian or a dogmatic supporter of only organic wines for example. Everything that we eat and drink should simply have its own quality.

All that we consume is related to people. In the most cases, there are great personalities behind a great wine or a fantastic restaurant. In the end, this blog is about people!