This is part two of an ongoing series related to direct-to-consumer wine shipping. If you are in the least interested in wine, especially wine that you read about but can't find in your local wine shop, this information should be interesting -- or at least important -- to you. You can read part one, which dealt with the three-tier system, here.

Every Saturday morning I make the trip out of the city to Russos to buy fresh produce. I wish I could say that I go there for the inexpensiveve fruit and veges, the great Italian deli, the freshly baked bread, or the selection of imported olive oil. And I can say this, because it's true. But the real reason why I drive out of the city to shop instead of finding a more convenient place in the city is to visit Mark, the head cheese guy at the front of the cheese counter.

Mark is passionate about his cheese. Every week I show up, and even when he's busy, he invites me over. "Hey, I got something really cool in, you gotta try this," he'll say.

Continuing my wine pairing education, I attempted to do the (near) impossible by cooking a spicy Asian seafood dish and pairing it successfully with a wine of my choosing.

I am happy to admit that I failed miserably.

Buon giorno! (or buona sera, depending on when you're reading this.) Another month, another wine tasting over the Tubes. This month's tasting, brought to us by good Dr. Vino, focuses on indigenous grape varieties, grown on their native soil.  We're talking about grapes that are not "The Big Six" -- Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Riesling, and Sauvignon Blanc. We're talking ancient wines from ancient places.

Since my wine class is over, I've been attempting to use my newfound "expertise" by pairing my weekday meals with wine based on what I know.  I've successfully paired several meals lately, but those meals have primarily been classics: California Cabernet with steak, Chablis with shellfish. I wanted to try pairing wine to notoriously difficult to pair cuisine: Thai food.

This is part one of an ongoing series related to direct-to-consumer wine shipping. If you are in the least interested in wine, especially wine that you read about but can't find in your local wine shop, this information should be interesting -- or at least important -- to you.

The first book on liquor I ever owned was called "The World Guide to Single Malt Scotch," by the Michael Jackson. I always found it funny that this man, who shares his name with arguably the strangest public figure ever, wrote eloquently and passionately about scotch, which is as complicated a beverage as there is.  Jackson (the writer, not the singer) made his name writing not about whisky, but about beer. It was sad for me to hear that Michael Jackson passed away at his home in West London. He was 65.

The Labor Day weekend is upon us, and during it I will be catching up on a bit of R&R out in woodsy Deerfield, MA -- a town that never fails to remind me of the New England Lake Wobegon, where the men are strong, the women are good-looking and all the children are above average. I plan on finishing up the latest New Yorker, the last two issues of The Economist, and several good books.

As an epilogue to my thoughts on Robert Parker and the subjectivity of his ratings system, check out Rockss and Fruit's blog post rating various popular culture icons using Parker's 100-point system. Paris Hilton gets a 50, just for being human. I'm not sure I would give her even that much credit. It just goes to show that there is no accounting for taste.

I just finished reading The Emperor of Wine, Elin McCoy's interesting biography of Robert Parker, published in 2005. It's a very interesting story, and a very American one at that.

Parker came from a middle-class family in a middle-class town, with middle-class values and middle-class ideals. He married up, got a working-stiff job, and willed his way, over the course of a decade or so, into being the single most influential wine critic since the stuff was founded in Mesopotamia.