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Why Wine Connections?

First of all, welcome to my now revamped website. My name is Panos Kakaviatos and I love to drink wine. Since the past 10 years, I have been seriously writing about it, and since 2004, I have also organised wine dinners around the world in top hotel restaurants, from the Hyatt in Dubai for Château Mouton Rothschild in November 2008 to The Jefferson in Washington D.C. for Château Palmer in January 2010.  If you clicked on the preceding link, you will see that I have started also to create video reports which will become an ever more important part of this website. Later on, I will create winery pages, to feature many Bordeaux châteaux but also estates in Burgundy, the Rhone, Champagne, Alsace and other wine regions. It is all about making connections and my anecdote from February 2008 during a special wine event in London remains relevant. I tasted a 1986 Mouton Rothschild – an $800 bottle of wine – as part of a vertical. Several times. Before the event started, to check each of the 12 bottles to be poured for possible defects and during the tasting, when I eagerly drank, not just sipped and spat. The tasting also featured other fine vintages of this great Bordeaux estate, some as expensive, including the already legendary 2005 and 2000, the popular 2003, a racy 1996 from magnum and a meaty and savory 1989. My connection was Decanter Magazine, which organized the event, and for which I occasionally write articles. But anyone could have attended. As I wine lover, I’ll take any connections that come my way, also for wines far less expensive – wines which I can afford with excellent quality-to-price ratios. Wines I will share with you in these pages. Thanks to my experience traveling and tasting, I have established many a wine connection to get you the wine tips you want: from finding that perfect fine wine dinner with the winemaker at a luxurious hotel restaurant to accessing hundreds of pages of copious wine tasting notes, free on this website.

Partly because of the proven health benefits when enjoyed in moderation, partly because it’s a wonderful way to pass the time with friends over a fine meal, wine increasingly fascinates consumers the world over. Cruise ships hire sommeliers – a job I am considering – and wine bars sprout like so many autumn mushrooms from Austin, Texas to Strasbourg, France. New markets in Russia, China and India to take three prominent examples ratchet up prices for popular brands, much to the dismay of many a consumer including your humble servant. And with so many wines being made worldwide – I recently tasted a Chinese wine that resembled a decent Bordeaux blend – choosing wine at stores and restaurants will become an ever more daunting affair. I hope I can help you.