Airplanes and Fine Wine
We live in confusing times. Simplicity does not seem to be a goal of any endeavor. And the more complicated the approach, it appears, the better the outcome. Or so it would seem. I am trying to avoid using…
Author: Tim McNally
Authenticity
Today’s word, students, is “authenticity.” It is one of my favorite answers to the question, “What makes New Orleans different and special when compared to other American towns?” Or “Why are we this way, and they are that way?”…
Mezcal Cocktail
October makes the perfect bookend on the without-end New Orleans festival calendar. While March gets the big celebration ball rolling in the spring, October, ending with Halloween, punts us into the end-of-the-year’s holiday season with plenty of forward momentum. The…
Adult Drinking Games
When most of us first started drinking, and in New Orleans that seems to have happened at a very early age, it was all about quantity. Many was the morning we awoke after not-enough sleep time to an ugly…
Not So Fast: Cool Cocktails For The Continuing Heat
It’s right about now that summer fatigue begins to set in and take hold. We’ve “tolerated” hot, humid weather now for over two months and we are ready for something a bit cooler. It’s’ not like we have much…
Let Your Tiki Flag Fly
In many ways, September may be the most difficult month in the New Orleans calendar. Money is spent on the children assuring a good back to school experience for them, rather than on vacations or festivals. The hot summer lingers…
Wine Confusion Squared
Many consumers would probably like to enjoy and understand wine. People who make wine seemed bent on making understanding as difficult as possible. There are all kinds of bottle shapes. Labels are not easily deciphered. Smelling and tasting seem…
Tales of Saving the Party!
Sometimes a festival, no matter how much fun they are to attend, is just a lot of drudge work for organizers. I am sorry to break your fairy tale impressions of how these massive and involved events unfold, but…
A Cool Martini
Of all the months of the year, August has the worst reputation. Other months are beastly hot, crazy humid, and even provide the settings for hurricanes. But August is the month that catches most of the grief for our discomfort…
Cocktail Condiments
The recent annual gathering of Tales of the Cocktail is finished, and the last hedonist has returned home. We are left with fine memories and new ideas. It happens this way every year, and when the final ice cube…
Wine Conflicted
All is not well in Wine Land. At the national level, consumption is statistically flat. Little or no sales growth. Prices are on the ascension, most not reverting to lower levels noted when the costs went up even when…
Best New Restaurants
Discussing food, cooking and restaurants is a part-time sport for New Orleanians. From breakfast to brunch, lunch to cocktail bites, dinner to late night eats and desserts, we’ve got a lot to talk about. Enjoy our selection of the best…
Flocktails Have Landed!
Of all the seasons of the year, summer is mentally the least serious. We don’t wear as many clothes. We seek refuge at the beach. Eat lighter and drink the same way, lighter. Anything overwhelming, like too much alcohol, or…
Simple Summer Cocktail Recipes
Easy construction? Obtainable ingredients? Speed to build? The portable party we know as summer presents its own set of challenges when it comes to creating a drink that satisfies. This time of year, tackling a build-your-own-cocktail project with too many…
Uniquely New Orleans: Daiquiris and Wine Series
Occasionally, I show evidence of a less-than-cordial personality streak. Yes, it’s true and I admit it. It can come out at times when I should be more respectful and gracious. One of those times can come whenever I meet…
Tulio
The old expression about the best meals served in our internationally respected restaurant town being served in people’s homes is absolutely correct. Every chef within shouting distance will credit their mothers and fathers for setting them on a winning path.…
Don’t Complicate the Cocktail
Looks like the corner, finally, has been turned. And not a moment too soon. We went through a period of ego and self-congratulations in the Cocktail World of the early 1990’s and into the new century where crazy drink…
Crescent City Cocktail Classics
Prior to the birth of the current cocktail era, which made a first appearance around 1985, no city on the planet could claim the birth of more styles of cocktails than New Orleans. Even now, those classic cocktails invented…
Overlooked and Under Appreciated
We know what we like. Basically, we are all born with a penchant for stuff we like and a disdain for stuff we don’t. Those in-bred preferences pretty much stay with us all of our breathing days. There are changes…
To Like, Perchance to Love
When you think about all of the wines and spirits you have enjoyed over the span of your life, there actually have been darn few that stick out in the memory bank. Something may still live on because of…
Soaking Up Education
The axiom we have all heard since we were 10 years old, or thereabouts, is that learning is a lifetime experience. It never ends. Those of us who have been present for the dawn and unfolding of the Digital Age…
A Drink with History
While other places struggle with definition and innovation, New Orleans revels in identification and rebirth. There is something quite satisfying about being recognized as the first and still the best. That can be applied to any number of culinary and…
A Life Lived in Clutter
How many festivals and new restaurants can you attend and patronize?
Next Up
A look ahead to St. Patrick's Day
Toast of the Town
This mash-up of the hands-down favorite Southern nut, a wildly popular spirit, and blasting out of Carnival traveling headlong into festival season defines where we all happily find ourselves this third month of the year. And don’t look so…
It’s Complicated
Please indulge me for just a bit today. I want to stretch beyond my usual editorial boundaries for this effort. Then afterwards I will bring thoughts to bear that are about adult beverages. To note that New Orleans is not…
King Cake Cocktails
If you are fortunate enough to live within a 100-mile radius of Jackson Square, you, no doubt, have multiple opportunities just about every day to enjoy a cherished and delicious Carnival custom, King Cake. The usual is still the…
King Cake
In February, the rest of America goes into its long winter’s nap with a one-day break for Presidents’ Day. In New Orleans, we will see you that break, and raise you the other 27 days. The entire second month of…
Yes, Try It!
There are a lot of folks out there, and you may be among them, who claim not to like cognac. And there may be a lot of reasons for why these folks (again, maybe you) don’t care for the…
Party On, NOLA!
Most places around the world have thrown in the towel. Christmas and New Year’s are now both in the rear-view mirror. But here, we did our best to give those two seasons their due, and now we go into…
Happy Hour
All there is to sip and savor in New Orleans
about
In New Orleans, when the subject is wine and spirits, it is very difficult to leave Tim McNally out of the discussion. He is considered one of the “go to” resources in the Crescent City for counsel and information about adult beverages and their place in the fabric of life in this great city.
Tim is the Wine and Spirits Editor, columnist and feature writer for New Orleans Magazine; the Wine and Spirits Editor and weekly columnist, Happy Hour, for www.MyNewOrleans.com; creator and editor of his own website, www.winetalknola.com; all in addition to his daily hosting duties on the radio program, The Dine, Wine and Spirits Show, on the air at WGSO – 990AM, every weekday, 3- 5 p.m, and streamed live on www.wgso.com.
Over the years, Tim has proved to be an informed interviewer, putting his guests at ease, and covering tactile and technical information so that even a novice can understand difficult agricultural and production concepts. Tim speaks with winemakers, wine and spirit ambassadors, distillers, authors, people who stage events and festivals, and takes questions from listeners and readers, all seamlessly blended together in a program that is unique in America.
Tim’s love of wine actually came about many years ago from his then wife-to-be, Brenda Maitland, a noted journalist in her own right, and together they have traveled to the major wine producing areas in the US and Europe, seeking first-hand information about beverages that give us all so much pleasure.
They were instrumental in the founding of the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience, a major national and international well-regarded festival of its type. They both continue to be involved with the planning and staging of this multi-venue, five-day event now over twenty years old.
Tim is also considered one of the foremost professional wine judges in the US, being invited to judge more than 11 wine competitions each year, including the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition (the largest competition of American wines in the world, with more than 6,000 entries), the Riverside, CA International Wine Competition, San Francisco International Wine Competition, Atlantic Seaboard Wine Competition, Indiana International Wine Competition, Sandestin, Florida Wine Festival Competition, the State of Michigan Wine Competition, the U.S. National Wine Competition, and the National Wine Competition of Portugal.
Tim is a guest lecturer to many local wine and dine organizations, and speaks each year to the senior class in the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management at Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama.
Staying abreast of the news of the wine and spirits world is a passion for Tim, and he is committed to sharing what he knows with his listeners and readers. “Doing something I love, with products that I truly enjoy, created by interesting people, coupling the experience with culinary excellence, and doing it all in the greatest city in America,” are the words Tim lives by.
It’s a good gig.
