Tips for the perfect wine tasting

A while ago I wrote about the impossibility of structured wine tastings: how the bold and more alcoholic examples overpower the subtler ones by the end.

But they're also tremendous fun, especially when you organise your own.

Not to mention a subsidised way to drink some decent wine.

Here's how to do it.

Favourite things, May 2012

• The American Ballet Theater's La Bayadère at the Lincoln Center. The red velvet-lined Metropolitan Opera House is just the place to sip a $19 flute of champagne whilst eyeing off NYC's bourgeoisie at the Grand Tier restaurant.

• Eataly. For the joy of standing in a marble hall, nibbling on Parma ham and parmiagiano with a chilled glass of rosé. For their lattes as good as those in Sydney, and divine apple tartlets. For their perfect pasta and jaw-dropping grocery aisles.

• Zainab Salbi's memoir, Between Two Worlds
• Mad Men season 5 - every episode is increasingly explosive. Season finale next week.   
• Launching a website for the ICIJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists) (www.icij.org) and a new digital product, the Global Muckraker (www.icij.org/blog) 
• Watching this video of my Sydney yoga teacher Susanna cycling through my beautiful home city:
• Jouer lip enhancer - no sting, and a pretty, sheer veil of pink.
• Algenist regenerative anti-aging moisturizer - finally, an effective anti-aging product.