Please join me in welcoming Peter Conway as the newest member of the New York Cork Report’s correspondent team.  Since 2005 he has written the wine and food pairing blog, Mano a Vino. I met Peter at the North American Wine Bloggers Conference in Charlottesville, VA several years ago.

Peter recently moved to the Hudson Valley, in Garrison, NY with his wife Diana Polack, after raising their two children in Montclair, NJ over 27 the last years.

Peter tells me that his passion for wine was ignited in 1979 when he happened upon a spectacular wine in a tiny Florida Gulf Coast wine store. He was looking for something to sip on the beach with some bread and cheese and saw a recommendation by the “Wine Guild” an association he had recently joined. It was a Graves — what kind of grape is that? — he wondered. Well the sunset and the wine were perfect and inspired an avid and potent interest in the juice beyond Blue Nun, Bolla Soave and straw basket Chianti.

Since then, living in and near New York City, and with many trips abroad to Italy, France, Australia, Argentina, Morocco and Canada, as well as many of the wine regions of the United States, he has had countless opportunities to explore and learn the vast world of fine wine.  Peter is also an accomplished home chef and is often found in the kitchen creating some new internationally inspired dish or waiting by the oven for a delicious dessert to emerge. He believes that great food is an essential part of a great wine experience.

His latest venture Hudson Valley Pleasures, a blog about Peter and Diana’s discoveries in their new home along the Hudson River is off to a great start and already gaining a significant following.

In addition to wining, dining and writing Peter hosts wine tastings for private parties and fund raising events. He is delighted to join the New York Cork Report team, or so he tells me.

Welcome, Peter!