While a student in London in the 1950s, Gerald Asher took a part-time job in a wine shop near Piccadilly, a small step that put him on the path to his vocation in life. He was wine editor of Gourmet for 30 years and continues to recommend wines for the magazine’s monthly menus. He has been honored for his writing and work in the international wine trade by the New York Wine and Food Society, the Northern California chapter of the American Institute of Wine and Food, the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade, the James Beard Foundation, and Wines and Vines, among many others. In 1974, the French government awarded him the Order of the Mérite Agricole, France’s oldest Civil Award, and in 2009 he will be inducted into California’s Vintners’ Hall of Fame. His books, drawn mainly from his Gourmet writing, include On Wine, Wine Journal, Vineyard Tales, and The Pleasures of Wine.
