Food Memoir
The P.J. Clarke's Wine Book
Fall 2026
Aside from big, gaudy, known, show-offy named bottles, Washington, DC is not much of a wine town. But it should be. Only California can match what can happen in Washington - restaurants and bars can import directly from overseas. What an American thing it is to jump over the middleman, especially in the red-and-gray tape, over-regulated wine industry.
The P.J. Clarke's Wine Book tracks 3-4 bottle choices - reserved in advance, per year. It indicates a commitment to one's neighborhood place, and advertises and reserves future joys to come. Putting one's public wine decisions in book form is a kind of civic and social faith, presenting a chartable diary of desire, beauty, and consolation.
Food Memoir
The Life Book of Wine
Fall 2026
A life of wine, a life in wine, is more than just bottles, more than just the sum of its parts. In a designated, pre-ordained planning of beauty, it creates a wide net of consolation and excitement, opportunity and beauty. But beautiful, tender moments must be arranged in advance, and they require patterns, collaboration, trade, even faith to see it through.
Takoma/Cleveland Park is partnering with our friends at Calvert Woodley in our lifelong journey of wine. Our first capsule year begins with three people, and over the next four years, we will grow it to 40 people. We believe this effort can serve as a model - close, intimate, local, investing in a slower, more intentional, more deliberate way of life, and producing a yearly record of all that happened.
For more information, email wine@takoma.us or click here.