Look Who’s Joined Nathan Chandler, DO Hospitalist 3001 W. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Tampa (813) 870-4933
L. Felipe Chavarriaga, MD Vascular and Endovascular Surgery 3003 W. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. 2nd floor Tampa (813) 554-8135
Derek Dillon, DO Family Medicine
Nicole Garbe, DO Family Medicine
1022 Main St. Suite M Dunedin (727) 733-7922
116 First St. N St. Petersburg (727) 895-5210
Liji George, MD Family Medicine
Chantel Jacobs, MD Family Medicine
1601 W. Timberlane Drive, Suite 300 Plant City (813) 754-4611
7751 Ninth St. Suite 10 St. Petersburg (727) 521-2424
If you’re a primary care physician or a specialist, we have exciting opportunities for you. Whether you’re a new or experienced physician, if you’re looking for a new professional home, consider BayCare Medical Group.
18-476070-0818
Amy Curry, DO General Surgery 2000 Osprey Blvd. Suite 205 Bartow (863) 733-4390
Beatriz GarciaPrieto, MD Internal Medicine 2250 Osprey Blvd. Suite 102 Bartow (863) 533-1448
Michael O. Kayatta, MD Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery 455 Pinellas St. Suite 320 Clearwater (727) 446-2273
BayCare Medical Group Luiz Marconcini, MD Hematology/ Oncology 3001 W. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Tampa (813) 321-6589
Leana Oppenheim, DO Neurology 1201 Fifth Ave. N. Suite 202 St. Petersburg (727) 820-7701
Alexis Powell, MD Vascular and Endovascular Surgery
Dannaly Reyes Baerga, MD, MSPT Neurology
3003 W. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. 2nd floor Tampa (813) 554-8135
1201 Fifth Ave. N. Suite 202 St. Petersburg (727) 820-7701
Carol T. Tran, MD Family Medicine
Ashley Wilk, DO Family Medicine
6801 Fourth St. N. St. Petersburg (727) 822-3238
17512 Dona Michelle Drive, Suite 5 Tampa (813) 586-7600
To learn about employment opportunities, visit BMGPhysicians.org or contact a recruiter at (813) 586-8154.
LaToya D. PattersonBranam, DO Hospitalist 6600 Madison St. 2nd floor New Port Richey (727) 815-7207
Kateryna Rusin, MD Internal Medicine 2250 Osprey Blvd. Suite 102 Bartow (863) 533-1448
Taylor Wolmer, DO Hospitalist 6600 Madison St. 2nd floor New Port Richey (727) 815-7207
Contents 6 8
8
Strategic Diligence of Physician Practice Mergers
12 14
Do You Know What You Are Being Paid For Treating Our Veterans?
Impact: Pushing Past the No 4
From the Publisher Feature Strategic Diligence of Physician Practice Mergers
12
Feature Do You Know What You Are Being Paid For Treating Our Veterans?
14
Impact Pushing Past the No
16
Feature 4 Tips to Beat the Heat in your Favorite Outdoor Spaces
20
Feature Sizzling Sips: Hottest Wines from South Africa
Advertisers BayCare Medical Group Cabana Spas The Florida Orchestra Long Ash Cigars JW Marriott The Meridian Club Opes Health PNC Bank Point Grace Rebuilt Food Jason Skeldon Artwork
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2 3 7 11 23 21 17 24 19 9 5
Sizzling Sips: Hottest Wines from South Africa Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
Issue 3, 2018
From the Publisher
www.doctorslifetampabay.com
W
elcome to Doctor’s Life Magazine! We appreciate your readership and continued support. DLM has been in circulation since 2008. Our goal has always been to provide Tampa Bay physician’s content focused on the current medical news but primarily cover areas targeted on business, legal and lifestyle. Each issue of Doctor's Life Magazine contains a wide array of relevant information for physicians in and out of their practice. DLM publishes articles that highlight leading physicians, a variety of medical, business and legal topics with a focus on lifestyle content for after the white jacket is hung up for the day. Our issues are filled with topics in Wealth Management, Real Estate, Travel, Fitness, Food and Wine, and other areas that promote life outside of the practice.
TAMPA BAY
™
Published by
We are always striving to be better and to stay current on the trends. Our contributors continually search for topics, solutions, and areas of interest in lifestyle to provide articles that are relevant to our readership. The DLM success has been based on our readership feedback which assists our staff in the development of our future content direction. DLM would love your input, suggestions or ideas regarding articles of interest.
Tampa Headquarters 1208 East Kennedy Blvd. Tampa Fl, 33602 813-867-0916 Group Publisher Ed Suyak publisher@doctorslifetampabay.com
If you would like to become a contributor or receive a media kit for advertising rates, please contact our office by email or phone: (813) 867-0916 or publisher@mashedmediagroup.com.
Creative Director Rob Stainback Editorial Director Danielle Topper
Be well,
-Ed
Associate Publisher CJ Cooper Advertising Account Executive Ryan O’Neil
Ed Suyak Group Publisher publisher@doctorslifetampabay.com
Contributing Writers Nick Hernandez Melanie Hicks, PhD Michele Krohn Marilyn M. Singleton, M.D. Rochelle Glassman Doctor’s Life Magazine’s mission is to provide physicians content and information that may assist in creating a better professional and leisure life. Our focus is to provide articles that can help to better your practice and your lifestyle outside of the white coat. We want to be your source for inspiration and content on living a good life. Doctor’s Life Magazine wants to know about extraordinary physicians and staff, upcoming events, and article ideas or contributors. Please email us if you have an event, idea or know of a doctor making a big difference. We want your suggestions and feedback. For all comments, ideas, advertising inquires or to request a media kit contact publisher@doctorslifetampabay.com. Doctor’s Life Magazine, Tampa Bay does not assume responsibility for advertisements or articles published, nor any representation made therein, nor the quality or deliverability of the products themselves. Reproduction of articles and photographs, in whole or in part, contained herein is prohibited without expressed written consent of the publisher, with the exception of reprinting for news media use. Doctor’s Life Magazine is considered a form of entertainment and should not be deemed as medical, legal or business advice without consulting the appropriate professional regarding the specific subject matter. Printed in the United States of America.
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Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
Issue 3, 2018
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STRATEGIC DILIGENCE
OF PHYSICIAN PRACTICE MERGERS In recent years, there has been noticeable increase in practice mergers among physician groups. Undoubtedly with the everevolving reform of the U.S. healthcare industry, there is a lot of uncertainty for private practice physicians. Some practices are content with no organizational changes and some have decided to be acquired by hospitals. Others have gone the route (or are pondering) of merging with another private practice (either same specialty or different specialty). The decision to buy, sell, or merge a medical practice is more complicated than ever, and determining a medical practice's worth is just one element crucial to this process. For those that are considering merging with another private practice entity, there are many things to strategize about and that's assuming there will be a windfall of benefits by consummating a merger. Applying a systematic approach to strategic due diligence can yield huge returns to practices considering mergers.
By Nick Hernandez MBA, FACHE
Seek Validation Is the strategic vision for the agreement valid? Physician owners must have a clear rationale for a transaction or truly understand a deal's impact on their practice's long-term financial future. Too often, however, there's a misguided sense of why the merger should take place at all, and there's far too little time spent defining how the merger enables them to beat competitors and increase organizational value. Those that fail to take this into account contribute to the failure rate of physician group mergers. For many physician groups, the link between strategy and a transaction is broken during due diligence. By focusing strictly on financial, legal, tax, and operations issues, the typical due diligence around a proposed merger fails to test whether the strategic vision for the CONTINUED ON PAGE 10
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Issue 3, 2018
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8
deal is valid. To do so, physician groups should bolster the usual financial due diligence with strategic due diligence. They should test conceptual rationale for a deal against more detailed information available to them after signing the letter of intent. They should also see if their vision of the future operating model is actually achievable.
Seek Confirmation When analyzing a practice, looking at historic and current performance is relatively easy. But what about looking further into the future? What are the strategic issues ahead? A strategic diligence should explicitly confirm the assets, capabilities, and relationships that make a buyer the best owner of a specific target acquisition. It should bolster the physician owners' confidence that they are truly an "advantaged buyer" of an asset. Advantaged buyers are typically better than others at applying their established skills to a target's clinical and business operations. They also employ their privileged assets or management skillset to build on things like a target's practice reputation, patient experience, or relationships with referring physicians. Naturally, they also turn to their special or unique relationships with vendors and the community to improve performance, leading to advanced synergies that go beyond what's normal.
Seek Mutually Reinforcing Advantages When change comes suddenly, it can turn strengths into weaknesses and sweep away dreams of success. The aim of a merger should be to achieve mutually reinforcing advantages. Michael Porter wrote that competitive advantages stem from how "activities fit and reinforce one another. . . . creating a chain that is as strong as its strongest link." By undertaking strategic diligence, physician owners will be able to not only define their main objectives, but also gain greater control over the desired direction of the new entity after the merger is consummated. Some of the strategic diligence questions to ponder include: 10
• What are the strengths of each practice? • What could our practice be doing better? • What opportunities exist as a result of this merger? • What threats do we face by completing this merger? • What is the current culture of each practice? As part of the process you should consider the scope for further growth, efficiency, improvement etc. It is critical for physician owners to be honest and thorough when assessing their advantages. Ideally, they develop a factbased point of view on their beliefs — testing them with anyone responsible for delivering value from the deal, including physicians, physician extenders, clinical staff, and front and back office personnel. Above all, when it comes to the merger Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
of two physician groups, culture is a key decision criterion. Culture should be evaluated and discussed prior to any financial considerations. In my experience this is of paramount importance for practice-to-practice mergers and is meticulously examined only through strategic diligence. The results from the strategic due diligence process provide the acquiring practice with the strategic information it will need to manage the target practice. Often, the seller knows more about the practice and its patients than the buyer. This asymmetrical knowledge can have long lasting negative effects post-merger. Strategic due diligence accelerates this learning process and expedites the achievement of the long-term goals. Of course nothing in the future is certain, but using a strategic and diligent approach provides far greater understanding of the issues ahead, and forms one further part of the jigsaw when assessing a potential physician practice merger. Issue 3, 2018
Do You Know What You Are Being Paid For Treating Our Veterans? By Rochelle Glassman, President and CEO - United Physician Services
Why Our 23 Million Veterans Still May Not Be Getting The Healthcare They Deserve?
It Might Be 30% Less Than Medicare!
W
e have all read and heard the news that our military men and women who put their lives on the line every day to project our county and allow us freedom we so often take for granted. Our veterans come back from combat with complex medical issues and we all agree that they all deserve nothing but the very best healthcare care.
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The Veterans Choice Program was started in 2014 to allow our veterans under certain conditions to be treated by civilian physicians outside of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare program for reasons such as; wait times of more than 30 days, or, distance to a VA hospital of more that 40 miles to see a primary care physician. Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
After all the hoopla in 2017 when the (VA) healthcare program was exposed for long wait times, appalling facility conditions and long drivetimes Veterans Choice Program which supposedly is being quoted as a “game changer” did not make the impact that is was supposed to. In August 2017, the President signed the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act of 2017 which Issue 3, 2018
authorized $2.1 billion in additional funds for the Veterans Choice Program. Where is all that tax payers money spent? It's not coming to you. Many private practice physicians contract with TrIcare to allow them to provide civilian health benefits for U.S Armed Forces military personnel, military retirees, and their dependents, including some members of the Reserve Component. Tricare is the civilian care component of the Military Health System. Tricare is often managed through a third-party payer that wins a bid to manage health care costs of our military personal, including but not limited to benefits, providers, ancillary, hospital and pharmaceutical networks as well as processing claims and payments at a reduced cost. For outpatient providers 30% less than the Medicare fee schedule to be exact. Can you really provide our veterans with quality care at such low costs? I don’t think so. As a healthcare consultant working primarily in the outpatient space for over 30 years I have spent more hours than I would like to count reviewing and negotiating provider contracts. Not an easy task to say the least. Physicians went to school to treat patients, very little time is spent in medical school teaching business management and how to manage a private practice in a highly regulated, payment shrinking environment. The pulse of a practice is to make sure that it’s heart is healthy. A healthy heart is critical to the overall health and wellbeing of a practice. A healthy heart is predicated on providing cost effective healthcare to patients, managing costs, receiving accurate and timely reimbursement per the terms of your contract, which we all know can be a challenge.
Understanding your payer contracts and what and how you are being reimbursed is critical to being heart healthy. Most physicians do not know where their payer contracts are, never mind what they say or what they have contractually committed to. Many have no idea what they are being reimbursed. Most providers do not know what the actual cost is of delivering healthcare to patients and Issue 3, 2018
accept payer contracts that reimburse less than their costs. We can agree that is not a sound business practice. According to a new study published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology American military personnel who served in the blazing deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan returned home with an increased risk of skin cancer. I was recently asked by a client in Florida who specializes in the treatment of complex skin cancers to secure a contract to take care of our veterans (due to confidentiality and price fixing regulations, I am unable to name the payer, though they know who they are). A formal proposal was submitted articulating the education, experience, cost effective treatments provide. We submitted case studies showing the millions of dollars our client is saving all his contracted health plans with the conservative treatments he provides. Such as an 85-year old man who had been treated at a local wound center for non-healing wounds of his scalp. A local dermatologist treated the wounds with shave biopsies resulting in exposure of the skull. The patient was then referred to a Wound Center where the wounds desiccated. He was treated for 9 months, 27 visits, for debridement procedures and underwent a Human Skin Equivalent skin graft that failed. An estimate of charges reveals that at a minimum the dermatologist charges were $228.44, another plastic surgeon (who the patient saw before our client) charged $399.90. The Wound Center (using codes 99203, 99212, 1592015946) could have easily charged over $100,000.00 of treatment for this patient. By the time the patient was seen by my client, the wounds consisted of an anterior scalp wound with bare dead bone and a posterior scalp wound with barely viable bone. The patient was treated with petrolatum and bandages and the posterior wound healed in 4 months after 13 visits. The charges totaled $657.12. (The anterior scalp wound, through progressing nicely with moist wound care, was closed when a new rapidly enlarging scalp skin cancer required surgery for cure. We submitted many other case studies showing our clients clinical value and letters of recommendation from many referring physicians that participate in the government health plan. For this level of care our client was offered 70 yes 70% of the government health plans fee schedule. I was shocked Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
to say the least. Never in my career has a physician been offered such an appalling reimbursement rate. With rent for space increasing annually, employees expecting annual pay increases, the cost of malpractice, medical and surgical supplies increasing; how does any health plan expect a provider to provide timely quality healthcare? Where is all the money going that is supposed to be spent on our veteran’s healthcare? Certainly not to the providers that actually provide the care. How many of you reading this article have accepted this reimbursement rate? When I pushed back and requested a 100% of the Medicare fee schedule, I received an email indicating that the health plan was responsible for deliverable demands for the government program. Discount guarantees (this means rate increases beyond their fee schedule) is one of the major directives that the health plan manages for the government program. The contractual agreement rates I was requesting the health plan cannot approve. The health plan values and sincerely appreciates the commitment of its providers. Ultimately, we cannot give you something we cannot give other providers. This means other providers are accepting a 30% discount for treating our veterans. My final push back was that “I clearly understand that the United States needs to provide to all its citizens affordable healthcare, which continues to rise at a rate more than any other industry in this country. Even though the providers who actually provide the care to the patients receive reimbursements decreases their expenses continue to rise. It’s very interesting. You nor I would continue to come to work if each year our employer decreases our salary, though we work long hours and meet all our employer’s goals. I know my staff for sure would not. I understand if you are unable to offer my client 100% of the Medicare fee schedule. If that is the case; what is a reasonable reimbursement rate you can offer my client?” I received no response. It outrages me to think that 70% of the Medicare fee schedule is reasonable payment for a physician. My client cannot afford to provide quality patient care at this level of reimbursement and unfortunately declined to accept the contract. What a loss to our veterans who have served in the blistering sun in Iraq and Afghanistan often times without the application of sunscreen. 13
Impact
E
Pushing Past
very four years we all get the chance to witness the greatest gathering of a single global sport, the World Cup. Similar to the Olympics, the World Cup unearths normally hibernating patriotism, sportsmanship, and celebration from its fans. But for the athletes, World Cup is a chance to live out lifelong aspirations on a world stage. What is it that sets apart those who break out of the norm and become the extraordinary? Surprisingly, it’s not physical ability…it’s all mental. William James, K.E Ericson, and Aristotle, all believed tenacity was one of the most valued virtues. In recent years Dr. Angela Duckworth, a positive psychologist from the University of Pennsylvania brought us a similar notion she calls “grit”. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines grit as “firmness of character; indomitable spirit.” In context of Duckworth’s work this definition is tweaked to be “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.” Duckworth’s work found that when holding constant characteristics usually associated with success such as intelligence/IQ, talent, and experience there was still a previously unidentifiable character trait that allowed some to capture their goals and others to stagger and fall off the path…a person’s sense of grit.
14
the
No
By Melanie Hicks, PhD
Duckworth's research on grit has shown:
• West Point cadets who scored highest on the Grit Test were 60% more likely to succeed than their peers.
• Ivy League undergraduate students who had more grit also
had higher GPAs than their peers — even though they had lower SAT scores and weren’t as “smart.”
• When comparing two people who are the same age but have different levels of education, grit (and not intelligence) more accurately predicts which one will be better educated.
• Competitors in the National Spelling Bee outperform their peers not because of IQ, but because of their grit and commitment to more consistent practice.
Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
Issue 3, 2018
This strategy can fill your life and your resume with accomplishments but at the expense of never knowing the view from the tree’s top branches. For me this manifested in career choices that were “safe” but lacked an outlet for my true passion and service to others. It meant limiting myself to half marathons rather than full in order to shy away from the gruel of training. It meant shying away from writing when rejection letters arrived instead of using the critique to enhance and grow my writing. What are the areas of your life where you might be reveling in the comfortable rather than showing your grit? Are there places where perseverance could be strengthened? Is there a goal in life you have committed to every New Year but something made you give up on it by June? So what can you do to get you past the hump? To find your own personal grit? Let’s start with these 7 tips from Steve Bloom.
1. Find someone to help push you Just that little bit of support encouraging you to keep going in the face of resistance can mean so much.
2. T ake on a little more than you think you can If you’re not challenging yourself to do bigger and better things on a regular basis, you’re only working within the confines of what you already can do. That’s a sure-fire way to stay exactly where you are and make little to no progress.
3. Imagine reaching your next level Where you put that focus matters a lot. Imagine that next level for reaching your dreams and take steps to get there.
4. Look at how others reached where you want to go The characteristics that make up grit are not unfamiliar – perseverance, endurance, resilience, excellence and conscientiousness. The sum of these, simply stated, speak to our ability to set the bar high and not give up either in our mind or our actions. This concept struck a cord in me of such truth magnitude that I was unwilling to acknowledge it at first. I have been blessed thus far in my life with personal and career success. However my own greatest challenge is overcoming fear to push myself out of comfortable. Without great adversity acting as a catalyst for growth, it is easy to fall into a pattern of relishing in the low hanging fruit of your natural born talents. Issue 3, 2018
Whatever your goals are, there are probably others who have had them and succeeded in reaching them.
5. Inspire yourself to action Find something that inspires you to reach your goals. Inspiration can be a powerful motivational tool.
6. Don’t stop until exhaustion Sometimes just sheer endurance can be the only key to reaching your goals.
7. Work on your weaknesses Where there are weaknesses, there are limits. Without correction, your weaknesses will limit how far you can take yourself. Although January is a traditional time for renewal, resolutions and resolves; there is no wrong time to start anew. Whether it is a healthier diet and exercise routine, a career change or promotion or simply a commitment to live a more aware life, we can all use a little extra grit to keep us pushing forward when our resolve begins to wear thin. Take time today to evaluate the intentions you set for yourself - a month ago, a week ago or years ago. Close your eyes and visualize achievement of those goals and feel all the pleasure that brings. Take those feelings with you and use them to help you find your own inner grit. “Overtime grit is what separates fruitful lives form aimlessness.” - John Ortber erretani, J. (2018) The Contagion of Happiness. Harvard Medicine; The science of emotion. C Parker, C. (2014) Stanford Research: The meaningful life is a road worth traveling. Stanford News. 3 Bargh, J. (2017) Before you know it; The unconscious reasons we do what we do. Simon and Schuster 1
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4 TIPS TO BEAT THE HEAT IN YOUR
FAVORITE OUTDOOR SPACES A
re Florida’s sizzling temperatures causing you to retreat from your favorite outdoor spaces? Garages, patios, sheds, gardens and other outdoor areas should be enjoyed throughout the year. Unfortunately, heat and humidity can quickly make being outside intolerable. The good news is keeping outdoor spaces comfortable doesn't have to be a challenge. With the right tools and some thoughtful planning, you can stay cool and continue your favorite hobbies, no matter how high the temperatures rise. Whether it's wrenching on a car, in the garage tackling a DIY project, tending to your patio container garden or simply
kicking back on the deck, the following steps can help you stay cool and safe.
Step 1: Shade Direct sun on decks and patios can make it nearly impossible to enjoy hot days. Strategically install shade features like umbrellas and awnings to add instant protection and ambiance. An alternative is vine-covered trellises that block sunlight and align well with the natural elements outdoors. For covered areas like garages and sheds, direct sunlight isn't a concern, but those rays can raise the temperatures in those spaces fast. CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
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Issue 3, 2018
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16
That's why it's important to take additional steps to cool the air within.
Step 2: Portable cooling Fans alone simply circulate stagnant, hot air throughout outdoor living spaces. Instead consider an evaporative cooler. Available in a variety of sizes, consider the Portacool portable evaporative coolers. They drop temperatures through a naturally occurring process of evaporation using water and the surrounding air, without creating mist. Open backyard spaces, patios and garages can be more comfortably cool on the hottest days by rolling this cooler wherever it's needed.
Step 3: Insulation For covered spaces like garages and sheds, adding insulation can help regulate temperatures. Batt insulation is inexpensive and an easy weekend DIY project to install if drywall isn't present. Add to walls and ceiling spaces where applicable 18
and then cover with drywall. If you already have drywall, you can look into blown-in insulation options. By insulating these spaces, you'll help keep sweltering heat out and cool air in for more enjoyable summer days.
Step 4: Color Keep color in mind when evaluating outdoor spaces. Light colors reflect the sun and dark colors absorb it, causing temperatures to rise. For decks and patios, opt for rugs and furniture in light colors to stay cool and comfortable. For garages and sheds, consider the color of the exterior. If you find the afternoon sun beats mercilessly down upon it, consider painting the exterior a lighter shade of paint, and when it's time to replace the roof, choose a new color in a lighter hue. Florida heat doesn't have to force you indoors. Enjoy favorite outdoor spaces with these simple steps to stay cool and comfortable.
Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
Issue 3, 2018
Ad
28
One Heart Magazine
www.heartbeatsaveslives.org
Sizzling Sips HOTTEST WINES FROM
SOUTH AFRICA P
airing perfectly with South Africa's star white wine is Florida means weekend adventures, the tradition of South Africa's sundowner - a moment at sunsets and toasting with friends and the end of the day when everyone stops to watch the sunset while enjoying a cocktail or a glass of wine - synonymous family. With so many wine options on with the American happy hour. Whether tipping back a glass of shelves, selecting the perfect summer wine after a day at the beach or concluding a long work week, the sundowner offers a time to reflect, enjoy and celebrate sip can be daunting. For those amongst friends. looking to impress guests with wine recommendations that extend beyond What gives Chenin Blanc rising star status? the usual suspects, look no further Versatile: than South Africa for inspiration with Whether pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc is your go-to varietal, Chenin Blanc is a worthy alternative to shake things up this white wine varietal, Chenin Blanc. CONTINUED ON PAGE 22
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Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
Issue 3, 2018
Imagine a private island with a spectacular two-mile, white sand beach and the only footprints are yours. Such a place really exists. Just 13 beachfront units and several private rental homes. No cars, no crowds, no hassles. It will win your heart.
Elegant cuisine and as much or as little as you want to do. Daily Snorkeling Trips Bone, Reef, Deep Sea Fishing Off-Island Excursions New Spa Services
The Meridian Club on Pine Cay Turks and CaiCos islands For inFormation 649.941.7011 reservations@meridianclub.com meridianclub.com
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20
year, offering a crisp acidity that people love to enjoy during warm weather.
natural acidity to this light-bodied white wine.
Taste: Bridges Old and New Worlds: While considered a New World region, South Africa has a rich history and tradition of winemaking, with the first vines planted in the 17th century. This is the only New World country with this rich heritage that contributes to the production of quality wines.
Value: You can get handcrafted Chenin Blanc at an accessible price point. Chenin Blanc provides crisp refreshment on any hot Florida day. Whether you're pairing with a meal or enjoying a sundowner, here are three must-try wines:
Protea Chenin Blanc
Made with 100 percent Chenin Blanc grapes from select bush vine vineyards in the Swartland and Voor-Paardeberg regions of South Africa. These grapes contribute a balance of freshness and
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Bright nectarine and stone fruit freshness on the nose. Crisp citrus flavor with tangy lemon vibrancy that is matched by more of the nectarine and stone fruit fleshiness in the mouth. Lively with lovely light body and a gentle persistence.
Ernie Els Big Easy White
The Big Easy White offers an amazing array of tropical fruits, showing the complexity and charm the Cape has to offer. This wine is crafted with 100 percent Chenin Blanc, and has an easydrinking, unwooded style. Its big appeal is due to its flavors being so pleasant, refreshing and approachable.
Taste: The tropical palate is richly textured with hints of wild herbs and Indian spice, adding complexity and good depth. This wine is medium-bodied and unhindered by oak, giving a lively fruit structure and soft, easy finish.
Doctor’s Life Tampa Bay
Nederburg Heritage Heroes: The Anchorman Chenin Blanc
The Heritage Heroes is a gourmet collection of handmade, ultra-premium wines, each individually named to honor a personality who has played a role in shaping Nederburg's history and reputation. The Anchorman is named for Nederburg's founder, Philippus Wolvaart, who bought the farm in 1791 and planted Chenin Blanc, among other varietals.
Taste: Well-balanced, fresh and fruity with a beautiful minerality and an excellent structure. You may not be traveling far this year, but you can enjoy this South African tradition at home by stocking up on Chenin Blanc and planning a few sundowners with friends and neighbors.
Issue 3, 2018
AFRICA
ASIA
EUROPE
LATIN AMERICA
MIDDLE EAST
NORTH AMERICA
&