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For example, there’s simply been no relief in the bad news department that continues to haunt the decline of the flat-to-mostly-negative US-bottled standard blended brand segment, which has not recorded a single positive growth year since 1994, and dropped yet another couple of percentage points in 2OO5. But, meanwhile, in... Read More

Judging by aggregate sales figures for the first 7 months of 2OO6, Americans are doing a lot of celebrating. Whereas imported wines in general keep creeping higher as a percentage of the overall US wine market, Champagne has always constituted a category unto itself. Sales trends in this unique segment... Read More

The Pinot Noir story is a remarkable one. It’s amazing what “the movie”, whatever you happen to think of it, has wrought in the wine business. What’s more amazing is how long wine professionals have been patiently sniffing, tasting, talking and writing about their pet grape variety to virtually zero... Read More

With cramped Dublin ‘bed-sitters’ today costing as much as San Francisco lofts and Boston studios, it’s no wonder that dive pubs along the Liffey (like the now-toney former navvy-hangout warehouse section of Temple Bar) have mutated into posh saloons and the Irish whiskeys they serve (mixed in with your Cosmos... Read More

The dramatic increase in the popularity of Pinot Gris over the past few years has vaulted it into second place among the white grapes that Americans choose most frequently, right behind Chardonnay. The vast majority of the bottles, however, are labeled Pinot Grigio and imported from Italy or produced in... Read More

Candor, humor and persistence mark Dellie Rex’s style over her distinguished career in Boston’s wine world. Ms. Rex’s wide-ranging experience includes wholesale (Classic), sales rep (Racke USA, Dreyfus Ashby), entrepreneur (her own Wine Experiences and Rex Associates), consulting (Wines of Spain, Trade Commission of Portugal, Geerlings & Wade, United Liquors),... Read More

One of the reasons Riesling appeals to us so much more immediately than many other varieties is that it’s not an acquired taste: you don’t have to search for flavor undertones and subtleties. At the same time they are often present, so the grape also has the potential to excite... Read More