September 25, 2007

ROGER ORMON • 63 • Sales Manager • Brookline Liquor Mart • Allston, MA After 35 years at Brookline Liquor Mart, most of it as sales manager, Roger Ormon has acquired the long view of wine and wine sales. Having accrued plenty of wine (and people) wisdom, especially with tasting... Read More

Well, I’ve got some choices for you. There’s a rich smooth porter, a crisp and spicy witbier, an all-organic pale ale, a brisk and bitter IPA, a pumpkin-and-spice ale that’s perfect for fall drinking, and a big 8% bruiser that was aged on a bed of roasted cocoa beans. What... 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

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

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

Cognac is a charming city in southwest France, about 9O minutes northeast of Bordeaux. Cognac and the surrounding area remain quintessentially French, largely ignored by tourists and thus offer reasonably priced hotels, restaurants and a wonderful look at authentic French life. It’s a beautiful place to visit, about a five-hour... Read More

LOLLY MASON • 51 • Bartender • Meritage at Boston Harbor Hotel • Boston, MA Boston bar icon Lolly Mason is a hardhitting yet deft mixologist. This dynamic, self-taught woman with a deep history in Boston bars, has lots of fans, fine-tuned taste buds; she’s candid, quotable, and both sociologically... Read More

No one ever said growing up was easy to do. Maturity begets responsibility and so follows the necessity of prioritizing efforts, goals, and interests. Be it graduating from school, entering the workforce, raising a family, or running a craft brewery, everyone eventually has to become an adult. At the recent... Read More

Provence is recognized widely as the most important zone for rose wine production, making 8% of the world production of rose. In France, Provence wine is virtually synonymous with rose wine. The most important center of Provence rose production is the Cotes de Provence AOC which lies roughly between Aix-en-Provence... Read More

Cantina Bostonia occupies a corner of the old Haffenreffer brewery complex in the Jamaica Plain section of the city, a massive Victorian brick edifice build 135 years ago. (The Boston Beer Company, brewer of Samuel Adams beers and ales, is also located within.) The owner and winemaker (“maestro del vino”)... Read More