Long Trail’s Pherson
Long Trail Brewing recently re-entered the Massachusetts market. At about that same time, I got a press package from Long Trail. That may not seem significant – my desk is six inches deep in brewery press releases – but I can count on the fingers of one foot how many... Read More
Boutique Merchandising
Passion and customer service are the by-words of the proprietors of three different Massachusetts boutique wine stores when asked what the single most important part of their businesses is. These words are what the owners claim is the reason customers turn to them, in their smaller spaces, with less big... Read More
Working With Barbiere
Valerio Barbieri. He has not been on the cover of The Wine Spectator, nor even in the fine print. Robert M. Parker, Jr. has not anointed him the rising star of the wine firmament. No importer has bragged that such-and-such an estate is now “working with Valerio Barbieri”. Yet Barbieri... Read More
ABCC from A to Z
Between undercover stings, budget cuts, layoffs, department transfers, and agency overhauls, the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission has certainly been busy over the last year. In June of 2OO3 the agency was moved, after actually being temporarily eliminated in March, from its longtime home of the Office of Consumer &... Read More
Questioning Mark Stutrud
QUESTIONING MARK STUTRUD To hear Mark Stutrud tell it, the Summit Brewing Company is just a little Minnesota brewery carrying on the great brewing history of the city of Saint Paul. He notes that the brewery sells almost 9O percent of its beer in its home state, with consumers in... Read More
Winter Beers ae Back Again
It’s the first of November, and that means two things. One, you sold your last bottle of Oktoberfest yesterday; hope you didn’t overstock, and two, it’s now winter beer season, and all the breweries are going to be selling you theirs. But before you buy into the turbo-charged, spice-burning action,... Read More
Finding Greatness
Whether we’re discussing wine, food, literature, art, athletics, or life itself, there are virtually no clear, uncontroversial standards. Much like love, you can’t prove its existence, but most of us would say you know it when you feel it. The fact is though that “great” means something a bit different... Read More
The Grape Variety Tannat
It is an infuriating grape to work with because it makes wines that have enough tannin to make your mouth feel like a desert. The name of the grape variety probably is derived the root of the word “tannin”. Because Madiran has been far from the madding crowd, it was... Read More
Wines of Sardinia
Sardinians, according to Nicolas Belfrage, refer to mainland Italy as the “continente”, and regard wines sold there as exports. In some ways, Sardinia (Sardegna in Italian) has more in common with Corsica, the French outlier just to its north, than with the rest of Italy. This second-largest of Mediterranean islands... Read More
Profile: Chris Douglass
Chris Douglass is the Carl Yastremski of Boston chefs – he’s been around the longest with a high batting average leading the same team. Come to think of it, Tim Wakefield might make an equally fair analogy: the knuckleballer owns the longest stint as a Red Sox, is a durable... Read More