WILL DRAFTMARK HIT THE MARK?
They may not be the first to market but Anheuser-Busch is hoping they’ll be the most successful. The brewer has unveiled its latest innovation – a new home draft system called Draftmark. The product is similar to one introduced two years ago by MillerCoors. Anheuser-Busch’s version of the product arrived... Read More
BEER AND BONBONS
By and large, chocolate is predominantly purchased and consumed by women. In an effort to attract more men to the category, chocolatiers across the country have been experimenting with new and innovative ingredients to make the chocolates more appealing. The most successful ingredient? Beer. After working out some of the... Read More
Massachusetts Malt
Malt – germinated and kilned grains of barley – is the basic building block of beer and Scotch whisky. I’ve been to maltings, the big processing plants where raw harvested barley is cleaned, soaked, turned, allowed to germinate, and kilned. I’ve stood high on top of the huge grain silos,... Read More
VALENTINE’S COCKTAILS
As February 14th approaches, Champagne and sparkling wine sales will undoubtedly skyrocket. Why not get creative and offer a few innovative libations? From the seductively sweet to the cool and crisp, these cocktails will get everyone’s hearts beating faster! ST-GERMAIN COCKTAIL2 ounces of sparkling wine2 ounces of club soda1½ ounces... Read More
wine.com’s TOP WINNERS
Retailer wine.com’s fifth annual “Wine.com 1OO” – the top bottles of wine sold nationally from the site in 2O11 – has been released. Based solely on consumer purchasing data, this list illustrates the movers and shakers in the wine business as well as definitive trends in online wine purchasing. Additionally,... Read More
OPEN NO WINE BEFORE ITS TIME
So, just how long should one wait to open the world’s oldest bottle of wine? What’s the perfect occasion? Historians in Germany are debating whether or not to open a 165O-year-old bottle, believed to be the world’s oldest wine. Sealed with wax and containing a white liquid, it has been... Read More
WAITER, I’D LIKE A GLASS OF ORANGE WINE
When it comes to color, wine is pretty much cut and dry: red, white or pink (ok, vinho verde is a category but it’s a small one). But there’s another category being embraced by natural wine aficionados: “orange” wines. No, they’re not made from oranges but are actually white wines... Read More
DO YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW WHAT’S IN YOUR WINE?
Here’s one for the “ewww” factor: The Australian government has given approval to winemakers to begin using a chemical contained in laxatives. While the chemical, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, has long been prized by the medical world for its anti-bulking and laxative properties, food scientists have discovered that, in small doses,... Read More
Tuscan Estates
Four generations and counting. Four Tuscan estates and extraterritorial sources. Seven hectares at creation; now producing 8OO,OOO cases exported to 72 countries. Circles within circles. Angiolo Piccini and his wife Maria Teresa Totti of Poggibonsi established the Piccini estate (then very much lower case) of seven hectares in 1882. They... Read More
ENDANGERED COCKTAIL OF THE MONTH: CALIMOCHO
RED WINE + COKE. YES, WE’RE SERIOUS. Having logged many hours behind the stick at Boston’s popular Spanish tapas joint Toro, I can tell you from experience: Americans love to drink sangria while they sample small plates. And as anyone who knows anything about Spain will tell you, that’s not... Read More