Fred Bouchard

MIKE CIMINI • 39 • CEO Yankee Spirits Inc. • Sturbridge, South Attleboro and Swansea, MA Mike Cimini is a forward-looking beverage mogul of easy modesty and resolute conviction.  The young owner of Yankee Spirits, the Bay State’s largest chain, was recently named beverage dynamics’ Retailer of the Year.  Mike... Read More

DYLAN BLACK • 34 • Owner-Manager • Green Street • Central Square Cambridge Located in Central Square between Cambridge’s twin pillars of academe Harvard and MIT, Green Street (formerly with ‘Grill’ appended) has long been a people’s pleasure dome, serving its neighbors since the Great Depression.  Owner Dylan Black, steeped... Read More

PAUL SOUZA • 6O • Manager • New England Wine & Spirits (NEWS) • Newburyport MA Paul Souza is a salesman extraordinaire.  First he shows me around the store, with justifiable pride in his 1OO+ single-malts, grand wall of brown spirits and back-room soon to be transformed into a taster’s... Read More

ROBIN BACK • 47 • US Public Relations & Marketing Manager • The Wines of Charles Back • Paarl South Africa FAMILY HISTORY Fairview Winery was established in 1693; it’s one of South Africa’s original wine estates, where vines were planted in 1655 and the first wines made in 1659. ... Read More

Capetown 2OOO South Africa’s wine world, like the country itself, is just getting back on its feet after Apartheid’s end (1994), Nelson Mandela’s mandate, and the promise of black partnership in reviving the economy. Business infrastructure is rebuilding, and wineries are gaining confidence and ground, with home market consumption rising... Read More

Flashback . . . It’s midsummer tourists line up outside the well-stocked gift shop at Truro Vineyards, and Dave Roberts is at the ready.  He squires people – with alacrity, a glad hand and a wide smile – outdoors to the tasting tent, where cheerful well-informed staffers guide consumers through... Read More

SERGIO MIONETTO • 7O • Owner/Vintner • Mionetto Prosecco • Valdobbiadene Italy Master vintner and connoisseur Mionetto personally presides over his family’s sizeable winery, producers of Prosecco since 1887.  The forthright, fiery septuagenarian eagle-eyes every step of the process – from harvest to bottling – to ensure quality standards that... Read More

ERIC BROEGE • 44 • Owner, Buyer • Vintages, West Concord and Belmont Still a painter and musician, Eric Broege is today a discerning buyer for his two small shops, one in formerly dry Belmont Center.  Eric defends his passion for individualistic wines of distinctive terroirs (mainly in Italy, Spain,... Read More

Craft brewing is a New England tradition that took hold and made major inroads into big brewing. After Sam Adams came – among others – Harpoon, Ipswich, Tremont, and Buzzards Bay in Massachusetts; Geary’s, Shipyard, Sea Dog, and Atlantic in Maine; Catamount, Long Trail, Magic Hat, and Otter Creek in... Read More

MAX TOSTE • 32 • Co-owner & Bar Manager • Deep Ellum, Allston, MA This destination bar has come a long way since opening after New Year’s 2OO7.  These keen guys and gals, apprentice masters of good taste, could be top deejays.  I spoke with candid, dedicated co-owner Max Toste... Read More