Harvey Finkel

Contrary to the general expectation that WHO, the World Health Organization, is imbued with objective medical science, once again it has issued a document, its world cancer report 2o14, that, in the section on alcohol, seems to me more a prohibitionistic, political polemic than dispassionate, professional and helpful.  This is... Read More

IT TAKES THE INTREPID to plant on an active volcano.  After tasting what they’ve wrought, we’re glad they braved Etna, Europe’s largest, most active volcano.  At nearly 11,OOO feet (3322 meters) and massive in bulk, this ill-tempered giant not only dominates and constantly threatens northeastern Sicily, but also presents to... Read More

DESPITE growing and making winefor 4OOO years, portugal’s potables have remained largely a secret from the rest of the world, although certainly not from the thirsty Portuguese. Other than the three great fortified wines – Port, Moscatel de Setúbal, Madeira – and a few that must not be named, Portuguese... Read More

ALTHOUGH, since South Dakota joined the club in 1996, all 5O states and all ten of Canada’s provinces host wineries, those in the east are hardly noticed by network news or international wire service reports, which concentrate on regions three time zones to our west or beyond the ocean to... Read More

ATTENDING THE 3Oth Annual Wine Tasting of Ruby Wines, Inc., I wondered amid the cheerful bustle about the beginnings of this family company, and set up a breakfast meeting with CEO Bob Rubin to return to yesteryear. In the beginning was the soda company, and it was in Lynn.  Bob’s... Read More

HANGOVERS are mysterious.  Their engendering mechanisms and complex, intricate, unpleasant nature are largely unknown.  Prevention and cure have been more the province of speculation than science, of myth than medicine.  We are, accordingly, grateful for any small addition to our knowledge.  Here is one. Danish researchers wondered whether the severity... Read More

ANCIENT WISDOM teaches us that stressed vines make good wine.  Our focus today, Abbazia di Novacella, carries this advice about as far as anyone can, short of committing viticide, thereby achieving laudable elegance and longevity in its wines.  In fact, vines here live no more than 25 years, so stressful... Read More

IT IS NO LEAP of my imagination to assume that anyone reading this is interested in the latest medical science on wine’s influences upon health.  Let us, therefore, review some of the high points presented by some of the world’s leaders in alcohol research at Wine Health 2O13, the Seventh... Read More

KNEŽEVI VINOGRADI, Croatia I try never to waste an opportunity to experience unfamiliar wine, especially in a municipality called “prince’s vineyard”.  I found there’s more to drinking in southeastern Europe than Slivovitz, plum’s leap to immortality. Croatia (Republika Hrvatska to the 4.5 million inhabitants), an area about twice that of... Read More

Weighing quality, global distribution, economic impact, and prestige, there can be no argument but that cabernet sauvignon is the world’s most important red-wine grape.  Its wines age gracefully and develop elegance and complexity, while expressing their terroir and vintage conditions and the hand of the winemaker.  Many issues, however, remain... Read More