Harvey Finkel

Tuscany is most generous in sharing its treasures. Some come in bottles. I’d like to call attention to one of its less familiar, more affordable wines, Morellino di Scansano – sangiovese informed, grown in the region’s southwest bordering the Tyrrhenian Sea. We’ve not heard much about this portion of the... Read More

Some might liken science to sausage making.You really don’t want to witness the process. Fits and starts, backtrack and redo, and painstaking (emphasis on pain) review don’t begin to describe what happens before respectable publication of results. And then, and then, somebody will publish contrary findings. Let’s look at one... Read More

Flavanols, one of the groups of polyphenols found in red wines, cocoa, green tea, and some fruits, have been demonstrated in numerous studies, both of populations and in the laboratory, to be correlated with good health, mental and physical fitness, and long life. They benefit the heart and arteries and... Read More

Georges Duboeuf, “le roi du Beaujolais”, paid a visit bearing samples of his latest array of wines, the esteemed 2O11 vintage, and to celebrate with William Deutsch the 3O years that Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits has been Duboeuf’s US importer. Duboeuf has carved a remarkable career. Born in 1933... Read More

Although the 1999 was Craggy Range’s first vintage to appear on the market, more than ten years of preparation had been required to satisfy the exacting standards of the company’s principals. Craggy Range is led by New Zealander Steve Smith, an internationally distinguished viticulturalist, and American-born Australian international businessman Terry... Read More

Like the canary in an old coal mine, the liver is the sensitive sentinel, the first organ to sustain permanent damage from abusive drinking. A large portion of the excessive mortality depicted by the right upward sweep of the J-shaped curve is due to alcoholic liver disease – chiefly cirrhosis.... Read More

Western Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley, along the Connecticut River within the Commonwealth, might seem an unlikely wine-producing region, but during a recent exploration I found that tasty wine is grown and producedata cluster of sites in Hampshire County’s share of the valley. The area is well known for its fertile farmland,... Read More

Burgundy (i.e.: the Côte d’Or) is mysterious. Despite the misleading simplicity of essentially one white and one red grape sources, it is the wine region that novices are never comfortable confronting. Many winemakers make what is labeled as the same wine. Many winemakers are not equal. The terrain is divided... Read More

Dave Roberts, having set out on a bicycle ride in 2OO7, returned owning a vineyard and winery, Truro Vineyards of Cape Cod, thus starting a new career and way of life. His Connecticut family had summered in outer Cape Cod since he was a boy of eight. He and Kathy... Read More

There may be a growing resistance to wines with alcohol contents above 14 percent, perhaps in reaction to the growing number of wines of that strength. Unfortunately for the objectors, such wines are likely to become more and more common as the world warms. The venerable Michael Broadbent has led... Read More