Roberto Pighin
ROBERTO PIGHIN • 4O • Azienda Fratelli Pighin • Friuli, Italy There’s pinot grigio and Pinot Grigio; one’s a shameless, faceless bar pour from the Veneto flatlands, the other’s the proud, delectably suave and intriguing aperitif from the high plains of Friuli and Collio. Roberto Pighin’s father, Fernando, began making... Read More
Profile: Marcus Palmer
MARCUS PALMER • 38 • Sommelier & Wine Manager • Smith & Wollensky • Boston, MA How could such a terrific concept have borne such a sketchily conceived monicker? The story goes that the night before Alan Stillman launched his now-famous steakhouse chain, it still lacked a name. Alan and... Read More
My Geek is Showing
As a wine professional there is a part of myself that only comes out every once in awhile, and only with certain colleagues. It’s a little similar to Dr. Jekel and Mr. Hyde. My Mr. Hyde is the wine geek. This past mid-July I had the pleasure of attending the... Read More
Chris Campbell
CHRIS CAMPBELL • 4O • Owner/Manager/Sommelier • Troquet, Boston PROFILE Chris Campbell was a local pioneer of customer-favoring restaurant wine bargains during the eight years he and his wife Diane ran Uva in Brighton (1993-2OOO). Wine mavens fondly recall the young couple’s unheard-of rock-bottom markups ($1O over cost) and Wednesday... Read More
Good Luck Jim Tye
The role as ambassador for United Liquors is certainly not a new one for Jim Tye. With his ‘retirement’, that role is just a little more expanded, as he will be casting a wider if more informal net. Tye, a graduate of University of Miami and Columbia University School of... Read More
Beer’s Still Alive!
To hear the mainstream media or spirits and wine flacks tell it, beer is dead. It’s a passe beverage that no self-respecting drinker would cop to enjoying. A much-cited study found that people claim to drink more wine than beer. Production and total share of consumption is down, but beer... Read More
Alan Pugsley
After working his way through the ranks under the tutelage of famed British brewer Peter Austin, Pugsley traveled the world setting up brewing systems in China, Nigeria, Belgium, and Russia, among others. In the last twenty years, Pugsley has helped design and install dozens of breweries in America, including Geary’s,... Read More
Oregon’s Pinot Noirs
My interest in writing an article about the Oregon wine industry came to life when some friends asked me to locate some older bottles of Oregon Pinot Noir for a dinner we would enjoy together. I soon learned that bottles from the 197Os simply did not exist here in the... Read More
Shelf-Talkers
QUESTION What’s the easiest way to sell a great bottle of wine that your clientele will love even when you aren’t immediately available to assist them – especially during this busiest of seasons? Answer A piece of well written, eye-pleasing Point-of-Sale (POS), or as it’s more casually known, a shelf-talker.... Read More
Way Beyond Concord
Gone are the days when traditional kosher wine choice was limited to sweet Concords grown in New York State. Now we have available a wide array of wines of all varieties and styles. Beginning about 25 years ago, there has been a veritable revolution in the wine scene in Israel,... Read More