South American Wines Just Keep Getting Better
Resistance to the more premium, limited production wines of each country has begun to crack as the market moves upscale. The only problem is that both Chile and Argentina have established their reputations primarily as deep value players in a world where consumers now show increasing willingness to pay up... Read More
Bigs Guys Boasting About Their Big Beers
Sounds like Jim Koch knows what he’s talking about, doesn’t it? The “lunatic fringe of brewing” indeed. Utopias sounds like an insane concept: a unique gold-tone bottle shaped like a brewing vessel, a beer that’s 5O proof and practically flat, blended from several batches of beers aged for different periods,... Read More
Beer’s Still Here
Get out of your beer rut! While the money that pays most of your bills still comes from moving those pallets, there are some real opportunities for fun – and profit – in beer these days. Heineken Premium Light has put new spark in the light beer market, Mexican beer... Read More
A Grand Cru From Hershey?
During my first pilgrimage to Tain-L’Hermitage in 199O, the smell of chocolate, not wine, filled the air. I learned that Tain was not only home to Hermitage wine, but also to one of France’s most famous chocolate producers, Valrhona. Given the proximity of the Rhone Valley’s most famous cru, it... Read More
Garden of Robert Eden
Robert Eden paid us a visit, bearing his tasty wines and his biodynamic viticultural beliefs. The wines are produced at Eden’s garden, Chateau Maris, in the Minervois La Liviniere appellation of ancient Languedoc in Mediterranean southwestern France. This is beautiful country, once known for prolific production of bulk wines, now... Read More
Dead or Just Missing
With the recent demise of Wine X magazine coming as little surprise to most people in the industry, it raises a question or two about the market they were supposedly catering to. The twenty-one to mid-twenties age group is an often-ignored segment of our market. The scarborough wine market report’s... Read More
Who Likes Hot Beer?
The jury’s still out on which category malternatives fit into. Just when you think they’re yesterday’s news a new flavor comes out, or a new package, or a new positioning, and suddenly malternatives are hot again. That’s the nature of “hot”. It’s that fast-moving part of the market, whether it’s... Read More
All Beer is Renderred Luxury by Definition
We don’t need it, but it certainly enriches our lives when used in moderation. Be it a can of Budweiser while out fishing or the reward of a well-aged barleywine to cap a family celebration, beer lets us know that we are not simply automatons seeking the barest wares of... Read More
Ponti’s First Pint of Guinness
Since I had already waited so long to finally try my first taste of Guinness, I figured why not wait just a little bit longer and go straight to the source. Next stop: Dublin, Ireland’s Guinness Storehouse, located on the expansive 64-acre grounds of the St. James’s Gate Brewery. It... Read More
A Couple of Cape Codders
BILL and DENISE ATWOOD • 54/51 • Chef/Owners • The Red Pheasant, Dennis, MA Patti Page sang about it in 1957 – “If you’re fond of sand dunes and salty air, quaint little villages here and there.” How many of us today remember Old Cape Cod? Bill and Denise Atwood... Read More