Featured Articles

NICOLAS and LAURA CATENA • 7O/38 • Owner/Export Manager • Catena Zapata Winery, Mendoza, Argentina Father and daughter teams are old hat in American wineries (think Mike and Violet Grgich, David and Kim Stare, even grandpa Julio and Gina Gallo) but they are something rare and wonderful in Argentina. Nicolas... Read More

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

The LEADERS of the PACK To hear anyone in the spirits industry talk about tequila, it’s clear that 2OO6 was a pretty spectacular year. High-end premiums continued the steady surge in numbers that the spirit has not seen since 2OOO. “What happened in other categories is finally happening to tequila:... Read More

but subtle signs of a pending shakeout appear to be looming. Perhaps more expectation than signs, really, especially as vodka is still the most consumed spirit in the market and goes into nearly one out of four cocktails ordered. Overall, vodka is expected to grow by another two million cases... Read More

A few years ago, large, clear infusion jars started appearing on every self-respecting restaurant bar, filled with bright-colored fruits. Fruits that gradually faded over time – maybe that’s why they disappeared from view. Coffee, chocolate and other flavors seemed to take their place in cocktails. But in this new era... Read More

KIM STARE WALLACE Vice-President & Director of Marketing • Dry Creek Vineyards, Sonoma, CA Thirty five years seems a long time to own a California vineyard. Kim Stare was just 8 when her family packed everything into a station wagon and headed from Wellesley, Massachusetts to Davis, California. Dad was... Read More

Wine, olive oil, cheese – these delightful products are all the same answer to the same dilemma of abundance: now that I’ve had the good fortune to harvest a few tons of fresh grapes and olives or 1OOO gallons of cow’s milk, what exactly am I going to do with... Read More

The story goes that when Portuguese explorers, desperate for the site of land, first spied the diminutive hill that overlooks present day Montevideo harbor and city, they cried out, “Monte vide eu”. This means, “I see a mountain”. Today, thriving Buenos Aires across the River Plate makes Montevideo seem like... Read More

I took advantage of winemaker Terry Adams’s recent visit to Boston to catch up on the doings at Sonoma-Cutrer, whose wines I’ve been drinking since the beginning. Adams has been on hand since the winery opened, initially assisting Bill Bonetti, the founding winemaker, then succeeding him in 1991 when Bonetti... Read More

American craft brewers may boast about their innovative ways: bourbon barrel-aged beers, wild ingredients, beers that tip the ABV scale well north of 15%. Belgian brewers have been doing wild stuff for years. Not that “wild” is always the same as “good”, just as has been shown with the American... Read More