Featured Articles

by KIRSTEN AMANN Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the holidays are here, which means the busiest few weeks of the year are upon us.  We’ve searched far and wide to create this tidy list of gifts items that will appeal to the time-crunched shoppers streaming into your store.  From serious... Read More

by HARVEY FINKEL PELAYO DE LA MATA, the 13th Marqués de Vargas, wears three vinous hats, heading wine estates in three distinct traditional regions of Spain, each producing notable estate-grown wines in modern wineries.  The three-headed marqués, a youthful and active 71, enlivened my day with a recent visit, bearing... Read More

by PINK LADY AS THE COOL WINTER months set in, our thoughts inevitably turn to darker spirits.  Who can resist a little barrel-aged something when hunkering down in front of the fireplace?  The snow may not arrive in full force until January, but as the leaves make their final turn... Read More

by ANDY CROUCH FALLS BRINGS US another opportunity to contemplate some under-valued beer styles.  We don’t know whether the India Pale Ale craze may be fad or lasting trend but it dominates the scene at the moment.  The current consumer movement towards hoppy, hazy beers shows no signs of abating... Read More

by HARVEY FINKEL THERE SEEM to be no dismal vintages any more in Bordeaux, and perhaps surprisingly too many hailed with superlatives. But the latter are, to me, usually over-extracted, dense, and lacking in grace – echoes of wines made with more enthusiasm than finesse in northern California. Now, however,... Read More

by PINK LADY A CURIOUS BLEND of Scotch, sloe gin, citrus, and absinthe, The Modern Cocktail is one of those drinks that is greater than the sum of its parts.  This seems to be the case for several Scotch whisky cocktails: the Blood & Sand, for example, which mixes Scotch,... Read More

by SANDY BLOCK, MW CHÂTEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE: Prior to visiting the Rhône Valley for the first time in the 198Os this legendary name (“new castle of the Pope”) had me envisioning majestic towers of fortified granite, gleaming marble hallways, and medieval era turrets.  Imagine the shock as I found myself navigating through... Read More

by HARVEY FINKEL, MD DEMENTIA has become an enormous worldwide burden: medical, economic, personal.  Many of those afflicted would still be in their productive years.  No resolution is in sight.  We are avid for anything that might reduce the toll. Dementia is a progressive brain dysfunction chiefly attacking memory and... Read More

by PINK LADY NATIONAL BOURBON HERITAGE MONTH is upon us!  Exactly ten years ago the US Senate passed a bill declaring September the month to celebrate Bourbon as our “Native Spirit”.  It passed with unanimous support — oh my, how times have changed! Early distillers preferred rye as their spirit... Read More

by ANDY CROUCH FROM NEAR OBSCURITY to something to be laughed at to rising phenomenon to mainstream stability, session beer has experienced a roller coaster of emotions on its way to general acceptance among beer drinkers.  Americans have never been great about limiting their alcohol consumption or even spending much... Read More