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by HARVEY FINKEL FOR A SMALL COUNTRY, Portugal is prolific and complex in its wine production.  While it is among the most pleasant places I’ve visited, the difficulties of the spoken language and the unfamiliar legion of indigenous grape varieties can be initially daunting, until meeting the accommodating people and... Read More

PINK LADY’S ENDANGERED COCKTAIL OF THE MONTH THE LAST WORD 3/4 ounce of gin 3/4 ounce of Chartreuse 3/4 ounce of maraschino liqueur 3/4 ounce of fresh lime Shake ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. SPRING SURE TOOK its sweet time arriving this... Read More

by ANDY CROUCH SPRING HAS ARRIVED but as I write this snow is falling lightly out the window, promising another backbreaking afternoon of shoveling. The thought of summer is fleeting at best. But soon the summer beer drinking season will be in full swing. For my money, there is no... Read More

by PINK LADY WE LUPEC LADIES love our tequila, and we feel equal adoration for another agave spirit hailing from Mexico: mezcal. For many decades mezcal got a bad rep here in the US as tequila’s inferior cousin, made cheaply and featuring a giant booze-soaked worm as hallmark. But oh,... Read More

by HARVEY FINKEL LET US GO THEN, you and I, returning to the early days of yesteryear, at the dawning of the modern vinous age on the Pacific Coast, when David Stare trekked from eastern Massachusetts to western California, the wine grail image ever before him, to establish Dry Creek... Read More

by SANDY BLOCK WHEN I BEGAN visiting Chile in the 199Os, familiarizing myself with its wines and regions, the country’s industry was just beginning to emerge as a player on the international scene. Chileans were starting to address the needs of the export markets, which required planting popular grape varieties... Read More

by Harvey Finkel WE DON’T THINK about it much, but the family farmer has been historically, and even to some extent currently, the producer of our wines.  Over the last 2O years I had periodically noted in passing one of these, though larger that the postage-stamp properties of yore, producing... Read More

by LEW BRYSON AFTER YEARS of being a two brand market, Irish whiskey’s growth has attracted other players to the game. First there was Cooley, with their TYRCONNELL and KILBEGGAN brands. Then TULLAMORE DEW returned, back in America after years away. When Cooley was sold to Beam, the sons of... Read More

by Pink Lady IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN, when everyone is Irish for at least an evening and your favorite pub will be likely overrun with happy strangers downing pints of Guinness, Irish car bombs, and shot after shot of Jameson.  Should you find yourself declaring “Erin Go Bragh”... Read More

by Andy Crouch THIS TIME OF YEAR brings forth thoughts of deep, dark pints of rich, creamy pints of plain, as Irish poet Flann O’Brien wrote. The classic dry Irish stout category, best exemplified by Guinness, is known around the globe. In its earliest form, stout simply connoted a stronger... Read More