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by LEW BRYSON “OH, IT’S . . . just the Canadian.” That’s a line from the pilot episode of “Due South,” a 9Os TV show about a Mountie who winds up working with a Chicago cop. His boss at the Canadian consulate is explaining how he overhears secrets and gathers... Read More

by ANDY CROUCH WHEN THE WEATHER turns cold, thoughts in the beer world turn immediately to dark beers.  Pints of warming, inviting black pints of stout are what is needed to combat snow piles awaiting the shovel.  Light hefeweizens, airy witbiers, and quenching Berliner weisses remain excellent selections when the... Read More

by HARVEY FINKEL, MD ALCOHOLISM TENDS TO cluster in families.  Observers have long wondered whether this destructive addiction, or at least susceptibility thereto, is inherited, however difficult it is to imagine the intricate individual steps required for genetic determinants to be translated into complex behavior. Studies aiming to uncover human... Read More

PINK LADY’S ENDANGERED COCKTAIL OF THE MONTH RUM is a delightful sip, and with our most patriotic holiday on the horizon it seems fitting to familiarize ourselves with a great recipe for a rum punch to raise in celebration.  Philadelphia Fish House Punch is older than America itself and was... Read More

by SANDY BLOCK, MW THE CARMENERE STORY has mythical overtones (a star grape in 19th Century Bordeaux, believed extinct, then rediscovered in Chile in the 199Os) but the reality is that for many years the grape has stirred strong passions, calling forth divisively negative, as well as positive, reactions among... Read More

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