Featured Articles

Take a close look at beverage menus around the country, and you may start noticing an interesting ingredient in cocktails – beer!  The popularity of craft brews has been growing steadily over the years, resulting in a larger share of shelf space as well as expanded beer lists at bars... Read More

Summer will be upon us in Boston with high temperatures and humidity to match.  For those days when it feels too swampy to even move, we suggest lounging about with a Roof Garden Cooler in hand.  The drink, which comes to us by way of David Wondrich’s Killer Cocktails, is... Read More

LEN ROTHENBERG 63Owner, Federal Wine & Spirits, Boston Federal Wine and Spirits has been Len Rothenberg’s baby for 25 years, and he still thinks of it in terms of a congenial 197Os folk club.  Federal has become a hangout for wine enthusiasts, a ‘coffeehouse’ for the exchange of enthusiasm and... Read More

Our blood vessels are not simply passive conduits, but are actively engaged in self-preserving defenses against the stresses they must put up with every millisecond. This is particularly true of arteries, vital carriers of blood laden with oxygen and nutrients to our tissues under high pressure and often amid punishing... Read More

Marco de Bartoli was one of the key protagonists in the development of a quality Sicilian wine industry. Without the support of the Marsala wine trade, he proposed a version of Marsala that harked back to its historic roots and made no compromises to quality. He awakened Italy to the... Read More

Through an informative recent visit, I have had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with a winery previously unfamiliar to me, Niner Wine Estates. Located in Paso Robles, it again confirms that each of California’s Central Coast winegrowing areas is distinctive. Paso Robles, about half way between Los Angeles and San... Read More

I was surprised and delighted by the Alto Adige when I first visited twelve years ago. This beautiful alpine corner of Italy does not at all conform to one’s usual expectation of that delightful land, as registered by more southerly regions. Here are the picture-postcard peaks and valleys of the... Read More

Spring is Riesling season par excellence. While I personally enjoy drinking Riesling year-round, from a commercial perspective this is the moment to focus on lighter styled, more delicate herb and floral scented versions, whether they feature discernible residual sugar or not, because of the strong link between Nature’s annual reawakening... Read More

Brewers have long embraced the changing consumer drinking patterns that accompany shifting weather patterns, helping fuel the demand for seasonal products. These beers often appear as little known styles, such as Kolsch or Helles, often rebranded by savvy breweries as Summer Ales. People usually associate the summer months with the... Read More

From the locally crafted to the iconic imports, vodka reigns as it’s poured.  One conspicuous point of distinction has been that several so-called “value” brands have gotten more than their fifteen minutes of fame courtesy of the economy.  Some consumers have traded down and have made the discovery that there’s... Read More