Featured Articles

Her Majesty, the Queen of Pinot Noir, otherwise known as Merry Edwards, was born right here in Newton. I learned the story of how Merry got from eastern Massachusetts to be royalty in California’s Russian River Valley during a recent visit. Meredith Edwards, daughter of an MIT-educated engineer, was taken... Read More

Among everyday beer drinkers, the Republic of Ireland stands as one of the world’s great brewing nations. The land where velvety pints of Dublin Gold pour forth from countless taps in myriad quaint pubs, from Dublin to Kinsale to Sligo. The nation is also home to the slightly less well... Read More

COCKTALE As far as Irish whiskey cocktails are concerned, few spring to mind so easily as the Irish Coffee. It’s a delicious and warming treat when prepared correctly, but one that can go horribly awry in the wrong hands. For whatever reason, modern bartenders are often woefully uneducated about how... Read More

It is said, in bittersweet fun, that God gave the Irish whiskey so they wouldn’t take over the world.  Theologians will have to take another look at the whole omniscience concept, though: the way Irish whiskey sales have been growing, the plan might just backfire. How much has Irish whiskey... Read More

On a Sunday night in January, Corey Bunnewith explained his Vin Brulé. He developed the mulled spiced wine for the inaugural drink list at Coppa, the neighborhood Italian enoteca that James Beard Award-winning chef Ken Oringer opened with Jamie Bissonnette in Boston’s South End in December. He offered me the... Read More

Somewhere, the ghosts of colonists are smiling.  The spirit that the New England settlers not only consumed by the punch bowl, but produced in great volumes and used as currency, is undergoing a major revival.  But this resurgent interest is hardly a rush for rum and colas or a nostalgia-driven... Read More

CHRIS PEDERSEN – 49 Charles Street Liquors – Beacon Hill, Boston, MA Candid and casual, Texas-born Chris Pedersen arrived in Boston as a computer specialist, and turned a love for wine into his life’s work when he became manager at this venerable Beacon Hill shop.  He turned a faded business... Read More

Australia, a continent the size of the USA, seems to occupy a virtual space, not a real one, hulking at the fringes just as it appears on our world maps. Last February, we saw images of the devastating brush and grass fires that ravaged the Yarra Valley, one of Australia’s... Read More

Starting in earnest during the early years of the 198Os, few could have guessed just how much the complexion of the American beer industry would change. It’s moved from an era when a small handful of corporate brewers reigned supreme from coast to coast to a time when the plains... Read More

The Daiquiri COCKTALE With frozen, fruit-flavored versions a mainstay of the Island Oasis machine, the Daiquiri might not be the first drink that springs to mind when you think of endangered cocktails.  The original recipe for the drink – a simple mixture of rum, fresh lime juice and sugar –... Read More