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LAURA DePASQUALE • 40+ • National Sales Director for Fine Wines, Palm Bay Imports • Miami, FL As a top sales director for a major wine import house, Laura DePasquale is a tad disarming. Her former careers as rock guitarist and graphic artist skew her profile out of the mainstream,... Read More

JORGE ORDONEZ • 46 • IMPORTER • FINE WINES of SPAIN • DEDHAM, MA PROFILE The human dynamo who imports Spain’s biggest, deepest wine portfolio to America is not your everyday importer. Jorge Ordonez goes way beyond buy and sell; he advises, cajoles, teaches, pleads, strong-arms, consults with wineries all... Read More

The Brewers Association (BA) is a natural combination, one of those things that makes you ask “Why did it take so long?” It brings together the craft brewers and the regional brewers in one group, and there was a lot of optimistic talk about combined efforts, particularly in the legislative... Read More

As the last century wound down, Temecula, the Southern Californian wine region 6O miles north of San Diego, suffered a calamity. With one notable exception, Temecula’s wineries picked themselves up and moved on. The calamity was an outbreak of Pierce’s Disease, caused by a bacterium called Xylella fastidiosa, that destroys... Read More

As in, the 2OO2 Opus One has 3% Cabernet Franc in the blend, the same exact percentage as the 2OO2 Joseph Phelps Insignia. In fact, why is its presence almost mandatory in California’s most prestigious so-called “Meritage” Bordeaux blends? Questions abound. How can the presence of such a small percentage... Read More

WHOA! Yes, we’re talking about barrel-aged beers, but this isn’t about oom-pah bands and whirling dirndls and whoopee. This is about brewers who are using wooden barrels to add new flavors and depths of complexity to beer, a truly innovative move that represents the best traditions of American brewing –... Read More

Syrah and Sirah have both become almost as common as Cabernet and Merlot. When I first started waiting tables in the late 197Os, however, it was Petite Sirah, not Syrah or Sirah, which first appeared on the restaurant’s wine list. The restaurant, which had cuisine with a Provence-Nouvelle cuisine theme,... Read More

The ruling concerns only wine, not beer and spirits, and throws out as unconstitutional New York and Michigan’s restrictions on direct wine shipments from out-of-state if in-state vintners can ship their wines within and beyond state borders. It will not open the floodgates and let wineries immediately start shipping their... Read More

Brothers Donnie and Lee Thibodeau (co-Chairmen) have joined forces with CEO Bob Harkins and distiller Chris Dowe* to launch Maine Distilleries, the Pine Tree State’s first commercial distillery. Their idea was to transform potatoes – that starchy tuber with somewhat tarnished acclaim among diet-crazed Americans – into premium vodka, a... Read More

Cordials and liqueurs may not pack much of a punch with their alcohol content but there’s no denying their powerful impact on the industry over the last few years. Long considered minor players in the cocktail arena, cordials have today become forceful contenders and are presently vying with rum for... Read More