Featured Articles

Judging by aggregate sales figures for the first 7 months of 2OO6, Americans are doing a lot of celebrating. Whereas imported wines in general keep creeping higher as a percentage of the overall US wine market, Champagne has always constituted a category unto itself. Sales trends in this unique segment... Read More

The Pinot Noir story is a remarkable one. It’s amazing what “the movie”, whatever you happen to think of it, has wrought in the wine business. What’s more amazing is how long wine professionals have been patiently sniffing, tasting, talking and writing about their pet grape variety to virtually zero... Read More

With cramped Dublin ‘bed-sitters’ today costing as much as San Francisco lofts and Boston studios, it’s no wonder that dive pubs along the Liffey (like the now-toney former navvy-hangout warehouse section of Temple Bar) have mutated into posh saloons and the Irish whiskeys they serve (mixed in with your Cosmos... Read More

The dramatic increase in the popularity of Pinot Gris over the past few years has vaulted it into second place among the white grapes that Americans choose most frequently, right behind Chardonnay. The vast majority of the bottles, however, are labeled Pinot Grigio and imported from Italy or produced in... Read More

Candor, humor and persistence mark Dellie Rex’s style over her distinguished career in Boston’s wine world. Ms. Rex’s wide-ranging experience includes wholesale (Classic), sales rep (Racke USA, Dreyfus Ashby), entrepreneur (her own Wine Experiences and Rex Associates), consulting (Wines of Spain, Trade Commission of Portugal, Geerlings & Wade, United Liquors),... Read More

One of the reasons Riesling appeals to us so much more immediately than many other varieties is that it’s not an acquired taste: you don’t have to search for flavor undertones and subtleties. At the same time they are often present, so the grape also has the potential to excite... Read More

While it’s true that the predominant low-end domestic segment, that represents over 7O% of gin’s 11 million-case annual total volume sales in the US, continues to be static and largely disappointing, the upwardly mobile performances and brand expansions in the high-end import tier is cause for genuine celebration in this... Read More

Pro-Stelvin testimonials, trickling in from wineries worldwide, are raising voices against all corks, natural and plastic. We report the findings and learned commentaries of three respected wineries, Bonny Doon from Santa Rosa, California, Mitchell from Clare Valley, Australia, and Kim Crawford from Marlborough, New Zealand. But first, let’s begin with... Read More

One of the most difficult and time-consuming situations for a sommelier, manager or waiter is when a client refuses a bottle of wine. This is mainly because it is such a subjective situation. If a customer sends a dish back because it is over or underdone there really isn’t any... Read More