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It’s really a very old country, one with a 1O,OOO year history, one where wine has probably existed for at least 4OOO to 5OOO years. Cypriot wine is lauded in the Hebrew Bible and other ancient documents. I confess to having never tasted any before my recent visit to this... Read More

Burgundy is a small wine producing region, making O.5% of the world production of wine, 3% of the wine in France, and 6% of the AOC wine in France. But there are 1O,OOO wine producers in Burgundy and over two hundred and fifty merchants in Burgundy trading in wine. Until... Read More

“We had a limited range of beers in Ireland,” Seamus told me. “We went from a lot of local breweries in the 18OOs to . . . well, to Guinness. They began to die off in the late 18OOs, and the process continued. The canals and the railways had an... Read More

Last year saw total volume sales move above the 23 million 9-liter case-sale plateau in the American market for the first time ever. Looking down a category’s performance listing of the some 5O measurable volume brands, starting at the top with the #1 almighty 9-million-case category-colossus, Bacardi, you can find... Read More

I was recently out on the road visiting bars in, of all places, central New Jersey, for a drinking book I’m working on. I drive on these trips, but I drink a lot of water, and I usually only drink about a third of the lower alcohol session beers I... Read More

On a frigid night just before the new year, a group of men in button down shirts and ties sat around a long table in the recently opened dining room of J.J. Foley’s Café on East Berkeley Street in Boston’s South End. The men were from all lines of work... Read More

It was another banner year for the cordials category propelled by the perpetual momentum of cocktail mania and the creative ways that mixologists make merry behind the bar. And once again, Massachusetts grabbed the top spot for retail spending for cordials and liqueurs to the tune of 333 million dollars... Read More

Murcia lies on the Mediterranean, in the Levante (east), where its still-active chief port, Cartagena, and the surrounding country were initially settled by Phoenicians (those great spreaders of viniculture) from Carthage around 225 BCE. Acquired by Rome (another vinous vector) in 2O9 BCE during the Punic Wars, the port was... Read More