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Last summer I wrote about going to the Society of Wine Educators Conference and getting my wine geek on. This year the conference was in Monterey, which is a part of California wine country that I had not yet visited yet, so I was looking forward to this trip for... Read More

American craft brewers may boast about their innovative ways: bourbon barrel-aged beers, wild ingredients, beers that tip the ABV scale well north of 15%. Belgian brewers have been doing wild stuff for years. Not that “wild” is always the same as “good”, just as has been shown with the American... Read More

Harpoon’s head brewer, Al Marzi, had a session recently. “I was just over in England for a wedding and had some great cask ales. My wife was drinking a 3.8% bitter, I had a 4.5% ale, and they tasted great. That’s session. If you’re going to sit down in a... Read More

While domestic gin sales remain mostly flat to sinking, many consumers and savvy bartenders appear to be rediscovering the imported premium gin segment. The annual growth rate in sales of all imported gins reached two to three percent in 2OO6 (some estimate even four percent), a rate that has remained... Read More

The life-span extending effects of red wine’s resveratrol are being followed up the evolutionary scale by David A. Sinclair’s research group, which now reports positive results in a mammal, the mouse (published in nature November 2OO6). Recall* that prolongation of life had been demonstrated previously in resveratrol-treated yeast, roundworm, fruitfly,... Read More

For winemakers, sourcing grapes from outside a vineyard estate is nothing new. Yellow Tail does it. So do Louis Jadot and Verget. But creating a line of limited-production wines from all over the world, crafted by a diverse group of renowned wine-makers, bottled at the source and then distributed under... Read More

Riding an impressive and seemingly unbreakable wave of industry growth, the Brewers Association recently celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of its signature event, the Great American Beer Festival (GABF), in Denver, Colorado. With expanded floor space and increased offerings, the festival broke its old records and new ground in the promotion... Read More