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I took advantage of winemaker Terry Adams’s recent visit to Boston to catch up on the doings at Sonoma-Cutrer, whose wines I’ve been drinking since the beginning. Adams has been on hand since the winery opened, initially assisting Bill Bonetti, the founding winemaker, then succeeding him in 1991 when Bonetti... Read More

Massachusetts has always known a thing or two about astonishing history-making upsets against seemingly impossible odds. In 1775, it was all about a ragtag militia group of passionate guerilla-like Minutemen routing a mighty and well-trained superior fighting force of British Red Coats from behind the stonewalls of Lexington and Concord,... Read More

Conceivably, but there’s hardly enough to go around. This, however, shouldn’t prove a major deterrent to the true Pinot devotee. Anywhere in the world that it grows the finest examples of this now ultra-trendy wine are produced in limited quantities. Longtime fans have come to accept the concept of rarity... Read More

The collective consciousness of connoisseurs took cognizance of Chilean wines only a few years ago, attention captured by emerging quality and, in the face of exponential increases elsewhere in the world, reasonable prices. Those pleasing trends have continued, although the new top-echelon wines can be as pricey as many. Wine... Read More

Discerning wine consumers are curious and hungry for information that often goes beyond what is in the glass, where it came from and how it was made. They are interested in wines from new places, want updates about the new faces at their favorite vineyards, and are eager to learn... Read More

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