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By Harvey Finkel Alicante Bouschet, a blue-collar, red-fleshed grape variety of waning popularity in southern France, has achieved elite status in southern Portugal’s Alentejo region. Officially named Alicante Henri Bouschet, this cross of Garnacha (Grenache) with Petit Bouschet was developed by the eponymous Henri Bouschet in the Hérault in 1855,... Read More

By Pink Lady As summer started late in these parts, we predict that you should extend your summer-y cocktail sipping plans well into early October. The days may get shorter and your bar or store might be getting busier (hallelujah!) but there’s no telling if a September afternoon will be... Read More

By Sandy Block, MW Three years ago we reported on the state of Israel’s wine industry, and its commercial prospects in the U.S., based on a tour of the country’s vineyard regions. Not much has changed in the interim. Quality continues to rise, across the board, but it’s still a... Read More

By Pink Lady There are few drinks as refreshing as a Pisco Sour, and August in Boston is a fantastic time to sip one! This drink is a perfect gateway to the South American spirit which is made both in Peru and Chile, and has a hotly debated provenance. Pisco... Read More

By Harvey Finkel You’d think you were looking through Alice’s looking glass to view the labyrinthine history of Scharffenberger Cellars, though the wines have been on a straight line of good quality. In 1981, the young John Scharffenberger, having studied agricultural geography at Berkeley, founded a marginally capitalized eponymous sparkling... Read More

by PINK LADY The Fourth of July is one of the great drinking holidays of summer, and while it’s certainly fun to serve guests red, white, and blue-themed beverages, a drink with true Revolutionary Era roots is sure to intrigue the history buffs at your picnic. If their numbers are... Read More

by HARVEY FINKEL Seriously delicious. Short supply. Stable prices. These are the key phrases one took away from the early reviews of the 2016 vintage in Burgundy, now in distribution on our shores. Like an inverted phoenix, the splendor of the wines arose, not from fire, but from ice. We’ve... Read More

by ANDY CROUCH A consumer’s beer fridge undergoes a number of seasonal changes throughout the year, transitioning from the lighter, crisper beers of summer into more full bodied offerings in the fall and through winter before returning full circle in the spring. As the seasons change, some beers can get... Read More

“A single bottle of Prosecco DOCG sparkling wine drinks 4.4 kg of soil every year.” By Harvey Finkel Among the inconvenient truths about humankind’s disturbances of the ecosystem is that thoughtless agricultural cultivation accelerates soil erosion, already losing 30 percent of the farm production on the half of the earth’s... Read More