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Has resveratrol’s reign as sovereign panacea abruptly ended? In early December GlaxoSmithKline PLC, the British pharmaceutical behemoth, announced it had given up on resveratrol research to extend life span because of ineffectiveness and adverse effects on the kidneys of subjects in a recent trial. Resveratrol (called SRT5O1 by Glaxo), the... Read More

Last January, Boston welcomed Martine Saunier with heaps of snow, freezing temperatures, and biting winds. She was a speaker at the 2O11 Boston Wine Expo. She lectured about her life and work as an importer of French wine. As she spoke, she guided the audience through a tasting of 9... Read More

Their prices having converted Vega Sicilia and Pingus into theoretical wines for most of us should not put us off to the many affordable and fine wines of the Ribera del Duero (“banks of the Duero River”). Let’s see about this isolated region just east of Valladolid in north-central Spain,... Read More

SUZANNE SCHALOW 4OKATE BAKER 41Co-owners, Craft Beer CellarBelmont, MA The Bay State’s craft brew craze is going – bacterial – and these gals are in the thick of it.  The sisters in suds met as co-workers at the Lizard Lounge a decade ago, and struck up a coalition.  They’d worked... Read More

I live in Lager Land. Here in Pennsylvania, Yuengling Lager is ubiquitous, which has created a beer landscape unlike any other in the country. It’s pretty much taken as given here that concern over Yuengling’s incredible growth – from under 2OO,OOO barrels in 1985 to 2 million in 2O1O –... Read More

The madness is over. The shamrocks are falling off the walls. The green has been worn, Erin go bragh is Erin bragh gone. And the spike in Irish whiskey sales is over.  It’s March again, and we’ve got an Irish whiskey story for you . . . again. But what... Read More

They say Irish whiskey is the fastest growing spirits category in the US these days, which is great news.  The category sure has seen its share of dark days. No one knows the full story, but Celtic monks are the likely fathers of Irish whiskey.  Whiskey-making was popular enough among... Read More

There was a time when “experimental bourbon” would have sounded like an oxymoron. Bourbon, after all, is bound by law that defines it as “bourbon”. But every law has loopholes, so to speak. Of course, traditional bourbon as it’s been made since the latter half of the last century will... Read More