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Despite its relative late start compared to other great brewing nations, America has quickly, over the course of thirty years, become one of the world’s pre-eminent brewing nations.  Mixing a healthy respect for traditional practices with a New World curiosity for experimentation, bundled together with passion for their craft, brewers... Read More

IT’S NOVEMBER. The trees are beginning to shed the last of their leaves and, as the month wears on, it will be more and more challenging to shake the chill from your bones without a good, stiff drink.  We’ll save the Hot Toddies for January and February and discuss a... Read More

MORGAN FIRST and TYLER BALLIET of SECOND GLASS are REINVENTING WINE  EDUCATION ONE RIOT at a TIME FOR THE NOVICE DRINKER, learning about wine can be nothing if not intimidating.  And for many young people, it has an air of the unattainable.  It’s not that there aren’t countless approachable wines... Read More

SCOTCH AFICIONADOS can be quite particular about how they sip their single malts.  “Just one rock” please, or a splash of water.  Mention mixing with soda water, lemon juice or – GASP! – simple syrup and you’re sure to receive a suspicious glance.  We know, we know – scotch is... Read More

ONCE a fashionable name on the us market, Pouilly-Fuisse has not been a “go to” wine for decades, but remains nonetheless an advantageously situated Burgundy appellation nestled among hills and jagged outcroppings at the southernmost end of the Macon district.  The Chardonnays produced on its rocky vineyard amphitheaters vary considerably... Read More

IN FEBRUARY 2O13, Massachusetts-bred (Newton Highlands), California winemaker Merry Edwards appeared at the Boston Wine Expo to present her single-vineyard Pinot Noirs.  The seminar featured a tasting of six different wines all from the Russian River Valley where Merry Edwards Winery is located.  Her partner in this project, which began... Read More

HOW MUCH ONE DRINKSis strongly influenced by whether the drinkingis reinforced bypleasurable sensationsor punished by torment.The outcome islargely decidedby inheritance. Key aspects of drinking are how the body – especially the brain – metabolizes, degrades, neutralizes alcohol, and whether the process rewards or punishes the drinker.  Genetic variability plays a large... Read More

ONE MIGHT IMAGINE that walking into the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission headquarters to meet with Chairman Kim Gainsboro would feel a bit like walking into the principal’s office.  This is, after all, where the letter of the law as it applies to “the sale, purchase, transportation, manufacture, consumption and possession... Read More

Wine is one of life’s great pleasures, and for on-premise operators, it can also be an expensive one.  From spoilage to storage, broken bottles to recycling, a high-volume restaurant can spend a small fortune trying to keep up with consumers’ appetite for wine.  Though packaging innovation has been on-going in... Read More