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Consider the Martini.  Iconic, misunderstood, misconstrued.  Of the all drinks in the cocktail cannon, the beverage you are often served as a martini could not be further from its classic incarnation.  Here’s why: 1 A Martini is a drink, not a glass.  Referring to the stemmed, conical-shaped vessel that traditionally... Read More

Although happy to collect the taxes, our federal government has been most uncomfortable admitting that alcohol can provide any benefit, particularly to health.  Divisions of the government, like the National Institutes of Health, and organizations it helps support, such as the American Heart Association and the World Health Organization, try... Read More

SPANISH SHAPE-SHIFTER The grape we usually call tempranillo slyly changes its character and, especially, its name whenever it senses a new ethos.  Probably native to northern Spain, where it is the dominant grape variety, it is Spain’s best grape.  It is best known in the Rioja as tempranillo, and in... Read More

A DRINK WITH . . . MISTY KALKOFEN + PATRICK SULLIVANBRICK & MORTAR To most of us familiar with the cocktail landscape, Misty Kalkofen and Patrick Sullivan need no introduction.  Between the two of them, they’ve logged in 36 years of hospitality, weaving in and out of beloved institutions across... Read More

Current research appears to confirm, and in part explain, some of red wine’s cardiovascular benefits, especially vis-à-vis eating enjoyably.  Work done in Jerusalem at Hebrew University’s Institute of Drug Research demonstrated that components of red wine, perhaps antioxidant polyphenols, vastly reduce the formation of a toxic cholesterol-altering compound following a... Read More

If you think that, you’ve got vision problems: How about Samuel Adams? Boston Lager? Not to mention Narragansett (even if you won’t admit the Lager as “craft”, there’s the excellent Bock and Oktoberfest), and Thomas Hooker, and . . . um . . . New England Elm City . .... Read More

A considerable proportion of the world’s high-quality, traditional Champagne-method bubblies are made in Spain, where, if they conform to geographical, viticultural and vinification regulations, they are called Cava, a term derived from “cave”. Cava is generally well priced, and encompasses a wide range of quality. The US imports close to... Read More

While tequila is beloved by the LUPEC ladies, it isn’t a spirit that saw play pre-Prohibition.  One cocktail that came to be not before but because of the Noble Experiment is the Tequila Sunrise. With stateside boozing illegal, where else were wealthy and fashionable Angelenos and Hollywood stars to booze... Read More

The good wine folk of the region avoid the adjective Alsatian, preferring the awkward use of the noun, Alsace, as adjective, i.e., “Alsace wine” in fear of confusion with the British term for German shepherd.  They should be reassured: their wines are not dogs. I like to imagine that Rodney... Read More