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If you read the end of the year reports for any major beer producer, the song remains the same: 2OO9 was a challenging and complicated year in the beer industry, stemming from a depressed economic environment, tightening credit markets and continuing cost pressures.  Overall, beer sales in the United States... Read More

I’m a big fan of draft beer in the summer. The advantages are clear: less handling, usually less expensive, more environmentally friendly, and as lots of folks will tell you, it’s usually how brewers meant the beer to be poured. I like having draft at all our family gatherings: it... Read More

Alongside a swinging door to the kitchen, sacks of malt are stacked up on pallets. Collectively, the piles could easily serve as a retaining wall, of sorts, if it weren’t for one thing: bag by bag, the heap will quickly be depleted within the week, leaving an empty space where... Read More

In the spring of 2O1O, I attended four events, Sicilia en Primeur and Le Contrade dell’Etna, both in Sicily, and Vinitaly and VinoVinoVino 2O1O, both in the Veneto. During these visits, I came to understand some of the current issues challenging Sicilian wine producers. These are the likely emergence of... Read More

“O where hae ye been, Lord Randall, my boon?O where hae ye been; so wan hae ye groon?”“I’ve been to yon vineyard; mother make my bed soon,For I’m weary o’ pinot, and fain would lie doon.” “I’ll plant the mourvèdre, and will dolcetto proon,And I’ll pick them both by the... Read More

Vodka continues its dominance of the spirits category, unchecked by . . . well, by anything.  The economy has shuffled the deck a bit on what brands are growing and what price points and niches are successful at the moment.  More than ever, two things are crucial to a particular... Read More

AARON FRANCISCO 48, General Manager, 111 Chop House, Worcester, MA Rangy, keen-eyed, impulsive, Francisco is senior beverage buyer for multiple award-winning Worcester Restaurant Group’s three destination restaurants.  These brainchildren of owners Robb and Madeleine Ahlquist are: The Sole Proprietor (since 1979), 111 Chop House (1999, where Francisco is also GM),... Read More

Wade Holtzman must be a jinni to be able to cram the concentrated essence of 😯 apples, nearly a bushel, into one little bottle. Abetted by his wife, Margot, and son, Leif, he manages that feat 96OO times a year at the family’s Still River Winery in Harvard, Massachusetts. The... Read More

Because there’s so much drab, unappealing Chardonnay on the market, sometimes we in the business forget what’s made the grape such a powerhouse. Sommeliers in particular seem to bear a collective grudge against our long reigning champion varietal. There are fine restaurants where aversion to Chardonnay’s magnetic appeal is so... Read More