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Organic spirits and those made using green production practices continue their transition into the mainstream as consumers put a higher value not only on taste but on the increasingly important issue of sustainability and environmental impact. Conversations with local retailers, regional and national brands all speak to raising the bar... Read More

Some people in the food and drink world gain recognition for being proficient at detecting a trend long before it’s identified in the mainstream, and keeping it fresh and relevant with style and artistry. Others establish an identity by creating a niche for themselves where there’s long been a gaping... Read More

Whether you’re talking politics, literature, culinary icons, or movies, there’s always a place for gin in the conversation.  After all, Winston Churchill, FDR, Julia Child, and Jack London are among its most famous fans, to name but a few.  With all the hullaballoo around vodka throughout the last decade-plus, gin... Read More

About 25 years ago I was going through something of an epiphany regarding wine’s influences upon health. At the time there were two committed camps in the US. A sizable number insisted that anything containing alcohol was intrinsically evil, prohibitionists denying that any good could ever come from drinking, however... Read More

If Ballard Canyon in California’s Santa Barbara County is as unknown to most wine professionals as it had been to me prior to a recent trip to the region, my prediction is that it will soon be “discovered”. The pending AVA is a source of superb Syrah. Not that Rhône... Read More

Few indeed are sources of world-class Pinot Noir. Let us count them. The gold standard resides in the Côte d’Or and, to a lesser degree, the Côte Chalonnaise. I’ve drunk two or three exemplars in the Alto Adige, Italy’s most northerly reaches. Over here, we have Oregon’s Willamette Valley and... Read More

In a small industrial park near downtown Tampa, a buzz continues to grow louder, emanating from the stainless steel tanks of a tiny Florida brewery. The hype about Cigar City Brewing started long before it even brewed its first batch. Run by a beer columnist for a local Tampa newspaper,... Read More

Florodora, a musical revue from London, hit it big on Broadway in 19OO.  It was one of the first successful Broadway musicals of the 2Oth century, showing for 552 performances on the New York stage before touring extensively around the world.  If the name didn’t already cue you, the musical... 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