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Coatepec is in the mountainous part of Mexico’s state of Veracruz. Trucks rumble through the streets, there’s a market in the square where you can buy fresh-roasted ears of corn slathered with mayonnaise and sprinkled with powdered chiles, and the cantinas serve smoky mezcal and ice-cold beers to wiry, calloused... Read More

It gets tiresome fighting the same battles all over again. To no one’s great surprise an outfit in the UK – calling itself the Institute of Alcohol Studies – is focusing its concern, and urging the rest of us to join in, on a problem that I, here in the... Read More

The rain is slanting sideways as I pull off the Mass Pike onto exit 7 towards Ludlow. I can barely see the pavement in front of me as I attempt to navigate the curving local roads. The trek from Boston has been surprisingly treacherous, but my singular purpose is compelling:... Read More

Postulate a 4O-year-old woman who enjoys moderate portions of wine with her dinners, but who is informed by a television report that drinking may lead to breast cancer, and by a magazine article that drinking may prevent death from heart attack or stroke . . . What a choice! An... Read More

Stats on saké sales are about as hard to come by as reading a typical saké label – unless you read Japanese, of course. There might be as many as 6OO brands of saké sold in the US. However, there’s no Yellow Tail. The brand names, sometimes with hard-to-pronounce (for... Read More

Bordeaux Superieur wines are usually made by families working in distinct terroirs. This Bordeaux category represents value, quality, terroir, personality, artisanship, and family – factors which together are difficult to find in today’s basic or prestige Bordeaux wines. Still red and dry in type, its wines, save for a dwindling... Read More

Beautifully situated on the eastern flank of Spring Mountain in the Napa Valley, Newton Vineyard’s 12O acres of select steeply sloped planted parcels grow merlot, cabernets sauvignon and franc, and, a rarity in California, petit verdot, on an exquisite 56O-acre estate. The hand-harvested vineyards are organically nurtured, the whole property... Read More

Long established prejudices take years to eradicate completely so that – even though there’s been a resurgence of Rosé in cutting edge restaurants, bars and retail outlets – as an industry, we’re still grappling somewhat with anything pink. We’re simultaneously intrigued by the opportunity Rosé represents and also instinctively repelled.... Read More

DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON COCKTALE Sometimes it’s the flavor that draws you in to a cocktail’s mythical orbit, sometimes it’s the lovely hue.  In some cases, curiosity is piqued by a beverage’s name.  Death in the Afternoon, for example: what in the heavens could that drink taste like?  What could... Read More