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RAIMUND PRÜM  6OS.A. Prüm Owner/WinemakerMosel, Germany The winemaker from the Mosel’s distinguished Prüm family is known as “Raimund the Red”.  As his flaming scarlet hair is a beckoning beacon of fine Riesling, friends affectionately nicknamed him “Der Specht” or “Il Pico” – the woodpecker!  Prüm has slowly grown his father’s... Read More

In my fortified wine classes at Boston University, Marsala rarely gets more than a mention or a sip. Hardly any can be found in retail shops beyond the inexpensive Marsala Fine category usually purchased for cooking rather than drinking. Marsala wine was born in the port of Marsala on Sicily’s... Read More

Many are the forces pulling centrifugally to fragment the unity of Chianti, the wine. The soils, exposures, microclimates, grape varieties and clones, political boundaries, production methods and regulations, and fashion are all subject to tremendous, sometimes bewildering, variegation. What hold the center are an ancient tradition that connects back to... Read More

As the beer industry settles into its prime time sales part of the calendar year, beer buyers from pubs to package stores remain focused on keeping the right balance of products on hand to meet a difficult-to-predict demand from consumers. Sales of bigger brands, including volume leaders Budweiser and Bud... Read More

“It’s better thanit’s ever been.There’s never been better bourbon made than right now.”-Wayne Rose Mr. Rose, Group Brand Director, Brown-Forman, isn’t talking about his brand, Woodford Reserve, or even the whole Brown-Forman portfolio.  He’s talking about bourbon, about American straight whiskey, an entire category that has benefited from the same... Read More

Whether or not there’s been a permanent shift in the American wine consumer’s buying habits is not entirely clear, but without having to peer too deeply at the tea leaves it’s obvious that “trade down” remains the norm during the first half of 2O1O. Just as has been the case... Read More

Chile is still figuring out its complex slopes, valleys, and microclimates, and still doing it right at enticing prices. I was introduced to still another Chilean brand, MontGras Properties, when its head winemaker, Santiago Margozzini, visited recently. I came away very glad to have met him and his wines.MontGras was... Read More

So says the mainstream media, the economic analysts, the industry analysts; for a change, even the raw numbers bear them out. Overall US beer sales were down 2.2% in 2OO9, and it’s not getting better in 2O1O; the Beer Institute says sales in the first five months are down 4%,... Read More

The Aviation is a tremendous cocktail that has been gloriously resurrected in recent times by classic cocktail cognoscenti.  The recipe was first published in How to Mix Drinks by Hugo Ensslin, the German-born head bartender at the Wallick House Hotel in Times Square.  His was the last cocktail manual to... Read More