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Although Franciscan missionaries in the 17OOs found what is known today as Monterey County to be ideal for viticulture, it was only in the 196Os that the US wine industry seriously entered the area. Urban sprawl increasingly forced wine producers to look further and further south of San Francisco for... Read More

European regulators are shooting themselves in the foot, yet again. To begin with, France’s INAO (Institut National des Appellations d’Origine) is reportedly set to ban mention of grape variety from Alsace labels. When I mentioned this to a seasoned and wise international wine merchant, an éminence grise, he exclaimed, “Insane!”,... Read More

‘Twas not so long ago that the wines of Sicily, always a generous producer, were almost entirely sold anonymously in bulk, the reds tired, the whites oxidized. No longer. Although much is still passed along to who-knows-where in bulk, even that has become largely acceptable, and the bottled wines of... Read More

If there is a wine more persistently under-appreciated and under-valued than Loire Valley Chenin Blanc, I’ve yet to discover it. Whether in Anjou or Touraine, the ancient mineral laden soils of France’s grandest river system yield up some magical elixirs from this grape, wines of harmony and contradiction, able to... Read More

They haunt the bars, they haunt the brewpubs, they haunt your store, sometimes as early as late June, hoping that somehow their favorite fall seasonal has arrived early. The Oktoberfest hunters, with their tubas and lederhosen, have nothing on these people for blind need. “We released ours in mid-July,” said... Read More

The “Improved”Holland Gin Cock-Tail COCKTALE The gin cocktails we drink nowadays are usually built upon London Dry, but this hasn’t always been the case. The predominant gin of the 19th century barroom was a Dutch creation distilled from maltwinecalled Genever (“juniper” in Dutch) after its most distinctive botanical. This was... Read More

“We live in a one-hour-photo, instant oatmeal, microwave popcorn society,” Lisa Simpson once remarked.  Of course, she couldn’t turn to her Duff Beer-glugging father to find out how cocktails fit into that schema, but the answer is clear to anyone in the industry.  Pre-mixed cocktails, both ready-to-drink (RTD), the smaller... Read More

We drive the Pike to Route 2O to Route 1O2 to Route 7, then head up again into the scrag southern end of the Berkshires. We see Connecticut off in the haze; then we get lost. No roadside building marks the spot, nor roadside stand; one small sign gives a... Read More

The email that arrived just before the July 4th weekend had an urgent command in the subject line: “Get It Before It’s Gone!” The personalized digital message announcing that several cases of Chateau Pesquie Terrasses Rouge 2OO7 had just landed at BRIX Wine Shop went on to give a brief,... Read More