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Profile: Dan Aykroyd

DAN AYKROYD • 56 • Actor Musician, Importer, Investor / Diamond Estates Winery & Spirits, Ltd. This upstanding son of Canada has long stood tall as a stalwart champion of bold and worthy causes.  First was humor, as Saturday Night Live’s Purvis Buckle and Ghostbusters’ Ray Stantz; then there was...
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Tuscan Wine Industry

Every third week of February the producer consortiums representing these appellations invite journalists from around the world to experience a full week of in-depth tastings. The Chianti Classico, Montepulciano, and Montalcino events focus on presenting information and tastes of barrel samples of the new vintage as well as samples of...
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Local Winegrowers

Let’s examine some background and discussions from the program that seem of general interest.  The technical presentations had a narrower focus and for the wine tasting you had to be there. The contributors to those segments of the program I shall extract included: for the Association, Kip Kumler of Turtle...
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Alaskan Ale’s Geoff Larson

If you were going to choose the ideal place to start a new brewery in the early days of the craft brewing renaissance it’s doubtful that Juneau, Alaska, would ever cross your mind. While beautiful and the capital city of the state, the coastal town does not have a road...
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Endangered Cocktails

Vodka takes center stage on most modern cocktail lists but the spirit was virtually unknown to most Americans until the 194Os.  When the “white whiskey” finally did take off, it was thanks to a clever marketing ploy conceived by two businessmen looking to unload two products they couldn’t seem to...
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Dialogue

Re: “Let Them Have Liquor Licenses!”                                                                                                 28 March 2OO9          April 2OO9 issue page 3O From: John H Eisenbeiser IV          Whip City Spirits Incorporated          65 Southwick Road Westfield, MA  O1O85          dba/76 Discount Loquors, Westfield, MA O1O85          dba/Riverside Liquors, Agawam, MA O1OO1 To Whom It May Concern, I am an owner...
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Vodka

Vodka.  How does one begin to wrap one’s mind around the subject of vodka?  The simple word “big” is far too small to describe this behemoth of a spirit.  Speaking with the people who sell vodka – the producers importers wholesalers retailers, bar and restaurant owners – and those who...
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It’s Chile’s Time

IT’S REMARKABLE that despite a year of economic misery and with little optimism for a speedy recovery, the market for wine in the United States actually grew again in 2OO8.  Per capita consumption surpassed three gallons for the first time ever and despite a palpable absence of demand in virtually...
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Clos des Lambrays

I recently attended a dinner of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin’s Massachusetts chapter and was happily introduced to a wine, of course a Burgundy, of which I had heretofore been only vaguely aware. Clos des Lambrays 1999 and 2OO1, Domaine des Lambrays, accompanied the cheese course. They repaid in...
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