The indispensable tool for the Massachusetts adult beverage trade.

HOME

Finding Greatness

Whether we’re discussing wine, food, literature, art, athletics, or life itself, there are virtually no clear, uncontroversial standards. Much like love, you can’t prove its existence, but most of us would say you know it when you feel it. The fact is though that “great” means something a bit different...
Read More

Profile: Giovanni Folonari

Giovanni Folonari looks the archetypal Italian gentleman – tall, dark, handsome – but the Tuscan winemaker has the animated drive, articulate expression, and Stentorian voice of a marketing professor. Having divested the Folonari winery (and name) a generation ago, Giovanni and his father Ambrogio recently split with members of their...
Read More

Winter Beers ae Back Again

It’s the first of November, and that means two things. One, you sold your last bottle of Oktoberfest yesterday; hope you didn’t overstock, and two, it’s now winter beer season, and all the breweries are going to be selling you theirs. But before you buy into the turbo-charged, spice-burning action,...
Read More

Working With Barbiere

Valerio Barbieri. He has not been on the cover of The Wine Spectator, nor even in the fine print. Robert M. Parker, Jr. has not anointed him the rising star of the wine firmament. No importer has bragged that such-and-such an estate is now “working with Valerio Barbieri”. Yet Barbieri...
Read More

Beer Geeks Online

The Internet has fundamentally changed the operation of the brewing industry. From breweries to beer bars to package stores, the internet has had remarkable effects. One of the its most noteworthy achievements has been the empowerment of the online beer geek. For the brewing industry, the Internet has given birth...
Read More

Questioning Mark Stutrud

QUESTIONING MARK STUTRUD To hear Mark Stutrud tell it, the Summit Brewing Company is just a little Minnesota brewery carrying on the great brewing history of the city of Saint Paul. He notes that the brewery sells almost 9O percent of its beer in its home state, with consumers in...
Read More

Boutique Merchandising

Passion and customer service are the by-words of the proprietors of three different Massachusetts boutique wine stores when asked what the single most important part of their businesses is. These words are what the owners claim is the reason customers turn to them, in their smaller spaces, with less big...
Read More

Locals Breaking-Out!

There are two small Massachusetts breweries that are edging up toward a break-out point – Berkshire Brewing, in South Deerfield, and Wachusett Brewing, in Westminster, passed the 1O,OOO bottle a year mark in 2OO3, and both are sustaining steady growth. Interestingly, both have reached that mark largely within the state...
Read More

ABCC from A to Z

Between undercover stings, budget cuts, layoffs, department transfers, and agency overhauls, the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission has certainly been busy over the last year. In June of 2OO3 the agency was moved, after actually being temporarily eliminated in March, from its longtime home of the Office of Consumer &...
Read More