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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...
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North American Whiskies

When addressing the topic of domestic American whiskies in years gone by, there were many separate distinctions to make. First, there were the numerous staple blends, then rye whiskies, then a bourbon category, then a separate Tennessee whiskey section. And always, in the background, were those massively-distributed volume products from...
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Tennessee Whiskey

 It takes a lot to be Straight Bourbon Whiskey. There are rules about what grains can and must go into the mash, rules about how strong it can be coming off the still, how strong it has to be going in the barrel, how strong it has to be to...
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Drinking Patterns and Heart Attacks

People picture science differently. For some, it’s a Gothic laboratory and Victor Frankenstein shrieking, “It’s alive!” For others, it’s a quiet and understated, sterile, well-lighted, modern and nondescript workplace. For still others, science is epidemiology, the statistical study of what affects the health of populations. What science really is amounts...
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Bitten by the Grape

“My passion for wine started in my 2Os,” says Mantra Restaurant’s Sommelier David Singer, who is barely in his 3Os today. While working as a server in Toronto and attending college, he always wanted more information about the wine he was serving. Singer says that his five questions led to...
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Tempranillo

True, Spain is also home to two other important quality red wine grapes, Garnacha and Monastrell, but these two varieties are qualitatively more successful respectively in the Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Bandol appellations of France. Spain’s best known red wine appellation, Rioja, first brought Tempranillo to the attention of the world outside...
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G.A.B.F.

1454 Different American Beers Served to more than 28,000 Beer Lovers Can Only Be The Great American Beer Festival Celebrating its twenty-third year as America’s predominant beer event, the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) rolled into Denver on the last weekend in September. Promoting itself as the “Napa Valley of...
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Beyond The Pale Ale

Got customers who’re jaded? Who wants something really different, and doesn’t mean lambic or Baltic porter, . . . been there, drunk that? Help is on the way. Get those geek some beers that will make them go “Huh?” Beers from the Outer Limits. Beers from Beyond the Pale. Beyond...
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Spring Cleaning

It’s spring, at last. Time to deep-clean our homes, our lives and our cellars.  It’s the time of the year to look at our inventories and see what hasn’t moved since the Truman Administration. Yes, I’m referring to that case or odd bottle of fermented beverage that someone thought was...
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