Massachusetts Beverage Business

Article by: Andy Crouch - No season so attracts the attention of beer drinkers as much as the warm days and nights of summer.  With the swells of heat and humidity comes a desire to cool off, whether through dips in the local pool or lake, or with a cold beverage.  To take the edge off, consumers look to refreshing beverages with a bit of a bite – just enough to remain crisp but attention grabbing.  While IPA and its [...] Read More »

Article by: Pink Lady - Consider the Martini.  Iconic, misunderstood, misconstrued.  Of the all drinks in the cocktail cannon, the beverage you are often served as a martini could not be further from its classic incarnation.  Here’s why:1 A Martini is a drink, not a glass.  Referring to the stemmed, conical-shaped vessel that traditionally holds “up” drinks as a Martini Glass is akin to calling a pint glass a Beer Glass, or any vessel you use to drink [...] Read More »

Article by: Harvey Finkel, MD - Although happy to collect the taxes, our federal government has been most uncomfortable admitting that alcohol can provide any benefit, particularly to health.  Divisions of the government, like the National Institutes of Health, and organizations it helps support, such as the American Heart Association and the World Health Organization, try very hard to emphasize the negative aspects of drinking, even moderately, and to discourage giving any credit to alcohol.  I can almost see our rulers [...] Read More »

Article by: Harvey Finkel - SPANISH SHAPE-SHIFTER The grape we usually call tempranillo slyly changes its character and, especially, its name whenever it senses a new ethos.  Probably native to northern Spain, where it is the dominant grape variety, it is Spain’s best grape.  It is best known in the Rioja as tempranillo, and in Ribera del Duero as tinto fino; it contributes to the wines of Catalonia as, in Catalan, ull de llebre, or in Spanish, ojo de [...] Read More »

Article by: Sandy Block, MW - Every observer with even a passing interest in California wine knows the Opus One story of trans-Atlantic collaboration between two of the Twentieth Century’s most visionary wine personalities. What’s less clear to some is the status of the iconic Napa Valley winery since the passing of both Robert Mondavi and the Baron Philippe de Rothschild, and the subsequent changes in corporate ownership of the former’s family business. The reality is that, despite what might otherwise [...] Read More »

Article by: Fred Bouchard - On book tour mid-January, Eric Asimov, the new york times’ “Chief Wine Critic”, made a whistle-stop at Harvard Coop in Cambridge to reading from his first full-length wine book, How to Love Wine: A Memoir and Manifesto.*The book came about during Asimov’s current post as wine critic, held since 2OO4 when he succeeded Frank Prial.  Previously he’d worked for the times in general reporting, starting his $25 and under witty, no-frills restaurant thumbnails [...] Read More »