FABULOUS FAKES
LOVING THAT AMAZING Bordeaux or Burgundy you just picked up at auction? Be careful, it just may be a cheap knockoff. According to unofficial industry estimates, fake wines now account for 2O% of global wine sales. The claim was published recently in regional French newspaper Sud Ouest and refers to... Read More
DEADLY WINE
THIS WAS AN ATTEMPT at teaching a lesson that went terribly wrong. A Hungarian winemaker who admitted putting antifreeze in his wine to poison thieves, was charged with manslaughter after one man died and five were hospitalized, police said. The 37-year-old, who worked in the village of Vacszentlaszlo, 3O miles... Read More
GLOBAL WINE SHORTAGE? NOT SO FAST HENNY PENNY
MORGAN STANLEY CAUSED a small panic recently when it announced that there’s just not enough wine in the world and the problem is only going to get worse. The industry is experiencing an “undersupply of nearly 3OO million cases” a year, according to the report from Morgan Stanley Research. Australia-based... Read More
ONE-TENTH OF HARVEST STOLEN
IN A BIZARRE FINALE to a difficult year, a Sauternes wine producer has said it has lost a tenth of its normal grape haul after they were harvested overnight by someone else. Around $2O,OOO-worth of grapes (Euro) were stripped from 13 rows of vines under the cover of darkness at... Read More
BOOK – BEER TERRAIN: FIELD TO GLASS FROM THE BERKSHIRES TO THE MAINE COAST
Jonathon Cook + Suzanne LepageCraft beer is booming in the Northeast. With area farmers planting hops and grains, and a little custom malthouse open for business in the Pioneer Valley, brewers can now create unique, complex and incredibly delicious flavors from the native beer terrain. This is the story of... Read More
BOOK – ARCHITECTURE OF THE COCKTAIL: BUILDING THE PERFECT COCKTAIL FROM THE BOTTOM UP
Amy Zavatto + Melissa Wood Illustrated with a unique blueprints-inspired design, this new book features 75 different cocktails and recipes (including specifications, notes and embellishments) for both modern cocktails and classics. The book lays out exact measurements from the bottom of the glass to the top, and discusses the order... Read More
IS THE MEGA MERGER IN THE WORKS?
It’s a definite possibility that the colossal beer merger that’s been buzzed about for years could finally be happening. With half the world’s beer produced by four big firms and few markets left for them to tap, the time may be right for a US$1OO-billion merger between the two largest,... Read More
BEER ICE CREAM . . . THE ULTIMATE INDULGENCE
IT’S A MATCH made in heaven and enough to make Homer Simpson drool. Frozen Pints is a beer ice cream that comes in seven different flavors. Peach Lambic is the weakest at 1 percent, while Pumpkin Ale at 3.2 percent is the strongest ice cream on offer. Each special portion... Read More
IS THE KING’S REIGN OVER?
ANHEUSER-BUSCH long ago coined the term “King of Beers”, but a new poll says that the most popular beer with Americans is not one of A-B’s brews. According to a survey conducted by AMP Agency and Blowfish, a “hangover cure” tablet, Blue Moon is America’s favorite beer, followed by Sam... Read More
ALCHEMIST CLOSES CANNERY TO THE PUBLIC
BAD NEWS for lovers of Heady Topper. The Alchemist, brewers of the number one beer in the world (according to beer advocate) has closed its cannery to the public, effective November 15. The closing ends the long lines that have snaked around the building in recent months. For a while,... Read More