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by SANDY BLOCK, MW CHÂTEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE: Prior to visiting the Rhône Valley for the first time in the 198Os this legendary name (“new castle of the Pope”) had me envisioning majestic towers of fortified granite, gleaming marble hallways, and medieval era turrets.  Imagine the shock as I found myself navigating through... Read More

by HARVEY FINKEL, MD DEMENTIA has become an enormous worldwide burden: medical, economic, personal.  Many of those afflicted would still be in their productive years.  No resolution is in sight.  We are avid for anything that might reduce the toll. Dementia is a progressive brain dysfunction chiefly attacking memory and... Read More

by PINK LADY NATIONAL BOURBON HERITAGE MONTH is upon us!  Exactly ten years ago the US Senate passed a bill declaring September the month to celebrate Bourbon as our “Native Spirit”.  It passed with unanimous support — oh my, how times have changed! Early distillers preferred rye as their spirit... Read More

by ANDY CROUCH FROM NEAR OBSCURITY to something to be laughed at to rising phenomenon to mainstream stability, session beer has experienced a roller coaster of emotions on its way to general acceptance among beer drinkers.  Americans have never been great about limiting their alcohol consumption or even spending much... Read More

PINK LADY’S ENDANGERED COCKTAIL OF THE MONTH 1O YEARS can seem to pass quickly, and if you’re a LUPEC Boston gal, you might just one day wake up and realize you’ve been spreading the gospel of the well-made cocktail for a decade.  Cheers to how far we’ve come! One of... Read More

by HARVEY FINKEL THERE ARE cooperatives, and, then, there are cooperatives.  This might be especially true in Italy, where I have visited industrial-sized wineries out of Chaplin’s Modern Times, whose watery emanations used to be served free on tourist-class international flights, and have marveled at others – blessed is the... Read More

by SANDY BLOCK, MW NO OTHER REGION does Pinot Noir quite like Oregon.  Not that it’s necessarily the place on earth that makes Pinot which will appeal most to every palate, but there is an automatic association between the state and the grape, as well as a consistent style, that... Read More

by HARVEY FINKEL HAVING HEARD increasingly positive word about the recently arrived 2O14 Burgundy vintage, an enthusiastic coterie of members and aspirants of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin were drawn on an evening in April to the upstairs room at La Voile, the sweet little brasserie on Beacon Street... Read More

by PINK LADY EVER JUST HAVE “one of those” weeks?  As we type this it’s a warm, summer Friday, the birds are chirping outside and peonies are in bloom.  As the minute hand ticks away on the clock, our enthusiasm for actual “work” (even the work we love) wanes.  Perhaps... Read More