Is Coffee the New Wine? Embracing Coffee’s “Third Wave”

Evan Dawson
Features
6 min read
How’s this for a tasting note? “Cherry, roasted cashew, baked apple, and chocolate.” Or this: “Toasted nuts, caramel, milk chocolate and tobacco.” The first is difficult to place. The second sounds like a modern Bordeaux with about ten or fifteen years of age. But we’re not talking about wine. We’re

Has Italian Rose Finally Arrived?

Fabian Jauregui
Features
2 min read
Italy is currently the world's number one producer of wine, and the top exporter to the US, yet Italian rosé hasn't been more than a bit player in the pink market. Though actually the world's second-largest exporter, much of Italy's contribution has, in the past, fallen in the cheap, bulk

What We’re Drinking – Gonzalez Byass “La Copa” Vermouth

David Honig
Features
1 min read
Cocktail lovers, take heed. This new sherry-based vermouth from Gonzalez Byass is going to give you something to shout about. It's a revival of the 19th century La Copa vermouth, made from 8-year old Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez sherries, with wormwood, clove, orange peel, nutmeg, angelica and quinine. The orange peel has

Actually, What is Vermouth?

Becky Sue Epstein
Features
3 min read
To celebrate Vermouth Day, I decided to open a couple bottles of La Pivón from Madrid. But maybe I should talk about what Vermouth is, before I get specific about this one. Because I’ve found that most people don’t really know what Vermouth is, even if they have a bottle

High quality sake in post-tsunami Fukushima

W. Blake Gray
Features
5 min read
This should be a success story. In 1990, Fukushima prefecture got zero gold medals at the Japan sake awards. This was just when Japanese consumers started to pay more for premium sake, so the local government took the embarrassing shutout seriously. Fukushima's government started a sake academy to teach brewers