Like when I read that… Beer is the new wine. Really. In black and white.

In a recent meeting of the NABCA (National Alcohol Beverage Control Association) at a panel on which he was member, Jim Koch of the very successful Boston Beer Company (of Sam Adam’s fame) made that comment. Seated alongside two colleagues, he made that statement, as reported by the chronicler extraordinaire Megan Haverkorn of Wine & Spirits Daily, and went on to say “Brewers have been a little late to that level of appreciation and respect and dignity around their beverage… both these industries [wine and spirits] are good at trading people up and developing the high end. Beer didn’t follow that until recently, maybe 5 years ago. Beer ads on TV were wrestling women, crotch biting dogs and twins. I was watching beer get dumbed down and consequently beer lost share of alcohol. With the emergence of the new mentality about beer driven by small craft brewers, America is starting to create a beer culture in the same way America has created a wine culture.” Continue reading »

Cute, no? While it’s certainly not the case in terms of global percentage metrics (especially when compared to grapes like Chardonnay), Riesling has long been the darling of wine aficionados and the sommelier set. Driven by activist importers (Rudi Wiest, Terry Theise etc…), domestic powerhouses (Chateau Ste. Michelle, Pacific Rim etc..) and a fanatical group of winemakers and fans, the folks who work with Riesling have taken a very novel and energetic approach towards spreading their gospel. Continue reading »

I suspect that many of you out there are sports obsessed… when not being wine obsessed. The critical thinking about team strategy, analyzing player personnel and micro-critiquing performance as ‘arm chair’ coaching are fodder for lengthy conversation and always a great excuse to pull a good bottle of wine, if not the de rigueur beer, to stimulate the oft-heated discussion.

I especially enjoy the pre-season time when rosters are being finalized, players are moving around, free agents signed and the complexion of the impending season shaped. As a loyal and true San Francisco Giants fan, I had my ups and downs of watching the moves (or lack of moves) made to the makeup of the team this season and have spent many an hour thinking through how it will affect the game on the field in 2009. This ‘sport’ of evaluating talent for team output is however not the exclusive domain of atheletics. It happens in restaurants and wine too. Really! Continue reading »

Having just gotten around to reading the current June 2009 issue of AAA’s Via Magazine, I was surprised to find out that something I had believed, is in fact an urban myth. Indeed, did you know that truck drivers aren’t nearly the menace on the road that many of us think that they are (cutting you off, squeezing your lane, etc.)? In actual fact about 70% of fatal collisions that occur between cars and trucks are the fault of the car’s driver and not that of the man behind the wheel of the big rig. I stand corrected.

In wine there are a number of so called myths (maybe more oenological than urban by nature) and I thought I’d throw in my own observations. Continue reading »

For lovers of his weekly NY Times Wednesday Food section column, The Minimalist, the article that follows is likely not new. For those of you who are merely fans of his many inspired books including “How to Cook Everything” and “Food Matters”, his weekly column is very practical and invigorating must read (at least for me).

As a packrat, I clip and save a lot, and file what I clip by season and topic. No, I am not really as organized as both you (and I) would like to think, but I would otherwise not know where to find some items I want as perpetual references. And Mark’s stuff often ends up in those keeper files.

Continue reading »