ARE NUTRITIONAL LABELS COMING TO ALCOHOLIC DRINKS?

  This is the question posed in a recent Associated Press article by Mary Clare Jalonick. Here is the first part of that article: ”Alcoholic beverages soon could have nutritional labels like those on food packaging, but only if the producers want to put them there. The Treasury Department, which regulates alcohol, said this past […]

Under The Radar California Wines

On a recent visit to Sacramento we visited with Darrell Corti of Corti Brothers. Darrell is the driving force behind Corti Brothers. Corti Brothers is a grocery store, but not like any other. Darrell has spent his life traveling the world finding the finest in foods, spirits, and wine.

There Was A Legacy

By Joel M. Fisher If asked who The Wine Spectator anointed Dean of Wine Writers, who would be your guess? Robert Parker, perhaps? The answer is a name not heard enough these days: Robert Lawrence Balzer. The onetime actor, aviator, media personage and Buddhist monk cut quite a figure in his day. Born in 1912, […]

Is Beer the Next Wine?

If you’ve slowly moved away from drinking beer toward the more interesting and varied world of wine and spirits, it may be time to revisit the beer aisle—but it won’t be for just another six-pack of Bud or Mille Lite. Things have changed in the beer world. Although U.S. wine consumption recently outpaced that of beer for the first time ever, most of that gain came from the mega brands, in terms of lost market share.

Several forces are at work to get you back to the joys of beer drinking. Local brewpubs are nothing new but they have expanded to the suburbs in most cities, bringing fresh, interesting “craft” brews to more people. And the quality seems to consistently improve. Import lines increase every year. From Belgian Ale to Oatmeal Stouts and Smoked Beers, things are getting a lot more exciting. In the case of “Extreme” beers with unheard of alcohol levels, some as high as 20 per cent, things get much more exciting.

Movies, Wine, Food and Drink

Wine and spirits in movies may be a central theme, a key plot element, a subplot or just a way to highlight a scene. Wine and spirits play a supporting role in some of the screen’s memorable moments. The films mentioned here range from enduring classics to ones with some cinematic merit to others that are less significant or even soap opera-ish, but wine legitimizes them, affording depth and breadth. Whiskey, for the most part, seems to be the main prop for tough guys and hard-boiled detectives