• State of the Industry: Fortified Wine Sales, Trends and Challenges Today

    I spent three decades in F&B management, created dozens of wine lists, and taught many a beverage sales staff in hotels, casinos, restaurants and resorts, etc. My takeaway, in relation to this feature article and to what I do today? That fortified wine has always been a tough sell—no matter how prominently it’s listed on menus, featured in pairings, or aligned with desserts.

    Yes, today we might see the…

  • Lisa Wong: Frozen Fruits

    Canada's Icewine & Ice Cider


    Between the woods and frozen lake, the darkest evening of the year.
    -Robert Frost

    …many people believe that none of the four seasons accurately describe the two months of darkness that all of Canada experiences in the months of July and August, so there’s now a movement to actually have a fifth season in Canada, and we have three names: the Slumber, the Equinox, or the Canadark.…

  • State of the Industry: Spotlight: Toronto

    Toronto. To offer up a quick comparison, we’re about the same size as Chicago (actually, Toronto is slightly larger) and considered Canada’s financial center. Far from the stereotypical image of Canadians you might be expecting (eh!), Toronto—or what we like to call the “GTA” (the Greater Toronto Area)— is quite cosmopolitan, with an impressive 49% of its population hailing from outside of Canada……

  • Guild of Sommeliers: Somm Camp 2014

    Top 13 Things We Learned at Somm Camp

    This past November the Guild of Sommeliers hosted our second annual Somm Camp, bringing 12 American and Canadian CMS-certified sommeliers to Napa Valley and Sonoma County for a three-day immersion in winemaking and viticulture. For making this incredible opportunity a reality, we are very grateful to our sponsors: Jackson Family Wines' Spire Collection (including Vérité, Lokoya,…

  • Guild of Sommeliers: Transitioning from the Floor

     

    Moving from the sommelier world to the supply side.


    When Matt (Stamp) asked me to write this article, my gut reaction was: “Sure, no problem.” Why?  Because that’s my general response to things in my life in the distribution of beverage alcohol. Call it wine, call it liquor, call it saké—whatever you want to call it, in distribution it’s all beverage alcohol. And it’s my job to distribute it. What follows…

  • State of the Industry: Spotlight: New York City

    I have been lucky to work in New York for nearly ten years, and if I have learned one thing, it’s that this truly is the city that never sleeps, and that is because it is continually reinventing itself. Never resting on laurels and driven by a palpable energy, the New York wine scene is in a constant state of evolution—and it has never been better than it is right now.
     
    Thanks to great mentors and some exceptionally…

  • Charles Neal: Where the Ocean Meets the Sea: Wines of Fronton, Gaillac, Marcillac, and Cahors

    In my first installment on the wines of Southwest France I covered wines from the Pyrénées, including Jurançon, Madiran and Irouleguy. In this second installment, we are moving from the western edge of the Southwest to its eastern border. Here the wines are influenced by the intersection of two bodies of water: the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Mediterranean Sea to the south.

    The Atlantic climate…

  • State of the Industry: South American Wine Sales, Trends and Challenges Today

    South American wines can happily and proudly claim palpable success in the United States. A mere curiosity some 35 years ago, wines from the continent can today boast being the #3 (Argentina) and #5 (Chile) wine imports into America. It only takes a stroll down a grocery store aisle or a glance at most wine lists to see this phenomenon played out. Beyond that, interest is emerging in the sommelier community for exciting…

  • Matt Stamp: Mascarello vs. Mascarello, by the numbers

    Despite unseasonal early fall weather reaching into the 90s, our core mission remained intact: drink a lot of Nebbiolo, a quintessential cold-weather wine, and wash it down with some home-cooked osso buco and polenta. Accepted, happily! Winemaker Dan Petroski (Massican, Larkmead), vintner Bob Bressler, and a crew of current and former Napa sommeliers—Jimmy Hayes, Dennis Kelly MS, Sur Lucero MS, Jason Heller MS,…

  • State of the Industry: Spotlight: San Francisco Bay Area

    When I moved to the Bay Area a little over four years ago, the restaurant scene could be described as guarded, at best. The effects of the mortgage-backed securities and housing meltdowns were still reverberating. Everyone was cautious. Chefs eased back on their craft and kept things simple; sommeliers were prudent, buying what sold to maintain cash flow; guests avoided splurging and sought safety over ambition.

    How things…