| It's 300 bottles of beer on the wall | | Posted Sunday, February 04, 2007 3:09:58 PM by Blog57 Team | | AMSTERDAM -- In a city famous for pot and prostitutes, a Bay State man is seeking his fortune as a purveyor of offbeat potables. Do you crave a bottle of the legendary Westvleteren 12 beer from the Belgium Abbey of St. Sixtus? Got a yen for British-brewed Young's Double Chocolate Stout with its "slightly sour tinge and hint of bread?" Or maybe you are a Bostonian abroad and yearn for a Samuel Adams? As long as American Bud isn't for you (but it's fine if you want the 700-year-old Czech Pilsner that has greater historical claim to the name Budweiser) and you don't require a brew with "lite" on the label, Jeff Cunningham can probably slake your thirst. Eighteen months ago, the former farmer, automobile mechanic, National Guard medic, and robotics technician from Upton, Mass., opened a specialty beer shop in what his brochure calls the "heart of Amsterdam." Well, make that one of the most obscure side streets in the colorful old central city.... | |
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| | | Lighting Fixtures feature authentic glass wine bottles. | | Posted Wednesday, December 13, 2006 1:27:53 PM by Blog57 Team | | December 7, 2006 - Available in green, white, and blue, as well as in etched models, Wine Bottle Pendants measure 12 in. high and 3 in. wide. Overall fixture height can be adjusted from 16-84 in. from ceiling. Pendants feature back wrought-iron accents wrapped around bottle necks. Fixtures are suspended by black cords. .... | |
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| | | McInerney Talks Turkey About Wine for the Holiday | | Posted Wednesday, November 15, 2006 11:28:48 AM by Blog57 Team | | In "Bright Lights, Big City," Jay McInerney's 1984 debut novel, the most popular consumable pleasure is not wine, nor even liquid. It's the white stuff the author calls "Bolivian marching powder." But Mr. McInerney, it turns out, has been a wine enthusiast since he worked as an upstate liquor shop clerk while he worked on the novel. Ten years after its publication, with several New York novels under his belt, his friend Dominique Browning, the editor of House & Garden, asked Mr. McInerney to be the magazine's wine columnist. She was looking for a writer, not a technical geek, and in his columns, Mr. McInerney keeps the formulaics of the wine priesthood at bay in favor of unexpected yet elegant descriptions. His latest book, "A Hedonist in the Cellar" (Knopf, 272 pages, $24), is his second collection of wine columns.... | |
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| | | Make a toast with pepper on the way out | | Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 3:50:14 AM by Blog57 Team | | For their hard work and dedication, outgoing Lake County commissioners Catherine Hanson and Bob Pool were presented with what resembled two bottles of wine from a nonprofit group on Tuesday. But while a drink may be in order after so many years on the County Commission, these were actually pepper mills -- no alcohol included. .... | |
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| | | Wine Con | | Posted Friday, November 10, 2006 3:33:27 PM by Blog57 Team | | MARTIN Isark is an oenophile. Hanging might well be too good for him, but for now the wine expert risks incurring the wrath of illiterate kiddie-protectors and wine makers by saying that a lot of prize plonk is rubbish. The heard mentality that affects most choices in life sees wine drinkers selecting wine by the number of medals that appear on the label. These medals, typically gold in colour and issued by the Angola Institute of Wine and such like, are a money-making scam dreamt up by marketing types. Says Mr Isark: "Who is benefiting from these awards? It has to be the wine houses who clear their stock, the supermarkets who can drum up sales from promotions, and the companies which organise the competitions. I am not convinced the consumer gets anything out of it." Mr Isark’s point seems valid.... | |
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| | | Clement Wine Isn't Lost and Gone Forever | | Posted Wednesday, November 08, 2006 3:18:12 AM by Blog57 Team | | Q: You mentioned that "while it is technically possible for you to order wine from Italy, the logistics, the paperwork and the expense would all be daunting" ["Basic, and Not So Basic, Italian Wines," Oct. 8]. And you suggested leaving the importing to the pros. That said, how does a private party go about importing wine from Italy? During my last visit to Tuscany (last November), I discovered a fabulous Chianti called "Clement VII." I cannot find this wine anywhere in the States. Sam's Wines in Downers Grove told me they don't have it and can't get it, so I'm assuming it's not exported at all. My wife is currently at a cooking school near Positano, and she has a standing order to buy a few bottles of Clement VII to bring home. However, I enjoyed this wine so much that I'd love to have a case (or two)! Can you provide any advice? Or, can you search for this fine Chianti and let me know if I've missed it somehow? _Kevin Thomas, Wheaton, Ill.... | |
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| | | Some of my best new friends live in wine bottles | | Posted Tuesday, November 07, 2006 1:38:05 PM by Blog57 Team | | It has been a hectic couple of weeks and I have another couple to go in the wonderful world of tasting wine. There are at least three more major tastings to attend and my body is rejoicing in that fact. I have not kept count of how many different wines I have sipped over the last three weeks but sometimes I feel like I have personally been responsible for the depletion of the national strategic wine reserves. Please do not blame me if the cost of wines increases dramatically over the next few weeks. I have many accomplices and they should bear some of the blame too! Sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time to find something exceptional and the last two days have proven to be such days. On Tuesday I revisited an old friend, and yesterday I was introduced to a wine that has fast become a very dear new friend.... | |
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| | | WINE: Australia has more than 'critter' wine | | Posted Sunday, November 05, 2006 3:14:00 PM by Blog57 Team | | Given the success of cheap Australian wine - you know, all those bottles with colorful labels of kangaroos, etc. - on them, it's easy to forget the land Down Under can make some of the best wines in the world. Just listen to Larry Kaplan of The Wine Cellar in Palatine, Ill., talk about the country's prestige shiraz. "The appeal of these wines [is] threefold," he said. "They are absolutely stunning wines made by some of the best New World winemakers on the planet. They're jammy, juicy, outstanding examples of shiraz." Second, the wines are made in "limited, limited quantities." Third, "and one of the most driving factors, Parker goes crazy over this stuff," said Kaplan, referring to Robert M. Parker Jr. of The Wine Advocate, one of the most influential wine critics in the world.... | |
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| | | Wine extract keeps fat mice healthy | | Posted Friday, November 03, 2006 12:04:20 PM by Blog57 Team | | Obese mice on a high-fat diet got the benefits of being thin -- living healthier, longer lives -- without the pain of dieting when they consumed huge doses of red wine extract, according to a landmark new study. It's far too early to know if this would work in people, scientists said. But several were excited by the findings, calling it promising and even "spectacular." The study by the Harvard Medical School and the National Institute on Aging shows that heavy doses of the red wine ingredient, resveratrol, lowers the rate of diabetes, liver problems and other fat-related ill effects in obese mice. Fat-related deaths dropped 31 percent for obese mice on the supplement, compared to fat mice that got no treatment. The mice that got the wine extract also lived longer than expected, the study showed.... | |
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| | | Airline liquid ban creates obstacles for wine industry | | Posted Tuesday, October 31, 2006 11:15:49 PM by Blog57 Team | | In today's terror-worried business travel climate, the adage that wine does not travel well seems especially meaningful. In the United States, the Transportation Security Administration relaxed its liquids ban last month, but wine purchased outside the airport still cannot be carried onto a plane. .... | |
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