After a recent party at a friend’s house, our host opened the small Stolichnaya bottle and the smell was overwhelming. The nose was a cross between a tire fire and burning leather. It tasted like something made from diesel fuel,…

Steven Grasse’s Colonial Spirits (Abrams Image, 2016) is the wackiest drinks book I have ever read. (I state this with admiration, and a bit of jealousy.) And I’ve read more than my share, and written a couple. It starts with the 19th-century-like…

When you think of Texas alcohol, you usually think of good ole Shiner beer. The state is more famous for its beer than anything else. However, some new spirits have come out of the Lone Star State that might change…

It’s not often one can take several weeks off, pile into a car, and hit the open road without any significant responsibilities piling up (or email inboxes overflowing). I was able to do just that in January, before starting my…

What comes to mind when one reads the word “Sardinia”? Sardines? That island where Napoleon was exiled? (Actually, he cooled his heels in Elba.) Anything? The difficulty of mentally associating much of anything with Sardinia is understandable — it’s a…

In his recent book, Biting the Hands That Feed Us (Island Press, 2016), food-policy scholar Baylen Linnekin exposes many of America’s nightmare food laws. From the so-called “cheese board rule” that contemplated forbidding cheesemakers from aging their cheese on wooden…

The U.S. drinks business is booming, despite the finger-wagging by neo-prohibitionists. Last year’s liquor volume sales climbed 2.4 percent to 220 million cases, and the revenues were up 4.5 percent to $25.2 billion according to data released by the Distilled…

What’s the difference between a beer can and a mayonnaise jar? It sounds like the opening to a bad joke, but it’s also the basis for a legal and regulatory battle being waged between the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC)…

All too many hotel bars are little more than shoddy afterthoughts, soulless spaces where hotel guests, and almost no one else, may grab a quick drink or two before setting off for — or after returning from — somewhere more…