VinePair

Today on the VinePair Podcast: Matchmaking Spirits and Cocktails Is Hard Adam Teeter, Joanna Sciarrino, and Zachary Geballe debate whether spirits brands can try to attach their specific brand to a known cocktail, and if so, which ones are up for grabs or would make sense to highlight. 🔊 Apple: https://lnkd.in/eA5NDxTx 🔊 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/ewX9EjWC Listen to a preview 👇

I never wanted to know the day I would write this, but I am so grateful to VinePair for providing the platform to publish a tribute to Francine Cohen. What got cut was after the gathering at Keens last week, I came home to a greeting card from the wonderful accountant she had introduced me to. In so many ways her legacy will live on. Read here. Please share. Let's get her name in lights! https://lnkd.in/eZtNbP_D

The craft beer world is filled with passionate opinions — and nowhere more so than among those who wield notebooks and pens. Ask any three beer writers to name the country’s single best brewery, and you’re likely to get over a dozen well-argued responses, from the totally obvious to the truly arcane. For this year’s annual survey, we asked 30 beer pros of various stripes — #beer writers, educators, historians, community leaders, authors, and just one cartoonist — to name the best breweries in the country right now. Their choices run the gamut, from long-term favorites to hot new arrivals, from high-volume producers to neighborhood taprooms. Read Evan Rail's report on The 30 Best Breweries in the Country Right Now, According to Beer Pros: https://lnkd.in/eEppgYZa

In early October, whiskey writer Frank Dobbins III visited Willett Distillery in Bardstown, Ky., and posted about it on Instagram. He joined master distiller Drew Kulsveen for a behind-the-scenes tour. He spoke admirably of the distillery’s expansion effort. He wrote glowingly of its proprietary 11-year-old distillate. Yet all the commenters on Dobbins’ post wanted to talk about was an egg salad sandwich. “Egg Salad Sandwich!!!” wrote one commenter. “That MF egg salad sandwich is so good,” wrote another. “BEST EGG SALAD SANDWICH 🔥,” wrote yet another. “Always the egg salad,” wrote fellow drinks writer Jake Emen. Willett Distillery has long been a cult sensation among the whiskey cognoscenti. That’s largely due to the thousands of Willett Family Estate single barrel releases over the last two decades, each packaged in handsome, Cognac-style bottles with cryptic labeling virtually impossible to parse for newbies. There’s even an iPhone app to help collectors track all the esoteric bottlings over the years. Yet, its distillery restaurant, known as the Bar at Willett, has an egg salad sandwich that, over the last five years, has become a cult sensation in its own right. Read Aaron Goldfarb's latest: https://lnkd.in/dHQp4XVU

Today on the VinePair Podcast: Napa Needs to Adapt, Again Adam Teeter, Joanna Sciarrino, and Zachary Geballe discuss the current state of wine tourism in Napa Valley, after a year of declining visitations, and speculate that the region as a whole was too quick to assume that the post-pandemic landscape and model was going to be the new normal, instead of a weird outlier time 🔊 Apple: https://lnkd.in/d6apKtu2 🔊 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/dTktbYRm Listen to a preview 👇

The reason 19.2oz cans have performed so well in a tough market is the same reason BuzzBallz opted to introduce Biggies rather than Smallies: When it comes to single-serve beverage-alcohol packaging, bigger tends to be better. As I wrote in my column this week at VinePair, that may be why I find New Belgium's upcoming Mini Rippers gambit so refreshing.

Today on the VinePair Podcast: The Stories Behind Our Top 50 Spirits of 2024 Adam Teeter, Joanna Sciarrino, and Zachary Geballe break down the recently-released list of VinePair's Top 50 Spirits of 2024, including excitement about Cognac, rum, and barrel-finished spirits in general. 🔊 Apple: https://lnkd.in/ecaBzKfU 🔊 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eHw7w_Fk Listen to a preview 👇

11 Drinks Trends to Look Out for in 2025 Walking into any bar or restaurant in 2024, it would be a pretty safe bet that the tables were covered in various spritzes (Aperol, Hugo, Cynar) and Martinis (Espresso, Dirty, or even Sour Cream & Onion). Yes, not unlike 2023, the spritz and the Martini ruled cocktail menus this year. But 2024 also marked the rise of several other trends. There was a significant increase in creative no- and low-ABV menus, an obsession with clarified and carbonated cocktails, and, unfortunately, a massive price hike on bottle and by-the-glass wine lists. While it’s unlikely that Martini mania or the beloved spritz will go away anytime soon, we suspect there are some new things in store for 2025. We predict some trends that have been incubating for the past few months will take off in dramatic fashion — is it possible for Guinness to get even bigger? — new fads will emerge, and economic factors will continue to shape how we go out to drink, for better or worse. Here are 11 drinks trends to look out for in 2025: https://lnkd.in/erRsmCHY

When the chief executive of a publicly traded company on your beat admits that he might be full of it, you call him on it. To the credit of Tilray Brands, Inc.' chief executive Irwin Simon, whose $450-million shopping spree in craft brewing's bargain bin is somewhere between contrarian and crazy, he took my call. In this week's column at VinePair, I evaluated Simon's strategy on his own terms.

The restaurant landscape has changed. And with it, what it actually means to be a Master Sommelier. Let's hear from those who hold the worshipped title about the paradoxical situation in my latest piece for VinePair ... https://lnkd.in/eDhcyGwQ #Sommelier #SommLife #MasterSommelier #Wine #WineBar #Restaurant #RestaurantCulture #BarCulture #WinePairing #RestaurantLife #FoodAndWine #WineCulture #FineWine