What’s Behind the Rise of Heavy Beers
Back in the days when mainstream lager owned the beer market, a persistent urban myth held that Canadian beer—if you could get it—wasn’t like ours. It was really strong. Turns out it wasn’t: their...
Grading the Finest Sparkling Wines of 2017
For our latest round of reviews, we asked our national wine panel to rate sparkling wines. Below are 52 bottles, from current or past vintages, that they deemed worthy enough to sip and review...
10 Alcohol Trends to Watch in 2017-18
Consumer taste continues to evolve. Recent industry-defining beverage alcohol categories like bourbon, IPA and rosé have begun to splinter off into subcategories. Different takes on these styles have emerged, including regional focuses or reimagined...
What’s The Difference Between Trappist and Abbey Ales?
Some breweries produce “abbey ales" while others make “trappist ales.” Is there a difference? Both imply beer made by monks in cloistered breweries — right? So are these terms synonymous?
Not at all. So explains...
Are Single-Vineyard and Estate-Grown Wines Better?
What’s in a wine label?
Loads of information. There’s a brand name or producer, of course, and a geographic description of origin. A year, if the wine is vintage-dated, and perhaps the name of a...
Stephan Berg on the Rise of Craft Bitters
Cocktail bitters enjoyed a heyday before Prohibition. Afterwards has been a long recovery. For decades, few people thought of bitters behind the name "Angostura." The modern mixology movement has changed that. Today there is...
Is Big Beer the Future of Craft?
When we initially fielded research on people’s tastes, attitudes and preferences in the craft beer category, we expected to learn or validate much of what’s already been discovered. Yes, people are suffering a bit...
How To Trade Up Your Wine Customers
I am a voracious reader and spent a lot of time digesting books on sales and marketing. In 2002, I was impressed by the best-selling book, “Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping” by...
Are Millennials Bad for the Beer Industry?
Hard to believe that Millennials might be a problem for the beer industry. After all, it's their curious palates that kick started the craft movement that began with microbrews and then expanded into all other...
Ian Harris on Staff Education and Recognizing Trends
Ian Harris is chief executive of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET), the largest global provider of wine, spirits and sake qualifications. WSET offers courses in 19 languages across 72 countries for all...