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“Cider making,” says Gregory Hall, the former brewmaster for Goose Island Beer Company, “is more exciting than beer’s ever been.” We are surrounded by stacks of oak barrels at Virtue, Hall’s craft cidery that opened in 2011 in bucolic Fennville, Michigan, a small community in the fruit belt along Lake …

The young Sommeliers who are working the back of the house bring out our second flight of wines – glasses of Sauvignon Blanc. Each judge gets seven coded glasses: seven new wines to swirl, sniff, sip, spit, and score. Number 602-29. Silver? No, its grapefruit aroma and crisp acidity balancing …

Single malt Scotch whisky is to Scotland what Champagne or even Cognac is to France. But what about combining the style of France together with the style of Scotland? The notion probably makes the whisky purist cringe, as if it’s like “fruiting” beer. Yet it’s this very style that one …

Geography of the Upper Midwest, 101: The glorious state of Michigan is made up of two peninsulas. The big one—the lower half of the state—is what folks around here call the Mitten. If you put that mitten on your left hand, just around the base of your pinky finger would …

In the 1850s, more than 10,000 coopers worked in Ireland, but today, there are only four people that carry the title of Master Cooper. Ger Buckley, Master Cooper of Midleton Distillery where Jameson is made, is a fifth generation Irish barrel maker (at least that’s as far as his family …

Descend below street level to the well-hidden wine cellar where over 50 varietals and grape-based liquers flow freely.  The new wine bar burrows deep beneath O Hotel and provides a subdued counterbalance to the disco next door. Grab a glass, and a plate of charcuterie, and hunker down in a …

There are few cities in the world as vibrantly alive as Tijuana. From the second the I-5 enters Mexico and drops you in the center of the border metropolis of more than a million people, you can’t help but become infused with the nonstop energy the city embodies. Though many …

Come holiday season, check out this brilliant gift package. Inside the beautifully detailed brushed metal sleeve and lacquered wooden box comes a Ruffino wine from Tuscany called Modus. This high-scoring wine will grace your holiday dinner and the sleeve will serve as a candleholder long after the bottle is empty …

These high tops are ideal for the bartender, whiskey lover, or anyone who appreciates a slick pair of sneaks. Designed with comfort and style in mind they’re perfect for a night at the bar, behind the bar, or… on top of the bar? The spirit-driven limited edition pairing of Generic …

Released from the Fold Shmaltz Brewing Company sets up shop of its own Shmaltz Brewing Company, long a contract brewer, has finally settled down. The new brewery and tasting room in upstate New York’s Clifton Park will open its doors to the thirsty public on the seventh of July. In …

Apéritifs, from the Latin aperiere “to open,” are served before the meal and are designed to stimulate the appetite and prepare the palate for the pleasure of the meal. They are typically lower in alcohol and are usually light, refreshing, and dry; sometimes they run more savory and bitter.

My evening had been going well—nothing life-changing, mind you, but this first night at Revel, the two-billion-dollar boondoggle in Atlantic City, was chugging along pleasantly. Decent dinner, personable company, new hotel. And then I saw it: Behind the bar at one of the many venues there at which one may, …

A summer saunter northwest from Detroit to Traverse City needn’t have a purpose other than reveling in the tree-lined drive, the enchanting twists and turns of lake and land that typify rural Michigan. However, a tent-filled, first-ever ‘Night of 100 Rieslings’ on Grand Traverse Bay featuring an international tasting of …