The other day I was approached in the beer aisle by a customer looking for Stout. I was immediately fired up to get into the wonderful world of stout beer with an eager drinker. Stout has really come into a style of its own, but was originally the term for the strongest (or stoutest) porters. …
In the wine business there are two groups of sales people: there are those that sell wine because they like/love wine and those that sell because business is business. A debate that regularly pops up between these two camps is whether or not score, points and grades are important. There are great points on both…
South African wines have been on my mind lately, although this isn’t the first time. Last year I wrote about the subject while the World Cup was going on there. At the time I focused on the impact of French Huguenot immigrants to the young and immature Dutch Cape Colony wine industry. I didn’t really…
I recently helped out with a fund raising event for the Discovery Museum in Acton. They asked me there to talk about tequila, and it made me realize there are a lot of common misconceptions surrounding this Mexican spirit. Tequila is made from a dessert plant called Agave. The agave plant stores its food reserves…
In this video, I show you to decant a bottle of wine. This is useful knowledge, especially as the holidays approach and you may be having dinner parties or guests at your table. Please feel free to email me, patrick@colonialspirits.com, if you have further questions or stop by the store: I’d be happy to help…
Following my last post about hops, I thought it fitting to consider a relatively new trend in brewing – the Black IPA. This style falls somewhere between Porter and Stout and strives for IPA like qualities. The fact that it is called an IPA may speak more to the marketing draw associated with ‘IPA’ than…
I recently had the privilege of visiting Napa, California on behalf of Constellation Brands Co., and I have to say, it was wonderful! It was sunny for the majority of the time, and the people couldn’t have been nicer. I was treated to some of the finest food, wine and hospitality that Napa has to…
A customer approached me the other day in the tequila aisle and asked a very interesting question that I would like to address today. He asked me if Patron is the best tequila on the market. While Patron is an excellent top-shelf tequila, it is more a pop culture phenomenon and not necessarily the best…
I have been taunting my hoppy colleague, Tim for quite some time about the ‘overuse’ of hops (particularly in American brews). Playing devil’s advocate, I’ve compared their use with the excessive use of oak in the wine world. My suggestion wasn’t merely a simple taunt. I was (and remain) curious over the role of hops…
I remember the first time I saw the scene in Sideways, I was a sophomore in high school on a first date. I saw Miles scream his opinion about Merlot, and even then I knew that people were going to take this drunk and miserable fictional creation seriously. And, boy, they have. Although nationally Merlot…
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