Making Non-Alcoholic Wine Will Never Be Easy. Can Momentum Carry It Forward?

Go to any bottle shop these days and you’re bound to be greeted by a respectable section devoted to non-alcoholic offerings.

It's Time To Start Paying Attention to Hawaiian Rum

While craft beer and whiskey tend to get the headlines, there’s another homegrown beverage gaining a much-deserved following.

For Hawaiian Sommelier Chuck Furuya, Hospitality Is a Culture

When Hawaii native Chuck Furuya passed the rigorous Master Sommelier exam in 1989, he was only the tenth American to do so.

Greenland’s KOKS Is Bringing Fine Wine to One of the Most Remote Places on Earth

A new food documentary is about a story many outlets are rightfully describing as epic.

The Quiet Ascension of Wine on Tap

Just over a decade ago, somewhere between the bag-in-box and canned wine revolution, draft wine, or wine on tap, exploded onto the U.S. market, billed as the next big thing in on-premise wine service.

Can 'Do-Nothing Farming' Produce Quality Wine?

As organic, biodynamic, and regenerative viticultural methods continue to increase in popularity, a handful of brave winemakers are taking low-intervention winegrowing a step further.

Pouring One Out for 10 Beloved Bars That Shuttered During COVID

If only there was a vaccine for the watering hole. The pandemic has changed the way we gather and, en route, brought countless great bars down with it.

How Unregulated Cannabis Is Threatening West Coast Winemakers

The West Coast wine industry can adapt—we’ve seen it do so in response to wildfires, drought, even a pandemic. But can it handle having a new crop for a neighbor?

A Wine Guide to Oregon's Willamette Valley

Thirty years ago, winos would be forgiven for not knowing about the Willamette Valley.

What is Seasonal Gin?

First, gin was an overlooked and underrated spirit. Then came the renaissance, elevating the clear alcohol into higher ranks, thanks to a reboot of classic cocktails and more quality producers than ever.

Debunking Major Wine Myths

Like a lot of things, wine has its own set of rules and customs. Many of those, of course, are meant to be defied or broken.

What Chefs Are Drinking Right Now

We love a good drink, and when we run out of ideas regarding what to pour in our glass, we reach out. Specifically, to the pros — vintners, sommeliers, brewers, bartenders, and distillers.

Our Legacy Harvested is Diversifying the Wine Scene

Rich old white dudes have had a firm grasp on wine for far too long. Today, long-overdue change is starting to take effect, making for an industry that better represents wine drinkers and the community at large.

How a Venezuelan Distillery Teaches Life Skills and Rugby

It’s a strange story, one that prompted Venezuelan rum brand Santa Teresa 1796 to give back to the community in a big way. The tale involves an attempted break-in, rugby, estate rum, and a flourishing program that gives locals a second chance by way of sport.

NBA Star CJ McCollum on His Burgeoning Wine Project

If you follow basketball, you know CJ McCollum. The dynamic Portland Trailblazers guard has one of the silkiest playing styles in all of the NBA.

Restaurant Robots and the Future of Dining

One of the first things you notice at Top Burmese, an eclectic restaurant located in the Portland metro area, is the robot.

Walla Walla Confronts Phylloxera

There are few words in the wine industry that inspire more dread than phylloxera.

Get to Know Alto Adige

Keeping up with wine regions around the world can be a challenge. Like pop music or the latest trending culinary approach, the world of wine likes to morph and rarely, if ever, sits still.

The McMenamins Effect

It’s easy to take local beer for granted these days.

Hops and Terroir

The vast majority of the terroir conversation is reserved for wine. Thanks to an evolving drinks culture, though, the characters within that story are multiplying.

Retrace the Missoula Floods

Every good vineyard tour should begin with an exercise in imagination.

Environmental Drinking

Earth Day is a half-year away, but that’s no excuse to drink like a shortsighted heathen.

Healthcare in the Vineyard

The brilliant transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson famously once said, “The first wealth is health.”

The Rise of Din Tai Fung

What started as a cooking oil retailer is now one the most celebrated Asian restaurant chains on the planet.

Meet Phylloxera

It hasn’t wreaked as much havoc as the mosquito, but the phylloxera aphid is up there in terms of global influence.

What's Amphora Wine?

From a wine standpoint, amphorae started around 8,000 years ago in Georgia.

The Icelandic Hot Dog

Iceland is home to a great number of wonderful things.

The Rise of Coquine

Since its founding in 2015, Coquine has garnered quite the list of accolades. It’s enough to make any other restaurant at least somewhat envious.

A Brief History of the Tervis Tumbler

Like Merlot, The Price is Right, and the Rainforest Cafe, the Tervis Tumbler is both your grandmother’s favorite thing and a company still very much at it.

Embracing Melon

Melon de Bourgogne has flown under the radar for years.

Remember the Rainforest Cafe?

It leapt, panther-like, onto the scene a full 25 years ago, and so it may surprise you to learn that the Rainforest Cafe is in fact still going strong.

Wine Dryness 101

Having worked in wine for well over a decade, including countless hours in tasting rooms, I used to hear it all the time: Yuck, this is too sweet.

The Resurrection of Merlot

It has been 15 years since Paul Giamatti infamously wrote off Merlot in the beautiful dark comedy Sideways.

Remember Surge?

The likes of Third Eye Blind and Chumbawamba were — by some miracle — running the charts, Clinton was in office, and Coca-Cola was trying desperately to compete with Pepsi’s greenish-yellow pride and joy otherwise known as Mountain Dew.

The Legend of 3-Way IPA

It’s not quite Pliny, but the 3-Way IPA by Fort George Brewery has become something of a legend.

L.A. Beer Guide

When it comes to the California beer scene, San Diego typically gets all the beer credit, but Los Angeles is a true force, turning out some fantastic beers, especially on the west side and in and around South Bay.

Drink-Makers' Favorite Drinks

It’s been said that it takes a lot of beer to make wine. The opposite, too, is probably true.

Diversifying Wine

The chances are good that you don’t know Bertony Faustin, at least not yet. But you probably should.

Know Your Musical Rights

With fines up to $35,000 per song played, here are 5 tips to help you stay in the clear.

Extreme-Altitude Endeavor

When most people consider South American wine, they think of chewy, steak-friendly reds like Tannat and Malbec. Maybe even a Sauvignon Blanc from Chile or a Torrontes from Argentina. But what of Bolivian Vischoqueña?

The Antique Bar Game

Anybody who’s been in an old-time-y watering hole has probably come across a Brunswick bar. Yes, that Brunswick.

What are Sulfites?

Wine is fairly complex, which means there’s ample opportunity to throw some part of its greater whole under the bus, depending on what’s currently in fashion.

Spice It Up

The ratio of wine consumption between India and France is estimated at a staggering one to 8,000.

Wine and Wildfires

There’s been a lot of talk recently about wildfire smoke and the drinks business.

A Guide to Mexican Wine

Wine has been produced in Mexico since the 16th century.

Experimental Dining

Oregon wine country, well aware of its prestige, takes it in stride. Part of staying ahead of the gastronomical game entails innovation, whether devising a new dish or perfecting a hybrid style of wine.

Roadkill Primer

More than half the states in the U.S. allow people to claim dead critters on the side of the road, provided they have the requisite salvage permits.

5 Things to do With a Used Barrel

A lot can be done with a retired whiskey or wine barrel above and beyond simply throwing it in the yard and calling it a “rustic lawn ornament.”

How to Make Your Own Booze Labels

Making your own wine, beer, or spirits labels is a fun and relatively straightforward way to personalize a few precious bottles.

How to Open a Wine Bottle Without a Corkscrew

It happens to the best of us: You’ve set up camp in the woods or unpacked your gear in a barebones hotel and it dawns on you — no corkscrew.

Hop, Hop, and Away: Best Brew Pubs

We’ve come a long way since Sam Adams created the first airport brewpub at Boston Logan in 1993.

Four Questions: Ariel Eberle

Ariel Eberle has spent more than a decade at Yamhill Valley Vineyards (YVV) in the McMinnville AVA of the mid-Willamette Valley.

What is Natural Wine?

Wine is s going au naturale, whether you’re aware of it or not.

A Guide to Monastic Beer

Belgians and beer go way, way back. For the monks, the tradition is well over 1,000 years old and born of much more than just a great way to cope with a fairly isolated religious branch.

How an Oregon Wine Region Takes Root

About 15 miles west of Salem, a distinctive pocket of rolling vineyard land is shaping its fruit unlike any other stretch within the Willamette Valley, the state’s most famous wine-growing region.

Record Breaker

Seems like just yesterday a small group of Oregon wineries teamed up with Tuality Healthcare physicians to take better care of vineyard workers.

Recipe: Act III

After more than two years of reconstruction, Recipe has reopened. The Newberg restaurant suffered fire damage in the summer or 2016, closing for repair shortly thereafter.

24 Hours of Harvest

Presently, many Willamette Valley wineries are entering the apex of the 2018 crush. That translates roughly to a mind-numbing number of daily cellar tasks, from processing the last of the vintage’s fruit to barreling down young wines for the season.

Advancing an Industry

In an industry so often associated with dank cellars, dusty bottles and traditionalism, it’s easy to forget a great deal of innovation exists.

Tons of Character

In Carlton, it’s dumping rain — if only in spats — and something’s amiss. Winemakers are relieved, a sensation I hardly associate with precipitation and the month of September.

This Time Next Year

As early as the 2019 crush, the Willamette Valley will welcome five new sub-appellations.

Why We Pick and When

Right now, from the slopes of Parrett Mountain to the foothills of Junction City, winegrowers are tackling the same perennial question: when to harvest?

6 Somm-Made Wines to Cellar

As the American palate continues to sharpen to the tune of cult wine regions and experimental styles, industry types are flocking to the crush pads and cellars where their trade is born.

Alpenrose Dairy

The Tillamook Cheese Factory isn't Oregon's only dairy-themed tourist attraction.

Have Can, Will Travel

In a youthful game of telephone connecting producers and consumers by string and a pair of cups, the topic of conversation seems to be one thing: canned wines.

Cold-Hardy Grape Potential

The pancake-flat terrain of southern Minnesota is not widely known for its wines. But the Grape Breeding and Enology lab at the University of Minnesota (UMN) in St. Paul is working on changing that.

Portland Wine Bars (Part I)

People look to Portland to discover what’s next in the fast-moving trends of food and wine.

Portland Wine Bars (Part II)

Portland wine bars are enjoying their finest stretch to date.

Craft Beer in Corvallis

From a brewing standpoint, Corvallis has been dealt quite a hand of cards.

David Logsdon's Legacy

How a yeast entrepreneur influenced a generation of craft brewers in the Pacific Northwest.

Wine Country's Best Friend

Vineyard and winery dogs work hard. Their day-to-day operations include everything from slaloming through vines and greeting new vehicles in tasting room parking lots to munching on discarded grapes from the sorting table and riding shotgun in a forklift during harvest.

Municipal Wines

The urban winery is no longer a fresh phenomenon. Seattle, Portland and Boise have quite a few; utilizing large, winemaking-friendly spaces positioned within striking distance of incredible vineyard sites.

Drifters: Adrift Hotel

Astoria has captured most of the food and drink attention in recent years as far as the mouth of the Columbia River goes, but there’s a promising scene on the Washington side.

4 Questions with Wayne Bailey

When the Bailey family purchased Youngberg Hill in 2003, they knew they were getting much more than a hilltop inn.

Chinese and Christmas

Most Americans possess at least one fond memory wherein Chinese food played a starring role.

Tools of the Cellar Trade

As winemaking transitions from the vineyard to the winery, here are a few tools that winemakers and vintners can’t live without.

Two Vintners on Blending

Blending a wine is a bit like mixing paint to create the perfect color.

The Falconer

The wine industry draws all types, from burnt-out pharmaceutical reps to engineers to musicians.

4 Questions with Charlie Van Meter

In an area synonymous with Pinot Noir, Charlie Van Meter is brewing beer.

Detour-Worthy Eateries Along I-5

For a land as awe-inspiring as the Willamette Valley, the 100-mile stretch of freeway from Portland to Eugene on I-5 makes for a surprisingly anonymous-looking interstate, the likes of which you find almost anywhere else in America.

Shifting Gears: Mariel Wega

Peddling cases of product for a distributor isn’t a siren call for everybody in the wine industry.

Suttle Lodge

Late autumn is a great time to eat and imbibe in the Pacific Northwest. Dishes gain some heft and cocktails shift from refreshing to soothing.

Charitable Bunch

Wineries lend a hand raising money for causes close to the heart.

Monthly Inventory Playlist: Thomas Pastuszak

Thomas Pastuszak could just as easily have been a musician or a medical professional.

Wine Director Shuffle: Caleb Ganzer

Industry stalwarts have heard it often enough they could write a song on the subject.

Progressing Primitive

Big timber’s unmistakable footprints dot the landscape here with only occasional blips in an otherwise pristine and seemingly endless tree line.

Wine Director Shuffle: Brent Braun

Not too long ago, Brent Braun was drinking Two-Buck Chuck in his adopted home of Santa Cruz, California.

A Tasteful Bunker

There are far worse places one could be when the Big One hits.

Rack & Cloth's Old World Craft Cider

From an idyllic perch halfway between Hood River and The Dalles, Kristina Nance and Silas Bleakley are turning just-picked apples into some of the best cider in the Pacific Northwest.

Rebekah Mahru Q&A

Windy City native Rebekah Mahru has been tied to food and wine since her initial restaurant post at age 14.

Turning The Tables

Fizzy wines are something akin to a Hollywood remake.

Synesthesia: A Rare Condition That's Become One Somm's Secret Weapon

When most people taste a Sémillon, they get citrus and apple flavors.

The Texas Icehouse

The beauty of icehouses lies in their simplicity.

How Drought And Wildfires Are Changing West Coast Winemaking

Challenging conditions can yield outstanding wines, but lately domestic vineyard rows have been gasping for air.

Behind The Label

In 1935, as America was still reeling from the Great Depression, there was a collective need for escapism.

Bringing Sustainability To The Cachaca Conversation

Long known to the wider world as “Brazilian rum,” the sugarcane-based spirit called cachaça is enjoying a moment in the sun.

Booze University

Over the past decade, tremendous growth in all things fermented—from beer and wine to spirits and foods—has led to a spike in higher booze education.

Snake River Rising

When it comes to most things Oregon, it’s easy to put on blinders. So much activity exists in and around the I-5 corridor that vast portions of the state are unnoticed.

Sports Bars Up Their Drinks Game

Many of the best sports bars are a little rough around the edges—no-frills interiors, menus of cheap macrobrews and fried food, and plenty of TVs broadcasting local and national games all day, all year. But in some cities, the traditional sports bar is getting a facelift.

Filling Station

It’s a quiet early evening at Garagiste, but already a handful of neighbors have come in.

Grazers: Tastebud

Multnomah Village is one of few neighborhoods in Portland without a culinary reputation. It has a charming main drag stacked with timeless dive bars, well-stocked bottle shops, galleries and antique stores but until just recently, no discernible dinner spot worth waiting in line for.

Expedia: Conquering Portland's Distillery Row

In Portland, craft is king. First came wine, then followed beer—it was only a matter of time before spirits had its share of the Willamette Valley limelight.

Grazers: Cheese & Cocktails

Cooking is something great chefs do inherently, not necessarily for a pay check. Ideas for a new dish come at the most untimely times, overturning sleep patterns and jamming schedules.

Free Range Beer

Early spring in the Willamette Valley screams potential.

Oregon Distillery Destinations

In a year that commemorates the state’s first vineyard rows 50 years ago, it’s refreshing to see other fermented goods following Oregon wine’s graceful lead.

Island Underground

It seemed natural for Martin and Janet Bleck, curating a multi-course meal showcasing Caribbean cuisine, a short sail away from south Florida, where they spent a good portion of their careers.

PDX-Factor

Here is not where you might expect to find wine. The route is a concrete and metal mashup of auto body shops, paper processing plants and abandoned warehouses.

Grazing In The High Desert

Bend is a stereotypical western town in all the right ways. Framed by towering mountains and sliced in half by the Deschutes River, this outpost-turned-city of roughly 80,000 is adventurers’ mecca.

All The World's A Stage

Hamlet. Daniel Somerfield seems awestruck by the name alone, one so many students naively associate with dense reading, tricky quizzes or even trickier performances.

Nick's Big Nod

It’s been a long time coming: Nick’s Italian Café, watering hole and restaurant for Oregon winemakers and their followers since 1977, has won the attention of James Beard.

Setting The Bar

As snow pummeled a city traditionally jabbed at for having roughly one plow, Korkage opted to ride it out. One of few flickering “open” signs in the steep Southwest Portland neighborhood of Hillsdale, the wine bar ought to have been quiet.

Two Flowers, One Pot

There’s a charmingly honest scene in “Cutie and the Boxer,” a movie about two Japanese artists living and working under the same New York City roof. Noriko, aka Cutie and the longtime wife of impressionist painter Ushio Shinohara, is asked if it is difficult being a couple with the same profession.

Center For Culinary Arts

If it were a boxer, the city of Ashland would likely weigh-in as a featherweight. But the fight it puts up in the kitchen is enough to floor something several times its size.

High Design Meets Fine Wine

The building looks like the work of artistic termites, a sleek and geometric expanse of wooden architecture seemingly constructed from the inside out. It also appears alive, emerging from the ground like the many vines that surround it.

Destination: The Dalles

Like a lizard scampering toward the sunny side of a rock, there I was, following some instinctive draw east, barreling down I-84 to what I was told was Oregon wine country’s new frontier: The Dalles.

My Sherry Amour

Funny how certain things swing in and out of fashion in some places while remaining permanently intact in others. Take sherry, the fortified wine made famous by the Spanish way, way back.

A Wine For Winter

For those above a bottle of Yellowtail, Charles Shaw or Kendall Jackson, let me introduce gluhwein. Hot mulled wine can gussy up the cheapest bottle of red well beyond the realm of satisfactory.

A Proper Mixer

In addition to being irresistible, one of the best stories about the birth of the cocktail casts wine as a main character. Debatable as it may be, the tale is too good to skip.

Wine-Minded Ales

If Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” is responsible for reacquainting our hunger with our consciousness, then wine culture must be credited for Oregon beer’s current obsession with freshness, nuance and careful craftsmanship.

Farewell, Mr. Troon

Scotsmen don’t sit still for long. It’s a blatant generalization, but one the late Dick Troon probably wouldn’t argue with.

Food & Drink

Food & Drink