Posts made by Lauren Buzzeo:

Tasting Director Joe Czerwinski posted an excellent blog on Monday regarding the current state of the economy and its impact on the wine retail business and consumer purchasing trends.  He notes that we in the wine industry have been inundated with reports that insist consumers are “trading down,” or purchasing lower priced wines than those they were previously allowing themselves to buy.  $10 is the new $15, and the more you can find for under $10, the better.

It is certainly understandable that people are cutting back wherever they can to get through these tough times while trying to maintain some level of normalcy and enjoy life’s more simple (or hedonistic) pleasures.  After all, at the end of the day, what is it all for if not some fulfillment and relaxation… and what better way to do that than with a delicious glass of wine?

I, along with many Americans, might have found a welcome alternative… beer. 

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Whether you’d like to acknowledge it or not, the holiday season is most definitely upon us. While it’s been a rather rough and tumultuous year, we have finally come upon the time where all is to be set aside for the sake of yuletide joy and peace. With Hanukkah starting last night and Christmas only 3 days away, now is the time to come to terms with reality… dust off the menorah and fuzzy Santa hat, bake some cookies and get in the holiday spirit, already!

Now I know, we’re all a bit reserved and hesitant to go and spend money on gifts, but sadly I think that many people don’t realize that the spending of money is not what the holidays are all about. It is difficult to watch people ignore this precious season due to their financial reservations and fear of impending doom. I know that these are tough times that call for serious attention to be paid, but again, if we don’t celebrate life, love, and the spirit of humanity now, then when?

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We all know the story of the Pilgrims; a group of about 100 folks who decided to depart from England to search out and colonize a new world about 2,750 miles away from home. Their ship, the Mayflower, landed at Plymouth Rock instead of the original destination of Northern Virginia due to inclement weather, poor navigation and a need for supplies. The real scoop? Supposedly, according to many historians and accounts of the momentous occasion, the real necessity that was lacking was… beer.

“We could not now take time for further search or consideration, our victuals being much spent, especially our beer” – one diary recalls. Now, numerous stories from various sources are available, both supporting and debunking the long lived myth, including articles from well-known beer writers Cecil Adams, Stephen Beaumont, and Bob Skilnik to name a few. Now, whether or not the claim is true, it’s fun to imagine that without the shortage of “victuals” the Mayflower perhaps would not have landed in Plymouth Rock and the sequence of events that transpired thereafter would not be history as we now know it. Leading to the question… without beer, would we be celebrating Thanksgiving?

What better way to pay tribute to the poor planning (or perhaps over-indulgence) of the Pilgrims this Thanksgiving than by celebrating the holiday with a few choice beer selections.

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Whenever I tell people what I do for a living, the most common response I get is, “how on earth did you ever get that job… and do you need any help?”  While I could go on to tell people about the wine education classes I took in college, the experiences I had working in the hospitality or retail industries, or the continuing education classes I’m enrolled in now, I know deep down inside that there is only one true answer to that question: my father.

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The biggest buzz in the brewing world at this moment in time has to be the recent acquisition of Anheuser-Busch by the Belgium based InBev. For those of you living under a rock (or perhaps just avoid reading newspapers, watching the news on tv, or subscribing to cnn.com news updates), Anheuser-Busch shareholders will receive $70 a share in cash, translating into a total purchasing price of 52 billion dollars. The combining of the two companies, to be named Anheuser-Busch InBev, will form the world’s leading global brewer and one of the world’s five largest consumer products companies. Yes, it’s true: the great American lager is no longer owned by Americans… but what exactly does that mean?

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As an avid but earthy lover of premium wine and beer, I’ve thought about the difference between discernment and snobbery, and I understand why Managing Editor Tim Moriarty felt persecuted for standby favorites as mentioned in his recent entry Budweiser and Beaujolais. But red flags go off for me when I hear that standard call of retreat of “leave me alone and let me drink what I like.” I’m under 30, and represent a generation of drinkers who like to experiment–to familiarize themselves with current offerings in the vast and ever-expanding beverage world. All too often, I see people of an older generation pulling reverse snobbery and steeling themselves against trying something new—maybe a little more expensive. It makes you wonder if it’s true that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”

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