Category: Pairings

How do you follow up a project like Gus’ Sip & Dip, which earned almost every coveted bar award there is in its first year? You go super classic with tuxedo-clad bartenders, exceptional hospitality, and, of course, top-notch drinks. At Kitty’s Cosmopolitan Club in Chicago, the team, led by partner and beverage director Kevin Beary, is also taking the trendy Freezer Martini to the next level with a custom-built cold

What does it mean to be the best-selling spirits category in a world where people are supposedly drinking fewer spirits? Indeed, vodka sales, like all spirits sales, were down in 2025. And yet, vodka remains the country’s best-selling spirits category, moving some $7 billion in bottles, according to the Distilled Spirits Council, who once called it the “backbone” of the industry due to it accounting for around 30 percent of

2026 is a testing time for dive bars. As rent and operational costs tick upward, the time-tested watering holes are dwindling in number, and the niche drinks they serve could be in jeopardy, too — like the Colorado Bulldog. The drink grew in popularity among the dive bar cognoscenti in the 1990s and early 2000s, according to Phoenix-based bartender Aaron Defeo. But now, he says, the Colorado Bulldog is a

When it comes to Texas wine, just about everything is being grown in the United States’ second-largest state. Chardonnay? Check. Sangiovese? Yup. Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Pinot Noir? It’s got them. Indeed, Texas is still a great big wine incubator, with some wineries offering dozens of bottlings aimed at appealing to the broadest cross-section of wine drinkers. But this grow-everything-for-everybody approach may not get to the heart of Texas winemaking

No grape has experienced the simultaneous highs and lows of the wine world quite like Chardonnay. Perhaps befitting its very nature, it has existed as both the base material for many of the world’s most coveted white wines and as the basis for a veritable ocean of mediocre, soulless wine; as a darling of collectors and critics alike and the inspiration for a range of derisive and dismissive slogans and

You know Cocktail Kingdom. The ubiquitous bar supplier has you covered for glasses, shakers, spoons, or whatever other drink-making widget or whatsit, jigger or thingamajigger you may need. But do you know Cocktail Kingdom Hospitality Group? Well, the company’s lineup probably includes one of your favorite New York bars, even if you didn’t realize it. And it definitely includes one of your favorite bartender’s favorite bars. There are the cool-kid

Grüner Veltliner is the most planted grape in Austria — even more so than Central Europe’s darling Riesling. Austria’s signature white wine brings a range of possibilities, from zippy with notes of lemongrass on the palate to ripe with fuller-bodied qualities of orchard fruit. The grape may reside in the shadow of varieties more familiar to American drinkers, but Grüner Veltliner’s stateside popularity is growing. And the varietal couldn’t be

Scotch doesn’t have to be expensive. It just looks like it does. Go to your local bottle shop and you’ll likely see several fancy-looking bottles behind glass, only available to those wearing the bottle shop’s name tags or a customer with the deepest of pockets. You’ll also see colorful cardboard packages on the shelves, creating artificial — and some would argue environmentally wasteful — barriers between your hands and the

Today on the “VinePair Podcast,” Adam, Joanna, and Zach discuss the renewed speculation that Jack Daniel’s manufacturer Brown-Forman might be for sale: While the family-owned company rejected two reported offers in April, rumors continue to swirl that it’s on the market. Are Pernod-Ricard or Sazerac still interested? Which drinks company makes the most sense as an acquirer, and how can they attempt to rebuild and grow the brand, especially outside

After less than two years, Costco and Deschutes Brewery plan to discontinue their co-branded line of Kirkland Signature beers. Deschutes chief executive officer Peter Skrbek announced the change in a notice to distributors sent on July 1, Craft Business Daily reports. Production is set to be scaled back as soon as this month. The collaboration includes Kirkland Signature Helles Lager and Kirkland Signature Vintage Ale, which are expected to be