Boulder, CO (March 8, 2010) - The Brewers Association, the trade association that tabulates production statistics for US breweries, today released 2009 data on the U.S. craft brewing industry. In a year when other brewers saw a slowdown in sales, small and independent craft brewers saw sales dollars increase 10.3 percent and volume increase 7.2 percent over 2008, representing a growth of 613,992 barrels equal to roughly 8.5 million cases.

Overall, U.S. beer sales were down approximately 5 million barrels (31 gallons per U.S. barrel) in 2009.

"Beer lovers continue to find great value and enjoyment in fuller flavored craft beers," said Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association. "Americans have an increasing appreciation of craft beers  Read more...

(CBS) New research suggests women who drink a moderate amount of alcohol on a regular basis, particularly when red wine is the drink of choice, are less likely to experience long-term weight gain than non-drinkers. 

The study, conducted by researchers at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, surveyed almost 20,000 women and asked them about their drinking habits over the course of 13 years. The alcohol-free women gained the most weight.

The research, published Monday in the American Medical Association's Archives of Internal Medicine, says there's no clear link between alcohol consumption and weight gain -- a claim that flies in the face of long-held medical thinking. 

Experts, however, are quick to remind women  Read more...

Reporting from New York - Quick, which of the following is not allowed in New York: riding the subway without pants, performing a play in public while naked, or buying wine at the grocery store?

If you chose the last option, perhaps you've been following one of the liveliest debates to emerge from otherwise dry budget talks in the state capital, Albany, where politicians struggling with a dire fiscal crisis see wine as an antidote.

New York remains one of 15 states that limit wine sales to liquor stores. But the proposed 2010-11 budget would open sales to grocery stores to generate an estimated $250 million in revenue from new liquor licenses.

In this bastion of liberalism -- home to the city that never sleeps, a burgeoning local wine industry, and a mainly urban populace  Read more...

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Maynard James Keenan, one of rock's most enigmatic personalities, is having the time of his life these days not only as leader of the hydra-headed project Puscifer but also as a winemaker. Gone, at least in public, is the angst-ridden man we saw fronting the megasuccessful Tool and A Perfect Circle, bands that redefined heavy alternative rock.

A bawdy group with a rotating cast, the musical part of Puscifer resumed its multimedia U.S. tour in Atlanta on Tuesday. The winemaking Mr. Keenan appears in "Blood into Wine," a documentary that had its Feb. 19 premiere in Scottsdale, Ariz., about two hours south of this former mining center and ghost town that's home to his Caduceus Cellars and Merkin vineyards as well as his handsome wine-tasting room and his Puscifer store, which sells distinctive clothing and other branded materials.  Read more...

To grab a beer, Israel Arrieta doesn't just stroll to the fridge; he has to walk out his back door to the side of the house, where he pries a chicken-wire screen off a basement window and scrambles, crab position, down a wooden ladder.

Several minutes later, he emerges cradling half a dozen cool, dusty bottles of beer.

Arrieta, 27, keeps his beer in the closest thing to a cave: the crawl space under his parents' North Pasadena house. To test it out years ago, he crawled down on a 100-degree afternoon holding a thermometer. It read 60 degrees.

"Light and temperature are going to be your enemies," Read more...

Despite strong aftershocks that continued to rumble Wednesday in devastated areas of Chile following Saturday's massive 8.8 earthquake, the wine industry is beginning to get a clearer picture of its situation.

"We are estimating a loss of 125 million liters of wine [about 14 million cases] with a value of approximately $250 million," said René Merino, president of Wines of Chile, who met earlier today with the association's board, comprised of representatives from Chile's largest wineries. The winery-funded group represents 95 percent of the Chilean wine industry.

"While the number might seem high, it is in fact only about 12 percent of what the 2009 harvest was, by comparison.  Read more...

Tom Leykis is returning to local radio. Starting Feb. 25, he will be on KGIL/1260 AM – “Retro 1260 AM” - from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursdays with his lifestyle program called “The Tasting Room.”

Leykis was among those who lost their talk shows when KLSX 97.1 FM switched to the Top 40 AMP format in February 2009.

KLSX also dropped his syndicated show “The Tasting Room,” which Leykis’ Web site – www.tastingwithtom.com – describes as a “lifestyle-themed program for men with a taste for the finer things life, from fine wine, high-end spirits and craft brews to first-rate dining and premium cigars.” 

When I left CBS, we also severed the relationship...Read more...

TOM DAVIES was driving last fall down Highway 29, the two-lane blacktop that serves as the Napa Valley’s main drag, when he saw something that literally stopped him in his tracks. “There was a sign on the side of the road that said, ‘Cabernet Grapes for Sale,’ ” he recalled, still incredulous that economic desperation had forced a Napa grower to hawk the region’s hallowed fruit like a load of zucchini.

In the 30 years that Mr. Davies, the president of V. Sattui Winery and Vineyards, has worked in the Napa wine business, he has never seen a sight quite so unsettling. “Grapes were left hanging on the vine last year,” he said.

This unusual predicament is not easily remedied at a time when vintners are awash in wine. Read more...

Winter is quiet time in wine country. Which makes it a very good time for a visit.

With harvest over and future bottles of wine resting peacefully in barrels and tanks, your chances of chatting with a winemaker when you visit a winery is higher. And as temperatures drop, so do crowds and prices, making a getaway less stressful on your psyche and wallet.

Cooler weather — temperatures can be in the 40s and 50s in January, warming up to the 60s in February and March — transforms the valley from exuberant summer splendor to a moodier hue. Winter rains turn hillsides deep green; in the vineyards dormant vines lift spindly arms to misty skies.

It all makes for some good eating weather. Now's the time to feast on the hearty braises and roasts that go best with Napa's... Read more...