Drink

Most wine columns resemble recipes from Larousse Gastronomique or Mastering the Art of French Cooking in this way: they have happy endings. This column, alas, proceeds with a melancholy burden. The world of wine, it pains me to report, is in the doldrums. Is it because of a new infestation of phylloxera, the blight that devastated French vineyards in the 19th century, or some other pest? Is it some novel tyranny of teetotalers, outlawing the production and consumption of wine? No. It is something closer to original sin or what Immanuel Kant on a dreary afternoon called “the crooked timber of humanity” out of which nothing straight can be fashioned.

The gin and tonic has finally conquered the land of vodka sodas and zero-calorie seltzers

It’s a virtue-signal intended to make Canadians feel that Something is Being Done, however pointless

The cocktail is a century old, born in a smoky Peruvian saloon during Prohibition

What, exactly, are the worst ones in the world?

It is light, flowery, full of pleasing acidity and fruitiness, satisfying by itself and notably food friendly

The feast was all about some of the finer things the French have to offer — wine, food and fashion

This trend is, in part, due to the increasingly positive perception of anglophone culture

Chicago’s legendary liqueur… isn’t as bad as people say