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In Italy — no matter the region — meals customarily end with small cups of amaro, a traditional bittersweet herbal liqueur. In America, the amaro tradition has grown steadily in popularity, especially at accomplished, innovative Italian restaurants such as Bar Marco in the Strip District. Jason Renner, Bar Marco’s affable and famously bewhiskered bartender, champions […]

During the long days of COVID-19 lockdown, everybody had time to contemplate bringing dreams to fruition. Entrepreneur Diana Espinosa March and her husband, Ricardo March, used the time to lay the groundwork for launching Bacan Guaro, a modern take on aguardiente, a traditional clear spirit from Colombia. Born in northern Italy with Italian and Spanish 

When Euan Henderson, the manager of Scotland’s Speyburn Distillery, was a 10-year-old lad, his father, Iain, became distillery manager at Laphroaig Distillery. In 1989, the Henderson family moved to the windswept southwestern Scottish island of Islay (pronounced “EYE-la”), and it was there that Euan’s informal apprenticeship in Scotch whisky began. “It was a remote place

For sheer drama in winegrowing, look no further than Sicily’s Mount Etna. The volcano’s last major eruption in 1992 unleashed lava flows that buried vineyards and homes. Black smoke and ash from more recent but less serious eruptions have temporarily stopped air traffic. Accompanying earthquakes damaged stone-walled terraces in the vineyards. Nonetheless, intrepid winegrowers on

The southern Italian province of Campania offers many famous attractions. The volcano, Mt. Vesuvius, stands brooding over the city of Naples while the ruins of Pompeii recall the dramatic eruption in 79 A.D. The blue Bay of Naples and the precarious, winding cliffs of the Amalfi Coast provide beautiful vistas. And of course, Campania’s diverse,

Festive holiday spirits this year again brought fun opportunities to celebrate by sharing and enjoying delicious sparkling wines. But the best policy is always to have chilled bottles on hand for drinking throughout the year and not just on New Year’s Eve. Now is a particularly good time to go with French sparklers before inventories

After crossing over the majestic Chesapeake Bay Bridge toward sandy seaside shores, you pass bucolic landscapes and picturesque, quiet colonial towns such as Easton, Md. It is hard to imagine the area bustling with bootleggers and rum-runners, but as author Eric Mills describes in “Chesapeake Rumrunners of the Roaring Twenties,” that was exactly the case

Across the globe on the third Thursday in November, wine drinkers celebrate Beaujolais Nouveau Day. But as you drink Beaujolais Nouveau, remember other Beaujolais (pronounced BOH-joh-lay) red wines offer diverse styles that are equally, if not much more, enjoyable. Beaujolais Nouveau offers an opportunity to sip the first new French wines of the most recent

Halloween means handing out candy to the delight of little trick-or-treaters in costumes. But with a little imagination, adults can have fun of their own — costumes optional — by offering delicious, artisan liqueurs with grown-up confectionery delights. Instead of rummaging through your kid’s stash on Halloween night, grab these intriguing treats from France and