The latest in Beverages

Thieving baboons wipe out S.African vineyards: report

2010-03-15T10:18:18Z

<div><p>Baboons with a taste for Chardonnay grapes are terrorising farmers in South Africa's Western Cape wine region, munching tonnes of grapes ready for harvesting, local media reported on Monday.</p><p>Farms in the Franschhoek Valley had been emptied by rampaging Chachma baboons, who sneak into secured plo...

Coca-Cola spent $4.8 million lobbying gov't in 4Q

2010-03-15T06:15:19Z

<div id="subtitle">Coca-Cola spent $4.8 million in fourth quarter lobbying government on taxes, food safety</div><div><p>Coca-Cola Co. spent $4.8 million in the fourth quarter to lobby the government on proposals to tax sugary beverages, according to a recent disclosure report.</p><p>That's well above the $680,000 that the company spent in the year-ago period, and more than double the $2...

Arizona town opens time capsule, can't find brandy

2010-03-15T04:30:26Z

<div id="subtitle">Arizona town opens time capsule buried 25 years ago, but bottle of Mexican brandy is missing</div><div><p>A town in Arizona is missing a 25-year-old bottle of brandy.</p><p>When officials in Somerton opened a time capsule Saturday, they discovered mementos from 1985 — but didn't find a bottle of Mexican brandy that was supposed to be in the capsule.</p><p>Somerton street and solid was...

Finding a Wine to Match Your Meal

2010-03-15T08:53:23Z

For countless years we have been told to pair red wine with red meats and save white wine for choices like fish and poultry; but these archaic guidelines aren't able to take into consideration the wide range of foods and produce available today with their multitude of varying flavours.<br><br>There is definitely much more to food and wine pairing than just taking the type of meat into consideration. However, finding the right type of wine to compliment your meal doesn't have to be...

Japanese Scotch Triumphs

2010-03-14T07:52:23Z

In 1975 a friend asked me if I wanted to become involved in the marketing of a new whisky, from India. A few days later he arrived with a brown bottle in the shape of an eagle and poured me a glass of amber liquid, which looked like any other whisky I had ever seen. It smelled like whisky too. But it tasted like engine oil, with an aftertaste of Liquafruta - a particularly revolting cold remedy preferred by an aunt I spent my summers with as a child. ...

AGIO Cigars Are Popular With Those New to Cigar Smoking

2010-03-13T05:45:43Z

The very first cigar factory was constructed in the Netherlands in 1826. Unlike other European governments that tried to control cigar manufacture, the Dutch let cigar makers pursue their trade unregulated. The cigar industry was quickly spread over Europe, but it remained prominent in the Dutch province of Brabant.<br><br>In 1873, these fine cigars was founded. Today, it is the sixth...

Chile Faces Major Destruction After Massive 8.8 Earthquake

2010-03-12T14:34:25Z

SANTA CRUZ, CHILE - MARCH 12: Grapes hang from the vine at the Montgras winery which continues to operate after the recent earthquake damaged its facility on March 12, 2010 in Santa Cruz, Chile. The winery is working at about 80 percent of capacity due to the damage. The quake caused damage to the heart of the country's largest wine production areas causing substantial damage in areas including the Cac...

'World's oldest' whisky unveiled in Scotland

2010-03-11T12:15:47Z

<div><p>A Scottish whisky firm on Thursday unveiled bottles of what it claims is the oldest single malt whisky in the world, having spent the best part of a century inside an oak barrel.</p><p>Gordon and MacPhail's Mortlach 70-Year-Old Speyside was sampled at a launch party in Edinburgh Castle, where it was escorted through the doors by pipers and a military escort.</p><p>"It matured for 70 years ...

Regular Coffee Drinking Lowers the Risk of Stroke in Non-Smoker Women

2010-03-11T18:57:34Z

If you are concerned about your health in general, you may want to pour yourself a cup of Joe as you read this information. Recent studies have shown that drinking a minimum of 2 cups of coffee on a daily basis lowers the risk of stroke in women who are non-smokers. The women within this study were generally healthy, and they were long-term coffee drinkers. The study proved that regular and habitual coffee drinking lowered the risk of stroke as was observed over 24 years within the research.&...

Rare Whisky Is Launched In Edinburgh

2010-03-11T06:30:34Z

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - MARCH 11: Kris Green and Alan Leiper from the Royal Regiment of Scotland push a barrel of Gordon & MacPhail Generations brand, Mortlach 70 year old Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky on March 11, 2010 in Edinburgh,

Grape moth threatens Napa Valley growing method

2010-03-10T16:16:18Z

<div id="subtitle">Vintners worry destructive moth threatens low-impact growing methods in Napa Valley</div><div><p>When a voracious pest triggered a quarantine this week across much of Napa Valley — the nation's premier grape-growing region — it threatened more than the grapes themselves.</p><p>The spraying of pesticides needed to control the European grapevine moth threatens to undo decades of low-impact ...

Bordeaux newcomer outshines region as a whole

2010-03-10T13:17:24Z

<div><p>A new classification of Bordeaux wines outperformed the region as a whole in 2009 sales, a wine producers' association said on Wednesday.</p><p>The so-called "appellations" of Blaye, Cadillac, Castillon and Francs decided in 2004 to join together under the Cotes de Bordeaux label to improve performance in the international market by playing on the famous Bordeaux name more clearly.</p><p>In 2009, the first year of sales under the new label, 46 million ...

China's troublemakers bond over 'drinking tea'

2010-03-10T10:01:21Z

<div id="subtitle">Police harassment backfires as China's troublemakers bond over 'drinking tea' tales</div><div><p>Like the United States, China is having its own tea party movement, but this one has a very different agenda.</p><p>Police have long tried to shush and isolate potential activists, usually starting with a low-key warning, perhaps over a meal or a c...

Earns Brown Forman

2010-03-10T06:00:57Z

FILE - In this May 23, 2005 file photo, a bottle of Jack Daniel's whiskey, a Brown-Forman brand, sits on the bar at Nessun Dorma in Milwaukee. Brown-Forman Corp., maker of Jack Daniel's whiskey and Korbel champagne

Liquor of the gods sells for $15,000 a bottle

2010-03-09T13:15:41Z

<div><p>NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - French writer Victor Hugo once said, "Cognac is the liquor of the gods."</p><p>French winemaker Remy Martin is selling 786 bottles of a very special cognac Louis XIII Rare Cask for the heavenly price o...

Soft drinks industry slashes calories in US schools

2010-03-08T15:17:03Z

<div><p>The US soft drinks industry, accused by health authorities of promoting obesity, said Monday it had dramatically reduced the amount of high-calorie sodas sold in schools.</p><p>Leading companies, including Coca-cola and PepsiCo, joined former president Bill Clinton in announcing the results of an ...

Clinton, beverage group: School efforts working

2010-03-08T14:30:27Z

<div id="subtitle">Ex-President Clinton, health and industry experts to detail school beverage efforts</div><div><p>The U.S. beverage industry has largely stopped delivering sugary drinks to schools and has replaced them with lower-calorie options, the head of the industry's trade association said Monday.</p><p>"It's a brand new day in America's sc...

A tipple a day keeps obesity at bay: study

2010-03-08T09:17:17Z

<div><p>Women who drink a couple of glasses of red wine, beer or spirits a day are better at keeping the pounds off than women who do not drink at all, according to a study published Monday.</p><p>Researchers at Brigham and Women?s Hospital in Boston asked more than 19,000, normal-weight US women aged 39 or older how many alcoholic beverages they typically drank in a day, and then tracked the women for around 13 years.</p>...

Lunchtime coffee break best for fighting diabetes

2010-03-05T11:00:52Z

<div><p>NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Drinking coffee cuts diabetes risk, new research confirms, but you may need to enjoy your java with lunch if you want to get any benefit.</p><p>A study in nearly 70,000 women found that those who drank at least a cup of coffee with lunch were one-third less likely to develop type 2 diabetes over several years than non-coffee drinkers. This was true for decaf and caffeinat...

Chile's wines spilled, production delayed by quake

2010-03-04T15:16:11Z

<div><p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some 125 million liters of Chilean wines worth roughly $250 million were spilled during the 8.8 magnitude earthquake last Saturday that killed more than 800 people and demolished cities and towns, a U.S. importer said on Thursday.</p><p>"They estimated that they lost 12 percent of the 2009 vintage," which had been in now-overturned stainless steel vats, broken oak barrels and bo...