VinePair

I canvassed legends of the bar industry for VinePair to find out “Who is the greatest bar team of all time?” Here’s what they said: https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/ehf3fJrF

At first glance, Untappd’s list of highest-rated breweries looks kind of weird: Currently, three of the top five producers in the U.S. aren’t breweries at all. Instead, Pips Meadery (2), Schramm’s Mead (3), and Brewlihan (5) are all meaderies — producers that ferment honey, rather than grain, to create updated versions of #mead, the preferred pour of Renaissance fairs and shows about Vikings. It’s not just a weird fluke at the far end of the scale. Further down Untappd’s top-ranked list are even more meaderies, with a total of seven in the Top 20 and a full bakers’ dozen in the Top 50, at least when the list is set to feature “all #brewery types,” including mead and cider makers, as well as breweries of various sizes. Read Evan Rail on How Mead Quietly Conquered Untappd, Craft Beer’s Favorite Rating App: https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/eZnPdNpd

📉 What Can Bourbon Distillers Learn From the Last Big Bust? The #bourbon industry is looking at some tough times right now. Sales are down, supply is way up, and distilleries are facing bankruptcy, lawsuits, and even closure. Words like “glut” and “bust,” which describe worst-case scenarios, are being bandied about. And it’s all taking place amid a backdrop of general economic anxiety, heightened by the continued unpredictability of tariffs and counter-tariffs. No one can predict exactly what the future holds, but lessons from the past can offer insight into this moment and the ones to follow. There was a bourbon bust in living memory — one that started in the mid-20th century and took decades to recover from. What happened back then, and are the same conditions in place for it to occur again? As Susannah Skiver Barton reports, to understand the previous bourbon bust, we have to go back to the 1950s: https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/ezUnW2H7

Today on the VinePair Podcast: Where Is the Hemp Beverage Industry Headed? Joanna Sciarrino and Zachary Geballe are joined by VinePair contributor Dave Infante to discuss his recent visit to the Hemp Beverage Expo. With this segment of the drinks business growing like crazy, Dave talks about the current challenges the industry faces, the various stakeholders and their disparate visions for the future, and how traditional beverage alcohol companies are viewing this newcomer. 🔊 Apple: https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/eMKMNVbN 🔊 Spotify: https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/eSemJrm3 Listen to a preview 👇

Today on the VinePair Podcast: Can Ugly Drinks Succeed? With Adam on vacation, Joanna Sciarrino and Zachary Geballe discuss whether drinks these days simply need to be eye-catching to catch on. Do specialized glassware, alluring colors, and clever graphic design matter more now than they used to? 🔊 Apple: https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/egfZ4f5y 🔊 Spotify: https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/exaGMUbQ Listen to a preview 👇

On Aug. 21, 2015, Sasha Petraske unexpectedly passed at the age of 42. Ten years later, his legacy and impact on the bar world live on. Read Rich Manning's latest: 10 Years After His Passing, Sasha Petraske Still Lives On 🔗 https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/ezPQQmas

Everybody knows that Instagram is crucial to a craft brewery’s success. But what my latest column for VinePair (featuring an interview with Jenny Pfäfflin of Dovetail Brewery) presupposes is… maybe it isn’t. https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/eXMwUP86

💰 Investors Have Become More Selective About Alcohol Investments — for Now The economic climate that allowed Casamigos to sell for $1 billion in 2017, Patrón for $5.1 billion in 2018, and Aviation Gin for $610 million in 2020 has receded. Today, the general investor sentiment around alcohol is more subdued. Data published by Capstone Partners shows annual declines in beverage industry deal-making since a high point in 2021. Mergers and acquisitions did rebound slightly in 2024, though many of them were related to wholesaler consolidation or were strategic buys of underperforming brands. Read Kate Bernot's latest for VP Pro: https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/dtkRcUJA

🥔🥔🥔 As far as I know, no one has ever definitively determined the etymology of the word “tater” as it applies to the bourbon industry. Surely, it must have originated on straightbourbon.com, the first widespread online forum for discussing bourbon topics, both important and ridiculous. Or maybe it came from a private Facebook bourbon group, those long-standing battlegrounds for shit-talking, trolling, and occasional whiskey talk. Some claim the term started as a prank that simply spun out of control. While others say the mystery man who coined the term has unfortunately passed, and the reason he initially started using the term has gone with him. Whatever the case, it was sometime before 2010 when, for reasons unknown, the online bourbon cognoscenti started taunting those lesser-than-them neophyte drinkers who did cringeworthy things… as f*cking potatoes. Taters: https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/ezQ6GuAa

🏆 The Mount Rushmore of American Craft Cocktail Bars, According to 7 Noteworthy Bartenders Asking a bartender to name the most influential craft cocktail bar of all time is a heavy question bordering on unfair. Asking them to name their “Mount Rushmore” of craft cocktail bars doesn’t lighten the load all that much, despite expanding the field from one to four. So when I recently asked six acclaimed bartenders what bars were on their Mount Rushmore, most responded with a request for a few days to marinate on their choices. And a couple participants tried to sneak in a bonus fifth venue when their picks were submitted. Such deliberation is justified. Today’s cocktail scene draws inspiration from myriad sources; Whittling this inspiration down to four key spots is an activity deserving of more than just a snap judgement. I also didn’t want the bartenders to be the only ones to ponder this question, so I came up with my own Mount Rushmore. It took me several days to think things over, natch. Read Rich Manning's latest: https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/eZ-kc7_9