Is there a difference between spirits produced today and those distilled 50 or 100 years ago? Many experts think so: they point to the difference between a small-production item and a mass-market one, and they also cite the changes in recipe and ingredients at many distilleries (something the distillers themselves don’t usually admit). Increasingly, consumers are paying thousands of dollars for bottles of older spirits, and hundreds of bucks for cocktails made from that booze.

Last year’s wildfires in California damaged dozens of wineries, destroyed hundreds of homes, and caused billions of dollars in losses. What’s being done to prevent the next round of catastrophic fires? Not much. The state government is making soothing noises, and residents are being told to establish a firebreak around their houses. The wine industry is one of the bulwarks of the California economy, and here’s the question: To what extent is the state responsible for safeguarding that industry?

Legal marijuana is killing wine sales, the world’s ten best breweries, and pizza trumps breakfast cereal any day of the week: all this and more on Glass Half Full, our roundup of the most interesting food, wine and spirits stories on the web.

Here are the recent posts: Vintage Cocktails: Would You Pay $650 For A Sazerac?

The Fire Next Time

Glass Half Full: 2/16/2018