What do you think of when you hear the words “port wine?” British gentlemen’s clubs? Cigars? Mikhail Gorbachev? I think of the delicious, sweet, fortified wine of the Douro River Valley of Portugal. Few wines are as rich in history and culture as Port, or Oporto, or Vinho do Porto,…
The Spot: The Watershed 5250 South Lake Shore Drive, Tempe 480-756-0508 www.watershedaz.com…
If you chose to devote your time to Beer Week events this past weekend rather than taking advantage of the impressive lineup of seminars and mixers put on by Cocktail Week, you messed up and we’re sorry. There are several days left before Cocktail Week comes to a close, so…
Beer: Beer Week Weizenbock Brewery: Four Peaks Brewing Co., Wanderlust Brewing Co., Mother Road Brewery, Huss Brewing Co., Ten Fifty-Five Brewing, Dragoon Brewing Co. Style: Weizenbock ABV: 7.5 percent Happy Beer Week, readers! You tired of beer yet? Me neither. This week’s brew encompasses the best that Arizona has to…
I do love a cocktail that involves showmanship. And few cocktails have quite the flair of this week’s Last Call, the Flame of Love martini. With a name like that, how could I resist making one for Valentine’s Day? The Flame of Love was created in 1970 for none other…
Love it or hate it, Valentine’s Day is upon us. Most people equate chocolate with this lovebird’s holiday, but chocolate has been widely available only since the 1500s. I’d like to assert wine’s place at the aphrodisiac table; after all, nobody strips down to their skivvies after too much chocolate…
The Spot: The Greene House 15024 North Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale 480-889-9494 www.foxrc.com/restaurants/the-green-house…
Beer: Duchesse de Bourgogne Brewery: Brouwerij Verhaeghe Style: Flemish Red Ale ABV: 6.2 percent Because they tend to get me in big trouble both personally and professionally, I try to avoid making sweeping generalizations about the opposite sex. So it’s at great peril that I start off this week’s review…
The fifth annual Devour Bartending Competition on Sunday sought to showcase some of the Valley’s best bartenders and their creative cocktails, and we certainly had some unique ones. Although the competition portion only spanned 10 minutes, the two hours of milling and mingling at Crescent Ballroom with ounce-and-a-half cocktails in…
I’ve been on an absinthe kick at work lately. I’ve been trying to get my coworkers on the bandwagon, but they keep wrinkling their nose at the black licorice aroma that I find so alluring. All the more absinthe for me, I suppose. For most people, absinthe is easier to…
I love Phoenix, there, I said it. I lived here for several years, moved away, and then came back because I like it here so much. But every so often, the traffic, noise, snowbirds, and general “cityness” have me feeling hemmed in. If you feel the same way, and you…
There’s an app for pretty much everything ever at this point, so it’s no wonder there is a multitude of apps dedicated to the most worthy of endeavors — drinking, mixing, and discovering great cocktails. Whether your mission is to find the best bar in town, pull the trigger on…
The Spot: Garage Wine & Tap 1534 East Bethany Home Road 602-265-4125 www.garagewinetap.com…
There’s a reason the majority of New Year’s resolutions to finally start eating right last only about a month: Girl Scout cookies. Once those cute little be-sashed monsters start peddling their boxes of high-calorie deliciousness, it’s game over. But we here at Chow Bella buy into the “in for a…
Beer: Brown Ale Brewery: Upslope Brewing Style: American Brown Ale ABV: 6.7 percent This is a story about love. It’s also a story about beer, which, when you think about it, is kind of redundant. It begins years ago in a small Argentinian town called Ushaia, a picturesque hamlet made…
Many bartenders I know have cultivated a certain sense of authority. It makes sense to me that it happens naturally. We bartenders are often seen as fonts of information, whether it’s dating advice or a piece of trivia to settle a bet. Goodness knows I’ve certainly done quite a bit…
There’s no exact formula for starting your own wine company. You could buy land and plant grapes, but then you’d need a place to make the wine. Or you could have the winemaking facility, but you’d need the fruit. Or you could have none of those things but the burning…
As cocktail trends delve deeper and deeper into an appreciation of spirits with the knowledge of the history of bartending, the Negroni has resurfaced as a new favorite among enthusiasts and bartenders alike. It’s likely by this time that you’ve seen a Negroni on the menu at one of your…
Beer: Shake Down Series Anniversary Porter Brewery: Wanderlust Brewing Co. Style: Baltic Porter ABV: 10 percent You might think brewing is an easy job. It isn’t. Sure, there are perks — you make your own hours, your work uniform consists of sweet boots and a manly beard, and drinking on…
One thing about being behind the bar for as long as I have is that part of my mind is an overstuffed Rolodex full of drink recipes. Sometimes things get misfiled (there’s a slight chance I’ll make you a Negroni when you ask for an Americano), but I generally have…
If you’re reading this, you at least have a casual interest in wine and probably probably tasted many different wines, possibly even taken tasting notes on some wines. Even if you haven’t taken notes, you probably can tell the difference between, say, a Pinot Noir and a Syrah. If you’re…
Last week Arizona Distilling Co. added a spirit to their repertoire. The historic Tempe-based distillery was the first to legally produce liquor in the state since Prohibition when they released Copper City Bourbon last year. Now they’re also offering a Desert Dry Gin made with locally-sourced botanicals. We spoke with…
