Although rosé’s popularity peaks in the summertime, the pink wine’s roots prove it is more than a trendy seasonal beverage. The style dates back centuries, when the Greeks brought vines to Marseilles and rosé was created. It caught the attention of the Romans, who exported it through their trade routes. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the expansion of rail travel within France…

Residents of the United States drank 7.8 billion gallons of booze in 2023, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). That same year — the latest of NIAAA’s available data — considerable slides in wine and beer consumption predicated a nearly 15 million-gallon dip in total alcohol consumption in the United States. Spirits was the only category to record growth,…

While Merlot originated in Bordeaux, the grape grows well all around the world. Its cultivation now stretches from its homeland in Europe to the Pacific Northwest of the United States and the Southern Hemisphere. Merlot is often compared to Cabernet Sauvignon: The two go hand in hand because they are the most common varieties in Bordeaux and known for headlining the region’s world-class,…

Beer still reigns as the country’s most consumed alcoholic beverage by volume, according to data from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). In 2023 — the most recent year of data available — Americans drank 6.2 billion gallons of beer, a 3 percent dip in total consumption from 2022. Still, the category topped wine (887 million gallons) and spirits (734 million gallons)…

Ready-to-drink (RTD) products are on fire, and much of that flame is fueled by their ease, nostalgic flavors, and high volume of booze. We have a sneaking suspicion that the latter is what the young’uns are looking for the most, as it’s becoming increasingly evident that recently of-age drinkers want to feel a buzz fast. To appeal to these consumers, alcohol brands’ RTD offerings continue to…

The earliest records of winemaking date back to 6000 BCE, and the oldest known winery — now referred to as Areni-1 — was in operation as far back as 4100 BCE. The oldest wineries that still exist today, however, weren’t established until the Common Era. For this roundup of the world’s longest-running wineries, we looked to the oldest winery that still exists today in 10 different countries. Many…

Today, beer geeks flock to their local craft brewery to sit at picnic tables and sip small-batch brews — a culture that stems from the Great American Craft Beer Boom that gained traction in the 1960s and ’70s. However, the existence of craft breweries predates that sudden rise by over a century. Pennsylvania is home to the country’s first craft brewery, D.G. Yuengling & Son, which opened in 1829.…

For now, authorities are sending water from an upstream reservoir to replenish Lake Powell, but it is a short-term fix. “There’s not enough water to fill the hole,” said Brian Richter, president of Sustainable Waters, a global water-education organization.

The Martini is arguably the most recognizable cocktail ever created. The highly personalizable drink can spark spirited discussions about its precise specs, but the iconic look of the standard version — clear liquid in a V-shaped glass and adorned by either olives or a lemon twist — provides a foundation almost impossible to confuse. While there have been ebbs and flows to its popularity, the…

Terroir isn’t a term widely used for beer, but much like wine, beer styles differ drastically from region to region, even within the same country. For Germany, a nation steeped in beer tradition, different areas and cities take great pride in their local brews. While most of the German beers that have influenced brewing culture in the U.S. have been light-style lagers, the country offers much…

Cinco de Mayo is tomorrow, and drinkers are gearing up to knock back Margaritas galore. As penny pinching becomes the norm, celebrants are likely to compare their local spots’ menu price to the average cost of a Marg in their state. In 2025, tequila was the second-most purchased spirit by revenue in the U.S., and the Margarita continues its reign as the country’s favorite cocktail. The price for…

Trends can define certain decades. Mention the 1980s, for example, and images of neon clothes, big hair, and women’s jackets with shoulder pads rivaling a middle linebacker may immediately come to mind. They aren’t wholly definitive of the decade — the ’80s was also the era of slick Wall Street yuppies, thrash metal, and the constant threat of nuclear warfare — but they do paint a vivid enough…

The history of Japanese whisky isn’t quite as convoluted as other spirits categories. It’s just misunderstood. The category crept into the collective American consciousness right around the time of the brown spirits revival in the early aughts, thanks in part to Bill Murray’s iconic ad-within-a-film catchphrase “For relaxing times, make it Suntory time” in the 2003 movie “Lost in Translation.”…

As on-premise booze sales grow, prices at bars and restaurants increase to match that rising demand. The median price for beer at bars and restaurants in the U.S. is now $6.52, a 1.9 percent year-over-year markup from 2025, according to data collected by Toast. Costs in individual states are following the upward trend. Hawaii records the highest median price for a pint of beer out of all 50…

It’s no secret that Americans drink their fair share of coffee. Every year, U.S. consumers each take down approximately 1,095 cups of coffee on average, which breaks down to roughly three cups per person per day and adds up to more than $100 billion in sales annually. But not all Americans are reaching for the same kind of coffee to get their daily fix. Since the 1970s, coffee culture has…

New York City gets its “city that never sleeps” nickname from the tireless cabbies, late-night food carts, and ever-shifting lights that keep its streets abuzz. Also among the city’s nighthawk scene are boisterous partygoers flocking to NYC’s host of hot and hip bars and clubs. New York wouldn’t be the same city without its nightlife. It’s not news that NYC boasts a legendary bar scene. From…

Americans can’t get enough caffeine. According to Paris-based global market research firm Ipsos, three in four Americans rely on some sort of caffeine to get them through the morning, and half need it again in the afternoon. Coffee and soda have long been the choice energy sources for many consumers, but in recent years, energy drinks have taken on a life of their own. Of course, the category has…

Bordeaux is one of the world’s most famous wine regions, with drinkers the world over infatuated with its juicy red blends, crisp whites, and supple dessert wines. Beyond producing some of the most sought-after bottlings around, Bordeaux’s popularity, in large part, comes from the fact that it essentially defined what it means to be a fine-wine region with the 1855 Classification of Bordeaux. The…

The separation of the “American Negro Exhibit” from the other US displays fit its purpose. Devoting an exhibit specifically to Black Americans suggested that they, indeed, constituted a separate society. In Du Bois’s words, the infographics made up “an honest, straightforward exhibit of a small nation of people, picturing their life and development without apology or gloss, and above all made…

Not much tells you about a place quite like its indigenous beverage. Aperol and Campari conjure feelings of an Italian summer, bourbon transports drinkers to the American South, and sake evokes Japanese rice paddies. Locale-specific spirits often pull from the flora and fauna of their environments, and the result is the land’s identity in liquid form. There is no Caribbean rum without local…

The total number of wineries in the U.S. contracted for the third year in a row, decreasing by 3 percent from 2025, according to the WineBusiness Analytics Winery Database. The downward trend is particularly noticeable in state-by-state counts, where the most populated state, California, dipped by 2 percent. The top five states remain the same as in 2023, the last year when the overall number of…