Pennsylvania House approves bill for
beer distributors to sell wine, liquor

by Kevin Zwick, Trib Live

Wild Hart: A new craft distillery in Shelburne, VT

by Phyl Newbeck, Shelburne News

Next month, Wild Hart Distillery will open its doors at the Vermont Artisan Village in Shelburne. The two principals, Naomi Clemmons and Craig Stevens, have been friends and colleagues for 25 years. They were working as consultants in the public health field in Boston, but both felt the urge to do something different. The result of that urge is their new, small-batch craft distillery making vodka and gin, something Stevens refers to as their "encore career."

It was in December of 2014 that Clemmons first thought about the idea of a distillery. "I was thinking about the assets in my life," she said, "and I thought about Tom Kenyon who farms on my parents' property. I love bourbon and here was a farmer who grew local grains."  Read more.

VANCOUVER - Some of the most storied pieces of art ride a long and complicated road before they come to be, often changing hands and crossing borders and coming in and out of contact with danger along their journey to their appreciation by the masses. The mark of a wise man is to know such a piece of art when he sees one-or tastes one, as the case may be. Deep Cove Craft's Shae de Jaray is one such wise man and, together with Long Table Distillery's co-founder/master distiller Charles Tremewen, he rescued a very well-travelled and sublimely well-crafted pinot-barreled pear brandy from what would've been a tragic early grave down a drain in North Vancouver.

The power of observation has led to countless new business ventures, but those that become a success often are linked more to quality customer service and adhering to a customer's needs, perhaps even more so than the idea or product itself. Greg Pierce, who once cut his teeth on what went into barrels, is now more concerned with locating high quality quarter-sawn American White Oak to craft the barrels themselves. Pierce and a group of investors opened Black Water Barrels in the summer of 2016, and began production of 30-, 53- and 60-gallon barrels for bourbon, rum, tequila, beer, ale, cider, wine, Cognac and hot sauce early in 2017. Had the business been founded in Kentucky, Missouri or Minnesota, few would have batted an eye, but Bamberg, S.C., a town of nearly 4,000 folks, is most notable as being the birthplace of Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina and current U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, former N.Y. Mets outfielder Mookie Wilson, and its prosperous cotton mill that was built in 1892...  Read more.