Posts Written ByAmy Zavatto

Pour it Out: Where to Give for Sandy Relief

When something bad happens to your neighbor, you want to help. You bring over some soup or a baked ziti or cookies, or maybe you even invite them into your home. You do… something. Because doing nothing feels strange and wrong. Making that human connection — be it with the person who lives 10 yards away, or the unknowns you watched on the news last night who lost all their worldly possessions digging mud out of their house, or the elderly woman who, after nearly two weeks, still doesn’t have power in her 10-floor Lower East Side or Coney Island walk-up,…

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Climbing the Summit: Progress v. Placating in NY’s Wine, Spirits, and Beer Industry

Last Wednesday, I boarded a 7:15 a.m. Amtrak train up to Albany where, along with several hundred winemakers, brewers, distillers, and farmers, I got to sit in on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s New York State Wine, Beer, and Spirits Summit. The invitation had come in the week before: “Governor Andrew M. Cuomo cordially invites you…”; the date, place, time, and RSVP instructions. What, exactly, was going to happen? I really wasn’t sure, but as soon as I walked into the Egg Center for the Performing Arts I understood that this was going to be a serious afternoon, and hopefully one where progress was the order of the…

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Judgement Day: Is There Mettle Behind the Medals?

This holiday weekend, when you belly up to the tasting bars of your favorite local wineries — or any given winery, really — inevitably you will see on display bottles draped in shiny heavy medallions of bronze, silver, and gold. Annual beribboned medals of merit, glinting under lights positioned just so to draw your eye to their shiny pomp and circumstance. Tasting notes on flight sheets further explain the sight — this one won a silver, this one a double gold. And every now and again, you find the goose with the golden egg: The coveted Governor’s Cup. But do you ever wonder who…

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