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Total number of miles in Scotland’s “Dramathon,” an annual boozy race along Speyside Way, home to over 80 world-renowned whisky distilleries. What makes this marathon so special? The finish line is at the Glenfiddich distillery where runners sip single malt scotches and receive medals made from whisky barrel staves. The Dramathon takes place in October. Registration is now open.

When critics describe a wine, they refer to all of these except for its:

A. Head

B. Legs

C. Nose

D. Body

A wine’s “nose” is its aroma. Wine pros will say, for example, that a given wine has a nose of apricots and peaches. Similarly, a wine’s “legs” are the rivulets of wine that inch up the inside surface of the glass above the wine, then run slowly back down. It’s often said (erroneously) that the thicker the legs, the better the wine. Legs are a complex phenomenon related to the amount of glycerol and alcohol in the wine, plus the rate of evaporation of the alcohol. A wine’s “body” is its weight on the palate. Light-bodied wines feel about as heavy as skim milk on the palate, while full-bodied wines feel like half-and-half or even cream. Medium-bodied wines are somewhere in the middle. Head? Um, that falls in the beer department.

Infused for Summer: Vermouth

Vermouth is a fortified wine infused with botanicals, herbs, spices, fruits, and sometimes vegetables. Among the ingredients is usually the aromatic plant wormwood (from which the word vermouth is derived). Each vermouth producer has his… Continue reading

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