Wine

Internet search engines have taught us the usefulness of the 'more like this' function. Find one thing that hits the spot, then ask for more results that deliver more or less the same goods.    Search engines do the hard work of figuring out which parameters will return results that are highly correlated with your spot-on hit.  But in situations where you don't have an algorithm to lean on the process becomes rather more challenging. For example, you find a wine you really like.

Enjoying good wine in the great outdoors is fun, but toting glass bottles on the trail is no picnic. Enter the new crop of alternatively packaged wines in cartons, cans and other trail-ready options. Sure, for actual hydration you'll want to tote along water or whatever energy drink you favor. But for that moment when the hike is done, the mountain bike path conquered, or you're just relaxing and grilling a few steaks on a lazy Sunday, these wines make it easy to blend libations with explorations.

Globe Staff File Photo/Mark Wilson Olives has been unofficially feeding people for a few days now, getting back in gear and using guests as guinea pigs to try out dishes new and old. (The food was free, but they paid for their own drinks.) Thursday, the reopening is official. "So many people have come up and said, 'We're so happy to have you back,'" says chef Todd English. But don't expect English and crew to be serving the kind of Big Food pictured above, the way Olives served customers circa 1996.

Q. Are the benefits of red wine from the alcohol or the grapes? A. Red wine has been touted as a health food ever since it was proposed as a solution to the "French Paradox" — the fact that the French have relatively low rates of heart disease despite a diet high in saturated fat. The source of red wine's benefits "is an unresolved issue," says Arthur Klatsky, a cardiology researcher at Kaiser Permanente Northern California....

Many Parisian bistros offer an inexpensive and satisfying bowl of mussels steamed in wine, served with a large plate of fries. Fries, of course, add a lot to the briny dish, but so do crusty chunks of toasted bread. Farm-raised mussels from Maine are widely available, even in winter. Tip them into a pot of sauteed shallots, add plenty of white wine, and turn up the heat. The mussels will open as you shake the pan and the shells will fill with steamy broth. Set some mussels aside for a chowder with saffron, tomatoes, leeks, fennel, and red-skinned potatoes.

Not sure why we never went to Montreal and Quebec City in one long trip (though several visits to Montreal only). We ate extraordinarily well, beginning at Le Comptoir Charcuteries et Vins , (above) which was very crowded when we arrived without a reservation. In Montreal, establishments cannot serve wine at the bar unless you're also eating and all those spaces were spoken for. We had walked three miles in the rain (though not uphill and backwards, only uphill)

The handsome map of Burgundy's Cotes de Nuits you see at right is hung on the wall behind my desk. It's not that I have frequent need to refer to it - I just enjoy  looking at it. Though nearly five feet long and two wide, I occasionally hover over it with a magnifying glass. Up close it looks as you see it below.  Vineyards have whimsical names here - some in indecipherable local patois, others readily translatable as The Steps of the Cat, Behind the Oven, The High Walls.

Clearly it must taste like swill, until it packs a late punch of flavor at the very end. Yes, a Colorado brewing company - no, the other one - has announced that it is hopping on the Tim Tebow bandwagon by announcing the debut "Tebrew. "  Expect Schmaltz Brewring , the makers of "He'Brew," to sue at any given moment. Nevertheless, Bonfire Brewing describes the "Tebrew Sunday Sipper" as a barleywine, and has waited until the last minute to serve it up - in glasses only - at its location in Golden.

Tickets are now available for the eighth annual Hair of the Dog Wine Tasting and Art Show to benefit the MSPCA at Nevins Farm, taking place from 6 to 9 p.m. May 4 at the Essex Art Center, Lawrence. Attendees will be able to sample over 50 wines and beers from all over the world, and enjoy an array of work produced by local artists. Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door, and may be purchased at the Noble Family Animal Care and Adoption Center, at Shawsheen Village Liquors in Andover, or online at mspca.org.

CAPE MAY, N.J. -- It was a wine pairing dinner with a twist. At the Washington Inn, we were tasting the wines of Daniel Rion & Fils from the Burgundy region of France. Joining us at the table were the winemakers themselves, Olivier and Anne Marie Rion, the fourth generation to work the family vineyards. Inn owner Michael Craig ushered us into a small dining room on the lower level. From the table we could see through glass doors into the inn's 10,000-bottle wine cellar, said to be the largest in southern New Jersey.

Say, don't I know you? That's what a few folks were saying at the Nantucket Wine Festival's harbor gala Thursday when Drew Barrymore (inset) walked in. The pregnant actress, who's engaged to art consultant Will Kopelman , is at the wine fest to hype her Barrymore Pinot Grigio. (Of course, being in the family way, Barrymore poured some wine but didn't drink any.) Others in the crowd included Kopelman and his father, former Chanel chief executive and Boston native Arie Kopelman , Nantucket Wine fest founder Denis Toner , Nantucket Island Resorts managing director ...

Liz Bramwell hosts a dinner party for 22 paying guests ($75 each) every Friday night in downtown Boston. Bramwell (above in green) is the chef for "The Cooking Show," filmed in a state-of-the art studio inside the Rustic Kitchen restaurant in Boston's Park Square. The show features a how-to meal paired with wine, which guests enjoy during the filming. The petite Bramwell, 27, a Culinary Institute of America grad, is the star here. Last Friday, she made baked stuffed sole over saffron orzo with baby artichokes and tomatoes, served with a Spanish Albarino wine.

Not sure why we never went to Montreal and Quebec City in one long trip (though several visits to Montreal only). We ate extraordinarily well, beginning at Le Comptoir Charcuteries et Vins , (above) which was very crowded when we arrived without a reservation. In Montreal, establishments cannot serve wine at the bar unless you're also eating and all those spaces were spoken for. We had walked three miles in the rain (though not uphill and backwards, only uphill)

We'll admit to being a little in love with the analytic tool known as the quad chart. There's something attractive about the way it gives clarity to certain kinds of ideas one struggles to achieve by other means. A neatly designed quad is particularly good at illuminating how perceptions shift as you move from one position to another along notional axes. The quad below is result of our interest in a phenomenon we've been watching for a few years now: the fashion among younger wine enthusiasts and the retail shops and sommeliers who cater to them away fromwell-known wine producing...

By Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent A variety of unusual and familiar events await wine and food lovers at the 16th annual Nantucket Wine Festival May 16-20. For example, one event, "The Greatest Chef You Never Heard Of," Damon Baehrel, of Basement Bistro in Earlton, N.Y., which has a two-year waiting list to get in, has been hailed by Thomas Keller of French Laundry fame as one of America's greatest culinary talents. Baehrel's cuisine will be featured at the event, at a location to be announced and, of course, paired with wine.

By Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent Ever thought about being a winemaker? Now's your chance. Through the "Winemaker for a Week" contest, contestants enter to win a week-long stay for two at Greek Peak Mountain Resort in Cortland, N.Y. (noted for the Cortland apple, named after Cortland County of which the town, Cortland, is the county seat). The contest is sponsored by The Finger Lakes Tourism Alliance, Cayuga Lake Wine Trail, Greek Peak Mountain Resort, and Bet the Farm Winery and Gourmet Market.

Thanks to a new state law, wines from area vineyards will be for sale for the first time at this year’s Medford Farmers Market, which opens its fifth season Thursday. Vegetables, meat, eggs, and bread are among the other locally grown or produced items that will be for sale. More than 20 vendors have signed up to participate in this year’s market. It will be open from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m every Thursday through Oct. 13 in the parking lot at the Whole Foods store on Mystic Valley Parkway (Route 16)

AXA is a big French insurance company that also owns a number of important wine properties. The wine part of the business is run by Englishman Christian Seely whose blog I peek in on now and then. I don't normally find it the most interesting writing on the web, since it often has a promotional quality that's rather off-putting. His most recent post explains why it's worth checking in on. It's a four video tour of AXA's Domaine Disznoko property in Hungary where the miraculously luscious Tokaji Aszu is made.

Of the many universal truths out there, one that resounds with women everywhere is: Motherhood is hard work. Perhaps writer Anna Quindlen put it best: "The great motherhood friendships are the ones in which two women can admit [how difficult mothering is] quietly to each other, over cups of tea at a table sticky with spilled apple juice and littered with markers without tops. " Swap a glass of Bordeaux for tea, and you have Marile Borden's founding principle for her website, Moms Who Need Wine (www.momswhoneedwine.com)