Recent Articles from Cathie Beck
Top 50 Family-Owned Companies: Success in small batches
Photography by Jeff Nelson Continental Sausage’s street cred is made most evident by its staying power, devout fan base and steady sales growth – about 5 percent a year since 2003. That growth trajectory took a decided upturn three years ago when John Roelke came aboard as VP of sales. With the apparent mantra “tasting […]
My fine January wine whine
Just yesterday I was at a business meeting. As the client spoke of items he needed me to tend to, I inadvertently noticed the burgundy color of his shirt and how, when he gestered, the shirt rippled, which made me think of a barrel of squashed grapes, which made me think of how I was in Italy just...
A holiday hooch-lovers’ gift guide
There’s no end, it would seem, to the possibilities for clever gifts for those who enjoy a spot of vino now and again. Colorado is unique in many ways and designing the delightful, thoughtful and personal gift is yet one more expression of our eclectic and often envied Rocky Mountain culture. So r...
Sandoval scores again
Chef Richard Sandoval has a lot to talk about. With more than 30 contemporary Latin cuisine-focused restaurants around the globe, Sandoval’s Denver fame is most notable with his Tamayo and Zengo iterations: cool, south-of-the-border bistros that remind the traveler (or traveling-inclined) diner th...
Mad butchers, marvy wines
There are a hundred reasons to love and respect John Imbergamo. He’s a brilliant public relations pro and restaurant champion — and serves as Executive Chef Elise Wiggin’s and Denver’s Panzano Italian Restaurant’s publicist — plus, he’s gracious, knowledgeable, fun and knows food. And he knows a g...
Ralphie May in the flesh
Not everyone loves stand-up comic, Ralphie May, an obese, often foul-mouthed white man full of black-man smack talk — who also happens to be married to a Jewish woman. But I do. Here’s why Ralphie May’s going to outlast the current crew of 40-something-year-olds trying to stay on the road, stay on the stage and […]
Cool is the cabernet
I am so looking forward to sweaters, cool evenings, pumpkins and outdoor bonfires. I’m also looking forward to the presidential election, but that’s a whole other bag of fun. What I’m really looking forward to is the chance to finally open, to aerate and then to sip a wonderful cabernet. I’m looki...
Surreal town, soulful sounds
(Photo by Susan Gatschet-Reese) Telluride is a surreal, European hamlet that is at once ridiculously monied (multi-million dollar corner lots with groomed yards to envy anything in Cherry Hills Village), and the poster town for hippie haven, where dogs run loose and kids without helmets ride bikes in the middle of the street. The 10,000 foot […]
Ode to an opener
Last week, as a joke, I look up gadgets for wine drinkers and bikers. And guess what? Idiocy abounds and it’s all yours, so long as you have an American Express. There’ the little two-strappy thing that attaches to that bicycle bar between your legs to “help” you carry your wine bottle while toodl...
Rockin’ my wine world
Panzano’s Executive Chef, Elise Wiggins, and her Umbria, Italy-born colleague, Gennaro Villella, changed my wine-drinking life last week. Under nights filled with a full moon, deep and delicious vineyard wanderings, and Verona, Italy third-and fourth-generation winemakers, Elise and Gennaro introd...
Wine-ing on Facebook
Since I waste so much time on Facebook, the question popped up in my brain the other day: Is social media — Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn or Foursquare or Pinterest — making my wine life more enjoyable? Though one is free and the other costly, the fact is: They’re both addictive substances so sh...
Hooked on the good stuff
Today, I drink wines priced at about $20 or more a bottle. I know this because I’ve graduated to Argonaut Wine & Spirits’ “3rd Tier” shelf. Argonaut sells their wines (more or less) from four shelves: starting at the bottom shelf and working up to the fourth shelf, they are priced, respectively, a...