Good luck to the soul who stands between a California Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel and me. Seriously, get out of my way.

I like wine and, especially, red wine. When I’m in northern California, I can drink a fancy red bottle or take my jug to the local vineyard to fill up on solid house wine. Either way, I’m happy because in California, I’ve got options.

Not so much in New England.

In fact, when a winemaker from a vineyard along the Coastal Wine Trail (which covers Rhode Island and Massachusetts) told me it’s impossible to make good red wine north of Connecticut, I pouted and considered a move out west permanently.

That was until I battled through thunderstorms to make my annual journey to Woodstock, Vermont in June.

I’ve been visiting Woodstock for ten years. My husband and I met Deirdre Heekin and Caleb Barber, proprietors of Osteria Pane e Salute, when we put ourselves in their hands for one of our first very fancy dinners as a couple. We chose our dishes based on their very seasonal and local menu, and Deirdre paired each course with her carefully-curated wines.

I love when someone who loves wines tells me what to drink.

Each year, we visit their bistro-size restaurant and, each year, I learn about so many boutique wines that Deirdre has discovered during her trips to Italy. Deirdre and Caleb visited during their honeymoon and return to taste, cook and get inspired during the off-season each year.

Lucky for us.

In June, we followed our typical 1-2-3 plan for a visit to Woodstock.

1. We checked into our favorite inn: The Woodstocker Inn

2. We ate and sampled beers at our favorite brewery: Long Trail Brewing Company

3. We dined in one of the best restaurants ** in New England: Osteria Pane e Salute

There was one slight alteration to this pretty awesome agenda. Deirdre and Caleb have started making wine on their eight-acre farm about 10 miles from the restaurant in Barnard, Vermont. And as a little gift to my husband, I surprised him with a tour of their farm, from which they grow vegetables and herbs for the restaurant, and a tasting of their very first wine vintage in progress at La Garagista. (They already make classic method ciders and aperitivi, delicious cordials and liquors to serve before a meal, and digestifs, for after a meal.)

The entire farm was stunning and quite special. And when I relayed the Coastal Wine Trail story to Deirdre just as we sipped her red wine, she gave me a look and a smile, and it was very clear to me that though the wine was still developing, I was soon going to have a favorite New England red wine.

Deirdre and Caleb are very busy with the restaurant and the farm and their wine tastings and all those trips to Italy but if you ask very nicely, they’d let you tour and taste their wines too.

Deirdre and Caleb have written several books: Libation, a Bitter Alchemy; In Late Winter We Ate Pears: A Year of Hunger and Love; and (my personal favorite) Pane e Salute: Food and Love in Italy and Vermont. They’re also on Twitter and write the inspiring blog Fuoricitta. I’ve written about Osteria Pane e Salute before too.

** Now I don’t make a broad statement like this very easily. But my first experience dining at this restaurant, and every single visit since, has inspired me. Their passion for food and wine inspired me to find my own and they’re one of the reasons I choose to work in food. Yes, those are big shoes to fill but they fill them beautifully.

Eat Boutique is an online magazine + market for food enthusiasts to celebrate the best pure, local + comforting handmade foods. We call it: food that hugs you back. Looking for the perfect gift? Eat Boutique sells gift boxes filled with handmade sweet and savory treats. Send food that hugs you back today.

When I invited frequent and fabulous contributor Shelby over for a beer, she said “Since when do you drink beer?” Oh my, I love beer! But only the light and sparkling kind absent of anything too full of hops. Thank goodness I have Shelby in my life, for so many reasons that are way too mushy to get into here, but most notably for her great beer advice. She shares her summer favorites below! – Maggie

We are in full summer beer mode right now and I couldn’t be happier. The snow-covered months, when heavy barley wines and cozy coffee stouts are everywhere, are thankfully behind us. Right now is the perfect time to grab a cold, frosty mug and pour yourself something a bit lighter, retreat to your favorite outdoor spot, and put your feet up.

I struck out to do a bit of research this month so that I could be fully prepared for the summer beer season that is now upon us. With a fun group of people at my family’s lake house in Maine, I attempted to have my friends taste different beers and tell me all about them.

It turns out that beer tasting can be tough business. The drinker is easily distracted, whether they wander off, beer in hand, to go flip burgers, or if they disappear to take a nap on the porch. Or you might suddenly find yourself on a boat, with the other beer tasters, talking about every topic but hops and barley. My theory is that it’s because beer is about having fun. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, though it certainly has become much more interesting in recent years with the massive growth of very high quality craft brewing companies.

To prepare, I wanted to locate a pretty good spectrum of beers that would drink well in the summer months. We have had access to pretty good “summer” beers here in the Boston area for years with Sam Summer (Sam Adams) and Harpoon Summer, which announce the season to come when they make their debut around Red Sox opening day. I wanted to go deeper though, finding a few other beers that may not have the word “summer” in their names but that are excellent choices for drinking on a warm summer evening.

Disclaimer #1: This is a selection of seasonal beers that are very local to the northeast United States, and even more specifically, these beers are mostly from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. There are excellent seasonal craft beers from across the country, from Abita in Louisiana, to Lagunitas in California, to Ommegang in New York.  If you haven’t already, I encourage you to find your favorite local beer and celebrate it – and if you have suggestions for us, from anywhere – please share in the comment section below.  I am ALWAYS looking for a great new beer.

Disclaimer #2: I am in no means a real beer reviewer. I just know what I like when I taste it. Here, I try to tell you why I think you might like these as well.

We have tried about ten different beers over the past few weeks, and while I mostly liked them all, I wanted to share a few of my favorites for the summer of 2011 (so far…)

Summer Session Ale from Peak Organic Brewing Company, Portland, ME.

The Summer Session Ale is an American Wheat Pale Ale (a few of my favorite things) that features a pretty low ABV of 5%, which means you can have a few of them and not fall asleep under the picnic table. The beer has a nice hazy, pale color, and is light and a bit citrusy in taste, but still packs some punch in flavor. It is refreshing and quenches thirst, which makes it a perfect beer to drink on a very hot day.

Notch Session Pils from Notch Brewery, Ipswich MA

These guys have become the darlings of session beer brewing in recent months. Like the Summer Session Ale above, this is a low ABV beer, coming in at just 4%, meaning that this is a great beer if you’d like to imbibe a bit in the afternoon, but don’t want to be in bed before the summer sun goes down. A newer offering from Notch, the Session Pils is slightly grassy in flavor that’s very refreshing with a good amount of bubbles (okay, carbonation).

Whale’s Tale Pale Ale from Cisco Brewery, Nantucket MA

I haven’t really encountered a beer from this brewing company that I didn’t immediately love. Whale’s Tale, their signature beer, is an English style pale ale that is amber in color and has a bit more going on in the flavor department, as you can really start to taste the breadiness of the yeast, and detect earthy hops.  This beer comes in at a slightly heavier 5.6% alcohol, but is still very drinkable during the summertime. This is a great beer to drink when those warm summer days turn into slightly cooler summer nights, or if you are lucky enough to be drinking seaside.

Riptide Red Ale from Casco Bay Brewery, Portland ME

Don’t let that deep red color dissuade you from trying this well-balanced Irish Red Ale. While this medium bodied beer packs in a ton of flavor, it is not super-heavy and is extremely drinkable on a summer night (it clocks in at 5.4% ABV).

One of my favorites of all that I have tried over the past few weeks, the Riptide Red Ale is the signature beer from the Casco Bay Brewing Company, which is now part of the larger Shipyard Brewing Company in Portland, Maine.  This one might be a bit harder to find outside of Maine, but if you do come across it in your summer travels, I recommend snagging a few six packs!

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Over the river and through the woods, you might just find the country’s best beer bar. Tucked away in the outskirts of tiny Lovell, Maine, Ebenezer’s Pub is a cozy, unassuming spot that features some of Belgium’s finest brews.

‘Bezer’s, as my dad calls it, is located (relatively) close to the town in Maine where my family spends a lot of our time. We have become increasingly impressed with Ebenezer’s offerings over the years, and paying a visit to the pub each time we are in Maine is now somewhat of a family tradition. However, despite our growing love and appreciation of the place, we were still quite surprised to find out that it had earned the honor of being named #1 Beer Bar in America by the guys from Beer Advocate. In addition, in recent months, Ebenezer’s has been highlighted in both the Maine Sunday Telegram and the Boston Globe. Our little pub-in-the-woods was becoming famous! I wanted to know more about Ebenezer’s and the folks behind its unique success, so I began to dig a bit deeper.

The lovely couple that runs the place, Jen and Chris Lively, were based in Los Angeles when they came upon an old bar in Lovell during a visit to family in the area. Attracted by the prospect (and the price), the Livelys made the leap, moved east, and opened up Ebenezer’s.

When they started, they offered a few quality beers, like Chimay, and built up their renowned collection bit by bit. Today, Ebenezer’s features one of the best collections of Belgian beers in the world. ‘Bezer’s also features some of the best English, Scandinavian, and German beers found anywhere. Their American offerings include special beers from Brooklyn Brewery, Dogfish Head, Russian River, and the local favorite; Portland’s Allagash Brewery. The pub also serves great food that goes well with the beers, such as moules frites and hearty burgers.

Ebenezer’s represents a really interesting cross section of people. Local residents, who used to imbibe here when the only beer offered was Bud and Miller, have continued to visit the place, becoming friendly with the owners and experts in beer brewed by Belgian monks. Vacationers visiting the lakes region and the nearby White Mountains of New Hampshire fill the screened porch during the summer months and cozy up to the bar after a day of skiing in the wintertime. Now, a brand new breed of customers, the beer tourist, have descended on Ebenezer’s, coming from afar to sample their famous line-up of beers. The combination of patrons makes for a really comfortable and somewhat fascinating crowd.

Whether you are looking to sample some of Belgium’s biggest and most famous abbey-brewed beers or curious about trying unfamiliar types of beer like barleywine or sour beer, you may want to plan a trip to Lovell, Maine. Plus, if still you aren’t convinced, they offer all your standby domestic beers too. This pretension-free pub is a fun, relaxed place to enjoy something new.

“Eat local!”

“Eat your view.”

“Consume grass-fed, free-range, small batch, homemade foods.”

These are the battle cries that we have heard in recent years, and many of us have responded by buying produce at farmer’s markets and paying more attention to how or where our food is produced.  Eating locally is equally great for the environment, our regional economies, independent businesses and our bodies.  And these same benefits can be seen by drinking locally.

Massachusetts is awash with a kind of local-brewed, grassroots spirit in companies like Cisco, Rapscallion, and Berkshire Brewing Company, cutting down the distance that our beer travels. But with all this great beer flowing, it’s tough to stand out.  One local company has tried to do just that by having great quality beer paired with outstanding bottle designs and make-you-wonder beer names.

Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project is a small-scale, local company that brews really exceptional beer. Instead of brewing specific styles of beer, brewer Dann Paquette is inspired by “times, places, people, ingredients.” While Paquette and his MIT-scientist-wife Martha live in Cambridge, they currently brew their beer in Westport, Massachusetts.

The couple is also known for their intriguing bottle artwork and beer names, like Jack D’or, St. Botolph’s Town (my personal favorite and a nice reference to the origins of the name “Boston”), and their spring seasonal beer, Baby Tree. You have to smile when a beer company says that inspiration for their spring beer comes from “springtime, lambs, Yorkshire and babies-in-trees.” Their winter seasonal brew, a dark “woodland” stout called Babayaga, is named for an old witch from Russian folklore, and features a bottle adorned with a picture of her forest hut standing on chicken legs straight out of a frightening fairy tale.

Running my own very official beer tasting, I tried this stout on a blustery Boston evening after dinner. With its chocolate-y smooth undertones, the Babayaga succeeded as a stand-in for dessert. I followed beer expert directions and let the bottle’s temperature warm a bit, which allowed the taste to fully develop. In our first sips, we noticed a smoky smell, a nice smooth taste and a surprisingly medium bodied character.  I think that one of the biggest misconceptions about dark beer is that it is heavy and bitter. This was definitely not the case with Babayaga. It is a strong beer at 7% alcohol, and is not something I would want to drink loads of in one sitting, but it was a perfect warming beer for that cold, calm night.

With beer of this caliber and a team of brewers this creative, drinking local beer is one virtuous act that results in positive benefits for all. If you’d like to support Massachusetts-brewed beer, check out this list. Learn more about the environmental impact of drinking non-local beer.

Today, I visited the new beer garden that opened at Charlie’s in Cambridge, Massachusetts over the July 4th holiday. I expected to solely have new, fun times loaded with New England ales, but a few hours there brought me back to my crazy, single days living in downtown New York City.

While friends indulged in local ales, all very rich and delicious, I drifted back to good times with my little glass goblet filled with Chimay, a Belgium ale I wet my lips with nearly every night in my early 20s.

There was a little lounge, styled after a European spot, just north of Houston Street, that hosted all my technology-geek friends back in the days of Silicon Alley. You remember Silicon Alley? It was New York’s downtown region labeled as such to rival Silicon Valley. We worked hard in the Alley, trying to make a name for our little technology companies that could. At night, we’d visit Von.

Von was nothing special, just a little room with a DJ booth and long bar that played lounge music and served every sort of Belgium Ale on the market. I was introduced to Chimay there, and drink it every chance I get. The herbed bouquet is scrumptious, filled with nutmeg, clove and something else I can’t place.

I was so happy to see Charlie’s Beer Garden have Chimay on tap, something fairly hard to find in New England. Charlie’s is a little spot hidden in Harvard Square that folks revere for their burgers. Despite all the fancy Yelp reviews, Charlie’s is not fancy and not amazing in the least. The burgers are satisfactory, at best, and don’t let anyone tell you different. But this place is less about the burgers and more about the cheap food and convivial atmosphere.

The Beer Garden is a very new idea for Boston and finally gives us a little spot to drink cheap beer and chow on cheap food at most hours. The price is right and the outdoor spot is perfect during Boston’s hot Summers. Don’t bother with the food; just go to enjoy the the sliver of sunshine that drifts into the garden while you enjoy a great beer on tap. (It doesn’t have to be Chimay, though I highly recommend it.)