Wine and Spirits Travel

Though I have been to more all- inclusives than I can count, I was a Club Med virgin.   Everyone told me that Club Med Sandpiper wasn’t the best example for my “first,” but when the opportunity to go there presented itself, I really wanted to give it a try. There are many reasons why Club Med Sandpiper isn’t a good example of the company, which began in 1950 as the first all-inclusive chain and now has 57 resorts around the world.  They didn’t originally include drinks as part of the plan and the idea was for minimal furnishings and group dining.   They have evolved over the years, altering plans to include drinks and less communal meals.   They have also continually renovated resorts.  And Club Med Sandpiper  is last on the list. For awhile, it looked like they weren’t going to keep the only remaining (there used to be a resort in Colorado) Club Med on U.S. soil,  but this complex in St. Lucie, Florida was meant to stay.  The plan changed with the idea that this property w

I met Sonja Kassebaum for a weekend of bar-hopping run in downtown Champaign.  This wasn’t an exhibition of partying, it was two night of discovering.  The discoverer was me and it was the spirits of North Shore Distillery that I was learning (and tasting).  You see, this isn’t a company where you just walk through a distillery and taste their products, North Shore Distillery does the traveling and brings the adventure to you. The husband and wife team of Sonja and Derek Kassebaum own and operate North Shore Distillery, an artisanal distillery located in a Chicago suburb of Illinois.   They started six years ago and have put their time into making quality products in this small distillery.  They are hands on with everything, including Sonja’s picking of the herbs for the gin.  She readily admits that “Grey Goose makes in one day what we do in six years.”  There is another who makes the spirits of North Shore possible --  Ethel, the 250 liter copper still that was hand-crafte