Get ready for all the end-of-year celebrations with the latest Consumer Reports roundup -- "four sparkling wines for $20 or less and two Champagnes that are a bit pricier."

Tasting notes from Spirits and Cocktails on Old Forester Repeal Bourbon, especially crafted for the 75th anniversary of the 21st amendment.

Between the flashiness of bottle service and the exclusivity of private membership lies a canny combination: Renting space for your liquor in public bars. Camper English explores a trend.

Portland's annual Holiday Ale Festival -- as featured in FoodDay -- offers samples of 40 seasonal brews. The event runs December 3-7.

Slashfood warms to the Southern tradition of the Sip 'n' See, where folks come over to enjoy tea -- or spiked punch -- and meet a new baby, a visiting relative, or any other folks worth seeing.

Washingtonian profiles Scofflaw's Den bloggers SeanMike Whipkey and Marshall Fawley, covering subjects ranging from from the three must-have home-bar items to DC's best bartender.

Shaken & Stirred illustrates the trend of smokey cocktail ingredients with the Smoked Anise, as prepared by H. Joseph Ehrmann at Elixir in San Francisco, and the outlines of 3 more drinks.

Jack at Fifth Flavor hosts a fundraiser for Northwest Harvest. Aperitifs included a holiday spice martini and sparkling wine scented with rosemary.

The Times profiles cocktailians, "a growing legion of amateur connoisseurs who have turned cocktails — mixed at home or sought out in bars and restaurants — into a lifestyle".

You can now engrave your own personal message on a Johnny Walker Blue Label bottle. A great gift for the whiskey enthusiast.

The Hot Apple Toddy, based on a recipe from Jerry Thomas' Bon Vivant's Companion, will keep you warn on a cold winter's night.

Over at the Mixoloseum, Blair of TraderTiki.com talks about that winter classic, the Tom and Jerry.

Underhill Lounge ponders Harry's Cocktail: "Sweet vermouth, absinthe, gin, and mint should pretty much be a gimme," but the drink didn't appeal.

Off the Presses asks: What wine do you drink during a recession when $20 starts to look like a lot of money?

Eric Asimov proclaims: "[Single-malt Scotch] whiskey is serious business." He sips 21 samples of Speyside, recommending 10 and dubbing one -- Tamdhu 10 Years Old 80 Proof -- a best value.

The Star profiles Toronto's Blowfish Restaurant, home of more than 20 high-priced saketinis. The Hurricane Morning (left) features a mind-boggling mix of VSOP Cognac and Red Bull.

I'm a Lebowski, you're a Lebowski, Steven Kurutz is a Lebowski... and he hits up Lebowski Fest to sip White Russians with some die-hard fans.

Table Matters offers an agave primer, with 14 tequilas in three different classes -- blanco, reposado, and añejo -- for sipping or mixing.

Neo-classicist Murray Stenson making magic at Zig Zag Cafe in Seattle, as featured in The Pour's post outlining eight bartending philosophies.

wild hibiscus flowers in syrup to garnish your champagne

Where do tea bags go to die? Designer Jonas Trampedach provides a solution: With the ‘Tea Bag Coffin’, it's buried under the cup, out of the way.

Abandoning all pretense, Rémy Martin's new ads declare its Cœur de Cognac "the most yummy Cognac in the world".

SF Chronicle offers a list of inspired wine and spirits gifts under $20. Along with an assortment of books, you'll find handy gadgets like this cocktail rimmer from Williams-Sonoma.

Jay from Oh Gosh! regrets trying the Alabazam. Not because it's bad -- it isn't -- but because it's "certain to empty my bottle of The Bitter Truth Repeal Bitters far sooner than I would like".

Remembering a bad mulled wine experience, Drink Snob almost passed on the chance to try glogg, but this Swedish holiday treat won him over.

Club Campari 2009 Calendar features Jessica Alba with photography by Mario Testino.

A visit to Francis Ford Coppola's Rubicon Estate Winery in Napa.

Lyke 2 Drink sips a Baked Apple Pie Cocktail
at the Library Bar in Dallas's Warwick Melrose Hotel.

Drinkhacker's got a holiday gift guide with drinks for everyone. One example: Cuvée Homere Clement's bottle design makes it absolutely perfect for gift-giving.

Understand exactly what you're toasting this Repeal Day by reading Michael Lerner's "Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City".

Chow declares "the return of punch", just in time for holiday entertaining. Pictured above, Jersey Lightning created by Phil Ward of Death & Co.

Tiare gets her bar set up for a special Saturday edition of Mixoloseum's Drink Night. The theme: All Things Apple.

Slashfood celebrates the birthday of the Bloody Mary, invented 75 years ago by a Frenchman.

The Kitchn's newest indulgence, pear brandy, sparks an investigation into just how whole fruit gets inside the bottle.

Table Matters takes a tequila pilgrimage and returns with recipes like the tamarind margarita.

Henrietta Lovell, owner of London's Rare Tea Company, enthuses to Dos Hermanos about using her teas in cocktails like the Oolong Mojito.

Made from pure glacial melt-water from 18,000 feet up in the peruvian Andes. Cusquena is a true super premium lager.

A perfect holiday gift for the newly fledged cocktailian, Marquis by Waterford's "Build Your Bar" set includes two each of highball, pilsner, cocktail, and snifter glasses.

New boxed wine packaging for Uvita de Plata by Tridimage.

December 5 -- this Friday -- marks 75 years since Prohibition was repealed, and Eastern Standard is celebrating with a blowout befitting the most extravagant speakeasies of the Roaring '20s.

Tiare from A Mountain of Crushed Ice shares her technique for a show-stopper garnish: Coat a honeyed vanilla bean with light and dark muscovado sugars.

Slashfood explains how to make your own corncob wine, which helpful commenters correctly point out is the first step to DIY moonshine.

The $100 Suntory Yamazaki 18-Year single-malt may be enough to convert your Scotch-loving friends to the pleasures of Japanese whisky.

LeNell Smothers and Gary Regan -- among other cocktail luminaries -- judge the 2008 Martin Miller’s Masters Gin Competition.... with a full report by Jamie Boudreau.