Author Michelle Locke

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Michelle Locke
Michelle Locke is a San Francisco Bay Area-based freelance writer who writes about food, drink and travel for national newspapers and magazines. She blogs at www.michellelocke.com and tweets at @Locke_Michelle.

Top-shelf Tequila

Michelle Locke
Features
3 min read
Tequila used to be known as the drink of cheap thrills and bad choices. Pour yourself a tot of something like Gran Patrón Burdeos – aged in French and American oak, finished off in ex-Bordeaux wine barrels and sold in a custom-engraved crystal bottle for around $500 – and you realize the traditional

Undiscovered Uruguay

Michelle Locke
Feature Stories
4 min read
Harvest is under way and internationally known enologist Alberto Antonini is giving a master class on the coming vintage. Behind him, framed in the large windows of the new winery, a landscape of terraced vineyards unfolds under a lacy blue sky, a view reminiscent of his native Italy. But these

Remembering Peter Mondavi

Michelle Locke
Feature Stories
3 min read
Peter Mondavi of Charles Krug Winery, a luminary of Napa Valley Wine, passed away recently. Palate Press remembers his legacy by revisiting this interview with columnist Michelle Locke from 2015, back when he was only 100.  Peter Mondavi. Sr. is holding a cork from a 1966 bottle of Charles Krug Cabernet Sauvignon,

On the ryes: Canadian whisky gains respect

Michelle Locke
Feature Stories
3 min read
Canadian whisky has always had respectable sales in the U.S. It just hasn’t always gotten a lot of respect. That’s changed. Take the Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye whisky that was named World Whisky of the Year by expert Jim Murray in his 2016 Whisky Bible.  Other brands of note

Tangled Vines weaves a tangled web

Michelle Locke
Feature Stories
3 min read
In her new book, Tangled Vines, journalist Frances Dinkelspiel does something remarkable. She turns a 10-year-old crime into a spellbinder, The crime in question is the Oct. 12, 2005, fire that ripped through the Wines Central warehouse in the San Francisco Bay area, destroying 4.5 million bottles of premium wine

Best of 2015: Irish spirit

Michelle Locke
Feature Stories
4 min read
Michelle Locke has picked up some of the Palate Press spirits beat, and this year her pursuit of spirits for this publication has taken her to Mexico, Scotland, Ireland, and France. Her Irish travel piece, though, stands out since it has one of the best ledes we've ever run. “Business or pleasure?” asked

Old fashioned virtues

Michelle Locke
Features
3 min read
Spirits, sugar, drop of water, bitters, twist – there’s nothing very complicated about the old fashioned. But those five ingredients -- along with a few dashes of over-the-top kitsch -- have added up to an action-packed history. A few cocktail details: Glass Act The old fashioned is one of the

Irish spirit

Michelle Locke
Feature Stories
4 min read
“Business or pleasure?” asked the garda at Dublin airport immigration control. “ I’m not sure,” I replied. “I’m here to learn about Irish whiskey.” “That can only be pleasure,” he said with a smile as he stamped my passport with a thump. He was right. My tour of Irish whiskey