Happy New Year! Time for Trends.

Happy New Year! Time to see 2024 come into the light. Trends come into focus in this perennial feature. Our local look at trends focuses on tastes, with voices from the front-of-house. The annual Connecticut and Rhode Island right here. Our on-premise column offers reminders of keeping the books straight heading into the new year, too. From our state trade association experts, CPSA offers a view into forthcoming legislative issues (here we go again!) and RIHA reviews industry resiliency. The first featured cocktail recipes in our monthly Serving Up showcases from Connecticut's The Bevy Co. and Rhode Island's Askew for 2024 offer delicious attention to detail and photogenic tastes. Retail Review takes you to Norwalk's One Stop Wine & Liquor and Johnston's Tri Town Wine & Spirits.

And, with so many wine dinners, cocktail competitions, holiday happenings and seasonal tastings, the best thing to do is view at your leisure and find your brands and teams. Visit our news page (we've called it "bevcommunity" for good reason)! So much; I promise it is all worth a look and to share.

After that, the national look travels into deeper terrain; grab the PDF or your print pages. Many factors are creating pressure within the wine, spirits and beer industry from economic to climatic, all of which are presented in a multi-page view with a range of viewpoints from across the globe. Adapting and innovating in the face of many of these industry-shaping forces is a recurring theme, no matter what category. Wine is waning, spirits are stagnant, beer is bruised, and no and low alcohol is on fire. But how and why is nuanced—and also not universally applied. Who’s ready for this year’s wild ride? Hang on tight and we will find out.