Food for Thought: Fall 2017

By Jacquelyn McHugh / Photography By Shell Royster | September 08, 2017

Louis Pasteur once said, “A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.” If that is true, I love philosophy. And beer. I really love beer—especially local, craft beer. Wherever my travels take me, I always make it a point to drink local. And our area is making those possibilities endless.

Charleston and the Lowcountry have exploded with new breweries popping up faster than I can get a beer flight. But it isn’t just the beer—some of the best mixologists live and work in our city; and so many of our restaurants have sommeliers on staff and progressive wine lists to offer. It only seemed appropriate to do a “Drinks” issue.

Since this is a first Drinks issue for edible Charleston, we decided to start at the beginning, visiting local hot-spots to hear stories of how Madeira, (the Portuguese wine fortified with alcohol) from 1791, arrived in the Holy City. Traveling down to Wadmalaw Island, we visit Deep Water Vineyard, which proves to not only be about wine tastings, but offers an experience: in August they held a grape-stomping festival with a Lucy look-a-like contest. Back downtown, we meet Scott Shor and Chris Winn, brewers and shakers in Charleston’s beer scene.

Our cover feature shares the backgrounds and passion projects of folks who are bringing great wines to Charleston, and the unique places they have created to eat, drink and learn about wine.

“No Proof Necessary” proves you can bar hop without hops—or any spirits at all. In “Fork in the Road”, we take a day trip to Summerville, starting our adventure by grabbing a nitro brew at Coastal Coffee Roasters, the unique, local organic coffee roaster, visiting the town’s abundant farmers’ market, shopping on “Little Main” and strolling through Azalea Park—and finally meeting Mason, the 2,654-gallon jar of sweet tea that set a world record.

We invite you to pour whatever suits you, bring this issue outside, porch-sit and breathe in the cooler air and overindulge in what we are serving.

Cheers & beers!!