“Wine to me is passion.  It’s family and friends.  It’s warmth of heart and generosity of spirit.”

-Robert Mondavi

Late yesterday, the drinking world lost a true pioneer and Champion of Drinking.  Robert Mondavi, the first to build a post-prohibition winery and founding father of the California wine industry passed away.  He had the guts to do what few thought possible, and his actions helped turn California into one of the top-selling wine regions in the world.  If not for him, you’d probably never have heard of Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley, Paso Robles or any of the other wine producing regions in California.  He worked his entire life as an evangelist for the wine industry and pushed it forward in the name of great winemaking.

So if you’ve got a bottle of Mondavi that you’ve been waiting to open (or you could go out and buy one), tonight might be a good night to open it and toast to a man who was truly a Champion of Drinking.

via :: Robert Mondavi Winery

Damn it all, Zane Lamprey has my job.

And by that, I mean Zane has the dream job of any dedicated boozer: he gets paid to drink. A LOT. Not only that, but he gets to fly around the globe to do it, sampling the best the alcohol world has to offer right at the source while partaking of the local customs and rituals. As host of the MojoHD network’s Three Sheets, they fly his ass all around the damn world in order to educate us, the viewer, on the finer points of getting sauced while at home and abroad (and what to drink while we’re there). The guy has the job of a lifetime, and I almost hate to name him as a Champion of Drinking out of sheer spite and envy. I mean…the guy gets the privilege of being on a show where they don’t merely allow him to act like an ass and drunken fool, but they encourage it. It’s probably in his contract.

So you can imagine my joy and delight when I found that Hulu is streaming every episode of Three Sheets online for free. The first episode of Season 3 is there before you can watch it on TV! Buying episodes of TV shows through itunes is for suckers, free streaming is the future, kids. Sure, there’s a few ads, but who the hell cares when you get to watch one of TV’s greatest drunk performances since Orson Welles was hawking Paul Masson.

So while I hate to admit it, the man does his job and does it well, and we’re all better for it. So we here at DrinkPlanner salute you Zane, you lucky bastard Champion of Drinking!

It’s time to introduce a new feature here on DrinkPlanner.com: Champions of Drinking. We’ll use these posts to highlight those who excel in the ways of the alcoholic beverage consumption or craft in some way that gives all of us lowly only-drinks-with-our-buddies-or-by-ourselves folks something to aspire to.

Our hats are off to Anthony Alba, who has been recognized this year as the winner of the U.S. Stella Artois Draught Master Competition, held recently at PURE nightclub at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. In order to prove he was the best of the best, Anthony had to prove to six very serious judges that he had mastered the “Belgian Pouring Ritual”, an involved process that among its nine steps includes “beheading” a beer in order to get the best possible head of foam (not to mention the “purifying” and “sacrificing” portions. Seriously. Someone call the authorities or a priest or something). The competition required that he pour not only Stella, but Hoegaarden (one of our favorite hefeweizens) and Leffe Blonde from draught and bottle sources.

In October, Alba will go to Belgium to represent the good ol’ U-S of A in the Stella Artois World Draught Master Competition. We here at DrinkPlanner say best of luck to you Mr. Anthony Alba, and Godspeed you on your journey to Alcohol Hero in the eyes of all of us watching you from afar here at home. We know you’ll do us proud.

via:: Lyke 2 Drink