I was in Burgundy for all of five minutes before I began plotting how I could move there for a few years, holing up in a little village with well-pruned grape vines and a Romanesque cathedral, drinking delicious, affordable bottles of some of the world’s best wine, eating pungent, oozy epoisse cheese after multi-course, farm-to-table lunches. The whole farm-to-table thing just happens naturally in the Burgundian countryside. They don’t make a big deal out of it. Another thing that happens: pastis (for about $2.50 a glass) with your morning coffee. How could I not embrace that civilized tradition?

Here’s proof of me enjoying a nice belt of the licorice-y national beverage at about 11:00 a.m. in the beautiful, medieval city of Cluny. Cluny was once the center of western monasticism and boasted the second-largest cathedral after St. Peter’s in Rome before the building was destroyed during the French Revolution.

Yep, the dude in the little white truck is guiding his flock of sheep into their pen at the end of a day of grazing.

If you go to Burgundy and don’t order escargots, go directly to jail. Plump snails bathed in butter, garlic and herbs — with a carafe of the house white, which will not cost you much and will be as solidly structured as the 11th-century stone cathedral across the street.

Another Burgundian delicacy that it is against the law not to eat as often as possible: epoisse, the local washed-rind cheese (washed in marc, the local unaged brandy, akin to grappa). When it’s perfectly ripe, it oozes out of its rind like honey. Stinky in the most wholesome possible sense. This photo was taken in Beaune, the capital of the Burgundy wine trade, where a well-dressed representative of that trade, just back from Japan, shared some of his Sancerre with us.

Oh, hi. Another kick-ass bottle of Burgundy. This was in a totally ho-hum-looking cafe in the town of Nuits-Saint-Georges where, like a good tourist, I ordered the Boeuf Bourguignon. They did not phone it in — it was luscious. This memorable lunch cost about $18.

On the way to Paris, we stopped at the stunning Fontenay Abbey. It was established by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, founder of the austere Cistercian order, in 1118. This is a view from the cloister.

Le Baron Rouge (the Red Baron) is one of those “hidden gems” that was outed a while ago by savvy Paris travelers, so I’m not going to feel too bad about writing it up. You can see above the riches to be found on its chalkboard menu. Also, one of its walls is adorned with wood casks from which you can fill a liter of wine to bring home for short money (i.e. about $5!). It was very quiet the day I visited, but I heard that Sunday afternoons are crowded with patrons enjoying really good wine and charcuterie without the tourist mark-up.

By far my biggest splurge while in Paris was at the fabled Hemingway Bar at the Ritz Hotel, located in the elegant Place Vendome. There I drank a $41 Manhattan with some fellow American ladies of the international cocktail scene: ex-pats Forest Collins, who works on tsunami-warning logistics for the U.N. and writes the 52 Martinis blog, and burlesque performer Gentry Lane; plus Vivienne VaVoom, another burlesque performer who was visiting from Denver. Yes, that’s more than I paid for most of my multi-course meals in Burgundy. But the head-spinning journey from drinking pastis in anonymous village cafes with a bunch of old guys to drinking cocktails in one of the most celebrated bars in the western world with a tsunami expert and two striptease artists? Priceless.

1 oz whiskey
1 oz Madeira
1 tbsp simple syrup
1/2 yolk of 1 egg

Shake with ice and strain into cocktail glass. Grate nutmeg over drink.

OK, maybe not, but it all adds up to some serious enthusiasm in the Hub for good drink. Note that the Craft Brewers Conference, an annual gathering of folks in an industry made up of thousands of small breweries and brewpubs, doesn’t just meet in any city. They aim for venues that offer attendees lots of places where they can find their chosen beverage. While most of the activity around the conference is industry-only and happens at the World Trade Center, breweries and beer bars around Boston are doing special events to take advantage of the influx of beer professionals from around the country.

Redbones is having a Smuttynose Keg Party on April 22 from 5:00-7:00 — 18 kegs of the Portsmouth, NH, brewery’s beers on tap at one time including vintage, short-batch and fan favorites. Also, brewers from the Cambridge Brewing Co. and Mayflower Brewing led the creation of a special beer for the conference, the Audacity of Hops, which will be available at Cambridge Brewing and some other local bars that week (and perhaps for a little while afterwards if supplies last).

“Is it always this busy on a Tuesday?” unsuspecting customers asked upon entering Green Street last night. Yes, if that Tuesday happens to fall on the date of a historic U.S. presidential inauguration. And if drinkboston, BeerAdvocate and the Second Glass band together to invite everyone in the city to celebrate at this nicely stocked bar. And if presidential cocktails, inaugural craft beers, a champagne “tower of freedom” and $4 tacos are on the menu.

The crowd drank early and often, so that, by 7:30 p.m., the Ale to the Chief and Inauguration Ale (aka “Obamagang”), the Whiskey Punch (recipe below) and the Gruet Brut tower (built from specs by Martha Stewart!) were drained dry. But there was lots more good beer, sparkling wine and cocktails to be had, and bartenders Andy McNees and Emily Stanley served them up as fast as they could. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood. I know I was.

Whiskey Daisy (New School, 1910s)
From Imbibe! by David Wondrich

2 oz whiskey
Juice 1/2 lime and 1/4 lemon
1 teaspoonful superfine sugar
2 dashes (1 tsp) grenadine
2 dashes (1/2 oz) carbonated water

Last night, this recipe was batched up to make a large bowl of punch cooled by a sizable chunk of ice. The proper Daisy preparation, however, is as follows: “Use silver mug, put in above ingredients, fill up with fine ice, stir until mug is frosted, decorate with fruit and sprays of fresh mint and serve with straws.”

I know, the invitations to inauguration parties are piling up in your Facebook inbox. But will those parties take place at one of Boston’s best bars — Green Street — and feature a historic coming-together of presidential cocktails, specially brewed inaugural beers and a champagne toast? I think not. So gather all your friends and bring them to Central Square on the night of Barack Obama’s inauguration, January 20.

In the spirit of bi-partisan cooperation, Drinkboston will represent the cocktail community in co-hosting a celebration with the folks behind the world’s largest online beer community, BeerAdvocate. The wine wing of our commonwealth will also be represented; Tyler Balliet, who writes the Second Glass wine column in the Weekly Dig, will construct a champagne tower. Imagine: cocktail drinkers, beer drinkers, wine drinkers — even independents — in the same room, clinking glasses in honor of a new president and doing our part to move the country (or at least our psyches) in a new direction.

Check out the cocktail menu — it’s historically relevant and tasty.

Whiskey Punch
At the Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson inauguration of 1829, “common folk” showed up at the White House in droves to welcome their new president, whom they elected for his promise of change: less aristocracy, more democracy. To save the furniture from being totally destroyed, Jackson lured the unruly mob out on the lawn with huge tubs of whiskey punch. (Whiskey, citrus, and other special ingredients.)

Martini
The Obama presidency begins during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. That fact, along with Obama’s steadiness under pressure and ability to inspire people, have invited comparisons to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Several accounts name the Martini FDR’s preferred cocktail. He often mixed them himself for White House guests and was said to enjoy both a twist and an olive, not to mention Plymouth gin. (Plymouth gin, dry vermouth. Well chilled and straight up.)

Daiquiri
Barack Obama’s intelligence, youth and forward-looking ideas excited the electorate in 2008 much as John F. Kennedy’s did in 1960. Despite a couple of well-known tussles with Cuba, JFK’s favorite cocktail was said to be the Cuban-born Daiquiri. (Light rum, fresh lime, sugar. Shaken and straight up.)

Margarita
I do solemnly swear … our newest president enjoys the occasional cocktail, too. According to a Boston Globe article, Barack Obama always ordered a house Margarita at one of his fave Chicago restaurants, Topolobampo. (Tequila, Cointreau, fresh lime. Shaken and straight up, with or without salt — perfect with one of Green Street’s $4 tacos!)

And that’s just the cocktails. Two very special brews will also be featured: Ale to the Chief, a double IPA (India Pale Ale) from Avery Brewing in Colorado, and “Obamagang” (aka Inauguration Ale 2009 from the Ommegang Brewery in Cooperstown, which specializes in Belgian-style ales). According to Appellation Beer, “the style lies between a porter and stout, with a bit of Kriek and a touch of chocolate blended in.”

This is a ticket-less, free-form party. Just show up and get your Hail to the Chief on. The kitchen’ll put out some killer free snax (homemade chips & dip, spiced nuts, etc.), plus really good tacos for $4 each. Festivities begin at 5:00 p.m. and end at last call. Hope to see you there!

According to the Budometer, I’m what’s known as a Tolerant Taster. “We demand intensity, plenty of oak and power. BIG is better! High alcohol wines often taste rich and delicious.” My supposed favorite white wines? “Reserve-style Chardonnays from around the world. Rhone-style whites. Frankly I’d just rather have red wine.” And my favorite reds? “Cabernet Sauvignon and blends. Rhone and Rhone-style blends. Old-vine Zinfandels. Brunellos, Super Tuscan, Barolo, and Amarone from Italy. Intensely flavored reds from France, Spain and South Africa.”

Based on my relatively limited experience with wine — my income allows me only a passing familiarity with a lot of the fancy stuff named above — those results are pretty accurate. But they’re limited. I like a much wider variety of whites, for example, as well as some lighter reds. Granted, the Budometer is still in its beta stage. As the web site explains, it currently takes into account only the “sensory discrimination” aspect of your wine preference, not its “aspiration value.” Huh?

“The founders of the Taste BUDOMETER postulate that people’s preferences in food, music, wine and all things ‘sensory’ can be best understood in two primary dimensions: Sensory Discrimination and Aspiration Value. While people are distributed all across these two dimensions, the deep genetic and cultural influences at work mean, in reality, that people are highly clustered into groups within the Flavor-Aspiration Matrix.”

Apparently, the prime-time version of the Budometer will feature a way to measure that “aspiration value,” the better to find out where you fall in the Flavor-Aspiration Matrix. Finally, a personality test for winos.

Thanks to Stan Hieronymus, author of Brew Like a Monk, for the Budometer tip. It happened to be part of a post on his Appellation Beer blog that mentioned my latest Ms. Mug column for Ale Street News, The Pink Elephant in the Room.

After I learned from my more with-it colleagues in drink that obscure cocktail ingredients could be found at BRIX Wine Shop in the South End, I ventured over there with notebook and camera in hand. I just had to interview Carri Wroblewski and Klaudia Mally, the two self-described “chix” who own the place, and find out what they were up to.

If you’re used to the typical Massachusetts package store with its motley hodgepodge of wines o’ the world and dusty bottles of Leroux cordials, you might walk into BRIX and think, ‘Ooops, wrong tax bracket!’ Each bottle here seems to occupy its own special place on the sleek shelves, the way individual sweaters are displayed in high-end clothing boutiques. But take a closer look, and you’ll find reasonably priced wines along the bottom shelves, just like in any other liquor store. Luckily, these wines have been certified Not To Suck by Wroblewski and Mally, who forsake the usual suspects in favor of offbeat stuff they truly like, culling their selection from 39(!) different distributors.

The ladies are industry veterans — Wroblewski worked for J. Lohr Wines and Frederick Wildman & Sons importers, Mally waited tables at Grill 23 before working in mergers and acquisitions for a software company — and they’re all about education and service. They hold weekly public tastings and offer private ones by invitation or appointment. And they network with influential people in the Boston bar industry to stay on top of in-demand but hard-to-find spirits like Luxardo Maraschino liqueur, Amer Picon, Van Winkle bourbon and Peychaud’s and orange bitters. If you can’t find some oddity necessary for an obscure cocktail, BRIX will do its best to special-order it for you.

If you, like me, are closer to downtown Boston than the South End, you’re in luck — Wroblewski and Mally are opening a new store on Broad Street in October. It will look similar to the four-year-old mothership, but it’ll have a private tasting room for events. If you want up-to-date info on tastings and special offers, get on the BRIX mailing list. Oh, in case you were wondering, “brix” is the name of a scale used in winemaking to measure the sugar content in grape juice.

Calling all winos — have you been to Bin 26 Enoteca yet? I checked it out for the first time recently and, I have to say, “thumbs up.” This place has been open for, what, a year or something, and it has received tons of good press. Once I wrapped my head around the extensive wines-by-the-glass menu and realized that the prices were fair (especially for Beacon Hill), I leaned back in my cool seatbelt-weave chair and let our doll of a scruffy-haired waiter take over. He was the embodiment of Bin 26′s mission to replace wine appreciation’s tweed blazer with a Ben Sherman track jacket.

Some observations:

The 250 ml portion of “wine by the glass” equals over eight ounces and can easily be split by two people. Prices for 250 ml start at $11. You can also get portions of 100 ml, 500 ml (about two-thirds of a bottle) and 750 ml (a whole bottle).

The bathrooms are decorated with upside-down wine bottles (see photo).

The beef carpaccio with aged parmesan and arugula appetizer ($11) is tasty, and so are the risotto balls stuffed with pecorino cheese ($8).

I got the impression that the staff can both banter with the connoisseur and guide the uninitiated.

The Thunderbird and Night Train listed on the first page of the wine menu: refreshingly irreverent or trying too hard to be hip? You make the call.

An “enoteca” in Italy refers to “a place where one can find simple foods to accompany the wines served there,” according to Bin 26′s website.

Five years after the term Freedom Fries was coined, I’m glad we can once again enjoy French food and drink without Ann Coulter accusing us of supporting terrorists. In fact, I’m going to celebrate the 4th of July by throwing a copy of Treason into Boston Harbor and drinking a bottle of 2001 Chateau Larrivet Haut Brion.

Usually, you can find me lurking among the bins of under-$10 wines, searching for that gem of a rustic red from Spain, Italy or Portugal. But on a recent trip to the Wine & Cheese Cask in Somerville, I decided to splurge and spend forty whole dollars on a bottle of Bordeaux. I wanted something nice to bring to a friend’s birthday dinner. The staff at the Cask is really astute about recommending wines, and when I pointed to the bin of the Chateau Larrivet, I didn’t even have to ask the question before being assured that, yes, the stuff was worth every penny. It was. I’m not even going to attempt to re-create the flavor with descriptions of fruit, herbs and cigar wrappers. Put it this way, there was a lot going on in that bottle. It was delicious and complex. And the five other treasonous freedom-haters at the dinner party agreed.

Like a lot of people, we appreciate wine, but our feet are set firmly in the non-vintage, under $20-a-bottle territory. Our thoughts on this night were less “I wonder if this wine’s tannins will overwhelm its fruit” and more “How much does a bottle of this go for?” Between about $1500 and $4000 as it turns out. (Ten bottles of this vintage sold at a 2004 Sotheby’s auction for $23,500.) Romanée-Conti is “possibly the most desired vineyard on the planet” according to a recent issue of New York magazine. Not that we knew that at the time. All we were hoping was that any lapses in proper storage hadn’t turned this rare beverage into vinegar.

They hadn’t. The wine’s light reddish-brown color looked a little like vinegar, but its aroma was pleasantly raisiny. How do I describe the flavor? A delicate dried-fruit character dominated, and there was a lot of other really subtle old-love-letters-in-the-attic stuff going on. I recognized the basic structure of the pinot noir grape, but the acidity that is prominent in a younger Burgundy was greatly softened. This was a wine that compelled me to roll it around on my tongue, like it needed to be taken for a stroll. For me, that was the cool thing about the experience. Were any of us totally blown away by the Burgundy’s flavor? No. But none of us had tasted anything like it, and we all savored the mystery of a beverage that had been evolving in its bottle for 37 years before our friend, at a happy and generous moment in his life, decided to share it with us.