Hello readers, Happy New Year! As we all embark on our journey through 2005, I invite you all of you to join The Better Drink as we are now bi-monthly. Thank you to all our returning readers for your support during our first issues. Thank you to all the writers and artists whose hard work and dedication have made each issue better than the last. Especially though, I thank Jennifer Barnick for all of her exceptional writing and insight that she gives us every day in her column In Search of the Champagne Life.

         The Winter Issue has many great features for you to explore. The feature article is a witty and insightful argument for the type of stemware every home should have for the proper serving and appearance of wine. The interview conducted again by our intrepid West Coast reporter Paul Donaldson takes you inside Domaine Chandon and the dynamic Wayne Donaldson (no relation). The Arts and Science section reveals the manifold contributions that bubbles make to the physical and chemical character of sparkling wine and how they affect the senses. Please visit HelloGoodbye to experience Elizabeth Olejnyik’s meeting of a significant mentor and Shawn Fallo’s to his beloved grandmother. Dave Brown serves up a sensual dark tale, and Suzie Sims-Fletcher tickles us with a sensual light tale in Under the Goldlight—true tales of drinking champagne. Mark Kernaghan daringly compares perhaps for the first time in print two champagnes and their Californian counterparts. J. Blake Gordon writes a wonderful Passion Forum on John Frusciante. Our very loyal and hardworking staff writer, David Sirois, shares with us some of his very best poetry…so definitely check it out…of course along with the magical lines of our beloved poet in residence Robert Slatterly. And do not forget to visit the Marcia Reed virtual gallery to browse the lyrical and spare work of artist Gilles Mascarell.

         Please enjoy the magazine…hopefully with a glass of bubbly.