Abe Loomis and Jeff Potter

Marlboro College looks ahead after merger talks fail

Marlboro College looks ahead after merger talks fail

College will resume quest for a new academic partner for a sustainable future, yet one that will protect a small school’s campus, values, and legacy, president says

Just a few weeks after signing a letter of intent and mutually announcing high expectations for educational innovation and sustainability, Marlboro College and the University of Bridgeport said a proposed merger will not move forward.

The university has said that it walked away from the deal, but Marlboro, which had framed the merger cancellation as a mutual decision, also hinted at deep concerns about the fate of its campus.

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Tasting notes: Portuguese wines

For palates accustomed to traditional grape varietals, opening Portuguese bottles can bring a welcome frisson of adventure. The red wines described here - most of which are easy to find locally - represent a range of flavors, grapes, and styles. • Confidencial Tinto Reserva 2014 ($8): True to its...

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Discovering Portugal

In a land famous for exploration, adventurous vintners coax world-class wines from native grapes

Justly renowned for their fortified wines - port and madeira - Portugal's grape growers and winemakers have long sought to chart the contours of great red table wine. Though some have planted a few hectares of well-known, “noble” European grapes such as cabernet sauvignon, merlot, syrah, and the rest,

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Insisting upon itself

The meek may inherit the earth, but it is the patient who will see the glory of the wines of Piedmont. Set into the Langhe foothills of northwestern Italy, the treasures of this region, Barolo and Barbaresco, are guarded by the glittering watchtowers of the alps and by another gatekeeper: time. Nebbiolo is a reticent grape, with an unusually long growing season, and its suppleness and generosity emerge only gradually. Uncorked too soon, the wines it makes will show a...

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Matching the grape to the place

There is nothing like a fine wine for mixing memory and desire, surprising us like a trailside burst of early lilacs, stirring dull roots with spring rain - a beautiful bottle offers a little draught of life. New York wines, like April sunshine, can still be hit or miss, but the trend is in their favor. Among the long hills and pristine Mennonite farms of the Finger Lakes region upstate, winemaking gems sparkle at the edges of deep, cold lakes...

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Wine, love, soil, and poetry

The metaphors that marry wine and love are as various as wine and love themselves: The effervescent giddiness of new love, the structure and power of mature love, the gentle familiarity and soul-friendship that can take root with enduring commitment - each has its analog in a bottle. And wine regions, like people, have personalities - Burgundy, with its delicate mystery; Bordeaux, haughty and aloof (but, finally, to the patient and discerning, warm-hearted); Barolo, its lean Italian cousin, redolent of...

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Spontaneous fermentation

“People have been trying to make wine not taste like this for thousands of years!” So said my chemist friend, a researcher at a big brewing company, commenting on one of my favorite recent discoveries, the 2014 Garde Manger syrah from Oregon's Fausse Piste winery. She had a point. There was something faintly savage about the wine. The acid presence that gave it its tart, plummy edge went beyond racy into territory that verged on biting. There was a certain...

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Nice and social

On a Friday night at Duo, a jazz trio was in full swing when a sharp-eyed, gray-haired woman of indeterminate age carefully climbed aboard a high wooden seat and leaned into the bar. She asked for a pinot grigio, then stopped the bartender: “Do you have riesling?” They did, and when it arrived, she raised it to the stranger on her left. “Whatever that is, I hope you're enjoying it,” she said, nodding toward his glass. Salud. * * *

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