Your daily dose of news and happenings from around the drink-o-sphere:
– Russia’s Chuvashia Republic is hoping that the global thirst for craft beer will bring investors to the country’s hop farms.
– Lucky Peach offers their guide to Rio’s best Botecos, the city’s ubiquitous watering holes, which are increasingly the testing grounds for an emerging food scene.
– In Napa Valley, a technological revolution is challenging longstanding winemaking traditions.
– Lorena Vásquez, master blender of Ron Zacapa Centenario, recounts her story of rising to the top of the rum industry.
– Finally, in Forbes, Brian Freedman discusses the trend of mergers and acquisitions reshaping the U.S. wine industry.
[Photo: Flickr/Andrew Nash]