Lots of stuff to get to today, so let’s dig right in!

Mass protests in Champagne, France over taxes and other changes. Things aren’t bubbling over yet, but it’s about to pop! [Decanter]

Larger wine stores are cutting back on selection, presenting a new set of challenges for wine lovers and an opportunity for specialty stores. [Telegraph UK]

The paper of record does its darnedest to expose a new trend in cocktail menus (though we can’t recall it ever going away): French brandy. [NY Times]

Chuck Cowdery fires off a one-two punch against Diageo brands: first against the new Piehole range, and then against Jeremiah Weed. [Chuck Cowdery Blog]

An app that sounds quite promising: Next Glass. TechCrunch profiles it. Have you tried it? Let us know! [TechCrunch]

The saga of the missing Pappy Van Winkle continues, but this time a detective reveals more details. In other Pappy news (and there’s plenty of it), Esquire profiles what the future of the brand could taste like, and it’s something folks have been saying for years now: It won’t be the same.

In vodka news: more on the pending lawsuit against Tito’s, and a band of brothers in Scotland are launching a new super-premium vodka.

Another day, another bourbon. Boundary Oak bourbon will be launching this Thursday at a release party in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. [Insider Louisville]

If you happen to be in the Lexington, Kentucky area, author Fred Minnick will be speaking about his book Whiskey Women today at noon at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment’s Cameron Williams Lecture Hall in the Plant Science Building. Come on out and have some fun with us.