The history of World War II is filled with dates whose importance is lost on us today. Tuesday, April 3, 1945, is one such date. Early that morning, the XII Corp of the U.S. Third Army rumbled into Suhl, Germany. The XII Corps had been battling its way across Europe for 8 months. Now their forces were 200 miles from Berlin. As Suhl’s sirens blared, American tanks and troops filled the streets and the city was changed forever.

Suhl is one of the gunmaking capitals of Europe. Located in south-central Germany, the city sits amid thick forests, rolling mountains, and rich belts of iron ore. This ore has fueled metal industries for more than a thousand years, and since the 15th Century, craftsmen in Suhl have been building firearms.

By the end the 19th Century, weapons production had turned Suhl into an industrial city, dusted with coal smoke and filled with clangs of pounding forges. Its distinct, slate-roofed buildings were filled with workshops dedicated to gunmaking and the pistols, rifles, and shotguns made there were shipped off to armories and gunrooms around the world.

During World War II, most of Suhl’s factories were producing munitions for the German war effort. In the months after the American troops arrived, many of these factories were dismantled and shipped to the Soviet Union or destroyed. But one company escaped this fate: Gebrüder Merkel. Famous for its sporting guns, Merkel’s facilities were left intact. However, in the decades that followed, the historic company would be swept up in the dark currents that roiled over Eastern Europe. As the 20th Century ended, a new Gebrüder Merkel would rise again and regain the company’s title as one of the world’s finest gunmakers.

There are many facets to a great hunt, but good company always rates high. Storytelling among hunters is paramount. We all have entertaining stories and experiences to share. For husband and wife Bob Cook and Paula Brooks of Northern California, both avid upland hunters, their story together centers on a wildly successful venture in American winemaking.

The transition from their previous lives to their present is noteworthy, unique, and fascinating. Today, Paula and Bob live on a mountain in the town of St. Helena in Napa Valley, California. Their current occupation: vintners.

The two founded and own Dancing Hares Vineyard, which released its Dancing Hares 2010 vintage this year, the second vintage harvested, crushed, and bottled at their winery. Also released this year is the Mad Hatter 2010 vintage, a blend of estate wine and other grapes. Their story is as compelling as a bottle of their wine is delicious.

Rye whiskey’s roots run deep in our great land. Throughout the 1600s and 1700s, settlers found that rye could not only grow anywhere but it also thrived in the Northeast’s harsh winters. So, naturally, early Americans harvested rye for bread, beer, and (of course) distillate. Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia were home to early rye distilleries with Pennsylvania rye being commonly referred to as Monongahela, named after the distillery’s water source—the Monongahela River.

George Washington distilled Secale cereale L. and one of Washington’s pals, Thomas Jefferson, who was more of a wine drinker, sent bushels of rye to a Mrs. Meriwether to be distilled. Pioneers traveled West with jugs and barrels of Monongahela to barter, trade, and drink. “The best and greatest quantity of rye whiskey is made on this (Monongahela) river,” wrote traveler Zadok Craker in the 1817 book, The Navigator.

After Prohibition, rye lost a little of its luster, but survived with such brands as Mount Vernon, Town Tavern, Rittenhouse, Old Overholt, and Hunter Baltimore Rye. Since rye had a connection to George Washington—thus the Mount Vernon brand— the makers were among America’s true pioneers in marketing. According to a 1935 Hunter Baltimore Rye Whiskey ad: “In the Gay Nineties, and on through the Spanish-American War when Theodore Roosevelt took his Rough Riders to Cuba, Hunter Rye was in demand nation-wide, and had become well-known in London. ‘First Over The Bars,’ it had won a world reputation for taste among English-speaking peoples—it was in fact the largest-selling rye whiskey in the world.” Rye whiskey people could sure tell a story.