Drinks Ink

Teatime for cocktails

Successful Beverage Management

Rum Business

Asked and Answered #2

Tequila Trades Up

Asked and Answered

My Favorite Things #1

First Taste: Ardmore Traditional Cask Highland Single Malt Scotch

Pimp My Julep

The Hornet

Cognac Summit

Cognac summit 2010 news flash

Distillers Gone Wild!

The price is right

Sherry in the mix

Blending and unblending

First Taste: Square One Botanical

The Right Onion

Horn Tooting

Mix is up

Best Bars

Go Van Gogh

Rioja worth finding.

Three dimensional tasting

Cocktails for the longer nights.

Bar News

Sherry and the Cocktail

Scotch and Sherry, together forever

First Taste: Rittenhouse Rye 25 Year Old Single Barrel Whiskey

I'll take Manhattans

Not exactly death in the afternoon, but maybe blood and sand

Lush Life

The Mix

Roll your own Walker

First Taste: Pueblo Viejo Blanco Tequila

Good cheap wine #3

Craft distillers catch on

First Taste: Chokaisan Junmai Daiginjo Saké

First Taste: Hibiki 12 Year Old Japanese Blended Whisky

Good Cheap Wine #2

Selling wine to go

Spirits of Mexico

Barenwinner

First taste: Glenmorangie Sonalta

Why Bourbon's so popular

What barrel charring really looks like

First Taste: Woodford Reserve Master's Collection Seasoned Oak

Drinks: Rita Tomatillo

Tiki and the state of rum

Bitter gene

The Churchill gene

First Taste: Orangerie

Sherry, baby!

Is American Whiskey Better Than Ever?

Sites you should know

First Taste: Tuthilltown Manhattan Rye

Waiter, there's a beer in my cocktail!

Monkeys love cocktails!

Gin from gaz...

Savory - and culinary - cocktails

Manhattan Cocktail Classic

Calling New York bartenders!

Drinks: The Rickey

First Taste: Beefeater 24

Dangerous substances

Cognac at "Tales"

Rum on the rise

Tasting Good

Wine and food pairings that make sense.

First Taste: Citadelle Reserve Vintage Gin

Vodka, vodka, vodka....

First Taste: Karlsson's Gold

A pastry chef walks into a bar...

"Masters" of their domains

First (and Last) Taste: The Last Drop

First Taste: Rittenhouse Rye 23 Year Old Single Barrel Whiskey

The Rules

Bar Stars

The Score

Drinking with Style

Delicious!

Why the tequila business depends on bars and restaurants.

First Taste: Gran Centenario Rosangel Tequila

Good cheap wine #1

Tequila Terroir

First Taste: Glenmorangie Signet

"They're very rigorous, the judging exams."

What's next?

Gin around the corner

Dueling Sommeliers

First taste: Ron Millonario

Spirited Flavors

Rums in Ybor City

Rum Time!

Making cocktails that matter

First Taste: Noilly Prat

"In the magical universe there are no coincidences and there are no accidents. Nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen." William S. Burroughs.

And the winners are...

San Francisco Drinks

Are You Brillat-Savarin or Baudelaire?

What's Really Brewing

2010-04-09T11:53:00.001-04:00

When Rye House opened in Manhattan late last fall, a quick glance at the drink menu gave many indications that this was a bar where cocktails were taken seriously. The list of bourbons and ryes is appropriately long, befitting the establishment’s name, and the cocktail menu is filled with the contemporary bartender’s favorite ingredients: bitters, house infusions, amaros, egg whites.

Taking prime position is the Rye House Punch, featuring chai-infused rye along with lemon, grapefruit, bitters and absinthe. It’s just another sign that tea, in all its guises—chai, black, green, white, herbal tisanes, fruit-flavored, smoked — is increasingly moving onto the cocktail-ingredient list.

It’s not a revolutionary change; Colonial-era American punch recipes, now returning to the bar scene, were traditionally built on a base of freshly brewed tea that knit together the tang of citrus, a bit of sugar and the zap of brandy and rum. Since punches started appearing on menus in the speakeasy and pre-prohibition-themed bars now springing up across the country, tea has been beckoning other bartenders as well.

Hot tea spiked with a little whiskey is as old as, well, whiskey, but until recently, hot-tea cocktails were overshadowed by winter drink menus favoring fancy, dessert-like coffee and cocoa mixers. At 508 Restaurant & Bar in Manhattan, however, bar manager Nick Freeman last winter offered such tea drinks as Blueberry Fields, with black tea, amaretto and Grand Marnier. The Norwegian Wood combines orange pekoe, dark rum and vanilla vodka, and Freeman’s Jalice features chai, bourbon and lemon juice. With 508 located on the windy Hudson River side of Manhattan, chilly guests welcome the handcrafted hot drinks.

“I enjoy the idea of working with natural flavors,” says Freeman. “I also enjoy the time spent on a drink’s construction; there’s a distinct pleasure in the steeping process and in making a proper cocktail. The enjoyment of working in a restaurant setting is [that you have] a generally more captive and appreciative audience. Experimentation with anything, including recipes, requires one to play with proportion and order.”

(Read the rest of the story below, originally published in a recent issue of Flavor and the Menu.)

Tea and Cocktails

2010-04-01T09:38:00.000-04:00

I keep pretty busy writing about cocktails, spirits, wine, bars and restaurants. But getting involved with writer and consultant Robert Plotkin last year on his latest project, “Successful Beverage Management,” is one of my favorite things now, although presenting in front of an audience with the Tasmanian devil can be quite a work out. We sold out our session at the recent NC&B Bar Show, and soon we’re making the next step and taking the show on the road.

First stop: back in Las Vegas in partnership with distributor Wirtz Beverage Nevada, where at the end of the month we’ll be helping bar owners and bartenders looking for help fighting the effects of the slumping economy. Those in the area have an added bonus – Wirtz is footing the bill for all qualified attendees, though they must register first. The all-day “Successful Beverage Management” profitability seminar will be held April 27, 2010 at Wirtz headquarters.

Attendees will learn how to reduce costs by preventing internal theft and waste, tracking sales productivity, analyzing pour costs, controlling inventory and effectively managing payroll. Other sessions provide advanced strategies for increasing beverage sales by enhancing drink quality and appeal, smarter pricing, premium product use, improving guest service, taking advantage of beverage trends, increasing effective in-house marketing and building repeat business. For more info or to register, contact Robert Plotkin at robert@barmedia.com, call Wirtz Beverage at (702) 699 8851, or visit www.barprofits.com. See you there.

2010-03-26T12:44:00.000-04:00

Last week, I judged at the International Rum Fest (results here,) an annual affair that often attracts entrants from countries not usually associated by Americans with rum making. Still, some have shown terrifically in the past, but not always. In this year's tasting, one of the aged rums reeked of a sulphury note, and we asked for a new pour of the spirit from the secondary bottle we always ask for in case of accident or if one of the judges believe the first bottle is off.

It happens - sometimes a bottle is corked with TCA, which gives off a moldy, damp newspaper aroma that's hard to forget. TCA is usually associated with wine, but it does appear in spirits and is most notable when the bottle holds vodka, since vodka has little natural aroma. Like with wine, though, the problem is that cork taint often isn't strong enough to be discernible, but can dumb down a bottle and leave consumers with the impression that the spirit smells and tastes the way the distiller and blender planned.

I don't know if it was guilt by aromatic association or if the second bottle still seemed too rotten eggy to the judges, but the rum which has scored extremely high in the past didn't do as well this year. Afterwards, Luis Ayala and I talked about the problem - according to Luis, who consults frequently with rum companies, it's not only inconsistent distillation methods or shoddy warehouse control or poor barrel management that can cause problems like the one we confronted.

He worked recently on a project for a company that had started seeing a light green tinge in their white rums. Turns out an efficient and industrious distillery worker found a leaky pipe and replaced it with a pipe that fit the size requirements perfectly, thereby saving the plant the added cost of ordering a new part and waiting for it to be shipped in. But the copper pipe was contributing an unattractive green color as the rums ran through it at high proof, and it reacted with the copper.

What's the solution if you get a bad bottle? For consumers. it's hard enough to get retailers to take back flawed wine bottles. When it comes to spirits, I doubt many retailers would even believe your complaint. But earlier this year, the folks at Van Gogh vodka shared the tale of how the recipe of one of their flavored vodkas had been changed, as in the rum above, by a distillery tech. So it happens more than you'd think that spirits are different than you remember. So much for the idea of spirit production as an industrial monolith churning out endless streams of identical liquid.

2010-03-24T11:20:00.000-04:00

Claire Smith, head of spirit creation & mixology for Moet Hennessy’s Belvedere Vodka, came to work on the brand last year after working on Belevedere in London and the UK for many years. Now that brand ambassadors are everywhere in the U.S., it seemed a good time to check in with former bartender Smith about the differences in working with American and U.K. bartenders, and the vodka business.

You’re now working with American bartenders as a brand representative after some time doing the same in the UK – what are the main differences you see in general between the two groups?

Claire Smith: Firstly, let’s start with the similarities. Both the U.S. and UK ‘serious’ bartender set share a deep and passionate love of their craft. It is especially exciting to see areas outside of the London/New York areas developing increasingly strong cocktail cultures. Examples would include Edinburgh, Leeds and Glasgow while in the U.S., Boston, LA and Miami are all burgeoning cocktail hotspots, created by passionate bartenders who wanted to generate a scene of their own. It’s very exciting to witness.

Now for the differences. I do believe there are a few fundamental distinctions between the two groups of bartender and while it is always a challenge to generalize, the differences seem to be acknowledged on both sides of the Atlantic:

1) Freedom of expression. While this is a firmly upheld constitutional right in the US, ironically the UK bartenders tend to run a little freer and wilder with their cocktail creations. In contrast, the US bartender is very much grounded in history and provenance of the drinks they create and as a consequence we tend to see a lot more reworking of Jerry Thomas’ revered creations in the US and more creative license being exercised in the UK. That being said, of course there are new and innovative cocktails being created in the US just as much as there are studious applications of Thomas’ recipes in the UK, but in general terms the former feels confident and comfortable working with historical references and breaths new meaning into them, while the latter will feel just as comfortable using the references as a spring board for creativity.

2) Dress sense. Hands down U.S. bartenders win, although there is something of a uniformity of fashion when you get into the upper echelons of bartender in the U.S. Facial hair, braces and dapper little suits all seem to feature highly in a U.S. bartender’s wardrobe and while there are fewer female bartenders, their look is always extremely polished. There is generally a more relaxed approach to dressing for your job in the UK. While bars such as London’s Connaught Hotel excel in their presentation of a team, overall the British bartender is simply more relaxed wearing jeans and a tee-shirt. Perhaps again reflecting their less conventional approach to cocktailing.

3) Fun. For some reason there seems to be a lot more fun and silliness in a UK bar than I tend to find a US cocktail bar. There is something of a seriousness or reverence of the cocktail in the US that you rarely find in the UK. At bars such as Mahiki, Portobello Star and Kalloo Kallay, all very successful, their grounding is in entertainment while still managing to deliver sublime drinks. But perhaps I just haven’t found the silly fun stuff here yet. All suggestions welcomed!

What's the biggest challenge for you working in the U.S.?

Smith: The sheer size of the U.S. I’m not sure it ever really became obvious to me until I moved here how vast a country this is. The U.S. is essentially 50 mini countries in their own right if you consider cultural and consumption differences as well as cocktail relevance and communication of a brand message. Fortunately however, Belvedere is enjoyed all over the U.S. so there is always a commonality wherever I visit, but also there is always a slightly different approach to communication or focus depending on where one is, which is both refreshing and a little daunting at the same time!

What has surprised you about working with U.S. bartenders?

Smith: Their generosity and openness. I spent seven years building a great network of fabulous bartenders and friends in Europe and left them in order to start all over again in the U.S. In a way, it has felt a little easier to start all over here because the majority of bartenders I have met have been gracious and willing to hear me out. Despite the many bars that restrict entry or make you wait outside in the cold or pouring rain, the hostility you may feel outside a bar or club is immediately reversed once you get in and start chatting to U.S. bartenders. Most want to share their craft with all they meet and the door restrictions are there to permit dialogue and interaction, something you recognize when you can actually have a conversation with a bartender.

Outside the major markets, how do you view the level of American bartender skill?

Smith: Overall very good, in places excellent. It would be great to see more of a consistent delivery across mid tier bars and restaurants, but it is our responsibility as brand ambassadors to continue to inspire and innovate in order to raise the bar through education and communication. In this way we constantly help develop and improve budding bartenders and help provide a fertile breeding ground for exceptional talent to grow and advance.

In some parts of the bartender community, there’s been a vodka backlash, with some of the more cutting edge bars doing without. How do you overcome that attitude when working with Belvedere, your brand?

Smith: Belvedere is always a quality choice and while it is true that a very small number of bars have decided to do without vodka for the short term, in the long term this only benefits a brand such a Belvedere that stands for heritage, consistent quality and provenance. The vodka backlash has allowed bars to consolidate their vodka offering and as such they are choosing to be more particular about the brands they carry, preferring to move away from overly marketed or gimmicky brands to vodkas that represent tradition and authenticity. While of course I don’t want to encourage a backlash per se, it has been interesting to note that Belvedere is often the vodka of choice for those bartenders that claim not to drink vodka; I think this has as much to do with our provenance, heritage and flavor delivery than whether or not vodka is currently ‘in’ or ‘out’.

All the media focus is on the high-end mixologist, but vodka is traditionally more popular at the nightclub side of the business, where volume is important. Do you work much there and if so, what sort of insights do you focus on there?

Smith: As with most things in life it is always essential to maintain the optimum balance. Belvedere is fortunate to have relevance and credibility in both the nightclub and cocktail bar environment. In terms of how our focus differs in the nightclub environment, Belvedere is seen to constantly provide an excellent drinking experience and so we work hard to maximize this through education and mixer recommendation. We do not endorse energy drinks, for instance, with our bottle service and while we acknowledge this is a popular mixer choice, we love to see Belvedere served with fresh juices and premium mixers such as Fever Tree sodas. These really enhance the positive characteristics of Belvedere rather than overshadow it, and so even though Belvedere is being consumed in different environment than a cocktail bar or lounge, the experience should still essentially be one of quality.

Your current favorite cocktail?

Smith: The Pickled Gibson

2oz Belvedere Intense

3 cocktail onions muddled and shaken with Belvedere over ice.

Double strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with an atomizer of sea salt water.

PS. Only drink if your date is drinking one also!

(This interview originally ran in the current issue of Mix.)

2010-03-12T09:31:00.001-05:00

David Suro has been in the hospitality business long enough to remember the days when getting customers to think “quality” when they ordered tequila was no easy task.

Suro, who owns Tequilas restaurant in Philadelphia, has been trying to make that connection for nearly 25 years, and for him, the change in awareness over the last few years has been surprising…and encouraging.

“Today, many, many times, the customers who come into our place already know more than our servers, about the various distilleries and regions as well as how tequilas are made and aged. It’s so exciting to see this and realize how far we’ve come.”

Suro has also witnessed this from the seller side, as he, like other agave-loving entrepreneurs, brings in his own brand, Siembra Azul. We spoke in the midst of another sign of the remarkable Mexican spirits evolution: on a cold January morning in Manhattan, dozens of bartenders clustered around a dozen or more sampling stations at the bar and restaurant Los Feliz. The brand reps at the tables, stocked with mostly new or small production tequilas and a dozen mescals, served alone and in cocktails, were doing a brisk business with the crowd eager to get a handle on the various spirits. New York until very recently hasn’t been known much as a tequila haven, but Suro says the organization that oversees tequila industry figures that Gotham is now the biggest market for premium and above tequilas. The attendance at the seminar, put on by bartender John Pomeroy of Brooklyn’s The Hideout, was just another sign of how well tequila is doing.

Dori Bryant has hosted the Spirits of Mexico Festival in San Diego since 2004. “Through those years, I have noted a steady, constant upward trend, not only in the number and quality of agave spirits on the market, but in consumer awareness and savvy. The consumers are not asking, 'What's a reposado?', they're asking 'What distillery is it made in? How long is this reposado aged? What barrels are used for aging? Is this tequila made from agaves grown in the highlands or elsewhere?’”

Like no other spirit, tequila has benefited from an uncoordinated but devoted educational effort by bartenders like Tony Abou-Ganim and restaurateurs like Suro and Julio Bermejo of San Francisco’s Tommy’s. At hundreds of small and large restaurants and bars across the country, tasting dinners, frequent sampling clubs, agave classes and, most beneficial, tequila flight programs have set the contemporary standard, having hit home with consumers while bringing tequila front and center as a quality spirit.

Brands have done their best to educate customers, sending distillers to the US time and again on tour for samplings and events. Recently, tequila suppliers have started appointing bartender brand ambassadors, like Brian Van Flandern for Don Julio, to speak the gospel of tequila as both a sipper and a cocktail ingredient beyond the Margarita. And it’s working.

Take what Ivan Iricanin, bar manager for Mesa 14 in Washington, DC, is up to. He not only carries every 100% agave tequila he can find in the area (currently 126); he also brings in a handful of brands on his own, a collection from small family distilleries in 375 ml bottles, like Don Celso, El Caudillo, Arette Unique and Penacho Azteca, and is selling them in flights.

“Guests are ordering these tequilas more than I expected – we haven’t really been trying to sell them, and at half an ounce per glass you’re not really getting a lot but guests have been more than willing to try,” says Iricanin. He offers the standard option of a vertical flight through a brand, a region or an age statement, or customers can pick their own three to sample. Recently, he added an extra anejo flight for $35, a deal considering a few of these tequilas wholesale for as much as $300. He sold five flights the first week.

But no mixto tequila at all? Not even for house Margaritas? Not for Iricanin, His special Margarita uses only blanco tequila blanco, agave syrup and fresh lime – no sweet and sour mix and not even orange liqueur. “It’s very simple and very crisp, and people really like it.” More and more this style of Margarita is making its presence felt. His Paloma is made with Patron, grapfruit juice and half a lime,

Customers, as Suro suggest, are beginning to be able to tell the difference, and even in slushy frozen Magaritas, a cash cow for many restaurants, a little upgrade can do wonders and make a program stand out among many competitors. He’s also established a tequila lounge at Masa, where he serves cocktails such as the Red Star with Herradura tequila, Chambord, Agave Nectar, raspberry pure, fresh lime juice.

Competition in such cities as DC is fierce: Jose Andres’ Oyamel Cocina Mexicana, last year became the first restaurant in Washington and one of only 15 or so in the country to receive the Agave De Oro, the highest certification from the Tequila Regulatory Council. (Establishments are judged on staff training, proper storage and display of tequilas by category and type, menus, proper service and staff knowledge.)

Tequila producers like what is happening and are responding to the opportunity this tequila revolution offers. Some are finishing their spirits in wine barrels, though most employ used bourbon barrels. At least one tequila new to the US is distilled four times. Limited release, vintage, estate produced and even single barrel tequilas emerged onto the market last year, and finally, even the mescal producers are figuring out that times have changed. At the recent New York tasting, in addition to Del Maguey, Sombra and Ilegal mescals, bartenders sampled the unsmoked Fidencia. Like other recent imports, these spirits showed that mescal is a legitimate sipping spirit, and potentially a killer cocktail ingredient. Cutting-edge bartenders like Phil Ward of Mayahuel in New York are building their businesses with new and creative cocktails based on tequilas and mescals.

Even operations not traditionally known for having a smart tequila program are on board with the contemporary way to feature tequila. Last fall, Southern Hospitality BBQ in New York hosted a tasting featuring 37 or so tequilas, including Patron Gran Burdeos, which retails for around $500 per bottle. Beverage director Chris Russell was on hand to discuss participating brands 1800, Maestro Dobel,
901, Gran Centenario, Cazadores, Corzo, Herradura, and Casa Dragones among others.

He’s found that his customers connect easily to the stories of tequila’s history, craftsmanship and artistry, creating excitement in a way brands would die for.

With about 25 tequilas on their list, Southern stocks more than most bars, and Russell carries only one mixto. Even their machine Margaritas are made with 100% agave tequila – in this case, Cazadores , while the house Margarita is made with Herradura. Customers are even getting picky about all the ingredients in their Margaritas. T’s jst another sign, he says, of the sophisticated American tequila drinker. “In the last 15 years there’s been an exposure to super premium spirits in general and tequila is one of those that has become much better known as a sophisticated spirit.”

( A slightly different version of this story appears in the March issue of Nightclub and Bar.)

2010-02-16T13:37:00.004-05:00

Charles Joly heads up the mixology program for The Drawing Room at Le Passage in Chicago, as well as a number of bars and lounges for Three Headed Productions there. Recently, he took top honors at the annual Sherry cocktail competition, so I thought it worthwhile to check in with him about the contest, recipe development and the state of things in the Windy City.

You recently won the annual Vinos de Jerez Sherry cocktail competition put on by the Sherry Council and Steve Olson - do you participate in many of those? What about working with sherry appealed to you?

Joly: I compete as often as possible. Creating cocktails for different competitions drives you to try new things, work with new products that you may overlook otherwise. There are so many opportunities out there - I've been able to travel the world to compete. It's an amazing time to be behind the bar. As far as sherry is concerned, I think it's a fantastic cocktail ingredient. There are such a wide array of styles available; everything from dry and nutty to sticky, rich dessert varieties. You're seeing a ton of reusage of sherry barrels as well; the Scotch industry in particular has embraced this finish. Sherry is a somewhat unexpected ingredient that can play a number of roles.

You're responsible for beverages at a number of operations, all very different - how do you make that work?

Joly: I oversee operations for five different concepts. I'm 100% hands on at the Drawing Room. There we have a very forward-thinking beverage program and I can really push the limits to do whatever we want. Several of our other venues are more neighborhood bars, great party bars where you're more likely to have a draft and excellent "bar food". I don't try to fit a square peg in a round hole there. You have to know your clientele and tailor the program to them. In a very high volume environment, speed and consistency are king. I'm taking baby steps with all of our venues to take them to fresh juice programs, at the very least- I have three of five on board so far.

The Drawing Room, though, is the place where cocktails matter - How would you describe your approach to creating the cocktails on the menu?

Joly: I was part of the conceiving team for the Drawing Room. Although I was working in a pre-existing space (so I had limited bar design options), I had carte blanche with the beverage program. With each menu change I learn a bit more. We'll change seven-eight times a year to keep seasonal- in spring and summer my chef and I will be at the farmers market weekly and update menus accordingly.

I get inspiration for cocktails in many ways. Maybe it’s a flavor combination I've been thinking of or a dish I had in a restaurant. I keep a concise, balanced menu with classics and originals. I try to put on drinks that represent the gamut- from classic, brown and stirred drinks to fresh, bright options. We are very interactive with our guests to find them something that will wow them.

Chicago's long been known as a fine dining destination, but it was a little slow to get in on the cocktail revolution - how would you describe things there now?

Joly: The cocktail scene in Chicago has been kind of a sleeping dog. We're here and quietly shaking some of the best cocktails in the country. Several of our top mixologists are involved in restaurants, but new cocktail lounges are opening all the time. I know of three that either just opened or are slated to very soon. We have a great blend of styles here, both embracing cocktail history and the classics and pushing the envelope to create interesting new libations.

What are your three favorite spirits/categories to work with and why?

Joly: Rum- there are so many styles available in this category. From funky Smith & Cross pot-stilled to La Favorite Rhum Vieux to a solid Flor de Cana 7 Year Old and cachaca, there are some beautiful statements out there. I love that prices haven't gotten out of control in this category- you can get some truly amazing rums for $25-40 and often less.

Mezcal- Watching this spirit category blossom has been great. The spirits that Ron Cooper & Del Maguey are bringing in are nothing short of fantastic. This smoky, hand made sauce is one of the most flavorful, balanced and intriguing around. Customers are asking for it and bartenders are embracing it. I'm excited to see new labels show up in this realm.

Rye Whiskey- I always go back to this standby. When you nose a glass of good rye, it's America in a glass. Either as a base in a cocktail or just sipping neat, there are some truly remarkable spirits in this category. Our distillers are bottling some whiskey that can stand up against the best Scotches on the market.

What's your current favorite cocktail?

Joly: We just rolled out a new late winter menu. There are two on the list that I'm really enjoying. One is called the "Red Light"- 1 1/2 oz. Bols Genever, 1 1/4 oz. Grand Marnier, 1/3 oz Underberg Bitters. Stir and serve up. It's ridiculously simple and has a very classic feel.

We also just rolled out one called "Ethel", with locally distilled North Shore Aquavit, Galliano l'Authentico, Absinthe Sirene, orange marmalade and some fresh citrus. There are layers of flavor in this drink that are really pleasing, plus it's introducing some less familiar spirits to guests.

(A version of this interview was originally published in the Mix newsletter.)

2010-02-10T10:38:00.001-05:00

I had an hour to kill in Avignon once, and that hour changed my drinking life. Well, at least my Manhattan drinking life. Now at the end of the day when the Manhattan mood strikes, I use half as much sweet vermouth and swap in Figoun, an aperitif made from red wine, sugar, figs, bitter oranges, angelica, mandarin oranges, vanilla and wormwood. Figoun, produced by Liquoristerie de Provence, is not available in most U.S. markets (my current bottle arrived through much chicanery courtesy of the charming Laurene Bourges), but it's worth seeking out if you like an old style aperitif: the vanilla and sugar well balanced by the tart citrus, the slightly dusty and white pepper aromatic pop engaged with the moderately ripe and restrained figginess. If you take to Figoun as I have, you'll find any recipe that calls for sweet vermouth or any other fortified wine might benefit from a little figounification.

2010-02-09T13:03:00.002-05:00

Just as whisky neophytes have gotten their minds around things like the Scotch tasting map, where Islay and other whiskies are on the smoky and maritime side and Highland whiskies are soft, smooth and sweet, Ardmore comes along to remind us that production methods trump all other distinctions. Ardmore claims to be the only Highland distiller fully peating their malt, and so of course, this non chill-filtered whisky starts out with an aromatic experience familiar to Islay lovers – a burst of smoke resembling a leaf fire on a windy day. But behind that is a pretty caramel and cream softness and richness, not the sinewy leaness of an Islay. On the palate, smoke again and a bit of saltiness to accompany a bourbony vanilla and oak sweetness - salted caramels, even. Ripe apples and pears emerge near the finish of this full bodied but not overpowering Scotch, and it climaxes with the brisk tang of fruitwood smokiness. While the edges could use some rounding and the vanilla and smoke can somehow seem a bit at odds, I'm looking forward to trying the other expressions from Ardmore. 46% abv (Beam Global)

My score: 7

2010-02-05T11:45:00.001-05:00

As promised, Pimp My Julep, performed by Francesco Lafranconi, Doug Frost and Eric Alperin. Jump ahead to about 1:30 on the vid to see the full performance.

2010-02-05T11:40:00.007-05:00

The premise at the third annual Cognac Summit was the recreation of classic drinks first made with Cognac – Sidecar, Sazerac, Julep –into cocktails suited for 21^st century tastes. For many of the drinks, deciding which direction to go was the hard part for the teams assembled randomly. But for my table, the first thought of most of the bartenders seemed to be “How do I get out of this?” Yeah, the Stinger was ours to play with, and the gloom that painted their faces was worse than any hangover stare.

But we soldiered on, at least the bartenders did – Shervene Shahbazkhani of the Voodoo Room in Edinburgh, Arnd Heissen of the Shochu Bar in Berlin, Eric Fossard of consultancy LiquidLiquid.org and Jozef Roth of Bratislav, president of the Slovak Republic Bartender’s Association. I tried to rally the troops, who were faced with the one drink in the range that had no fans, no adherents, no spokespeople. That’s not a surprise; as we found out later that week when someone produced bottles of 1920s era Cognac and Peppermint Get, both cordials and cognacs were much less sweet in the days (turn of the 20^th century?) when the drink was created. But today, a cocktail made with two parts Cognac and one part crème de menthe is not only out of fashion, even as a digestif, but it’s a sticky, sickly, breath mint bomb, unpleasant and almost nauseating.

It’s not Cognac’s fault, though it can be argued that any recipe using Cognac created 40 years ago or more requires adjustment due to the much rounder and sweeter contemporary qualities of the spirit. Whether that’s due to changes in blending techniques, barrel management, subtle but legal product tweaks or technological advances that have finely tuned production, I don’t know. But contemporary cocktail trends demands a more balanced and angular drink than anyone can manage with just these two ingredients.

What did we do? Yellow Chartreuse came into play, as did green-, Earl Grey- and orange pekoe-infused Cognac, slices of ginger, mint leaves of course, simple syrup, etc., etc. Our range was limited, and we worked on fine-tuning what was becoming a very interesting drink, but as the deadline approached, Roth came up with a simpler version, closer to the original but balanced out with acid and fresh mint. It works as a modern digestif, we thought, and so here’s the final result of our two days work, called The Hornet.

1 3/4 oz X.O Cognac

1/2 oz white crème de menthe

1 barspoon cane syrup

3 mint leaves

1 lemon peel

1 lime peel

In a mixing glass, pour the cognac, the crème de menthe and the cane syrup. Add and muddle for 15 seconds the three mint leaves, the lemon and lime peels. Add ice to fill. Stir well for 30 seconds. Fine strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a mint leaf and small strips of lemon and lime peel

2010-01-25T16:26:00.002-05:00

What happens when you bring to Cognac dozens of bartenders from the US, UK, France, Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic and environs, and turn them loose on recreating the major classic cocktails based on the French brandy? Yes, lots of late nights, lies being told, ego measuring, drinking (Cognac of course, but at day's end, as with winemakers and distillers all over the world, beer at the local bar), but also a concerted effort on the part of the gathered mixologists to bring those cocktails into the 21^st century.

The first bartender Cognac Summit, as it’s grandly called, two years ago yielded a drink of the same name. This year, the challenge was to drag the Side Car, Mint Julep, Cognac Sour/Collins, Stinger, Mojito #3, Alexander and the Blue Blazer into the 21st century. Split into working groups, the bartenders and journalists were assigned by lot; my table was charged with creating a Stinger suitable for the modern palate. When others asked me what my table ended up with, I simply made a sad clown face - to a person, they smiled and said "Stinger?"

The gloom from being selected for the mixological equivalent of parking cars at the drag race made our team start slow, but gradually we figured out the best route – reduce the sugar, increase the potency, incorporate acid, manage mint – and final result was a surprisingly drinkable after-dinner drink, one I’d serve confidently to any guest looking for a minty after-dinner quaff. The folks in Cognac are expected to release recipes shortly, and I'll post ours soon.

After a day or so of multilingual brainstorming, recipe fiddling, even a few personality fender benders, the new versions of the seven drinks – – were presented to the local and international press. Best moment: the intro by spirits and wine maven Doug Frost, Southern Wine and Spirits’ Francesco Lafranconi, and Alperin of their “Pimp My Julep.” As soon as the video emerges from the censors, I’ll post, but be sure they rocked the house.

2010-01-20T07:25:00.000-05:00

Bit of news from Cognac - Eric Alperin of LA's The Varnish gets top marks for the best Summit recipe - the Summit was created at the first Cognac Summit two years ago.

2010-01-05T18:14:00.003-05:00

Think of the American whiskey business as old-fashioned and home-spun, filled with crusty characters who resist change and stick to the tried and true? Then think again.

Whatever retrograde sensibility clings to American whiskey is more a marketing remnant than a reflection of reality. Today, most distillers making bourbon and rye behave less like rigorous guardians of sour mash wisdom and more like mad scientists, tinkering with some whiskey rules and even smashing them into smithereens. A surging interest in American whiskies in their various flavor profiles, strengths and age expressions has revealed a desire among American drinkers to embrace the unusual, and, building on that whiskey conneiseur market, these tinkerers have broadened and enhanced the range of their wares.

Take what’s going on at Buffalo Trace, for instance, where master distiller Harlan Wheatly currently has dozens of oddities maturing for possible future release, including whiskey now aging in Mongolian, Japanese and Canadian oak. It’s not the only experiment he’s up to - in honor of the Mongolian oak, Wheatley has whipped up some Kentucky style moutai (a traditional Chinese spirit made primarily from sorghum) to age in American oak – turnabout being fair play.

Buffalo Trace each year issues a limited number of cases of their more successful results, the most recent aged 15 years in fine grain barrels from slow-growth oak and coarse grain barrels from fast-growth oaks. (For the record, the fine oak is said to be rich and sweet with a syrupy character, while the coarse grain is said to be dry with smokiness, wood and herbal qualities, heavier and complex.)

More than 1,500 barrels worth of experiments are at rest in the company’s warehouses, and Wheatley now has a micro-distillery of his own to play with. Buffalo Trace may be the most public about their experiments, but other distillers are also hard at work developing new products that take whiskey to its outer limits.

Heaven Hill, for instance, has recently issued two whiskies in styles unheard of as little as ten years ago: Parker’s Heritage Collection Golden Anniversary, marking distiller Parke Beam’s 50th year in the business, made from a marriage of bourbon barrels distilled over five decades, including a tiny amount from the 1960s; and the third and final bottling Rittenhouse Very Rare Single Barrel Rye, a 27 years old, 100 proof powerhouse (3,000 bottles will be shared among the US and select international markets.)

Who else? Wild Turkey has just released Tradition, a limited edition, 14-year-old, 101 proof bourbon, the third in their Master Distiller Selection. (Only 14,000 bottles are available for the U.S., with a suggested retail price of $100.)

Like Russell’s Reserve, Tradition is pulled from what master distiller Jimmy Russell calls the “center cut” of Turkey’s oldest warehouses, but aged longer and in more heavily charred barrels. It’s the first new item from Wild Turkey since Russell crafted Russell’s Reserve Rye two years ago.

Russell, who has particular ideas about whiskies – he prefers those aged eight to 12 years – occasionally locates promising barrels that benefit from being moved around the warehouse to control the aging process. In Tradition, he says, the classic Wild Turkey spiciness and power has been enhanced by more caramel, vanilla, fruit and nut flavors.

Kentucky isn’t the only state pulling its weight in bourbon production. Tennessee, long known as Jack Daniel’s and George Dickel country, is now home to Pritchard’s distillery, and upstate in New York, Tuthilltown Spirits has a portfolio including Hudson Baby Bourbon, a single grain bourbon made from 100% New York corn, the first bourbon to be distilled in the state.

It’s difficult not to be positive about American whiskey today; even in a down market, straight whiskey was up in 2008. The big brands do the heavy lifting - Jack Daniel’s and Jim Beam alone account for more than half of the category, with fast grower Evan Williams also topping a million cases a year.

The revival of the cocktail and a growing interest in American made spirits have contributed to the growth, but so did the development nearly twenty years ago of small batch and single barrel whiskies, which brought greater attention to the possibilities of whiskey. As the trend spread, vintage whiskies, like Evan Williams Single Barrel, caught consumer attention. Other variations attracted intense press attention. Now, further spurred on by the resurgence of rye and the growth of micro-distillers, Kentucky is awash with interesting whiskey.

These products are generally difficult and expensive to produce, but that makes them fun in distillery world, says Chris Morris, master distiller of Woodford Reserve. Response has been gratifying. “It’s very encouraging that the trade and the consumer are looking for new types of products and expressions at a premium price - that’s very healthy,” he says. “The business side of our company supports it, and they actually have created a little pressure to increase these items.”

Woodford Reserve’s annual one-off, the Master’s Selection Seasoned Oak Finish issued in late October, is the fourth, following a sweet mash, a four grain and a whiskey finished in chardonnay barrels. It’s the result of wood research and some good luck; a stash of very old oak turned up in the Brown Forman Cooperage. Most of the oak used to age bourbon is seasoned three to five months, but the staves and heads in the Seasoned Oak Finish reachedup to the ripe age of five.

“All the research shows as wood naturally seasons out of doors and slowly dries as it’s exposed to the elements, certain characteristics are stripped out and simultaneously added, creating wonderful flavors,” said Morris.

“This is a new playground that we in the American whiskey business are playing in, and it’s not lost on us that people are willing to pay a lot of money,” says Larry Kass, director of corporate communications, Heaven Hill. “Quite a few of us are coming out with very limited editions, with very unusual attributes and barrel char to them that tell a story of rarity and exclusivity.”

This sort of experimentation has long existed in the single malt Scotch world, notes Kass, where even casks from shuttered distilleries would be enhanced and sold by private bottlers, and distilleries such as Glenmorangie pioneered finishing whiskies in various used barrels.

“We continue to learn new and interesting information from these experiments, and we only releases the ones that turn out well,” says Wheatley. “We never know how they are going to turn out.”

Most of the whiskey experiments receive little or no marketing attention, no case cards or POS, instead riding the wave of interest and excitement in the category. Those with larger capacity, like the wheat whiskey Bernheim that Heaven Hill introduced six years ago, received marketing support along with simultaneous word of mouth excitement as a whiskey style unknown in modern times.

At Beam, where news of a shortage earlier this year of small batch Knob Creek made headline news, whiskey innovation is once again on the front burner, with rye Ri(1) and Red Stag the first new whiskey introductions since Jim Beam Black in 1996, says Kelly Doss, senior director, U.S. bourbon and whiskey for Beam Global

“We’re actively looking at ways to turn more people on to bourbon. Were really focused on how we can drive innovation in a way that will help consumers understand the bourbon category more. There are a lot of places to go within bourbon, a lot of opportunities and innovation is limited by our own imagination.”

The new products can create an interesting halo around old brands, reviving them in some ways. Old Forrester is an example of a whiskey whose sales staggered as the demographic was aging. “Then we came out with super premium version Birthday Bourbon, and all of sudden markets and consumers who ordinarly wouldn’t consider it in their portfolio of choices wanted that new

type of expression,” says Morris.

Morris is enthusiastic about the annual Woodford limited editions, and like Wheatley and other distillers, he’s looking at new ways to grow. He’s particularly interested in how a grain recipe he thinks has never been used before to make bourbon will do. And wood finishes really have him excited “We have some dynamic finishes were working with that I promise will blow people away.”

(A slightly different version of this article appears in the January Beverage Media magazines

Straight Whiskey

2009-12-24T10:09:00.003-05:00

Restaurant wine pricing often puzzles the average consumer, no more so than today; everyone knows wine sales are soft, especially at the higher end, but prices seem to be staying stubbornly unchanged.

The issue is always a fraught one; restaurants have long discounted wines for special events and holidays, yet never without fear of lost profits. But given today’s economic concerns, operators who cling to mark-ups of 300% in the face of plummeting sales shouldn’t wonder why their check averages are dropping. That’s especially true as distributors consider price cuts to get stock moving and make room for new vintages. Similar moves by operators offer opportunities to build traffic, profits or both.

Some operators have been particularly aggressive about selling wine in the current economy. At the two-unit Rizzuto’s Wood Fired Kitchen and Bar operation in Bethel and West Hartford, Conn., Monday night for the past year has meant half price on all bottles on their 15 wine list. (Rizzuto’s management expects to introduce the program at a new unit set to open shortly in Westport, even as they expand to 30 bottles.)

The list is impressively price conscious even before the discount, until recently topping out at about $45, with the lowest price $24 for a white zinfandel (The recent expansion brought in wines priced up to $70). With the half-off discount, that means Monday’s customers routinely walk away feeling they’ve enjoyed quite a bargain.

“Wine sales are pretty good that night, but we don’t think about it in terms of sales figures or profits, because we’re selling them for barely above cost,” says Paul Mannion, general manager of the Bethel unit. “It’s more about getting people in and giving our regular customers an opportunity to buy something a little special for them at a bargain price.”

Mannion hits on something key; in troubled times, patrons are less likely to splurge or make adventurous dining and drinking decisions. Rather, given the opportunity, they’ll opt to return to a familiar restaurant, especially one that treats them well and offers bargains. Rebuilding wine sales through well promoted periodic or across the board price cuts can build the same comfort level.

Mannion says traffic has ticked up on Mondays, and notes hand selling a wine-timid guest is easier for staff when they see familiar faces. The days of rewarding customers with free drinks or happy hours may be gone, but cutting wine prices in half goes along way toward building traffic on slow nights and rewarding regular customers.

Even in Manhattan, turning customers into friends through considerate wine prices works. At Braeburn, a contemporary American bistro in Greenwich Village that opened just as Wall Street was imploding last year, pricing consciousness played an important role when the doors first opened, according to partner and general manager John Paul O’Neil.

“We wanted to go about this with an understanding that people were suffering,” says O’Neil. “We noticed people were going for things within their comfort level, what they know and trust.”

Before opening, O’Neil and then wine director Katherine Beto searched for high quality wines they could sell for less than competitors. They employed standard practices like buying in quantity, but keeping their mark-up low also on their minds as they tasted through hundreds of wines. Peppering the 120-bottle list with well-priced offerings from Hungary, Lebanon, Cyprus and Greece as well the Rhone, Tuscany and California, they kept about ninety percent under $100, with fifteen or so wines also sold by the glass or in small carafes. As customers gravitated toward comfort foods and safe wine decisions, the Braeburn pricing strategy worked, O’Neil says.

Staff played down trading guests up the list, allowing bargain hunters to enjoy the results of O’Neil and Beto’s search. Guests have been opting for wines around $40-50, though lately O’Neil’s noted customers moving up the list a bit. More importantly, the efforts to create customer loyalty through sensible wine pricing from the day the restaurant opened has made its mark, as traffic and sales are steadily building. Score another fan of wines priced to sell.

(A version of this story first appeared in the Dec. 9 on -line edition of Nation's Restaurant News.)

2009-12-18T10:24:00.001-05:00

To me, there's something unmistakably adult about cocktails made with Sherry. The deeply savory, almost umami, quality present in all sorts of non-blended sherries can give cocktails a resonant, lip-smacking and crave-worthy piquancy. In summer, that means Martinis made with a dash of manzanilla; in winter, Manhattans tarted up with some Amontillado or Oloroso.

So dropping by the Clover Club for the annual Vinos de Jerez Cocktail Competition this week was a no-brainer for me. And while I couldn't hang for all the cocktails, I did get to try the winner made by Charles Joly from Chicago’s The Drawing Room, Bread & Wine.

Usually, ingredient-based cocktail competitions draw too many recipes where the main ingredient is overwhelming; not here. In fact, for me, a few of the drinks needed more sherry and less tartness, or had an intensity from other ingredients that masked much sherry contribution. I know, I know, sometimes an ingredient is obscured in a well- balanced drink, but the same thing can happen when too much effort to craft a unique drink masks its contribution. But getting bartenders to create and customers to order drinks made with sherry is the goal, so just a whiff of Andalucia may sometimes be enough.

Here's the winning recipe:

1 oz Lustau “Don Nuño” Dry Oloroso
1 ½ oz Balvenie Scotch Doublewood 12 year
5 dashes Absinthe (preferably Sirene Absinthe)
½ oz fresh lemon juice
¼-1/3 oz maple syrup (depending on tartness of lemons)

Fill Old Fashioned glass with ice, dash with absinthe and set aside to season. Combine Sherry, Balvenie, lemon juice and maple syrup in mixing glass. Add ice and shake well. Empty Old Fashioned glass, coating sides with absinthe. Add Kold Draft or large pieces of ice. Strain cocktail into glass. Cut a strip of orange zest using a vegetable peeler. Mist top of glass with orange oil, rub rim and place decoratively in glass. No straws please.

2009-12-11T12:21:00.002-05:00

Through a interactive hook-up held earlier this week at Astor Center in Manhattan, a dozen or two journalists watched Bob Dalgarno, the master blender at Macallan, toy with various beakers of Macallan in his sample room in Scotland. It was around midnight there, and Delgarno's voice, a crackling burr that can be hard to keep up with in person, was occasionally compressed by the digital hook up into plosive hiccups. It was a tiny bit distracting, but getting a chance to taste with him, even at some distance, was worthwhile, especially given the premise of the event: even single malts are "blended" and for good reason.

In this case, we were presented with 12 or so glasses of various 20 and 18 year old barrel samples. Some had aged in puncheons, others in butts, and one in a hogshead - the first two holding 500 liters, the puncheon squatter and made with broader staves, and the latter only 250 liters Their flavors landed all over the flavor map, except for those smokey quarters, and while some seemed unmistakably Macallan in their rich oiliness, others appeared insipid, almost, meant only for filler in a blended whisky. From these and other barrels, Delgarno derived the latest 18 Year Old Macallan, and sampling them made clear he had a lot more to do then watch the calendar, dump and bottle. My notes say "Amazing how different the casks are - while many share the expected Macallan characters of heavy, oily lusciousness, a few are indifferent malts unsuitable for the job most Macallan is charged with - as a 'top dressing' for blends."

As Delgarno led us through the various vials, I kept thinking of an email exchange I'd had with a curious stranger about the ultimate effects of barrels on whisky. He'd been told that it was the wood itself, not the spirit or wine the barrel had once held, that was the primary agent in the aging of whisky. I've been advised by some blenders about the importance of source, quality and consistency of supply of barrels, and also the importance of the supply's ultimate effect - the emergence of an unpleasant sulphur quality in some whiskies clearly lies there. But surely some whiskies - Macallan, for the most obvious instance, but also Glenmorangie and others that hang their hats on wood-finishes - expect and receive a quality that depends on the sherry-ness of the barrel.

It was clear that some of the samples we tasted this week had better merged that oily and dense Macallan quality which comes from their squat stills with the richness and dried fruitiness of an oloroso. Even the new make spirit had a heavy and oily quality, with dried fruits and spicy, malty notes considered characteristic of Macallan.

This is a long way of explaining why I think tasting older malts poses more questions than it answers. Sure, I learned that sherry butts add more spice and sherry puncheons a creamy and cooked fruit quality. The one hogshead we tried had a lanolin quality I don't associate with Macallan, and also a lot of vanilla and bananas. But I now wonder what would happen if Macallan used some amontillado or palo cortado barrels to go along with the oloroso containers they get from Gonzalez Byass. And need to go back and try the Fine Oak range alongside the traditional Macallan to see how much of that sherried quality really comes from sherry.

2009-12-07T16:03:00.000-05:00

Used to be, the brown spirits had all the character and flavors, derived mostly from wood. Now, it's the tinkering of the vodka distillers, primarily, and the various flavoring methods they employ that seem to set the standard. Unfortunately, many of those spirits are poorly wrought, cheaply flavored and downright lip-curling.

Not this one. Its botanical mix (pear, rose, chamomile, lemon verbena, lavender, rosemary coriander and citrus peel) evokes aromatic images of a gin-sipping grandma herbalist, but there's something really fun going on here. In the nose, Square One Botanical offers green pear and fresh lavender right off, along with bits of dried rose, crushed coriander and orange peel. It tastes light and, well, green - perhaps green gage plums or D'Anjou pears, but with something extra - white flowers and lemon blossom, with a hint of jasmine at the finish. The finish is crisp and a bit sweet, but not sweetened, something like mixed fruit gum, but overall fresh and gentle for a 45% alcohol by volume product. Square One Botanical promises to be a super cocktail ingredient, and has the added cachet that organic certification brings.

My score: 7

2009-12-04T16:24:00.001-05:00

I always warn cocktail novices that the best way to tell whether a bar takes real Martinis seriously is how they store their olives and onions – if the jars are cooking on the back bar or have been out at room temp for five hours, nix, I say.

I know garnishes have been recently getting their proper due in many bars, but just recently, at NYC’s dell’ anima, by no means a cocktail destination, I had a Martini garnished with some crunchy and tangy house-made pearl onions. Bravo to them for setting the bar higher – courtesy of the National Onion Association, here’s the simplest method known.

Simply Pickled Pearl Onions

1.5 pounds pearl onions, peeled
2 Tablespoon pickling salt
1.5 cups white vinegar
.33 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pickling spices
4 half-pint canning jars and lids, sanitized

To peel, use a small sharp knife to cut off the root end of the onion. Make a shallow crisscross on the trimmed edge and place the onions into a saucepan. Add water to cover, bring to a boil for two minutes and drain. When cool enough to handle, squeeze onions gently to slip skins off.

Combine 2 cups water and pickling salt; pour over onions in a non-reactive bowl and let stand 12 hours. Drain and rinse thoroughly. Combine vinegar, sugar and pickling spices in a pan and bring to a boil. Pack onions in sterilized, hot half pint canning jars and cover with pickling liquid, keeping .5 inch headspace. Adjust lids and heat jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Makes 4 half-pints.

2009-12-03T17:51:00.000-05:00

Bar managers and bartenders aspiring to the management track are invited to sign up for “Successful Beverage Management,” a program created by Barmedia’s Robert Plotkin and myself, with the Phoenician’s food and beverage director Mac Gregory and food and beverage authority Dr. Gail Bellamy. Details here - the full day seminar will take place January 12^th at the Phoenecian in Scottsdale, AZ.

2009-12-02T15:05:00.007-05:00

The latest issue of Mix is now available - click here to read and sign up.

Information and Inspiration for Cocktail Professionals December 1, 2009

Peanuty Flip, Royal Salute & Glam Shots
I ask almost every distiller I meet the same question: Have you ever thought about making a peanut liqueur? Americans are crazy about the flavor, whether in PB&J or as a satay dipper. Obviously, others have had the same thought; we now have Castries Peanut Rum Crème Liqueur, and now, the Peanut Board has put together a mixology program. They offer a peanut rum infusion recipe More…

Entrepreneurs & Winners
Arturo A. Vera-Felicie of the R Bar & Restaurant and 1924 Main was named the winner of the 2009 Greater Kansas City Bartending Competition earlier this month. His original creation for the competition was the West Bottoms Social Club, based on pickled fig syrup. Beau Williams of Manifesto and Christopher Conastor of Justus Drugstore placed and showed. Chicago bartender Adam Seger has created Hum More…



			Pearls of Wisdom I always warn cocktail novices that the best way to tell whether a bar takes real Martinis seriously is how olives and onions are stored; if the jars are cooking on the back bar or have been out at room temp for five hours, nix, I say. More...

2009-12-01T16:09:00.000-05:00

Midtown Manhattan offers a plethora of drinking options beside the modern speakeasy and classic cocktail cult bar, most of them saloons. Many of them have the age-old New York saloon feel — and smell — and that’s all right for a meet after work and a quick brew.

But whenever whiskey makers are visiting New York and want to meet, they inevitably pick the same spot: Keens Steakhouse. Founded in 1885 as Keens Chophouse, in the heart of what was then the Herald Square theater district, the dark, low-ceilinged restaurant buzzes from noon through the wee hours, with a brief respite in the mid-afternoon.

The upstairs bar, under a ceiling hung with hundreds of clay pipes known as churchwardens from the days when patrons would fire them up on arrival, is more of an event space than hangout, but downstairs, the main barroom has a customer base that befits its location so close to Herald and Times Squares, the heart of New York’s Garment District and the so-called crossroads of the world.
Hockey fans, malt lovers, bartenders, models, clothing execs, hard hats, Macy’s-bag-laden tourists, cops — everybody goes to Keens.

Nobody orders Aviations there; in fact, order any mixed drink beyond a Bloody Mary or a Martini and you’ll prove you don’t much about reading a bar (though they have added such drinks as Sazeracs and Last Words, along with the Omar Bradley — rye, orange marmalade and bitters). At Keens, it’s usually beer, Scotch on the rocks, a chat with one of your cheek-by-jowl neighbors and the occasional howl of disapproval as another New York team screws up on the small screen at the end of the bar. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

(Reprinted from Mix - read more and sign up there.)

2009-12-01T12:10:00.003-05:00

I'm not a vodka guy, though neither am I a vodkaphobe - as far as I'm concerned, whatever gets you through the night... I keep a few bottles around the house, whatever I consider really good, and pass the rest on to friends, neighbors and delivery men. I don't often hold onto flavored vodkas at all...except for Van Gogh, which, as flavored spirits go, are generally unparalleled in terms of pure, essential flavors. In fact, as the international cordial suppliers continue to miss out on the opportunity created by the cocktail revolution - that is, they continue to sell generally artificial tasting, overly sweet and just plain unpleasant liqueurs - bartenders are starting to opt for the 35% abv Van Goghs as flavoring agents. All hail master distiller Tim Voss.

I sat down last week with Norman Bonchick, head of Van Gogh Imports, and tasted all their wares. The good news - the Dutch Chocolate is back and as good as ever, a hot chocolately treat with a slight bitterness, a drying finish with spice and a balanced sweetness. A mistaken change in the formula has been righted, and this is the benchmark chocolate spirit, as far as I'm concerned.

But it's not Van Gogh's best - that nod goes to the Double Espresso, a magnificently crafted spirit that explodes with aromas of freshly ground dark roast coffee bean and tastes like finely filtered and concentrated pure espresso with a shot of spirit. The art of flavoring doesn't get any better, and with the possible exception of Illy Coffee Liqueur, there's nothing close to this Van Gogh.

I was also impressed with the Van Gogh Coconut vodka, quite against my will - "No way I'll like this," I thought and then wham! an aromatic explosion of toasted coconut and coconut cream erupted from the glass, and not a hint of the usual coconut sunscreen notes so often found in such spirits. It's compelling and seductive, and all coconut lushness - a real winner.

Given that these products depend on fresh and seasonal ingredients for their flavors, it's not surprising that some change slightly - the Pineapple was more like pineapple upside down cake than fresh grilled pineapples, which was my overwhelming impression when Van Gogh first sent samples around. I'm told the pineapple can be made twice yearly, which would explain how a particular harvest would change things. Nonetheless, it, too, is outstanding.

Oh, and the new Dutch Caramel Vodka? All I can say is I waved the open bottle under the noses of five unsuspecting friends, and they all said the same thing - "Wow."

My scores: Dutch Caramel: 7
Dutch Chocolate: 8
Double espresso: 9
Coconut: 8
Pineapple: 7

2009-11-25T16:14:00.000-05:00

I got to spend a week hurrying around Rioja last month, visiting, what, 18 or so wineries - luckily, the Riojans aren't as interested in tramping their guests through the vineyards as some people are. Among the wines I didn't have a good sense of previously are those from Bodegas Beronia, and their 2005 Reserva is now one of my favorites, and is available at a fairly good price for Rioja Reserva.

It's got that classic, seductive Riojan aroma of raspberry, ground coffee, toasty oak and black cherries - almost desserty, but that impression is removed by the brisk acid and lively cherry and berry flavors, a clean minerally tang with some black pepper and anise notes. The characteristic Riojan oak vanilla quality is here, of course, managed and subdued, and it finishes crisp, tangy and flavorful. Silky, elegant wine. Try the Crianza as well.

2009-11-23T18:16:00.000-05:00

The folks from Ardmore asked me to take part in a tasting of their single malt so they could add my notes to a batch they'd gathered from other know-it-alls for a three-dimensional Scotch whisky tasting grid they've put on-line. You've seen the two dimensional ones, with its axes of smoky/delicate and rich/light. This one adds in sweet/floral. too - and after a snafu, my notes are up there now along with a half dozen others. It's an interesting way to demonstrate how tasters react to spirits, especially Scotch, and extremely useful when trying to gauge what a novice might like. Take a look here.

2009-11-20T09:44:00.002-05:00

Seasonal menus may be nothing new in cutting-edge restaurants, but in bars pioneering the American cocktail revolution, the range of cyclical possibilities is still being explored. In fact, the changes bartenders install as the weather goes from balmy to blustery may be the most dramatic of any seasonal makeover. Where classic cocktails reign, featured drinks tend to get stronger, darker and heavier as the days shorten. At bars and restaurants with more contemporary menus, bartenders frequently introduce flavors from the autumn harvest - apples, pears, baking spices. At operations with a culinary approach to drink making, the changes can be constant and adventurous, with menus incorporating robust house-made syrups and bitters, and even such ingredients as squash and root vegetables.

(Read the rest of the story below, originally published in the fall issue of Flavor and the Menu.)
Flavor Fall 09

2009-11-19T09:36:00.007-05:00

Stolen directly from myself and the new email newsletter I'm working on called Mix. Sign up here.
Bar Artisanal, the casual off-shoot of Terrence Brennan’s NYC Artisanal restaurant, has revamped the specialty cocktail list with seasonal additions including the Grape Fizz made with Bacardi, lime and concord grape juices, and the Peppery Pear made with bourbon, pears and pink peppercorns. The list features cocktail and cheese pairings as well.

Concord grapes are suddenly hot in New York bars: autumnal treats from Rick Pitcher, beverage director at NYC’s famed Gotham Bar and Grill, include the PB&J (made with Montecristo rum, Castries Peanut Rum liqueur and fresh concord grape juice with a crushed peanut rim). He’s also added the Bartlett, (Charbay green tea vodka, Bartlett pears, sage, Tasmanian leatherwood honey and fresh lemon juice).

Here’s an innovative reason to host a party - your back bar has a birthday. No, not that ancient bar back; the back bar, in this case, the imposing structure behind the stick at Seattle’s cocktail haven Tini Bigs, which turned 100 years old this week.

In Los Angeles, the fall menu at Akhasha, which focuses on local, organic and handcrafted ingredients, includes a Pumpkin Pie (Tru vanilla vodka, Modern Spirit pumpkin vodka, soy milk, agave syrup and a graham cracker dusted rim) and Autumn Harvest (Jefferson small batch bourbon, organic apple juice and cinnamon).

The anxiously awaited Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco will be opening its doors to the public on Tuesday, December 8, 2009, owner Martin Cate informs us. Cate, late of Alameda’s Forbidden Island and one of the premier rum and tiki barmen in the country, will offer more than 80 grogs, Tiki drinks, Havana cocktails and other beverages, 200+ rums including an exclusive house rum from St. George Spirits called Eurydice.

Seafood chain McCormick & Schmick a couple of years ago moved to all fresh juices and made to order drinks. Last week, the chain’s execs announced they’d introduce seasonal cocktail menus as well, setting the bar higher for other high-end chain restaurant beverage programs.

Newly renovated Dovetail restaurant in Manhattan has a new sommelier, Amanda Reade Sturgeon, formerly of Babbo and The French Laundry, who has spearheaded a revamped cocktail list to herald the bar’s rebirth. The list takes an old-school turn through classic drinks using ingredients from smaller producers, local distilleries and seasonal juices. Drinks reveal a serious interest in sherry as an ingredient in such drinks as the Dovetail Manhattan (Sazerac rye, Morenita cream sherry, apple cider, bitters, bourbon-soaked cherry) and the D’groni (gin, Cynar and sherry).

2009-11-17T14:33:00.001-05:00

For years there has been a struggle to overcome the musty image from which classic sherry suffers. It’s been a labor to acquaint sommeliers and retailers with the wide range of flavors sherry bodegas produce in fino, manzanilla, amontillado, oloroso and other styles.
Can the cocktail succeed where other promos haven't?

(Read the rest of the story below, originally published in the November Beverage Media publications.)
Nov09 Sherry

2009-11-16T11:11:00.002-05:00

The streets of New York teemed with whiskyfolk last week, those distillers, blenders and other assorted makers of the world's best spirits, gathered for Malt Advocate's WhiskyFest. And in a strange coincidence, the presence of one of them may have finally resolved the mystery, to me, of why some older single malt Scotches pick up a passion fruit tang.

I sat down with former Glenrothes distiller John Ramsay, who shared with me a few variants from the distillery, including the hard-to-find Glenrothes 1975 (the distillery is one of the few which until recently issued vintage only whiskies). The 1975 is especially odd, because it had been vatted in 1987 and then left to age further, and the result was a surprisingly youthful, fresh, floral and crisp malt, but one with all the tell-tale signs of age, including that passion fruit quality on the finish.

A few days later, at a sherry seminar, the passion fruit appeared again, this time in a Bodegas Tradicion Oloroso VORS sherry. As I learned in Jerez last year, some Oloroso, Amontillado and Palo Cortado sherries can have rivetingly intense flavor components - lime, licorice, roasted nuts, mushrooms - with no comparison in other wines and spirits. But the Tradicion Oloroso, along with lime and papaya and some salty tropicality, had loads of passion fruit notes, probably a result of long oxidative aging.

Is that the missing connection? Not all Scotches are as sherry-driven as Macallan or a few others, but nearly all have a sherry component, even if the casks used have been used so long that they are almost neutral in effect. Except that, as César Saldaña, the head of the board that oversees the regulation of sherry, pointed out that day, as the wine ages and a panoply of flavors are created, water evaporates and exits slowly through barrel walls, penetrating deep into the wood. Maybe even bringing with it some of those umami-like flavors so present in most sherries; to me, passion fruit is one of those edgy, savory flavors.

So who knows? Perhaps it takes another 20 or 30 years of aging in one of those Oloroso barrels before the passion fruit re-emerges and joins into the Scotch whisky mix? Or maybe the oxidization that occurs in Scotch is similar to what happens with very old oxidative sherries and the sherry connection is just a coincidence. But as William Burroughs said, "In the magical universe, there are no coincidences and there are no accidents." If the sherry and Scotch-making processes - ancient, misunderstood, endlessly unfolding - aren't part of the magical kingdom, there mustn't be one.

2009-11-13T11:00:00.004-05:00

The release of the third and final bottling of Rittenhouse Very Rare Single Barrel Rye has arrived, following the release of the 21-year-old bottling in 2006 and the 23-year-old in 2007 (reviewed here). The new 25-year-old expression is drawn from the final barrels of the same lot as the first two though questions about how it has benefited are almost irrelevant, as all bottles - even at $190 a bottle - will be scooped up instantly. About those bottles - there are only one thousand 3-bottle cases, a total of 3,000 bottles, to be shared between the US, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

So what do I think of the 100 proof, single barrel designated, non-chill filtered, straight rye? On the nose, there's maple syrup, dates, shellac, baking spices, old chair leather, some ashiness and a bit of a charred quality that I don't recall from the last bottling. On the palate, there are all of the above, plus some better defined spice notes of clove, cinnamon, nutmeg and even a bit of Red Hot candy, a brisk, drying finish at first and then, wham - some potency starts to show. There is a bit of woodiness starting to peek through as well, which makes me think somewhere between 23 and 25 years was the peak age for this rye. But it almost doesn't matter - is Payton Manning a better quarterback today than three years ago? Is the current Broadway production of "South Pacific" better than the last revival? Was this year's "Mad Men" better than last? Who cares? Buy this if you can find it. (Distributed by Heaven Hill)

My score: 9.5

2009-11-12T08:33:00.002-05:00

Woodford Reserve's national search for a new Manhattan wound up in New York this week, with eight bartenders displaying their versions of the classic. The high level of the judges - master distiller Chris Morris, Aureole chef Chris Lee, Clover Club's charming mistress Julie Reiner - was brought down when they added me, but we all agreed on the winner, Jeromy Edwards of Back Stage at Theater Square Marketplace in Louisville, whose Cider Manhattan worked best. People may cry the Kentucky fix was in, but three of the four judges are Brooklyintes, so there. My close second was the White Limo from Washington DC's Owen Thomson.

Cider Manhattan
2 oz. Woodford Reserve
3/4 oz. cider reduction
1/2 oz. Antica vermouth
dash Angostura bitter
Grand Marnier-flambéed cherry (preferably Rainier)

Flambé cherry in the Martini glass, allowing it to caramelize. Place ingredeients and ice drink in shaker and turn, don't shake. Pour into Martini glass after it has cooled.

2009-11-06T09:13:00.013-05:00

Bilbao, Spain, isn’t exactly known for its cocktail scene, though Americans have been stopping off there increasingly since the opening of the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum. There, as throughout the rest of Spain, gin and Scotch are the favored tipples along with Spanish wines, but malt folk should be on the alert for one fine collection in an unexpected location when on a tapas crawl.

Casa Victor Montes, located on Plaza Nueva in the old part of town, is packed most nights (and middays) at the tapas bar and sit down tables where dishes like dried cod cooked in a sweet pepper sauce or poached in olive oil delight. It takes a few minutes, but slowly, visitors realize the cases and shelves surrounding them and filling the walls to the ceiling hold one of Spain’s largest whisky collections — 600 bottles, 80 of which are still being served.

The collection boasts lots of interesting one-offs, but also oddities (not many places can offer Old Huckleberry Bourbon or Macallan 1964), yet few customers order the stuff, according to bartender Pedro. Too bad, as the place has a well-worn patina bars only get after, oh, say, 140-plus years of operation, and is best contemplated with a dram or two. Great food and fine wine are of course important to find, but it’s especially good to know about a clean, well-lighted place for a late afternoon whisky in any city, ancient or modern.

2009-11-06T08:57:00.002-05:00

Jill DeGroff has visited all the best bars of the world - she’s the one off to the side quietly sketching away while hubby holds court. Now we can all see what she’s been up to, as the release is here of Lush Life; Portraits from the Bar. Parties will be held in several cities, featuring culinary cocktails prepared by award-winning mixologists, and she will be signing books and rendering a few caricatures. The tour started in Boston, and she’ll be in New Brunswick, N.J. Nov. 8 at Stage Left , and then on to D.C., NYC and San Francisco — check here for her current schedule.

2009-10-28T16:11:00.006-04:00

To the left you can get an idea what my latest project looks like - the biweekly mixology newsletter called Mix. I'll be keeping track of new beverage programs, up-and-coming bars and bartenders, great resources, events and people. So if you have news of your beverage programs, or know of something interesting and very inside, let me know. No web address yet, but the sign-up link is here.

2009-10-27T14:58:00.006-04:00

A couple weeks ago, the Diageo folks brought Andrew Ford, the Johnnie Walker blender, to town, and he brought with him various single malts for a blending exercise. Andrew mentioned that he'd stopped off to fill some bottles personally for the event and it's pretty clear, once we started nosing the various glasses poured for us, that Cardhu was back in town after a long absence. The malt is so beloved by the Spanish that Diageo pulled it out of the U.S. years ago (and even started agitating for the ability to sell a vatted malt called Cardhu, which raised a potent stink in whisky circles).
Along with that Speyside, we were offered portions of a grain whisky, an Islay (Caol Ila is my guess), a Highland (Royal Lochnagar?), a Lowland (Glenkinchie), a west Highland (Oban), and a non-Islay island (Talisker). And so we tried to replicate the signature JW Black blend ourselves.

What did I learn? Well, for one, that even with the superior drams mentioned above, mxing together something coming that doesn't bowl you over yet still has a smokey, lusty JWB pop isn't just a matter of pouring on the flavor. Balance is hard to reach, and the single malts seem to get more intense when mixed together, without the correct level of grain whisky to harmonize matters. So kudos for the much-maligned blended Scotch blenders like Mr. A. Ford. And I also was reminded, after a long time between tastes of some of these Diageo whiskies, how much I really, truly love Caol Ila and Talisker.

2009-10-09T10:10:00.006-04:00

The efforts by the tequila business to shed the bad old image the spirit earned in the 1960s have largely succeeded, but one result is that tequila prices have gone through the roof. As good as some of today's blancos are (and believe me, the improvement in quality at the blanco level is clear; now, if only barrel management in Jalisco got as much attention as agave quality).

But there are always bargains to be had, and here's one some savvy mixologists already know about; Pueblo Viejo Blanco from Tepatitlan. It has a light cocoa powder, even baby powder, aroma at first, followed by anise seed, orange rind and a touch of bitter herbs. In the mouth, it has a great balance between minerally citrus, mostly lemon and lime, and a moderate agave sweetness. There's a notably rich texture, and the blanco finishes with another dusting of cocoa powder along with a clean lime and apple crispness, a lovely tequila all around. Prices vary, but last month in San Diego, I saw it going for under $16 at a chain store, a steal as far as I'm concerned. (Imported by Gemini Spirits and Wine.)

My score: 6.5

2009-10-02T09:36:00.005-04:00

Wine producers working in regions without much contemporary cachet have a monumental problem; how do they get consumers, overwhelmed with a flood of international wines produced in similar styles, interested in something different? Here's one way: make your wines refreshing, driven by varietal rather than stylistic characteristics, price them well and make them easy to serve.

Welcome example number one from vineyards formerly producing Armagnac; in fact, this little quaffer puts the lie to the idea that grapes normally used to produce brandy like ugni blanc and colombard can't make good wine. Fresh, floral and citrusy, with aromas of grapefruit, lime peel and nectarine, the Colombelle from Gascony is remarkably crisp and lean on the palate, with a great swoosh of citusy acids along with some peachy freshness and a clean, bright finish. It's relatively low in alcohol (11.5% abv), which makes it perfect for a light lunch, hot night, spicy food, or as an aperitif. The price (about $10) is exceptional at a time when flabby pinot grigios can still command $20. Buy it by the case if you find it. (Wine Sellers, LTD)

2009-10-01T13:40:00.003-04:00

Ralph Erenzo and Brian Lee don’t have to dodge swarms of bees anymore when they make apple vodka in New York’s Hudson Valley. In a micro-distiller’s world, that’s a sign of progress. The founders of Tuthilltown Spirits are just two of those riding the American craft wave. Now more than 155 strong, these indie distillers have been spurred by consumer thirst for handmade products, the classic cocktail trend, an easing of restrictions on in-store sampling, self-distribution and sales of their own wares and even by the “locavore” movement.

(Read the rest of the story below, originally published in the October Beverage Media publications.)
Beverage Media - Emerging Distilleries

2009-10-01T11:04:00.006-04:00

It's rare to be able to sample many fine sakés in one place without emptying the piggy bank, but last week's "The Joy of Saké" event in New York provided guests with at least 200 different brands. A few stood out, but none so much as the Chokaisan. As a daiginjo, half of each grain of rice in the making is polished away, making the category the most expensive to produce, but also, potentially, the most delicate.

The Chokaisan, made with yeast derived from flowers, does indeed have pronounced aromas of white flower and pears. Clean and beautifully round on the palate, it shimmers with flavors of fresh picked and peeled pear and tarragon, crisp yet still a bit creamy, with a clean and minerally finish. Brewer Shunji Sato says he's tried to brew a saké that gives the sensation of gazing at a local mountain on a clear winter's day. I don't know about that, but in the midst of the cacophony of the saké tasting, I did feel a bit of fresh breeze blow across my face as I sipped the Chokaisan. (Winebow)

My score: 7

2009-09-24T11:10:00.007-04:00

There's a small subset of whisky lovers who treasure Japanese malts and blends, but for too long, little of the good stuff has been widely available here. True, the overall subtlety of most tend to remind one more of Canadian whiskys than most single malt Scotches, but still, they can be exquisitely refined and sippable. In Hibiki 12 Year Old Japanese Blended Whisky, distiller Suntory finishes aged malt whisky in plum wine casks and blends it with other malts and some grain whiskies, then filters it through bamboo charcoal. The result? A light grainy nose, with a hint of white flowers, rising bread dough and an evocative note of raspberries ripening on the vine in the summer sun. In the mouth, it’s crisp, exceedingly drying, with lots of mouth-watering acids, and a candied lemon peel tang backing up the malt expression. Hibiki finishes extremely long, with an airy and fresh lightness and crisp raspberry tang. It's a lovely and expressive whisky. 43% abv (Skyy Spirits).

My score: 7

2009-09-22T10:48:00.005-04:00

Given the collapse of the upper-end of the wine market, calling a $15.99 bottle of wine "cheap" may be stretching things, though I'm still waiting to see prices for mediocre bottlings reflect reality at retail. But given the relative madness over Pinot Noir the last few years since the "Sideways" phenomenon took effect, giving the nod to the 2006 Irony Pinot Noir from Monterey County is a no-brainer.

There's a classic Burgundian nose of estery fruit backed with some dried thyme and sun-dried cut grass. On the palate, it's very expressive, with tastes of high-acid fresh raspberries and blueberries, a tang of cola and a lean zippiness. Irony finishes long, lean and lovely, like a first-race yearling discovering its power in the stretch. Sourced from seven blocks of grapes in the company's San Bernabe vineyard, this one surprises at the price and was the bargain hidden in a tasting last week of eight or so other Monterey Pinots, all others $35 and up.

2009-09-17T17:07:00.005-04:00

It’s a common experience: Restaurant customers fall in love with a wine at their favorite place but can’t locate a place to buy that same bottle to drink at home. But some wine-savvy restaurants, recognizing that customer loyalty is sometimes built drink by drink, are providing wines they feature on their menus for retail purchase.

It’s not always easy. State laws may prohibit or make very difficult dual retail-restaurant licensing. Also, many winemakers prefer to build cachet by limiting their wares to fine-dining restaurants.

But others are willing to take the extra steps to make it happen. At The Bernards Inn in Bernardsville, N.J., for example, customers who select from the 1,500 or so wines that sommelier Terri Baldwin assembles are tickled when they find they can bring most of them home.

“We offer these wines with the intent to build relationships with our customers, so that they can get something unique and different,” Baldwin says. “We don’t want to sell a wine they can get at a retail store, but we are looking to sell people wines they can’t find that might be small production but not necessarily expensive.”

The restaurant doesn’t advertise its retail program, and Baldwin is careful not to upset winemakers who want their wine sold only at the table. But offering those she features on the restaurant’s tasting menu is a perfect example of the loyalty-building concept.

“We’re not a retail store and don’t want to be,” she says, “so we focus it as a benefit to our customer—almost a ‘thank you’ for patronizing our restaurant.”

In states where restaurants can also sell at retail, it’s a no-brainer for wine-focused places to provide the service, says Dan Kezner, director of restaurant operations for Seattle-area Heavy Restaurant Group. At the group’s three Purple Café units, nearly all the wines served are available for take-out.

“It just makes sense, especially in our concept, a wine bar with 80 to 90 bottles available by the glass,” he says. “It was a natural fit for people to shop for retail wines by being able to taste them before they buy them. People can spend a half hour trying our wine and get some guidance on what they want to actually take home.”

Location is important, too. At the downtown Seattle Purple Café unit, office workers looking to do their wine shopping at lunch or hotel guests wanting to improve upon the in-room selection drive up retail business, compared to the two suburban units. But overall, the program is more of a loss leader than a profit center for Purple Café. Because liquor and grocery stores and even discount clubs sell alcohol, the region doesn’t lack for outlets. Still, with Purple Café’s retail prices 30 to 40 percent lower than menu prices, they are very competitive.

But does revealing different retail and restaurant prices give customers pause at the mark-up restaurants typically charge?

“I think most people understand the difference between dining in a restaurant and taking a wine home and realize why they pay more in a restaurant,” Kezner says.

Kezner also points out that with so many restaurants proclaiming their wine-friendliness today, places like his should be developing better relationships with customers through introducing them to good buys and unfamiliar regions.

The Bernards Inn’s Baldwin says that when she knows she’s cornered the New Jersey market on a wonderful yet obscure wine, sharing the secret with a customer is even more rewarding, especially if they pick up a few bottles to share with friends.

It’s a classic way to form a lasting relationship, which after all, is the ultimate goal of a restaurant-retail wine program.

Read the story as originally published at Nation's Restaurant News.

2009-09-16T14:06:00.006-04:00

Tequila's cred gets better and better in the U.S. as Mexican distillers and American entrepreneurs keep fine-tuning their products. I just finished judging at the Spirits of Mexico competition in San Diego along with the well-medicated Robert Plotkin; the glamorous Charlotte Voisey, the smiling Junior Merino, the gracious Mario Marquez and other pros including Patrick McCarthy, Larry Auman and Dave Grapshi. We plowed through 111 tequilas, mescals, sotols and tequila-based cordials, and here are the winners of "Best of Category" awards:

Blanco: Corazon and Nocaut

Reposado: Pueblo Viejo

Anejo: Milagro Anejo and Oro Azul

Extra Anejo: Clase Azul Ultra

Sotol: Hacienda de Chihuahua Silver

Mezcal: Forever Oax Reposado

Flavors/Creams: Casa 1921 Cream

2009-09-16T13:04:00.005-04:00

Here are Gaz Regan and I reliving the bad old days, at last night's Barenjager competition in New York, won by Kevin Diedrich of Brooklyn's Clover Club:

The Bottom Line
¾ parts Bärenjäger Honey Liqueur
1 ½ parts Highland Park 18
1 part Manzanilla Sherry
¼ parts Cio Ciaro
1 dash orange bitters
1 dash Angostura bitters

Add all ingredients to mixing glass, ice, stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

2009-09-15T16:32:00.009-04:00

Glenmorangie has always been miles ahead in terms of wood finishes compared to most other single malts. Dr. Bill Lumsden, the man in charge, even orders his barrels from a particular part of Ozark oak forests, and arranges for the wood to be aged a bit longer before it is turned into barrels.

While other Scotches are known for their rich sherried quality, that has not been the ethereal Glenmorangie's position, though sherry has made an appearance, especially in the now-gone but not forgotten Fino Sherry Finish and the currently available Lasanta, finished in oloroso casks. But Pedro Ximenez? The source of the most dense and syrupy sweet Sherries made? Surely finishing this floral and evocative single malt in PX wood would smother the better qualities, I thought, but nope. The Sonalta, the result of a recent experiment (not Lumsden's only - he's got some finished in Manzanilla casks, but samples were stuck in customs when we met recently) will soon be available in the US after only being sold in duty-free, and lucky us.

On the nose, there's almost a blackened banana quality along with raisins and prunes cooked in dark brown sugar layered onto almond shortbread - rich and lush, with a touch of pear liqueur lurking as well. It's almost unctuous in the mouth, filled with dried fruits and a rummy sweetness backed by a spicy tingle as it finishes. As usual, it's worth the time and trouble to find the latest result of a Glenmorangie wood experiment, which you'll be able to get next January for about $80. (46% alcohol by volume, imported by Moet Hennessey)

My score: 8

2009-09-08T17:18:00.005-04:00

If you were wondering how the American whiskey business is doing these days, a glance at The New York Times this past summer might provide a hint.

A full page Knob Creek ad in late June announced that demand for the Bourbon had outstripped supply, and that new shipments wouldn’t arrive until November. In addition to being a brilliant marketing play, this is a sure sign that the premium and super-premium side of the American whiskey business is humming along nicely despite the country’s economic woes.

American whiskies are benefiting from a number of trends...(For the rest of the story, originally published in the September 2009 Cheers, download below.)

Cheers Bourbon 09/09

2009-09-08T08:58:00.007-04:00

Whiskey gets almost all its flavor from wood, of that there's no dispute. But what wood? From where? How old? How charred? All pertinent questions regarding the final flavor in a whiskey.

Brown-Forman, maker of Jack Daniel's and Woodford Reserve, among many others, also owns the country's largest cooper, Brown-Forman Cooperage. Believe me when I tell you the following video wouldn't get master distiller Chris Morris a job at the plant charring barrels.

2009-09-04T10:49:00.010-04:00

The three (or four, depending on a production quirk one year) in the series of one-offs that have come from the old Labrot & Graham distillery under the name Woodford Reserve Master's Collection have won lots of fans. But I've generally preferred the standard issue Woodford, probably because the experiments didn't improve for me what is a very winning formula.

This time, though, master distiller Chris Morris and company are onto something. Finished in barrels made from wood aged up to five years, far older than American whiskey usually sees, the Seasoned Oak is massively spicy on the nose, smelling like bittersweet chocolate-coated dark cherries dusted with cinnamon and clove. The aromatic notes keep on coming: vanilla, raspberries, Red Hot candies, applewood smoke. In the mouth, it's remarkably smooth, given the explosive aromatics, but still, it's peppery and intense, a bit Port-like in its richness, mouth-filling and robust, with that cooked cherry and bittersweet chocolate flavor swirling in and out among a country kitchen's worth of baking spices. It's got sweetness and the vanilla-coconut quality of the standard Woodford, but moves far beyond into an unusually intense realm. I could sip this all afternoon; come to think of it, I did.

(Available November 1, 50.2% abv, limited release, Brown-Forman.)

My score: 9

2009-08-25T10:34:00.006-04:00

Inspiration comes from the oddest places. A friend brought over some of her freshly made tomatillo salsa yesterday, but there was a bit too much vegetable juice in the serving bowl, making it difficult to scoop up the the minced tomatillos and chiles. So we drained off much of the liquid, which was too fragrant and tasty to throw away but what to do? A bottle of tequila and a bowl of limes in the kitchen provided the basis for the rest of the ingredient mix, that and an aging bottle of limoncello. No commercial tomatillo salsa will do - they are all too acrid and artificial. And you can bring the heat level up or down, as you wish; next time, I'll try making the salsa by roasting the tomatillos and chiles first, and then maybe use a mezcal instead of blanco.

Rita Tomatillo
(serves four)
5 ounces blanco tequila (preferably a minerally tequila, like El Tesoro)
5 ounces tomatillo salsa water (see below)
1.5 ounce limoncello
juice of one large lime

Pour all over ice and shake vigorously. Strain and serve.

Tomatillo Salsa
1 pound fresh tomatillos, husked, rinsed and quartered
2 fresh serrano peppers, seeded, stemmed and chopped
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, minced
juice of one lime
1 small clove garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt to taste

In a bowl, combine tomatillos, chiles, garlic and salt. Let stand at room temperature for an hour. Add lime juice, cilantro and olive oil, stir and let sit in refrigerator for one hour. Strain liquid to use for Rita Tomatillo; serve the rest with blue corn chips.

2009-08-20T10:11:00.004-04:00

There are many contributors to rum’s surging popularity today: the growth of Latin culture and population, the increasing number of flavored rums and the country’s love affair with the Mojito are only three. But don’t forget the effect of Tiki.

(Read the rest of the story below, originally published in the August Beverage Media publications.)
Rum Beverage Media

2009-08-19T10:28:00.003-04:00

Wonder why your drinking companions never find a cocktail too bitter? Perhaps they're non-tasters for the bitter-tasting chemical PTC - about a quarter of us have a recessive gene that leaves us unable to taste PTC.

Now there's proof that even for certain Neanderthals, there's no such thing as too bitter. Analysis of a 48,000 year-old bone shows that the genetic variation responsible for this difference also existed in Neanderthals. This means that this genetic variation predates the divergence of the lineages leading to Neanderthals and modern humans.

Says the lead scientist: "The non-taster is not something that occurs just in modern populations. It is something that was present at least half a million years ago."

More here.

2009-08-17T15:23:00.006-04:00

Some people rave about how some multiply-filtered vodka leaves no trace the next day; others swear they've seen and communed with their familiar as the the level of mezcal in the bottle dwindles. De gustibus, but all I used to know is that some people can drink, and some ought not.

Now, I think I know why; according to a piece by Phillip Hunter, a small percentage of white people have something weird going on in their genes. "According to a 2004 study carried out at the University of Colorado, around 15 per cent of Caucasians have a genetic variant, known as the G-variant, that makes ethanol behave more like an opioid drug, such as morphine, with a stronger than normal effect on mood and behavior. This variant seems randomly distributed among the population: it emerged through mutation, although the factors affecting its selection remain unknown since, like all genes, it does not operate in isolation."

Curious? As Hunter points out: "An exceptional few seemed to thrive on drink, leading to the idea of a "Churchill gene": where some have a genetic makeup allowing them to remain healthy and brilliant despite consumption that would kill others. Mark Twain endorsed this view saying: "My vices protect me but they would assassinate you!"

No doubt some real genes--especially those with a high expression of alcohol dehydrogenase and tolerance of alcohol breakdown products such as acetaldehyde, the "hangover" chemical--contribute to this theory. Yet until recently science has had little to say about alcohol and the creative process, confining itself to studies of damage, tolerance and addiction. Over the last few years, however, evidence has emerged that some have, if not a Churchill gene, then a creative cocktail gene."

Find the rest of the short piece here.

2009-08-17T14:36:00.011-04:00

Purists may shun flavored or infused whiskies, but it is usually because the products are often artificial tasting, seemingly a result of too much whisky in the warehouse and a marketer's wacky inspiration. Not Compass Box's Orangerie, and Scotch enthusiasts are likely to be almost as enthusiastic about John Glazer's latest offering as they are about Peat Monster or the other results of his modern whisky attitude.

Orangerie is a blend of Highland single malt Scotch whisky, single grain whisky, infused with orange, cinnamon and clove, and that's exactly what you'll find in the glass. A bit reminiscent of old style whisky liqueurs on the nose, but lighter and more reserved, Orangerie smells like a Christmas sachet of dried orange peel and spices. It's sprightly and lightly sweet on the palate, not cloying at all, and has a clean, fresh quality. Seems perfect for cocktail experimentation, cold-weather sipping or just a change of Scotch pace. 40% abv.

My score: 7

2009-08-13T09:39:00.016-04:00

Add to the list of signs of an approaching autumn the roll-out of cocktail competitions. One of the best, in that bartenders must enter drinks already served at their establishments and defend and explain their utility, is the Vinos de Jerez Cocktail Competition. They're now accepting entries to find America’s best Sherry cocktail.

The official rules:

You may use any style of Sherry, from any bodega in Jerez.
You must share the precise recipe, garnish and glass; explain in writing why the cocktail is great, when best to serve it, exact preparation method and steps of assembly, and what the perfect food match is and and why.

Also required: a copy of the cocktail menu of the bar/restaurant where the cocktail is being served and a photo of the drink.

Entry deadline: Friday, October 16th, 2009. For all info, go here.

Submissions should be sent via email to Steve Olson.

The winner will receive a cash prize and an all expenses paid trip to Jerez, Spain. (Phot0 of Neyah White's Sherry Shrubb, 2008 winner.)

2009-08-10T15:56:00.005-04:00

I wrote this before launching this blog, but nothing I've seen or tasted in the last few months makes me change my mind: This may be the best time ever for American whiskey drinkers.

The whiskey business breeds naturally happy people, the kind who, even as the week enters its 60th hour, like to reflect on their good fortune. So, it’s never a surprise when their view is sunny. But these days, despite overall economic worries, those folks making bourbon and rye seem especially pleased with their work.

(As originally published in Beverage Media.)

American Whiskey

2009-08-10T13:04:00.004-04:00

If you don't know Brian Rea, too bad for you. He knows as much about bars, bartenders, drinks, drinking, and drink memorabilia as any man alive. He worked among other places at the 400 Restaurant and the Little Club, was head barman at the “21” Club, and even went astray and owned his own restaurants in New York City. He's done it all, and knows it all (just ask him), and as far as I'm concerned, is one of the bar businesses keenest and funniest resources. Luckily, there's a way to get to know him - check Brian out here, and be sure to scroll a third of the way down the page for his gimlet-eyed view of pain in the ass moments at the bar. My hero.

2009-08-07T09:58:00.009-04:00

Everyone has a friend who thinks he's good at something...and isn't. Or prides himself on his secret recipe for barbecue sauce, or kimchi, or the way he smokes his own 18 pound turkey, yet always has so much food leftover.

I think of those folks sometimes when tasting spirits sent to me as part of the wave of new products coming from small distillers and entrepreneurs. (There's no space here to distinguish between those who really own and operate their own stills and those whose spirits are made to order by large distilleries; perhaps some other time.) So many I try are oddly out of balance, with one note or another so dominant that I think they must be created to satisfy no one but the maker. Gin isn't supposed to smell like Provence during the lavender harvest, ya feel me? So I've become skeptical when spirits new to market appear in my tasting lair (actually, the kitchen counter.)

It took Tuthilltown Manhattan Rye Hudson Whiskey to shut my mouth and open my nose. There are a lot of oaky aromas at first, but they are clean and crisp, not the puff of plywood or sawdust that often comes from poor barrel management. There are also fresh crushed apple notes, with a hint of vanilla and a fully grainy, almost cooked breakfast cereal quality. On the palate, there's little of the expected rye roughness; instead, the edges have been smoothed, perhaps by Tuthilltown's use of small barrels, but this is still a lively, peppery rye, and there's even some anise and caraway popping through. It finishes with a bit of char, but clean, brisk and quite smooth, and not the slightest bit hot, even at 46% alcohol. It is both robust and charming, Hugh Jackman, but not Wolverine.

I offered some as an after dinner treat to a couple of neighbors recently, guys who I don't think of as boozehounds. Suffice it to say that it was a good thing I did my tasting before passing the 375 ml bottle around. Currently limited availability, 45% alcohol by volume.

My score: 8

(Photo of bottle: Matt Calardo)

2009-08-06T11:09:00.006-04:00

There doesn’t seem to be much call in bars and restaurants today for the rudimentary Red Eye (beer and tomato juice) or the Wine Cooler (wine with sparkling water or soda and fruit juice). But there’s nothing wrong with mixing other ingredients with beer or wine to create drinks with new, contemporary taste profiles. In fact, a small but significant move is afoot to incorporate the two into contemporary cocktail culture.

(Read the rest of the story, below, originally published in the Summer 2009 issue of Flavor and the Menu magazine.)
Flavor - Wine Beer Cocktails

2009-08-04T14:19:00.004-04:00

My friend Mark Marowitz sent this along, and I'm passing it on with no comment.

2009-08-03T08:53:00.007-04:00

...(the bartender formerly known as Gary Regan) has arrived in the form of "The Bartender's Gin Compendium," a book for amateur mixologists, and for the pros, for gin tipplers, gin connoisseurs, gin lushes, gin swiggers, gin aficionados, and for people who don’t like gin, too (hey, G., shouldn't you now represent your name with a squiggly line thingee instead of letters?)

"I’m in the mood to change some minds out there," gaz says. "Going the self-publishing route this time has been very interesting for me. It's allowed me to say some rather naughty things that the big boys might not have let me get away with."

A trade paperback copy of the "Compendium" is $23.99, or around 6.5 cents per page, as G. points out, while hard cover goes for $30.99 (under 8.5 cents per page. It's 354 pages long, sans index,and there are discounts for bulk orders (trade paperback only, 25-copy minimum). You can buy it here, or for discounts and freebie grovelling, write to gaz.

Here's what another know-it-all, David Wondrich, has to say about "The Bartender's Gin Compendium." (Wonder how many Clover Clubs this bit of log-rolling cost gaz?)
“Reading this highly informative and raffishly charming book is almost as fun as sharing a drink—and make mine a Doc Daneeka Royale, or maybe an 1820, or a Leo Di Janeiro, or, hell, you choose—with the highly informative and raffishly charming Mr. Regan himself (but please don’t tell him I said so; it’ll only encourage him).”

Go ahead, buy two (one for dear ol' Mum) and help keep an old fart off the streets.

2009-08-02T18:22:00.004-04:00

At the recently opened Copa d’Oro bar in Santa Monica, Calif., customers find one of the latest twists in the evolution of drink making: the market menu.
Arrayed before them and listed in great detail on the menu are all the fresh ingredients bar owner Vincenzo Marianella gathered that morning at a local farmers’ market, much as chefs have been doing for years.

Conspicuous among the usual fruits — strawberries, grapes, oranges and such — is a rainbow of herbs and vegetables: basil, thyme, rosemary, sage, parsley, habenero peppers, wasabi, ginger, bell peppers, cucumbers, carrots. What happens with these farm fresh ingredients is quite culinary in style. Customers pick a spirit by price, select a few fresh ingredients and watch as Copa d’Oro’s bartenders custom-make their drink.

“It’s the most popular part of our menu,” says Marianella, adding that many of the drinks are made with the most savory of available ingredients.

At many other bars and restaurants across the country, the cocktail renaissance is taking a distinctly savory turn, with mixologists employing ingredients and culinary techniques that expand the flavor options of mainstream drinking.

“Working with savory ingredients treats people to an entirely different flavor spectrum they may not be used to,” says Jamie Boudreau, bar director for Seattle’s Tini Bigs and a spirit and cocktail consultant. “When I first started
making cocktails, my inspiration was pastry books, but then I started looking at chefs and what flavors they make work together.”

(Read the rest of the story, below, originally published in the Summer 2009 issue of Flavor and the Menu magazine.
Flavor - Savory Cocktails

2009-07-30T10:53:00.008-04:00

It's hard to get the best-known New York City drinks people together in one room in the city - to have a cocktail with my neighbor Dave Wondrich, I usually have to go to San Francisco or New Orleans. But thank goodness for the much-talked about Manhattan Cocktail Classic, a multi-day event celebrating the history, contemporary culture and craft of the cocktail, which will be making a not-so-dry run this fall on October 3 - 4 in preparation for the full-tilt boogie version set for next May. Part festival, part fete, part conference, part cocktail party, the event will bring together the talents of the bars, bartenders and restaurants of New York for two days of educational and celebratory activities.

The brainchild of some of my favorite bartenders, bar owners, educators, critics and all-around Champion Livers (Dale DeGroff, Simon Ford, Doug Frost, Allen Katz, Steven Olson, Paul Pacult, Sasha Petraske, Gary Regan, Julie Reiner, Audrey Saunders, Andy Seymour, Charlotte Voisey and David Wondrich), the MCC also boasts Lesley Townsend, former director of Astor Center, who will direct traffic and egos.

Tickets don't go on sale until after Labor Day, but for all current info, visit the Manhattan Cocktail Classic website.

2009-07-29T15:33:00.003-04:00

Bärenjäger Honey Liqueur has launched its first bartender competition, inviting professional and amateur NY bartenders to submit cocktails using their creativity and all-natural Bärenjäger Honey Liqueur through August 25,2009. I'll be joining mixologist and spirits aficionado Allen Katz of Southern Wine & Spirits, Gaz Regan, director of the Worldwide Bartender Database, main man at Ardentspirits.com and author of The Joy of Mixology, and barstar Julie Reiner of Clover Club and Flatiron Lounge to select the top recipes, which will move on to the final round. All finalists will be invited to a private event for media and industry on September 15^th, where they will make their cocktails for the last round of judging. The grand prize winner will receive an all-expense paid trip for two to Oktoberfest 2009 in Munich, Germany. Enter here.

2009-07-29T10:52:00.006-04:00

Cocktails come and go, but the good ones keep resurfacing, it seems. The professionals who make up the DC Craft Bartender's Guild, for instance, have wholeheartedly embraced the Rickey as their own, and in fact plan on celebrating its various qualities next week. Good for them - nothing like a little bit of local historical authenticity tied to really good drink making to set a party off.

Meanwhile, I know that the original drink, named for the lobbyist Joe Rickey, called for whiskey, soda, lime and ice only, but by the time I was a kid, Rickeys were non-alcohol coolers, served in every soda fountain or corner luncheonette, usually in branded glasses like those pictured. In fact, all but the soda and ice were gone in those versions, and soda jerks whipped them up using sweetened lime syrup and highly-charged soda that fired out of the bar tap with a sizzling whoosh. My first adult Rickey, like many others, was made with gin, and I still have a taste for them made thataway, though in the batch pictured, I threw in some freshly-picked blueberries that soaked up the gin and lime, a savory treat to encounter at the end of the drink.

Gin Rickey

Squeeze one half lime into a tall glass, preferably a Rickey glass; fill with crushed ice. Add 1.5 ounces gin, top with bottled soda water and agitate drink with a long spoon until glass frosts.

2009-07-21T11:41:00.011-04:00

Gin is blossoming among the cocktail cognoscenti, as bartenders turn to old favorites for drink inspiration or experiment with newly created gins crafted with a mix of botanicals previously unknown. Some I've tried are difficult to imagine in a drink; others have good qualities, but don't differ enough from the established brands to make a mark.

The standard Beefeater, I found years ago in a blind tasting, is my favorite G and T gin, its robust juniper punch and 47 abv exactly what I'm looking for at the end of a sweltering day. It's also a fine Martini gin, and for me the benchmark Negroni gin. But its prominent flavor profile may be keeping it from more drink experimentation.

Recently, Desmond Payne, Beefeater's master distiller, found inspiration in tea during an Asian trip, and has tinkered with the classic formula by adding sencha and green tea and grapefruit peel to the steeping mix for 24 hours. The result: Beefeater 24, a smooth, assertive, but rounder and less angular gin, with a slightly muted juniper quality. The tea brings in a slightly tannic pucker but with a paradoxically softer mouthfeel tied together by the zip of grapefruit. The characteristic anisey-orrisy Beefeater finish is mellowed but lengthened; in fact, this finishes longer than the original. If the mellow Payne was looking to give bartenders a new version of an old favorite, with fewer sharp edges and more adaptability - juniper, after all, dominates every conversation in which it takes part - then he has succeeded. Currently limited U.S. availability, 45% alcohol by volume. (Imported by Pernod-Ricard USA)

My score: 7

2009-06-26T11:59:00.006-04:00

Perhaps you've read the story in the New York Times this week about bartenders, restaurant workers and alcoholism. Good piece on a worthy topic. But the logic behind this story appearing in the Dining section devoted to "Summer Drinks" escapes me.

What's that? Alcohol is a drug with serious and widespread side effects on all society, especially restaurant workers, and their struggle deserves attention and acknowledgment? Then it should get better exposure than this section (scrutinized each week by restaurant owners, publicists, recipe hunters, food trendoids and, well, people like you and me) gets. But it was reported by a food section's regular writer, which makes the story's arrival appear to be someone's idea of counter-balancing all this talk about festive and serious modern drinking with some stern lessons in the wisdom of sobreity. Was a recent collection of barbecue stories accompanied by a piece explaining the link between charred meat and cancer? Will the next piece in the Times covering wild food foraging highlight the Center for Disease Control's annual body count of pickers mistaking a poison toadstool for something toothsome?

I searched the words "chef" and "diabetes" on the Times site just to see if I was being too sensitive, and the most recent complete article I found dates from late 2001, a serious account of a chef who had to leave his pastry craft behind when developing the disease. But nothing more current about the risks chefs run in developing or managing the problems of diabetes. So I tried "heart disease" and "chef" and got mostly obits. But surely the level of diabetes, heart disease and other weight related illnesses is high among professional cooks? When's the last time the section ran a piece about the battle chefs face in weight control, hyper-tension, diabetes, cholesterol, or about heart disease rates among food service professionals? Leave aside the activities of Alice Waters and others promoting better eating habits and NYC's trans-fat ban and the coverage devoted to health-related topics, especially regarding restaurant employees, shrinks to near-invisible.

It's not news that there's a strong strain of puritanism among Americans and especially journalists, and a tendency to allow the worst define the whole. And I'm not arguing that the causes and effects of alcoholism don't deserve serious coverage - nor that the strength displayed by those folks who continue to work in booze-drenched environments (like the great Harry Denton and Pegu Club's Del Pedro) while remaining sober aren't to be celebrated. (I didn't drink at all during my last 18 months as a bartender, an experience that sobered me in an unanticipated way and sped my departure from behind the bar and ultimately from service.) But I am saying that, of the many pleasures that can become habits and habits, addictions, it's the enjoyment of alcohol that seems most likely to fall under scrutiny in the modern nanny state and to be blamed for the ills misuse cause. The juxtaposition of the "Guide to Bartending" and "Mixing Drinks with Work and Staying Sober" in Wednesday's Times was just the latest example.

Meanwhile, I await the sidebar on the dangers of sharp implements and chronic cutting among chefs to accompany the "Dining" section's next knife guide.

2009-06-23T12:55:00.002-04:00

FYI, Tales of the Cocktail starts in a couple of weeks, and I'll be hosting a seminar on Cognac's neglected place in the cocktail. If you're attending Tales, there are still some tickets available.

2009-06-17T16:47:00.003-04:00

Increasingly, bar and restaurants are making room on the back bar for more rum bottles. Some are new flavored brands used to spike cocktails with tropical flavors like guava and mango, while other aged and more complex brands are entering the U.S. market from the Caribbean and Central America, expanding the range and quality of rum available to mixologists.

(Read the rest of the story below...)
Rum Cheers June 09

2009-06-02T11:34:00.004-04:00

The New York Spirit Awards competition starts in about ten days - so here's my take on the best way for anyone to get started tasting spirits - vodkas, whiskies, rums, tequilas, everything - like a professional.

Spirit Tasting

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Magazines & Newspape spirit tasting

2009-05-29T08:21:00.003-04:00

As the American palate for wine and food continues to evolve, smart chefs and sommeliers are making sure that the pairings they offer are broad, deep and coherent. They’re searching out more Old World wines to match today’s lighter, fresher fare, hosting wine dinners developed through kitchen-cellar collaboration, participating in special events and promotions showcasing vintages beyond award-winning powerhouse wines, and trying to stay attuned to what customers really want.

Read the rest of the story, below, originally published in the Spring 2009 issue of Flavor and the Menu magazine.
Wine and Food Pairings

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Magazines & Newspape wine and food paiing

2009-05-28T16:02:00.006-04:00

The gin resurgence has brought us many new iterations that result from the tinkering with the number and balance of the different botanicals, but aging gin doesn't seem to have caught on much. Odd, since, like virtually all other spirits, gin once spent as much time in a barrel as it took to ship and serve the full complement of spirit inside. But now there is Citadelle Reserve vintage, in which the 19-botanical standard Citadelle is given six months in used casks, “in the heart of the Cognac region,” as the company says. Wonder what sort of casks they use? Hmmm.... Anyway, the Reserve 2008 gains a golden hue from its time spent resting and on the nose, the oak aging mutes the juniper, orange and cinnamon notes that are prominent in the standard Citadelle. But it has also rounded them out and integrated some vanilla and a bit of earthiness. On the palate, this is gentler than gin - less snap and more spicy subtlety, but still the juniper bite works its way through. Subtlety, as I say, is the byword in this gin-wood experiment, making it a candidate not for cocktails but for sipping on the rocks, or in a very particular Martini, perhaps. With limited annual production, that's okay. For the gin completist, a must-try. Currently the 2008 is available. 44% abv. (W.J. Deutsch & Sons, Ltd.)
My score: 7

2009-05-21T13:48:00.005-04:00

Vodka.
Vodka, vodka, vodka.
Vodka, vodka, vodka, vodka, vodka.

Sure, it sometimes can be monotonous.
But vodka also sells. It’s the on-premise cash-cow, the spirit that pays the rent. And despite the current economic tide, the category is growing with every new flavor, line extension and brand introduced. Let there be no confusion: Vodka is firmly established as the most reliably profitable commodity in the bar and restaurant business.

Read the rest of the story below or in the May 2009 issue of Cheers magazine.
Vodka Cheers 0509

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Magazines & Newspape vodka

2009-05-20T17:01:00.009-04:00

The vodka backlash, at least in the cocktail-mad speak bars, is in full force, so strong that a reverse backlash has started, as even those uninterested in the generally neutral spirit are taking a second look at what's good and not so good out there.

Include me as one of those reevaluating vodka's place. Good vodka, consumed the way drinkers once did in Poland, Russia, Scandinavia or other original sources, has qualities worth considering: crisp and clean, earthy and rustic, simple but refreshing, great with smoked or pickled fish, sliced meats, vinegary cooked root vegetables, cucumbers and pickles.

Karlsson's Gold, made from seven varieties of new potatoes, is one of the few vodkas I would select as a chilled sipper. There's a rich sweetness on the palate, but it's not overbearing or excessively glycerine-like. Clean and crisp apple and lemon flavors ensue, with an herbal bite - anise, perhaps rosemary - and some earthiness, to be expected from a potato vodka. In the mouth, it is creamy and rich, and finishes bright, charming and clean, with a note of cocoa and coffee bean. Like a lean albariño, Karlsson's offers qualities that make it a natural for food, and it's a smart choice for culinary cocktails. My usual order of preference in terms of vodka sources is rye and then potato, but in this case, I'm thinking Karlsson's Gold is easily among the best two or three I've tasted in the past year.
My score: 7

2009-05-19T18:04:00.006-04:00

Over the years, the men and women working behind the bar have taken on many different roles: Apothecary, advisor, bouncer and mixologist are some of the most prominent. But lately, as many bartenders push the boundaries of their craft in an attempt to expand the definition of the cocktail, they’re taking on the role of pastry chef.

Read the rest of the story, below, originally published in the Spring 2009 issue of Flavor and the Menu magazine.
Bartender as Pastry Chef

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Magazines & Newspape pastry bartender

2009-05-15T09:10:00.004-04:00

Like everyone else who writes about wine, spirits and food, I receive plenty of superfluous emails about the latest this, the greatest that, the most interesting other, all in the service of building word of mouth about a product. Fine; I'm not agin publicists, struggling to get their products picked out from the teeming mass, making a mark.

But recently, people are increasingly trying to boost their wares by association with one or another "Master Mixologist," a term thrown around with promiscuous frequency these days. Sometimes the so-called "Master" is someone whose work I know and who may have a legitimate claim to such a lofty title, especially if they have labored long and hard to perfect their craft through thick (the last ten years of the cocktail boom) and thin (well, any other time when knowing the name of more than a handful of bartenders meant you had an overactive drinking life). Other times, it's a neophyte with maybe five or ten years behind the stick. I've been writing about what bartenders do for some time, and was one myself long ago, so when I see people who have been at it for such a short period of time referred to as a "Master Mixologist," it dawns on me that there is NO such a thing.

I mean, there are many bartenders who can legitimately claim to have mastered their corner of the business, but a small m master is not the same as a "Master Mixologist." Who decides that all these people are "Masters?" Masters of what? Creating drinks for a living? No one would ever call someone who only developed food recipes a "Master Culinarian," because clearly, working in a silent and controlled test kitchen to get a dish just right is not the same as managing a kitchen that churns out scores of four star meals night after night. What's the standard? To be considered a master carpenter, one traditionally must put in the time and pass through a series of professional stages and be certified as such. To receive a Masters Degree, again, a generally agreed-upon set of requirements must be satisfied.

To me, a "Master Mixologist" would need to have established not only drink-making skills, but a business track record, including glorious failures and scandalous successes, a history of slinging drinks not only at uber-cool speaks, but also taverns or saloons, nightclubs and fine dining establishments, maybe a hotel or resort thrown in. He or she'd have to know when to call for the bouncer and when they could peel a loser away from the bar on their own, when to buy a drink and when not to pour one, how to cure the hiccups and a sour disposition of a good customer. But today, as far as I can tell, you are a "Master Mixologist" if you say you are, or someone says it for you. Not a very rigorous standard.

This is not to say that there aren't any "MMs." Dale DeGroff, of course, comes by the honor honestly, as do any number of other men and women who have been laboring away, sometimes in the media spotlight but often in obscurity, at resurrecting the craft of bartending in America. I won't start listing names of the people who I think are masters, because it's not my power to say. That's the point; it's not any one person's right to assert such a thing, at least to my way of thinking. The proliferation of "Masters" ought somehow to be curtailed, if only for humility's sake. Maybe the bartending community should assert what standards it has or create some that define what these folks are. Otherwise, the term "Master Mixologist" will become no more than a publicity tool.

2009-05-07T08:35:00.006-04:00

This week, two of the self-proclaimed "Three Old Farts" were in town, sharing a taste from the remains of their extremely unusual blended Scotch whisky, The Last Drop. The two - James Espey and Tom Jago - are best known for their development of Baileys Irish Cream, though they were also instrumental in developing Johnnie Walker Blue Label among other Scotch whisky concepts, and if The Last Drop is any indication, whisky is where their hearts reside. The Last Drop is unmistakably unusual in its price - $2,000 per bottle - but its pedigree is equally odd. A variety - 70 malts and 12 grains - of whiskies, distilled in 1960 and aged 12 years, were re-barreled in Sherry casks in 1972...and then, apparently, forgotten. The decade of the 1970s wasn't the best time for the Scotch whisky business, which might explain how the three casks were left in a dark corner of a warehouse at Auchentoshan in the Scottish Lowlands, like umbrellas overlooked at a restaurant door at the end of a spring shower. The contents of the barrels reduced by two-thirds - not only the angels but the devils seem to have taken their share - and about 1,350 bottles-worth are left.

The Old Farts were willing to share a dram with me, and here are my notes: The color of endlessly polished walnut with a dim green light at the edges, the first sniffs of the spirit confuse - is this Cognac? Armagnac? What? Lots of rancio - nutty and umami-ish - and moderate spiciness (mace rather than cinnamon, nutmeg rather than clove) then emerge, though after about five minutes, the aromas shift to pecan pie and maple syrup, part of an constantly altering array of smells - chocolate, leather, figs, rum-soaked raisins. It tastes surprisingly fresh and alive, hard to figure for one so old. Sherry (oloroso? palo cortado?) shows everywhere, but modestly and sprightly, not in the way some single malts are overwhlemed by the sweetness of Pedro Ximenez Sherries. The whisky dances across the palate, with new flavors of passion fruit, kumquat and old leather joining the aromas mentioned above. It's light but long on the finish, insanely refined and a new benchmark for old Scotch.

Only 350 bottles were sent to the U.S., and few are left, if you've got a spare two grand lying around. The Farts are looking for more, though, so keep alert if money's no object. (Imported by Infinium Spirits.)

My score: 10

2009-04-29T15:36:00.007-04:00

Rye is the latest bartender's delight, but the very small category also commands attention from old and new whiskey sippers with a taste for more tang than they usually find in their corn likker. But this one...well, I've seen it listed as a cocktail ingredient, to me just an appeal to the conspicuous consumers whose habits are now passé. No, Rittenhouse Rye 23 Year Old Single Barrel Straight Whiskey is, at 50% alcohol by volume, for thoughtful lapping with a splash of water or a small cube, as you like. The label calls rye “the most flavorful of American whiskey styles,” and if this old Rittenhouse is the new measuring stick, then the rest of the American whiskey business has a strong act to follow. Bold and spicy, with notes of lanolin, neatsfoot oil, dulce de leche, cloves and cinnamon on the nose, it tastes surprisingly youthful at first – I’d never say 23 if asked to guess its age, an achievement to say the least. The whiskey blossoms on the tongue with flavors of cinnamon, caramelized sugar, fresh cut grass and vanilla. The finish is penetrating and lean, but doesn’t show its potency at all, moving silky smooth all the way across the palate. This one’s all leather and lace, country elegant and dressed up for the dance. They've got no more stored away down in Kentucky, so if you find it, buy it. (Distributed by Heaven Hill.)
My score: 10

2009-04-29T12:37:00.008-04:00

There's a great brouhaha going on over at Dr. Vino's blog, encompassing Robert Parker and his minions, web board etiquette, hypocrisy, wine review policies, drinks journalism standards, freebies, press trips and a whole slew of stuff not found anywhere but the web. Take a look - I'll wait.........................................................................Good stuff, no? Of all the myriad topics, it's an off-shoot about samples, freebies, meals and press trips (especially from wine importer Joe Dressner) that causes me to write, just for clarity's sake, in blogging emulation of Dr. Vino, the esteemed Tyler Colman.

Here are my standards:

I write what I think. I recommend spirits, cocktails, bartenders, restaurants, shops, dishes, wines, chefs, regions, beers - anything, really - that I like. My opinion isn't based on a thing's cost, whether I pay for it or not, or any relationship I may have with people involved. Of course, saying that is like asserting that I'm unaffected by advertising and marketing; as much as I believe it, I know that no one resists being influenced by the surrounding world, except, of course, the sociopaths among us, and while I do have my moments, those moments usually don't occur when I'm writing. As much as I am able, I share my opinion as I find it, and pour down the drain or hand over to friends and strangers that which I don't like, don't consume, or don't want. I am paid by some publications for those opinions, and now publish many here.

So far, I'm looking for the good, rather than the bad. I can't taste everything, but do try to taste as much as I can, either at blind tastings, competitions, at events or at home, and with so much worth mentioning, that's what I'll focus on. To steal from Tyler, "Why? Because I’m a spineless writer piling on the praise bandwagon? No, instead I figure it would be a waste of my time writing it up and I would hate for you to remember that..." Ditto.

I have and probably will continue to travel on other peoples' dimes when invited and interested. "But surely that means you and your opinion is for sale, doesn't it?" It's not for me to explain or defend the system that sets barriers for those who can't, don't or won't work for a publication willing to underwrite their work or coverage. But it's naive to think that the ABSENCE of visible financial suasion from a chef, a vintner, a distiller, a company or any other source equates lack of bias or self-interest in coverage, or prevents against dishonest shilling by compromised hacks. Caveat emptor, folks, especially when it comes to the written word, on paper or screen. If the way I work means you don't trust what I say or write, you are fully entitled to think so. I even understand why you might. But I know it takes more than seven days on the wine road to get me to say something nice about things I don't like, and if you doubt it, perhaps there's a publicist who never saw that glowing article their client anticipated who would like to step forward and trash me. You know, just for the sake of my cred...

2009-04-28T14:02:00.001-04:00

Once upon a time, few bartenders were known outside the places where they labored. The job had its perks, of course, especially if you had the better shifts, and good bartenders were often hired for their “following,” the customers who’d move with them from bar to bar.

But in many cases the job consisted mostly of grunt work - stocking beer, cutting fruit, counting bottles, gunning sodas, pouring carafes of wine - and mixing very few cocktails. In the dark days until the mid-1990s, Martinis, Manhattans and Old-Fashioneds were the few classics that a potential hire was required to know how to make. Depending on the decade, American drinkers mostly ordered Scotch and sodas, Screwdrivers, Sea Breezes, Wine Coolers and Frozen Margaritas. Not exactly challenging and certainly not very creative mixology....

(Read the entire story, below, first published in Cheers.)

Bar stars

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2009-04-24T12:31:00.005-04:00

People love systems, especially when it comes to ratings. They want what you know to be reduced to a tasty morsel, a bite-sized analysis, and who am I to say they're wrong? I'd like to disagree, but I get the instant shorthand meaning when someone rates a film or restaurant using stars. So why not spirits and wines?

I'll be adapting a version of the Wired product review system I find very useful - products will be scored 1 to 10, with one denoting pure awfulness and 10 absolute sublimity. Or:
1. Ow! That hurts! Take it away.
2. Feet.
3. Won't kill ya, but won't cure ya, either.
4. "Dear, I have something your brother will like."
5. I've had worse.
6. Fine example.
7. Mmm, mmm, good.
8. Now you're talking!
9. O.M.G.
10. None for you. I'm serious - get away from that bottle. Now.

Comments, as always, welcomed.

2009-04-24T11:58:00.006-04:00

My friend Janet Torelli has been making gorgeous sterling silver bar accessories for a while now, and she's recently introduced some impressive absinthe spoons to join her variety of martini pics and serving accessories. With most caterers and hotels offering customized cocktails as part of the wedding package today, you might find these welcome gifts as wedding season approaches, not to mention graduates in need of a drink as they look for work, or for a Mother's Day Manhattan or Father's Day Sidecar.

2009-04-23T10:10:00.003-04:00

I have come to hate the term “food-friendly wine.” For a while, it seemed to convey useful shorthand advice to the wary, promising high acidity, mild tannins, bright fruit, low alcohol and quaffability, all qualities in demand especially from casual consumers.

But the overused term has lost its credibility as exuberant marketers and others have turned it into a backhanded compliment for wines that are mainly tart and one-dimensional. While crisp acids and low tannins go great with a frisée salad, such a wine could taste like lemon-spritzed tap water when paired with, say, the caramelized edges and melted fat of a hanger steak. How food-friendly is that?

Tim Hanni, MW, has long been intrigued about how the brain processes and interprets sensory information, and not just tastes (Check this fascinating spinning lady example.) Hanni's advised restaurants on their wine lists and recently has been working with chefs at China Grill Management on his flavor balancing concept, which he describes as “the art of getting the key taste components in a balance.” When that’s accomplished, he says, the dish and the wine both taste better.

Quite a claim. Hanni says that while sweetness and umami flavors give deliciousness to food, those characteristics also make most wines seem thinner, less fruity and more bitter. Increasing the salt and acidity in the dishes will make them automatically more wine friendly.

“Look at Alsace, Tuscany, Burgundy and Bordeaux and you will see that this is what they intuitively do in all these classic cuisines.”

To that end, he's developed Vignon, a mix of savory and umami ingredients - yeast, soy, cheese, mushrooms - that Hanni claims on the seasoning's website "makes food taste rich and delicious while ensuring that your favorite wine tastes the way it was intended to taste."

Does it? Undeniably. To test, I sauteed some thin slices of otherwise unseasoned chicken breast, being sure not to caramelize them, as that's a key component of everyday deliciousness to me. I took a bite and my mouth watered in a way chicken breast has never been able to manage, and instinctively started grabbing around, even though it was early in the work day, for my wine glass. Surely, my instinctive mind reacted, this flavor goes with some chilled albariño or a light grenache. It was almost completely unwilled, a tapping into the wine-food connections I've built into my sense memory throughout my life. I wasn't exactly skeptical at first, knowing how smart Tim is about these sensory connections, but the full effect on chicken and later on a snapper filet was remarkable. And, by the way, just plain tasty.

In one stroke, Hanni's made at least bland food more wine-friendly. Next, I'll try it with some notoriously difficult dishes, and maybe give some of those oaky Cal chards lying around in the sample pile a chance to benefit from flavor balancing deliciousness.

2009-04-21T11:43:00.004-04:00

Is there any spirit whose fortune is as closely tied to the restaurant and bar business as tequila?

Take the flight phenomenon. While a handful of malt-focused bars offer customers the chance to order a trio of various whiskies at one time, it’s not a common occurrence. There are plenty of operators who gather large selections of brandies and rums, but the flight concept has never really caught on with them, either.

(Read the rest of the story, below, originally published in the April, 2009 Cheers magazine.)
Tequila Cheers 0409

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2009-04-17T13:05:00.018-04:00

Where are the great flavored tequilas? Ever since I first tried a few infused tequila recipes from Lucinda Hutson's great tequila cookbook, "¡Tequila!" (now out of print) in the mid-1990s and realized how well quality tequila took on fruit aromas and flavors, I've been waiting for producers to do something really interesting. But this surpasses all my expectations. Gran Centenario Rosangel is a fascinating reposado that spends an additional two months in Port pipes and then is infused with hibiscus flowers. The result is a rosé-hued tequila with a nose of rich porty-sweetness, white flowers, agave and vanilla. At first on the palate it’s crisp and citrusy and then there's a brisk return of port notes, followed by bright floral qualities that zip across the palate. Rosangel finishes clean and crisp, a lip-smacker by any definition; it's an all-around lovely spirit that benefits from its completely unexpected direction, and opens the tequila cocktail spectrum considerably. There's considerable prejudice among spirit know-it-alls against flavored booze, but Rosangel may change your mind - Bravo for a great idea that works better than anyone could have imagined. (Imported by Proximo Spirits.)
My score: 7

2009-04-15T12:24:00.008-04:00

"What's a good wine for under $10?"

Whether it's the neighborhood fishmonger, the UPS guy who lugs boxes up my walk or people I meet for the first time, I'm asked that question more than any other when people learn what I do. Can't blame them; Big Wine fails consistently to provide solid, drinkable value at the low-end and retailers can't seem to resist the deals they provide, making the search for every day wine something most consumers dread.

So as often as I find them, I'll post reviews of wines I know of or discover that exceed expectations and deliver pleasure at a bargain price.

First up: Fortant Chardonnay 2006, made with grapes sourced from southern France, mainly around Carcassonne and Montpellier in Languedoc-Roussillon, and crafted with a New World focus on fruit but without the usually brutal oak manipulation; in fact, no oak whatsoever in fermentation or aging. That means, in this case, a crisp and minerally chard, with a varietally sound array of fruits - mainly pineapple and pear - with some honeyed qualities. It tastes fresh, lightly balsamy (not to be confused with balsamic), has solid, lemony acids, moderate body and length, and a refreshing finish. Quite good for what it is, which is a wine with a suggested retail price of $6.99. You could spend a lot more to get a chardonnay that tastes like plywood has been soaked in it, and you probably have. Look also for Fortant's Malbec, quite a different animal than the rustic South American low-priced versions. (Imported by Skalli Family Wine Americas.)

2009-04-14T14:31:00.005-04:00

Can you tell a tequila by its region? As Americans continue to get smart about tequila – what it is, where it comes from, how it’s supposed to taste and how to drink it – more and more brands are being made and marketed with U.S. consumers in mind.
Tequila Terroir

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Ever since Patron, now the second best selling tequila in the country, blazed a path of success by focusing on high-end imagery, many other tequilas have been developed with high hopes for similar results. And some have succeeded.

According to the most recent statistics released by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (Discus), tequila boomed last year at the very highest end, with volume up among super premiums by 10.6%, the fastest growing part of the business. And while tequila is only the seventh leading spirits category in volume, with 10.6 million 9-liter cases sold here last year, it accounted for nearly $1.6 billion in gross revenues in 2008, making it the fifth largest revenue producing category.

(According to Discus, value priced tequilas last year were up 6.4% in volume; premium, the largest category by far, was down 1.3%, while high-end premium was down 9.2%. For comparison purposes, Juarez is a typical value brand, while Cuervo Especial is a premium, Sauza Hornitos a high end premium and Don Julio Anejo a super premium.)

Super premium tequilas were one of the high points for the entire spirit business in 2008, according to Discus. Those brands (mostly extra anejos aged a minimum of three years, but also aging and finishing experiments) including Cuervo Reserva de la Familia, Gran Centenario Leyenda, Partida Elegante, Bordeaux-barrel finished Gran Patron Burdeos and others, have impressed journalists and consumers alike.

Additionally, the quality halo emanating from these brands is just another way that tequila is seen to be improving. Not bad for a spirit that even a few years ago many consumers still though of in terms of salt and limes, worms and frat parties.

Things have gotten so hot that more and more retailers, especially those doing business in California and the southwestern states, are having a hard time keeping those super premiums on the shelf.

Says Zack Romaya, owner of two San Diego area wine and spirits shops, the expensive tequilas he stocks in his Old Town Wine and Spirits shop fly out the door.

“It used to be that single malts were the big high end spirits, but for me now, unusual and very expensive items like the $2500 Dos Lunas, or the $1300 Asom Broso 11 year old are attracting the collectors.”

Romaya stocks around 500 tequilas in his store, many of them in the $40-$70 range, but except for old favorites like Cuervo Gold and Sauza, few of his customers seem to be looking for mixto tequilas. His tequila customers are divided fairly equally into two areas of growth: women looking to explore the smoother side of the spirit through reposado, and men who are favoring both silver and anejo.

Meanwhile, new brands, like Lunazul (which took a silver and a gold medal at last year’s San Francisco World Spirits Competition) and El Diamonte del Cielo (praised by both Paul Pacult’s Spirit Journal and by the Beverage Testing Institute) continue to arrive, looking for an edge. The crowded marketplace is spurring brand owners and importers to refine their marketing pitches.

One point of difference beyond the inherent qualities of unaged silver, lightly aged reposado, aged anejo and longer aged extra anejo, has often been argued among tequila connoisseurs: whether tequilas made in the Los Altos highlands (Arandas, Jesus Maria, Atotonilco el Alto) differ significantly from those from the Jalisco valley (Tequila, Amatitan, El Arenal).

Highland tequilas are said to be more fruity and sweet, while lowland brands are said to be more spicy, herbal and earthier. These qualities are mostly evident in silver and sometimes reposado tequilas, which offer more natural agave flavors and aromas before the impact of new or used barrels takes hold.

“Some of my customers know about the areas around Jalisco and the towns and highlands,” says Mario Alejandro Marquez, Tequila ambassador at San Diego’s Café Coyote. “And I do see more of an interest in those differences. I always say that if they want a tequila with more sweetness, they may want to try one from the highlands, because the agaves there seem to get riper quicker. When I’m there and compare the piñas of the highlands, they are huge while those in Jalisco might be smaller.”

The highlands are somewhat cooler, which may affect the growth of the agave, as may the higher iron content visible in the rich red soil there. The result, Marquez says, can mean that lowland tequilas are dryer and more peppery while the highlands more sweet and crisp.

“Some people from Los Altos like to advertise that there’s a huge difference between the agave from the highlands and those from the valley,” says Ruben Aceves, international brand development director for Casa Herradura, producer of Herradura, El Jimador and Don Eduardo. “We have proved that if you produced tequila 100% from Los Altos, they will tend to be sweeter, fruitier with more floral flavor profile. If you produce from 100% from the valley, the tequilas will be more spicy, with pepper, mint and a little bit of cinnamon and citrus.”

But the company’s research indicate that sugar content rarely differs between comparable agaves from the two areas, though the sensory notes that come from compounds called terpenes are somewhat different.

More importantly, many lowland producers, including Herradura, use pinas from both regions. Aceves also points out that tequila is about more than agave location. Are the agaves fully mature? Are they cooked whole or shredded? Are they baked in clay ovens or steamed in auto-claves? Is the cooking slow or fast? Is fermentation natural or does yeast come from a lab? Does distillation occur at low or high proof? Distilled twice or three times? In a column still or pot still or a combination?

Some producers continue to fiddle with their processes. For instance, Tequila Leyenda del Milagro offers a second line called Barrel Select made from older agaves and longer aging times. El Jimador, one of the leading brands in Mexico, has returned to a 100% agave formula after a few years as a mixto. Corzo, a super premium from Bacardi’s House of Cazadores, is made through a process that ages a double distilled spirit for two months before distilling a third time. Corzo is also aggressive in the way they distill, using 24 pounds of agave for each liter of finished tequila; the industry average is more like 10 or 12, says Takashi Nakamura, global r&d director, Bacardi Martini.

Other brands have been expanding their offerings; 1800 last year introduced 1800 Silver Select, which they claim is the only 100 proof silver tequila in the market. Sauza relaunched its Tres Generaciones family of tequilas with new packaging starting in January 2009.

One company, though, is making the argument that where agaves originate matters dramatically. Ocho is offering limited vintage release, estate grown agave tequilas, all produced in the highlands, according to Samira Seiller director of communications for Ocho. Last year the company introduced a silver and a reposado coming from one estate (El Carrizal) and an anejo from another (El Vergel). With 10 or so estates available right now, it will take about 12 years for each of these tequilas to return to market and so comparing them will be a lifetime experience. It may take longer than that to settle the tequila terroir question.

2009-04-10T00:32:00.007-04:00

The upgrading of Glenmorangie continues with the magnificent Signet, a blend of the house's oldest and rarest malt whisky. It's the latest genius move from Dr. Bill Lumsden and Rachel Barrie, the distilling/blending team that has long overseen the development of the fascinating wood experiments and iterations the brand is known for. Non-chill filtered, Signet carries the classic house-style oak and fruit nose, opening with mashed peaches and butter-sautéed pears, roasted pineapple and a touch of passion fruit sprinkled with cinnamon, clove and coffee. On the palate, tropical fruit dominates, along with mocha and coffee and once again, that notable aged malt passion fruit. This dazzler finishes dry and very spicy with a touch of wintergreen, a surprisingly brisk quality here. Made with highly roasted chocolate malt, Signet is a deep, intense and sophisticated single malt Scotch expression, and a sterling success. (Moet Hennessy USA)
My score: 9

2009-04-09T10:44:00.015-04:00

"Yes, I could have been a judge but I never had the Latin. I never had the Latin for the judging. I didn't have sufficient to get through the rigorous judging exam. They're very rigorous, the judging exams. They're noted for their rigor. People come staggering out saying, 'My God, what a rigorous exam!' So I managed to become a miner - a coal miner." Peter Cook, "Beyond the Fringe."

Spirit companies rightfully like to brag when their brands win awards, especially major assessments like the San Francisco World Spirit Competition and the Polished Palate International Rum Festival, both held in late March. But as a judge at both I received a few perplexed emails after the competitions from interested parties when brands they represent did less well than the reps thought they ought, or less well than obscure or lower-end brands did.

Take the vodka category at the S.F. comp, for instance. Double gold winners included a $9 vodka (Ruskova Select) and two $13 brands (Smirnoff 21 and UV). Clearly, these are brands even judges might not order if they had a taste for vodka, given how much imagery sells vodkas.

Which is why the judging is such an instructive process, and why, for me, the most exciting part of the process is finding out, after all the scores have been toted up and awards dispersed, what I liked and what I didn't. There are always brands that I think I fancy that I am embarrassed to learn I actually scorned in a tasting, just as I am surprised and intrigued when something I may have once ignored scores high on my sheet.

Vodka may be the easiest spirit to drink, but it's the toughest to judge; say for argument's sake that the whiskey and Cognac flavor and aroma spectrum includes one hundred distinct components, the rum spectrum 75, tequila 50, and gin 20 (these are completely arbitrary numbers, but you get the point). How many would that leave vodka - 5? 10? Texture, of course, matters, but with so much flavor stripped out of most vodkas by the multiple distillations, a taster is left looking for flaws, rather than any outstanding quality that is universally acknowledged.

For me, rye vodkas stand out, though I like some potato varieties as well. Neutral spirits that offer mostly cleanliness and little character would rarely get a gold from me; in fact, my group in S.F. gave only one vodka a gold medal.

And what makes me a judge? Well, I do have the Latin (and the liver) for the judging, but it's mostly because, in this business, you are what - and how much - you taste, and I try to taste it all.

2009-04-07T00:01:00.001-04:00

It’s impossible to overstate the popularity of the cocktail today. Every magazine and newspaper, it seems, features regular coverage of beverage trends and local mixological stars. Drink websites blossom and flourish, cocktail-making classes sell out and, with feverish enthusiasm, mixologists continue to mine the old, explore the new, and invent anything they can’t find to make amazing drinks.
Cocktail Trends

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2009-04-06T11:16:00.007-04:00

Gin’s lingering association with tonic and lime, sultry weather, and perspiring glasses is getting a shake up lately, as more and more bartenders rock their drinks with the original flavored spirit. It’s about time. Gin drinkers hate when you point out that their favorite spirit could be considered the first flavored vodka, but really, how else do you account for gin’s easy mixability? Today, as most gin drinkers totter off to the “…and over” age demographic, marketers are struggling with making the juniper-spiked spirit relevant again.

Plymouth Gin was a typical victim of the Dark Ages of cocktails, when Harvey Wallbangers and wine coolers strode the earth. Bounced around from one bumbling English booze company to another, in the U.K., it manages to remain the number one premium gin. In the U.S., however, it’s been rescued and relaunched a couple of times and the quantity sold is very small indeed.

Sean Harrison, Plymouth’s matter-of-fact master distiller, will quite gallantly aver during tastings that there’s a gin for everyone and that what you like is really just a matter of taste. De gustibus and all that. It’s inarguable, but meaningless, especially in the face of some of the unbalanced modern gins being offered today.

What Plymouth offers in the middle of the gin flavor spectrum isn’t moderation; it’s a supremely well-knit gin, balancing sharp citrus peel and tangy juniper with the earthiness of orris and angelica, not to mention the pop of cardamom and coriander. It’s clear why bartenders like it for experimenting with new cocktails; bracingly junipery gins like Beefeater can dominate a drink (though it remains my favorite in a Negroni), while the more ephemeral gins, like Bombay Sapphire, can fade when matched against more assertive flavors. These and other gins have many acolytes among Martini lovers and gin and tonic fans — in fact, I count myself among those frequently charged with gin polyamory.

Older brands typically incorporated fewer botanicals — those flavor agents that give gin its bite and tang. But as trade expanded with the spice islands of the Far East, recipes became more exotic. Modern gins like Bombay Sapphire, for example, will use a dozen or more botanicals, such as cassia bark, cubeb berries, liquorice, bitter almond and grains of paradise.

In gin’s heyday, those brands made outside London were known for being less junipery, and Plymouth also gained a characteristic softness from the water that flows through the nearby moors of Dartmoor. Each gin is made with its own specific recipe and house style — Plymouth’s 200-year-old version calls for steeping the seven botanicals in alcohol. The result is heated until a pungent blend of alcohol and botanical oils percolates up the elegant swan’s neck of the Plymouth still at the ancient Blackfriars distillery, in which some form of alcohol was first made in 1650s or thereabouts. It’s then cooled, condensed and corrected to around half its original alcoholic strength with Dartmoor water.

An odd fact about English gin: English law forbids the gin maker from actually distilling his or her own original product, so all gin companies start with someone else’s distilled spirit before adding flavor through infusion or maceration. It might be why one of the best-known and most successful brands, Bombay, doesn’t have its own distillery — G&J Greenall, maker of a well-known brand in the U.K., crafts the product for them in Cheshire (No wonder that cat was smiling).

Nothing wrong with someone else making your product to order — just ask Sam Adams beer lovers. But it does cut down on the breadth of story-telling marketers can spin to journalists; maybe it’s another reason gin has been so neglected in the cocktail-crazed 21st Century — all it’s got is taste.

(Originally published at Find Your Craving.)

2009-04-03T00:31:00.014-04:00

The old caricature of the sommelier as Basil Fawlty with a tastevin may have faded, but restaurant wine pros still suffer from an image problem. Reports in consumer and wine press that customers are fed up with the quality of service indicate a certain disconnect between them and guests.

Maybe “Dueling Sommeliers” can help.

Created by Jeff Groh of the Heathman Restaurant and Bar in Portland, Ore., the Dueling Sommeliers program has for the past few years challenged wine pros to compete for customer approval at a series of dinners designed to highlight wine and food pairing skills.

Looking for a more creative promotion than the winemaker dinner, Groh came up with the duels as a way to get customers excited about the new wines.

“This gives us the opportunity to present a wide array of wines that people have never tried and may never have wanted to try,” he says.

Since the wines are served “blind,” or concealed, customers pass judgment strictly on how well they go with each course without falling back on label or varietal preferences.

Broadening their wine horizon serves a selfish purpose, Groh says.

“The last thing a sommelier wants to do is sell the same wine over and over again,” he says. “That will just make us obsolete.”

There were five duel dinners in 2008, and competitors included Groh and Portland sommeliers Erica Landon of Ten 01, Andrew Fortgang of Le Pigeon and Scott Calvert of the now-closed Lucier. Heathman chef Philippe Boulot prepared four-course dinner menus. Each sommelier got a budget between $80 and $150 to pair one wine with each course, but they didn’t taste the wine and food together until the event. At dinner, customers sampled four wines with each course and voted for their favorite pairing. Scores were collected throughout the series and the top two sommeliers—in 2008 they were Groh and Landon—met in a finale dinner.

The net result, Groh says, is that customers develop a better appreciation for the sommelier’s craft and discover wines worth ordering again. Since the sommeliers discuss their choices at each meal, conversations with customers about food and wine are more wide-ranging than is possible during regular service.

“We were able to hear what they thought about wine pairings, and I learned I didn’t really understand how subjective it was,” says Landon, the winner in the 2008 duel.

Consumers may like a particular wine for reasons discounted by sommeliers, she says. For instance, customers tended to prefer those with slightly more residual sugar than the sommeliers.

Landon says she believes some of the strong reactions were to the wines themselves, not necessarily the pairings.

“We’d repeatedly see that the wines the sommeliers liked scored horribly with the crowd,” she says.

That changed the way she approaches customers at her restaurant.

“Instead of trying to make the perfect match, I try to find out what they like more in wine,” she says. “While a sommelier may see their job as making the perfect pairing, it’s important to think more about the customer’s palate rather than mine.”

Groh says the duel is an idea that can travel. In fact, early in 2008, he hosted a Seattle versus Portland version. The duels routinely sell out, with between 30 and 50 guests for each series. The main operational issue is glassware; each guest ends up with 16 glasses, with 1.5-ounce pours, before the event is over. With 50 guests, that’s 800 glasses.

Glassware issues resolved, the duels clearly offer an interesting way for sommeliers to make new friends, bond with regular customers and host a fun promotion. Also, as Landon points out, sommeliers may learn that their wine education and experience may have distanced them somewhat from the palates and preferences of their guests.

Closing that gap could go a long way toward shining up the modern sommelier’s image.

(Originally published in Nation's Restaurant News.)

2009-04-01T12:39:00.006-04:00

Peru is hardly known as a hotbed of rum-making, but if word about Ron Millonario ever gets out, the stellar lush and candied rums like Zacapa and Diplomatico will have some serious competition.

Millonario Solera 15 Reserva Especial is dark walnut, almost furniture polish brown in hue, rich and lush on the nose, giving off aromas of reduced caramel sauce and freshly baked hot cross buns with its combination of cloves, cinnamon, raisins, currants and yeastiness. It's not as thick as its aromas suggest, but on the palate, there's an explosion of cooked tropical and dried fruits - sherry-stewed raisins, butter sizzled brown bananas, black figs in custard. This is not your Caribbean aged rum, all sinew, leather and tobacco, and no one would ever use it to suggest that aged rums are like Cognac. It finishes rich, with great acid but mostly mouth-watering richness and sublime balance. My notes from last week at the Polished Palate competition - "Is this the perfect rum?"

I am a bit confused, though, by the co-existence of an age statement and the producer's stated use of a solera system - soleras, a creation of the Sherry world, is a complicated system that essentially means that there's something from the oldest and youngest component in each bottle. Whatever. Millonario is definitely one worth seeking out if you like your rums rich, lush and bodacious.

My score: 8

2009-03-31T10:32:00.005-04:00

The cocktail revolution still sweeping through American restaurants and bars spurred an entire generation of bartenders to fascinating creative drink-making endeavors. And much attention has been paid to the methods and ingredients, both classic and inventive, they’re using to craft these cocktails.

Homage must also be paid to the spirit companies and distillers of the world who have responded to the opening up of the American palate by exploring new flavor opportunities in unprecedented ways. (Continue reading, below, originally published in Flavor and the Menu, Fall 2008.)

Flavor and the Menu - distillers

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2009-03-31T10:04:00.004-04:00

Ever hear of Ron Millionario? Me either, until last year, when it appeared with great presence at the Polished Palate International Rum Festival. It tied with Ron Zacapa as the best in category, rums aged 15 years or more.

This past weekend, the Peruvian sugar cane spirit took best of show at the 2009 event (full results here), one of about 60 spirits tasted. I'll share tasting notes in a day or so, but if you like the rich, nutty, almost candy-like aged Central and South American rums, distinctly different creatures compared to those from the Caribbean, then check it out.

2009-03-26T08:01:00.000-04:00

How do you make a good rum? Luckily, that's not among my jobs, actually producing spirits, but I do get to tell people what I think about what they make, what it's good for and how it may best be served.

Tomorrow I get another chance at the Polished Palate Rum Festival here in Ybor City, where 60-some rums, rhums, flavored rums and rum liqueurs will be gathered a fer the judgin'. There's a crew of rum know-it-alls (check the web page for all the info), and I expect once again, as noted re: the recently concluded San Francisco Spirits Competition, to be surprised at what I like and distrubed about what I don't. But that's why they actually play the game; at these blind judgings, reputations add zero to a score. And products change; that's why everyone involved in selling ot working with spirits should taste and retaste what they've got. You never know when a brand will dramatically and silently change its formula. And you all know who I'm talking about.

2009-03-24T16:50:00.006-04:00

Every bartender wants to create a winning cocktail. Just check out the fierce competition at the numerous contests put on by spirit brands today to see how serious some bartenders take that aspect of the bar business.

And while winning a competition can further a career, consistently successful cocktail creation demands more than whipping up a couple of charming drinks using the spirit du jour. From research and development to testing and tasting, from tweaking and standardization to pricing and marketing, rolling out new cocktails demands a sound development process.

To find out what it takes to win in the game of cocktail creation, read below, originally published in Cheers magazine.

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2009-03-24T11:40:00.002-04:00

Well, maybe so; then who has willed within a couple months this year the return of both Bols Genever and the other main ingredient in the Holland House cocktail, Noilly Prat, back to the U.S. in the original formula?

Tasting the old Noilly (or should that be the old new? Either way, the one that you'll still find on many bar and retail shelves, at least until inventory turns over) and the new (that's the old and now new, which we will call classic for clarity, to be discerned by its sleek, streamlined bottle) together reveals a key difference: the returning classic formula is aged longer, showing so in its pale golden hue. Its aromas and flavors are more robust; instead of just oregano and marjoram, which dominate the style that until recently was sold only in America, Noilly smells of lemon and orange peels, bramble bushes and chamomile. That's what two years in wood, one outside exposed to the Mediterranean sun and sea breezes, and 20 botanicals will do for you. Suitable as a solo sipper, this is also the vermouth a Martini was meant for, and not insignificantly to me, is still a great cooking wine. Remember to refrigerate and if you use a wine preservation system, to apply here as well, unless you go through a bottle every week or so. (Imported by Noilly Prat USA)

My score: 6

2009-03-23T12:23:00.000-04:00

The 840+ entry SF Spirits Competition ended yesterday afternoon, with some surprises: Linie Aquavit, after reaching the finish line a bit behind for a number of years, came across as the Best of Show White Spirit - hope it boosts sales, as it is a terrific drink and ingredient - doubt me? Try a aquavit Bloody Mary soon and you may never return to the odorless and colorless variety.

The Best Brown Spirit (also Best Whisky) was American for the first time, Parker's Heritage Collection, the 27 Year Old Second Edition, 48% abv, a spirit that fought in the hardest to settle category, American whiskey (because, as they believe down in Kentucky and environs, their stuff has never been better - for what it's worth, I agree, and it is certainly the best bargain in the spirit world today).

Bluecoat was named Best Gin; I don't agree, but I wasn't on the gin panel, so can't tell what went down before it made it to the showdown sweepstakes. I do know that odd things always happen, and I am inevitably humbled by what I discover I actually like, or dislike, when tasting a slew of similar products - this year for instance my panel didn't send a single orange liqueur on to the final group judgement of best of the best.

Other surprises: the $7 Angostura as the Best Rum; Weber Haus once again Best Cachaça; and Pere Magloire XO Calvados Best of Show Brandy. Other winners: El Tesoro for Best Blanco Tequila and Best Tequila (since El T is the one many tequila fans consider the real number one, quality product, it's reassuring when it comes out on top); Gran Centenario Rosangel for Best Flavored Tequila, Bushmill's 10 Year Old Single Malt took Best Irish, and the Port Ellen 29 Year Old (a $400 limited number) took Best Single Malt Scotch.

Check the Competition website, above linked, for full list of winners soon.

2009-03-19T17:02:00.000-04:00

This weekend is the combined New York and Boston Marathons of spirit tastings - the San Francisco World Spirit Competition, whose motto, I think, is "The liver is evil and must be destroyed!"

No, not really, because it's all about the spitting. Sure, at the end of the day, after trying to suss out the differences among eight berry flavored vodkas, or 14 non-Speyside Highland Single Malt Scotch whiskys, or a snootful of brandies, you could find a few glasses pushed to the side, at least at my table, waiting to be sampled in the dusk of an emptying room. But through the day, holding on to your senses, in fact, keeping them sharp so they are working away on all cylinders, means no drinkie for Johnnie until day is done. Just like back in those factory days.

The best part of one of these tasteathons is the results, when one receives the list of what it was you were actually sniffing and slurping, when you discover you really don't like that bourbon you once revered, or don't hate that vodka everyone's talking about after all. To paraphrase David Mamet from "Glengarry Glen Ross:" Always be tasting!

PS: Why is there still no Scotch whisky called Glengarry Glen Ross?

2009-03-17T15:14:00.000-04:00

Charles Baudelaire was the champion of drunkeness: in fact, his poem - Get Drunk! - is worth revisiting now and again:

Be Drunk!

You have to be always drunk. That's all there is to it--it's the only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually drunk. But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be drunk. And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your room, you wake again, drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, everything that is flying, everything that is groaning, everything that is rolling, everything that is singing, everything that is speaking. . .ask what time it is and wind, wave, star, bird, clock will answer you:"It is time to be drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be continually drunk! On wine, on poetry or on virtue, as you wish."

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, the author of “The Physiology of Taste” and an accepted arbiter of good taste even today, is another matter altogether. His best known quote - "A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine" is embraced by all wine lovers. But another - "Those persons who suffer from indigestion, or who become drunk, are utterly ignorant of the true principles of eating and drinking." - displays a Puritan cautiousness not usually associated with those who make the life of the belly their own. He wrote little on wine, much to Baudelaire’s scorn.

Here's what French thinker Roland Barthes had to say about the two:
"Baudelaire rebuked B.-S. for not speaking well of wine. For Baudelaire, wine is memory and forgetting, joy and melancholy; it is what permits the subject to be transported outside himself, to make his ego’s consistency yield to certain alienated states; it is the path of deviance: in short, a drug.

Now for B.-S., wine is not at all a conductor of ecstasy. The reason for this is clear: wine is a part of food, and food, for B.-S., is itself essentially convivial, therefore one eats and one always eats with others; a narrow sociality oversees the pleasure of food...Conversation (with others) is the law, as it were, which guards culinary pleasure against all psychotic risk and keeps the gourmand within a 'sane' rationality..."

I doubt somehow that B.-S., as Barthes calls the original culinary philosopher, never got tipsy, nor hoisted a few on his own, nor otherwise lost his way. In fact, there’s a period in his later life, not exactly a rambunctious youth, when Brillat-Savarin raked and guzzled with the best of them. Baudelaire, we all know, followed his own advice too closely and expired at 46, helped along by many years of laudanum, opium and alcohol excess.

We who write about drink inevitably skirt most of the issues of, shall we call it, over-indulgence, I guess because there’s enough negativity about alcohol built into this pleasure-fearing country. I was reminded of this when speaking with someone yesterday, who remarked that vodka’s popularity is bolstered by the many people who recognize that they can down enough vodka (as opposed to congener-laden dark spirits) to get a buzz without feeling like Hell the next day when they take their morning jog. Don’t think that will make it into any mags I write for.

There's one thing Brillat-Savarin wrote that I particularly like: "I have often been inclined to place the passion for spirituous liquors, utterly unknown to animals, side by side with anxiety for the future, equally strange to them, and to look on the one and the other as distinctive attributes of the last sublunary revolution."

If B.-S. got as far as equating anxiety and passion for spirits as two significant things separating humanity from animalkind, it seems to me he was quite close to making the leap over to Baudelaire's side. Perhaps he just needed another glass of Claret...

USGB News
The USBG is currently in 14 markets around the country, up from five markets just three short years ago. „As a non-profit with a small national office and limited financial resources, it is amazing the way the USBG has grown over the past three years,‰ says Liz Edwards, who runs USBG‚s Las Vegas-based national office. „Interest in the USBG has spread More…

Return of “The Mixologist”
It’s been a while since the second edition — three years to be exact — but “The Mixologist” has returned, this time as a study of the European cocktail. Edited by Anistatia Miller and Jared Brown and published in late November, “The Mixologist: The Journal of the European Cocktail” includes work from Gaz Regan, Sue Leckie on Peter Dorelli (former bar manager of The American Bar at the Savoy Hotel) More…

Keens Reigns Supreme
Midtown Manhattan offers a plethora of drinking options beside the modern speakeasy and classic cocktail cult bar, most of them saloons. Many of them have the age-old New York saloon feel — and smell — and that’s all right for a meet after work and a quick brew. But whenever whiskey makers are visiting New York and want to meet, they inevitably pick the same spot: Keens Steakhouse. More…

Seasonal Sensations
BiNA Osteria in Boston has rolled out two holiday-themed cocktails — the Sugar Plum Fairy (vodka, Maraschino liqueur, smoked plum juice topped with Prosecco, sugar rim) and a Pear Toddy (muddled pear, brandy, honey, clove and Rooibos tea). The Patina Group will open Igloo Bar rinkside at the Ice Rink at Rockefeller Center starting this week, and it will remain open in the shadow of the enormous Christmas tree More…

2009-03-16T17:53:00.000-04:00

There's a silent revolution going on in fine dining, and it's about time. I'm talking about the slowly widening acceptance of quality beer as a fitting, even superior, accompaniment to most meals. If you have any doubt about how far beer has traveled as a fine-dining beverage in the last few years, drop by New York’s Gramercy Tavern and take a peek at the beverage list. In addition to the 30 or so regular beers, customers can choose from about two-dozen aged brews, including two vintages of Brooklyn Brewery’s Black Chocolate Stout, a 10-year-old from Oregon’s Rogue Ale Brewery and an English ale aged in sherry casks. More in the piece below from the Winter 2009 issue of Flavor and the Menu...)
Flavor and the Menu Beer

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