November 19, 2009
Posted by Paul Clarke, November 18, 2009 at 8:00 PM
[Flickr: edwardkimuk]
A little over a year ago, inspired by the unexpected acquisition of a bowl full of beautiful fresh quinces—and imagining what their ethereal perfume and flavor would be like in a drink—I started a small project.
After removing the core and finely chopping the quinces, I placed the fragrant fruit in jars and covered it with cognac. Adding a piece of cinnamon to one jar and a few cloves to another, I sealed the jars and stuck them in the back of my liquor cabinet. And though I blogged about it at the time, I soon moved on to other projects and quickly forgot about my jars of boozy quinces, macerating away behind bottles of bitters and boxes of bar tools.
And there they remained, all but forgotten, until late October, when I finally pulled them out, assuming the fruit had turned to mush and the contents of the jar would be a complete waste. I couldn't have been more wrong—even after almost a full year of soaking in cognac, the quince pieces were still firm and crisp, and after straining the liquid off the fruit and spice, I took a taste and was floored: this stuff is amazing.
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Posted by Paul Clarke, November 11, 2009 at 5:30 PM
"Secret passwords and exclusive policies be damned."
[Photograph: Robyn Lee]
In yesterday's Diner's Journal, Pete Wells writes that Pegu Club co-owner and bartender extraordinaire Audrey Saunders is opening a new place, the Tar Pit, with chef Mark Peel in Los Angeles next month.
With this move, Saunders—one of the most talented and influential bartenders in the ongoing cocktail renaissance—becomes the latest New York bartender to spread the craft west of Weehawken. Sasha Petraske, whose New York bars Milk & Honey and Little Branch (among others) helped spur the trend of the now ubiquitous speakeasy-style cocktail bars, played a hand in opening The Varnish in Los Angeles earlier this year, as well as taking his skills to the nation's capitol, working as a consultant on the Rooftop Bar at the W Hotel.
Toby Maloney, who came up through the bartending ranks at Pegu Club and Milk & Honey, took his talents on the road several years ago, opening The Violet Hour in Chicago and, more recently, consulting on The Patterson House in Nashville and Bradstreet Craftshouse in Minneapolis.
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Posted by Paul Clarke, November 4, 2009 at 7:45 PM
Bartenders are getting into the game, not only producing high-quality bar ingredients for themselves but for wider audiences.
[Photograph: Robyn Lee]
As Jonathan Miles wrote in Sunday's New York Times, the vintage-cocktail renaissance has a few drawbacks. While this interest in the drinks of yesteryear has led to the revival of once-lost favorites such as the Aviation and the Corpse Reviver #2, assembling some of these cocktails can still be frustrating. He writes:
It's the ingredients that can get really arcane: ground gentian, capillaire, raspberry syrup, tansy, ambergris, gum syrup. Throw in some eye of newt and toe of frog and you've got the cauldron from 'Macbeth.'
Fortunately for those who love vintage drinks, it's easier to find the once defunct or simply unavailable ingredients. Several years ago, importer Eric Seed began sourcing hard-to-find spirits and liqueurs such as Batavia arrack, all-spice dram and crème de violette through his company, Haus Alpenz. These products are now available in select markets nationwide.
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Posted by Paul Clarke, October 28, 2009 at 5:00 PM
©iStockphoto.com/ManuWe
Autumn is whiskey season in Kentucky, and at the recent Whiskyfest in San Francisco, I was able to try out some of the recent releases now appearing in bars and liquor stores (typically in very small amounts).
One of the most appealing American whiskies I tasted was Wild Turkey "Tradition," a 14-year-old, 101-proof bourbon that entered the U.S. market last week in a limited run of 14,000 bottles. With the characteristic spicy tang of Wild Turkey bourbons, the Tradition bottling has a deeper, richer character that comes from its older age, as well as its aging position in the "center cut" of the distillery's warehouse. Also memorable is the latest bottling of Old Forester Birthday Bourbon, a 12-year-old, 97-proof whiskey that's pleasantly mellow with the aroma of wheat and iodine.
And of course, it wouldn't be autumn without the annual release of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, a series of limited edition and very much sought-after whiskies that appear each fall (and are usually snapped up by Christmas).
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Posted by Paul Clarke, October 15, 2009 at 6:15 PM
[Photograph: Robyn Lee]
This Friday is Whiskyfest in San Francisco, the annual event (it also takes place in Chicago and New York) that's part collector's geek-out and part Detroit Auto Show for booze, where distillers reintroduce thousands of enthusiasts, media, and industry colleagues to their standard selections, as well as debut unique and rare bottlings and special editions. I'll no doubt have some interesting whisk(e)y-related news in the coming weeks, but as I prepare for my visit to Whiskyfest, there's one question in particular that'll be on my mind: how many women are going to be there?
No, it's not what you think—rather, I'm heading to Whiskyfest thinking about the changing world of whiskey consumers. As recently noted by spirits industry expert and educator Paul Pacult and reinforced by recent Nielsen surveys, while whiskey buyers have historically been overwhelmingly male, women are a fast-growing segment of the whiskey world. Earlier this year, the Guardian noted that the UK-based Scotch Malt Whisky Society had almost doubled its female membership over the course of three years (to a total of around 15 percent of its membership), and that an estimated 25 percent of all scotch drinkers in the UK were female, an increase from around 10 percent only a few years ago. Earlier this week, while speaking at a BarSmarts certification course in San Francisco that I attended, Pacult pointed out that Irish whiskey is the fastest growing segment of the whiskey market in the United States, and noted that this may in part be related to the growing number of women purchasing whiskey in this market, as well.
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