Entries tagged with 'spirits'
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On Fridays Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 joins us to talk some Serious Grape. Take it away, Deb! Last weekend, I was a guest at the 2009 Hospice du Rhône event in Paso Robles, California. Each year, organizers draw together some of the finest winemakers in the world who all have one thing in common: They are passionate about Rhône grape varieties such as Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Viognier, Roussanne, and Marsanne. These are the grapes that go into famed French red blends (like Chateauneuf du Pape and Cotes du Rhone) and coveted white blends (like Condrieu). During two days of seminars and tastings, they share their passion—and their wine—with participants. Today, Rhône varieties are grown all around the...
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Photograph from Maitri on Flickr When your house or apartment is filled with people this season, and everyone’s trying to snag an hors d’oeuvre, find or avoid the mistletoe and, above all, grab a drink, the last thing you want them to do is wait for you to pour glasses for the crowd. Fortunately, there’s punch. In this month’s Saveur, wine and spirits editor David Wondrich gives a brief history of the flowing bowl. Punch originated centuries ago as a simple and straightforward mixture of citrus juice, sugar, water, spice and, of course, liquor. Today, the model is still essentially the same, although the basic formula has been tinkered with to make room for richly flavored liqueurs, tea, champagne,...
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Inside Ballast Point Brewery, from the Los Angeles Times. In today’s Los Angeles Times, Jenn Garbee contributed a story that’s sure to resonate with spirits geeks like me: “West Coast brewers pick up the distilling spirit.” Small-scale distilleries are on the upswing nationwide, as consumers take greater interest in locally sourced products and states reassess the tax revenue such operations can generate. And while many distilleries are truly independent startups, many talented brewers who have learned the business from making quality beer are either adding distilleries to existing operations, or working in tandem with like-minded distillers. Garbee spotlights Ballast Point Brewing in San Diego, which has been making beer since 1996. Now with a 600-square-foot distillery, the owners are...
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In our globalized world, it’s refreshing to remember that each part of our culinary universe has a distinctive home. This also applies to cocktails; while New York is certainly a world capital of mixology and has the historical record to back it up, New Orleans is the spiritual home of all things spirituous. Every July, New Orleans hosts thousands of fans of good cocktails and great food who come together for an event called Tales of the Cocktail—the Super Bowl, World Series, and World Cup of the spirits world, all wrapped up in one event. Now in its sixth year from July 16 to 20, Tales of the Cocktail is poised to have its biggest showing ever: the five days...
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Where do you go when your local liquor store won't do? Photograph from shortfatkid on Flickr In January, I vented about the difficulty of finding and purchasing various types of spirits, thanks in no small part to the bewildering system of state liquor laws that govern the trade in alcoholic beverages. Now, just as you’re trying to find that great bourbon you’ve been searching for in time for Father’s Day, Eric Felten at the Wall Street Journal is letting loose, too. After running a recipe that called for the somewhat hard-to-find maraschino liqueur, Felten writes of the experiences his readers encountered, epitomized by the liquor store owner who insisted that the complex Italian or Croatian liqueur was the same thing...
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In today’s New York Times, Eric Asimov steps into the bizarre and confusing world of U.S. liquor laws. This topic’s been setting parts of the online wine world ablaze in the aftermath of a recent operation in which representatives of Wine.com gathered evidence of rival wine retailers illegally shipping wines to certain states (including New York), and reported those retailers to state authorities. While Wine.com representatives say they’re out to change these rules, the event has turned attention to the Byzantine tangle of state laws that came out of the repeal of Prohibition, more than 75 years ago. Asimov writes: “The attention illuminates the tensions inherent in an Internet economy bound by post-Prohibition laws that created the three-tier system of...
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Sunday’s New York Times tells of how small distilleries – once an anomaly in an era dominated by global brands and arcane liquor laws – are now cropping up across the country at the rate of 10 to 20 a year. And while the laws – not to mention culinary culture – in states such as California and Oregon have encouraged the growth of small-scale distilling, regulators in Midwestern states are increasingly seeing the appeal of licensing local distilleries, which can add considerable value to all those acres of grain. Early craft distillers such as Fritz Maytag of Anchor Distilling in San Francisco and Steve McCarthy of Clear Creek Distillery in Portland, Oregon, have garnered international praise for the quality...
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In Sunday’s New York Times, Jonathan Miles fleshes out the story of a cocktail being served at Primehouse New York. Cocktail designer Eben Klemm took the restaurant’s steakhouse concept seriously while creating the recipe for the Dirty Bull, a carnivorous take on the dirty martini that is made with vodka, olive brine, and a dollop of veal stock, then garnished with a piece of beef jerky. It would be easy to dismiss the drink as a gimmick, except December’s issue of Food & Wine features an article on Eben Freeman, currently tending bar at Tailor in Manhattan, who is also blurring the boundaries between the charcuterie plate and the cocktail shaker. While demonstrating the process of “fat washing”—in which a...
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While the Wednesday food section long ago cemented its role as a staple of big-city dailies, regular columns devoted to the bibulous side of gastronomy—especially to things spirituous (let's forget wine for now; those guys get all the press)—lag much further behind. While drinks are largely an afterthought in many papers, there are a few notable exceptions: the San Francisco Chronicle has long been home to cocktail columns by Gary Regan, and more recently spirits writer Camper English has taken the reins for Friday features on drinks; the Los Angeles Times has occasional, but often noteworthy, features on drink as part of its food section; and the infrequent Wednesdays when Eric Asimov steps into the spirit world over at the...
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In Sunday’s New York Times Style Magazine, Toby Cecchini tackles a spirit that’s seen better days: sloe gin. Chances are if you’ve had sloe gin in the United States, you’ve either been somewhat disappointed in the product, or young and exuberant enough that you didn’t really care. Traditionally made from gin that has been flavored with an infusion of sloe berries—the fruit of the blackthorn tree, which grows wild in the U.K. and Ireland but is mostly if not entirely absent from these shores—and then sweetened, sloe gin has now slunk to the bottom rack of the liquor store, its bright, fruity flavor abandoned in favor of cheaper, artificially colored and flavored alternatives. If your sole exposure to sloe gin...
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