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Absinthe Apparatus

In my latest post for FineCooking.com, I discuss what all that absinthe-serving equipment is for.

The fountain is not, of course, filled with absinthe, as in this music video. It is filled with plain old ice water.

Read more about that here.

February 1, 2011
Sherry Bodega Visit: Bodegas Hidalgo La Gitana
In September 2010 I visited several sherry bodegas. Here are pictures and a few notes from Bodegas Hidalgo La Gitana, which is located in Sanlucar de Barrameda.

(La Gitana is their most famous brand. It's a manzanilla; similar to fino but aged in Sanlucar.)

(The bodegas were wonderfully old, moldy, and dusty.)

(One of the old bullfight posters taped to the wall in the bodega.)

(Our host, a curmudgeonly sort who basically disagreed with everything we learned all week. We liked him anyway.)

(A view of the bodega.)
- More humidity and less exreme temperature swings in Sanlucar
- Flor is thicker and remains year round
- Make a single-vineyard manzanilla. It may be the only single vineyard sherry
- The vineyards and grapes not nearly as important as the place where the solera is
- Sanlucar is the oldest part of the sherry region- producing wines there the longest
- Most of the casks in these bodegas over 200 years old. They hate new casks.
- Replace staves with staves from old casks bought on market
- La Gitana has 14 level solera.
- Manzanilla typically has more ciraderas (levels to the solera) than fino. Have to move it faster between levels.
- Tastes like salt spilled in the relish. Yum.
- Manzanilla can pair with asparagus- is most versatile with food
- Says you can leave an open bottle in the refrigerator 4-5 years and it will still be good
- During the peninsular war, they supplied both Napoleon and the Allies. Now have both Napoleon and Wellington brands.
January 25, 2011
The Anti-Malarial Further Fortified Fortified Wine Cocktail

In my latest post for FineCooking.com, I touch on Dubonnet and the Dubonnet Cocktail. Dubonnet was invented as an anti-malarial wine. It's useful even if you don't have a mosquito problem.

Read! Learn! Behold!

January 20, 2011
Sherry Bodega Visit: Bodegas Lustau
In September 2010 I visited several sherry bodegas. Here are pictures and a few notes from Bodegas Lustao.

(Barrels in the Lustau bodega.)

(The vinegar aging room smelled heavenly. I'd love to go back and just study vinegar.)

(These new casks are being prepared for Jameson Irish whisky that is aged in ex-sherry casks. These casks were not part of the solera system- just the wine in them. They hold sherry that absorbs into the wood. The sherry is then distilled and not used for sherry.)

(At lunch afterward, we drank Lustao sherry and had Lustao Vinagre de Jerez on a few dishes.)
- Albero soil used in bodegas is same as used in bullfighting rings
- It took two and a half years to move the bodega from one place to another
- Only company to have sherry aged in Jerez, Puerto, and Sanlucar
- The vinegar solera smells delicious!
- Brandy bodega smells like buttered popcorn
- Casks for Jamesons made here with their oloroso
- Fino bodegas must have higher ceilings, cooler temps, more humid
- Different vineyards produce grapes better for fino, amontillado, oloroso sherries
January 18, 2011
Tequila Distillery Visit: Patron
In November I visited seven tequila distilleries in Mexico. Here are some pictures and notes from my visit to the Patron distillery in the town of Atotonilco.

(The distillery is on a huge plot of land. It's a huge distillery. This is the front gate.)

(This is the hacienda, which is the center of the distillery. Nice place.)

(This is agave going in to the rollermill. Patron is 50% rollermill agave and 50% tahona agave.)

(Fermenting tahona agave. Tahona agave ferments and is distilled with the fibers.)

(Outside the distillery they prepare the spent agave to be fertilizer.)

(They use a mix of barrels for Patron.)
- The distillery is actually 12 distilleries operating independently.
- Most of the agave comes from the highlands
- They recycle the first agave juice out of the ovens, don't use it for fermentation
- Ferment in pine wood, not stainless
- Have unusual stills designed by master distiller
- Tahona agave takes 2 hours to crush
- Patron silver is 75% of sales, reposado accounts for 10 percent and anejo accounts for 15
January 14, 2011
Sherry Bodega Visit: Bodegas Gonzalez Byass
In September 2010 I visited several sherry bodegas. Here are pictures and a few notes from Bodegas Gonzalez Byass.

(The grounds of the bodega have grape vines covering the streets to provide shade.)

(A train takes people on a tour around the bodega.)

(One of the rooms for special events.)

(A barrel signed by Picasso.)

(Some Tio Pepe out of the cask. You can see the flor broken up in the glass.)
- Make Tio Pepe
- Over 200,000 visitors per year to bodega
- Tio Pepe grapes are and will always be collected by hand, not machine
- Higher vineyards considered better – get more of the wet wind
- Theyre one of the only companies to grow PX in Jerez. Others buy it from Cordoba
- Have a big catalogue of vintage-dated sherries- Anadas
- Corks are loose on sherry barrels to let air in, but most air freshness comes from when you change the levels of the sherry in the solera
- The El Duque brand starts as Tio Pepe fino, aged longer
- The higher the percentage of alcohol, the more lignin it absorbs from the wood.
- Nuttiness comes from the grapes. Coconut comes from the wood.
- Palo Cortado- probably started back in the day when they couldn’t accurately meauser alcohol percentage, so they put too much in the fino and killed it
January 12, 2011
Back In My Day, It Was Called A New-Fashioned

In my latest post for FineCooking.com, I cover the history of the cocktail- the original one. I'm sure you've heard of it: spirit, sugar, water, bitters.

January 11, 2011
Tequila Distillery Visit: Don Julio
In November I visited seven tequila distilleries in Mexico. Here are some pictures and notes from my visit to the Don Julio distillery in the town of Atotonilco.

(Cutting up the pinas before baking.)

(Now when I see pinas, I get thirsty.)

(Fermenting agave.)

(Stainless steel pot stills.)

(We had a cocktail contest after the distillery visit. My team of writers won, of course.)
- Don Julio uses all estate-grown agaves
- Has a widerspacing between agaves than average
- They have 18 furnaces, each of which holds 25 tons
- Fermentation takes 24-30 hours
- Their agave is larger than industry standards, with a higher sugar content
- Inside the stainless steel stills is a copper coil
January 7, 2011
Sherry Bodega Visit: Bodegas Williams & Humbert
In September 2010 I visited several sherry bodegas. Here are pictures and a few notes from Bodegas Williams & Humbert.

(The bodega is absolutely enormous.)

(There's a horse show inside the bodega for visitors.)

(For barrel tasting, the venenciador (in this case, the chief oenologist) inserts the venencia into the barrel to pull out a cup of liquid, then pours above a glass to aerate.)

(From a high perch in the bodega, you can see nearly the whole thing. Center in the picture is a tour group.)
- They make Dry Sack – actually a medium sweetness sherry
- Huge tourist visitor center- enter through the bodega and go to the horse show
- Brandy de Jerez is very popular in the Philippines
- Bowmore 1964 was aged in their casks
- Macallan new casks prepared here
- New wood with aged sherry added to them
- The sherry is not sold afterward- too woody
- Fino was first developed in an industrial way in the 1920’s and 30’s
- Dry sack is the top selling medium sweet sherry in the world.
- Tio Pepe is top selling fino. (Not made here.)
- Harvey’s Bristol Cream is the top cream. (Not made here.)
- Dry sack is blended with PX right at the beginning before it enters the solera system
- 15 year oloroso is very yummy.
- I also liked Gran Dulque de Alba XO
- They make the Dos Maderas rums
- Liked the VORS amontillado, VOS Palo Cortado
January 4, 2011
Spicy Mary

A bunch of years ago I tried to sell a book on infusions, because there weren't any at the time. In some ways I'm glad it didn't sell, because my cocktail knowledge and abilities are so much better now that I would have been embarrassed by many of the cocktail recipes you were supposed to use after the infusions were done.

But I did do enough recipe development that I learned the timing for a lot of infusions. In my latest post for FineCooking.com, I list the quantities of spicy things like pepperonchini, peppercorn, chili peppers, and horseradish to make a 1-day infusion.

Then you can add those to tomorrow's Bloody Mary.

When I was working on the book, I had all the different infusions sitting around and decided to dump them all into the drink at the same time. It was pretty amazing how you could clearly taste each infusion separately, rather than them being all muddled together into one new flavor.

January 3, 2011