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Chartreuse on the loose

This week I helped judge a Chartreuse cocktail competition- tough job! Bartenders love making cocktails with the stuff, and I love drinking said cocktails. With my fellow judges Johnny Raglin of Absinthe and Carlos Yturria of Bacar/Grand Pu Bah I think we were in complete agreement with our top choices.

Joel Baker of Bourbon & Branch made a phenomenal drink with Yellow Chartreuse, Manzanilla sherry, lemon, peach, and basil, but unfortunately he lost points for going past the time limit (such a perfectionist).

Steven Liles of (is it Boulevard?) combined Yellow Chartreuse, St. Germain, gin, lemon, sugar, and cucumber with a lemon verbena garnish that was messy but delicious.

Camber Lay of Epic pretty much always brings the thunder and her drink (pictured) with rose geranium, gin, lemon, lime, peach, Szechuan peppercorn, and Green Chartreuse was terrific. If they’d only let her bring her fruit dehydrator who knows what would have happened.

And the big winner for the day was H. Ehrmann of Elixir, who combined bourbon, Green Chartreuse, muddled cherries, lavender, and vermouth, sort of like a sweet Chartreuse-cherry-lavender Manhattan. I don’t know how it worked, but it totally did. Lavender?

Congratulations to the winners.

Labels: contests, liqueurs

June 20, 2008
10 Trendsetting Mixologists

In various editions of the Beverage Network’s magazines, I have the cover story on 10 Trendsetting Mixologists from across the country. I interviewed my picks at the Navan/Grand Marnier Mixology Summit this spring.

This year’s batch of bartenders to watch have more in common than a penchant for inventing and shaking up tasty cocktails. They’re using fresh and often local ingredients, adding savory herbs to drinks, and making sure the execution of each cocktail is consistently stellar.

These standout mixologists, some with impressive training under their belt, some the winners of national and international cocktail challenges, are also quite influential, both introducing quality cocktails to the underserved areas of the country, as well as impressing jaded vacationers in Vegas and Aspen. They impact the community through bartenders’ guilds, banding together to influence the purchases of control state boards, and educating the public with classes and seminars. These men and women help elevate both the craft of mixology and the consumer palate simultaneously. Let’s raise a glass to the class of 2008.

The mixologists chosen were:

Charles Joly from Chicago
Patricia Richards from Las Vegas
Matt Martinez from Los Angeles
Jeremy Strungis from New Jersey
Ted Kilgore from St. Louis
Gina Chersevani from Washington, DC
Lance Mayhew from Portland, OR
Denis Cote from Aspen, CO
Eric Simpkins from Atlanta
Jon Santer from San Francisco

Read interviews with these ten terrific bartenders here.

Labels: bartending, camper_clips

June 11, 2008
Absinthe in Men’s Book

Speaking of absinthe, I just noticed that the story I wrote on the subject (or as I call it, the subject that keeps on paying) for Men’s Book San Francisco is online. Go here and forward to page 80.

Labels: absinthe, camper_clips

June 9, 2008
Gin on the vine

Immediately after my press trip to Jerez to study sherry, I flew to Bordeaux to learn about G’Vine gin. As far as I know, G’Vine is the only gin made from grape spirit instead of grain spirit, which gives it a round, soft texture and a touch of sweetness. It also has a huge burst of floral aroma coming from distilled vine flowers. This press trip was centered around seeing the vine flower harvest, but unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate and the flowers weren’t yet in bloom.

I flew in to Bordeaux and got a hotel room for the night, skipped dinner and slept from 8PM until 8AM recovering sleep and liver function from the last trip.

The next morning I met the group- there were just five of us in total- and we headed to our hotel half-way between Bordeaux and Cognac. Our hotel, Chateau de Rimbaud, was more of a castle (which is always nice) that was filled with antiques and wallpaper that matched the curtains, bedspreads, and everything else in the room. Busy, but beautiful.

That afternoon we had a short mixology session with G’vine. Because the gin is so floral, I find it overwhelming served in a martini and don’t think it mixes as well as other gins with tonic water. I learned on this trip that champagne works better than tonic with this product (grape with grape, after all), and that the Spanish make their tonic water go flat before drinking it- we didn’t try that but I could see it working.

After a lazy afternoon we had a lazy dinner at the castle, and a good night’s sleep. Then we were off to Cognac. We visited the distillery where G’Vine is made, which is a cognac distillery that produces one percent of all Cognac in France, in addition to several other products. It was the first time I’ve seen Cognac stills, so I was a bit overexcited, but soon we were off to the traditional pot and column stills actually used for G’Vine.

We drove out to a vineyard and fondled a vine, as the founder of EuroWineGate showed us where the blossoms would be if only they were blossoming. We all offered to stay two more weeks in the castle waiting for this to happen, but apparently G’vine’s generosity doesn’t extend quite that far.

We had lunch at the funky and delicious La Ribaudiere restaurant near Cognac (you can pull up to it by boat if that’s how you roll), where they made gelato in different flavors that are found in the gin. (gin-lato?) Then we spent about an hour wandering through the city of Cognac. I found it nice and full of very old buildings, but smaller than I had imagined.

The same is not true of Bordeaux, where we stayed the night. Bordeaux is huge and cosmopolitan and appears magnificent in the evening we spent there. We went out for dinner on one of the many pedestrian streets, had a beer later, and called it a trip.

Now I have to make the next trip home. It’s gonna be a doozy. See you in a few days.

In the meantime, feel free to look at all my trip photos here.

Labels: gin, travel

June 8, 2008
Tequila Terroir

Run screaming to your local newsstand to pick up the June issue of Wine & Spirits magazine, with the Top 100 Value Wines on the cover. Also on the cover is a mention of a story inside on Tequila Terroir, written by me. Hooray! My pal Jenn Farrington took the photos.

Here’s the teaser:

This February, a new Tequila called Ocho launched in Europe with a small but significant difference from other brands: each bottling is labeled with the harvest year and name of the agave field from which it came. Tequila is a spirit unusually ripe for the study of terroir as its raw ingredient does not vary, it is grown in a specified region with diverse soils, and it does not need to be aged like whisky or Cognac so it can be appreciated without the influence of wood. Yet until now brands have provided consumers with only broad clues as to the origin of the agave in each bottle.

On the page after my story, you’ll be treated to a tasting story on tequila written by David Wondrich, in which he explains terroir in spirits better in three paragraphs than I did in 1200 words.

Labels: camper_clips, tequila

May 20, 2008
Scotland Day Eight: Edinburgh and the castle

We had a nearly four hour drive from Speyside to Edinburgh for our last day on the trip, but it wasn’t drama-free by any means. Once again, the back door of the van popped open while we were going down the highway and two peoples’ luggage fell out. I watched as one tumbled behind our bus and was run over by the truck behind us. The suitcase was ruined and the guy’s laptop’s screen was cracked, but the bottle of Pimm’s No. 3 and the Linn House bottling of 35 year-old scotch survived intact. Hooray!

We stayed at the huge and impressive Balmoral hotel in Edinburgh, but I didn’t spend more than 20 minutes awake in the room. I had bars to see! My drinking pal for the day was Bill Dowd, and we stopped into about 7 venues in three hours. Not bad. I’ll have to reserve the write-up on those for a future story, but I loved Oloroso and Tonic most of all.

Back in the room for a quick change into the first suit jacket I’ve owned since First Communion (50 bucks at H&M), I was ready for a private dinner in Edinburgh Castle. Several of the distillers and blenders from earlier in the week joined us, and it was like everything else in the week: ultra-fancy. The people at Old Pulteney were kind enough to contribute some 31 year-old scotch for us to drink at dinner and at the after-party at the Balmoral Hotel.

It was almost a beautiful ending to a fantastic (and educational) trip, but alas, the trip home was not-so-fab. The combination of Delta and JFK airport caused delays, a missed connection, a night in New York, sleeping on a friend’s floor, and an early next-day flight 15 hours later than I was supposed to be home.

Luckily when I arrived there, there was a bottle of scotch that had been delivered waiting for me.

Labels: scotch, travel

May 18, 2008
Scotland Day Seven: The real post

This was our final distillery day in Scotland, but it was a double-header. We started off the morning with a tour of the Glenlivet distillery. By this time distillery tours were old hat, so we just stopped off at the points that deviate from other brands. The we had lunch and a demo of an old still that they set up on the driveway. It produced some pretty good new make spirit, as far as I can tell.

After a tasting, we headed off on one of the new Smuggler’s Trails. These were set up as nature walks meant to be historically accurate trails that smugglers would take to get the whisky out in the days when distilling was illegal (without paying taxes, anyway). And due to our three hour walk, I actually came home from Scotland with a sunburn!

We drove over to our hotel for the night, the Linn House. It’s the property of Pernod-Ricard, owners of Chivas, and it’s pretty darn fabulous. After a quick walk around the grounds and building, it was time for dinner. We walked over to the Strathisla Distillery, where the Chivas visitor center is. The distillery itself is gorgeous with the double pagoda roof and stone front. Inside, the visitor’s center is themed like an old grocery store, which is how the Chivas brothers started off.

We were treated to access to the Chivas archives, where there were some great old product catalogs, then treated to dinner in a modern part of the distillery where they hold corporate meetings. For the afterparty, we returned to the Linn House’s Garden Bar, which is like a little club house in the gardens behind the house equipped with a pool table, jukebox, and a fully stocked bar. I stayed up to a sensible 2AM, unlike some of the less responsible writers who tried to re-rouse me for the after-after party in the living room.

Labels: scotch, travel

May 18, 2008
Scotland day seven: a quick note

Yesterday at Glenlivet and Strathisla were amazing, but I've no time
or Internet with which to post. The picture is of my hotel from last
night, at which we were at the bar in the garden until the wee hours
of the morning.

May 16, 2008
The Bar Coat Hook Hall of Shame
5/1/08 update: Fish and Farm has a great homemade cocktail ingredient program, but alas, nowhere to hang your jacket at the bar. They’ve been added to the Hall of Shame.
—

Every bar top should have coat hooks beneath it. That way you don’t have to try to hang your jacket off your bar stool under your butt, having it slip off half the time and getting dirty when you put your feet up.

Bar hooks seem like such a simple and necessary bar element, like toilet paper in the bathrooms or lemons in the garnish tray, yet there are many places that have not installed them. I’m constantly running my hands along the underside of bars feeling for the hooks and getting nothing but gum and boogers. This has to end!

It is up to us to shame these establishments into installing coat hooks. Together we can make a difference! Thus I present to you:
The Bar Hook Hall of Shame
(add your nominees in the comments and I’ll expand the list here)
Fish and Farm (added 4/18/08)

The Transfer

The Pilsner Inn

Colibri Mexican Bistro

9/25/06 Congratulations to Bourbon & Branch, the first bar to be removed from the Bar Coat Hook Hall of Shame by finally installing their hooks.

5/1/07 I went to check out Etiquette Lounge where they had no coat hooks, and they admitted to not having them at their other venue Element Lounge either.

5/15/07 Congratulations to Rye, where they finally installed coat hooks and made the bar a more comfortable experience for us all.

5/1/07 I have decided to drop Etiquette and Element Lounge from the Hall of Shame, as they’re not really venues where you sit at the bar. Nightclubs do not need coat hooks.
Labels: bars, hall_of_shame
May 15, 2008
Scotland Day Six: Macallan and no bagpipes

I was on a roll there with two bagpipe days back to back, but alas, the trend didn’t continue. On our sixth distillery day, we drove from Inverness to Craigellachie. On the way there, we stopped in Elgin to visit Johnston’s cashmere center, a huge wool and cashmere factory where they sew scarves for Burberry, Chanel, and other brands, in addition to their own. The tour was surprisingly cool and I even found things to purchase in the large gift shop- books.

Then we popped in to a supermarket and I headed straight for the liquor aisle. I found Pimm’s Winter, a.k.a. Pimm’s No. 3 Cup with the brandy base. Wahoo!

Off we went to Macallan for a tour. At each distillery, there is a combination of old and new technology present since most of them have been around for at least a hundred years. Much of the equipment lasts for up to five decades, so what’s been replaced lately is rather variable. I was surprised to find Macallan a very modern distillery. I guess I believed the brand messaging story a bit too much.

Macallan has an incredible “wood expreience” exhibit as part of the tour. It’s not like a museum where there is a lot of text and you lead yourself through it, but rather the tour guide takes you through and tells you what you’re about to learn at each point. There is information on types of wood, sizes of barrels, color in whisky, a smell area with different substances in jars to identify, and other stuff. Interestingly, despite this nice big exhibit they try to keep the number of tour visitors down, not accepting large busses, and only doing about 6, 10-person tours a day in the high season.

For dinner and overnight, we stayed at the Easter Elchies house. It’s the house on the Macallan label, built in 1700. I stayed in the room on the top right on the label, so now every time I drink Macallan it will be like looking at a postcard from my trip. Score.

We have just one distillery left to visit, and I’m already feeling separation anxiety from Scotland. I freaking love this place.

Labels: scotch, travel

May 15, 2008