Alcademics.com

Glossy Booze: Big October Edition

Glossy Booze is a regular Alcademics feature in which I cover the liquor coverage in glossy magazines.

Bon Appetit (October)lists a recipe for the Highland's Fall from Peter Vestinos, available here. Also, a story on dry cider and one on dessert wines. In November St. John Frizell has a recipe for the coffee/rum drink Koffie Van Brunt.

Everyday With Rachael Ray (October) has a story on "gum cocktails"- not something you get at Tailor, but combining flavors of gum to make new flavors.

GQ (September) had a big feature on the six best drinking cities in the US. They were San Francisco, New Orleans, Chicago, Portland (OR), Nashville, and New York.

Conde Nast Traveler has a list of three tropical island bars in the Bahamas, plus a recipe for the Goombay Smash.

7X7 (September) has a story on Rickhouse. In the October issue, Jordan Mackay writes about relocated NYC sommelier David Lynch. 

Men's Journal (October) list America's best beers here, and the top five beer towns here.

Sunset (October) has beer and food pairings for Octoberfest, and a story on green wine packaging.

Esquire has a recipe for the Grasshopper. Really!

Details lists some "really excellent canned beer,"and a few places in which to drink it.

And the winner for best drink coverage goes to Food & Wine- and they didn't even have any cocktail recipes. Their stories are:

• What sommeliers know best.
•  Understanding Oregon Pinot Noir country
• Wineries by the sea all over the world- France and Spain, US, Australia, Portugal, and South Africa.
• Wines for drinking, not overthinking
• American Wine Awards
• A preview of the F&W Wine Guide 2010
• How to be a smarter wine shopper
• Gruner Veltliner
• 50 classic wines to try
• 15 rules for wine and food pairings

Gin History and a Contest

G'Vine gin is sponsoring a big contest for bartenders here, but even non-professionals may want to do the online study part to learn more about the history and production of gin, spirits tasting, and cocktail development philosophy.

The contest was developed by Philip Duff of door74 in Amsterdam, my favorite bar I've never been to. This contest emphasizes not just G'Vine's production, but that of other brands, with the goal being to create or reward an international gin connoisseur/ambassador. (There are quizzes, and essay, and cocktail creation portions of the exams.) At a contest briefing in San Francisco, they told me that even people who aren't bartenders can take the course, so I gave it a try. (Just fill in "n/a" or something in the registration page for your bar/workplace.)

The course has modules on gin history, gin production, G'vine specifically, gin tasting, and cocktail theory. I've been to many, many events on these topics, but was delighted to see some of the information taught in a different way and to pick up many new details. For example, I learned that one of the early notables in distilling was a woman- Maria the Jewess; different flavoring methods for distilled gin (infusion, maceration, compounding, vapor infusion); some additional tasting tips; a list of the botanicals in 60% of all gins; and balancing not just sweet to sour, but also bitter to sweet and salt to umami.

If you're interested, get started here.

A Non-Alcoholic Rock Opera

For your weekend entertainment: the Battle for Milquarious, a rock opera with the aesthetic of Barbarella and the music of Jesus Christ Superstar, brought to you by the milk processing board. Enjoy.

Drinks With: Gardner Dunn of Yamazki Whisky

During Whisky Week in San Francisco I attended a tasting session in Elixir's classroom space hosted by Gardner Dunn for Yamazaki Whisky. One thing that makes Yamazaki unique is that they use five kinds of barrels from three types of wood in their single malts. We were able to taste a 12-year-old whisky aged in each of American, Spanish (ex-sherry), and Japanese oak to compare. The Japanese oak has a dryer, sandalwood-spice (and "green olive felt" according to my tasting notes that make sense only to me) character that carries through to the final blend.

We talk about Scottish whiskies showing either maritime or inland terroir, and Yamazaki shows its origins too. It is influenced not only by the Japanese oak barrels, but also by the local water source that is softer than in Scotland, and by the higher elevation at which the barrels are stored. (They have several distilleries- I'd need to fact check but I think Dunn said the barrels are stored at warehouses at 2000 and 3000 feet in elevation.) This increased elevation means that the whisky is influenced by the wood at a slower rate than in Scotland. To compensate for this, they use hogshead barrels that they say have more wood influence on the spirit. Furthermore, Yamazaki whiskies are filtered through bamboo charcoal.

Until next month, there were just two Yamazaki whiskies released in the US. The 12-year-old comprises of whisky mostly aged in American oak, whereas the 18-year-old contains a majority of whisky aged in ex-sherry wood.  Soon, though, two new releases will hit the market. From the press release:

Credited as the pinnacle of Suntory’s portfolio, HIBIKI 12 Year Old’s blending process combines bamboo charcoal filtering with aging in plum liqueur casks to create a smoothness no 12-Year Old whisky can match.

Handcrafted in the oldest distillery in Japan, YAMAZAKI 1984 combines the best of Suntory’s age-old processing to deliver an individual and mature taste.  It has a distinctive, cinnamon-like flavor, the result of its key malt, aged in Japanese mizunara casks, the hidden treasure of Suntory.

Finally, Dunn gave us a demo of carving an ice ball, which is sometimes done to order in Japan when one asks for a whisky on the rocks. He went from a big square chunk to a large ice ball in just a few minutes. I know that if I tried this, I'd go from a big square chunk of ice to a bloody messy hand in far less time.

 

Drinks With: Bowmore Whisky Folks and Gold Bowmore Tasting

I met with a stack of Bowmore scotch whisky folks for lunch and a tasting at One Market: Eddie MacAffer, Distillery Manager, Andrew Rankin, Master Blender and Operations Director, Jamie MacKenzie, Regional Manager, plus Robin Coupar, US Brand Manager for several of the whiskies in the Skyy Spirits portfolio.

Bowmore is an Islay whisky and one of only five remaining in Scotland where they malt their own barley. (Not all of it, but they say more than most.) Malting is process of preparing grain for fermentation. Barley is brought in, soaked in water to begin the process of germination, then dried with hot air to halt it. This exposes the starch granules yet preserves the enzymes in the barley that will be needed in fermentation.

At Bowmore they dry the malt with a combination of hand-cut peat that adds the characteristic smoky peaty aspect to Islay whiskies, and hot air for the first 15 hours. Then they finish the job with hot air without peat to keep the smoke level in check.  

Here's a photo of the malting floor that my pal (and now 2009 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year) Joe Ray took:

So much for points of differentiation: It was time for drinking. We started with the 12-year-old, then moved on to the 15. The 15-year-old is just the 12 additionally matured in Oloroso sherry butts for three more years. I'd tried these expressions before but was really looking forward to the older stuff. When Islay whisky is aged for a long time it loses a lot of its smoky qualities while retaining some other maritime influences and gaining new qualities. The 25-year-old was like liquid chocolate; just delicious and rich.

But the real treat was the opportunity to taste the Gold Bowmore. This is the third in a line of very old and very expensive releases. The Black Bowmore was 42 years old. The White Bowmore was 43.

The Gold Bowmore, which will be released soon, is 44 years old. And damnnnnnn it's good. It's completely different from the earlier expressions- grapefruit, salt, almonds, and marzipan initially on the nose, opening to more rich, dried fruity flavors. And on the mouth! chamomile, papaya, yellow raisins, banana sandpaper, fino sherry, heaven. Merely listing flavors doesn't do this whisky justice- it is so bright and alive. Hell, I'd love to feel that fresh at 44 years old! 

I have tasted a few other whiskies this expensive ($6250 per bottle) but never anything anywhere near this delicious. I'm still a little bit tingly.

Cocktails with Laphroaig

The hardest part about judging cocktail contests is going out drinking with the contestants afterward.

Monday evening I helped judge, along with Carlos Yturria and David Nepove, the Laphroaig cocktail contest at Rye in San Francisco. I had a feeling bartenders were going to bring their A-game to this contest and I was correct (as usual!). All of the top five drinks were contest-winning quality, which made choosing between them very difficult. It also made going out barhopping with the non-winners slightly uncomfortable (luckily, there were drinks to fix this), as explaining why you chose one awesome drink over another awesome drink never ends up sounding logical.

So what did people do with Laphroaig? The third place winner was Owen Westman of Rickhouse with the now internationally famous Laphroaig Project. This drink combines Laphroaig with green and yellow Chartreuse, lemon, peach bitters, and maraschino liqueur.

In second place and also the winner of the crowd favorite was the Urban S'more, created by Chase Williams of 21rst Amendment Brewery. It was almost the simplest drink of the night, but the combination of Ghiradelli chocolate and Laphroaig with a vanilla-rosewater cream on top was just plain delicious and best allowed Laphroaig to shine through in the drink.

The winning cocktail was created by Tony Devencenzi, now of Bourbon & Branch, with his drink called the Island Fever. It had a lot of tiki elements to it: It was made with Laphroaig 10 year-old, Tia Maria, lime juice, falernum, and orange bitters, and had a foam on top made of orgeat and chocolate bitters with a Chartreuse spray and grated nutmeg. The drink in the glass was excellent, but it was when you licked the foam off your lips after sipping that it all came together.

[It has come to my attention that #1 is pointing to the wrong drink. Alas.]

Other drinks well worth mention were Yanni Kehagiaras of Nopa's supple two-kinds-ofsherry-plus-Laphroaig drink (with the best drink name of the night) The Eucharist, and Brandon Josie of 15 Romolo's The Devil Never Knew that was made with Laprhoaig, Galliano Ristretto, lemon, cayenne syrup, raspberry lambic beer, peach bitters, and had a foam of (a different) beer and chocolate on top.

You can see how NOT EASY it was to chose a winner from these drinks.

Good news about the winning drinks- you can actually try them! I believe you can get the Urban S'more at 21rst Amendment, you can order the Laphroaig Project at either Bourbon & Branch or Rickhouse, and the Island Fever will be served at WhiskyFest in San Francisco this Friday.

Whiskey Bottle Pr0n

I received a copy of the new book edited by whiskey superstar Charles Maclean, World Whiskey. The book was released by publishing house DK that is known for their heavily illustrated books, and this one is no exception.

Most of the book is bottle shots, information, and one-sentence tasting notes per each of over 700 whiskies mentioned. In between is information on things like blended malts, whiskey glassware, independent bottlers, spotlights on a few of the larger distillers, and whiskey tours- maps of where distilleries are located in different regions around the world.

I was impressed by the number of Japanese whiskies and those from other parts of the world. Overall, this book is a very pretty, quick reference guide to whiskey brands more than it is an in-depth guide to whiskey generally. Still, there is a lot of great information contained in the notes that get to the essence of what you want to know about a brand or region that you can probably flip to faster than you can pull up the appropriate website and click through the age confirmation and annoying flash screens.

I see it's on Amazon for only$16.50, which isn't bad at all for a book of this size (and weight).

Smoke Gets in your Ice

Over the history of cocktails, certain flavors have become trendy during particular years. First the cocktail was invented, then the "fancy" cocktail, then the "improved" cocktail. These variations added liqueurs like curacao, maraschino, and absinthe to the regular formula. In the early 1900's, grenadine was all the rage and suddenly you'd find a splash of it in all the drinks.

A hundred years later, the same thing happens and I run around and try to document it. In 2007 and 2008, what cocktail menu didn't suddenly have three drinks with St. Germain on it?  We're currently seeing a revival in ginger flavored cocktails. And I believe that 2008 and 2009 will be known as the years of smoke.

Bartenders have taken different approaches to putting smoke into drinks. Sometimes, they light stuff on fire to make smoked Coke (Eben Freeman of Tailor), smoked ice (Daniel Shoemaker of Teardrop in Portland), and smoked syrup (Cody Robertson of San Francisco), and in a drink I just learned about, smoked strawberry shrub(!!!) with scotch and bitters at Absinthe. 

Other bartenders add liquid smoke to drinks. An early version of this was in the (awful) Smoky Martini, a Martini with a rinse of scotch, and a (less awful) Martini with a smoke-brined olive inside. In the past couple of years though, it's been all about the rinse. Folks use a rinse of Islay scotch like Laphroaig or Ardbeg, and within the last year they've gone nuts for rinses of mezcal- especially in San Francisco. At Clock Bar they have a drink with Qi black tea liqueur for similar effect. 

As bartenders and consumers get more fetishistic about smoke, it seems they're putting more of it into cocktails. It used to be bartenders would mix half mezcal or Islay scotch in a drink with half tequila or blended scotch so as not to overwhelm the drinker, as in the Carter Beats the Devil cocktail. Now you're more likely to get a full dose of smoke but tempered with robust mixers like pineapple gum syrup in the Single Village Fix. 

Luckily I have a very trendy palate, and have been sucking down smoky cocktails like they're going out of style. And they will, of course, but hopefully not until sometime in mid-2010.