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The Tequila-Sherry Connection

Every time I look for sherry I find tequila there too. What is it with the tequila people and the sherry people being the same people?  

Steven Olson aka Wine Geek is both a tequila and mezcal ambassador and also a sherry ambassador. 

Jacques Bezuidenhout, Partida tequila brand ambassador and sometimes sherry ambassador, also created of the La Perla cocktail with both tequila and sherry. 

George Sandeman of the Sandeman sherry and port family is a huge tequila fan. 

On a recent trip to Spain with Steve Olsen were Phil Ward and Katie Stipe of Mayahuel, the tequila-and-mezcal bar in New York. 

Gitane restaurant in San Francisco has a drink with tequila, PX, lime, and ginger beer. 

And just the other day I got a recipe pitch from Espolon tequila with this recipe from H. Ehrmann of Elixir:

Ashes to Ashes

1.5 oz. Espolón Tequila Reposado
.5 oz. Pedro Ximenez Sherry
1 oz. Lemon Juice
1 tsp. Sweetened Cocoa Mix
.25 oz. Agave Nectar
1 pinch Ground Cinnamon

Place all ingredients in a mixing glass, fill with ice, cover and shake well for 10 seconds. Strain up into a cocktail glass. Garnish with cinnamon dust.

I also love both sherry and tequila, but I don't know what they have to do with each other. 

What gives? 

Good Info on Pineau des Charentes

Importer Nicolas Palazzi brought in a delicious barrel of cognac that I sampled earlier this year. Soon to arrive on US shores is another import project, a long-aged Pineau des Charentes. 

In announcing the new bottling, Nicolas sent a great and very practical description of pineau, how it is made, and why we don't see too much of it outside of France and Belgium. I have pasted it below.

After the general description I've pasted specifics as to the bottling that he is importing. 

If you are not familiar with what Pineau des Charentes is, no worries, no-one is; only two areas in the Galaxy consume Pineau in quantities: the Cognac region itself and....Belgium (I have always found mind-bending how such a small country could absorb that much alcohol...). Anyway, Pineau des Charentes - we will call it simply "Pineau",  "des Charentes" simply pointing to its provenance, from the Charentes Departments of France - is a sweet wine that can be white, red or rose and made in the Cognac region, using cognac as one of its components.

Indeed when making cognac, once the grapes are harvested in late September, they are destemmed then pressed to extract the juice. This juice will ferment (the sugar of the grapes being converted into alcohol thanks to the presence of yeasts) into a dry wine which is distilled twice in copper pot stills. The unaged eau-de-vie (water of life) is put in oak casks made of french wood; only after having spent at least two years in barrels can this spirit legally be called cognac.

Now what about Pineau? A few artisan distillers take some of this fermenting grape must and, before fermentation is over and all the sugar has been converted into alcohol, simply add cognac to it. The addition of eau-de-vie stops the fermentation immediately, the alcohol killing the yeasts.Part of the sugar is still present making for a sweet dessert wine, technically belonging to the Fortified Wine category like Port, Sherry, Madeira etc... The alcohol content of the resulting wine is usually between 17% Alc./Vol (34 % ABV) and 20% Alc./Vol (40 % ABV). Pineau is then aged in casks, usually on its lies to give it more complexity.

So why do only very few people know about Pineau? Well, in France most Pineaux available in the marketplace are young (have not been aged for a long time) therefore lacking complexity; as a result they do not attract the attention of wine or liquor enthusiasts. Because it is unrecognized, most connoisseurs never had the opportunity to taste how complex and refined a very old Pineau can be.Of course the absence of marketing make the export market completely inexistent. Thank God for Belgium and it's consumption of more than 2/3 of the Pineau output...

The provenance of the cognac used is another factor that plays an important role in the very average quality of the Pineau out there:Pineau from the Grande and Petite Champagnes can age longer and get more complexity over time than the ones made in the Bois areas of the Cognac region.Now because the demand for Pineau is small, Cognac's first and second growth - respectively the Grande and Petite Champagnes areas - rather than using part of their cognacs to make Pineau, prefer selling all of their eaux-de-vie as straight cognac which will command a higher price tag. As a consequence, makers from the Fin Bois, Bon Bois and Bois Ordinaires are the source of the majority of the Pineau production, their cognacs being less susceptible to age, therefore more affordable an ingredient to use.

Of course, a few passionate artisan cognac distillers do not follow the rule.

And now, information about the bottle Nicolas is bringing in to the US:

Case in point, my friend Dominique in the Grande Champagne; as a total Pineau geek, he has been putting as much care in his sweet wines as he does in his cognacs, aging both for decades the way his family has been doing for generations.

After tasting through Dominique's oldest barrels, I have decided to bottle one fabulous cask that has been seating in his cellar for longer than my adult life. This white Pineau took on an almost pinkish hue due to both the slow maturation in barrels (oxydation) as well as the prolonged contact with its lies; at 17.5 % Alc./Vol (35% ABV), it's residual sweetness is perfectly balanced by a high acidity that makes it one of the best sweet wines I have had the chance to taste in a long time. I have bottled a bit over 600 bottles - 679 to be precise.Let's see how it goes, those bottles are somewhere on the Atlantic ocean as I write and should arrive in NY by mid October...

Check the website for further details on this bottling. 

Berlin Souvenirs

I came home with two souvenirs from my time in Berlin last week.

The first is the autograph on what is probably the first cocktail book I ever purchased: Charles Schumann's American Bar. I have the 1995 Crate & Barrel edition, back from when the whole space lounge trend was gaining popularity and you could buy Esquivel CDs, bird bath-sized cocktail glasses, a leopard print-covered bar, and this book all at the same store. 

Ahh, memories. What I didn't know is that Charles Schumann is still a very popular and important figure in German bartending. He just came out with a signature line of glassware and is famous enough that he also poses in ads as a sort of celebrity fashion model for clothing. 

I also brought back some souvenir ready-to-drink beverages that look like candy bars. They're called BUM, which is terrific. I have one in vodka-mix/bitter lemon and the other in vodka-mix/energy-taste flavor. I am sure they both taste like class. 

WhiskyFest Winners

Friday night was WhiskyFest San Francisco. Here are a few things I tried and enjoyed:

• Whistlepig Rye Whiskey- 100% rye, aged ten years. Tastes just like rye bread and I wanted to mix it in a cocktail with dill pickles and sauerkraut. 
• Suntory Yamazaki 1984 - yummers
• Aberfeldy 21 year-old 
• St. George spirits K&L Single Barrel Whiskey - If I remember correctly it was aged 7 years in new American oak or ex-bourbon, followed by 4 years in an ex-apple brandy barrel. Tastes appley and wonderful.
• Old Pulteney 30 year - Old Pulteney is always better when it's old
• Tomatin 15 year and 18 year - the 15 is all ex-bourbon and the 18 is finished in ex-sherry. My first time trying Tomatin. Both interesting. 
• Charbay Folle Blanche 1983 Alambic Pot Still Brandy - The most interesting thing I tried at WhiskyFest was a brandy of all things. Tasted like what I imagine a Christmas rum raisin cake tastes like; juicy allspice. 

Almond Milk Enters the Cocktailsphere

I have been tracking how different not-obvious products and categories have been entering the world of cocktails, as I think this is a good indicator of how culturally important cocktails have become. Everyone wants a piece of the action. 

(Related: I got a ridiculous pitch today for cocktails made with the neon-colored Alize liqueurs that are somehow supposed to be era-appropriate for Mad Men. This says a lot about the cultural impact of Mad Men, and also a thing or two about the people marketing Alize...)

I've tracked before how cruise lines, airlines, tourism boards, the National Peanut Board, a tomato juice company, and the Wisconsin Cheese Board are all jumping on the cocktail bandwagon. 

More in the realm of mixers, along with coconut water, POM pomegranate juice, and the Cranberry Marketing Board, all of which have gone after the cocktail market, Almond Breeze brand almond milk has entered the fray. I just got a press release with a recipe for two drinks: a hot chocolate and an almond milk Hot Toddy. 

I am guessing they could do a lot more with the product. For a while now I've been considering experimenting with almond milk to make a low-alcohol Mai Tai. 

Getting Sticky with Ginger Syrup

In my latest post on the Fine Cooking website, I introduce the cocktail format of the Buck, and describe how to make ginger syrup. It's not hard- even I can do it without too many cuts and bruises. Check it out. 

More Airline Menus Up

Over at the Airline Drink Menu Page I added two scans from my Continental domestic and international flights this past week. 

Continental now offers vodka and Red Bull, so you can treat the plane like a nightclub. 

I also think it's weird that they list the Stirrings mix with Bacardi as a cocktail, but a canned Margarita mix in the spirits category.

One can hope that eventually an airline will carry 100% agave tequila. 

A Cramped Little Man with Horn-Rimmed Glasses

The German paper Zeit wrote up the Bar Convent Berlin, where I was this past week. Most of the article is about the talk I gave with Phil Duff and Elayne Duke on future trends in global mixology. 

 

Of course I can't read it, so I used Google Translate. 

The best part of the translation is the author calling Philip Duff "professionally cuddly." Another highlight is my description: 

Although most of the time talking to Duff, he is not alone on the stage. Beside him sits a little cramped, a man with horn-rimmed glasses named Camper English, who as a cocktail blogger from San Francisco to see there.

"We can see straight," says English, "that the cards in cocktail bars are getting shorter. Where once 60-80 drinks to choose from were, there are now only 6-10 cocktails. In general, the time of showing is over. At the same time the ingredients and quality become more important. " Spoke for the increasing number of so-called "boutique distilleries" and produce a little micro-distilleries, high quality and unusual spirits. More than 160 would already be in the U.S. alone, every day it would be more. Promo Two girls in tight leather pants and plunging necklines walk to coincide with a magnum bottle of whiskey through the audience. Just as they would do camper poor English with his eulogy to the growing taste for quality and claim the lie.

Read the whole story (in whatever language you want) here. 

All of the reporting on the Mixology.eu website from your favorite little cramped man who wears horn-rimmed glasses is here.