A study published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications Chemistry revealed that a new algorithm was able to correctly identify which chateau red Bordeaux wines were from with 100 percent accuracy by analyzing their chemical profiles. This research has implications for both determining the quality of a wine as well as its authenticity, with a potential application for detecting wine fraud.

The study was conducted by Alexandre Pouget at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, where he and his colleagues used machine learning to analyze the chemical composition of 80 red wines, from vintages ranging from 1990 to 2007 from seven estates in Bordeaux.

“We were interested in finding out whether there is a chemical signature that is specific to each of those chateaux that’s independent of vintage,” Pouget said to NewScientist. “Meaning one estate’s wines would have a very similar chemical profile, and therefore taste, year after year.”

Each wine was vaporized and separated into its chemical components, which resulted in a gas chromatogram — essentially the wine’s chemical fingerprint. The team used 73 of these chromatograms to train the machine-learning algorithm, and then gave the system information on the estate and vintage those wines were from. They then tested the algorithm on the seven remaining wines 50 times each, alternating their order. The algorithm correctly guessed which chateaux the wines were from 100 percent of the time, and was 50 percent accurate at guessing the wines’ vintages.

Even more impressive: the algorithm could also successfully determine which estate the wine was from with only five percent of the chromatogram data, using portions of the data that didn’t present any notable peaks or differences discernible to the human eye.

“This shows that a wine’s unique taste and feel in the mouth doesn’t depend on a handful of key molecules, but rather on the overall concentration of many, many molecules,” Pouget told NewScientist.

The program also accurately grouped wines near each other that are from similar areas of Bordeaux. (For example, it clustered wines from the right bank, including Pomerol and St. Emilion, separate from the left bank estates.) This finding validates the claims of many wine aficionados that wine can express a certain sense of place. The validity of “terroir” and its effect on wine’s flavor is often brought into question, but this study strongly suggests that wines do have different properties depending on where they come from. That said, it would be interesting to see this study replicated in a region like Burgundy, where wines are made with one varietal instead of blends, meaning the only variables would be vineyard site and producer.

This technology could also be applied to detecting fraudulent wines. This research was conducted with some of the top houses of Bordeaux that are often imitated and sold as fakes. With the accuracy of this algorithm, there’s hope it could one day be used to l suss out imposter wines and prevent rampant fraud.

The article AI Correctly Identifies Bordeaux Wine Chateaus, But Does This Prove Terroir Is Real? appeared first on VinePair.

As integral as the cocktail is to contemporary culture, it’s surprising to learn that its exact origins are still subject to much debate. Many archivists point to an 1806 news column out of Hudson, N.Y., explicitly defining the term as a “a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters.” But long before the wording was coined, the concept of a mixed drink was widely embraced in British punch houses throughout the 18th century.

Scholars may never form a consensus on where the cocktail was invented. There is little debate, however, as to where it was perfected. Those geographic boundaries lie squarely within London. Today the city honors this liquid legacy by proudly donning the crown of world’s best cocktail destination. The journey to the top has not been without its ups and downs.

A 160-Year Heritage

“Only after working in London was Jerry Thomas inspired to write ‘The Bartender’s Guide,’ the first book to contain cocktail recipes,” explains Jared Brown, cocktail historian and master distiller at Sipsmith Gin. “He included many recipes he discovered while here.”

Even before Thomas’s tome hit shelves in 1862, the British capital was already an aspirational destination for bartenders, according to Brown. The skillset initially developed out of dire necessity. During the “Gin Craze” of the mid-1700s, some 15,000 sipping shops sprang up across the city. The great majority of them were serving spirits of questionable quality. It was up to merchants to subterfuge the swill with whatever additives they could get their hands on. The more elaborate the disguise, the more clientele they could attract.

And as the British Empire expanded, so too did international importation. Rums began arriving from the New World, joining French brandies, fortified wines of Spain and Portugal, and Irish whiskeys already lining London backbars. In other words, bartenders here had a wide array of ingredients with which to craft their creations. Customers, in turn, could now lay claim to worldliness, simply by spending more time with their local publican. The act of imbibing, then, assumed a more aristocratic veneer.

“The drinking class in the U.K. has always been held to a high level of decorum, and has brought civility and elegance to bars and even the drinks,” Brown says. “The Martini found its black tie image here versus, for example, its green apple identity in Los Angeles. When cocktails lost to wine and craft beers in the 1980s, London hotel and restaurant bars remained entrenched in tradition.”

The city served it in spades, leaning into the folklore of its most iconic venues, like the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel and Dukes in Mayfair. At the former, the memory of homegrown talent such as Harry Craddock and Ada Coleman was enshrined by a new generation of masters. At the latter, Salvatore Calabrese launched a drinks program devoted to recreating liquid history. Preservation of the past sustained the local scene even as cocktails faced an uncertain future on the global stage.

Tradition-Tweaking-On-Thames

Of course, with the birth of the modern cocktail revival — beginning in the late ‘90s — those fortunes changed quite considerably. But the nascent movement favored innovation, more so than traditionalism. And it was taking off in places far beyond British borders. Namely: New York, San Francisco, Portland, and Paris. To keep up, even the most staunchly conservative drinking parlors had to pivot to incorporate playfulness. They found an audience that was instantly receptive.

“English people are especially inclined to be adventurous,” says Alessandro Palazzi, who has been playing to their preferences since 1975. “About 25 years ago I started making a white truffle Martini at Dukes. If I had done that in Italy, they would have thrown me in the sea, hoping that the sharks eat me!”

While the scene benefits from a perpetual openness on the consumer side of the stick, the biggest boon for experimentation comes from behind the bar.

“Although other cities have interesting cultural mixes, London layers together more variety in such a seamless way,” says Noel Venning of Three Sheets bar in Dalston. “This has led to a much richer food and drink scene, and one which owes so much to the people that have brought their brilliance to the mix. As a result, you have such a complexity that gives confidence to people investing and pushing things further.”

“London is a multicultural hub that welcomes creativity, connections, and innovation. It’s impossible not to be inspired by the diversity of influences and the endless opportunities that the city offers to those people who seek to express themselves.”

When it comes to beverage specifically, London has worked hard to leverage its international standing to attract top talent. In 2010, it became the first place on Earth to launch its own dedicated Cocktail Week. The 10-day-long confab, which now occurs annually in mid-October, cemented the city’s status at the vanguard of drinks culture. Two years later, it hosted the inaugural event for World’s 50 Best Bars. Since that time, the city has never failed to land at least one of its bars in the top three of the annual ranking (there have only been four instances when a London bar didn’t take home the top spot).

The age of innovation accelerated into high gear in 2014 with the debut of Dandelyan along the South Bank of the River Thames. There, head bartender Ryan Chetiyawardana helped normalize the concept of a cocktail lab. He incorporated clarified additives, nitrogenated produce, and other components that seemed more like leftovers from a science experiment than ingredients in a mixed drink. Today he continues to push the envelope at the reconceptualized Mr. Lyan, inside the same space.

His efforts are now echoed by Remy Savage and co. at A Bar With Shapes for A Name. The drinks are inspired as much by art as they are by flavor profile. But execution never takes a backseat to presentation. Monica Berg and Alex Kratena of Tayēr + Elementary encourage their guests to step outside the bounds of familiar without having to use fancy scientific tech. Everything is craft by hand, at the center of the bar. And at Kwānt — newly reopened in Mayfair — Eric Lorincz fuses classical with modern, delivering billowing clouds of smoked hickory atop carbonated sherry preparations.

“The inclusivity of our bar culture is like no other I have witnessed. We’re the best cocktail city in the world because it is a community, a family.”

“London is a multicultural hub that welcomes creativity, connections, and innovation,” says Ago Perrone, director of mixology at the award-winning Connaught Bar. “It’s impossible not to be inspired by the diversity of influences and the endless opportunities that the city offers to those people who seek to express themselves.”

A Rich Tapestry of Tastemakers

So many of the talented folks pushing things forward are bartenders who arrived from beyond the English Channel. But Perrone — who himself is an Italian immigrant — doesn’t seem too worried that the self-inflicted barrier of Brexit is affecting the city’s status as top tastemaker.

For now, that belief is backed up by a battery of exciting openings across the landscape. At Nipperkin in Mayfair, bartender Giuseppe Destefano is heading up one of the most exciting new drinks programs anywhere. A zero-waste ethos is implemented by working leftovers from the upstairs kitchen into a number of infusions and distillates, which work their way into drinks in the subterranean drinking parlor. Other notable additions include the whisky-centric Dram Bar in Soho, as well as Paloma, with its agave and rum-focused offerings.

“The diversity of bars within London is amazing, there is a place for everyone,” says Sophie Bratt, who manages the bar at the Nobu Hotel in Portman Square. “The inclusivity of our bar culture is like no other I have witnessed. We’re the best cocktail city in the world because it is a community, a family.”

It is everything, everywhere, all at once. You can imbibe centuries worth of history, unfettered. Or you can absorb the avant-garde, as you wish. A diverse array of talent from across the globe is here, drawing from a broad spectrum of styles, pouring it all in a multitude of environments. And it’s all accessible in equal measure. Just like the commendable combination of spirit, sugar, water and bitters you’ll find at any of these venues, the supremacy of London’s drink scene all boils down to balance.

But if you’re an avid drinker simply surfacing for a visit, be forewarned: You might never want to leave. “My fate was determined back in 1996, when Peter Dorelli at the Savoy made me the best Martini of my life,” recalls Brown. “I knew then I would one day live in the U.K. And while I travel the world enjoying great cocktails, I am always happy to return home once again.”

The article How London Claimed the Global Cocktail Crown appeared first on VinePair.

In case you haven’t heard, tequila is hot right now — so hot that it’s on track to overtake vodka in on-premise popularity. So, if you have an agave lover in your life, there’s never been a better time to surprise them with a bottle that will knock their socks off. Still, with the ever-growing hoard of celebrity launches, old-school brands, and newcomers on shelves today, narrowing down the best bottle to gift can be tough. That’s why we picked out the seven best choices for gift-giving.

From budget-friendly picks to splurges for those special to you, this is the ultimate list for the best tequilas to gift this holiday season.

Best budget tequila: Mi Campo Blanco
Best splurge tequila: Destileria Santanera Tahona Blanco
Best tequila for beginners: Teremana Small Batch Blanco
Best tequila for agave geeks: G4 Tequila Blanco de Madera
Best tequila for cocktail lovers: Gran Centenario Plata
Best tequila to impress: Patrón El Alto Tequila Reposado
Best high-ABV tequila: Tequila Tapatio Blanco 110

Best Budget Tequila

Mi Campo Blanco

Aged for three weeks in used French oak barrels, Mi Campo Blanco is uncommon as far as blancos go, making it a great expression to give to someone looking to further experiment in the agave arena. Rich and deep, the blanco is great for sipping on its own, but it also really shines in cocktails. And at just $24, it’s the perfect pick for big-batch Margaritas.

Average Price: $24
Rating: 90

Best Splurge Tequila

Destileria Santanera Tahona Blanco

Looking to impress with a big buy this season? Look no further than Destileria Santanera’s Tahona Blanco. As its name suggests, the expression is made using the tahona process, a traditional method of tequila production in which volcanic stone is used to crush Blue Weber agave and extract its juices for distillation. The process is known for producing slightly smoother and sweeter profiles, and its results can be tasted here. Bottled at 41 percent ABV, this blanco carries a luscious mouthfeel and notes of agave and black pepper that make it versatile enough for sipping neat, over ice, or in a cocktail.

Average Price: $106
Rating: 94

Best Tequila for Beginners

Teremana Small Batch Blanco

Teremana Small Batch Blanco is an ideal starting point for those just dipping their toes into the world of agave spirits. Launched by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in March 2020, the brand kicked off its portfolio with a blanco and a reposado. The former delivers approachable aromas of pineapple, pepper, and vegetal agave with a fruit-forward palate.

Average Price: $31
Rating: 92

Best Tequila for Agave Geeks

G4 Tequila Blanco de Madera

Bottled at 45 percent ABV, G4 Tequila Blanco de Madera is a stunning selection for the tequila-heads in your life. Fermented using wooden vats — a departure from G4’s typical fermentation in stainless steel — this tequila teems with earthy and vegetal notes sure to please agave aficionados. If you come across this bottle, be sure to snag it.

Average Price: $60
Rating: 95

Best Tequila for Cocktail Lovers

Gran Centenario Plata

Not only does Gran Centenario Plata deliver flavors suited for shaking into a Paloma or topping off with Topo Chico for a Ranch Water, but its bottle is also beautiful enough to take center stage on your giftee’s bar cart. The tequila, which is blended in French Limousin oak barrels, brims with bright, citrusy agave notes.

Average Price: $28
Rating: 90

Best Tequila to Impress

Patrón El Alto Tequila Reposado

If you really like someone — and we mean really like them — consider splurging on Patrón’s El Alto Tequila Reposado, one of the newer additions to the beloved brand’s lineup. While the name may suggest this tequila is another reposado, it’s actually a blend of reposado, añejo, and extra añejo distillates, resulting in a luscious spirit with a seductive flavor profile. With green agave on the nose and palate that’s rounded out by vanilla oak, El Alto is definitely an investment, but it’s certain to earn you some favor this holiday season.

Average Price: $200
Rating: 93

Best High-ABV Tequila

Tequila Tapatio Blanco 110

When it comes to high-ABV tequilas, Tequila Tapatio Blanco 110 is the gold standard. Bottled at 110 proof, or 55 percent ABV, Tapatio Blanco 110 maintains the highest legal alcohol content for the tequila category but still doesn’t singe the taste buds. Instead, it delivers fresh agave and minty aromas before washing the plate with notes of vegetal agave, cinnamon, and a splash of citrus.

Average Price: $70
Rating: 92

The article The 7 Best Tequilas to Gift This Holiday (2023) appeared first on VinePair.

Pata and David Airaudi loved drinking sparkling wines, but didn’t feel connected to the brands available on the market. So in 2012, the California-based married couple set out to craft their own bubbly, incorporating classic Champagne traditions with their West Coast philosophy. The result was Sapere, a sparkling wine that’s distinctly Californian.

Pata has always loved surfing and spending time in the Golden State sun, and it’s evident that she applies her passion and respect for the land into making Sapere wines. The brand’s website greets you with the duo’s ethos: “To make wine is to make a pledge with the earth, to accept that at best we may briefly align with all that nature endows and capture a moment, as nature moves on unconcerned.” By paying attention to the region’s climate and biodiversity, Sapere crafts terroir-driven sparkling wines with minimal intervention.

We spoke with Pata to learn more about her approach to making the environmentally driven, bright, and bubbly Sapere wines. Read on to learn more about the inspiration behind the brand as well as its future.

1. What inspired you to create Sapere Wines?

I have an eclectic crew of family and friends in L.A. — musicians, artists, entrepreneurs from all walks of life — and we found ourselves drinking more and more sparkling wines and rosés. But nothing spoke to us, flavor profile or brand-wise, and this was 2010, so pre-rosé boom. We had a couple of Napa-based friends, so we decided to make a wine that fit what we were looking for ourselves.

2. Why sparkling wines?

Who doesn’t love bubbles? You can’t help but smile when you say bubbles. Honestly, I didn’t really know about sparkling wines, as it wasn’t in my or my family and friend’s world, but the more I tried them, the more obsessed I became. It was grower Champagnes that really inspired me. They’re still hard to find in the U.S., but back then, it was nearly impossible. I would stumble on these wonderfully vibrant and creative sparkling wines that tasted nothing like the traditional Champagne. It made me realize the same innovative spirit could be applied to bubbles in California.

3. You worked apprenticeships in Tuscany and France. Did this influence your winemaking style?

Absolutely. There’s so much knowledge there, so when the opportunity allows, I learn what I can and try to apply the principles here in California. I say “principles” since too many wines try to copy what’s done there, but you can’t copy climate and soil and history. I feel having studied in the field as opposed to the classroom works best for me, as it has given me the freedom to think outside the box. I would really like to go to study in Georgia as they have thousands of more years of history in winemaking than Western Europe. Could you imagine Sapere Saperavi bubbles?

4. Why was it important for you to take a no-additives approach to the wines?

Additives just don’t make sense. It doesn’t help the wine, but it does hurt the body, so why? My goal is to make great wines that people love while they are drinking them, the next morning, and 40 years later.

5. How does your connection with nature influence Sapere Wines?

Wine is agriculture. We dress it up pretty, but we grow fruit in the dirt. And in that process, nature is your partner. [From] crushed rocks from billions of years ago and a cloud formation from last week, we are reliant on things much bigger than us. You have to respect it and carry that respect through the whole of the journey.

6. You’re also a surfer. Do you find any commonalities between surfing and winemaking?

I only surf when it’s warm and I’m on vacation, so these days that’s far and few! But being based in Venice, most of the crew are surfers. Both [surfing and making wine] are about harmony with nature, not being afraid to fall down and get back up, and ultimately being reminded by the earth that as much as you try, you are not in control! Shout out to Ebony Beach Club, Color the Water, Yoniswell Crew, and SoFly Surf School — all wonderful surf collectives that are all about bringing more diversity to the surfing community.

7. What is your goal for the future of Sapere?

We want to include a whole new generation of wine drinkers into world-class bubbles. There’s such a misplaced desire to copy Champagne and the Old-World euro luxury that goes with it, but that’s not us, that’s not the true story of bubbles. We want to expand the story.

The article Sun, Surf, and Sparkling: How Pata Airaudi California-fied Sapere Wines appeared first on VinePair.

This episode of “The VinePair Podcast” is sponsored by The Prisoner Wine Company. You’ll find everything you need to cross off your gifting list at The Prisoner Wine Company’s website. From stocking stuffers to gift sets, bar tools, and show stoppers, give the gift of premium California wine this holiday season. Head to theprisonerwinecompany.com to shop now, and order by Dec. 14 to receive in time for the holidays.

Since 2020, there has been a palpable shift in how service plays into the overall dining-out experience. It’s tough to pin down exactly what is going on, but as the VinePair Podcast team suggests, it’s more of a vibes thing. Carrying that vibe? The fact that servers are now generally less attentive and friendly than they used to be.

There’s also the social media of it all. These days, over 55 percent of Gen Z gets their news from TikTok, and food critics have started falling behind social media influencers as the tastemakers in the restaurant world. As such, having an “Instagrammable” spectacle of a dish on a menu is worth its weight in gold, while receiving a glowing review from a well-respected publication becomes increasingly irrelevant. It should come as no surprise that building hype and the potential for internet virality are taking priority over stellar service. After all, an engaging experience with a server won’t harness many views on TikTok, but a carbonara served tableside in a flaming cheese wheel certainly will.

Today on the “VinePair Podcast,” Adam, Joanna, and Zach debate whether or not restaurant and bar hospitality has changed since Covid. Could the increasing importance of TikTok and Instagram be driving a new type of customer engagement, or has attrition in the workforce since the pandemic had a lasting impact? Tune in for more.

Zach is drinking: Brooks Wine Sparkling Riesling
Joanna is drinking: Vodka Martini with Tequila
Adam is drinking: Hoste Cocktails Gold Fashioned

Listen Online

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

The article The VinePair Podcast: Has Hospitality Changed Since Covid? appeared first on VinePair.

Commitment and innovation are two words that immediately spring to mind when it comes to Louisville, Ky.’s Rabbit Hole Distillery. With a relentless commitment to crafting original expressions of whiskey, founder Kaveh Zamanian’s determination to challenge the status quo and offer a new vision of what authentic premium American whiskey can be has yielded a company with over a decade under its belt — with no signs of slowing down.

From a steadfast commitment to reducing its carbon footprint to partnering with well-respected cooperages and small-batch grain suppliers, Rabbit Hole honors the past while putting its own unique spin on things. From its four-grain, high-rye, and sherry cask-finished bourbon to its Bespoke Gin (finished in Kentucky rye barrels) and Liddel Vodka (which is filtered through Kentucky limestone), this distillery has built a reputation for a focus on quality and innovation that truly sets it apart.

Yes, Rabbit Hole is breaking proverbial molds left and right, but with a deep respect for Kentucky’s storied whiskey-making traditions and culture.

Individuality and Excellence With No Shortcuts

Rabbit Hole works with one-of-a-kind recipes using mash bills (a mix of grains used to create whiskey) that have garnered a groundswell in the industry, inspiring bourbon drinkers to learn more about America’s native spirit. “Bourbon is meant to be enjoyed, with no exclusivity as to how. Let it serve as a reminder to be unapologetically yourself,” Zamanian says. “Meant to be served and sipped on however you’d like without outside opinion. Don’t let anyone tell you how to have your bourbon.”

Kaveh was drawn to b\ourbon by the creative possibilities within its defined parameters. His mantra, “Bourbon is 51 percent corn and 49 percent possibility,” emphasizes the opportunity for innovation in the remaining 49 percent of the mash bill, blending strict bourbon standards with imaginative flavor exploration.

Rabbit Hole’s bourbons are comprised of 30 percent malted grains, which bring out unique and complex flavors, from butterscotch and citrus to black tea and brown sugar. The distillery takes extra care to malt all the secondary grains to maximize their depth, yielding flavor profiles of distinction. 

The spirits are coaxed from high-caliber raw components and then carefully aged under their collective team’s watchful eyes. Never chill-filtered (a commonly used process that causes significant loss of flavor), Rabbit Hole’s approach certainly sets it apart from many big bourbon brands. This method brings out the robust, earthy, rich, creamy, umami flavors that passionate gourbon lovers enjoy. 

Additionally, its whiskeys are 110 proof at barrel entry, which imparts a rich mouthfeel and more robust flavors. This technique means a lower yield, but Rabbit Hole is more concerned with creating memorable flavor profiles than having a high yield. 

Rabbit Hole’s partners at Kelvin Cooperage craft some of the finest barrels in the business, taking the time to carefully produce sturdy American oak vessels that hold and season Rabbit Hole’s signature whiskeys. All bourbon is required to be aged in new, charred American oak barrels. In addition to charring, they slowly hand toast their barrels over natural wood-fired flames — think about toasting a marshmallow. A meticulous approach that takes upwards of 20 minutes per barrel, it releases caramelized sugars from deep within the oak’s fibers. The result? Nuanced flavors amalgamate with the unique distillate during the aging process, unparalleled flavor, and complexity.

This takes time, but it’s an integral part of crafting premium spirits that absorb the elegant subtleties imparted by the charred and toasted wooden slats. Once the bourbon reaches maturity, it’s carefully harvested in small batches of no more than 15 barrels to create Rabbit Hole’s premium whiskey. Since there is no legal definition of how many barrels constitute a “small batch,” Rabbit Hole is purposeful in defining its approach as an “extreme small batch.” This graceful alchemy of distillate and wood merges to create something great — together.

The diverse range of grain makeups, culinary approach, barrel toasting and charring, aging methods, and approach to distillation, are all guided by Rabbit Hole’s principles: No shortcuts, no compromise, nothing left to chance. This philosophy contributes to a line of products that are redefining the standard of American whiskey, bringing a fresh and truly innovative approach to whiskey making.

Whether you’re one to sip your spirits neat, on the rocks, or in a craft cocktail, Rabbit Hole’s Cavehill, Heigold, or Dareringer Bourbons and Boxergrail Rye Whiskey are created with the utmost care and dedication to excellence. They also produce a Founder’s Collection limited-edition series of elegantly packaged bottles — excellent gifts for even the most discerning whiskey lover on your list.

A Grain-to-Glass Legacy

Building a legacy is tantamount to Kamanian, his family, and Rabbit Hole’s ethos, and sustainability is a huge part of that endeavor. From where the grain is sourced to the facilities and what happens to the waste (it goes to local cattle farmers to provide a protein-rich diet at no cost to the farmers), Rabbit Hole cares.

Once grain arrives, the state-of-the-art distillery takes advantage of gravity, eliminating the need for pumps and electricity during this process. The building’s interior features an inverted butterfly design, which collects and recirculates the air, and the metal used in the atrium was locally sourced. The stunning exterior was created using locally sourced wood, which screens and minimizes radiant heat, and the cooker and copper still generate enough heat to warm the entire building, eliminating the need for a heating system.

Recently, Rabbit Hole Distillery was awarded the Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR® certification. This places Rabbit Hole among the first-ever distilleries (one of only eifght) to receive the certification, placing it in the top 25 percent of U.S. facilities for energy efficiency and performance.

The structure itself is an expression of Rabbit Hole’s commitment to full transparency. From sourcing exceptional ingredients and supplies to production methods, it’s all in plain view for guests to see. Rabbit Hole’s signature style is what makes it exceptional.

Bringing People Together

Since 2012, Zamanian has dedicated his life to honoring bourbon’s traditions while expanding its horizons through creativity. Rabbit Hole is a collective working toward one goal: making great whiskey.

In addition to savoring these spirits at home, you can book a tour of the Louisville facility; it’s truly an homage to the art and science of whiskey making. Heralded as “the architectural icon of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail,” it also houses an extensive art collection and a luxury event space.

Louisville’s vibrant community and collaborative energy are part of the terroir of Rabbit Hole’s line of spirits. Responsible, passionate, efficient, and mindful of the environmental impact — the legacy is in barrels of spirits that are yet to come of age, waiting to be fully realized. Rabbit Hole invites you to partake in the journey, one sip at a time. 

This article is sponsored by Rabbit Hole.

The article How Rabbit Hole Distillery Is Redefining American Whiskey Through Passion and Ingenuity appeared first on VinePair.

We’ve got the holidays down to a science: Research shows that nearly 70 percent of wine consumers have enjoyed at least one of these three varietals — Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay — in the last three months.

We’ve selected three palate-pleasing wines from California that absolutely nail gift-giving, hosting, and toasting: the light, bright 2021 William Hill California Chardonnay; the medium-bodied, silky 2022 Hahn Founder’s Pinot Noir; and the full-bodied, food-friendly champion 2019 Franciscan Monterey County Cabernet Sauvignon. Having all three covers the light-to-dark wine taste spectrum and gives you great wines to have on hand for the season. 

Gifting

Think White Elephant party, a last-minute gingerbread house decorating contest, or ready-to-go hostess gifts. No matter what festivities are in store for you, these three crowd-pleasing styles check all the boxes so you can be confident when giving them as a gift — all you have to do is add ribbon.

If you’re looking to impress, craft a custom gift basket including all three: Franciscan Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Hahn Pinot Noir, and William Hill Estate Chardonnay. Add some light snacks, a wine opener, and a nice set of stemmed wine glasses for an instantly elegant gift. With such sought-after varieties all in one place, it’s a gift that keeps giving long after it’s unwrapped.

Hosting 

It’s your time to shine. Whether holiday entertaining looks more like bejeweled formal affairs or afternoon football games, this trio of wines speaks to different palates. For the lover of big, bold red wines, there’s Franciscan Estate California Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine was expertly crafted to pair beautifully with an array of food. It’s equally at home with Black Angus burgers charred on the grill, miniature grilled cheeses, cranberry sauce-drizzled finger sandwiches, and much more.

The spiciest of the trio, Hahn Pinot Noir is lighter bodied than the Cabernet Sauvignon and brimming with rich notes of crushed blackberry and bing cherry alongside hints of vanilla and a little earthy allspice. Serve this Pinot Noir alongside spice-rubbed ribeye, a hearty winter stew, or, for those brave enough to admit liking it, fruitcake.

For white wine fans, William Hill Estate Chardonnay is guaranteed to wow with aromas of fresh-baked brioche and toasted caramel. Layers of apple and pear and a zip of lemon zest brighten the palate. Hollow out a bread bowl and fill it with crab dip or serve it alongside crab cakes. This Chardonnay’s creamy, buttery texture and accents of lemon blend seamlessly with mini cheesecakes as well. 

Make entertaining even easier by setting out all three wines next to a charcuterie board. For the Cabernet Sauvignon, cuts of salami and berry-accented Gouda make perfect complements. Meanwhile, Gruyère and toasted almonds highlight the dark fruit notes in the Pinot Noir. Paper-thin prosciutto and creamy apple and honey-topped Brie bring out the Chardonnay’s balanced acidity and hints of tropical fruit.

Toasting

You’ve gifted and hosted, and now you’re ready to toast! It’s New Year’s Eve, and who wants to cook? Get global takeout with your trio — assuming you’ve saved some for yourself. From creamy Italian fare to spicy Thai, these three wines are up for any dish. 

When it comes to blackened Cajun salmon, jerk chicken, pulled pork nachos, and savory stuffed mushrooms, the Hahn Pinot Noir is an effortless choice. With earthy undertones, this Pinot Noir loves anything with mushrooms and spice. Franciscan Estate Cabernet Sauvignon or Hahn Pinot Noir pair equally well with appetizers like Asiago meatballs or prosciutto-mozzarella pinwheels. For the white wine enthusiast, the balance of bright fruit and light oak notes in the William Hill Estate Chardonnay adds the perfect levity to even the most flavorful cuisines, like Indian or Thai.

Here’s to having your best, most prepared holiday season ever. With this trio of wines, gifts, get-togethers, and dinner parties are covered for this extended holiday season. The next time you look at your social calendar and gift list, breathe a sigh of relief. William Hill Estate, Hahn, and Franciscan Estate have got it in the (gift) bag. Order these wines online at thebarrelroom.com, and don’t forget to pick up a few bottles for yourself.

This article is sponsored by William Hill Estate, Hahn Family Wines, and Franciscan Estate.

The article Meet the 3 Best Wines to Gift, Host, and Toast With This Season appeared first on VinePair.

When you check into the Caribe Hilton in San Juan, Puerto Rico, there’s no ignoring the fact that you’re on the alleged site of the Piña Colada’s creation.

Just off to the side of the outdoor check-in desk, a large wall display salutes the hotel’s former bartender, Ramón “Monchito” Marrero, and tells the story of him supposedly creating the Piña Colada in 1954 on the very site.

Nearby, in the lobby’s hotel bar, known as the Caribar, a bartender tells me he blends up “more Piña Coladas than I can count,” though he eventually admits the figure to be in the hundreds every day.

In addition to that, the bar has taken to making Piña Colada variants for those who want to vibe on the iconic drink at its source, but aren’t necessarily into consuming a beach-body-wrecking calorie bomb of coconut cream, pineapple juice, and rum. There’s an Old Fashioned take on the Piña Colada, made with a pineapple simple syrup, as well as a spritz riff topped with Champagne. (There’s also a Piña Colada Martini and tequila-based Patrón Colada on the extended Colada menu.)

In this era of cocktail tourism, the Caribe really leans into being the birthplace of the Piña Colada — even if The New York Times talked of “Cuba’s pina colada (rum, pineapple and coconut milk) four years before that 1954 creation date, and Barrachina, another San Juan bar, has a plaque claiming it is actually responsible for it. Whatever the case, the drinks are all pretty darn good at the Caribe, especially the “Original Piña Colada” as it’s labeled on the menu.

Was it the best Piña Colada I’d ever had in my life, though? Eh, probably not. Back home in urban Brooklyn, I favor a version from Long Island Bar that’s served smooth as silk straight from a high-end Spaceman frozen drinks machine. I also couldn’t help but think the current bar I was sitting at in San Juan looked nothing like the Caribe’s bar back in 1954.

“It’s natural to be disappointed by those storied experiences, but it’s almost by design,” says Joey Smith, bar director at New York’s Chez Zou and a noted Piña Colada enthusiast. He likewise holds the Long Island Bar version in high esteem. “With rare exception, the motivation to make drinks at the highest level comes from a drive to create. Almost never are the most talented of us driven to be a steward for someone else’s ideas for any significant period of time.”

Which raises the question: Does one need to have a classic cocktail from the source to fully understand it? Is a cocktail from the source still its best incarnation these days? Or, once a cocktail has entered the canon, do better and even more important versions inevitably begin popping up across the globe?

The Thrill of the Chase

For modern classics, like the Benton’s Old Fashioned (New York’s PDT) or Tommy’s Margarita (San Francisco’s Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant), it might actually make sense to want to try them at the source; they were created within the last two decades or so and still mostly taste like the original incarnation. This is especially true when the drink’s actual creator, like Tommy’s Julio Bermejo, can still make it for you should you pop in.

“It’s been a mixed bag. Some live up to their reputation, some don’t. The excitement is always less the drinking of the cocktail than the thrill of the chase.”

“It’s a lot easier to keep the highest standards if the creator themselves is around to mentor, teach, and help one grow while you do the hard work of maintaining their legacy,” Smith says.

But for canonical drinks from a past era, the source of them has, in many cases, moved so far away from the original creator’s legacy — the bar so weighed down with hype and overrun with tourists, and the drinks so mass-produced and lackadaisical in preparation to keep up with a zillion orders — that the quality of the iconic cocktail has often suffered.

But does any of that actual matter?

Robert Simonson, VinePair contributor and author of the recently released “The Encyclopedia of Cocktails,” thinks the quality is almost beside the point for these classic drinks.

“I’ve had plenty of classic cocktails at their supposed source,” he says. “It’s been a mixed bag. Some live up to their reputation, some don’t. The excitement is always less the drinking of the cocktail than the thrill of the chase.”

For any cocktail lover, even those more than aware of the possible let-down, the intoxication of pursuit continues to drive us to travel the globe, attempting to try iconic cocktails at their sources.

Speed Without Passion

Earlier this year I also found myself at the Buena Vista, a corner café in San Francisco where the Irish Coffee was introduced to America. The story apparently goes that one day in 1952 international travel writer Stanton Delaplane helped then-owner Jack Koeppler recreate a spiked coffee drink he had recently tried at Shannon Airport in Ireland. The so-called Irish Coffee made its U.S. debut and soon became a viral, pre-internet sensation.

Today, the Buena Vista reportedly serves some 2,000-plus Irish Coffees per day. Should you visit the brightly lit, diner-like establishment, it’s not hard to believe that number — every customer seems to be drinking them. In fact, the sloppy, sloshy, assembly line of ancient, white-jacketed bartenders making the Irish Coffees has even turned into a TikTok sensation.

“It’s not the best Irish Coffee you’ll ever have in your life, but at least the Buena Vista has some magic to it,” says spirits writer Brad Japhe, who cites the Dead Rabbit’s Irish Coffee as being much better. “You can at least look out over San Francisco Bay and the bartenders take pride in preparing them expeditiously.”

Simonson agrees with that assessment. “I don’t believe that the Buena Vista has ever made a bad Irish Coffee,” hey says. “And the mix of people there is always a pleasant blend of locals and tourists.”

There’s similar magic to be found at Havana’s El Floridita, not necessarily where the Daiquiri was invented — even if they claim it — but “la cuna del Daiquiri,” the cradle of the Daiquiri. It is there that the frozen Daiquiri (which it may have invented in 1931) became ubiquitous as well as the Hemingway-style version, made with grapefruit juice and Maraschino.

Like the Buena Vista, El Floridita certainly still has an allure that draws one there, as it recalls a post-World War II, pre-Revolution Havana, with bartenders in their red vests and neckties and drinks still modestly cheap (for Americans) at around 180 Cuban pesos ($7.50 USD). Notable U.S. bartenders Shannon Mustipher and Thad Vogler have even named El Floridita the last bar they’d visit in their lifetimes.

“That bar is just this little time capsule,” Vogler says. Simonson is likewise a fan. “El Floridita is a complete tourist magnet, yet they make amazing cocktails,” he says.

In a city still not exactly touched by the modern cocktail renaissance, El Floridita is one of the better options for drinks. But, despite the ambiance, despite the incredible number of visitors each year, some drinkers think the Daiquiris hardly match the caliber of those at an elite craft cocktail bar in the States.

In fact, Inka Larissa, a noted spirits blogger, went so far as to call El Floridita a “tourist trap with just average drinks … made with speed but without passion.”

All the Ambiance of an Applebee’s

It’s a similar story at New York’s St. Regis Hotel where, at the King Cole Bar, one can still order a Red Snapper, the ur-Bloody Mary, supposedly introduced there by Fernand Petiot in 1934. Today it’ll run you $25, which is actually one of the least expensive drinks on the high-end menu. It is mostly well-reviewed by customers online, though most complain about it only being garnished with a single lemon wedge and not the cornucopia of vegetation and fried foods one might encounter at any sports bar these days (let alone a fancy brunch spot).

“Unbelievably overpriced — even for New York,” wrote one recent Yelp user. “It was the worst Bloody Mary I’ve had to date. The bartender hadn’t bothered to mix it, I took a sip and got a mouthful of pure vodka. And everything else about it was all wrong, no flavor or seasoning, just plain bad.”

Though I like the King Cole Bar, with its grand Maxfield Parrish painting of Old King Cole, I never exactly have a hankering for a Bloody Mary when I’m in Midtown Manhattan. The bar doesn’t even open until 4 p.m. on any given day — well past standard Bloody hours for most human beings.

A similar brunch-y drink gets even less respect at its Italian location of creation.

“Harry’s Bar has the ambience of your local Applebee’s,” he says. “One of the most underwhelming places I’ve ever had an ‘original’ cocktail. It could be anywhere.”

“Bellinis always suck,” says Japhe, of the Prosecco and white peach purée sipper, which was first engineered at Harry’s Bar in Venice in 1948. While hardly seen as a connoisseur’s cocktail. these complaints aren’t limited to well-traveled cocktail writers. Both the drink and bar are massacred on user-review platforms like Yelp and Travel Advisor (“the bellinis are tiny and tasteless (sic)”).

The key problem is that Harry’s Bellini isn’t fresh-squeezed but pre-made and poured by seemingly disinterested bartenders into tiny water glasses, all for the cost of 22 euros.

Simonson still thinks it’s worthwhile to track down.

“It is absolutely possible to make a better Bellini than they make, but not by much,” he says. “And what would be the point in getting a Bellini elsewhere if you’re in Venice, even if it was better? You’d have nothing to boast about.”

But Japhe claims there’s hardly any magic on site to make up for what he perceives as a lackluster cocktail.

“Harry’s Bar has the ambience of your local Applebee’s,” he says. “One of the most underwhelming places I’ve ever had an ‘original’ cocktail. It could be anywhere.”

The Never-Ending Cavalcade

As for Smith, as a working bartender he’s more willing to grade on a bit of a curve when it comes to assessing legendary drinks at legendary bars. Unlike those on the other side of the stick, he understands how demanding it is to run a bar and keep a team running on all cylinders, especially when they might be forced to make the same damn drink non-stop all day, every day.

“On a long enough timeline, those little details that get missed here and there multiply,”

In many ways, these bars are handcuffed by their famous creations, he says. The visionary is often long dead and the bar’s auteurial direction has changed hands numerous times over the decades. Perhaps the old bar hasn’t grown with the industry — isn’t using fresh juices and housemade syrups, and isn’t pulling the coldest glassware from the back of the fridge for each drink. For the young bartenders working there, maybe it’s not a calling but “just a job” to serve these storied drinks to half-in-the-bag tourists. Maybe, eventually, the bar team realizes its effort doesn’t even matter.

“On a long enough timeline, those little details that get missed here and there multiply,” Smith says. “Then you find yourself 30 years later serving a subpar [cocktail] that some guy you never met invented, to a never-ending cavalcade of tourists that would buy them whether you made the drink good to begin with or not.”

The article Is Trying a Classic Cocktail Where It Was Created Actually Worth It? appeared first on VinePair.

It’s always been hard to nail down the exact definition of American cuisine. Barbecue, burgers, and hot dogs spring to mind, but just like the nation itself, its food is a melting pot of regional flavors and international dishes beloved by the people who live here. That’s one reason we’d argue that fast-food chains offer the purest culinary expression of the Americana spirit.

There’s no shortage of burger joints, all with their own little spin to make their patties stand out from the crowd. Although there’s a high concentration of farm-to-table, ethically sourced options along the West Coast, the South and Midwest hold it down with the most regional fast-food chains overall — particularly ones known for serving up meals that stick to the ribs. Appropriately, Pollo Tropical is heavily represented in Florida and Puerto Rico, emblematic of the Latin-Caribbean influence in that region. And the Northeast could definitely step its game up when it comes to quick grub offerings — we’d say it’s about damn time the Tri-State gets its own Whataburger equivalent.

For the purposes of this list, we’re talking strictly fast food here, so any place that falls into the “casual dining” sphere with the likes of Applebees and TGI Fridays has been omitted, with the minor exception of a few fast-casual spots. Gas station chains with made-to-order foods also don’t count — sorry, Sheetz and Wawa — nor do any regional fast-food chains that have expanded beyond the reaches of their home territories, like Waffle House and Raising Cane’s. So, gather ‘round and sink your teeth into our list of the best regional fast-food chains across the country.

The South

Whataburger: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas

Bojangles: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia

Cookout: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia

Pal’s Sudden Service: Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky

Biscuitville: North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia

Hattie B’s Hot Chicken: Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Texas, and Nevada

The West

In-N-Out Burger: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, and Utah

Farmer Boys: Arizona, California, and Nevada

TacoTime: Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming

The Midwest

Skyline Chili: Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Florida

Braum’s: Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Missouri, and Arkansas

Maid-Rite: Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, and Ohio

Runza: Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska

Schoop’s Burgers: Illinois and Indiana

The Northwest

Burgerville: Oregon and Washington

Dick’s Drive-in: Washington

The Northeast

D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island

The Southeast

Pollo Tropical: Florida and Puerto Rico

Krystal: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas

Other

Zippy’s: Hawaii and Las Vegas

*Photo sourced from kanpisut – stock.adobe.com

The article America’s Favorite Regional Fast-Food Chains [MAP] appeared first on VinePair.

This episode of “The VinePair Podcast” is sponsored by The Prisoner Wine Company. Raise a toast this holiday season with a glass of wine that errs on the rebellious side. Always intriguing, online exclusives from The Prisoner Wine Company like SALDO’s Zinfandel Three Ways are sure to delight the wine lovers in your life. Head to theprisonerwinecompany.com to shop now, and order by Dec. 14 to receive in time for the holidays.

As global warming becomes a more imminent threat to the wine world, Champagne producers — specifically Bollinger — are looking to shift production to still wines made from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Albeit, still Champagne is still from Champagne, but what’s bubbly without the bubbles?

It’s too soon to tell just yet, but this move seems more like a marketing exercise rather than a quality assessment of wine. And it’s arguably a stretch to say consumers will choose a Coteaux Champenois over a similarly priced wine coming out of Burgundy — a region with thousands of years of still-wine production on its side. Odds are, they’ll remain happy with their Krug, Dom Pérignon, and Veuve Clicquot.

We’re curious to see how, and if, this will pan out. So, on this episode of the “VinePair Podcast,” Adam, Joanna, and Zach discuss the recent announcement from the managing director of Bollinger about the future of Champagne being still wines and vineyard-designate sparkling wines. Could this approach, which flies in the face of Champagne’s traditional branding, actually work? Tune in for more.

Adam is reading: Meet The Beverage Directors Behind NYC’s New Wave of Korean Fine-Dining Restaurants
Zach is reading: What’s Actually Inside the ‘World’s Oldest Scotch’ Bottles? Auctioneers Aren’t Completely Sure
Joanna is reading: Loved at Home, Ignored Abroad: Why European Whiskey Drinkers Aren’t Buying the Bourbon Hype

Listen Online

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

The article The VinePair Podcast: The Future of Champagne Is… Still Wine? appeared first on VinePair.

When it comes to spirits, Scotch whisky might not come to mind as the most versatile option for gifting. It’s a spirit that’s often (and incorrectly) perceived as being exclusively suited for hardcore smoke lovers, or one that has to be expensive to be of high quality. Neither of these is true: This spirit offers great drinkability and versatility in flavor profile due to both regional terroir and producers that range from generations-old to more experimental. From bold, sherry-cask aged expressions with intense caramel and dried fruit notes to examples with a crisp and citrus-forward profile, there’s a Scotch to fit nearly any palate. Even better: There are great options available at all price points. While there are many splurge-worthy and limited-edition finds on shelves, there are also some incredible budget-friendly bottles and versatile expressions that will shine on any bar cart.

To help you wade through the sea of options, we put together a list of the top bottles for everyone on your list from whisky beginners to cocktail lovers. Here are the seven best Scotches to gift this year.

• Best Budget Scotch: Isle of Skye 12 Year Old
• Best Splurge Scotch: Glengoyne 21 Year Old Highland Single Malt
• Best Scotch For Beginners: Deanston Virgin Oak Single Malt Whisky
• Best Scotch for Geeks: Glenglassaugh Sandend Highland Single Malt
• Best Scotch for Cocktail Lovers: Maclean’s Nose Blended Scotch Whisky
• Best Scotch to Impress: The Dalmore 18 Year 2023 Edition
• Best Limited-Edition Scotch: The GlenDronach Cask Strength Batch 12

Best Budget Scotch
Isle of Skye 12 Year Old

Though Scotch has a rep for being pricy, there are some notable budget-friendly bottles out there. This example from Isle of Skye has over a decade of aging, and is still available at an entry-level price. This Scotch really shines in cocktails, so give this to your buddy who got really into making Penicillins this year.

Average price: $30
Rating: 88

Best Splurge Scotch
Glengoyne 21 Year Old Highland Single Malt

This 21-year-old single malt leads with a surprising freshness, but the bottle’s age-driven complexities reveal themselves over time with notes of dried cranberries, prunes, and potpourri. With roots dating back to the 1830s, Glengoyne is a family-owned operation that still distills in accordance with many time-honored traditions. The distillery’s motto is “unhurried since 1833,” which is evident in the meticulous methods behind their bottlings — in fact, Glengoyne is known to have the slowest stills in Scotland. Consider this expression the perfect gift for someone who enjoys sipping and pondering the nuances in the glass.

Average price: $245
Rating: 92

Best Scotch for Beginners
Deanston Virgin Oak Single Malt Whisky

If you’re looking to introduce a staunch bourbon fan in your life to Scotch, this is the perfect bottle to meet them where they (and their palate) are. This whisky is aged through a two-step process, starting in ex-bourbon casks and then finishing in new oak barrels. These aging vessels impart notes of spicy wood, banana, and caramel, which capture the richness that appeals to American whiskey drinkers.

Average price: $47
Rating: 90

Best Scotch for Geeks
Glenglassaugh Sandend Highland Single Malt

Spirit aficionados love to geek out about alcohol content. And while the world of Scotch tends to place more value on age than ABV, this bottle flips the narrative. It has no age statement, but it offers incredible intensity at a well-balanced 50.5 percent ABV. Rich notes of caramel and butterscotch lead the profile, and are enhanced by bright tropical fruits and a hint of briny salinity.

Average price: $70
Rating: 95

Best Scotch for Cocktail Lovers
Maclean’s Nose Blended Scotch Whisky

This bottle is the perfect addition to any at-home bartender’s set-up. The 46 percent ABV expression offers bright citrus and honey notes on the nose and rounded flavors of chocolate and nougat on the palate. It’s accessible, versatile, and overall one of the best bargains in the category — and it’s ideal to have on hand for stirring up a Rob Roy.

Average price: $37
Rating: 93

Best Scotch to Impress
The Dalmore 18 Year 2023 Edition

Swathed in its royal purple packaging, this bottle is certainly dressed to impress. So if you’re looking for a statement Scotch to gift your in-laws or someone who really knows their spirits, this is a classy pick. The liquid is aged in both ex-bourbon barrels and oloroso sherry casks, which lend notes of dark caramel, brown sugar, and baked peaches to the profile. Hints of earth, leather, and tobacco offer even more complexity as the Scotch opens up in the glass, and the palate’s tannic texture helps bring balance and tone down the sweetness.

Average price: $290
Rating: 94

Best Limited-Edition Scotch
The GlenDronach Cask Strength Batch 12

This limited-release Scotch from the Valley of Forgue in the Highland region will more than satisfy those who love sherry-aged and high-proof expressions. Not for the faint of heart, this intense bottling is aged in oloroso and Pedro Ximénez casks and clocks in at a hearty 58.2 percent ABV. The high alcohol content lifts up aromas of dried fruit and caramelized nuts, and carries them onto a concentrated, dark-berry palate for a sip that’s sweet, savory, and bold. Make sure to get this limited-edition release while you still can.

Average price: $105
Rating: 94

The article The 7 Best Scotches to Gift This Holiday (2023) appeared first on VinePair.

Cold temperatures, glamorous dinner parties, and premium wine: If that sums up your idea of the winter holidays, then The Prisoner Wine Company is here for all your gifting, entertaining, and hibernation needs. These luxury wines are the perfect addition to a glimmering tablescape, make for sought-after gifts (simply add ribbon), and epitomize the best California winegrowers have to offer.

Nearly two decades ago, The Prisoner Wine Company’s inaugural bottle, The Prisoner Red Blend, upended expectations of California wines. Today, it exists as the portfolio of five distinct wine brands, The Prisoner, Unshackled, SALDO, Blindfold, and Domaine Curry, all of which uphold the preconception-shattering philosophy of that original wine.

Now is the perfect opportunity to enter the world of The Prisoner Wine Company. Just in time for the holidays, iconic and best-selling wine gift sets that delight with special pours for you and yours are available. As a festive incentive, ground shipping is included on all gift sets for a limited time, including the Red Blend Duo Gift Set and SALDO Zinfandel Three Ways.

Keep reading to learn more about The Prisoner Wine Company’s exclusive offerings, and get ready for a lesson in luxury.

Red Duo Gift Set

SALDO Zinfandel Three Ways

For those who want to try something new, the SALDO Zinfandel Three Ways gift set illustrates how different and delicious three takes on the same grape can taste.

SALDO’s flagship Zinfandel is rich and full. Aromas of red and black cherry, blackberry, baking spice, and black pepper make way for flavors of vibrant dark fruit and just a hint of chocolate. It’s the perfect bottle to serve alongside a decadent holiday dinner or uncork in front of the fire.

For something unexpected and light,  explore the SALDO Carbonic Zinfandel — the beautiful result of SALDO winemakers’ experimentation. Thanks to the carbonic maceration process, the spotlight is on the grapes rather than the oak, resulting in a powerfully juicy wine with floral, tropical aromas and refreshing acid. The Carbonic Zinfandel makes the ultimate pairing for the rich dishes on your holiday table.

Turn everything you thought you knew about white Zinfandel upside down. The SALDO White Zinfandel offers a lean and citrus-driven interpretation of Zinfandel in the form of a rosé. Organic grapes are sourced from the North Coast AVA and fermented until every bit of residual sugar is gone, resulting in an aromatic wine with surprising depth. With such an audacious interpretation of the grape, this is bound to become your new favorite rosé.

New Release Solder GSM and Friction Viognier

The New Release Gift Set welcomes you to the finer side of festive. For the wine drinker who loves exploring different varietals, this limited-release duo offers the best of the red and the white wine worlds with a bottle of Solder GSM Blend and Friction Viognier. You won’t find these captivating bottles in store — they’re usually a tasting room exclusive and reserved just for wine club members.

This beautifully packaged holiday gift set includes the newly released Solder, the winery’s passionate interpretation of the classic Rhône blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre (GSM), complete with The Prisoner Wine Company’s characteristic richness and flavor. With the best qualities of three varietals “soldered” together by the winemaking team’s blending skill, this is a deliciously unorthodox interpretation of Old-World elegance. Solder has aromas of dried violet, cranberry, and subtle raspberry with hints of black pepper. Fine tannins on the tongue with flavors of dark fruit like blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry balance the hefty earthiness. 

Nestled next to the Solder is a gorgeous bottle of Friction Viognier. Its name derives from the scientific practice of polishing gems by harnessing friction. Viognier can be a difficult grape to grow, so when an outstanding Viognier wine is the result, it is considered a gem. The Prisoner Wine Company’s Friction is no exception. Sourced from a single vineyard, Rodger’s Vineyard in the Oak Knoll district of Napa Valley, the grapes were harvested by hand the moment ripeness was achieved. An exotic nose, replete with cinnamon, yellow peach, and citrus blossom, leads to mouth-watering flavors of dried pineapple, peach, and apricot. The mouthfeel is soft, exactly how Viognier should be, but balanced by bright natural acidity.

Holiday Shopping, Complete 

The Prisoner Wine Company has made it easy to shop for everyone this year thanks to its portfolio of iconic luxury wines and intriguing gift sets. Be sure to purchase before Dec. 14 to receive your bottles before Dec. 25, and don’t forget that ground shipping is included on gift sets for a limited time.

So go ahead and cross this off your list early, and raise a toast to the holidays.

This article is sponsored by The Prisoner Wine Company.

The article A Lesson in Edgy Luxury: Welcome to The Prisoner Wine Company appeared first on VinePair.

When you talk to someone in the bar or booze industry about “Hey Bartender,” Douglas Tirola’s 2013 documentary chronicling the 21st century rebirth and rise of the American cocktail scene, one specific quote from the film is likely to be mentioned. The line is uttered about one-third into the film by Fords Gin founder Simon Ford: “Bartenders are rockstars that couldn’t be bothered to learn instruments.”

The rockstars in question — particularly the influential bartenders from the early aughts that served as the film’s “talking heads” — happened to be performing at a uniquely transitional moment within the industry, and were captured by a curious filmmaker seeking to bottle something that turned out to be lightning.

“The film was cinema vérité. It was telling the story of how it was and what took place as it was happening in real time,” Tirola says. “We were lucky enough to capture a quick, live moment of something that grew at the right time.”

Ten years after “Hey Bartender”’s release captured the movement, we’re still seeing the fruits of such growth: These days, any city large enough to have a professional sports team will have a thriving craft cocktail scene. We’ve also witnessed some maturity and better identified issues that the industry still struggles to work through. Watching the movie in 2023 — which you can do for free on YouTube — still delivers a jolt of energy if you’re a cocktail enthusiast, but it may also leave you pondering its legacy. To help resolve this, we caught up with some of the people involved with the film as well as those who made their marks in the years following its release to see how it holds up through their perspectives. (Now would be the time to launch Spotify and fire up the film’s de facto soundtrack, Joe Jackson’s “I’m the Man” album, and crank up the volume. The rest of this story should be read at maximum volume.)

Capturing a Moment

Even though “Hey Bartender” came out in 2013, the documentary provides a snapshot of the American craft cocktail movement as it was in 2011. It follows the journey of two men: Steve Schneider, an ex-Marine-turned-bartender looking to advance in the craft cocktail scene, and Steve “Carpi” Carpentieri, a Westport, Conn., bar owner seeking to survive the shifting tides of the business. This casting wasn’t deliberate, but it did inspire the entire project.

“It wasn’t an audition,” Schneider recalls. “It happened organically.” The story goes that Schneider made Tirola a cocktail when the director stopped by New York City cocktail institution Employees Only for a drink. The cocktail and the resulting interaction between the two sparked an idea that quickly turned into a passion project for Tirola. Equipped with a shoestring budget and a yen to absorb as much as he could about the bar scene as an outsider, Tirola burrowed into the industry, talking to as many people as he could about what he saw as an emerging world.

“I gotta give Doug his flowers,” Schneider says. “He was working on such a small budget, but he went to every event he could for almost three years and stuck with it. He put a lot of heart and soul into the film. It was crazy, but I love him for it.”

Though there are a few people Tirola spoke with for the film who didn’t make the final cut — he declined to reveal who when asked — he landed an impressive number of mixology heavyweights: Dale DeGroff, Julie Reiner, Jim Meehan, and the late Sasha Petraske all make appearances on screen. These names still matter if you’re a cocktail geek, but if you’re actually in the industry, their inclusion resonates on a different level.

“There’s a legacy that’s captured in the film,” says Meehan, co-founder of seminal New York bar Please Don’t Tell (better known as PDT) and founder of the Portland, Ore.-based bar consultant organization Mixography, Inc. “I mean, Sasha is alive!”

Tirola also touches on the industry beyond the bar through interviews with brand ambassadors like Ford and Charlotte Voisey, who now serves as global head of brand ambassador advocacy for distiller and alcohol distributor William Grant & Sons. Today, Tirola has a special appreciation for how integral their work was in growing the movement. “Brand ambassadors could have had their own documentary,” he says. “They were the connective tissue of the scene at the time, and they had the resources to bring the industry together. They’re the reason the community grew like it did.”

“Oh my God. I’m so glad I watched it. It was really wild, having lived through that era. It was such an interesting time, and it’s an interesting movie to watch now. There is a lot of reflection to be had.”

Of course, documentaries create a finite point to ongoing stories. Since the release of “Hey Bartender,” viewers have been given a front-row bar stool to the decade-long career evolution of its talking heads. Schneider transcended his role as an Employees Only bartending apprentice to having ownership stakes in several bars, most recently Sip & Guzzle, a Greenwich Village bar and izakaya he’s launching with former Angel’s Share bar director Shingo Gokan. His achievements have prevented him from a reputation as a one-trick pony, but he does acknowledge the film’s gravitas.

“Because of what I’ve done, I’ve gotten respect for who I am and not because of being the “Hey Bartender” guy. The movie is not going to be on my gravestone,” he says. “But it will be on my resume.”

As for Carpentieri, he was still overseeing the bar he owned, Dunville’s, at least through part of 2023. It may or may not be in operation: Though Google says it’s open and Carpentieri is still listed as owner on LinkedIn, Yelp lists it as closed, its last Facebook post went live in May, and phone calls we made to the venue went unanswered. Open or not, Carpentieri did spend over three decades providing people with the type of neighborhood bar experience that is every bit as important as the vibes produced through the craft cocktails scene. According to Tirola, Carpentieri’s significance to the industry was consistently acknowledged when he and the “rockstars” came together at film-related events.

“You could see the respect these craft bartenders had for Carpi and what he was doing,” he says. “It was great to see these well-known bartenders give respect to him and acknowledge the value he brought to the industry.”

Reaction and Reflection

When we reached out to industry fixture Neal Bodenheimer to be interviewed for this piece, he had a confession: He had never seen “Hey Bartender.” He was interviewed for it, and rightly so. As founding partner of New Orleans bar CURE, which opened in 2009, he was credited with kickstarting the city’s craft cocktail renaissance. He didn’t make the final cut, but his lack of presence wasn’t the reason he steered clear of the film.

“The industry bubble portrayed in the movie was absolutely our world. He got the DNA of our industry right, which was impressive for an outsider.”

“CURE hosted the rematch of the bartender competition event [in the movie],” says Bodenheimer, who now operates the establishment and its sister venue Cane & Table through the company he co-founded, CureCo. “So much shit went wrong, it almost broke the bar. It was one of the worst nights in CURE history. I didn’t have the heart to watch it because of that.”

Eventually, he agreed to watch the movie with fresh eyes and discuss it afterward. After working through the film’s 96 minutes, his heart was full. “Oh my God. I’m so glad I watched it,” he says. “It was really wild, having lived through that era. It was such an interesting time, and it’s an interesting movie to watch now. There is a lot of reflection to be had.”

Bodenheimer’s reaction is a relatively common one within the industry. Ten years after its theatrical debut, there is still plenty of appreciation for Tirola’s handiwork.

“Doug nailed it,” says Voisey. “The industry bubble portrayed in the movie was absolutely our world. He got the DNA of our industry right, which was impressive for an outsider.”

Better With Age

Pouring over old reviews of the film paints a different picture. Critiques were mixed, at best. Read a few of them, and common themes relating to the film emerge: There were too many commentators in the movie; there wasn’t enough time devoted to why fresh juice and the right ice were critical; slow-motion shots were overdone. Some are fair criticisms that hold up, whether you agree with them or not. But the harshest reviews of the film tended to draw a dividing line: Either you understood the craft cocktail movement, or you didn’t. This was somewhat comprehensible. Cocktail culture existed in a duality at the time of the film’s release. For those living in New York or San Francisco, it was a scene in full swing. For those outside this magic bubble, it was a harbinger of things to come — faux rockstars were coming to your town.

Not everyone understood what was happening, and those who didn’t get it unloaded in ways that look misinformed or horribly outdated nowadays. The most egregious critiques complained that “Hey Bartender” wasn’t more attuned to the Bud-Light-and-vodka-soda crowd while vaguely implying that the craft cocktail movement was a fad. Tirola understands their perspective.

“Before the movie came out, restaurants just had menus and wine lists and lots of magazines wrote about cocktails maybe once a year,” he said. “After the movie, these restaurants suddenly had leather-bound cocktail menus and magazines suddenly had weekly cocktail columns.”

In retrospect, critiques dismissing the cocktail scene as an overblown trend with a shelf life share the DNA of the poorly dated screeds about the Beatles’ arrival in the U.S. in 1964, in which older reporters insisted that they would fade into the ether. This isn’t meant to compare the bar industry to the Fab Four, but the ignorance and arrogance stemming from the criticisms on both subjects are palpable on the same level, especially with the passage of time. In 2023, listening to “Revolver” or drinking a skillfully made Sazerac are timeless activities.

Room to Grow

It seems plausible to state that “Hey Bartender” caused some of the craft cocktail movement’s explosion, particularly as the scene started to grab a foothold in places outside New York and San Francisco. Ross Simon — who co-founded Arizona Cocktail Week in 2012 and opened his now-critically acclaimed Phoenix bar Bitter & Twisted Cocktail Parlour the following year — says the film caused a shift in the Grand Canyon State.

“[It] made it easier for us to sell the concept to others,” he says of the craft movement. “We just had to show people the film to show them what we were trying to create.” People got the message the film conveyed, and still do: Last year’s Arizona cocktail fete featured more than 60 brand sponsors and welcomed bars from Mexico City, London, and Singapore. Growth has also spurred refinement. The industry’s biggest conference, Tales of the Cocktail — which is featured prominently in the movie — has evolved to include more educational and collaborative opportunities than it did a decade ago.

“It’s important to show what the industry looks like now. There is this new wave of thinking out there, and that new talent and their new creativity should be highlighted.”

Watching “Hey Bartender” in 2023 also highlights an industry in need of growing up. The film captures bits and pieces of questionable behaviors and attitudes that were part of the scene’s zeitgeist back in the day. For the most part, these moments of uncomfortable sexual allusions peppering the movie may elicit a quick “yuck” from the viewer. But one scene, depicting a Repeal Day party at Employees Only replete with dancers stripping on bar tops and shaking pastied breasts in patrons’ faces, still makes plenty of people cringe. “I’d hate for people in today’s industry to look at some of the bad behaviors in the film and be wistful,” Meehan says.

“These days, you won’t see a Tales seminar where someone talks about blow jobs,” Simon adds, alluding to one of the movie’s earlier scenes.

The industry has plenty of room to grow a decade later: Issues like mental health, diversity, equity, inclusion, and substance abuse are still in need of serious addressing. These subjects weren’t brought up in the documentary, which is not surprising.

“The industry is barely ready to talk about some of these issues now,” says Alex Jump, founder and senior manager of operations for the industry health and wellness advocacy group Focus on Health. “We were, and still are, an industry of silent suffering.”

New Era, New Industry

With “Hey Bartender” turning 10 this year, one could argue it’s the ideal time to revisit the state of the American cocktail scene and meet the new generation of bartenders shaping its look.

“It’s important to show what the industry looks like now,” says Jump. “There is this new wave of thinking out there, and that new talent and their new creativity should be highlighted.”

“Seeing these bartenders in the last 10 years was like if you caught your favorite band playing at a small venue like the Mercury Lounge, and several years later they end up playing Radio City Music Hall.”

This updated peek behind the curtain may provide a more holistic view of the industry’s successes and flaws, and directly reflect the change in attitudes inside and outside the industry over the last decade. “”Hey Bartender” follows the story of two white men,” Meehan points out. “It’s a movie of its time, as it’s a white male-dominated movie in general. A new movie would need to include more women and people of color into the story.”

“If we want to tell the true story of the industry, we must address the heartbreak of the industry,” Bodenheimer adds. “This industry can be all things wonderful and terrible to people. Remember, we sell fun, but we also handle alcohol.”

We may get that story soon enough: A documentary focusing on flair bartending, “Shaken & Stirred,” is set to drop in 2024. Similar projects are also rumored, but are currently in the clandestine phase. It’s unknown if these projects will provide an at-the-moment picture of the industry like “Hey Bartender” did a decade ago, or if they’ll make a dent in the public consciousness. At the very least, they can be conversation starters driven by a topic that carries more weight than it gets credit for carrying.

“The cocktail was an American invention, so Americans should take ownership of this,” Voisey says. “It’s as important as any other story of food and drink.”

Now, Bartender

Ford’s quote about bartenders being rockstars who never learned instruments captured the imagination of the “Hey Bartender” audience in 2013. Ten years later, the career trajectory of the people Tirola interviewed inspires a different music analogy from the director.

“If I can be a New Yorker for a second,” he says, “seeing these bartenders in the last 10 years was like if you caught your favorite band playing at a small venue like the Mercury Lounge, and several years later they end up playing Radio City Music Hall.”

Tirola also points out a rather un-rockstar-like quality about bartenders that he picked up on after years of observation. “The industry attracted individuals outside of the ‘normal,’” he says. “But they also wanted to be in the mainstream of society, albeit with a different approach.”

Triola’s sentiment points out something quite magical about the bar industry that was true when “Hey Bartender” debuted and remains so today. The bartenders who care about the craft of hospitality, the ones who work odd-ass hours making drinks, and devote their career to running places that provide happiness and community for so many are often misfits. They also happen to be some of the coolest damn people on the planet, working in the coolest damn industry in the world, full stop. Perhaps that’s why so many of them never bothered to learn an instrument — it wasn’t necessary.

The article Revisiting the ‘Hey Bartender’ Documentary, 10 Years After It Captured the Craft Cocktail Renaissance appeared first on VinePair.

After over 200 years of crafting high-end cherry-infused liqueurs, Luxardo has become synonymous with the Maraschino cherry. If you’ve ever ordered a Manhattan, you’ve likely come across the brand’s iconic sweet cherries as the garnish. Or maybe you’ve used its classic Maraschino liqueur to mix up a Last Word or Martinez. Either way, there’s no denying that Luxardo has ingrained itself in modern cocktail culture with a single stone fruit.

In 1817, the brand’s to-be founders Girolamo Luxardo and his wife Maria Canevari moved to Zara, the Venetian capital of Dalmatia (an area on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea that’s now part of Croatia). The town was known for its local liqueur, Rosolio Maraschino. Canevari quickly developed an interest in the spirit and started perfecting her own at-home recipe, which was of such high quality that it gained the attention of local connoisseurs. She and her husband founded the Luxardo distillery in 1821, and the company is still family-owned: It’s currently run by fifth-generation distiller Franco Luxardo, along with help from members of the sixth and seventh generations.

Now that you know the basics, here are 10 things you need to know about Luxardo.

1. Luxardo’s original Maraschino Liqueur recipe took a while to perfect.

   After Girolamo and Canevari founded the distillery, they spent eight years researching and further perfecting their Maraschino liqueur recipe. Their efforts were rewarded when the liqueur received an exclusive acknowledgement from the Emperor of Austria a short time later. The distillery still proudly touts the denomination of “Privilegiata Fabbrica Maraschino Excelsior.”

2. The brand has used the same recipe for over 200 years.

   Luxardo continues to produce its flagship Maraschino liqueur according to Canevari’s original recipe. The process starts with the harvest of the marasca cherries, which are immediately put in an alcoholic infusion in larch wood vats along with leaves and branches from the same trees for up to three years. When the mixture is ready, the liquids and solids are distilled together in traditional copper pot stills. The distillate is then matured in ash wood vats. Finally, simple syrup is added to bring the liqueur to 32 percent ABV.

3. There’s a deeper meaning behind the dove on every label.

   Each bottle of the brand’s Maraschino liqueur has a crest of a dove on it, which is meant to reflect the humble beginnings of the company. When the distillery was first founded, Girolamo would travel to collect orders for Maraschino and send them to his wife for production using a network of carrier pigeons.

4. The distillery was almost destroyed in World War II.

   In 1913, Michelangelo Luxardo, Girolamo’s grandson, built an entirely new, modern, and massive distillery in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to produce more liqueur. This building survived World War I, but was ultimately demolished in World War II by repeated bombings from 1943 to 1944. Many members of the Luxardo family disappeared or were killed by invaders. Only one member of the fourth generation, Giorgio Luxardo, survived and fled to Italy.

5. Luxardo’s modern legacy can be traced back to one cherry sapling.

   Due to these losses, it looked as if the Luxardo brand was going to cease production after over a century of operation. But even when it seemed like the end of the line, Giorgio was determined to carry on the family legacy. He managed to escape the war with just one cherry sapling when he crossed the Adriatic Sea to northeast Italy’s Veneto region. There, he reconnected with a colleague who had saved the Luxardo recipe book, and used these limited resources to rebuild and reestablish the distillery in the small city of Torreglia in 1946. At this new location, Luxardo restored its product line of Italian liqueurs and continued to export the products to markets around the world.

6. Passengers of the Titanic likely imbibed some Luxardo liqueur.

   Luxardo has long been associated with sophisticated cocktails, so it makes sense that the liqueur was served on the luxurious Titanic during its fateful voyage in 1912.

7. Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur can be found in the earliest iterations of many cocktail builds.

   Legend has it that when the Manhattan was invented in the late 1800s, a spoonful of syrup from Luxardo Maraschino cherries was swirled into the very first glass of the classic drink. The brand’s liqueur can also be found in the debut recipes for many still-beloved cocktails including the Last Word and the Martinez.

8. Luxardo was part of the craft cocktail revival in the U.S.

   In 2004, Luxardo became a major player in the growing craft cocktail movement thanks to bartenders at NYC’s famed Pegu Club. According to the brand, the establishment’s bartenders took a trip to London just weeks before opening night, where they tried Luxardo cherries for the first time. They allegedly knew right away they needed to find a way to get them for Pegu. They cleaned out the shelves of a local, high-end market for the opening, and the Luxardo cherries were a huge hit. The Pegu Club and other craft cocktail joints popularized the cherries by word of mouth, and the product is now ubiquitous in bars across America.

9. The brand offers more than just its signature Maraschino products now.

   While Luxardo still crafts many of its products using the original recipes, the brand continues to innovate. Recently, the brand has launched a variety of new liqueurs including the Luxardo Bitter Bianco in 2019 and the Luxardo Espresso Liqueur in 2022, just in time for the Espresso Martini craze. Luxardo has also developed spirits incorporating the brand’s world-famous cherries, including a Sour Cherry Gin.

10. It even has a line of canned cocktails.

    In 2021, the same year it celebrated its 200th anniversary, Luxardo launched a line of ready-to-drink canned cocktails in the U.S., including flavors like Aperitivo Spritz, Bianco Spritz, and Sour Cherry Gin and Tonic.

The article 10 Things You Should Know About Luxardo appeared first on VinePair.

This article is part of our Cocktail Chatter series, where we dive into the wild, weird, and wondrous corners of history to share over a cocktail and impress your friends.

Over the years, American restaurant chains have claimed to fight the good fight by offering more nutritious dining options for its customers. But about a decade ago, McDonald’s went full Willy Wonka in its efforts to be more health-minded by (almost) giving one cruciferous vegetable a questionable makeover.

According to Business Insider, at a November 2014 event hosted by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, a guest in the audience asked McDonald’s then-CEO Don Thompson what the company was doing to get kids to eat healthier. Thompson replied by announcing that the fast-food chain would be revamping its childrens’ menu. In addition to reducing its fries’ serving sizes and adding mini milk jugs to Happy Meals, he said the company had also just completed a trial period in its development of a bubblegum-flavored broccoli.

The team at McDonald’s didn’t disclose exactly how they made it, but apparently, not every artist deserves an easel. Much to McDonald’s chagrin, Thompson admitted that the product wasn’t quite working. In fact, it never made it out of the lab. Children were allegedly “confused” by the taste, and in the casual words of Thompson himself, “It wasn’t all that.” After fessing up to the failure, Thompson rattled off a few of McDonald’s health-conscious wins at the November event, proclaiming that the golden arches still sell more salads than any other American restaurant chain.

At the time, fast-casual restaurants like Chipotle were on the up and up, and McDonald’s sales were slipping. In the end, the dilemma was barely a mosquito bite on McDonald’s 80-plus-year history. The chain currently has over 40,000 locations worldwide, boasting an enterprise value of over $250 billion. That said, McDonald’s has had its fair share of menu missteps:1962 brought the questionable, pineapple-bunned Hula Burger, and let’s not forget about McSpaghetti, the ’70s-era pasta dish that’s now only served in the Philippines and a single U.S. franchise in Orlando, Fla.

We think we can safely say there are better ways to eat more nutritiously than candy-flavored broccoli — or that sketchy pineapple sandwich.

*Photo retrieved from xy – stock.adobe.com

The article Bubble Gum-Flavored Broccoli: The McDonald’s Menu Item That Nearly Was appeared first on VinePair.

What is a New York Sour? In layman’s terms, it’s a Whiskey Sour with a red wine float — but it’s also so much more than that. Oddly enough, the New York Sour (a.k.a. the Continental Sour, the Southern Sour, and the Brunswick Sour) was believed to be invented in Chicago in the late 1800s. After numerous recipe tweaks and a fall into relative obscurity by the mid- to late 1900s, the drink was rediscovered during the second wave of the modern cocktail renaissance in the early 2010s.

Nowadays, while orange juice is no longer the sour component of choice, one ingredient has remained a constant since day one: the signature red wine float. Though it may be a difficult trick to master, topping this drink with a thin, quarter-inch layer of vino — poured over the back of a bar spoon — provides the New York Sour with both a unique garnish and a tannic, drying quality that clings to the drink’s sour-sweet backbone. As such, the type of red wine one opts for has the potential to make or break this pre-Prohibition classic.

Today on the “Cocktail College” podcast, Tim McKirdy is joined by Frank Caiafa, legendary bartender, consultant, and singer/songwriter, to discuss the New York Sour. The two break down sours without egg whites, the delicate art of the red wine float, and orange juice — the unsung citrus of the cocktail world. Tune in for more.

Listen Online

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Frank Caiafa’s New York Sour Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 ounces 86 proof rye whiskey
• ¾ ounce simple syrup (1:1)
• ¾ ounce fresh lemon juice
• Garnish: red wine, such as Bordeaux or Rioja

Directions

1. Add rye whiskey, simple syrup, and lemon juice to a cocktail shaker with ice.
2. Shake until chilled.
3. Strain into a footed stem glass.
4. Float a small amount of red wine on top (no more than ¼ inch) over the back of a bar spoon.

The article The Cocktail College Podcast: The New York Sour appeared first on VinePair.

This time of year celebrates lingering conversations and belly laughs, cozying up by the fireplace with friends new and old, and the communal experience of sharing a meal. But the brightest spot of the holiday season is the opportunity to help those who need it most.

Teremana Tequila is serving holiday cheer by the bottle while giving back to the hospitality community that shines so brilliantly, now and year-round. Mana for a Cause, Teremana’s charitable program, has pledged to donate $250,000 to Another Round Another Rally, a nonprofit that provides funding, educational resources, and emergency aid to members of the bar and restaurant industry.

Earlier this year, bartenders had the opportunity to participate in Mana for a Cause by crafting a bespoke cocktail made with Teremana Tequila and adding it to their menus, helping to spread the word about the initiative. One participant, bartender Ezana “EZ” Million, was selected to share the story behind his drink.

The skilled and down-to-earth mixologist works behind the bar at a West Indian-inspired spot on the Lower East Side in New York City. A veteran of the service industry, Million was working in small restaurants 13 years ago before moving to New York to pursue music. Between Irish pubs and high-volume cocktail bars, Million honed his flavors as a barback, squeezing his own custom juices and lemonades, earning him the moniker “The Lemonade Man.” At his current bar, Million started slinging cocktails and, after just four months, went on to become bar manager.

Here, Million tells VinePair about his history, what the holidays mean to him, and his signature cocktail, Mana Medicine.

In Conversation With EZ Million

I learned a lot from three different bartenders that I had worked with throughout my career. I borrowed a little bit of their technique and style and then created my own thing. It’s been an interesting journey, and I like making delicious drinks that bring everyone together.

[The bar I work at] is really a rum-based cocktail bar. But ironically enough, tequilas are our bestsellers. At a lot of places right now tequila is very in, so you see a lot of small-batch stuff like Teremana or tequila with no additives. I think the natural process of how tequila is made and where it comes from is what makes it so unique. And I love a tequila with an aged flavor.

With a lot of spirits, I tend to gravitate towards something neat, something I can sip on. Anything that can stand on its own, you can make into a cocktail you’ll really enjoy. Something I like doing is creating a traditional cocktail with a spirit you might not typically use for it. For example, I love Negronis, but I rarely ever drink a gin Negroni — it’s always some kind of take, like a Boulevardier or a tequila Negroni.

My drink, Mana Medicine, is a take on a Penicillin. There was a period of time when I was working in the service industry as a delivery guy. In the winter, it gets particularly brutal, and that’s usually when I would see an uptick in deliveries because nobody wanted to go outside. So I would get a little sick every now and then and was making myself Hot Toddies. One year, I got really sick, and one of my friends was like, “Hey, you should probably get some ginger in you.” He made me a Penicillin, and I ended up really enjoying it. In terms of beverages, it was such a healing thing for me at the time, something that brought me back to life [and helped my] energy. I figured it was something I could give back to other people, a drink that embodied that hopeful experience of, you know, things will get better, and sometimes you just gotta have a little ginger and honey.

When it comes to the holidays and that holiday spirit, for a long period of time, my extended family was spread across different cities and states, and we wouldn’t see each other too much. But Christmas was always one of those days where it would be really quiet in our home, and then, all of a sudden, like six cars would pull up. And we were like, “Oh my goodness, the entire family’s here, and we only have two mattresses.” It brought a lot of life and energy into [what would otherwise be] a fairly dull day.

I love that moment of utter chaos where everyone in the family is just rolling with the punches, and I’m huddled up with five of my cousins and siblings on a tiny couch together. It’s some of the most heartwarming memories that I have of the holidays and my childhood.

Try EZ’s Mana Medicine out for yourself by following the recipe below:

Mana Medicine

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ ounces Teramana Reposado
• ½ ounce Teramana Añejo
• 1 ounce fresh lemon juice
• ½ ounce honey
• ½ ounce fresh ginger juice
• Garnish: expressed lemon peel

Instructions:

1. In a shaker add all ingredients except Teramana Añejo, then add ice, shake, and strain over fresh ice cubes.
2. Float Teramana Añejo, squeeze a lemon peel to activate oils, and then rim the glass, garnish, and enjoy!

This article is sponsored by Teremana Tequila.

The article Mana for a Cause: Teremana Tequila Is Giving Back During the Holidays With Ezana ‘EZ’ Million appeared first on VinePair.

The social media era may be coming to an end, but the residual marketing power that The Platforms™️ deliver to small businesses in general and beer brands in particular will likely stick around for awhile after normies deactivate their accounts and the extremely online depart for digital walled gardens. Which is why your humble Hop Take columnist likes Friday Beers’ odds.

Or I guess I should say, @almostfriday’s odds turning the success of @FridayBeers into Friday Beers, a new brand attempting to span the digital and analog divide wi— actually, you know what? Let’s back up a bit.

A couple years ago, reporting this feature for VinePair about how the then-booming hard seltzer segment was changing the cultural institution of the college kegger among America’s vaguely drinking-age youth, sources kept bringing up an Instagram account called @FridayBeers. The meme account is an outgrowth of @AlmostFriday, founded by the brother-preneur trio Jack, Max, and Sam Barrett in 2019.

That page’s stock-in-trade, like @FridayBeers and the other dozen-plus social media brands it has since spawned, is observational comedy about the life, times, and vices of America’s bros. Among other things, @FridayBeers is a tremendous exercise in world-building: If you’ve ever heard someone say “Commence suckdown” before necking a tallboy, or been baffled by a reference to someone called “Dooley,” you’ve touched the void the @FridayBeers universe in the wild. “Think about Barstool Sports,” says Ernest Wilkins, a Chicago-based writer and marketing director who “tracks the creator ecosystem.” “Now take that layer of scuzz, booze bloat, and Zyn pouch residue off, add a more… I don’t wanna say ‘safer’ veneer to it, [but] that’s the brand.”

The Barretts now operate this heady menagerie as Almost Friday Media (AFM), a digitally native production company that they say generates 800 million impressions a month. In lay terms, AFM makes videos, posts them to social media, and a shitload of people watch ‘em.

“The words ‘Friday Beers,’ in terms of what it represents on a cultural level, are far beyond the idea of drinking beer,” says Jack Barrett, AFM’s chief executive, in a recent phone call, describing the popularity of the brand and its ascendance with today’s vice-addled undergrads. “We just became this lifestyle brand.”

That isn’t noteworthy on face. One off-cited 2020 study by the market research firm SignalFire shows that more 50 million people worldwide consider themselves creators; this past spring, Goldman Sachs reported that 50 million people worked under the moniker. The bank’s analysts estimate the “total addressable market” (i.e., the overall opportunity) at $250 billion this year, and project it jumping to $480 billion by 2027, fueled by subscription fees, hoodie sales, and sponcon contracts. For comparison, the Brewers Association estimates the U.S. beer market is currently worth around $115 billion, and, as we often discuss, things are not exactly looking up at the moment.

Hopefully this all helps you grasp why investors put $6 million into AFM in 2022, why Hollywood’s powerful William Morris Endeavor agency now represents its talent, and why I’m writing a beer column about its new private-label beer.

While creators have been shaking up the ad landscape, cashing in on private-label goods, and even launching ghost restaurants, they’ve only begun to dip their toes into the beverage-alcohol industry. In 2022, I reported for VinePair on creators (née influencers) on the vanguard of the booze business, arguing that brands like Happy Dad (a hard seltzer line launched by the NELK Boys, a super-popular YouTube collective) represented an extremely lucrative new form of drinks marketing, wherein the brand, the production house, and the ad inventory are all owned by the same people.

Now, AFM is following in those footsteps. Having already executed marketing campaigns for New Belgium, Boston Beer Company, and Anheuser-Busch InBev, the company earlier this month launched Friday Beers, a light adjunct lager brewed by upstate New York’s venerable F.X. Matt Brewing Company.

The beer, which is currently only available in select Massachusetts markets and the company’s branded bar in Nashville (Almost Friday Sporting Club) “tastes insane,” promises Barrett.

“I knew we’re going to be selling the message [of the @FridayBeers’ brand], but if people bought it and they tried it and it tastes as good as Michelob Ultra tastes, or as Coors Light tastes, then there’s some real chance that it can stick around,” he says. At 120 calories to Michelob Ultra’s 95, it’s a bit heavy for its set, but Barrett is confident that @FridayBeers’ audience isn’t the type that minds. “The calories aren’t gonna matter for our drinker,” he says.

I haven’t tasted the beer, but after covering the industry for a dozen years, I think Barrett’s assessment is right on. Taste is table stakes, and nutritional profile matters to an extent, but marketing is where the magic happens in the beer business. AFM doesn’t “control the pipes” through which its media empire reaches all those eyeballs — those belong to Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. But it controls every other promotional lever that a beer company needs to succeed, from powerful branding expertise, to name-brand talent (ish; I have yet to meet another 35-year-old who knows who Rusty Featherstone is), to promotional channels that would otherwise cost third-party firms an arm and a leg.

(Yes, yes, distribution is key, too. But given the proof-positive of other creators’ incursions into the booze business over the past 18 months or so, and the expertise of Friday Beers’ joint-venture partner Jay Harman, Cisco Brewing Company’s founder and chief executive, the brand should find literal and figurative purchase in the middle tier.)

Speaking of those third-party brands: How do they feel about all this? After all, AFM’s Voodoo Ranger and Sam Adams campaigns feature prominently in marketing materials Barrett shared with Hop Take, and Bud Light and Natural Light are former clients, too. (Boston Beer Co. didn’t respond to a request for comment; a Voodoo Ranger spokesperson says the brand has “had [a] ton of fun with AFM as business partners over the past several months,” and hopes to “share the love and enjoy their new release someday soon too.”) Barrett says ABI had even initially approached the firm to license a beer in 2021, though the project fell apart in mid-2022 over the macrobrewer’s growing discomfort with the AFM brands’ content pertaining to binge drinking. He claims that at one point ABI requested he take down a post involving Will Ferrell’s funnel-toting “Frank the Tank” character from “Old School.” (When I asked ABI for comment, a spokesperson promised to “follow up,” but provided no response before deadline.)

In fairness to ABI — which has had a hell of a year where social media partnerships are concerned — a lot of the memes and original content that AFM’s brands publish toe the line between satire and celebration of substance use. (For example.) AFM says 77.6 percent of its audience is between 25 and 34, with just 6.2 percent at 18–21 and 0.1 percent below 17. That puts it safely above the Beer Institute’s ad code benchmark requirement that beer marketing can “only be [done] where the audience for the placement is expected to be at least 73.8 percent adults of legal drinking age.” Still, the strictures of selling alcohol are considerable compared to, say, bucket hats (which @FridayBeers also hawks), and earnest though he strikes me, Barrett is a little out of his depth on the difference.

“We’re following all of the… I’ll call them regulations.… We obviously have to learn more about it, but the way you market a beer… We started another Instagram account, @Drink.Friday.Beers, which is where we market beer through,” he says, stumbling a bit. This is probably a good idea. But that account’s bio features the brand’s #CommenceSuckdown slogan and no minimum age statement, plus some content chugging and shotgunning that’d give agida to a mid-size craft brewer’s general counsel, let alone a macrobrewer’s. None of this is out-of-bounds per se, but it’s not exactly risk-averse, either. Beer brands that plan to “stick around” hew to the latter standard.

Whether AFM can find a way to consistently market Friday Beers to its considerable legal-drinking-age audience without running afoul of industry watchdogs as it grows is, I think, an existential question — or the existential question. What else derails this brand? It’s already built! Sure, the regulatory pitfalls are there, and AFM has to get more sophisticated about them. But the upside is enormous, and Barrett insists he’s up for the challenge. “This only succeeds if we really fuel it to grow,” he says. I’m not betting against it.

🤯 Hop-ocalypse Now

According to coverage from Rochester First, a Tom McCorry of upstate New York has been arrested for “criminal impersonation” for sending threatening emails and letters that “were claimed to have been written by Investigator Richard Harder.” That a guy is allegedly doing crimes under the name Detective Dick Harder is weird as hell, but it would typically be well beyond our Hop-ocalyptic scope. Except: Beer Marketer’s Insights reported in its newsletter Wednesday that this Tom McCorry appears to be the same Tom McCorry who has worked for Constellation Brands for some two decades, and currently serves as the senior vice president of finance of the firm’s beer division. “Our team is working to understand more about this matter,” the firm, which is based in upstate NY, told BMI in a statement. Ditto.

📈 Ups…

The courts ruled that Boston Beer Co. didn’t do securities fraud by hyping Truly’s growth back in 2021 before it all went to sh*t… Per BeerBoard, the category did decently on Thanksgiving Eve (a.k.a. Blackout Wednesday), and that goes for beleaguered draft beer, too… Beer can now be delivered by third-party courier (DoorDash et al.) in New Jersey… Congrats to all the most popular beers in America, according to YouGov, I guess…

📉 …and downs

Georgia’s Pontoon Brewing alleged that Bevana’s supposedly symbiotic business model forced it into Chapter 11 bankruptcy… SouthState Bank sued Charlotte, N.C.’s D9 Brewing and Bevana’s parent company (Community Brewing Ventures), alleging breach of contract… Co-owners of Massachusetts hazy IPA juggernaut Tree House Brewing are facing a shareholder lawsuit over use of company funds… New Jersey’s governor issued a conditional veto on the state’s unanimously passed (!) brewery-reform bill, a procedural move he’d long signaled…

The article A Bro-tastic Instagram Empire’s Savvy Bid for Gen Z’s Beer Money appeared first on VinePair.

Back in August, Martha Stewart posted an Instagram Reel demonstrating the “proper” method of shaking your coffee at home. Little did we know we were getting a sneak peak at a collaboration between the lifestyle icon and an equally iconic coffee chain.

According to a press release, Stewart is Dunkin’s newest celebrity spokesperson and the face of its limited-edition Holiday Martini Shaker and Martini Glasses. The products, retailing for $25 and $20 respectively, will be available Friday on ShopDunkin.com — just in time for the holidays. The matte-finish barware collection is offered in three color options: red, pink, and mint green. Dunkin’ Rewards members will get early access to shop the collection the day prior.

Dunkin’ has embraced the boozy coffee trend in full force this year. This partnership and seasonal release arrives only a few short months after the launch of “Dunkin’ Spiked,” the chain’s line of canned hard iced teas and coffees. With the Espresso Martini craze still on the upswing, it’s all too fitting that Dunkin’ will also be releasing the recipe for the official Dunkintini — Stewart’s riff on the modern classic using Dunkin’ espresso — on Thursday.

Despite the frigid weather the holiday season brings, iced beverages continue to dominate the coffee space. A recent article from Nation’s Restaurant News reported that at an earnings call this past August, Starbucks executives claimed cold drinks now account for 75 percent of domestic beverage sales. In 2018, that category made up less than 50 percent of beverage sales. Hey, whatever Martha says goes.

The article Dunkin’ Teams Up With Martha Stewart to Launch Espresso Martini Barware appeared first on VinePair.

As far as flavor goes, many cocktail aficionados believe the more bitter the drink, the better. But of the abundance of bitter liqueurs on the market, including those distilled from artichokes and seasoned with saffron, there is perhaps none more famous than Campari. Characterized by its vibrant red hue and signature orange peel, rhubarb, and herbal flavors, the blushing liqueur shines most brightly in an equally-famous famous cocktail: the Negroni.

That said, Negronis (or Negroni Sbagliatos with Prosecco in them) aren’t for everyone, but that doesn’t necessarily mean one should swear off Campari for good. There are a number of other tasty builds that incorporate the ingredient, with flavor profiles ranging from fruity with an herbaceous edge to downright bitter bombs.

Read on to check out seven of the best Campari cocktails.

The Enzoni

If you relate to Stanley Tucci and his love for Negronis, consider shaking things up a bit with the Enzoni. The cocktail swaps out the classic’s vermouth for muddled green grapes, which bring a desirable sweetness to the split-base of gin and Campari. With a splash of fresh lemon juice for brightness and a touch of simple syrup, the Enzoni is significantly less bitter than many other Campari cocktails, making it an ideal introduction to the bitter liqueur.

The Americano

As far as Campari cocktails go, the only concoction more classic than the Negroni is the Americano. First whipped up in 1860s Italy at Gaspare Campari’s own bar, Caffé Campari, the libation swaps out gin for 2 ounces of club soda for a slightly less boozy profile than its bubble-less cousin.

The Boulevardier

If you’ll never tire of the Negroni but you’re craving something a bit outside of your comfort zone, the Boulevardier could be the cocktail for you. Created in the 1920s by an American living in Paris, the Boulevardier brings a bit of the U.S. to its French-born cousin, and is made with equal parts Campari, sweet vermouth, and bourbon. America’s native spirit brings a robust richness and subtle sweetness to the bitter liqueur, resulting in a luscious alternative to the classic cocktail.

The Mexicano

The Mexicano is a variation on the Americano, and utilizes one of Mexico’s native spirits, mezcal, in place of bourbon. Espadin joins Campari in the cocktail’s split-base and is brightened with agave syrup, which brings a vegetal backbone to the smoky, bitter booze. A soda water float transforms the Mexicano into a lovely sessionable sipper.

The Jungle Bird

Many Campari cocktails contain just three ingredients, making their bitter flavors taste more pronounced. But the bright and tropical Jungle Bird marries the liqueur with a menagerie of diverse ingredients that neutralize some of that bitterness, making it the perfect starting point for those just entering the Campari arena. The liqueur and rum spike the drink, and provide bittersweet notes and baking spice flavors. Fresh lime juice, pineapple juice, and simple syrup bring some much-needed lift to the boozy base.

The Garibaldi

The Garibaldi is one of the easiest Campari cocktails you can make thanks to its lone two ingredients: the blushing red liqueur and freshly squeezed orange juice. The burnt orange hue of the concoction is said to pay homage to shirts worn by followers of 19th-century Italian revolutionary Guiseppe Garibaldi during their struggle for liberation. To make your own, simply combine both ingredients in a highball glass with ice and toast to Italia.

The Old Pal

The Old Pal is a variation of the Boulevardier, which itself is a variation of the Negroni. First recorded by Harry MacElhone in 1922 at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris, the three-part mixture marries Campari, dry vermouth, and bourbon or rye, depending on your preference. The resulting cocktail is definitely spirituous, with black pepper and floral flavors fit for serving to your oldest pals.

The Left Hand

If you’ve ever worked behind the stick, you’re certainly familiar with handshake drinks — the off-menu nightcaps those in the trade request post-shift to subtly let bartenders know they’re on the same side. One of the most well-known handshakes is the Left Hand, developed by legendary NYC bartender Sam Ross. Bourbon, Campari, and sweet vermouth comprise its base à la Boulevardier, but the addition of mole bitters imbues notes of chocolate and cinnamon to take things up a notch. Garnish with a branded cherry, serve in a Nick & Nora, and toast to your favorite bartenders.

The article 7 of the Best Campari Cocktails appeared first on VinePair.

Cristina Gonzales of Gonzales Wine Company fell in love with wine while studying abroad in South America. Upon returning to Healdsburg, Calif., where her parents had settled, she sought out various jobs in the wine industry. Through these hands-on roles, and an eventual move to Oregon, she realized winemaking was her calling. But it wasn’t easy.

“I started to see that my path to being a winemaker wasn’t going to be in the traditional way of working my way up the ladder,” she says. “There was really no room for me. Winemaking has always been a white, male-dominated industry. There weren’t a lot of people who looked like me in the cellar.”

Indeed, according to The Roots Fund 2021 Annual Report, less than 5 percent of the wine industry “is people of color in ownership in wine.” In the Women Raising The Bar: 2023 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Beverage Alcohol Industry Study, 49 percent of respondents cited a lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion as a reason to avoid a career in the alcohol industry.

In true garagiste fashion, Gonzalez started her label in a friend’s garage in 2010 using fruit from Yakima, Wash. After several life changes, in 2018, the now single mom knew it was time to buckle down and turn her fledging project into a bonafide business. She bounced around several facilities and setups until she learned about AVP Wine Collective, which opened its doors this past summer.

The 60,000-square-foot facility houses several labels, which share winemaking equipment to produce their respective wines. Founder Carrie Wynkoop and winery director Corey Schuster created the space with the mission of offering a safe and inclusive path for underrepresented winemakers to gain a foothold in a historically exclusive industry.

AVP is just one of several recently opened processing facilities that operate with a deeper mission. A new breed of communal winemaking spaces are reimagining the format and harnessing the power of community to affect change in the industry. These facilities, which prefer the term “collectives,” provide education, mentorship, and — often — financial assistance to those who find themselves marginalized in the wine world.

What Is a Custom Crush?

For aspiring winemakers, custom crush facilities provide an economical on-ramp. In these shared setups, startup producers have access to equipment and services, eliminating investments in pricey machinery. Such facilities operate under one of two licenses: as a custom crush, or an alternating proprietorship. With the former, the operator oversees all of the production (even though fruit comes from the client), and technically owns the wine until the client pays all the necessary taxes. With the latter, the client must be a registered winery with the TTB. This setup offers more autonomy throughout the vinification process.

Rethinking the Model

There is evidence of the custom crush model serving communities as far back as the Great Depression. In 1936, growers of Zinfandel in San Luis Obispo were desperately seeking buyers for their fruit. Sylvester Dusi, a grower himself, had the idea to lease warehouse space, bring in equipment, and allow Italian farmers to crush their grapes in what was to be called San Luis Winery. Dusi then helped with vinification. Although they were only able to produce one vintage, due to contaminated barrels, Dusi was able to sell the bulk wine to a distiller for brandy production.

Wynkoop was already deeply rooted in the Oregon wine scene when she ideated AVP Collective about a year ago. (AVP stands for “Alis volat propriis,” which means “she flies with wings.” And as the Oregon state motto, Wynkoop says it dovetails with their mission.) Prior, she ran Cellar503, a wine club that featured small-production Oregon wineries.

“As a small producer, you’re kind of at the mercy of the landlord. Being in those places for so long, it really kind of started to hurt my mental health.”

During routine check-ins with her Cellar503 winery partners, Wynkoop regularly heard of producers struggling to find space to make wine. “One of the awesome things that’s happened in Oregon over the past decade is that our reputation for high-quality wine has really increased,” she says. “But the downside of that is that people are coming in and buying up the mid-sized wineries.”

Often, estates would let aspiring winemaker friends set up shop in a corner. But under new ownership, these micro-producers were kicked out. Wynkoop estimates that, within the past year, at least 30 of her contacts have found themselves homeless. The spaces that were available were often run by someone who might have been behind on rent. To generate money, they allowed others into their winery, but Wynkoop recounts tales of poor management or an operator who kept the best equipment for themselves.

Gonzales encountered similar situations when trying to get GWC off the ground. “As a small producer, you’re kind of at the mercy of the landlord,” she says. Her struggles with broken equipment and working with people who didn’t share the same cleaning protocols were compounded by the demands of raising a child as a solo parent. Her work needed to revolve around her son’s school or the babysitter’s schedule. “Being in those places for so long, it really kind of started to hurt my mental health,” Gonzales says.

When kicking around the idea of a new home for displaced producers, Wynkoop and Schuster set several criteria in place, one being that they cultivate an inclusive working environment “for people who don’t often feel safe or welcome in the industry,” Wynkoop says. “I think we’ve all heard our share of horror stories about women being sexually harassed or LGBT people just not feeling comfortable in a space.” The duo carefully vets potential members and makes everyone sign a “no assholes” code of conduct before any other paperwork is presented.

Incubator Programs

Breaking into the industry is a challenge for almost everyone interested in making wine: Sourcing fruit, buying equipment, purchasing bottles and other materials — it’s an expensive and daunting endeavor, especially if you have limited funds and almost no connections. That’s exactly why Common Wealth Crush (CWC) in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley launched its incubator program, which takes on most of the costs for a label’s first vintage, and supports underrepresented winemakers in the process.

Ben Jordan, co-founder of CWC, was making wine under the Lightwell Survey label at Early Mountain Vineyards for several years, but as the estate expanded and gained acclaim, he knew the clock was ticking on his time there. Together with his brother, Tim, and friend Patt Eagan, they decided to pitch investors on the idea of a custom crush. “We saw a younger generation that needed a new direction and outlet for creativity,” Jordan says. Lee Campbell, a Brooklyn-based sommelier and colleague, joined the operation, and in 2022 CWC welcomed its first vintage.

Their focus from the get-go was to foster an environment where ideas and knowledge would be shared freely among winemakers, and from this came the incubator program.

CWC helps source and fronts the cost of grapes for the first vintage, which can be recouped at a later date, potentially through wine sales. The team also provides winemaking services and the use of equipment at no cost for the first year and at a discount in the future. In addition, Jordan and the CWC provide mentorship, education, and guidance throughout the winemaking process.

The effort, Jordan says, doesn’t just benefit the cohorts, but the greater Virginia wine industry. The winemakers utilize CWC’s networks to support distribution and sales, which in turn diversifies Virginia’s portfolio. “[The state needs] new perspectives and ideas to make it a better place to make wine,” Jordan says.

As one of the first beneficiaries of CWC’s incubator project, Reggie Leonard sees its far-reaching effect. He calls his winemaking “active leadership,” meaning someone always needs to go first, regardless of the unknown. “When you’re out front, you can see a little bit more of what’s ahead of you than the people that aren’t up there, just because your vantage point is different. And so from that standpoint, you’re leading. You’re absorbing risk.”

AVP plans on launching a similar program next year, “focusing on women, people of color, LGBTQ folx — people who traditionally banks don’t like to loan to,” Wynkoop says. Like CWC, AVP will pay for a certain tonnage of grapes and will give winemakers free access to its space; Schuster will also mentor the members throughout the entire process. Once they have completed and sold that first vintage, program graduates will pay AVP back at a “very, very low interest rate so that we can use those funds to pay it forward to others in that scenario,” Wynkoop says.

“If we can put together a package that helps two or three of these winemakers get started every year, how great will that be to change the face of the wine industry?” Wynkoop says.

Low Intervention, Maximum Impact

Nearly all of the winemakers at AVP and CWC have an interest in low-intervention vinification methods and organic farming. Many, including Leonard, say that natural wine and the culture around it piqued their initial interest in the beverage. Leonard vividly recalls one video of Action Bronson speaking with Frank Cornelissen: “[Bronson’s] wearing shorts,” Leonard says. “He listens to rap. This is not the flowy-dress-floppy-hat wine. This is me and my Jordan Ones.”

Low-intervention winemaking is similarly the core philosophy for Noel Diaz and Barrie Quan, founders of Purity Wine and the Richmond Wine Collective, a shared facility they opened in the Bay Area in 2017. After outgrowing their old facility, the duo relocated to a warehouse with five other winemakers to divide costs. But as others eventually moved on, Diaz and Quan were left shouldering the lease. Given that natural wines played a big role in their personal wine journey, they sought to revamp the space and bring in like-minded vintners, especially women and people of color.

Diaz and Quan see The Richmond Collective as an incubator to ”further the conversation around natural wine in California,” Quan says. In addition to the winemaking itself, they operate a wine bar nicknamed “the study,” which features natural wines from members as well as from around the world. Through tasting and discussion, winemakers place themselves in a broader context and remain on the pulse of what’s happening in the industry. “It’s been very beneficial to the community,” Quan says.

“We really want to push ourselves,” Diaz says. “We test each other all the time.” However, he emphasizes Richmond Wine Collective is not a competitive space. “We’re supporting each other. And as we learn from each other, we grow stronger.”

With natural wine proving to be one gateway into the industry, the next question is: How can underrepresented winemakers carve out their own niche?

Hybrids might be one answer. Grapes like Chambourcin and Chardonel thrive in Virginia, and, as a cheaper crop than traditional vinifera, are more accessible. At CWC, intensive trials with hybrids are underway. The commitment to trying something outside the norm and take risks proves how collectives can serve as think tanks — and raise up a new generation of winemakers.

Paying It Forward

As collectives’ members and protégés grow and find success, many hope to take on mentor roles themselves. “You have all these historically cascading effects and laws” that prevented people from partaking in certain jobs or cultures, Leonard says. It’s not enough that opportunities in these previously gatekept areas arise, he says. The path is “illegible” — people need tangible examples to see how they fit in.

“For me, working in wine, that leadership makes it more legible,” Leonard says.

The stability of the collective allows Gonzales to pay it forward, too. She recently partnered with Vivianne Kennedy of RAM Cellars, and opened Community Wine Bar, a tasting room and wine bar in Portland, Ore. Tastings are offered in English, Spanish, and American Sign Language (ASL).

“[Like AVP] we opened Community to really create accessibility for marginalized communities,” Gonzales says. “[We envision it as a space] to taste wine, to get to know wine, and be a place where it feels safe and welcoming to people that look like us.”

The article These Custom Crush Collectives Are Fostering Diversity in the Wine Industry appeared first on VinePair.

Enjoyable Scotch whisky doesn’t have to be expensive, and this can be easy to forget: The five- and six-figure price tags affixed to decades-old single malts sold at auction houses inspire awe among monied connoisseurs and can leave those of us lacking exorbitant cash slack-jawed. Even at independent bottle shops, you’re likely to see bottles in the 10- to 25-year range soaring into the triple-digits locked inside glass cabinets. While delicious, these pricey labels dominate the category, and end up drawing attention away from more affordable gems.

Standing tall on shelves unfettered by glass panes, you’ll find Scotch that won’t blow your budget. You’ll encounter plenty of delicious, cost-effective bottles from well-respected makers that land comfortably in the 10- to 12-year pocket. You’ll also discover the occasional under-the-radar label from smaller producers that may spark curiosity. Eventually, you’ll find yourself needing to choose a bottle or two. But don’t worry — we have you covered. We asked 11 bartenders about their favorite cost-effective Scotches and why these bottles deliver on flavor and value.

The best bang-for-your-buck Scotch, according to bartenders:

• Dewar’s White Label
• Laphroaig 10
• Highland Park Magnus
• Springbank Campbeltown Loch
• Dewars Manzanilla Cask Finish
• Aberlour 12
• Jura 10
• Glenrondach 12
• Monkey Shoulder
• Compass Box The Peat Monster
• Balblair 12

“For me, hands down, Dewar’s White Label is the absolute best bang-for-the-buck Scotch. On its own, it’s round and super mellow, it has a luscious mouthfeel without too much honey or heather notes, and it blends really well into just about any cocktail. All for 20 bucks? Beam me up, Scotty!” —Jason Yu, Bartender, The Wolves, Los Angeles

“Without a doubt, when someone calls for a Penicillin, a Godfather, or a Blood and Sand, I reach for Laphroaig 10. So many Scotch cocktail recipes are sweet, [but] Laphroaig’s signature notes of smoke and salt perfectly complement the ingredients lending those cocktails their sweetness, like sweet vermouth and honey. Its malted barley mash creates a pleasant nutty finish (if you can forgive the initial assault of iodine on the palate). Though bars often relegate such peaty Scotch to atomizers that sit dusty and scarcely used next to exotic bitters on the bar top, and while some think Laphroaig is too much of a bully to cocktail with, I say play around with it and see how amazing it can taste!” —James Watts, Lead Bartender, Fat Cat, Las Vegas

“Highland Park Magnus. It doesn’t come with an age statement, which I think is part of what drives its price down. The world of Scotch can be pretentious and age statements can be one those pretensions, but I think that works to Magnus’s benefit. This leads to the focus being purely on the spirit itself and not some label trying to impress anyone. What you get with Magnus is a sherry-barrel-aged Scotch that is accessible but still off the mainland, both literally and figuratively. I think it’s a great distillate for anyone who wants to branch out into more interesting and diverse areas of Scotch, and it serves as a great introduction to single malt Scotch beyond some of the more common Speysides.” —Eric Fritts, Bartender, Bowlero, Overland Park, Kan.

“My favorite Scotch distillery, hands down, is Springbank. They’re one of the last distilleries in Scotland that’s still family-owned, and everything from floor malting to bottling happens on premise. All of their core labels are steals, but the real bang for your buck comes from their recent release, Springbank Campbeltown Loch. The distillery has released this blended malt in response to the increasing popularity and demand for the Springbank 10, and it blows my socks off. It still has all the orchard fruit honeysuckle deliciousness I’ve come to love with Springbank at lower price point. They make a black label and a white label version of this blend at different ABVs. The black label is 46 percent ABV and retails for around $70, and the white label is 40 percent ABV and costs about $40.” —Patrick Gibson, bartender, Jack Rose Dining Saloon, Washington, D.C.

“My bang-for-buck Scotch would have to be Dewar’s Mizunara cask finish. It scratches that smoke itch with its peat, and the Mizunara cask adds a floral depth of flavor that you don’t normally get in a Scotch as young as this 8 year. It’s a blended Scotch, which I know a lot of purists out there will dislike. But as a cocktail bartender, I am a firm proponent of a delicious blend of ingredients. And at under $25 retail? Get the heck out of here.” —Oren Briggs, Bar Manager, Apothecary, Dallas

“I think I’d have to go with none other than Aberlour 12. The thing that makes this Speyside Scotch stand out to me is the quality you get in every bottle. Compared to some other brands in its range of quality, Aberlour 12 comes in at a much softer price — around $40 to $60 depending where you’re shopping. All Aberlour has some interaction with sherry, be it staves, butts, or even a full cask. In the case of the 12 year, the sherry influence makes it either a great dessert Scotch or just a nice treat to come home to after work. When I’m at home, I love drinking Aberlour 12 neat with a rich Maduro cigar.” —Travis Baetz, General Manager, Seven Grand Bar/Bar Jackalope, Los Angeles

“Jura 10 year is our first grab at The Gutter, and it’s a personal favorite of mine. It’s an approachable Scotch that pairs well with so many different styles of cocktails. I love that it’s aged in oloroso casks, which imparts a nuttiness with subtle vanilla and chocolate notes. I find it’s a great bottle to introduce newcomers to Scotch, and turning guests onto a spirit they were unfamiliar with is a high that only we get as bartenders. We use it in both direct and refreshing cocktails, so its adaptability as well as its affordability is a huge draw. Whether it’s paired with strawberry and calamansi or biscotti liqueur and sfumato in an Old Fashion variation, its uses are endless.” —Sarah Block, bartender, The Gutter at the Lafayette Hotel, San Diego

“Glendronach 12 is one of the more robust, sherry-forward 12-year Scotches on the market, and at a hell of a price, too. Dried raisins and spice overflow from this gem. Absolutely delicious.” —Aaron De Feo, Bar Director, Little Rituals, Phoenix

“Scotch, either blended or single malt, has my heart at the moment. It’s hard to find one I don’t like in some capacity. But one of the tried-and-true bottles that I keep coming back to and recommending is Monkey Shoulder Blended Scotch for its affordability, approachability, and for how well it works in cocktails. The spice and fruit notes in this blended Scotch are delightful and fun to play with in a drink, but the complexity and rich depth of flavor is just as good when enjoyed neat or on the rocks.” —Ramsey Musk, beverage director, Accomplice Bar, Los Angeles

“My favorite Scotch whisky at an affordable price depends on the night — or day! If I want to spend a little more on Scotch but still receive bang for my buck, I’ll pick up a bottle of The Peat Monster by Compass Box. It’s a damn good blended malt Scotch whisky that delivers a full- bodied and smoky flavor. Try it neat, although I suggest that you try it with a splash of coconut water and enjoy!” —Manuel Porro, bartender, La Concha Resort, San Juan, Puerto Rico

“While it is always a moving target, my current favorite bang-for-your-buck Scotch whisky is Balblair 12. I first tasted Balblair during the pandemic, when the whiskey club I’m part of had a tasting over Zoom. My love for it was solidified when the bar director at my old job brought in a bottle and was surprised to see it gone about a week later, because I’d sold the bottle. Clearly, I wasn’t the only one to feel strongly about it. Non-chill filtered and aged in ex-bourbon casks, this single malt whisky starts with notes of barley sugar, apple, and citrus giving way to spice, Demerara, and graham cracker. I’ve always been partial to highland Scotch, but at just over $50, this small distillery team packs a punch. Dangerously smooth and full of dimension, this whisky cannot disappoint.” —James DeFoor, Beverage Director, Ra-Ra Rhino, Bushwick, Brooklyn

*Image retrieved from – Heleno via stock.adobe.com

The article We Asked 11 Bartenders: Which Scotch Offers the Best Bang for Your Buck? (2023) appeared first on VinePair.

Ready to ring in the holiday season? As we swap out our autumnal decor for twinkle lights and snowflakes, it’s time to start thinking about the best bottles to gift the drinks lovers in our lives. When buying for those who favor America’s beloved native spirit, nailing down the premier pick can be a bit of a challenge with the number of stand-out bottles on shelves increasing every year. But whether it be for a bourbon newcomer or the tater of all taters, the perfect bottle exists for everyone.

From innovative creations from tenured distilleries to bottles aged beneath the sea, the following list features the most giftable expressions the bourbon category has to offer. Read on for the seven best bottles to give this holiday season.

Best budget bourbon: George Dickel Bourbon Whisky Aged 8 Years
Best splurge bourbon: Wolf Spirit Puncher’s Chance Bourbon ‘The Left Cross’
Best bourbon for beginners: Larceny Kentucky Straight Very Small Batch Bourbon
Best bourbon for whiskey geeks: Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged
Best bourbon for cocktail lovers: Russell’s Reserve 10 Years Old
Best bourbon to impress: Jefferson’s Ocean Voyage 24
Best limited-edition bourbon: Four Roses 135th Anniversary Limited Edition Small Batch

Best Budget Bourbon

George Dickel Bourbon Whisky Aged 8 Years

Do you have a Tennessee whiskey lover in your life? George Dickel’s 8-year-old bourbon is a great choice for those looking to expand someone’s horizons without burning a hole in their pocket. Made using the exact same mash bill, yeast, and filtration process as George Dickel’s famed Tennessee whiskeys, this bourbon delivers aromas of red berries and dried flower petals and a robust, spiced palate developed from years of maturation in new charred oak casks. Bottled at 90 proof for just $33, this option is ideal for both cocktails and sipping alike.

Average Price: $33
Rating: 92

Best Splurge Bourbon

Wolf Spirit Puncher’s Chance Bourbon ‘The Left Cross’

While rum casks can often dominate the flavor profile of the spirits aged inside them, this 14-year-old bourbon is a stand-out success. After aging in new charred oak barrels, The Left Cross spends between two and six months finishing in 12-year-old Jamaican rum casks that impart a deeply concentrated flavor profile, including hints of spice and rich molasses. Though the sticker value may be enough to earn a sideward glance, if you have a bourbon fanatic to shop for this season, we can’t understate the beauty of this bottle.

Average Price: $150
Rating: 95

Best Bourbon for Beginners

Larceny Kentucky Straight Very Small Batch Bourbon

Made with a high-wheat mash bill similar to that of the iconic Pappy Van Winkle lineup, Larceny Kentucky Straight Very Small Batch Bourbon is the perfect pick for the bourbon newbie in your orbit. But despite the roots of its brand tracing back to Pappy Van Winkle himself, this bourbon’s $27 price point won’t break the bank like some of its peers. With the welcoming aroma of butterscotch and a luscious honeyed palate, Larceny holds up in cocktails, neat, or on the rocks, and gives the bourbon beginner plenty of room to explore.

Average Price: $27
Rating: 90

Best Bourbon for Whiskey Geeks

Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged

For years, whiskey aficionados have been clamoring for Maker’s Mark to release a decade-old expression, and for years, those requests fell on deaf ears — until now. Launched in September 2023, Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged is now the brand’s oldest release to date, consisting of an 87/13 blend of 12-year-old bourbon and 11-year-old bourbon, respectively. After resting for six years, each barrel holding the whiskeys was transported to a specialized cellar built into a limestone hill, which the brand claims slows the influence of charred oak on the spirit. Imparting welcoming aromas of berry and rosemary and a rich palate of dark caramel and chocolate, this bourbon is worthy of a space on every whiskey pro’s bar — if you can get your hands on it.

Average Price: $150
Rating: 95

Best Bourbon for Cocktail Lovers

Russell’s Reserve 10 Years Old

At 45 percent ABV, this bourbon offers shocking complexity for its proof. And at just $39, it’s perfect for the at-home bartender in your life. Distilled by Wild Turkey’s father-and-son team Jimmy and Eddie Russel, Russell’s Reserve 10 Year opens with aromas of dried orange peel, and practically begs to be the base in an Old Fashioned. With luscious fruit and vanilla undertones that dance across the taste buds, this bourbon also plays well in cocktails like the Boulevardier.

Average Price: $39
Rating: 93

Best Bourbon to Impress

Jefferson’s Ocean Voyage 24

If you’re looking to turn the head of someone special with something outside the standard whiskey wheelhouse, look no further than Jefferson’s Ocean Voyage 24. While Jefferson’s is known for aging its spirits at the sea, Voyage 24 is the first bottle to remain in the same climate throughout the entirety of its maturation period. Aged for six to eight years on land before spending months in the Caribbean Sea, the bourbon takes on a creamy caramel and juicy, ripe berry flavor thanks to its time in the tropical climate.

Average Price: $82
Rating: 93

Best Limited-Edition Bourbon

Four Roses 135th Anniversary Limited Edition Small Batch

Four Roses’ annual limited-edition anniversary release is always highly coveted, but this year’s expression was extra special, as it contains some of the distillery’s oldest bourbons. A blend of 12-year-old, 14-year-old, 16-year-old, and 25-year-old whiskeys, this bottle is a master class in bourbon production, and carries seductive aromas of clove and smoked applewood. The palate takes a sharp turn for even more nuance, bursting with molasses, nutmeg, and a whipped cream-like sweetness. With a long, spiced strawberry finish, Four Roses 135th Anniversary Limited Edition Small Batch is certain to knock the socks off any and every bourbon lover in your life.

Average Price: $199.99
Rating: 96

The article The 7 Best Bourbons to Gift This Holiday (2023) appeared first on VinePair.

This episode of “Wine 101” is sponsored by Pieropan. Not only does Pieropan make some of the most refreshing wines in the Soave region, but their single-vineyard Soave Classico takes it to a new level. With its enticing complexity and refreshing depth, it’s clear the Pieropan family has been producing this wine for over a century.

There’s no right or wrong way to get started on your wine journey. It can be as informal as picking up a different bottle every week and recording tasting notes or as formal as rising through the ranks of a rigorous wine education program with the hopes of becoming a certified Master Sommelier.

For those interested in pursuing a happy medium between the two extremes, there’s a certain organization called the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) that has put together a four-tier curriculum of wine, spirits, and sake education with satellite schools across the globe. Depending on how deep you want to go down the WSET path, you can complete as few as one tier, or as many as all four.

Levels one and two will give you a really strong base knowledge of wine varietals, production, marketing, and food pairings. Levels three and four, on the other hand, are when things kick into high gear. There, you’ll go the full distance, learning the ins and outs of the wine world, going country by country, from France to China. At that point, it basically becomes a full-time job, but if you’re passionate about wine, the juice is well worth the squeeze.

Is it crucial? Well, not necessarily, but it’s one of the most efficient, organized ways to obtain a formal wine education.

On this episode of “Wine 101,” Keith is joined by Alexandra Schrecengost, founder of Culture With Us, who has completed the full WSET program. The two chat about how Schrecengost got to WSET, what the different levels entailed, and what she took away from the program. Tune in for more.

Listen Online

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Follow Keith on Instagram @VinePairKeith. Rate and review this podcast wherever you get your podcasts from. It really helps get the word out there.

“Wine 101” was produced, recorded, and edited by yours truly, Keith Beavers, at the VinePair headquarters in New York City. I want to give a big old shout-out to co-founders Adam Teeter and Josh Malin for creating VinePair. Big shout-out to Danielle Grinberg, the art director of VinePair, for creating the most awesome logo for this podcast. Also, Darby Cicci for the theme song. Listen to this. And I want to thank the entire VinePair staff for helping me learn something new every day. See you next week.

E. & J. Gallo Winery is excited to sponsor this episode of VinePair’s “Wine 101.” Gallo always welcomes new friends to wine with an amazingly wide spectrum of favorites, ranging from everyday to luxury and sparkling wine. (Gallo also makes award-winning spirits, but this is a wine podcast.) Whether you are new to wine or an aficionado, Gallo welcomes you to wine. Visit TheBarrelRoom.com today to find your next favorite, where shipping is available.

The article Wine 101: The Levels of the WSET Certification appeared first on VinePair.

Chartreuse, one of the world’s most beloved and in-demand liqueurs, just found a second home in the heart of Paris.

The brand’s new visitor center was inaugurated on Tuesday and is dedicated to the history of the Carthusian monks who invented the herbaceous liqueur and their long-time presence in the French city.

Carthusian monks have had ties to Paris for over 500 years, and in the 1500s, their monastery maintained a close connection to the apothecaries in town. That’s why when French diplomat and soldier François Hannibal d’Estrées discovered a recipe for an elixir for “long life” in 1605, he turned it over to the Carthusians. From 1605 to 1764, Chartreuse was produced in Paris at the Chartreuse de Paris, a then-new addition to the Carthusian monastery located just blocks from the Luxembourg Gardens.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Pascaline Lepeltier (@pascalinelepeltier)

The monastery was destroyed during the French Revolution, though the Gardens are miraculously still home to a number of trees that originated from the monks’ nursery. According to Pascaline Lepeltier, who shared the news on Instagram, 128 Boulevard St Germain was chosen as the ideal location for the new Chartreuse visitor center due to its close proximity to both the trees and the location where the elixir’s recipe was first handed over.

At the new visitor center, guests can expect immersive experiences that educate about the brand and the monks’ rich histories, similar to those found at the brand’s other center in Voiron. Additionally, visitors can find a special release of the spirit packaged in a porcelain container created by Revol. As glass containers did not yet exist when the monks were distilling in Paris, the limited-release packaging pays homage to this detail in Chartreuse’s history.

Visitors are also welcome to take part in herbalism lessons or try one of the brand’s new herbal tea blends, which the brand says were created to aid with sleep, digestion, respiratory health, and muscle relaxation.

The article Chartreuse Just Opened a Brand New Visitor Center in Paris appeared first on VinePair.

The ideal situation for any maker, in the words of the poet W.H. Auden, is to be considered “local, but prized elsewhere.” Auden might have been specifically comparing poets to makers of “some local cheese,” but that lofty aspiration also applies to drink makers, too. In the case of most whiskeys, his aphorism holds true: Japanese whisky is a local product that is beloved outside  Japan. Scotch is considered the standard of quality around the globe. And Irish whiskey is growing so fast it might catch up to Scotch in the U.S. in less than a decade.

But American whiskey, and bourbon in particular? Well, not so much.

In terms of Auden’s axiom, our national spirit is now in a bizarre Upside Down. Paradoxically, bourbon is a local drink for U.S. consumers that is currently prized almost to the point of ridiculousness at home, with interest approaching “mania,” as noted whiskey journalist Clay Risen wrote late last year. Prices are getting stratospheric, with some drinkers complaining that they can’t find certain bourbons for sale at less than two times the manufacturer’s suggested retail price. Rare and allocated bourbons, like the bottles in the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, can be exceedingly hard to find, with more than a few reports of fistfights taking place among would-be customers who stumble across one.

And yet “elsewhere,” meaning outside the U.S., there’s no such mania — not even in Europe, home to the biggest whiskey drinkers in the world. According to Stefan Wyrsch, founder of the Swiss-based European Bourbon and Rye Association, EU consumers have a different default setting when they hear the word “whiskey.”

“First and foremost, spirits customers here think of Scottish, Irish, and Japanese whiskey,” he says. “In the Old World, there is no bourbon or rye hype.”

The World’s Biggest Whiskey Drinkers

That’s quite a paradox when you consider that many Europeans seem to go through whiskey by the barrel. On a per-capita basis, France has long been reported to have the world’s largest whiskey consumption, drinking about 50 percent more whiskey per person than the United States, while Spain is ranked No. 5 and Ireland is No. 8. (Fair warning: Those figures date back almost a decade, and more recent studies don’t appear to exist.)

Another conundrum: Many American whiskey distilleries are now owned by European conglomerates. Milan-based Campari is the home of Wild Turkey and Russell’s Reserve. Paris-based Pernod Ricard owns Rabbit Hole and Jefferson’s Bourbon. Luxembourg’s Stoli Group helms Kentucky Owl, while the French luxury-brand powerhouse LVMH owns the craft bourbon producer Woodinville, while also holding a minority share of Vermont’s WhistlePig.

That makes Europe feel like a natural home for American spirits. Indeed, a temporary removal of devastating reciprocal tariffs led to a 29 percent annual increase in U.S. whiskey exports to the EU in 2022, hailed by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) as a “banner year” in a report earlier this month. Two of the world’s top five importers of American whiskey are EU countries, the report says, including the category’s No. 1 export market, the Netherlands, as well as fourth-place Germany, which comes in just behind the technically-European-but-no-longer-EU market of the U.K.

Those increased numbers might be significant, but it’s worth remembering that they don’t come from the EU countries with the biggest whiskey consumption. And while imports are now up, they’re generally not the best bottles.

“If you talk to bartenders, they are more in favor of bourbon and rye whiskey, because those are the products they usually work with. But if you have the same conversation at a whiskey fair, there are sometimes really snobbish reactions.”

“We really only get the standard things, and most of it is used to mix cocktails,” Wyrsch says. “This is where the quantities are consumed.”

While European drinkers are not unaware of American whiskey, familiarity with the bourbon category itself is lagging. “Bourbon whiskey is more likely to be known by brand names — Jim Beam, Four Roses, or Wild Turkey,” Wyrsch says.

That lack of general knowledge can serve as inspiration. When the Austrian bartender Thomas Domenig was studying for a spirits certificate, he had serious trouble finding information about American whiskey in German.

“The only information you were getting was in English, and all the whiskey books around were all about Scotch,” he says. “I thought there could be a room for a book on American whiskey, written in German.” After a few years of writing and research, his book “Bourbon” came out in 2019, picking up several German-language book awards in 2020 and 2021. For him, bourbon has benefited from the growth of cocktail culture in Europe, but it still isn’t catching up to the elevated status of single malt.

“If you talk to bartenders, they are more in favor of bourbon and rye whiskey, because those are the products they usually work with,” he says. “But if you have the same conversation at a whiskey fair, there are sometimes really snobbish reactions.”

In part, he says, that might have to do with opinions about bourbon’s main ingredient, among both drinkers and producers in Europe.

“Almost no one is willing to pay excessive prices for hyped bourbons, especially since bourbons like Pappy Van Winkle 15 Year were used for mixing cocktails until just a few years ago.”

“Corn isn’t a typical grain to use in spirits production here,” he says. In turn, that could lead curious drinkers to America’s other whiskey archetype. “I think if someone would go more to the American style, that would be rye.”

A French enthusiast who blogs about whiskey in English, Christophe “Coldorak” Roi is a co-founder of the Rennes Whisky Club in Brittany and a regular at events like Whisky Live Paris. Although he owns hundreds of bottles, his collection currently includes just one bourbon, he says. (For the record, it’s the 24-year-old Bourbon Whiskey #1, sourced from an unnamed U.S. distillery and bottled by That Boutique-y Whisky Company in the U.K.) While some of his friends prefer bourbon to Scotch, the overall lack of high-quality choices isn’t likely to help the drink grow in popularity in France.

“We don’t get the good stuff,” he says. “We don’t have the store picks. We have the very bottom-range regular releases, 40 percent ABV, entry-level stuff, and that’s not the best bourbon there is.”

Dusties and Private Imports

Europe’s lack of bourbon mania can lead to some interesting situations for U.S. whiskey fans. Sure, there isn’t a lot of craft bourbon in the Old World, but when you do find a bottle, it’s probably not going to be sold at a big markup, since Europeans have not traditionally considered bourbons suitable for serving neat.

“Almost no one is willing to pay excessive prices for hyped bourbons, especially since bourbons like Pappy Van Winkle 15 Year were used for mixing cocktails until just a few years ago,” Wyrsch says.

“There was a big wave around 2013 and 2014, where all the importers went crazy,” he says. “Bourbon was the next thing, but there was still plenty of capacity. So they sent over a lot of stuff to Europe and the stuff sat on the shelves for like four or five years.”

And while most American whiskey exports to Europe are mass-market spirits, rare bottles do come through, though mostly not via professional importers, Wyrsch says. When those companies do get an allocated or rare bottle, such prizes don’t usually hit the retail market. Instead, they’re quietly sold off to collectors or friends. Any real rarities currently coming in are probably happening on an individual basis.

“All the completely hyped, super-rare, limited, small-batch or whatever are mostly sent to Europe privately,” he says. “You can get any bourbon in Europe, if you have the right contacts in the USA and the necessary pocket change.”

Collectors say things were very different just a few years ago. Originally from Ohio, Henry Danziger has lived in the Czech Republic since the early 1990s, building up a whiskey collection of over 500 types of whiskey, mostly bourbon, roughly a third of which he purchased in Germany or elsewhere in Europe. A co-founder and occasional host at the regular “Whiskey Wednesday” tastings at Max’s Steakhouse in Prague, Danziger says that importers and producers initially bet big on interest in bourbon in Europe about a decade ago, only to find that their wager didn’t pay off.

“There was a big wave around 2013 and 2014, where all the importers went crazy,” he says. “Bourbon was the next thing, but there was still plenty of capacity. So they sent over a lot of stuff to Europe and the stuff sat on the shelves for like four or five years, and I would buy it when it would go on sale.”

If you’re hoping to find some sought-after bottles at cheap prices on your next vacation, Danziger says that the treasure hunt is much harder nowadays. Bourbon rarities are, well, rare, and many desirable bottles in Europe are now being sold at or above their American MSRPs.

At the same time, I’m not so sure, having stumbled across a number of decent bourbons in recent years, including a Prague wine shop offering stacks of Weller Special Reserve at the non-mania price of about $30 just a couple of years ago. In early 2021, I picked up a couple of $45 bottles of Elijah Craig 12 Year Old Small Batch, which had lost its age statement some five years earlier, on behalf of the whiskey writer Zachary Johnston. As I type this, I’m contemplating a European e-shop’s listing for the once widely distributed Evan Williams Single Barrel, a fan favorite that became a Kentucky-only release in 2022. At less than $44 in local currency, including sales tax, it feels like a deal when compared to the $100 some U.S. retailers are currently charging for similar bottles.

But those are exceptions, of course. The vast majority of American whiskey in Europe is either basic Jim Beam or standard Jack Daniel’s. As long as Americans are going crazy for bourbon, most producers will probably continue to focus on their domestic sales — despite publicly stating otherwise. And most Europeans, Roy believes, will keep drinking what they already know.

“I guess it’s just that we are creatures of habit, and we are used to Scotch whisky,” he says. “So when the bottle of Glenfiddich 12 is done, they’ll buy another Glenfiddich 12, because they’re just used to it.”

The article Loved at Home, Ignored Abroad: Why European Whiskey Drinkers Aren’t Buying the Bourbon Hype appeared first on VinePair.

Alcohol and sailing have long gone hand in hand, with long weeks spent working at sea often demanding something to take the edge off. For that reason, the profession has historically been associated with heavy drinking — a narrative furthered by the once global practice of paying Naval officers for their service with alcohol rations in wartime when funds were scarce. While alcohol consumption aboard U.S. Navy vessels was outlawed in June 1914, the ban couldn’t stop American sailors from wetting their whistles during World War II— even if it meant they had to siphon fuel from their own weapons.

During the first half of the war, the U.S. utilized steam-powered torpedo engines on its Pacific theater-based submarines, each of which was fueled by 180-proof grain alcohol. Without other alcohol aboard the subs to indulge in, the sailors quickly turned to the high-proof torpedo fuel, combining it with pineapple juice to smooth its burn. And thus, Torpedo Juice was born.

This habit eventually resulted in a power shortage, which tipped off the superiors on board. To break the sailors’ habit, higher-ups spiked the fuel with Pink Lady, a liquid made from red dye and methanol, a poisonous substance known to cause blindness. Their strategy failed to discourage the drinking, as sailors attempted to separate the grain alcohol from the compound by straining it through compressed loaves of bread. This technique was not always successful,, and many soldiers still went blind after consuming the Pink Lady-tainted Torpedo Juice.

After this, the U.S. Navy replaced the methanol with slightly less harmful croton oil, a purgative substance that caused extreme stomach pain, vertigo, fainting, and diarrhea if consumed. Still, the sailors couldn’t be stopped. Rather than swearing off Torpedo Juice for good, sailors aboard the U.S.S. Gudgeon developed their own distilling system to remove the croton oil from the booze.

Prior to being dumped into 50-gallon vats used to fuel the torpedoes, the 180-proof alcohol was stored in five-gallon containers, which the sailors would smuggle off-board in port cities to redistill in inconspicuous locations, mainly hotel rooms. The alcohol, still sitting at 180 proof, was then brought back onboard and mixed 2:3 with pineapple juice. The operation was extremely dangerous — as operating makeshift stills typically is — and resulted in a number of explosions and subsequent fires. In addition to the obvious health issues that come with consuming anything containing 95 percent alcohol, Torpedo Juice was also associated with mild to severe reactions to the croton oil that still remained post-distillation.

The beverage fell out of popularity among Navy officers after the 1943 introduction of the Mark 18 torpedo, the U.S.’s first electric storage battery torpedo, which didn’t need high-proof to power it. While the crude cocktail may not be found onboard Navy ships these days, a few spirit brands still make their own version of Torpedo Juice today, including Pendelton, Ore.’s Oregon Grain Growers. Their iteration bottles distilled vodka with macerated pineapple, and if you get to try it, proceed with caution: While it may not contain any toxic substances, it’s still bottled at 100 proof and still packs a sailor-worthy punch.

*Image retrieved from – Pixel-Shot – stock.adobe.com

The article During World War II, U.S. Sailors Drank Cocktails Made From Torpedo Fuel appeared first on VinePair.

Tequila’s popularity is on the rise and shows no sign of stopping. And with the increased recognition of this agave-based spirit, it’s more important than ever to understand its diverse characteristics.

Whether it’s being sipped neat, on the rocks, or in a well-crafted cocktail, blanco tequila can offer complex flavor profiles that run the gamut from clean and vegetal to creamy and fruit-forward. Several factors can lead to these different expressions such as production method, age and ripeness of the agave, and whether the agave was grown on the highland or lowland sites. Some of these bottles showcase the spirit’s savory side with spicy notes like jalapeño and pepper shining through, and others bring out the agave’s inherent sweetness. Many highlight the spirit’s more mineral-driven properties with steely and saline features, or can lunge deep into the fruit-forward end with hints of pineapple and lime zest. So, if you find an expression you can’t get enough of, chances are there are some similar blancos from the same region or producer you’ll enjoy just as fiercely.

Even if you’ve nailed down your ideal flavor profile, with more artisanal brands popping up every day in an already saturated market, picking one off the shelf can be tricky. No matter what your preference, this chart can help you nail down which type of tequila you gravitate toward or further guide you on your journey to discover your next favorite blanco.

*Image retrieved from – Maurizio Polese – Unsplash.com/GettyImages

The article The Ultimate Blanco Tequila Flavor Map [Infographic] appeared first on VinePair.

If you haven’t noticed, there’s a growing trend toward leaner red wines that are less dominated by oak and high levels of alcohol. With that in mind, the red wines of Austria should be near the top of your list.

While Austrian reds are lighter in character and mouthfeel than many of their European and American counterparts, they are far from lightweights in terms of complexity and depth. If they don’t hit you over the head with their intensity, many are notable for their subtlety and nuance and refreshing acidity; they are wines to swirl and savor as they evolve from one sip to the next.

While Austria is best known for its white wines, especially Grüner Veltliner, which accounts for one-third of the country’s vineyards, the reds give us an intriguing look at other indigenous varieties, notably Blaufränkisch and Zweigelt, which are also now being grown in the U.S., perhaps most notably in New York’s cool-climate Finger Lakes region and Washington State where Blaufränkisch is also called Lemberger.

In her excellent reference, “The Wine Bible,” Karen MacNeil describes Blaufränkisch as “precise and sleek — spicy, herbal, and floral — all of this plus the flavors of delicious woodland berries and a sense of forestiness.” She notes its “grip and bite” and its ability to “splice through the meatiness of meat.”

Indeed, Austrian Blaufränkisch, while familiar to serious wine enthusiasts, deserves much broader recognition. While Blaufränkisch is Austria’s red star, Zweigelt is its workhorse and the most planted red variety. A cross between Blaufränkisch and the lesser-known St. Laurent grape, it’s a bit more straightforward and dark-fruit-driven, but also capable of producing memorable wines.

Today, many of Austria’s top red wines are made from grapes grown organically and biodynamically. In terms of geography, the long and relatively narrow Burgenland region, located in the east along the border with Hungary, is red wine country. And within Burgenland there are now several DACs, Austria’s answer to Italian DOCs (controlled designations of origin).

The DACs, from north to south, include Neusiedlersee (on the eastern side of Lake Neusiedl), Leithaberg (to the west of Lake Neusiedl), Mittelburgenland (Middle Burgenland), and Eisenberg. It’s useful to know these names because you’ll often see them on the labels, while other wines are simply marked “Burgenland.”

Within these appellations, the grapes (and the wines) are informed by a variety of soil types, including mica-schist, sand and gravel, limestone, and clay, some of it calcareous. With their strong sense of place, or terroir, the wines — many from small producers — have an authenticity that stands out.

Here are eight of the best Austrian red wines to try now:

Wieninger Wiener Trilogie 2018

This excellent barrel-aged blend presents dark fruit flavors, mainly blackberry and black currant, and touches of raspberry, cedar, and earth. With smooth tannins, it drinks like an aged Bordeaux and is a great alternative to those Cabernet Sauvignon- and Merlot-based wines. In fact, Cabernet and Merlot make up 35 percent of the blend, with the rest Zweigelt. The importer, Vineyard Brands, notes that the Wiener Trilogie “is not a thick, fat New World wine – it delivers mouthfuls of drinking pleasure with lots of finesse and makes an ideal food companion.” I couldn’t agree more.

Price: $31
Buy This Wine

Wachter-Wiesler Blaufränkisch Eisenberg ‘Béla-Jóska’ 2020

This classic Blaufränkisch is full of red fruit flavors — cherry, raspberry, red licorice — accented by cracked black pepper, earth and mineral notes, all supported by refreshing acidity. Aged in large barrels, the wood influence is minimal. Burgundian in feel but with more spice, it’s also a phenomenal value. (The wine is named after the family fathers, Béla Wachter and Jóska Wiesler.)

Price: $19
Buy This Wine

Claus Preisinger Zweigelt ‘Kieselstein’ 2021

Concentrated dark fruit flavors are accented by hints of baking spices, herbs, and black pepper. There’s also a steely mineral note. Softly tannic, this fruit-forward wine reminded me of Beaujolais and would be great with a slight chill. “Kieselstein” refers to the pebbly soils of the vineyards.

Price: $22
Buy This Wine

Anita and Hans Nittnaus ‘Anita’ Red Blend 2018

This fabulous blend — 65 percent Zweigelt, 15 percent Blaufränkisch, 15 percent St. Laurent, and 5 percent Merlot — shows black cherry and pomegranate notes with a touch of powdered cinnamon and lively acidity. It’s also a great-value wine that you’ll find yourself returning to again and again.

Price: $17
Buy This Wine

Anita and Hans Nittnaus Blaufränkisch ‘Kalk & Schiefer’ 2020

Nittnaus produces a range of single-variety Blaufränkisch wines, and this exceptional bottling from Burgenland shows the grape’s depth and complexity. Concentrated dark fruit notes are accented by touches of braised mushrooms, wet-stone minerality, baking spices, and tobacco that emerge as the wine opens up. It’s all supported by lively acidity that makes it almost effortless to drink. “Kalk & Schiefer” refers to the limestone and slate soils in which the grapes are grown. (Two of Nittnaus’s vineyard-designated Blaufränkisches are also notable: the 2019 “Lange Ohn” and the 2019 “Altenberg.”)

Price: $27
Buy This Wine

Erdenlied Zweigelt 2021

Soft, fruity — and delicious. This bargain Zweigelt from Niederösterreich (Lower Austria, which is actually in Austria’s northeast corner along the lower part of the Danube River), is a versatile, easy-drinking quaffer that comes in a liter bottle and shows red cherry, raspberry, blueberry and spice notes with a touch of black pepper. Chill it slightly and enjoy it with fish, pizza, or just about anything.

Price: $14
Buy This Wine

Paul Achs Zweigelt 2021

Concentrated dark fruit flavors, herbs, and a hint of white pepper are at the heart of this wine made from biodynamically grown grapes. The fruit is supported by supple tannins, minerals, and bright acidity. (Also worth trying is this winery’s elegant 2021 Blaufränkisch with its dark fruits and chalky minerality.)

Price: $24
Buy This Wine

Heinrich Blaufränkisch Leithaberg 2018

With its spiced dark and red fruit flavors, this wine from biodynamically grown grapes is notable for its structure and robust acidity. There’s a hint of pencil shavings on the nose and a touch of wood on the palate (the wine was aged in larger used oak barrels and amphorae). Heinrich’s website, by the way, is one of the more detailed and informative winery sites I have seen, packed with insights about the wines and the region.

Price: $30
Buy This Wine

The article 8 of the Best Red Wines From Austria appeared first on VinePair.

Craft, or crafty? Following Anheuser-Busch InBev’s infamous acquisition of Goose Island Beer Company, the difference between fancy beer made by small breweries (craft) and somewhat fancy beers made by corporate macrobreweries (crafty) was a sure point of contention. Nonetheless, many craft beers have stood the test of time, due in no small part to the fact that they’re well-made beverages with lasting mass appeal. While many like to argue that crafty beers are just macro brews with dolled up packaging, it’s hard to make that case against Blue Moon Belgian White.

When a young Keith Villa joined the Coors Brewing Company in the 1980s, he took a break from day-to-day operations to learn about brewing in Brussels, Belgium. There, he discovered that when it comes to brewing, the sky’s the limit. The idea of making beer better was the common thread in his studies, and when Villa landed in Colorado two years later, he arrived unsatisfied with the norm, prepared to brew something that “only comes around once in a blue moon.” So he got to tinkering in their pilot brewery and it wasn’t long before he perfected the recipe for “Belgian Wit #4,” the beer we know today as the orange wheel-garnished, opaque Blue Moon Belgian White.

Today on “Taplines,” Dave Infante is joined by Keith Villa himself to discuss Blue Moon’s historic rise. From the corporate offices in Golden, Colo., to the ballpark brewhouse where he perfected the brand’s soon-to-be smash hit recipe, to the bars nationwide he tried to get to stock the brew, Villa argues that Blue Moon’s success was anything but preordained by its corporate backing, contrary to what critics argue. Tune in for more.

Listen Online

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Watch on Youtube

The article Taplines: Blue Moon Rising appeared first on VinePair.

Some things just make sense together. Peanut butter and jelly, for example. Cereal and milk. Bonfires and cozy sweaters. And, for hundreds of years, Côtes du Rhône wines and Comté cheese.

Each French region boasts a distinctive terroir that is directly reflected in the products it creates. Connected by the Rhône River, Comté and Côtes du Rhône share more than just a body of water — each heralds a similar set of values rooted in history, tradition, and love for the planet. To top it off, each bears Europe’s prestigious Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) label. Only goods that meet a strict set of quality standards, epitomize their geography, utilize generational knowledge, and incorporate local products can earn this distinction.

The standout tastes of Comté cheese and Côtes du Rhône wines are not left to chance. Both products’ traditional agriculture and production methods have been carefully passed down through generations of family farmers. Often, they rely heavily on local, sustainable practices that focus on preserving the biodiversity of each region, allowing the terroir to shine through.

On this episode of the “VinePair Podcast,” Zach sits down with dairy farmer Jean-François Marmier and winemaker Raphael Pommier to discuss the interconnected legacies of Comté and Côtes du Rhône.

Listen Online

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or FranceAgriMER. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.  

This podcast is sponsored by Comté x Côtes du Rhône. 

The article The VinePair Podcast: Côtes du Rhône Wines and Comté Cheese — a Terroir Tandem appeared first on VinePair.

While American whiskey (especially bourbon) continues to soar, Scotch has had a hard time finding its footing in the U.S. market. After growing by 2 percent to 5.8 million cases in U.S. sales last year, blended Scotch whisky volume is down 3 percent in control states so far this year, according to Impact Databank. However, some brands have still managed to prosper in 2023.

Brands that seem to fare well in the current blended Scotch landscape are those still innovating and continuing to launch new releases. For example, the fastest-growing Scotch brand in control states so far in 2023 has been Buchanan’s, which is in the Diageo portfolio. This growth has largely been driven by the release of its new pineapple-flavored expression, which proved to be a popular addition to the brand’s lineup.

“Buchanan’s Pineapple is now the number-one core spirits innovation in the last year,” Diageo North America CEO Sally Grimes told Shanken News Daily. “It’s driving new recruitment to both the trademark and the category. Initial consumer data shows that 80 percent of these consumers are new to buying Buchanan’s within the last year and 50 percent of these consumers had not purchased Scotch in the past year.”

Johnnie Walker continues to lead the category in U.S. sales, with Johnny Walker Black accounting for more than half the brand’s volume. In the second spot is Bacardi-owned Dewar’s, which has debuted several higher-end releases this year including Dewar’s Double Double 37 and Double Double 21.

“We’ve built a steady pipeline of premium innovations over the past few years that has helped grow the brand, most recently the launch of our reimagined Dewar’s 12-year-old just last year,” vice president of Dewar’s for North America Brian Cox told Shanken News Daily.

Here’s where the best-selling blended Scotch brands stand stateside.

The Most Popular Blended Scotch Whiskies in the U.S.

*Thousands of 9-liter cases.

Source: IMPACT DATABANK © 2023

The article The Most Popular Blended Scotch Whiskies in the U.S. (2023) appeared first on VinePair.

We live at a whirlwind pace, especially during the holidays. It’s easy to get so caught up in the seemingly never-ending parties and obligations that we forget to take time to appreciate the cheer in moments spent with family and friends. You’re not going to remember if the gravy was lumpy or if the yellow glow of the string lights didn’t match the LED ones. But you are going to remember the unexpected “cheer breaks” filled with belly laughs and relaxed fun.

That’s why these festive moments pair so well with La Marca Prosecco. Light, lively, and sparkling, La Marca not only brings a celebratory gleam to the gathering of friends and family, but it does so the Italian way: effortlessly and inviting. Whether you’re brunching, cocktailing, or competing for the coveted best-decorated cookie title, discover how La Marca makes every guest feel the spirit of the season.

Bubbly Brunch Buffet

Prosecco has long been a friend of brunch, but La Marca hits the sweet spot with both affordability and exquisite flavor. La Marca Prosecco is made from Glera grapes selected from small vineyards nestled in the Prosecco DOC. The crisp wine’s delicate floral palate, hints of minerality, and sweetness brighten any brunch dish. It’s also why the O.J. can remain in the fridge; no one will be asking for “just a splash.” But if it’s a splash of color you’re craving, La Marca Prosecco Rosé delivers, boasting a blush hue from a flavorful and elegant combination of Glera and Pinot Noir grapes.

Friendsgiving

This informal iteration of Thanksgiving can happen on the “big day” or any day a group of friends gathers for dinner during the holidays. And, unlike the more formal fête, Friendsgiving is all about comfort and ease — enjoying good food with good friends. Keep the celebration simple yet festive with a bubbly Friendsgiving Fall Punch, a make-ahead, large-batch beverage that’s as delicious as it is easy to pour. Warm, fall flavors of honey, lemon, apple cider, and chai tea pair comfortably with La Marca Prosecco. As a final token of appreciation, La Marca Prosecco mini bottles tied with a handwritten note to take for a sweet and sparkling parting gift.

Cookie Decorating Contest

What’s more fun than gathering your friends for a good-natured holiday competition where they can put their cookie-decorating creativity on display? Whether you adorn gingerbread houses, gingerbread men, or just good, old-fashioned sugar cookie cut-outs, keep your guests’ sweet tooth satisfied with an array of delectable desserts to sample while they work. In the name of festive fun, play around with Prosecco pairings. Serve a flute of the flagship La Marca Prosecco alongside rich cheesecake bites topped with candied nuts. La Marca Prosecco Rosé is an ideal accompaniment to decadent dark-chocolate truffles, and La Marca Luminore, a Brut Prosecco with delicate hints of white flowers and stone fruits, blends well with cinnamon sugar cookies or panforte, a traditional Italian Christmas dessert similar to fruitcake.

White Elephant Party

While the White Elephant Party is the rare occasion where the most tasteless present becomes the most coveted prize, you’ll still want to show up with a worthy gift for the host who has opened their home to such shenanigans. Any bottle of America’s most-loved sparkling wine brand will do, but La Marca Luminore shows you leveled up and — despite the ceramic jaguar decorated with inlaid rhinestones you gifted — indicates you have taste. Luminore is crafted from grapes in a designated DOCG, making it one of Italy’s finest wines. It’s made from the rarest and most valuable Glera grapes grown in Northeast Italy. While Luminore has a slightly higher price point than the other La Marca Proseccos, its soft, creamy texture, exceptional flavor, and bubbly personality elevate any ironically inelegant event.

Holiday Happy Hour

A late-afternoon open house is the perfect way to hone the holiday spirit without all the fuss of a formal five-course meal. This brand of party is all about the amuse-bouche — and the cocktail. So, it’s good to have La Marca Prosecco in your arsenal since it’s one of the most versatile wines when it comes to pairings, and it has a ton of cocktail-making potential. If you’re a master mixologist, La Marca Prosecco can be the foundation for popular cocktails, everything from the classic Bellini to the more adventurous Bourbon & Bubbles, a modern twist on the Old Fashioned. But if a ready-to-serve big-batch beverage is your preference, look to the Holiday Prosecco Sangria. The bright flavors of cranberries, apple, citrus, and brandy paired with the bright punch of Prosecco, make for a festive signature sip.

Whatever form your holiday festivities take, rest assured that La Marca will bring the cheer. Its affordability, versatility, and designation as one of Italy’s finest wines make it a staple at celebrations that aim to shine bright.

This article is sponsored by La Marca.

The article La Marca Prosecco Brings Bubbly Brightness to Every Holiday Celebration appeared first on VinePair.

In September 2023, Whisky Auctioneer, a Scottish auction house for fine spirits, posted a story that stated it would soon be selling the “world’s oldest Scotch whisky,” believed to be nearly 200 years old, “sipped by a young Queen Victoria,” even. Oldest whiskey in the world? Of course that piqued our interest.

The discovery tale goes thusly: A trustee of Blair Castle in Perthshire, Scotland, apparently moved some Christmas decor in 2022 and found about 40 bottles of whisky lurking behind, conveniently marked with a little placard that read they were distilled in 1833, bottled in 1841, and then rebottled in 1932. Starting Nov. 24 through Dec. 4, 24 bottles will be going under the hammer at Whisky Auctioneer, with some believing each bottle could sell for more than 10,000 pounds. (At time of publishing, the No. 1 bottle’s current bid was 13,500 pounds.)

Wild right? Slight problem, though: It’s nigh impossible to accurately date the liquid within these bottles.

A little more backstory before we move into the science and facts. Initially, Whisky Auctioneer’s authentication expert, Joe Wilson, had a few quotes in the first story, wherein he said definitive things like “Offering the world’s oldest Scotch whisky at auction is truly a lifetime occurrence,” and “Distilled in the 1830s, the whisky was made during a fascinating period.” The article, as written on Sept. 25, also mentioned that carbon dating of the liquid “supports its early 19th century origin,” with a “high probability.”

But the thing about radiocarbon dating is that it can only determine whether organic material is older or younger than 1955, the year nuclear testing drastically affected carbon-14 isotope levels for the entire world. To crudely sum it up, carbon dating is looking to see whether the amount of carbon-14 in the organic matter is in such a high concentration it could only be from after 1955, or a lower amount, meaning it’s from before atomic bomb testing.

The wording on Whisky Auctioneer’s site surrounding the Blair Castle whisky tingled all of Adam Herz’s spidey senses. Herz, founder of the Los Angeles Whisk(e)y Society and a pro-bono whiskey authenticator who’s uncovered a slew of counterfeit whiskey being sold by retailers and auction houses, also happens to own the oldest bottle of whiskey in the world, confirmed by Guinness World Records, so awarded after four years of Herz’s own deep research and scientific scrutiny, later verified by Guinness’ third-party experts.

“If this Blair Castle whisky is Smithsonian level stuff,” Herz says, “we need honesty, clarity, and accuracy. This isn’t a mattress sale.” The first issue Herz takes with the Whisky Auctioneer marketing verbiage is the phrase that the carbon dating “supports its early 19th century origin.”

“All carbon dating can tell you is that this whisky was made between 1650 and 1955,” Herz says. “Does that ‘support’ 1833? Sure. It also supports 1943 or Christmas Eve in 1699. Telling the public that carbon dating supports this specific date when it supports any date in a 300-year range is deceptive.”

Days after our initial request to interview Wilson — and ahead of our actual conversation — Whisky Auctioneer suddenly published an entire piece about his exact process. At the same time, definitive language in the auction house’s initial post was also changed to be far less absolute: “Potentially” was added ahead of “the world’s oldest Scotch whisky”; and “If this whisky was distilled in the 1830s,” replaced the initial claim of “Distilled in 1833.”

Of his decision to publicly outline his authentication process, Wilson says, “we want to clear up any potential misunderstandings that have come as a result of the press release about the whisky. We’re not making any assertions to the whisky, only that we’re confident in the dating around it.”

“That placard is very convenient. Shortly after Blair Castle decides to increase their publicity efforts in a bid to up their current 142,000 visitors per year, coincidentally, they find this old whisky and supporting placard.”

To his credit, Wilson acknowledges carbon dating is “unfortunately not an exact science.” In an interview with VinePair, Wilson says, “We talk about carbon dating a lot because it sounds incredibly exciting, but it’s not a methodology to confirm a vintage. It’ll tell you a blend from the 1980s is masquerading as a single malt from the 1920s, for example,” but issuing a precise date is impossible without a tax stamp on the bottle.

To attempt to verify that desirable date of 1833, Wilson and Whisky Auctioneer are pointing to the fact that the glass bottles the whisky is held in “appear to be of 19th century origin, the wax seal and cork closures line up with methods we have observed from the 1930s and earlier decades.”

Though when pressed on whether he believes that glass was left over from the 1800s and merely reused in 1932, Wilson demurs. “I’m not saying anything for sure,” he says. “I don’t know if they were the original bottles that were resealed at the rebottling, or if [Blair Castle] deliberately sought out old style of glass bottles to be more befitting to the liquid. There are a few potential options and no real answer there.”

Blair Castle, an erstwhile prodigious producer of whisky and other spirits, kept decent records of when things were distilled and bottled, though Wilson and Whisky Auctioneer admit to being unable to find this specific vintage mentioned within any existing records, and have noted as much on their website. Absent record keeping, largely, the 1833 date is arrived upon by that oddly detailed placard noting the date of distillation, bottling, and rebottling.

“That placard is very convenient,” says Herz, adding that the timing of this discovery is also curiously opportune. “Shortly after Blair Castle decides to increase their publicity efforts in a bid to up their current 142,000 visitors per year, coincidentally, they find this old whisky and supporting placard, and say that they’re going to build an exhibit around it with a world record claim.”

“The University of Edinburgh currently has a sample [of the Blair Castle whisky] they’re testing with more sophisticated lab equipment. Potential results from that testing could include where the water used to distill was from, where the peat has come from, and more.”

Wilson laughs when asked about his level of skepticism when initially approached with this auction lot. “It’s complicated. I’m trying to authenticate the story that’s presented to us by the castle, and you have initial disbelief,” he says. “The placard was produced to indicate what was on the shelves and I don’t see the value to fabricating it at the time. We have no reason to believe that the placard doesn’t associate to those bottles.”

Wilson is forthcoming that there’s been “an over-enthusiastic response” from Blair Castle. “[Blair Castle’s] primary income is driving tourism through the castle, and this is a big opportunity for them. They want to tell a magical story and it’s our responsibility to sell it accurately and responsibly,” he says. Wilson says Blair Castle has been “fully cooperative” over the past four months as Whisky Auctioneer “worked them pretty hard” to get more evidence from the archive, noting that “you don’t want to swallow the whole thing and take it for gospel.”

The placard is a large crux of the date claim, but was it tested in any way to validate its claimed date? Was the ink or paper or wood tested to see if it’s age-appropriate? “I’m not aware of being able to do something like that,” Wilson says. “I guess you could; it’s paper mounted onto wood and there may be ways to test the paper, but that’s not something we’ve done in the past.”

The Scotch Whisky Research Institute (SWRI) has confirmed, by analyzing the maturation-related congeners, that the liquid is indeed whisky, with a “good probability of being produced in accordance with malt whisky distilling practices of [the 19th century],” per Whisky Auctioneer. However, Wilson notes that the SWRI has no samples this old to compare the Blair Castle liquid against.

“The University of Edinburgh currently has a sample [of the Blair Castle whisky] they’re testing with more sophisticated lab equipment,” says Wilson. “Potential results from that testing could include where the water used to distill was from, where the peat has come from, and more.” Wilson acknowledges that’s also a bit of a crapshoot given a lack of comparison samples from the early 1800s.

“The bottles don’t purport to be anything so, inherently, they can’t be counterfeit. …But if I had to guess whether it was distilled in or around 1833, I’d want some seriously big odds for that wager.”

“At the moment, we’re very much in the stage where we’re trying to drum up interest, when it comes to the auction,” Wilson says. “We’re aware we cannot sell something we cannot verify. When we come to sell it, we will state what we know and can be sure of. Dates can’t be verified but we found this supporting research and this is the best we can do. It’s all probabilities, but we don’t not want to sell this because we can’t be sure of the dates. We know it’s very old whisky, that the whisky is very good,” says Wilson.

Because an auctioneer needs these dates and this plausible backstory to help hype a sale, there is potentially a conflict of interest in the role of authenticator of an auction house. If the science doesn’t agree with the marketing narrative, what’s someone like Wilson’s obligation to share any misalignment with potential bidders?

“The important thing is that we state what we’ve done in terms of the science of authentication and make it clear we’re not guaranteeing the side of the story from Blair Castle,” says Wilson. “It’s not a conflict of interest, but as the auction house, we’re not duty bound in how we’ve chosen to communicate this narrative of Blair Castle.”

For Herz, that narrative raises a few interesting points: “One, there wasn’t a reason to hang onto whiskey back then; people were drinkers. Glass bottles were not common back then, either. Drinkers were using stone earthenware, which was filled up with your local spirit, and prior to 1823, there were thousands of illicit stills. That’s not the kind of whiskey you’d have put in an expensive glass bottle. Could it be possible? Sure. But it’s extremely unlikely.”

What’s more likely, per Herz, is that a bunch of various old demijohns — containers that held two to five gallons of spirits — were found lying around, consolidated, and bottled. “Blends were popular then, so it’s not unreasonable to think a variety of vattings were merely combined to result in these bottles,” he says.

As to what he believes is in the bottles, Herz says, “It could be distillate from the 1830s, the 1880s or the 1930s. But you also have to determine whether all the bottles have identical contents. If you have 24 bottles for sale, you have to test every damn bottle to verify that.” (Wilson says five bottles were opened, none of which are the ones being auctioned.)

“If it’s all identical, it’s whisky made in Scotland, likely in the 19th century, and it’s not counterfeit,” Herz says. “The bottles don’t purport to be anything so, inherently, they can’t be counterfeit. … But if I had to guess whether it was distilled in or around 1833, I’d want some seriously big odds for that wager.”

While Herz doesn’t believe that any actions of Whisky Auctioneer were nefarious, and does give Wilson et al credit for the increased amount of transparency over the past few months, “I think they’re [now] covering their butts. They’d have been better off being more clear [about the unknowns] from the start instead of changing wording later on.”

So where does that leave potential bidders with understanding what facts are irrefutable, scientifically proven about this Blair Castle whisky? “It’s pre-1955 whisky, in glass from around the turn of the century,” says Wilson. “We have confidence in the glass and seal, but nothing else is really provable.”

The article What’s Actually Inside the ‘World’s Oldest Scotch’ Bottles? Auctioneers Aren’t Completely Sure appeared first on VinePair.

When Hawaii native Chuck Furuya passed the rigorous Master Sommelier exam in 1989, he was only the tenth American to do so (strangely, he shared the small island state with four fellow sommeliers during the beginning of his career). Since, he’s gone on to become one of the most renowned wine pros from the archipelago, running esteemed restaurant floors in Honolulu and orchestrating wine lists for big clients like Hawaiian Airlines.

Here, we chat with Furuya on everything from catering to travel to a decidedly Hawaiian brand of hospitality. “There is way more talent today than ever,” he says of the wine scene in Hawaii.

1. Are there unique challenges to working in the wine industry in Hawaii? Like access to wines, shipping costs, working with tourists, etc.

Hawaii is a very unique place in the world and we are so very fortunate. Being a warm, tropical climate located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, one of the biggest challenges is making sure wines are shipped, trucked, and stored at correct temperatures.

2. Hawaii seems to have its own brand of warm hospitality. How have you incorporated that into what you’ve done with wine over your career?

Hospitality is a big topic for us here in Hawaii. For instance, I’ve been involved recently in weeks-long training sessions in ‘ho’okipa’ (hospitality) with Hawaiian Airlines staff. We believe it is one of the highlights that separates us from other destinations of the world. It is also a very important part of being a sommelier, in my opinion. I was telling two classes today of the term vigneron, having just come back from a two-and-a-half-week trip through France. If one looks it up in the French dictionary, it says wine grower or winemaker. As Jean-Charles Abbatucci of Corsica once noted to me, it means much more. It’s like being a samurai, which is way more than swordship skills. It’s a belief, a code, an ethic, a way of life, a culture. I believe hospitality is also a culture.

3. Can you talk a bit about your work with Hawaiian Airlines and how wine options aboard a plane have improved over the years?

For the wines served on Hawaiian Airlines first-class service, we took a very different approach. Rather than tasting through a bunch of wines and selecting some, we instead sought to create some to our specifications. We found and now work with a vineyard owned by three ranching families in the remote hills of southern Paso Robles. The vineyard is located at roughly 1,000 feet in elevation. The night temperatures are greatly cooled by the ocean winds cascading over the hills from the sea (some 12 miles away). This vineyard is also greatly cooled by the winds coming up from the Cuesta Grade two to three miles to the south. It has six distinct soil types, including a pushed-up ancient seabed, which features pockets of fossilized oyster shells. With all of this wonderful raw product to work with, we had them work on a blend which showcases some minerality and interesting-ness. One set of wines is for international travelers and a completely different set is blended for domestic flights.

5. What has pairing wines with Hawaiian cuisine taught you over the years?

It vehemently reminds me that different kinds of food seem to need different kinds of wines to work with. Because Hawaii is truly a melting pot of different ethnic cultures and foods, there is an amazing diversity of food ingredients and techniques that are available and used. And each dish therefore needs its own style of pairing.

6. You’ve talked about removing the intimidation factor from the wine tasting experience. Are we getting there or are you still seeing a lot of consumers afraid to try things, ask certain questions, etc.?

I think that is all part of hospitality. I believe we in the industry are here to serve. And we therefore need to be better at understanding what our guests’ needs and expectations are and then provide accordingly — using our expertise. It is a genuine service thing. I recall many, many years ago meeting an O.G. Master Sommelier from England. He was a teacher by trade and on the side, he proudly worked as a butler. I have learned so much from him.

7. What wines or wine regions are you really into at the moment?

Having just come back from Provence, the northern Rhone, and Etna down in Sicily, I was mesmerized with so many wines and even more so about how so many are trying to adjust to changes in climate, weather patterns, and water challenges. This is facing the whole wine world. I am so inspired by the resiliency.

8. Do you miss working the floor now that you’re retired?

Yes, I do miss working the floor. That will always be a part of me. I do, however, now consult on many projects, which includes working the floor four or five nights a month — something I thoroughly relish and cherish. And because it is with several different outlets, I get to work with different staff on each occasion, and different demographics, food menus, and wine programs.

9. What did the pandemic teach you about the importance of travel and connecting around a table?

One of the most remarkable opportunities I learned was Zoom. OMG! I could communicate with someone from some place from around the world, without any delays in video or conversation (shows how outdated I can be). So, while we were all essentially shut down, rather than dwelling on the negative, we took the opportunity to instead proactively create learning opportunities. Every two weeks, I would contact someone from the wine world who I think has something quite profound to share and ‘talk story’ with them for an hour or so. Then, I would invite 50–60 wine pros from around the Hawaiian Islands and maybe 20–30 would tune in. It has been two and a half years and a terrific experience for me. Guests have included Daniel Ravier from Domaine Tempier, Jean-Charles Abbatucci, Cornelius Dönnhoff, Katharina Prüm and Sebastian Fürst from Germany, Hans Setzer from Austria, and Raúl Pérez from Spain, just to name a few.

10. What’s next for the Uncorked project?

Chuck Furuya Uncorked is actually my son Kale’s project. He created it for viewers of his generation. It’s an opportunity to learn and enjoy wine and at the same time do it in a more casual, ‘talk story’ manner — no wine shaming, as he puts it.

We stopped filming two summers ago because he got a new job at the prestigious Halekulani Hotel, where he is now bartender and sommelier. He has subsequently studied for and passed level 2 — all on his own with the guidance of the hotel cellarmaster, Kevin Toyama. The best way I figured I could be of assistance was a recent trip to Europe, to show him the standards of what wine could be. Then he would have benchmarks as a library top drawer moving forward (Gonon and Jean-Claude Marsanne in St. Joseph, Jamet and Lionel Faury in Côte-Rôtie).

Since we were there at the end of harvest, we walked vineyards, tasted some grapes still on the vine, freshly fermenting juice, aging wine, finished wine, and some older library wines, too — the whole gamut, and with the principal. During the first half of the trip, Kale also got quite a bit of drone footage, which I believe he intends to restart the podcast with. I think the trip really got him charged up, so we will see what happens.

The article For Hawaiian Sommelier Chuck Furuya, Hospitality Is a Culture appeared first on VinePair.

This episode of “The VinePair Podcast” is sponsored by The Prisoner Wine Company. Gift-giving is a breeze thanks to The Prisoner Wine Company’s intriguing portfolio of wines. Shop online to access expertly tailored gift sets like the Bright & Bold Gift Set or the Red Blend Collection. These sets are only available at ThePrisonerWineCompany.com. Treat the wine lover on your list and get ground shipping included when you order gift sets before 12/14.

Apparently, Taylor Swift loves a good Sancerre or Pinot Grigio, and she’s not alone. For years, white wine was billed as a “wine for non-serious wine drinkers,” which, when you read between the lines, really just means a wine for women. However, while wine as a whole may be struggling, white wine is booming right now, particularly in the U.S. market, as evidenced by a slew of recent corporate acquisitions. And while the boomer generation still has an affinity for high-ABV, oaky Cab, the age of high-acid whites is upon us.

It’s worth bearing in mind that the U.S. has never had a deep-rooted cultural connection to consuming wine with food, making whites the perfect pick for sessionable sipping. Plus, white wine varieties typically require less aging, making it easier for American wineries to offer quality bottles in the $20–$50 range.

On this episode of the “VinePair Podcast,” Adam, Joanna, and Zach discuss how several recent wine industry transactions plus trend data suggest that white wine is surging in popularity, driven by a mix of health consciousness, red wine fatigue, and maybe an assist from one of the most famous humans on the planet. Tune in for more.

Zach is drinking: Maison Benjamin Kuentz French Single Malt Whisky
Joanna is drinking: Grimm Artisanal Ales Cross Stitch Vienna-style Lager
Adam is drinking: Gin Martini

Listen Online

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

The article The VinePair Podcast: Is Taylor Swift Fueling White Wine’s Rise? appeared first on VinePair.

This episode of “The VinePair Podcast” is sponsored by The Prisoner Wine Company. Check everyone off your gift list (including yourself!) this year. Visit ThePrisonerWineCompany.com to explore all of their offerings this holiday season — don’t forget that ground shipping is included on all gift set purchases!

In the spring, it’s all eyes on tequila. Come summer, it’s rosé and spritz season. Bourbon releases hit hard in the fall, and by wintertime, almost every category of booze gets a little piece of the limelight.

As Black Friday rolls around, it’s all hands on deck for drinks to make or break their momentum heading into the next calendar year. Traditionally, dark spirits and Champagne have reigned supreme as holiday season staples, but with so many premium spirits entering the luxury space, it might be the time for aged tequila to be the nation’s fireside sipper of choice. On the other hand, the holidays have always been a time of familiar indulgence, when people revisit the special- occasion spirits and wines they know and love. But who’s to say the holiday season can’t also be a time of new discovery? As much as we would love to see a surge in extra añejo sales this December, only time will tell which drinks categories will finish off 2023 with a bang.

On this episode of the “VinePair Podcast,” Adam, Joanna, and Zach delve into a discussion on why exactly the period from Thanksgiving to New Year’s is the most crucial stretch of the year for the drinks industry, as well as what categories and brands are best positioned to crush Holiday 2023. Tune in for more.

Zach is reading: The Timeless Allure of Oysters and Alcohol
Joanna is reading: For OnlyFans Creators, Private Whiskey Groups Are Rife With Opportunity
Adam is reading: The Duckhorn Portfolio Will Acquire Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards in $400 Million Deal

Listen Online

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

The article The VinePair Podcast: Why This Month is Make or Break for the Drinks Industry appeared first on VinePair.

The past few years have marked a changing of the guard in New York City’s fine dining scene. An ambitious new generation of Korean chefs claimed the culinary throne atop the Big Apple and covered it in gochujang. And now, a large portion of the city’s most prestigious restaurants and exciting new openings fall under the category of contemporary Korean cuisine.

The movement can be traced back to the 2011 debut of Jungsik in Tribeca, from chef Jung Sik Yim, who previously worked at Aquavit and Bouley. Jungsik pioneered a particular model that’s central to the identity of many of the city’s biggest hits — incorporating Korean flavors into a high-end tasting menu with a bit of European flare — and it worked. Twelve years and two Michelin stars later, the restaurant’s influence is clear to see in each new opening.

New chefs emerged from the Jungsik empire, including Junghyun “JP” Park, who went on to open several establishments, most notably the two-star Atomix, alongside his wife Ellia. Similarly, Hoyoung Kim left Jungsik to open Jua, and more recently launched a slightly more casual concept, Moono. These were just part of a flurry of openings that kicked off in 2016 and continue today, including Cote, Oiji Mi, Kochi, Mari, and Anto. There’s even a new spot with a 12-course tasting menu located inside the 34th Street subway station.

The success of this movement is reflected in New York’s latest Michelin Guide, which awarded stars to 10 Korean restaurants (out of 70 starred establishments in total) in 2023, including two new additions, Bōm and Meju. Atomix currently ranks as the eighth best restaurant in the world, according to the 50 Best list.

So that’s the food side of things, but what about the beverage programs?

Korean cuisine has often been unfairly relegated to the “difficult to pair” category in the U.S., due to its fermented flavors and preparations. While restaurants historically featured limited selections of beer or soju, the beverage directors at today’s forward-thinking establishments have pushed the boundaries of what Korean drinks programs can look like, with many curating extensive, award-winning wine lists and pairing menus.

Some in the movement are using the spotlight to highlight Korea’s traditional drinks and drinking culture, incorporating unique Korean “sool” (alcoholic beverages) into their programs and emulating the atmosphere of Korea’s “pocha” or pubs.

Read on to meet the talented professionals behind the beverage programs at NYC’s most exciting Korean restaurants.

Ellia Park

Co-founder, NA:EUN Hospitality (Atomix, Atoboy, Naro, Seoul Salon)

Junghyun “JP” and Ellia Park, the husband-and-wife team behind NA:EUN Hospitality, opened Atoboy in 2016, followed by Atomix in 2018, and finally Naro in 2022. While each has its own concept and price point, they all adhere to the tasting menu format.

That style of dining is relatively uncommon in traditional Korean cuisine but Ellia insists that breaking down flavors into individual courses was essential to conveying their message. “Unlike the traditional hansang meals, tasting menus allow for a focused exploration of each course or dish,” she says. In addition to showcasing one flavor or concept at a time, this allowed them to “seamlessly integrate beverage pairings into Korean culinary experiences.”

Just as their restaurants have helped bring Korean culture to the foreground through food, Ellia and JP hope their latest opening, Seoul Salon, will replicate this for beverages. The spot’s drinks menu, which includes an extensive selection of Korean sool, forgoes wine in favor of cocktails, each listed with a brief description of the aspect of life in Seoul that inspired it. For example the “Deli Manjoo” is made with D’Usse VSOP Cognac, cream liqueur, stout beer, Demerara, and corn custard cream, and is accompanied by a few sentences on how the Deli Manjoo is a popular dessert filled with custard cream that got its start in a subway station. Its smell is now often associated with Seoul’s transport hubs.

“By crafting cocktails based on Korean ‘sool,’ we aim to convey the contemporary drinking culture and menu preferences enjoyed by Koreans these days,” Ellia says.

Jhonel Faelnar

Beverage Director, NA:EUN Hospitality (Atoboy, Atomix, Naro, Seoul Salon)

Also part of NA:EUN Hospitality, Jhonel Faelnar is the group’s beverage director, heading up the drinks programs for the laid-back Atoboy, world-renowned Atomix, and ambitious new restaurant Naro. While each has a different underlying concept, wine is the primary focus at all three spots.

Some might overlook wine when matching with Korean flavors, but Faelnar took the challenge as an opportunity to push boundaries. “If anything, pairing wines with [modern Korean cuisine] is the most exciting thing to come to the New York dining scene in the last few years,” he says.

One example that Faelnar gives is serving lean, lightly reductive white wines with sesame oil. “Wines like Palomino or Chardonnay from Burgundy that have a little bit of the smoky nose work really well with these dishes,” he says. Faelnar also notes a specific dish at Atomix that showcases how the most difficult pairings can often turn out to be the most interesting. The course features Silkie chicken in a deep but delicate broth made with ginseng and jujube. Most wines either overpowered or distracted from the dish, but eventually he found that Benjamin Leroux’s Aligoté from Burgundy had the perfect body, texture, and flavor to stand up to the food. It also offered a saline finish that added an extra accent to the experience.

Joo Lee

Beverage Director, Anto

After years working as a sommelier at restaurants like Eleven Madison Park and San Francisco’s Saison, Joo Lee took the lead as beverage director at Anto, a Midtown East restaurant that opened in March 2023. Anto acts as both a Korean steakhouse on the first floor and a chef’s counter upstairs. And though Lee says “the most challenging part is convincing people that wine is good with Korean food,” it’s not such a hard sell when the first pour is Krug.

With a large focus on French wines, Lee’s approach for Anto’s chef’s counter menu is to seamlessly shift between classics and the unexpected. One of his favorites from the premium pairing menu is aged duck with a 2015 premier cru Pommard. But this iconic duo is preceded by some less traditional courses like seaweed soup, filled with heaping portions of uni, lobster, and abalone, paired with sake, as well as a carabinero shrimp dish paired with an earthy Sicilian rosato.

His approach is guided by the fundamentals he learned and practiced at “traditional” fine-dining establishments. “Korean food isn’t very acidic, there isn’t a lot of citrus and vinegar. Kimchi usually brings that acidity to complement the dishes,” he says. “But that’s also what wine can do, bring that acidity. And it can also bring tannin, fruit, and spice, which adds a whole new element to the experience.”

“We’re in a globalized world,” he adds. “It would be silly to limit yourself to tradition.”

Victoria James

Beverage Director, Cote

When beverage director Victoria James opened Cote alongside chef Simon Kim in 2017, she wanted the wine list to make a statement. “At the time there was really only Jungsik and Atoboy — those were the only places that were doing wine with elevated Korean food in NYC in a real way,” she says. “Before we opened, I would talk to Simon about how we could make an entrance onto the wine scene and have people take it really seriously, especially since we were a young woman and a Korean American fighting up against an old boys club of classic French and Italian places.”

Kim set out to combine his love for Korean cuisine with his infatuation with the fat-cat American steakhouse. “It wasn’t a traditional Korean BBQ with beer and soju, it was a Korean steakhouse,” James says. “It was hard to get that message across, so we had to go above and beyond with the wine list.” When the restaurant opened, she stocked the cellar with verticals of Clape Cornas, Raveneau Chablis, and Madeira. James took the list a step further and upped the ante by pouring all of the by-the-glass wines from magnums.

Don’t discount that as a gimmick, though. Large-format bottles typically keep wines fresher for longer, and James knew the program would scream “better than everything.” There’s also a reason no one else in the U.S. takes this approach: “It’s really freaking hard,” James admits, noting how she has to go directly to growers and ask for special bottlings ahead of time, adding another leg of work to the already complex system.

Still, the iconic magnum bottles remain a central part of the Cote dining experience. “It’s our love language to the guests,” she says.

John “JP” Park

Beverage Director, SC Hospitality Group (Kochi, Mari, Mari.ne, and Don Don)

The most rapidly expanding empire in the contemporary Korean restaurant space is that of chef Sungchul Shim.

Shim debuted his first restaurant Kochi, which focuses on Korean-style skewers, in 2019, followed by Mari in 2021, which offers a tasting menu of Korean-inspired hand rolls. (Both are now Michelin-starred.) More recently, Shim started exploring the more casual, but still elevated, side of Korean cuisine with Mari.ne, a hand roll counter, and Don Don, a Korean BBQ spot focused on pork. Overseeing the beverage program for this all-star restaurant group is John “JP” Park, who curates drink menus to fit the unique vibe of each of the spots.

As the higher-end restaurants in the group, Kochi and Mari offer beverage pairing menus, as well as extensive wine lists. At Kochi the flavors are big and rich, so Park pairs wines that are more full-bodied, saltier, and have heavier tannins. At Mari, where each hand roll course conveys a different set of Korean flavors, the menu is mostly seafood, so Park reaches for crisp white wines and cocktails that incorporate fresh ingredients like yuzu.

One of the most surprising matchups from the Mari tasting menu is the jook, a Korean dish similar to rice porridge, served with a glass of Jangsu Omijaju, a liqueur made with fermented magnolia berry that’s then aged for three years and added to soju. “I call it a Korean rosé,” Park says. “Pink in color and very attractive. It starts with sweet, salt, and bitter at the same time. The acidity cuts down the thickness of the jook.”

The group’s new restaurant, Don Don, gave Park a chance to showcase another side of Korean drinking culture. “Most of the restaurants are fine dining — this one is more laid back so we want to have fun with it, and we want the guests to have fun, too,” Park says. To do this, he introduces guests to somaek, a combination of roughly one shot of soju and two shots of beer. “It goes well with traditional barbecue, and it translates to having a good time,” Park says. “It’s the heart-and- soul beverage of all Koreans.”

Chris Clark

Beverage Director, Oiji Mi and Bōm

When Chris Clark was brought on as the beverage director for chef Brian Kim’s high-end tasting menu concept Oiji Mi, he was ready to assemble a top-notch soju program. But instead, the team wanted an entirely wine-focused menu, insisting that while the food was inspired by the flavors of Korea, this was a restaurant for New York. Clark ran with the directive, and curated one of the most impressive wine lists in the city.

It features many of the expected baller Champagnes and Burgundies, as well as a large Riesling selection, and a deep collection of hard-to-find bottles and unheard of wines from small producers. “For me, the baseline is showcasing wines from small grower-producers that are honest about their vinification and farming,” Clark says. “We want to turn people on to new experiences and get them excited about new finds.”

Such an extensive — and expensive — selection requires special attention from the moment bottles arrive at Oiji Mi. The restaurant is home to four different temperature-controlled storage spaces, while the by-the-glass wines are kept in a specialty imported cooling system. Clark also works with at least six glassware companies to ensure each pour is presented in the ideal vessel.

Beyond the à la carte wine and cocktail selections, Oiji Mi also offers a pairing menu with combinations that span from technically sound to exciting curveballs. One example of the latter is the savory and mineral-driven Prima Terra Vino Rosato from Italy’s Cinque Terre region paired with a chili lobster ramyun.

If that sounds extravagant, Clark cranks it up to 11 for the experience at Bōm, chef Kim’s latest opening. Located in a private room in the back of Oiji Mi, Bōm is a chef’s counter with a 12-course, $325 tasting menu (with the option of a $275 beverage pairing). The room screams luxury, and the wines live up to that billing. Guests can enjoy pairings from iconic producers and back vintages alongside the indulgent courses. For example, the dry-aged ribeye with celeriac and tomato geotjeori is served with a 1996 Schiopettino from Ronchi di Cialla.

Jaehoon No

GM and Beverage Director, Jua and Moono

With an education in French cuisine and eight years of experience working at Jungsik, chef Hoyoung Kim opened Jua, a Korean wood-fired tasting menu spot with a clear French influence, in 2019. General manager and beverage director Joehoon No reflects this approach in the beverage program, with a vast French wine selection and overall wine-focused pairing menu.

“I love French wines like everyone else,” No says. “In my opinion, Chenin Blanc from the Loire and Gamay from Beaujolais pair well with Korean food in general.”

While more classically European pairings feature at Jua, the group’s latest opening, Moono, is a more casual, family-style dining experience (although its location in a gorgeous three-story, landmarked building and menu filled with uni and truffle would suggest otherwise). Since it explores more traditional Korean dishes, No finds Moono to be a better outlet for introducing Korean spirits and more uncommon wine selections. The wine list also skews more “natural,” as No believes that fermented flavors match well with the funkier and gamier natural wines.

Moono also uses its cocktail menu as a platform to incorporate Korean flavors. “Not everybody is an adventurer so we tried to find a balance by adding Korean flavors to cocktails,” No says. A great example is the Open Sesame, made with sesame-infused bourbon, genepy, licor 43, and chocolate.

Overall, No would like to introduce even more Korean drinks and drinking culture in both locations, especially given that New Yorkers are open to trying new things and are increasingly understanding how versatile Korean cuisine can be. Since the dawn of the city’s contemporary Korean renaissance, “it’s become a lot easier for us to showcase Korean food and drink culture at our restaurants,” No says.

The article Meet The Beverage Directors Behind NYC’s New Wave of Korean Fine-Dining Restaurants appeared first on VinePair.

Bartles & Jaymes and Zima seem to get all the credit for introducing “coolers” to the world, but there was an earlier player in the game: Hop’n Gator, an electrolyte-enriched alcopop launched by Gatorade in 1969. The drink debuted with grandiose advertisements touting its profound thirst-quenching potential.

“Kicks up taste buds you never knew you had. Quenches like liquid lightning. Nose to toes. Right down to your nerve endings,” one vintage ad read.

Originally billed as a “Lemon-Lime Lager,” Hop’n Gator was a pioneering product — a flavored malt beverage before the category had a name. Albeit, the early ‘70’s saw the launch of National Brewing’s Malt Duck (beer and Concord grape juice), Lone Star Brewing Company’s Lime Lager, and Hamm Brewing’s Right Time, all of which fell into the general category of flavored malt beverages, but just didn’t market themselves as such. What separated Hop’n Gator from other alcopops, coolers, and would-be malt beverages of the time, however, was its supposed combination of a quasi-energy drink and alcohol.

From the sound of it, Hop’n Gator was everything a drink could hope to be. So why didn’t it take off? Was the world simply not ready for it? Was it mismanaged? Or were those “taste buds we never knew we had” ones we didn’t want to discover in the first place?

The Electrolyte to Malt Pipeline

The original Gatorade formula was patented only a few years before Hop’n Gator launched. It all started in 1965, when Dewayne Douglas, assistant coach of the Florida Gators football team, was searching for a way to combat the high Florida heat and the effects it was having on his players’ performance. After recruiting Dr. Robert Cade to help out, Cade and a team of research doctors went to work on a new, electrolyte-enriched beverage. Roughly a year, and many experiments, later, Cade settled on a formula and patented it, and began producing and selling Gatorade.

On top of being a renowned scientist, Cade was a known mixology enthusiast among his peers. A Sports Illustrated article from 2001 even refers to him as the “absinthe-minded professor,” going on to mention how Cade would mix up “Daiquiris, Mint Juleps, and Whiskey Sours” for all those in attendance at his Friday afternoon symposiums. Rumor has it that Cade first produced Hop’n Gator by fermenting Gatorade in his lab, but the theory doesn’t totally add up if the eventual Hop’n Gator had beer in it.

Regardless, Cade sold the Hop’n Gator recipe to Pennsylvania’s Pittsburgh Brewing Company (formerly Iron City Brewing Company) in 1969. Being the first brewery to put both draft beer into cans and “snap-tops” on cans, Pittsburgh Brewing Company had a reputation for running with innovative ideas, so its purchase of the Hop’n Gator recipe was far from out of character. Unfortunately, mere months after the first commercial batch of Hop’n Gator hit the market, Gatorade — the brand — sued the brewery.

As it turns out, Cade was already wrapped up in a lawsuit over the Gatorade formula in the midst of the Hop’n Gator recipe sale. When Gatorade sales took off, the Florida Board of Regents — on behalf of the University of Florida, which provided the grant for Cade’s research — took him to court for a share of his profits, arguing that the university’s contributions were crucial in Gatorade’s creation. The dispute lasted for nearly three years, ending in 1972 with the university obtaining 20 percent of the stock in Cade’s company.

It’s not totally clear who at Gatorade HQ initiated legal action against Pittsburgh Brewing Company, but the case was settled in early 1970. The brewery carried on pumping out the new electrolyte-packed alcopop, but the road ahead only got rockier.

The Gator Bites Its Own Tail

A big struggle for Hop’n Gator was its branding. While the can art was clean, simple, and admittedly pretty cool, the “Lemon-Lime Lager” tag was blamed for slow sales. Plus, it was initially advertised as having “25 percent more alcohol than regular beer,” which sounds good on paper, but in reality that’s only a difference of 1 to 2 percent ABV.

So the brewery ditched the whole notion that Hop’n was a beer, and rebranded it as a “Tropical-Flavored Malt Liquor.” Sales immediately rebounded, particularly in Black communities in Georgia, South Carolina, and Detroit.

As the drink caught momentum among African Americans, Pittsburgh locals began to take notice of the fact that the Pittsburgh Brewing Company didn’t have a single Black employee on staff. Suspicions of racism swelled, and soon the NAACP stepped in, accusing the brewery of pitching to Black people, but not hiring them. In 1971, a Hop’n Gator boycott ensued, and NAACP flyers were posted in taverns all over Pittsburgh, urging customers not to drink the malt beverage.

The boycott was short-lived, ending in early 1972 after the brewery vowed to rectify its biases. Nonetheless, Hop’n Gator’s reputation was heavily tarnished, and any momentum the beverage had started to run out.

Flavored Beer, Malt Beverage, or Neither?

There’s limited info available as to what exactly was in Hop’n Gator, but most sources seem to suggest that it was just beer and actual Lemon-Lime Gatorade mixed together — something akin to a Shandy or a Radler.

If that’s not the case, though, could it have actually been fermented Gatorade? A lager with electrolytes? Gatorade and grain alcohol? Or just a good old flavored malt beverage? In a sense, it was like an early, PG-13 version of Four Loko or a Redbull Vodka, but Hop’n Gator ads called it “a bold new drink thing,” so even though someone knew what was going in those cans, they weren’t necessarily sure what to call it.

Whatever the recipe was, it wasn’t enough to keep Hop’n Gator alive. The “lemon-lime lager” turned “tropical-flavored malt beverage” was discontinued in 1975. Since then, Pittsburgh Brewing brewed a one-off 10,000-barrel nostalgia batch in 2004, but that’s where the story ends for now.

One would think that an alcoholic beverage made by a brand as famous as Gatorade would have made it into the “cooler” cannon, but ,alas, this aluminum-clad memory seems to have vanished with little trace. But if Sunny D can come out with a vodka seltzer in this day and age, there’s still hope for Gatorade.

*Image retrieved from Mdv Edwards – stock.adobe.com

The article The Rise and Demise of Hop’n Gator, the Gatorade-Beer Hybrid of the ’70s appeared first on VinePair.

When it comes to prepping cocktails, we’re all familiar with chilling and dilution techniques like shaking and stirring that mellow our booze to an acceptable strength. But what about swizzling?

No, “swizzle” is not just a fun name thrown onto the end of some classic cocktails like the Queen’s Park Swizzle or the Chartreuse Swizzle. Swizzling is a proper — albeit less common — cocktail-making technique in its own right, and utilizes specific equipment to achieve optimal mixing and dilution. And while it might take a little practice, it can be especially handy when crushed or pebble ice is involved. To learn more about the method, we tapped celebrated New York-based mixologist Brian Miller.

“Simply put, swizzling is a method for preparing cocktails that uses a swizzle stick,” he explains. According to Miller, the first step to swizzling properly is making sure you have the proper tools at your disposal. Swizzle sticks come in many shapes and sizes, though not all are created equal. And with such rapid hand motions necessary to swizzle properly, you want to ensure your stick will stay between your fingers.

“I think the best one to use is a le bois lélé,” he explains. “It’s a wooden branch of a tree with the ends growing out like a spider web that are trimmed so they can fit into a glass, usually a highball.”

Le bois lélés are traditional swizzle sticks made from wood harvested from Martinique’s Quararibea turbinata trees. The coarse texture of the stick ensures that you will be able to mix your cocktail adequately without the tool sliding right out of your hands. And while stainless-steel swizzle sticks can be effective, they tend to be much smaller and thus harder to control. No matter the type of swizzle stick you have at your disposal, in the end, nailing the technique is the most important part.

“Using two hands, you’ll [put] the stick between your fingers towards the end, rotating slightly back and forth by rolling it between your fingers,” Miller explains. “Then, you’ll use an up-and-down motion from the bottom of the cocktail and back down again to mix.”

When it comes to which cocktails are best served swizzled, they’re usually ones that incorporate crushed ice — like the technique’s classic namesakes or the Mint Julep. Not only do larger ice cubes make it hard to squeeze the tool into the glass, but crushed ice cubes can help hold the swizzle stick upright and make for a lot less work. Just be sure to move slowly if you’re first learning how to properly swizzle, as it can be a tricky technique to master.

“The first rule of teaching anyone anything about bartending is forgiveness, and you have to forgive yourself for not being good at something right away,” Miller says. “Start out slow and gain a rhythm. It’s just like dancing, and you’ll know when you’ve got it. Then, you can start moving up and down in the glass to dance with the swizzle stick and the ice.”

You’ll know when your cocktail is perfectly mixed when a sheen of ice forms around the outside of the glass. Just be careful picking it up before taking a sip; Miller has said several of his Queen’s Park Swizzles have slipped right through unsuspecting customers’ hands.

*Image retrieved from The Lost Tiki Lounge

The article Ask a Bartender: How Do You Properly Swizzle a Cocktail? appeared first on VinePair.

Along with some good old-fashioned cheer, the holidays tend to usher in the unexpected. (Surprise homecomings! Snowfall! Flight cancellations!) That said, there are two aspects of the most wonderful time of the year that never change. First off, it’s prime time for gift-giving. And second: Whether your loved ones will be sipping spirits, sparkling wine, or straight-up seltzer at your gatherings this season, they’ll all be drinking something.

That’s why we’re once again rounding up the best drinks gifts of the year, and we’ve got ideas covered for anyone who enjoys cocktails, wine, beer, coffee, or tea. The wish list we’ve curated runs the gifting gamut from the utilitarian to the whimsical, and you’ll find something at every price point from keychains to caviar. There are books that expand the mind and palate with lessons on Trappist monks, French wine, and absinthe, and ceramics that are as pretty as they are practical. You’ll see a portable keg, bar cart essentials, and cheeseboard-themed home decor. Even teetotalers will fall in love with the merch, caffeinated collections, and kitchen gadgets below.

So, without further delay, these are VinePair’s best holiday gifts of 2023.

The 8 Best Gifts for Cocktail Lovers

Estelle Colored Glass Decanter – Heritage {Iridescent}

A pop of color never hurts when it comes to stocking a bar cart. Made in Poland by glass artisans, this kaleidoscopic vessel practically begs to be filled with something aged and precious. Price: $160

Island Creek Oysters Adamas White Sturgeon Caviar From Pandino, Italy

If someone you love can’t resist a caviar bump with their Martini, ‘tis the season to treat them to some at-home indulgence. And don’t worry about the logistics of shipping the Lombardy-sourced treat by air — the tin arrives refrigerated and ready to be popped open or stored for a few weeks. Price: $99 for 30g

Filthy Martini Kit

For the friend who orders their Dirty Martinis extra filthy, look no further. This kit contains everything they need to satisfy their saline cravings 24 times over including pouches of brine, olives stuffed with blue cheese and pimento peppers, and stainless-steel cocktail picks. Price: $40

The Maison Premiere Almanac

This year, Brooklyn’s go-to establishment for absinthe and oysters compiled its knowledge into one cocktail book. With 90 drink recipes for punches, Martinis, Juleps, and more, this photo-filled almanac will wow anyone who savors the history behind the cocktails they drink. Price: $40

Marianna Fierro Negroni Print

If you’ve got an Instagram account, chances are you’ve seen the work of L.A.-based art director and illustrator Marianna Fierro on your feed. While her mortadella-patterned towel or spaghetti sweatshirt may be more your taste, we’re partial to this whimsical, frame-worthy print of the classic cocktail. Price: $45

The Encyclopedia of Cocktails: The People, Bars & Drinks, with More Than 100 Recipes

Consider this comprehensive catalog for that family member who seems to know the story behind anything you drink in their company. James Beard Award-nominated author and cocktail and spirits writer Robert Simonson covers all the boozy bases with 100 cocktail recipes and details about the people and places shaping today’s bar industry. Price: $25

Crate & Barrel Green Aperitif Glasses (Set of 4)

A proper pre-dinner drink can make even an average night feel elegant, especially if it’s being enjoyed from some gorgeous glassware. These mini, mint-green coupes will look as chic in your friends’ hands and they will on their bar carts. Price: $40

Cure: New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ‘Em

Co-written by beverage industry veteran (and VinePair Drinks Professional of the Year) Neal Bodenheimer and writer Emily Timberlake, this will please anyone who’s picked up a Sazerac habit on a trip to the cocktail capital, and boasts 100 cocktail recipes that tell the city’s story. Price: $30

The 11 Best Gifts for Wine Lovers

Cote Drink Pink Box

For New Yorkers craving great wine alongside prime cuts of meat, they’ll find it at Korean steakhouse Cote. But if taking a loved one to dinner in Manhattan isn’t in the cards, you can send some of the experience straight to their door with a rosé-themed wine box curated by sommelier and author Victoria James. In addition to three bottles of the pink stuff, you’ll find a signed copy of “Drink Pink,” a playful dive into the world of rosé by James herself. Price: $95

Shitty Wine Memes Cosmic Taster Enamel Keychain

It’s whimsical, it’s weird, and it’s out of this world. Consider this accessory the ideal stocking stuffer for your group’s designated wine geek — or its snob, we don’t know your friends. Price: $15

Ichendorf Milano Alchemy Decanter

You’re not decanting every decent bottle you pop and neither are we, but with a two-toned decanter sitting on our bar carts, we’d do it more often. An added bonus: Though delicate, this Italian glass is dishwasher-safe at low temps. Price: $108

Nata Cheese Cracker Candle

While funky wheels of Harbison, sharp cheddars, and gooey Brie wedges may get most of the attention on holiday cheese boards, crackers are the real workhorses of the spread. A carb-adjacent candle is scented with jasmine, neroli, and orange blossom, and looks just as chic on a nightstand as it does on a dinner table among the side dishes. Price: $21

“The New French Wine” Two-Book Boxed Set

Whether your giftee is a francophile, passionate about wine, or just really selective about their coffee table books, this technicolor two-box set is pretty irresistible. It’s also comprehensive: Author Jon Bonné takes readers on a guided tour through France’s entire wine landscape, including 800 producers and 7,000-plus wines from each of the nation’s regions. Price: $135

Field Recordings Morro Dew T-Shirt

Based in Paso Robles and headed by winemaker Andrew Jones, Field Recordings is changing the face of California wine. It’s doing it with style, too: In addition to innovative bottles and playful labels, the brand’s got some cool merch. For a friend down to rep one of the West Coast’s best (and VinePair’s Winery of the Year), we’d suggest a funky-fonted tee. Price: $30

Cato & Co. The Cato Cup (Set of 2) in Terracotta

Crystal glassware is classic, but it’s not exactly utilitarian. That said, on-the-go vessels can look sophisticated, too. For off-road drinking by campfires, on hikes, and the like, Cato’s pair of stoneware cups are as aesthetically pleasing as they are practical. Price: $75

Bebly Box in Marble

Judge boxed wine all you like, but there’s no denying that it comes in handy when you’re entertaining a crowd. Bebly’s refillable box will allow the host in your life to put even their classiest bottle on tap, and will keep the wine cold until last call. Simply fill up the bag, set it in the insulated base, cap it with the pretty marble cover, and it’s ready to go. Price: $98

Thierry Atlan The Celebration Box, 12pc

We’d be hard pressed to name a more celebratory pairing than Champagne and macarons, and French chocolatier Thierry Atlan’s sweet patisserie box merges both. Whether you gift them or contribute them to your work party’s dessert table, these bubbly-flavored confections are worth toasting with. Price: $45

Le Creuset Waiter’s Friend Wine Opener

Much like a loyal friend, a good wine key will stick with you for years. If you notice someone in your own circle is popping their bottles with a crappy corkscrew, this rosewood and stainless-steel opener is efficient, attractive, and guaranteed to get put to good use. Price: $46

Tombolo Big Brut Cabana

There’s a way to dress festively without going full holiday camp, and Tom Bolo’s bubbly-adorned button-up is chic enough to be worn to a New Years shindig yet casual enough to don all year round. Made from organic cotton terry cloth, this unisex piece can be layered for frigid nights or thrown on solo during vacation somewhere warmer. Price: $138

The 8 Best Gifts for Beer Lovers

DIY Talea Peach Berry Punch Beer Making Kit

If you have a loved one who spends half their time in the kitchen perfecting project bakes — and happens to be into sours — we’ve pegged their next challenge. This kit contains the equipment, ingredients, and step-by-step instructions to make a gallon of NYC brewery Talea’s Peach Berry Punch. Added bonus: Should homebrewing turn into a new hobby, all the equipment is reusable. Price: $48

Spiegelau IPA Glass

Made in Germany, this beer glass was developed with input from Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada and Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head, two of the U.S.’s leading IPA brewers. Its shape makes it ideal for filling with hop-forward brews, and the ideal gift for your social circle’s resident IPA guy. Price: $11

Literie Beers at the Ballpark Candle

Baseball and beer is a pairing as ubiquitous as chestnuts and an open fire. And though the holidays are months away from the next opportunity to scarf down a hot dog in nosebleed seats, a hops- and citrus-scented candle might hold over the MLB fan in your life until spring training tees off. Price: $45

Trappist Beer Travels: Inside the Breweries of the Monasteries

Beer has a rich history, and much of it involves the Trappist monks who have brewed it for centuries. Perfect for the brewing and/or history buff, the second edition of this deep dive into Trappist breweries includes new information about the newest brothers to take the traditional beer-making reins. Price: $30

Athletic Brewing Co Fractel Performance Cap

Whether you’re shopping for an experienced marathon runner or your introverted roommate who spends most of their time indoors, this moisture-wicking cap in the NA beer brand’s signature colors will brighten up their look. Price: $40

Funky Rock Designs Stone Bottle Opener

This ergonomically designed work of art is a hell of a lot more sophisticated than that piece of metal on your key ring. Designed by local artisans in Maine, it’ll add a refined twist to a bar cart — and it’s even dishwasher-safe. Price: $26

Squarekeg Square One Mini Keg

Sure, it’s a splurge, but hear us out: A portable keg that’s so compact you can tote around and squeeze it into the fridge next to the hot sauce is an investment into your most extroverted friend. In fact, you can go beyond the suds and use it to dispense 128 ounces of your favorite cocktail, wine, or coffee on tap. Just fill it up, fit the tap, add a CO2 cartridge, and you’re the new hero of the function. Price: $300

Yeti Rambler Beverage Bucket in Navy

The tidings should always be warm at holiday parties, but the drinks shouldn’t be. Yeti’s uber-sturdy bucket can fit a 6-pack of suds or three bottles of wine and will keep them chilled until every guest is tuckered out. It also comes with a lid should you want to fill it with ice instead. Price: $150

The 7 Best Gifts for Coffee & Tea Lovers

Frank Lloyd Wright Gift Set

Tea Forte’s collaboration with the famed American architect’s foundation contains a stoneware mug, matching tea tray, and 10 tea-filled pyramid infusers. And backing the arts never hurts: A portion of your purchase will go toward educational programs and scholarships the foundation supports. Price: $65

Rook Coffee Cold Brew Subscription

One might not go to the Jersey Shore looking for outstanding cold brew, but from its humble roots in a 300-square-foot shack, Rook has become a bit of an obsession in the Garden State. Now, they ship nationally, and a subscription for the brand’s chicory-rich New Orleans Coffee Concentrate will keep the busiest people in your life cool and caffeinated. Price: from $36

David’s Tea 24 Trips with Tea Advent Calendar

Even the most patient tea drinker will be tempted to tear into this calendar early. Inspired by holiday traditions around the globe, it contains 48 servings of elegant sencha, soothing herbal blends, and more. Price: $55

This rainbow-splattered stoneware by Queens, N.Y., ceramicist Helen Levi pulls double duty as a drinking vessel and a piece of home decor worth displaying. Price: $52

Visp The Elixir Mixer

DIY matcha lattes may sound like a time suck, but Visp’s electric whisk bottle streamlines the process. Its stainless-steel frother is built in and does its job in just 15 seconds with the push of a button so you can scarf up and head out quicker. Price: $88

Boy Smells Vanilla Era

Fragrance brand Boy Smells took the often-cloying scent of vanilla coffee drinks and transformed it into a sophisticated cologne anyone can wear. Madagascar vanilla, black pepper, and saffron float at the top of the scent like creamy milk foam, while notes like cashmere wood, black amber, and spicy coffee provide a strong yet smooth base. Price: $98

Le Creuset Demi Kettle

Stove space is precious, especially when you’re cooking to feed a crowd on holiday mornings. This olive-hued kettle, though, is pretty enough to convince us to sacrifice a burner to keep it on display. And should you actually fire it up, you’ll hear that tell-tale whistle in a matter of minutes thanks to its quick-to-heat carbon steel. Price: $84

The article The Best Holiday Drinking Gifts for 2023 appeared first on VinePair.

Three items stand before you: a sealable container, a pile of freshly sliced fruit, and a bottle of booze. The type of fruit and category of booze can be arbitrary, but for the sake of argument, let’s say the fruit is pippin apples and the booze is vodka. You fill the container with the apple slices and the vodka, seal the lid, and wait a day or two for the fruity essence to penetrate the spirit’s soul as it absorbs some of the alcohol. Congratulations! You’re a bartender or home bar enthusiast who just made a spirit infusion. Or you’re a college kid who just made jungle juice.

The sophisticated cocktail technique and the basic frat house delight technically share space on a Venn diagram. However, the infusions dominating the current cocktail bar scene are elevated ingredients made by creative, forward-thinking bartenders as a way to riff on classic builds. A seasonal Negroni sweetened by strawberry-infused Campari, a wintry Old Fashioned intensified by rosemary-infused bourbon, or a Bloody Mary brightened by tomato-infused vodka are made possible by this trending practice.

As sophisticated as these infusions can be, they also share some low-brow origins. This begs the question: When does an infused spirit transcend the Gatorade cooler and the brimming red Solo cup and become worth of a highball glass and a $20 price tag? It depends on how they’re used.

Defining the Dividing Line

Infused spirits are liquor projects made with purpose, whether that intent focuses on slow, pleasurable sipping or slamming them until the wee small hours. There’s a measure of simplicity for each project type at its respective core: Loading up a high-proof spirit with sliced fruit has long been a foolproof way to make it more palatable. But this year, a massive amount of award-winning watering holes in the U.S. are using this simple technique as the cornerstone for riffs on classics and signature cocktails alike. Walk into Refuge in Houston, for example, and you’ll encounter its riff on a Tequila Mockingbird, where strawberry-infused highland blanco tequila anchors a build featuring crème de menthe-pastille and clarified citrus. In Phoenix, the two spirit-infused drinks on Little Rituals’ current menu — the Midnight Snack starring shiitake-infused Rittenhouse rye and the Ponzi Scheme featuring marigold-infused Eagle Rare bourbon — further demonstrate how creative programs don’t necessarily need fruit to jump into the infusion game. These infusions elevate the drinks’ profiles with precision, making them a high-end tool for skilled folks behind the stick.

“When you’re making an infusion, you want to make something that adds to a drink and complements its other ingredients,” explains Carly Bulger, bar manager for 21st Amendment at La Louisiane and May Baily’s Place in New Orleans. “When you’re making jungle juice, the goal is usually how to get drunk as quickly as possible without the alcohol.”

This high-low differentiation can occasionally get muddied when vodka is involved. The traditionally flavorless, odorless neutral grain alcohol is typically the booze of choice for fruit-soaked punches at college parties and early 20-something group shindigs, as well as the novelty shots poured from murky bottles fermenting behind the stick at dive bars. This compels some serious imbibers to form an opinion on vodka infusions, even if they’re made by a bartender.

“I know some people that think infusing vodka is tacky,” Bulger states. “Because vodka’s this neutral grain spirit, they have this assumption that you’re trying to take the taste of alcohol out of a drink. They’ll say you’re making drinks for people that don’t like alcohol.”

Bar pros don’t see it that way. “Vodka gets such a bad rap, but it shouldn’t,” says Ying Chang, co-owner of Strong Water in Anaheim, Calif. “An infusion proves that it can be a beautiful chameleon.”

If anything, vodka’s neutrality and adaptive properties give both green and veteran bartenders a blank canvas where they can experiment with flavor-building, whether it’s with fruits, herbs, or vegetables. Over time, they can learn how to shape an infusion’s flavor profile until the precise flavor they want emerges, including nuanced flavors that may not be attainable with a house-made syrup. This can build the confidence needed to move past vodka and experiment with spirits that fraternity social chairs wouldn’t dare touch, such as a smoky mezcal or a bitter liqueur. But as infused spirits become more respected in high-brow environments, some bartenders are spotting a less noble purpose behind the practice emerging.

“Some people do infusions because they’re trying to get noticed,” explains Cody Banks, creative director for the recently launched bartender education collective Haus of Imbibe in Flemington, N.J. “You see a lot of this happening on social media.” Banks also notes this search for notoriety often comes at the expense of the infusion’s quality.

“These people are paying attention to the wrong details,” he says. “If you want to create an infusion, you need to create layers. However, they tend to just throw flavors onto the spirit, and they end up ruining the spirit by bastardizing its integrity.”

The results of these ill-begotten experiments can lean more toward party punch than a properly made infusion, but they’re not quite either. At their worst, they can resemble bad frat house grog made from a mix of random bottle pours. At their best, they can look like pale retreads of existing products.

“A lot of these people are essentially trying to recreate what Absolut was around 1988,” Banks says.

A Peek Into the Past

Even when infusions are carefully crafted, there seems to be slight nostalgic wistfulness in play when they’re made. This doesn’t stem from fond memories of filling plastic cups to the brim from a shared trough. Rather, it can hearken back to “alco-pops” like Smirnoff Ice or Mike’s Hard Lemonade, where blends of fruit flavor and alcohol were a little more controlled than the homemade hooch. The nostalgia for restrained, fruit-flavored booze occurs on both sides of the stick.

“When a guest sees a spirit infusion, they can see flavors they understand,” explains Pete Shea, general manager at San Diego’s Swan Bar. “This can make it easier for them to appreciate the flavors in a drink, which can sometimes be a daunting task.”

Conversely, a guest’s interest may come from a place of intrigue, where patrons may be compelled to try it just because it’s a bit unorthodox. “Infusing vodka or a tequila with shishito peppers is a favorite of mine,” Shea says. “It brings out these nice vegetal qualities. When you roast them beforehand, the peppers will release their flavors even more.”

Campari: A Steeping Success

An infusion’s ability to enhance flavor recognition and appreciation may be one of the reasons why defanging Campari’s bite through fruit infusion has become such a popular practice. “Campari can be bracingly bitter if you’re not ready for it,” Shea says. “You can control that bitterness with an infusion.”

“Infusing Campari is all about approachability, and using that bitterness as a more versatile tool,” adds Chang. “When you put Campari in a drink, it’s still going to be in there. Infusing it allows you to celebrate its presence with extra flair.”

Campari’s starring role in 2023’s infusion moment — and the rationale behind steeping strawberries, tomatoes, and other fruits in the Italian bitter liqueur — is perhaps the perfect symbol of why a well-made spirit infusion can break free from its low-brow roots. An infusion doesn’t exist to wreck a drinker in an expedited manner, or at least it shouldn’t. It aims to elevate a drink, which also elevates the experience surrounding the cocktail. Both are beautiful things. A jug of vodka and a random fruit medley doesn’t contain such beauty.

Still, there is no escaping the reality that many of today’s trendiest cocktails and the basement punch of our youth originate from the same, basic concept of alcohol steeped in fruit. It’s a connection that, all things considered, makes sense to embrace.

“When I started doing spirit infusions, I knew how to do it because of jungle juice,” Bulger says. “It was like I already had this little bartending trick that I learned from college in my pocket.”

The article A New Era of High-End Infused Cocktails Is Upon Us appeared first on VinePair.

Tim Riley first began reviewing energy drinks in 2021, when his wife joked that his habit of tasting sugary caffeine beverages with his skillset as a sommelier could make for a good TikTok bit.

Since then, Riley has racked up millions of views as “BigSommEnergy” and tasted practically every mainstream energy drink released in the last five years. Among his biggest takeaways: The industry is in the thick of a surging renaissance, buoyed by an ever-changing slate of new drinks, and the peak is still to come.

“The proliferation is extraordinary. It’s more diverse than most people think,” Riley tells me. “I always say, ‘If you say you don’t like energy drinks, I bet you I can find something you do like.’”

The numbers seem to prove that point. The global energy drink market has grown massively in the last few years, from $45.8 billion in 2020 to nearly $62.9 billion today, according to industry analyses. In the United States, consumption of these buzzy beverages has risen considerably since a decade ago — and although the rise of the Covid pandemic disrupted a lot of consumers, they’ve flocked to energy drinks again in the years since.

The renaissance is a coup for the industry, both in terms of the independent brands trying to carve out a niche in America’s collective caffeine craving, and the corporate legacy juggernauts like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo that see broader profit margins and potential for growth in the space.

Although these companies are looking to strike new trends and hit viral gold, the contemporary boom is so much more than a fad. Even concerns about health impacts, especially for the young drinkers who have carried energy drinks into the pop-cultural zeitgeist, can’t seem to dampen the excitement around the Next Big Energy Drink.

Building on What Came Before

It all feels like an evolution of what happened in the mid- to late 2000s, when energy drinks first transitioned from being a niche product for gamers and nerds and graduated into mainstream popularity with now-household names like Red Bull and Monster. Except, this time around, there is so much more on tap, and lots of industry players vying for an edge, whether through taste, performance, or flat-out great marketing.

Given Riley’s background as a certified advanced sommelier, it’s no surprise that he points to sugar content and flavor as two of the most important shifts that have fueled the renaissance. For a long time, zero-sugar formulations lagged behind their conventional brethren, he says (“Red Bull really didn’t seem to care,” he adds). Brands like Red Bull, Monster, and Rockstar also hewed to a strategy of primarily selling a signature flavor, rather than a palette of distinctive offerings.

That’s gone out the window today, Riley says, and his TikTok is proof: Nearly every brand appears to tout a rainbow of options when it comes to flavors, acidity, and sweetness. He gives special credit to Bang Energy, which was founded in 2012 and has become one of the most popular energy drink manufacturers in America.

“The [energy drink] race really was dominated by two players, but the rise of the performance segment and the ‘better-for-you’ drinks has changed that.”

“Around the mid-2010s, we started to see research and progress on both synthetic and natural flavors that allowed people to go so much further than the O.G. Red Bull taste,” Riley says. “Bang grew on the scene with these crazy flavors like Key Lime Pie, and frankly, there was nothing like them when I started tasting and judging these drinks.”

Beyond the flavors, Bang also normalized the concept of dosing 300 milligrams of caffeine into each can — about double the average amount found in most other offerings. The consequent success proved a point: Consumers weren’t getting tired of an energy drink “fad.” They were craving new, novel ways to gain stamina while quenching thirst.

“The [energy drink] race really was dominated by two players, but the rise of the performance segment and the ‘better-for-you’ drinks has changed that,” says Duane Stanford, the editor and publisher of Beverage Digest, which chronicles news in the non-alcohol drinks trade. “So has the long-term health and functional wellness trend we’ve seen across the food and beverage industry generally.”

Familiar Names Diversify — and New Ones Innovate

Even older brands like Celsius, which debuted in 2009 but floundered with tepid sales for a decade, have found new life by repositioning their pitches. By marketing itself as a lifestyle product and touting its vitamin content, Celsius became a darling for those looking to shun the typical Monster and Red Bull offerings in favor of a sugarless beverage that could purportedly boost their workouts and even fat loss.

Stanford observes that a crucial element of that marketing was aggressively pursuing college-age consumers and young people, using TikTok and other social media platforms to reestablish an identity. Now, Celsius is one of the biggest players in the energy drink space, growing from a valuation of $280 million in 2018 to a staggering $13.4 billion today.

“Congo Brands famously will not talk about their business model, but it has become a disruptor with a new strategy that others are now trying to replicate.”

Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is the near-overnight success of an independent outfit dubbed Congo Brands, which is responsible for the biggest energy drink breakout of all. When YouTube influencer kings Logan Paul and KSI announced they had “founded” a beverage company named Prime in 2022, it drew the attention of millions of young fans. Nobody knew much about the Kentucky-based parent company that actually operated the brand, but hype grew so much that when the drinks finally arrived, kids fought over bottles in grocery aisles. One scalper was bold enough to list a 12-pack for more than $500 on eBay.

Prime debuted as a non-caffeinated sports drink, but an “energy” variant dropped this year to similar fanfare. All the while, marketing via influencers and their captive audiences has proven to be a winning formula. No surprise, then, that Congo Brands has extended the strategy to its other major brand, Alani Nu, which was “founded” by fitness influencer Katy Hearn and has leveraged Kim Kardashian as a brand ambassador. (She has her very own flavor, “Kimade,” complete with hot-pink can.)

“Congo Brands famously will not talk about their business model, but it has become a disruptor with a new strategy that others are now trying to replicate,” Stanford says. “Even if they ultimately go boom-splat in the market, you can make a lot of money in the ramp-up and fad stage.”

(Congo Brands did not reply to multiple requests for comment from VinePair.)

Legacy soft-drink brands have taken note, scrambling to invest in, and even outright acquire, energy drink companies with potential for growth. Sales of soda and other sugary soft drinks have been steadily declining for more than a decade, according to experts. Buying up the energy drink market appears to be an acknowledgement that they need to diversify, and it’s largely unfolded in the last three years.

PepsiCo acquired Rockstar in 2020, then doubled down by forging a distribution deal with Celsius for half a billion dollars in 2022. Keurig Dr Pepper threw nearly $900 million for a big stake in Nutrabolt, the parent company of the popular C4 energy drink brand. This year, Monster bought out Bang Energy, which was struggling with internal leadership and too much litigation despite the market success of its products. Beer giant Molson Coors also recently announced a major reinvestment into Zoa, the energy drink repped by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, claiming it will “double” its planned media budget for 2024.

In other words, energy drinks are set to gain even more momentum in years to come. It is a daunting situation for public health experts, who continue to stress that energy drinks can have harmful impacts on health, especially for younger bodies that are still developing.

Does Anyone Know What These Drinks Really Do?

It would be an understatement to call the debate over the risks of consuming so many high-caffeine, supplement-infused drinks “contentious.” Over the last decade, industry lobbyists and brand reps have suggested that energy drinks are harmless when consumed in moderation; a common defense is that a drink like Prime Energy is equivalent to a large coffee from Starbucks. Others point to evidence that energy drinks provide real benefits to cognitive and physical performance.

But critics from the world of medicine and health research say that the issues are twofold: Many people consume far more than the suggested serving size, and it’s unclear what kind of long-term effect the swirl of caffeine and stimulating (and oft-unregulated) supplements can have on the body.

The risks multiply when it is a child or adolescent, and although a number of energy drink companies have denied marketing directly to youth, real-world practice shows otherwise, according to Jennifer Harris, a researcher at UConn’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health.

She testified in Congress over problematic practices in the energy drink industry in 2013. A decade later, Harris says not much has changed. “The issues are the same, but the consumption is just up,” she says.

While there is little medical consensus on exactly how harmful energy drink consumption can be, research has shed light on the way it can affect sleep patterns, mood, caffeine dependency, and even risk-taking. Then there are the seemingly freak accidents, in which people suffer severe cardiovascular damage and even die after consuming energy drinks.

“What we hear a lot when we speak to parents about these products is that they assume that if it was a problem, it would be regulated more — they assume there’s someone who is responsible.”

One British case study found a 21-year-old man who had been consuming four cans a day (roughly 640 milligrams of caffeine, plus the supplement taurine) had suffered so much kidney and heart damage that he qualified for a double transplant. Last year, a 21-year-old woman with a pre-existing heart condition died just hours after drinking a “Charged Lemonade” energy drink from Panera Bread; the family filed a lawsuit in October, alleging negligent labeling and marketing was to blame.

Harris’s 2013 testimony came amid heavy scrutiny of the energy drink industry from legislators, some of whom were pushing companies to curtail deceptive marketing practices and make nutritional information more transparent. But behind the scenes, industry players worked hard to lobby and shift the regulatory environment, going so far as to cozy up with state attorneys general, lavishing them with contributions in the hopes they would back off, according to reporting from the The New York Times and other sources. (The lobbying has continued; Monster, for one, contributed $15,000 each to the Democrat and Republican Attorneys General Associations in 2022.)

Today, Harris says the lines are blurrier than ever. Congo Brands appears to be explicitly marketing to kids with its Prime “Hydration” product, even though critics say this is just another pipeline to the caffeinated product. (U.S. legislators have already called for Prime to be investigated.) Elsewhere, Ghost is being sued for “deceptively targeting youth” by making energy drinks with branded candy flavors and targeting the fanbase of the ultra-popular gaming group FaZe Clan.

Harris admits it is a challenge to limit the scope of advertising, which falls under broad First Amendment protections. She suggests that regulating where and how they’re sold, rather than the marketing itself, may prove more fruitful. Meanwhile, her concerns about the lack of transparency on ingredients and the habit-forming potential of the drinks remain front of mind.

“What we hear a lot when we speak to parents about these products is that they assume that if it was a problem, it would be regulated more — they assume there’s someone who is responsible,” Harris says. “But I would also say that, in the past year, I’ve heard more interest and concern about what to do than in a long time.”

America’s Love Affair With Caffeine, Continued

The appetite for energy drinks is growing, and so is the subculture of the people who love them. Online forums like Reddit are full of people debating flavors and their favorite brands, but in the margins you can see the same problems that Harris summarized: namely, thread after thread of people asking for help with their energy drink dependency, worried that their chest pains and anxiety won’t go away.

There is little doubt that a boom of so many energy-boosting products is directly inspiring a surge in consumer curiosity and experimentation. At the same time, the trend also raises the question of why millions of people continue to feel seduced by the promise of productivity and focus that energy drinks tout. Surely, the search for self-improvement is a deeply human instinct. But now more than ever before, Americans are seeking solace in a $3 can of neon-hued sugar substitutes, garnished with an ever-growing slate of additives like mind-sharpening mushrooms and nootropic “smart” drugs.

As Beverage Digest’s Stanford notes, the desire for this buzz is ever-growing and evolving — and entrepreneurs are preparing to capitalize for years to come.

The article America’s Energy Drink Habit Is Fueling Big Profits, for Better or Worse appeared first on VinePair.

Nestled on the banks of the Cromarty Firth in Alness, Scotland, is The Dalmore distillery, founded in 1839 by merchant adventurer Sir Alexander Matheson. The wealthy tradesman hoped to differentiate his distillery from others in Scotland by choosing the isolated location to produce predominantly single malt Scotch whisky — and it worked.

The distillery changed hands just a few decades after its founding, and quickly rose in popularity among Scotch drinkers who were accustomed to drinking blended whisky from other distilleries. Once synonymous with 12-year-old single malt whisky, The Dalmore now has nine Scotches in its principal collection and a handful of exploratory limited releases.

Now that you know the basics, here are nine more things you should know about The Dalmore.

1. The Dalmore’s founder built the entire distillery from scratch.

   Matheson chose the land upon which The Dalmore currently resides for the supply of high-quality barley, peat, and water in the surrounding area. The land was originally home to a mill and a farm yard, and in 1839, Matheson quickly got to work converting the existing structure into a fully operational distillery. He designed and constructed everything himself, from the distilling buildings to the maturation warehouses and even the train lines used to connect the remote site to the outside world. The distillery grounds were also home to a pier, which allowed for steamer ships to transport in barley, coal, and casks for whisky production. Upon completion of the construction, Matheson leased the space to the Sunderland family, which  operated the distillery until the late 1860s.

2. In 1867, the distillery was overtaken by descendants of Clan Mackenzie.

   Twenty-eight years after the distillery’s founding, the lease was turned over to brothers Andrew and Charles Mackenzie, descendants of the storied Scottish clan that had close ties to the monarchy and a role in the Jacobite uprising. The brothers sought to expand The Dalmore’s presence both locally and beyond by upgrading the facilities and developing the network of contacts built up by Matheson during his travels. By utilizing these connections, the Mackenzie brothers were able to export their Scotch whisky to Australia and New Zealand by the 1870s, making them the first malt whisky brand to do so. Andrew, Charles, and their other brother William finally purchased the distillery from Sir Kenneth Matheson, Sir Alexander’s son, in 1891 after the passing of the 1886 Crofters Holdings Act, which declared crofters had the right to own their land for the first time in Scottish history.

3. The stag on every bottle of The Dalmore comes from a 13th-century legend.

   One of the first orders of business for the Mackenzie brothers when they took control of the distillery was embossing every bottle of the whisky with a silver stag. The legend of the stag dates back to 1263 when the first chieftain of Clan Mackenzie, Colin of Kintail, saved the life of King Alexander III of Scotland while on a hunt. The story goes that while on the pursuit, a stag came charging at the king, only to be intercepted by the chieftain, who stabbed the beast and shouted “Cuidich ‘n’ Righ” or “save the king” in Gaelic. The monarchy granted Clan Mackenzie the right to bear a 12-point Royal Stag on their family crest, which would appear on The Dalmore’s bottles centuries later.

4. The distillery was used as a military headquarters in both world wars.

   When World War I broke out, Scotland was forced to implement a number of food rations, and barley was no exception. The Dalmore was required to cease production and the distillery was commandeered as a base for the U.S. Navy in 1917. The space was used to construct and assemble explosive landmines, and once completed, the explosives were exported to the front lines via train, then loaded onto naval ships bound for the North Sea. The distillery was occupied by the Navy until 1920 and suffered immense damage over the course of the war, including a fire in the peat storage area that spread to several other buildings.

5. In the 1900s, The Dalmore struggled to stay afloat.

   It took substantial repairs to restore the site to its former glory, and though Andrew’s son, William F. Mackenzie, was able to reopen the distillery, he was forced to shut its doors in 1926 due to a lack of funding. He resumed the operation a year later under the name Mackenzie Bros, Dalmore Ltd with the intention of selling the company. But unable to secure a buyer, The Dalmore ran at a loss for a year, and continued to struggle until the repeal of the 18th Amendment in 1933. The legalization of alcohol in the U.S. led to a brief production boom at the distillery, which allowed for new warehouses to be constructed to house the in-demand whisky. That success was short-lived: In 1939, The Dalmore was again forced to cease production as World War II began. The distillery was once more overtaken by the military, this time the Royal Air Force, which used the grounds as a headquarters. Distillation resumed once the war ended, and The Dalmore remained family-owned by the Mackenzies until 1960 when it merged with Whyte & Mackay, a beverage company that had been purchasing The Dalmore for years to use in its own blended Scotch whiskies.

6. The distilling team uses eight stills to produce its whisky.

   At The Dalmore, four wash stills and four spirits stills are used during distillation, each of which has two different production capacities. The brand says that it is these varying production capacities that contribute to the robust and fruity flavor profile of the whisky, which is distilled with the express purpose of lengthy aging. Further contributing to the stills’ idiosyncratic nature is the unique shape of the stills themselves. The wash stills are each equipped with a constricting mechanism in the middle of the structure which results in higher levels of reflux during distillation, and thus higher concentration of flavor. And unlike standard spirit stills, The Dalmore’s spirit stills are flat on top. Legend says this is because once the distillery was fully built, the original stills did not fit into the building, and the tops needed to be removed to properly fit the stills. Rather than being attached to the top of the spirit stills as they typically would be, lyne arms were instead attached to the side, prompting increased copper contact, which results in more pronounced spice notes in the whisky.

7. Before 2002, The Dalmore only produced 12-year-old single malt.

   The Dalmore 12 is the Scotch brand’s flagship release, and for over a century and a half, it remained the sole expression the distillery offered. All changed in 2002 when The Dalmore expanded on the decade-old offering with the release of The Dalmore 21, a 21-year-old single malt, and the Cigar Malt Reserve, both of which are still staples of the brand’s core portfolio. The Dalmore’s Principal Collection would follow, and includes The Dalmore 14, The Dalmore 15, and The Dalmore 18, as well as King Alexander III, Port Wine Reserve, and Sherry Cask Select 12.

8. The Dalmore’s limited releases contain two exploratory collections.

   In addition to the Principal Collection, The Dalmore also offers five limited-release Scotch whiskies, each of which falls into two collections: Cask Curation and Luminary. The Cask Curation series contains three Scotches, each of which have been matured in ex-bourbon barrels and finished in three different types of sherry barrels: vintage sherry, Matusalem, and Apostoles. Rounding out the brand’s limited releases is the Luminary collection, which currently contains two distinct expressions: The Collectable Luminary No1 2022 Edition, and The Rare Luminary No1 2022 Edition.

   The former, of which 15,000 bottles were produced, was matured in white American oak before finishing in Kintsugi casks, which are made from a combination of Scottish Tay oak, Japanese Mizunara oak, and American white oak. The Rare truly lives up to its name with only three bottles in existence. The 48-year-old single malt was aged in ex-bourbon casks and finished in a combination of Matusalem and Apostle oloroso sherry casks and vintage port pipes.

9. The Dalmore is renowned for its sherry and port wine maturation programs.

   In the 1800s, The Dalmore’s original distillers began importing casks from Jerez, Spain (the sherry capital of the world) to Scotland, making The Dalmore the first in the Scotch industry to utilize what they referred to as “sherry wood.” The distillers eventually came to an exclusive agreement with sherry producer González Byass to supply them with barrels that were filled with sherry for 30 years — 10 times longer than average. After three decades spent in the cask, about 5 percent of the wine inside would be left behind, thus imparting a richer, more complex and velvety sherry essence on the whisky during finishing.

   Given the prized nature of these barrels, they are reused time after time and are never disposed of unless they’re entirely beyond repair. To this day, The Dalmore remains the sole distillery in the Scotch whisky industry able to access casks from González Byass.

The article 9 Things You Should Know About The Dalmore appeared first on VinePair.

As the nights grow longer and colder, nothing’s better than bundling up at home with a book or unwinding with friends and a good movie. These are times that call for an unfussy cocktail recipe that requires minimal ingredients, is quick and easy to prepare, and will keep you satisfied throughout the fall and winter seasons. 

Since its launch in 2016, White Claw® has continued to push the envelope with its innovative products. From the original White Claw® Hard Seltzer that broke the ready-to-drink beverage mold to its latest and most distinctive release yet, White Claw™ Vodka, the brand’s collection of hard seltzers and vodkas is just what you need to add inspiration and creativity to your cocktail game. In addition to the premium vodka, White Claw™ Vodka comes in three flavors — Black Cherry, Pineapple, and Mango, allowing plenty of recipe variation and experimentation. 

Made from 100 percent American grain, every bottle of White Claw™ Vodka is distilled five times and filtered through activated carbon from charred coconut shells. Using Triple Wave Filtration™, a process perfected by White Claw™ Spirits master blender Andres Faustinelli, the vodka is smoothed with a pressure that’s equivalent to three 30-foot waves — similar to how the ocean polishes shells and stones over time. This helps highlight the grain’s natural sweetness and impart a velvety smooth mouthfeel, making it the perfect base for any of your favorite fall and winter cocktails. 

Looking for signature recipes? We’ve got four easy but sophisticated cold-weather beverages below that will keep you inspired as temperatures drop. 

The Holiday Super CLAW™

Juicy berry flavors infuse this refreshing, epic holiday party-worthy cocktail, combining the bright and tart flavors of White Claw® Hard Seltzer Black Cherry with the crisp and clean White Claw™ Flavored Vodka Black Cherry. Serve the drink in a highball glass and garnish with an aromatic rosemary sprig and a cherry.

White Claw™ Martini 

In the White Claw™Martini, the smooth and citrus-forward White Claw™ Premium Vodka elevates this classic cocktail to new levels. Dry vermouth and two dashes of orange bitters balance the vodka’s brighter notes, while a lemon twist adds a touch of elegance. Stir the ingredients over ice until extra cold, and enjoy with appetizers and small bites for a complementary pairing.

White Claw™ Lazy Daisy

White Claw™ Pineapple Flavored Vodka brings a tropical vibe to chilly fall or winter evenings with the Lazy Daisy. In this sophisticated vodka soda, ripe pineapple and a hint of rose elevate a classic combination. Served in a highball glass with ice, lemon juice, and simple syrup, the cocktail is topped off with soda water and a pour of blackberry liqueur for a juicy berry finish.

You can put these recipes to the test with the White Claw® Super CLAW™ Holiday Kit, This kit from White Claw and Cocktail Courier includes everything you need to create eight easy, refreshing, and delicious cocktails for every holiday party (or the perfect gift for the season), delivered directly to your door for just $39.99*.

 *Kits are $39.99 + tax and shipping. Sales end on December 31 or while supplies last. Must be 21+ to purchase. Not available in AK, AL, AR, HI, ID, MI, NC, OH, TN, UT, and VA.

Premium Vodka. 40% Alc./Vol. Distilled from Grain. Flavored Vodka. 30% Alc./Vol. All registered trademarks used under license by White Claw Spirits Co., Chicago, IL.

Hard Seltzer with Flavors. All Registered Trademarks used under license by White Claw Seltzer Works, Chicago, IL. Nutritional information available at whiteclaw.com.

This article is sponsored by White Claw®.

The article 4 Cold-Weather Cocktails Featuring White Claw™ Vodka appeared first on VinePair.

As one of the most popular and widely planted white grapes, is Sauvignon Blanc prominently featured at local wine shops and on restaurant menus. Consumers have long appreciated the grape’s approachability, with a wide range of price points and styles readily available. Wine lovers often look to Sauvignon Blanc for its fresh flavors, crisp acidity, and general lack of oak aging — a characteristics that has become increasingly popular with younger buyers.

But as Sauvignon Blanc continues to gain momentum and becomes the flagship wine in more and more parts of the world, it begs the question: Have we reached peak Savvy B? To find out, we asked sommeliers around the country which Sauvignon Blancs they think are overrated. Many of the experts point to well-known signature styles — from Marlborough to Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc and even Bordeaux — and suggest alternative grapes and regions that are worth seeking out. Here’s what they had to say:

The Most Overrated Sauvignon Blanc, According to Sommeliers:

• New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc
• Napa Valley and Sonoma Sauvignon Blanc
• Sancerre
• Sauvignon Blanc from Bordeaux

“If I’m being honest, I think New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is one of the more overrated categories in this arena. While there are beautiful examples of Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, I find that most of what is commercially available and accessible here leaves much to be desired in terms of quality, and tends to dole out unchecked flavor and aroma with a heavy hand. While great New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is revered for its notes of gooseberry, zippy grapefruit, and grassy tones, some of the more poorly crafted iterations have the potential to veer off course. At their worst, these wines can exhibit notes of grassy cat-pee and cheap grapefruit candles from the mall.” —Kathleen Standridge, wine director, The Shipwright’s Daughter, Mystic, Conn.

“As a restaurant person, I have to say New Zealand. I’m sure you get that a lot, but my reasoning is that I don’t think that it’s a great food wine. I could totally understand grabbing a bottle of Cloudy Bay for the beach or to pair with Netflix, but the flavor tends to be so loud and intense that it will overwhelm anything with any nuance or subtlety. To be fair to New Zealand, they are making some phenomenal Chardonnay and Pinot Noir out there and I would love to see them export more of their wines.” —Andrew Thompson, wine director, Eastern Standard, Boston

“I find an unsettling consistency in Napa Valley and New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs. Valley wines are hot and flabby, with mealy, overripe tropical fruit. Producers try to balance and mask this with the addition of new oak. At the other end of the spectrum we have New Zealand’s approach to shrill Sauvignon Blanc, festooned with green pepper. Many lack any sort of inviting texture, and they finish rather bland and watery. I want a Sauvignon Blanc that’s a touch herbaceous, and offers notes of green tropical fruit and a core of salty minerality with an almost beeswax texture. The Japanese have a wonderful word for this kind of sensation: karakuchi. That being said, Lail Vineyards’ Georgia is an absolute stunner. On paper it is an over-oaked, ripe Sauvignon Blanc, but in the glass, it’s spirited, restrained, and playfully flirtatious with spearmint, Meyer lemon, and an orange blossom nose. On the tongue, [there are] quince and just-ripe notes of peach, starfruit, and brioche with a beguiling texture.” —Benjamin Coutts, beverage director, Soseki, Winter Park, Fla.

“Sorry to offend some people, but I’ve always thought that Sonoma and Napa Sauvignon Blanc is overrated.” —Jenna Isaacs, sommelier, Rustic Canyon, Santa Monica, Calif.

“Although the first bottle of wine I ever spent more than $20 on when I was 21 years old was a bottle of Sancerre, I could never drink Sancerre for the rest of my life and be just fine. I can appreciate the wines and the history behind them, but I want wine with a bit more richness and fruit. Although, global warming is definitely adding a ripeness to the newer vintages of Sancerre that I can appreciate.” —Demetria Lewis, sommelier, Birdie G’s, Santa Monica, Calif.

“Certain prestigious Bordeaux properties position their dry white wines at too-high prices. It is a premiumization of white wines produced alongside [high-growth red]. At the same time, the Bordeaux vineyard is recognized for the quality and standing of these great red wines based on Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, etc., [while] dry white wines based on Sauvignon Blanc struggle to achieve the same expectations. However, to remain on the same price positioning as the first wines, certain cuvées may be overvalued. The AOC Bordeaux remains very generic, and the wines are still too little known to be offered at more than $200 a bottle. Although the quality of Sauvignon Blancs from Bordeaux is becoming clearer and winning over more and more consumers, I remain convinced that these are wines ‘in the making’ and must remain accessible to the general public to demonstrate this.” —Adrien Cascio, sommelier, Cenadou Bistrot, North Salem, N.Y.

“It’s hard for me to speak to which Sauvignon Blanc is overrated because for anyone who knows me, my mantra in wine has always been and will forever be a saying my grandfather taught me growing up: gusto è gusto, or ‘taste is taste.’ Everyone’s palate is unique, shaped by our personal experiences, preferences, and even our culture. What may taste divine to one person might not appeal to another, and that’s perfectly OK. Whether you’re savoring a mineral-tinged Sancerre or a delightfully aromatic Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, the key is to drink what you love. After all, wine is meant to be enjoyed, to enhance a meal and ignite good conversation. We as wine professionals should be interpreters of our guests’ tastes rather than advocates for our own.” —Joseph Lapi, director of wine, RPM Restaurants, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Las Vegas

“I wouldn’t say overrated as much as overemphasized, but my answer here is Sancerre. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the wines and 100 percent understand why the region gained the reputation that it did — the wines are nervy, mineral, bright, and zesty. Sancerre is a crowd pleaser and that is undeniable. My biggest argument is just that there are so many underrepresented regions in the Loire creating equally compelling examples of Sauvignon Blanc right next door, such as Quincy, Pouilly-Fumé, or Menetou-Salon. Many of the wines from these regions stand up to or even outperform some Sancerre, while coming in at a much lower price point.” —Suzanne DiStio, wine & beverage director, One White Street, NYC

“Sancerre! The farming in the Sancerre region is predominantly chemical-driven, and there are some truly fantastic Sauvignon Blancs from other, immediate-surrounding regions in the Loire Valley.” —Cody Pruitt, managing partner & beverage director, Libertine, NYC

“Sauvignon Blanc can be quite polarizing. It’s a love or hate thing, really. I would say that the most overrated style of Sauv Blanc is the style that most, I believe, associate with the grape: New Zealand, stainless steel-fermented Sauvignon Blanc. Over half of all grape production in New Zealand is devoted to this varietal, and therefore internationally I think we associate this region with this grape. They are known to be stylistically skewed towards that grassy, grapefruit, puckering style that we all have had a few bottles of in our day. Sauv Blanc actually originates in Bordeaux, so it’s originally produced in a much different climate. This more modern New Zealand style has become the ubiquitous glass-pour Sauvignon Blanc in America, and has lost its luster for me.” —TJ Provenzano, beverage director & co-owner, Bar Miller, NYC

*Image retrieved from 5ph – stock.adobe.com

The article We Asked 10 Sommeliers: What’s the Most Overrated Sauvignon Blanc? appeared first on VinePair.

Ever since the hazy IPA boom of the 2010s, hop farmers have been cranking out experimental hop varieties at a prolific rate with the shared goal of offering brewers new flavors to pack into their brews. Despite this, many breweries have reached a creative stalemate with the IPA style. There are only so many hop combinations one can play with before inspiration inevitably plateaus. Thankfully, hop cultivators have put on their lab coats and invented alternative methods of exploring the ins and outs of hops, breathing new life into the plant that IPAs rely on. That’s why If you’ve been keeping tabs on the hop industry in recent years, chances are you’ve heard of Cryo hops.

What are Cryo hops?

If you break open a fresh, whole-cone hop, you’ll find a bunch of yellow, pollen-like powder within. That stuff is lupulin, and it contains the majority of the plant’s hop oils, which ultimately impart flavor and aroma in the beer it’s used in. In 2014, global hop supplier Yakima Chief Hops invented a process of freezing fresh hops with liquid nitrogen, shattering them, separating the lupulin and the hops’ external green matter (a.k.a. brack), and pressing that lupulin into pellets with some excess plant material. The end result: Cryo hops.

Named for the Greek word kryos meaning “frost,” Cryo hops are essentially ultra-concentrated hop pellets. Most commercially available hop pellets used to make beer are billed as T-90 or Type 90 hops — meaning one pound of hops yields 0.9 pounds of pellets — but Cryo hops are T-45s, meaning only 0.45 pounds of Cryo can be pulled from a pound of hops. But due to the high lupulin content of Cryo hops, they contain double the alpha acid content of regular hop pellets, making them an overall more potent and efficient alternative. There are a few different brands of lupulin-enriched hop pellets, like John I. Haas’s LUPOMAX, but Cryo has become the broader industry term. There are myriad benefits to using Cryo hops in beer, but where they really shine is in IPAs.

Cryo Hops in New England IPAs

The most common style in which one will encounter Cryo hops is undoubtedly in New England IPAs, which are characterized by hazy, tropical fruit-forward hop flavors and low bitterness. Since the dawn of the category, brewers have taken on the challenge of cramming in as many hops into their IPAs as possible with maximum dry-hopping. But with an absurd amount of hops going in, a lot of plant matter can end up in the beer itself. This generally causes more grassy, piney notes turning up in the final product. While that may actually be a desirable characteristic for some brewers, many find it to be a harsh or distracting quality against the lupulin’s alpha acids — the real bread and butter of the hop’s expression.

“I feel like with dry-hopped IPAs, an overly boozy tannic character is somewhat prevalent,” says Dan Suarez, owner of Suarez Family Brewery. “I think the Cryo bypasses that.” Although Suarez’s beers fall into the lighter, more “crushable” end of the spectrum — seldom surpassing the 6 percent ABV threshold — his experience with Cryo shows that it solves a problem that many brewers face when dry-hopping their beers to high heaven. With lupulin-enriched hops, brewers can harness a cleaner expression of concentrated hop flavor without any disruption from the presence of excess vegetal brack.

Also notable: due to the high level of brack in T-90 hops, more insoluble plant matter will be floating about in the fermentation tank, absorbing beer along the way. With Cryo hops, brewers get a bigger yield of finished beer. Plus, while Cryo hops tend to be a bit more expensive than T-90s, they deliver double the flavor without being double the price.

Cryo Hops in West Coast IPAs

Cryo hops may be touted as a secret weapon in New England IPAs, but rest assured, bitter, bold West Coast IPAs can benefit from them as well with some reverse engineering.

Hazies rely on late, dry-hopping additions to juice the tropical terpene profiles out of hops, but West Coast IPAs are fueled by bitterness, largely imparted by hop additions in the early high-temp stages of brewing. Bucks County, Pa.’s Free Will Brewing Co. makes a West Coast IPA year-round called Kragle, which employs the lupulin-heavy pellets. “The beer is bitter as hell so we use Cryo on the hot side to get extra IBUs,” explains head brewer Shawn Cannon, referring to the bitterness scale used by the beer industry. “I don’t use it in any hazy IPAs on the hot side.”

The bump in liquid yield functions the same way on the “hot side,” so on top of increased hop bitterness, less spongy green matter ends up in the ferment and whirlpool tanks. All this is not to bash green matter outright, as most brewers use T-45s in conjunction with T-90s.

“It makes for a more rounded product when you use both together,” Cannon says. “There’s no right or wrong, but if you go from a regular T-90 to a T-45, the aroma is just that much more intense and that more pungent.”

Cryo Hops in Other Styles

As mentioned, Cryo hops have been around for almost 10 years, but more recently, brewers have begun to explore the potential of Cryo hops in styles outside the IPA umbrella.

“I’ve seen some dry-hopped lagers with it, some which have been really awesome,” Cannon says.  Most brewers would argue that there isn’t much to gain from dumping eight pounds of Citra Cryo into a saison or barrel-aged stout, but with widespread palate fatigue from the “haze craze,” hoppy lagers are on the rise thanks to their punchy hop flavors on a light, crispy base beer. The world has yet to see all of what Cryo can achieve, but know that this is progress, and by no means a gimmick or shortcut.

*Image retrieved from Iain Robertson – Unsplash.com

The article Ask a Brewer: What Are Cryo Hops and What Do They Do in IPAs? appeared first on VinePair.

There’s no better way to honor the season than by curating a collection of holiday magic — and by magic, we mean excellent wine. Whether you’re hosting far-flung loved ones or reveling at festive get-togethers, the sound of a cork popping is sure to start any celebration off right.

With The Prisoner Wine Company, opening a bottle of wine becomes more than just the signifier that the party has begun — it’s an invitation to explore rare and genre-bending wines from some of the finest growers in California. 

The Prisoner Wine Company rose to prominence with its flagship wine, The Prisoner Red Blend, which shattered perceptions of California wines over two decades ago. Today, it stands as the portfolio of five distinct wine brands — The Prisoner, Unshackled, SALDO, Blindfold, and Domaine Curry — all anchored in the progressive ethos that defined its inaugural wine.

 Across all labels, The Prisoner Wine Company showcases the blending expertise of its winemakers. Their blends bring together exceptional fruit sourced through partnerships with remarkable growers, carefully chosen from throughout California’s premier regions. The result is captivating wines that boldly challenge tradition. 

To take part in this red blend revolution, look no further than The Prisoner Wine Company’s 2023 Holiday Case Sale. Mix and match bold reds and whites from across the portfolio for a tailored collection, perfect for both you and your loved ones. 

Thoughtfully Curate Your Wine Collection 

Discover what each of the brands under The Prisoner Wine Company portfolio has to offer with The Prisoner Wine Company’s Holiday Case Sale — the season’s largest savings event. Craft your personalized case with a curated selection, choosing from best-selling iconic and exclusive wines from The Prisoner, lesser-known varietals made with experimental winemaking techniques from SALDO, white wines sourced from the Sonoma Coast from Blindfold, and Unshackled’s lineup of red, white, and sparkling wines that break from tradition to elevate your holiday. Whether creating a diverse array or stocking up on your preferred red or white blend, this case sale offering is your opportunity to make the season truly special.

The Prisoner Red Blend, a true crowd-pleaser, is a must-have throughout the colder months. This blend of Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Syrah, and Charbono is versatile for pairing and approachable, with a taste and flavor profile worthy of its cult-classic status. Or explore beyond the traditional with Unshackled Cabernet Sauvignon, sourced from the Central Coast. This wine is bright, fresh, and fruit-forward, and is enjoyable whether you are newer to wine or a long-time Cabernet drinker. Coupled with a metallic gold label, Unshackled Cabernet Sauvignon is a standout addition to your tablescape.

Experience unconventional white wines like SALDO Chenin Blanc and Blindfold Blanc de Noir. Reflecting Clarksburg’s microclimate, SALDO Chenin Blanc is a balanced wine that combines body with refreshing acidity, a perfect companion for savoring the holidays. Blindfold Blanc de Noir is a stunning, hand-harvested, still white Pinot Noir that introduces a new varietal to your wine rack. Ideal for gifting, Blanc de Noir embodies a winter white wine with its light and crisp character and is housed in a bottle that lives up to its name. 

When it comes time to raise a glass in celebration, make sure it’s filled with premium bubbles like the 2018 Unshackled Sparkling or Sparkling Rosé. These festive vintages set the stage for celebration or sparkling-based cocktails, offering a brut-style wine with freshness and floral aromatics, and a sparkling rosé resplendent with notes of stone fruit. 

Exclusive Wines, Just in Time 

For those in the market for something that is not only distinctive but also hard to come by, the Holiday Case Sale provides access to coveted limited-release, small-production wines from The Prisoner and SALDO. 

Typically reserved solely for Wine Club members, five of these select bottles are offered during the sale. Each one reflects winemakers’ passion for trying new things, whether that be experimenting with an unexpected style or highlighting rare varietals like Charbono, Syrah, Grenache, and Viognier.

For instance, The Prisoner’s Headlock Charbono is a hidden gem of a wine that showcases a grape variety that was once popular in the old vineyards of Napa Valley. Today, Charbono constitutes less than 1 percent of all grapes grown in the region. The 2021 vintage, sourced from Meyers Vineyard in Calistoga, sips beautifully with notes of ginger spice, cola, and black cherry. Another is SALDO’s Carignan, a release that serves as an introduction to the versatile and lesser-known grape. This wine is sourced from 70-plus-year-old vines at the Pastori Winery vineyard in the Alexander Valley. This is wine in its purest form, with layers of tart fruit and spice coming together to make a structurally complete wine with an electric presence.

To experience distinctive wines like these all year round, consider becoming a member of the wine club. Members get exclusive first access to limited-release bottles like Headlock Charbono and SALDO Carignan, invites to special events, hospitality perks at The Prisoner Wine Company tasting lounge in St. Helena, and so much more.   

No matter which distinguished wines you choose, The Prisoner Wine Company allows you to set the table with exclusive bottles, stock up on newfound favorites, check off gift lists, and ensure you’ll always arrive at seasonal soirées with a welcomed gift in hand. 

The Prisoner Wine Company Holiday Case Sale runs through Nov. 27, 2023, and offers 20 percent off listed bottles, plus ground shipping is included for orders of a case or more. 

This article is sponsored by The Prisoner Wine Company. 

The article Give the Gift of Unconventionality With The Prisoner Wine Company appeared first on VinePair.

This episode of “Wine 101” is sponsored by Talbott Vineyards. No matter what your evening has in store, from game night to a decadent four-course meal, Talbott’s 2019 Sleepy Hollow Vineyard Pinot Noir makes the perfect addition. It’s got dark cherry notes on the nose, a soft plush mouthfeel, and exudes those classic Pinot Noir characteristics that we all know and love.

Yeast is one of the core pillars of beer, bread, and — you guessed it — wine. There are countless strains of yeast out there and they all do something a little different, both beneficial and not, when introduced to grape must.

Originally derived from an ancient word meaning “to boil,” the English adopted the term in the 16th century to refer to the froth that forms at the top of a brew tank during beer fermentation. By the 17th century, scientists redefined yeast as these little, single-celled organisms in the Thallophyte family. All yeast stems from ancestral varieties, but as plants evolved and diversified over time, so did yeast strains.

Most Old World wine depends on ambient, wild yeasts to swoop in during wine fermentation, and just like terroir, these local yeasts floating around in the air can give wine a unique sense of place. On the other hand, more modern wineries will use wild yeast in tandem with commercially available cultured, or inoculated, yeast to have more control over the fermentation process. Luckily, there are over 100 cultured yeasts on the market, so winemakers wield more power than ever before in dictating what strains are introduced to their grape juice.

Yeast can do a lot for wine, affecting ester production, increasing or hindering the vigor of fermentation, or even enhancing a specific grape variety’s core character. Of course, there are some yeasts, like Brettanomyces, that in large quantities can mask the underlying grape’s expression, so a healthy fermentation is a much more delicate, fine-tuned process than one might initially think.

In this episode of “Wine 101,” Keith explores the ins and outs of yeast, serving up a crash course on these single-celled critters and how they play into winemaking. Tune in for more.

Listen Online

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Follow Keith on Instagram @VinePairKeith. Rate and review this podcast wherever you get your podcasts from. It really helps get the word out there.

“Wine 101” was produced, recorded, and edited by yours truly, Keith Beavers, at the VinePair headquarters in New York City. I want to give a big old shout-out to co-founders Adam Teeter and Josh Malin for creating VinePair. Big shout-out to Danielle Grinberg, the art director of VinePair, for creating the most awesome logo for this podcast. Also, Darby Cicci for the theme song. Listen to this. And I want to thank the entire VinePair staff for helping me learn something new every day. See you next week.

E. & J. Gallo Winery is excited to sponsor this episode of VinePair’s “Wine 101.” Gallo always welcomes new friends to wine with an amazingly wide spectrum of favorites, ranging from everyday to luxury and sparkling wine. (Gallo also makes award-winning spirits, but this is a wine podcast.) Whether you are new to wine or an aficionado, Gallo welcomes you to wine. Visit TheBarrelRoom.com today to find your next favorite, where shipping is available.

The article Wine 101: Terms: Yeast appeared first on VinePair.

Given that lengthy aging periods are so fundamental to whiskey production, the Japanese whisky industry presently exists in an uncharacteristic state of flux.

In early 2021, the Japan Spirits & Liqueurs Makers Association (JSLMA) announced a new set of labeling standards dictating what can and can’t be called “Japanese whisky.” For the time being, the guidance remains an agreement among producers rather than law, and brands have a transitional period of up until 2024 to make sure their labels comply.

Provenance and ingredients form the heart of the new standards, which will prevent producers from importing whiskey, bottling it in Japan, then selling it labeled as Japanese whisky. Nor will they be able to sell aged, 100 percent rice distillates as whisky — even though they qualify as such in countries like the United States.

Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with the quality of such distillates, but it’s worth pointing out that these developments are happening in Japan, and that producers appear more focused than ever on transparency.

So what should you expect from Japanese whisky here and now? To begin with, single malts, blended whiskies, and grain whiskies, all arriving with a wide range of age statements (and without). Drinkers can look out for bottles made using a range of cask finishes, too. That might sound a lot like Scotch, and the similarities are numerous, but Japanese whisky holds its own distinct profile and identity — two things that bodies like the JSLMA are working hard to protect.

Now that we’re up to speed on the latest happenings in the category, here are 16 of the best bottles of Japanese whisky, in ascending price order.

(Please note that prices listed here are MSRPs provided by producers and/or importers and distributors. Given both the popularity and relative rarity of Japanese whisky in the U.S. market, actual retail prices may be significantly higher in some cases.)

The Best Japanese Whisky Under $50

Akashi Blended Whisky

From the Eigashima distillery, located in Akashi City, this blend of malt and grain whiskies matures for an undisclosed period in bourbon, shochu, and virgin oak casks. Rich malt notes mix with bright orchard fruit on the nose, with a hint of dried apricots lingering beneath. A subtle peatiness emerges on the palate, which has a good concentration of flavor despite its 40 percent ABV content. This bottle delivers great value for money and mixes a complex, enjoyable highball.

Price: $40
Rating: 91

The Best Japanese Whisky Under $75

Hatozaki Small Batch Pure Malt Whisky

The definition of “pure malt” lies somewhere between blended whiskey and single malt. Produced only from malted barley, it contains distillates from more than one distillery. In this case, the composition is a blend of 5- to 6-year-old single malts aged in bourbon, sherry, and Mizunara casks. Light in color and malt-forward, whiffs of damp earth meet caramel on the nose. The light, spritely palate makes it perfect fodder for highballs with a citrus or apple garnish.

Average price: $57
Rating: 90

Kaiyo The Signature 43% Japanese Whisky

Kaiyo isn’t afraid to experiment with maturation, and all of the brand’s releases spend at least three months at sea aging in Mizunara oak barrels. This bottling spends three years and six years aging on land either side of that voyage, once again in Mizunara casks. The oak lends a perfumed character to the nose, while well-rounded fruit and malt notes set the tone on the palate.

Average price: $65
Rating: 92

The Best Japanese Whisky Under $100

Fuji Japanese Whisky

Not only does Japan’s most famous mountain lend its name to this whisky, snowmelt from the volcano is also used in every stage of the production of this spirit, according to the distillery. Also of note is the blend, which comprises pot distilled 100 percent malt, and American-, Canadian-, and Scottish-style grain whiskies. In the glass, those components translate to a fruity and bright nose, and lively palate with stone fruit at its core and peppery spice around the edges.

Average price: $70
Rating: 92

Tenjaku Whisky Pure Malt

Available in the United States since late 2020, this pure malt is double copper pot distilled and aged for five to six years in heavily charred Kentucky bourbon barrels. Fresh apple aromas are matched by more decadent notes of figs and prunes, leading to a balanced, rounded palate. While its alcohol content is light (40 percent ABV) as far as modern whisky standards go, the palate has a rich weight and brims with luscious caramel notes.

Average price: $80
Rating: 93

Hibiki Suntory Whisky Japanese Harmony

There’s a temptation to lament this whisky’s loss of age statement, but on the other hand, it stands as a testament to the popularity of Japanese whisky. Made using a blend of malt and grain distillates, this bottle lives up to its name and billing, with tropical fruits and flowers defining the nose, and honeyed, malty sweetness coating the palate.

Average price: $94
Rating: 94

Mars ‘The Lucky Cat May & Luna’

The eighth edition of Mars’ “The Lucky Cat” series is dedicated to May and Luna, the felines that call the producer’s Shinshu distillery home. With a blend of malt and grain whiskies, aged in ex-bourbon, sherry, new American oak, and ex-Sakura casks, it opens with a spray of green apple and salty seawater. Lingering underneath is a subtle but distinctive note akin to seaweed salad. None of this prepares for the smoky cloud of peat that arrives on the palate, while bursts of fresh citrus maintain freshness and balance.

Average price: $95
Rating: 92

The Matsui Single Malt Sakura Cask Whisky

This non-age-statement single malt undergoes a double maturation process, with the first period spent in ex-bourbon casks and the second in bourbon barrels whose heads have been replaced with sakura wood. Its light, fruity, and floral aromas point to this still being a very young single malt, but it’s not lacking concentration of flavor, nor will it leave you yearning for more time in barrel.

Average price: $95
Rating: 92

Honkaku Spirits Takamine 8 Year Old Koji Whiskey

This whisky is named after the late 19th-century professor Jokichi Takamine, who patented a whiskey-making process using koji, the traditional Japanese sake brewing technique. Fittingly, this expression utilizes the “malting” microbe prior to fermentation and distillation. Aged in new American oak as well as ex-bourbon casks, it opens with a lively, rum-like molasses aroma. The palate continues in a similarly bright and energetic manner, with stone fruit preserves and peppery spice emerging on the finish.

Average price: $99
Rating: 94

The Best Japanese Whisky Over $100

Maen Japanese Whisky 8-Year-Old

Maen’s 8-year-old release is a blended pure malt that spent the entirety of its aging period in former bourbon casks, leading to a bold, rich profile. Vanilla and wood spices open the nose, followed by peach and apple high tones. The palate is similarly dense, while the introduction of earthy, charred notes brings welcome complexity, though perhaps not quite as much as you’d hope for at this price. Still, it’s a solid sipper and will appeal to American whiskey drinkers looking to branch out.

Average price: $125
Rating: 92

The Hakushu Single Malt Aged 12 Years

This is the youngest and most obtainable expression from Suntory’s Hakushu line. Distilled at the Hakushu facility, nestled in wooded mountains some 100 miles west of Tokyo, this whisky is notable for its delicate smokiness. It has clean, pure orchard and stone fruit aromas, and a savory green tea note on the palate that plays wonderfully with the hint of peat.

Average price: $150
Rating: 95

Nikka Yoichi Single Malt 10-Year-Old

After nearly a decade’s absence, Nikka reintroduced age statements to its Yoichi line earlier this year, perhaps signaling that stocks of aged Japanese whisky are returning to sustainable levels following years of high-profile shortages. While this was originally the “entry level” of the line, Nikka plans to release it annually in limited quantities (presumably) until it can become a permanent expression again. For those lucky enough to snag a bottle, expect an explosion of malt, earth, green and stone fruits on the nose, and a spray of saline. Peat commands the palate with dried fruits and charred wood playing an obedient second fiddle.

Average price: $175
Rating: 94

Kanosuke First Edition 2021 Single Malt

Aged for a little over three years in re-charred American oak casks that previously held rice shochu, this small-batch single malt is the first release from the Komasa Kanosuke distillery, located in Kagoshima on the southern tip of Japan. Aromas of plums and sweet apple preserves set an inviting first impression. The palate follows with rich depth and a range of flavors including malt, earth, fresh fruit, and oak. Its texture is weighty and the finish lengthy. Even if you can’t find a bottle of this release, Kanosuke should be on your radar.

Average price: $199
Rating: 95

Chichibu Ichiro’s Malt & Grain Whisky Limited Edition

The limited-edition version of Ichiro’s Malt & Grain World Whisky, this release blends the distillery’s Japanese single malt with Scotch, Canadian rye, Irish whiskey, and bourbon. Each of the components is at least 10 years old, while some of the world whiskeys range in age from 20 to 40 years, according to the brand. Coming together with seamless grace, the final blend offers deep layers of concentrated flavors and aromas, and complexity. Sweet sherry cask aromas lead to oaky vanilla, leather, and dark chocolate. Its 48 percent ABV content excites the palate without leaving a trace of heat, while peated, earthy notes bring further character to the palate. File this under: contemplative sipper.

Average price: $229
Rating: 95

Mars The Y.A. #01

The first edition from Mars’s brand new “Y.A.” series, this line seeks to showcase the unique influence of aging pure malt on Japan’s Yakushima Island. Primarily matured in bourbon casks, this whisky sings a tune of salty seawater and tropical fruit. It soon follows with a broad range of aromas and flavors, including leather, licorice, and cedar wood. A slightly smoky finish brings further nuance, and at 52 percent ABV, this dram can comfortably handle a few drops of water, bringing new and interesting flavors and aromas to the fore.

Average price: $250
Rating: 96

The Yamazaki Single Malt Tsukuriwake Selection Puncheon 2022

There’s a large chance you may never come across this bottle on liquor store shelves or even on a bar or restaurant’s spirits menu. If you do — and if you can stomach the surely lofty price tag — don’t think twice about getting it. This is one of the most interesting spirits we’ve sampled this year and a must-try for any Japanese whisky aficionado. Released earlier this year, the Tsukuriwake Selection broke down Suntory’s iconic Yamazaki whisky into four essential pillars, each of which received its own dedicated bottling. For us, Puncheon proved the standout of the lot (the others being: Spanish Oak, Peated Malt, and Mizunara Cask). Molasses and intense tropical fruit mix on the nose, which has an overall sweet profile. The palate reins things in with textured tannins, and earth and malt notes. Special drams like this really don’t come around very often.

Average price: $450
Rating: 97

FAQs

How do I find affordable Japanese whisky?

For recommendations for great, affordable bottles of Japanese whisky, check out these tips from the experts.

How did Japanese whisky become so popular?

The availability of beloved brands Suntory and Nikka, as well as the Japanese highball trend, may be to thank for Japanese whisky’s rise to popularity.

VinePair’s Tasting Methodology: How We Rate

Throughout the year, VinePair conducts numerous tastings for our popular Buy This Booze column and wine and spirits reviews. Our mission is to offer a clear, reliable source of information for drinkers, providing an overview applicable to day-to-day buying and drinking.

In alignment with our reviews mission, we believe in purposefully tasting all products as our readers typically would, with full knowledge of the producer, the region, and — importantly — the price. Tastings are therefore not typically conducted blind.

For Buy This Booze roundups, we usually include a maximum of one expression per brand, though we do allow multiple products from the same production facility (i.e., released under different labels). For this reason, you may note that multiple Suntory and Mars releases feature on this list.

We considered a number of different factors before finalizing this list of the best Japanese whiskies. Our overall aim was to showcase multiple styles at a range of price points. Given how rare and expensive Japanese whisky has become in recent years, the bottles included in this list are generally harder to come by and more expensive than we might recommend for other spirits categories. Nevertheless, we are confident that every bottle in this roundup delivers on flavor, balance, depth, and complexity for each of their respective price points (relative to the current market).

The article The 16 Best Japanese Whiskies for 2023 appeared first on VinePair.

Beer is ubiquitous in American culture, particularly the beloved and reliable macro-brews that line store shelves and fill the taps at every local watering hole. When faced with the typical options in the beer aisle or at the bar, everyone has their go-to brand. But which are the most popular across the U.S.?

The international market and data analytics website YouGov tackled this very question by aggregating the likability ratings on a list of popular beers. Each rating was calculated using the number of nationally surveyed individuals who noted their feelings toward the particular beer as “positive.” These ratings were then placed in comparison with others on the list to come up with a final ranking.

While Modelo currently tops the charts for off-premise sales in the U.S., Guinness snagged the number one spot based on likeability — it appears the smooth Irish stout has a pretty universal, timeless appeal.

Read on to discover the 25 beers Americans love the most, according to YouGov’s findings, as of Nov., 2023:

1. Guinness – Popularity Rating 56%
2. Samuel Adams – Popularity Rating 52%
3. Heineken – Popularity Rating 48%
4. Corona – 48%
5. Blue Moon – Popularity Rating 47%
6. Corona Extra – 46%
7. Dos Equis – 43%
8. Corona Light – 43%
9. Stella Artois – 42%
10. Michelob Ultra – 42%
11. Coors Light – 42%
12. Coors – 41%
13. Miller – 41%
14. Modelo – 41%
15. Budweiser – 41%
16. Miller Genuine Draft – 39%
17. Miller High Life – 38%
18. Pabst Blue Ribbon – 38%
19. Modelo Especial – 37%
20. Heineken Light – 36%
21. Bud Light – 36%
22. Miller Lite – 36%
23. Fat Tire – 35%
24. Yuengling – 35%
25. Negra Modelo – 35%

The article The 25 Most Popular Beers in America, According to YouGov appeared first on VinePair.

My parents divorced when I was five years old, so I didn’t get to have the most intimate relationship with my Haitian culture for most of my adolescent years. Now that I’m older and have had the ability to reconnect with my paternal side, I’ve come to experience some of the most delicious facets of the Haitian holiday season. One of those is Independence Day pumpkin soup, and another is cremas.

What is cremas? I like to describe it as a Haitian Bailey’s to those who are unfamiliar, but it’s so much more than that. The spiced cream-based liquor, typically served during times of celebration, is flavored with some of Caribbean cuisine’s most iconic ingredients: nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, vanilla, and hand-grated coconut. Texturally, cremas is always smooth and rich, but can vary in thickness depending on the maker’s preference.

“In Haiti, cremas is something that is passed down from generation to generation,” said Myriam Jean-Baptiste, CEO and co-founder of cremas-inspired liqueur brand LS Cream Liqueur. She and her husband Steven Charles are both Haitian, so they have deep ties to the beverage. “It’s something that we grew up with, and there’s always a homemade bottle during the holidays,” she says.

At its root, cremas isn’t technically specific to Haiti. Most nations in the Caribbean have their own version of cream-based liquor, many of which are also consumed during the holiday season.

“Puerto Rico has Coquito, Jamaica has rum cream, Haitians have cremas, Venezuelans have a version called ponche crema,” Jean-Baptiste says. While the base flavors in cremas remain the same across Haiti, there are some regionally specific additions that those who want to make cremas can add. Many recipes involve infusing a mix of creams and milks with aromatics and spices on a stovetop or combining everything in a blender. After the ingredients are integrated — and chilled, depending if you used the stove or not — you can add your spirit of choice, but clairin (a sugar cane-based distilled alcohol) or Barbancourt rum are traditional.

“Some people put dried raisins in their cremas, or pistachios, or even mangoes. It is mostly based on your personal taste, though,” Jean-Baptiste says. Because every homemade bottle of cremas is so individual, some families can have multiple cremas recipes, which can lead to friendly competition during the holidays — not unlike Italian grandmothers arguing over whose sauce is the sauce, or the never-ending wars over the superior jollof rice.

For LS Cream Liqueur’s founders, what started out as a gift for holiday parties eventually grew into a full-scale business after they were asked by numerous friends and acquaintances for bottles of cremas. When it came time to decide which family recipe to run with and mass-produce as LS Cream’s flagship, the founders chose Steven’s grandmother’s iteration.

“Her daughters [Steven’s aunts] were passing their mother’s recipe around during the holidays. and we decided to use that recipe to share a little piece of our heritage with the world,” Jean-Baptiste says. While traditional cremas is generally thicker and usually consumed on its own, LS Cream Liqueur is made with a looser texture so it can be mixed into cocktails.

So, if you’re looking for something to spice up your holiday menu or want to switch out your standard eggnog this holiday season, give cremas a try.

The article Meet Cremas, the Haitian Answer to Eggnog appeared first on VinePair.

The state of California maintains a reputation for being a leader in legal progressiveness. This is not always viewed as flattery; a chunk of the country’s population will use this distinction to justify their belief that the Golden State will always be the land of fruits and nuts. (My rebuttal as a Californian: whatever). Regardless of your opinion of the coastal behemoth, the state’s standing for approving innovative laws that aim to reform and improve is a strong if not essential part of its  persona. But as forward-thinking as California can be, instances of regressive laws pepper its historical ledger. This is certainly true when it comes to laws concerning drinking. This isn’t surprising, of course — every state has booze-related legal skeletons in its closet, including ones that still have life in their bones. Yet one mandate particularly stands out in its preposterousness: From 1947 to 1971, the Golden State prohibited women from bartending.

The since-stricken law still generates shock value, and not because it was an isolated incident; other states and cities had similar bans during that time frame. But this is California we’re talking about. This backwards law seems incomprehensible given the state’s legal leanings, especially from a contemporary viewpoint. It’s also notable that we’re only 52 years removed from the ban’s lifting: Just a year after the Beatles broke up and a year before the Watergate break-in isn’t exactly ancient history. The third prong of this misogynistic trident? According to Janette Hunt, author of the 2016 book “Drink Like a Woman,” California was the last state in the union to lift this kind of embargo.

These factors make the ban fascinating, but the process of overturning it is equally remarkable. This is mainly due to the story’s main players: the California Supreme Court, a savvy feminist clerk, and a bar whose legal name hid a dirty little secret.

The Beginning

The ban on women tending bar wasn’t some weird, archaic remnant from Prohibition’s repeal. It’s actually far more insulting. In the years directly following the 21st Amendment’s passing, not all bars allowed women to patronize their venues, and those that did rarely hired female barkeeps. This changed during World War II: Women stepped up and filled in behind the stick for the men who left to fight overseas, which earned them the collective nickname Bessie the Bartender in the process. When the boys came back, however, the women were unceremoniously 86’d for reasons that read today as gross displays of misogyny: Bartending was a man’s job; women weren’t emotionally suited for bartending; being around liquor could turn them into immoral, boozy floozies.

This movement came to a head between 1945 and 1948. On May 1, 1945, three months before World War II officially ended, Michigan enacted a law banning women from bartending unless they owned the bar or were married to the bar owner. A group of women led by Michigan bar owner Valentine Goesaert filed a lawsuit against the statute in 1947, and the case, Goesaert v. Cleary, made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court one year later. The lawsuit was struck down by a 6–3 vote. If a state wanted to ban women behind the stick, the feds weren’t going to interfere.

California issued a similar law with the same parameters as Michigan’s in 1947. While Michigan came to its senses and overturned the law in 1955, California let its ban linger until the early 1970s, when the state was hit with a lawsuit of its own.

The Unlikely Hero

The official name of the lawsuit seeking to overturn California’s ban on women bartenders was Sail’er Inn, Inc. v. Kirby. This title makes it sound like an establishment called Sail’er Inn filed suit, which may conjure up images of a hotel with nautical-themed rooms or a lobby festooned with pirate ephemera. While Sail’er Inn technically was the plaintiff, its name on the paperwork was simply the corporate name registered with California. Its DBA (a.k.a. doing business as) name was The Classic Cat. It was not a hotel.

The Classic Cat was a West Hollywood topless bar that opened in 1965. It quickly earned a reputation as a celebrity hangout, attracting the likes of Jim Morrison, Dick Van Dyke, Charlton Heston, and Adam West. It wasn’t just a boy’s club, either — Lana Turner also popped in on occasion. Its logo featured a tuxedoed tiger with a nondescript bottle of booze in one hand and a presumably doffed bra in the other.

There were two reasons why The Classic Cat became the unlikely genesis of an important piece of equality-driven legislation: money and survival. After the space opened, owner Alan Wells decided that he could generate a better profit if the performers made drinks topless after they finished their routines. This attracted the “in” crowd and famous folks, but it also attracted the attention of Edward Kirby, the director of California’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC). As an official determined to clean up any signs of lewdness in the state’s bar scene, he naturally found The Classic Cat’s topless bartender policy scandalous, and used the state ban on women bartenders to shut down the bar. Fearing a potential loss of business, Wells filed suit to remove Kirby’s legal restraint.

Because The Classic Cat’s business model involved semi-naked dancers serving drinks, the California Supreme Court was prepared to toss the case into oblivion. That was before Wendy Webster Williams, a feminist clerk new to the state’s highest court, got involved. Instead of seeing the case as some sleazy establishment trying to save its assets, she recognized it as an opportunity to jettison a law that unjustly blocked gender equality. She successfully persuaded the court to hear her case. She also recognized that the case initially filed by The Sail’er Inn made lousy arguments, so she assembled a team of female law students and a female law professor to write an amicus brief that vastly improved their arguments. The Sail’er Inn’s lawyers used the brief to successfully argue that the female bartender ban was a direct violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which specifically barred discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, and national origin. Upon hearing the case, the Supreme Court struck the ban down, calling the mandate “repugnant” in a statement that was partially written by Williams herself. The court’s lifting of the ban didn’t come without a catch: It took away Wells’s gimmick by adding a provision banning women from tending bar topless — a tiny sacrifice for the greater good.

The Aftermath

California nixing its female bartending ban was a watershed moment for the hospitality industry. In 1971, roughly 21 percent of American bartenders were women. By the end of the decade, this percentage more than doubled to 44 percent. Today, it’s estimated that some 60 percent of those tending bar are women. Some may argue that this growth is a case of correlation implying causation, particularly since the 1970s was such a paradigm-shifting decade for women’s rights. On the other hand, roughly 20 million people lived in California in 1971, and that number is near 40 million today. It’s likely that the state played a significant role in boosting that percentage on its own.

Williams went on to do significant work in gender and law throughout her career. She was instrumental in drafting the seminal Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, which prohibited businesses of 15 or more employees from discriminating against women due to pregnancy or other pregnancy or childbirth-related conditions. She also became good friends with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg during her career.

The Classic Cat shuttered sometime in the late 1970s. It was reborn in March 2020, right as the world was thrust into Covid hell. It stands next door to its original location, which is now a Chase Bank. 2.0’s interior is relentlessly modern and bright, and everyone working there keeps their shirts on, but they don’t shy away from their past shenanigans — their website features a quote from now-defunct blog The Great Hollywood Hangover that boasts the bar was “the largest, most luxurious topless club of them all.”

One thing is missing from the website, though. It makes no reference to The Classic Cat’s role in making it legal for California women to bartend. If you visit the venue but don’t know about its place in history, the restaurant is just a pretty supper club in WeHo that was resurrected from its swinging-’60s heyday. But if you do know, it’s so much more. It’s a symbol of a time when California, a state so known for pushing innovative laws forward, once held long and fast to a statute that was abhorrently backward.

*Image retrieved from Jacob Lund – stock.adobe.com

The article How a Topless Bar Helped End California’s Ban on Women Bartending appeared first on VinePair.

Dust off those boots, grab your wax, and secure your mountain pass because ski season is finally back. Stretching from November to April, it offers endless opportunities for exploration all across the globe. But no matter how satisfying it can be to catch the first lift of the day and head down the slopes on fresh snow, every winter sports enthusiast knows that the best part of the day comes once the skis have been shed.

That’s right, we’re talking about après-ski. The term, French for “after ski,” refers to a tradition that’s become an integral part of mountain culture and typically entails a round (or four) of drinks and boisterous singing. Perhaps the best part about après? You don’t actually have to ski or snowboard to participate, and it provides the perfect opportunity to meet up with others on your trip who may not have hit the slopes themselves.

If you’re headed to your first après celebration this winter, you’re sure to see some of the beloved cold-weather classics from the list below on the lodge’s menu. But for some of the more experienced après aficionados, some of this list’s more creative cocktails may help you shake this season up.

From the ubiquitous Hot Toddy to under-the-radar libations containing European winter staple Jägermeister, read on for 12 of the best cocktails for après-ski.

The Hot Toddy

Restorative and steamy, there’s perhaps no better cocktail than the Hot Toddy for warming up quickly after a day spent in the snow. The drink, which combines whiskey, honey, lemon juice, and hot water, soothes the soul with its boozy but simple flavor profile. Plus, given its potential to ward off any seasonal sickness, sipping one post-slope may help you return to the lifts the next day without a stuffy nose.

The Irish Coffee

Winter sports can get tiring fast, so a caffeine kick is often necessary to ensure you make it to dinnertime. For those in a slump, an Irish Coffee is the ideal pick-me-up. Arguably the most famous Irish Coffee recipe outside Ireland comes to us from NYC’s The Dead Rabbit, and combines freshly brewed Sumatra coffee with Irish whiskey and a dash of rich Demerara syrup. Topped with a heaping portion of whipped cream, the Irish Coffee is a real treat, and the perfect reward for a hard day’s work.

Mulled Wine

If your friends’ festivities are held outside, you’ll understand the importance of having a hot beverage in your hands. When you’re not in the mood for something spirituous, Mulled Wine is a great alternative. Made by heating dry red wine and infusing it with sugar, oranges, and winter spices like cinnamon and clove, Mulled Wine is served in ski lodges far and wide, though it’s just as easy to make at home for festivities of your own.

The Hot Spiced Cider

Warm, rich, and comforting, it’s hard to think of a more quintessential winter cocktail than Hot Apple Cider. This recipe, which comes from the Sanderling Resort in Duck, N.C., employs cinnamon-infused brandy as the base for an additional layer of fiery spice.

Aperol Spritz

We know what you’re thinking. An Aperol Spritz? In the middle of winter? But believe it or not, the sparkling aperitif is a beloved après-ski tradition, especially in its country of origin. The Spritz’s low ABV and bubbly brightness make it the perfect libation for enjoying after a day strapped on skis. And when set against the snow, the cocktail’s vibrant orange hue practically begs you to unwind with a glass in hand and admire the view.

The Tom and Jerry

Consider whipping up a batch of Tom and Jerry to serve to your chilly nearest and dearest. Similar to eggnog but made without heavy cream, the Tom and Jerry offers a succulent, creamy texture and luscious notes of baking spices and warm milk. Spiked with both brandy and dark rum, the indulgent concoction is comforting and perfect for cozying up with next to a roaring fireplace if raucous parties aren’t your style.

The Hot Buttered Rum

There’s nothing quite like curling your frozen fingers around a steaming mug at the end of a long day out in the cold, but it’s made even better when the mug contains Hot Buttered Rum. The velvety cocktail offers sweet vanilla and baking spice flavors, which are best paired with rowdy dancing and oompah music.

The Espresso Martini

If you’re headed to a massive party after the last run of the day, there’s absolutely no time to let sleepiness set it. That’s where the Espresso Martini comes in. Beloved for its ability to wake you up and get the party rolling, the espresso and vodka build is perfect for tossing back to stay alert.

The Negroni

Bitter and boozy, the Negroni and its herbaceous flavors warm you from within. Made with equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth, the cocktail is as easy to make as it is to enjoy, which can help keep the good vibes rolling into the night. Skiing in France? Make a White Negroni by swapping out Campari for Suze, a bitter liqueur made from gentian roots harvested from the French Alps and Pyrenees mountains. If gin isn’t your spirit of choice, swap it out for bourbon for a Boulevardier.

The Penicillin

One of the rare classic cocktails featuring Scotch as its base, the Penicillin is ideal for toasting with at the end of a successful ski day. Zippy flavors like ginger and lemon juice brighten up the smoky spirit, making it a balanced choice for enjoying at a packed lodge party or at home close to the radiator.

The Death Flip

Jägermeister shots can be controversial, and while we’re all for throwing back a shot where appropriate, we prefer our Jäger shaken into cocktails. The German digestif shines in the Death Flip, where it’s combined with tequila, yellow Chartreuse, simple syrup, and a whole egg for a creamy cocktail reminiscent of gingerbread cookies.

The Bloody Mary

A tried-and-true combination of savory tomato juice, vodka, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce, the Bloody Mary is a brunch cocktail that’s just as suited for after-ski celebrations. The spicy concoction is packed with electrolytes, potassium, sodium, and vitamin C, perfect for replenishing after a day of sweating on the mountain. If you’re skiing up north in Canada, swap out the tomato juice for Clamato to make a Bloody Caesar, our northerly neighbor’s official national cocktail.

The article The 12 Best Après-Ski Cocktails appeared first on VinePair.

A flurry of microbreweries and brewpubs passed through Manhattan in the ‘80s and ‘90s, leaving only three bonafide brewing operations in the Big Apple by the turn of the century. The general consensus was that opening a brewery in NYC was too expensive and demanded too much space. However, that notion was quickly debunked when Sixpoint, Finback, Singlecut, and a handful of other craft breweries started popping up, though admittedly in the outer boroughs like Brooklyn and Queens. Then, in 2012 after a certain New York governor signed a bill that would rectify long-standing bogus laws around brewing in the Empire State, the floodgates opened for breweries to set up shop across New York with relative legal ease.

At the time, bitter West Coast IPAs were all the rage, but the fruit-forward hazy IPA trend was already trickling down from the greater Northeast, courtesy of breweries such as the Alchemist, Hill Farmstead, and Tree House Brewing Company.

In 2014, Other Half Brewing opened its doors. The once-humble operation in Red Hook, Brooklyn, located across the street from a McDonald’s under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, started brewing these tropical, hoppy, soft-on-the-palate IPAs that were arguably more approachable than their West Coast counterparts. NYC’s beer nerds — and finance bros — took notice, and when Other Half started rolling out cans later that year, the hype got real. But since Other Half only sold cans directly out of its brick and mortar until 2020, the only way to obtain a 4-pack was to suffer through the Disney World-caliber lines that would form outside the brewery on the morning of each release.

While there were a few services that existed at the time where one could pay another poor soul to wait in the Other Half line on their behalf, there was no real quick and easy way to snag these coveted beers. On top of being more delicious and a bit more expensive than most run-of–the-mill brews, the scarcity of early Other Half cans made them the ultimate flex beverage for any yuppie with a six-digit income.

Today on “Taplines,” Dave Infante is joined by longtime beverage alcohol journalist, VinePair writer at large, and author of the forthcoming book “Dusty Booze,” Aaron Goldfarb, to discuss Other Half Brewing Company’s meteoric rise. Having found himself in the line that formed outside the brewery on release days, Aaron witnessed firsthand the shift in the Brooklyn brewery’s clientele and cachet as New York’s finance bros became enthralled by the drinkability, viability, and most importantly, scarcity of the brewery’s liquid wares. Tune in for more.

Listen Online

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Watch on Youtube

The article Taplines: How Finance Bros Discovered Hazy IPAs appeared first on VinePair.