by Heather Stewart Feldman In Sonoma County wine country, Spirit Works Distillery is laboring over something quite different to sip on. Dreaming of working with their hands, making a product that was authentic and sustainable, husband and…
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Launched in 2012, the company name Cecil & Merl honors the two “sweet-tooth” patriarchs of the founders’—Deborah Williamson and Bryan Calvert—families. Together, Williamson and Calvert began their business with rustic cheesecakes—lemon ricotta, mango, dulce de leche and…
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Sponsored content: For the summer season, a Vesper cocktail—kin to the classic martini—provides enough potent refreshment to keep the dog days away. Born of the imagination that brought James Bond into the world, the Vesper pairs vodka with gin. Both…
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We tour the LA distillery home to the world’s largest collection of organic spirits
Cocktail enthusiasts gave a collective cheer when word got out that GreenBar Collective—the LA-based brand known for its collection of top-notch organic licquors and sustainably-crafted spirits—was moving into bigger digs. With more space to accommodate its growing menu of infused vodkas, complex gins and spiced rums (the only exception…
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Party games that go from summer to fall with Tanqueray
Advertorial content: Nothing livens up the night like a dash of friendly competition. The sophisticated host will know how to keep party guests on their toes, so in that vein Cool Hunting has picked a handful of ace party games for your next gathering. Played well with a Tanqueray cocktail…
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Set the tone for an evening of well designed drinks in a well designed space
Advertorial content: The most memorable summer nights involve good company and good drinks in a properly outfitted setting to match. To set the mood for winding up or down with Tanqueray, Cool Hunting has selected seven unique pieces for a convivial, comfortable and impeccably designed outdoor party to keep the…
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Brooklyn bartender Sam Anderson whips up summer in a glass with Tanqueray
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In the spirit of winding up or down with Tanqueray this summer, we enlisted Brooklyn-based bartender Sam Anderson to concoct the ideal drink to kick off the night.
“Structurally, the Vanishing Point is in line with a classic gin gimlet—really refreshing—with elements of the Ramos gin fizz,” says Anderson of the off-menu tipple he serves to his discerning regulars. Incorporating a sophisticated mix of special ingredients like sea salt (“it enhances the refreshing quality of a drink, and tends to be totally overlooked in the cocktail palette”) and cinnamon (“it’s one of the less forward botanicals in gin”) with the acidity of the citrus, Anderson’s drink conjures up summer in a glass. “Something strange happens to the texture,” he says, likening it to ice cream, but infinitely lighter. Living up to its name, the ultra-fresh beverage had us ready to let go for the night at first sip.
1/4 oz lemon juice
1/4 oz lime juice
1/2 oz cinnamon-vanilla bean syrup
1 1/4 oz Tanqueray® London Dry Gin
A dash of orange blossom water
A pinch of sea salt
Shake all ingredients and serve on the rocks with a twist of lemon and grated cinnamon. For cinnamon-vanilla bean syrup, peel vanilla bean from inside the stalk. Crush 3 cinnamon sticks with mortar & pestle. Bring 2 cups water and 2 cups sugar to boil and add cinnamon and vanilla. Simmer for 5 minutes and store for 24 hours. Strain and bottle (Can be kept refrigerated for 2 weeks).
PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY.
TANQUERAY London Dry Gin. 100% Grain Neutral Spirits. 47.3% Alc/Vol. ©2012 Imported by Charles Tanqueray & Co., Norwalk, CT.
The newest addition to the California wine merchant’s exclusive collection of specially bottled spirits
When David Driscoll of K&L Wine Merchants happened upon an experimental barrel of gin at Alameda, CA-based distillery St. George, one sip prompted a special request to add it to the Faultline series, a small collection of spirits bottled exclusively for the liquor retailer.
Driscoll teamed up with St. George’s Dave Smith and Lance Winters to bring to K&L the special gin, which is characterized by the addition of a few macerated ingredients and some extra filtering. The collaboration also led to the new Faultine Gin label on the run’s 900 bottles. The imagery on the label is inspired by vintage botanical textbooks drawings and features a layout similar to a vintage certificate or bank note.
Faultline Gin stays with the herbaceous flavor profile of St. George gins, though not as overtly botanical as Botanivore and not as savory as the Mt. Tam. Driscoll notes the gin’s harmonious flavor in a well-mixed martini, giving credit to St. George distiller Dave Smith for this latest iteration of the classic spirit.
“Driscoll has the nasty little habit of skulking around distilleries with a crazy straw,” says Winters. “He’s been a great supporter of what we do at St. George. While we were in the process of developing our St. George gins—Botanivore, Terroir, and Dry Rye Gin—Dave would come by the distillery and sample to see how things were coming along. It was on one of these visits that he fell in love with one of the gins that we made to test out some of the botanicals and asked if there might be away to convince us to bottle it for K&L.”
The name Faultine evolved from the desire to connect K&L’s northern and the southern California stores. The K&L spirits team carefully selects each spirit to offer their customers the unique opportunity to taste some their rare discoveries.
The St. George gin comes as the third Faultline limited release by K&L, following a Little Mill 21-year-old single malt found in a warehouse on Islay and a Paul Marie & Fils cognac.
Faultline Gin 750ml is now available exclusively at K&L for $35. Keep an eye out for the next Faultline, a 20-year-old Cragenmore single malt, that will be available soon.
Design Bridge redesigns the bottle, bringing back a touch of heritage
Next time you reach for Plymouth Gin, you’ll notice their newly redesigned bottle. A welcomed transformation from the tall, square-shaped vessel with a navy blue and silver color scheme to a rounded antique-style shape and distinctive oval label—the trademark Mayflower stamp remains—the new bottle still houses the same gin made in the same single Victorian copper still since 1793.
When Pernod Ricard asked Design Bridge to redesign the Plymouth Gin bottle, their team delved into the company’s archives for inspiration. The goal: to create a bottle that would not only stand out on the shelf behind a bar, but also tell the story of the spirit in an authentic way. This process led them to focus on Plymouth’s rich heritage and to codify a thematic idea for the project, “Looking Back to Look Forward”.
According to the historical record, the pilgrim fathers spent their last night in the Black Friars Distillery where Plymouth later began production in the 18th century. With this in mind, Design Bridge made the Mayflower more prominent on the new label.
Below the ship reads the caption, “In 1620 The Mayflower set sail from Plymouth on a journey of hope and discovery,” the additional focus taking the bottle design closer to earlier versions of the logo. Design Bridge spared no detail, creating a copper cap to depict Plymouth’s original 1793 gin still, while the uneven glass bottle shape is meant to look like it fell out of the back pocket of a 19th century sailor.
Plymouth Gin is available in its new bottle online as well as liquor stores throughout the world for prices starting around $33. Learn more about Plymouth Gin in our video tour of the 214-year-old facility with master distiller Sean Harrison.
Organic potato vodka, locally malted whiskey and G&T syrups brewed in British Columbia
On a recent trip to Whistler, we had the opportunity to sample the vodka from Pemberton Distillery, a fledgling outfit nestled in the Pemberton Valley of British Columbia. Within their unassuming walls, the distillery employs copper stills to create a line of locally sourced, organic liquors.
Designed as a sipping spirit, Schramm Vodka has a deliciously clean flavor followed by a distinctive finish. Pemberton’s potatoes are free from herbicides, long-life chemicals and fertilizers, earning organic certification from the B.C. Pacific Agricultural Society. The distillery also produces syrups to spice up gin & tonic cocktails and vanilla extract made from the house vodka.
Schramm Gin is a potato gin created in handcrafted, small-batch runs with only eight botanical flavors added during the distillation process. Pemberton is also adding a whiskey to their line when it matures in 2013, which will be made from organic barley that’s malted in B.C. and then aged in bourbon casks.
Spirits from Pemberton Distillery sell online and from select distributors in B.C.
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