The Paris Liquor Store est une nouvelle adresse de la capitale française pensée pour tous les amateurs d’alcools « tendance ». Avec une direction artistique très réussie réalisée par Ninjaz, ces créations typographiques à la craie et au posca sont à découvrir en images dans la suite.
When it comes to whiskey, experimentation should be done with caution. There’s a reason the rules are in place, but great things can come from coloring outside the lines. Distiller Lincoln Henderson of Louisville Distilling Company…
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We ate and drank the best of 2012 and plan to do the same in 2013. This is the heyday of the gourmand, with everyone everywhere experimenting with ingredients and looking to explore the final reaches of the food-obsessed revolution. Below you’ll find pairings of our favorite food and drink…
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Spirit and cocktails enthusiasts gathered downtown at LA’s GreenBar Collective recently to sample their latest offering, Slow Hand White Whiskey. Made from three organic grains (oats, malt and spelt), this new variety is meant to drink immediately rather than being barreled and aged. Slow Hand is one of many…
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Exceptionally rare forty-two-year-old whisky in an ultra-luxe case
Berry Bros. & Rudd has unveiled 179 bottles of the aptly titled Glenrothes Extraordinary Cask, with 50 bottles imported to the US by Anchor Distilling Company. Bottled in a hand-blown lead crystal decanter created at Atlantis Crystal in Portugal, mounted on a Scottish Oak plinth and housed in a…
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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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Triple sec redeemed in a 19th-century recipe
That electric blue liqueur that vacation-goers slurp from umbrella-topped hurricane glasses may be called curaçao, but the real stuff—the curaçao of the 19th century—is much more cigar parlor than poolside bar. Originally made from Laraha, a citrus derived from Valencia oranges that were brought to the island of Curaçao by the Spanish, the liqueur was a bar staple in the early days of the cocktail. Noted for its dry taste and bitter finish, the curaçao of yesteryear is a far cry from our modern incarnation.
The decline of the drink into a saccharine spirit has not gone unnoticed by bartenders. Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao marks an attempt to restore the drink to its spicy and slightly bitter roots—in the process delighting cocktail enthusiasts who have lamented curaçao’s unfortunate past. In making their Dry Curaçao, Pierre Ferrand proprietor Alexandre Gabriel consulted spirit historian David Wondrich with the hope of reintroducing this essential ingredient to the cocktail world.
The taste experience of Pierre Ferrand’s version is more brandy than triple sec—no surprise, since the bitter orange essence is blended with the distiller’s own cognac. After a few avant-garde bars picked up on the spirit as a wonderfully complex cocktail addition, the elixir is now available for purchase. The fact that Pierre Ferrand’s initial run sold out almost immediately speaks to the quality behind the intrigue. As if the story and taste weren’t enough, the curaçao looks stunning on the shelf, with a floral label emblazoned with banners and cherubim, elegantly set on the bottle’s squared edge.
Pick up a bottle in the US at Detroit-based Binny’s, Grand Wine Cellar or contact Pierre Ferrand for a local distributor.
Images by James Thorne
A 16 year single malt scotch whisky strong enough to take down a Norse god
Taking inspiration in the distinctly Nordic heritage and unforgiving climate of the Orkney Islands where the celebrated Highland Park distillery stands, the recently launched Thor single malt scotch whisky is as powerful as the Norse god for which it’s named. As the first release from the much anticipated Valhalla Collection, the 16 year single malt is characterized by a “forceful” nose dominated by “an explosion of aromatic smoke”. Once past these initial notes of gingerbread, cinnamon and vanilla, the dry flavors give way to a sweet body that settles nicely on the palette, making Thor one of the more memorable spirits we’ve sipped recently.
Bottled at 52.1% abv—nearly 9% stronger than the highly sought-after Highland Park 18—the concentrated Thor is unabashedly flavorful when enjoyed neat and responds well to a splash of water, mellowing the peaty bite to a more mortal level. While some purists may scoff at the idea, Thor has the integrity to withstand a bit of dilution while remaining strong enough to put a bit of hair on your chest.
The truly elemental spirit is an absolutely delicious departure for Highland Park, and with only 1,500 bottles being released Stateside—23,000 worldwide—it’s sure to create quite a stir. Visit Highland Park online to purchase directly for $200 a bottle.
Heritage Irish potato spirit from a one-man distillery
Resurrecting a rare Irish spirit in the Bay Area is no easy feat, and distiller Salvatore Cimino isn’t the most likely candidate either. The third-generation distiller is of Sicilian descent, and decided to try creating the potato-based “poitín” (pot-cheen) at the behest of a friend who presented him with a heritage recipe. Having experienced some success with a duo of Prohibition-era rye whiskeys, Cimino created “Signature Poitín” as part of his one-man distilling operation 1512 Spirits. His methods bring a new meaning to the phrase “hand-crafted”, overseeing the entire process in a 700-square-foot space.
A barber by day, Cimino named the distillery 1512 after his shop, working on his spirits during off-hours. Using 95% potatoes, Cimino begins by juicing the spuds and cooking the liquid over a direct flame. He then adds hand-milled barley and cooks his mash, leaving it to ferment for three or four days. The mixture is separated by hand and double-distilled before it is proofed at 104. The process recalls the heritage of Irish farmers who would make this spirit with local materials and resources. While the Signature Poitín is high effort and low yield, Cimino is sticking to his artisanal guns.
Poitín—Irish Gaelic for “small pot”—isn’t a delicate spirit. The flavor is robust, heavy on potato with floral notes thrown in between. While some will find it too raw and one-dimensional, others will appreciate the honesty of flavor that comes through, which is similar to that of a single-varietal vodka. Fans of the poitín enjoy it in a hot toddy, warm it up to expose the floral flavors or drink it neat alongside oysters. The drink is a true eau de vie—more likely to wake you up after a meal than tuck you in for bed.
The next release from 1512 Spirits will feature a rare wheat whiskey, which has been aged in ex-rye barrels. With batches that are limited to around 85 bottles, the level of craft goes well beyond single-barrel whiskeys. 1512 Spirits’ Signature Poitín can be found at select retailers and online through Cask Spirits.
Organic liquor blending tradition and innovation
It’s not a new product, but for the first time Art in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction’s signature liquor, Root, is available outside of creator Steve Grasse’s home state of Pennsylvania. Art in The Age, which hosts a retail store in Philadelphia, is a brand named after Walter Benjamin’s landmark 1936 essay, “Art In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction,” the themes of which Grasse tried to incorporate into everything he produces, “Emphasizing a pre-industrial ethos, before mass production turned everything crappy”, he says.
As a man who prefers gin martinis or straight whisky over flavored liquors, Root surprised me with its layered, complex flavor. It does make everything taste like root beer, and the fact is if you don’t like sugary things you won’t like Root. It’s sweet—in fact I joke that it is what a 14-year-old would drink to get drunk—but it is also 80 proof, old-timey, and delicious.
Grasse, a principal of the creative agency Quaker City Mercantile, is the creator of Hendrick’s Gin and Sailor Jerry rum. After he sold those brands to William Grant and Sons (they own Glenfiddich and Stoli, and are now partners in Quaker City Mercantile) in 2006, he was looking to challenge himself. “I wanted to come up with something that doesn’t fit into any category and is in the plainest possible bottle. I wanted to purposely handicap myself,” says Grasse.
What he developed was Root. Using American herbs, including anise, birch bark, cloves, spearmint and cardamom, he distilled a certified organic spirit based on root tea, the recipe for which goes back to the 1700s. “I thought it would be interesting to create something that was Authentically American,” he says.
“I read about root tea and how it was a small beer, that’s a beer with low alcohol content,” he says. “Charles Hires was the one who took the alcohol out of root tea and rechristened it ‘root beer’. I was inspired by the root tea story. I decided to make it way more alcoholic, but use those same ingredients.” But the goal was also to create something personal – growing up in Pennsylvania Dutch country, Grasse had always loved root beer. “Spirits tend to have these wild stories of origin based on exotic places. Some of the weirdest, most exotic people I know live in Lancaster county.”
His distributors were skeptical. “They said, ‘No one will buy this. No one will find it in the store. It doesn’t taste like anything out there.’ I told them, ‘People will discover it.’ The fact that it doesn’t taste like anything else will be the story.”
Instead of paying bars and bartenders to push the stuff, Grasse went grassroots. He placed Root at farmer’s markets, where he would lay out the herbs for people to smell, and have samples in which people could dip bread to try it. He sponsored a chili cook-off and worked with the Pennsylvania Historical Society. “I said, ‘I want the fat civil war enthusiast who plows through a bottle of scotch a day to love it. And they will. They’ll take it to their dinner parties and they’ll talk about it’,” says Grasse. He also put all his focus on getting the stuff into liquor stores, not bars. “Usually a brand is launched entirely in the bars, with mixologists,” he says. “The industry is ripe to be fucked with. It’s like payola. They get the bartenders in their pocket.”
His efforts seem to have paid off. Root is spreading throughout the US, and Grasse has since rolled out Snap, a ginger liquor, Rhuby, based on rhubarb, and Spodee, a high-alcohol, herbed wine distributed in milk bottles. For Grasse, a history buff, the joy is in producing something traditional, and American, but also in doing something truly different, and messing with the system.
“How many more vodkas or rye whiskeys can there be on the market?” he asks. “New vodkas have become parodies of themselves.”
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
