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Digest: San Francisco Chronicle Wine Digest and 96 Hours section, Friday, September 29, 2006 American dream, Sonoma style: Ulises Valdez goes from pruning vines to making his own wines, Linda Murphy Harvest Report: Last year's big crop causes this year's grape glut, Dan Berger Cocktailian: Drink an apple a day to keep the doctor away, Gary Regan Recipe:Autumn Apple Adapted from a recipe by Scott Beattie, bar manager at Cyrus, in Healdsburg. At the restaurant, this drink is garnished with a Pink Lady apple chip that's sprinkled with cinnamon. We have substituted a lemon twist for ease of preparation. THE SIPPING NEWS: Books on wine often read like textbooks GROOVY IN NAPA VALLEY You knew you shouldn't have worn your new white sweater to the Petite Sirah tasting. NEW RELEASE / Diva in a bottle Harvest tale: Birds save grapes from literary foe, W. Blake Gray The Tasting Room: Hopland winery offers animal encounters and free tastes of amusing wines Birds save grapes from literary foe, W. Blake Gray Letters To Wine Pairings: Lamb unites pasta, Syrah, Lynne Char Bennett Recipe: Easy Sausage & Lamb Bolognese The Chronicle's Wine Selections: Napa Valley Syrah, Lynne Char Bennett The Cheese Course: Former local cook concentrates on Comte, Janet Fletcher 96 Hours Bar Bites: The Slanted Door, Laura Compton Bargain Bite: Marvin's, Amanda Gold CRITICS' PICKS: Thai me up, Bill Addison "Still some gems In the '80s, the American palate developed a serious crush on Thai food. The cuisine's fragrant, fiery and occasionally funky flavors seemed a leap in sophistication after our long-standing affair with the sweet-and-sour stylings of Chinese American restaurants. Of course, if the odorous tang of fish sauce or the sting of chile proved too potent, we could always fall back on chicken satay with peanut sauce." edit - forgot tasting room section.

When I first met my wife, I was delivering coffee beans for a place that roasted their own beans. Unless you've smelled it, you won't recognize the smell of roasting beans as coffee. However, it is now burned into my brain, and I am astounded how many neighborhoods in San Francisco seem to have coffee roasters. Coffee beans have an astoundingly "clingy" and pervasive smell both while they are roasting and afterwards. It was just overwhelming to work in the wherehouse/roastery for any period of time. While I worked there, everything I owned smelled like coffee. My wife claims the smell of coffee, (and the free fresh roasted beans,) went a long way towards winning her heart. Better than aftershave!

For whatever reason there does seem to be an unusual concentration of dessert (or "girly") cocktails starting with the letter A. Alexanders and Angel's. I'll certainly be glad when I am done with the Angel's cocktails and can get on with things I might find more appealing. On the whole, though, I don't think the Angel's cocktails are any sweeter than a red bull & voddy or whatever other sickly sweet energy drink or shooter cocktails are popular these days. Jaeger bomb? re: cocktail party. My friend, who is working his way alphabetically through the Joy of Cooking, and I have talked about working together on a party for obsessives. I think he is still on soup, though. I've read there are about 750 recipes in the Savoy Cocktail Book, so if I made one a day, it would probably take me a couple years to get through it. I'm not sure if that counts the punch and other old fashioned drink categories at the end. I'm actually really looking forward to trying those. I may have to jump ahead and do some of those sections early. BTW, anyone have a good suggestion for the most appropriate substitution for "Hercules"? According to the Cocktaildb it is a, "Defunct proprietary British sweetened anis-flavored absinthe and/or substitute. Possibly wine-based."

Angel's Wings Cocktail 1/3 Raspberry Syrup (Monin) 1/3 Maraschino (Luxardo) 1/3 Creme de Violette (Benoit Serres liqueur de violette) Use liqueur glass and pour ingredients carefully, so that they do not mix. I gotta say, this is one of my favorite snarky quotes in the Savoy. The cocktail isn't so bad, in a mouthful of flowers kind of way.

Oh, hey, I just noticed we seem to have the same fridge. Not to mention some of the same hot sauce! That's just creepy! We find it sometimes freezes items if you overfill the top shelves. Have you had that problem? Why does mine seem more full?

John, Thanks so much for sharing bits of life in Brooklyn! I'm totally impressed with your kitchen (mine is forever shamed) and the fact that you have actually purchased a Buchner filter setup. So Cool! Look forward to seeing more. Cheers!

New Developments: Woo! Now we've got a speakeasy. Bourbon and Branch is a reservations only establishment, in the manner of New York (and London's) Milk and Honey. In other news, we will soon have a "Micro-Distillery." Rumor has it the micro-distillery is being opened by the folks who run the fine Magnolia Brew Pub. It will also be in the upper haight and is to be called "The Alembic". Haven't been to either, yet, so details to follow. edit - stupid grammar.

Did you like the Trumer Pils? I like most of the other beers you mention; but, find I don't care much for the Trumer Pils. I'd pick it over a national macro. However, I don't think it competes well with other local beers in its price range or european beers in its style.

I've been working on annoying layered cocktails from the Savoy Cocktail Book. Out of frustration, I made one up more to my taste, based on something Katie Loeb recommended. My idea was to call it the Angel's Loeb; but, I'd probably have to add cream to make it a true "Angel's" Cocktail. Unnamed Cherry Rum Shooter 1/4 Cherry Brandy (Massenez Creme de Griotte) 1/4 Cointreau 1/2 Decent Aged Rum (Havana Club 7 year) Drop a cherry (Toschi Amarena cherry) into a liqueur glass and pour ingredients carefully on top in order, so that they do not mix. Well, the rum and the cointreau probably will mix, but the cherry brandy should remain on the bottom. Garnish with a quarter of lime on top of glass. Squeeze lime in before imbibing.

OK, the second easiest Angel's cocktail: Angel's Wing Cocktail. 1/2 Creme de Cacao (Bols) 1/2 Prunelle Brandy (Home made Prune Plum liqueur) Use liqueur glass and pour ingredients carefully, so that they do not mix. Pour a little sweet cream on top. Maybe I'm getting used to these things, or maybe it was my Mom threatening to make me "peppermint patties" and "Butterballs" last week; but, they don't seem so bad lately.

Jamaica Ginger is called for in a few Savoy cocktails. I was planning on substituting some amount of liquid ginger extract, available at health food stores, when I got to them. The ginger extract I've seen in health food stores is made from dry ginger. It is hard to tell from some recipes whether they are calling for the ginger extract or ginger wine (liqueur). I would guess, if the amount is more than a dash, it is really calling for a ginger wine (liqueur) like Stone's or maybe Canton.

Unless a cocktail recipe calls specifically for a reposado or anejo tequila, I use a blanco (silver, plata) 100% agave tequila. I've been stuck on Herradura for a number of years now, and have recently been enjoying their 92 proof blanco. Others that I've tried and been favorably impressed with are the Partida and Gran Centenario blancos. Both are a little mellower for sipping than the Herradura. Sauza Hornitos is an 100% Agave tequila and is usually in the $20-$30 range. It sort of falls half way between most blancos and reposados. It's got a little of the mellowness of aging; but, not as much color or wood flavor as many other reposados. It's a good general purpose tequila. Others have recommended to me the Cazadores and 1800 blancos as reasonably priced 100% Agave tequilas. I haven't yet tried them myself. I've been using Cointreau; but, my bottle is getting low, and I'm going to try the Luxardo Triplum Orange Dry next. Will report back. Marty: Wow! $20 for El Tesoro Plata! That's quite a deal, it's usually more than double that around here.

Unfortunately, the hotwired cocktails stuff now seems to be lost to the sands of time. Sometimes you can come up with a page if you use the google cache page. There's a nice writeup of Mojitos by Mr. David Wondrich on the link below from the Esquire Drinks Database. Mojito

Ah, I was wondering if clement's shrubb had anything to do with the soured fruit based shrubs. There was a thread over in the soft drinks forum a while back about the soured fruit versions: Fruit vinegar drinks

MxMoVII: “See-ya-later, Summer” roundup Thanks to everyone here who participated!

Home Distillation of Gin I think in most cases distillation of spirits leaves behind some of the harsher flavors which might be overwhelming in the case of liquors flavored with certain herbs or spices. This is definitely the case in the bitter component of the grand wormwood used to flavor absinthe and may be the case with juniper in gin. I believe heat also allows you to more efficiently capture and preserve the essence of of alcohol soluble flavors and scents. Distilled flavored alcohols, like gin, absinthe, aquavit, and Arak have an indefinite shelf life and generally do not change (much) once they are in the bottle. Home infused flavored spirits and liqueurs, unless they are very well filtered, definitely have a shelf life of a few years. The flavor of infused liquors or liqueurs will continue to evolve or degrade with time.

tupac17616, Great pictures and thoughts! I'm glad you took the time to drive Hwy One! The I-5 is soooo dull. Confused by your first fish taco. It looks like the cooks misunderstood and made you a fish quesadilla instead! Can't wait to hear more as you get closer to San Francisco. I'm especially looking forward to the Manresa writeup, as we have reservations there next month! Thanks for taking the time to write this up.

Sweet Maria's Roasted Coffee I just renewed my subscription to the Sweet Maria's Roastmaster's Choice, Brewed Coffee option and couldn't be happier. Over the last six months we've gotten some really exceptional coffees, incredibly freshly roasted, at very good prices. Love the information from their website and commitment to small growers. You do have to be willing to put yourself in the hands of the roaster. Sometimes the flavors or characters of the beans he chooses are a bit odd. In the last one (sorry country and variety slips my mind right now), I could swear there is a strong hint of violet in the mid to late taste impressions. But I like that he doesn't necessarily choose beans or roasting techniques that are consistent or "normal" and can feel free to experiment with what he thinks brings out the best character of a bean. The Sumatran we had a month ago was one of the most outstanding examples I've had in years. My only real problem with the subscription was that we were running out of Sweet Maria's beans before the next one arrived, and had to go back to our old sources from time to time. It was a fine monthly reminder of how wonderful the Maria's beans were. However, after I told them that, they have promised to adjust our subscription to send us two pounds of beans every three weeks, instead of every month.

The St. Francis Fountain died and came back to life. It is now owned and run by a bunch of tatooed hipsters. Oddly my wife and I went on labor day. We were actually hoping for the Roosevelt Tamale Parlor; but, they were closed. While I did have a very good Chocolate Malt at the fountain, the service was just dreadful. And not in a sassy 50 year old diner waitress kind of a way. It was dreadful in a, "I don't have time to bother serving you unless you are my friend or a celebrity," kind of way. Ooops, I forgot to say, I think before it was re-incarnated the Fountain made its own ice cream. They now serve Mitchell's ice cream. I really like Mitchell's Ice Cream. It is American style ice cream, though, and has stabilizers and some other stuff I usually try to avoid when I buy ice cream. Really like their Dulce de Leche, though.

For me this summer has been the summer of the Sazerac. I think I have introduced more folks to the joys of a well made Sazerac than any other single drink this summer. One especially nice thing about stirred drinks, like the Sazerac, is that, with a big pitcher it is actually easier to make 4 than it is to make 1. And somehow they just seem to taste nicer when you are sharing them with friends. But, since chrisamirault recently posted his lovely Still Life With Liquor, I thought I'd try something different. According to legend, the predecessor of the Sazerac was served by Antone Peychaud, when at his pharmacy he either made brandy more palatable by adding his patented bitters and sugar or made his patented bitters more palatable by adding brandy and sugar. According to Stanley Clisby Arthur in his "Famous New Orleans Drinks & How to Mix 'em" somewhere around 1870 Thomas H. Handy substituted Rye whiskey for Brandy in his Sazeracs and Leon Lamothe started adding a dash of Absinthe to his. Once these two changes were incorporated together, the Sazerac we know today was born. I've been meaning to give a Brandy Sazerac a try for a while now and thought for this Mixologist Monday I'd give it a try. 2 oz Germain-Robin Fine Alambic Brandy 1/2 tsp. rich simple syrup dash Peychaud Bitters dash Verte de Fougerolles Absinthe Lemon Zest Usual Sazerac Ritual. --- I guess I was hoping this would be a great lost cocktail. Sadly, I am afraid that Handy was right to substitute Rye. The extra spicy-ness of that spirit lifts the drink from "pretty ok" to "outstanding", leaving the Brandy Sazerac nothing more than an interesting historical exercise.

Wow, Don, cool! Sounds like a really good way to practise drink making and get feedback. Get any good tips? PS. I see you have the new Plymouth bottles in NY already. Haven't seen those out here, yet. I saw them in WI, and I guess I don't mind them as much as I thought I would. Though, it does look an awful lot like Smirnoff.

I thought they said something like that an article I read in imbibe magazine. I don't have it with me, so I can't check. If I was mistaken about the low proof, however, they do say that it is only distilled once, "Square One, on the other hand, receives such a clean fermentation that it needs only a short time in a 4-column distiller to emerge with sparkling clarity. Its unique flavor signature and cool, soft texture remain beautifully intact." I suppose that does sound like marketing hoo ha.

I haven't been a huge fan of the Sauza products since they switched bottles. Just seems different somehow. For margaritas and other cocktails, I really like the Herradura Blanco 92 proof. I had one of the best margaritas I've ever had at Zuni here in San Francisco, with simply Herradura blanco, Cointreau, and fresh lime juice. Perfect. I know I've mentioned Dale DeGroff's Big Spender cocktail from time to time; but, I still think it is an excellent cocktail, even with blanco tequila and a reasonable rose champagne. Big Spender 1 oz Gran Centenario Anejo tequila 1 oz Liqueur Creole 1/2 oz Blood orange juice Cristal Rose champagne (NOTE: For cheaper big spender use Billecart Salmon Brut Rose) Assemble the first three ingredients in a bar glass with ice and stir to chill. Strain into a chilled champagne flute and garnish with spiral mof orange peel and a flamed orange zest.

Leaving aside the politics and philosphy, has anyone tried the Square One Organic Vodka? It is my understanding it is made from Organic Rye and distilled to a lower proof than most other commercial vodkas, thus maintaining more of the character of the source materials. Sounds somewhat intruiging to me.

I don't know why I torture myself by following this thread. Has anyone suggested to Ms. Sauders, and the other bartenders at Pegu, to collect some of their famous receipts for those of us who must live as voyeurs? I live in hope that one day a Pegu Club Cocktail Book will clutter my bedside table alongside the tomes from Baker, Craddock, DeGroff, Duffy, Regan, Wondrich, et al.