MikeInSacto

Bumping this up as my '09 Nocino was recently opened for the holidays. It came out very nicely, with rich walnut flavor and a smooth finish. A neighbor who was trying it for the first time immediately volunteered everything from her two walnut trees for next year's harvest. This is good - no more leaning out the back of a pickup truck over a slough trying to grab a few more nuts! I also did my first ever head-to-head tasting with a commercial product. One of my Christmas presents was a bottle of "Nux Alpina" nocino from Destillerie Purkhardt in Austria. Last night, I popped it open and tasted it next to mine. The Austrian product was slightly less cloudy (filtered, no doubt) but the color of the two was identical. Nose and flavorwise, the Nux Alpina is quite spicy with plenty of nutmeg, cinnamon, and clove in it. (The label mentions that they use botanicals in addition to spices.) It's smooth and sweet. Overall, a lovely drink that puts you in the holiday spirit with its spices. Mine is less oriented towards spice and more towards the walnut flavor. I add the typical spices along with some citrus peel and such but their flavors are more in the background than with the Austrian version. Overall, I like mine better. To me, the spices in the Nux Alpina make it more of a generic spiced liqueur. I think mine retains decent complexity while providing more of the walnut flavor that makes nocino unique. (Then again, I can't really claim to be objective about this, either!) Anyone else crack a bottle of their nocino recently?

Where my wife comes from, the default Manhattan is made with brandy. I rather like them but I don't think they hold a candle to the rye version.

I like a dash of grapefruit bitters in mine. Also agree that a little Peychaud's is nice.

I'll weigh in with a little bit of experience here. All of the big-name XO's I've had have been excellent. I don't think I've had a VS or VSOP I could sip with pleasure. One name I haven't seen in the thread yet (although I may have missed it) is Germain-Robin, out of California. They make excellent brandy that matches up well with Cognac. Everything I've had of theirs above their basic bottling is quite nice.

Based on what we drink: Light rum Dark, overproof rum (Lemon Hart Demerara) Brandy (nothing fancy) Sweet Vermouth (Vya or Carpano Antica) Rye (Rittenhouse 100) Cointreau Campari Tanqueray Tequila (something in a nice Reposado) A lighter aperitif - maybe Lillet Blanc I am considering bitters, grenadine, etc. as separate items.

Manhattan. Rittenhouse BIB and whatever vermouth is available.

FWIW, a friend of mine claims to have had pretty good luck making nocino with walnuts that have gotten a bit beyond the "stick a pin through them" stage. Hope it works for you.

I don't really know the answers to these questions, but I've based my process on what I believe to be more or less traditional. That means a container that's not airtight and macerating the walnuts in the sun. I have nothing to back this up other than a couple of really good batches of nocino. I think getting the walnuts well-extracted is important, so the sun might help that out (more heat, more extraction). That's all complete speculation, though. I know you can come up with good stuff by putting a non-sealed container out in the sun, but I don't know that you can't come up with something just as good by using a sealed container and keeping it in the basement.

In the FWIW category, I originally used a formula of 25 walnuts to 1 quart of vodka. This went into a glass container with some lemon zest, sugar (2 cups per quart of vodka), and some spices. That sat out in the sun with the lid loosely on the container for a month or 6 weeks. During that time, the jar was topped up with 1:1 simple syrup as necessary. This produced excellent results when I first tried it in 2004 and in 2005. In 2006, I did not add sugar to the initial soak instead waiting until the infusion was complete. This did not give very good results. It may have had nothing to do with with the timing of the sugar addition - I started using a different walnut source at that point. But this year, the sugar is going into the mix with the walnuts. I guess I'll see what happens.

Tim - I'd guess offhand that CO2 is just less soluble in ethanol/water than it is in water alone. I'll try and get better info on that when I get back to work (and library access) tomorrow.

I was looking at not making any this year as my last couple of "vintages" have not been good at all. They've been thin and uninteresting and I had decided I wasn't going to waste my time again. But then two things happened. One - I had some nocino made by a friend who swore he let the stuff macerate for a year. It was really good. I think the problem with my last couple of batches was that I didn't let the walnuts sit in the alcohol long enough. That wasn't a problem with the batches I made the years prior, but I switched sources a couple of years ago and I think these other walnuts just needed more time (for whatever reason). At least, I hope that's the issue. Two - Another friend still had bottles of the first two vintages I made (I think from 2003 and 2004). He brought them out a few months ago and I expected little from them as they bottles had been open for a long time. I went through all of my stash from those batches several years ago, though, so I figured what the hell and gave it a try. I was astonished at how good that stuff was. It was on a level with some of the best tawny ports I've had (and I've had some very good tawny ports over the years). It was utterly amazing. After that, I can't not give this stuff another try.

I'd have to agree with the Sidecar, given that it was my first-ever professionally mixed cocktail (some 30+ years ago). The sugar on the rim really helps for the first-timer.

I've not had much Y'quem, so I'm hardly an expert. I will say that it paired beautifully with a thin wedge of Humboldt Fog cheese topped with ripe pear slices and drizzled with honey. I am not sure about seafood. I think for something as special as Yquem, you want to keep the food simple and let the wine do the talking.

FWIW, a quick Google search turned up this article here on volatile acids found in some whiskey, cognac, and rum. According to the abstract, the majority is acetic acid with lesser amounts of higher volatile fatty acids, including propionic and butyric acids. Not sure what all that means in terms of organoleptic properties and they don't say anything about the source of these in the abstract.

Anyone else use the "mini-measure" glasses? They're like little pyrex measuring cups that come in 1, 2, and 4 oz. capacities. They're graduated in ounces, teaspoons, tablespoons, and mls. I find the 2-oz version handles the majority of my cocktail-making, with the 1-oz version coming in handy for small volumes.

I'd probably have to re-gift it to a friend who is a big Ouzo fan. (Disclaimer: Ouzo and I had a rather violent falling-out some years ago. It was all Ouzo's fault and Ouzo has yet to apologize.)

If we're subdividing the US, then Wisconsin gets the Brandy Manhattan.

I just made this in those proportions with Tanqueray for the gin and Fernet Branca for the bitters, which turns this summery citrus drink into something more herbacious, springlike. ← Just made one with Plymouth gin and Angostura bitters. A touch sweet (even without the syrup mentioned in another post) but very tasty for a hot summer day.

Agreed! A good research program is the only real answer here.

Not a bad idea. Having the N2 on top of the juice might be enough to keep it tasting fresh for a reasonable amount of time. Same for any other oxidizable mixers. Of course, you would need to keep the liquid nitrogen topped up which would be an effort in itself.

Not sure if or how this fits in, but an old "Professional Mixing Guide" produced by the Angostura Bitters people has the following recipe for the Singapore Sling: 1 oz dry gin 3/4 oz cherry brandy 1/2 oz lemon juice 1 teaspoon fine granulated sugar 3 dashes Angostura bitters Put into a 10 oz highball glass with 2 cubes ice. Top with carbonated water. Stir slightly. Interesting that there's no Benedictine in this one. Wonder if that was intentional or just an inauthentic recipe?

I guess I can see a possible market. I've ordered fairly simple cocktails in the past from bars here that obviously don't serve them very often and they've been terrible. It's hard to believe someone could completely muck up a Manhattan, but it happens. If I were in a bar I didn't know (on a business trip, for instance) and didn't trust, I might be more likely to order a cocktail from a machine that I knew made a halfway decent one than from a 22 year old whose experience appeared to be limited to pouring beer into pitchers. I guess the other side of this is that a place that's not willing to train a 22 year old to make a decent Manhattan might not be willing to pop for a cocktail machine. And FWIW, my wife and I always look for restaurants with full bars when we go out for supper. She's from Wisconsin, so there's really no choice in the matter. She orders Brandy Manhattans in the winter and gin and tonic in the summer. I get whatever I feel like at the time, but usually Manhattans with rye or vodka/cranberry juice.

Although I am not from Wisconsin, my wife is. And after being well-schooled in their production, I would have to guess that the Brandy Manhattan would be their state drink. Followed by the muddled-orange-and-cherry version of the Brandy Old Fashioned. Followed by the brandy-bitters-Coke version of the "Brandy Old Fashioned".

I actually run these (as well as a lot of other analytical instruments) for a living. No problem to dilute up some new vs. old and see what the mass spec says. Edit: Only problem is that the only bottle I have was bought about three months ago.

I just went to pull this year's nocino out of the sun and the results are interesting. I had two big glass containers. One of them sealed extremely well, to the point that I don't think I lost anything to evaporation. The other did not seal well at all. At one point about a month ago, I realized that the liquid level on this second container had dropped to the point that it no longer covered the walnuts. I added vodka and water, but I don't know how long the walnuts were exposed. The flavor difference between the two batches is fairly striking. The first batch tastes like nocino with a strong hit of alcohol to it. I wouldn't want to dilute it, but I think it could use a little air to get rid of a bit of the alcohol. Container number two tastes very different. There's no alcoholic heat, even after the addition of some extra vodka. And the flavor is almost pruney or raisiny - much more so than the nocino I've made in the past. I'm going to go ahead and sweeten these up (I've already strained them off the solids) and see what happens. I may blend the two batches together if that works or maybe not. Anyone ever have their nocino come out with a raisiny character??? Mike