thirtyoneknots

Chinon can be a good option with veggies, (esp grilled ones) and could perhaps stand in in lieu of the pinot. The other nice thing about Chinon vs. Pinot is that top-notch Chinon seems to typically be available for 1/3 the price of what a Pinot Noir of similar quality goes for. On the other hand, the place may not even carry any.

I really enjoy drier Alsatian Riesling with bbq, although German or even Australian Riesling would be a good choice as well. For a red wine, I think Zinfandel for sure. And you can never go too wrong with Rose.

We go through Corralejo Reposado like it has the cure inside, and I must admit, it's pretty tasty. It was sort of a gateway drug to help me, long tequila-averse, to come around.

There used to be a sweet Campari, to go along with the bitter Campari we all know and love. Perhaps this is the bianco?

To the best of my knowledge, if you're going for maximum authenticity you'd use Armagnac for the fortifier and some presumably inexpensive White Bordeaux for the wine base, though I would imagine not an entirely dry one...maybe a Premieres Cotes du Bordeaux Blanc? I think Muscat Canelli would be too floral, you'd want something relatively neutral I think. ← sauternes and armagnac? i saw some haut charmes sauternes on sale. i should probably own a bottle of armagnac... i'll give it a try. ← I seem to recall reading that there was in fact a Sauternes Lillet (as opposed to 'Kina') made at one point, but it never really took off to the same extent. I don't think you'd want to use a botrytised wine in your Lillet replica, but maybe something naturally off-dry like so much inexpensive Bdx Blanc can be. Not that it wouldn't be delicious, I just can't see it being appropriate in the same applications.

To the best of my knowledge, if you're going for maximum authenticity you'd use Armagnac for the fortifier and some presumably inexpensive White Bordeaux for the wine base, though I would imagine not an entirely dry one...maybe a Premieres Cotes du Bordeaux Blanc? I think Muscat Canelli would be too floral, you'd want something relatively neutral I think.

Around here you can get a 1.75 of Hardy VS Cognac for $40. It's not going to blow your mind as a sipper, but it's damn tasty in sidecars, etc, and is a steal for Cognac.

Gin Daisy from the Savoy seems to be implying shaved or chrushed ice by calling it 'packed' and noting the glass should frost. In my experience, that's pretty difficult to do otherwise.

What I'd like to dream is that all bartenders at that time were kindly supposed to be the doctors of life...Thanks to the monks, a few dashes of bitters in booze or on a sugar cube could do miracles... Cock-Tail! To spice things up, may be the monks were a bit naughtier than we thought. I have to check if they were allowed to drink alcohol, but anyway, booze weren't very far away because they needed neutral alcohol to create the elixirs of life. May be the naughty boys were playing with a local cognac and they started to mix herbs or something like that... Or may be even much better: Lets say that they kindly fix themselves a kind of Monk-Ey Sazerac. Large measure of brandy 1 sugar cube soaked with Chartreuse Elixir Vegetal Crushed the sugar and stir the drink till the sugar is dissolved Optional: Ice To be honest, I don't know what the true is. But I'd like to believe that the monks were making drinks... Mick ← Monks were (and still are) certainly drinking alchohol, at the very least they needed wine for the Mass, but from everything I have ever read of Medieval drinking habits, they would have had wine, spirits, and liqueurs that they had made, taken mostly for medicinal purposes (and of course beer). My understanding is that mixing things on the fly, ie to be consumed in the short term instead of bottled like a liqueur, was more the realm of aristocrats and such with their punch bowls (or secular apothecaries).

The last few time I've had Gordons, some of them even semi-blind (handed a drink without knowing the brands), I found it somewhat sweet, low-proof, and one-dimensional. I imagine these might be the same complaints some would have against MB Triple Sec (though I haven't had it myself). I think that might be the point trying to be made. That said, Gordon's is, imo, no worse than other gins in the same price range, although really good gin is so cheap already (compared to other spirits qpr) that why not just buy the Beefeater's?

so how do you compare the torani amer to an orange liqueur like cointreau or creole shrub? is it just orangey with a small additional bitter element or am i under estimating it? ← Yeah it's not as clean as Cointreau and def. has the caramel aspect to it. The bitterness hits the palate in a different way than most other things I've had, more on the back of the palate almost. There's also a strange and oft-noted celery note that I find not entirely pleasant. Apparently Torani Amer + dash or 2 of orange bitters = something close® to Amer Picon.

Assuming that Spec's has everything that you can possibly get in Texas, I'd say you don't have a lot of options. I actually rather like Old Overholt and it's way cheap, but I feel that all the other ones are not good values. I only stock WT 101 and OO at home. ← Yes, Rittenhouse 80 and BIB are not distributed in Texas (the 23 yr is though). I had asked a bigshot for the distributor about it some time back and he indicated something along the lines of the production wasn't large enough to get to "smaller" markets (meaning smaller rye markets, you know Texans and their Crown Royal ). I guess we now know how true that is. That said, I stock WT Rye, which is about $20, and Sazerac 6, which is about $23 and I find them to be mostly useful in complementary situations (these are also what we carry at work). I have some Rittenhouse BIB a regular picked up for me in Chicago, and I guess it's all what you're used to but I didn't find it any better than the other two. I guess the slightly lower price is appealing, but I wasn't quite blown away by it the way I was expecting to be (that is no to say I didn't like it, I think it's wonderful, I just don't think it's significantly better than the other ones I mentioned). Old Overholt I find ok, and I usually have some around, but I don't drink it very much. Now if they made a bonded version maybe we'd talk. The other mixing-grade ryes I've tried (Jim Beam, Russel's Reserve, etc) are all ok to decent, but not as versatile in my opinion as the WT and Saz.

I don't really know what kind of liquor they like, but we had a very frustrating problem with them until our exterminator who works with an entomologist at the university pointed out to me that they are actually in the floor drains, which are of an exceedingly poor design that allows a bit of solids to accumulate in them. A little further research revealed that they breed on an eight-day cycle, so now I rinse out the drains each Monday with scalding hot water a few times and voila! Very few to no fruit flies (as long as I remember to do it)

Of course, I meant waste in the sense that the full profit wasn't being realised. I see now that I neglected to add the adjective "ill-conceived" to my first post there. If it had been planned out like the one slkinsey details it would be a different matter, though my understanding of the original post was an inquiry about sample sized drinks. I should also add that serving someone that much liquor at once is actually illegal in Texas (stupid TABC) ← I would guess that there is around 3 oz. maybe a little less in a flight at the FI. Most of the cocktails come in right around 2 oz of booze, so 3 1oz (of liquor) cocktails would squeeze you right in there by the skin of your teeth. Toby ← I wondered about that, the picture sort of makes it look like they are full-sized servings, but it seems that those would be warm by the time you got through them (if that were the case). Anybody know what they're charging for that flight?

Of course, I meant waste in the sense that the full profit wasn't being realised. I see now that I neglected to add the adjective "ill-conceived" to my first post there. If it had been planned out like the one slkinsey details it would be a different matter, though my understanding of the original post was an inquiry about sample sized drinks. I should also add that serving someone that much liquor at once is actually illegal in Texas (stupid TABC) ← It's illegal? Really? I suppose you mean there is a limit to the number of ounces of hard liquor one can be served at once (single order??) in Texas? I know Texas isn't as progressive as some states when it comes to alcohol laws, but it really isn't that horrible. I've certainly never run into issues in bars in my home state. ← 3 oz is the max allowed to be served to a single customer at a time (and I think 32 oz of beer, but I'm not 100% sure). That's why you typically have to have two id's to get a pitcher of beer at establishments where that is the typical order (yes I live in College Station, and I'm not ashamed to drink at The Chicken).

Of course, I meant waste in the sense that the full profit wasn't being realised. I see now that I neglected to add the adjective "ill-conceived" to my first post there. If it had been planned out like the one slkinsey details it would be a different matter, though my understanding of the original post was an inquiry about sample sized drinks. I should also add that serving someone that much liquor at once is actually illegal in Texas (stupid TABC)

We experimented with this once and even with a small-ish crowd I had a hell of a time keeping up. Every time a customer ordered, I had to make three drinks for them, since making small ones isnt any faster than making full-sized ones. with about 6 people at the bar the bar manager and I together were fairly weeded trying to do this, though it got a little better later on when we had drinks made and sitting in carafes on crushed ice (all this while conducting normal restaraunt operations). The problem with this is that it lead to waste. In the end my conclusion was that the strain on the bar was not a good tradeoff, and most customers are fine with trying something if a reasonably skilled bartender is there to help guide them to a selection.

I have a regular who collects vintage single malts and he says he uses the argon canister system used to preserve wines, so that he can keep a bottle open for several years without appreciable degradation of flavor. He also apparently has several bottles sufficiently special that he won't open them unless they are to be consumed that night, so there you have it.

Slightly off-topic but Ramazotti has some rhubarb notes, doesnt it? or am I thinking of something else? Just wondering what other ways there migth be to add the flavor aside from a syrup.

I've never tried selling anything there but as a buyer I've had very good experience with winebid.com.

Not to get off-topic, but I'm not quite sure where else to ask this: is St. George the distilling operation related to St. George the winery in any way?

The standard approach seems to be to take either Junipero or Plymouth gin (I've also seen Tanqueray recommended) and add a dash or two of rich syrup to them per drink. Alternately, you can add 1/2 oz of rich syrup per bottle, making sure to shake it well to mix it up. For my preference, if you're going to sweeten the gin, you ought to be using something with some backbone, meaning leave the Plymouth for something else.

Baker's Hotel Nacional Special hails from Prohibition-era Cuba and specifies dry apricot brandy, so I don't think it's a stretch at all.

I think I might have mentioned this a while back, but here's a little something I came up with to entertain myself and a couple of late night bar guests. 2 oz Flor de Cana 7 1 scant oz M&R red vermouth barspoon Kahluah 2 dashes Angostura Stir/strain/up: I think I garnished this with orange zest, but I don't quite recall. It's decent but not earth-shattering. The most notable thing about it is that at least when made exactly as above, the pattern on the palate creates, for lack of better word, a hole where the flavor of white chocolate would be, sort of like a negative image. It sounds weird and it's kind of an inadequate description but I'd never experienced something like that before and don't know how else to say it. I'd say it's probably worth trying once. -Andy

You know, a lot of people seem to have the impression that mint needs to abused to flavor a drink. This is absolutely not true. It is OK to abuse mint in a drink with strong citrus flavors, like a mojito. The citrus will cover up the sour and vegetal plant flavors from the goo inside the leaves. But in the case of a drink like this, you just want the flavor and scent of mint. When I made the Fascinator, (Gin, Dry Vermouth, Absinthe, Mint,) with Jennifer Colliau at Slanted Door I sort of surprised her when I told her I thought the mint was in the cocktail not a garnish, so I got her to add the leaves to the cocktail she was stirring. We were both amazed at how clearly the mint flavor and scent was expressed without having to mash the leaves or shake the cocktail. It was sort of an "Ah Ha!" moment for both of us. To be boring, generally scented substances like menthol are manufactured in glands near the surface of the plant leaf. Usually, the mechanism for their release is brushing against the small hairs on the leaf surface. ← Point taken, though I had been thinking though that a gentle roll might be necessary given the intensity of the Vya (which my memory may be exaggerating slightly).