KD1191

2012 Domaine Drouhin Dundee Hills Pinot Noir

That's impressive...would they believe brandy?

Oh?

With the weather cooling off, my fall allocation from Littorai has finally shipped: 2012 Littorai The Haven Vineyard Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir x22012 Littorai Savoy Vineyard Anderson Valley Pinot Noir x22013 Littorai Les Larmes Anderson Valley Pinot Noir x2 Reading some of the early reviews, I think I may need to place another order for more of the Les Larmes and some of their Sonoma Coast appellation Pinot.

I once made a similar comment while sitting at the bar at the Violet Hour and the quick response has stuck with me..."Sometimes you just don't want to do the dishes."

If there are enough of something, it'll be easy to find some bad ones. I would rather drink a cocktail at home than at all but perhaps 7 bars in the city...restaurants that number is probably closer to 2. That probably sounds bad just given the number of each, but my bar is better stocked than all but a handful (see comment re: distribution above), and in Chicago those numbers were more like 5 and 1. For those of us with high standards, I think we can expect to continue to be disappointed...personally, I've given up on ordering drinks in restaurants and have been focusing on increasing my wine knowledge. In addition to the fact that there's just not enough talent to staff the shear number of restaurants trying to serve fancy cocktails, we must factor in the reality that there's a significant portion of the dining public who want something very different from a cocktail and would send back a balanced daiquiri, and I don't see this problem going away anytime soon.

Distribution plays a part, I fear. The high end bars are going to get the highly allocated stuff and restaurants seem to be left scrambling. I thought about this the other day while seated at the bar at a high end restaurant in NYC. The place employs some serious bar talent, but they seem to have pulled the short straw on spirits. Their American whiskey selection was all 2-3 yr old stuff from small craft distillers, which I guess fits with their theme, but it was way over priced even before they applied their markup. I wanted something to sip on, but there wasn't a single thing I was interested in tasting.

At a local store, found a bottle that we really enjoyed at a restaurant during our trip to Sonoma this past spring: 2010 Limerick Lane Zinfandel (Sonoma County). Also, signed up for the wine club from Holdredge Wines...not something I planned on doing, but have been so consistently enjoying bottles of pinot from the case we picked out at the winery, that it was time to restock. So, I'll be getting a shipment soon that will include: 2011 Holdredge Pinot Noir Selection Massale (Russian River Valley) 2012 Holdredge Pinot Noir (Russian River Valley)2012 Holdredge Pinot Noir "The True" (Sonoma Coast)2012 Holdredge Pinot Noir Bucher Vineyard (Russian River Valley)2012 Holdredge Pinot Noir Mazie Rose (Russian River Valley) x2

On a trip deep into Jersey... In the past, I've not been terribly impressed with the Stagg Jr., but it's not a bad deal if you can find it at regular MSRP. Now that I have a bottle I'll be able to play with dilution and hopefully find the sweet spot. Stocking up on the Weller 107. Winter is coming, and it's once again proving scarce closer to home.

Last night I had dueling Pink Gins with the newly acquired Fords and Tanqueray Old Tom. The latter was the clear winner. I expected the sweetness of the Tanq, but it has a layer of spice that is spectacular. There's a different sort of sweetness altogether to the Fords, something that reminded me of ginger or galangal. I'm not going to be sipping this one, as it's rather one dimensional, but looking forward to mixing with it.

Ordered some liquor and added a few bottles of fine, but mostly unremarkable wine in order to reach free shipping: 2008 Bodega Classica Rioja Hacienda López de Haro Crianza2010 Llopart Cava Leopardi Rosé Brut Reserva2010 Mas Martinet Priorat Menut2013 Alpha Zeta Soave2013 Selbach Riesling Incline

Along with some wines added to reach the free shipping plateau, a few bottles arrived from DrinkUpNY today. Macchu Pisco "La Diablada"Tanqueray Old TomCana Brava RumFords Gin Ordering from DUNY has become something of a chore. While I appreciate the usability of their site in comparison to other liquor retailers, it's still pretty poor in the grand scheme of e-commerce. When I finally get an order placed, they are always out of something I've ordered (last time it was the Willett Rye, this time Malacca Gin and a wine from Terra Alta). Of course, I don't find out until about a week later when they get around to emailing me to ask what I want to do about it (a. wait, often a month or more, for the product to come back in stock; b. replace the item with something else; or, c. ship the order without it and pay the shipping fee, as removing the item invariably drops me below the free shipping threshold). Other states and countries have it much worse when it comes to shipping booze, but this still irks me...the regularity of it makes it feel a bit like a bait & switch to get out of the free shipping. That said, once the order shipped (10 days after it was placed), it arrived at my door about 16 hours later (crossing Manhattan faster than some bus lines). Still, all is not well, in that the Malacca is still shown on the invoice instead of the Fords that I replaced it with, and that bottle of Priorat was subbed for the Terra Alta without consent (I guess it didn't come back in stock within a couple days as they initially expected)...it's a bank error in my favor, given that I like Priorat and that label costs about $6 more than the bottle I ordered, so I guess I'll just have to accept that customer service/communication is not their strong suit if/when I give them any more business.

Can we try to keep things straight for 2 weeks or at least one thread page?

Kina San Clemente: A Sweet Flavored Beverage with a Wine Base. Top quality wine with quinine extract...hard to read stuff...great as an aperitif or desert, or with poultry?

Following my nose, and suggestions above, I make an Old Pal riff with Old Potrero 18th Century and Lillet Rose. It's delicious, extremely complex aromatically, and I think features the hop bitters quite nicely.

Red Medicine in LA has been doing crafty drinks out of a slush machine for a few years. Last time I was there, I had the #81 (Vodka, Grapefruit, Vanilla Shrub, Campari, Curacao & Cocchi Americano), dispensed from this unassuming machine into a salt-rimmed glass. Using this drink as a template, if presented with a machine and no sense of what ABV was optimal, I might start with a mix of low-proof ingredients, add them to the machine and then step up the proof with vodka until I got the consistency I was looking for.

In the interest of science, I put a dropper's worth into a Burgundy glass and spent some time with it. Initial aromas include a weedy, honeyed grass, evolving into wet wheat and gym bag. I wonder if honey was used in the manufacture. Not unpleasant, but not terribly appealing either. Adding a bit of soda water, the primary flavor is resinous and piney. There's some spice that reminds me of some of the younger, rougher ryes on the market, and an astringency on the finish. The aftertaste has a lot of grapefruit pith and pomelo, and distinctly quassia bark bitterness that lingers. More grapefruit-like citrus aromas have come out as I let it sit for a bit.

Funny you should ask...DrinkUpNY just sent me a note about a new 191.2 proof 'vodka' that looks to be perfect for crafting Molotov cocktails (handy 375ml bottle). And, it's from Brooklyn, squeeee.

I have them, and they don't really fit into any existing archetype...I guess you might look for drinks that call for Bittermens Hopped Grapefruit Bitters? For cocktails, I've found them most adaptable to gin, and in classic dry martini-like applications. That said, I actually tend to reach for them most often to doctor beer. ETA: I'm a huge supporter of the Bittercube line...obviously, but the hop bitters are far and away the least frequently used in my collection.

Urfa biber is a great note. Wouldn't have put my finger on it previously, but in retrospect I can see exactly what you mean.

A Red Hook with Leopold Bros Rye & Maraschino. The baking chocolate note in the rye combined with Punt e Mes is just spectacular.

For me, the Aeropress is a nice improvement on a French Press, and if you get the metal filter it's miles beyond...such a cleaner, sharper result. I tend to make pour-over on the V60 these days, as it's a bit quicker, but for a couple years I was hooked on Americanos off the Aeropress, or using the inverted method for brewing a more traditional cup. For beans, we have a subscription with Peet's for their Ethiopian Fancy, as it's the only coffee my wife will drink, and so it's always in our Capresso Infinity. I have a Skerton hand mill that I use for whatever other coffees I'm playing around with at any given time. Lately it's been a lot of Dark Matter from Chicago and Gimme! from here in NY. I tend to stick to Africa or Central America; Ethiopia and Oaxaca are particular favorites, as I'm typically looking for fruitiness.

I love to see the results of fellow eGulleters' liquor store runs in the Spirits & Cocktails forum, so figured a similar wine thread could be fun. Today, I made a brief trip to Wine Library in Springfield, NJ as I needed a bottle of Champagne for a small celebration, and ended up walking out with: NV Pol Roger Brut Réserve Champagne (x2) 2009 Domaine Michel Goubard et Fils Bourgogne Côte Chalonnaise Mont Avril 2009 Mount Eden Vineyards Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Santa Cruz Mountains2012 Domaine des Terres Dorées (Jean-Paul Brun) Fleurie Pol Roger Brut is my favorite for widely available, relatively budget friendly Champagne, and having a second bottle in the house will save me another trip at some point in the future. I've had the Goubard before, and it's perfectly fine village-level Burgundy. The store has it at $19.99, which seems to always get me to toss a bottle in the cart. The Mount Eden was a bit of a splurge, but I've been interested in learning more about the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA and have been mentally planning a trip down that way since reading the interview with Bob Varner in Loam Baby #2. And, well...it'll be Beaujolais Nouveau day before we know it, so I figured we should have a decent bottle on hand to swap for any of the stuff that an ill-informed guest might try to bring to the table.

This is really delicious. I used 'espresso' off the AeroPress for the coffee, Elmer T. Lee bourbon, Gran Classico in lieu of Aperol (I'm out), and Mozart Chocolate Bitters. The best coffee cocktail I've had in years.

I rehashed this Hibiscus Milk Punch + Coconut Water concoction. There are those that complain about the mouth-feel of both ingredients. Personally, I love the lactic tang of the punch, but coconut water I'm mostly indifferent towards. Here, the tang is somewhat tempered, with the coconut water lengthening the impact of the rum/pisco blend and adding some subtle sweetness.