WoW Report

Live from the Denver airport (kudos for the free wi-fi), my take on last night's Whiskies of the World in San Francisco:

• Eades "Double Malts" is a lame advertising term to describe the combination of two single malts, married in an additional cask. However, their Islay blend, made with Bowmore and Caol Ila and finished in a Zinfandel cask, is going in an interesting direction. I think I like it when people put a sweet and soft spin on a macho spirit, kind of like a drag queen with a beard.
• The new Ardmore single malt (previously it went mostly into the Teacher's blend) seemed to be a big hit at the event. I'm glad- I like the stuff. I had lunch with the brand ambassador Simon Brooking the previous day. He said that there are about 3,000 cases released this year (in the next couple of weeks), but should be five times that next year. It's the only fully peated Highland malt, with the peat smokey flavor profile of an Islay scotch, but there's something about the texture of the whisky that's most like the smoothness Glenlivet or Glenfiddich. The combination of lighter texture and heartier flavor I really enjoy.
• I tried Tuthilltown Spirits products for the first time. I was surprised to love their unaged corn whiskey (moonshine, basically). I didn't like the Baby Bourbon at all, but found their Single Malt to be tasty. And those little tiny bottles are just so cute. I'll take a dozen!
• But the big hit of the night was the High West Rendezvous Rye, a blend of a 6 year old and 17 year old rye that was destined to be blended into Canadian Whisky. The man behind the brand, David Perkins, saved it from its fate and married the two together. Perkins says that with the exception of Anchor's 100% rye, his product probably has the highest rye content on the market. And in a strange coincidence, Perkins is the future father-in-law of an old raver friend from the early 1990's I ran into at the event. Flashback!
• There were also a few vodkas, rums, eau-de-vie's, and absinthe at the event. I skipped most of them but tried some tequila.
• Querido Viejo had a deliciously sweet blanco that reminded me a little of Corralejo crossed with Don Julio. I didn't like their reposado at all- it was aged 9 months in new oak. The anejo, aged in Canadian whisky casks (and I think Canadian whisky casks are often used bourbon casks used again but I could be wrong) I also enjoyed. It's strange how so many tequila brands have blanco, repo, and anejo expressions, but they may not share the same barrel finish or flavor profile.
• Speaking of that, I also tried the Don Eduardo tequila. The blanco is triple distilled and thus doesn't taste like anything much. The reposado, on the other hand is only double distilled like usual, and is wonderfully strong in agave character and spiciness from aging in Oregon pine. The anejo, aged in used bourbon barrels, I thought was just okay. Go repo!

Phew! That's it. Now I'm thirsty again.

World whiskies, then world travel

Posting will be infrequent if not non-existent over the next week and a half. I'm headed to the Whiskies of the World tasting event tonight in San Francisco, then to Vail early in the morning for the Navan/Grand Marnier Mixology Summit, then to Martinique with Rhum Clement to drink rhum agricole right from the source. Work, work, work.

Uslurper and vinegarwatch sighting

Paul Clarke has a story on pimento/allspice dram in today's SF Chronicle. The title: "Hot Dram!" Included in the story is a recipe from Martin Cate of Forbidden Island, and included in that recipe is the magic ingredient: vinegar!

On the organic happy hour circuit

Kuleto's, which has the first and only all-organic cocktail menu in San Francisco, has expanded their program. Now from 3-5 PM on weekdays they offer an Organic Happy Hour with reduced prices on orgo cocktails, wine, and beer. They also deny you plastic straws and paper napkins to rub it in, err... set the mood. And as an after-party for that, the W Bar at the W Hotel is starting an "ecolicious" happy hour in April. The party goes from 5:30 to 7:30 (so walk slowly from Kuleto's) on weekdays, serving two each of organic wines, beer, and cocktails. The $10 cocktails are a vodka-elderflower drink with a prosecco float, and a tequila-watermelon-chili drink. A portion of the proceeds goes to Save the Bay.

Belgian showers

The Toronado, a bar that normally specializes in Belgian beers, is celebrating Beglian Beer Month in April, with, I assume, even more Belgian beers than usual. I bet between this bar and La Trappe and The Trappist and Monk's Kettle you could try nearly every Belgian beer on the market. Not a bad way to spend your April.

At Beretta, less is more

When Beretta opens (currently scheduled for April 1), cocktail fans will recognize many familiar faces behind the bar. Thad Vogler (Slanted Door, Jardiniere, Bourbon & Branch) is leading the bar program, and some of the people taking shifts there will be Jon Santer (Bruno's, Range, Tres Agaves, B&B), Todd Smith (Cortez, B&B), Ryan Fitzgerald (Tres Agaves, B&B, Brick), and Eric Johnson (Eastside West, B&B). Vogler says it's coincidence that they were all looking to pick up a shift or two, but I'm already nicknaming the venue the Valencia Street All-Star Bar. Though not finalized at this point, Vogler gave me the gist of his bar program: a paired-down spirits selection, quality valued more than quantity, and execution over innovation. They'll be carrying only two brands of vodka (one local, the other organic), but a good selection of gins, rums, aperitifs, and liqueurs. The cocktail list looks like it will include a lot of classic profile drinks emphasizing the American, Latin, and Caribbean base spirits. I think it's going to be an interesting place, especially because this bar program is running in a pizzeria restaurant.

A big month for vodka flavors

Smirnoff just added two flavors to their line of vodkas: white grape and passion fruit. Now the line stands at 13 flavors. Then Skyy Vodka announced they are reformulating their flavors to use all-natural flavorings and now calling them Skyy Infusions (including grape and passion fruit flavors- coincidence?). I asked for specifics on the flavoring process but am not convinced by their answer that they're doing anything but purchasing natural flavors instead of artificial ones. The Skyy flavors don't come close to the whole-fruit taste experience of flavors by Hangar One and Charbay, but you don't really expect them to. Though I'm very leery of their overuse of the words "infusion" and "natural," the flavors are much brighter and seem to have more flavor elements than the average mono-flavoral (I just made that up) stuff on the market. So all marketing aside, they did something new and interesting. Perhaps I'll blog some tasting notes later. In other interesting flavor news, I've got to say that the organic Tru vodka lemon flavor is a total winner. You can taste rind and pith and smell the zest of the lemons. Of what I've tried, only Hangar One's Buddha's Hand is in the same league. Nice work. And finally, Charbay vodka announced that now all the fruit used in their blood orange, meyer lemon, and pomegranate flavors is organic. It's great to see everything moving in this direction.

Rumors of its demise have been greatly exaggerated

There's been a rumor that San Francisco's 209 Gin shut down its operations, but it's not true, says 209's distiller Arne Hillesland. He said he's not sure where the rumor originated, but thought it might be a misunderstanding about an employee who left. In fact, he says they're distilling this week and shipping 300 cases of the product to London. Since I last checked, they expanded their distribution from just west coast states to many in the midwest and on the east coast, including New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Phew. In this case, no news is good news.

Tiki taking over?

Now that they're serving tiki drinks in New York, the rest of the country can read about the trend. At Elettaria they're serving a few tiki cocktails including the Navy Grog and Zombie, the Rusty Knot is some kind of tiki dive, and DISCUS threw a tiki party that was reported on all the blogs. Out west, the Teardrop Lounge in Portland is doing Tiki Third Tuesday with a whole list of drinks just for the night- dang that's a lot of work! In San Francisco, a busload of bartenders went to Forbidden Island on Monday for a Rhum Clement event, so Tuesday at happy hour your favorite bartender may not look so happy. The Times story does make a good point, though.

“Certain elements of mixology have gotten too dry,” (Angus Winchester) said, referring to a bar ethos that esteems pre-Prohibition cocktails, sometimes to a point of purism. “Cocktail lists are starting to look like history lessons, with bartenders hiding behind the fact that they’re using the 1812 recipe of a drink rather than the 1814 recipe. Tiki is the antithesis to all that.”

To a degree, anyway. As Mr. Miller said of the Navy Grog: “We’re using the original 1941 recipe.”

I think the tiki trend allows for the same nerd-ness as pre-Prohibition cocktail worship, but with different flavor profiles. Those earlier drinks (and their modern incarnations favored on the East Coast) use citrus zest, twists, flames, foams, and other aromatic tricks to give spark and life to small-volume drinks that largely come out of bottles. Many tiki drinks, it seems, use citrus and other mixers as the lively base canvas of the drink, allowing the spirits some breathing room in which to show off. (Does this make sense? I'm trying to say it's like the difference between drinking straight rum and a Daiquiri.) In any case, I say more (well-made) tiki drinks is a good thing.

SF Spirits Competition Winners

Taken from the press release, here are winners of the SF World Spirits Competition for 2008:

"Best in Show-White,"  Weber Haus, Silver Cachaca, Brazil,
"Best in Show-Whisk(e)y" Highland Park, 12-year-old Single Malt Scotch,
"Best in Show-Brandy," Loujan, 1979 Armagnac, Bas Armagnac, France
"Best in Show-Liqueur" Domaine de Canton, Ginger Liqueur, France

"Top Absinthe" Vieux Pontarlier Absinthe
"Top Vodka," Snow Queen Vodka
"Top Gin" Plymouth Gin
"Best Rum" Matusalem Rum
"Top Tequila" AsomBroso Silver Tequila
"Top Reposado Tequila" El Tesoro
"Top Anejo Tequila"  Siete Leguas
"Top Extra-Aged Anejo Tequila"  Don Julio
"Top Irish Whiskey"  Jameson, Rare Vintage Irish Whiskey
"Top North American Whisk(e)y." Rittenhouse Rye Whiskey
"Top Blended Scotch," Chivas Regal, 25 Year Old Scotch
"Top Bourbon" Pappy Van Winkle, Kentucky Straight Bourbon
"Top Cognac" Hennessy Cognac Paradis Extra
"Top Fruit Liqueur" Cointreau Orange Liqueur

Shapely bottles

If short and fat is the new tall and skinny, my bottle collection will soon match my body type. Pictured: Rhum Clement VSOP, G'Vine gin, St. George Absinthe Vert.

Sponsored Post:: A source for absinthe

The following post is sponsored by Buy Absinthe Alcohol. Absinthe may be legally sold in the US if it contains less than 10 parts per million of thujone and is approved by the United States TTB. This is the same as 10 mg/kg, which, according to Wikipedia, is the legal limit in the European Union of thujone in spirits above 25% ABV. According to the website Buy Absinthe Alcohol, they sell only absinthe with limits of "35mg/lt for bitters and 10mg/lt for spirits." One liter of water weights 1kg, so the absinthes (not the bitters) appear to come under the safe thujone levels in America also. Many of the absinthes on the website list their exact thujone content, which is a nice double-check. The products appear to ship from overseas (I'm not sure where) and are marked as "not for human consumption," as they are not (yet) approved by the US TTB. Shipping fees are a little less than $30 to North America. They generally stick to selling brands from France and Switzerland, which are better regarded than Czech Republic brands. And though they say they avoid dyes and color additives, a few of the bottles' bright blue or green colors would leave me to believe that's not a hard and fast rule. Some of the brands on the website are Lemercier, Versinthe, Absente, Rodniks, and Pere Kermmans. They also sell absinthe spoons, glasses, and hard-to-find absinthe fountains, though last time I checked they were out of stock of the fountains. Here are links to the site: Buy Absinthe, the order information page: Buy Absinthe, and the blog: Buy Absinthe.

Easter brunch drinks

Green Street in Boston is celebrating Easter by making cocktails with eggs. Great idea.

Vodka hot spot:: Long Island

The New York Times reports on LiV, or Long Island Vodka, which will be released in a month. They're making the product from locally-grown potatoes; "the Long Island variety known as Marcy, which was originally developed for making potato chips." Hamptons Vodka is also made on Long Island, but from Minnesota corn.

Grandpa's drink

Via Liquor Snob, Frozen Smiles ice cube trays. Available on Amazon.

Absinthe: Hot or not?

In today's SF Chronicle Stacy Finz has a story on absinthe- will it outlive it's 15 minutes of fame? In it she lists some of the others coming to market.

The Swiss Kubler and French Lucid brands began distribution in the United States shortly after the absinthe ban was lifted last year. There are at least five more awaiting authorization from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau including Trillium, an absinthe being made in Portland, Ore. Gwydion Stone, an absinthe expert who founded the Wormwood Society, a nationwide club for lovers of the spirit, has teamed up with Portland's House Spirits distillery to make Marteau Verte Classique. The absinthe is awaiting federal approval.

Goth rocker Marilyn Manson is also jumping on the absinthe bandwagon, producing his own version in Switzerland. The aptly named Mansinthe hasn't yet received the proper licensing to be sold here. But the reviews, so far, have not been favorable. The Web site Epicurious compared Mansinthe's aroma to "sewage water or swamp mud."

Also in the story is a recipe for Jonny Raglin's Sacred Heart cocktail with pomegranate tequila, absinthe, and limoncello. Mmm.

Branch news

News from Bourbon & Branch:

• They've added classes on Cocktails 101, Rum, and Absinthe to the Beverage Academy
• Taking co-management positions after Todd Smith's departure are Joel Baker and Yanni Kehagiaras (pictured)
• Russell's Room, an additional private room built into the former barbershop next door, is scheduled to open in April.

Another absinthe cocktail

At the bottom of this absinthe story is a recipe for Neptune's Wrath from the Violet Hour in Chicago, containing gin, egg whites, lemon juice, absinthe, and flaming green Chartreuse. Sounds like my kind of drink.

Good news about menu labeling in SF

Skip to the bold statement.

San Francisco's labeling law heads for enactment Source: NRN SAN FRANCISCO (Mar. 19, 2008)

As expected, the city's Board of Supervisors gave its final approval Tuesday to a requirement that some chain restaurants post nutritional information on their menus and menu boards. The measure now moves to the desk of Mayor Gavin Newsom, who is expected to sign it into law.

The measure will require local units of chains with at least 20 units in California to display the calorie, fat, carbohydrate and sodium content of every item on their menus. Places that use a menu board instead of a conventional menu must post the calorie count of each item, but they can make the other information available through other media, including brochures or posters.

Nutritional profiles of alcoholic beverages would not have to be disclosed.

The measure, patterned after a law scheduled to take effect in New York City at the end of the month, was unanimously approved by the 11-member board in a final vote. News reports have indicated that the mandate would take effect in about six months.

Hooray!

Absinthe about town

Since absinthe became available on the market again, many restaurants are serving it in traditional cocktails like the Sazerac. At the restaurant Absinthe, they've also rediscovered a classic cocktail called the Lawhill. Farallon offers the Sazerac, Corpse Reviver #3, and the Waldorff cocktail. For a while, Yankee Pier restaurant on Santana Row in San Jose was serving oysters Rockerfeller with absinthe, as the original recipe called for it. Who knew? Other venues are experimenting with new uses for absinthe. At the lobby bar and Ame restaurant in the St. Regis, they're serving an Ame Tremor, made with Armagnac, sweet vermouth, absinthe, and a dash of bitters. At the launch party for Right Gin at bacar, they served a gin and absinthe drink that wasn't going to be on the permanent menu, but maybe if you go on Friday night Carlos will make you one. Sens restaurant offers a Raspberry-Absinthe Press, made with absinthe, framboise liqueur, and sparkling water with a lemon twist. I've tried it and it's pretty darn tasty- and you can make it at home! I've also had a touch of absinthe in A Touch of Evil at Orson that was amazing. It has bourbon, mint, lemon juice, absinthe, and rhubarb syrup. (And by the way, Orson's cocktail list is now online here.) At Conduit, a new restaurant a block from my house that I have yet to visit, they're serving a drink called The Hub with reposado tequila, absinthe, and bitters. I need to get in there and drink my way through the menu. And these are just the drinks in San Francisco. It's fun when a new ingredient hits the market and everyone uses it in different ways. St. Germain had the same effect last year. What might be the next hot spirit? I'll place my bets on Square One Vodka's cucumber flavor whenever it finally comes out (you guys know there is another cuke vodka hitting the market, right? hurry up!), and I bet we'll be seeing a lot of Veloce. But more on that later.

Snakebite?

And I thought the mezcal worm was gross...

Hundreds of bottles of booze with a bite seized in Palo Pinto

Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents seized 411 bottles of illegal hooch Thursday at Bayou Bob's Brazos River Rattlesnake Ranch in Palo Pinto County.

But it wasn't your typical variety of moonshine: the bottles of vodka also contained 10-inch rattlesnakes.

Buy a newspaper, save a bar

MarketWatch has a video on bars that serve newspaper reporters hurting or closing as newspapers lay off reporters. This effects me in two ways, writing about bars for the newspapers. So get off the internet and go buy a paper! Here, SFist analyzes the health of newspaper bars of San Francisco.

Green beer

Stephen Beaumont has the run-down on the various types of Irish beers.

Powered by whisky

From the Financial Times, by-products of the scotch whisky production will be used to generate heat and electricity.

The Combination of Rothes Distillers (Cord) would replace its dependence on fossil fuels by taking as fuel the used malted barley known as "draff" and the "pot ale" residue left by the distilleries on Speyside.

The plant would be able to generate 7.2 megawatts of electricity, mostly for export to the national grid - enough to power 9,000 homes. It would also save about 46,642 tonnes of CO 2 being emitted annually, compared with an equivalent level of coal-fired generating capacity.

The plant would also convert the pot ale left after the first distillation of whisky into a concentrated organic fertiliser for use by farmers on crops such as the barley used in the malting process.

My obsession with distillery waste products is no secret, so this is very exciting news to me. I think what they refer to as the "pot ale" is the heads and tails. Some other distilleries, such as 4 Copas tequila, also turn this into (organic) fertilizer when mixed with the discarded leaves of the agave plant. Others sell the heads and tails to industrial alcohol companies. In the US and Canada anyway, much of the solid waste from the spent corn and other grains is used as animal feed.

Conceptual recipes

Check out these measuring jugs by Harry White. They'd make for some fun cocktail recipes. "Add two Tyrannosaurus Rex brains worth of vodka, a million grains of sugar and 197 milliliters of lime juice to the shaker..."

Popular, but not pretty

According to this report on Wine & Spirits Daily, the top three cocktails ordered in metro areas New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, and Dallas/Ft. Worth are:

1. "Martinis"- "The “traditional” martini is most commonly ordered, followed by apple martinis, miscellaneous fruit martinis, dirty martinis and chocolate martinis."
2. Mojitos
3. Red Bull and vodka

Also, the most popular shot in bars and clubs is a Jager bomb- Jagermeister and Red Bull. I suppose the good news is that the most-ordered drink is a "traditional" martini, though I have a feeling it's a vodka-based one given the rest of the list. But it's too bad that even in these large cities, people are still drinking apple martinis. Mojito- a fine drink, but it's time to move on. The big news to me is how popular Red Bull is as a mixer, both in cocktails and in shots. This is interesting not only because it makes drinks taste far worse than without it, but also because it's a premium mixer that raises the price of the drinks. You get soda, tonic, and juices for free but they charge extra for Red Bull, even with bottle service. Given that, the caffeinated and energy vodkas on the market make a little more sense- they can be cost-savings products that cut-out the horrid taste of Red Bull. People can now enjoy energy apple martinis, energy mojitos, and energy margaritas. (If you hadn't heard, P.I.N.K. has expanded its line to include energy rum, tequila, sake, gin, and white whiskey.) I can see that as the up-sell in nightclubs from now on: "Would you like that with energy for an extra two dollars?"

Hollywood vinegar

I wasn't even searching for vinegar cocktails and stumbled across this story from Metromix LA:

Trend report: vinegar cocktails The type of acid trip that won’t get you arrested

Vinegarwatch 2008 continues...

New at WoW

The annual Whiskies of the World is coming up March 28 and 29th in San Francisco. On Friday the 28th, they'll be holding $30 seminars and $ 60 courses (differentiated by the duration of each) at Le Meridien Hotel. The 2.5 hour courses include "Whisky Wizardry" by John Glaser of Compass Box for those into experimentation with blending, "Grain to Glass" that seems like a large overview of whiskies from around the world, and "A Walk in the Woods" with whisky master Steve Beal of Diageo, which is all about wood maturation. The 50-minute seminars are mostly brand-specific, with tasting lectures by MacKillop's Choice, Yamazaki, Bowmore, and Laphroaig, plus "The Great Whisky/Whiskey Debate" which is about American vs. Scotch whiskies. Information on courses and seminars is here. The big tasting this year returns to the San Francisco Belle, docked at Pier 3. Even though the boat is docked the whole time it can be a little wobbly until your sea legs catch up with your natural rocking motion from the alcohol. The tasting costs $99 and runs from 6PM-10PM. New this year, the Beverage Academy of Bourbon & Branch will host a booth at the event so you can stop by and learn about the programs. The open air top deck allows for a whisky and cigar pairing, and there are live whisky cooking demos from Angel Catering. The list of whisky brands attending is here (scroll down).

Oh my Guinness

Last week Fergal Murray, Brewmaster for Guinness, was in town doing a pre-St. Patrick's Day tour of several cities. We met up at Foley's Irish Pub downtown and had a pint. Part of the reason he was here was to promote Proposition 3-17, a resolution to make St. Paddy's an official holiday. A big whatever to that, but Murray did teach me some interesting stuff about Guinness. Unlike many alcohol products, their work isn't done once the product is in its container, because the visual impact when served is one of the most crucial aspects of the Guinness experience. While other brands may have an iconic bottle or color, Guinness has an iconic fresh pint that must be poured correctly in order to match all the posters. He described enjoying their product in three parts- "crafting of the pint" or watching it being poured slowly and correctly; the "reverence of the pint" or seeing that stereotypical pint with its foamy head (he called this the most important part); and "savoring the pint" or the actual taste of the stuff and the special way you drink it getting the beer from out beneath the foamy cover. All three of those are dependent on the bartender pouring the drink the right way- and they have instructions and training on how to do just that. And they also have teams of people who come into bars to make sure things are running smoothly, that the tap lines are kept clean, and that the servers serve them properly. The hands-on work seems quite a bit different than for spirits, where it's more like, "Here are some cocktail suggestions- good luck with that!"

Planet Boozywood

Bill Dowd reports that a New York bar is serving a "Spitzer Spritzer" and another drink in the wake of the Eliot Spitzer scandal. A while back I emailed Natalie suggesting that she should open a theme bar in Los Angeles where the daily drink menu would rotate depending on the Hollywood scandal of the previous evening. (Lindsay's drinks would go from alcoholic to non-alcoholic depending on the day of the week.) In Washington, there could be an outpost where all the drinks are based on political scandals and news items. Event-driven cocktail theme bars? Yes, I know I'm a genius. Now I just need an investor.

Bottles vs. cans

Slate has a great analysis of the environmental impact of bottles vs. cans for your beer. It's another one of those questions answered with "It depends." Aluminum mining has bigger environmental impacts, yet the cans are more often recycled. Bottles are heavier and some municipalities don't recycle green bottles (who knew?) so if they're shipped from long distances they're definitely bad. Here's the short answer:

If your chosen tipple is produced very close to home and your town has a robust recycling program, then glass bottles are probably the way to go. But if your preferred suds are brewed far away, by a company that's even mildly eco-aware, aluminum cans are the wiser choice.

But the analysis is interesting, so read the whole thing.

Irish landscape

This Newsday story is about the new popularity of Irish whiskey, and includes good information about the various types of whiskey now being produced and the changing landscape of the market. When I met with one of the Jameson's masters last week they indicated that Irish whiskey, though a fast-growing category especially in the US, doesn't have the same pressure from Asian markets as does single-malt scotch. In coming years, that may be good news for bargain-hunting consumers when scotch prices go through the roof.

Celebrity guest bartending

Will celebrity bartenders be the next celebrity DJs, degrading the profession with unprofessionals? You could certainly do both at once, since being a celebrity DJ means having someone plug in your iPod, but I can't see Paris Hilton getting herself sticky. Via email friend Blair:

Danny Bonaduce, Celebrity Bartender Tomorrow, 5-8pm at The Intercontinental: 2151 Avenue of the Stars, Century City Los Angeles, CA For the first of their quarterly celeb nights, the Intercontinental's bringing out adorable Partridge runt Danny Bonaduce to mix up cocktails. Danny's favorite drink (a double vodka-cran) is 1/2-price; proceeds go to his favorite charity, which provides “assistance dogs” to the disabled (rehab veterans who still drink double vodka-crans?).

Booze cops: Now Hiring

Don't you think Booze Cops would make a nice reality show? I do, except I'm all-too likely to show up on it wearing handcuffs while clutching a gift bag for dear life. In any case, the ABC is hiring. You know where to find me when you need to increase your arrest quota.

Vinegarwatch continues

The Liquid Muse checks out Kumo's in West Hollywood and finds a vinegar drink.

The Black Margarita blends Patron tequila, Citronage, homemade sour and a splash of black vinegar. The whole thing is shaken and served on the rocks with a lavender salt rim.

Gin winners

Last night I stopped into Rye's cocktail competition with this month's sponsor Bluecoat Gin. Certainly the most interesting cocktail of the evening was Jonny Raglin from Absinthe's green garlic drink- there's nothing like a cocktail that gives you stink breath. Raglin said it was made to go with food, like a big plate of french fries. French fries and gin? That's my kind of meal. I later found out that it was a garlic gastrique. And you know what that means, folks: He used the magic ingredient of 2008: Vinegar! The competition's winners were Joel Baker from Bourbon & Branch in third place, H. Ehrman from Elixir as runner-up, and Carlos Yturria from Grand Puh Bah and other places taking home the first prize. His drink was my favorite of the night also- along with some fresh juices, it had pepper in it and I'm a total sucker for that. Winning drinks from Rye's competition make it onto their drink menu, so stop in and try one.

Vodka is the new wine

I've been having a great time reading Lawrence Osbourne's The Accidental Connoisseur, a book about the wine world. It's been stimulating some thoughts in my small brain on spirits industry innovation and marketing based on what happened in the wine world. Around page 84, he's talking with winemaker Bill Cadman, who says:

"The sick thing is," he said, "that people want to spend more money. It makes them feel reassured."

The point he was making is that the price is the best indicator of quality to most people. (Heck, I still buy wine on price, lacking any real knowledge of it, but you know, the cheap price.) Thus, if you want your brand to stand as the highest-quality product in a crowded market, you need to charge the most. "Well, duh!" I said to myself on the elliptical trainer at the gym where I do all of my best reading. It was more of a "Duh me" than a "No duh." Absolut vodka set a high price point early on and was the standard of high-quality vodka until other brands caught up on price. Then Grey Goose took the next big leap in price and that's how people "knew" it was the best. And now we have a slew of vodkas priced at over 60 bucks for 750 ml, so those are now the best. I have in the recent past blamed the marketing departments for inflated vodka and other spirits prices, and would now like to issue a partial apology. It's consumers' fault too for needing to be told what is best. And it's also the many spirit tasting competitions' fault for telling us a new batch of spirits are the best each year, making the terms "best tasting" and "award-winning" nearly useless. Anyway, just some thoughts.

SF Event: Cocktail week calendar

They've started to put together the schedule for San Francisco Cocktail Week. This year it will run May 13 - 19. Some of the events planned include an opening event at the Starlight Room with Tony Abou-Ganim, a guest bartender night at various bars around the city, several cocktail dinners with food and cocktail pairings, a "Save the Sazerac" event at Elixir, a booze and literature lecture at Hotel Rex, a farmer's market cocktails event at the Ferry Building, and a grand finale event at Absinthe. Wow. This is shaping up nicely. The SF Cocktail Week website isn't up to speed just yet, but stay tuned for more information.

Absinthe on film

Chow.com has one of their Obsessives series on Lance Winters and St. George Spirits absinthe. While sporting a sassy urban lumberjack look, Winters talks about facts and fantasies of absinthe, and says of the good products, "You want to drink the shit out of these things."

Blue drinks to match your blue pants

More fashion cocktail mania! In these Louis Vuitton ads, the models hold a neon curacao blue drink and a swamp-green one. Be careful not to spill your ugly drinks on your nice white jackets!