Whiskey Wednesday #3

Wandering a bit off the path this week: I have two store special selections from Gordon's Fine Wines & Liquors in Waltham, Mass. One of them is the bottle of Dad's Hat Rye that was selected by Gordon's liquor guy Nick Taylor and his boss, Dave Gordon, last year when I was in the distillery (check that out here); the other is a Barrell Bourbon Private Barrel Nick selected. I also have a non-whiskey spirit; hope you enjoy that. I did. Let me know if you'd like more of that. I'm looking to learn.

Dad's Hat Rye Gordon's Private Barrel, 45%
Despite what's been mentioned several places on the Internet, I didn't actually help pick this bottling. I was at the distillery, I tasted all the barrels (as did Nick and Dave, and my friend and whiskey enthusiast Sam Komlenic, and the distillery owners Herman and John), and made comments as we tasted (as did everyone), but when it came down to the actual final selection, we all stepped aside and left that to Nick and Dave, which is as it should be. They chose to blend two barrels, so this is the first time I'm tasting the selection.

Nose of rye grain, oak, and mint, with some sugary sweetness and some of that fresh-cut jalapeno character Nick noted in one of the barrels. Active, fresh, and clearly young, but not unruly. Hot and busy up front — jalapeno, alcohol, rye whack — then it settles down into rye and oak, then the peppery heat returns in the finish to wrap itself around a rye-centered slow-burning oak fire. Impressive stuff for 7-9 months old.

Verdict: Good

Barrell Bourbon #13 Gordon's Private Barrel, 62.35%
Bottled at 8 years, 6 months of age: cask strength Tennessee whisky (yes, and there's your tip on the source), unfiltered, uncut. As with the other Barrell bourbons...that's all you know. They're sourced whiskeys, and Joe Beatrice ain't talkin'. But...Tennessee. Whisky. Get it?

Mint, warehouse reek, sugary booze, cornbread, berry cobbler (heavy on the cobbler, but the berry's still there) all play happily in the nose, and it's a beauty. Wowzer of an entry, too, as the heat you'd expect from a Booker's-strength bottling is all there, but the mint blows up as it hits the tongue — not all sweet, almost like lightly-burnt mint — followed by the corn, but it's sweet, fresh-ground meal; then the oak sweeps in for the finish, a lushly-paneled hallway leading off into the distance where, hopefully, there's another sip.

There is, of course, but let's try it with water. A good dousing proves that everything's still in place after the fire's put out, and the mint is fine, and there's that berry cobbler in a corner of the kitchen that didn't get burned...and now I can taste that the baker sprinkled cinnamon sugar on top. Excellent. These Barrell selections are setting a high mark on consistent excellence; the Barrell Whiskey I reviewed last year in Whisky Advocate was one of my favorites of the year, and this is a kicker as well. Wise up, stop chasing the hype, and start grabbing some of these instead. But don't flip 'em!

If it weren't totally frigid outside, I'd get a glass of this and drop a big cube of ice in it and hit the deck. As it is, I'm going to settle in by the fire and warm up.

Verdict: Stellar

Germain-Robin Old & Rare Barrel 351, 45.3%
I've been fortunate enough to correspond with Ansley Coale occasionally over the years, thanks to John Hansell at Whisky Advocate having met him; Ansley would occasionally send samples to the magazine, knowing that we likely wouldn't review them. Then last year, things changed. Not only did he send a copy of Hubert Germain-Robin's excellent small treatise on alembic distillation (Traditional Distillation Art and Passion) and some samples of Craft Distilling's very good young whiskeys,  I got a chance to interview him for a Wine Spectator piece I did on artisanal distillers (which Germain-Robin absolutely qualifies as). Great interview, and I hope you can find a copy (it's not online, I'm afraid). He also sent me some samples of brandy for the piece; I needed tasting notes from each distillery. Having never done tasting notes on brandy before, I can only tell you, this was like trying to write your first whisky tasting notes on something like a Brora 35 year old: 0-60 in 30 words or less.

Bless his soul, even after seeing that, he sent more. and I'm going to try to do a couple of them justice. The Barrel 351 is from the vintage Ansley calls "perhaps our finest distillate, a 1987 pinot noir from the Welch vineyard in Potter Valley, 26 years old." This is what makes these brandies different; rather than distilling from wine made from the Ugni Blanc grape (which, apparently, makes so-so wine), Hubert Germain-Robin decided to make brandy from the best grapes, real wine grapes. It shows.

Fruit essence on the nose: quick, bright, intense, sweet but not insipid, and just a bare hint of oaky spice and earthy chalk underneath. Initial entry is delicate and vinous, more wine than fruit now, and you can feel the vaporous heat. Suddenly a warmth spreads over the tongue: creamy fruit, oak, and a gentle hint of vanilla. It's an eye-opener: the brandy seems to gain body as it spreads on the tongue, and fruit blossoms high in the mouth: grape, lushly ripe apricot, and a tricksy bit of anise. The finish is by way of a gentle closing of the day, as slow and beautiful as a sunset as one thing after another shuts down: the big fruits, then the grape, then the vanilla, then the wood, and finally, just the warming heat is left. There's not much of this left (only 120 bottles, from one cask), and prices are headed north of $600, making it the most expensive bottle I've ever reviewed at length. But if you like brandy, I can promise you: you will very much like this.

Verdict: Stellar

Christmas gift ideas

Got a couple Christmas gift ideas for you.

First, Massachusetts Breweries, by John Holl and April Darcy. It's one of the series of Stackpole Books brewery guides that my editor and I founded (and perfected, if I do say so myself), and it's a great job. John and April have captured the spirit of my intent with these books -- tell the story of the brewery, and make the place and the people come alive for the reader -- with writing that's accurate as well as lively and entertaining. It reads well, and it reads right. If you're headed to Mass, and you have a thirst, or just an itch to do some beer traveling, you'll want this book. And you still have plenty of time to get a copy from Amazon.

The other idea is the Liberty, Prosperity & Craftbeer Calendar, a New Jersey brewery 2013 calendar produced by Gretchen Schmidhausler, the long-time brewmaster at Basil T's in Red Bank. Now, I know what you're thinking: I don't live in Jersey, what the hell do I want with a NJ beer calendar? (You guys from Jersey, you already ordered one, I hope.) Let me tell you: the pictures of brewing scenes are beautiful. No matter where you live or drink, you'll be thinking of beer when you look up at this great piece of brewery enthusiasm. Get one today, because you get free shipping if you order by December 20; click here to get one. 

Merry Christmas!

Grab Bag o' Tasting Notes

Had some good and not-so-good beers lately, and thought I'd put them all up together.

First, not-so-good: Samuel Adams Third Voyage double IPA (8.0%). Wanted to like this, had an interesting story about Captain Cook's 3rd Voyage (to New Zealand and the PacNW, where they got the hops for this twin-hemi hopped beer)...but while it had a spicy, fruity, piney nose, the beer itself was heavy, almost logy, and thick in the mouth. I know double IPAs are big, but the really good ones are much lighter on their feet than this.

Then, Samuel Adams turns around and delivers on the Belgian Session ale, at 4.3% (some details here), and it was wonderful. Skillful brewing got a lot of flavor out of the yeast, spices, and fruit peels in the beer, and that's what session beer brewing is all about. This one is a cross between a Belgian pale and a witbier, and it works quite well: the spicy notes mingled with light and creamy orange, and the whole thing finishes crisp and dry. This isn't me liking session beer, this is me liking a good beer.

I picked up two beers from Blatant Brewery in Massachusetts two weeks ago, and reviewed the Blatant Session here. I liked it, but I liked the Blatant IPA (6.5%) even more. The hops are firmly up-front, with an insistent pine-and-pith aroma and a captivating (and appetizing) bitterness on the tongue, and the whole of the beer trips lightly on the tongue, an agile dancer of an IPA that twirls and stamps. Delicious, and I wish I'd bought more.

I mentioned the newly reformulated Killian's Irish Red in my St. Patrick's Day post (you know, the one and only one), and it deserves further mention.I remember the way Coors originally did Killian's, back in the 1980s: a surprisingly estery ale, quite tasty, a beer I used to buy by the keg. Then they changed it...and it was bland, but still red, and propped up by plastic paddy marketing. This new beer is still a lager, I think, but the new Killian's is much more malty than the debased reddish-amber flab-bag it had become. It's slippery-smooth, with some juicy Vienna-like malt in the middle, and a good malt finish. Again, surprising. Definitely one I'd buy if I were out in a bar.

I also got a variety 12-pack of Genesee beers from my good friend Sam Komlenic for my birthday last month, and I cracked out two of them, too. 12 Horse Ale was an old fave, but...wow, not so much. Blunt, even coarse, to the point where I was thinking to myself, man, I hope this has changed, because I'd hate to think I once liked a beer like this. But the old reliable, Genesee Cream Ale, was a fun beer to drink! I wasn't expecting much after the 12 Horse wagon crash, but Genny Cream was sweet and light, showing the cream ale style that won multiple GABF gold medals (Genny Cream has more gold medals than almost any other beer; seven, I think). I'd happily order this again on a hot day in a shady bar.

Got some more, but I have to go sing. Maybe later.

Element Brewing

I must apologize to Ben Anhalt of Element Brewing Company in Millers Falls, Mass. After I visited Valley Malt in Hadley (for the article published here) back in December, I rolled north to visit Element, on an invite Ben put out when he saw me post on Facebook, looking for contacts at Valley Malt (and a tip of the hat to Will Meyers at Cambridge Brewing for that contact!). I had some time to kill before doing an event at Craft Beer Cellars in support of the Kickstarter for American Beer Blogger (where I got to hang out with Chris Lohring (and drink Notch) and Nate Heck (and drink Harpoon Spruce)...and, of course, Suzanne and Kate and the crew at CBC), so I stopped in.

Millers Falls is a little town tucked into the hills of western Mass, right by Millers River, which joins the Connecticut River on the north edge of the village. Element is in the heart of town, in the old Post Office. Millers Falls doesn't have a post office anymore; when the paper mill and tool foundry closed, the USPS consolidated post offices, and Millers Falls lost theirs. On the other hand, they gained a brewery. Element opened two years ago (they celebrated their anniversary just a few days before I visited), and they brewed 350 bbls. last year. Every beer is at least 9 days in primary, and two to three weeks aging, and they bottle-condition.

Not much, right? Well, they have a plan. They sell most of their beer -- about 75% -- in bottles, and as Ben explained it, "We wanted to make good beer. I worked in 6-pack breweries, and I didn't want to compete with Sam Adams. We wanted a different market. I'd rather compete with a $10 bottle of wine. Look, when you take some beer along to a party, do you want to be the guy who brought another sixpack -- the guy they thanked and immediately forgot -- or do you want to be the hero who brought the big bottle with the cool paper wrapper?" Element's 22 oz. bottles are wrapped in a printed paper twist, and it does look pretty cool. (I'd show you, but only one of my pictures is worth a damn...and it's not worth a damn. Sorry.)

I tasted the ESO, made with an heirloom malt from England, and aged on oak to help bring out and accentuate the flavor of the malt (it worked, this was a very interesting beer as it developed on the tongue, malt depth with vanilla richness). Then it was Red Giant, an imperial amber with all English hops ("But not those cheesy Fuggles," Ben said) that was like Arrogant Bastard with Brit hops, if you can imagine that. Dark Element was another style-blender, a schwarzbier, made with British malt and American hops, and just under 9% (though it drank much lighter than that). Ben slipped me some of their winter seasonal, Winterion, an overproof Belgian while with chocolate, a "biere blanche au chocolat," he called it, and there's a ton of chocolate in there: cocoa in the boil, cacao nibs in the fermenter (along with coriander...). We wound up with Double Red Giant, which had a huge dried cherry character -- no fruit, says Ben -- that came from the malts and yeast. Very tasty, impressive beer.

The real reason I wanted to visit was that Element uses wheat malt from Valley Malt and Four Star Farms (in Northfield) to make their Vernal dunkel wheat wine. “The wheat was grown at Four Star Farms; we also used Snowshoe Farm maple syrup, from Worthington," said Ben. "It works out for us, and it works out for Four Star; they sell to Valley at a better price, and don’t have to sell it off for feed. We only made one batch –  it sold out in five days.” Really sold out: none to sample. Too bad, I love a good wheat wine.

Anyway...Glad I stopped in, and I do apologize for not getting this up sooner. Thanks, Ben!

Back to Boston

Yesterday we took my son Thomas back to school; his second sophomore semester begins tomorrow at Boston University. Here's how things were supposed to go: He and Cathy and I were going to get up early, go to 6:45 mass (a quick one, sans music), go back to the house to say good-bye to Nora, hit the road and get diesel and breakfast in NJ (we were low on fuel), and be in Boston by noon (and getting some good chowder for lunch on such a cold day) while Nora took the Saab to 9:00 mass, and spent the day studying for her finals this week.

Not what happened. We were fine, right up to the getting diesel in NJ part, which we did in Ewing, just over the river. As we were finishing up, Nora called -- Thomas forgot his new computer! Okay, we'll go back, it's only 15 minutes, and since she's now fully awake, we'll all have breakfast at the Langhorne Cafe. But she still wants to go to 9:00 mass, so she says, I'll drive the Saab down and meet you at the diner, and we can all leave from there. Okay...but as we're pulling into the parking lot, she calls: Saab won't start! Up the hill to the house, a mile away, and sure enough, battery's dead (it was quite cold, about 15 degrees F). Get the jumpers out of the Jetta, fire it up, race around the neighborhood, turn it off, and...starts right up. Just cold? Dunno, but we decide to go back to the diner with both cars.

We get to the diner -- it's full. Okay, we go to another diner, the Blue Fountain down on the Lincoln Highway. I took the Saab, revving it high and stoking more amps into the battery. We get into the diner, sit right down, and that's when Cathy and Thomas tell me that he had not just forgotten his computer...he'd forgotten his dorm room keys as well. But he has them now -- thanks to Nora! -- and all's well, and we have a big laugh, and a great last breakfast together before taking Thomas back to school. The Saab starts, we drive back to the house, leave Nora with lots of hugs (and pets to the Corgis, who are now thoroughly confused), and get back on the way to Boston...over two hours later than planned.

It is, however, a beautiful day, and traffic's quite light, and we make it there in only 4.5 hours, traveling largely at or near the speed limit. I actually got some editing done while Cathy drove in Connecticut. By the time we got there, though, we were getting a bit peckish. We first thought about going to Legal Sea Food for chowder -- I've never been, and it's a place you should probably go at some time -- but decided it was out of the way, and Thomas recalled The Daily Catch, a little Sicilian seafood place in Brookline that he and I had chanced upon last year (we were on our way to Soul Fire for a barbeque dinner when we realized it was Friday in Lent...and there was The Daily Catch right across the street from our epiphany, so we went in and greatly enjoyed it), so we went there.

Had the place to ourselves, and you're probably wondering by now what any of this has to do with beer or whiskey or anything else you might be interested in -- to which I think I can properly reply that it's my blog, and I can write about whatever, no? -- but here's your payoff: Cathy and I ordered beers from their local-heavy selection. She got a Cape Anne IPA, which had a solid malt character I found appealing, and I got a Berkshire Steel Rail Extra Pale, a beer I've always enjoyed since my first tasting, years ago. And I was reading the label, curious if they had an ABV listed (5.3%, it turns out), when I came across the text shown in the picture: "In the words of renowned beer writer Lew Bryson, Steel Rail EPA is 'what the water in heaven oughta taste like.'"

Ha! I was surprised to find this, the first time I had any inkling that Berkshire had quoted my Ale Street News column from 2009 on the lack of respect pale ale gets from the geekerie. It's fun to see your name on a label; hell of a lot more fun than on a wanted poster, I assume!

Anyway, the meal was excellent: we had the house specialty fried calamari to start (made fresh there, not frozen), and I had calamari with a seafood-based red sauce over linguini, Cathy and Thomas each had scallops and linguini with white clam sauce. Quite tasty, and quite good with the beer. We took him to the dorm, unloaded, sat with him a bit, and got him settled in, saw his roommate again (real nice guy, spent Christmas with us), and...headed home. Even less traffic, another quick run...and the Saab won't start. Time for a new battery. Cheers!

Big American Whiskey Article

Once again, I wrote the annual American Whiskey piece for Massachusetts Beverage Business magazine, and it's up here. Have a look, let's talk about what I got right, and what I missed, and what I screwed up!

More Clear Spirits

I did the Vodka issue cover story for Massachusetts Beverage Business again, and I remembered and rediscovered the romance of the liquor.

Back in the day, I was a straight-up vodka man.  I’d started swilling vodka mixed with anything sweet, but then I met a Russian girl who challenged me to drink chilled half-ounce shots of Smirnoff with her.  I was hooked.  I never saw her again, but I retained a love for the subtleties of straight vodka. 
There’s not a lot of us.  “1O% of my clients drink it straight,” said Ryan Maloney at Julio’s Liquors, “and I’m probably exaggerating."

I got excited, and I challenged the retailers I was writing for to get excited again as well.

Clear glass and vibrant color; anonymous buzz in a Bloody Mary and teasing subtlety in a ritual glass; faceless Slavic liquor and storied European spirit; bottom shelf rocket fuel, solid reasonable value, and high-priced luxury badge; anesthetic, inspiration, refreshment, amusement, tasty temptation, and effortlessly sophisticated companion to the finest caviar . . . To call this protean liquor “colorless, odorless, and tasteless” sells it terribly short.  If you’ve been pushing it without romance, maybe it’s time to think again about what vodka is, and what it can be.

I'm looking for thimble glasses, and planning a zakuski party.

Massachusetts: coming and going

I talked about the recent increase in booze taxation in Massachusetts recently (in the context of how a Massachusetts legislator voted for the tax hike and then got caught buying less-taxed, cheaper booze in New Hampshire). But this caught my eye this morning... Massachusetts put this tax in place to raise revenues during the recession, right? I mean, aside from the whole moral issue of raising taxes during a recession, that was the idea.

So how come they now want to ban alcohol advertising on public transit...which is a moneymaker for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority? The ban "could benefit about 25,000 children" who ride public transit. By what, not letting them look at booze ads unless they look out a window at all the beer billboards? Hypocrisy. Ludicrous. How about the definite benefit to those kids of subsidizing public transit by selling ads?

BOHICA: higher booze taxes in Illinois, North Carolina tomorrow

After booze tax increases in New York and Massachusetts, now it's time for moderate-drinking residents of Illinois and North Carolina to celebrate being taxed more than their fellow citizens just because they like having a cocktail before dinner or a beer with the game. Taxes go up tomorrow in both states. I can only assume that New Dry organizations in the states and in the national hives (Marin, PIRE, yeah, I'm talking about you) are dancing with glee as short-sighted state governments pile on the pain by raising taxes during a recession.

I mean...a lot of these states have balanced-budget amendments. But it appears that to almost every legislator and governor, those requirements mean nothing about keeping spending in check; no, they're about a need to raise taxes. Sin taxes. Regressive taxes. I know the cries: "It's only a nickel!" (It never is: either it's a producer tax that ripples and expands, or it's a direct tax that's more by the time it gets to someone drinking good stuff) "Drinking is a luxury!" (So's candy, but there's no special tax on that. (Actually, there is: Illinois taxed that, too; see comments, below) Okay, pets are a luxury, and there's no tax on them!) "Drinking costs billions!" (Really? Check your figures. The whole booze biz also puts billions back into the economy.) "Drinking is a sin!" (Who let him in? I thought we got rid of you back in 1933. Anyway, your mom's a sin, but we don't tax her.)

Here's a cry for you: booze taxes unfairly tax lower-income citizens. Is that the kind of thing you want to do during the worst recession in decades? Way to go, Mr. Progressive.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania has apparently dodged the bullet again, if Governor Rendell's latest lame joke is any indicator.

"The media's low-paid and high consumers." - Gov. Rendell, joking in a Harrisburg news conference this week about the state budget and the politics that determined that an increase in beer taxes would not find support.

Western Massachusetts brewpubs

Hmmm... Here we are, in Massachusetts. We're visiting colleges (Vassar yesterday, Hampshire today, Clark and Holy Cross tomorrow), and, well, I'm slipping a few brewpub visits in. We got to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art this morning, which was quite nice: there was an exhibit of original art from the Winnie the Pooh books.

Then we ran over to Northampton and had lunch at the Northampton Brewery, the oldest brewpub in New England. Cathy and I first visited the brewpub way back in the summer of 1989, on a beautiful sunny day...a lot like today. But today we sat outside in it, enjoying their second-story deck. It took a while; they were busy downstairs, and we just kind of stood at the door waiting for almost five minutes.

But the bartender was real good about it when he could get to us, and we got seated up on the deck. I grabbed a Daniel Shays Best Bitter (nice, smooth, malty, with a hop twist), and we lined up lunch: a Cuban for me, with a very nice pickle relish; chicken caesar salad for Nora and a grilled shrimp caesar for Cathy, and Thomas got the poblano meatloaf sandwich. Good eats all 'round, and I copped a Northampton Pale Ale, too (similar, but crisper, more bitter). We had to run, though; it was time for the tour at Hampshire. So we ran, and made it...just in time to sit for 15 minutes waiting for the late tour to start. Grrr... Beautiful day to walk about mountain-girdled campus.

Yeah, but it was hot, and we bolted after it was over for the motel in Northampton. After we'd calmed down, chilled a bit, I talked the family into driving up to The People's Pint in Greenfield. I've been wanting to get here for quite a while, and it was worth the wait. I got a smoked trout quesadilla (and they served it with fresh cream horseradish!), and Cathy and I each got cask Pied PIPA: good stuff, smooth flavor, not brain-crushing, but hoppy. Then I hopped on an Oatmeal Stout, and it was flavorful and luscious, a bit chocolatey, and just a bit rich, a real drinky pint. I loved the place: good size, good vibe, good beers, and a serious commitment to local food and sustainability. I could spend days here.

Tomorrow? Dunno, but I've got breakfast at the Roadhouse lined up, and that's a start to a good day!