The Spirit World

Artisan spirits are very much on the agenda for Tales of the Cocktail attendees. Distillers of hand-crafted, low-volume gins vodkas, liqueurs and other spirits rub shoulders here with innovative bartenders who value artisan spirits as ingredients in their original cocktail creations. You’ll even find distributors who are willing to work to get those products onto […]

Calling New Orleans a good place to hold a cocktail convention is a little like suggesting that the folks who make slot machine might want to meet up in Vegas. Can you say “duh?”
Here in the Big Easy, where go cups on Bourbon Street, and festive dining everywhere are  the rule, the sixth annual Tales […]

A 10 year long record has just been broken. Back in his day British wine writer Malcolm Gluck signed 1,001 books with his full signature in 59 minutes.
But this remarkable achievement has just been broken by Sir Salman Rushdie of all people. Rushdie, during a US book tour, managed to inscribe his name on 1,000 […]

Wine from South Africa does not get the recognition it deserves. They are the eighth largest producer of wine in the world yet I guarantee when the average person goes to the wine shelves they head straight for France, Italy or Australia. It’s a real shame as they produce a wide range of varietals and […]

Very soon, cocktail geeks from around the world are convening in New Orleans for the sixth annual Tales of the Cocktail. As mentioned in earlier posts, July means its time for the annual celebration of all things cocktail and spirit, held in the birthplace of American cocktails. I’m so excited to be attending this year!
If […]

It is probably too late to order the wines directbut you should be able to pick up a few locally, (which you would have to do if outside the USA anyway) for the first Twitter Taste Live.

“Bin Ends (www.binendswine.com) has announced the launch of their international Twitter Taste LIVE series, featuring famous wine personalities from around the […]

A nice, rich, full bodied Syrah here. This one was kind of a surprise, (having never heard of this winery before) but a nice surprise at that.
So many wineries so little time, I know I know very cliché, but in the Sacramento region will all of the wine counties available I learn about 3 […]

What do you get when you mix butterscotch with a complex, 43-ingredient liqueur and top it with a chocolate-cream head? The answer is the cocktail created by Sweden’s 2008 Bartender of the Year. The bartender is one Fredrik Lindfors of the Cadier Bar in Stockholm and the drink is the Ebony & Ivory.
At first I […]

Imagine strolling through a field of lavender in Provence then being whisked
off on a high speed train to Languedoc. That’s how I would describe my first impression of Corbières “Fontanilles” Domaine des Deux Anes 2005. At the exceptionally reasonable price of $ 10, this artist pick is a winner. Dark, rich and smoky with […]

Odd, complicated, and delicious. All three of those adjectives describe a product from Crop Vodka. It’s not what you would expect though: it’s tomato flavored. The wonderful thing about it is that it’s not gimmicky flavored, it’s actually USDA organic. On the nose, tomato really rings out, smelling like V8 minus 7.
 I was also really […]