ALCHEMY BOTTLE SHOP, Oakland (3256 Grand Avenue, temporary number: 415-553-0803) Oakland will soon have a spirits shop to delight spirits and cocktail lovers. Alchemy Bottle Shop, from Tova Herman, formerly in the wine industry, and Peter Mustacich, who quit his Financial District day job (where he frequently spent breaks at Cask) to open their Grand Avenue spirits shop, is going… Read more →
Génépi (in Italian) or Genepy (in French)… have you met? This herbal liqueur is set to hit your favorite craft cocktail bar soon, if it hasn’t already. Besides the liqueur, the word also refers to alpine Artemisia plants (in the wormwood family), common to mountainous regions of France, Switzerland and Italy, rumored to have been used in fellow herbal liqueurs,… Read more →
At Tales of the Cocktail (2013 highlights covered here), one can easily taste hundreds of spirits in a week (not that one should). Most of what I find in tasting rooms and at events I’ve already had before, but there’s the occasional new release or product that might not have been released nationally. Here are two standout newcomers – and… Read more →
There’s only a few places in the country where one can find fried Neapolitan pizza, a twist on Italy’s perfect pies. There’s Forcella and La Montanara in NYC, and now A16 Rockridge. Even in Naples, there are few restaurants making this style of pizza. The owners of A16, included Wine Director/Sommelier Shelley Lindgren, fell in love with fried pizza in… Read more →
RANGE, Mission (842 Valencia St. between 19th & 20th, 415-282-8283) Range has been one of the Mission’s great restaurants with strong wine list and stellar cocktails since opening in 2005. Maintaining its quality across the board, they have retained staff for years – many since opening – a rarity in the restaurant/bar business. On July 10th, they launch a new concept.… Read more →
Here are a couple noteworthy products that crossed my desk in recent weeks… MOUNT GAY BLACK BARREL RUM, $29.99 Barbados favorite, Mount Gay Rum, recently released Black Barrel Rum, a rum finished in charred bourbon oak casks. For American whiskey lovers like myself, it makes for a fine marriage of bourbon and rum, balancing caramel-vanilla-sweet notes from sugar cane molasses… Read more →
Whether hunting for the latest and unusual spirits as a gift or pour during holiday festivities, these brand new products, a number of them local, are standouts in my incessant sampling. TEMPUS FUGIT CREME de MENTHE & CREME de CACAO Praise be for the arrival (finally) of these game-changing liqueurs! I had the privilege of tasting early prototypes of local… Read more →
It’s a unique time in Bay Area winemaking. We see more California winemakers finding harmony between New & Old World-style production, laying off heavier-handed extremes of overly-oaked or high alcohol wines, honing in on our region’s true terroir. While global love for big, bold California wines isn’t going anywhere, it’s ever more apparent that our range is far beyond what… Read more →
ARMAGNAC Bas-Armagnac Delord, 25-year – At a recent visit to my neighborhood haunt, The Alembic, Daniel Hyatt offered a pour of recently acquired Maison Delord’s 25 year Bas-Armagnac (“Bas” signifying the western region of Armagnac where grapes to make this armagnac are grown). I love the elegant simplicity of the label and seal – what’s inside the bottle is anything… Read more →