Many spirits cross my desk or are tasted at countless bars or distilleries I visit in any given month… here are 5 international spirits — from gin to mezcal, Scotch to rye whiskey — that have stood out in recent months. CALEDONIA SPIRITS’ BARR HILL GIN ($35) Thomas Hardie (a distiller I was privileged to meet recently on his trek… Read more →
From my 15 articles/posts a week as Zagat Editor, I summarize and link to just some of this coverage here – you can sign up for Zagat’s weekly newsletter for the Bay Area here and follow along on Twitter @ZagatSF, where I post daily. As I have been for over a decade, I’m on the ground daily looking for early… Read more →
Article by Virginia Miller; photos from brand websites except where noted [Taken from my ZAGAT article on 4 New Local Spirits to Try, I have also added two additional recommended spirits, another one from California, and one from Oregon]: In the scheme of quality spirits, each of these is fantastic. Even better, they’re all made locally from Sonoma to Mountain… Read more →
Article and Photos (unless otherwise noted) by Virginia Miller Three Seattle visits in the past seven months centered around craft distillery and cocktail bar research means a few spirits have stood out among the dozens I’ve tasted from Washington state, most launched in recent years. Here are my top seven from the glut of craft distillers hitting the Washington market:… Read more →
In the Netherlands with BOLS GENEVER Photos & Article by Virginia Miller Getting lost amid the canals and museums of Amsterdam is mesmerizing. This May, I took a memorable journey to the Netherlands with legendary Bols Genever, genever (pronounced “jeh-NAY-ver”) being the precursor to gin (read my Amsterdam food/dining recommends and best cocktail havens and dive bars here). Confusion still… Read more →
No doubt about it: gin has had a year. Small batch producers are sprouting up in greater numbers than ever – in the US but also the UK. Though Bay Area local, Old World Spirits, made waves with their barrel aged gin, Rusty Blade, years ago, the aged gin trend has taken off, with even legendary Beefeater (who I had… Read more →
Meeting lovely Véronique Van Acker-Beittel here in San Francisco in September, I learned fascinating things about genever (pronounced “jeh-NAY-ver”) that I was not aware of even after years of drinking and exploring the Dutch/Belgian spirit that is the predecessor to gin. As a Belgian native (from East Flanders, specifically) who moved to the US in 2002 and married an American, Van… Read more →
Here are some of the best or noteworthy drink books released this year so far, with one (Whiskey Women) out in October 2013. THE COCKTAIL LAB – Tony Conigliaro ($29.99) London’s experimental cocktail genius, Sicilian Tony Conigliaro, blessed drink aficionados with his book, Drinks, last year in the UK, just released this summer in the US under the name, The… 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 →
CHRISTIAN DROUIN Pommeau de Normandie If you love spirits and apples, then Calvados is your is your ideal imbibement. The elegant French version of apple brandy grown in the Calvados region of France, the apple brandy is often rounded out by pears, and in the case of Calvados Christian Drouin, one of the world’s best-selling small Calvados producers (around 150,000… Read more →