Spirits Tales

The Hunt

Monday morning. 

The sunny, tourist-invaded town awakes slowly from an everlasting Friday night hangover.

I am enjoying the warm morning and staring at the people in line, diligently waiting for 9 a.m., store opening time, and I can't help but wonder if last night's TV Show, with its big hats, vintage atmospheres, and perfectly tailored ads, has worked its magic once again, as always... And here he comes... Tall, broad-shouldered, friendly smile, and 3, 2, 1: "Buffalo Trace? Eagle Rare? Buffalo Trace? Come on. I know you have some in the back". 

Same old song: perhaps the mentioned TV Show should use this repeated question as its opening theme song.

"No, Sir, we do not," a courteous but visibly annoyed associate answers. She'd better get a voice recorder and have it going for the next hundred times she will hear that question today.

And he walks out. Disappointed. Those gorgeous eyes are already looking at Google Maps, searching for the next liquor store, unfortunately ignoring the Rabbit Hole Cavehill Single Barrel Cask Strength 2022, the Joseph Magnus Cigar Blend, The Saints Alley Herald, the gracious display barrels with the store picks...

In the last few years, we have witnessed the rise of Bourbon fever, with its hypes, wise moments, glories, contradictions, hipsterishness, and nastiness.

The good part is that many folks got a chance to learn more about Bourbon, and with that, I mean the entire, culturally fascinating sip of American history that moves across distilleries, old ranches, family recipes and family wars, prohibited spirits, and mobster entrepreneurs: the part of history that not even the best of the TV Shows could resemble, the part that can be tasted only through the wood and glass.

The bad part is that many bored fashion victims jumped in to be a part of what they thought was the brand-new thing to brag about on social media. Yes. Social Media. The multi-purpose, highly disposable encyclopedia that apparently is the ultimate source of many self-proclaimed Bourbon Hunters' knowledge, oh well... Those who gather their knowledge in such a way also feel compelled to constantly lecture us peasants, who dare roam the liquor stores "unprovided" of beard and glasses, about their own Bourbon "gloriousities" (I guess I just made up a word: Cheers! Salute!), laughing at us if we commit the sacrilege of forgetting one of the sixty-eight thousand, five hundred, twenty-eight Bourbon-related abbreviations. Oh, no!

Well, as I always say, "To each their own", meaning that my respect for individual choices that do not interfere with others' individual choices is endless, but I learned a few things in all these long years of passionate and devoted relationship with Bourbon:

TO GET YOU HAVE TO GIVE

Before asking locals for free advice, support locals by showing up to themed events and tastings.

DO NOT BE A BOURBON BUNNY

While shop-hopping for rare bottles, have the courtesy of purchasing something, especially in the places you visit the most.

HONOR AMONG SIPPERS

Do not be competitive and arrogant towards folks in the Spirits industry, especially if you are in the industry too.

DO NOT SIP AND TELL

If someone shares information with you, ask for their permission before sharing it with others.

DO NOT LECTURE

Sharing knowledge and opinions is good, but lecturing is unnecessary and rude.

DO NOT BE A BRAND HIPSTER

Keep your mind and taste open: do not criticize someone who dislikes a brand that you enjoy.

DO NOT STRESS OUT

If you can't find a bottle, no drama: eventually you will find it, or find a new favorite.

KEEP UP WITH RELEASES

Do not shy away from Bourbon release events: they are a great way to meet like-minded folks and exchange information.

CHASE THE LOTTERIES WISELY

Camping in front of the place can be fun, no matter how many criticisms you hear, but if you do that or end up hiring line-holders, always be mindful of the final price of the bottle plus your vacation plus the little helpers.

BEST CHANCES TO GET A RARE BOTTLE "OF THOSE ONES" ARE IN KENTUCKY

This statement is self-explanatory.

ONE MAN'S TRASH IS ANOTHER MAN'S TREASURE

Yes, Pappy. Sure, Weller. Of course, Blanton's and its horsey trinkets, but: do not forget to take a look at the overlooked bottles that the TikTok boys left untouched. Some are outstanding pours.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK

There are many online sources that provide up-to-date Bourbon release calendars, and by digging a bit deeper, you can figure out the chain of distribution for your State. This will help you get a realistic idea of your chances of finding "IT" and where to find "IT". I can teach you, but I have to charge (I used to say this all the time, but apparently, I was quoting some famous person I still ignore).

ENJOY THE RIDE

Bourbon hunting can be stressful and frustrating, or it can be fun, informative, and rewarding. It all depends on how you chose to go about it. Just enjoy the ride!

#Salute

#Salute

Copyright ©2023 Salute! Italian Cooking - All Rights Reserved.

Salute! Italian Cooking

Sazerac Cocktail: The Spirit of New Orleans

 New Orleans. The scent of mystery, mixed with the smoke of a thousand cigars, is piercing the rainy air tonight. I am sitting at this bar, way past the last call. I guess I missed it or might have pretended to.

I can't stop myself from staring at the intriguing almond-shaped eyes of the bartender: through the smoke of my Camacho Triple Maduro Gordo those chocolate-colored eyes look even more exotic. He is busy putting some glasses away and sending a few smiles in my direction. I stop him, pointing to the green bottle of absinthe behind him: "Do you know how to make a Sazerac?" 

He smiles again: "Yes, Madam, of course. Would you like one?" 

"Yes, please. Legend has it: Sazerac is the first American cocktail. Do you know how it was born?"

"Please tell, Madam, while I serve you".

"There are many legends around its origins, but my favorite one involves an exotic pretty gentleman, some spirits of different nature and the American Dream. 

It was in the 1830s when a Creole apothecarist named Antoine Peychaud, one dark and stormy night, decided to add some dashes of his handcrafted bitter to his favorite cognac, Sazerac de Forge. According to the legend, that very night a wealthy woman, who was roaming the French quarters to escape the boredom of her golden prison, noticed the lights in Peychaud's apothecary and she approached seeking shelter from the rain. The apothecarist welcomed her and offered her a sip of his new creation, in an egg cup called a "coquetier", which is rumored to have later originated the word cocktail. 

They drank, they laughed, they talked. And talked. 

The morning found them still debating over replacing the smooth, full-bodied cognac with a spicey, more complex spirit. The Lady suggested to add that spirit as well, and so he did. It was rye whiskey. 

When she left the small shop, she took him out of the door with her. 

- Can you taste it? - She asked. 

- Taste what? - The young Peychaud inquired - The rain? - 

Her eyes were staring at a somewhere far away - New Orleans. Can you taste it? Its aroma pierces through the nostrils and bring to the palate the same flavors of your drink: new and old, strong and elegant, bitter and sweet. It's like this Nation too. Do not give up on it. Keep on stirring, adding, mixing and reinventing, even when the taste isn't good, and the sweetness of a dream came true will shower your senses. - After those hopeful words, the young Peychaud watched her walk away in the quiet, foggy street, until her dark silhouette disappeared". "One remarkable woman...", the bartender interrupts. 

"Yes, indeed.  As I always say: - Some women can explain to you the mystery of love, some other women can squeeze love out of you, but only one woman, just like the Green Fairy of the Absinthe, can ignite love inside your chest, watch you burn, and call it "expected side effects" -  Back to our young Peychaud, he never saw her again until decades later, when he was a famous apothecarist, and he was flipping the pages of the old New Orleans annals. Her portrait stroke through the pages, right in his eyes. Her name was Hope and she was dead 40 years before the night when they met. That night Peychaud was just looking to get drunk and to forget the adversities and difficulties that he was facing while trying to become a pharmacist. That unexpected encounter gave him renewed hope and pushed him to go on and succeed: like Hope told him, later his dreams came true. He collected this and many other stories in his journals, and every page would end with the words: Thank you, Hope."

The bartender stares at me through the smoke, puts the glass in front of me: his eyes are teary and his smile a bit uncertain now. He waits for me to try his potion. 

I am taking a drag from my cigar and let it out, together with my personal clouds of memories and thoughts, then a sip of that bittersweet spicy drink.

"Yes, my dear. It tastes like New Orleans".

Sazerac Cocktail

St. George's Absinthe, to rinse the glass.

1 1/2 teaspoons of brown sugar 

1/2 teaspoon of cold carbonated water

3/5 dashes of Peychaud’s barrel aged bitters

1 1/4 ounces of Baby Saz (Sazerac 6y) rye whiskey

1 1/4 ounces of Sazerac De Forge cognac

Garnish: lemon peel

A Camacho Triple Maduro Gordo  or a Davidoff Nicaragua Robusto as a final touch of elegance and romance.

#neworleans #sazeracrye #sazeraccocktail #camachocigars #davidoffcigars #Salute 

#Salute

Copyright ©2023 Salute! Italian Cooking - All Rights Reserved.

Salute! Italian Cooking

The Dragon and the Liquor Hound.
A Talk with Chris Treviño, the Liquor Hound
In a world of drunken celebrities pushing Spirits without exactly knowing what is in the bottle, fashionista master distillers, soap operas in disguise of historical drama that advertise otherwise pretty insignificant bottles, self-proclaimed Bourbon hunters and bearded lecturers, I found myself spending more and more time in my lair, languidly enjoying the hundreds of bottles I have hoarded across the decades.
Some of these bottles, once interesting and pretty unique for mash bill and finish, slowly started to taste all the same, especially when they began to be on everyone's mouth as "classics, allocated, unicorns".
I definitely needed to get out and find that spark again.
Yes. My kind definitely do very good with sparks.
I started to wander and maunder, traveling on the road, stopping at unknown distilleries, talking to folks in any little mom and pop stores I would find along the journey.
My interest started to rise again, but still I knew I hadn't found what I was looking for. Not yet. Until one day, when absolutely out of the blue, a once-friend showed me a YouTube channel of a gentleman called the Liquor Hound.
"Cute", I thought. I love hounds, and doggies, and liquors... What could go wrong?
The more I listened to the gentleman, with his calm and mannered voice, going through his remarkable collection of Spirits, the more I realized that his passion was extremely authentic and genuine, while his knowledge was spontaneous and wonderfully passed along to the listeners.
I remember I thought: "A fine palate like that, so open-minded when it comes to taste different Spirits, would make an outstanding Master Distiller". Ditto. It was with my extreme satisfaction that I found out that, indeed, he was Chris Treviño, not only the Liquor Hound, but also the mastermind behind Saints Alley Spirits, Texas-based project with iron roots. No! I mean, literally: IronRoot Republic Distillery is where the magic has started.
Nope, these distilled are not allocated (they should!). They might not be as rare to be defined Unicorns (Thank Goodness!), even though they are pretty legendary - trust me: my kind has some experience with legendary stuff! - but they should definitely be the desired prey of every real hunter.
I could talk about the story of that collaboration, or about what drove this genius to start doing what he is doing so good, but I'd rather leave it to Chris Treviño's words, while I sip one of my all time favorites: Saints Alley - The Nobleman Rye, Batch 1. Primo! Delizioso!
Question: What inspired you to get into this business? Your Spirits Collection is remarkable. How did you start and how did other distilled inspire you in creating your own spirits?
Response: To be honest, I never really set out to become a blender or work in the industry. I just began collecting and educating myself on spirits beginning in 1994 as a hobby. Back then the internet was just getting going, so there wasn’t a lot of sites with reviews and ratings like nowadays. Back then, there were maybe 1-2 bourbon forums, 1 for rum, and a handful of whisky/ey writers and bloggers. So I spent years reading and learning what I could as I grew my collection one segment at a time. First it was tequilas, and for a solid few years, all I bought, studied, and tasted were agave spirits. Then I progresses into rums for a few years. That was followed by years dedicated to bourbons, then single malts, world whiskies, and brandies. Heck, I even dedicated a year each to absinthe, vodkas and gins (there’s greatness in those as well). Of course education never stops, so I still taste hundreds (if not thousands) of bottles every year. But now I’m able to shift about, and as segments develop or “get hot” (like rums, mezcals and tequilas have done most recently) I’m there to see what’s happening.
As for my “LiquorHound” YouTube channel, I began it in 2010 as a way to help people make wise buying choices. For me, it was never about subscriber counts or monetary gains. I just remember how scarce solid information was when I was starting out, and didn’t want others to have that problem. And as I had already been self purchasing my 1,000 bottle collection up until that time, I just kept that up and never asked for corporate sponsorships or bottle donations. It was probably a tougher road than it had to be, but I just felt that my viewers would have more faith in me if there weren’t conflicts of interests.
Fast forward to 2015, and upon meeting the Likarish family, the one thing that helped me fall in love with them was how hungry they were for “spirit knowledge” (beyond their own products). I had already been collecting and educating myself on spirits for 23 years at that time and my collection was around 2,200 bottles. I had been doing my YouTube “LiquorHound” reviews for about 6 years then, and it was keeping me busy, but I’d make the 1.5 hour trip to the distillery 1-2 times a week to taste them on bottles from my collection. Each visit we’d focus on tasting one spirit category at a time (single malt, single grain, rum, rye, etc…), but of course bourbon was where we began. We tasted hundreds of brands/releases and even did a vertical lineup of multiple decades going back to 1913 to understand the flavor history and how things have changed. My feeling was, “In order to make great bourbon, you have to know what great bourbon tastes like.” Well they soaked all that up and now have a great mental library to constantly compare everything we do. Then in 2018 we took a trip to Cognac, France together, and it was there that we hatched the idea of a blending project. Next thing I know, they’re asking me to be a part of it and Saints Alley was born.
Question: Many master distillers are experimenting with new products and cross-finished spirits nowadays. In your opinion, what are the main reasons behind this change?
Response: In a nutshell, new product development I believe has been spurred on by the huge demand of bourbon and the drive to keep old customers while engaging new ones. A big obstacle for most is the lack of aged stocks, which has caused distilleries to look for new and creative ways to release tasty products. Some focus on blending, some on using unique stave/head toasting or finishing casks, and a few play off of what Wild Turkey started with “Unforgiven” and do the bourbon rye combination - High West of course has been doing that years as have others, but I think Redwood Empire has had the best game plan. They bottle MGP rye as “Emerald Giant” and MGP Bourbon as “Pipe Dream”. Then the mix the two and bottle it as “Lost Monarch”. Of course for me and Saints Alley, we focus on bringing in sourced column distilled bourbon or rye, aging it up in Texas’s wild climate, blending them with Ironroot’s rich pot still distilled whiskeys, and finishing it in unique casks for several months to over a year (we don’t pull them until they’re ready).
Question: You are one of the master minds behind Saints Alley, where you push the boundaries on what to expect from a Bourbon with your barrel finished. What led you to these idea?
Response: For us at Ironroot/Saints Alley, we’ve always been in search of flavors that wow us. Whether that comes from the world or Bourbons, Brandies, Rums, or Single Grains/Malts, we love it when we take a sip and our eyes light up! It’s those experiences that have us using trusted finishing casks like Sherry, Cognac and Port while working with unique ones like Armagnac, White Port, French Rhum, Pineau des Charentes, and Tokaji. Of course having all those flavor profiles are great, but without a focus on proper blending, they could lead to a confusing mess. I guess that’s where our experienced palates comes in handy.
Question: What should we expect, in a nearby future, from Ironroot Republic and Saints Alley?
Response: Speaking for my work on the Saints Alley side, improvement, improvement, improvement. I know we’re being received well, but since I come directly from the consumer side of things, I’ve seen many brands intro well only to then fade off (quality wise). I want to do the exact opposite. So we’re bringing in more and more stock, aging up longer and have always used the best casks we can find (momma Marcia is great at that). While it’s not cheap to use 15-40 year old casks, it does show in the final products. Right now, I’m happy that people are enjoying our releases and that our new Saints Alley line is beginning to receive some accolades (I’m especially proud of how they do in blind competitions).
Speaking of accolades, I can’t end this without mentioning the greatness of Ironroot’s “grain to glass” whiskies. Their skill at distillation, maturation and blending has always impressed me, and it’s led to a lot of awards in their 9 years of operation. Along with their use of heirloom corn as flavoring grains, I think their understanding of Texas’s climate and the integration of a few unique methods has really helped them make spirits that are rich and big, but not necessarily hot or over oaked. One of the things the Likarish brothers (Jonathan and Robert) have long done is apply the Cognac technique of elevagé. That’s where you slowly add water to “proof in barrel” over a month or two. It gives the water and whiskey time to marry and extract great flavors from the oak while limiting aggressive tannins that Texas whiskeys are sometimes known for. It’s just another “part of the puzzle” that makes them shine and it’s something we had to also apply to our Saints Alley side of things.
Question: I know that you travel a lot for presentations and tastings of your spirits, and other matters related to this industry. What does the Liquor Hound drink while traveling?
Response: I am typing this at La Guardia airport, so travel has definitely begun for us. Between it and our distillery work, it keeps us busy, but getting to meet people from all over the country is amazing! And when I’m away from my spirits, I like to keep it simple. If I’m not drinking iced tea , a bottled-in-bond is typically what I’ll look for. But if that’s not available, maybe a Knob Creek or a Woodford Double Oaked would be my call.

https://www.youtube.com/@LiquorHound
https://www.saintsalleyspirits.com/
https://www.ironrootrepublic.com/
#Salute
Copyright ©2023 Salute! Italian Cooking - All Rights Reserved.
Salute! Italian Cooking