Mixology Monday LXX: Inverted

This month's Mixology Monday is hosted by Stuart over at Putney Farm. He wants us to think about the various ways that cocktails can be 'inverted'.

"We wondered if we could apply the same “inverted” approach to Mixology Monday and, at first, didn’t think it would work. But then we asked ourselves, what does “inverted” really mean? Well, here is the definition:

1 - To turn inside out or upside down 
2 - To reverse the position, order, or condition of

Hmm…it appears that the definition is pretty broad. It seems that “inverted” really just means something “flipped on its head”.  And that can mean almost anything, and leaves plenty of room for creativity. So we are going with the “inverted” theme. You can invert the ratios of spirits, liqueurs or bitters in a cocktail, but we suggest you go beyond that and “invert” whatever you want. Spirits, name, ingredients, proof, color, geography, garnish and glassware are all fair game. An apéritif made with Navy-Strength booze? Give it a try. A beer-based cocktail that tastes like champagne? Sure. A clear Manhattan? Worth a shot (and good luck with that). The only thing we expect is the unexpected. Have fun."

In trying to think about what to do with that, I went for a fairly straight-forward inversion: halve the liquor and double all of the other ingredients in a cocktail. The victim - the Vieux Carré

Carré Vieux
0.5 oz rye whiskey
0.5 oz cognac
2 oz sweet vermouth
0.5 oz Bénédictine
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 dashes Peychaud's bitters

Combine all ingredients, stir with ice for fifteen seconds, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The nose has a very strong grape note from the vermouth and cognac. The bitters and Bénédictine peek out, but have a hard time holding their own. The sip begins rather sweetly, balanced between grapes from the vermouth and herbal sweetness from the Bénédictine. The cognac dominates mid-palate along with some citrus, slowly giving way to the various bitter ingredients. The finish is grape and chocolate.

The sweet vermouth becomes the center of gravity for the drink, around which the other ingredients can only orbit. While it's good, I feel like it highlights the logic behind the original. Even using a rather pungent vermouth like Punt e Mes, it still comes off as almost cloying, despite the extra bitters. I think this would actually make a nice aperitif-style drink if you cut the measurements in half and lightened it with soda water (the acidity would also help to neutralize some of the sweetness).

Rum Review: House Spirits Rum 2011 Release

House Spirits is a Portland distillery that was established in 2005. Best known for their Aviation gin, they also put out what used to be known as their Apothecary line - small runs of experimental spirits. This has included everything from ouzo, gammel aquavit, malt whiskey, and rum.

This rum was released during the Great American Distiller's Festival in 2011. Made with molasses, the white rum was aged for nine months in ex-Chardonnay wine barrels, then diluted down to 40% ABV for bottling.

House Spirits Rum Batch 29

Nose: toasted oak, peanut butter cookies, graham crackers, molasses, light wine cask influence. After adding a few drops of water the nose becomes drier and a little musty with some buttered toast.

Taste: very smooth, creamed brown sugar up front, mild oak, light esters, and pepper mid-palate and back. After dilution it becomes sweeter, but the molasses notes are lighter, with the wine cask finally becoming present.

Finish: short, creamy spices, bittersweet molasses, light esters, drying.

This rum is a huge improvement on their first versions, which were made with turbinado sugar rather than molasses. There is much more body and depth of flavor. With that said, while this is a significantly better effort, there is still room for improvement. While precise distillation and the wine barrels did a good job of rounding off any rough edges, it doesn't have the kind of complexity I would hope for. If I had my druthers, future efforts would focus on increasing the ester content, either through different yeasts or dunder, in the Jamaican style. That would provide a richer base that could be combined with more active wine casks for something really unique and interesting.

Beginner's Guide to Scotch Whisky

I'm just going to hit the highlights here. For a more in-depth beginner's guide, hop over to Malt Madness for the inside scoop.

First off, scotch whisky (always without an e) is made in Scotland. The Scotch Whisky Association fights assiduously (successfully and unsuccessfully) to prevent distillers anywhere else in the world from marketing spirits that might be confused with real scotch. So what is it supposed to be?

There are two different types of whisky that usually spring to mind when people think of scotch. Single malt whisky gets most of the adulation, with big names like Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, and Macallan. Breaking down the name, it refers to a spirit made from 100% malted (partially germinated to convert starches into sugar, then arrested with heat) barley that is fermented and distilled in a copper pot still at one distillery, then aged in oak barrels for at least three years. Even mixing in a tiny amount of another single malt will transform it into a blended malt, which is a mixture of single malts from different distilleries.

The second variety, which is what makes most of the money, is blended whisky. These include whiskies like Johnnie Walker, Dewars, and Chivas. Blended whisky is a mixture of single malt whiskies, usually from many different distilleries, that is combined with grain whisky. This produces lighter and more consistent whiskies that appeal to a broad range of drinkers. Grain whisky is simply any whisky made in Scotland with grains other than malted barley. Additionally, it is usually distilled in column stills rather than pot stills, which gives it a lighter flavor and body. As with malt whisky, grain whisky must be aged for at least three years. And most importantly to the distillers, since grain whisky is cheaper to produce, diluting malt whisky with it to make blends increases margins.

From now on I'm mostly going to focus on single malt whiskies, the superstars of the scotch whisky crowd.

From Crister Sundin

Beyond the basic requirements, there are all sorts of factors that shape the final flavor of a whisky. These range from the location of the distillery, the source of the barley, the way that it is malted (by hand or in a large malting facility), whether the germinating malt is dried with hot air or burning peat, the type of yeast used, the length of time that it is fermented, how full the still is, how quickly it is distilled, the shape (distillers will sometimes try to have every bump and dent in a still replicated when they have new ones made) and configuration of the still (does the lyne arm rise or drop? does it have a purifier?), the type of condenser, where the cuts are made (foreshots, heart, and feints), how much the raw spirit is diluted before barreling, what type of barrel is used (ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, ex-port, other spirit or wine), how many times that barrel has been used before (virgin, first fill, second fill, etc), how long the whisky is aged, where it is aged (some whisky is aged on site, while others are trucked to centralized warehouses), to how much the whisky is diluted for bottling.

Which is to say that there are a lot of different things going on, so we'll start with a few.

In my opinion, the best place to start with single malts is Glenmorangie Original. I originally picked it up on John Hansell's recommendation - he rates it as one of the best whiskies on the market today, which is no small thing given the breadth and depth of his experience. Personally, I think it's a great place to start for a number of other reasons. First, Glenmorangie uses very tall stills, which produces a fairly light spirit. This means that Original is not overly aggressive, while retaining good flavor density. Secondly, the spirit is aged entirely in ex-bourbon barrels for ten years, which both help to give it an approachable set of flavors and mean that it is uncomplicated by the various types of wine finishes available to distillers these days. It's relatively simple - there isn't a vast array of flavors to pick out of it - but what's there is very good. As an added bonus, it provides a stepping stone to investigating Glenmorangie's cask finished whiskies - these include sherry, port, and sauternes. These cask finished whiskies begin their lives in the same way as the Original, aged for ten years in ex-bourbon barrels, before being re-casked for an additional two years. This means that they are fairly comparable - they're all built on the same foundation, so you can look for differences to understand what the various casks do to the whisky. These can be picked up inexpensively either by grabbing one of Glenmorangie's Discovery packs, which includes a full bottle of the Original alongside three miniature bottles of their cask finished whiskies, or the Glenmorangie Collection, which has four 100 mL bottles of the Original and the various cask finished whiskies. Either of these should be under $40.

So where to go from that beginning? There are a number of different axes to explore.

Probably the most important is the different ways that sherry can be introduced into whisky. Sherry was historically sold by Scottish merchants who imported casks of fortified wines from the Continent to make the rough local malt whisky more palatable by aging it in the empty wine casks after selling their original contents. There are a number of different strategies for aging scotch whisky in ex-sherry casks. One, as mentioned above, is cask finishing, where whisky that was previously matured in ex-bourbon casks is transferred to ex-sherry casks to absorb some of their flavor. Glenmorangie's Lasanta is one example, along with Balvenie Doublewood. Alternatively, whisky from ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks can be married together. This is the method distilleries like Aberlour, Bunnahabhain, Bruichladdich, and Arran use for their standard expressions. Last, but not least, whisky can be aged in ex-sherry casks from day one. This method is used by distilleries like Macallan, Glenfarclas, and GlenDronach. Any one of these would be a fine place to start your exploration.

The second major factor is peat. Both maligned and loved, peat originally found its way into scotch whisky because Scotland doesn't have enough trees. It does, however, have a lot of peat. And peat could be burned to provide the heat to arrest the germination of malted barley, preparing it for fermentation. During the 19th century, coal became more readily available, so peat slowly shifted towards being something that was used to produce a particular character in the whisky, instead of being a necessity. While peat is most closely associated with whiskies produced on the island of Islay, peated whiskies are currently being produced in almost every corner of the country. While the smoky, vegetal flavors of peat aren't to everyone's liking, there are ways to dip your toe in the pool without jumping straight to notorious heavyweights like Laphroaig or Ardbeg. A good place to start would be something like Clynelish 14 or Highland Park 12. Both start off with about 1/2 to 1/3 the amount of peaty compounds found in the Islay bruisers. This means that there is some smoke, but it doesn't overpower the other elements of the malt. Stepping up a notch, check out Springbank 10, Bowmore 12, Talisker 10 or Caol Ila 12. All of these are 'moderatedly peated', with about 50-60% of the intensity of the big boys. However, if you really want to go all out, Ardbeg 10, Laphroaig 10, BenRiach Curiositas, or Longrow CV might tickle your fancy. While the peat wars have raised the maximum, these are all still very firmly in the peaty camp, almost billowing with smoke.

Hopefully all of this hasn't been too overwhelming. There are many more features to explore, but these should give you some places to begin you're journey. It's an amazing place given that everything begins with some partially sprouted grain, but from those humble begins scotch can take on an almost infinite variety of flavors.

Rhum Agricole Review: Saint James Hors d'Âge

This is the second in my set of reviews looking at rhums from the Saint James distillery on Martinique.

Saint James is the oldest distillery on the island in continuous operation. While rhum production goes back even further, the brand came out of a decision by Louis XV in 1763 to allow rhum from the island to be exported. The Saint James brand was established in 1765 near the town of Saint Pierre, with the name designed to appeal to English-speaking colonists in New England. Saint James is also distinguished by having put out the first vintage rhum on the island in 1885, which has continued ever since. Disaster struck in 1902 when Mount Pelée erupted, destroying Saint Pierre and most of the distillery's building. However, the main house largely survived. The distillery was consolidated on the other side of the island in the town of Saint Marie in 1974, where production has been located ever since.

 The sugar cane harvest for Saint James begins in February and extends into summer. The cut cane is transported to the distillery as quickly as possible, where it is pressed in mills to extract the juice. The juice, or 'vessou', ferments naturally due to the yeast present in the cane. Fermentation is kept between 25-30º C and is fairly quick, taking only a day or two. The mash is at 4-5% alcohol when it is added to the column stills, which give a raw spirit of 65-74% alcohol. The fresh rhum is then either rested in steel vats for a few months to produce blanc rhum or aged in oak barrels to produce everything from their paille rhum to rhum vieux. Saint James has a fairly high angels share of 8% a year, which goes a long way towards explaining their prices.

Saint James Hors d'Âge

Nose: bittersweet oak, subdued berries and wine, balsamic vinegar or raspberries, mesquite honey, a hint of woodsmoke, creamy beeswax, salted caramels, dry cane, becoming more floral/berry-oriented with time. After adding a few drops of water, the oak and wine flavors become more integrated, the berry notes seem fresher, and some brown sugar bacon notes emerge.

Taste: oak throughout, cane and wood sugar up front with wine and berries, caramel/burned sugar mid-palate along with light orange peel and vanilla, a big blast of pepper, which becomes creamier with brandy near the back. After dilution, the flavors are thinner but creamier, with the pepper becoming more assertive and the addition of some mocha near the back.

Finish: brandy, cane, bitter oak, floral, wood smoke

The Hors d'Âge expression is one of the older rhums that Saint James puts out. The rhum is aged for six to ten years in 180-liter casks, then bottled at 43% alcohol. Unsurprisingly, this means that the wood influence is much more obvious in this rhum compared to the Royal Ambré. While this does round off some of the rougher edges found in Royal Ambré, the wood can seem rather heavy on the nose at first, taking some time in the glass to find a proper balance. I feel like this rhum occupies a middle ground between the berry emphasis of Neisson Réserve Spéciale and the woodier bacon notes of La Favorite Vieux. I was slightly disappointed by how much it lost on the nose with even a few drops of water, but the palate was more robust.

Sadly this rhum is getting harder to find. I've heard rumors that Saint James was pulling out of U.S. distribution, but it can still be found with a bit of work (Hi-Time Wine has the full spread available in the U.S.). MSRP is around $50, which is a rather reasonable price for the quality of this spirit. This offers just as much complexity and depth as similarly priced single malts, so I would recommend Hors d'Âge without reservation.

Rum Review: El Dorado 3 Year

I've reviewed other rums from El Dorado before, but this one is a bit different. El Dorado 3 Year is, like all their rums, produced in Guyana from their amazing collection of stills. ED3 is a blend of rums distilled in two different four-column Savalle stills, Skeldon and Blairmont, then aged in ex-bourbon casks for at least three years. The trick with this rum is that the color is stripped out by double charcoal filtration. While that also removes some of the flavor, ED3 is still more flavorful than most white rums you will find on the market these days. Bottling proof is, like most rums, at 40%.

El Dorado 3 Year

Nose: light, clean, creamy molasses, savory vanilla

Taste: lemon/orange peel and cane sugar sweetness up front - which continues through the sip - becomes bittersweet mid-palate, slightly tannic, tropical fruit and berries, a hint of cacao and bitter molasses at the back.

Finish: fruit/berries, bitter wood, slightly floral, savory vanilla

Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of overlap with the flavor profile of El Dorado 5 Year. However, ED3 is lighter and a bit more crisp, with flavors that edge towards savoriness, rather than the sweeter profile of ED5. Though not the first thing I would reach for as a sipping rum, it is quite balanced and approachable, while retaining a solid flavor density. Best of all, ED3 is an excellent value, usually running under $20 for a 750 mL bottle. All of that makes it perfect for cocktails where you want the rum to be present without overwhelming the other ingredients. For instance...

El Presidente

1.5 oz rum

0.75 oz dry vermouth

0.25 oz orange liqueur

0.5 tsp grenadine (sub raspberry syrup)

Combine all ingredients, stir with ice for fifteen seconds, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The nose is a delicate melange of the vermouth's aromatics, some floral notes, orange peel, raspberry, and rum. The sip begins fairly neutrally, with depth building as the drink progresses across the tongue. Mild sweetness comes in first, with vanilla and orange, then trends a bit more bitter as the vermouth takes over, supplemented by the rum. The finish is pure dry cacao.

The history of this drink is debated, but the established facts are that it was created in Cuba around the time of Prohibition, when numerous Americans would sail to the island for a drinking vacation. I can see why it was such a smash - the drink is simultaneously ethereal and hard-hitting. While containing naught but booze, but it still manages to sneak up on you. It's fruity, but not overly so. Sweet, but not overly so. Bitter, but not overly so. Everything is in perfect tension. And the choice of rum feels spot-on for this drink.

In a daiquiri, ED3 produces a fairly delicate nose, with gentle vanilla and a hint of lime. The vanilla comes in sweetly at the beginning of the sip and carries through. Lime hits mid-palate, giving the drink crispness. Near the back, the sweetness fades a bit towards light bitterness and becomes more rounded, with rummy depth. Overall, I would say this is an exceptional daiquiri - every element hitting with supreme poise.

I don't know how much of a wrap-up I need. Go buy this rum. Right now.

Cognac Review: Pierre Ferrand Reserve

Pierre Ferrand is both a very old and a relatively new company. Old, in the sense that the history of Pierre Ferrand stretches back to the late 18th century. New, in the sense that the company was revived in the late 1980s by Alexandre Gabriel, who formed Cognac Ferrand. The company now also produces its own gin, as well as sourcing and aging rums and other spirits.

Located in the heart of the Grand Champagne region - considered one of the best areas for making cognac because its very chalky soils help to retain moisture that keeps the grapes healthy during the long, dry summer months. All of their cognac is double distilled in a small 25 hectoliter alembic still from wine on the lees (the solids are not filtered out before loading the still, which means that flavors are also extracted from the lees). Aging is done, as with all cognac, in limousin oak. A variety of different toasting levels are used in the barrels, which will change the types of compounds extracted by the spirit. The distillery has over half a dozen different locations for aging, all with different ranges of humidity and temperature. All of these give Pierre Ferrand a wide selection of eau de vie to select for blending into their standard expressions.

Their Reserve expression is in the middle of their range, above the younger Ambre expression and below the older Esprit des Dieux. While there's no age statement on it, the number I've seen most often is 20 years old. However, I haven't been able to get anything official and there are conflicting statements about whether that's the average age or the maximum age of the eau de vie going into the blend. Either way, it's definitely mature.

Pierre Ferrand Reserve

Nose: baked spiced and green apples, ripe berries, light floral and honey notes, slightly musty/vegetal, purple/cherry cough syrup, sweet grapes. After dilution, the nose becomes more oily (nut oils?), the cherry notes become more woody, some grassy notes emerge alongside some sweet and salty barbecue.

Taste: up front is lemon and orange peel alongside cane sugar sweetness - both of which continue through the palate, mild oak and pepper aren't far behind, which introduce some bitterness along with mineral notes and hints of grape skins. After dilution, the sweetness is more subdued, with strong pepper that overlaps with the fruit flavors.

Finish: vegetal, musty, bittersweet oak, green apples, grapes, and pepper.

I really enjoy the balance of this cognac. While there is certainly plenty of sweet fruit flavors to go around, the palate is balanced by pepper and bittersweet oak that keep it from going off the rails. The freshness of the flavors is also a pleasant surprise from a spirit with so much age on it.

As a value proposition, I'd say this is a pretty good choice. I was very, very lucky and snagged my bottle for under $40 (the OLCC does some peculiar things). Normally it's more around $70, which isn't cheap, but doesn't seem absurd for a spirit of this quality. I need to try the younger Ambre expression to get a sense of how it compares, as that one is usually around $40. However, if I'm ever able to find a bottle of the Reserve for under $60, I will jump right on it. It's just so nice that I couldn't say no.

New Cocktails: Suit, Tie, and Lei

In case you're not already in the know, it's Tiki Month over at the Pegu Blog. While not your normal kind of tiki, this variation on the Kingston Negroni supplements it with a very tropical combination of ingredients like falernum, Don's Spices, and Angostura bitters. A dressed up tiki, if you will.

Suit, Tie, and Lei
1.5 oz aged rum
0.5 oz sweet vermouth
0.25 oz Aperol
1 tsp dark falernum
1 tsp Don's Spices #2
2 dashes Angostura bitters

The nose is full of spice and bitterness, rounded by healthy doses of vanilla and caramel. The sip begins smoothly, with sweetness and bitter spices growing in tandem, riding over a bed of rum. The bitter notes finally begin to dominate on the finish, with the Angostura bitters and falernum getting the upper hand.