Return to Knob Creek brings joy, just bring out the pancakes!

It has been awhile since I made a recent blog posting. My life has been turned upside down with selling my house, and in the process of temporary living and waiting to close on a new place.

In the meantime, I never forgot bourbon, more so... I never forgot the taste of Knob Creek, it's spicy finish it seemed, now what could better than going back and trying it with a Glencairn glass?. During my time I may not have been as active in drinking and tasting bourbon, but I wasn't one to slow down and read about what was going on.

Some time ago, I found out that Knob Creek released a special edition, in fact simply a "Single Barrel Reserve". Different from small batch for the obvious, but it was also higher proof. Having tasted it, the first thing with it's incredibly butter texture and hints of sweetness and giant honey bent my mind screamed only... "I want pancakes!!!".

A comparison had to be made. Bourbon had to be tasted. Drink and imbibing had to be consumed. Time was short, life is hard, everybody dies... not everybody lives. Having enjoyed regular Knob Creek, it was time to partake in this special edition. To see how it turned out watch the video below.

Cheers! and Enjoy!

Trip down memory lane with cocktail master Dale DeGroff

Catching up again with events at the Museum of the American Cocktail, I discovered there was a special guest coming in to town that needs really no introduction.

In the history of cocktails, bartending, and drinking in America, there are a select few who managed to cultivate a craft when nobody was caring. They found and placed themselves in historic places (New York, New Orleans) either by choice or perhaps dumb luck, and worked in some famous locales. As the cocktail renaissance flourished and grew anew, they became the speakers and purveyors that all would begin to look up to. One such person I had the chance with others to meet was Dale DeGroff, former bartender of the Rainbow room in New York City, or as he simply said "I was just a bartender who got lucky."

Sitting in a small theater (the Warehouse theater to be precise) with an audience of about 30-45 intent listeners, Dale (or as he is known as "King Cocktail" ) spoke whimsically about America's past drinking glory, and then focused on his young days in New York City. As he mentioned stories of working in the famous Rainbow room, to all the NY gossip and shenanigans bartenders ran across, you would be riveted to a sense of place and pride. When you listen to Dale you realize people like this aren't just whimsical folk who have a passion, they are literally walking history books. Without question, Dale is what I call a living institution.

While watching Dale sip on his 4th 5th or I lost count of how much Cognac he was imbibing, we were presented with some cocktails and small snacks to enjoy courtesy of our hosts the staff at DC's The Passenger.

If there is ever a good excuse to know and learn about the history of cocktails, listening to Dale is a truly can't miss experience.

I strongly suggest that if you are a fan of true imbibing, and the care, history, passion that goes into good drink (cocktails for sure!) then you owe it to yourself to be treated to this mans stories.

Dale DeGroff has many accolades, most notably a 2009 James Beard award for Outstanding Wine & Spirits Professional. Check out his books and seminars if you have a chance (and website too). Cheers!

Kentucky Derby day means only one thing for imbibing, MINT JULEP TIME!

Today is the running of the 137th, 2011 Kentucky Derby. While thoughts may focus on things of big winnings, fancy hats and dress, or the sense of Kentucky pride, there is one thing that stands out as a tradition that every person should enjoy on this day. That tradition is to enjoy a mint julep cocktail.

To me a proper one is very simple to make, but it takes some preparation and some right tools to get the job done right.

First get a silver cup. You will need this to make your drink ice cold and refreshing. It doesn't get any better than this. Second use crushed ice to give your drink a frosty kick and feel. Third gently muddled your mint inside the cup without dangerously bruising it or making a salad, and finally pick a good bourbon you like.

It's really that simple. Enjoy bourbon whiskey on this day it is a great time to be doing it, and no cocktail is more fitting for such a time. To learn more watch the video below. Cheers!

American Wild Ale - Pucker up for a beer imbibing drink

"This beer is sour!!" I exclaimed when my wife gave me a beer she had in Belgium called a "lambic" some time ago in my imbibing early days of yore. Beer can taste like this? I said to myself, and in reality it can. There are varying degrees of sour beers out there of different sour levels and style. There was interesting properties about them, tart, viscous, fruity, vinous... there was much to explore here.

After some time, my road lead back to the heartland of America and away from Belgium to discover a style of beer called "American Wild Ale".

An American Wild Ale is a beer style that contains wild yeast, usually Brettanomyces, Pediococcus or Lactobacillus, which makes the beers sour, "funky" and musty. These are quite interesting and unusal to others, but to me quite fascinating.

Two particular wild ales I wanted to get my hands on are made by Russian River Brewing in California, one called Consecration and the other Supplication. Both are aged in oak wine barrels that held Cabernet Sauvignon wine.

So how did this turn out? Feel free to check out the video review below.

Cheers!

Returning to Owen Roe and finding out about my a.. b.. c..

I love wine, and that goes without saying when imbibing good drink. I could not imagine my life without it. However, back in my exploring days of wine I found myself diving into bold reds seeming to find either jammyness, complexity, smoke, big tannins leaving much white wine in the background who often didn't share these characteristics. Sure, I would find out I loved Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, or the varying degrees of Rieslings from Alsace, even simple Vinho Verde from Portugal was a hit for me. But there was always one varietal that I never seemed to enjoy and that was chardonnay. I felt I could appreciate a good one, but I never could get much into so many of the oaky or ridiculously thick and buttery sensation that I felt. I soon learned to adopt a phrase I heard that was an inside joke among wine drinkers. You could call yourself and abc wine drinker. This meant, "Oh I am an A.B.C. wine drinker, I'll drink anything!"

Anything
But
Chardonnay.

And so my wine appreciation of chardonnay stayed like this for most of my life, until I went to visit Owen Roe. Owen Roe had been on mind for many years after trying some I think 95 rated cabernet (wine is scored on a 100 point scale) at a tasting I was at. Simply put for me the wine just was one of the best things I ever had, it might as well have been off the frikkin chart. To this day, I still don't know what year or varietal it was an I still kick myself for not making a note to remember it.

While visiting Oregon and Owen Roe, I purchased a case and decided on two bottles of chardonnay, the Columbia Valley 2009, mostly just so I could have something for my wife. I was enjoying all the other reds I was having and I figured well, they couldn't possibly screw this up for the chardonnay. Luckily I was right, when I got home and opened up a bottle a few weeks later I was floored.

Luckily I still had a second bottle and it seemed like I had to talk about this one, I just couldn't let me experience of this wine slide. It is aged only 7 months in the barrel in which 14% of the barrels are new French oak, the rest are neutral. The wine is only for sale in the tasting room, and is not that expensive.

This wine had this wonderful balanced buttery spice, almost like ghee. Small hints of oak, and citrus lemon and lime. In the mouth low acid with a good body, wonderful tolerable lime juice that isn't bitter on the finish, and soft velvet tannins. My only complaint... my first bottle was better. The second I opened up many months later and I think it lost some of its edge but it was still great.

Personal score:

First bottle: 93
The bottle I reviewed below: 91?

Hard to say I don't normally score wine, and I am not an expert but I'll never forget this wine.

Cheers and thanks Owen. OH and more importantly if you've read this far, please tell me a fav chardonnay of yours for the abc crowd cause I want another one!

KBS and more bourbon beer barrel goodness

In the realm of craft beer, barrel aged beers specifically from bourbon barrels seems to be all the rage. Many are made, much of them seasonal and come out with much anticipation. Sometimes though, a beer will be released with a limited production and high demand, but also touted by many as the best ever. Often the production of how that beer is made seems to give it more mystique, and one beer that seems to be wrapped up in it is from Founders, called Kentucky Breakfast Stout, or KBS for short.

KBS, is a 2 year aged imperial stout, made to rest in bourbon barrels. Besides the fact that it sits for 2 years, the brewery mentions that the beer is actually "cave aged", because the barrels are actually stored in an old abandoned gypsum mine. Does that make a difference? Does that impart a certain flavor? A sort of I dunno what? Regardless, whatever Founders is doing they are doing A) something right B) making some dam good beer while doing it.

Watch the video review to see more:

Cheers!

Frolicking through Flanders... not red this time but old brown!

Enter, new imbibing territory. Some time ago while discovering the world of beer I learned mostly from my wife who spent some time in Belgium, that beers could actually be sour.

I thought, no you're joking right? Actually it was a big eye opening experience to hear of beers from Belgium that are called Lambics, Kriek, Gueuze and so forth. These beers while being varied in their own right are almost always some degree of sour, and filled with wild active yeast to impart a dramatic taste and flavor. Many of them feel like crisp champagne.

I was given a style recently made by a small American producer in Utah named Squatters Pub Brewery, who made a beer called 529 in the style known as Flanders Oud Bruin. This beer was a one time brewing offering. A brown Flanders style ale in the Flanders Red tradition it seemed, to take on perhaps an American flavor? With that I cracked open my first Oud Bruin, and imbibing pleasure commenced.

Watch below to fine more. Cheers!!