Casa Dragones Joven

I read a lot about the wine and liquor industry. I love trying to figure out what the new trend or the new hot product will be. A lot of the information I get is from having a solid relationship with brewers, winemakers, distillers, importers and distributors that sell to me at our store. I also read a lot online and talk to other bloggers via Twitter. Twitter can be very informative as well as entertaining if you know who to follow and who not to follow. The people I follow, and who follow me, keep me current. There is a wealth of knowledge out there and I love being tapped into it. 


As you know by now, I love tequila. If I thought it were socially acceptable, I'd replace the milk in my Cheerios with a nice spicy Reposado aged in bourbon barrels. I think the spice and complexity of the tequila would pair well with the sweet nuttiness of the whole grain oats. Maybe I'm just weird, or maybe I just enjoy pairing food with wine, beer and liquor. After all, it has been my job for the last 18 years. When it comes to pairing, there really is no right or wrong answer if you ask me. Everybody has different tastes. Some people like tequila. Some people don't.

I don't exactly remember where I first read about Casa Dragones Joven. It might have been a retweet or just a "mention" that I clicked on. After poking around their website, I was curious to try it. I started asking my suppliers if they new anything about it. When I would go to NYC, I would ask store owners and restauranteurs if they knew anything about it. To my dismay, the answer was "I've never heard of it." 


After about two months, my search for Casa Dragones finally ended. One of my suppliers had apparently brought it into Connecticut. They called us up and asked if they could come to our shop and give us a little sample while they pitched it to us. Of course I said it was okay to come and give us a sample. I was elated.


They poured it into a tequila tasting glass that resembles a champagne flute. As I swirled it in my glass to release its aroma, I noticed the legs and lacing on the side of the glass. This is usually a good indication that this is (A) quality stuff and (B) will have quite a long finish. On the nose, I got a hint of lime citrus followed by that sweet smell of pure agave. My first sip revealed mellow vanilla bean and agave. If anyone ever wanted to know what agave tastes like, this is it. I got just a touch of cinnamon spice in there as well. Casa Dragones Joven is simply delicious. I was curious to see how long this finish would last. By my watch it was nearly 15 minutes. That's pretty damn amazing if you ask me. 

Since it's the only quality Joven on the market I know about, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Joven is literally translated as meaning "young". The Joven tequila you usually find is of lesser quality and is blended with neutral cane spirits and has added caramel color as well. Here is the exception. Casa Dragones Joven is classified this way simply because they blend a platinum tequila with a 5 year old Anejo. There are no cane spirits added nor any coloring. This is pure unadulterated happiness in a bottle. 

This is truly a sipping tequila. I wouldn't dare put this in my Cheerios! Casa Dragones should be savored one sip at a time. Enjoy the long finish. So, if you have some spare change and would like to splurge and get yourself something nice, grab a bottle of this elegant and delicious Joven. 

The New World of White Whiskey

I've worked in several different wine shops in Connecticut over my 18 year career span as a wine manager and I thought I'd sold it all. Only until my fiancee and I opened our own specialty wine shop did I ever get any call for moonshine, white dog, white lightning, hooch, mountain dew or any other name you want to call it. 

L:Buffalo Trace White Dog, C:Tuthilltown, R:Georgia Moon

Right around the holidays I brought in a couple moonshine whiskeys just for kicks. I figured somebody would buy them as a novelty gift for their favorite whiskey enthusiast. They were relatively inexpensive so they could be sold as a supplemental gift. 


To my surprise, the customers that bought those moonshines came back and bought more for themselves. This piqued my interest. I'd only ever done a shot of moonshine in my younger days as punishment in a drinking game! Was I missing out? Was the bad memory I had of it just that, a bad memory during a period where I didn't care for whiskey? Let's open a bottle and find out.  

So many American Whiskeys to choose from.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't a fan of Tuthilltowns' whiskeys. They make a Baby Bourbon that I wish I could drink every day. Limited availability and $47 for a 375ml make it an impossibility. Anyway, let's talk about their Hudson New York Corn Whiskey (HCW). It's the base of the Hudson Baby Bourbon and it's pretty damn mellow. On the nose I get buttered popcorn with hints of minerality and cornmeal. I could just smell this for hours. I don't get any of the alcohol burning my nose that I do with other spirits. 


My first sip reminds me of last summer, roasting corn on the cob, still in the husk, right on the grill. I get a little bit of mealy cornbread flavors and light sugar. This is interesting. I like it, though. It's something different and definitely an education in a glass. While sipping this I can surely imagine how the oak barrels make this into the Baby Bourbon. I bet this is going to be amazing in a cocktail.


During my research to find a cocktail to make with the HCW, I found one of their videos. Actually, I found all of them and you need to watch them, too. The video clip for the HCW seemed to have the perfect recipe for a White Manhattan. The Manhattan cocktail you usually hear of contains barrel-aged rye whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters. A White Manhattan cocktail is typically white whiskey, Benedictine, blanc vermouth (not dry vermouth) and a few dashes of orange bitters. Tuthilltown suggests a recipe that's a little different than a regular White Manhattan. 

• 2 parts Hudson New York Corn Whiskey
• 1 part Lillet Blanc (a French aperitif wine) 
• 3 dashes Orange bitters

They decided to leave out the Benedictine. I'm also using Blood Orange Bitters anyway. It's never exactly perfect in our house. We're only human, right? 


With only ever having a faint memory of having a White Manhattan, I don't remember the flavors of the drink. So, this is "new" to me. The nose is predominantly of the HCW with the sweetness and slight herbal notes of the Lillet. It's pretty neat, no pun intended. I like the flavor on the palate. The Lillet adds fruit and balance to the whiskey while the bitters add a touch of acidic tang. This cocktail is light and fun. I would be hard-pressed to say that this would be my new favorite. It's not. What it is for me would be a side step. Maybe a time warp vacation back to Prohibition where speakeasies and white whiskeys were where it was at. What's the secret password? It's "Pour.Taste.Drink."

Vermouth, Who?

It's all fun and games until someone breaks out the Rye

 About 15 years ago I was introduced to vermouth as a cocktail, not just a mixer. There were a few high end vermouths that I would sip on a regular basis. At that time it was only dry vermouth that I was interested in. I never put much thought into trying sweet vermouth. Actually, I never understood what sweet vermouth "really" added to a cocktail.


Last night my world opened up. Earlier on in the week a customer of mine asked me to special order Carpano sweet vermouth. He also insisted that I get a bottle for myself to try. Twist my arm.

High West Double Rye and Carpano Sweet Vermouth

As soon as I brought the glass up to my nose, I was greeted with sweet herbal notes with hints of clove, cinnamon, and black cherries. On the palate it showed some licorice, mint, orange rind, nutmeg and dried herbs. It was a flavor assault on the front of the palate and then subsided fairly quickly to a finish that left me thinking about what other herbs and spices I might get with the next sip. It was awesome. Then I decided to drop a couple of ice cubes in the glass and swirl it around a bit. I went at it again. Wow. The ice opened up all of the fruit, softened the herbal qualities and mellowed the spices. This time the finish was long, sweet and elegant. This was amazing.

Since I was drinking vermouth, I decided I would make a half-version of a Manhattan; vermouth and whiskey. I immediately reached for the two ryes that I had open in my stash of whiskeys. I got two rocks glasses, filled them with ice and threw in one part vermouth to three parts rye. The two ryes were High West Double Rye and Tuthilltown Hudson Manhattan Rye. 


The Manhattan Rye proved to be a bit too herbaceous, earthy or gritty/grainy with the vermouth. The Double Rye seemed to be more of a contrast in flavors with the vermouth. I think it created a much better balance between the delicate flavors of the vermouth and the robust flavors of the Double Rye. 

An Empty bottle of Manhattan Rye = Sad Times

Later on in the evening, I had dinner with my fiancee and some friends at our local favorite farm-to-fork restaurant, leFarm. I brought the bottle of vermouth there, too. The other couple that we met there just happened to bring a bottle of Whistle Pig Canadian Rye by pure coincidence. Or was it? Hmmm... Makes ya think. Anyway, Whistle Pig + Carpano = better. This time, I tried something different. I poured two parts vermouth to one part WP neat. Yup. That was perfect. leFarm was perfect, too.

Decisions, Decisions

I have to admit; I believe I'm sinking into a "Cocktail Crisis". When I would get home from work, I used to crave a glass of wine. I was always the wine guy in the liquor stores where I worked. You could probably find me at a craft beer bar sipping on a pint of some obscure belgian beer on a rare occasion, but I was a wine drinker for the most part. Right now, however, I'm a little lost.

I have been drinking a lot of tequila, scotch and bourbon lately. They were always an option throughout my career. I just never paid that much attention to them. Being in the industry our distributors would flood us with knowledge and information on the products that we sold. I took that knowledge and imparted it to my customers so just being in the store would give me enough to pitch a product. Now that I own my own store with my beautiful fiancee, I have no choice but to put that knowledge into practice. Since my fiancee doesn't drink hard alcohol I've taken it upon myself to jump in head first to "specialize" in the booze.

The Dark Rum & Pedro Ximinez 

Scotch for me was always a beverage that my father drank. Blended scotch was what was always on hand. I never really "enjoyed" any of the brands that he had. What he had was what I knew and that was that. Those flavor profiles were what I what I had to work with until recently. Now I think I am looking for something new, something different and interesting. I want something that is going to knock my socks off. When it comes down to it, I might be bored. That's why I decided to bring home bottle of of BenRiach scotch.

The bottle I decided crack open was the 15 year Dark Rum Wood Finish. I was always curious about this bottle every time I came to work. It would always call to me. I just resisted the purple label. It never struck me as a serious scotch. With that said, the price tag alone would make me sad if the bottle wasn't up to par.

I drink my scotch neat. For the noobs out there, that means scotch + glass = neat. There are no ice cubes, no water, no mixers, no crutches. I feel that if the bottle is less than cask strength, they have already added the water. That's enough for me. I want to taste this the way the distiller wanted me to taste it.

I poured it in my glass and I immediately got hit with an amazing aroma of lemon peel with hints of spice, vanilla and orange. On the palate it's soft oak and gentle fruit laced with spicy rum and floral notes. In this particular scotch, the rum flavors really seem to balance everything else out. It's got a pretty long finish with the sweetness of the rum hanging in there all the way through. Don't get me wrong, this isn't  rum. It's scotch with hints of dark rum.

This bottle for me really bridges the gap between rum and scotch. I'm glad that I finally broke down and brought this baby home. It was delicious. It really hit the spot and opened my eyes to a new genre of scotch. I brought home a bottle of the 15 year Pedro Ximinez Sherry Wood Finish as well. I can assure you  that I will write about that bottle as well.

Your New Favorite Cocktail

I always like hanging out in New York City. My fiancee's daughter lives in the East Village. So, we get to go down and visit quite often. It's only about an hour's train ride to Grand Central anyway. Last weekend we took our only day off, Sunday, to go down and blow off some steam. We planned the whole day out. But it was all about the dinner at ABC Kitchen that we had our eye on.

It was a lazy day for us with no specific times for our plans that we needed to adhere to. That's my kind of day. We sauntered into the City early afternoon. We shopped a little until we got that call from our bellies that we were hungry. We headed over to ABC kitchen only to find out that we had an hour to kill until their dinner menu was available. We decided to go on a search for margaritas. Right around the corner is Rosa Mexicano. I had never been to Rosa's. But apparently it's been there forever and is pretty well known. I noticed that they had a decent tequila list. This fact alone made me very happy.

La Paloma with Corazon Reposado

First thing's first. I ordered a delicious margarita. Mimi wanted to have a beer and a shot of tequila. She didn't want to have the whole shot for herself. So, she asked me to share it with her. We decided on the Don Julio 1942 in a snifter for the shot. As always, the 1942 was amazing. If I could drink that every day I would. It's just that good. While we were sitting there, I was perusing the drinks menu. I happened upon a drink that they called La Paloma. It consisted of tequila and grapefruit soda. Simple right? When I was finished with my margarita, I ordered one out of pure curiosity. The only grapefruit soda that I knew of was Fresca. I like an ice cold Fresca every once in a blue moon. The bartender asked which tequila I preferred. I went with the Corazon Reposado. About a minute later the bartender  brings out a shot of tequila, a highball glass full of ice and a Jaritto's Toronja. Hmmm, I haven't had Jarrito's Toronja before. I think the Jarrito's Mandarina is fantastic. Anyway, I asked the bartender why he didn't just mix the drink for me. He claimed that people like to go easy on the tequila. Ha! Not me. I threw the whole shot in the glass and then topped it off with the grapefruit soda.

Corazon Reposado
I stole this picture
from another website

This cocktail was heaven. It was complex with layers of sweetness encased by soft acidity. It was struggling to be tropical only to to be restrained with hints of vanilla bean and caramel. I just found my new drink of the summer. I used to drink gin and tonics on those hot summer nights. I made a vow to myself that those days are long gone. It's all about La Paloma now. It was so good that I was trying to figure out a way to send Mimi and her daughter to eat at Jean-Georges Vongerichten's restaurant and leave me here to throw back a few more of these delicious creations of holy goodness. I knew that wasn't going to happen. I'm only kidding, anyway.

Since that day, I haven't been able to find the Jarritto's locally. I have tried every other grapefruit soda I could find: Goya, Fresca and GUS grapefruit soda. The GUS came the closest to the same flavor. It's just not the same, though. I want to carry Jarrito's in my store. I've been on the hunt for the distributor. Hopefully one of my liquor suppliers will carry it.

I plan to package this together in the summer to sell in our store. I herein deem this summer to be La Paloma Summer!

Really, if you haven't tried one, you need to stop, drop and roll. Go out to your local tequila bar/Mexican restaurant and order this delicious beverage.

Colorado

In 1995 I moved to Boulder, Colorado. It was an amazing chapter in my life. During a point of massive turmoil in my life, I found serenity. It must've been the fresh mountain air.

I moved out there on the premise that I would stay with a very good friend of mine from my high school days, Andrea, and her boyfriend, Rob. The day that I got there, I visited Rob at his workplace, Jiffy Lube on 30th street. It just so happened that they were hiring. To make a long story short, I was hired on the spot. Amongst the shenanigans, debauchery, hilarity and drunken stupors, I was starting to see why we all were there. I'd befriended a group of guys and gals that were trying to escape something in their past and somehow we all ended up at Jiffy Lube.

After a few months, Andrea and Rob and I went separate ways. Rob was fired from Jiffy Lube. My parents finalized their divorce. My apartment was broken in to. My parked car was severely damaged in a hit and run. At a gig up in Ft. Collins, my guitar was knocked over and broken. My kitten, Beuford, ripped through my window screen and ran away. Two of my closest friends, Zena and Peter, lived hours away. I was alone and it was rough. Yet, whenever I look back on my time in Colorado, I say it was the best time of my life.

I learned so much about myself as well as others around me. I like to call it a social awakening. I fell in love with the mountains. I was fascinated about the weather patterns in Boulder. I was amazed that it could snow 16 inches over night and the next day would 65 degrees and sunny. I was delighted to find out that Spring and Fall mimicked New England. Though I didn't have that much contact with my family, I had a family of friends of my own.

Eventually, I had to move home. I had to leave my Hell Hole that I called my own Private Heaven. I was sad. I promised myself that someday I would return. I would be ready to soak it all in again.

With that dream still in the forefront of my mind, I still call Boulder my "home". Now that I own a wine shop with my fiancee, I'm selling some products made in my "home state," Colorado. From the first sip I'm transported back to Boulder, and all those memories come flooding back. I can smell the mountain air and hear my friend's laughter and I may even be able to smell some axle grease. The whiskey I found today is just one example of what keeps my dream alive.

Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey 

Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey is delicious. It's bottled at 94 proof. If you add a cube of ice, it drinks like an 80 proof. I found it at a little shop down in NYC called Bottle Rocket. The salesman was a little iffy describing the whiskey. So I decided to try it. I'm weird like that. I couldn't wait to get home to try it. Thank God that it came with a galvanized steel shot glass on the top of the bottle. I chose to crack the bottle on the train ride back to Westport. It's rich, complex, edgy and robust. If your looking for that sour mash sweetness, you've come to the wrong place. Colorado Whisky is a hell of a lot different than any domestic whiskey I've ever had. I dig it. This, in my opinion, would be the ultimate ingredient for a Manhattan.

I highly doubt that at this point in time that this is avavliable in Connecticut. So, just like High West Whiskey in Utah, I will try my best to bring this beautiful spirit to our little Connecticut community.

Just like anything else that I write about, if you'd like to sample this beauty, just let me know the next time you are in the store. I might just have some left in my secret stash in the back room.

In with the old - Out with the new

I like old beer. I know that's a weird statement. It's true, though. I'm not talking about Bud, Coors or Corona here. I'm talking about real beer. The stuff YOU should be drinking as well. Not too long ago I had a customer come in and ask me to special order some beer for him. He asked for Rogue Brutal Bitter. It's a fantastic beer. We talked a little while about how we both love it and that we haven't seen it around in a long while. The next day, I ordered it from my supplier and it came in later on in the week. That's when I discovered why the customer and I haven't seen it in a long time. They changed the name of the beer! Rogue Brutal Bitter was now called Rogue Brutal IPA.

I'm always skeptical about label changes and/or product name changes. I was curious about the brew and wanted to open one to see if it was the same thing. I decided to wait until the customer popped in to taste it with him. About a week later, he came in and I gave him the news. I suggested we try it together to see if it is, in fact, the same beer. It wasn't. It wasn't even close to the Brutal Bitter we both knew and loved. It was hoppy and bold. It was a great beer, though. The Brutal Bitter that we talked of was soft and mellow with delicious malty overtones. Sorry Rogue. It's not the same beer. I contacted Rogue to find out about our old favorite. They insisted that it was the same exact recipe as it was back in the day.

After doing a little bit of research, I came to find out that it was in fact the same beer. The Brutal Bitter that we were drinking was old product in Connecticut. I guess the distributor did such a crappy job of selling the Bitter that it just sat in the warehouse to get a little "cellar time."

I believe that most people would balk at the idea of drinking old beer. In actuality, a lot of the beer you see in specialty shops can be aged. In fact, there are many beers on the market that are vintage dated. The flavors in a cellared beer mellow out with age. We're not talking about aging a beer for 30 years like a fine wine. It's just a year or two that can make a good beer better. Obviously, you don't want to cellar any beer that has an expiration date. One thing to help you decide, among many, to cellar a beer, would be the alcohol percentage. If it's around 8% abv and higher, you might be able to age it.

Every beer is different in the cellar. What would help you in the long run is to buy several bottles of the beer that you are going to cellar. Open one and make your age assessment and write down tasting notes. Then in a year, pop another bottle and compare note. If you start to get off flavors, it's time to drink 'em up.

I could probably write a novel on cellaring beer. Who would want to read that? It's boring. To sum up this post, old craft beer isn't necessarily bad craft beer. Drink what you want. Drink what you like. After all, you do have a mind of your own, don't ya?

Cheers!
H DeP