Dude-Kicker

Good Things Come to Those Who Put-Spirits-in-Barrels-and-Wait

March 13 saw not only a new pope, but also the launch of local artisan distillers Grand Ten's new Wire Works Reserve aged gin at favorite Somerville watering-hole Backbar.

A year of barrel-aging gives the gin a bright, golden-straw hue, and tames the melon-like coriander notes of the standard Wire Works into toasted coconut and pear - but maintains the gin's distinctive, spicy finish. A Martinez made with the reserve was extremely smooth and well-balanced; presenting the cocktail as a complex whole.

Talking with founders Matt and Spencer at the event, it sounds like GTD is just getting warmed up in terms of interesting products - some of which can apparently already be sampled at their South Boston Distillery.

Putting the "Art" in Party

Kudos to Official Friend of Dude-Kicker Opus Affair for the successful, sold-out Salon concert celebrating the Boston Cello Quartet's CD launch party, which occurred last Saturday at Theatre 1 at the Revere Hotel in downtown Boston

Among the various highlights of the evening, were possible world firsts for a classical music concenrt. Including:

• A rowdy audience fueled by Carpano Antica and Fernet Branca;
• Cellists Can-Can kicking in unison whilst playing;
• Musicians informing the audience: "by all means, keep your cell phone on"; and
• A sold-out cello performance with a median audience age less than fifty that was NOT an Apocolyptica concert.

Based on the success of this event, we are definitely looking forward to whatever events that may be hiding up Opus Affair's sleeve for 2013.

 

A Song For Your Apocalypse

If the world had been ended when I had been young,
My sorrows I'd never have known.
Once I could drink of the best,
The very best brandy and rum.
Now I am glad of a cup of spring water
That flows from town to town.

A prison ballad and "a cheerful song," first published c. 1820.

Blue Ruin: Caorunn

Caorunn is a Scottish gin made in the London Dry style at a Scotch whisky distillery. It is made with eleven botanicals. Six of these are part of the standard array of gin botanicals (although not listed, these appear to include cardamom, orris root, and perhaps angelica). The remaining five are roman berry, bog myrtle, heather, dandelion, and coul blush apple. It is bottled at 83.6 proof.

Caorunn is a light to medium bodied gin. Bright in profile, but floral and soft around the edges. Of the five novel botanicals, it is the apple that comes through the clearest to my palate, although it does not dominate the other, traditional, botanicals. Notes of cinnamon are also present along with a lingering but otherwise light earthiness on the finish.

In a martini, the apple flavors come through a little too strongly, giving it a slightly apple-vinegary flavor (this could be a plus for some folks). Caorunn is otherwise fairly balanced for mixing purposes. It seems to cry out for a more herbal treatment as opposed to mixing with citrus. It makes a very pleasent gin and tonic an impressively tasty pink gin.

Speed Rack, in animated GIFs

While we type up our nearly-illegible notes from the smattering of Boston Cocktail Summit events that we attended, please enjoy these animated GIFs of Speed Rack Boston.

On Wednesday, October 3rd, at The Estate, some of our favorite bartenders-who-happen to be ladies competed to make cocktails quickly and accurately, for a panel of well-regarded judges. The event kicked off a ten-city tour to raise money for breast cancer education, prevention, and research with as much alcohol and as much levity about boobies as one could hope for.

We sipped some sort of delightful Pernod & Lillet punch, chewed on beef jerky from Citizen's hallowed beef jerky jar, dropped cash into donation cans with pairs of big round circles sharpied onto them, and—our hands being quite full—generally failed at taking notes.

Ezra Star of Drink vs. Sabrina Kershaw of Citizen. Ezra's supporters were out in force (and with signage).

Over a Barrel

The increasingly-renown Hawthorne, recently announced that chronically well-dressed bar-manager Jackson Cannon, had hand-selected a barrel of well-aged Bols Genever to be sold exclusively at the bar.

botanicals, essences, etc.

This "oude" style genever is aged for four years in contrast the classic style's zero and the standard aged variety's eighteen months. Although beginning to take on many whiskey-type characteristics, the genever still kept much of its distinct botanic edge. Would likely make an amazing Martinez varient.

Blue Ruin: Tales of the Cocktail Recap

Below is a list of all/most of the gins I got around to sampling while at Tales of the Cocktail, as well as any tasting notes that made it back and which are still readable.

• Caorunn - Airdrie, Scotland. Traditional and Celtic botanicals (full write-up coming soon).
• Edinburgh  Gin - Edinburgh, Scotland. "Light, citrusy with gentle spice on the finish."
• Rehorst Premium Milwaukee Gin - Milwaukee, USA. Medium body. A cardamom and coriander forward style.
• Downslope Old Tom Gin - Centennial, Colorado, USA
• Few Spirits American Gin and Naval Strength Gin - Evanston, IL, USA
• Corsair American Gin - Nashville, TN, USA. Heavy, oily body. Warm and cardamom-forward, but comparably crisp for the style.
• Corsair Genever - Very much in the traditional Dutch, jonge-style genever. Compared very favorably to smuggled samples from the Netherlands.
• Corsair Barrell-Aged Gin
• Tub Gin - Palisade, CO, USA. Strongly juniper - somewhat like an "American-style" Tanqueray. I remember disliking this gin as "flat" when I originally tried it. Retasting it, I think it is quite good.
• New Holland Knickerbocker Gin - Holland, MI, USA. My notes say "Cool, crisp, and slightly novel." I have no further memory of the product, but apparently I liked it!
• Smooth Ambler Greenbriar Gin - Maxwelton, WV, USA
• Smooth Ambler Barrel-Aged Gin. "Malty, light, geneverish"
• Martin Miller's London Dry Gin - England. Dry, coriander-forward, both fruity and peppery.

Gin does seem to be making a comeback in popularity, resulting in a variety of styles: lighter, less-traditional gins with novel botanical additions and combinations, as well as attempts to recreate historical styles. There is an increasing trend in aging gin as well. Sometimes it's an attempt an Old Tom style and sometimes just for the heck for it. More genevers are appearing as well.

The Bar Room Brawl by its Lack-of-Boston

It’s hard to believe there was a Bar Room Brawl without Boston, but there you go (The rules, having changed somewhat, included a two-year age limit on competing bars -- or as we dubbed it: “The Brick & Mortar/Backbar/Hawthorne Technicality”). However, the vacuum left by Boston freed us up to check out what some of the other cities were up to.

Mainly, what they were doing was taking a page out of Eastern Standard’s 2011 BRB playbook, and pandering. Aside from the more gratuitous attempts at attention-getting, the following techniques were also in play: Houston’s Anvil had little ice carts around the hall serving of cognac juleps;

San Francisco’s winning Beretta eschewed time-saving batching and made each drink individually (including one that had a San Francisco Giants logo drawn in bitters on it); DC’s Passenger had in-jokey drink names and a disturbingly casual Derek Brown;

Kansas City’s Manifesto had balls-out creative, unusual and strong drinks incorporating wormwood bitters and smoked Campari.

While the quaint cocktail communities of New York and San Francisco ultimately won the hearts and livers of the people and the judges respectively, our personal favorites were Passenger and Manifesto. But really, after sampling 24 cocktails, everyone is a winner.

Age Your Own Whiskey Kit

In what was surely one of the best -or at least most memorable- bits of Tales tasting room swag, Tuthilltown Spirits handed out whiskey-aging "kits" made from its Hudson New York Corn white whiskey.

It was overheard that the wood would only add flavor and character to the whiskey for only about a month or so. It was further overheard that if one has whiskey sitting around for longer than this "there's something wrong with you."

Enter Dude

From Scenes in the Union Depot: a humorous entertainment in one scene (Boston: W.H. Baker & Co., 1905.), by Laura Matilda Stephenson Parsons:

BOOTBLACK (to DUDE). Have a shine, yer honor?

DUDE (looking down at shoes). These are patent leathers, don't yer know.

(Takes mirror from pocket and adjusts cravat and twirls mustache.)