February 2012
15 posts
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Drinkify - Automatic Drink Pairings For Your Music →
This is awesome! Here were the pairings for three songs in a row on my shuffle:
“The Spice Girls” - 4oz. vodka, serve on the rocks
“The A Perfect Circle” - 1 PBR
“The Janet Jackson” - 8 oz. vodka, 8 oz. Coco Lopez
Shit, that’s a serious drink for Miss Jackson (if you’re nasty)!
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Put This In Your Drink And Smoke It! →
Here’s an article from the Times on smoking ingredients in cocktails. There is so much cool stuff happening, it’s really hard to keep up.
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Chartreuse Day
Today is Chartreuse Day. I’m in a limousine right now, headed to NYC to learn about Chartreuse from the company who sells it here in America, Frederick Wildman & Sons. I don’t know who they think I am, but I was happy to accept this detail today.
Frederick Wildman & Sons also sells Ilegal Mezcal, one of my favorites and recent article topics, so this really promises to be a...
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All-In With Wild Turkey 81
Sometimes, my job is really, REALLY not bad.
Case in point: Friday, the fine folks of Skyy Spirits (the American wing of Gruppa Campari) decided to kick off the release of the brand new Wild Turkey 81 with a massive presentation and poker tournament at Mohegan Sun.
Mr. Eddie Russell, the creator of Wild Turkey 81 was on hand to talk about the new product, and the legacy he and his father Jimmy...
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Spirit/ual Tools II: Microplane
Part II of my Spirit/ual Tools series (read Part I to see what this is all about) will not be a long entry. It’s kind of not fair. The second tool for my awesome McSology Bartender’s Tool Roll is the Microplane. It’s not a tool, it’s a brand. Not much room for competition, is there?
Microplane is indeed the best in the business. They started out making rasps for...
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Drink This Now: ROOT
I work with many excellent spirits, but for whatever reason, occasionally I will be presented with one that I’ll decide to make more of a personal project. It’s like I’m Simon Cowell and the booze is Leona Lewis.
ROOT is one of these spirits. I have this bizarre personal compulsion to get this thing going in Connecticut. It’s just so goddamn cool.
...
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Spirit/ual Tools I - Muddler
I recently purchased for myself this very cool bartender’s tool roll. According to the maker, it accommodates the following useful tools:
Muddler
Microplane
Large knife
Paring knife
Bar spoons
Y-peeler
Lighter
Hawthorne strainer
Citrus reamer
Pour spouts
Wine key
Ice pick
Business cards
et cetera
While I was awaiting delivery of my new tool roll, it gave me great pleasure to...
My new bartender's toy... →
Came today. Highly anticipated. Pretty cool handmade item. Now I need to find gear to fill it!
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January 2012
7 posts
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Mezcal: Tequila, Deregulated
I went back to Besito last night with wifey, and it was an amazing dinner date. Thank you guys!
So on Friday, I ran a little seminar on mezcal for the staff. The first question I asked was, “can anyone name the best selling mezcal in the world?” Very few even ventured a guess, as most didn’t think they even knew of a single mezcal. So it surprised them all when I told them...
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MS Level 2 Exam - 70 Days Out
I am taking my Level 2 Master Sommelier Exam in April, with the hope of attaining the rank of “Certified Sommelier”.
As you may know from reading along, much in my life has changed since I began the program of studies with the Court of Master Sommeliers. I was employed as a sommelier then. I am not now. I don’t even work in a restaurant now. As a matter of fact, I...
November 2011
1 post
Entering the Spirit World
Funny how things can change in a hurry. When I started this blog I was single and a sommelier. On a single day this year both of those things changed.
Managing a restaurant is taxing, and I found that while it was a tax I could pay, it was one that a marriage ultimately could not. And so, the day before my marriage to my wonderful wife, I was fortunate enough to be offered a job I had been...
June 2011
3 posts
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The Fundamental Theorem of Wine Enjoyment
Your enjoyment of any particular wine is equally dependant upon two contexts: the context in which the wine was made, and the context in which you drink it.
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Creativity for Sommeliers: A Menu for a Wine...
Sommeliers don’t get to make a whole lot.
Well, the money can be okay but that’s not what I meant.
I mean, mixologists get to CREATE. I’m not making any wines here. So my creative side sometimes goes a bit unfulfilled in this line of work.
I get to create the wine list. But once I’ve done that, I mostly just maintain. Which requires (if I do say so myself) a bit of...
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Rye'd or Die with Whistlepig
Kind of sad how rye whiskey has fallen so far out of favor. I have always blamed Don McLean for this. “Good old boys were drinking whiskey and rye,” is the lyric. I call shenanigans - rye IS a whiskey. We’ve got some dichotomy to work out.
Whiskey is any distilled beverage made from fermented grain. Rye is a grain. So there’s your rye whiskey. Legally speaking,...
March 2011
5 posts
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Late Night at Uncorked →
Dear Uncorked Fans,
For a classier crowd than what you’ll find at many of West Hartford’s late-night fist-pumping venues, late night at Uncorked is a great spot to be. We want you to make us your…
Watchstudoesdesign:
Zebag, Wine Caddy and Rack in One
I kind of really want this now.
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The Undisputed King Of Bierzo
Bierzo, Spain.
Few wine regions command the respect and awe of the career Sommelier as does this titan of international winemaking denominations. Except for all of them. Right, basically all of them. It has traditionally sat squarely between Moldova and Missouri on the “most obscure” and “least relevant wine” lists of regions.
Bierzo’s claim to fame these days is...
February 2011
10 posts
“Plunging hot food into ice water doesn’t stop it from cooking any faster...”
– Mark McClusky, reporting on Nathan Myhrvold’s “nerdiest of nerd cookbooks”, “Modern Cuisine”, for WIRED
Should The Sommelier Get The First Taste?
A very good and very followable writer for the New Amsterdam Times wrote this not so long ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/dining/07pour.html
I was thinking a little about it today. My opinion is that the sommelier absolutely should smell and taste a small amount (1oz. or less) of any bottle served to a guest. Here’s why:
In this article:
...
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NFL Stars Have Bullied Teen's Back →
megburns:
A heart wrenching story.
With such a great ending.
Advice on Valentine's Day Wine Pairings →
Dear Uncorked Fans,
Lot of pressure on Valentine’s to come up with a perfect dinner date, and pairing wine and food successfully can make or break it for you. Here are some guidelines for…
From the Sommelier's Mailbag: Just Say No To...
So I was on local TV weekend morning show on Sunday morning talking about Valentine’s Day wine pairings. The problem with these things is that there’s always way less time than there’s supposed to be, because the “fun” segments are always at the end.
Usually this doesn’t present any kind of issue or anything. Except that this time, they had graphics. So up...
groovedpavement asked: how do i follow this blog? there is no follow button...
January 2011
9 posts
One Down, Three To Go
Today was a LOT of lecturing, and less tasting. The exam ended up being 70 multiple-choice questions. Pass/fail with the cutoff at 60%. Not too rigorous, and I did pass.
So what’s next for me? Level Two is the Certification Exam, upon passing which I could put on my business card “Certified Sommelier”. My issue is that they don’t have another Level Two scheduled in...
Day Two Morning Break
Wasn’t the easiest task in the world to get out of bed this morning. Last night was a moderate success, spelled out by an ‘05 1er Cru Puligny-Montrachet and a ‘98 Auslese from the Rheingau. But my breathtaking fiancée saw me off, back into the fray.
A note: I think the best thing about being a Master must be the neckties. I love neckties, and the male Masters are all...
Afternoon Break
I continue to be a bit frustrated with myself on the tastings. The evaluations occur at a rapid pace, and the notes of those called upon to speak are quickly tempered in the correct direction. So I don’t get a ton of time to work off my own perceptions. But I’m finding my intuitions have been off the mark on several wines.
There was a wine that I was quite sure I had nailed as a...
Lunch Break and Reflections on Day One Morning...
Two things strike me about my first morning. First, I know quite a bit about wine. Just from my own studying and the industry experience I have, we aren’t really touching on any topics or bits of information I haven’t encountered yet.
Second, however, is that my concern for my tasting ability is not unwarranted. I have little standard for comparison, as only one person at a time...
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More Blind Tasting and The Truth About Oak
For those of you just tuning in, I am beginning my journey towards Master Sommelierdom. As part of my training on Dagobah, I am having my fabulous fiancee bring me wines at random to taste and try to ascertain. I enjoy this very much.
In my first segment, I posted three blind tastings that I had done. In the first, I shut out too quickly wines from the Old World based on a hunch. In the...
“I was telling him about these nightmares I’d been having, and he got...”
– Justin Chatwin, on working with Tom Cruise. Interview from Jan 11 issue of GQ magazine.
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Blind Tastings
I mentioned in an earlier post that I am trying to step up my palate game. Towards this end, I have instructed, several times, my wonderful and beautiful fiancee Sarajean, to buy me bottles of wine at random. She then pours these wines for me to evaluate and take a stab at.
Getting them right is a pretty good feeling, but it’s really more about the rationale. At this time, my biggest...
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