From the brainchild of Richard Stabile of Long Island Distillers makers of LiV vodka, Rough Bourbon and Pine Barrens Single Malt comes one of the best Rye’s I’ve tasted all year. What makes this rye so special is its aging and select finishing in wine barrels. The spirit is first aged for a minimum of four years in newly charred American oak casks. After aging it’s then finished in selected merlot and chardonnay casks. The result is a rye with a tremendous depth of flavor and a lingering finish. Speaking of “finish’, I just finished another bottle myself and the results are thus. Enjoy!
APPERANCE: A light copper color with legs that scurry down the glass. Swirling gives a nice feel of the depth of the spirit within.
NOSE: Initial flavors of oak, vanilla and spicy heat emerge. Second nose gives toasted wood, bread and some dried fruits.
TASTE: First sip is buttery with apricot some caramel and “merlot” flavors in its expression. The mouth feel is rich with flavors that demonstrates its balance. Both sides of the cheeks are coated with butter and spice that caress not overpowers the senses. The finish goes on forever with a velvety texture and flavors of caramel, toasted oak, butter and heat all at once. This is one of the most balanced and complex Rye’s I’ve tasted.
CONCLUSION: With Bull Moose Three Barrel Rye Long Island Distillers has produced probably my favorite spirit to date. This Rye delivers a cacophony of flavors on the palate and lingers on and on. This exceeded my expectations of rye and what can be done with it. The finishing in wine casks creates tastes and nuances that makes this a true sipping spirit. I’ve enjoyed most everything Rich Stabile has been putting out as of late but if I had to venture off with the “Rough Riders” and could bring only one spirit, this would be the bottle that I’d saddle up with.
I recently moved to Denver, Colorado or, one of the beer capitals of America. For my first craft beer review, I have a limited edition beer that is aged in Lagavulin’s single malt whisky barrels. Lagavulin 16 year is one of my favorite single malt’s so, out of curiosity, I could not resist picking up the final bottle at my local liquor store.
Brand: J.E. Lees Harvest Ale (Lagavulin Whisky Cask)
Origin: United Kingdom
Style: English Barley Wine
Abv:11.5% (22 Proof)
Price: $10.99
Size: 9.6 ml bottle
Glass Type: Tulip
Appearance: An excellent off white head of foam begins at two fingers before it dwindles down but foam remains still on the surface. This English barley wine has a nice bronze color that contrasts the foam making the barley wine have a pleasing appearance in the glass.
Aroma: The first whiff is smoke, dare I say peat, followed by dried fruit, vanilla, and wood from being aged in a whisky barrel.
Flavor: The flavor profile follows the aroma. This barley wine begins with peat, lots of smoke and seaweed, before moving into sweet flavors of caramel and vanilla balanced by a bitter coffee note from the hops. J.E. Lees Harvest Ale ends with wood and a very light floral note. I am very impressed with this beer to say the least.
Mouth Feel: The texture is very smooth and creamy on the palate with very little carbonation.
Cigar Pairing: I recommend a medium to full-bodied cigar that can stand up to the peat in this fine beer. Here are a few options that I think would pair nicely: CAO Criollo, Tatuaje Original Brown Label, Don Pepin Blue Label, My Father, and Casa Magna Colorado.
Conclusion: I wanted my first beer review to share a facet that is normally associated with cigars: spirits. If you are a beer fan and you enjoy a good single malt, particularly an Islay scotch like Lagavulin, please do yourself a favor and run to your phone right now to track down this excellent craft beer before all the bottles are completely gone.
NAT SHERMAN INTERNATIONAL LAUNCHES INAUGURALPOP-UP SHOP
IN COLLABORATION WITH BROOKLYN’S WIDOW JANE DISTILLERY AND CACAO PRIETO
NEW YORK (JULY 23, 2013) – Nat Sherman, Tobacconist to the World, announces the opening of its inaugural pop-up shop in conjunction withWidow Jane Whiskey, a fast growing cult favorite for whiskey lovers at Cacao Prieto, a chocolate factory and distillery in Brooklyn, New York. Located at 218 Conover Street, in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, the 500-squarefoot pop-up shop inside the Cacao Prieto Apothecary will feature the full Nat Sherman Premium Cigar Portfolio including the award-winning Timeless Collection, The Nat Sherman Host Selection, The Metropolitan and Metropolitan Maduro Selections. The pop-up will also feature a variety of Nat Sherman’s latest product offerings including The Nat Sherman 1930 and The Nat Sherman Sterling, along with the full range of their all-natural luxury cigarettes. The Nat Sherman pop-up is expected to remain open through the end of October 2013. Official hours of operation as well as a schedule of events will be posted on both Nat Sherman’s and Widow Jane’s Facebook pages.
Cacao Prieto was founded by Daniel Prieto Preston, whose family has been farming organic cacao in the Dominican Republic for more than 100 years. The Prieto family farm, Coralina Farms, provides the entirety of cacao for Cacao Prieto’s chocolates and spirits. Cacaco Prieto is also home to the distillery that produces Widow Jane Whiskey. Known as TheFoundation Spirit of New York, Widow Jane is distilled with the pure, sweet water of the Widow Jane Mine in Rosendale, NY, whose limestone quarry was essential in building both the Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building.
“We are extremely excited to partner with Daniel and his team at Cacao Prieto for Nat Sherman’s inaugural Pop-Up concept,” said Michael Herklots, Executive Director of Brand and Retail Development at Nat Sherman. “We strongly support Daniel’s vision for the distillery, and as both Cacao Prieto and Nat Sherman are New York routed – family-owned and operated, there is no better partner. We look forward to bringing the Nat Sherman experience to Cacao Prieto’s clientele, and the entirety of the Red Hook community.”
The Nat Sherman Pop-Up is adjacent to Botanica, a specialty cocktail bar modeled after the lounge of a bourgeois Venetian hotel. Botanica will join in on the collaborative concept with Nat Sherman, featuring an exclusive list of cocktail and cigar pairings, curated by Michael Herklots, throughout the duration of the pop-up.
“We are truly thrilled to offer the Nat Sherman experience at our Brooklyn facility,” said, Daniel Prieto Preston, Founder of Cacao Prieto. “We are always looking for ways to innovate what we do here in Redhook, so it’s an honor to partner with Nat Sherman to bring their first Pop Up to fruition.”
The newest small batch of Long Island Distillers Pine Barrens Single Malt Whisky is back with its 8th rendition of their premium blend. What makes this particular batch even more special is that Richard Stabile is now using his own crafted beer as the base for his Single Malt Whisky. For all the previous batches Blue Point Brewery’s Old Howling Bastard was utilized and the distilling and aging was done at Long Island Distillery. With Long Island Distillers controlling the entire process they can enliven their single malt with the exact flavors they are looking for. The result is quite possibly the finest batch yet. Enjoy!
APPERANCE: A beautiful copper/gold color with delicate legs that took their time running down the glass. The rich hue of this whisky reminded me of an aged French wine with that certain level of sophistication and quality.
NOSE: Initial flavors of cinnamon, spice, medicinal and heat come to the forefront. A second swirl reveals grains and some banana notes.
TASTE: This Single Malts comes at you with cinnamon/spices blending with banana and sharp oak on the tongue then developing into a sweet maltiness. The mouthfeel is lustrous and velvety with a lingering finish of hops, nutmeg, caramel and allspice. The finish literally “pops” and continues to develop on the palate. A complex Single Malt for what is considered a young whisky. A true connoisseur’s spirit.
CONCLUSION: Having visited Long Island Distillers several times I can attest to their quality and attention to detail. Richard Stabile continues to develop high quality spirits and pushes ahead as to what flavors and textures can be achieved in a true small batch environment. I’ve been fortunate enough to sample other batches in the past and feel this one delivers the most unique and pronounced flavors yet. So get on their website, harass your local liquor store and get your hands on Pine Barrens Single Malt #8 before its gone!
If you haven’t been enticed by flavored spirits whether it be you don’t enjoy the overly sweet taste that tends to accompany them or you simply feel they’re not “Manly” enough, this particular spirit and cocktail might change your mind. So man up, and read on…
I’ve been a huge fan of spirits in the 20+ years of my drinking life. My tastes have changed through those years from swigging down Old Crow at adolescent parties to sipping Pappy Van Winkle in my study. During the turbulent times vodka had been that clear spirit you either took shots of or used blindly as a mixer in some concoction your friends would make. I owe many harrowing mornings to that grainy spirit although in reality it was the cheap sugared mixtures that wreaked havoc within me upon my midafternoon awakenings. As a result unfairly I might add, my tastes drifted to the darker spirits and all but shunned the vodkas of my yesteryear. It’s these days that I’ve returned to the product that has more taste and versatility then I had previously experienced.
Enter premium vodka; Long Island Distillers which was made famous for their LiV vodka made from Long Island potatoes and local ingredients caught my eye not long ago. After tasting their vodka which had such depth and body to it I was hooked. Richard Stabile president of Long Island Distillers made me a believer. I now had a new found appreciation for vodka and its craft as a handmade quality product. After touting the virtues to all that would listen and drink I was now a premium vodka advocate. After thinking I had conquered the spirits world completely Richard threw me for a loop with his flavored line of premium vodkas.
Currently Long Island Distillers produces a series of natural ingredient flavored vodkas. I’m not talking about your artificially manufactured “flavorings” in vodka that so many companies pump out ad nausem; I’m talking about natural real ingredients. This is where LiV Sorbetta Strawberry Vodka comes in. Ingredients on bottle; Vodka, Fresh Strawberries, Sugar. Simple. All real, all natural. The result is a refreshing vodka with just the right balance of spirit meets ripe fruits. Here are some of my tastings straight and as a cocktail. Enjoy!
LiV Sorbetta Strawberry Vodka straight:
I always like to taste a spirit I’ve never had straight. No ice, no mixing, just the booze. I need to establish a baseline of its taste without anything to dilute or take away from its natural state. This helps me in developing a “flavor recall” for when it’s mixed or I drink another version of the product.
Nose: Sweet wild berry upfront.
Taste: This vodka starts off with a blast of fresh strawberry sweetness followed by a weighty mouthfeel of the potato vodka itself and vanilla notes. The finish lingers with a hint of wild strawberry flavor. With the second sip the sweetness is less pronounced while still keeping that crisp strawberry taste. Midway it develops into a cool aromatic spirit finishing with those subtly sweet wild strawberries. Unlike artificially flavored spirits that are sugary-sweet and one dimensional throughout, this vodka has complexity. Very pleasant and refreshing.
To keep it manly I decided to make a martini and drink it as a cocktail. My mixology skills are limited in that making a mixed drink to me is usually putting a single ice cube into my bourbon. I can however follow a martini recipe rather well. Here is the recipe I followed for those that would like to try it:
Manly LiV Strawberry Vodka Martini
Ingredients:
Ice
1 ounce simple syrup (2 parts sugar, 1 part water, heated, mixed, then cooled)
2 ounces LiV Sorbetta Strawberry vodka
½ oz. Dry Vermouth (Boissiere Extra Dry, Italy)
Combine ingredients and 4 ice cubes in a shaker. Shake vigorously and strain into a martini glass.
Nose: A hint of fresh picked ripe strawberries and slight citrus/ floral notes from the vermouth.
Taste: The first sip brings the vodka upfront with an invigorating strawberry flavor that feels like biting into freshly picked fruit. Dryness of the vermouth comes into play and some floral alcohol moves forward. This martini delivers sweet ripened berries and a crisp angular finish. The chill from the shaken ice really gives a nice aroma to the cocktail. Each sip gave me a perfect balance of alcohol and fruit flavor. Delicious. So man up! Try LiV Sorbetta Strawberry Vodka and while away a sunny afternoon in style gentlemen. Cheers!
