EMBURY COCKTAILS

New Brand Forecast: Milagro Blend

 
Dateline: New Orleans. At the 2010 Tales Of The Cocktail gathering Milagro Bartender Competition which showcased 14 bartenders from around the country, another sort of cocktail was on offering. Months earlier Gaston Martinez and Jaime Salas of William Grant & Sons had asked Milagr0 co-founder Danny Schneeweiss to create a special offering for all the competitors. Danny concocted a special blend of 3 of 
Milagro's main offerings, the Barrel Reserve, the Silver and the Anejo. At a dinner the night before the big competition (and, this being  Tales Of The Cocktail, the obligatory blow-out party) Danny talked about creating the blend, and how he'd hand numbered all the bottles. Competitors all  received bottles, and the blend would be served to guests at the next evening's competition & party as a one-night-only, ephemeral  tequila meritage. Like the apocryphal flash of green that is said to appear some evenings over the Gulf of Mexico, it would exist merely for that one moment. "I love it so much I don't want to give it away," he said wistfully to the table of bartenders participating in the competition from all over: Dallas, Boulder, San Francisco, St. Louis.  I was reminded of a sort of mien that's come up recently when discussing really great cocktails--that quality a drink can have of being so amazing and irresistibly delicious that you just want to get as much of it in you as quickly as possible. It sounds like a binge, and it is, but a binge on a fine taste arc and perfect balance as much as just the power of mood altering spirits, if not more. "I love it because I can taste all the different tequilas coming through--I can taste everything we do," Danny said with unfettered enthusiasm.  There was a clear glow of pride in his face as he shared the ratio he finally arrived at after a month of trials: 50% Milagro Silver, 30% Select Barrel Reserve Reposado and 20% Milagro Anejo. The result was, in fact, a super tequila, in the same sense that a tuscan can be super: flavors elevated from their standard pitch to a heroic intensity, a rigorous riff on existing flavors and just some damn fine drinkable stuff. Like a meritage it pulls from each of its elements' flavor profiles and pushes them somehow farther, bigger, grander. Why haven't artisanal blended tequilas existed before?  There's the Joven category, where one tequila is used to offset another's weakness(es) and "soften" it, but in this case all the tequilas were great from jump, so it's a bit different. Like Maker's 46, this blend took a page from the viniculture playbook in its technique and basic concept, delivered something rooted firmly in the brand's trademark flavors and pushed it into a new, compellingly drinkable realm. Smashing good stuff.

The next evening, at the competition, William Grant's Charlotte Voisey was pouring the blend into snifters, neat.  Charlotte's pretty measured in her compliments, and so her clear enthusiasm for the blend was persuasive. "I thought I'd be pretty quiet at this station just pouring a blended tequila, no ice or mixer, but it was incredibly busy--and people kept coming back." At the end of the evening she was positively beaming over the blend's reception. "It was almost a Hendrick's moment, where people would drink it and say, I don't like gin but I like this. People were drinking it who said they would never drink tequila but they loved this and they came back."

By the end of the evening the conversation was already happening about putting the blend out commercially. "It has to be done," said Charlotte, shaking her head, clearly certain that this was something crucial for Milagro to put out there. I commented that it could take the young brand that was still finding its identity in the marketing space and move it to another level. Her look seemed to imply that it was already happening, as we spoke. Perhaps it was.
 

It would be silly to resist Voisey's inception* of how great this blend is. It helps that the blend is actually astonishingly spot on, not too oaky, not too smokey, not too buttery, just very just right. Very Goldilocks perfect. You want to drink it fast because it's so good, but its so complex and interesting you are compelled to nurse and savor it.

Charlotte and Milagro's Jaime Salas

She was doing tastings as workers were clearing away tables. The party was over, but she was on point with this stuff. Again, very persuasive. I'm calling it now. Milagro Special Reserve Blend on shelves by Christmas.

"Ten out of ten," she said on the response from those who sampled the blend, with return visits. I'd have to say of all the cocktails I had that night (10 out of the 14 entries, perhaps, some good ones to be sure, but all batched and not in their ideal state) this cocktail of tequilas alone was actually the best.

*See: Inception.

Wednesday's Cocktails: Poolside Sangria & Spicy Pepino

Two more today from the poolside Tres Generaciones party in New Orleans. The Poolside Sangria defied two strong convictions I'd held for decades: first, that tequila and white wine should never, ever play together and second, that peach schanpps should never, ever be played with period. Two simply brutal hangovers from senior year at Catlin Gabel High School led to these aversions.  But Bobby Gleason's winning white tequila-gria (sorry) cleared those misconceptions right up. The Poolside Sangria is perfect for wilted guests seeking relief on a blazingly hot summer afternoon, instantly delivering cottonmouth-grade refreshment and almost just as instantly an inescapable sense of euphoria. Crying out to be batched as a punch, this one.

3G POOLSIDE SANGRIA

1.25 oz Tres Generaciones Plata
.50 oz DeKuyper Peachtree
1.50 oz Fresh Lemon Sour*
1.50 oz Sauvignon Blanc

Build cocktail over ice, garnish with a sliced strawberry a thin lemon wheels.

The more Tabasco that can be added to drinks the better. The jalapeno and Green Tabasco in the Spicy Pepino rocks some serious heat, but the cucumber and cilantro soothe your tongue. Another party-starter.

SPICY PEPINO

1.50 oz. Tres Generaciones Plata
2.0 oz. Fresh Lemon Sour*
3 - ½” slices of peeled cucumber
¼ cup fresh Cilantro leaves (15-20 leaves)
1/3” slice of fresh Jalapeño pepper or 2-3 dashes of Green Tabasco Sauce

In a mixing glass muddle the pepper first then add cucumber and cilantro and muddle again. Now add remaining ingredients and shake vigorously with ice. Double strain using a fine mesh strainer into a chilled cocktail glass,

Garnish with a cucumber wheel on the rim and a floating cilantro leaf.

* HOW TO MAKE FRESH LEMON SOUR: "I use a mix of lemon juice and simple syrup. I always start with 3 parts lemon juice and 2 parts simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water) then adjust them there. I feel it is always better to be a bit tart and add a sweetener to the cocktail because if it is too sweet you can't take sugar out. Some people will use a ratio of equal parts lemon juice + simple syrup + water."

Bobby Gleason, Beam Global Ambassador.

More Bars, More Places: Bacchanal, New Orleans

(We welcome a new writer, and friend, this week: Amanda Shuster.) It was a sultry midsummer night in New Orleans. My last night in town, I was on a reprieve from the chaotic, semi-corporate drunkfest that Tales of the Cocktail was morphing into. Out and about with two new friends: Mike Kobrin , a trumpet player [Edit. note: Mike is also the Web Editor WWOZ, our round the clock soundtrack in and out of New Orleans] who was introduced to me the night before in absentia by a mutual friend in New York and Jason Rowan, a writer and fellow drinks enthusiast, who was introduced to me by Mike. We’d been together for just a couple of hours, but in that time, it had become apparent we had a rare chemistry, sharing a comfortable camaraderie and easily playing off each other’s comic flare. In other words, we were laughing a lot.

After meeting up at a bar on Frenchman St. and getting a short tour of the Lower 9th Ward, Mike decided to bring us to his favorite out of the way wine bar called Bacchanal. The front is set up like a general store for wine, lots of inexpensive treats in racks amid baskets and hand-written notes.  Specials and wines by the glass are listed on a chalkboard behind the counter.  

 

Chilled wines are by the counter. We decided to get a whole bottle to share, and since it was such a hot, humid night, we wanted something flavorful, but refreshing. My eyes immediately found one of my very favorite bottles from Spanish Basque country (I have a real penchant for Spanish wines and until recently, I was the Spanish wine buyer for a retailer in NYC), Ameztoi Txakoina (pronounced Chalk-o-leena) Rubentis. The person working behind the counter mentioned that the wines would soon be scarce since the vineyards had recently been paved over, news that saddened me immensely! I have since tried to verify this, but have only been told that no one has it in supply anymore for any given reason, and the last bottles on shelves are rare and worth buying, 2008 being the last vintage. It was made in very limited quantity to begin with.

 

We took our precious bottle out back to the huge garden patio area, a pretty, remote spot that seems more fitting with Tuscany than the jazzy decadence of New Orleans. We were the sole customers. As we opened the bottle, we immediately resumed our easy repartee.  Our wine ended up being perfect for that night and moment. It’s made from a blend of Hondarribi Zuri and Hondarribi Belta, grapes from the Getaraiko Txakolina region on the Atlantic Coast of the Iberian Peninsula. A light, slightly fizzy, salmon pink rosé, with balanced acidity. The tiny bubbles don’t come on as a full attack the way some cheap sparklers do, but instead, add just the right amount of zing to the palate. Despite being so light in body, the flavors are full enough to make peace between white and red wine drinkers alike, with fresh, tart strawberry, citrus and faint cinnamon notes. So easy to drink, it seemed we’d polished off that bottle in mere minutes.

If you see this wine anywhere, just buy it! Recommended serving suggestion: anything you eat on a hot summer’s day, plus three great friends and a beautiful garden, away from all the hurries, worries and commotion. A.S.

Amanda Schuster works in the wine and spirits industry and also makes jewelry. In other words, she is a professional alcoholic with a blowtorch.

Bacchanal,

Ameztoi Txakoina Rubentis

Tales from Tales: The Nitro Experience

 The events and tastings in New Orleans during Tales Of The Cocktail ran a pretty impressive gamut, from fancy cocktails in an antique store or sit-down dinners, coursed with cocktails, to poolside parties and the ritual late night meet-ups at the Absinthe House. But an unexpected foray into the Don Q suite provided the most surreal and undeniably cool set-up of the week.

I'd been hanging out with Meaghan Dorman of SpiritMeAway.com at a lame party in the ballrooms of the W Hotel that was going for a decadent 7 Deadly Sins theme but landed instead on Holiday Inn, Wichita singles mixer--of course, Hendrick's had set the bar impossibly high, so perhaps it's not fair to judge. On our way out we ran into freelancer Liza Weisstuch who invited us to tag along to some mysterious tating that involved liquid nitrogen. On the 16th floor we found ourselves in the Don Q suite along with some other strays, Tom Conte, an affable large fellow from Don Q and bartender Esteban Ordonez. And a giant canister of liquid nitrogen.

Estaban bade us all stand back, and began releasing some of the liquid nitrogen into a pitcher, with the fringe benefit of monster movie fog spilling out everywhere. Note the bowl of orange liqiud on the right.

That's an instant party right there. Very dramatic, very satisfying, particularly for someone who's favorite book at age 10 was 'Monsters, Monsters, Monsters'.

Esteban carefully poured some of the nitro into the a pitcher with water that turned to a sort of liquid ice, and then pour that into the metal mixing bowl containing a mixture of rum and mango juice.

When the smoke cleared: instant rum mango slushy.

Aside from the science fiction appeal of the nitro the resulting drink was better by far than anything we'd had downstairs-a slushy created without adding almost any ice and so perfectly rich.

Wednesday's Cocktail: Sweet Breeze

This is from Eddie Perales, Tequila Ambassador for Beam Global. Eddie and Bobby "G" Gleason of Beam served up some impromptu Tres Generacioes Plata cocktails poolside at the W French Quarter on Saturday afternoon at Tales, inviting a few journalists to stop by. Happily we'd wound up on that list, but anyone lucky enough to be staying at the W that afternoon was in for a treat as well. You walked in to the the courtyard and were greeted by giant platters of cucumbers, strawberries, lemons, limes, basil and jalapeno--more fresh produce than I'd encountered in a week of unrepentantly fatty and heavy New Orleans cuisine. Not that you'd want the food any other way, but you do begin to yearn for something fresh and green and uncooked.

The fresh fruit and the bracingly clean, triple-distilled Plata in Eddie and Bobby's capable hands helped clear away some of the the fog of Tales and for a couple of hours we felt human again. Bobby wrote us about his creation:

SWEET BREEZE

1 ½ oz. Tres Generaciones Tequila Plata

Take 6 fresh basil leaves put in a glass shaker with one half peeled red grapefruit, four large ripe  strawberries, muddle altogether

Then add fresh lemon sour, (I took the juice of six lemons and added a table spoon of orange marmalade and boiled it together, let it cool and added it to my cocktail.

Method – add all ingredients together shake “hard and with a smile’ and pour over fresh ice, garnish with a strawberry perched on the rim of glass and dust with fresh ground nutmeg.

Cross Training Monday: WWOZ 90.7 FM, New Orleans

 

As what feels like the entire spirit and cocktail world begins its annual exodus to New Orleans for Tales Of The Cocktail (who's manning the bars back home this week?), there's only one appropriate soundtrack to accompany packing: WWOZ 90.7 FM, NOLA's Jazz & Heritage Station. The DJs cover an incredibly wide range of what we may as well call soul--blues, Soul, Reggae, Dub, Trip Hop, jazz of all stripes. It's soul music, because it's so unabashedly real, felt, authentic and unvarnished: an exact antidote to the glossy, periptatic way of life in most northern cities, and a bracing dose of raw music that's a tonic after the pervasive electronic soundtrack that dominates  modern life, whether it's from the radio or your cell phone. None of that here. While packing for Embury's first foray into the boozy, schmoozy educational fray of Tales Sunday night I was serenaded by Nina Simone, Black Uhuru and Massive Attack vs The Mad Proffessor. This morning it's rootsy jazz, just the kind you expect to hear wafting from open windows on a hot summer day in The Quarter. It's also soothing music after a big night; I expect nothing but from this trip. The constant announcements of shows around town are dizzying to a live music fan, and provide a sort of map of where to go to hear what--the station as a whole is a aural map of a town so unbelievably rich in music. Mike Kobrin, an old pal from our tech writing days in New York City,  moved down to New Orleans last year and is now the Web Editor for WWOZ. He also plays jazz trumpet around town, thereby acheiving as serious a quality of life upgrade as any I've heard of in a while. He's been appointed to be the local Embury point person this week--and we'll be doing out best to stop into the station to see where the real magic still happens, too.

WWOZ 90.7 FM,