Virtual Cocktail Classes Are Going Strong!

Visits to local bars and taverns, once customary, are still absent from our lives. Yet, while we continue to wait for their return — somehow, we make do. 

Me, I’ve been spending lots of time in strangers’ homes and offices lately. As a beverage consultant, I’ve been invited into kitchens, living rooms, boardrooms: anywhere, in short, where there’s good company and a strong WiFi signal. 

Virtual cocktails, as well as DIY cocktail-kit subscriptions are increasingly being utilized as stand-ins for that deeply missed bar experience. As a beverage consultant, who loves to educate and create this is where my passion lies these days.

The at-home bar experience, of course, is not a direct equivalency to going out to a bar. Those days, hopefully, will return. But until the hiatus is over, everybody is a bartender. At-home cocktail-making, shared with friends and guided by an expert hand, is filling the void. And it’s a lot of fun.

When my wife and I co-founded Bar IQ together six years ago, to help bar and restaurant programs get off the ground, we couldn’t have expected our model would shift so dramatically. Yet it has, and we’re having a blast working together on virtual classes and DIY cocktail kits.

We are demystifying the craft of drink-making through interactive cocktail classes.

It brings me joy to share my skills with others, and at the same time, it brings participants joy to be able to co-crate. In the absence of an actual bar, the classes provide libations and a social connection — two things we’ve all been longing for. 

Of course, not everyone feels social all the time — or up for more screen time at the end of a work day. So, we’re making it easy to unplug with a monthly cocktail kit subscription. These ingredient kits evoke the mood and essence of each season — with a la carte kits for those timeless classics to be enjoyed throughout the year. Our last kit was whiskey-based, with classic recipes that expanded the heart and the sinuses — with a selection from our friends and Michter’s.    

Whether the virtual cocktail or the DIY home cocktail kit —the art of home-bartending is undoubtedly spawning a more savvy consumer. I have no doubt that in kitchens across the land, a new generation of cocktail enthusiasts will continue to hone their craft, share recipes, and eagerly await the next delicious package on their front step.

Spring Cocktail

Spring has arrived! We’ve finally made it through another cold and snowy New York winter. Now it’s time for everything to start lightening up, including our drinks.  If you’re like me then you’re craving spring cocktails. I tend to enjoy ones that are lifted with fresh citrus and herbs and backed up with a creamy edge. I just mixed this one up recently and I’m loving it!

Spring Fizz
2 oz London Dry Gin
.75 oz lemon
.75oz rosemary syrup
egg whites
plum bitters

The Spring Fizz has everything I want in a drink this time of year. It’s creamy with herbaceous rosemary syrup intermingling with the fragrant botanicals in the gin, and of course, it has the requisite, bright backbone of acidy to support the creamy texture. Mmm, it’s sooo good, you might have to restrain yourself from having one for breakfast J

Preparation:
Dry Shake and then Shake with ice and strain into a chilled coup. Garnish with a few drops of plum bitters.

Visit To Napa Valley

In today’s wine world we are fortunate enough to be blissfully replete with an ever-growing abundance of wine options. The dizzying numbers of new and exciting wineries cropping up, coupled with rapidly advancing technology and experience in the field, ensures that evolution in the wine trade is advancing at a fast and steady pace.

Today’s wine market provides quality along with a disparate array of styles and flavors to suit just about anyone’s wine palate. With so many great wine options at our fingertips these days, the key to enjoyment, is finding out which style best suits your own palate. Trust me, if you haven’t figured it out already…this is a fun process!

Personally, my wine preferences tend to lean toward the old world. I’m attracted to the nuance and restraint exhibited in many of the time honored wine regions of France and Northern Italy.  In the new world, however, more recently there seems to have been a move away from mass and concentration and a general realization that wines are far more interesting if they express a vineyard’s natural characteristics rather than a winemaker’s technique. A growing number of winemakers today employ this old world philosophy and are making some kick ass juice.

On a recent trip to Napa Valley I had the good fortune of visiting some of these wineries. There were many highlights but a couple that stood out were Arietta and Futo wineries respectively.

Arietta

Arietta…founded by Fritz Hatton and John Kongsgaard in 1996 is a cultivated, destroyer of systemic norms. Kongsgaard who was the original winemaker (and a gifted one) eventually left and the venerable Andy Erickson was brought on to make the wine. Erickson’s wines are a beautiful example of the new world meeting and wooing the old world. His wines exhibit terroir and have a true sense of place. They’re proudly from Napa Valley but over extraction and aggressive use of new oak are quickly eschewed in favor of elegance and restraint.  

Arietta makes a Cabernet Sauvignon and four proprietary blends including “On the White Keys”, Erickson’s first white wine, which is a Bordeaux inspired blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. The Sauvignon Blanc provides the racy mouth watering acidity and the Semillon gives it length and roundness. Another interesting wine in their portfolio is “Variation One” this wine was first conceived by John Kongsgaard, in 2000, who used a 30% Syrah and 70% Merlot ratio, Erickson has subsequently flipped the ratio using 70% Syrah and 30% Merlot. This Syrah dominant wine is certainly atypical of Napa Valley. The wild and brooding, animalistic Syrah is tamed just enough by the Merlot, which offers notes of fresh dark fruit along with distinct blueberry notes. It’s a beautifully complex and hedonistic wine that can be drunk young or left to age and develop for 10 plus years.

Futo

The other winery that left a lasting impression on me during this trip was a visit to Futo Winery. The well-manicured grounds of the Futo Estate sit atop the high hills of Oakville, providing breathtaking panoramic views of the valley below and clean and crisp mountain air is conveniently available for when the breath is regained. Tom Futo (who pronounces his name few-tow) owns and operates Futo Wines along with his wife Kyle.

Futo’s wines have depth and elegance. Since I first tasted the Futo Oakville ’08 Bordeaux blend, I have been a fan. I was immediately seduced by the complex and alluring aromatics. The concentrated dark berry fruit characteristics are beautifully backed-up with a nice core of crushed stone and graphite. The warm and avuncular Futo insists that he loathes brettanomyces and takes special care to mitigate its presence. His wines have a rich concentration of fruit, which show more restraint than influence in winemaking. 

Although, I love the wines that Futo produces, on this visit, the wine played a background, supporting role to the overall Futo experience. This is a special place and the warm and engaging Futo makes you feel like family. I really can’t wait to return.

The Winter Rye Cocktail

There’s nothing like the chilly frost-nipped days of midwinter to awaken our obsession for rye whiskey, and what better way to enjoy it than in a delicious cocktail? Some of our favorite types of cocktails to create are variations on classic rye cocktails such as the Manhattan, Old Fashioned, Whiskey Sour and the Sazerac. These classics can serve as templates and provide inspiration for creating nuanced mouth-watering variants.

So, how does the cocktail creating process work? Well, when conceiving of a new cocktail we first like to think about the base spirit...here, it’s rye. Rye is a robust, spicy, and substantial spirit that can lend itself beautifully to sweet, bitter and herbaceous modifiers. Most bars certainly don’t lack an abundance of befitting options. Here with Les Verges, we’re modifying the rye with sweet, bitter and herbaceous elements, all are certainly not necessary but these flavors work quite well together. Please stir one up for yourself and enjoy…cheers! 

LES VERGES

 2 oz. Rittenhouse bonded Rye
.75 oz. Dolin Sweet Vermouth
.75 oz. Punt E Mes
3 dashes St. George Absinthe
2 dashes of Peychaud’s Bitters
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice and then strain into a chilled coup. Garish with three brandied cherries on a pick.