Eau de Vie of Douglas Fir from Clear Creek Distillery (Steve McCarthy)<\/a> I’ve been a champion of this white spirit flavored by infusing dougles fir buds since I tasted it in 2004. It is a perfect digestif<\/i>: incredible aroma that cuts through the postprandial drowsies and slightly fiery with alcohol, precisely what is needed to fuel the fourth round of a full evening’s discussion.<\/p>\nAaron and Kami have been growing a dwarf citrus tree, the Rangpur Lime. It is an incredibly sour and tart, surprisingly orange, thick-skinned citrus fruit. It is an amazing lime. I want a tree, if it will produce in Portland. If you ever see these mandarin limes, lemandarin, nasaran, sour tangerines, listed, obtain some for gin and tonics.<\/p>\n
Aaron has taken up brewing again. This time his interest is in belgians and flemish and older styles. He had a soured porter that was in its second bottling (the bottle fermentation was uneven and too sour, so he blended half the batch and re-bottled). We tried it sunday night. I found it amazing (Aaron thinks that the blending worked and it had also mellowed a bit); I want to taste this style again. Does anyone have suggestions of commercially available examples?<\/p>\n
On my agenda for the next two weeks is a comparison of maraschino liqueurs, a couple of endorsements of liquor stores, and the formulation of a couple of drinks we’ve been subjecting to bibation analysis here at the Prince of Cups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’m back home after a whirlwind trip through California. During the weekend I had the chance to sample a number of noteworthy beverages. Here are some quick summaries. At a family party we drank a jeraboam (5L bottle) of 1979 Smith & Hook Cabernet Sauvignon (Santa Lucia Highlands, Monterey County, California). It was rather amazing. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,14,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beer","category-spirits","category-wine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boozecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boozecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boozecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boozecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boozecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.boozecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boozecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boozecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boozecouncil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"a](\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1385\/1216768095_54bbacf95e_t.jpg\")
<\/a> At a family party we drank a jeraboam (5L bottle) of 1979 Smith & Hook Cabernet Sauvignon (Santa Lucia Highlands, Monterey County, California). It was rather amazing. I mean, of course it has lost the brambly notes that I remember from the last time Dear Old Dad brought a bottle out, but it must have been 15 years ago that I last tasted it, and it is still a large cabernet with good structure. It may well be in the “drink it if you’ve got it” category. But I know there are more in the Dad’s cellar. I avoided food saturday night in order to help Dad finish the bottle.<\/p>\n![\"potent](\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1190\/1217538392_e3b735792d_m.jpg\")
<\/a> For a late night treat, I brought a bottle of Nocino della Cristina from Monteverdi Spirits<\/a> and we had drams of this thick sweet (green)walnut liqueur. The producer describes it as divestivo<\/i> but I find it so sweet that it is more of a nightcap, perhaps a seduction device. And it would be incredible in steamed milk. All of us who tasted it found it almost syrup-sweet.<\/p>\n