What's in my Glass?

Dry Vermouth is a fortified white wine flavored with herbs. There are many brands, each with its own distinct flavor. That was the big lesson from this experiment: the range of flavors is very wide, and very interesting. 

We sampled three dry vermouths on Sunday. I had known for some time that I like a Martini made with Martini and Rossi Dry Vermouth much better than one made with Stock, and I like to cook with it better as well, so I decided to explore various vermouths to see what they have to offer. I spent a few weeks picking up interesting brands wherever I found them. Here's what we came up with:

• Noilly Prat, on the left in the photo, was the darkest of the three by far, and flavorful although a bit sweet for my tastes.
• Martini & Rossi is my house vermouth, used for both cooking and cocktails. It was the driest of the lot, with a balanced herbal flavor. Lorna likes it on the rocks with rich fish dishes like a Newburg.
• The last of our trio was Dolin, which I was introduced to at Drink, an excellent cocktailian bar in Boston. This was lighter and sweeter than the Mertini & Rossi, and drier than the Noilly Prat.
• Richmond and I had compared the Martini & Rossi to Stock at the Club on Friday night, noting that the Stock was lighter in color and in flavor.

I have been curious about this new artisanal gin from Maine for about a year now. I sampled it first at Le Garage in Wiscasset and found it too richly flavored for a Martini, but I never pursued the topic. Then my brother brought me a bottle so I was compelled to delve into serious research. Here's what I found out:

Cold River Gin is not a Genever, but it is closer to that old style of gin than any London Dry Gin I have tried. the flavor is still distinctly gin, but with a citrus opening followed by long earthy, woodsy flavors with a distinct warmth from cardamom.

Cold River Gin is almost sui generis. It (and its neighbor Ingenium Gin) are not your dad's London Dry Gin, nor are they Genevers. For starters, Cold River's base alcohol comes from Maine potatoes, just like their Cold River Vodka. The citrus dominates the front, and the juniper comes in with the woodsy flavors for a real northwoods evocation. The cardamom adds that warmth that makes it interesting and peculiar.

I still don't care for Cold River Gin in a Martini, but it does well in many cocktails that employ lemon or orange juice (like the Monkey Gland). Some like it with lime, especially in a Gin and Tonic. It makes an intriguing Pink Gin.

I like nothing better on a snowy morning than a pot of smoky Lapsang Souchong tea. It smells like a campfire, bringing back all kinds of cozy memories.  

There are a number of brands of Lapsang Souchong. Twinings makes a very creditable teabag version, and there are excellent whole-leaf varieties available through the fabulous Upton Tea Imports.

My favorite is the Hu-Kwa brand shown above. It is imported by the venerable Mark T. Wendell Tea Company in West Concord, MA, not far from where I work. 

Lapsang Souchong is on the menu at the Dunbar Tea Room in Sandwich, on Cape Cod, although I think they use a lesser brand these days. We always get a pot of that. I like it with the Fisherman's Lunch of cold smoked mackerel, although that may not be to everyone's liking. Dunbar's usually has the Hu-Kwa in their gift shop.

I have also found it at The Cheese Shop in Concord, MA, and a number of other good gourmet shops.

A couple of interesting tidbits about Lapsang Souchong tea: it is made from big, old tea leaves rather than the tender tips popular with lighter teas. It has less caffeine than other teas. And you steep it for a long time, five full minutes or more.

In fact, it has to steep quite a long time before it gets tannic and bitter.

Anastasia, from Kusmi Tea, is Lorna's favorite tea to linger over, especially during the holidays. Like all the Kusmi Teas, it is a flavored tea blended to very old formulae.

Anastasia has a bright, floral, slightly citrusy flavor that brings a touch of late spring to A Snowy Morning Salmon Brunch, or any other brunch for that matter.

The Kusmi teas are hard to find. I have bought it at Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, at the Market Basket (no relation to the chain) in Rockport, ME, and at The Cheese Shop in Concord, MA, although I did not see it the last time I was there. We have found it in the past in Harvard Square (I don't remember where) and at the Gourmet Garage Soho store in New York City.

Amer Picon is an herby-orangey bitter aperitif used in some classic cocktails, or had with wine or beer. It might be nice with soda, as Campari and many similar aperitifs are, but I have not tried it that way.

I have heard that Amer Picon is not imported into the USA, and I have never seen it on a store shelf. I have had it in a Liberal Cocktail, but that was from a private bottle brought from France by a traveler. I also had it in a Picon Punch in San Francisco, but that was in a private bottle brought from England. 

A number of cocktailians suggest the Torani Amer syrup is a good substitute, but I am dubious of that claim, as Picon is an old and jealously-guarded family recipe from 1837, which has itself changed to lower alcohol three times since the 1950s.

It seems to me that the original Picon used in some classic cocktails has long since vanished from the scene and any attempt is an inspired approximation at best. From that perspective, you may as well experiment with the Torani Amer if you can find it, but to my mind I'd rather see if I can get a bottle from a Paris-bound friend and try the version approved by the family of its inventor.

Name: Greylock Gin

Type: London Dry Gin, 94 proof 

Source: Berkshire Mountain Distillers, Great Barrington, MA

Greylock is a London Dry Gin produced in small batches in Great Barrington, on the far western edge of Massachusetts. You can find it in some restaurants throughout the Berkshires, but as I write this it is not easy to find closer to Boston.

Greylock is my favorite gin for Pink Gin, for some Martinis, and it is one of my favorites for simply sipping. It is not floral like Bombay Sapphire or Old Raj, nor is it really steely like Beefeater or Bombay Dry Gin. It has some piney-sprucey notes, but not as pronounced as 209 or some other current western gins.  I find Greylock to have a neutral mineral flavor that reminds me of cool shady pine woods and wet granite.

Everyone's palate is unique, and even more unique are the associations we form based on our experiences. For me, Greylock Gin is evocative of Merrifield, a summer cottage in the Berkshire mountains that my family went to when I was a kid. It's funny how a sip on a summer afternoon can recall a mountain stream by a pine cathedral not seen for 40 years! 

Last night, Richmond and I sampled a couple of excellent old ports: Calem 20 Year Old Tawny Port and Portal Colheita 1994 along with two excellent Stilton cheeses and some toasted walnuts - a classic combination!

The main thing of the tasting was to note the difference between an excellent Tawny Port and an excellent Vintage Port (the Portal).  These can be confusing, and they are expensive so it is good to do your research: see wikipedia to learn the basics.

Port is a fortified wine, with brandy or spirits added to the wine while it is still fermenting. The added alcohol stops the fermentation before it is finished, so some of the grape sugar remains in the wine. Port is often blended from the produce of different grapes, vineyards, and years, all within the Douro region of Portugal.

Basically, Vintage Port and old Tawny Port are two ways of getting the best possible expression of port wine. Vintage Port, like vintage wine, is made only from the port of a single excellent year. The Portuguese word Colheita means vintage. 1994 was a great year for port, but 1993 and 1995 were not, so you can find a Colheita 1994 but you won't see a Colheita 1993.

Tawny Port is blended from select excellent ports of different years that have been in the cask for an average of the time specified on the label. You typically see 10-year and 20-year tawnies.