Category: Drink

Warm up with the flavors of Portugal

Planning on doing a little cross-country skiing — that is, once we really have a little snow? Or how about a little pond skating once it gets cold enough to freeze the water? Staying indoors? Why not curl up with a good book? These are all great wintertime activities, whether you’re huddled around a fire in the backyard pit after skiing or skating, or curled up under a comforter, when enjoyed with a glass of port.

What is port? It is a fortified wine that originated in Portugal and emerged into a worldwide market with an ever-growing complexity of wine varietals, growing regions and environments, all contributing to a vast array of color, noses and tastes.

According to publications by Taylor Fladgate, a respected port wine house, Portuguese port is made from grapes grown along the Douro River, where they have been cultivated since the Roman conquest of the third century B.C. These grapes produced enough wine for an export market. The Portuguese discovered that adding a small amount of grape spirit, or brandy, after fermentation not only increased its strength but kept it from spoiling. This technique evolved into the addition of the brandy during fermentation, keeping the wine’s sweetness and adding to its robust qualities.

In the early 18th century, the business of trading wines emerged, and with a long history of trading alliances between Portugal and England, the British merchants dominated the market. During this time the shape of the wine bottle changed from the short bulbous form to a long, uniform cylindrical shape, allowing the wine to age in the bottle to become even more complex in nose and taste. Port pioneered aging vintage productions.

The six most widely used grapes for red port wine are touriga franca, tinta roriz, tinta barroca, touriga nacional, tinto cão and tinta amarela. Port is a blended wine and therefore the blend is subject to change with each vintage. These grapes are principally Portuguese, unique to the Iberian Peninsula.

Our first port is Taylor Fladgate 2016 Late Bottled Vintage Port (available at the New Hampshire Liquor and Wine Outlets at $22.99, reduced to $18.99). Produced from wines from a single harvest, it has a complex rich fruity character. The color is a deep and opaque ruby red, befitting its moniker, “ruby port.” There is an elegant light floral nose along with dark cherries and cassis. On the palate the fruit continues, joined by notes of dark chocolate along with a touch of leather, with reserved tannins.

Our second port, Taylor Fladgate 10 Year Old Tawny Porto (available at the New Hampshire Liquor and Wine Outlets at $27.99, reduced to $22.99), is a rich tawny port that is fully matured in seasoned oak casks for 10 years, with each cask holding 630 liters (about 150 gallons) of wine. Aging in barrels brings delicate wood notes to combine with mature fruit. It is bottled for immediate drinking. It has a deep brick color. Its nose is of ripe dried fruit with a slight nuttiness and chocolate secondary notes. It is smooth and silky with rich jammy flavors with a long finish.

These two distinctly different ports, made by the same family-owned company since 1692, are readily approachable and very affordable. One note: Once these bottles have been opened, they should be stored in a wine fridge or standard refrigerator. Ruby port can be stored for four to six weeks without any trouble; tawny port can last for up to three months. But by all means, enjoy them this winter!

“I’m an attractive person,” you might say. And you’d be right.

“And,” you might add, “I tip well. I don’t ask for anything complicated when we go out — a gin and tonic, or a sea breeze — something fast and easy to make. So why aren’t the drinks I get at the bar very good?

“I mean, they’re all right: gin, tonic, lime; or vodka and cranberry juice. There’s not much to mess up there. They just don’t taste as good as when I make them at home. Why is that?”

This is a good question.

It isn’t about the competence of your bartender. Trust me, she knows what she’s doing. And it isn’t that she doesn’t care; I’m sure she’s a conscientious professional who wants you to have a good drink.

The problem is that you’ve been ordering something utterly forgettable.

Don’t get me wrong. Classics are classics for a reason. There are very few things in life better than a properly made gin and tonic. The laughter of a small child is a petty and grating thing compared to the piney, slightly bitter dance of gin, quinine and lime.

But look at it from your bartender’s position.

There’s a good chance she didn’t expect to be working at all tonight, but Sheila called in sick, so she was stuck. She was able to get a babysitter at the last minute, but this is the first time she’s left her kid with this new sitter, and she’s not sure she trusts the large numbers of facial piercings the girl had.

Then, there’s Stanley, at the end of the bar. He tipped her an extra 50 cents once, a year ago, and ever since then he’s felt entitled to her attention, even during rushes.

Plus, it’s Thursday, which means that there aren’t as many customers as on the weekend, but somehow the bar moves just as much booze, which brings its own set of issues.

All of which is to say, your margarita, rocks-no-salt, probably didn’t benefit from her complete focus and attention.

You know how sometimes you pull into your driveway at the end of the day and have no memory of driving home? That’s how she just made your completely reasonable, utterly forgettable cocktail.

So, what’s the solution?

For the sake of everything Good and Decent in the Universe, please don’t order something obnoxious with a cutesy name. Or anything with 17 ingredients. Or anything that will involve dusting off a bottle from the back of the bar.

What you want is a gin sour.

And what is a gin sour, you ask?

It’s a gimlet, but with lemon.

I sense that you are still staring at me, waiting for further explanation.

OK — a gin sour is one of those very basic cocktails that is a cinch to make, takes 45 seconds and is truly delicious. It has three ingredients: gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup. It uses the same proportions as about six other cocktails: two ounces of alcohol, an ounce of citrus, and three quarters of an ounce of something sweet — the same as a margarita or a daiquiri or a lemon drop.

The difference is, nobody else has ordered one this week.

So, just like stopping for your dry cleaning on the way home makes you pay more attention to your commute, making a gin sour will be just out of the ordinary enough to grab your bartender’s full attention. It’s not difficult, but she will have to keep her mind on what she’s doing.

And you get a very nice drink.

So nice that you will probably start making it for yourself at home.

Gin sour

• 2 ounces gin (see below)
• 1 ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
• ¾ ounce simple syrup

Combine all ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker.

Shake.

Strain.

Drink.

So, the question you are probably asking yourself right now is, what kind of gin?

Wanting to give you the best possible information, I made three gin sours last evening, identical except for the variety of gin. The floral gin was exceptional, truly delicious. But so was the version with gunpowder gin; the lemon really played a leading role. The dry gin was slightly more astringent, which gave it a delicious booziness on the back end. You would really have to make a deliberate effort to mess this drink up

And after three of them in quick succession you will be astonished at what sparkling conversationalists your houseplants are.

With dry red wines from Austria

Winter started at 4:48 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Dec. 21. The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year but also ushers in (at least) two months of cold days, only to be outdone by colder nights! With its roots in paganism, the solstice aligns with the modern holiday season of Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s. These holidays are celebrated in Northern Europe for weeks with fairs and markets in almost every town and city. Hot wine punches are served at these fairs and markets, ideal for warding off the winter chill.

German glühwein is traditionally served at stalls at Christmas markets across Germany and Austria to keep people warm as they shop and socialize. “Glühwein” literally translates to glow-wine, describing how you feel after you’ve been drinking tiny mugs of it outside over the holidays. The recipe is simple, and the most important rule to follow is “Do not let the wine boil, or you will boil off the alcohol.” Added to the dry red wine are an orange, granulated sugar, cloves, cinnamon sticks and star anise.

Weihnachtspunsch is a traditional German Christmas punch of tea, red wine, rum, fresh lemon and orange juice and spices. While the name translates as “Christmas punch,” this punch is ideal for any cold winter night.

Feuerzangenbowle is a festive German Fire Punch. This is an interesting punch in that in addition to the heated red wine, joined by slices of lemon and orange, along with the traditional spices of cinnamon sticks, cloves, allspice berries and ginger, the ingredients include a lit sugar cone, soaked with rum that is poured over it, as the cone is perched on tongs, balanced on the ridge of the hot pot. That is impressive! Note that this concoction involves the handling of alcohol and an open flame! Extreme care should be exercised in the creation of this libation.

Now, about the wine! Recipes for these punches call for a dry red wine. Therefore, a bottle of cabernet sauvignon, Chianti, zinfandel or merlot will do, but I believe that if we are about to make a German hot punch, a German dry red wine should be used. However, I encountered a small “speed bump.” My quest (albeit perhaps not exhaustive) for a German dry red wine met with some disappointment in the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets. So I purchased two Austrian dry red wines.

Our first wine is a 2015 Höpler Pannonica Blaufränkisch Zweigelt Pinot Noir, priced at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets at $12.99. What an incredible bargain! The color is a dark ruby hue. To the nose there are dark blackberry notes, along with a little plum. The nose carries through to the tongue with flavors of blackberries, along with some gentle spices and very soft tannins. This is an Austrian blend of 40 percent blaufränkisch, 35 percent Zweigelt and 25 percent pinot noir. The Zweigelt variety was created in the 1920’s by Professor Fritz Zweigelt, by crossing varieties of blaufränkisch, St. Laurent and pinot noir. Zweigelt is the most widespread red wine variety in Austria.

Our second wine is a 2017 Anton Bauer Zweigelt Feuersbrunn, priced at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets at $17.99. Another great silent bargain! This 100 percent Zweigelt has a color that is a bit more purple than the first wine, along with the nose and tongue also ever so slightly more intense than the first bottle. This wine hails from the Wagram viticultural region of Austria, on the banks of the Danube. Known to produce excellent Grüner Veltliner, the region is ideal for the production of this superb red varietal.

So gather round a fire pit and enjoy the crisp winter cold with a cup of any of these hot wine punches, and if you lack the ambition to flame a rum-soaked sugar cone, you can curl up in front of the fireplace with a glass of either of these fine, light, dry red wines! You will delight in these new experiences.

A hot drink for the holidays

I’ve got a rule of thumb that makes a deceptive amount of sense.

When you’re looking at used copies of cookbooks, buy the one that is in the worst shape. If it’s badly stained and has torn pages, a broken spine and mysterious burn marks, that’s the one that has seen some action. Somebody was loyal enough to the recipes in it to take it into the belly of the beast. It must have something to recommend it.

Anyone I’ve ever given that advice to has nodded and agreed that this seems really reasonable.

The deception comes into play over time. Over the years, I’ve adopted an alarming number of these battle-scarred books, most of which have gone relatively unused.

A case in point is 1969’s Esquire Drink Book. I don’t remember how it ended up in my cocktail bookcase, but it is a perfect time capsule of Swinging ’60s bachelor drinks.

For example, the Bee-Bee.

Even by the standards of the time, the description of the Bee-Bee is a little tone-deaf, sexism and other isms-wise.

“This will bring on leprechauns and williwaws after the third cup,” he says.

Given that 3 cups of bourbon is 24 ounces of 100-proof alcohol, I suspect that it would be more likely to bring on paramedics and divorce attorneys, and yet—

Classic Bee-Bee

Ingredients

• Zest of one lime – one of the really dark, leathery-looking ones
• Zest of one orange – just a regular, undemanding orange
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• 1 cup bourbon – given how much you are going to adulterate it, probably not your best stuff.

Also, have an instant-read thermometer.

Heat all ingredients to a boil in a small saucepan, over medium-low heat. (The lower temperature will give the alcohol time to strip some of the flavorful oils from the citrus rinds.) Bring to a temperature of about 170º. Alcohol boils off at a lower temperature than water, so bringing this to a full boil will strip off most of the bourbon. (I flamed off all the alcohol from some rum once and “disappointing” does not begin to describe the results.)

Rest for three minutes. This will give the bourbon a little more time to wash the citrus zest. Yes, it will cool somewhat, but you do the exact same thing when you make a good cup of tea. Think of this as extremely dodgy tea.

Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into an Irish coffee glass. To be clear, this is 8 ounces of bourbon and, at 170, the alcohol doesn’t cook off. You’ll want to share this one with a few fellow revelers to stay upright.

Shockingly, this is very good. Dangerously good. The bourbon is mellowed out by the honey and citrus. It tastes comforting. It has subtle butterscotch notes that suggest that maybe things aren’t that bad. That maybe you’ll get through all this. That maybe you should make another cup—

So I guess the question is this: Is there a way of lightening the Bee-Bee up so you don’t end up making a pass at a hat rack, and yet that doesn’t strip it completely of its dangerously seductive nature?

Maybe.

Modified Bee-Bee

Ingredients

• Zest of 1 lime – dark and leathery
• Zest of 1 orange – calm and demure
• 3 ounces ginger brandy – I like Jacquin’s
• 1 ounce Irish whiskey – I like Paddy’s for this. It brings a lot of flavor, without taking itself too seriously.
• 1 Tablespoon hot honey
• ½ cup boiling water

And that same thermometer, which has probably been surprised and delighted to find itself in an adult beverage today instead of a pork chop.

Again, heat all the ingredients except the water in a small saucepan, over medium-low heat, bringing the mix to 170º.

Again, rest for three minutes.

Strain into an Irish coffee glass, stir in the hot water.

This version of the Bee-Bee doesn’t taste the same as the original, but it has the same “Hey, buddy, I don’t know if anyone has told you lately, but you are very attractive and have a really great sense of style” quality of debauched, contented comfort to it. (Keep in mind that while only half as dangerous as its big brother, this drink still has 4 ounces of alcohol in it. For either drink, sharing is strongly recommended.) The ginger plays well with the spice of the hot honey. The alcohol is still there and lets you know that it is still there, but it plays so well with the citrus that you hardly notice the number of ill-advised ideas you come up with over the next half hour.

Featured photo: The Bee-Bee. Photo by John Fladd.

A lot of us feel a crisis of confidence in December. We like to think of ourselves as imaginative, creative people, but then we find ourselves surrounded by actually creative people bringing their crafting A-games. We are inundated with pine cone wreaths, hand-knitted sweaters of llamas drinking eggnog, and festive crocheted door knob cozies. It’s enough to make a person anxious. It’s easy to say that nobody is crafting at you, but any time spent in book clubs or PTO meetings puts the lie to that.

Here is an easy way to win some crafting street cred.

What you will need

Some white chocolate – I use white chocolate disks, made for bakers and candy-makers, but a bar of white chocolate from a convenience store would work just as well.

Powdered food coloring – Melted chocolate (you will be melting the chocolate) is extremely finicky. If it comes in contact with even a tiny amount of moisture, it will seize up. Liquid food coloring, and even gel, will make your chocolate very difficult to work with.

Something to stir your melted chocolate with – popsicle sticks are good for this, although the stem end of a spoon would work just as well.

A dry-erase marker. Also, tiny brushes to paint with.

Paper towels

A plain cocktail glass

Your overly excitable plastic container – see Hint No. 1

Using your dry-erase pen, draw a simple picture on the outside of your martini glass. Let’s try something fairly straightforward, a Christmas tree with a couple of presents.

OK, it’s not great. Don’t worry. This is one of the few times in your crafting life that you can be confident in the process. This will turn out well.

Put a small amount of white chocolate on your overly excitable plate. (In my case, it’s a tiny soy sauce dish, presumably for sushi.) Use a smaller amount of chocolate than you think you need. Heat it in the microwave for a surprisingly short amount of time, 15 seconds or so, to start.

Stir the solid-appearing chocolate. If your plate is as excitable as you think, the chocolate will quickly collapse into a molten state. If necessary, hit it with a few more seconds in the microwave.

Stir a little powdered food coloring into your melted chocolate. Start with a small amount, then more, if necessary. Again, if the mixture is a bit stiff, a few more seconds in the microwave will loosen it up.

With your tiny paintbrush, paint the colored chocolate on the inside of the glass, using your drawing as a guide. Because you are painting on glass, think of this like a store window, where you will start with all the details in the foreground, then fill in the background later.

Let’s start with red ribbons on the presents and red ornaments on the tree.

Let’s add some details further in the background: blue presents and ornaments and a brown tree trunk. You could color the white chocolate brown, but I just melted a single chocolate chip and used that.

For the tree itself, I’m going to use two slightly different shades of green. I added a little yellow food coloring to one batch to lighten it up, then a tiny amount of black to darken another. Your first set of blotches will look, er, blotchy. Trust the process.

Hey, suddenly, this is all coming together!

Until you turn the glass around and look at it from the front.

No. Don’t panic. Trust the process. Wipe off the dry erase marker.

Wow. I mean, it’s not perfect, but it would totally shut up Simmons from Accounting at the office party.

You know what we need? A cocktail to go in it.

Pomegranate martini

• 2 ounces Pama Pomegranate Liqueur
• 2 ounces mid-shelf vodka – I’ve been enjoying New Amsterdam lately.

Pour both ingredients over ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake until you hear the ice start to shatter.

Pour your very cold drink into your newly decorated cocktail glass.

Considering it’s only got two ingredients, this is a surprisingly sophisticated drink. The sweet/sour fruitiness of the pomegranate hits you first but is replaced by a fairly bracing booziness from the vodka. The sourness of the liqueur activates your salivary glands, so you get a really “juicy” overall impression from it.

Now the question you are probably asking is, “Won’t the drink wash away the chocolate?”

Actually, no. Your drink is very cold, so the chocolate is unlikely to melt. And, remember when we talked about chocolate’s tendency to seize when exposed to liquid? We’re using that to our advantage here. The water content of the vodka, plus the diluted ice, panics the chocolate, which clings to the side of the glass for dear life.

If you rinse this glass out gently with very cold water, you can probably get three or four uses out of it.

Featured photo: Pomegranate Martini in hand painted glass. Photo by John Fladd.

Give the gift of bubbles or reds

At this “most wonderful time of the year,” there will be plenty of dinners, parties and gatherings of all sorts, and you want to bring something special to the host, your favorite family member or good friends, but you may not know what they will be serving or where exactly their tastes may lie. I offer the following suggestions of a wine to bring along to your next event or to gift.

Nothing says celebration like Champagne! There are many to choose from, and they need not be expensive. Among the many offered, I recommend the Moët & Chandon Brut Impérial (available at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets, priced at $44.99, reduced to $41.99). This is one of the most sought-after Champagne brands in the world, with almost three centuries of history behind it. The color is that of golden straw, with a very slight green highlight carried in the glass. To the eye it is, what else? Sparkling! The nose is full of green apples along with some citrus, minerality and the yeast of a fresh brioche. To the tongue there are notes of apple, peach and pear carried through on the fine, tiny bubbles. This is a wine to be savored with the best of company and should never make its way to the bar alongside the buffet.

Our next wine comes from the winery of Joseph Carr, the 2020 Josh Cellars Central Coast Pinot Noir, (available at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets, priced at $17.49, reduced to $14.45). The color is a rich ruby red with slight blue notes. The nose has cherry and strawberry that carry through to the tongue, adding a bit of chocolate, ending with notes of smoke or leather, coming from the toasted oak. This is an all-around, all-purpose wine that can be paired with a roast turkey on the sideboard, or served alongside soft cheeses like brie and Comté, or stuffed mushrooms and roasted vegetables. This wine comes from prime pinot noir producing regions that include Arroyo Seco, Monterey and Santa Lucia.

Our third wine is a 2019 Decoy Red Wine (available at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets, priced at $22.99, reduced to $19.99). This wine is a blend of 35 percent cabernet sauvignon, 27 percent merlot, 16 percent zinfandel, 8 percent petite sirah, 5 percent malbec, 5 percent petite verdot, 2 percent syrah and 2 percent carignan. With a deep red color, this wine has full aromas of blackberry, plum and dark cherries, with hints of spice. There are supple tannins in this full-mouth lush wine that is perfect for pairing with that prime rib holiday roast! While priced to be placed on that bar, alongside the buffet, this wine can be thoroughly enjoyed at an elegant dinner party.