Dear friend of fine spirits,
Early last month we bottled 200 cases each of something Crispin Cain and I have been working on for about a year: GIN!
RUSSELL HENRY is wonderful gin: smooth, flavorful, with beautiful length. Crispin is using both a small Holstein (indirect heat) pot, good for stuff with solids (fruit), and a small traditional potstill, which lends complexity and elegance. The process is infusion and redistillation; the base grain is wheat. For the Ginger and Lime versions, a small amount of undistilled infusion is added at the end: hence the remarkable freshness.
The Lime makes pretty great Gin & Tonics. The Ginger is spicy: real ginger, maybe a bit too much bite to sip but makes insane cocktails: ginger sour!
We just received two new releases of MEZCALERO. These small-batch offerings are pretty much the best mezcals in bottle. Stylistically different: No. 5 from San Baltazar is soft and vegetal, long finish; No. 6 from Santa Maria Pila is crisp, clean, very complex. When was the last time you tasted mezcal from agave Bicuishe?
The GERMAIN-ROBIN PEAR DE PEAR is selling faster than any product we have ever released. People come to the Germain-Robin tasting room and buy 2 or 3 bottles. There are only 1200 bottles, we have 240 of them.
Joe Corley has used the last barrels of Old Havana to reformulate the blend, including some amazing 2003 Pinot Meunier, dark, spicy, complex. We took the price down to $105.
Regards/Ansley Coale