Author: Ansley Coale

Dear friend of fine spirits,

We hold our annual sale this time of year: helps you recover from the depredations of the dread TAX MAN.

Take 15% off any bottle(s), 20% if you purchase 12 bottles or more.

Some spirits I suggest that you try:

The Low Gap clear whiskey just got named Whiskey Advocate’s “Artisan Whiskey of the Year”. This is not moonshine – it’s one of the world’s finest whiskies – Crispin Cain uses an old cognac still – without the oak. It makes great cocktails.

The Fluid Dynamics barrel-aged cocktails are unreal: cocktails are rarely made with such outstanding ingredients, and aging them in oak for 6 weeks makes them astonishingly rich & tasty. In December, using some scant preliminary bottlings, we placed 3 Fluid Dynamics at one of San Francisco’s best liquor stores. They became their number one holiday item.

The new Mezcaleros, nos. 3 and 4, are among the world’s finest distilled spirits. Period.

The newly released Germain-Robin Small Blend no. 1 was given a ***** rating by spirit journal: “understated complexity…. Another masterpiece from America’s iconic producer”. He accurately called the finish “fathomless”.

Finally, check out our list of interesting offerings from newly-established craft-method distilleries (more info on their bottlings is on their individual websites).

Best regards/ansley coale/craft distillers

Dear friend of fine spirits,

We have added a gin, a whiskey, and a rum from Great Lakes Distillery to the craft-method spirits marketed by Craft Distillers. Founded in 2004 by Guy Rehorst, the distillery is Wisconsin’s first since Prohibition.

To my mind, excellent liquor displays two easily-overlooked aspects of producing fine spirits. First, being “clean” = the absence of any negative aspects: flavors and aromas are pure, apparent, distinct. You can’t get there without rigorous attention to every detail of production, which even the best-intentioned usually fall short of. The second is balance”= the spirit’s qualities are harmonious and integrated: nothing too dominant, nothing overshadowed. Very few producers achieve it consistently.

The Rehorst gin is both subtle and CLEAN: try it over ice and notice its clean citrus and spicy ginseng, with the juniper held in BALANCE. Good stuff, especially at $35. It won a double gold at the SF Spirits Competition. The Kinnickinnic whiskey blends purchased Kentucky bourbon with their own barley malt: the youthful CLEAN malt puts the oaky bourbon into BALANCE; an excellent value at $39. The Roaring Dan’s (an early-1900s adventurer arrested for piracy on Lake Michigan) rum ($35) BALANCES rum’s sugar-derived heaviness (in this case, grade-A molasses) by adding maple syrup to the second distillation. Excellent product. Note that all three spirits incorporate an intelligent & creative innovation: our kind of distillery.

Ansley Coale

 

Dear friend of fine spirits,

This time of year, folks ask us to suggest holiday gifts. Here goes:

Stocking-stuffers. #1: at tastings, I’ve watched people fondle the 200ML bottles of Fluid Dynamics barrel-aged mixed drinks ($20). A cocktail becomes incredibly deeper and richer after it spends 6 weeks in oak. This is Omigod product. #2: turn someone on to G-R XO in its jewel-like half-bottle ($65/375ML). First-timers simply do not believe that they have never heard of this brandy. Best distilled spirit in the world, said Robb Report in 1966.

For tequila lovers. The two Mezcalero bottlings, #3 & #4 ($84), are based on semi-wild and wild agaves. They show you why good mezcal is so wonderful: the level of sophistication and richness cannot be matched by anything distilled from tequila’s agave Weber. These bottlings are bargains: closest product is Del Maguey’s mezcal tobalá (usually $120). What we shipped to our distributor in NY sold out in four hours.

Whiskey drinkers. The Compass Box (artisan Scotch whisky) Hedonism ($100) is one of the finest whiskies in bottle: barrel-aged grain, unbelievably soft. Give someone a very pleasant surprise: the Low Gap clear wheat ($45), distilled on an antique cognac still. The Malt Advocate reviewer told us it was the best white whiskey he had ever tasted. Put simply, this isn’t hooch: sophisticated craft-method whiskey without the oak. We have a few bottles of Clear Creek’s rare Oregon malt ($50, very peaty), sold out at the distillery.

Brandy. Any of the Germain-Robin single-barrel bottlings ($150 or $180) are singular and of extraordinary quality: world-class wine grapes focused and purified by passing through a small potstill. Pacult called one of the earlier pinot noirs “perfect”. Old Havana ($105) is a rich and mouthfilling blend originally assembled to pair with fine Cuban cigars. It’s over 20 years old. “One of the world’s great spirits” Men’s Journal.

A very special aperitif. Remember the surprise of the first taste of St Germain elderflower when it hit the market 2 years ago? Andy Quady’s Deviation ($29) is even better.

Extra special: one of the casks, either the Minnesota oak 10-liter with a case of Low Gap inside, or the Limousin 9-liter with a case of Germain-Robin inside. Call me at 707 468-7899 for info/advice.

Many, many good wishes for the holidays and for a meaningful 2012/Ansley Coale

Dear friend of fine spirits,

We have some new and AMAZING stuff! If you have been in a trendy bar recently, you maybe got offered a barrel-aged cocktail, the work of individual bartenders. I started noticing them early this year, and in May talked with Crispin Cain and Joe Corley, out at the distillery. If anyone is good at blending and aging spirits, it’s them.

Something great happens when you allow the ingredients in a good cocktail time to integrate and to deepen by interaction over time.  Our first trials made our jaws drop.  Next we spent four months experimenting with recipes suggested by SF bartender Darren Crawford, Devin Cain (Crispin’s son) made several creative suggestions and did much work deriving the ultimate blends.

Our Germain-Robin and Low Gap Spirits, along with Andy Quady’s Vya vermouth, are perfect for cocktails: clean, distinct, rich, true-to-ingredient flavors.  Because they don’t have that harsh sense of alcohol, you don’t have to put in a lot of sugar to cover up the harshness.

The brand name is FLUID DYNAMICS.  These are very likely the best drinks you have ever consumed.

Releases nos. 3 and 4 of the scarce and astonishing Mezcalero just came in.  These are among the finest spirits being made, period.  They will likely sell out pretty quick.

Lew Bryson, senior reviewer for the MALT ADVOCATE, told us that Low Gap was the best white whiskey he had ever tasted. Warm regards,

Ansley Coale

Dear friend of fine spirits,

Germain-Robin now has FOUR single-barrel varietal brandies in release. The cellar has become a very interesting place: many many barrels (over 1000) of distinctive varietal brandies, going back to 1983. The single-barrel brandies are pure & focused: spirits concentrated by distillation from premium local varietal wine grapes.

We pick those grapes early to maintain high acid. This acidity is crucial for clarity of flavor and structure. We age the single-barrel brandies in Limousin casks – ones we have already used before, so that the subtlety of flavor isn’t overwhelmed by new oak.

The Colombard is our oldest release: 23 years. It’s a testament to how much flavor you can develop while leaving the alcohol as soft as can be. The Pinot Noir is from cool areas of Sonoma and Napa: more cognac-like than earlier PN bottings. The Semillon is maybe my favorite G-R brandy: masculine & profound. The Muscat, like the grape, is very intense. There are no brandies like these anywhere. It might be that these are what Germain-Robin does best.

Other news: we have added four distilleries to our growing list of Regional Craft Spirits. Cruise the individual brand websites: a lot of this stuff is pretty good.

We’re spirits makers, but that doesn’t keep us from having fellow feelings and enormous respect for hard-working and inventive Andy Quady, who has almost single-handedly put California on the map as a producer of world-class ports, dessert wines, & aperitifs. We’ve added four of his products to the list: try his Deviation, to my palate superior to the fabulous St Germain elderflower liqueur. The Vya vermouth from Quady will be in two of our forthcoming aged mixed drinks. Yum

Warm regards,

Ansley Coale

Marino antonio juan using an axe to cut up roasted agaves at the family mezcal distillery of Joel Antonio Cruz, San Juan del Rio, Oaxaca State, Mexico

Adrienne Simpson took this when Craft Distillers was shooting video for their mezcal DVD. The agaves, or “magueyes” as the locals call them, have been roasted in a fire-pit to a deep mahogany color and are being cut into smaller sections to be crushed in a stone mill, prior to fermentation. You can tear off a small piece, still warm, chew, and let rich fragrant fresh-roasted agave nectar flow slowly down your throat: it’s beyond delicious, and it’s why artisan-distilled mezcal is so nicely sweet: richer than the sugars and/or caramels added to almost all other distilled spirits after they have been distilled.

 

Dear friend of fine spirits,

November is “rareties” month, so we turn to artisan mezcal distiller Joel Antonio Cruz, out in the middle of Oaxacan nowhere (San Juan del Rio, 20 miles on dirt roads from the highway). He distilled a single batch combining wild agaves (“Tobala”: folks go out in the mountains and find them, like collecting wild mushrooms) with another rare variety called Tepeztate. This perfecto batch is 130 liters = 190 bottles only. It’s wonderful stuff, rich and soft, mouthfilling, slightly sweet from roasting, with a mildly feral tang. Mezcalero San Juan del Rio, 750ML, 45.6%abv, $84.00.

The San Juan is first in a planned series of mezcal bottled under a new label, Mezcalero: single batches from talented individual distillers from a region making world-class spirits that are almost entirely uncommercialized. We shot a DVD about what artisan mezcal is, how it’s made. Email and ask us for one and we’ll send it to you.

Other things that are fabulous and in scant supply (descriptions at www.caddellwilliams.com):

Germain-Robin Anno Domini 2008
Maison Surrenne Heritage 1875 (8 bottles Left)
Aqua Perfecta basil eau-de-vie
Germain-Robin Old Havana

Here’s something unique & high quality at a very reasonable price: a 1994 wedding was cancelled after we had assembled a custom blend based largely on Chenin Blanc, a varietal that has more or less disappeared. Germain-Robin Barrel Blend 1994 in half-bottles (375ml, $50.00).

Regards/Ansley Coale/Craft Distillers