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I was guilted into attending the Grappa seminar led by Francesco Lafranconi of Southern Wine and Spirits. My experience with Grappa,k like so many others was with what I referred to as “lighter fluid gone rancid”. We used to import some grappas from Ceretto and other producers and as much as I tried to appreciate it (I’ll never like it), I just couldn’t. Francesco explained that producers used to just ship off the pomace to large distilleries and then essentially copacked the grappa for the wineries. The ones in the seminar…Poli and Marolo…are artisanal producers whose only business is grappa. And the results were there…well made, not harsh, aromatic and innovative.

There are five regions in Italy that are allowed to produce Grappa, all in the north. Having just been in Venice, I was particularly interested in Poli’s range because that’s where he’s from (Bassano).

A morning visit to Cafe du Monde for Cafe au Lait and Beignets and then it was back to work. Great presentation by Stephen Beaumont on beer cocktails. Certainly a category we’ve heard a lot of talk about but Steve did a great job of presenting the category in an understandable way: they fall into three different types: 1) beer blends (e.g. black and tan which by the way is an American, not Irish invention), 2) Spirits, juice or wine with normal size beer and 3) Beer as flavoring agent in traditional cocktails.

Some general guidelines Steve noted are that ales work better than lager in cocktails and bitter beers, especially IPA’s take spirits better, especially rum. Lighter beers do well with fruit juice. One of the best combinations is Weissbier and fresh squeezed OJ.

Regarding wine cocktails he advised that since hops are naturally tannic, so don’t try to pair with highly tannic wines like Cabs. And when mixing spirits and beer, measurement is critical…absolutely do not free pour.
One of the recipes we tasted was great, The Green Devil. 1 oz. Martin Miller’s Gin, 2 drops Absinthe and one bottle of Duvel (he told us it’s pronounced Du’ vel)

I asked Steve later for a recco with Heineken and he suggested trying something like Chartreuse and also maybe some light fruit juices.

TOTC has taken over New Orleans. Hundreds of attendees fanned out across the city for specially prepared dinners matched course for course with cocktails. Sam and I ate at the Palace Café hosted by Paul Clarke of Cocktail Chronicles Jim Meehan of PDT in NY. We took over half of the top floor of the restaurant and it was a great feeling to be part of this group. We sat at a table with Karen Foley, editor and publisher of Imbibe, John Pellaton of Hine Cognac and shared some incredibly creative food and drinks. Then it was off to Muriel’s on Jackson Square for the Beefeater Gin Ruby Jubilee. A great party in an awesome location with a wrought iron balcony overlooking the square. More wonderful cocktails and samples of mini muffalettas, crawfish beignets and other twists on New Orleans classic foods. We also met Ashley Garver of Le Tourment Vert absinthe and had an interesting conversation on where Absinthe is going in the U.S. She validated what we’ve seen: people are fascinated by the concept of it having been illegal and the mystique surrounding its alleged hallucinatory effects. Initially they’ll taste it in a ritual, then straight, and then expanding into various drinks with Red Bull, Jagermeister et al. The key issue Ashley has found, as have we, is that the taste of licorice is just not an American favorite, and that lower licorice profile brands like Le Tourment and Mata Hari will likely find a home here

I finally made it to a seminar…Latino Libations presented by Tony Abou-Ganim. Always an entertaining presentation, Tony was helped by some fortuitous finds in the audience that almost upstaged the master. Aided by the able talents of Diego Loret de Mola, Tony gave an informative history lesson and current take on Cachaça and Caipirinhas, Pisco and Pisco Sours, Rum and Mojitos. I recognized someone in the audience and stopped to say hi and it turned out to be Stacey Smith, Beverage Director of Pappas Restaurants in Houston whom I shared a great dinner with at the Sante’ Restaurant Symposium last year. Also attending the seminar were Herbie Loebl of Pisco Monte Sierpe, Jean Francois Bonneté of Mystique Brands and Michael Trujillo, New Mexico mixologist for SWS.

Next it was downstairs to the Cocktail hour with about 30 stations serving some incredibly diverse cocktail creations. Frankly though, I didn’t like many of them. It struck me as though everyone erred on the side of “creativity” in a palette of flavors I’m not really in love with… a lot with hot peppers, unique combinations of spices and fruits, interpretations of classics substituting tequila for rum or in one case a Brandy Alexander made with Absinthe that quite frankly, smelled like mildew! We did get to meet Natalie Bovis-Nelson aka The Liquid Muse and enjoyed her creation the Nolita Heat.

I landed and dashed to the Monteleone to catch the end of Jamie Boudreau’s Molecular Mixology seminar, but never made it. Ran into Cort Kinker, Marissa Frisina and Shawn Kelley of Pernod Ricard, Francesco Lafranconi mixologist extraordinaire for Southern Wine and spirits (and yes Francesco, I will attend the Grappa seminar), Camper English of Alcademics fame and courtesy of Elizabeth Lang an intro to Damian Windsor of Gordon Ramsay’s of SF.

Wow. What a concept. This is one of the most unusual industry get togethers I’ve ever been at particularly because it’s such an interesting mix of attendees…brand owners, distributors and assorted other industry folk were complemented by a ton of bartenders (according to Jeff Morgenstern’s Twitter tweat there must not be a bar open in SF, they’re all here!). Also present in great numbers (total attendance approx. 1,000!?!) were regular consumers. Well not regular. These folks are passionate about cocktails and incredibly knowledgeable. John Pellaton of Hine Cognac (John, I told you I’d give you credit) summed it up well…it’s like the Sundance Festival for the spirits industry. The key question I keep hearing is, who came up with the idea of N.O. in July…it’s hot and humid.

I’ll be in New Orleans the rest of this week to attend Tales of the Cocktail. I’ve heard a lot about it and it seems there’s a BUNCH of folks we know going. So if you’re reading this and will be there…please reach out and say hi…and let’s have a drink!

Drinks Business Magazine, one of our sponsors for the U.S. Drinks Conference interviewed me at the LIWF/Distil show in London. Here’s the link to the clip http://www.drinksbusinesstv.com/index.php?option=com_drinkstvarchive&id=6781&Itemid=301. (FYI the sound quality is not so great.)

So, here we are in Venice and once again next door to Harry’s Bar where we stopped for the 15 Euro Bellini (great taste but a pretty small glass). We’ve had some serendipitous events occur on the trip including a breakfast meeting with Andrea DiCurzio from Luca Maroni SRL, who we’ve since found out is the Italian Robert Parker. We’ve also been sampling the incredible range of Limoncello’s available in the country. And, we’ve discovered the variations in the way Spritz is served…from a wine cocktail all the way to a long drink…last night’s version being the strangest…heavy on the orange, served in a tall glass with ice and garnished with an olive and orange. At the end of the day, though, I think I’ve become a Negroni addict.