Bar Scrawl

My next event was Whistling Through History – a talk about the history of rye whiskey sponsored by Toasting the Town, a weekly email list about NYC history and cool events happening around the town (free to sign up at that link!). That covers the History.

As for Whistling:

Yep, Whistle Pig was also a sponsor. The first time I ordered this whiskey, I did it just because of the name – but then I discovered that it’s really good!

The event was on the lower level of the Park Avenue Tavern, where I also found:

These private taps seem like they’d be a threat to my liver and my wallet, but I’d still like to get some friends together and take over a booth.

Anyway, Sonoma County Distilling had some really nice whiskey, and it should be available in NYC now. And we got to try straight samples of their 3 whiskeys (rye, wheat, and corn), and mixed drinks made with their rye from the bar (more on that later).

Unfortunately for the history portion of the evening, the space was not set up for a lecture. I heard a few interesting tidbits (George Washington made rye whiskey! They used to filter whiskey with blankets!), but I could barely hear through the post-work Midtown crowd, and I could see even less. The speaker cut it off after less than 10 minutes. 🙁

Then it just became an open bar with Sonoma rye, which was a great concept… but the drinks were terrible. This is NOT, I must emphasize, the fault of the whiskey. The bartenders just didn’t know what they were doing – I got an Old-Fashioned with a dumptruck of sugar, muddled with cherries, and topped with club soda(!). It was undrinkable. So I went back to the bar:

(I don’t actually care that much about stirred v. shaken – it was just one more thing wrong.) The ingredients ratio was the real problem:

I don’t like vermouth. I like some drinks that contain vermouth, but… it’s kind of like salt. It can be an ingredient, but you’d never consume it on its own.

But there are some people who disagree with me (I know! I was shocked too!), and so I went to the panel “Great American Vermouth Revival: Elevating Classic and Modern Cocktails”, in hopes that learning more about it would increase my appreciation.

The first tid-bit, from vermouth maker Adam Ford of Atsby Vermouth, is that the FDA definition of vermouth is:

“an aromatized, fortified wine with the characteristic flavor of vermouth.”

In other words:

Obviously, that leaves a lot of leeway when it comes to flavor. Generally vermouth is divided into “sweet” (Italian) or “dry” (French), but American vermouth makers have been developing a unique take on it. Franky Marshall, bartender at the Dead Rabbit, said:

Also, the name comes from the German word for “wormwood.” Neat.

The panel also spent some time discussion the martini. Some of the oldest recipes call for 2-to-1 vermouth-to-gin, but today it’s usually 1-to-3 – and mid-20th Century drinkers changed that to 1-to-7, 1-to-15, or even less. Let’s face it, every story you’ve ever heard about the martini is about how little vermouth people can put in it.

But the ultra-dry martini is a mistake that’s become a bit of folklore. Amy Zavatto, from Edible Manhtattan, said:

Another reason for the public’s aversion to vermouth: It goes bad. Vermouth is a wine, so once the bottle opens, it’s going to turn sour and bad in a few weeks. Most people’s first experience with vermouth is a dusty bottle from the back of the liquor cabinet that’s half-turned to vinegar.

Bianca Miraglia, founder of Uncouth Vermouth, gets frustrated when people ask exactly how long a bottle of vermouth will last if kept in the fridge:

Several repeats of this experiment established that vermouth is just not the drink for me.

But at least I learned enough to toss out my parents’ ancient, opened bottles of vermouth when I went to visit last week. And I’ll get some fresh stuff for my next Manhattan!