Enofiles

Sometimes great rums get overshadowed by classic Scotch and trendy Mezcal. But the lineup at Ron Santa Teresa, a Venezuelan rum company that’s been around for more than 200 years, should have you thinking rum is the new IT spirit. From their perfect-for-bartending Claro (hello, daiquiri!) to the first solera-made rum, the 1796 Ron Antigua de Solera, the brand has established a high standard. Each Friday in April, we’ve poured the Claro, Gran Reserva, and Solera at the Barrel, both neat and in two signature cocktails, the Claro Daiquiri and the S’Lightly Balmy. If you were lucky enough to taste, go to town with these cocktails! If you haven’t, head to USQ this Friday for the last Barrel tasting!

Santa Terea’s Claro was specially designed for shaking and stirring. A blend of 3-year-old rums, the rum boast a pale golden color with fruity, wooden flavors on the palate. It works well in mojitos and, our favorite, the daiquiri. Wonder if Hemingway preferred Santa Teresa?

Claro Daiquiri
2 oz. Santa Teresa Claro
1 oz. fresh lime juice
2 ½ teaspoon brown sugar

Combine all ingredients and shake over ice. Strain into a glass of your choice. We like it up served up.

As much as we adore the claro for its cocktail properties, we can’t cheat on the Gran Reserva, Santa Teresa’s flagship bottling. Thank the 5-year aging in cask barrels for the amber-tinted gold hue and rich mouthfeel. Every now and then we do crave a Dark & Stormy (who doesn’t?), so this twist, S’Lightly Balmy, might take the place in the drink rotation.

S’Lightly Balmy
1 oz. Santa Teresa Gran Reserva
1 oz. cloudy apple juice
1 oz. ginger beer
splash of lime

Pour the rum over ice in a highball. Add apple juice and beer. Squeeze a splash of lime. Drink.

Check out all the bottlings here.

I’m always a sucker for natural wines, so I find myself always looking to this certified organic producer from Sicily. Young female winemaker Arianna Occhipinti comes from quite the winemaking family. Her uncle is Guisto Occhipinti who owns Cos winery (also killer stuff). The thing that separates her wine from some of the other island producers is how fresh it is; it just reeks of elegance. The 2009 Nero d’Avola, 100 percent Nero d’Avola, is bright, tart and acidic, with dark cherry flavors. I love that I feel like I am tasting Sicily when I take each sip. A big handful of volcanic rich soil hits the mouth, but in a great way. Trust me, I wouldn’t make you drink dirt. Yet, the wine appears surprisingly soft and, dare I say…sexy? Maybe is because Arianna is not even 30 years old. The best is yet to come. Drink it, love it! We do! -Joseph Sangiovanni

Every time I fly Virgin America (which is often, NYC > SFO), I end up with a VeeV cocktail. But that’s hardly the only time I sip the açai spirit. Heralded for its earth-friendly approach to all-things alcohol, VeeV is distilled from the Brazilian fruit, açai, known for its healthy properties. (Surfers say so, at least.) It makes a good substitute for vodka- or cachaca- based drinks, or just simply mixed with juice.

Given Earth Day, though, we have to spotlight VeeV’s green efforts. The company was the first alcohol brand to be certified carbon neutral. The distillery is powered completely by renewable wind energy. Their innovative distillation process uses 200 percent less energy than traditional pot still. On top of all that, VeeV donates $1 from the sale of every bottle to rainforest conservation efforts. Wow.

If we really need to further win you over with the spirit, though, mix it up in one of these signature cocktails. With the Greenmarket only steps away from USQ, you’ll be eating AND drinking local. Then you’ll be ordering it on your next flight too!

Herbal Advice 
Who doesn’t love a mason jar? Just what we thought. We’re giving you a bit of Herbal Advice with this cocktail: Go Green.

1 ¼ oz VeeV Açai
2 lemon wedges
½ oz simple syrup
2 oz club soda
fresh cucumber, sliced thinly
sprig of mint
raspberries

Pack the mason jar with ice. Add all of the ingredients and seal the top. Shake and serve, tableside.

Brazilian 57 
Forget Skinny Girl Margaritas. This 125-calorie (not that we are counting, we drink wine and spirits for a living) champagne cocktail should be swapped for that boring mimosa at any Sunday brunch. Including April 22, Earth Day!

1 ¼ oz. VeeV Açai
½ oz fresh lemon juice
½ oz simple syrup
Champagne
lemon twist, for garnish

Shake the first three ingredients well with ice and strain into a Champagne flute. Top with Champagne and garnish with a lemon twist.

We’ll be tasting VeeV and VeeV-based cocktails this Saturday at USQ during our Go Green Organic Tasting. Stop by. More details here.

I’ve been on a whites kick lately, and there is no better white to welcome warm weather than this lightly effervescent Basque bottling. Txakoli is, traditionally, a slightly sparkling, dry Spanish white wine boasting a pale green color and served as an aperitif. A blend of two native grapes, Hondarrabi Zuri and Hondarrabi Beltza, this bottling is one of three produced by the Txueka Etxaniz family in Getaria, along the coast. (Getaria is actually hometown of fashion designer Cristobal Balenciaga. No wonder I love this wine so much!) Even though it’s light and crisp, with melon notes and a slight acidity, it’s far more complex in character than most enter-summer wines thanks to its mineral backbone and zesty finish. Perfect with seafood. Try salted anchovies. -Stephanie Cain

The 2010 Txomin Etxaniz Txakoli de Getaria is Stephanie’s staff pick this month. Check it out here.

When I saw the Salvatore Gives You His Word cocktail at Huckleberry Bar on Tuesday night, I immediately thought “shoes.” Hello, Ferragamo! But alas, no, the cocktail was named for the founder of Averna, Salvatore Averna, who developed the caramel-laced liqueur from Italy. And it has nothing to do with shoes, except you can wear really nice ones while sipping the amaro.

Made of all natural ingredients, Averna is produced from a secret recipe (what isn’t?) of herbs, roots, and citrus rinds, with the addition of natural caramel. Many people sip it neat or on the rocks as an aperitif, but Huckleberry Bar’s general manager Stephanie Schneider whipped up some snazzy cocktails with Averna’s history as her inspiration. It’s been around since 1868, so there’s a plethora of tradition. While she developed four concoctions in total, we’ve got the recipes for our top two—Salvatore Gives You His Word and Taken By Storm—below. Check out all four, including See You Amaro Morning and the Averna Negroni, at the Brooklyn haunt this month.

Salvatore Gives You His Word
1 oz. Averna
¾ oz. Old Overholt
¾ oz Maraschino
¾ oz. lemon juice

Combine all ingredients. Shake and strain into a coupe. No garnish.

Taken By Storm
1 ½ oz. Averna
½ oz. Gosling’s 151
½ oz. ginger juice
1 ½ oz. grapefruit juice

Combine all ingredients. Shake and strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice. Finish with a grapefruit twist.

Terroir is a common term for wine, but you don’t hear it so much for vodka. Well, EVER. That’s about to change with Karlsson’s Gold Batch 2008, a vintage vodka distilled from one specific type of potato. And you thought vodka had to be odorless and tasteless?

To catch you up to speed, Karlsson’s Gold is a collaborative project between master distiller Börje Karlsson, the guy who helped launch Absolut, and a group of Swedish potato farmers. Concocted as a blend of seven varieties of virgin potatoes from Cape Bjäre, Sweden, the vodka is distilled only once (as opposed to around seven times, like most commercial brands) to preserve the character of the potatoes.

Karlsson didn’t stop there, of course. He took it to the next level with his Batch series, debuting with the 2008 harvest. Made exclusively from the Gammel Svensk Rod (“Old Swedish Red”) new potatoes, the bottling has a distinctive sharp and complex, earthy and peppery flavor that sets it apart from blended vodkas. The label displays the name of the farmer, Bertil Gunnarsson, harvest property, and the bottle’s edition. Only 1,980 bottles exist. 

Swing by USQ every Saturday in April, from 6pm to 9pm, for sips of the Batch 2008 and Karlsson’s Gold Vodka. Both bottlings will be for sale. Find out more information here.

USQ welcomes the Masumi Brewery back to the Salon tonight, 6pm to 8pm, for an evening in celebration of the newly minted Arabashiri sake, which will be unveiled for lucky attendees. This unpasteurized nama sake heralds the spring season and is among our most anticipated sake arrivals each year. Join special guests Katsu Miyasaka and Keith Norum as they present this year’s Arabashiri alongside five other delicious sakes from the Masumi Brewery.

Admission to this tasting is free, and reservations are not required.

Easter just isn’t complete without Peeps, those sugary, marshmallowy concoctions that come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. (And they are super fun to microwave. Try it.) But the classic Peep, the little yellow chicken, inspired our Easter cocktail 2012: Yellow Chickie Martini. It’s a lively combination of Karlsson’s Gold Vodka, Capri Natura Limoncello, Dolin Dry Vermouth, created by our spirits director Tom Smith. The earthy potato vodka and savory, herbal vermouth playfully balance the sweetness of the limoncello. Serve it up or on the rocks.

2 oz. Karlsson’s Gold Vodka
2 oz. Capri Natura Limoncello
2 oz. Dolin Dry Vermouth
Peeps Yellow Marshmallow Chicks

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Shake and strain into a martini glass. Garnish by floating a Peep in the martini. Happy Easter!

Get all the ingredients here.

Join USQ as we welcome our good friend Rudy Marchesi to the Salon tonight, from 6pm to 8pm, for an evening of top-flight wine from his Willamette Valley-based Montinore Estate. Attendees will enjoy luscious white wines like the honey-scented Pinot Gris and Borealis, a unique blend of Muller-Thurgau, Pinot Gris, Riesling, and Gewurztraminer. We’ll also uncork four Pinot Noirs, including two single-vineyard offerings from the superb 2008 vintage.

Since purchasing the farm in 2005, Rudy has turned the estate into one of Oregon’s finest producers of organic- and biodynamically- farmed wines. A staff and customer favorite of ours since 2006, we feel the wines at Montinore have never been better. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to meet and mingle with Rudy Marchesi during this limited two hour tasting event.

Admission is free, and reservations are not required.

USQ welcomes Jacques Herviou to the Barrel on Thursday, April 5, from 6pm to 8pm, for a duo of Languedoc cuvées from Château Maris. An entirley organic effort, from viticultural practices to a winery made completely of hemp bricks (that’s right, hemp!), Château Maris produces a delicious selection of biodynamic wines. Featured as a kick-off to Earth Month, we’ll pour two selections from the La Livinière Cru of Minervois. An are most notable for Vin Doux dessert wines, Minervois’s still wines are shooting to the spotlight thanks to efforts like those of Château Maris. Stop by for the old-vine Château Maris 2009 Biodynamic Syrah and Château Maris 2008 Continuité de Nature Carignane and get the lowdown on this planet-friendly effort!

Admission to this tasting is free, and reservations are not required.