Self-described "redneck togas"
What might not surprise you is that this picture was taken at a stock car race track. The part that should surprise you is that it was taken during a wine festival that was held there. Full disclosure: the aforementioned racetrack is 30 minutes from where I grew up and this photo was featured in an article in my hometown paper.
The Society of Wine Educators is holding this year’s annual conference in Sacramento, CA from July 27 – Aug 1 and yours truly will be in attendance. I’m calling it a nerd conference because each day is jammed packed with seminar after seminar and also because one of my wine-nerd heroes, Jancis Robinson, is giving the keynote address. I’ll be taking a spirits exam and attending classes on everything from sustainability in winemaking to “the truth about wine and cheese” to “can absinthe cause insanity?” to a 3 hour class on sake. Keep reading and I’ll fill you in on all the good stuff I learn out there.
You don’t have to be a member of SWE to attend, but you might have to be a nerd.
The Good Beer Seal was formed to recognize establishments serving artisan suds and to promote NYC as a beer lover’s destination. It was started by the proprietors of some incredible beer bars: Gary Gillis (Burp Castle and Standings), Ray Deter (DBA and DBA Brooklyn) and Jimmy Carbone (Jimmy’s No. 43). In order for the bar to feature this thirsty seal of approval, the list must contain at least 80% craft or special imported beers, a good percentage of the beer served must come from a draft or cask system, the bar must have a strong community presence as well as a good “pub” vibe, and last but not least, serving good beer should be central to the bar’s operating philosophy.
The list of good beer bars includes the usual players – Blind Tiger, Spuyten Duyvil, Against the Grain, etc. – for a full list, click here. The founders wrote a letter to Mayor Mike Bloomberg describing their efforts and he issued a proclamation that July 2009 is “NYC Good Beer Month”. Two major events are lined up so far – a grill-off featuring amateur chefs at Water Taxi Beach in Long Island City to benefit Slow Food NYC and “Good Beer at BAM” in collaboration with Edible Brooklyn and Manhattan Magazines (for tickets, click here). There’s a blog about the project as well and it lists what the good beer bars are serving up in July.
This past Monday, the New York Spirit Awards (NYSA) announced the winners from this year’s inaugural competition. NYSA was founded by 2 thirsty spirits – Adam Levy, a spirits writer who named his dog after Brooklyn Brewery’s brewmaster (Garrett Oliver) and Dori Bryant, the founder of The Polished Palate who has been given the title “The Rum Queen” by the St. Petersburg Times.
The closed-to-the-public tasting took place on June 14 and 15 at the Javits Center in Manhattan, with 265 brands of spirits (both big and small). The judges were an impressive mix of buyers, sommeliers, mixologists and other trade folks. 78 awards were given at 3 different levels – “Best of Show” (brand with highest number of points), FDR Awards for “Best in Category” (highest scoring brand in each category, giving props to the President who repealed Prohibition) and Best of Class for “Top Performers” (top scoring 20% of brands in each category).
You may be beginning to wonder why you should care. Well, turns out that my friends from Finger Lakes Distilling took Best of Class awards for both the brands they entered – Vintner’s Vodka and Seneca Drums Gin! Right now, they’re available in these markets – Watkins Glen, Ithaca, Elmira, Corning, and Penn Yan – but fear not thirsty friends, I’ll keep you posted as they grow.
Black Box Wines is sponsoring a video contest. For you SNL fans, the first step is not to cut a hole in the box. They want you to serve their product to your family or friends and then capture their reaction when they learn it’s from a box (assuming they found the wine to be delicious).
I’d like to enter this contest, but my friends and family would not be surprised to get a decent wine from a box; in fact, many of them have had boxed wines at my dinner parties before. I’m all for packaging wine in a box; it tends to be inexpensive, it’s harder for me to break, it’s more transport-friendly, the wine keeps for much longer, it’s more environmentally friendly (less energy required to produce and transport compared to glass bottles) and thankfully, more producers are starting to get on the bandwagon. I lovingly referred to boxed wines in college as “wine bladders” – have you ever removed the box to see what’s underneath? Continue reading
Sounds like a nice thing to have and it’ll be up for grabs this Sunday at the 1st Annual Brooklyn Beer Experiment.
![BrooklynBeerExperiment[1].poster](https://athirstyspirit.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/brooklynbeerexperiment1-poster.jpg?w=500 "BrooklynBeerExperiment[1].poster")
It’s a homebrew-off as well as a beer cook-off, with over 25 amateur chefs competing. $18 gets you entrance, a free beer courtesy of Brooklyn Brewery or Smuttynose and a donation will be made toward ovarian cancer research.
The antics of the duo behind the event have been covered in the New York Times.
See you there!
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A Thirsty Spirit 