Alcohol | Page 2 of 3
Tinto de Verano: Spanish Summer Wine with Lemonade
Tinto de verano is the summer drink Spaniards actually drink, far more of it than sangria, and the rest of the world barely knows it exists: cheap red wine and lemon soda or sweet clear soda one to one, plenty of ice, a slice of lemon. The legend of how it was born in Cordoba has an innkeeper and a movie in it - just no evidence. What "con limón" and "con blanca" mean, and why good wine has no place in it.
La Hora del Vermut: The Spanish Vermouth Hour
The name is German, the drink Italian and the custom Spanish: between noon and lunch you stand at the bar with ice, an olive and a splash of soda in your glass, and they call it la hora del vermut. What's inside the glass, why it's served straight from the tap, how a drink from Turin ended up in Reus, and how the house rojo tasted in two vermuterías in Alicante.
Patxaran: The Sloe Liqueur of Navarre and the Basque Country
Patxaran is a liqueur of wild sloes steeped for months in anise spirit - a deep ruby, sweet, ice-cold digestif drunk all over Spain. The name is Basque, but the protected designation Pacharán Navarro belongs to Navarre. What "de Arañón" on the label means, why the legend about the monks doesn't hold up, and how it tasted after a tasting menu in Alicante.
Herbero: An Herbal Liqueur from the Sierra de Mariola
Herbero is an herbal liqueur from the Sierra de Mariola, on the border between the provinces of Alicante and Valencia. At least four mountain herbs macerate in an anise base, and they often stay right there in the bottle. Seven villages around the range make it, each in its own way - dry in Alcoy, sweeter in Bocairent. After a meal, bars and restaurants in Alicante pour a round on the house along with the bill.
Kalimotxo: The Basque Name for Wine and Cola
Kalimotxo is cheap red wine and cola in equal parts, with ice and a slice of lemon - back home we know the same drink as houba. People had been mixing wine and cola in Spain long before that, but the name came from a crew in Getxo who had two thousand liters of wine turn sour on them in August 1972. How kalimotxo is drunk at Basque festivals, why it has two spellings, and how it tasted in the sun outside a bar in San Sebastián.
Ararat: The Armenian Brandy They Call Cognac at Home
Ararat is an Armenian brandy made from grapes of the Ararat plain that nobody at home calls anything but cognac - and the European Union paid Armenia three million euros to drop the word by 2043. What is true about Churchill and Stalin, why Yerevan has two distilleries sharing one family tree, and how a tasting of three ages at the brand's museum turned out.
Noy: The Armenian Brandy That Used to Be Called Ararat
Noy is Yerevan's second great brandy, aging in cellars on the site of the old Erivan Fortress. It didn't take the name of the biblical Noah until 2002; before that the product was called Ararat. The factory was founded in 1877 by the merchant Nerses Tairyan, and it was made famous by the Russian merchant Shustov, who entered its cognac anonymously and won the Grand Prix in Paris.
Mauritian Rum: Distilled from Molasses and Cane Juice
Mauritian rum comes in two forms: the older one from molasses and the younger one from fresh cane juice, which the island banned for decades after independence. I'll explain why juice rum isn't allowed to call itself agricole, what a barrel does to it in the tropics, where Penny Blue got its name and how to buy a bottle to take home for as little as possible.
Rhumerie de Chamarel: A Distillery Tour and Rum Tasting in Mauritius
Rhumerie de Chamarel is a family distillery in the mountains of southwestern Mauritius that distills rum solely from the fresh juice of its own sugarcane. Visitors get to see the whole process, from the mill through the copper stills to the barrels, and the tour ends with a tasting. This article explains who Chamarel is named after, why the distillery is so young, and how the tour and the tasting work.
Pliska: The Bulgarian Brandy Named After the First Capital
Pliska is a Bulgarian wine brandy aged five years in oak barrels, and in Bulgaria everyone calls it cognac - even though that word can't go on the label. It's named after the first capital of the Bulgarian empire, it made its name in the Soviet Union, and it shouldn't be confused with rakija. I drank it in Balchik with a view of the Black Sea.