Spring 2016 Highball

Highball S P I R I T S

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St. Pete Distillery: A Floridian distillery proud of its roots

D U S T O F F T H AT B OT T L E O F B I T T E R S

Texas bourbon is real... and real good

Highball is a quarterly publication of ABC Fine Wine & Spirits. Copyright

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2016 ABC Liquors, Inc. All rights reserved.

Not all products are available in all stores. If the

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product you’re looking for isn’t available, ask us to

ST. PETE DISTILLERY St. Pete Distillery is Floridian through and through, from their ingredients to their packaging, not to mention their phenomenal spirits.

JUGGLING JULEPS Craving a Mint Julep? We’ve got you covered. Sip the original version or try one of these delicious renditions.

order it for you!

Meghan Guarino Editor meghang@abcfws.com

Allie Smallwood Contributing Editor allies@abcfws.com

Contributing Writers Wid Kever, IV Wine & Spirits Specialist New Smyrna Beach Marcy Walker Wine & Spirits Specialist Destin

Cover photography courtesy of St. Petersburg Distillery

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A BITTER MAN Dust off that bottle of bitters.

You’re going to want it after reading this article.

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GARRISON BROTHERS BOURBON Without Garrison Brothers, bourbonmaking in Texas might still be illegal.

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A LITTLE BIT O’ IRELAND Experience a little bit o’ Ireland with this Jameson Black Barrel Irish Whiskey in honor of St. Patrick’s Day!

ST. PETE DISTILLERY A L L I E S M A L LWO O D

There are some brands that just hook, line and

the same honeyed finish as the rum. Even the vodka

sinker you with their story and vibes. There’s a reason

showed an alluring vanilla almond note that is so

for branding, there’s a reason for cool label art, and

gently present in the Royal Mead. The copper pots

there’s a reason for high-quality spirits inside the glass;

that cook these spirits were made in the 1930s and

St. Pete Distillery has that reason down to an art.

it’s incredible how some of that vintage Florida

It seems the market of spirits drinkers love sipping rum, gin and vodka that was crafted especially for them. Our palates are jumping on the craft bandwagon and it’s forcing quality to go up. That’s why Dan Undhammar, director of product development,

seeps into the final product. The retro label art and even the facility itself, which is fashioned with ’40s industrial chic architecture and décor, just hearkens to a time when zero corners were cut to make top-notch alcohol.

says that St. Petersburg Distillery “strives to observe

To unite nine different products by one solid rod

and understand what the local public is seeking. We

of rich complexity is pretty admirable. The quality

came to find out they are asking for a great deal of

is undeniable in St. Pete Distillery’s offerings; these

choices/flavors. We obviously couldn’t create/develop

truly are spirits that can be enjoyed alone or in a

everything, so we settled upon what we felt was a

craft cocktail. The attention to small details clearly

great portfolio that fits in the marketplace.”

speaks to their mission of keeping the market

Their portfolio, which the “research” team at ABC

Margarita

only impressive, it’s inspiring.

Aside from Banyan Reserve Vodka, which

Sweet Corn Whiskey, Righteous Rum & Spice,

can be found at most ABC Fine Wine

Liqueur, Oak & Palm Spiced Rum, Oak & Palm

& Spirits locations across the state, St.

Coconut Rum, and Banyan Reserve Vodka

Pete Distillery’s products are primarily

encompass St. Pete’s starting lineup. The spiced rum and orange liqueur were the crowd favorites, but the flavor profiles of each spirit exhibited something enduring… a round, full mouthfeel and a rich undertone.

The whiskey pours the same allspice aroma that

Bloody Mary

flowing with small-batch, big quality, Florida spirits.

tasted mid-afternoon at room-temperature, is not

Tropical Gin, Artisanal Vodka, Tippler’s Orange

Dark N’ Stormy

distributed regionally. However, you can find their full line-up online at abcfws.com.

Mint Julep

Images provided by St. Petersburg Distillery.

weaves throughout the gin, and the gin sips with

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Juggling Juleps M A R C Y WA L K E R , W I N E & S P I R I T S S P E C I A L I S T D E S T I N

The Mint Julep in the United States dates back

THE BARBER OF SEVILLE

to the 1800s. The first time it was mentioned in

A refreshing alternative using dry sherry

print, it was described as a “dram of spirituous

and amaro with no mint. It’s a bit exotic

liquor that has mint in it, taken by Virginians

and completely delicious.

in the morning” (which was totally medicinal,

1 oz Dry sherry

I’m sure). Other historians trace the cocktail

1/2 oz Rye whiskey

back to an Arabic concoction called a julab,

3/4 oz Campari

a mixture of rose petals and water. Europeans

1/2 oz Lemon juice

replaced the rose petals with mint and voila!

The Julep. This brings us to the Southern U.S. where libations of this sort were popular for their refreshing quality. An imported beverage concept was about to become an American classic.

1/4 oz Orgeat syrup of interest in bourbon cocktails has brought

2 drops Orange blossom water

life back to this Southern favorite. New twists

3 dashes Orange bitters

go far beyond the simple and delicious original.

Crushed ice

Try the classic, but enjoy a few variations—the

Orange peel and crushed almonds for garnish

possibilities are endless if you use great spirits

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker, except

Bourbon is commonly referred to as ‘the

and fresh ingredients!

true American spirit’ and with good reason.

THE CLASSIC

a Julep or rocks glass and top with crushed ice.

Fresh mint

Garnish with crushed almonds and orange peel.

Without the likes of Jacob Beam, Elijah Craig and Evan Williams, its popularity and respect would have been little known outside of small communities. Its prominence in the Southern states is one reason bourbon became the spirit of choice for this refreshing cocktail. Its ability to shine against mint is another. And though bourbon is the traditional spirit of the

2 tbsp Simple syrup 1 1/2 oz Bourbon Distilled water Powdered sugar Crushed ice Mint sprig for garnish

Julep, other whiskies, particularly rye, will do

Muddle the mint with simple syrup in a Julep

the trick. That’s part of the magic of the Julep.

or Collins glass. Add bourbon and a splash

Its ingredients are known to complement an

of distilled water. Fill the glass with crushed

array of spirits. And not only that, the cocktail

ice and pour bourbon and mint mixture over

itself sparked the invention of the paper

top. Sprinkle top of ice with powdered sugar.

straw—who knew bourbon could be

Garnish with a mint sprig.

so inspirational?

Churchill Downs, where the Kentucky Derby takes place, named the Mint Julep its official cocktail way back in 1938 and it’s still a treasured Derby cocktail to imbibe. The classic cup is important as it will keep your cocktail cool in the heat of May. Outside of being a Derby staple and a classic cocktail, the advent

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garnishes, and shake until chilled. Strain into

ELDERFLOWER JULEP This citrusy twist definitely suits the Florida landscape. A bit of fresh grapefruit and elderflower liqueur make this a bright and floral alternative.

5-10 large Spearmint leaves 1 tsp Honey 1 1/2 oz Bourbon 1 oz St-Germain 1 oz Grapefruit juice, fresh squeezed and strained Ice Mint sprig and grapefruit zest for garnish Combine mint and honey in martini shaker.

Muddle thoroughly and add the bourbon, St-Germain, grapefruit juice and a handful of ice cubes to the shaker. Shake vigorously.

Strain into a Julep or Collins glass and garnish with a mint sprig and grapefruit zest.

A BI T T ER MAN W I D K E V E R , I V, W I N E & S P I R I T S S P E C I A L I S T N E W S M Y R N A B E A C H

At 31 years old (takes a bow) I’m often

Do you cook? Never has a chili ever tasted

THE SAZERAC

accused of imbibing like that of a 71-year-old.

better than with the addition of 10 dashes

This is the Grande Dame of cocktails in

As my age suggests, I should be out among

of bitters. Oh, and marinades? Go crazy.

my home. The Sazerac is an unapologetic

my other millennial brethren, on the hunt

A citrus bitter added to the chicken pot

mistress. She is the queen. She screams from

for the rarest of bourbons, craft brews and

will transform the dynamic of the dish. Ten

the ether. She is at once American in origin,

vin jaune. But I’m not. I’m at home, studying

dashes to a butter-sage rub will saturate any

though quietly humming of all of her

the minutiae of wine with drink in hand—

chicken in roasted, herbal, blood-orange-in-

European parts. She is an enigma.

something my grandfather, no, my great

fused magic.

grandfather would have drunk. Something Hemingway would have slapped my back in agreement over. Something Gatsby might have poured. Something strong, rich and full of bitters.

A bitter is any alcoholic beverage that has been flavored with any number of organics: bark, fruit peel, root, herb, anything—the

(Traditionalists serve this drink with Cognac;

But the drinks! What about the drinks?!

though rye whiskey is favored in America.

Cocktail bitters are after all alcoholic and

Absinthe may be substituted with any high

lend themselves to cocktails. Here are the

anise-flavored liqueur; though it will never

classics that strike me to the core:

be the same. The only component you must

THE OLD-FASHIONED

use without argue is the Peychaud’s Bitters.)

You may use any whiskey you like.

1 Sugar cube

Rye is favorable.

Peychaud’s Bitters Aromatic bitters

act of extracting organics with alcohol dates

2 Sugar cubes

back to pre-history. These tonics were used

Aromatic bitters

as general and preventative medicine. With

Citrus bitters

the advent of distillation, the prevalence of

4 oz Rye whiskey

medicinal tonics exploded. With their strong

Water

alcoholic lift and refreshing medicinal flavor,

Ice

In a shaker, saturate a sugar cube in 2 dashes

these pre-cursors to the modern ‘aromatic’

Orange peel and cherry for garnish

Peychaud’s (very medicinal) and several

bitter rivaled anything coming off of the apothecary table. Can you hear the inception of pharmacology calling? Albeit, every snake oil salesman of the day made his nut selling these oft-trusted tonics.

In a shaker, saturate two sugar cubes with several dashes of aromatic and citrus bitter; muddle. Add a splash of water, the rye whiskey and ice, stir until properly chilled. Strain and garnish with an orange peel or cherry.

The cocktail bitters of today—the tiny, quiet, unused, high-proof bottles sitting on your shelf—are waiting to be rediscovered. Beneath their curious brown glass looms something notable, potable and functional—their herbaceous aromas hearken back to something ancient, something mystifying. Never has there been a more versatile ingredient in

The Old-Fashioned

2 oz Rye whiskey or Cognac 1 oz Absinthe Ice Lemon twist for garnish

dashes aromatic bitters, muddle. Add ice and rye whiskey and stir until chilled. Swirl a chilled old-fashioned glass with 1 ounce absinthe, discarding remainder. Strain cocktail into the prepared glass and garnish with lemon twist.

THE UN-COCKTAIL The classic stomach-settler.

Aromatic bitters Tonic Ice Lime

your wet-bar arsenal. Bitters act as the spice

Fill a highball glass with

to a drink—the indelible hint of care in the

ice, tonic and six dashes

preparation of one’s libation. That wonderful,

of aromatic bitters. Add

herbal, primordial earthiness that makes one

a squeeze of lime, enjoy!

crane their neck your way and ask, “What is this?!”

GARRISON BROTHERS BOURBON M E G HA N G UA R I N O

The answer to the first question I asked Dan and Charlie Garrison ended on a hilariously serious

Dan

over a bourbon whiskey drinker’s eyes. It just ain’t gonna happen. So we try to be completely

note: “We take bourbon very seriously. We do

transparent about everything we do, right down

not even like the fact that bourbon is lumped

to when you come visit us for a tour, you’re

into the overall whiskey category because it sheds

gonna see every aspect of the operation. We’re

a poor light on bourbon. We believe bourbon is

gonna let you taste the product at every point

the nectar of the gods and should be sacred.”

in the production process. We want you to leave our distillery 100% confident that these guys are

I laughed at first, but by the time I hung up the

doing it right, that these guys are running an

phone, I was whistling a different tune: They

honest and ethical business.

were serious about that statement and even more serious about bourbon.

What would you say is the personality of the distillery?

Have you noticed that consumers of your Dan: For me it goes back to 2004 and I was on one of my trips to Kentucky. I was just starting to build my distillery in 2004 out of Hill Coun-

Dan: Arrogant. Boastful. Proud.

try… And I went to dinner with a gentleman in

Charlie: Better.

Louisville, Kentucky, named Bill Samuels, Jr. who

Dan: Competitive. We’re extremely proud of

was the son of the founder of Maker’s Mark. And

what we do. We have a lot of personality and a

Bill is just the nicest man; he became kind of a

lot of swagger in our step because we know we’re doing it better than anyone else is. And call that boastful if you want, but you know, we started this trend and we’re sure as hell gonna finish it.

mentor for me. And I was bitching and whining over dinner about how difficult it was to find all of this equipment on a small scale and he put his fork down and he said, “Son, I’m a little tired of

That’s not the vibe I got at all. I got that you

hearing you whine.” And I said, “Whoa, I just

guys were very down to earth, you know, but

offended this gentleman who I so much admire.”

also very proud.

And he said, “Do you realize what you’ve done,

Dan: Down to earth in the sense that we view our little family here as a unit that takes care of ourselves. We take care of each other, so the family that makes up our business, our staff and the guys that make the bourbon and the girls that give the tours of the distillery and our events and all the Southern hospitality we try to bring

son?” And I said, “No, sir, I don’t.” He said, “You’ve built the first new bourbon distillery in America since Prohibition.” And I went, “Wow…

Dan: We’ve got about 7,000-8,000 people who are on our volunteer list to come help us bottle bourbon. And we’ll be bottling 42 days out of the year this year. So when you spread that out over 7,000 people who want to come do it over 42 days, it means that not everybody’s gonna get to do it.

But it’s hilarious when we send out the email that says, “Here are the 42 days we’re gonna bottle this year, please pick your slot right now.” It fills up in a matter of minutes… And I think having those legions of followers says a lot about the transparency aspect of how we run our business, and that we look after our own. The people that drink our bourbon are as much a part of our family as those who make it.

really?” And it didn’t really settle in, I didn’t have

Charlie: To jump in for one second on the trans-

that realization, until he said it… I didn’t realize

parency part—what I see… is a lot of questioning

we were really doing something that was, at the

and skepticism… And that skepticism is part of

time, revolutionary.

what gives me swagger. ’Cause I can look ‘em

to the table gives us a warm, welcoming, inviting

I’ve seen a lot of reviews and articles discussing

personality. But when someone says something

the ingredients in your bourbons. Why is it

naughty or nasty about our bourbon, we will

important for you to be transparent about what

fight like hell.

goes into your liquid, right down to the source

As the first legal bourbon distillery in Texas,

bourbon like that, have welcomed that?

of the ingredients?

in the eye and say, “Guys. I can show you the field where it was grown. I can show you every aspect—I can show you the coolest, hardest working people in the world that are making it.” The pride in the guys in that distillery is what gives me swagger. I’m cocky as hell ’cause

you’ve opened the road for more people to start

Dan: Because everyone else is nontransparent…

I don’t think anybody else in the country can go

making their own bourbon. Tell me the impact

And consumers are smart, especially whiskey

back and be surrounded by that type of person.

that has made on the bourbon industry.

drinkers, especially bourbon drinkers. They do

They’re just the hardest working, proudest people

their homework. They want to know exactly

and probably that does go back to a Texas, small-

what is going into their body, they want to know

town mindset. But it’s something to be proud of.

exactly how it’s made. There’s so much history to bourbon whiskey, and you can’t pull the wool Highball 6

What is the difference between Kentucky

bourbon in Texas has a pronounced effect on the

Trail, go. They are so proud of their heritage and

bourbon and Texas bourbon?

concentration of those sugars into the spirit. I

it’s such a great experience and the Kentuckians

think the best way to describe Garrison Brothers

themselves are so warm and friendly. I just love

as opposed to a Kentucky bourbon is that it’s

Kentucky. Texas is a little different in that Texas

much more concentrated. It almost has a syrupy

is proud, cocky, a little bit arrogant, but also

Dan: From a production process standpoint, the only real difference is that we use a sweet mash every single time, instead of a sour mash… A

very progressive in an entrepreneurial way. And

sour mash means that you take a fermented grain

Texans like to put their own spin on things. In

that has already been distilled into white dog—

Kentucky, everybody kind of seems to do it the

you take that grain and you reuse it, or you take

way it’s been done for 300 years. Here we have

that beer and you reuse it as part of the process.

the opportunity to create our own personality

And a lot of Kentucky distilleries are boast-

and our own industry.

ful that 30-40% of their process is sour mash,

Charlie: I equate it to country music. Kentucky

meaning previously used distiller’s beer. And I

is your old-style country and Texas is Americana.

always thought that was kind of gross, frankly.

It’s got a little bit of an edge, it’s got a harder beat

Because if I’m gonna make coffee in the morning,

to it.

I’m not going to use the coffee grounds from the previous day’s coffee, I want fresh coffee, I want

Getting back to your bourbon, what went into

fresh coffee beans.

the decision to make vintage bourbons?

So what about flavor profile-wise? You’ve heard

Dan: It was kind of out of necessity. We had to

of wines from California tasting different from

define a new category. There’s small batch and there’s single barrel bourbon. Kentucky has done

wines from France because of the terroir. Is

an amazing job creating small batches and single

there anything in bourbon that you can point

barrels and those different types of categories and

to and say, “This is a Texas bourbon or this is

for us it’s very much an agricultural product. The

a Kentucky bourbon”?

release that we will release in July/August of 2016

Dan: The terroir issue that affects it more than

was produced back in 2011 or 2012. It has been

anything else is the heat issue. In Kentucky it is

aging in barrels in our barns. But those barrels

only hot for so many months out of the year; in

that it’s aging in were produced back in 2011 or

Texas it’s hot for 10 months out of the year.

2012 from trees that were harvested from sustainable farms. And the corn and the wheat and

We may get one or two cooler months and what

the barley that was grown in 2011 or 2012 which

that means is when bourbon gets hot, bourbon expands. It’s like a balloon, bourbon actually expands in the heat. When it expands it forces its way into the wood barrel in which it’s aging.

is used in the bourbon itself is very much an texture to it because there’s so much of the wood

agricultural product. So each vintage is going to

sugar in the spirit itself.

have its own flavor profile. Each vintage is going to be different and unusual and inconsistent. And

And when it forces its way into the barrel, it

Would you say it’s more full-flavored?

then comes back out on a cooler morning and it

Dan: By all means.

about. You don’t expect each year’s release of

So last comparison between Kentucky and

Beaujolais to have the exact same flavor profile as

Texas: What’s the difference personality-wise?

the previous year’s. You understand and expect

extracts the sugars, the chemical compounds that come from the sap from the white American oak tree, from which those barrels are made. Those

that’s fine. That’s what agricultural products are

the terroir and the climate and agriculture forces

chemical compounds are… sugars, basically.

Dan: Kentucky has been doing bourbon for so

And they’re the sugars that you associate with

long. There’s this old-fashioned nature of the

various foods that you’ve eaten in your past, such

business that comes out of Kentucky; it’s folksy,

as coconut or butterscotch or caramel or vanilla

it’s homey, it’s quaint, it’s hospitable, it’s friendly.

Garrison Brothers Bourbon is available

or chocolate. All of that is coming from the sap

That’s Kentucky. They’re wonderful. If you ever

seasonally at ABC Fine Wine & Spirits.

from the white American oak tree. So aging a

get the chance to go on the Kentucky Bourbon

to affect that flavor profile and Garrison Brothers is very much the same way.

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Highball

8989 South Orange Ave. Orlando, Florida 32824

SP I R I T

TO

S IP :

B O D Y :

C O L OR :

Bright amber O N

TH E

NOSE :

Butterscotch, maple, creamy toffee, pepper and ripe nectarines, apricots and apples O N

TH E

PALATE :

Intense with notes of spice, nut and vanilla from the twice-charred bourbon barrels it ages in Highball 8

Jameson Black Barrel Irish Whiskey

Smooth and Rich F I N I SH :

Mellow, yet pronounced with a hint of salted caramel

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P R O O F :