Jane’s Lane: Berkshires

Couture Booze

Elevated Wine & Spirits lives up to its name.

By Anthony Giglio

f you happen to nd yourself at

IElevated Wine & Spirits, in Hunter, NY, you’ll likely spot the ‘Negroni Nest’ perched atop a huge cork column. But let me back up. I drink a lot of Negronis. Quite o en when I order one someone nearby will ask, “What’s in that?” The answer: It’s a trio of spirits measured out in equal thirds: gin (I like Hendrick’s or

Fords London Dry); bitter (I’m faithful to

Campari); and sweet vermouth (the best,

IMHO, is Carpano Antica Formula). You shake this holy trinity with ice and then strain it into a rocks glass over a block of ice the size of a Rubik’s Cube. Garnish with a ribbon of orange peel (properly exed over the top of the glass rst to spray orange oil across the surface of the cocktail). Back to that Negroni Nest. It’s an eye-catching display in Elevated that lassoes together the trio of 50ml airlinesize bottles required for that ultimate cocktail—and it’s how I came to be chatting (OK, geeking out) with Elevated’s co-owner (and former bartender),

Mark Landsman. Back in 2020, Landsman and his business partner

Michael Osterer took over

Hunter Village Wine &

Liquors and, with their expertise in all things booze, transformed it from a sleepy local liquor store into something way cooler. From the get-go, the new owners were adamant that the store remain ‘local’—“meaning we still stock Yellow Tail for people who want

Yellow Tail,” Landsman explains, referencing the popular brand of under-$10 wines from

Australia. But they also wanted to elevate the shop, to announce that they were

a cionados of high-end concoctions. Hence, the cool Negroni display. “It’s my favorite thing in the store,” Landsman reveals. “It works out perfectly proportionately that all you need to do is dump all three bottles (Tanqueray Gin, Carpano Antica Formula Sweet Vermouth and Campari Bitter) into a shaker or a glass and you’ve got a cocktail.” In fact, so noteworthy was the Nest that it begat the ‘Manhattan Couch,’ a tiny metal sofa featuring two 50ml Bulleit Bourbons and one 50ml Carpano Antica Formula. All that’s missing is the requisite dash of aromatic bitters—I’d suggest Angostura— but Landsman gures cocktail lovers probably have that at home and if not, he’ll happily sell you a full bottle. Among other special cocktails that Landsman promotes is it genuinely warms you up on the way the Boulevardier, a fancy drink especially down. It’s a thorough sit-down-by-thebe tting the winter season, when earthier camp re kind of thing.” brown spirits supplant lighter white Thanks to the New York’s Farm Distillery ones. What is it exactly? License, Landsman says, there are plenty You shake this See the Negroni instructions above but replace gin with of local bourbon producers up here—gin, too. “That’s the other direction I’m taking holy trinity with your favorite bourbon. my people in,” he says, calling out Stout ice and then “Look, my passion is Ridge Farm Distillery in Marlborough, strain it into a rocks glass bourbon,” Landsman says, a man a er my own heart. “I think people are really which makes Wagner’s New York Bourbon, which is cra ed by his business partners, Steve Osborn and Kim Wagner. Then there over a block of into it right now, as well as are the seasonally seasoned Isolation ice the size of a Japanese whiskey—spirits Proof Gins by Bovina Spirits in the Rubik’s Cube. they can sip that have a sense of story and place, Catskills; Neversink Spirits Gin from Port Chester (“not quite local, but great”); and that elicit a transportive Branchwater Gin from Red Hook, which experience.” He’s also been steering also turns out a delicious pear brandy. customers to interesting libations from “I think it’s nice having a spirit with a sense other countries, such as a plum brandy of place,” Landsman says. And I think it’s made in a pot-still from Armagnac called exceptional having a local retailer with the Louis Roque La Vieille Prune Plum Brandy, foresight to know what his customers want, which he describes as being “like a Cognac, and the vision to take them well beyond but it has a bit of lingering butterscotch; the comfort of their very own nest.

holy spirit “People are really into bourbon right now—a spirit they can sip that has a sense of story and place, that elicits a transportive experience,” says Mark Landsman, co-owner of Elevated Wine & Spirits in Hunter, NY.