WHAT’S DAVE DRINKING?

I’ve been thrilled to see the boom in craft brewing and distilling the last few years that put New York State back on the map for serious drinkers. As a native of New York, it’s fantastic to have a wide range of locally-produced drinks I can be excited to imbibe. However, I had long felt like the wines produced here- and were produced long before the return of brewing and distilling to the state- had stalled a bit. My opinion was there are a lot of just OK wines, with very few excellent wines (Channing Daughters on Long Island being...READ MORE

Vermouth is quietly making a big comeback. There are quite a few small producers making gorgeously complex and flavorful vermouths, both in its ancestral European homelands and in the Americas, reminiscent of days long gone. My hometown of New York City alone has Uncouth and Atsby which are two of my favorites. But I have a problem with this movement: they’re too closely tied to cocktails! Before the modern cocktail movement vermouths were prized for sipping on their own (or on the rocks) as aperitifs or digestifs. In fact the primary botanicals that flavor these fortified wines were medicinal herbs,...READ MORE

The spirits world is buzzing over the announcement from Lost Spirits and resident agitator Bryan Davis that they have created a chemical reactor that can duplicate the aging process of up to 20 years in oak barrels in less than a week. I’ve been a fan of their spirits for a while, starting with their whiskeys for which they would never tell the age (only saying “less than 1 year”) and more recently their potent and complex rums. What I never knew is that I had been drinking the test runs of this reactor process. And enjoying them immensely. I had scheduled...READ MORE

“To make a barrel, it’s not very difficult, but it’s so many steps. If you make one mistake, at the end, it’s not a barrel. It’s a box.” – Francis Durand, Master Cooper for Tonnellerie RadouxREAD MORE

2014 has been a rough year for Bourbon. First we hear that there is an impending Bourbon shortage. Then we hear that the shortage is in large part due to the fact that the vast majority of all Bourbon brands are actually made by very few distilleries and are simply fancy labels on other people’s whiskey. All this amid rumblings of American oak barrels disappearing faster than they can be made and a worldwide surge in demand has collectors hoarding their favorite bottles. These revelations weren’t surprising to those of us who work in the industry. And most of us...READ MORE

In light of New York Cider Week which just passed, it’s time for me to discuss cider. Not only was it the original everyman’s drink of the new world (long forgotten thanks in part to immigration, industrialization and prohibition) but it was also a crucial component of early American exportation trade. And today, it’s one of the most misunderstood drinks around. So many people look at hard cider as solely a beer substitute, all too often suggested to women with the demeaning thought that girls can’t handle beer. But in truth it’s much closer to apple wine than apple beer,...READ MORE

It’s always been a thrill for me to “discover” a new drink that blows my mind. Especially when it’s in a category that isn’t already super saturated with choices. So, I have a couple of new obsessions I’m giddy over: Don Ciccio & Figli Finocchietto – Francesco Amodeo (who grew up on the Amalfi Coast of Italy but makes his liqueurs in Washington, DC) makes an entire line of traditional liqueurs. His family made these same liqueurs for well over 100 years and he has the old recipe book (which he couldn’t get until the family considered him serious enough)....READ MORE

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here thanks to the amount of work I’ve put into my new job. So it’s with great excitement that I announce that the Mouth Indie Spirits + Wine Gallery is open at 192 Water Street in the DUMBO neighborhood in Brooklyn, and you can find our selection of spirits & wine on our website at Mouth.com. We have a terrific range of spirits from small American craft distilleries, plus a small but fun group of wines featuring some amazing natural winemakers and a couple of great versions of more standard wines. I think you’ll...READ MORE

While the focus of the project I’m working on for Mouth is definitely spirits, we are putting together a terrific small wine selection. And it’s been a great excuse for me to focus on American wineries that are pushing the envelope with techniques and flavors rather than playing it safe and making the kinds of wines that make me turn to the old world all too often. Yountville Sémillon made by Dirty & Rowdy Family Winery is a perfect example. Sémillon is rarely grown in the US. And this one was fermented both on its skins for 2 weeks before...READ MORE