Food Thread: A Blast From The Past!

[Because I am otherwise engaged, I have dipped into the archives and come up with my 13-year-old comments about martinis, and because I am nothing if not a creature of habit, they haven't changed much!]

Any classic cocktail book will have a martini recipe that is bizarre for the typical modern drinker. A 2:1 or 3:1 ratio of gin to dry vermouth yields an unpleasant drink. The vermouth overwhelms the gin's botanicals, and you are left with the flavor of cheap, fortified wine with some herbs tossed in for flavor.

It's just not pleasant, so we back off on the vermouth, and drink 5:1 or 10:1 or plain gin. And that's probably one big reason for the explosion in boutique gins. If the typical martini is essentially pure gin, why not make it interesting?

But [13 years and] three nights ago I had a 3:1 martini that was spectacular. Rich and flavorful, but without the sere and bitter notes that typical vermouth brings to the table.

Yet....it was made with vermouth! Carpano Bianco, from an old Italian firm that makes some well known fortified wines such as Punt E Mes and Fernet Branca. The production of their white vermouth is so small that it doesn't even make the cut for their web site, unless I missed it (a distinct possibility). [They have it now]

This vermouth is flavorful, intense, smooth and complex. Nothing like the typical vermouth that is used in seemingly every bar in the world.

Obviously the standard that most vermouth makers follow has changed, and thank God these folks ignored the modernization of this drink. My guess is that the base wine has become more expensive, so most makers started using cheaper stuff. And the botanicals that are used to flavor vermouth may have gone the same route.

Admittedly a modern martini is a different experience. The crisp, cold feeling of good gin, a dash of vermouth, and a twist of lemon* is hard to beat.

But for a another experience, something akin to what your great aunt Millie drank in her flapper days, give this a shot.

*Sorry, olives don't belong in a martini. If I want vegetables, I'll order a salad (stolen from Robert Bork).

About the Bourbon Bubble...I think it has burst, but the category is also suffering from the inflation that affected everything else (Thanks Biden!). I think the sweet spot is still $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.

The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty or fifty years, but it is worth it!

posted by CBD at 04:00 PM

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