Join Me on YouTube

Hi Friends! Hope you all have been enjoying the change of seasons, wherever you are located in the world!  For me, this has been quite a (wonderfully) crazy Fall. I’ve been to Vegas, Los Angeles, Florida, Washington DC, New Jersey, Connecticut, Texas and have had a full calendar of events while at home in New York City just trying to spread the good word of Brenne! (If you’re on Instagram, I regularly post photos of my travels & whisky shows on my Brenne and my personal IG feeds like this photo below). 🙂

It’s been a great experience getting out there and meeting so many more whisky fans. If you’re someone who has attended one of the many shows I’ve been at recently and came over to try Brenne, THANK YOU! For everyone who has continued to support me here and on various means of social media (and, well, by ordering Brenne at your local watering holes & liquor stores!), an even bigger THANK YOU. You all keep this particular solopreneur going!

In the mean time, I’m excited to announce that I’ve started a YouTube channel! My goal is to post a new video every other Wednesday (fingers crossed I can maintain that!).  It’s been a really fun way to engage with people beyond the written word and photos on Instagram… and the “un-edited Me” is, well …something else!

WHAT YOU’LL SEE

CouchTalk: A series I’m developing where I invite some of my “whisky family” into my home for whisky (duh) and a chat on my couch about anything from a new book they’re launching to a review of a whisky event (like this one below!)!

How To…Cocktails: I’m asked regularly if I’m “okay” with people using Brenne in a cocktail and my answer is always YES! So I’ll be doing some “How To” videos of my favorite whisky cocktails using Brenne like these!

and…

Vlog: I’m hoping to roll off some videos where I’m perhaps answering people’s questions or chatting about whisky news or other things going on that I think are of some value to share. I imagine these will be in a similar casual format to my “Welcome To My YouTube Channel” video like this!

So, if you’re a fan of YouTube, I really hope to see you over there! Please subscribe & like the videos (if you like them, of course) 🙂 I’m hoping this channel will evolve over time and that it gives us another avenue upon which to engage and continue the whisky conversation! But no worries if you’re not a YouTuber, I am still planning on maintaining my presence here too. 🙂 Big whisky cheers & hugs to you all. Thanks for spending your time with me!

CHEERS! ~Allison

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Great Books for Gift Giving!

The holidays wouldn’t be “the holidays” without an annual Holiday Gift Giving post.  And this year, I’m forgoing my usual list of bottles & baubles and focusing on BOOKS!  (If you want, you can see my former gift posts HERE HERE HERE HERE & HERE)

It was quite a year for the literary set who enjoy indulging in a great dram AND a great read and I’ve pulled together a little mix of books that should make one quite happy this winter.  I know I will be curling up fireside with my cozy faux fur blanket (like THIS ONE on sale at Pottery Barn), glass of whisky (Brenne please!)  and these books for the long winter months ahead!

In order of the above photo, here’s the quick list.  All titles click through to their respective pages on Amazon/Createspace.

1. Apothecary Cocktails, Restorative Drinks from Yesterday and Today by Warren Bobrow ~
2. Distilling Rob, Manly Lies and Whisky Truths by Robert Gard (& fellow whisky blogger, Whisky Guy Rob!)
3. Drinking With Men, A Memoir by Rosie Schaap
4. Guide to Urban Moonshining, How to Make and Drink Whiskey by Colin Spoelman & David Haskell (yes, that’s right, these are the awesome duo behind Kings County Distillery)
5. Whiskey Woman, The Untold Story of How Women Saved Bourbon, Scotch and Irish Whiskey by Fred Minnick
6. Savoring the Shore, Simple to Sophisticated Recipes from Chefts and Home Cooks for NJ Sandy Recovery, by Cheryl Larkin & Kate Kurelji

Beyond the fact that I personally know most of the authors and love supporting wonderful & talented people; I also believe in what each author has accomplished, whether it’s to educate, entertain or give back – read below for my quickfire thoughts on why they made the cut:

Apothecary Cocktails: There’s no question the “Classic Cocktail” movement is upon us – and it’s wonderful!  The ever-talented Warren Bobrow takes us back in time with modern upgrades featuring 75 recipes for cocktail libations to soothe the body AND mind!  Give this book with a few bottles of bitters for your favorite home mixologist!

Distilling Rob: An engaging story from “one of our own” whisky bloggers as he takes us through his roller-coaster life where at one point, he left his slick LA life to live and work on Islay in Scotland.  Using whisky-making and the maturation process as an analogy for how boys mature into men – this is a no-brainer stocking stuffer for anyone!

Drinking With Men: I bought this at a book reading of Rosie’s I attended with a friend and left with 1/2 the eye make-up I went in with due to all of my tears from continuous laughing.  This is a wonderfully engaging memoir that will having you wishing to travel through NYC retracing her steps.  Sometimes I fall out of habit reading and need a good “hook book” to get back into it again – this is definitely one of those excellent page turners!

Guide To Urban Moonshining: I just got this and can’t WAIT to get started.  (The fabric and feel of the book alone will give you instant “great gifter” cred).  It’s filled with recipes, distillation techniques, stories, history, and a chapter called “How To Drink Whiskey” in which yours truly, along with Jonathan Wingo and Colin Spoelman, each wrote a couple pages discussing the bottles we’d suggest if we had to build a well rounded whisky bar using only 12 bottles and cover our bases from sipping to cocktails for your novice and experienced drinker.  It was super fun and my first experience having any writings of my own published in a book.  Yay!  Pair this with a bottle of Kings County Bourbon or Moonshine for a great gift set!

Whiskey Women: THE BOOK that ought to be on everyone’s list!  For the first time, Fred is sharing the untold stories of the women who have created & saved this most exceptional industry.  It’s refreshing to have access to real stories that you haven’t heard before, that are not the same ones we know just told in a new way – no – this is fresh.  And fascinating.  And will give you a whole new appreciation for many of the whisky women who you may have met today and many of the distilleries whose drams you’ve probably enjoyed for a very long time.  A true must read for anyone who enjoys a great book.  Pair this with a bottle of Brenne – my own whisky – and support this particular whisky woman’s dream! 🙂

Savoring The Shore: while not a whisky book per se, there are 3 cocktails inside using Brenne Whisky, 2 of which were created by the author of Apothecary Cocktails, Warren Bobrow! But that’s not why it’s on this list.  Instead, it’s because all proceeds benefit Hurricane Sandy relief and that is something that is very near and dear to my heart.  I spent my childhood & teenage summers at my grandparents beach cottage on the NJ Shore which was completely wiped out by Sandy (we have yet to rebuild, but will as soon as we’re able) and so I have a personal connection with the Sandy Relief efforts.  And what a fun way to give back!?  You’ll get a great cook book featuring recipes from long-time local “shore folk” and Master Chefts like Bobby Flay, Tom Colicchio & Mike Jurusz.

**Please note that I do NOT benefit financially from the sale of ANY of these books – regardless of whether or not Brenne Whisky or myself were mentioned or as is the case of Guide To Urban Moonshine where I contributed a couple of pages.  Instead, I promote them here because of my love of reading great books & supporting awesome, hard working people!**

Cocktails for a Crowd – summer book signings

HI FRIENDS!!! MY COMMENTS START HERE:

This is my very first “Reblog” but there is a reason I’m doing it for this post (keep reading!) :D. As you all know, I’m a HUGE supporter of artists and appreciate that art is expressed in a variety of mediums; from paintings, to making whisky, to writing, to performing, to creating recipes, cooking and beyond. I wanted to write a shout-out post to an artist I respect, author Kara Newman, for her just-released book, “Cocktails For A Crowd.” But seeing as she’s a true writer AND wrote a blog post announcing the book and her summer book signing tour, I figured a reblog was more than appropriate this time. Oui?

I hope the formatting is ok (again, total reblog virgin here!) but please enjoy, support & share your comments as always below! I’m off to buy a new punch bowl!
Congrats Kara!
~Allison

Tipple Sheet

Summer must be book-signing season!  Here’s where to find me over the next couple of months. If I’ll be in your neck of the woods, please come out and say hello!

Saturday, June 29, 2-4 pm – Drink demo & book signing at Cook & Craft, Old Greenwich, CT

Thursday, July 18, 5:30-6 pm – Book signing at Tales of the Cocktail, New Orleans, LA

Sunday, August 11 – Cocktails, dinner and book signing at The Red Hen, Washington, DC (more details soon!)

Friday, August 23, 6:30-8pm – Cocktails for a Crowd: Summer Entertaining class at Astor Center, New York, NY. Hands-on class with cocktails galore; books will be available for purchase.

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WhiskyLive NYC 2012 – REVIEW

Anyone who knows me or who follows me on twitter probably knows that I attended the WhiskyLive NYC show this past Wednesday as I was practically jumping out of my skin with excitement! And this year surely did not disappoint.

It’s one of my favorite nights of the year – a time to catch up with old friends, meet new ones and drink some seriously stand-out drams.   And may I just give my sincerest apologies to everyone who I either didn’t mention here or didn’t have a chance to visit.  I could have easily used another 4 hours!

Photo (c) of The Whisky Woman, 2012

My first stop was quite intriguing … Notch Single Malt Whisky from Nantucket.  Notch partners with Cisco Brewers who makes a special beer for them from Maris Otter malt (which has an interesting history for a grain & according to Wikipedia, is “acknowledged right across the brewing world as the finest-quality malt available”).  This beer, or wort, is then moved to the Triple Eight Distillery to distill in a small copper pot still where just the heart cut of the distillate is used and aged for 8 years in ex-bourbon and finished in French oak Merlot wine casks from local Nantucket wineries.

Now, this was a really enjoyable dram but what I can’t understand is the price.  $888 for a 750ml bottle.  I am sure they didn’t have the price match the name of the distillery to be cute … but I just can’t get my head around this!  Remember, this was my first stop so I know my brain was still quite sharp – but I didn’t hear them mention the addition of 24k gold or a unicorn horn as a “gift with purchase” so not wanting to further interrupt the interview they were doing with Gregg from DistilleryAge.com, I snapped the above photo promised them I would be following up … and you bet I will be!  Asap.

Next stop, Balvenie!

Photo (c) The Whisky Woman, 2012

Now you know you’re a #WhiskyBadAss when you show up to an event with your own malting floor!  David Stewart and team, you guys are my heroes. (If you missed it, check out my earlier post of my visit to this distillery HERE)

I always enjoy my time with the happy and wonderfully talented Balvenie crew.  David and I caught up over a beautiful glass of their 14yr Caribbean Cask Single Malt which was divine.  They actually bring rum over from the Caribbean in tanks – not in casks – and fill their casks with the rum for 6 months.  Once they have their barrels perfectly seasoned with the rum, they remove it and replace the rum with their 14yr single malt to finish for 6 months prior to bottling.  Pretty cool, huh?

Photo (c) The Whisky Woman

Hey – are we taking each others photo!? Silly social media whisky geeks (myself included)! Smile!

Photo (c) The Whisky Woman

The Whisky Peddler.  Only available online HERE out of the World Of Liquor store in New Jersey.  Unbelievably yummy.  Patrick is smart.  He purchased two very interesting casks from notable distilleries in Scotland; one from Glen Grant and one from Highland Park.  You may ask (as I did) why buy his whiskies over buying a 14 year directly from the producer?  Because for both of these malts, he purchased the casks and kept them aging only in their ex-bourbon casks – no sherry finish on these beauts – and let me tell you simply – wow.  I was really happy standing here.  And at $52 or $60 / bottle, it keeps me baffled by the $888 price tag on the Notch …

Photo (c) The Whisky Woman

Photo (c) The Whisky Woman, 2012

Off to the Cocktail’s Live area!

Photo (c) The Whisky Woman, 2012

A toast with Kat Valentina – the fab mixologist from LA who was brought in to serve up a very tasty creamy-whiskey cocktail:

2 oz Jameson Irish Whiskey, .5 oz Sambuca, .75 oz Rum Chata & 2 oz of chilled coffee

… can we say mid-show pick me up?

Photo (c) The Whisky Woman, 2012

Whisky & chocolate – a great pairing.  Lucky for us, the hyper-talented chocolatier, Roni-Sue, was there serving up her unique bonbons and pairing them with such lovelies as Laphroaig and Basil Hayden!  I loved their Dark & Stormy truffle: dark chocolate ganache that features Goslings dark rum, fresh ginger and lime zest – all I tasted was pure deliciousness.

Photo (c) The Whisky Woman, 2012

Glen Garioch paired up with Murray’s Cheese, an excellent cheese shop in NYC (and luckily right down the street from me!) to create a cheddar that pairs specifically with the Glen Garioch whiskies.  HOW COOL IS THAT!?  I’ll be there tomorrow picking up a good wedge for this weekend!  The whiskies are great – balanced, smooth and perfectly complimented by the tangy-creaminess of the cheese.  At this point, though, it was too crowded and my glass was too coated with other whiskies to get accurate tasting notes but I’ll definitely be picking up a bottle on my next Scotch-run.

Photo (c) The Whisky Woman

Finish off with hug, dram and special (secret) Bourbon-Ball (a dark chocolate & Smooth Ambler bourbon bon-bon) from John Little, head-distiller at Smooth Ambler, and it was time for the after party!

Photo (c) The Whisky Woman, 2012

Now I don’t know how you travel to an after party … but I’m the kind of gal who likes to arrive in style so if that means negotiating a limo ride for some whisky for myself and my beloved whisky-family, like Balcones’ Chip Tate, Compass Box’s Robin Robinson and Kat Valentina … then so be it! 🙂

Photo (c) The Whisky Woman, 2012

Off to Ward III we went!  It was another amazing night!  Congrats Dave Sweet for organizing yet another stellar event!  Slainte!

GO: This Saturday, Feb 18th 4pm-7pm NYC

Here’s a good one!  $20 = 3hrs of whiskey tastings, cocktails & Jambayala

If you’re wondering what to do this weekend – head on over to one of my all-time favorite stores: Le Du’s Wines for an awesome tasting event with a little bit of Mardi Gras goodness!

Le Du Mardi Gras Tasting Event

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18 from 4pm-7pm

600 Washington Street (between Leroy & Morton)

See you there!

Valentine’s Day Whiskey Cocktail: The Old Fashioned

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

What better way to celebrate than with THE original cocktail?  … and yes, it’s whisky based! Ladies, if you really want to impress your man (or yourself!), get your cocktail-creating hands ready and look no further.  Men, if you have a whiskey-loving lady, then you my friends have a keeper.  If not – have no fear!  You can still enjoy this classic pre- during- or post- your chocolate & roses filled evening.  Have no doubt, I’ll be sipping on one of these all night.

Photo courtesy of Esquire

Ahhhhh….

The earliest known definition was first published in the Baltimore newspaper called, “The Balance and Columbian Repository” on May 6, 1806.  Whereby the reporter wrote about a mixture of sugar, water, bitters & alcohol which perfectly describes what we know of today as the Old Fashioned.  I prefer mine done the “clean” way – others prefer theirs with the fruit & sugar muddled together.  Below is an easy to follow how-to video of another Whisky Woman, Rachel Maddow, showing just how to make this simple, delicious, classic Old Fashioned… the “clean” way.  CHEERS!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

1 Glass, Muddle, Ice (see my previous post on ice HERE), Sugar Cube (1), Bitters*, Sparkling or flat water (1 tsp), Bourbon or Rye (2 oz), and an Orange or Lemon (1 wide piece of the peel).

* Angostura Bitters is the standard and works perfectly here.  However, there are a ton of great new bitters emerging on the market.  I particularly LOVE using the Fee Brothers limited-edition Whiskey Barrel Aged Bitters in my Old Fashion for a little something extra 🙂

HOW TO:

Place the sugar cube in the glass and douse with 3 dashes of Bitters (*).  Add 1 tsp of sparkling or flat water and muddle together to make a syrup.  Add about 2 oz of your favorite bourbon or rye, your favorite big ice cube (like the Muji ice ball!) and just 1 piece of peel (not the bitter white part of the rind) of either a lemon or orange, squeezed over the drink, drop into the drink and enjoy.

White Whiskey: Koval’s “Rye Chicago”

White Whiskey.  Moonshine.  White Dog.  Prohibition.

This Whisky Woman enjoys an occasional un-aged whiskey.

No, I am not talking about re-visiting our college days of paint-thinner tasting Everclear – that hurts just thinking about it.  I am only talking about craft un-aged whiskies.  (I don’t think Everclear is actually a “whiskey” but you get the idea)

Why craft?  Because the small scale distillers who are really making their products from grain to spirit are like pastry chefs; both being extremely careful during the cooking process to ensure that the end product is both delicate and flavorful.  They take their time to really develop the flavors of the grains.

Typically, these un-aged pistols are corn based but I have been loving Koval’s Rye Chicago Whiskey recently.  (See my earlier post on Koval HERE).  Made from 100% organic RYE, I was surprised to find this to be so smoother and aromatic, especially when compared to it’s classic, rougher cereal-forward cousins.

TASTE
Nose: black pepper, floral, orange citrus, eucalyptus, cereal
Palate: sugar coated eucalyptus, orange zest, sweetened rosemary (or pine)
Finish: long and dry, orange peel that moves into a black pepper and sugar mixture

STYLE
100% Organic Rye from the American Midwest
Only the “hearts” cut of the distillates are used

ADDITIONAL
40 % abv / 90 proof
750ml glass bottles
If you’re not a fan of drinking these neat or with ice/water, then try a white whiskey in your favorite Bloody Mary recipe!  The complexity of the whiskey (verses the flavorless vodka) really kicks it up a notch!

AWARDS
Gold Medal, 2010 “White Whisky”, American Distilling Institute, USA
Gold Medal, 2010 “Grain Spirit”, Destillata Spirits Competition, Europe

Lastly, I love drinking this with a lemon-based dessert!  Deee-lish!