Inspired Imbiber 2.0

Now It Can Be Told

OK, our issue is out the door and in subscribers' hands, so I can get on with talking a bit more about Kelley's Autumn Sunset cocktail, one of the three drinks we commissioned for our magazine (see the earlier posting "Kelley's Concoctions". . . as well as the image of all three cocktails at upper left).

We had asked Kelley to use a Northwest spirit, which was the basic idea behind the three cocktails we were featuring on our cover. He fiddled with some favorites, and settled on the toughest local spirit I can think of: aquavit.

Portland distillers Lee Medoff and Christian Krogstad make up House Spirits Distillery. Their products are damn good in my mouth, and partly because they tend to be bold. Their Krogstad Aquavit is just that: bold with the flavor of caraway and herbs . . . a difficult base upon which to build a cocktail!

Aquavit is a traditional Scandinavian beverage often consumed with a meal, and particularly favored around Christmas. It is not particularly popular in America . . . the Krogstad Aquavit may be the only purely American-made and authentically-styled aquavit on the market.) The predominant flavor is caraway, and plenty of it—a minimum of 5% in European products. It can be aged in casks to acquire depth and color, or presented as a perfectly clear and somewhat daring shot. In fact, many people drink their aquavit ice cold as a fast shot. Me, I prefer to sip mine.

But Kelley mixed it. To the aquavit base he added the sweetness of Cointreau and the bitterness of amaro. He added two dashes of his house made bitters as well.

The result is a deliciously unctuous cocktail with a distinct herbal edge, lightly sweet, and with a bit of a kick.

When my wife first tasted the drink she said it should be called the Elke Sommer after the Scandinavian sexpot of the Sixties. The drink was sultry like Elke, and Scandinavian to boot. Kelley . . . who is of a younger generation, was not aware of Elke's allure for males of my generation, but he did comment that he liked the edgy aspect of the name.

But, Autumn Sunset won out for Northwest Palate readers. And to look at the drink, you can see why it was given that name: it is a rich hue of warm auburn-to-mahogany color, with a golden glint. Just like a fall sunset in the great Northwest.

If you want to impress Kelley, go into the bar and ask for an Autumn Sunset (it is not on ten 01's drinks menu)! Or better yet go get the ingredients and make one for yourself . . .

Interlude: Dueling Sommeliers

OK, so I promised to continue on the cocktail created by Kelley at ten01 in Portland . . . except that I don't want to scoop myself!

You see, the cocktail and recipe will be featured in the November/December issue of Northwest Palate magazine (of which I am co-publisher), and the magazine itself will not be in the mailboxes of subscribers until November 1. So, I will wait until the print publication to further describe the cocktail. But when I do, I'll also include a neat photo of it, along with the others that we had created. Oh, and you can find Northwest Palate on the newsstands early in November.

In the meantime, there was a recent event here in Portland that I thought was tremendous fun . . . and which is worthy of a short interlude to describe.

Throughout the summer four intrepid Portland sommeliers matched wits and knowledge in a series of “Dueling Sommelier” dinners held at the Heathman Restaurant. With the best wine and food pairings being voted on by the diners themselves, an ultimate victor was acclaimed after the fifth and final dinner, heldlast month.

Raise a glass for Jeff Groh, sommelier at the Heathman whose pairings reigned supreme!

But raise a glass as well for the pluck of Erica Landon of ten01, Ken Collura of Andia, and Jamie Garrett, then of Bluehour. Each of these sommeliers gamely applied their skills in what amounted to a local challenge of the wine-pairing champions.

And the challenge was not easy. Playing off a different menu for each of the dinners, the somms were first served the multi-course meal without wine. They then went away, thought about what they had tasted, and prepared their individual wine pairings for each course purely from memory. A few weeks later the meal was prepared again, but this time for the public, with each of the selected wines served blind to the attentive audience (George Riedel, head of the famous glass company, was in attendance at one of the dinners). The diners then voted on their favorite pairings per course, without knowing which sommelier they were voting for.

After the first three dinners the scores were narrow among the four. The dishes, prepared by Heathman Chef Philippe Boulot (and a few special guest chefs) had offered everything from fusion (vichyssoise with uni) to Northwest (bacon wrapped venison) to the exotic (rabbit confit with escabeche and huacatay ceviche) to French (braised short rib a la Provencal). But after the fourth dinner there were two remaining contenders: Erica Landon and Jeff Groh.

Though the final scores after the fifth, grand finale dinner, were only a hair apart, Groh’s selections had barely edged out Landon’s. (That's Jeff on the left.)

Rematch anyone?

Probably next year. Though there is no set schedule yet, the talk is that the Dueling Sommelier Dinners will return. Which somms dare compete? Whose pairings will win out? We'll all have to wait and see!

Kelley's Concoctions

Imbibing is inspiring—and not simply because of the uninhibitory powers of the accumulated alcohol that can result from the activity. Though that doesn't hurt.

No, imbibing is inspiring because of the cosmos of taste sensations you can experience within the crystal confines of a glass. Much as a fine meal can be an organoleptic orgasm, so a well-crafted beverage can inspire paroxysms of ecstasy.

This truth was reinforced recently as we worked to create three "exclusive" cocktails for the cover of our holiday issue of Northwest Palate magazine. The idea was to use local Northwest distilled products to create a "Spirits of the Season" theme.

Cool, I thought, that will mean research. And testing.

But where to get the recipes in the first place?

One of them was a natural. Last Christmas our office spect the day before our holiday vacation touring Portland's Clear Creek Distillery. During a tasting with proprietor Steven McCarthy, my business partner, Cameron Nagel, had the affrontery (albeit while McCarthy was out of the room) to combine two of Clear Creek's signature spirits into a uniqque drink Cameron calls the Firry Pear.

The second recipe, after some tribulation, was delivered by a premium mixologist in Vancouber, B.C.

And the third I took on as a personal project. (To learn more about all the cocktails, you'll have to get yourself a copy of the November/December issue of Northwest Palate magazine--available on newsstands. But, for the attentive reader of this blog, here's a deal: email me here and request a copy of the magazine—with your name and physical mailing address—and I'll mail it to you for free.)

I knew from the start who I wanted to recruit to make our third Northwest Spirits of the Season cocktail: Kelley Swenson, Bar Manager at Portland's ten 01 restaurant. Though swanky in a polished, upscale sort of way, ten 01 sports a down to earth staff of highly competent professionals. Behind the bar, Kelley is an unassuming but somehow potent presence. Able to blend into the background for patrons uninterested in the cocktail arts, Kelley can quickly take center stage for the aficionado seeking special drink sensations.

I first appreciated Kelley's skills when, in answer to the cliched "What'll you have?" I responded "I don't know . . . just make me something." Not rising to the easy bait, Kelley answered back "What do you normally like to drink?" A cocktail conversation then ensued. The result was a series of Kelley's own concoctions designed to ferret from me his own sense of my spirits style.

Did I like his Truth Teller (rye, a killer vermouth unlike any I'd had before, Fernet Branca, and the perhaps supercillious addition of Kelley's own house-made bitters), or did I prefer the Corpse Lifter (Number Two, no less)—or was the Ol' Flame (remarkably good with oysters on the half shell) more my style?

From my reactions to his concoctions, Kelley began to get a sense for what I liked.

So when I came to him with the idea of composing a cocktail for our readers, he was all smiles.

There were a few restrictions on his creativity, though. We asked him to use a Northwest-produced spirit (not hard to do, when in Oregon alone there are nearly two dozen artisan distillers) and asked him to use something that gave it a bit of color . . . for the cover shot, you know.

Kelley went away and worked. He devised a recipe based on the rather unusual and quite distinctive Krogstadt Aquavit produced by Portland's own House Spirits.

. . . and to see just what the drink was, you'll have to wait for my next post . . .

Pacific Northwest Potation . . . 2.0

Yes, I admit it, I’m a failure.

Well, ok, maybe not a failure—perhaps it’s just that I get discouraged too easily.

I began Inspired Imbiber* full of the promise of the blog, chest jutting out proudly, thesaurus at my side, ready to scribally share my experiences and insights with fellow travelers in the world of Pacific Northwest potation. I strove to write cleverly, informatively, perceptively—even perspicaciously. I found photos to add to the blog, people to quote in the blog, places to visit in the bog, and organoleptic delights to describe in the blog. I awoke each week with thoughts of fresh subjects to write about.

Two comments over three months is all I received in return. And let’s not talk about the blog metrics reports.

So I should expect more?

One source I checked (Technorati) estimates that in September of 2007 there were over 106 million blogs in the ‘sphere; nearly two are created every minute. Someone should care about the Inspired Imbiber??

Deflated and dispirited, I let the light of my vision die out, and the effluence of my verbiage ebb.

I’ll imbibe in silence, I concluded.

Sigh . . .

But NO! That is not the way of the word warrior . . . that is not the spirit of the Inspired Imbiber! There is goodness to share, there are experiences people will want to read about. There is an audience, and I’ll find it . . . by gum.

OK, all humor aside, one of the ways blogs find their audience is through the assiduous linking of posts amidst the tapestry of the web. Simply writing isn’t enough—you have to market your blog spewings in the laissez-faire bourse of the Internet.

I am used to the print world. My day job is co-owner, co-publisher, wine editor for a 20-year old food, wine, and culinary travel magazine called Northwest Palate. We cover the Northwest Epicurean Lifestyle . . . and we live that lifestyle large—in print, and increasingly Internetally.

And we will be doing more of all that. For verily, I have much to say about the wisdom of Northwest Imbibing, the inspiration of Imbibing, and the joys of Imbibing in the great Pacific Northwest (meaning Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Idaho). And along the way, I have the hubris to believe that I can impart some information, some hard won intelligence about the world of drink, that might be helpful—and perhaps even fun—to other interested parties.

Did someone say party?

Stay tuned . . . there’s drinks for all . . .

*Inspired Imbiber 1.0 used a different blogging platform and is accessible at www.nwpalate.com