Trying to describe Red Hook, Brooklyn’s Cacao Prieto is a tricky task – is it a distillery? A chocolate making wonderland with a heavenly shop full of organic confectionery treats? A science lab and farming-innovation think tank?
Best Sips
El Buho Mezcal is pretty easy to love–a little like drinking bottled smoke, but with a sweetness and earthy quality laced in that balances the whole act in your mouth.
The mash bill of this young whiskey (its aging is all of 18 minutes) combines local corn, spelt, and malted wheat, and it’s meant to be a receptacle of a spirit – for whiskey lovers who don’t dig vodka, it’s the equivalent of a base-spirit blank canvas. It’s soft, fruity, and creamy in your mouth, with just a little bit of sweetness that lingers subtly on your tongue from the corn.
Legally, he can’t refer to the buckwheat spirit as a whiskey, but damn if it doesn’t taste like a very fine and complex one.
It’s no easy feat to be a show-stopper on a crowded liquor store shelf, be it boutique or big box. But then again, there really isn’t anything else like Jack from Brooklyn’s Sorel liqueur.
Before you even decide what cocktail you want to make and before you even open the bottle, there’s something about Caledonia’s Barr Hill Gin that you can’t help but notice. And not just with your eyes. It’s the aroma.
His parents might have had a string of heart palpitations when Dan Amatuzzi graduated with a shiny degree in Economics from Villa Nova and told them he wanted to sniff corks for a living, but after he made the list of Forbe’s 30 Under 30 to watch in 2012, they realized their son with the big grin and shock of premature grays had found his passion. Now the 29-year-old is Joe Bastianich’s right-hand wine man, handling the not-so-small job of Wine Director for the entire of Eataly.
The craft distilling movement has yielded a bumper crop of spirits that hearken back to old traditions while pushing the boundaries of creativity.
Hillrock Estate Distillery ushers in a new era of grow-it-yourself.
You won’t find wormwood in this American take on the forgotten classic.
Craft ciders with a kick are suddenly everywhere.
A Chelsea wine shop sources biodynamic wine from across the world.
