Slate Articles

Drinking in the Morning After

Troy Patterson — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:03:00 GMT

Do use a clean glass. No guzzling from the bottle, either. Drinking at breakfast is a rare pleasure with a noble heritage, and you need to show some decorum. If self-respect is beyond you at the moment in question, then settle for showing some respect for the institution. Treat this as a special occasion and dress to impress—a feat easily accomplished by waking up in or near your tuxedo. At the very least, affix a boutonniere to the lapel of your bathrobe.

Beer Me, Sommelier

Mark Garrison — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:38:43 GMT

It’s a busy night at the D.C. restaurant Birch & Barley, as well as its casual upstairs sister joint, ChurchKey. Greg Engert is guiding me through his beverage list with all the knowledge, talent, and grace one would expect from an award-winning sommelier. With a couple crisp queries, he learned enough to make some intriguing recommendations. He didn’t flaunt his knowledge about food and drink, but when I had questions, he gave precise answers about the flavor, aroma, producer, pairing potential, and even the history of the available beverages. Fortunately, there was no attempt at upselling, the odious sin far too many sommeliers commit, a big reason why many diners are suspicious of the entire profession.

Applejack

Troy Patterson — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:17:10 GMT

The bite in the air and the crunch of the fallen leaves indicate that this is the season for applejack, the cider brandy traditionally described as "kinda like an apple whiskey." Not remotely as sweet as a biddy's schnapps, not quite so refined as a Frenchman's Calvados, applejack boasts a forthright character and an identity as American as apple pie. Our forefathers drank cider like it was water, literally, their water being undrinkable, but some they set aside to make the hard stuff, as if concentrating the gaiety of the harvest festival to last through the hard months ahead.

The Old-Fashioned

Troy Patterson — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 11:30:06 GMT

One cold morning many years ago, a grouchy old New Yorker cranked out a letter to the editor of the Times. Happens every day, I know, but listen: This was New Year's Day in 1936, and this old timer—that's how he signed the letter, "Old Timer"—unraveled a righteous jeremiad about the improper mixing of drinks. Writing three years after Repeal—and presumably typing through a hangover, with the hammers of an Underwood clacking at his temples—he surveyed the violence Prohibition had done to the martini, the Manhattan, and, foremost, the old-fashioned whiskey cocktail:

Drink Cheap Wine

Brian Palmer — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:54:34 GMT

Try this experiment: Walk into the nearest wine shop and ask for an “everyday wine” recommendation. Refuse to give a price range, and see what the merchant suggests. My guess is you’re out 15 bucks. Critics seem to be pushing this price point as an appropriate range for “everyday wine”—Slate is as guilty as any publication—even though the phrase can’t possibly be taken literally. If you and your significant other were to drink five bottles of wine a week, at $15 per bottle, your annual wine outlay would approach $4,000. That’s more than the average family spends on groceries.

Can American Fans Save German Riesling?

Mike Steinberger — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:23:11 GMT

For the fourth year in a row, riesling enthusiasts in the United States—and no grape breeds devotion quite like riesling—appropriated the entire summer to celebrate their favorite wine. The Summer of Riesling, as it is known, is the brainchild of New York sommelier Paul Grieco, who often wears a temporary tattoo of the word riesling in big letters down the length of his right forearm. The event is intended to showcase the Germanic grape in all its geographic and stylistic diversity. While this riesling triumphalism probably irritates some people—most wine grapes get one day in their honor, if that—I think it is a fun promotional campaign on behalf of what is unquestionably a great variety. My only concern is that it might give consumers the idea that rieslings are suitable only for summer drinking. It’s now Oct. 19, and I’m here to tell you that that is not the case: Riesling is a grape for all seasons.

Beyond Oktoberfest

Mark Garrison — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:04:00 GMT

Oktoberfest began on Saturday, Sept. 17, which means tourist hordes have begun staggering through Munich hoisting 9-euro beers to wash down pretzels the size of infants, weisswurst, and a menagerie of roasted meats. They'll be served by locals diligently playing along in dirndls and lederhosen. Elsewhere in the world, bartenders will try to cash in by offering up Oktoberfest-themed food and beer, or poor facsimiles of the like. Corporate brewers will lend a hand, supplying crates of decorations, gamely attempting to link their flavorless macrobrews with hundreds of years of German beer craftsmanship.

That's Amari

Troy Patterson — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:21:00 GMT

In the middle of the summer of her 40^th year, Sophie Bitterson went very slightly mad, contentedly so. Retrospectively, reviewing her intense fling with a peculiar class of liquors, she counted herself a housewife corrupted by reading fiction.

Pisco

Troy Patterson — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:51:00 GMT

Pisco, a clear grape brandy from the stills of South America, is the fastest-growing liquor in the booze biz, and I'll bet you a round of dry Capitáns that cocktail historians will record this as the season of its breakthrough among norteamericanos. Going into the summer drinking term, it demonstrated considerable momentum, with the Peruvian Association of Exporters boasting that in the first four months of 2011, U.S. sales increased by 210 percent year on year, to about $750,000. Granted, there are individual persons who spent a comparable amount of money on bottle-service Grey Goose over the same span of time, but listen to the culture—the dispatches filed from Seattle and West Hollywood and Queens —and look at the aggressiveness of these pisco salesmen. This could be the most determined marketing assault on America's liquor cabinets since the period, just after World War II, when Smirnoff hitched its wagon to the Moscow Mule.

Beyond Bacardi

Mark Garrison — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:31:00 GMT

Convincing serious drinkers to try aged rum as a sipping spirit is a tough sell. The first image that comes to mind when most think of rum is probably the beach, or, more specifically, a sloppy spring break scene with frat boys passing around handles of Bacardi and Captain Morgan. Many drink rum to get drunk, or in cloying frozen concoctions, and a lot of consumers expect nothing more from it than sweetness. Bland, big-box rums dominate the market. When these companies make investments, they're in advertising and manufacturing, not craftsmanship. They have no interest in bringing subtle, complex flavors anywhere near their product lines. (Bacardi has also spent a fortune on anti-Castro politicking, but that's another story.)