While once fairly unknown stateside, Corona and Modelo have both become beloved imported beers among American drinkers, coming in sixth and seventh respectively as best-sellers in the U.S. market. And despite Corona’s unfounded association with the novel coronavirus, it is considered by the consultancy group Brand Finance to be the world’s most valuable beer brand with gross revenue in 2020 of more than $5.8 billion. Modelo isn’t far behind with a total revenue of over $3.3 billion, placing it seventh on the list. With the outdoor season in full swing and beach and poolside vacations on the rise, there’s never been a better time to reach for a crisp and refreshing Mexican lager. Keep reading to learn more about how these two iconic brands from south of the border stack up. OriginCorona and Modelo were first brewed in the 1920s at the Mexico City brewery Cervecería Modelo. Accounts vary as to who founded the brewery, but according to The New York Times, it began with Pablo Díez Fernández, a Spanish immigrant and bakery entrepreneur. Over the next several decades, Fernández helped expand the business nationally, eventually turning it into “Mexico’s largest brewer.” The brewery later became known under the company name Grupo Modelo, and today operates eight breweries across Mexico. As the article notes, it wasn’t until the early 20th century that beer culture found its way in Mexico. Pulque, a milky ferment made from the maguey cactus, was the favored alcohol for centuries, but as the country became more industrialized, the interest and demand for beer grew. Back in Mexico, Corona turned its eye to an international audience, but struggled to keep up with demand after it began exporting Corona Extra to the U.S. in 1981. Bemused by its sudden and rapid popularity, beer experts referred to the craze as the “Corona phenomenon.” In 1990, Modelo Especial followed Corona stateside. ProductionModelo Especial, a pilsner-style, comes in at 4.4 percent ABV, while Negra Modelo, fashioned after Dunkel-style beers first popularized in Munich, is made with roasted caramel malts and clocks in a bit higher at 5.4 percent ABV. Corona Extra, also a pilsner-style, is bottled at 4.6 percent ABV. In 2012, Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), the Belgian-based drinks conglomerate, acquired Grupo Modelo for $20.1 billion. The following year, AB InBev sold Grupo Modelo’s U.S. business to Constellation Brands, effectively retaining rights to Corona and Modelo everywhere except in the U.S. FlavorVinePair’s blind tasting of Mexican lagers yielded surprising results; Modelo Especial stole the show from Corona Extra, coming in at second place. Modelo’s “pure refreshment” transported one reviewer to a Mexican restaurant with “tacos that are too spicy,” while Corona’s smell was described as “very sweaty” and its “skunk-like aroma and flavor” was likened to Heineken. Perhaps the addition of lime is more than just an attractive garnish. CocktailsHands down, the best way to use Mexican lagers is in the beloved and highly addictive beer cocktail, the Michelada (or Chelada, as it is called in other parts of Mexico) — a combination of lime juice, cerveza, and salt, and served over ice, though versions in the U.S. often include spiced tomato juice. In Mexico, the drink takes on many variations, including the Michelada Cubana, an umami bomb that includes hot sauce, Maggi sauce, and Worcestershire. Why the Pros Love EachChelsea Hoff, the winemaker and proprietress at Fearless Wines in St. Helena, Calif., told VinePair that a light beer is her go-to after a long day of winemaking in the California sun: “A well-earned cold beer after a long harvest day is the most delicious tasting beer, but if I had to choose I would go with Corona and lime,” she says. David Roth, the beverage director at KOJO in Sarasota, Fla., says: “Mexican beers have come a long way since I started drinking legally in 1990. I only knew of a Corona with lime. Eventually, I began to see Negra Modelo but those were a big departure from the pitchers of Natty Light and cases of ‘the Beast’ I used to drink in college.” While Roth suggests drinkers give Negra Modelo and Modelo Especial a try, today he tends to reach for the lesser-known, fuller-bodied Corona Familiar over the Extra. But for Joe Palminteri, the area director of food and beverage for Via Sophia in Washington, D.C., if pressed to choose between the two brands, Negra Modelo is his preference, a brew he describes as a “wonderfully creamy, dark beer, rich [in] flavor and smooth.” The article The Difference Between Corona and Modelo Beers, Explained appeared first on VinePair. Via https://vinepair.com/articles/corona-vs-modelo-beers-explained/ Via https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/the-difference-between-corona-and-modelo-beers-explained
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VinePair, in partnership with Rémy Martin, presents the Bartender Talent Academy, an exciting Cognac cocktail competition. Showcase your most creative Sidecar cocktail recipes to compete for a chance at the grand prize: a trip to Cognac, France in October to test your bartending skills against the world’s best. All you need is a shaker and a passport. Visit www.bartendertalentacademy.com for all competition details. This week on the “VinePair Podcast,” Adam Teeter, Zach Geballe, and Joanna Sciarrino discuss the return of happy hour. But first, Teeter recaps his trip to Louisville, which involved lots of bourbon, Geballe posits a new cocktail recipe, and our hosts dive into a discussion about the sudden cessation of to-go cocktail programs in New York and other states. The trio then debates whether or not bars should continue offering happy hour deals during these uncertain times. They also discuss the role office culture plays in happy hour attendance, and whether or not those returning to in-person work will be the driving forces in the return of happy hour. If you have any thoughts on the future of happy hour, please send your ideas to [email protected]. Listen OnlineOr Check out the Conversation HereAdam Teeter: From VinePair’s New York City headquarters, I’m Adam Teeter. Joanna Sciarrino: And I’m Joanna Sciarrino. Zach Geballe: And in Seattle, Wash., I’m Zach Geballe. A: And this is the “VinePair Podcast.” It really feels like summer now. It’s crazy out there. Z: It’s supposed to be over 100 degrees in Seattle this weekend. I know we are trying to avoid too much weather conversation, but that is going to suck. That is about 15 to 20 degrees above where I stop going outside. A: Well, speaking of it feeling crazy. Earlier this week, I was in Louisville, Ky. Z: Yes. Tell us, how much bourbon did you drink? A: A good amount. A little bit regretfully, I probably didn’t need one bourbon at the end of the night on Tuesday. Anyway, it was interesting. This was my first time on the plane since Covid was over. It’s not over, sorry, but since we are coming out of it and in Louisville, it felt like Covid was over. It was really weird. I definitely think different parts of the country are very much doing different things. I mean, no one was wearing masks. I think I got weird looks everywhere. I wore a mask. My Uber driver on the way back to the airport on Wednesday told me he thought I should take my mask off. I said “I’m good with it on, thank you.” He said, “I’m vaccinated, aren’t you? Then, take it off.” I said, “No.” It was just weird, but it was interesting to be in Louisville for sure. The city definitely feels very dead in certain ways. All of the downtown areas where there are offices were pretty quiet, but then in the evenings when the bars were at their fullest, it looked like a very normal city. No sidewalk shelters in terms of people dining outside. Everyone was inside, no windows open for ventilation. Windows were closed to conserve air conditioning in the Southern heat, and no one with masks. It was really crazy. Z: Joanna, have you been to Louisville? J: I have been to Louisville for a wedding. Z: That’s when I was there. J: I think I went to the baseball museum? Z: Yeah, the Louisville Slugger Museum. A: You were close enough, they make baseball bats. J: That’s it. It was nice, but I didn’t get to explore much. Z: I went there for a wedding as well and definitely drank a lot of bourbon, but one of my great regrets in life and frustrations occurred at the rehearsal dinner held at Churchill Downs, where they hold the Kentucky Derby. It was not just beer and wine, there were cocktails and all that. The thing you could not get, which is the one thing you would think going to Churchill Downs you would be able to get, is a Mint Julep. My good friend, who was the groom, his mom because his parents were the ones hosting the rehearsal dinner, was worried that people would get too drunk if they had Mint Juleps. We were not allowed to have Mint Juleps but I could go get shots of bourbon, mind you, and did. A: Funny. Z: I was so annoyed. I may well be back in Kentucky and may well go to Churchill Downs at some point in my life. There’s also a decent chance I’ll never be there again. It is the drink that is so iconic for not just the town, but literally the place I’m standing and yet I can’t get it. Yeah, I may have complained about that all night. A: I could see you complaining about that all night. I’m not surprised. Z: It’s in keeping with me. A: Yes, it’s your brand, but it was interesting, though. It’s crazy. There’s been an influx of distilleries that have opened in Louisville. I guess that’s always the case, right? Z: No, it was surprising to me when I was there that I thought I would be able to go to distilleries. No, you can drive to Lexington, right. I’m not renting a car to go to the distilleries, that seems like a bad idea. A: That’s definitely more of where they are. I’ve actually been to Lexington before for work. This is my first time working in Louisville, but there are a few now. They have Rabbit Hole, which I think was just bought by Pernod Ricard. They have a huge facility. It’s a massive steel and glass facility in this neighborhood of Louisville called Nulu, which was interesting. Obviously, Angel’s Envy is right downtown. It was interesting to see and they take bourbon very seriously. The majority of people that were in town were definitely there for bourbon tourism reasons and checking it all out. Z: Didn’t Old Forester open down there too, right? A: They have tasting rooms. There is this one street and they call it Bourbon Row. A lot of the distilleries have “the Old Forester Experience,” “the Maker’s Mark Experience.” Z: OK, so they don’t make anything there. A: No, you can still go to their distillery, but I think they’re just trying to catch anyone who just happens to be in town. Z: Someone coming across the bridge from Ohio, whatever. A: Yeah, exactly. I think that was the thing that was interesting, too, is that there were a lot of those that felt like going to the Jameson Experience in Dublin. Nothing’s being distilled there, but you can go there and experience the brand. The only operating distilleries were those three, and there might be another one I’m forgetting. And Stitzel-Weller is close to the city, but not in Louisville. Everywhere we went, it didn’t matter where you were, they had insane bourbon lists. Z: Did you have a single best bourbon? I know that’s impossible, but for the sake of our running conceit here that we talk about what we drank. A: I had some interesting stuff. I had the Wheated Wilderness Trail. They are the distillery that’s being hyped more than anything else by the geeks right now. I thought that it was good. Again, it didn’t blow me away, but it was good. I still think that Larceny does really great stuff. I had a Larceny single barrel that was really delicious and very well priced. Also, you look at these lists now, and it’s like, holy crap. For a one-ounce pour of some of these liquids, we’re getting over $50, $60, or $70 a pour. That was crazy to just see how exorbitant the prices have been. You can also tell, just like anything, that whatever is currently hot is what everyone’s asking for. I would say at least three different people just assumed we were looking for Blanton’s, since that’s the thing that everybody wants. One of our Uber drivers said, “Hey guys, I know three liquor stores that have Blanton’s.” People get in your car and ask who has Blanton’s and where they can get it? It’s just so funny that that’s the bourbon that exploded recently, because I used to be able to get it very easily at liquor stores all over New York. I know it’s good, but I don’t really understand how that gets hyped all of a sudden. And now, no one could find it. Z: I thought you were going to say your Uber driver is going to offer you a little nip from his bottle. I mean, maybe. You gotta take the mask off for that one, though. A: Yeah, so that one was quite tasty. I had an Evan Williams and that was pretty delicious. I had the Old Forester 117 series. That was pretty amazing. It was really, really tasty. It was $35 for a one-ounce pour, which is, again, exorbitant, but it was what it was. Besides that, we had wine and beer because those were the things that people were looking for. Tim was my guide, so I was asking him what I should drink. Two of the people I was with had the Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel, which apparently people are crazy for and the geeks can’t find it. It was also really tasty. Yet, the whole thing with bourbon is so insane with the limited releases, exclusivity, and scarcity thing. It’s crazy. However, it was fun to go down to Louisville. I’m glad I saw it. What about you guys? J: This past weekend, we went to one of our favorite local bars, Brandy Library. If you’re familiar with it, it’s a really wonderful spot. It has a really extensive selection of fine spirits, and it’s really beautiful inside there. The walls are completely lined and they’re illuminated. It has a lovely lounge setting. I saw on the menu that they had Westland Whiskey. I wanted to try it, obviously, after your chat with Matt Hofman, Zach. I tried the Sherrywood Single Malt Whiskey, which was really lovely and aromatic. You can really pick up the sherry in it. I also tried the Starward Nova single malt Australian whiskey, which I’ve had before, but the bartender poured it for us, and that’s also really interesting. It’s aged in red wine barrels for two years. A: Oh, very cool. J: It was really warm and spiced. Yeah, they were both just really interesting, beautiful expressions. Z: Very cool. If you guys haven’t listened to the interview I did with Matt Hofman, I like to think that all of our “Next Round” episodes are great, but what they’re doing at Westland is very interesting to me and has been for quite some time. It helps that the whiskey is also, I think, quite good because interesting is one thing, but it has to taste good. J: I agree. A: Totally. What about you, Zach? Z: Well, there are two things that I had this last week that I am most excited about or was most excited about. Adam, you and I did an interview or a podcast episode a while back talking about the wines of Ribera del Duero and Rueda. I had one of the bottles that they sent, the Martinsancho Rueda, so white wine made from Verdejo. For Father’s Day, we went out to my dad’s house and my dad, as he almost always does when he has a group of people over, makes paella, which is good and bad. My dad’s paella is tasty, but it takes for f*ckin’ ever. I always try to bring some wines to go with it and actually brought a couple of wines. One was an Assyrtiko from Santorini, from Estate Argyros. Then, the other was Martin Sancho Rueda. I was very pleased with how well it paired. I think paella is a complicated dish to pair with because there’s a lot going on. Sometimes I’ve paired it more with a lighter-bodied white wine, but you need the richness and unctuousness of something like this to hold up the richness that is really a big part of paella. Even though it’s got some seafood and stuff like that, which we’re still talking white wine, I think it paired really nicely. The other thing that I made recently that I’ve been obsessively tinkering with is — because we talked about modern classic cocktails — I’ve been trying to come up with a drink. It takes the template of the Paper Plane but does something different with it. A: Interesting. Z: I’ve long been a big fan of drinks that combine aged tequila, Cynar, and lime juice. I think the three of those work really, really well together. Three of the four ingredients, conceptually at least towards a Paper Plane in that you have your brown spirit, in this case tequila. You have your citrus juice and you have a bitter liqueur. Obviously, Cynar is pretty different from Aperol, but tequila is pretty different from whiskey. It’s really been that last ingredient that’s been bedeviling me so far. Part of it is just that I have a limited range of amari at home. My first attempt was a Fernet because maybe a minty thing will be interesting. That didn’t work so well. It tasted like an ashtray, unfortunately. I like Fernet, but it doesn’t always play well in cocktails with others. Then, I tried Amaro Montenegro, which was pretty good. I tried Nonino, but it can get lost in there. I’m open to suggestions from you guys or anyone else out there if you’ve got a herbal but not overly minty amari, or something else that I should try as this last part of the cocktail. It’s close to being what I wanted to be. It’s just not quite there yet. A: Well, so here’s my question with this. Do you think the Cynar, because it is so much of a fuller flavor than even an Aperol, maybe it makes it harder to then also add another amaro? Z: That could be. It’s possible that what I need to do is find another ingredient that goes in a somewhat different direction. I haven’t done this yet, but I’ve thought about doing something like dry Curaçao. I would like to get more of that orange note that you also get from Aperol, but not as intense. Yeah, that might be the next iteration because it’s true that Cynar lends more bitterness and impact than Aperol. Stay tuned. A: Yes, please keep us updated. Z: I will. A: The other thing I think is worth talking about before we jump into this subject is, I don’t know if you guys saw. I know Joanna did, but Zach, it’s not as impactful for you. It is really interesting to see the city of New York or the state of New York actually just decided to immediately cancel ready-to-go cocktails, effective today. Z: Pennsylvania did that a week or two ago. A: Just really stupid. I get that it’s feeling a lot more normal, but that doesn’t mean that the places that were hit the hardest have recovered. Do you know what I mean? I don’t understand why it’s hurting anyone for these restaurants to be able to still sell cocktails to-go. This seems like another kick in the gut, right? Restaurants are just trying to do what they need to do to survive. They are given this lifeline. They make investments to make sure it’s safe and is high quality, all this stuff. Now, with no warning, “Oh, this is done tomorrow.” It just really sucks. Z: It really does. I didn’t see specifically what Cuomo said about this or the people who are either pushing for this or directing it from the state level. As you said, who is this hurting, and what is the reason to not only end these policies but end them instantly? It’d be one thing if they said, “Hey, we think that by Sept. 30 we can wrap this up.” Fine, you get through summer. There’s probably a lot of interesting ready-to-go cocktails in the winter, etc. Yet, to drop that on everyone with essentially zero notice and zero lag time, whose interests are being served by that? Seriously, I wonder who behind the scenes is lobbying on this because that doesn’t seem like something that happens suddenly without at least a little bit of pressure that maybe we’re not aware of. A: Yeah, it has to be right. I mean, someone had to have lobbied. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense at all. Z: Yeah. If you know [email protected], we’ll call them out. A: Yeah, totally. It is very strange. The whole thing is very strange. Why it’s so abrupt is very strange. I was super bullish that the shelters or the outdoor seating in the street were going to be here to stay. Now, I really wonder if that’s the case. Z: Yeah. Although, those things are so much more visible. I think there might be more pushback from people who’ve really enjoyed having that, including the restaurants and things. If they go away, to-go cocktails are visible in a sense, but they’re not something that New Yorkers see all day, every day. I’m sure both of you walk outside your door that you’re seeing these structures on the street anywhere you go. I think that probably lends them a chance of being more permanent. However, I agree. “Back to normal” sometimes means losing things that we thought we had gained in this period of time. J: Yeah. Also just to Adam’s point, these were such significant investments on behalf of bars and restaurants to erect these — in some cases — full structures. It would just be such a shame, and abruptly? That would be horrible. A: Yeah, it would just be the worst. Well, today’s big discussion is all about happy hour, and what the future of happy hour is going to look like now that we are slowly starting to make our way back to the office. I think we’re going to see more and more people go back to work. That’s my hypothesis. I think a lot of you’re already hearing from people who have tried the hybrid model. For a lot of businesses, they’re saying it’s not working. It’s very hard for there to be a group of people in the office and a group of people on Zoom and to feel that the meeting is productive or that there’s a collaboration happening. It needs to be all of one or all of the other. I think that’s what you’ll start to see is some people who will permanently work from home or from home on these days specifically, whereas everyone else on other days is in the office. However, I do think we are going to start seeing more and more people come back to the office. As that happens, the question then becomes, are we going to see this massive return of happy hour? And what will happy hour look like? I think it’s an interesting thing to ponder, so what do you guys think? J: I think another question that I’ve been thinking about just in this conversation is, should there be a happy hour? I mean that more from a financial point of perspective, with businesses just getting back on their feet, does it make sense for them to have happy hours? Should we be expecting that as patrons, or should we all just be willing to pay full price for the next while? A: That’s a very, very interesting thought. Should we actually have happy hour? I’m not sure. This goes back to the conversation we had a while ago, Zach, about pricing models and whether the happy hour is beneficial because it brings new people into the bar at a time when maybe they wouldn’t come into the bar. I don’t know. Happy hour originally existed because it’s a time when the bar’s not that crowded and you want to get more people to the bar. But are people going to go to happy hour at all? Z: Well, a thing that was always interesting to me is that Seattle has had an alarmingly vibrant happy hour culture for a long time. Here, I think it’s born out of maybe two interrelated things. One is the truth of it, which is that here in Seattle, especially in the fall and winter, it gets dark really early. There’s always been this thing where, as compared to New York, people just in general are done with their evenings earlier, bars close earlier, all those sorts of things. That all naturally shifts the business earlier in the evening. On top of that, you have widespread frugality or cheapness, whatever you want to call it. What’s interesting to me is talking to people I worked with over the years who moved to Seattle from other places, and their happy hour is maybe getting a dollar off a beer or two dollars off a glass of wine. It’s not what it was in Seattle for a lot of restaurants, where there is an extensive menu. There are real drink specials. It is more of what we talked about, as you said, with dynamic pricing. You come in and eat a full meal but eat it at 5 o’clock, not at 7 o’clock. Then, you have this back and forth about whether those things are really fundamentally different. However, I think the thing that I’m curious about feeds back into your initial question, Adam, about whether office culture will affect this. Many of the restaurants here and I think this is true for a lot of the country, especially places besides New York, where you just have incredible density. The downtown areas are, as you said in Louisville, the slowest areas to recover. There’s not a lot of business there during the day. I think the question is these places that maybe built a lot of their business around the idea of capturing happy hour business and then maybe that transitions into the dinner business. If people aren’t in the office, will they still come to these parts of the city for happy hour if the pricing is good enough? Maybe. Well, maybe if they’re only working in the office two or three days a week, maybe those two or three days are their “go-out nights,” right? They’re in the office Monday, Wednesday, Friday, so Wednesday and Friday nights, they go out. This isn’t an answer, I guess. I will be curious to hear what you both think. I do think that if I were an operator in a lot of these places, I would be cautiously dipping my toe back into happy hour promotions, and maybe we can address that profitability side of it in a moment. I do think that we’re just going to have to wait and see in some sense, because I really think — whether it’s business lunches, happy hour — how the business community responds and returns to restaurants and bars is a huge unanswered question yet, one that is going to be hugely impactful for a lot of these businesses. I will just add the last piece here, which is that my wife, who works for a big accounting firm, has just started to get some of those first, “Hey, we should have a work group happy hour.” Her business has been pretty conservative about coming back to the office. Everyone is still working from home until after Labor Day at the earliest. I mean, they’re allowing people to come in on occasion, but basically, it’s all still work from home. Yet, you can see there’s a lot of desire for this, and getting everyone together for a virtual happy hour just ain’t cutting it anymore. Understandably, those are not super fun. A: Yeah, I think it’s going to come back in a big way. I think it’s going to come back in a big way just based on what I’m already seeing in terms of people who are asking to meet up in person. I was supposed to have a call tomorrow with someone and literally as we’re sitting here because obviously as we record, my email’s open. Z: That is not a surprise. A: The person says, “Hey, Adam, would you like to meet in person tomorrow? I see we’re meeting towards the end of the day, it would be great to grab a drink instead of sitting on Zoom.” I think there’s a lot of that that’s going to happen, and people who are gonna be really excited about it. I think that dipping your toe back into happy hour is not a bad idea, whether that happy hour has some food or a discount on drinks, maybe even the first drink and not the second. Maybe there’s some limit that’s not the time window. Maybe you get two drinks at this price and then we go to full price with you. I don’t know if restaurants are worried, but I think there’s going to be such a slam that most restaurants and bars usually have made a lot of money at happy hour in the past. I think it’s something where going back to that is going to be really exciting for a lot of people. J: Yeah, I think you also make a really good point, Zach, about the places like the downtown areas that have been so depressed over the past 16 months. For the ones that have managed to stay alive and stay open, this will probably be a really big part of their strategy to draw people in the ones who are returning to the office. Z: To the question that you raised, Joanna, about whether we should be doing this and profitability, Adam makes a point that I think is a good one, which is that you can definitely make money at happy hour. Happy hour is a different financial model than fine dining dinner service. Look, I remember being not astonished by this, but impressed by it. Some of the most profitable bars and restaurants that are out there are places that are churn and burn. It’s fast-paced. They get people in and get people out. Maybe you’re paying less, but you have volume, and that adds up quickly. I think the questions that we can’t yet answer are how will this be affected by what we’ve all been seeing and hearing about, issues with a labor crunch? Fast-paced services are demanding and challenging. It requires a decent amount of staff, in a lot of cases, to get through to just get things cooked, get drinks made, poured, on tables, and the payment process. This is one that I wanted to mention in this context. There’s also this upcoming other crunch that I don’t know if you guys are fully aware of, but I’ve been hearing about it from people I know on the supply side, which is we have a huge wine crunch coming, and it’s almost all concentrated in the kinds of wines that are poured at happy hour. A: You mean there’s going to be a ton on the market, or none? Z: No, there’s going to be a tremendous lack of it. Again, what has not been talked about a ton is how much less wine got made in 2020 in Europe than in previous years. Some of that was Covid, weather, and the broader economic uncertainty surrounding Covid. The problem is, if you don’t make the wine, it doesn’t exist. It’s not beer, it’s not spirits. You can’t always ramp up production. Some things you might have back inventory on, certainly some suppliers and distributors here in the U.S. might have that. However, between tariffs and shipping issues, there is an incredible crunch right now. I was talking to a friend who works for a distributor. He said, “I have almost no under-$10 European wine.” Sparkling wine, white wine, and rosés are just starting to arrive, but it’s also been delayed. If you’re pouring wine at happy hour, you’re relying on that category, right? Your wholesale cost has got to be $5, $6, or $7 a bottle. Sure, there’s some really big- production stuff that you might be able to get, and in some places, that might be just fine. However, if you’re not trying to pour the really big-production stuff, or at least that’s recognizable to people from stacks and stacks in the grocery store, you have limited options right now. It’s unclear, as far as I can tell, if any of that stuff is going to make it to the U.S. in time for the summer. We’re already in summer, as you pointed out at the beginning, Adam, and so we are facing this other crunch that is real for restaurants and bars. Now, you might ask, “What the hell do I pour for people?” There’s some stuff out there, but there’s a lot of competition for it, obviously. I don’t know what the answer is going to be. It would be a thing for domestic producers to think about, but opportunities abound because there’s obviously a demand for happy hour pours. I think there’s a lot of struggle meeting that demand and will be going forward for at least a few more months. A: OK, let me ask a question. What percentage of people do you think order wine for happy hour? Z: A lot, depending on where you are. When we did a happy hour in my restaurants, I would say at least 40 to 45 percent of what we poured was wine. A: Interesting. But it was a restaurant, not a bar. Z: Yes. If you go to a dive bar, people are drinking whatever, their $5 well drinks. That’s a different story. There is plenty of that stuff, I promise. Again, you think about what we’re talking about. There are the happy hour places that serve 23-year-olds who are looking for one thing. Then, there are happy hour places that serve us or people like us. There, I think you’re much more likely to see people drinking wine. I mean, that has always been my experience. A: I think it’s so weird for me that I never really, in New York, got out in time to have happy hour. The time I left the office, it was not happy hour. I’m not aware of what bars or restaurants where I would have had wine, even did at happy hour. Z: Joanna, what about you? J: I mean, similar to Adam, that was a special occasion if we were out of the office early enough to partake in happy hour, but I often would get wine at happy hour. A: Interesting. I think it’s going to come back in a very strong way. For the people that live in the city, are we going to have as many people trying to hit a happy hour location before they go to the train? No, because I think people who left these cities for the suburbs may try to negotiate some way to work from home. Whether they’re at a company that will allow that is up for debate. I’m sure a lot of people over the last week have seen the really famous speech that went around from the CEO of JP Morgan who basically said, “If you can come into the city to go out to eat, then you can come into the city to go to work.” It’ll be really interesting to see who takes that approach. If you want to make a New York salary, you need to live in New York. Then, which companies take other approaches and basically say, “No, this is fine. We’re saving so much on the office space and we’re still cool with you working from home.” How does that impact happy hour? When I was working from home during the pandemic, I don’t think I would have left my apartment at 5:30 and hit a happy hour location in my neighborhood. For me, happy hour is very transitional, leaving-the-office-on-your-way-home experience. I don’t know if happy hour takes place in a smaller town in the suburbs where people are still working from home. But in the core business districts of cities where people are going to go back to the office, I think it’ll boom. Z: One last related question. Do you think we’re going to see the continued return and resurgence of the bottomless Mimosa brunch? J: I think so. Did it ever go away? Z: It was Covid-related. You couldn’t get a bottomless Mimosa to go, I’m pretty sure. A: I don’t know. I feel the bottomless Mimosa came back with a force last summer. What really happened because of Covid, which I think we’re going to continue to see, was the rise of massive amounts of day drinking. All of these places had outdoor spots, and that’s where people felt safe, and they didn’t really want to do it at night. Then, as it was getting into the fall, it was getting cooler, so everyone was drinking during the day. There were several occasions where I remember having to come into the city for something and walking through the East Village or Murray Hill and tripping over very inebriated people who clearly had a lot of fun at bottomless brunch. Z: What do they say? Nature is healing. A: Exactly. I think that’s going to continue to be just a huge thing, especially in the cities that have always taken brunch seriously. New York likes its brunch. Z: The bottomless Mimosa thing I’ve never been able to get behind. personally. A: Me either. Z: I’ve seen what goes into both the orange juice and the sparkling wine, and I want no part of either personally. A: I mean, it’s never been my thing, but I’m going to say something crazy. I’m not the biggest day drinker. J: Me neither. A: I like to day drink once in a while, but I’m really not a day drinker. I’m really bad at it. Joanna, you said you are bad at it, too? J: I am so bad at it. A: It’s terrible. All of a sudden, I’m really tired. J: It’s time to go home. *A: I’m not good at it. I know I’m from a big college town, but I was a bad tailgater. I was the guy that didn’t want to drink before going into the stadium because then you didn’t get to watch the game. Z: I guess with Auburn, at least that was a reasonable concern. In some college towns, that might’ve been the point. A: Right, exactly. I’ve never been the best day drinker. Even for this weekend, I have a little party that I’m having. Z: Yeah. Happy birthday, by the way. A: Thank you. I just want everyone to know it is my birthday. By the way, if you are a Champagne brand and would like to sponsor my birthday, reach out to [email protected]. Anyways, I want to have a picnic in the park with some of our good friends, but I wanted it to start at 4:30 or 5 because I don’t want to day drink. I want an evening drink and then go home. Z: In early summer, it’s going to be light out plenty long. You are not exactly cutting it at 7 p.m. A: Exactly, but I am just not a great day drinker. Z: Well, none of us are perfect, Adam. A: None of us are perfect. Anyway, a really interesting conversation. I actually am looking forward to a happy hour. I’m going to have my first happy hour, actually, next Tuesday. Z: Well, maybe if I ever make it to New York, we’ll have an official podcast happy hour. A: That would be awesome. Z: Sponsors… [email protected]. A: Yeah. All right, guys. Well, I’ll see you next week. J: Yes, happy birthday! A: Thank you! Z: Sounds great. Thanks so much for listening to the “VinePair Podcast.” If you love this show as much as we love making it, then please give us a rating or review on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever it is you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. Now for the credits. VinePair is produced and recorded in New York City and in Seattle, Wash., by myself and Zach Geballe. He does all the editing and loves to get the credit. Also, I would love to give a special shout-out to my VinePair co-founder, Josh Malin, for helping make all this possible and also to Keith Beavers, VinePair’s tastings director, who is additionally a producer on the show. I also want to, of course, thank every other member of the VinePair team who is instrumental in all of the ideas that go into making the show every week. Thanks so much for listening, and we’ll see you again. Thanks for listening to the show, and just as a reminder, VinePair in partnership with Rémy Martin, is presenting the Bartender Talent Academy, an exciting Cognac cocktail competition. You can showcase your most creative Sidecar cocktail recipes to compete for a chance at the grand prize: a trip to Cognac, France in October to test your bartending skills against the world’s best. All you need is a shaker and a passport. So visit www.bartendertalentacademy.com for all competition details and to enter. Hope to see you there. Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity. The article VinePair Podcast: Is Happy Hour Back? appeared first on VinePair. Via https://vinepair.com/articles/is-happy-hour-back/ Via https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/vinepair-podcast-is-happy-hour-back This article is part of a series of luxury spirits articles sponsored by Diageo. When looking to build a rare whisky collection, Ewan Gunn, Diageo’s global master of whisky, thinks there are a few key ways to go about it. He feels, firstly, that you should pursue a broad spectrum of flavors, styles, and age points. He likewise thinks it’s good to go after bottles that are a little unusual or showcase twists on a defining single malt. Releases from ghost distilleries, in other words, producers that have been shuttered over the years, always command attention as well. Most importantly, though, Gunn thinks collectors should simply go for whiskies that speak to their own personality. “Any good whisky collection should have that conversational element,” says Gunn. “Where each bottle will have some kind of story you want to tell about it.” Of course, too often it can seem that everyone is pursuing the exact same bottles, and Gunn doesn’t believe that makes for a very interesting world. Nevertheless, whether you are buying whiskies to enjoy or lay down in your cellar as an investment, some similar bottles will continually pop up on every wish list. Read on for a list of releases Gunn feels are worth obtaining for anyone starting a rare spirits collection. Port Ellen 40 Year OldThis legendary Islay distillery, known for its innovation and which historically predominantly produced malts for blends, closed in 1983 and was later almost entirely demolished. Over the years, the remaining (and often still maturing) stock from this so-called “ghost” distillery were released as single malts and became much coveted amongst collectors. In 2019, a one-off bottle of Port Ellen 40-Year-Old even hit an auction record high in Asia, selling for HKD 170,000 (about $22,000). Gunn points, however, to a more recent release of Port Ellen 40-Year Old created out of nine “rogue” (out of spec flavor-wise, but nevertheless spectacular) casks and initially priced at a slightly more affordable £6,500 (about $9,029). “Port Ellen is so loved amongst single malt fans and has many dedicated collectors,” says Gunn of the unusual release. “And this is one that tells a very interesting story.” Brora TriptychAnother iconic ghost distillery often sought out by major collectors, the celebrated Brora distillery, was likewise closed in 1983 as there was already a surplus of blending whisky on the market. Located in the remote Highlands in Sutherland, on the Northeast coast of Scotland, Brora became renowned for its exceptional mature stocks which would eventually be released — notably Brora 1972 Limited Edition 40-Year-Old sold as part of Sotheby’s Ultimate Whisky Auction in 2019 for a distillery record of £54,450 (about $75,634). In 2021, restoration was completed on Brora and after lying dormant for 38 years, the ghost distillery was reawakened. Gunn thinks this can only mean good things for the brand’s collectibility. “It’s going to raise awareness of this distillery which will in turn raise awareness of the history behind it,” says Gunn. In honor of the reopening, the brand released Brora Triptych, a £30,000 (about $41,672) three-bottle collection representing each distinct style of whisky in the distillery’s proud heritage. Mortlach 26 Year Old“Any time I hear someone order Mortlach in a bar, my ears prick up,” claims Gunn of the cult distillery, sometimes labeled the “Beast of Dufftown,” which is extremely popular amongst the cognoscenti. This quirky release was part of the 2019 Special Releases Collection which showcases the breadth and depth of Diageo’s exceptional whisky stocks which no other producer can replicate. A natural cask strength offering, it was matured in first-fill Pedro Ximenez and Oloroso seasoned casks. With only 3,883 numbered bottles, packaged in a stunning collectible box, this was the most limited of the 2019 Special Release. Talisker 25 Year OldA limited release since 2001 — when it was originally cask strength — since 2011 it has clocked in at 45.8 percent ABV. With sweet smoke to start, the palate moves more dry and toasty with maritime notes and hints of white pepper and chilies. This is one of the more accessible, and slightly more affordable, ways to start collecting rare spirits. “Any collection should have some classics in it as well,” says Gunn, who similarly taps Lagavulin 16 Year as a must-have. “It shouldn’t all be one-off releases that no one else can find.” Blade & Bow 22 Year OldIt’s not only single malt Scotch that fits the bill for rare spirits collectors these days. Bourbon collectors especially gravitate to anything connected to Stitzel-Weller Distillery, the distillery once helmed by Pappy Van Winkle himself. However, while this release wasn’t distilled by Stitzel-Weller Distillery, it was aged in the facility. This straight bourbon whisky is, not surprisingly, oaky for such a mature age, though it is balanced with notes of torched sugar, sweet vanilla bean, and a spicy dry rye finish. Released in limited quantities in select locations — like the Stitzel-Weller Distillery gift shop — every year since 2015; the inaugural batch was named Best Kentucky Straight Bourbon at the 2015 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. This article is sponsored by Diageo. The article How to Start a Rare Spirits Collection appeared first on VinePair. Via https://vinepair.com/articles/how-start-rare-spirits-collection/ Via https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/how-to-start-a-rare-spirits-collection Luxurious Pub Flights once beckoned drinks fans to the skies with lounge-inspired cabins — but those days have long passed. In more recent times, airlines have paused serving alcoholic beverages as a result of the pandemic, and several major carriers are yet to bring cocktail menus back to the masses. With limited options available on flights, passengers are increasingly taking their own alcohol aboard, according to airline executives. With a record number of incident reports to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) — 3,100 so far this year with $560,000 in fines issued — industry insiders are pointing to intoxicated travelers as the root cause of the problem. American Airlines CEO Doug Parker told employees in a question and answer session that unruly passengers are being influenced by alcohol that was brought onto the plane and consumed in violation of federal regulations. In his talk, a video of which was reviewed by the travel blog “View From the Wing,” Parker indicated that federal law prohibited flyers from bringing their own booze on the plane, but the rules are not so clear. While the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) permits miniature bottles of alcohol (smaller than 3.4 oz) in carry-on luggage, the FAA prohibits “passengers from drinking alcohol on board the aircraft unless it is served by the air carrier.” As a woman flying from England to Spain in 2017 discovered upon arrest, similar rules apply on international flights as well. In addition, the FAA prohibits airlines from boarding anybody that appears to be intoxicated or under the influence, and each passenger is screened by agents during the check-in process. These regulations are designed to create a safe environment for voyagers and staff. After a year of limited travel, many of us are anxious to get back in the air and on vacation, with a drink in hand. But as planes are cleared for takeoff, let’s leave it up to the professionals — flight attendants — to provide the toasts. The article American Airlines Stopped Selling Alcohol, So Passengers Brought Their Own Aboard appeared first on VinePair. Via https://vinepair.com/booze-news/passengers-bringing-alcohol-airlines-flights/ Via https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/american-airlines-stopped-selling-alcohol-so-passengers-brought-their-own-aboard With the meteoric rise of meme stocks, markets flirting with record highs daily, and valuations vaulted at multiples never before seen, seemingly everyone wants a piece of the investment action these days. Conscious of this inrush, savvy investors are increasingly seeking less traditional asset classes to put their money into, and the diversification strategies to do so are progressively becoming more unique. It is estimated that $70 trillion of wealth will be transferred from baby boomers to Millennials and Gen Z in the next 25 years, which means a younger generation of people with a lot of money to invest in things they care about. And the ability to make profitable investments based on passionate desires, be they altruistic (socially responsible investing) or egoistic (chasing returns with a fear of missing out mentality), is a motivating factor leading many newly minted investors to evaluate alternative strategies. Whether looking for endeavors that contribute to equitable social evolution or a hedge against inevitable corrections to traditional financial markets, investors are flocking to a host of non-traditional, tangible commodities. Which is where fine wines and brown spirits come in. While in the past investors have shied away from alternative assets, like coins and antiques, due to fears of illiquidity and opaque valuations, the emergence of wine and whiskey investment portfolios — and really the sheer variety of fractional, democratized investment opportunities created in the last few years — underlies a greater shift to financialize pretty much everything, and signifies a newly defined approach to investing. But are they really the safer bet? Wine Portfolios Take Liquidity to Another LevelFine wine is an area that has witnessed significant growth recently, and the sector is poised to break out, as a number of firms and investment gurus, after eyeing several years of compelling returns, are expanding their holdings. London-based Liv-ex promotes itself as the global marketplace for wine. The firm produces reports detailing market movers and valuations, documenting record growth in sales volume and value in the past year. With the renewed interest in wine collecting and investing spurred by the pandemic, certain varieties and vintages have seen values skyrocket. Not surprisingly, Champagne and Burgundy remain two of the most sought after and best-selling in the investment sphere. And the most traded fine wines of the last year, according to Liv-ex, included Lafite Rothschild, Petrus, Screaming Eagle, Mouton Rothschild, Sassicaia, and Taittinger. In a 2020 article suggesting that investing in wine was essentially a way to ‘Covid-proof’ a portfolio, Forbes reported that $100 invested in wine in 1952 would be worth $420,000 today, while the same amount placed in the stock market would equate to $100,000. The numbers are impressive, but the claim begs the question of whether storage costs were taken into account, and these returns are likely based on assumptions that the proper labels and vintages were purchased. Wine investment firms like Vinovest are well aware of the issues at hand when it comes to managing fine wine portfolios. The company, founded in 2019, handles all acquisition and sales responsibilities, storage, insurance, and portfolio management for a 2.85 percent annual fee, a number that drops to 2.5 percent with a $50,000 commitment. Like other apps aiming to simplify investing, Vinovest offers access to the wine investing world through algorithmic mechanisms that take into account a client’s risk aversion and market fluctuations to identify strong investment portfolio strategies. The company is working to release a wine value index tool, comparable to the S&P, which offers live valuation indices. When asked about the motivating factors drawing investors into asset classes such as fine wine, Vinovest co-founder and CEO Anthony Zhang says that three issues are driving interest: “diversification and low correlation during downturns” combined with “double-digit annualized returns over the past couple decades” and younger generations’ commitment to investing in ideas and products that they are passionate about. The Returns on Rare WhiskeyAfter striking liquid gold with Vinovest, the team recently turned to another liquid venture, Whiskeyvest. Currently accepting members by invitation only, the company promises to “make investing in rare whiskey simple and accessible.” Focusing on exclusive bottles, Whiskeyvest highlights The Macallan’s 62-year-old single-malt Scotch — and its recent 143 percent appreciation — on its landing page. Investing in whiskey and Scotch is a hot topic, and while the opportunity was traditionally only available to distillers and producers, investment groups are now purchasing casks, aging them in distillers’ bonded warehouses, and selling shares to the public. Scotch whisky investment firm WhiskyInvestDirect reports that Scotch has realized annual returns of 15.4 percent annually over the past decade. Rare Whisky 101, the Scotch industry leader in valuation tools, compiled data covering 64,201 bottles and 727,268 transactions since 2003. The statistics indicate that Scotch has consistently outperformed the S&P. As the industry is in its infancy, a multitude of variables are at play when it comes to investing in rare whiskey. Producers are now limiting production and creating ultra-rare vintages in an attempt to capitalize on trends. How this affects the market in the future remains to be seen. With supply and demand lying at the heart of all financial transactions, the advantage of the product being consumable is a significant factor that is difficult to project. Everything’s an Investment, AlmostAs with wine and whiskey, those who emerged from the past year flush with cash are pouring excess reserves into a variety of innovative investment opportunities. Real estate, typically a safe haven for wealth, is on fire in terms of popularity and capital in-flight right now, and other assets including art, watches, handbags, jewelry, and luxury goods are appreciating handsomely with renewed financialization schemes. Luxury handbags are the only sector to record better returns than fine wine last year (up 17 percent), according to the Knight Frank Luxury Index. Hermès handbags, specifically, are a status symbol, and some models qualify as the most difficult consumer products to acquire, with extremely limited production. Demand far outpaces supply, and second-hand bags routinely sell for substantial markups. Baghunter documented a 500 percent increase over 35 years, with annual returns averaging 14.2 percent. Startup RSE Archives, doing business as Rally Road, identified the unique position held by luxury handbags and is now offering investors the option of purchasing shares in crocodile skin Birkins. The firm is not new to the investment game and has been allowing clients to invest in rare cars and baseball cards in a similar fashion. Fine art has long been considered a strong capital asset, but the recent trend toward increased financialization in the art world offers even more diversification strategies for creative portfolio managers. New York-based Masterworks developed an organized art market where investors purchase shares in blue-chip masterpieces. The company buys works of renowned artists, securitizes the pieces with the Security and Exchange Commission, and then sells shares to interested buyers. Investors have the option of holding for three to 10 years until the firm resells the appreciated item and profits are split, or shares can be traded freely on the secondary market. Watches are a favorite option for high-rolling investors. The luxury watch market is highly speculative, but collectors typically believe value exists in classic lines such as Patek Philippe’s Calatrava and the Day-Date President Rolex. Rocker John Mayer has a world-class collection, and his whims influence the market in a similar fashion to how Elon Musk’s musings impact the cryptocurrency universe. Speaking of cryptocurrencies, their explosion is shifting the foundations of financial markets. Uncertainty abounds, and the soon-to-be-announced Federal Reserve version is expected to upset current prices by drawing institutional capital to a more centralized crypto model, but to what extent is anyone’s guess. Lastly, non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, have taken on a life of their own, with a host of companies, including BitWine, betting on the newly found market by combining digital art with iconic wines. What Goes Up Must Come DownWhile bubbles are lovely in Champagne, they tend to be quite dangerous in financial markets. Though the ride to the top feels good, and nobody ever likes to believe that it’s about to be over, the past 15 months have been a genuine rollercoaster testing the credulity of investors and the credibility of the markets as a whole. From today’s perspective, with markets soaring and businesses reopening, it is easy to forget how dire the situation was financially last year, and how incompatible the current fiscal situation is in relation to common sense. (As reported by Current Market Valuation, the current price-to-earnings ratio is 37.1, a number that suggests the stock market is strongly overvalued, with the ratio measuring the stock price relative to gross revenues 89 percent higher than normal and 2.3 standards of deviation above average.) Illogical valuations are being fueled by unprecedented capital injections meant to stymie pandemic-related losses and disruptions. The market crash that occurred in March 2020 spooked investors, routed 401ks, and created a crisis that allowed for fiscal policies that would have raised serious red flags in any normal situation. While the numbers don’t lie, an important question remains: When will the bubble(s) pop? While nobody knows exactly what will trigger the event or when, a new wave of financial wizards are allocating to uncorrelated assets like fine wine and whiskey to ride out the storm that many are forecasting. With captivating returns and the allure of owning rare vintages, the industry is set to continue its rise in popularity. What remains to be seen is how uncorrelated these asset classes truly are. The common thread that ties the various instruments together is consolidation at the top of the scale. Inflationary pressures are exacerbating social stratification, and the best returns are being realized by investments that target the extreme high end of the luxury markets. With the majority of the population excluded from participating, the sustainability of the business models and the eventuality of a correction are two factors that will be unraveled as time goes on. Vinovest’s Zhang believes that wine and whiskey will perform well, even if financial and equity markets experience precipitous declines. If recent downturns are any indication of future results, he just might be right. A peer-reviewed study published in 2010 found that wine valuations are “primarily related to economic conditions and not to the market risk.” Valuations are a sticky, subjective topic, as an asset is only worth what someone will pay for it. If there is no buyer at the top, things can get ugly quickly (for example the 17th-century tulip mania craze). As Aaron Sorkin put it, “For the rest of us to profit, we need a greater fool — someone willing to buy long and sell short.” With markets screaming higher and money flowing more freely than ever, it is easy to get caught up in the excitement. All investing carries risk, but it’s by balancing these risks and diversifying portfolios that financial masterminds work their magic. While there are practically limitless tangible assets and traditional securities to choose from, one of the advantages of investing in rare wine and whiskey is that even in the event that profits are not realized, losses can be toasted away with a pour from the portfolio. The article Are Wine and Whiskey Liquid Alternatives to Market Bubbles? appeared first on VinePair. Via https://vinepair.com/articles/wine-whiskey-liquid-investments/ Via https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/are-wine-and-whiskey-liquid-alternatives-to-market-bubbles On June 8, 2021, Terry Wheatley, president of Vintage Wine Estates, quietly marched the company into the future. Representing portfolio brands such as Owen Roe, Viansa Sonoma, and Girard Winery, the VWE team launched a $690 million IPO on the NASDAQ. These are all brands included in the Vintage Wine Estates portfolio, overseen and managed by Terry Wheatley. Wheatley has dedicated her career to building brands and shaping careers in the wine business. She has held both managerial and executive positions within E&J Gallo Winery, served as both director of marketing and VP of sales with the Trinchero Family Estates, and founding partner of Canopy Management. In 2018, after four years as VP of sales and marketing for Vintage Wine Estates, she was tapped to become the company’s first female president. Wheatley has founded charities, lent her time, skills, and expertise to a variety of philanthropic causes, and is raising money and awareness for issues related, but not limited to, social justice, entrepreneurship, and preventive health causes such as breast cancer. She is the founder of Wine Sisterhood, a 400,000-member lifestyle social media platform where women connect with one another through wine; Angels Share, a nationwide initiative addressing food insecurity; and Tough Enough to Wear Pink, which equips rodeos and western events in the U.S. and Canada to plan fundraising for breast cancer awareness. Throughout her 40-plus-year career in wine, Wheatley has been recognized by numerous organizations for her innovative vision, sales expertise, and overall excellence in the wine business. Speaking with VinePair, she shares insights about her career, her struggles, and the ways she supports women in the wine business; as well as the ways Vintage Wine Estates is helping small wine brands, winemakers, and vineyards by preserving vintage wine brands while helping to shape their futures. 1. Tell VinePair readers more about Vintage Wine Estates (VWE) and what the company does.VWE is a wine company with a portfolio that appeals across demographics and wine tastes. Our mission is to reinvigorate legacy wine brands and launch young brands while giving them the tools needed to be successful or continue their artfully honed winemaking craft. When VWE purchases a wine brand, we are invisible but impactful. We are here to make a struggling business successful by pulling out inefficiencies that they don’t know how to do. We typically maintain as much of the original architecture of the business including current staff. That’s very important to us as a company because we don’t want to homogenize the purchase. We want to be good stewards of the land that we purchase. We invite the family to stay on board and we try to keep the personality, winemaking style, and sourcing that attracted us in the first place. We may update the logo and polish or rebuild the existing property, but we strive to always keep the charm or magic of the brands we acquire. 2. You are set to lead Vintage Wine Estates to its IPO this June, making VWE a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ global market. What would you say to women who are now following your career?Be prepared to work hard and then work even harder. Surround yourself with people who believe in your vision and partner with a company who values the work and contributions of women. Two, honor your word and live up to what you say you’re going to do. Third, go ahead and establish lofty goals. Know that nothing you dream of is insurmountable. Be willing to give it everything you’ve got because that’s where the real work begins! 3. VWE has a special program that enables consumers to become shareholders in the company. Can you tell us more about this?When we designed the shareholder passport program, we were thinking of the people that we do business with. Our suppliers, the farmers, the consumers that purchase our brands or really the general public. We wanted to give people who don’t have millions of dollars to invest in our brand a way to participate and profit from our success. The Shareholder Passport is our “sharing” program which gives our supporters an opportunity to be partners or shareholders in VWE. It’s a very approachable program where you own a part of 52 wine brands. Shareholders also will receive an invitation to the annual shareholders meeting held in the Napa Valley, among other perks and benefits. It really is a great program. 4. What makes VWE so special as a company?I am honored to be the first female that has led a multi-million-dollar company public — but much prouder that over half of the managers in our company are women. I work very hard to increase the female representation in the organization. In fact, our CFO, head of operations, marketing, chief digital officer, director of our wine clubs, and all of our tasting rooms are all female-led departments within VWE. This has happened because the founders and current leaders of VWE have all committed to increasing the female presence throughout the company. 5. There has been a wealth of publications describing the experiences of those in the wine industry due to the compounded effects of Covid-19, recent weather-related tragedies, and the overall slim margins in wine production. It’s been reported that independent or small family-owned wine producers are struggling to keep their doors open. Does VWE have a strategy to address this and help small producers who are struggling?The majority of our portfolio are small wine producers who needed help continuing or successfully increasing their reach in the wine industry. Now you have companies who have, for instance, been devastated by recent wildfires who now are in a terrifying situation because of the effects of Covid. These are companies whose business plans were built upon partnerships with successful restaurants, tasting rooms and wine clubs with little to no distribution plan, and they are now in serious trouble. This is where VWE can step in and help. We offer help with streamlining/improving the winemaking process, marketing and distribution. We want to maintain the integrity of the company but bring our skills in marketing, finance, and our vast network of winemakers and supplies in order to elevate the brand and continue their legacy in the wine business. 6. Let’s talk about the businesses and/or philanthropic platforms you’ve built or led. Why does Tough Enough to Wear Pink hold a special place in your heart?There is a long history of breast cancer in my family. My grandmother died of breast cancer. My mom had a double mastectomy when she was 38 years old, and I had one when I was 48 years old. My daughter has had multiple biopsies as well, so I have a huge interest in eradicating this disease. Early in my career, I knew I wanted to be involved in the fight against breast cancer. I supported local initiatives such as City of Hope (a cancer research center in Los Angeles) but I wanted to do even more. I co-founded Tough Enough to Wear Pink in order to involve the sport of rodeos and the Western community in the fight against breast cancer. To date, we are so proud to say we’ve raised over $32 million for local and nationwide breast cancer charities to launch awareness campaigns to spread awareness and encourage testing! 7. Why is philanthropy, and D&I initiatives, so important to you as a businesswoman?2020 was such a profound year with everything that happened with the racial awakening and the Black Lives Matter movement. I reached out to our communications manager and said, “We need to find ways to support Black women in the wine business.” Currently, we are exploring ways, such as scholarship or mentorship, we can help grow their careers in wine. We’re also looking at a couple of [BI]POC-owned wine and spirits brands to partner with or acquire. There will be more on this coming up soon. Separately from VWE, I serve as chairwoman of the board for CannaCraft. We are developing ways to level the playing field for people of color in the cannabis industry. Whether it’s through strain development, farming, or brand development, we want to push forward with supporting the needs of the community. Why is the African- and Mexican-American community incarcerated more over cannabis infractions than other groups? That’s just stupid, which is why supporting the Last Prisoner Project along with CannaCraft is so important to me as well. What’s the point of all of this success if you aren’t making a real difference in lives? 8. Where would you like to travel to explore wine excellence when you are ready to take a break from conquering the world?I would love to go back to Florence, Italy! Maybe split my time between California and Italy. That would be such a great thing to do. 9. If you could share the success of the IPO with anyone, who would it be?That’s easy: Ruth Bader Ginsburg! She was amazing, a trailblazer, and a force of nature. I hope my career is as long, impactful, and successful as hers was and continues to be. The article Terry Wheatley Is Innovating Wine Brands Both Old and New appeared first on VinePair. Via https://vinepair.com/articles/terry-wheatley-vintage-estate-wines/ Via https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/terry-wheatley-is-innovating-wine-brands-both-old-and-new Most brewers will agree: A good pilsner, with its brisk, subtle flavors, brilliant clarity, and crisp, snappy bitterness, is extremely tough to make. The globally adored style of lager, which was invented in the Bohemian city of Pilsen (now in the Czech Republic) in 1842, is known and celebrated for its stripped-down nature — a fundamental abnegation of superfluity that, during production, leaves little room for even the slightest misstep. It’s an exercise in technique and precision. “No frills, no gimmicks — pilsners truly showcase the skill of the brewer,” says Madeleine McCarthy, a brewer at Von Ebert Brewing’s Glendoveer location in Portland, Ore., which produces a variety of pilsners. (At the time of writing, its taproom has four on draft.) “From the choice of raw materials, to water profile adjustments, to multiple enzyme rests, and fermentation temperatures, pilsners are intimately crafted love letters to your senses.” No doubt, part of the pilsner’s admiration among beer makers around the world is the challenge in creating a notable take. It’s a true measure of brewing greatness. It’s also because pilsners are beloved by drinkers of all kinds. They are delicious and seductively refreshing, as well as low in alcohol, making them an ideal beverage choice in many situations. Ask a brewer what they’re drinking after a long shift, or what they’re discretely sipping on while working a beer festival, and you’ll likely get this response (loudly and proudly): crisp, clean pils. Cold, of course. So, what pils’ are worth seeking out? We asked 14 brewers to share the singular example of the style that holds a special place in their hearts, and their glasses. From Old-World classics to modern interpretations, here are the experts’ picks. (Did your favorite make the list?) The Best Pilsners Recommended By Brewers:
Keep reading for details about all of the recommended beers! “Living in Seattle, I’m blessed with access to a lot of great pilsners. The best I’ve ever had is the Premiant, a Czech-style pilsner from Alma Mader Brewing in Kansas City. It’s the perfect expression of the style: crisp and biscuity, with a punch of lemon and a little peppery bitterness. Premiant is my go-to every time I visit K.C., and I always make sure to leave room in my bag for a couple of 4-packs.” --Rick Dankert, Brewer, Holy Mountain Brewing, Seattle, Wash. “All due respect to centuries of European craftsmanship, but the best pilsner I’ve ever had is Pivo Pils from Firestone Walker. It’s crisp, refreshing, and maddeningly consistent. It’s not available where I live but I seek it out whenever I travel within the California brewery’s distribution footprint, and I typically hesitate to take the first sip because I’m hypnotized by the tight carbonation effervescing in its crystal clear, golden body, which always seems to glow like the mysterious briefcase in ‘Pulp Fiction.'” --Joel Kodner, Head Brewer, Barrel of Monks Brewing, Boca Raton, Fla. “My favorite pilsner yet (and I love so, so many), is Rothaus Tannenzäpfle. It’s refreshing, traditional, high-quality, and according to my good friend, Volkmar, even hard to find in German distribution! Meaning ‘pine cone’ in German, Tannenzäpfle features on its label a Black Forest local they call Biergit, to whom I am partial. Her name, often mistaken to mean ‘beer girl,’ is truly derived from the phrase ‘biergit kraft,’ meaning “beer gives me strength.” So as far as I’m concerned, drinking Tannenzäpfle — made with natural Black Forest spring water, malted barley, Tettnang and Hallertau hops, and an exclusive Rothaus yeast culture — is very good for me.” — Lucy Teusink, Owner, Frameshift Fermentation, Ellijay, Ga. “Bierstadt’s Slow Pour Pils is the best example of German pilsner I’ve had outside of Europe. Founders Ashleigh Carter and Bill Eye are fiercely dedicated people who are inspired by their commitments. Slow Pour Pils is the greatest visual presentation of beer, with a pillowy white foam cap that protects a crystalline golden treasure beneath. Aromas of seeds and grain remind you of beer’s foundation within a fragile kernel, and the smell of hops makes the beer seem lasting and preserved. Slow Pour Pils tastes bright, elegant, and snappy, leaving you with a crisp craving for more. The cleanliness of the experience makes all of the ingredients seem singular: a detailed expression of cereal and flower. It’s pretty dang good.” --Khristopher Johnson, Owner and Brewer, Green Bench Brewing, St. Petersburg, Fla. “In Oregon, we have so many great lager breweries it’s hard to just pick one pilsner. But I did it. (Insert drum roll here.) Wayfinder’s Czech AF. Elegantly finessed wizardry. The Saaz hops came to play, and I’m not mad about it. It’s as crisp as an autumn dawn and equally superb.” --Madeleine McCarthy, Brewer, Von Ebert Brewing (Glendoveer), Portland, Ore. “Nooner, from Sierra Nevada, was a light-bulb beer for me. As a North American beer drinker, it isn’t possible to get fresh examples of classic German-brewed pilsner unless you go to Germany or surrounding areas. A decade ago, I spent a long weekend in Belgium and was blown away with how much fresher and brighter the beers were there. Exporting these beers really beats them up, and it is a testament to how good these beers are that they are still tasty when they make it to our store shelves. Nooner offers a window into what great German lager is like when drunk fresh. I also love that Sierra Nevada is the brewery getting this pilsner out there. I believe it can be underestimated how much we have to thank them for their bedrock contributions to our industry.” --Adam Mills, Head Brewer, Cartridge Brewing, Maineville, Ohio “I am lucky to live in a beer region full of great lager brewers, and when one of the local options is available I will choose it nearly every time. But when I think about landmark beers that shaped the way I think about and understand beer, I have to call out Weihenstephaner Pils as the gold standard. The centuries-old Pils is perfectly malty, yet crisp and dry. The noble-hops character comes across as subtle lemon zest and grass. It has just the right touch of bitterness for me to want another sip, and another. And another. Weihenstephaner’s lager yeast is also known to brewers all over the world as being the gold standard for lager brewing, producing a clean and dependable fermentation profile that is low in sulfur with pretty good flocculation. For these reasons and more, if I see a decently fresh keg of Weihenstephaner Pils on tap, I need not read the rest of the menu.” --Shilpi Halemane, Head Brewer, Logsdon Farmhouse Ales, Washougal, Wash. “While my brewery is in Williamsburg, Va., I live in Richmond, walking distance to Ardent. Ardent’s Pilsner served in a dimpled stein, enjoyed sitting outside in the brewery’s beer garden is a simply beautiful thing. It’s clean, crisp, crackery, and slightly bready like a perfect German pils should be. It has this snappy bitterness that just leaves you wanting another sip, until you find yourself needing another full stein, which inevitably happens to me a few times whenever I hang out there. Ardent has been making killer lagers in Richmond for years and to me the pilsner is just perfection. It’s one of those beers that, as a brewer, almost makes you mad that you didn’t make it yourself, until you realize you can just walk over to the beer garden and get a full stein anytime you want.” --Jonathan Newman, Brewmaster, The Virginia Beer Company, Williamsburg, Va. “I currently live in Salem, Mass., so I don’t have to look far when I’ve got an itch for a fantastic lager. Notch’s Session Pils is a staple of mine for day drinking. But the brewery’s 10th-anniversary beer, Desítka, which came out during the great shutdown of 2020, is the best pale lager I’ve had that I can recall. The depth of malt character, like toasty, sweet biscuits, was so impressive for a 4.2-percent-ABV Czech-style pilsner. But it’s that crispy, clean finish that had me reaching for this beer after many a brew day last year. We’re all holding our breath around these parts in hopes that Notch decides to re-release Desítka this year post-pandemic, and we’ll be able to enjoy proper pours of it back in its taproom and biergarten.” --Tim Corcoran, Founder and Owner, Channel Marker Brewing, Beverly, Mass. “I remember filling growlers of Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery‘s Saaz Pils in what was probably the summer of 2012, when I was all bright eyed and bushy tailed in the industry as a brewery grunt. Town Hall has always done lagers very well (it’s where I learned how to make them) and I think the seasonally-offered Saaz Pils is the best of them all. So simple and so clean, so simply delicious. Here, the brewery’s neutral German lager yeast allows the masterful use of Saaz to shine, sparkle, and snap in all the right places. I’m honestly not sure when the last time they made it was, or if they even still make it seasonally, but it’s a flavor profile and beer-drinking experience I’ll never forget. I wanted to forever retain those flavors of wild alpine grass and flowers on my palate indefinitely, so much so that I remember thinking how amazing it would be to be able to swim in that beer, to just fully immerse myself in the flavor. It was soft but crisp and hoppy at the same time.” --Aaron Herman, Head Brewer, Arbeiter Brewing, Minneapolis “I’d be hard pressed to think of a style I love more than Czech-style pilsner, and when Wild East first released its take, Patience & Fortitude, it was excellent. But after a few iterations and some minor tweaks, this beer has become amazing. Double decocting the mash ensures all of the delicate malt flavors come through beautifully. There is just enough bitterness to balance the sweet, crackery grain profile. The slightest bit of yeast character assures you that it was properly fermented and lagered to perfection. I don’t know if this pilsner can be made any better, but I look forward to continually tasting it to find out.” --Jeff Lyons, Owner and Head Brewer, Endless Life Brewing, Brooklyn “Ex Novo, with locations in Oregon and New Mexico, is a personal favorite of our brewing staff. From IPAs to sours to lager beers, the brewery seems to do it all well. Pilsners happen to be one of my favorite styles to drink, and Perle Haggard is definitely at the top in the category for me. There’s a reason this German-style pils won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival. The big aroma of noble hops takes me back to being in southern Bavaria. It has a beautiful golden color and is brilliantly bright. It has a cleansing bitterness with a bread-like, earthy malt backbone that invites you back for more.” --Kevin Templin, Owner and Brewmaster, Templin Family Brewing, Salt Lake City “Russian River’s STS Pils is a beautiful example of a classic German-style pilsner with the twist of dry hopping using European hops. It’s a very hop-forward beer with a dry, crisp, and clean finish that boasts a very noticeable lager yeast characteristic. STS is brewed in open-top fermenters and left unfiltered so it has a very complex yet balanced body and texture which I enjoy thoroughly.” --Dustin Kral, Head Brewer, Firestone Walker Brewing Company, Paso Robles, Calif. “I had a lot of excellent pilsners when I was in Germany but can’t remember liking one more than the others. However, one pilsner that I’ve had in the States that clearly sets itself apart from the rest and exemplifies itself as a perfect German-style take worthy of competing with the best in Germany is Bierstadt Lagerhaus‘ Slow Pour Pils. This take pours a light straw color and is filtered to perfection. The natural carbonation gives a nice touch of sulfur, subtle hop aromas, and maintains a soft, pillowy head. It’s even served in a glass with a paper ring around the bottom. I’m not entirely sure what this does, but it makes it extremely fancy. If you are ever out in Denver, Bierstadt is a place to visit.” --Chris Enegren, Co-founder and Brewmaster, Enegren Brewing Co., Moorpark, Calif. The article We Asked 14 Brewers: What’s the Best Pilsner You’ve Ever Had? appeared first on VinePair. Via https://vinepair.com/articles/wa-14-best-pilsner-beers/ Via https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/we-asked-14-brewers-whats-the-best-pilsner-youve-ever-had A skinny cocktail is any cocktail that is lower in calories than its original version, or a low-calorie cocktail with no full-calorie equivalent. Ideally, a skinny cocktail is below 100 calories. Skinny cocktails have become much more prevalent in the last decade, as consumers are increasingly conscientious about what they’re putting in their bodies. Cocktails are delicious, but if you’re living that #onepeloton lifestyle, many contain enough calories to set back your morning ride. Hence the explosion of skinny drinks. A skinny cocktail can be made one of several ways, but the core idea is replacing the drink’s sweetener with a lower-calorie substitute. Simple syrup, whether pure or flavored with things like ginger, mint, or even rosemary, is an ingredient that’s often used in many cocktails, but contains a high calorie count, since it’s made from pure sugar. An alternative to simple syrup is a lower-calorie sweetener such as agave or honey. One particularly famous drink that does this, yet doesn’t carry the “skinny” branding (but could), is the Tommy’s Margarita, as its ingredients are simply tequila, lime juice, and agave syrup. Honey is another simple syrup alternative. Another way to make a drink skinny is by subbing out sugar-based sodas for flavored sparkling waters, or sparkling water mixed with fresh-squeezed juice. You can see this in drinks like the Skinny Paloma, where grapefruit soda is substituted with grapefruit-flavored sparkling water or a mix of fresh grapefruit juice and plain sparkling water. There is no hard and fast rule as to what makes a drink skinny, so if you see a drink on the menu labeled as such, be sure to ask what the ingredients are if you’re really concerned about your calorie intake. The article Ask Adam: What Makes a Cocktail ‘Skinny’? appeared first on VinePair. Via https://vinepair.com/articles/what-makes-a-cocktail-skinny/ Via https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/ask-adam-what-makes-a-cocktail-skinny On this episode of “Next Round,” host Zach Geballe chats with Jennifer Estevez, co-founder of Palate Club, to discuss how a custom algorithm and sommelier experience intertwine in her app. Using her own sommelier background, Estevez collaborated with data scientists to match consumers with the right wines for them. She explains that the algorithm was created to help consumers understand integral components in wine such as acid, tannin, and sweetness. Finally, listeners will learn how Estevez sources her wines — partnering with producers from various countries and never using bulk wines. Tune in and visit https://www.palateclub.com/ to learn more. Listen OnlineOr Check out the Conversation HereZach Geballe: From Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe and this is a “VinePair Podcast” “Next Round” conversation. We’re bringing you these conversations in between our regular podcasts so we can explore a range of issues and stories in the drinks world. Today, I’m speaking with Jennifer Estevez, the co-founder of Palate Club. Jennifer, thanks so much for your time. Jennifer Estevez: Thanks so much. Excited to be here. Z: Yeah, we’re glad to have you. Let’s start with just a little bit of background about you. How did you get involved in wine, and what were you doing professionally before Palate Club? J: Yeah, absolutely. I got involved in wine when I was 21 years old. I ended up working at a Ritz Carlton as my summer job and had a delicious glass of white Burgundy for a wine training that our wine director was hosting. It was just delicious. It was a Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Saint-Aubin. I still remember it, and it made me fall in love with wine and the potential of wine. I loved it so much that I ended up moving from where I was, which is Arizona at the time, and just picking up with $450 and a suitcase and heading out to San Francisco to try to dig into the wine world a little bit further. Once I got to San Francisco, I worked around the city at many different wine bars and Michelin Star restaurants. One of the most memorable was RN74 and Michael Mina. I just dug in from there, continued my studies, and got my advanced sommelier certificate around the time that I also began consulting on restaurants and hospitality programs. My genesis into Palate Club was really synonymous with my genesis into my company OMvino, which I realized around that time there were just a lot of needs that were specific to the food and beverage industry that weren’t being met. Marketing communications in the food and beverage industry via OMvino were definitely something that was a need, and they needed people who understood food and wine. Similarly, in the online wine club space, there was just a gap between that true consumer connection and these online wine club applications that were over-promising and under-delivering. Z: That’s actually a great lead-in to where I wanted to go next. We have certainly on the podcast talked about wine clubs in the past. Anyone who likes wine and is on social media gets lots of ads for them. I think one thing that is interesting to talk about is, with some of those other clubs, they claim to be able to match you with the perfect wines and say to leave everything to them. Let’s start, first of all, with how Palate Club works. How does the matching component of it work from the customer standpoint? J: Great question. With a lot of these other wine clubs, they try to either do one of two things. They try to define the consumer profile, and they try to define the wine profile. There are really no online wine clubs out there besides Palate Club that I’m aware of that are doing both and have the data to back it up. What makes Palate Club really special is it was created by wine professionals along with professional data scientists. Essentially, what we did was create a custom algorithm in IP where we could input up to 200 scent and taste characteristics about each bottle of wine and to the back end of Palate Club. So the wine profiles are very detailed and we put a lot of time and thought into what characteristics of the wine matter for the consumer palate. Then, the consumer portion of the experience is very easy. They rate things on a scale of one to five, so we just put time into analyzing the data that came up and understanding what trends were occurring in these different patterns that we were seeing — so we can more accurately adjust the algorithm to really deliver a satisfying consumer experience, just as if a sommelier was selecting these wines for these people. We also create great wines and we source great wines for Palate Club, which I think between those two things is the really big differentiator between us and our competition. Z: Sure. So let’s start with one part of this that I’m particularly interested in, which is this idea of all these different components — smell, taste, etc. — that you and your fellow wine experts at the club have assessed these wines on. When you first started out, how did you figure out which ones really mattered? J: When we were going through the process of creating the systems in the back end of the app, we really had to think about what do consumers really look for, and what parts of the sensory experience are important to them? When we’re looking at things, it’s not as important in the wine, for example, if you get a note of blackberry. We do put that in as a descriptor but where does that factor into the overall relevance of this bottle profile? It’s definitely lower on the list of priorities, but things such as complexity, acid, alcohol, tannin, structural components of the wine that every wine has our higher priority in terms of determining what people really want and what people really are paying attention to. Often, why we feel that Palate Club is so relevant is that people don’t understand what these really important integral components mean. Many times when I worked in a restaurant as a sommelier, people would come up to me and they’d say, “I want a sweet, dry wine.” I would think “OK, we understand that those two things do not work together, but how can we figure out what you want?” We try to figure out and fill in around that as sommeliers. Now from a data perspective, what these people really want based on these ratings. Again, the things that all wines have — tactile sensations and objective qualities such as alcohol, acid, tannin, and structure — all of those things are relevant. One thing that we also found was complexity. Complexity is a really important weight in the conversation as well. Defining that complexity is really important to have sommeliers who understand the bandwidth and the spectrum of complexity to put it in properly from a data perspective. Z: Very cool. OK, so we’re going to diverge a little bit from my planned line of questioning because now I’m just curious about this. I’ve long believed as a sommelier and wine professional that the way people are taught to learn about wine overly emphasizes flavors and aromas. We’ve all read the tasting notes that are preposterously specific about the exact kind of wild mountain strawberry that you might find in a wine. What really drives people’s preferences is, as you described, much more the structural elements of the wine that most people don’t really learn to identify. Does that sound right? Do you find that those structural elements are a much better predictor of whether a given customer will enjoy wine or not than mulberry, or whatever? J: One hundred percent. I think that those arbitrary tasting notes are like arbitrary wine critic scores because they’re very subjective, just based on people’s personal preferences and descriptions of the wine. That’s why I think that when you look at apps such as Vivino, it is very interesting from a technological standpoint. They crowdsource the ratings from the people who are creating these ratings on the app using keywords. How accurate is that in benchmarking what the actual wine qualities are? It’s not. When you’re looking at things that are really important to the wine, again, the objective qualities such as acid, alcohol, tannin, and sweetness are very important, along with the main characteristics. We basically create different overarching categories that we also found were very important that were not just objective characteristics. If the wine was more dominant towards earthy characteristics, we could basically tell that by a percentage rating when we rate the wines. That would be something we’d gravitate people towards who have earthy palates. For example, when I’m talking about earth, let’s say this wine has mushroom, umami, savory, meaty characteristics. Those are some of the primary dominating descriptors. Instead of just picking out one of those singular things and saying this blackberry or this mushroom note is the most important thing, we look at these percentage values and see where that arc goes and see that this is the dominant characteristic of the wine. What’s the dominant characteristic of these people’s palates such as the blackberries, the chocolates, the blueberries? Does that stand out more? Do we gravitate them more towards fruit and sweet flavors, and not compound sensations? That’s how we clump all of these different profiles. It’s just creating these generalities between scents and taste that create different subcategories. Also, using those objective characteristics that are inarguably there for every wine. Does that make sense? Z: It does, yeah. Not being a data scientist, it only kind of makes sense, but the wine part of it makes sense to me. I want to ask a couple of more questions along these lines and then maybe we’ll talk about some other elements of Palate Club. I know we spoke prior to this about a little bit of the program as well. One thing that you mentioned then that stuck with me is this idea that, through data that you collect from your customers, you can start to see that there are these clusters of wine drinkers that have similar tastes. I was hoping you could talk a little bit about how many of those categories there are? Are they roughly equal in size? Is there one big category and a bunch of subcategories? How do you see the wine-drinking public breaking out? J: Yeah, we’ve divided it into eight main categories and then people can also take a look at their detailed profiles and see what characteristics come up from a percentage standpoint and what those characteristics mean in the app. For the general categories, we give them fun names like the Sicilian and the Sexy Beast. We give people these categories to think of themselves in terms of their wine palates, but we also give them more context to what it means. If you go in the app, you can click on all of these different descriptors and tactile sensations and ask, “What does this mean? What does it mean that I like medium-plus acid? How is that relevant, and what wines does this correlate to?” We’ll have some Q&A there. I went in the app myself in the early days of the Palate Club and wrote in different descriptors, and we’ve revised them many times over. To answer the other part of your question, there’s not really a trend. That’s the thing that people really get stuck on. I think often, they don’t know what they like and why. People’s tastes are so diverse. We’re often so much more open to different types of wine than we think. It’s really individually based on what people’s preferences are that they may not even understand. The world of wine is so vast. Z: Yeah, that’s a fascinating point that I’m curious to hear more about. One thing that I think you and I probably have both experienced in our time working the floors of restaurants is, you go to a table and you get a sense of what people liked to drink in the past. You have to make a bit of a decision as a sommelier or a person recommending the wine. Do I want to say “Oh, do you like Napa Cab? That’s what you’ve said to me. Great, here are the seven Napa Cabs I have. Which one is in your price range? I could also talk a little bit about them and we’ll differentiate.” Or, you might also have to make the decision of, “I’m going to try and see if I can’t open something for you that you might not be familiar with.” Maybe it’s a different Cabernet from a different part of the world or a different variety entirely. Part of the hard-to-define skill of a good sommelier is knowing when and where to make those suggestions versus when to get what the person wants. Then, also kind of the actual accuracy of those suggestions that go outside of someone’s existing flavor profile. How does Palate Club balance giving people more of what they’ve already shown they liked, versus potentially allowing them to explore something that might be a little less familiar? J: Yeah, absolutely. That’s something that I definitely think we tried to create and we’ve had really great feedback from our current customers on it. What we have is a randomization option, and the option isn’t totally random. We’re not just throwing bottles out there in your club shipments hoping they stick. It basically creates deviations from your profile. Each time when we have a deviation, we’ll know that these people like X, Y, Z. Now, let’s say they like wines that have earthy high acid, like structured wines. Let’s say they are just Barolo lovers. Now, what can we think about that ties into similar characteristics as Barolo and at least a few of these categories? OK, maybe we’re going to try some Dolcetto or maybe we’re going to try something structurally similar, but from a different region. Whatever it is, we’ll latch on to just a few of those characteristics, and then the system auto-generates recommendations based on that. For example, if you like Napa Cab, maybe you’re going to love some Aglianico. Whatever it is, just something fun and unique from a different area but that has similar structural and taste profiles. It can get more or less similar to what your profile is like, based on the level of randomization you select. That’s an option in the order section when you’re going to your checkout. Z: Let’s switch things up and talk about the sourcing of wine. Obviously, technology is a big part of this and having the ability to offer quality suggestions is good. At the same time, you also have to have quality wines. How have you connected with suppliers, producers, etc., and what does the catalog of wine such as this look like? J: Yeah, absolutely. For Palate Club, we have traveled literally all over the world and just met with producers from different countries to try to find really unique selections. We work with small distributors here in the States, and we just try to find wines that are unique and offer value and add a diversity of price points. We favor sustainable and organic, artisan wines whenever possible. Biodynamic as well. That’s really something that we just don’t want to compromise. Many of these clubs just source bulk juice and put a label on it, and it’s just not offering quality. Their user retention is lower because of that. That’s something that we’ve done from the beginning. It was really fun and a pleasure to do. I traveled to Australia, France, Italy, Germany, South America, and South Africa. Basically, with one of the other co-founders of Palate Club, we traveled everywhere just to find these different producers, to build these relationships, and to just champion what wine is really about, which is connection and quality product. That connection and a quality product are not just in the wines, but also for the consumers. It’s really important for us to deliver that whole full-circle experience. Z: I think another thing that can be potentially challenging for wine clubs online is, how do you establish categories as far as pricing goes? People are going to have different budgets. Is it a narrow price range, or is there a wide range of price points for wines through Palate Club? How does that work? J: Yeah, absolutely. With Palate Club, beforehand, we were doing a tiered system, so we had just different price point tiers. However, we’re moving away from that. Essentially, people can just set what their budget is and how many wines they’d like to get. Then, we’ll generate wines that are appropriate within that category for their shipment and with their taste in mind. It’s really customizable, and it is really flexible. Again, as much as humanly possible, we want this to be a human experience delivered via an app. We want it to be customized. We want it to be hospitable. We don’t want to have to call five different numbers to cancel your subscription, and we want you to get one that you want. That’s really what we’ve tried to do with those different features. Z: Gotcha. So you mentioned that the main way in which Palate Club generates a profile for someone is that the subscriber rates wines that they received on a one-to-five scale. Then, you look at that feedback and look at patterns in there. A), how did that start for someone? Obviously, with zero wines that they’re picking blind. And B), how long does it take before you get an accurate picture of an individual person’s preferences? J: With people who are coming on board via the tasting kit — we have a blind tasting kit that we start people off, with four half-bottles, either red or white. They’re all very contrastingly different, and we use them as bookends for defining your palate. Defining the spectrum, the high/low end of all these different qualities that need to be considered when thinking about what a person’s palate gravitates towards. That is the best way to do it and the fastest way to get a really accurate palate screenshot and just a palate profile built out. The palate profile continues to change and refine itself over time the more wine you drink. It’s really fun, and you get to unlock different secrets about your palate in the app as you go. Then, if people come on through the quiz option, we have a regular quiz and then a connoisseur quiz, which we’re developing. Essentially with these quizzes, again, there was just a missing ingredient for many of these other companies when they’re tying in these quizzes to the wines that they have in their selection. I took a quiz the other day where I was just testing it out. I’m always looking at the competitive set, right? I took this quiz, and I was just checking boxes. Yes, I like chocolate. Yes, I like coffee or whatever, and wondering if it ties into anything factual. I did not select anything that was overly sweet, that was overly fruity. Somehow at the end of this quiz, I got Moscato d’Asti and sparkling Riesling. I was very confused. We do think that the general palate, the general blind tasting is more accurate. Yet, with the quiz, we tie in the questions that we ask about the foods, ingredients, and the things that we have in there to actual data points. If I’m asking you if you like bitter dark chocolate, that means for me that you probably like tannin and more astringent, bigger wines. It’s just something that, again, has to be correlated to more of a data point rather than just a consumer preference when consumers don’t really know. I hope that answers your question. Z: Well, how many of these data points do you need before you get a relatively accurate portrait of the consumer? J: It really depends. It depends on how the data points cluster. It’s good when you’re taking in data points to get 10 or 12 at least that are outstanding, important data points. However, it’s really subjective. It is based on what the user’s profile gravitates towards, and it’s harder to benchmark that with the quiz itself. With the profile, when you’re building it from the wine perspective, you just need to taste four wines for it to start generating a really accurate profile. Z: Excellent. Well, Jennifer, this has been super interesting. For people who are interested, where do they go to find out more? J: You can go to palateclub.com. Z: Nice and simple. Well, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciated learning a little more about this. I look forward to seeing as the data evolves further. It’s always interesting. We at VinePair are super fascinated by data and how we learn about ourselves and each other through it. It’s cool to see that people are doing that in the wine club space as well. J: Yeah, thank you. Thanks so much for listening to the “VinePair Podcast.” If you love this show as much as we love making it, then please give us a rating or review on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever it is you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. Now for the credits, VinePair is produced and recorded in New York City and in Seattle, Wash., by myself and Zach Geballe, who does all the editing and loves to get the credit. Also, I would love to give a special shout-out to my VinePair co-founder, Josh Malin, for helping make all this possible and also to Keith Beavers, VinePair’s tastings director who is additionally a producer on the show. I also want to, of course, thank every other member of the VinePair team who are instrumental in all of the ideas that go into making the show every week. Thanks so much for listening, and we’ll see you again. Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity. The article Next Round: Can Palate Club Blend Algorithms and Sommelier Expertise Into a Wine Club? appeared first on VinePair. Via https://vinepair.com/articles/next-round-jennifer-estevez-palate-club/ Via https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/next-round-can-palate-club-blend-algorithms-and-sommelier-expertise-into-a-wine-club Bourbon’s sweet, approachable profile makes it an ideal match for desserts, whether as a pairing partner or recipe ingredient. But there’s more to America’s native spirit than distinctive butterscotch and caramel notes, and plenty of other occasions to bring it to the dinner table besides the end of a meal. One cuisine where bourbon finds a familiar savory friend is BBQ. The whiskey’s toasted character marries majestically with charred proteins pulled from straight off the grill. Beyond decadent desserts, bourbon’s sweeter side lends for seamless sipping alongside tangy BBQ sauce. Combining those two components also offers a surefire way to elevate the experience. And preparation is almost as simple as pouring a hearty glug of whiskey into the sauce. When whipping up a bourbon-based BBQ sauce, choosing the right bottle is perhaps the most important consideration. Bourbons with a high proportion of wheat in their mash bills, such as Heaven Hill’s Larceny or Maker’s Mark, step up to the task because of their naturally sweeter profiles. For a sauce that finishes with a peppery bite, high-rye bourbons like Four Roses are the best way to go. The only real “preparation” involved in this simple sauce involves mixing already prepared ingredients. But before that, it’s crucial to burn off the alcohol from the spirit as the booze otherwise sticks out awkwardly in the finished sauce. As with all things involving flames and ethanol, this step requires a cautious approach. Pour the bourbon into a saucepan, then place on a stove top with no other flammable materials nearby. Light the liquid with a naked flame — a long match or stick lighter are ideal — then let it burn for around 10 seconds. If the flame doesn’t extinguish naturally, covering the pan with an appropriate lid will quickly starve the flames of oxygen. After this, the final details lie in the sauce’s other ingredients — and what to serve it with. Tomato ketchup provides sweetness and tang; rice vinegar delivers lively acidity; and Worcestershire sauce adds a savory dose of umami. With some staple powdered seasonings and a few minutes of cooking time to combine all the flavors, the easy bourbon BBQ sauce is ready for service. Thanks to the ketchup base and time on the stove, the sauce reaches a fairly thick consistency that’ll coat the back of a spoon, especially at room temperature. This allows it to be enjoyed as a dipping condiment or a glaze for finishing slow-cooked baby back ribs on the grill or under the broiler. Our preferred serving? As a coating for crispy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside chicken wings, freshly plucked from the air fryer, oil, or oven. Ingredients½ cup wheated bourbon, such as Larceny DirectionsAdd the bourbon to a large saucepan, place on the stove top, and ignite the liquid directly using a long match or stick lighter. Allow it to burn for 10 seconds. If the spirit doesn’t extinguish naturally, cover with a tight-fitting, heat-proof lid. Serve as a condiment for fries, tenders, or burgers, or use as a glaze when finishing baby back ribs or crispy chicken wings. The article This Five-Minute Bourbon BBQ Sauce Will Change Wing Night Forever appeared first on VinePair. Via https://vinepair.com/articles/bourbon-bbq-sauce-chicken/ Via https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/this-five-minute-bourbon-bbq-sauce-will-change-wing-night-forever |
John BoothHi I am John Booth,36 years old from California,CA,USA,working in Whole Seller market,we supply different types of Beverages to the market.Here I am sharing some special tips about it. Archives
August 2021
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