The Tasting Panel magazine

THE MESSAGE An Uncommon Partnership C Dinner and a Show lyde Common is the highest-volume craft cocktail bar in Portland, Oregon, and the epicenter of some important national cocktail trends. Often the focus gets placed on Bar Manager Jeff rey Morgenthaler, who often appears in this magazine and other major media outlets for his barrel-aged cocktails and other innovations. While Morgenthaler gets a lot of the attention, Junior Ryan has been at his side quietly innovating and collaborating behind one of the West Coast's most infl uential bars. Morgenthaler put a punch on the menu at Clyde Common a year ago around the launch of David Wonderich's book, Punch, but it's been Ryan who has taken the mantel and pushed the boundaries of this type of drink. "I've really been hitting my stride with punch," says Ryan as he steeps some black tea for a late autumn apple punch. "I'm looking at the whole experience of the drink, from the fi rst taste through to the breathe-out." Ryan has developed a few punch tricks, including putting ice in a zipper bag in the punch bowl to keep the punch chilled without dilution. He has also been a collaborator in a series of house-bottled carbonated cocktails, including an Americano, Aperol Spritz and Bicyclette. In many ways Junior Ryan and Jeffrey Morgenthaler are like South Park's Matt Stone and Trey Parker—two very different personality types and approaches that come together to make some pretty amazing things. —Geoffrey Kleinman Sashi Moorman "S T hanks to owner Chris Breed, the Hollywood entrepreneur who brought glamour back to Tinseltown's club and restaurant scene, the north L.A. County suburb of Agoura Hills gets to play in that sandbox too. Breed's interpretation of a swank supper club is his new Sunset Room, presided over by on-premise specialist Brian Norris, who is the venue's General Manager. ashi Moorman?" The young man pouring my wine stops abruptly and looks up at me. "That guy's good," he affi rms almost reverently. "He knows wine." Never mind that my pourer works for a competitor's vineyard. The word gets around fast in the wine business and everyone seems to know the best of the best. Winemaker Sashi Moorman hails from New York State. After graduation from Vassar, he worked as a chef at an elegant Manhattan restaurant. There he was introduced to the world of wine and his passion ignited. Moorman has no formal training in winemaking. He learned on his feet at various vineyards up and down the California coast. Today, he is winemaker for four notable vine- yards: Stolpman, Sandhi, Piedrasassi and Evening Land—all in Santa Barbara's Sta. Rita Hills AVA. Devoted to natural winemaking, Moorman uses only wild yeasts in his wines. "Wild yeast produces a cleaner product," he attests. Instead of adding a cocktail of tannins, enzymes and sugar to fermenting grape must, Moorman prefers to simply adjust the nitrogen content and the temperature. "The purpose of winemaking is defeated when you start to mess with the qual- Winemaker Sashi Moorman. ity. The particularities disappear and you wind up with a wine that's generic and monotone." The key is to feel a connection with the product. "Once a winemaker concerns himself with quantity rather than quality, all is lost." —Elizabeth Kate 18 / the tasting panel / january/february 2012 Brian Norris is General Manager of The Sunset Room in Agoura Hills, CA. Signature cocktails may be modern, but the days-gone-by theme of this beautiful establish- ment has a red-carpet celebrity touch. Live music on weekends features Sinatra-style vocalists as well as uptempo celebrity deejays—and the small-plates menu is attuned to a sophisticated clientele. —Meridith May PHOTO: GEOFFREY KLEINMAN PHOTO: ELIZABETH KATE PHOTO: ROB BROWN

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