The Tasting Panel magazine

May 2010

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NOSE-ABLES Spirit of Evolution “I f you understand what goes on in gin, you understand cock- tails,” declared Pegu Club proprietor Audrey Saunders as she opened the Gin Symposium recently held in Los Angeles and sponsored by Pernod Ricard’s English gin portfolio. The event, which Saunders co-moderated with Simon Ford, Director of Trade Outreach and Brand Education for Pernod Ricard, kicked off with trans-Atlantic experts Jared Brown and Anastasia Miller lecturing on the evolution of gin and its historical relationship with England and her colonies. Master Distillers Sean Harrison from Plymouth and Desmond Payne from Beefeater explained that unlike gins from other parts of the world, an English gin is made using “a one-shot distillation, with all the botanicals in it at the same time.” Nothing can be added to it after distillation, apart from water, used to dilute the alcohol content. Plymouth gin is unique because of its soft Devon water and cannot be made anywhere except in its namesake city. Beefeater is Master Distillers Desmond Payne from Beefeater (left) and Sean Harrison from Plymouth at the Gin Symposium. A sneak preview of new Beefeater Summer gin is at right. the only brand still made within London’s city limits, making it a hallmark for what’s referred to as “London dry gin.” After nearly four decades of distilling original formulas, Payne came out with his own gin interpretation in 2008. In addition to juniper, coriander, bitter orange peel, lemon peel, angelica root, angelica seed, almond, licorice and orris root present in the original Beefeater recipe, Payne’s baby, Beefeater 24, also incorporates black tea, green tea and grapefruit. This year, new Beefeater Summer gin launches; this varia- tion is also based on the original Beefeater recipe but this time with the additions of elderfl ower, hibiscus and black currant. If there were only one point to take away from the Gin Symposium, it’s that even after 500 years, there’s still plenty of room to expand horizons with mixology’s renais- sance spirit. —Natalie Bovis Tequila’s Main Squeeze In 2003, only three people in the world were named Tequila Ambassadors by the National Tequila Industry Chamber (CNIT). Only one of those three is the Tequila Ambassador to the U.S.: Julio Bermejo. Catching up with Bermejo is tricky. While his full-time job as Beverage Manager of the wildly popular San Fran cantina, Tommy’s, gives him a place to call home, pinning him down to talk and taste tequila chases a schedule where you get calls, texts and emails from him in Cuba, Japan, Shanghai, Australia and other global destinations. When he’s not holding seminars to educate the trade and consumer, Bermejo, a long- time judge for the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, is also a distiller, spending mucho tiempo in Jalisco, where he is perfecting his own brand of tequila, L&J, which will launch with a reposado and blanco from Tequilera De Lily y Julio S.A. DeC.V. If we can sit him down again, we’ll report on L&J tequila. Stay tuned. —Meridith May Julio Bermejo utilizes his T&J Lime Squeezer (a joint venture with Tony Abou-Ganim) and Tommy’s Margarita Mix to create San Francisco’s best Margaritas at Tommy’s, which features the larg- est vintage list of agave-based spirits in the world. The restaurant also goes through about 4,000 pounds of limes every month. 30 / the tasting panel / may 2010 PHOTO: RYAN LELY

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