Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/551222
THE MESSAGE 18 / the tasting panel / august 2015 THE MESSAGE Manager, Jenna Congdon, of The Station in San Luis Obispo, CA. PHOTO: JENNIFER OLSON Cozying Up To Imports at The Station, SLO "T here are so many wines available out there from great producers that the public doesn't even see because they're carried by small import- ers," says Jenna Congdon, a former wine rep with a passion for imports who now manages new wine shop The Station in San Luis Obispo, CA. The shop—a converted gas station from the 1920s—features a rotating micro-selection of wines like Domaine Ciringa Fossilini Breg Sauvignon Blanc from Croatia, Julie Benau Picpoul from the Languedoc, Alain Graillot Crozes Hermitage and Lopez de Heredia Cubillo Rioja; as well as beer, saké and small-batch vermouths. The vibe is warm, curated and casual, with plenty of space outside for food truck parking and a Tuesday Night Wine Club that meets to taste bottles of Congdon's favorites and get the inside scoop on small producers. "Remember when a club wasn't something you sign up for and receive through the mail? When it was a community you met with to talk about shared interests?" she asks. "We're gathering people together to drink and talk about wine again because when you're selling imports and smaller producers, people have to learn about them to fall in love with them." — Jaime Lewis Signature Cocktail Kits A s self-respecting professionals, we know how to mix a drink, but we always look to the indus- try's bartending talents for innovation and inspiration. That's exactly the approach founder Jeffrey Meisel took when he began offering signature cocktail kits on his carefully curated site, Merchants of Beverage. The former Wine Director for luxury online retailer Gilt Taste, who's also held a number of roles at Domaine Select Wine Estates, went straight to the source when he asked bartenders from coast to coast to assemble the essentials necessary to create one of their signature cocktails. Merchants of Beverage offers about 50 kits that range in price from $130 to $160 and include spirits, bitters, even some tools and a recipe with the all- important backstory. Meisel, who works from the Galvanize space in San Francisco, initially tapped local bar stars Greg Lindgren, Martin Cate, Jane Hurley and Ryan Fitzgerald, and followed with kits by New York–, Seattle- and Los Angeles–based bartenders. "Gifting is a big part of the attrac- tion," said Meisel, whose goal is to up the quality of any home bar. He offers what we consider to be "The Perfect Gift," a sliding-scale gift option that lets recipients select their gift from a curated page of up to nine choices. The site also offers wine collections like "Introduction to Farmer Fizz," with bottles from Chartogne-Taillet, Francis Boulard and Saint Chamant chosen as benchmarks for their style ($200) plus barware, stemware and hard-to-come-by accessories like the essential aluminum spherical ice mold ($150). —D.P.W.