Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/646914
20 / the tasting panel / march 2016 THE MESSAGE New Sherries from Bottler Alexander Jules B arrel-selected sherry bottler Alexander Jules has just released new fino and manzanilla bottlings. Owner Alex Russan's latest bottlings are each of nine years average age, with only 1,000 bottles of each wine produced. The Manzanilla 5/41, selected from the Maruja solera at Bodegas Juan Piñero, is refreshed from a single vineyard, the revered Pago del Hornillo in Sanlúcar. It's creamy and delineated, with pistachio and almond aromas, and quite mineral. His new Fino 4/65, from a tiny fino bodega in Jerez, has an intense nutty-rancio nose with silky, mellow texture and salty, complex, mature flavors. These new bottlings follow Russan's extremely well received Los Abandonados 6/8 Oloroso, and he anticipates more new releases and styles later this year. More info at www.alexander-jules.com. —Anthony Dias Blue PHOTO: JIM SIMONE The Gin Game G in is experiencing a resurgence due to craft cocktails and the TV show Mad Men, which robustly praised a drinking culture. Yet gin barely registers by national sales numbers. So how is it that the largest gin list in the U.S. is not in Manhattan, Los Angeles or Chicago, but in tiny La Cañada-Flintridge, CA? "We are a classic cocktail bar," says Brady Caverly, owner of the bar/restaurant The Flintridge Proper. "Due to the fact that aged spirits were largely unavailable during Prohibition, many of the best golden-age cocktails that sur- vived are gin-based: the Tom Collins, Bees Knees, French 75, Negroni and Martini," says Caverly, who offers more than 200 gins from across the globe, including vintage gins as far back as 1964. "No other spirit offers the diversity of flavor profiles like gin." First distilled by the Dutch in the 1600s, gin's perception still seems stuck in a bygone era. "When most people think of gin they think of London dry; this is the gin our fathers drank with very strong juniper and citrus notes," says Caverly. "But the majority of small-batch, artisanal gins dial back the juniper, replacing it with a dizzying array of botanicals, citrus, and spices—like the rose notes of Nolet's, the cucumber notes of Hendrick's. There is a gin for every flavor." While gin starts with a pure, neutral spirit, each brand defines its own botanicals, their amounts and how they are processed. The Flintridge Proper has become a de facto repository of gin styles and flavor profiles. "We offer gin flights where guests enjoy it neat as you would a fine Scotch. I expect to see more folks drinking gin straight in the future," says Caverly. —Michael Cervin