A fantastic time was had by all!
And when I say “by all,” I mean by myself and Bonnie Ohara, who got liquored up on a fine Friday afternoon.
-David Driscoll
Bordeaux Is Coming
Spending $100+ on a fancy bottle of Bordeaux is a rare treat, but what about Monday through Friday?
What about casual summer BBQs when a $20 bottle of French Claret and a plate of grilled steaks will more than suffice?
Having a deep cellar is wonderful, but you still need cases of weeknight Bordeaux to round out the mix.
When it comes to Bordeaux, Mission has always dabbled in the marketplace, keeping a small selection of classified growths on hand to satisfy the local demand. However, with the birth of our new direct import program in 2021, we’re now purchasing wines directly from France, bringing in private containers via ship, in order to offer Mission customers the best prices possible—with no middleman!
I had the privilege of both learning about Bordeaux with K&L owner Clyde Beffa and Bordeaux specialist Ralph Sands for more than a decade, and at the end of my tenure I was traveling to Bordeaux with the team to taste the upcoming vintages, helping to market the newest arrivals. Let’s just say that I seriously caught the Bordeaux bug during that time. I love it. To me, it’s the greatest wine in the world. You’ve got high end, low end, red, white, sweet, and everything in between—every wine has its time and place.
Getting to use that hands-on education and those connections to bring Mission into the Bordeaux landscape is simply thrilling.
Personally, there are few greater pleasures in life than a finely-aged Bordeaux and a big, juicy steak. The combination never ceases to thrill me.
For those of you who want to try a great, finely-aged Bordeaux without breaking the bank, we’ve just brought in our first direct shipment: the 2016 Château Peyrabon for $19.99.
As Vinous critic Neil Martin wrote in his review: This wine exudes class. A blend of 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot, and 2% Cabernet France, the richness of the 2016 vintage is on full display with plenty of black fruits on the palate and an elegance on the finish that is usually reserved for wines at twice the price.
You get the dark, lush, black-fruited palate, tinged with an iron-y, almost bloody, mineral finish. The best of both worlds for a hot, hot price.
Now where’s that steak?
-David Driscoll
Gin Talk: This Friday With Alchemy Bread
As if my friend Bonnie Ohara from Modesto wasn’t famous enough already, with superfans like The Office’s Jenna Fischer extolling her virtues on social media, the great COVID-19 home baking resurgence sent Bonnie’s stock into the stratosphere. Her bread-making book shot to the top of Amazon sales and all of a sudden she found herself with tens of thousands of Instagram followers begging for tips on their sourdough starter.
Bonnie also caught the gin bug during the pandemic, and she started mixing cocktails in leftover jam jars. That’s when I started sending her new gins to try, or dropping them by her home when I would drive back to Modesto to see my parents.
This Friday on Instagram Live we’re going to talk about gin from a baker’s perspective, and break down the components of each recipe to see what makes them tick. We’ll be mixing cocktails as well, teasing out the best flavors in each drink as we go.
Hope to see you there!
-David Driscoll
Rum Cocktails
Inspired by the new release of Ed Hamilton’s Beachbum Berry Zombie Rum blend, I decided to pull out all the old Tiki ingredients from my garage last night. I spent a few years in distribution between K&L and Mission, so I have boxes upon boxes upon boxes of liqueur samples and various esoteric elixirs.
I went through the recipes listed on the official page here, but I can’t say mine were a huge success (probably due to both the age of my bottles and the lack of freshness with my grenadine). That being said, there was one very, very easy recipe that came out spectacularly, so I figured I’d share it with you: the Banana Daiquiri.
You can do this two ways, depending on how much banana you like.
There’s a whole slew of articles about how the Giffard Banane Liqueur is the secret ingredient for a number of serious bartenders, namely because it works to highlight the inherent flavors of base spirits, rather than simply impart its banana flavor.
Case in point? As the sweetening component of a classic Daiquiri made with the Beachbum Zombie blend:
2 oz. Hamilton Berry Beachbum Zombie rum
1 oz. Giffard Banane Liqueur
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
Shake with ice and double strain into a coupe glass.
When I told my wife I had made her a Banana Daiquiri, she came running into the kitchen. I handed her the drink and she took a sip. “This doesn’t really taste like banana,” she quickly responded; “But it does taste tropical.”
Exactly. The Giffard Banane simply brings out the fruity, tropical notes in the rum, while providing the necessary sweetness to balance the lime’s citrus.
That being said, she really wanted a banana-flavored cocktail at that point, so I broke out the blender.
Same recipe as above, but add half a banana and some crushed ice. I made enough for both of us, so I doubled the recipe and added a whole banana.
“Now THAT is a Banana Daiquiri!” she exclaimed with glee.
And a damned good one, too.
-David Driscoll
Instagram Live Repost: Todd Leopold Answers Questions About The Three Chamber Still
It only took us 25+ times to make it work, but eventually we did manage to get the party started yesterday evening. A combination of a bad network, Instagram bugs, and Todd forgetting to let his phone access his camera all conspired against us, but once we got the ball rolling we had a captive audience and a line of questions lighting up the comment field.
Todd was awesome. Rapid fire answers from one of the most knowledgable distillers in the world. What more can you ask for?
-David Driscoll
Todd Leopold Discusses The Three Chamber Still This Monday
You know the story.
You’ve seen the video.
You’ve likely even purchased the bottle.
And now, this coming Monday, you can join Todd Leopold and myself on Instagram at 6 PM PST to hear Todd discuss the Three Chamber Still live, while you all ask questions in the comment field.
Whatever you want to know about the still and the whiskey, just ask.
We’ll see you at the @missionliquor Instagram!
-David Driscoll
PCA Show Takeaways
If one thing is absolutely crystal clear after this week’s PCA show in Las Vegas, it’s that the cigar industry is taking a page from the craft beer movement, ditching the old-timey, traditional iconography that for decades have adorned its boxes and bands. Instead, bold, bright, brash colors were the highlight of the event, from the forward-thinking design of companies like Crowned Heads, to the Back to the Future-themed “McFly” cigar from Oscar Valladares.
Much like we’ve seen in the spirits world over the last year or so, the marketing focus on tradition is fading away, as a younger, hipper, more modern approach is taking hold and catching fire. Tradition is still spoken of when you speak with each company, but the designs have completely moved away from historical precedent.
Like any product marketing, there were plenty of mediocre cigars with flashy packaging, building on today’s archetype cigar smoker: no longer the suited gentleman smoking in his leather book-bound library, but rather the bearded, jewelry-adorned, rock and roll biker, sipping a glass of high proof Bourbon while smoking a more powerful stick.
Like the Bourbon industry, there are only a handful of major players actually growing tobacco and rolling cigars within the industry; hence, almost all of the boutique brands at the show are being made at the same factories. Think of the 50+ brands of MGP-sourced whiskey on the market right now, each with its own approach, story, and flavor-profile.
That being said, what I appreciate about the cigar world is that it hasn’t yet been broken down into component marketing, meaning that—unlike most Buffalo Trace products—there isn’t one factory or producer that smokers are endlessly chasing based on the source of its tobacco. It’s wide open.
And, based on what I saw over the last few days, it’s about to explode.
-David Driscoll
La Palina's New KB
Since I’m sitting here in the La Palina lounge next to Bill Paley, smoking cigars at 10 AM, I’m going to let Bill tell you about the new La Palina KB 2021 release—by far, the best new cigar I’ve smoked at this event. Here’s Bill’s breakdown:
I was a newbie, so I turned to Alan Rubin for help and created the El Diario line at Raicas Cubano. Six months later, I asked them to make me some petit coronas. When they arrived and I smoked the first one, it was so powerful that I couldn’t finish it. The people in my office called it the Kill Bill because it almost killed me. So they boxed it up for me and put KB on it because of the joke. It became an underground hit for people who knew cigars, so we followed it up with a second release with the same ring gauge, but longer. They’ve been in regular production for about eight years now. We decided to increase the line to a robusto and a toro, which meant reblending to take into account the larger ring gauge. The reason the KB1 was so different is because it has a double binder and a flavorful wrapper, and when it was smaller it concentrated those leaves. We readjusted and they were able to meet our expectations. It’s a fantastic cigar.
We also wanted a way to bring it back to people’s attention with rebranding. With the new box, I wanted to surprise people. Most of our branding before had been elegant, whereas this is more contemporary. I can’t deny that a lot of the inspiration came from Matt Booth’s design and other graphic novels. I’m a big graphic novel guy. The Watchman is one of my favorites.
It’s has a double binder of Criollo and Corojo, which makes it a firmer cigar. It has a strong flavor, it’s very balanced, and it’s a beautiful cigar. The balance is what sets it apart: the balance of flavor, strength, all of the matrixes in the cigar. When you don’t have balance, you lose complexity.
If you have an exciting cigar, you need an exciting presentation. During the pandemic we did a lot of fine tuning concerning the presentation of all our brands, and I think we got this one right.
-David Driscoll