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Best of 2015: Irish spirit

Michelle Locke
Feature Stories
4 min read
Michelle Locke has picked up some of the Palate Press spirits beat, and this year her pursuit of spirits for this publication has taken her to Mexico, Scotland, Ireland, and France. Her Irish travel piece, though, stands out since it has one of the best ledes we've ever run. “Business or pleasure?” asked

Irish spirit

Michelle Locke
Feature Stories
4 min read
“Business or pleasure?” asked the garda at Dublin airport immigration control. “ I’m not sure,” I replied. “I’m here to learn about Irish whiskey.” “That can only be pleasure,” he said with a smile as he stamped my passport with a thump. He was right. My tour of Irish whiskey

Going clear: Appreciating vodka

W. Blake Gray
Features
5 min read
I wasn't always a wine drinker. The first thing I liked to drink was vodka: vodka with cranberry juice, or a Black Russian with a slice of lime. Now, though, I am entirely too hip to drink vodka. I sneer at vodka, and at people who drink vodka. If I

For the love of peat: 200 years of Laphroaig

Michelle Locke
Features
3 min read
There are whiskies that seduce, whiskies that inflame, whiskies that captivate. And then there are whiskies like Laphroaig, a big, briny, smoky punch in the gullet that has been winning friends, or not, for 200 years. Peat is the secret to the distinctive, love-it-or-hate-it medicinal, seaweedy character of Laphroaig (la-FRYOG,

Good Spirits for 2015

Gary Thomas
Features
2 min read
Back in my bartending days (many, many years ago) we rarely ventured outside of anything more complicated than a martini or a Manhattan, and we hated anyone asking for a blender drink. (“Sorry, the blender is broken. “)   But now we are in the grip of the craft cocktail craze.

Whiskey. Bacon. Need we say more?

Michelle Locke
Features
2 min read
Meat and whiskey lovers have known for a while that pork and rye are a great pairing. Templeton Rye is taking the match just a bit further, raising heritage pigs on spent mash left over from the distilling process. The idea formed when Scott Bush, president and CEO of Templeton

Wine Country Cocktails

Michelle Locke
Feature Stories
3 min read
 Meet FOAM, the Napa Valley’s top secret, well kinda secret, cocktail society After a hard day working in the cellar, or the vineyard, or the office filling out paperwork, winemaker Judd Finkelstein likes to relax with an adult beverage … and it’s probably not the one you’re expecting. Sure, Finkelstein

Getting to grips with grappa

Michelle Locke
Feature Stories
4 min read
In Friuli, the Nonino family makes grappa in a sophisticated spirit Earthy, rustic, fiery -- grappa's got a reputation as a real party animal, white lightning, Italian style. But did you know there are elegant, single-varietal grappas that can hold their own at the fanciest of soirées? Or grappa cocktails