On a trip to New Orleans in 2015, I was running around with some of my best Chicago wine pals and at some point in the late afternoon we ended up at Bar Tonique by recommendation. A brisk round of well-made and regenerative Dark & Stormy’s later we loosened up and settled in, knowing this must be the place. We scanned the back bar and were all thrilled to see some of the Equipo Navazos cask finished Rum and Whiskies. There was an immediate response from the bartender after we zoned in on them. He knew we all spoke the same language; an instant rapport. I’m also reminded of the quintessential posters of Michel Tolmer on the walls of a bistro or wine bar, part of the language of assurance through small cues that energize and complement our community— particularly the Epaulé Jété for Catherine et Pierre Breton.

Remember when you could get a bottle of Weller bourbon and it was appropriately priced at $20? It’s partially due to the coterie buzz that anything from the Buffalo Trace Distillery has become highly sought after. Supply and demand reign, especially when you have to consider time as a factor that improves the quality of something highly sought after. The glut of bourbon geeks on the internet seeking out the smooth factor will eventually swallow up the goods once coveted by discerning drinkers, quality bars, and restaurants. OK— not completely— distributors and suppliers do the best they can to distribute pro-rata. There is a running joke amongst sommeliers I know involving ‘fighting for our allocations,’ and getting less and less Overnoy, Clos Rougeard, and Foillard's Morgon Côte du Py every year. If you pay close enough attention you can find plenty of other fantastic producers in the Jura, Loire Valley, and especially Beaujolais. There are so many good things to drink out there, it’s uncanny. Stop googling. Ask around, and keep reading!

People often ask me what I like to drink, or what my favorite wine is— a question I occasionally dodge by talking about everything but wine. Everyone needs some separation between church and state, work and play. Granted, wine and education are both passions of mine so I have plenty of energy for both, but there are beverages outside of wine that have a similar ethos where place, methodology, and time are important factors. These beverages are even more exciting to me because there’s so much to explore. Most of my wine colleagues always have such great recommendations for non-wine and wine-adjacent drinks apart from the big brands.

Apéro hour with Collin Moody, a good friend in Chicago, is always a treat. He’s responsible for turning me on to the magic of the Ti’ Punch. Not to be confused as a baby daiquiri, or even one daiquiri shook & split between multiple people as snaiq-uiris, he considers a Ti’ Punch to be a modified or ‘corrected’ straight rum.

“Sugar and a lime coin are there for minor background accompaniments to the star of the show—the rum,” he says. Not shaken, and wary of adding ice, if at all, Collin continues, “I like them full proof, at least to start. They taste like shit if your rum is shit, so get something nice like Haitian Clairin or Hampden from Jamaica. I’ve been drinking more of these than Martinique rums recently!”

Dan Petroski, in addition to being the winemaker at the historic Larkmead winery, makes wine and vermouth for his label Massican. The approach, design, and delivery of everything under the Massican brand is harmonized by a color they created, inspired by an ancient Pompeiian color pigment, and now registered with the Forbes Pigment Collection at Harvard University. When a brand identity can assist in telling the story of the products, place, and the people, it’s easy to be sold on it. The good news is that everything he makes is fantastic.

Dan began producing the vermouth shortly after starting Massican in 2009. The dry white is immediately delicious with a slight, noticeable sweetness that I sense more as subtle fruit, citrus, and nutty tones. Its simplicity compliments his intentional winemaking style with plenty of love put into it. St. George spirits (Alameda, CA) distill Massican wine for the brandy which herbs and spices are steeped in and eventually used to fortify the base wines.

I asked him about bartenders’ responses to artisan vermouth producers getting much less attention than bigger brands. “Smaller, craft products are not economically viable in comparison to commercial versions with hundreds of years of history behind their production methods that are scalable and can keep prices down.” He admits, “there is no single better dry white vermouth than Dolin Dry, sorry to all those (including myself) who are making vermouth, but a distributor can sell a bottle to a bar for $8/bottle and everyone makes money.”

Despite the economic allure of the commercial product and the high costs involved with making his own, Dan benefits from making the vermouth in other ways. In addition to having a delicious ingredient for their cocktails at home, it grants qualitative improvements for Massican’s core wines. “The pieces that don’t fit into those blends provide a home for the vermouth base and we definitely want to use all of the wine, not wasting anything in the production process.”

Vermouth also poses an interesting suggestion of terroir since sometimes the ingredients, wine, brandy, all of the aromatic and bitter plants, herbs, and botanicals all come from the same environment.

Bianca Miraglia from Saugerties, NY farms nearly all of the ingredients for her Uncouth Vermouth. In the past she’s made a handful of different products, each with different coinciding ingredients, never creating a homogenized product that echoes wine’s concept of vintage. Currently, she’s breathing new life into Uncouth and concentrating on making two vermouths that will convey her unique little place.

I asked Bianca to finish this SAT analogy question, Garrigue : Southern France :: , Saugerties, NY. “Macrophyte. It’s fucking wet here and my farm has all clay soil and is surrounded by marsh on three sides. The forest climbs a rock ledge which allows that part of my environment not to exist in giant puddles. Anyone in the Hudson Valley will tell you mud is real. The upside to that of course is that I don’t need to irrigate, which is huge.”

She’s planted six times the amount grown in past seasons and is now starting almost everything from seed. She still works closely with Red Hook Winery to make her base wine, “I’m very lucky to have been working with Red Hook for all these years. Those wines are the reason I don’t need to add sugar, they are so delicious and balanced I have nothing to correct on my end.” In the past six years, Bianca has relentlessly worked towards her farm-focused goals and while there have been some tasty things along the way, I’m confident that the best from her is yet to come. Her new vermouths are set to release this summer.

Since we haven’t been able to have drinks together in forever, I asked her what she’s been enjoying lately. “Patrick St. Surin’s Clairin Milot, I buy that shit by the case when it’s available. A good daiquiri has become one of the most important ways for me to cope in isolation. Cynar, preferably chilled with a salted rim (I know, roll your eyes, then drink it). Quentin Bourse makes my favorite vermouth. That dude has so much more talent in his giant thumbs than I’ll ever have in my entire hobbity body. I’m really happy to see so many new expressions popping up in the world that are their own style. We’re really lucky to live during a time when there are so many producers comfortable making their art and feeling no pressure to carbon copy the industrialized standards.”