Pub Snippets..

Toasts of the Town

Smart Money - December 2001

By Noah Rothbaum

This holiday season shelve that predictable bottle of Jack. We found unique, lesser-known spirits that make great gifts (or, for that matter, excellent additions to your own liquor cabinet).

So last year you took a "nice" bottle of spirits to your boss's holiday party, only to witness him mixing it with Pepsi for the office interns. This year choose a bottle that's sure toget tucked away in your host's private reserve. Since the rebirth of the whiskey and spirits market in the '90s, liquor stores have been stocking a growing number of independently produced spirits that make fabulous gifts. We talked to bar managers and drink aficionados across teh globe for their favorites, then took a few sips ourselves.

After a taste, you might think twice about giving them away at all.

Gin: Just like bowiling shirts and pine wood paneling, gin and tonics are back, and number of distillers in the Pacific Northwest - a hotbed for juniper berries, gin's traditional flavoring - are now offering unique alternatives to Beefeater and Tanqueray. In the past decade about five distillers have opened up shop here, mostly in central Oregon and northern California.

One of them is Jim Bendis in Bend, Ore., who uses wild berries for his Cascade Mountain and Desert Juniper Gins (each about $25). Both are produced without any added flavorings, unlike most brand-name gins. The result is a cleaner taste: smoother up front than most competitors, and with a sweet finish - a real gin's gin."it's an interesting product," (Pete) Wells (Senior Editor of Food & Wine magazine) says. "And the fact that he's applied the microbrewing philosophy is great."