Wine

Dearly Departed | a cocktail for All Souls’ Day

/ Paul Burkhart / Leave a comment

Recipe

  • 1 oz Mezcal
  • .75 oz St. Germain Elder Flower Liqueur
  • 1 oz Dry Vermouth
  • .5 oz Dry White Wine
  • 1 dash Celery Bitters (optional)
  • Garnish: Olive

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice. Stir until chilled and diluted. Strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with an olive.

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I can easily forgive you for not knowing that All Souls’ Day is different from yesterday’s All Saints’ Day. If yesterday was about honoring all the saints in the world today, today is about honoring all those that have died and gone on before us. (Together, these two days constitute Mexico’s “Day of the Dead”.) This day helps us honor our ancestors–both in blood and spirit–to feel their legacy, support, and presence in some way.

It also lends itself to rich symbolism for a great cocktail! This drink is made entirely of spirits (get it?). The Mezcal and celery bitters recall the darkness of death, while the olive brings to mind the salt of tears for those that have passed before us.

But the vermouth and wine bring complexity that reminds us there’s more to it than that. Death is not the end of the story. That’s when the saintly liqueur St Germain brings a bouquet of sweetness and brightness through the darkness. It’s a lovely, delicate, complex drink, like our spiritual legacy.

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Body & Blood | A Maundy Thursday Cocktail

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Recipe

  • 2 oz Red wine
  • 2 oz Wheat (or Rye) Whiskey
  • .25 oz Orange Curacao
  • .75 oz Ube Syrup
  • 2 dashes Angostura Bitters
  • 2 dashes Orange Bitters
  • .5 oz Water
  • tiny pinch of salt
  • Olive garnish

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass without ice and stir well to incorporate everything. Pour into a wine glass and at serve room temperature. Garnish with a single olive.

View other Holy Day cocktails.

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Today is Maundy Thursday, one of the fullest, strangest, and most complicated days of Holy Week. So here is a cocktail to match.

A lot happens on this day: Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, the Passover meal and first Communion, his farewell address (also called the “High Priestly Prayer“), his prayers in Gethsemane, the arrest, and his late-night trial before the Jewish authorities.

It’s an emotional roller coaster of a day. There is joy, singing, praying, accusation, defensiveness, injustice, and emotions so intense Jesus sweats blood. There is also a random naked guy running through Gethsemane that scholars have no idea what to make of.

While honoring the events of the day, I’ve tried to craft a cocktail that captures this sense of confusion, contrasts, and upended expectations. And I think this drink does exactly that.

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Weekend Wine Tasting: Cool Ranch Doritos & Pinot Noir [casual fri]

/ Paul Burkhart / Leave a comment

paul-terrain-flowers-wine-12-07The other night, my church small group held our second annual Wine Tasting party. It was such a beautiful evening of great wine and great food (there was even Chardonnay paired with Chicken and Waffles–and it worked really well!).

But, also just like last year, I couldn’t just do a nice, casual, brief tasting. If you’ll remember, I paired Port Wine with Fluffernutter sandwiches (you can see the video here).

Similarly, this year, my inner nerd-dom drove me to come up with a whole presentation around my attempt at another odd pairing. I wrote up some notes to guide me, and I thought I’d post them here to guide you on your own wine experiments this weekend, especially if you want a great pairing on a budget.

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This is a different kind of tasting. It’s not so much about bringing out certain flavors as it is experiencing an unexpected reaction between the two items. It’s going to take some focus, so prepare your taste buds. But first, a story.

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Here I am leading a Port Wine tasting with Fluffer-Nutter Sandwiches [VIDEO]

/ Paul Burkhart / 1 Comment

Last night, some of my best friends threw a wine-tasting and food pairing party. Some of the people closest to me presented wine and food pairings that blew my mind. I had no idea that wine could do all of that. It was the perfect way to end a very busy summer.

Above, you will find a video of me presenting my wine and pairing. I led a tasting of a Tawny Port wine and paired it with Fluffer-Nutter sandwiches (my new obsession). I hope you enjoy it and learn some things.

You can see the videos of the other wine-presenters, as well as other highlights of our evening here.

Thanks go to Paul and Natanya Ma for hosting us, and specifically to Paul for taking and posting these videos.
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