The Booze Thread

[Jason L Blair]

If you're buying, I'll have whatever. Otherwise, I'll have what she's having.


Especially if it's a margarita.

[Sean]

I should probably add some particulars.

My favorite wines, other than a few thirty year old Barolos I've been able to drink, are the peasant wines in Tuscany, fresh off the farm. I've got relatives there who buy it by the demijohn. The best I ever had was made by the farmer who lives immediately downslope from the people who make Sassakaia, which Reagan and Gorbachev used to drink at their summit meetings. He makes it the same way, and all you can drink costs less than a bottle of the more famous cousin.

I don't know the names of my favorite grappas. The place I like to drink it best is a little cafe in Florence which fills up with petty criminals, prostitutes, and cops at night, not far from the church where Dante first glimpsed Beatrice. That's not the best grappa though. Maybe it was this artisanal one I picked up in a weird little shop in Venice. Names escape me with grappa; once the glass appears it's like putting a mouse in front of a cat, everything else disappears.

In terms of stuff you can buy in stores stateside I don't have a go-to wine right now. Spanish is starting to be a better value than Italian if I don't know what I'm getting. I like Hardy's Whiskers Port. For some reason I had a craving for a funny little beer called Ephemere the other day. With scotch and bourbon it's all the usual suspects.

[xenopulse]

To present the anti-cliche to the German who came before me: I don't drink alcohol. Not even beer. That's actually really disgusting stuff, in my opinion.

Now, for the first 20 years of my life, I was simply determined to resist peer pressure. When I did that successfully, I got good and wasted 4 times. I mean completely drunk. Once at home with my unbelieving friends, once at a party in a different city, once at the beach of the Baltic Sea, and once at the beach in Lloret De Mar (Frank will know that place, it's a tourism-dump in Spain). Sand environments are just easier when you drunk-tackle people.

I figured out that I didn't really enjoy it enough to put up with the disgusting taste of alcohol, so I quit again.

[James Holloway]

I drink in kind of a conservative pattern: wine, scotch, and various simple mixed drinks -- nothing with more than three ingredients, as a rule. I go in and out of beer-drinking phases; currently, I'm well out of one. I'm just starting to get more serious about scotch, but it's hard to do on a student's budget.

[Yokiboy]

I hate the fact that you cannot get a good bottle of tequila in Europe, there's not an anejo or reposado to be found anywhere. I have to settle for the best of the silver available, man I love tequila!

I use to be the biggest beer fan, and I mean that literally! I stopped drinking beer, got on the Adkins diet and lost over 70 pounds. I still wanted my malt beverages though, and switched over to single malts, holy shit are they nice!

I also love a nice glass of cognac and an aged rum will do the trick quite nicely.

Oh, and I drink everything straight.

TTFN,

Yokiboy

[Doug Ruff]

Reguar drink is vodka-and-mixer.

For special occasions, I make some verrrry nice cocktails - make sure you're sitting down when you drink the Long island Iced Tea, though.

[joshua neff]

I really don't have the tolerance for spirits that I used to, nor do I have the desire for them. I sometimes get the odd craving for a really nice, old whiskey, but I don't have the finances to indulge that craving.

I do enjoy a good glass or two or three of red wine. And I very much like cider.

When it comes to beer, I'm pretty much a stout man. And if I really indulged that, I would, indeed, be a very stout man.

[Gordon C. Landis]

When I used to hang out with the guys that owned the pizza joint, I was a pretty big beer drinker.  We created a haiku one night

Rich, amber, golden,
Gift of malt, barley and hops:
Awed, amazed, we drink.

I'm not such a big beer drinker nowadays - I've fallen more into the California wine thing.  One group of friends heads up to Sonoma 2-3 times a year, and my girlfriend and I enjoy heading down to Paso Robles from time to time.  Last year I had a spike in my "bottles gone bad" percentage, so my big Christmas present was a (cheapo, but effective and reasonably large) wine cooler.  Damn California for not having basements!  I guess the earthquake thing is a problem, though . . .

Scotch remains a minor passion, but I can't bear to water it down - and I can't drink more than a small amount straight.  My bottle of Laphroaig has lasted more than 5/6 years, now.

And an old boss was a HUGE Tequilla fan.  As much as I enjoyed it, without someone else's supportive (or is that corruptive?) influence, I don't really seek it out myself.

Gordon

[John Harper]

Scotch. Good scotch. Peat bog and dead bodies varieties. Oban is what you'll find in my house.

Bourbon. Knob Creek and Makers are fine. Straight up or in a Manhattan. If I have to pick a favorite, it's bourbon. Yes, I am from Kentucky. Coincedence.

Tequila. No, not that crap, gringo. Patron Silver, and take your time with it. Or the stuff in a jug everyone seems to carry in Oaxaca.

Sake. Momokawa Pearl does me right, but I'm not too picky. I'm open to suggestions. I recently tried a pear sake that was mighty tasty.

Guinness. Nothing else is really beer.

A perfect vodka martini is one of life's greatest gifts. Don't let anyone tell you that fooling around with gin is okay. It isn't.

[Sean]

Mr. Harper,

You have what I would call "rock solid" taste in drinks. Wouldn't hurt you to branch out a bit here and there, but you're working on an extremely firm foundation. Carry on.

[John Harper]

Thanks, Sean. I should say that I am with you on the grappa. I have tried two unknown varieties and am looking forward to exploring further.

Also, I recently discovered that the world of port is a rich one. There's a frisky little number made to suggest the taste of seawater. Seriously.

May the gods look kindly on our continuing spiritous explorations.

[groundhog]

Single malt Scotch is always nice. I'm a Glenlivet guy, but others are okay. Double malts aren't my style, and blended is cheating.

I also like Irish whiskey, Canadian whiskey, sour mash, and bourbon. Jim Beam, Knob Hill, Maker's Mark, Jameson's, Johnny Walker, and Canadian Mist are good. Canadian Club and Jack Daniel's are okay in mixed drinks I guess.

Beer is good. There are so-called beers that aren't good, but they're not really beer. :-) I like Guinness. Guinness draft is the only real Guinness, to be sure. I like it a lot. And real Guinness isn't a stout. I like Guinness Extra Stout in the bottle anyway, but not as much as regular Guinness. I also like Newcastle, Killian's, Bass, Sam Adams, Warsteiner, Stag, Tsing Tao, Red Stripe, Asahi, Dos Equis, and Sapporro.  Rolling Rock is okay sometimes, like if I haven't had canned corn recently. I'm willing to drink Budweiser or even Bud Light. It's true that Miller has more flavor than many other mid-price beers. That doesn't mean it's good flavor, just that there's more of it. I'd rather have a thin, crisp beer flavor that doesn't gag me.

I'm a big fan of mixers. Lately I've been drinking banana rum, watermelon schnapps and watermelon juice. It takes like a fruit punch and might make me seem a little girly, but it's damn good. I'm also a big fan of orange twist vodka with orange or tangerine soda. I figure if I keep lime twist vodka and powdered sugar around, I have an emergency vodka Collins if I run out of both sweet and sour and fresh limes, but I haven't tried that yet. A good Gibson is a wonderful thing. Many bars don't keep cocktail onions, though. Good thing you can get a pocket-sized jar at most grocery stores. A Long Island Iced Tea is good if you can get it mixed right. I'm a fan of daquiris and margeuritas. I also like a good praire fire, meaning both good tequila and good hot sauce.

[Kesher]

Single-malt, when I can afford it.  The darker the better.  My favorite distillery, Loch Dhu, apparently went out of business.  I now must make due (no pun meant...) with Dalmore cigar malt, which is a close second, but doesn't quite have that burnt-oak cask taste that I love so much.

A friend of mine brews his own "Captain's Black-Hearted Stout" that'll roll you in a gutter if you drink it too quickly...

[Ron Edwards]

Oh look, Scotch snobs. Well, that's bound to happen in a drinking discussion.

Wine - more specifically, the Russian River Valley, especially the reds. Wow ... Guerneville, Healdsburg, etc ... that's wine. (Now who's the snob? It would be me)

More about mixed drinks - if you mix cognac with blue curacao, and top with champagne, it turns bright bubbly green and tastes pretty good! "Chicago Cocktail." Kinda scary.

Best,
Ron

[Gordon C. Landis]

Wine - more specifically, the Russian River Valley, especially the reds. Wow ... Guerneville, Healdsburg, etc ... that's wine. (Now who's the snob? It would be me)

If anyone doubts the word of Ron (snob or not), try and get yourself to this some November.  Even though it's an "event," the crowds ain't so bad that time of year, and weather is often (though not always) quite pleasant.  I think we've made all of 'em except the first, and only one year was the rain especially bad.

If any Forgite does make it, check with me and maybe there'll be room in our van pool . . .

Gordon