Results tagged “spirits”

The last time Sam's Wine and Spirits had a warehouse sale we made out like bandits, buying nearly $600 worth of wine for just over $100 after discounts. They're doing it again from October 14-25, slashing up to 75% off of their inventory. Some lucky shopper will also win a six liter bottle of Reignac Rouge Bordeaux 2003, which will be given away in a raffle

              

(Last month we arranged to have our "Properly Sauced" tag team of Anthony and Rob tour North Shore Distillery. North Shore's Sonja Kassebaum told us that today is the distillery's fifth year anniversary. We hope you enjoy this recap of Anthony and Rob's tour.)

Labor Day's not too far off but coming up sooner is a new tax hike on booze that might make that Labor Day picnic whiskey a touch more expensive if you wait until after September 1 - when the hike goes into effect - to hit the liquor store. Distilled spirits have the highest increase, with a fifth going up from $0.90 per bottle (to a total of $1.71 a bottle), a bottle of wine jumps by $0.13 to $0.28 a bottle, and beer goes up to $0.13 a six-pack. So, as always, the cheapest option is to just buy a case of High Life and see where the day takes you. [Tribune]

          

This past weekend, Chicagoist visited the trade show of the National Restaurant Association and its sister convention, the International Wine, Beer and Spirits Event. Despite the downturn in the economy, the convention was still hopping, filled with new products, new packaging, extravagant pavilions and thousands of companies hoping to sell the “next big thing” in food service. You’ll be seeing products and companies that we met up with at NRA featured over the next several months but for now, here are a few notes from a first-time attendee.

Tomorrow is National Rum Day. Normally we make fun of silly, profit-driven holidays designed by PR flacks, but in this case we’re totally on board. It may have something to do with the fact that we love drinking rum cocktails on mild summer days like this one. Here are a couple of drinks to try out on your friends this weekend!

One can't have a hearty Korean dinner — or even sushi — without a bracing serving of soju. It's clear color and clean flavor is comparable to vodka, except for a slightly sweeter taste resulting from the addition of sugar in the distilling process.

Tom Bulleit of Bulleit Bourbon

The Tribune reports today that Wirtz Beverage Group, which is best known locally as Judge & Dolph, Ltd., is in the final stages of purchasing Glazer's Distributors of Illinois. When the deal is finalized, Wirtz Beverage group will once again become the largest distributor of beer, wine and spirits in the state.

Longtime "BotW" readers might remember that we reviewed a barley wine last spring from Louisville's Browning's Brewery. We bought it retail in town but, after making a phone call to the brewmaster in Louisville, didn't disclose where we made the purchase for fear of outing the store in question for selling booze outside the three-tier distribution system.

You might have the headline to this week's installment and thought, "Isn't it a bit late to review a Christmas ale?" And you may have a point, if you're a Grinch.

For all you whiskey buffs out there, now you can vote on your favorite brands of the past year, as well as your favorite and most hated marketing campaigns, at the 2007 Drammies.

During last week’s sleet storm we ducked into the South Loop Wine Cellar on the walk home from the Museum Campus. Half-frozen, soaked and more concerned with warming up than with finding a new shopping destination, we were pleasantly surprised by what we found inside. Warm, welcoming and filled with wine bins, exposed bricks and a beautiful Christmas tree, the store was the perfect place for us to stop. With all of the hype surrounding the opening of the South Loop location of Sam’s Wine and Spirits, some may have missed this much smaller, but much cozier, destination.

There's a new absinthe on the market called Lucid that's catching on at places like the Violet Hour, Lumen, and Delilah's, namely because Lucid is the first Grande wormwood-based absinthe available in the States since before Prohibition. Now, we've tried the "green fairy" and it was an experience we'll never forget, so we researched Lucid for details on how much thujone (the active ingredient from wormwood) it carries. Turns out, not much at all: under...

'Tis the season for free champagne tastings. Get started tonight at the Artisan Cellar (located on the first floor of the Merchandise Mart) with a sample of some rare bubblies from 4-6 p.m. Learn all about the history of smothered foods from author Wilbert Jones, the author of Smothered Southern Foods. Jones' lecture, "Smothered - Southern Style" is being held Saturday at the Chicago History Museum, sponsored by the Culinary Historians of Chicago. The lecture...

We were downstairs at our neighbors' a couple weeks back, drinking bloody marys before the Bears-Broncos game while we were making chicken stock for soup. Normally, we make a killer bloody mary. But on this occasion we were missing something. Turned out that our neighbor had the cure-all: a good beer chaser. She had been to Sam's earlier in the week and picked up some selections from Ridgeway Brewing, and the first bottle she opened...

Saturday night was a good night to stay in, preferably close to the fireplace (that is, if you're lucky enough to have one). So we popped some W.C. Fields in the dvd player, made some gnocchi with spicy pasta sauce (more on that tomorrow) and opened up a bottle of wine. The bottle we picked was something that held up to both the weight of the gnocchi, the spice of the sauce, and the warmth...

In what's become an annual feature here at Chicagoist and a personal favorite, we canvassed the staff for some of their best recipes and put together a potluck of amazing proportions to fascinate your taste buds, amaze your family (even the ones entranced by the football games), and bring about peace on earth - or at least in your family - for a few hours through the miracle of tryptophan, simple starches, and sugar...

It's easy to forget that, with all the hype recently bestowed to the Violet Hour since it opened months ago (much of it warranted, we'll preface), that this city was already teeming with master mixologists before Toby Maloney blew back into town. Case in point, at the recent "Chicago Iron Bartender" competition, Sepia's Peter Vestinos beat out a packed field including Nacional 27's Adam Seger, Tim Lacey of Spring Restaurant Group, and Otom's James Macknyk...

We mentioned last week that Pinot Days hits Navy Pier this weekend. There are some auxiliary events in conjunction with the grand festival, running from 1 - 4 p.m. tomorrow. 312 Chicago is hosting a winemakers dinner this evening from 7 - 11 p.m. The $120 price tag allows diners access to sample 18 different award winning pinots, including a four-course meal (each course paired with two different pinots) and the chance to ask burning...

Bell's beer fans don't start celebrating just yet, but Larry Bell himself weighed in on the Beer Advocate forums yesterday about a possible return to Chicago. "Bell's continues to work on a way to return to Illinois... I have had discussions with other wholesalers and there is a possibility that we would return, but not with any brand we currently produce... Chicago is my home town and I would love to sell beer there again....

The November 10 dinner at Bonsoiree sponsored by the International Wine and Food Society's Northern Illinois Chapter we listed a few weeks back is now sold out. Shaw's Crab House will be serving Nantucket Cape Scallops beginning this month. The highly regarded scallops are only available for a limited time. Cyrano's Bistrot has just added a early bird/pre-theatre fixed price special for autumn. enjoy an appetizer and entree or entree and dessert for only...

Some things to do this weekend, and into next, as an excuse to dress in costume. Rare and fine wine auction house Hart Davis Hart is holding an auction of private collections from both coasts today from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. at Tru. The auction is free to attend, but anyone taking the time to head to Tru and not eat is an idiot, quite frankly. Lunch today at Tru is fixed-priced at $75....

Award-winning food and drink writer Fiona Beckett will sign copies of her new book Food, Wine & Friends at the House of Glunz in Old Town this evening. The event runs from 5-7 p.m., and there will be a reception with wine and hors d'ouevres. Cost is $20 for the reception, $40 for the reception and a copy of the book. All you amateur sommeliers should be making a beeline to Sam's Wine & Spirits...

Naming the best bartender in Chicago is like trying to find an identical pair of snowflakes. Everybody has a favorite bartender and ours, a gruff, lovable fellow who told stories of Old Town's grittier days and always had a dram of bourbon at the ready when we walked through the door of our local watering hole, was recently fired from his job for refusing to serve Jaeger bombs to a group of Captain Awesomes who...

Rather than go out to participate in last Sunday's national toast to Michael Jackson, we decided to stay at home and raise a glass in honor of the "Beer Hunter." Earlier that afternoon we finished the remaining bottles of Goose Island Harvest Ale during that debacle of a Bears game and were left with a varied selection in the fridge — a couple brews from Three Floyds, a bottle of Unibroue 16, two cans of...

Last month the craft beer community lost one of its greatest advocates with the passing of Michael Jackson, the "Beer Hunter." Jackson's research and writing on this singular subject laid the foundation for the beer, wine, and spirits writers that followed, raised awareness of the passion and commitment to excellence that the best brewers apply to their craft, and lifted beer to a level where it was considered worthy of mention in the same breath...

Conventional wisdom says that we should not speak ill of the deceased, but that's a tall endeavor if we're to take the pundits' criticisms of William Wirtz as law, although one has surprised us with his restraint. The longtime Blackhawks owner and liquor magnate passed away early this morning at the age of 77 from cancer. It's easy to say that Mr. Wirtz was stuck in a bygone era, treating his beloved hockey franchise as...

Asking for salt and lime with a premium tequila has long been a pet peeve of ours, but since we regularly found ourselves behind a bar, we bit our tongue. Not anymore — we're demanding you shed the "training wheels." It isn't as though we're talking about mixtos here, where nearly half of what's in the bottle is cane sugar. These days every major tequila brand seems to be launching a 100-percent, pure agave line....