We enjoyed it, but we should note that Founding Spirits is no light read—it is an erudite, scholarly collection of essays deeply grounded in the historical record.  It describes the centrality of alcoholic beverages in 18th century life, and Washington is an exemplar of that lifestyle.  As we put it in our review:

The belief that alcoholic beverages were both safe and salubrious was commonplace. A 1764 Virginia Almanack advised taking a teacup of rum steeped with huckleberries “night and morning” to cure dropsy. Brandy was gulped to settle the nerves and to tamp down dyspepsia and fevers. Washington himself directed a friend suffering “ague” to take three or four cups of wine at midday and one in the evening.

Washington’s distillery was butilt in 1797 and very quickly became one of the biggest in America. It produced mostly rye whiskey, but also apple, peach, and persimmon brandies.  Within 15 years, it was gone—burnt to the ground. (Washington died earlier— just two years after the distillery got up and running.)

A few years ago, Washington’s distillery was rebuilt with the generous assistance of the Distilled Spirits Council of America.  The public may visit it at Mount Vernon.

We had a visit to it this spring, and it was an utter delight. It features beautiful grounds, a working gristmill, and a separate building housing the stills.  The first video we took is below.

You can find other short videos at AlcoholReviews.com’s YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlcoholReviews1.  The videos we took (all less than a minute long) show the whiskey-making process, from milling to 165 proof spirit pouring off the still. Please enjoy these videos and do try to make your way to Alexandria, Virginia to visit Mount Vernon and see it for yourself.  It is very impressive.

Utter Madness

AlcoholReviews.com has written a bit about Prohibition in Whiskey: A Global History and online (see here, here, and here). Our comments have primarily focused on the inanity of Prohibition as a policy, and the impossibility of enforcing it in a nation as large as the United States.

But in late 2010, we ventured a hypothesis on another matter: that Prohibition messed with the American palate, training it to want weakly-flavored drinks, a habit the country has only begun to shake off in the past couple of decades.

Please check out the piece and offer your thoughts via the SHARE/SAVE button below: The Wet, the Dry, and the Ugly,” in The Smart Set.

Our own Famous Jacob tried these wines, and found them appealing. (See his reviews here.)

The company that did this was Cameron Hughes, which is the subject of a June 9, 2012 New York Times profile.  Hughes is a sort of upscale version of Fred Franzia, who brought America “Two Buck Chuck.” (Go here for a profile piece on the colorful Franzia.)  Quoth the Times,

Mr. Hughes, who started by selling wine out of the back of his Volvo station wagon in 2002, is a wine négociant, or wine merchant. He does not own a vineyard or a winery. Instead, from offices in San Francisco and Calistoga, Calif., he outsources all the labor that goes into making a bottle of wine — growing the grapes, crushing and fermenting them, and other steps in the process — to others… (read more)

To tap more of the growing demand, Daigeo reportedly is considering further mergers and “plans to expand output from its existing malt distilleries by 50 per cent”… (read more)

The article further notes… “some 90 per cent of whisky is sold overseas in more than 200 markets. It’s true that the so-called BRIC markets [Brazil, Russia, India, and China] are making an impact, but blended Scotch is seeing growth in Latin America, eastern Europe, Africa and further afield”…(read more)

If you read some of other reviews here on AlcoholReviews.com, you know that I am big fan of canned craft beer. When New Belgium Brewing, which already cans Fat Tire and some other variety in 12 oz packages, announced the creation of a new canned beer, I went out to find it immediately.  Why? Because I also like New Belgium’s brews. (See here.)

Shift Pale Lager is sold only in 4-packs of 16-ounce cans (approximately $9.99 in the Washington, D.C. area).

Shift pours a bright golden color in the glass and smells of citrus (orange peel and lemon).  It is a smooth beer with light hops and a mild hoppy spice finish.  The beer finishes with mild spice from the hops and weighs in at 5% alcohol, perfect for a warm summer day.  (Rating ****)

It is not as if we only just saw this book. Oh no. We had Last Call in hand hot off the presses, and reviewed it at length in the January 31, 2011 issue of the Weekly Standard magazine. (Read it here, if you’re a subscriber.)

Put simply, after our Weekly Standard review ran, we simply forgot to add an entry to AlcoholReviews.com.

So let it be said here and now—this is a good book, one that both those with little or much knowledge of Prohibition will enjoy. It carries many fine illustrations, and it moves along pretty quickly.

The book’s lone down-size is its heft—it is 400 pages, and it probably could have benefited from a bit of editorial trimming.

That said, take our it word—it is worth your time and would make a fine gift. New and used copies can be had here.

San Antonio Winery Tasting Room. Source: Sanantoniowinery.com

For the most part, Prohibition was fantastically destructive of the American drinks industry. Producers were driven out of business, and thirsty citizens had to source their tipple from illicit sources.

But, some firms did prosper. Amy Scattergood has an enjoyable article in the June 2012 Smithsonian Magazine on the San Antonio Winery. This immigrant-started company “struck a deal to continue to make sacramental wine during Prohibition…Before Prohibition, San Antonio was a small winery, making about 5,000 cases of red wine, the kind of wine that was sold “family-size,” or in jug form, to local immigrants and five area churches. By the time Prohibition ended, it was producing 20,000 cases. Today, San Antonio Winery is the largest supplier of sacramental wine in the country”… (read more)
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