Martini Groove

The plethora of Halloween recipes on sites abound today and I would hate to not follow the crowd as I regularly do so in order to seek their acceptance as a good and valid peer. Thanks to Liquor Snob there's an article on The State (South Carolina's Home Page!) with some pretty good ideas for drinks. The Bloody Brain looks like the most visually interesting one. We're having a little get together tonight and walking around with Black Margaritas. It's basically the Perfect Margarita recipe but with black tequila. Happy Halloween! Eat, drink, and be scary: Cool cocktails for Halloween via Liquor Snob

Anheuser-Busch announced three brews especially for the holidays. Because nothing gets grandma more drunk than a brew with excellent vanilla oak flavors. The flavors actually sound pretty intriguing and might be a good six pack or bottle to bring to the holiday party. The three brews are: Michelob Celebrate Chocolate, with a dark chocolate flavor and aroma as well as hints of caramel. Serve in a snifter please. Michelob Celebrate Vanilla Oak is also best in a snifter and gives you the simple caramel taste but the beer is aged on vanilla beans and oak. Budweiser Brew Masters' Private Reserve is the cream off the top of the butter, almost literally. It's the richest part of the brew that is usually collected right as it is tapped in order to toast the holidays. Perfect for a rich drinking experience. All of these are available right now through the end of the year. via Bottlewatch

Penderyn makes an extremely drinkable Welsh Whisky and is now pushing out in to vodka and gin. I must say, it's really nice to see more expansion in to gin. Liquors with delicate flavors are really falling by the wayside and Gin is just the type of drink to cross the gap. Both drinks are made from water from Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales, UK. The Brecon Five vodka is five column distilled for purity and smoothness and made with wheat grain and comes in a bottle meant to resemble a block of ice. The Brecon Special Reserve gin is infused with 10 specially selected botanicals, married with Penderyn barley spirit. Both sell for around $30. Brecon Five vodka and Special Reserve gin - US$30

Hey! Yeah you! These are good wines! No, not great. But very good. Your friends will think "Wow! This is something I've never seen before and the bottle is blue. I like blue. I like wine in blue bottles. Therefore, I like this wine." Also, they will think you're attractive and know the secret code to cracking "Deal or No Deal." The three wines in this special JanKris Paso Robles Trio are all blends, which means you'll have no idea they're from Paso Robles, but that they'll taste super yummy and unique enough to make your tastebuds stand up and preach the Power of Blue. Plus, it's 3 bottles for US$40 and $5 shipping. Yay Blue! JanKris Paso Robles Trio - $39.99

Appelation America has two distinct things about it's site. First, it is easily the most eye-hurting, overly busy site I've seen in quite some time. It looks like GeoCities circa 1997. Second, they're doing some fantastic work spreading the word of " Terroir"that every wine writer seems to be freaking out about these days. They're doing it by making it so you can look up an appellation and see a map of the region as well as get a short synopsis of what that region is about. A very handy tool for learning the characteristics of an area. A lot of the images are like the one here but they are starting to upload more and more satellite photos of the appellations. Appelation America

Okay, let's say you don't like the results of a contest. Here's what you do, keep running the contest until you DO like the results. For a third time, they ran a Judgement of Paris, for a third time, California one. What's a shame to me is that anyone thinks that France needs to win this. There are some amazing wines in both places and they both have characteristics that make them worth buying. So, California is better. Does that mean that you have to stop selling your wines or making them because the world will think that you're just California wanna-be's and all your wines suck? Or does it mean that you're no longer relevant to the wine world and just about any upstart region in the world can have some judgement with you and you'll come in second place? Well, it probably does, but stop it with the competitions already. California in pole position yet again

I'm not sure if Yat is a group full of geniuses or if the vodka world is so out of flavors to put in their sauce that desperation is beginning to mount. I look forward to the Milk flavored vodka. Then a return to our roots with vodka flavored vodka. Yat has popped out with two rather unique flavors. One of them is garlic and the other is horseradish. I imagine the horseradish flavored one is probably great with a nice cut of Prime Rib and the garlic is great with just about any Italian or Spanish dish. Though the recommendation is with "jellied tongue" or "herring seasoned with spring onions." I'm sure the latter makes for some great make-out sessions. Nothing like a sultry night of necking with the smell of herring, onions, and horseradish on your breath. Yat Flavored Vodkas via Bottle Watch

I posted about the T-Qualizer shirt quite a while ago , I guess Ellen reads my blog. But here's a video of the shirt which I could totally see myself wearing in certain situations. Like when I want everyone to think I'm a candy raver. Product Page

Alright all, time for a break to get some of the real world settled. See you in two weeks!

San Francisco-based community winery Crushpad is collaborating with wine podcaster Alan Baker to make a wine billed as the first ever variety created with online consumer collaboration, called Pinot 2.0. The project uses Crushpad’s new community winemaking website, Crushnet, to bring together wine enthusiasts into a “Rat Pack” group during the process of making an Anderson Valley Pinot Noir from Wetzel Vineyard. Baker will broadcast the complete winemaking experience live on the Internet. Baker, known as the “Cellar Rat” under the project, will invite members to participate in winemaking decisions, facilitate discussions with wine experts, and create downloadable video and audio pieces to keep members involved in each step. Crushpad hosts web-constructed wine - [crushpadwine.com]

Well, they've started making just about every other alcohol from wine grapes, so it was bound to happen that they start making wines from other fruits. The Schnebly Winery makes wines from tropical fruits like Carambola, Mango, Lychee, Guava, and Passion Fruit. They even have a Carambola wine that's aged in French Oak. Skeptical? You bet. I've found most grape vodka's to be utterly annoying and have serious doubts about going the other direction. I'd love to see these take off though, if for no other reason because it expands the marketplace so nicely.

Duke Ellington brings back thoughts of big band parties, classic supper clubs, and a night out on the town. It's a natural fit for someone to finally make up a drink that bears his name and even more appropriate that it's a cognac. The cognac is bottled in a heavy crystal decanter with a gold-plated crown and "The Duke" signature in gold on the glass. This 20 year old XO blend comes straight at us from the Cognac region and costs $150 for the 750ml bottle. I have yet to taste it but the price seems right for an XO of that age from the producer, Meukow. I look forward to trying it. The beverage will be sold at every jazz club where the Ellington orchestra makes an appearance. It also will be available at The Blue Note international chain of jazz clubs and at B.B. King's clubs, which are all owned by the same parent company. Duke Ellington Cognac - US$150 - [bottlewatch.com]

While editing on location is becoming increasingly common, a recent collaboration for Johnnie Walker between Director Michael Geoghegan (The Pink Film Company) and Cut + Run Editor Leo King involved anything but; Veiled in secrecy, the shoot took the director and editor to a military aircraft carrier in an undisclosed location. King and his assistant Ben Campbell set up the ultimate mobile editing suite (a folding table with laptops) and, adorned with hardhats, cut the heart-pumping spot.

The Liebherr Refrigerator is $5300 worth of chillin'. The stainless steel refrigerator can be a standalone or built-in and has the usual high-end refrigerator appointments, but has a nice built-in wine cooler in order to have easy access to the bottles you're currently drinking. The Liebherr SBS-245 - $5300 - [liebherr-appliances.com]

The Robobar reminds me almost exactly of the bartender in Fifth Element when the priest is drinking. This baby makes your drinks from a computer-based screen and then dishes them out to you in perfect, if somewhat slow, order. And the price is cheap! At 30 cents an hour to operate, everyone can have their own Robobar!