Tales of the Cocktail: Day 2

But backing up, around midnight on Wednesday, Boston's own April Wachtel was filmed at the W Hotel in New Orleans for "Beyond the Bar," a set of 12 bartender vignettes to be featured on the 5th season (premiering October 2010) of Iconoclasts on the Sundance Channel. Under unimaginably bright lights and behind a fearsomely Grey Goose-adorned bar (the production's media sponsor), a freshly makeup-ed April set to work.

Photo: Steven Moyer

Iconoclasts, a show that feature "people who are game-changers in their field," says executive producer Emil Jattne, is a forum where said iconoclasts (from Maya Angelou to Tony Hawk) can showcase their process, their inspirations and accomplishments. The "Beyond the Bar" 1-minute vignettes will stud the 15- and 45-minute mark of 6 episodes; bartenders were cast by the United States Bartenders' Guild and the Sundance Channel. "Craftsmanship is coming back," says Jattne of the bartending world. We'll drink to that.

Oh, hello morning!

First 100-proof drop in stomach at 10am, at F. Paul Pacult's Spirits Critic's Workshop:

It was a rousing, hilarious and accessible intro to how a professional taster approaches and manages the art and skill of rating spirits. Above all, 21-year veteran taster Pacult stresses trusting your senses, keeping a consistent format ("day in, day out, time in, time out, flight in, flight out") and building a solid memory library of flavors and impressions.

Highlights:

• "I prefer to taste in the morning because I believe that is the best time to taste." (With nothing yet to eat or drink for the day.) "It wakes me up pretty quickly."


• "Taste blind whenever possible ... think about what they are not." (ergo, process of elimination)


• There are 350 sensors per olfactory pad (on each side of the nose), which are the only organs that are connected to the brain. "The sense of smell is so primal, it's the only sense that can stimulate deja vu."


• Tasting protocol: smell with your lips parted (no suction, no headaches), and take 2 tastes (one as a mouthwash-esque spit, two is for real-reals). However, the conundrum of the day: To swirl, or not to swirl?


• "Gin is such a lovely invention. There's the wheel. Then there's gin."


• "My technical term is ... yummy."


• Don't use soap on your tasting glassware! Pacult recommends a 6 to 7-ounce Spanish copita or port glass; stemmed crystal.


• "There are no wrong answers."

By the by, the black team (ergo, Northeast represent!) at the Cabana Cachaca bartender olympics were ablaze (literally) on Royal Street, with limes and cowbells and questionable taste in shorts in full display. Kevin Martin! Shades! Yeah.

Afternoon held some fascinating sips from the Cognac, France-based EuroWineGate portfolio with marketing and business development director Audrey Fort: two G'Vine gins (Floraison and Nouaison), Esprit de June liqueur, and the gorgeous Excellia reposado tequila.

The products are fascinating in that they not only use the fruit (ergo, grape), but also the flowers, from vines in the Cognac region (bonjour, terroir). G'Vine is the first gin made from a neutral grape-based spirit, employing blossoms of the vine flower (maceration, then blended with another distillation with 9 other botanicals). Floraison (launched 2007) is round and very velvety with an elegant flora; Nouaison (launching 2010) employs blossoms in the 2nd stage of development and therefore imparts stronger, spicier notes.

It'll be interesting to see how Esprit de June fares in the American market, a liqueur crafted with the only-blossoms-for-a-few-days vine flowers of ugni blanc, merlot, cabernet sauvignon and other grape varietals. Pluck, pluck, pluck. It's definitely lightweight in body and neither cloying nor sweet (its sugar count is liqueur's minimum) but the flavor is a fruity combo of apricot and strawberry that precariously toes bubblegum territory. Undeniably, there will be fans.

The tequila is the clinch-winner, a partnership with Carlos Camarena (master distiller of El Tesoro). Super-ripe pinas from the Jalisco islands shredded, distilled and separately aged for 9 months in Château d'Yquem barrels and Cognac casks, then blended. It's super smooth, elegant and an utterly elegant combination of respective old-world craft from France and Mexico. The reposado's the first of the aged tequila trilogy in production, launching this year.

"These babies are born; now we have to raise them and take care of them," says Fort proudly, wisely of the nascent portfolio.

And... gratuitous pickles:

Highlights from the Umami Cocktails seminar:

• "Believe it or not, breast milk has a lot of umami in it, about the same concentration in dashi."
• cooking and aging frees up glutamates and glutamic acid
• "Bacon-infused Bourbon, the meat-tail that started it all"
• "I have a 3-year old, and he's a umami freak."
• Imagine! Butter on potatoes taste good because the umami in the potato makes the butter taste better, not the other way around. Trippy? True?
• Canadians love bloody caesars.

Also, a little tour map of sorts, with only the best of decrepit charm that Pomodoro's Stephen Shellenberger could fetch.

More photos! Less typing! More tailing!