Now that Thanksgivukkah is over, we can focus on Hanukkah, which lasts far longer than any turkey leftovers. With this in mind, it seems worthwhile to discuss some great booze-related gifts. Or you may find our own Hanukkah wish list helpful in selecting your next wine or distilled spirit.
Let’s start with the latest craze in wine service: the Coravin Wine Access system. A brilliantly conceived bit of technology, the Coravin has a hollow needle attached to a small canister of inert argon gas. Placing the device over the bottle allows the needle to penetrate through the cork. The gas passes into the bottle, permitting the wine to flow out and keeping oxygen from coming into contact with the remaining wine. When the device is removed the cork reseals itself. It is pricey ($300) but may be worth the cost for those who own expensive and collectible bottles and want to enjoy a glass or two and save the rest for much later.
The kosher wine industry is thriving, especially in Israel where there continues to be rapid growth in production and new wineries seemingly appear all the time. We would love to try some wines from Bashan, Beit-El, Ben David, Domaine Ventura, Livni, Kinor David, Nachal Amud and Yaffo. And we wouldn’t mind if Margalit, one of Israel’s best non-kosher wineries, created a kosher bottling or two.
We also would love to try some of the special kosher He’Brew beer releases from the Schmaltz Brewing Company. Established in 1996 in San Francisco by Jeremy Cowan, who squeezed pomegranates to create an ale that he sold out of the trunk of his grandmother’s car, Schmaltz is one of the most widely recognized and rapidly growing U.S. craft brewing companies.
Schmaltz opened its own brewery in upstate New York earlier this year. To celebrate this transition, He’Brew released a black IPA named “Death of Contract Brewing,” made with seven hops and seven malts that sounds delicious. We would also love to try the “St. Lenny’s,” a Belgian-style rye double IPA; the “Jewbelation Reborn 17,” created with 17 hops and 17 malts that celebrates Schmaltz’s 17 years of brewing; and the “R.I.P.A. on Rye,” a rye double IPA aged in rye whisky barrels.
Spirits-wise, anything from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, the world’s greatest bottler of single-cask single-malt Scotch whiskies, would be acceptable.
Additionally, here are a few of the great if slightly pricier recent distilled spirits we’ve enjoyed:
Angel’s Envy Rye Whiskey ($75): How the late master distiller Lincoln Henderson came up with this seemingly bizarre process formula for this rye is beyond us; on several levels this ought not to work, yet it does — brilliantly.
Auchentoshan 18-year-old Single-Malt Scotch Whisky ($90): Aged exclusively in used bourbon casks, this triple-distilled whisky is light, refreshing and aperitif-like.
Jameson 18-year-old Irish Whiskey ($90): This Irish whiskey is distinctly bourbon-like on the nose, but with lovely flowery aromas. Wonderful notes of honey, vanilla, barley and toffee play with soft notes of fruits, butterscotch, cloves, nutty fudge and malt.
Joshua E. London and Lou Marmon write a weekly syndicated wine and spirits column at www.grapelines.com.