May 12, 2025 • 15 mins
Plus: New releases from Boston Beer. Robin Shreeves reports on dandelion wine. Sake, Gourmet Cocktails
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hi everyone, and welcome to Beverage Chronicles. I'm your host,
Gary Monterroso today I'm going to get started by taking
you to Atlantic City, where I very recently attended the
Fedway Associates Spring Tasting, which was held at Borgada Casino. Now,
(00:26):
if you're not familiar with Fedway Associates, they are a
leading wine and spirits distributor based in New Jersey, with
headquarters in Basking Ridge and a major distribution facility in Elizabeth,
New Jersey. They were founded right after the repeal of
prohibition in the early nineteen thirties, starting as Federal Wine
(00:49):
and Liquor Company, and they've now grown into one of
the state's largest liquor wholesalers. They service over seven thousand customers,
including restaurants, bars, taverns, retail stores. They distribute a wide
range of alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages from top global distillers,
(01:11):
wineries and importers such as Gray Goose, Bombay, Sapphire, and
so many others. They operate from multiple locations across north,
central and southern New Jersey, with a state of the
art five hundred and thirty five thousand square foot warehouse
and Elizabeth, capable of handling up to sixty thousand cases daily.
(01:32):
The company has modernized its operations, reducing product breakage by
over seventy percent through a new conveyor system implemented after
Hurricane Sandy back in twenty twelve. They host several events
during the course of the year. They do an annual
Family Fall Festival, which a couple of years ago drew
(01:53):
over fourteen hundred attendees, and the Spring Tasting in Atlantic
City appears to be an annual event as well. So
I'm going to take you to ac to the Borgata
with a couple interviews that I recently did.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
When I go to a trade event such as this
one in Atlantic City sponsored by Fedway Associates, I love
to look for I don't know if I want to
say some of the more unusual beverages, but things did
attract my attention. Now, Sam Berrickman, I want to tell
you this because you're representing organbi Sake. About fifteen years ago,
I was asked to judge the World Sake Summit in Manhattan,
(02:35):
and I had never had sake before in my life,
and I said, what do I expect? That I contacted
people whom I knew about the beverage, and I got
everything from You're gonna love it to it's jetlaine fuel.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I don't know what the hell would expected at this point,
but I ended up falling in love with it.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I ended up enjoying sake. So Organbi Sake, Sam tell
us about the company.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
So we are Organi Sake. We are America's newest and
the largest domestically owned sake brewery. We are one of
about twenty breweries of the United States right now, which
is quite exciting.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
We are based in Arkansas.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
The reason for that is Arkansas's the biggest producer of
rice in the United States. Okay. We work with a
farm called the Isabel Farms, which have been growing sake
grade rice since the eighties. It's a different type of
rice that you need just for growing sake, which is
quite exciting.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
And you brought up a good point because the rice
is so critical in the creation of sake. I know
in Japan. I mean they spend tons of time just having.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
The perfect rain.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Yeah, it's very important. It's just one of many important
factors in sake. I find that, especially for wine drinkers,
the grain of rice is not going to affect the
product like the grape and wine will and turn the outcome.
But you absolutely cannot grew good sake with bad quality rice.
It is just an important factor in that.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I'm gonna stop and say, if you have to take
a break, I.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Can quality sure, hear me do that. How many so
you said there twenty two American socceries.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Now, yeah, just about about twenty throughout the United States.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
That was my next question, all around the US.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Throughout the US, and that's for North America too. There's
one in Mexico. Canada has a few breweries if there
are three in New York State at the moment, two
in Brooklyn. So it's definitely a newer thing for breweries
in the United States.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Sam, I'm trying one of rosaki is right now and
it's a little cloudy, kind of milky, and I guess
we call that negory, right, Yes.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Yeah, that would be the Japanese term for it. We
do call it unfiltered. A lot of what we're trying
to do as an American brewery is to brewsake in
a very traditional way, but get rid of a lot
of the confusion and misconception between some of the Japanese
nomenclatures for the sake. So we do call it unfiltered,
but it is a negorisak.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Unfiltered would be a term that Americans can understand, I
think a lot more than NEBORI.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Right, absolutely, Yeah, I mean that's ninety percent of what
we're trying to do is really just spell a lot
of the confusion for asake.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Who are our prettymium sak rinkers? Are they the wine drinkers?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Is beer transition if the beer drinkers transitioning over?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
What do you see?
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:05):
You know, sake is a really interesting category because it's
a category in and of itself. It's brewed like beer,
but enjoyed like wine. So I'd say the best thing
to do for someone who's trying to get into sake
is just treat it like a white wine. Drink it
slightly chilled, drink it in a wine glass, enjoy it
that way. In terms of production though much more like
a beer. So there's a lot to get into in
terms of the back of that not.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Going to day.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I heard people say drinksake warm, and yet when I
talk to a few sake experts, they say that's not
necessarily the case.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Yeah, there are a lot of great sakes that you
can drink at multiple temperatures. The truth behind a lot
of American sake is that ninety percent of what we're
drinking in America right now is American maid. Whenever you
get that really cheap house sake at a corner sushi restaurant,
that's gonna be American made, it's gonna be very low
quality cooking sake. They heat this up to get rid
(05:55):
of a lot of the flaws in the flavor, so
that heating masks a lot of the perfections in the
soak website.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Website.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Yes, Oregony Sake we are I've found in twenty six
states now. It should be thirty thirty five markets by
the end of the year. But drink Oregami.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
Sam.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Thanks for your time and the beverage is delicious.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Sometimes when I met an event such as this one
at Borgota, I'm attracted to the name of a company,
and that was the case here. I found the company
called Betty Booze Sparkling gore Mat Cocktails, and there is
a whole line up of different, very very flavorful beverages
I have with me right now.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Jeremy couvalier, Jeremy Coley.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
What do you do for the company.
Speaker 6 (06:43):
I'm the associate brand manager through your based where out
of Manhattan?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Out of Manhattan, New York.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Okay, wonderful, This is such a unique product.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Who is Betty?
Speaker 5 (06:52):
Is there a Betty Booze? So, Betty Booze is our
product's name.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
Our founder, wonderful founder is Blake Lively and she's really
the inspiration and our inspiration behind all the products, the
flavors and what we're putting out into the market.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
And yeah, is she really derived.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
The name from her family as well? Betty Booze itself
comes from actually your grandma's name, Betty, and we thought
it was Booze.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Good guess. That's a great guest.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
But yeah, it's actually the sister company to her original
Betty Buzz, which is a non alcoholic version.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
When you're doing trade shows such as this, do you
find that the name is a hook that gets people in?
Speaker 6 (07:36):
Sometimes a thousand percent. It's what draws people in. It's
what people see when they're reading all, you know, amongst
the sea of tables out there, you've got to have
something that's fun, brings a connection to the product that
you're giving out and sampling and also have the product
that represents what you are saying in the brand's name.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Okay, so we identified the hook I's going to bring
the people in. Ultimately, you've got to have a good
problem behind it, and you're putting out so many different flavors.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
Yes, yes, that is true.
Speaker 6 (08:04):
So we're really experimenting across a multitude of different spirits.
We started with the tequila as well as bourbon varieties.
We've got six in total within the Sparkling Gourmet not
artificial flavorings.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
And then we actually just launched.
Speaker 6 (08:20):
Two vodka iced tea flavors that kind of play on
but also expand on what we already have out there,
which are mayor Lemon vodka iced tea as well as
a passion fruit and abv is four point five percent.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Very sessionable, and I think that's the hot ticket right now,
isn't it.
Speaker 6 (08:37):
Absolutely It's a drink that you want to bring to
the lake with your friends, and you know, as we say,
crush them all day long. But you know, they're also
on the high end scale. So if you're just looking
for a nice evening cocktail without putting in all the work,
it's a perfect option.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Now about distribution, where can we find you?
Speaker 6 (08:52):
Yeah, so we are actually in all fifty states currently
where we are distributed through southern glaziers with lots of opportunity,
and you can find us on Uber eats, Total Wine
as along with many local retailers and as well as
Reserve Bar.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
No, I'll put you on the spot. Do you know
the website?
Speaker 5 (09:09):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
We like to hook you there.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
Yeah, that's a good question. It is Betty Booze dot com.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
And I'll tell you what. I've tried a couple of
the flavors. I did the bourbon, I like, I like
bourbon a lot.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
I had the the ginger let's see apple ginger sour cherry,
which was delicious.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Animals of the lemonade absolutely yep.
Speaker 6 (09:27):
So those are two of my favorite flavors as well,
especially leaning on the bourbon and the apple ginger sour
cherry has won a numerous amount of accolades.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Oh is that right?
Speaker 5 (09:36):
Yep? That is that is correct?
Speaker 6 (09:38):
And uh, it's pretty unique out there because there's not
a lot of other RTDs that give that option of
having a complex cocktail within a can, but also keeping
it a sessionable you know drink.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yeah, I was it Germany. It wasn't too painful, was it?
Speaker 5 (09:53):
No?
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Thanks for joining us?
Speaker 6 (09:56):
Cheers, No, thank you, Gary, appreciate it.
Speaker 7 (10:00):
I spent some time at Bellevue Winery in South Jersey recently,
and I took a few minutes to talk with winemaker
David Gardner about an unexpected wine you'll find in the
tasting room. Dandelion Wine. Owner Jim Corella's Italian family has
been making the wine since long before you open to winery,
and Bellevue now honors that family tradition with its own bottling.
I asked David to tell us a bit about this
(10:21):
wine made from the same flowers that are dotting your
lawn this time of year. David, you guys make dandy
lion wine. Are you the only ones in the state.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
That do it?
Speaker 8 (10:31):
As far as I know, we are?
Speaker 7 (10:33):
And is it just dandelions in there or are their grapes?
Speaker 8 (10:36):
I just dandelions and lemons? Okay, really, dandelions don't have
any acidity, so you need the lemons to bring in,
you know, some of out of a city, so it
actually tastes like a wine instead of just a tea.
Speaker 7 (10:51):
Gotcha? And I assume the lemons don't come from New Jersey,
but as far as I know, Yeah, But the dandelions,
where do you get them?
Speaker 8 (10:59):
The dandelions are actually from a farm in Vineland, Okay,
I think it's Petronglo Farms, And they grow them for
the greens, so the flowers are kind of useless for them,
So it's actually almost a byproduct.
Speaker 7 (11:12):
For the wine. And is this a dessert style wine?
Speaker 5 (11:16):
Definitely?
Speaker 8 (11:17):
So. Jim is our owner. His great aunt used to
make it, and she made it, as she said, like
the ladies do so much sweeter, more of a dessert wine.
I guess the men made it more of a bitter,
dryer kind of flavor.
Speaker 7 (11:35):
And what is the season for danny lions? We all
know they come in the spring. So is this the
first wine you make of the year.
Speaker 8 (11:41):
Yeah, I suppose it is. Yeah, I think we've got
maybe a week or two before we might have to
start picking.
Speaker 7 (11:50):
And what would you serve the danny lion wine with?
Speaker 8 (11:54):
So, dandelion wine's good with desserts, it's actually good with pork.
I mean it's kind of a dessert wine. But you know,
if you just sip, sip a little bit. It does
well with cheese. Is also some strong, kind of strong
flavor cheese, blue cheese or something like that.
Speaker 7 (12:12):
All right, And finally, what does it taste like?
Speaker 8 (12:16):
I kind of describe it as it's kind of herbal
and kind of honey flavored. As it gets older, it's
more of the honey flavor. Younger, it's almost eucalyptus. It's
kind of almost a minty flavor. Yeah, kind of a
honey lemon.
Speaker 7 (12:35):
Okay. And I said finally, but that begs the question.
Does it age?
Speaker 5 (12:39):
Yes?
Speaker 8 (12:40):
So Jim actually brought out a bottle from nineteen fifty
eight and it was brown but still had flavor. Was
not you know, it didn't look quite as appealing as
it does when it was younger, but it definitely tasted good.
So we will bring out in the next I think
at our Spring Flames, we're going to bring out our
(13:02):
I want to say it's twenty eleven, seventeen and eighteen
and twenty four.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Okay, so we're.
Speaker 8 (13:08):
Bringing out somewhere old. Don't quote me on which vintages,
but there will be all vintages.
Speaker 7 (13:13):
All right, Thank you so much. I appreciate your time.
Speaker 8 (13:15):
Thank you.
Speaker 7 (13:16):
I want to thank David for taking the time to
teach us about Dandelion Wine. I'm Robin Shreeves and you
can find more of my wine commentary and thoughts in
my Drink Local Substack newsletter.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Thanks Robin, and we want to close out this week's
show by offering a little bit of news pertaining to
the Boston Beer Company. They are continuing to reshuffle their
portfolio and they're rolling out some new products this spring,
including four five percent ABV vodka based cocktail flavors in
the line called Sinless Spirits, and those flavors are cranberry, black, cherry, pineapple,
(13:50):
and peach. This is a limited rollout. It's going to
be in Massachusetts, California, and Nebraska, and I guess they're
probably going to test it and see how it goes.
The brand's website described it as quote indulgent cocktail crafted
with Big Bold flavor and made with premium vodka, all
with zero sugar, zero carbs, and only one hundred calories.
Boston Bear is also rolling out Just Hard Squeezed in
(14:11):
four test markets Charleston and merle Beach, South Carolina, Austin, Texas,
and Rhode Island. Just Hard Squeeze is a hard juice
brand made with real fruit juice and alcohol from cane sugar.
The flavored malt beverage will come in four four point
two percent ABV bubble free flavors raspberry, pineapple, mango, and peach.
The addition of these brands come as Boston Beer has
(14:34):
discontinued Slingers Signature Cocktails, which launched in twenty twenty three
and was expanded in twenty twenty four. And General Admission,
a non alcohol offering made from a blend of forty
percent non alcohol beer and sixty percent fruit water, and
I hit the stores in February of twenty twenty four.
Both were discontinued late last year. That's it for this
(14:54):
week's episode of Beverage Chronicles. I'm Gary montro Simpson. Will
see you next week.
Hi everyone, and welcome to Beverage Chronicles. I'm your host,
Gary Monterroso today I'm going to get started by taking
you to Atlantic City, where I very recently attended the
Fedway Associates Spring Tasting, which was held at Borgada Casino. Now,
(00:26):
if you're not familiar with Fedway Associates, they are a
leading wine and spirits distributor based in New Jersey, with
headquarters in Basking Ridge and a major distribution facility in Elizabeth,
New Jersey. They were founded right after the repeal of
prohibition in the early nineteen thirties, starting as Federal Wine
(00:49):
and Liquor Company, and they've now grown into one of
the state's largest liquor wholesalers. They service over seven thousand customers,
including restaurants, bars, taverns, retail stores. They distribute a wide
range of alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages from top global distillers,
(01:11):
wineries and importers such as Gray Goose, Bombay, Sapphire, and
so many others. They operate from multiple locations across north,
central and southern New Jersey, with a state of the
art five hundred and thirty five thousand square foot warehouse
and Elizabeth, capable of handling up to sixty thousand cases daily.
(01:32):
The company has modernized its operations, reducing product breakage by
over seventy percent through a new conveyor system implemented after
Hurricane Sandy back in twenty twelve. They host several events
during the course of the year. They do an annual
Family Fall Festival, which a couple of years ago drew
(01:53):
over fourteen hundred attendees, and the Spring Tasting in Atlantic
City appears to be an annual event as well. So
I'm going to take you to ac to the Borgata
with a couple interviews that I recently did.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
When I go to a trade event such as this
one in Atlantic City sponsored by Fedway Associates, I love
to look for I don't know if I want to
say some of the more unusual beverages, but things did
attract my attention. Now, Sam Berrickman, I want to tell
you this because you're representing organbi Sake. About fifteen years ago,
I was asked to judge the World Sake Summit in Manhattan,
(02:35):
and I had never had sake before in my life,
and I said, what do I expect? That I contacted
people whom I knew about the beverage, and I got
everything from You're gonna love it to it's jetlaine fuel.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I don't know what the hell would expected at this point,
but I ended up falling in love with it.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I ended up enjoying sake. So Organbi Sake, Sam tell
us about the company.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
So we are Organi Sake. We are America's newest and
the largest domestically owned sake brewery. We are one of
about twenty breweries of the United States right now, which
is quite exciting.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
We are based in Arkansas.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
The reason for that is Arkansas's the biggest producer of
rice in the United States. Okay. We work with a
farm called the Isabel Farms, which have been growing sake
grade rice since the eighties. It's a different type of
rice that you need just for growing sake, which is
quite exciting.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
And you brought up a good point because the rice
is so critical in the creation of sake. I know
in Japan. I mean they spend tons of time just having.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
The perfect rain.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Yeah, it's very important. It's just one of many important
factors in sake. I find that, especially for wine drinkers,
the grain of rice is not going to affect the
product like the grape and wine will and turn the outcome.
But you absolutely cannot grew good sake with bad quality rice.
It is just an important factor in that.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I'm gonna stop and say, if you have to take
a break, I.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Can quality sure, hear me do that. How many so
you said there twenty two American socceries.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Now, yeah, just about about twenty throughout the United States.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
That was my next question, all around the US.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Throughout the US, and that's for North America too. There's
one in Mexico. Canada has a few breweries if there
are three in New York State at the moment, two
in Brooklyn. So it's definitely a newer thing for breweries
in the United States.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Sam, I'm trying one of rosaki is right now and
it's a little cloudy, kind of milky, and I guess
we call that negory, right, Yes.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Yeah, that would be the Japanese term for it. We
do call it unfiltered. A lot of what we're trying
to do as an American brewery is to brewsake in
a very traditional way, but get rid of a lot
of the confusion and misconception between some of the Japanese
nomenclatures for the sake. So we do call it unfiltered,
but it is a negorisak.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Unfiltered would be a term that Americans can understand, I
think a lot more than NEBORI.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Right, absolutely, Yeah, I mean that's ninety percent of what
we're trying to do is really just spell a lot
of the confusion for asake.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Who are our prettymium sak rinkers? Are they the wine drinkers?
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Is beer transition if the beer drinkers transitioning over?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
What do you see?
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:05):
You know, sake is a really interesting category because it's
a category in and of itself. It's brewed like beer,
but enjoyed like wine. So I'd say the best thing
to do for someone who's trying to get into sake
is just treat it like a white wine. Drink it
slightly chilled, drink it in a wine glass, enjoy it
that way. In terms of production though much more like
a beer. So there's a lot to get into in
terms of the back of that not.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Going to day.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I heard people say drinksake warm, and yet when I
talk to a few sake experts, they say that's not
necessarily the case.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Yeah, there are a lot of great sakes that you
can drink at multiple temperatures. The truth behind a lot
of American sake is that ninety percent of what we're
drinking in America right now is American maid. Whenever you
get that really cheap house sake at a corner sushi restaurant,
that's gonna be American made, it's gonna be very low
quality cooking sake. They heat this up to get rid
(05:55):
of a lot of the flaws in the flavor, so
that heating masks a lot of the perfections in the
soak website.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Website.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Yes, Oregony Sake we are I've found in twenty six
states now. It should be thirty thirty five markets by
the end of the year. But drink Oregami.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
Sam.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Thanks for your time and the beverage is delicious.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Sometimes when I met an event such as this one
at Borgota, I'm attracted to the name of a company,
and that was the case here. I found the company
called Betty Booze Sparkling gore Mat Cocktails, and there is
a whole line up of different, very very flavorful beverages
I have with me right now.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Jeremy couvalier, Jeremy Coley.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
What do you do for the company.
Speaker 6 (06:43):
I'm the associate brand manager through your based where out
of Manhattan?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Out of Manhattan, New York.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Okay, wonderful, This is such a unique product.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Who is Betty?
Speaker 5 (06:52):
Is there a Betty Booze? So, Betty Booze is our
product's name.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
Our founder, wonderful founder is Blake Lively and she's really
the inspiration and our inspiration behind all the products, the
flavors and what we're putting out into the market.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
And yeah, is she really derived.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
The name from her family as well? Betty Booze itself
comes from actually your grandma's name, Betty, and we thought
it was Booze.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Good guess. That's a great guest.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
But yeah, it's actually the sister company to her original
Betty Buzz, which is a non alcoholic version.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
When you're doing trade shows such as this, do you
find that the name is a hook that gets people in?
Speaker 6 (07:36):
Sometimes a thousand percent. It's what draws people in. It's
what people see when they're reading all, you know, amongst
the sea of tables out there, you've got to have
something that's fun, brings a connection to the product that
you're giving out and sampling and also have the product
that represents what you are saying in the brand's name.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Okay, so we identified the hook I's going to bring
the people in. Ultimately, you've got to have a good
problem behind it, and you're putting out so many different flavors.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
Yes, yes, that is true.
Speaker 6 (08:04):
So we're really experimenting across a multitude of different spirits.
We started with the tequila as well as bourbon varieties.
We've got six in total within the Sparkling Gourmet not
artificial flavorings.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
And then we actually just launched.
Speaker 6 (08:20):
Two vodka iced tea flavors that kind of play on
but also expand on what we already have out there,
which are mayor Lemon vodka iced tea as well as
a passion fruit and abv is four point five percent.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Very sessionable, and I think that's the hot ticket right now,
isn't it.
Speaker 6 (08:37):
Absolutely It's a drink that you want to bring to
the lake with your friends, and you know, as we say,
crush them all day long. But you know, they're also
on the high end scale. So if you're just looking
for a nice evening cocktail without putting in all the work,
it's a perfect option.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Now about distribution, where can we find you?
Speaker 6 (08:52):
Yeah, so we are actually in all fifty states currently
where we are distributed through southern glaziers with lots of opportunity,
and you can find us on Uber eats, Total Wine
as along with many local retailers and as well as
Reserve Bar.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
No, I'll put you on the spot. Do you know
the website?
Speaker 5 (09:09):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
We like to hook you there.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
Yeah, that's a good question. It is Betty Booze dot com.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
And I'll tell you what. I've tried a couple of
the flavors. I did the bourbon, I like, I like
bourbon a lot.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
I had the the ginger let's see apple ginger sour cherry,
which was delicious.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Animals of the lemonade absolutely yep.
Speaker 6 (09:27):
So those are two of my favorite flavors as well,
especially leaning on the bourbon and the apple ginger sour
cherry has won a numerous amount of accolades.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Oh is that right?
Speaker 5 (09:36):
Yep? That is that is correct?
Speaker 6 (09:38):
And uh, it's pretty unique out there because there's not
a lot of other RTDs that give that option of
having a complex cocktail within a can, but also keeping
it a sessionable you know drink.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yeah, I was it Germany. It wasn't too painful, was it?
Speaker 5 (09:53):
No?
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Thanks for joining us?
Speaker 6 (09:56):
Cheers, No, thank you, Gary, appreciate it.
Speaker 7 (10:00):
I spent some time at Bellevue Winery in South Jersey recently,
and I took a few minutes to talk with winemaker
David Gardner about an unexpected wine you'll find in the
tasting room. Dandelion Wine. Owner Jim Corella's Italian family has
been making the wine since long before you open to winery,
and Bellevue now honors that family tradition with its own bottling.
I asked David to tell us a bit about this
(10:21):
wine made from the same flowers that are dotting your
lawn this time of year. David, you guys make dandy
lion wine. Are you the only ones in the state.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
That do it?
Speaker 8 (10:31):
As far as I know, we are?
Speaker 7 (10:33):
And is it just dandelions in there or are their grapes?
Speaker 8 (10:36):
I just dandelions and lemons? Okay, really, dandelions don't have
any acidity, so you need the lemons to bring in,
you know, some of out of a city, so it
actually tastes like a wine instead of just a tea.
Speaker 7 (10:51):
Gotcha? And I assume the lemons don't come from New Jersey,
but as far as I know, Yeah, But the dandelions,
where do you get them?
Speaker 8 (10:59):
The dandelions are actually from a farm in Vineland, Okay,
I think it's Petronglo Farms, And they grow them for
the greens, so the flowers are kind of useless for them,
So it's actually almost a byproduct.
Speaker 7 (11:12):
For the wine. And is this a dessert style wine?
Speaker 5 (11:16):
Definitely?
Speaker 8 (11:17):
So. Jim is our owner. His great aunt used to
make it, and she made it, as she said, like
the ladies do so much sweeter, more of a dessert wine.
I guess the men made it more of a bitter,
dryer kind of flavor.
Speaker 7 (11:35):
And what is the season for danny lions? We all
know they come in the spring. So is this the
first wine you make of the year.
Speaker 8 (11:41):
Yeah, I suppose it is. Yeah, I think we've got
maybe a week or two before we might have to
start picking.
Speaker 7 (11:50):
And what would you serve the danny lion wine with?
Speaker 8 (11:54):
So, dandelion wine's good with desserts, it's actually good with pork.
I mean it's kind of a dessert wine. But you know,
if you just sip, sip a little bit. It does
well with cheese. Is also some strong, kind of strong
flavor cheese, blue cheese or something like that.
Speaker 7 (12:12):
All right, And finally, what does it taste like?
Speaker 8 (12:16):
I kind of describe it as it's kind of herbal
and kind of honey flavored. As it gets older, it's
more of the honey flavor. Younger, it's almost eucalyptus. It's
kind of almost a minty flavor. Yeah, kind of a
honey lemon.
Speaker 7 (12:35):
Okay. And I said finally, but that begs the question.
Does it age?
Speaker 5 (12:39):
Yes?
Speaker 8 (12:40):
So Jim actually brought out a bottle from nineteen fifty
eight and it was brown but still had flavor. Was
not you know, it didn't look quite as appealing as
it does when it was younger, but it definitely tasted good.
So we will bring out in the next I think
at our Spring Flames, we're going to bring out our
(13:02):
I want to say it's twenty eleven, seventeen and eighteen
and twenty four.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Okay, so we're.
Speaker 8 (13:08):
Bringing out somewhere old. Don't quote me on which vintages,
but there will be all vintages.
Speaker 7 (13:13):
All right, Thank you so much. I appreciate your time.
Speaker 8 (13:15):
Thank you.
Speaker 7 (13:16):
I want to thank David for taking the time to
teach us about Dandelion Wine. I'm Robin Shreeves and you
can find more of my wine commentary and thoughts in
my Drink Local Substack newsletter.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Thanks Robin, and we want to close out this week's
show by offering a little bit of news pertaining to
the Boston Beer Company. They are continuing to reshuffle their
portfolio and they're rolling out some new products this spring,
including four five percent ABV vodka based cocktail flavors in
the line called Sinless Spirits, and those flavors are cranberry, black, cherry, pineapple,
(13:50):
and peach. This is a limited rollout. It's going to
be in Massachusetts, California, and Nebraska, and I guess they're
probably going to test it and see how it goes.
The brand's website described it as quote indulgent cocktail crafted
with Big Bold flavor and made with premium vodka, all
with zero sugar, zero carbs, and only one hundred calories.
Boston Bear is also rolling out Just Hard Squeezed in
(14:11):
four test markets Charleston and merle Beach, South Carolina, Austin, Texas,
and Rhode Island. Just Hard Squeeze is a hard juice
brand made with real fruit juice and alcohol from cane sugar.
The flavored malt beverage will come in four four point
two percent ABV bubble free flavors raspberry, pineapple, mango, and peach.
The addition of these brands come as Boston Beer has
(14:34):
discontinued Slingers Signature Cocktails, which launched in twenty twenty three
and was expanded in twenty twenty four. And General Admission,
a non alcohol offering made from a blend of forty
percent non alcohol beer and sixty percent fruit water, and
I hit the stores in February of twenty twenty four.
Both were discontinued late last year. That's it for this
(14:54):
week's episode of Beverage Chronicles. I'm Gary montro Simpson. Will
see you next week.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.