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Nov 21, 2012
Festive Fall Cocktails to Serve a Crowd

Whether you're throwing an autumn get together or looking for something to serve with Thanksgiving appetizers, a cocktail that showcases fall ingredients and flavors is sure to be a hit. To avoid playing bartender all evening, you need a drink that can be mixed in large batches and served in a festive punch bowl or pitcher. From chilled cider punch to warm bourbon-spiked chai, here are several seasonal libations to serve a crowd. See the recipes »

Chilled Cider Punch Credit: MacKenzie Smith
Nov 16, 2012
Friday Cocktails: Pumpkin Mulled Wine
by Felicia Campbell
Pumpkin Mulled Wine Credit: Anna Stockwell

Earlier this fall, SAVEUR kitchen director Kellie Evans and I ended up at a James Beard House dinner featuring "New England Mexican" food from Massachusetts restaurant The Painted Burro. The food was great, but for me, the most memorable of the localized Latin flavors was in the drink: a pumpkin sangria. Normally, the very word "sangria" makes me tense, dredging up memories of syrupy sweet concoctions masking bad wine, crowned with sad pieces of bobbing fruit, or at best, a fruity, decidedly summery wine blend. But this pumpkin sangria was a refreshing revelation, one that made me re-think the seasonality of fruited wine. Keep reading »

Nov 15, 2012
Drink This Now: Tibouren Clos Cibonne Rosé Cuvée Spéciale des Vignettes 2009
by Alice Feiring
Drink This Now: Tibouren Clos Cibonne Rosé Cuvée Spéciale des Vignettes 2009

André Roux was the kind of person who liked doing things the hard way. When he took over his father-in-law's Provençal vineyard near the Mediterranean coast in 1930, he decided to replace the mourvèdre grapes that had been the vineyard's mainstay for centuries with tibouren, a native grape known just as much for its susceptibility to disease and low yields as the earthy, beautifully balanced roses it produced. We owe Monsieur Roux a debt of gratitude for his tenacity. Without it, we would have been denied the pleasures of his Tibouren Clos Cibonne Côtes de Provence Rosé Cuvée Spéciale des Vignettes 2009. Keep reading »

Nov 14, 2012
37 Great American Wines

by Betsy Andrews

From SAVEUR Issue #151
American wine is coming of age, far beyond Napa Valley. A few decades ago most vineyards outside California, Washington, and Oregon grew hardy but undistinguished native grapes and hybrids, but today Vitis vinifera, the European species that is the standard for serious winemaking, has taken hold across the country. Keep reading »

37 Great American Wines Credit: Todd Coleman
Nov 9, 2012
Friday Cocktails: Autumn Bellini
by Gabriella Gershenson
Fall Bellini Credit: Anna Stockwell

It's easy to love a Bellini. At its best, the combination of white peach nectar and prosecco is pulpy and fresh, with a heady fragrance and fine effervescence. Plus, it has a glamorous pedigree, having been spawned at the swishy Harry's Bar in Venice, Italy. At Caffè Storico, the chic Italianate restaurant adjoining the New York Historical Society in Manhattan, there's not just one, but two Bellinis on the menu: the classic, updated with a dash of peach bitters, and a Bellini stagionale, a seasonal blend that right now consists of prosecco served not with peach but with mulled cider and a splash of heady fig vodka. Keep reading »

Nov 7, 2012
3 Perfect Champagnes for Thanksgiving
by Sarah Bray

Hands down, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. The location and turkey-styles of the celebration may have changed from year to year—baked turkey in the oven at my grandmother's beach house, deep-fried turkey at my uncle's farm—but no matter where we were or what we ate, delicious smells and sounds of laughter filled the day from the moment the cooking started in the morning. Keep reading »

3 Perfect Champagnes for Thanksgiving Credit: Helen Rosner
Nov 2, 2012
Friday Cocktails: Spiced Pear Collins
by Niki Achitoff-Gray
Spiced Pear Collins Credit: Niki Achitoff-Gray

There's a morning each year, sometime in mid-autumn, when I walk outside and find myself raising my nose to the air and taking in a long, deep whiff. Something is different, and that something is magnificent. In those moments, I want nothing more than to capture the essence of the season—preferably in consumable form. So I couldn't have been more thrilled when a recent excursion to New York's Prima restaurant landed me face-to-face with one such opportunity. Immersive and revitalizing, they offered a drink (on their menu as The Last Cocktail) that's an autumnal, frothy mix of gin, prosecco, pear purée, rosemary-infused agave, lemon juice, and powdered cloves. Keep reading »

Oct 26, 2012
Friday Cocktails: The Snakebite
by Cory Baldwin
Friday Cocktails: The Snakebite Credit: Helen Rosner

It took me a long time to come around to hard cider. My first taste of the stuff was a sip of cloyingly sweet brew that could only feasibly be enjoyed by a teenager, its flavor somewhere between green Jolly Rancher and cheap beer. But as more bars and beer shops have picked up dry, complex ciders, I've gradually been won over. My favorite cider cocktail, the Snakebite, has a similarly unfair reputation: In the 1980s, British teenagers and young pub-goers would sweeten their beer with sweet cider so that it went down a little too easy, so much so that an urban myth prevails that Snakebites are outlawed in UK pubs. But made with good stout and crisp, dry cider, this drink (which also goes by the name Black Velvet) is perfect for fall. It's what I order at the bar when I'm feeling indecisive—the layered measure of earthy beer slowly gives way to the fruitier, more effervescent cider. It's equally appealing at home, as the drink requires little effort but looks impressive in the glass; the trick to keeping the stout layered on top of the cider is to pour the beer very slowly over the back of a spoon. See the recipe for the Snakebite »

Oct 25, 2012
Drink This Now: Spooky Label Microbrews for Halloween
by Justin Kennedy

From a refreshing, low-alcohol Kölsch to a bracing Scandinavian smoked ale, these six microbrews are perfect for toasting this Halloween: Each feature festive, frightful label art, and many of them pair surprisingly well with chocolate and other candies. Keep reading »

Drink This Now: Spooky Label Microbrews for Halloween
Oct 19, 2012
Friday Cocktails: Blood and Sand
Blood and Sand Cocktail Credit: Maxime Iattoni

There's a precise alchemy to the making of scotch-based drinks—unlike mixer-friendly vodka, gin, or rum, the complexity of a barrel-aged spirit calls for a thoughtful balance of sweet, bitter, smoky, and herbal additions. The list of great scotch cocktails is short, but those that are great are truly great—perhaps none more improbably wonderful than the Blood and Sand, a combination of scotch, cherry heering, vermouth, and orange juice that together create a smoky-sweet effect that makes it a natural new-favorite-drink contender for lovers of the Manhattan or Old Fashioned. Keep reading »