Inventory for September 3rd, 2017

In this week’s inventory we discover the most expensive spirit bottles of 2017 so far, the owner of Sydney’s Eau de Vie bar begs his guests to stop stealing his shit, a Philadelphia-based bartender uses a mathematical sequence to mix drinks, and an Esquire writer explores the big conundrum: why cocktail bars are so stingy with their menus. Cheers!

Hi friends, what did you do this weekend? Not steal €250,000 worth of vintage wines, we hope! Parisian police report that 300 plus bottles were stolen from an apartment cellar via the – wait for it – catacombs. Somebody get Tom Hanks on this, it sounds like the perfect crime movie. “The raid on the cellar of an apartment in the chic 6th arrondissement, near the Luxembourg Gardens, happened in the night some time between Monday and Tuesday. Detectives say the thieves must have identified the cellar they wanted to access under the apartment building and then drilled into it from the catacombs, where the walls are mostly limestone. They made off with valuable grand cru wines.”

The Most Expensive Bottles of 2017

Let’s talk extravaganza! The Spirits Business has put together a list of this year’s most expensive spirits so far. “As consumers become increasingly willing to spend more on better products, luxury spirits producers are starting to reimagine the super-premium-plus category and take cues from the ‘craft’ craze.” They’ve put together a list of ten, but we’ve compiled our own top three list, consisting of the most ridiculous highlights: The Macallan 1991 is made from liquid from cask No.7021 – an oak Vasyma puncheon Sherry seasoned in Jerez, Spain – for the bottling, which was distilled on 28 March 1991. The Macallan Fine & Rare range is one of the most expensive collections of Scotch whisky that is still being expanded.

It comes in at a whopping $10,000. The Last Drop Distillers appear twice on the list, the one we’re talking about is the 1947 Hors d’Age Cognac which costs $4,149 “Traditionally distilled in a small copper still, the expression is said to have a “fresh, young and delicious” character with aromas that “have the richness of summer flowers.”

To no one’s surprise, the most expensive spirit on the list is a single malt. The Dalmore 50 is worth approximately $64,804. “An exceptionally rare Champagne-finished 50-year-old single malt launched in honour of distiller Richard Paterson’s 50th year in the industry.” The Dalmore 50 is a collaboration between four luxury companies: champagne house Domaine Henri Giraud, crystal manufacturer Baccarat, jewellery house Hamilton & Inches and bespoke furniture company Linley. The spirit is matured in American white oak, Matusalem Oloroso Sherry casks from the Gonzalez Byass Bodega, and port Colheita pipes from the Douro region of Portugal, before it was finished for 50 days in “rare” casks from Domaine Henri Giraud – one of the only Champagne houses still maturing their wines in casks.

Eau de Vie’s Owner Begs You to Stop Stealing His Shit

Bar owners come across this all the time, and in Sydney, Sven Almenning is dealing with $40,000 worth of stolen glassware. He wrote about it in Broadsheet, in which he addresses his article to his guests. At the heart of his plea is this “it is really frustrating, because people go to places for whatever it is that makes them unique, but then they steal the very things that make those places unique.” He asks his guests not only to stop, but to return stolen goods “Next time you spot something at a bar that you’d like to have at home, enquire about purchasing it, rather than stealing it. And if you have stolen goods at home – return them. We understand. I remember a guest once returned to Eau de Vie with a full set of crystal rocks glasses. I believe we bought him a shot of his favourite whisky as thanks.” A problem only too many bar owners will understand.

This Philly Bartender Invented a New Way to Make Drinks

“They’re called Fibonacci cocktails, and the process involves math,” so says Billy Penn. Paul MacDonald created a new way to make cocktails, using the Fibonacci sequence. It’s a series of numbers that mathematicians discovered nearly a millennium ago, which often shows up in nature (seeds on a sunflower follow its pattern, for example, as do scales on a pineapple) and also in art. “For his Fibonacci cocktails, MacDonald uses five ingredients combined in the ratio of the first five numbers in the famous sequence – 1:1:2:3:5. In keeping with the mathematical series, each number is the sum of the two prior to it. Specifically, MacDonald uses ¼ oz of ingredient A, ¼ oz of B, ½ oz of C, ¾ oz of D and 1¼ oz of E. The measurements add up to 3 oz, which is a standard cocktail pour.”

MacDonald came up with the idea because he was working on a drink with five fortified wines. “I had the idea that it would be cool to make a drink in which each of those five flavors came through – where you could taste each of these things in succession.” And so he did. In his Fibonacci in Autumn cocktail, he uses Cocchi Americano, Cappelletti Aperitivo, Laird’s 100 Apple Brandy, Green Chartreuse and Amaro Nardini. “The disparate parts come together in a sip that changes flavor and sharpness as you swallow.” That’s genius at work!

Why Cocktail Bars Are So Damn Stingy with Their Menus

“Are bars too tight-fisted with their heavily-bonded menu paper and laser-jet ink,” asks one Esquire writer. On the search for an answer to this very important question, he talks to several bartenders. One explanation “which may shed some light as to why other cocktail bars are so stingy with them, is they need to be clean and free from food or drink stains. The fact is that most guests don’t give a shit about menus.

They’ll gripe if they look shitty but will happily turn them into a coaster after the second round.” That insight comes courtesy of Ryan Fitzgerald, owner of ABV and Over Proof in San Francisco.