Weekend Wine Tasting & Antiquing

On Saturday I scored a copy of the Esquire Drink Book from 1956:

My wife and I went to North East, Pa. with her folks and not only hit up some antique shops, but also bought a couple bottles of wine along the way.

Here in Jamestown, we live near the Lake Erie Wine Trail — so weekend tasting is a regular part of summers in Chautauqua County.

We started at South Shore Wine Company, which is a winery located in North East that’s part of the Mazza group of wineries. Mazza has two other locations, both in Chautauqua County, my favorite of which is right across from Johnson Estate Winery — but more on that in a bit.

The South Shore location was a great place to visit because the main room is in an underground, cavernous, stone room that’s just neat to experience. And even better, there’s wine to taste while you’re taking in the history.

I tasted two wines and three meads, their Gruner Veltliner and Noiret for wines — and also their honey mead, raspberry honey mead and a carbonated mead called “Hops & Honey,” made with hops and more.

The gruner veltliner was very good and I wish I would have gotten a bottle, but the appeal of having some honey mead was more appealing. Not getting a bottle of the gruner veltliner just means I’ll have to go back soon, and I wonder if the other Mazza locations sell that same gruner veltliner that South Shore was selling.

Wine Links:

— Lake Erie Wine Country

— Chautauqua Wine Trail

— South Shore Wine Company

— Johnson Estate Winery

Tasting Bar:

Earlier I mentioned that one of the Mazza sites is located right across from the Johnson Estate Winery.

Those two sites are located right on Route 20 in Westfield and are a couple of my favorites because they offer more than just wine to taste — they have spirits.

The Mazza location has its own distilled spirits to taste, made and marketed under the Five & 20 name. The Johnson Estate Winery doesn’t distill spirits, but it does have what it calls a “New York Statr Spirits Tasting Bar.” Basically, there’s a second station in the winery’s tasting room where you can taste boozes which were made in New York State.

I tasted three whiskies there Saturday:

Whiskey Tasting :

• Bootlegger 21 New York Bourbon Whiskey — 

• Hudson Double Charred Whiskey — 

• 77 Whiskey Rye & Corn —

At Mazza, in addition to wine and spirits, there’s a launch party for their brewery’s first beers this weekend — making Mazza and Five & 20 the first combination winery, distillery and brewery in the state.

Recipes For Essential Mixes Drinks

I picked up this pocket cocktail pamphlet at a household sale in Lakewood, N.Y.

Bellows: Recipes For Essential Mixed Drinks

This was one of six vintage pamphlets I picked up at a local household sale. I’ll post the rest soon. And maybe one day I’ll get around to transcribing the recipes.

The thing with a pamphlet like this though is that it specifies its particular brand in all of the drinks which are listed. They’re great to own for the art and phrasing though, especially the party books for hosts and hostesses. Those ones have hilarious little cartoons and suggestions for party games and canapés and all sorts of other stuff. This pamphlet’s a more straightforward set of recipes.

I just did a quick Google search and found a few of these Bellows books available for sale online. Not sure of more than that though. From what I can find online it maybe printed in 1949? Or 1950?

The book’s divided up into five sections:
•Whiskey
•Gin
•Rum
•Brandy, Sherry & Champagne
•Miscellaneous

There’s a total of 34 cocktails in the book and they’re printed as follows:

•Whiskey•
–Bourbon on the Rocks
–Old Fashioned
•Gin•
–Dry Manhattan
–Manhattan
–Mint Julep
–Whiskey Sour
–Whiskey Toddy
–Dry Martini
–Bronx Cocktail
–Alexander
–Southside Cocktail
–Gin Rickey
–Tom Collins
–French 75
•Rum•
–Cuba Libre
–Daiquiri
–Planters Punch
–Rum Collins
•Brandy, Sherry & Champagne•
–Brandy Smash
–Side Car
–Stinger
–Jack Rose
–Sherry Flip
–Champagne Cocktail
–Champagne Bowl
•Miscellaneous•
–Whiskey Egg Nog
–Whiskey Tom & Jerry
–Peach Bowl
–Black Velvet
–Bellows Rum Cocktail
–The Grasshopper
–Hot Whiskey Toddy
–Sazerac Cocktail
–Bamboo Cocktail

Other Vintage Cocktail Pamphlets:
•The Smart Hostess — Link

The Smart Hostess & The Discriminating Host

I picked this up at a house sale: The Smart Hostess!

It’s a pamphlet printed by the Rival Manufacturing Company in 1954 or 1960, I’m not seeing a whole lot about it anywhere on the internet.

The first section of the pamphlet has ads for the Ice-O-Matic Electric Ice Crusher, The Bucketeer Ice-O-Mat, the Two-Way Ice-O-Mat and the Vogue Ice-O-Mat.

The second section is all party foods and non-alcoholic beverages, but the last section is all bar basics and classic cocktails. Here they are in the order they’re printed:

COCKTAILS
•Gin Fizz
•Milk Punch
•Stinger Cocktail
•Maple Leaf Cocktail
•Preakness Cocktail
•Whiskey Fix
•Sloe Gin Fizz
•Southern Comfort Cocktail
•Rum Sour
•Side Car
•Mint Julep
•Frozen Daiquiri
•Planter’s Punch
•Orange Blossom Cocktail
•Golden Dawn Cocktail
•Pink Lady Cocktail
•Cider & Gin
•Shamrock Cocktail
•Ward 8
•Bronx
•Bourbon & Scotch Mist