The Goods 2017 - Wine & Spirits Magazine
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The Goods 2017


photo of Peconic Escargot by Katelyn Knapp


Send Snail Mail

Taylor Knapp hatched the idea for Peconic Escargot  when he was working as a chef on the North Fork of Long Island, and couldn’t find local snails. This June he opened his farm in Cutchogue, NY, raising Petit Gris, a French heritage species, on wild foraged greens, and finishing them on a diet of acorns and spent beer grains. Plump, earthy and nutty, they are delivered to your door uncooked. Give the unshelled version a bath in crushed tomatoes, anchovies, garlic and chile flakes and arrange them over crusty semolina bread with fresh mint; or dot the in-shell variety with herb-garlic butter and bake until sizzling.
¼ pound shelled, $25; ½ pound shelled, $40; one dozen in shell, $15; four dozen in shell, $36


Ring in the New Year

Artist Laura Lobdell’s storefront is located at 183 1/8 West 10th Street in New York City—yes, 1/8. The space, just 4 by 16 feet, is fit for a fairy; a Champagne fairy that is. The Champers Ring is her little reminder to celebrate every day, and just one of the many pieces from her whimsical Drinks Champagne collection. Each piece can be hand engraved or sprinkled with diamond “bubbles.”
Champers Ring, $498


Get Carded

What was the first cocktail invented in the US? What’s the minimum time required to age Scotch whisky? Test your knowledge or stump the know-it-all in the room with Ridley’s Games Room Food & Drink trivia cards—140 cards on all things edible.
$12 per pack


Bottoms Up

Oaxacans have a saying: para todo mal, mezcal, y para todo bien también (for everything bad, mezcal; for everything good, the same). Sarah Welch throws these ceramic copitas for sipping—glazing and firing them in layers to create variation in each piece.
Set of six, $40


Take it for a Spin

Mixing up cocktails? Do it with the ease of a professional by using the OXO spinning bar spoon. Standard length, the spoon spins, keeping the back against the glass and preventing the ice from chipping, which keeps the cocktail clear.
OXO Good Grips Spinning Bar Spoon, $15


Say Cheese

Soaked for five days in local lagrein wine, herbs, garlic and pepper, the Weinkase Lagrein cheese comes from Italy’s Alto-Adige region, along the Austrian border. Six weeks after the steep, the pasteurized cow’s milk cheese is transformed, meaty and creamy, with a spicy bite around the purple-tinged rind.
$23 per pound


For the Designated Driver

Inspired by the mention of non-alcoholic distillates in John French’s The Art of Distillation, published in 1651, Seedlip founder Ben Branson purchased a copper still and began experimenting in his kitchen in Buckinghamshire, England. So far, he’s introduced two cuvées: Garden 108, an herbal and floral distillate of peas, hay and herbs grown on the family farm; and Spice 94, a blend of distillates of Jamaican allspice berries, cardamom, oak, cascarilla bark, lemon and grapefruit peel, bottled with out sugar or alcohol. With a woodsy and refreshing scent that recalls a clove-spiked orange, it makes a complex nonalcoholic aperitif best enjoyed over ice with tonic water.
Seedlip Nonalcoholic Spirits, $40/700ml

This story was featured in W&S Winter 2017.
photo of Peconic Escargot by Katelyn Knapp

Deanna Gonnella, is a graduate of NYC’s International Culinary Center’s Classic Culinary Arts program, a private chef and our in-house expert on all things culinary. She’s also worked the floor as a sommelier, and advised buyers at Vintry Fine Wines in Manhattan, so she knows a thing or two about wine.


This story appears in the print issue of Winter 2017.
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