There’s been a lot of rumors and commotion lately about the new relationship between Proximo and St. George Spirits, specifically in regards the Hangar One Vodka line. To get the scoop, I got a chance to sit down and talk to St. George Spirits master distiller Lance Winters and distiller Dave Smith.

According to Lance, “neither the Hangar One brand nor the distillery have been sold,” and that the only thing that has changed is that marketing and distribution rights for Hangar One vodka have moved from Craft Distillers to Proximo. Craft Distillers is best known as the folks behind the Germain-Robin brandy and Danzantes (recently changed to Los Nahuales) mescal brands, and Poximo are the marketers and importers of the 1800 Tequila and Three Olives vodka brands.

When asked how this change would affect the distillery and production, Dave and Lance both emphasized that the product would continue to be made at the distillery in Alameda and that consumers should notice little change in the vodka. They seemed hopeful that Proximo’s “resources and know-how” would help improve retail availability of the vodka line and result in more product support for retail and bar outlets.

For Dave Smith, his focus will be on making some of the more esoteric and unusual spirits commercially viable and refining the production process to be more efficient and improve yield. Will this ever result in the Foie Gras vodka ever making it to the market?

Lance is excited to have an alliance with a company that is keen on tapping into his creativity, by allowing St. George to create new flavors, products and brands associated with Hangar One vodka.

“Hangar One is great, but I also want to keep doing new things,” added Lance. In the near future, he hopes to release a gin, an aged and unaged rum made from California cane, along with a white dog (unaged bourbon) as a value spirit. Keep an eye out for new whiskey expressions like bourbon, made with a blend of malts along with the corn, and a single barrel single malt offering. “Whiskey brings me closer to my roots and the reason why I came to the distillery,” he said handing me a glass of the barely aged bourbon. Tasting it, I knew it would bring me back too.

http://www.craftdistillers.com/

http://www.proximospirits.com/

http://www.stgeorgespirits.com/

We’re offering you a special discount on all your tickets to the festivities this weekend!

Drink Me Magazine and Pinot Days have partnered to offer our mailing list members a 10% discount on all of the festival’s spectacular events. Just enter the discount code DRINKMESF10 when ordering tickets from the Pinot Days web site and you will receive an immediate 10% discount on all events. This year’s Pinot Days Grand Festival is on Sunday, June 27th from 1-5pm at the Festival Pavilion in the Fort Mason Center, San Francisco.

We all know how amazing the experience of our Grand Festival is for those who love Pinot Noir. If you enjoy the Grand Festival, please also consider attending one of our other events (Focus Tastings, Winemaker Dinners, Russian River Valley Pinot Day Tour) scheduled for the week prior to Sunday’s Grand Festival, as we think that these events are not only unique, but they embody the essence of what makes the pinot noir industry so captivating.In this, our 6th year, we will again showcase over 200 producers of Pinot Noir from California, Oregon, New Zealand, Germany and Burgundy. The Grand Festival is the single largest tasting of Pinot Noir on the planet, and it is difficult to find a better time for the price; $60 covers entry to the event and a complimentary Burgundy-style glass you may take home.  So mark your calendar!

www.pinotdays.com

Dinner for two at Solstice

What goes better with delicious wine than amazing food? Drink Me Magazine has teamed up with online social resource Social Diva to give away two dinners for two, so you can indulge yourselves in Solstice’s delicious menu.  Don’t worry, each dinner comes with two glasses from their amazing – slash – eclectic list of vino.

It seems Sol food can have sugar and spice and everything nice.  Send this to friends who will name drop you when they Enter To Win for our offer*.  If one of them win, maybe they’ll share some hand-cut frites two ways with you as a consolation prize.  Located at 2801 California @ Divisadero, 415/359-1222.

Golden Glass Wine Festival

Slow Food San Francisco’s annual Golden Glass is a lively gastronomic and educational event featuring the year’s most talked-about international wines complemented by culinary delights from the Bay Area’s top restaurants and artisan producers.  The event brings over 100 international wine producers who strive to protect, nurture, and revive the indigenous and classic varieties of their regions.

…and We’re giving away two pairs of tickets!

ENTER TO WIN:

Tweet the following message, and we will choose two winners:

“ReTweet this message to win a pair of tickets to the Golden Glass Wine Festival in San Francisco @drinkmemagazine”

When: June 12th, 11-1pm (trade), 1-5pm (general public)

Where: Fort Mason Center, San Francisco

If you don’t win, you can still get tickets HERE.

San Diego Spirits Festival

If you happen to find yourself in San Diego this weekend or are looking for a reason to get away, (or have friends in San Diego who like cocktails), you may want to check out the San Diego Spirits Festival. We’re going, and you can too!  To make it easier, we’re giving away a pair of tickets to the grand tasting.

ENTER TO WIN:

Email Contest@drinkmemag.com with your favorite San Diego Bar.  We will choose the winner by Friday morning!

Indulge all your senses this summer at the 2nd Annual San Diego Spirits Festival. Clear your calendars for June 2-5, 2010 for a Festival jam-packed with events. Meet and mingle with Industry professionals, network, make new friends, each evening will end with a fashion show at different venues in the Gaslamp, The Keating, The Se, The Ivy Andaz Rooftop, a full schedule can be found on the website.

The weekend will culminate with the GRAND TASTING, Saturday June 5th, held on the beautiful 4.3 acre Hilton Bayfront Waterfront Park on the Bay that we call San Diego. Be seen, be heard, and be there!

San Diego Spirits Festival has over 60 Brands with that will be doing tastings at the GRAND TASTING. Live Entertainment, VIP Tent with buffet.  Last year the event sold out. Tickets are on Sale at www.SanDiegoSpiritsFestival.com

1) Brazilian Night at Pisco Lounge

2) $20 Greek Food & Wine Every Wednesday at Mezes

3) “Sex In the City 2″ Party at Westfield San Francisco Centre

4) “Happy” Birthday Specials at Taverna Aventine

5) Uncorked Events 4th Anniversary “Best of the Best” Party

6) Dine About Town Relaunch Party

7) Half-Price Pizza Every Tuesday & Wednesday at Little Star

Tropicana Latin Thursday at Madrone Art Bar

9) FolSOMA Microhood Event – Half-Off Wine, $5 Beer Flights & More

Howdy, folks! Welcome back to Booze In The News, where you’ll find the latest, funniest and most obscure newsworthy, alcohol-related bits all in one place.

1.) A famous Burgundy winery was recently threatened with a poison extortion plot . Don’t worry, their wine and the people who work there were not poisoned. The victims of this plot? Two innocent grapevines. Luckily, the extortionist was caught, and the vines are expected to survive. Phew.

2.) Carlsberg in Denmark has had a rough couple of months. Right on the heels of a strike over on-site employee beer consumption, roughly half of the work force just ended a second strike, this time over wages. As a result, distribution and production has been severely affected.

3.) Who knew that pigs could spark drama worthy of a reality TV show? Cochon 555 is a culinary event in which 5 chefs prepare 5 pigs and then 5 winemakers pair wines with the resulting meal, all for a good cause. It seems like an enjoyable enough event, but in Portland things got nasty in short order. A Portland chef and an event organizer supposedly got into a physical fight involving headbutting and punching, and ending with police using pepper spray and tasers. The reason? The chef, a native of Portland, felt (very strongly!) that the pigs should be local in order to support local farms. One only hopes that San Francisco gets as much excitement when the tour comes through on June 6.

1.) As if your wife needs another reason to tell you to cut back on your beer consumption, a study in Africa shows that malaria-carrying mosquitoes are more attracted to beer drinkers than water drinkers. Apparently that delicious odor emanating from your skin after knocking back a few beers makes mosquitoes salivate like winged vampire versions of Pavlov’s dogs. If only women had the same taste as mosquitoes….

2.) Moth related issues on the wine front are getting serious: USDA has issued a quarantine extending throughout Napa, Calistoga, and now Sonoma. The sneaky little critter lays eggs inside grape fruit, making the fruit unusable for wine. In some instances, already entire crops of wine have been destroyed, wreaking havoc on the profits of affected wineries. Who knew such a little pest could do such big damage?

]]> http://drinkmemag.com/2010/05/booze-in-the-news-5-6-2010/feed/ 1 http://drinkmemag.com/2010/04/booze-in-the-news-4-29-2010/ http://drinkmemag.com/2010/04/booze-in-the-news-4-29-2010/#comments Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:50:58 +0000 Heather http://drinkmemag.com/?p=2127

Howdy, folks! Welcome back to Booze In The News, where you’ll find the latest, funniest and most obscure newsworthy, alcohol-related bits all in one place.

1.) If binge drinking were a competition, the UK would be the winner of Europe. A recent survey shows that people in the UK typically consume more alcohol in one sitting than in any other part of the European Union. Looks like they like drinking as much as we do!

2.) Kiwis are increasing alcohol regulation (New Zealanders, not the bird). Whereas before there was no legal drinking age -as long as parents bought the alcohol for their children -now they are attempting to make the drinking age 20. They are also adding a significant tax to alcohol. Apparently the NZ government doesn’t like seeing rum in the schoolyard.

3.) Anchor Brewing company, a historical treasure of San Francisco, has been sold to The Griffin Group of Novato. The local beer community is abuzz with the possible ramifications of this change. Here at Drink Me Magazine, we would love to receive your comments on the issue!

Howdy, folks! Welcome back to Booze In The News, where you’ll find the latest, funniest and most obscure newsworthy, alcohol-related bits all in one place.

1.) Among controversial speculated benefits of moderate wine consumption, such as weight loss in women and prevention of cardiovascular disease,  a doctor at John Hopkins is now saying that tipping back a glass may help prevent brain damage from a stroke. How did they find this out? By feeding Resveratrol found in grapes to mice, of course. The  more important question remains… can you hear a mouse hiccup?

2.) Love 7-Eleven late night Slurpees and Nachos? Well, now 7-Eleven is attempting to brew their own beer, called Game Day. After all, 7-Eleven is the third largest beer retailer in the United States… next on the agenda, beer flavored slurpee?

3.) A St. Helena Winery is in deep trouble with firefighters after having publicly stated their opinion that firefighters have too many benefits and are over paid. Now firefighters are boycotting the winery and encouraging everyone they can to follow suit. Let’s hope that winery doesn’t catch on fire anytime soon…

1.) A man in Germany has set the world record for the largest house made out of beer coasters. Using more than a quarter of a million beer coasters, and spending 42-56 hours per week since January, Sven Goebel secured himself a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. Someone should also give him an award for being the most unproductive productive person in the world.

2.) Add Salamanders to the list of animals threatening wineries this year, thus far including moths, baboons, and salmon. Proponents of the Tiger Salamander will be happy to know that the state of California has recently passed a law protecting this slimy little critter as an endangered species. Under the new law, wineries will have to have any land not already being used for vineyards to be inspected by a third party to prove that no tiger salamanders will be affected by the development.

3.) Carlsberg beer workers in Denmark have ended their strike, after being promised to have the chance to speak with management. Many workers had refused to work last week after a new alcohol policy was put into place which limited their during work beer consumption to lunch time, whereas previously they were allowed to drink throughout the work day.

4.) Coming on the heels of the Carlsberg strike, workers at Mexico’s Grupo Modelo, maker of Corona, are now striking due to a dispute in contract negotiations. Fortunately or unfortunately, this reason for the strike isn’t as juicy as the one that just ended in Denmark.

]]> http://drinkmemag.com/2010/04/booze-in-the-news-4-15-2010/feed/ 0 http://drinkmemag.com/2010/04/booze-in-the-news-4-8-2010/ http://drinkmemag.com/2010/04/booze-in-the-news-4-8-2010/#comments Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:50:13 +0000 Heather http://drinkmemag.com/?p=1948

Howdy, folks! Welcome back to Booze In The News, where you’ll find the latest, funniest and most obscure newsworthy, alcohol-related bits all in one place.

1. The secret is in the seal; Maker’s Mark has won a lawsuit against Diageo, the parent company of Jose Cuervo, deciding once and for all that the trademark hand-dipped wax seal on the top of the Maker’s Mark bottle is solely theirs.

2. Bad news for big beer companies; good news for microbreweries in Washington state. Legislators are on their way to passing a new law tripling the tax on major brand beer sales, like Budweiser or Pabst Blue Ribbon. Smaller breweries are exempt from the tax, which gives them a fighting chance against the big guys.

3. Forget brushing your teeth, drink some wine instead! New research at the University of Pavia in Italy suggests that drinking wine may help fight cavities. It certainly doesn’t help the color of your teeth though…

4.  Something is rotten in the state of Denmark… workers at Carlsberg Brewery in Copenhagen are up in arms over the recent negation of their “right” to drink 3 beers a day while on the job.  As many as 800 workers have walked out on strike as a result of this new rule limiting on-site beer consumption. As a result of the strike, shipments have been canceled today from the world’s #4 brewer all over the world. At least it’s for a good cause…?