What I Drank (May 20, 2024): Krooked Tusker Distilling "The QKA Navy" Gin
Rosé, rosé, and more rosé – but also a delicious negroni with Finger Lakes gin
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What a rosé-soaked weekend! On Saturday morning, I convened a panel of tasters to sample more than 30 East Coast rosés. I tasted through them again Saturday night, again on Sunday morning, and last night, I finished my third round of re-tastes.
All told, we found 11 wines that stood out the first time through. Then, we narrowed it to a final four, but ultimately, we couldn’t choose just one panel favorite. Two wines split the votes.
Stay tuned for the full report, which will be available in the next week or so. I have a lot to say about the wines we tasted and the category.
My “What I Drank” this week relates to the rosé tasting, but only tangentially.
Point of the Bluff Vineyards winemaker Justin Recktenwald missed the deadline to ship his rosé for the tasting, but he was going to be on the North Fork last week, so he asked if he could drop it off. Not only did he do so, he also left me a bottle of this Krooked Tusker Distilling “The QKA Navy” Gin — because he knows I love negronis.
I do love negronis, so I made one with this complex, non-traditional gin from the Finger Lakes (even though I was out of my large, clear ice cubes).
It was delicious, but I look forward to trying this gin with some less-assertive cocktail components. At 115-proof, it still stood up to the Campari, but I suspect the true flavors of the gin were a bit overwhelmed by it. More to come!
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