Episode 29: Boos and Booze: Spooky Wine & Spirits Stories

Episode 29: Boos and Booze: Spooky Wine & Spirits Stories

Oct 29, 2015

We start with the Green Fairy, or Absinthe, which is an anise-flavoured spirit made with grand wormwood otherwise known as Atemisia Absinthium (also found in Vermouth which is named for the german word “wermut” meaning “wormwood”).

Legends of the ingredient wormwood, particularly a compound known as Thujone (also found in sage, by the way) to be a hallucinogen were abound. The drink and the ritual of having the drink during a happy hour known as “the green hour.” Absinthe, normally bottled at 60% alcohol by volume or more, is generally enjoyed diluted with a little water percolated over a sugar cube resting on a slotted spoon.

The absinthe fountain serving up a meditative percolation of ice water over a sugar cube to dilute the spirit.

Abisnthe was quite popular during the Bell Epoque with the creative types such as poets, artists, and writers like Van Gogh and Manet and Picasso (some say the paintings explain it all).  Not only were they fans of the exotic drink, but  according to Ernest Hemingway, the “opaque, bitter, tongue-numbing, brain-warming, stomach-warming, idea-changing liquid alchemy …” “… supposed to rot your brain out, but I don’t believe it. It only changes the ideas.” (Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls).  There is actually an Absinthe cocktail named for Ernest Hemingway called Death in the Afternoon that we tried in New Orleans recently

Meanwhile, the popularity came with demonization and was blamed for the degeneration of French culture, violent crime in Switzerland in the early 1900s, including the Lanfray murder of 1905 which put the nail in Absinthe’s coffin, so to speak.

We expand on absinthe’s story a little more in this episode, as well as a story about literally getting away with murder because of gin during London’s “Gin Craze” which ended in 1751. Talk about a beverage that underwent some the highs and lows of popularity and societal scourge!

Steph then regales us of the story behind Owen Roe’s Sinister hand wine from Washington state’s Columbia Valley. This story will not only surprise you but have you looking for a bottle … and an extra hand … for your Halloween party this year!

Photo courtesy of www.diffordsguide.com

We also dig up another story about the history behind the cat on bottles of Old Tom gin. While our story had to do with Captain Dudley Bradstreet’s system of illicit gin sales, after the podcast we found another story regarding the cat, along with this picture from Difford’s Guide with a different take on the story.  Either way, we couldn’t get all “Halloweenie” without a black cat, now could we?

We also couldn’t get into the Halloween spirit without the spirit of rum. For example, did you know there really was a Captain Morgan? He was Jamaica’s first governor, Sir Henry Morgan, but began his history on the island in 1655 when the English took it over. He used his pirate booty to purchase a sugar plantation; and as we know, sugar cane is used to make rum. So there you go – a real life pirate story! Argh.

We keep the spice theme going and eat some crow when Steph gives a shoutout to Prairie Berry Winery’s Pumpkin Bog wine. Back on Episode 25 we talked about Fall drinks and a listener had asked us for the seasonal equivalent to the pumpkin beer and latte deluge this time of year.  Well, we did say that there was not something we could recommend or were totally on board with.  It turns out that Steph and her charming husband were in South Dakota this last weekend for a wedding in Hill City at the Prairie Berry Winery. As she walked through the entrance, the first display she saw was the Pumpkin Bog wine. Immediately she thought of Val and our W25 homies, and she jumped on the grenade to give it a try. After all, we couldn’t have another regretful whale carpaccio incident (check out Episode 15 if you missed that reference).  You heard it here, pumpkin wine.  It exists.

Finally, we find some fun Halloween entertaining ideas.  Val found a list of Haunted Pub Crawls around the country, courtesy of the Travel Channel; and Steph dug up a Murder Mystery Party – A Taste for Wine and Murder that looks like an absolute blast.