Welcome back to Sip Northwest’s Bar Tab, our editor’s weekly selection of what to drink in the Northwest now. This week, despite it still being rather mild out, we welcome winter warmers to the bar. Because staying warm in balmy 50 degree December climate can be more difficult than you think. Come on in, belly up to the counter and order a digital drink on us. Stay toasty, our friends.
Baerlic Brewing Co. Arctos Winter Ale | Altogether now: “bear-lick arc-tos.” The Portland taproom and brewery recently released this ale, titling it a winter beer focused more on “tradition than style; more necessity than preference,” providing warmth for winter survival. The medium-bodied ale straddles the line between seasons with roasty winter flavors and bold, toned hops, using a blend of toasted and crystal malts with Chinook, Cascade, Centennial and Willamette hops that total to 73 IBUs and 7 percent ABV. A thick and frothy head gives way to polished grains, toast and fresh-cracked coffee bean aromas with a touch of citrus hops hiding in the back. Those notes of orange, lemon and savory greens come in with dominance on the palate, lifting up the darker, roasted flavors with zest and vigor.
Ransom Spirits Henry DuYore’s Rye Whiskey | If this whiskey’s label depicting old timey “Henry” carrying a barrel of whiskey on his back isn’t enough to raise a glass to, you better get your priorities straight. This Sheridan, Oregon, distillery and winery bottled its first batch of rye whiskey in honor of the “innate feistiness of rye,” and after the grain itself tried to eat up the house’s equally old timey mashing system. After sourcing some unaged rye, the team aged the spirit for 18 months in oak, blended it with 23 percent barley and bottled it at 92.2 proof. The resulting whiskey is just as spry as Henry and rye both seem to be with spiced, sweet rye bread, cereal grains and toffee sprightly filling the glass and vigorously flushing the palate, finishing with brown sugar and rich malts.
Snowdrift Cider Co. Cornice | The Ringsrud family has been farming in the Wenatchee Valley since the 1940s and fermenting French cider apples for homemade cider since the 1970s. In 2003, they put their money where their mouth was (or was drinking from) and planted a selection of French, English and heritage American cider apple varieties, many of which are pressed, fermented, blended and barrel-aged in this brawny and pronounced cider. For those not familiar with this valley in winter, cornices are the wind-whipped snow formations that tower over the edges of the the area’s many sloping ridges. Seemingly defying gravity, Snowdrift wanted to give a flavor to the atmospheric condition and did so with strong wafts of bourbon, vanilla, toffee and wood spice, accented by plenty of shaping tannins and brisk acid.
Sawtooth Winery Trout Trilogy 2013 Carménère | Before Snake River Valley was an AVA, before Idaho wine was even a blip on the national enology radar and before the winery count hit double digits, there was Sawtooth Winery. A founding winery to the valley and the state, Sawtooth opened in 1987 upon a humble hillside estate in the town of Nampa. The namesake vineyard covers 70 acres at 2,700 feet in elevation, rooted in Seism silt loam and ready for warmer climate varieties, like the sometimes forgotten Bordeaux grape of Carménère. From the Trout Trilogy series, the 2013 single varietal saw 24 months in oak before only 190 cases were bottled, revealing warm aromas of bramble berry, black cherry, plum and earthy-sweet eucalyptus, steering clear of the more green, unripe tones the variety can often bring. Toasty oak flavors and spice season the palate while the dark fruits smooth out the tannin.
