Today before work I swung by the first annual Northwest Spirits and Mixology Show held at the very cool Jupiter Hotel. While it was blazing hot, a number of great spirits (and one or two not-so-great) were pouring samples under a tent. This was easily the best organized and nicest spirits event in the Pacific Northwest, probably due to Luxe Event Productions putting on the event. While this year was great, I’m already looking forward to 2011′s edition of this event.

Some quick highlights from my time at the show;

  1. Dry Fly and the wonderful Courtney Clark were stuck in the blazing sun, but, as usual, Dry Fly’s gin, vodka and whiskey were all world class.
  2. I got a chance to taste Seven Tiki rum, a new spiced rum on the market here in Oregon. I’ll admit, I don’t like flavored rums of any sort, but Seven Tiki wasn’t overtly sweet and had a nice, natural Madagascar vanilla note to it that seemed like it would make it a perfect summertime mixer with Coke.
  3. Superfly vodka out of Brookings Oregon makes an unfiltered potato vodka out of Oregon russets. I was expecting the usual ngs crap that gets foisted off as craft product and I was pleasantly surprised by how flavorful Superfly really was. Nice stuff and I say that as a non-vodka drinker.
  4. Some guy tried to bullshit me about how his whiskey “only” needs 90 days in barrel because they use the heart cuts. Next time you want to blow smoke up someone’s ass, perhaps don’t do it to a whiskey writer. And the whiskey in question sucks btw.
  5. One of my absolute favorite people in the biz, Seattle’s Rocky Yeh let me taste some of his stash of great rums. One of the things I like about Rocky is his enthusiasm for and knowledge of good rum. I always learn something from him and he is one of the true gentlemen in the liquor world.
  6. Old Forester Signature. Why don’t I have a bottle of this at home? Good stuff. I can’t say enough about Old Forester. One of the greatest names in bourbon going.
  7. Chambord has a vodka out. It isn’t for my palate, but I see them moving a lot of product soon. It should be in every nightclub in America soon.
  8. Is it me or is Antiguo tequila one of the great values in spirits today? High quality at a very reasonable price point.
  9. Did someone seriously try to sell me a system where I buy liquor when its on sale? I need to pay money to figure that out?