SUPER Spirits

Americans are drinking less alcohol these days. But when we do drink, we are buying better . . . and spending more, sometimes hundreds of dollars for a single bottle.

Call it: The Super Spirits syndrome.

Liquor producers, scrambling to maintain profits in the face of shrinking sales, are encouraging the upscaling of the American drinker. Higher-quality products are appearing on more and more store shelves; at the same time less of each product is being distilled. Pick up a bottle of almost any of the highest priced Super Spirits--from the almost neutral distilled ( eau-de-vie , grappa , vodka); to the distilled and aged in barrel (Scotch, Cognac); to the flavored, sweetened products (infusions, mistelle )--and you’ll probably find the phrase, “limited supply.” It’s a vague but nevertheless effective marketing label to make an already expensive item even more pricey, and thus more desirable.

Last year, for instance, Hine brought in just five cases of its 1914 Cognac; at the same time, Larresingle brought in small amounts of a 1928 Armagnac. Despite triple-digit prices per bottle, both sold rapidly.

Then there is the bottle: Packaging has become almost as important as the liquor. And we’re not talking a ceramic Elvis. It’s not uncommon to see hand-blown or cut crystal bottles entombed in elaborate velvet-flocked wood boxes. (We’ve yet to see a talking, laser-etched, neon, holographic or digital bottle, however.)

Though it is only now reaching its peak, the marketing of Super Spirits began in earnest about three years ago, coinciding with the downturn in hard liquor consumption. The new products had immediate appeal, especially among wine lovers seeking non-traditional before- or after-dinner drinks. Their high quality is evident with the first sip. Generally there is more flavor and more intensity for the extra money.

And unlike wine, Super Spirits usually don’t spoil once the bottle has been opened. Merchants say this is one key reason the products have caught on. The bottle becomes a practical investment--the buyer reasons that a Super Spirit can be sipped for months or years, thus justifying a sky-high price.

Super Spirits as a concept isn’t new, especially among wine-based spirits. A century ago, the hype was on Cognac. These days, Cognac remains popular, yet its makers feel the need to give it Super Spirit-status with higher designations and pricier packaging. Courvoisier, for example, put out an Ertee-designed and -painted bottle at $300 a copy. And once again, Cognac producers are toying with vintage-dated Cognac, which has been all but unknown in the last few decades.

Considering the inroads made by Armagnac, the fancy marketing might be needed. Wine lovers who might once have served Cognac exclusively now serve vintaged Armagnac--and brag to their friends that it’s more “in” than its more famous cousin.

But Cognac and Armagnac have both been getting a determined challenge for the attention of the wine lover from two unlikely rivals: Scotch and grappa .

It’s true that Scotch and other forms of whisky are distillations from a humbler source than wine (a cereal mash that has been converted to sugar and then fermented to alcohol), but all-malt or single-malt Scotch from Scotland can be as sublime and complex a product as wine. And with single-malt Scotch, the most popular of the Super Spirits, the result is as different from producer to producer and region to region as is wine.

Single-malt Scotch still represents less than 5% of all Scotch sales, but it is a fast-growing category. Meanwhile the sales of blended Scotch (a blend of malt whisky with neutral-flavored grain whisky) have been relatively flat. For that reason the Scotch Whisky Assn. has mounted a national campaign on behalf of blended Scotch. You hear about its low-calorie count, its character, how it goes with food and what a complex product it is. But at a recent dinner in Los Angeles, one member of the Scotch delegation acknowledged quietly that flat sales of blended Scotch prompted this campaign. And even at that dinner, much of the talk and the sipping was of single-malt Scotch. Blended Scotch isn’t a Super Spirit, single-male Scotch is.

Thus, on higher-end single malt bottles, you’ll often find the length of time the Scotch spent aging in barrel. Twelve years seems about average. But as competition heats up, more and more vintages (meaning, in the case of whisky, the year of distillation) are showing up, too. Three of the best are Macallan’s 1971, Glenmorangie 1963 and Knockando 1964. All sell for more than $100 a bottle. Macallan also has a 25-year-old.

According to Tony Tucker, executive director of the Scotch Whisky Assn., a number of the single-malt brands coming into the United States are produced exclusively for export and have no market at home. And because of the popularity of single malts throughout the United States in the last few years, smaller distilleries are now tending to bottle under their own name, rather than selling their product to the blenders.

“The distilleries have awakened to the idea that single-malt whisky in all of its various guises is the only product that wine drinkers will go after as a non-wine, distilled product,” Sacramento merchant Darrell Corti says. “So those that always sold single malt in bulk are now buying back some of their stock and bottling it under their own name.”

Three such single-malt Scotches that have achieved popularity in California despite elevated prices are Dalwhinnie, Glenkinchie, and Auchentoshen.

Macallan has become popular in Los Angeles recently for at least two reasons: the house style and the fact that the chairman of the board of Macallan Distillery, Allan Schiach, lives and works here. He is a screenwriter and producer, and he actively promotes Macallan.

Macallan’s style results because it is one of the few Scotch whiskys aged exclusively in sherry casks, a controversial procedure that gives the product its distinctive nut-like, vanilla character. Schiach insists the use of sherry casks adds complexity and subtlety to the Scotch character.

Neil McCarrow of Glenmorangie, on the other hand, is equally voluble on the subject. He is unalterably opposed to the use of only sherry casks for aging.

“Scientists would say that wholly sherry-matured malts are mono-dimensional,” McCarrow says. “From our perspective (at Glenmorangie), we find that sherry is a false friend. It bullies the wide sophistication of taste, it robs the Scotch of the honey and the orangey character of the malt.” He says Glenmorangie single malt is “a very fruity, sweet, vital malt, and therefore its taste spectrum is very accessible.”

Other single malts, such as Laphroaig, are made to emphasize the strong peat character, so much a part of the product.

This is exactly the sort of controversy--sherry vs. fruitiness vs. peat--that fascinates the wine connoisseur. It’s no wonder that so many wine drinkers have gone single-malt crazy.

In 1980, about 120,000 cases of single-malt whisky were sold in the United States; in 1989, sales were estimated at 360,000 cases. During that time, the dollar volume of total Scotch sales increased from 1% to 8%, reflecting the fact that better (and more expensive) single malts are being offered here.

Moreover, there’s been a worldwide swing toward Scotch. In 1989, global single-malt sales were just over two-thirds that of VSOP-grade Cognac, and gaining.

Other whisky makers are also entering the Super Spirits field. One of the more interesting efforts is a smooth, finely crafted product called Gentleman Jack, the first new product from the Jack Daniel distillery in Lynchburg, Tenn., in more than a century. Twice filtered through charcoal and aged in barrels longer than traditional whisky, Gentleman Jack (unveiled about 1987) is a true sipping whisky, with an oaked character more like Cognac and a taste more like Macallan. It’s cost--$25 a bottle--might seem expensive for an American whisky, but the stuff has caught on with a number of consumers who like sipping it straight, or “neat.”

Within the last few months, Jim Beam Brands Co. announced national release of Booker Noe’s Bourbon, which it claims is “arguably the finest bourbon available.” At $35, it’s not cheap, and a press release announcing it says “availability will be limited.” Naturally.

Grappa is a distillate made from the grape skins left after wine making. In general it is a rough, fiery, clear liquid, usually served the way brandy, Cognac or single-malt Scotch is served, in a snifter without ice or mixers.

In the last few years, a number of Italian producers have excelled in making high-quality grappa that sells for much more money than the grappas of the past. One of the hottest names in that field is Nonino, which pioneered the single-grape grappa that has become the current rage.

Angelo Gaja’s Grappa di Nebbiolo from Ceretto and numerous others also now command high prices in this country. A bottle of a good grappa can run $75 to $100 for 500 milliliters. And it’s the bottle itself that causes many people to buy. Many are hand-blown in such gorgeous shapes that their owners feel compelled to display them as art objects.

“You have to keep in mind that this is a product of excess,” Corti says, “especially when you see these prices and realize that grappa is a salvage operation. Today ( grappa producers) are riding high on the crest of popularity, so they will milk it for all it’s worth. But is it worth it?”

One California grappa producer, irked by the extravagant prices, says, “The grappa craze will die in about a year. Most of them are about the same in quality, so after everyone gets one of the cute little bottles, the game will be over.”

But some of the interest lies in the fact that when grappa is made from a strongly scented grape variety, such as Gewurztraminer or Muscat, the result can be intriguing.

Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains is experimenting with various types of grappas , as is St. George Spirits of Emeryville, which has made some exceptional eau-de-vie products.

Martin Brothers Winery of Paso Robles makes a small quantity of grappa from the Nebbiolo grape. Just 275 bottles of the first Martin Brothers Grappa di Nebbiolo were produced, and it was exceptional. It was packaged in a striking Italian decanter with a separate cork stopper. At $50 a bottle, it was priced lower than the Italian versions and almost as good.

Another form of grappa is eaux-de-vie. These are clear, dry distillates of fermented fruit or fresh-macerated fruit. ( Eau-de-vie de framboise , however, is made by taking raspberries, steeping them in alcohol and distilling the flavored alcohol. Using fresh fruit would be ludicrously expensive.) They can be quite exotic. Among the best are those made from pears. Eau-de-vie de poire , as the French call it, is made by fermenting pear mash into pear wine (called perry), then distilling the perry.

One such product from Italy, Grappa di Pera from Jacopo Poli, is one of the finest such grappas I have ever tasted. However, a 500-ml bottle sells for about $100.

Now an Oregon producer, Clear Creek Distillery, has put out an acclaimed Pear Williams Brandy as well as an excellent apple brandy similar to the French Calvados. Both sell for $23.50 a bottle and have found a market with connoisseurs.

A distillation of sugar-cane residue can be converted to rum, and rum is produced virtually anywhere sugar cane grows. But in the last few years, rum from Jamaica has caught on with purists, because it tends to be the darkest, most concentrated of rums.

There are reasons why Jamaican rum is more intense than that of Puerto Rico, Haiti, Barbados and elsewhere, and they are related to production techniques.

Appleton, a premium rum producer and subsidiary of the Jamaican giant Wray & Nephew, produces literally hundreds of products, but among its half dozen premium rums are two catching on in the United States with Super Spirits buyers: Appleton VX and Appleton Estate.

Owen Tulloch, master blender with Appleton (he’s been with the firm 45 years), says these two rums are not to be confused with rum intended for mixing with Coca-Cola. “These are sipping rums,” he says. “They are hand-blended to be sipped in a snifter, without ice or mixers.”

The result is a product that shows evidence of time in barrel (15 years for most of the blends), offering a mild molasses, pear and toasted-vanilla aroma.

Tulloch says the high cost of labor (“it’s hard to get people to work the sugar cane fields these days”) and the long aging time make these rums difficult to produce. Considering the time and expense, it’s surprising they aren’t more expensive. The VX sells for about $13, the Estate for about $20.

Another budding Super Spirits category is super premium vodka. These include Denaka, Icy, and higher designations of old-line products such as Smirnoff. Although the producers are advertising the uniqueness of these new products, merchants say that they are only marginally different in character and that few people will sip them straight. And blending them with juice or Vermouth only covers up the subtle difference between them.

The Super Spirit of the future? Darrell Corti says there is great interest these days in vintage ports and in long-aged tawny ports. “I think we’ll start seeing the single- quinta (vineyard) wines,” he says, “and more single-grape variety wines.”

He points out that Quinta do Noval gets a high price for its vintage port from the famed Nacional vineyard, which grows a single variety of grape called Touriga. He says more port producers are looking to offer an upscale port to compete with that wine.

All they have to do is put the stuff in fancier bottles.

Drinking Super Spirits is one thing; cooking with them is another. After a couple of drinks, the quality of the liquor hardly matters anymore and you might as well switch to more mundane libations. But when you cook, it pays to get the best money can buy. For the alcohol burns off with heat, leaving nothing but the flavor of the liquor in its wake. This is where Super Spirits really show their stuff.

This is more American than apple pie: it combines our national food (hot dogs) with an alcohol of our own invention (bourbon). Cook it with the best bourbon, and we’re sure you’ll agree that franks have never tasted better.

BOURBON FRANKFURTERS

1 cup bourbon

1 cup catsup

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1 tablespoon minced onion

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1/8 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

1 pound cocktail frankfurters

Combine bourbon, catsup, brown sugar, onion, Worcestershire and hot pepper sauce in saucepan. Simmer, uncovered, 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add frankfurters to sauce and simmer 30 minutes more. Makes about 40 appetizers.

Note: 1 pound regular frankfurters, cut into quarters, may be substituted for cocktail frankfurters.

Vodka may not have a lot of flavor-- but here it adds a little something to seafood spaghetti.

SPAGHETTI AL CARTOCCIO

(Seafood Spaghetti in a Bubble)

1/4 cup olive oil

1 medium clove garlic, chopped

Crushed red peppers

5 ounces cleaned squid, cut into rings

5 ounces bay scallops

5 ounces shrimp

12 mussels

12 clams

1/2 teaspoon curry powder

2 teaspoons chopped Italian parsley

1 tablespoon chopped basil

Salt

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 cup tomato sauce

1 pound spaghetti

1/2 cup 80% or higher-proof vodka, heated

Heat oil in large skillet. Add garlic and red peppers to taste and saute until garlic is golden. Add squid, scallops, shrimp, mussels and clams, then sprinkle with curry, 1/2 parsley, basil and salt to taste.

Saute 3 to 5 minutes, tossing shellfish to cook evenly. Add white wine and cook 2 to 3 minutes until wine has evaporated. Add tomato sauce. Cover and simmer 10 minutes over medium heat.

Meanwhile, cook spaghetti in boiling salted water until al dente. Drain pasta, then add to sauce in skillet. Toss 30 seconds to coat spaghetti with sauce.

Place square of foil large enough to hold spaghetti and seafood on baking sheet. (Foil should be light- to medium-weight, not heavy-duty.)

Place spaghetti in square of foil and seal well to prevent steam from escaping. Bake at 500 degrees 5 to 10 minutes or longer, depending on warmth of pasta before placing in oven, until foil pouch begins to puff.

Place pouch on hot serving tray with lip. Pour vodka around tray. Ignite at table, being careful to place out of reach of flammable materials.

Punch hole with long-handled implement in foil pouch to allow fumes from liquor to permeate spaghetti mixture until flame dies down. Serve spaghetti from pouch onto warm dishes, sprinkled with remaining parsley. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Meat and cognac are natural partners. As these two classic and dramatic recipes easily prove.

LAMB MEDALLIONS FLAMED WITH COGNAC

1 (6-inch) lamb loin, boned

2 to 3 cloves garlic, finely minced

Pepper

Crushed fresh rosemary

12 slices bacon

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/3 cup Cognac

Trim any excess fat from lamb loin. Roll loin together and slice into 1-inch thick medallions. Rub garlic, pepper and rosemary to taste into medallions.

Cook bacon until browned but still pliable. Wrap 2 bacon slices around each medallion, securing with wood pick.

Preheat heavy, 10-inch skillet over high heat until water dropped on surface dances. Sprinkle skillet with salt. Place medallions in skillet and sear quickly, about 1 minute on each side.

Reduce heat to medium high and cook about 4 minutes on each side for medium rare, turning once. Remove meat.

Add 2 tablespoons Cognac to pan. Stir to loosen browned bits. Remove wood picks from medallions and return meat to skillet. Add remaining Cognac and ignite. Serve when flame dies down. Makes 6 servings.

STEAK DIANE

1 1/2 pound boneless sirloin steak, 1/2-inch thick

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

2 tablespoons oil

1 tablespoon chopped chives

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

3 tablespoons Cognac

Wipe steak with paper towel to remove excess moisture. Combine mustard, salt and pepper. Sprinkle over one side of steak and rub in.

Brown steak in hot oil about 1 1/2 minutes on each side or to desired degree of doneness. Sprinkle with chives, lemon juice and Worcestershire.

Heat Cognac to just below boiling. Pour over steak and ignite. When flame dies down, transfer steak to serving platter. Spoon pan juice over meat. Makes 4 servings.

Ice, lemon, vodka and ginger. Could anything be cooler?

GINGER-VODKA SORBET

1 (1-inch) piece peeled ginger root, quartered

1 cup sugar

2 1/2 cups water

1/4 cup juniper berries

1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

1/4 cup vodka

Combine ginger, sugar, water and juniper berries in medium saucepan. Stir well. Heat to boiling. Cover and simmer 8 to 10 minutes until syrupy. Uncover, remove from heat and refrigerate to cool.

Strain, discarding ginger and juniper berries. Stir in lemon juice and vodka. Cover and freeze until half frozen.

Using metal knife blade in food processor container, process partially frozen sorbet mixture 1 minute, stopping once to scrape down container sides. Place in freezer container and freeze until 3/4 frozen.

Reprocess 1 minute. Refreeze to 3/4 firm, then reprocess 2 minutes. Pack into airtight container and freeze at least 8 hours. For best results, let stand in freezer 2 days to allow flavors to meld. Makes about 1 pint.

Brown sugar. Chocolate. Nuts. Bourbon. Whipped cream. What could possibly make this pie more delicious than it already is? Try adding a Super Sprit to the mix, and you’ll see.

OLD KENTUCKY BOURBON PIE

4 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled

1 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup bourbon

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate pieces

1 (9-inch) unbaked pie shell

Whipped cream, optional

Stir eggs, butter and corn syrup together. Add granulated and brown sugars and mix well. Add bourbon, vanilla and walnuts.

Sprinkle chocolate pieces evenly over bottom of pie shell. Carefully add egg mixture. Bake at 350 degrees 45 to 55 minutes. Serve with whipped cream. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

You probably won’t want to spend $100 a bottle for the rum for this cake. But there’s rum in the cake and rum in the glaze, and if you use the best rum you can afford, you won’t be sorry.

TROPICAL RUM CAKE

3 eggs

1 cup oil

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 (1-pound, 4-ounce) can crushed pineapple in heavy syrup

1/4 cup dark rum

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup toasted shredded coconut

Rum Glaze

Shredded coconut, optional

Beat eggs in bowl until light. Mix in oil, sugar and vanilla. Continue beating until thick and foamy. Drain pineapple, reserving syrup for glaze. Stir pineapple and rum into egg mixture.

Blend flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and toasted coconut. Stir into pineapple mixture just until all ingredients are mixed.

Turn batter into greased 10-inch bundt pan or individual brioche pans. Bake at 350 degrees 50 to 60 minutes for bundt, 30 to 35 for brioche. Spoon Rum Glaze over cake and garnish with shredded coconut. Makes 8 servings.

Rum Glaze

Reserved pineapple syrup

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons dark rum

1 tablespoon butter

Blend pineapple syrup, sugar, cornstarch and rum in small saucepan. Bring to boil. Boil, stirring, until thickened and clear. Stir in butter. Cool 5 minutes.

Food styling by Donna Deane

* RELATED STORY: H2

Super Spirits are also consumed differently than ordinary spirits, usually in a snifter without ice or mixers.