Meet the New Whiskeys, Part 3 (Ryes)
The Number Ten Whiskey List has been expanded, and early in May we sampled some of the new rye arrivals, and talked about why they were selected and how these…
Author: David Guenette
Meet the New Whiskeys, Part 2 (Secondary Barrel Finishing)
Recently we sampled some of the new arrivals for The Number Ten American Whiskey List and we focused on second barreling, a growing trend in American whiskey, when the bourbon…
Figuring Out Cocktail Menus, Part One
I’ll admit that I like titles with “Part One” in them, if for no other reason than these clearly suggest that the subject will be revisited, added on, and bring…
Meet the New Whiskeys, Part 1
Note: TalkTails, the actual real-world gathering of whiskey fans and cocktail curious alike, has finally resumed at Number Ten (Great Barrington, MA), where I’m bar manager. During the shutdown and…
Essay: Horsewhip Jeff Bezos, Part One
Let’s assume that I’m using “horsewhip” metaphorically and mainly to underscore (ouch!) the tenor of my argument. A lot gets said about Jeff Bezos, good and bad. In my former…
Essay: Truth and Democracy and The Big Lie
“The Big Lie,” also known as “Stop the Steal,” is a big deal for American democracy. Former President Trump continues to propagate the fiction that the national election of 2020,…
Cocktails and COVID
I will confess that I’m missing bartending at Number Ten and helping guests expand their cocktail experiences by trying some drink they’ve never had, or, of course, just doing the…
The Fifteenth Number Ten Symposium TalkTails: The Martini—Forward into the Past
The Fifteenth Number Ten Symposium TalkTails: The Martini—Forward into the Past took place on Monday, February 17, 2020, at Number Ten, 10 Castle Street, Great Barrington, as one of a…
Does Liquor Makes the Difference? Matching the Right American Whiskey to Your Manhattan
The Number Ten Fourteenth Symposium TalkTails took place at Number Ten, and the event was a different approach than usual, with the usual being tasting different whiskeys or exploring categories…
Number Ten Thirteenth Symposium TalkTails Moonshine and Cocktails: Tasting White Dog Whiskeys and Figuring Out What to Do with Them
We had a nice, albeit smaller than usual group for the Number Ten whiskey/cocktail tasting and talk, this past Monday, November 18, 2019, at Number Ten, 10 Castle Street, Great…
Number Ten Twelfth Symposium TalkTails: Cocktails Eggsactly Right! Sours, Nogs, Flips, and Fizzes!
The use of eggs—either whole or parts thereof (such as egg white)—have been part of cocktails for nearly four centuries, if you go back to the days of adding an…
Number Ten Eleventh Symposium TalkTails: More Manhattan!
The first of the new season, Number Ten Eleventh Symposium TalkTails: More Manhattan!, was held on Monday, September 23, 2019, at Number Ten (10 Castle Street, Great Barrington, MA). We…
These Are Some of Our Favorite Things
Monday, June 10, 2019, had a full house for “Number Ten Tenth Symposium TalkTails: These Are Some of Our Favorite Things,” well, which largely turned out to be some of…
Now Serving Ten-to-Twelve
No, I’m not in prison, unless an obsession with American Whiskey counts as such. At the “Number Ten Ninth Symposium Whiskey Tasting: Now Serving Ten-to-Twelve,” we tasted older Bourbons and…
Gin or Lose, Liqueur and Booze, Now We Get to Drink Chartreuse
Actually, getting to know cocktails that have the ingredient of Green or Yellow Chartreuse means everyone wins. Charteuse is a distinctly flavored liquor from a secret formulation of 130 herbs…
Number Ten Symposium: New Orleans Cocktails
On Monday, February 11, 2019, at Number Ten, New Orleans cocktails were celebrated. Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Jazz Town… New Orleans knows pleasure, and the number of terrific cocktails that…
Whiskey Tasting: Families and Flights
Another second Monday and another Number Ten Whiskey Tasting Symposium. On Monday, January 14, 2019, we explored taste profiles within a particular distillery product line and compared two different distillery…
SPLIT
Split is a recent collection of short stories that thematically focus on divorce or other acute relationship collapse. The writing of these pieces was no doubt related to my own…
THE WALL
The Wall is a novel-length work of stories set in the same place, at different times, with only some overlapping characters. The Wall was started in the early 1980s, as…
TalkTails Symposium Number One: Essential Cocktails and Essential Vermouths
Number Ten, where I tend bar, hosted TalkTails Symposium Number One: Essential Cocktails and Essential Vermouths, on Monday, December 10, 2018. Helping others enjoy vermouth is a topic that is near and…
Number Ten Fourth Whiskey Tasting Symposium: The Finish and Blend Trend
The second Monday of November saw another Number Ten Symposium, and this time we explored the new ways that both blending and second barrel finishing of American whiskeys are changing…
Essay: Why Newspaper Paywalls Are Bad for Democracy, Plus, Pretty Damn Stupid
I don’t know what the percentages are for Americans who get the main part of news online, but I suspect that it is significant and getting bigger. I use Google…