On Friday, October 10th, The Knockturnal joined Tanqueray Gin for an exclusive dinner at Elcielo New York, enjoying cocktails and cuisine thoughtfully paired for a truly memorable evening. The event brought together exceptional flavors and celebrated the enduring legacy of gin alongside Joseph Hall, Tanqueray’s new Global Brand Ambassador
WhistlePig Whiskey is all about making a statement and what better way to do that than taking over the heart of bourbon country?
Taylor Swift reigns as a musical mecca, while Orin Swift stands out as a stellar star in the sophisticated world of wine. While there’s no connection between Orin Swift and music, this powerhouse wine brand hits all the right notes.
Templeton Distillery hosted an intimate dinner in New York City this month where delighted guests experienced the sophisticated luxury of the beloved American brand.
The Knockturnal team is thrilled to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with some of our favorite alcohol brands. As lovers of all things fun and festive, we’ve curated a list of top-quality brands that are sure to make your celebrations even more enjoyable.
“Every year the Las Olas Wine & Food Festival brings together a diverse community, top culinary talent, and some of the best wine and spirit brands to help raise money for an important cause.” remarks Patrick Cassidy, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits of Florida. “Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits is committed to supporting local communities through these types of exciting events where we can give back and make a difference, while also enabling more consumers to experience our great brands. We are proud to support this year’s festival and the mission of its host, the American Lung Association.”
Owner Debbie Ellen Jones of Ellen’s Wine and Spirites, brings a unique and new concept to the usual liquor store environment. Her creative use of categorization immediately caught my eye once I walked into the store for our one-on-one tasting and interview. Everything is organized by price, colorful dots, and charming emojis. The colorful dots spotlight whether the product embodies, “female power, minority, kosher, I love NY, biodynamic, organic and off dry and sweet” options. The charming emojis are displayed like a fun game game of literal verses symbolic flavors, for example, mushrooms for earthy, and wood for smoky. The store being displayed by price also provides a go-to comfortable area for each individual customer that walks in. Owner Debbie’s hospitality, enthusiasm, vast knowledge, and huge passion come from her 11 years of expertise as a Sommelier, including at a 2 Michelin Star Restaurant, Jungsik in Tribeca.
N: I love the categorization of your liquor store. What brought about this idea and made you want to do that?
D: I’ve been in the restaurant industry in NYC for about 11 years now, and being a female in the wine industry for a long time, it is still represented majority by males. And being a female in the wine industry, I understand that there’s very few of us, and I wanted to represent the underrepresented. There are very few females in the wine industry, there are even fewer minorities in the wine industry, so this is where the ideas sort of came from. But also, I’m keeping in mind about the quality of the product that we have, and representing also the local industry as well, such as, we are in Queens, in Ridgewood, so we want to represent…about 20-25 percent of our inventory is from New York and then everything else is globally. We also have a great sticker system so females in the wine industry are represented by pink, minorities in the wine industry are represented by purple, we have a small amount of Kosher represented by blue, organics by orange, biodynamics is green, and then also off dry-to sweet styles of wine, for ease of locating different products that someone might be interested in. Our wine section is organized by price point so, $14, $20, and $28 on the long wall there, and inside those respected price points, you have about 40 different selections of wines ranging from white, rose, and also reds from all around the world, and each wine has a label and also emojis, because I think emojis are very simple to understand, and when somebody walks into a wine shop, they might feel a little bit intimidated, so I try to make this wine shop as easy as possible to navigate. We also have a small section of orange wines, sparking wine, such as champagne, pet nat prosecco, for example as well, and then we have our spirites section where we represent scotch whiskey, also whiskey from Japan, a lot of American, urbans, and ryes, and then also, Irish whiskey, mezcal, tequila, vodka, gin, and then after dinner drinks such as cognac, amores as well. Some Vermouth, so you can shake up some cocktails.
N: Nice! I would love to know since you did come from a Michelin Star Restaurant, what was that transition like into more retail, more ownership, and more entrepreneurship?
D: I’m still actually a part of the restaurant industry. We just opened the wine shop about 2 months ago. We had our soft opening, and our grand opening was November 16th, so we are a very new wine shop located in Ridgewood, and we’re still expanding as you can see in the center of the store. We have another price-point, categorized, so anything above $30 is in the center, reds, and whites, and in the future we are going to expand these sections, so that it’s a larger section…that is our improvements for the future though. I, in the Michelin Star Restaurant industry, am at the Jungsik, it’s a 2 Michelin Star Restaurant in Tribeca. That transition was relatively easy because I have such an amazing staff at the wine shop to run everything on the day to day. I have great support!
N: Can you speak a bit about being a Sommelier and being that representation, and how you hope to leave your mark in this industry?
D: I hope to leave a mark in the industry by raising awareness of females and minorities in the wine industry. I think that the more that we talk about the equality or the opportunities for some verses others, have to be a little more equal because as a Sommelier, the certifications are very expensive, buying wine itself is very expensive to expand your palette, and to also learn about spirites as well. All of this has a dollar amount. So I would like to expand the awareness of how the restaurant industry and the wine industry can help those who need it.
This past Memorial Day weekend, Eva Longoria unveiled ‘House of Sun’ named after her tequila brand, Casa Del Sol.
