NY Barfly

Sample Over 500 Wines At Toast Of The Town

Fact: when hundreds of people gather at the Hammerstein Ballroom on May 3 for Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s epic Toast Of The Town event, no one will be able to actually try all the wine and spirits that are on offer. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. This springtime event will bring vintners and distillers together under one room – since man cannot live on booze alone, 37 restaurants will also be in the house to dish out bites.

VIP hour goes down from 6 to 7 PM and the grand tasting happens from 7 to 10. As far as spring events go this one is second only to the Manhattan Cocktail Classic. You have a few more days to score early bird tickets for $99 (or VIP for $149). After April 26, the prices go up to $109 and $169. Get more info here!

Lillet Launches First New Product in 50 Years - Lillet Rose

New aperitif alert! Maison Lillet, the maker of aperitif's that are becoming increasingly common in high-end cocktails, has just announced a new label. In fact, Lillet Rose is their first new product in 50 years. The new spirit comes from a blend of classic red and white Grand Cru Bordeaux wine varietals that are used to produce Lillet Blanc and Lillet Rouge.

That blend is then married with artisanal orange liqueurs and a concoction (which is totally secret, as most things like this go) of fruit liqueurs that are sourced from an area in Southwestern France near the distillery. Some Peruvian quinine is mixed in (sounds very mad-scientist, right?) and the result is a fruity tonic wine that has notes of berries, melon and wildflower on the tongue. We haven't had the pleasure to try this one yet, but we're pretty excited to have a few sips.

It's on the shelves now for the low price of $19.99. If you're thinking of picking up a bottle, check out a cocktail recipe below:

Rougissant

2 parts Lillet Rosé

1 part Hendrick’s Gin

0.5 part true grenadine

0.25 part orgeat

0.5 part fresh lemon juice

2 parts soda water

Short shake all ingredients except the soda water with ice; Fine strain over fresh ice in a tall glass. Add soda water and stir to combine. Garnish with a straw and freshly spanked mint.

Alcoholic Ice Cream Available in NYC

A couple weeks ago, we alerted you to some alcohol-infused ice cream dubbed SnoBar, which sadly isn’t yet available in New York. Well, when you want a spiked dessert, it turns out that there is a boozy offering available in the Big Apple. Tip The Wagon Desserts has a line of alcoholic sorbets and ice cream based on classic drinks – you can score flavors like chocolate martini, lemon drop, and pina colada. The frozen treats have many of the same ingredients that you’d find in a standard cocktail, and the chilly consistency makes them easy to blend into a frozen beverage. If you want to hit up these boozy treats instead of your standard (read: boring) ice cream sundaes, check out the info here.

Sam Adams Introduces Six Pack of Home Brews

The home brew trend has been getting a lot of attention lately, and even though we’re all about it, it can be frustrating because we never get to actually try the beers concocted by these hop heads. Well, Sam Adams is changing that – they recently released a six pack dubbed Samuel Adams 2012 LongShot. This beer selection fulfills the dream of three home brewers, which were selected from a slew of over 1,000 who entered a contest for the chance to have their blends bottled.

This contest has actually been going on for 15 years, so they aren’t jumping on any home brew bandwagon. Even so, it’s nice to see them spotlight makers like Joe Formanek and Corey Martin, both of whom have winning recipes in the mix. Several past winners of the contest have actually gone on to become professional brewers, so props to these dudes.

Look for the new beer selection at your local liquor store, and if you want to enter the contest for next year, you can look online at www.SamuelAdams.com/Longshot.

The Drunk Diet Shows You How To Lose Weight Wasted

Luc Carl's new book The Drunk Diet answers the question that we've been asking ourselves since we started hitting the bars: how can you lose weight without losing your party lifestyle? Carl's self-professed goal was to "become the sexiest man on earth," and this NYC nightlife impresario had quite the task ahead of him. He was 40 pounds overweight when he started and was unwilling to give up his whiskey-fueled ways.

Spoiler alert: the dude loses the weight, partying all the while. In his memoir, you can get all the advice you need to balance your fitness regime with those 5 AM hamburgers. While we think we're svelte, thank you very much, we always can stand to lose a few pounds, and we're by no means giving up beer. So, we think we'll give this one a read - you can learn more about it here.

The James Hotel Takes You Beyond The Mini Bar

We’re a HUGE fan of the beverage program at The James Hotel’s rooftop bar Jimmy, and now guests that don’t want to come upstairs can get in on some of this mixology action in their rooms. The hotel has just launched an in-room mixology program – each room now contains a pint glass that’s printed with recipes to make some awesome cocktails. Call down to room service and they’ll send up the In-Room Cocktail Experience, a package that contains liquors and ingredients so you can mix up some libations right in the comfort of your suite.

Even better, if you don’t want to measure out your own drinks, the hotel will send up a bartender for a private mixology lesson. Pretty sweet – since he’ll help you make classics like a Corpse Reviver #2 and a Blood & Sand. Yeah, we live in NYC and all, but we think a little staycation may be in order.

Get To Know "The New Tuscany" This Week

We always love learning about off-the-radar wine producing region's, and this week’s lesson will take us to Ascoli Piceno, a small province in Le Marche in Central Italy. The area is known for its classy, picturesque vistas before its vino, but this week the region is trying to change that with an event at the 92^nd Street Y dubbed “Undiscovered Italy.” On Tuesday, April 17, you can drop by this chat (tickets are $40) and learn about the regions culinary (and liquid, natch) offerings. The chat will be led by Francine Segan, who is an author of numerous food-related books. Sounds like a swell night out to us, especially if you head to the wine bar afterwards and put your knowledge to use. Get info here.

The Strangest Flavored Vodkas

Flavored vodkas are locked in a war of escalation to see who can come up with the wackiest flavors. That’s the only explanation we can come up with when we see labels like Bubble Gum and Cupcake on the shelves, anyway. For this week’s article on Tablespoon, we thought we’d round up the 10 strangest flavors on the liquor shelf. Because sometimes, you just really want a drink made with a liquor that tastes like smoked salmon. Ok, you probably never really want that, but it’s still funny, isn’t it? Read the article here.

Captain Morgan Goes To the Dark Side

We all know that Captain Morgan is a bit of a scallywag, but he is really showing his dark side now with the release of a new label. Captain Morgan Black Spiced Rum is now on the shelves – the brand created it to appeal to the whiskey drinker who might be hesitant to down a glass of rum on the rocks. The Black Spiced rum also should appeal to the snobbier drinker who is more into artisanal spirits like Sailor Jerry or the other spiced rums that have become popular in cocktail circles these days.

The label is made with ingredients like clove spice and cassia bark, and it’s finished with double-charred blackened oak. Expect notes of cinnamon on the nose, with spice and oak on the tongue. Even though it’s fine for cocktails, Captain Morgan is encouraging folks to try their first girl on the rocks. Make like a pirate and drink some tonight.

Half Priced Drinks for Tax Day

Tax time suuuucks! Not only do you have to fill out tons of forms that make no sense whatsoever, you might end up having to pay the government with your hard earned dollars. Well, two NYC restaurants are offering pretty sweet drink deals that are excellent for those folks who do have to pay out of pocket when they mail their taxes in. Casa Nonna in Midtown West and Go Burger on the Upper East Side will be offering ALL of their beer, wine and cocktails for half price on tax day. Sweet, while Uncle Sam has no problem squeezing you for every penny, these two eateries will go easy on your wallet.

At Go Burger, we think the Southside, a mix of Tanqueray gin, lime, mint and bitters will be good to help you get over the trauma of filling out those forms. At Casa Nonna, you can imbibe a cocktail or two, but why not look at their list of wines and choose a bottle for half-price. Yep, that's just for you - if anyone else wants their own bottle, it's cheap enough to get one for everyone.

Casa Nonna is located at 310 West 38th Street and GO Burger is at 1448 Second Avenue. Tax day, now also known as drinking day, is on April 17.