Whiskey in Virginia is serious business—our commonwealth has a claim as the original home of the spirit in the States—and that can make the spirit a little intimidating to explore in depth. But when it comes to making the intimidating fun and accessible without sacrificing complexity, there’s no one better to turn to than Sherra Kurtz.
Kurtz worked for years at the Columbia Room, a pioneering cocktail bar in DC known for its adventurous and technical take on cocktails, where she was able to “explore scientific and precision approaches to cocktail creation.” She’s now planning a “sandwich bar,” Your Only Friend, which pairs individual sandwiches–including nostalgic creations like a take on the McRib–with cocktails that complement the ingredients. Kurtz recently came out to NoVA to lead tastings for Wolf Trap’s annual Bourbon and Bubbles event, so we caught up with her to find out her take on how to drink whiskey the region.
At the event, Kurtz and her business partner Paul Taylor built a tasting experience around Catoctin Creek, the trailblazing, Virginia craft rye whiskey beloved of just about any aficionado in the region. According to Kurtz, the key is to start beginner tasters off with something simple as a benchmark, before then bringing in something a little different so they can compare, taking them on what she called a “tour of bourbon country.”
“So people can sort of move from station to station, and then they sort of connect these points that have always sort of eluded them over time,” she explained. When looking to take home a bottle, Kurtz advises that for age, older isn’t always better. The range of six to nine years tends to be the sweet spot.
So keep it simple when sipping straight, but what should we look for when going out to a cocktail bar in Virginia? When it comes to trying to decipher a high-end cocktail menu, trying something new doesn’t have to mean throwing yourself out of your comfort zone either. While there’s been a trend in recent years for bars to advertise eccentric drinks that pique their audience’s curiosity, a good drink is not measured by its number of ingredients.
“It doesn’t have to be like a crazy complex cocktail all the time. I think I mostly just look for things that are really well made,” Kurtz said. “For me, it’s always things that are approachable, things that I know. I probably steer clear of things that are too kooky.”
Rather than ordering the strangest thing on the menu, look for a drink that uses a classic as its base to start. If a specialty cocktail is based on an old fashioned, with a surprising, seasonal or local element to make it unique, it’ll be interesting even while the fundamentals of the craft remain.
True to her word, Kurtz was making the “Pawpaw Bradley” at Wolf Trap. Based on the Omar Bradley, a take on the old-fashioned that uses marmalade instead of sugar, Kurtz and Taylor incorporated the pawpaw fruit, a rare and unique fruit found in the Appalachian region, to pay homage to the flavors of the local land.
A cocktail that highlights a spirit’s flavors can be a good way to introduce a spirit to newcomers.
“It exposes them to this ingredient and makes them think ‘maybe there is a way that I enjoy this. I just haven’t had it before now,’” Kurtz says.
For a classic cocktail you can easily make it home, Kurtz points to the Suffering Bastard, an unexpected mix of of equal parts whiskey, gin, and lime juice topped with ginger beer. Gin and whiskey drinkers tend to occupy opposite ends of the drinking spectrum, so it’s a good cocktail to get just about anyone out of their comfort zone in an easy and fun way.
Feature image courtesy Sherra Kurtz
For more stories like this, subscribe to our Things to Do newsletter.
