3 glorious Bay Space bottle outlets (plus their vacation present suggestions)

Trying to purchase the right bottle to have a good time the vacations? We requested the specialists at three bottle outlets across the Bay Space for his or her suggestions.

Barrel Shoppe, Lafayette
Barrel Shoppe worker Carter Krznaric shares a shelf with whiskey on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, in Lafayette, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Space Information Group)

It’s possible you’ll discover just a few blended spirits right here, however the majority of Barrel Shoppe’s bourbons, ryes, whiskeys and tequilas are single barrel and single supply — and almost each bottle is exclusive.

“We wanted a store where we handpicked everything in there,” says founder Matthew Hagel, who opened the store in March after 30 years as a distributor. “Everything has a story behind it. When someone buys a bottle we want someone to be able to take it to their poker game or as a gift and say why they bought it, something personal about the bottle, instead of just, ‘It was on sale.’”

The very same substances put right into a bourbon’s mash invoice may have dramatically totally different flavors relying on the precise barrel it’s aged in. New Riff Bourbon Barrel No. 24496, for instance, has lots of sweetness to it, whereas No. 23463 skews extra conventional oak.

“The precise mash invoice, distilled the identical means, put within the barrel on the identical proof, all the things’s the identical besides one may be larger within the rickhouse and one may be decrease,” says Barrel Shoppe professional Carter Krznaric. “That’s what gives each barrel its unique quality.”

Suggestions: For novices dabbling within the bourbon world, Krznaric recommends New Riff No. 24496 ($60) for a sweeter style with a lighter worth level than some. Some of the in style sellers is the Smokeye Hill Barrel Proof Straight Bourbon Whiskey ($80), which gained Greatest Small Batch Bourbon honors on the 2024 ASCOT Awards. On the upper finish, he suggests the Hillrock Bourbon Solera Aged Cask 1 ($170), which is unique to the shop.

Particulars: Barrel Shoppe is open from 11 a.m. to six p.m. Monday via Saturday at 3430 Mt. Diablo Blvd. in Lafayette; barrelshoppe.com.

Bottles of Hillrock, New Riff, and Smokeye whiskey on the market on the Barrel Shoppe on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, in Lafayette, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Space Information Group)
Cask Retailer, Berkeley
Supervisor Chris Banks, center, and workers Fergus Glen-Lee, left, and Scott Siler strike a pose within the aisle on the Cask Retailer in Berkeley, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group)

Cask Retailer originated from a easy thought: In the event you’re at a cocktail bar and uncover one thing tasty and new, constituted of liquors and substances you’ve by no means heard of, that is the place to seek out these gadgets for your self.

“When you want to make an Old Fashioned, but also want something on the rocks to taste the nuances, we’ll have a bottle to fill that void. Or if you want that rare, esoteric thing, we’re able to get our hands on that,” says supervisor Chris Banks.

The flagship Cask debuted in San Francisco in 2008 beneath the possession of Future Bars, a nightlife-concept group behind upscale haunts like town’s Bourbon & Department and Berkeley’s Tupper & Reed. Since then, it has opened a second retailer in Berkeley’s Elmwood neighborhood, with a taproom serving limited-edition beers and wines and cabinets stacked excessive with bottles of each hue of the booze rainbow.

Within the Elmwood location, there’s an excellent unfold in each spirit class, from worldwide and home whiskeys to gins and absinthes rums, brandies, vermouths and amaros. There are treasures from far-off locales, together with “Clairin rums from Haiti, which are all about terroir and are produced by single farmers growing their own sugar cane,” says Banks.

Joseph Foronda, of Berkeley, heads again to the desk with a few drinks for his spouse, Liz Santos, and himself at Cask Retailer bar in Berkeley, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group)

A heavy reliance on native producers is clear in picks like House Base Bourbon, made by two sisters within the East Bay, and apple brandy from Petaluma’s Barber Lee Spirits. Western gins, specifically, appear sourced from a magical realm, with a Freeland Spirits Forest Gin made with Oregon chanterelles and Douglas fir ideas and a Suncliffe botanical gin with juniper berries that (based on the producer) are “shaken from the twisted trees of Sedona — a slice of high desert beloved by mystics and adventurers — then sun-dried in a landscape marked by energy vortexes, soaring cliffs and the endless Arizona sky.”

The tiny taproom has a speakeasy really feel and is invariably bustling with locals having fun with uncommon pours and the shuffleboard desk. Free weekly tastings usher in much more of us, with current occasions that includes Nikka Japanese whiskeys, Sirene Italian spirits and canned cocktails from New York’s famed cocktail bar, Loss of life & Co.

Numerous home and imported manufacturers of liquors sit on the cabinets at Cask Retailer in Berkeley, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group)

Suggestions: Connoisseurs of brown spirits will take pleasure in Johnny Drum Non-public Inventory from Kentucky’s Willett Distillery ($55 for 750 mL), whose caramel-and-marzipan palate stands as much as bourbons twice the worth.

For one thing somewhat extra esoteric, Banks recommends the Siembra Azul tequila from the highlands of Jalisco, Mexico ($77 for 750 mL). Enjoyable truth from Cask’s workers: “During the fermentation of the agave, they play Vivaldi and Mozart to the yeast. Not sure what the effect is, but this is a delicious product, so we won’t argue!”

Particulars: The Berkeley bottle store is open from 11 a.m. to eight p.m. Monday-Saturday and till 7 p.m. Sunday at 3185 Faculty Ave. The taproom is open from 3 to eight p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and till 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday; caskstore.com.

Winery Gate, Millbrae
Alex Bernardo, proprietor, stands behind wines from La Onda, Domaine Lienhardt and Envinate at Winery Gate in Millbrae, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Space Information Group)

This cozy artisanal wine and sake store has operated in downtown Millbrae since 1999, specializing in small-scale manufacturing wines made with minimal intervention. However you’ll must get right here quickly. The bottle store can be closing in just a few months, releasing up Bernardo’s time for his soon-to-open sake cafe and listening bar — Japanese tea by day, sake within the evenings — on San Francisco’s Nob Hill.

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