Best Pisco Sour

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Peru's popular pisco sour is the au courant drink of the East Bay, and a couple of establishments, most notably Bocanova in Jack London Square and Adesso, the rocking Piedmont Avenue corner restaurant, do respectable ones worth sampling. But the restaurant/bar with the absolute best pisco sour in the entire East Bay is Sidebar, the warm and exceptional Grand Avenue hangout with a convivial copper-topped bar and delicious food and beverages. The classicist pisco sour is good, sure, but it's not quite as outstanding as the "locavore" pisco sour ($9). Sidebar mixologists, akin to modern-day mad-scientists armed with a teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy medicine dropper, turn Marian Farms Organic pisco (brandy, really), plus lime juice, sugar, Angostura bitters, artisan Small Hands Gum Syrup(!), and whipped raw egg whites into the tastiest, most refreshing, liveliest libation this side of South America.

Marian Farms Pioneers Biodynamic Spirits

Joan Obra

Dec. 7, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- At Marian Farms, the introduction to biodynamic farming comes in the form of orange-blossom eau de vie.

In one glass, the scent is almost like inhaling the blossoms themselves. In the other glass, the liquid still is fragrant, but not nearly as aromatic.

The difference? "We picked one set of blossoms on one day and then picked another set on a different day when there were different constellations," says Gena Nonini, owner of Marian Farms. "With the positions of the moon, the flavor profiles change."
For Marian Farms, the first company in the country to produce distilled spirits from its own certified biodynamic grapes, astral influences are paramount. In addition to adhering to organic rules, biodynamic farmers study the rhythms of the zodiac, then time special compost applications and sprays accordingly. These treatments are meant to improve the quality of the farms' products.
"You start looking at planetary influences and the cosmic world," Nonini says. "It's even more fluid and alive than organics."

In the 1920s, Austrian scientist and philosopher Rudolf Steiner pioneered biodynamic techniques to boost crop fertility and address pest and disease issues. The practice is growing in the wine industry, but it's not catching on as quickly in the spirits industry.
"It's more just people getting the process growing," says Sally Lammers of the Demeter Association, which certifies biodynamic products.
As a result, Marian Farms is a leader in biodynamic spirits -- and restaurants have noticed.
Marian Farms' California-style pisco and oak-aged brandies have been served at restaurants such as The Hungry Cat in Hollywood, Gather in Berkeley and Bar Agricole in San Francisco, Nonini says.
Gather singled out Marian Farms because of "sustainability and farming practices," says its bar manager, Sarah Bondick. "They're local and biodynamic and they make quality product."

The restaurant serves cocktails such as the East India, which pairs Marian Farms' oak-aged brandy with orange liquor, pineapple gum and lime.
The Hungry Cat likes the subtle and elegant flavor of Marian Farms' California-style pisco in cocktails such as the pisco sour. "It's much more similar in style to Peruvian piscos," says Hungry Cat general manager Tim Staehling.

These spirits aren't yet used in local restaurants, but they're sold at Marian Farms, Nonini says.
Saturday, a Slow Food Madera event offered local guests a rare tour of Marian Farms and tastes of its spirits and other products. The farm, at McKinley and Dickenson avenues, is one of the largest diversified biodynamic farms in the country.

Nonini showed how she creates compost treatments by burying cow's horns stuffed with manure. She also makes "festival sprays" by mixing up ingredients such as frankincense and stinging nettle, then sprays the mixtures on plants during the Epiphany, the Ascension, Michaelmas and other important Christian dates.
In the distillery, Doug Wakida, Marian Farms' chef, answered questions about the spirits. The pisco is made of muscat grapes; it's distilled twice and not aged. The brandy is made of palomino grapes; it's distilled twice and aged in oak barrels.
Future products include a Curaçao with certified biodynamic orange peel and sugar, as well as a vodka made with Selma Pete grapes, he says.
Guests sampled these liquors and drank cocktails made from recipes of Bar Agricole and Gather restaurant. And they ate a meal of Marian Farms' products cooked by Wakida and Sharon Alexander, former owner of the old Upstairs Downtown.

All of the produce, except for herbs, onions and garlic, came from the farm, Wakida says. Dishes included marinated beet-and-arugula salad with red-wine vinaigrette, winter squash soup with spiced pepitas, chard-and-ricotta cannelloni, raisin bread pudding and almond biscotti with lemon curd.
"It's one of the most biodynamic meals in the United States," Nonini says.

The columnist can be reached at jobra@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6365. Read her blog at fresnobeehive.com/author/ joan_obra

Who is Marian Farms!

 

 

About Marian Farms

 Marian Farms is a Biodynamic(R) farm and distillery in Fresno, California. We believe in three things: growing good food, crafting good spirits, and taking care of the earth. Really, we don’t think that the first two are possible without the latter.
Many of our Biodynamic practices are a return to older farming methods. We make our own compost and preparations (non-synthetic ways of stimulating growth and health in plants), and we grow a diverse range of fruit and vegetables that thrive in the fertile Central Valley soil. Our commitment to Biodynamic farming is both physical and spiritual. Festival sprays let us honor the earth that supports us.
 We make our Biodynamic and organic spirits in small batches using craft methods. These are available for purchase in our online store, along with raisins and citrus (when in season). We also have a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program that operates from November to April.

Pisco Is Healthier Than Vodka & Better Tasting!

L.A. Times

For decades the world market for pisco has been controlled by a handful of plus-size distillers in Valle de Elquí in the Chilean desert southeast of La Serena. Each is larger than the next. They're sophisticated, have optimal efficiency and they produce not only pisco but also pre-mixed Pisco Sour and Cola de Mono cocktails that are sold alongside beer and Coca-Cola in Chilean supermarkets.

We grow and distil our own Pisco here in California!

Above USDA organic!

Demeter Certified

Certified by the Demeter Association. This certification exceeds the standards of the U.S. National Organic Program

Biodynamic Raisins

Marian Farms raisins are made from the very grapes that make their Biodynamic table grapes so popular – the delicious, juicy Thompson Seedless grapes.

Artisan Distillation

We practice the old-world technique of artisan, small-batch distillation in a copper pot still.

Biodynamics

Distillery

We practice the old-world technique of artisan, small-batch distillation in a copper pot still. Our still was custom built in Germany by Christian Carl in 2005 and then reassembled at our 5,000-square-foot distillery in Fresno.
Historically, copper has been the material of choice for distillation for many reasons. Copper is an excellent conductor of heat, removes off-odors and creates a higher-quality spirit than other materials

Biodynamic Practices

Composting
Demeter certification requires that all farming operations make their own compost on the farm. It is permitted to buy raw material – but the actual aging control happens on the farm. At Marian Farms we use dairy and horse manure based compost. For our vegetable crops we use a blend of these manures, for our vineyards and tree orchards we use only dairy based compost.

Cover Cropping
At Marian farms we have an aggressive restorative soils program. We grow summer cover crops, usually a mixture of cow-pea and buckwheat. During the winter, to prevent erosion and to build the soil structure, we grow vetch, oats and a pea mixture.

Seed Saving
Seed Saving is a unique aspect of Marian Farms. Seed saving is an old agricultural tradition which has been lost with the modernization and hybridization of seeds. For centuries farmers were able to control the quality and vigor of their plants by carefully selecting those seeds with particularly desired attributes. Seed harvested from hybrid plants produces seedlings which are unlike the parent seed, and in most cases are inferior to them. With seed saving the farmer ensures the quality of plants and products. Typically today’s purchased seed has lost its vitality and the seed’s germination and quality is inferior to that of on the farm saved seed. Moreover, most purchased seeds are treated with fungicides. Demeter certified Biodynamic practices require the use of untreated seed – one way to ensure that seeds are not treated is by saving the seeds yourself.

Biodynamic agriculture encourages the practice of seed saving on the farm. Marian Farms has implemented a program by which we carefully select the most robust and disease-free plants each growing season for seed saving. We choose strains which are uniquely suited and can withstand the extreme weather conditions of the Central San Joaquin valley. Marian Farms in their fifth year of saving seeds, and we have seen incredible results from this practice already.

Summer Drinks!

Pisco Makes the Trip North

PISCO, the clear grape spirit of South America, is emerging from the mist of history and bringing rich freshness to cocktails. In New York and other cities, liquor stores and bars that carried no pisco a few years ago have several now and are adding more, making it the fastest-growing spirit in the country.

Related

Summer Drinks Guide: Recipes, Articles and More

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Evan Sung for The New York Times

The Flor de Pisco cocktail.

The new piscos are a far cry from the famously rustic, hangover-inducing stuff that was previously available. Top-shelf piscos are being made for Peruvian connoisseurs, and these newer entries are feeding the growing export market, often with an assist from American expertise, passion and money.
“Pisco is not quite mainstream yet,” said Julie Reiner, an owner of Lani Kai in Manhattan and Clover Club in Brooklyn. “But it is gaining traction as the public learns about it.”
Peru leads the surge, with pisco exports to the United States having nearly doubled last year, according to Veritrade, an import consultancy.
Johnny Schuler, a restaurateur and television personality in Lima, is the distiller for Pisco Portón, a product aimed at the American market. Last month, Mr. Schuler said the company, which he owns with William Kallop, a Texas oilman, would spend millions promoting the spirit.