Summer Eats: Sips

Drink These 15 Oregon Quaffs at Your Next Backyard Bash

From a gin gimlet to fermented pineapple wine, here's what to sip all summer long.

By Ramona DeNies and Marty Patail June 19, 2018 Published in the July 2018 issue of Portland Monthly

Image: Thomas Teal 

2016 Gamay (Bow & Arrow)

A plucky, summery, light-bodied red. $20

Redneck Riviera Whiskey (Eastside Distilling)

When the party calls for shots, shot glasses call for this smooth-drinking Canadian-style whiskey. Notes of honey mean it also pairs well with a hoppy beer. $25

¡Tepache! (Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider)

A traditional drink sold by street vendors around Jalisco, Mexico—often in plastic bags with straws—this low-alcohol, fermented pineapple wine is best served ice cold. $8/bottle

Field Bier Farmhand Saison (Agrarian Ales)

Funky, earthy, bready and mellow. (Brewed in ... wait for it ... Eugene.) $5/bottle

Blackberry & Habanero “Fizzy Wine” (Hi Wheel)

You can’t technically call it cider—no apples, see?—but that’s what it is: a peppery sipper that, when fortified with tequila, also makes the base for a killer margarita. $10 growler fill

2017 Rosé (Fossil and Fawn)

To quote a Whole Foods wine steward, this Eola-Amity Hills pink drinks like “Pure. F#@ING. Joy.” $20

2017 Big Salt White (Ovum)

Gewürztraminer for generosity, Riesling for minerality, plus side grapes—you know, for variety. Bored with the same old chardonnay? Ovum’s bargain white feels like sweet, sweet cheatin’. $12

Hope Pomegranate Ginger Cider (New West Cider)

A balanced cider that offsets apple sugars with a hint of ginger and tartness. $6

2016 Tears of Vulcan (Day Wines)

Skin contact and volcanic soil forge an earthy, yeasty orange wine. $30

Abaddon Helles (Modern Times/Wayfinder)

Crisp, clean, and authentic, this German-style collaboration by two of Portland’s newest beer crushes would be at home in Munich’s Englischer Garten. $12/4-pack

Underwood Riesling Radler (Union Wine Co)

“Like confetti in my mouth!” squealed one PoMo staffer. At 3 percent alcohol, this soft, grapefruity quaff can party there all day. $6/can

Stable Genius Hazy IPA (Level Beer)

As the MAGA Man might tweet: “Actually, throughout its life, the two greatest assets of this Northeast-style IPA have been juicy, tropical flavors, and being, like, really tasty. I think that would qualify the brewers as not smart, but geniuses ... and very stable geniuses at that!” $16/4-pack

Cactus Wins the Lottery Berliner Weisse (Ex Novo Brewing)

A mouth-puckeringly sour, shandy-like beer made with prickly pear. Weird, you say? Well, you know what they say about weird around here. $13/6-pack

Cocktails from Star PDX Bartender Colin Carroll

Summer Gin Gimlet

oz Walter Collective Gin, ¾ oz fresh lime juice (about half a decent-size lime, squeezed with a hand press), ½ oz Cocchi Americano, and ½ oz simple syrup (1 part sugar dissolved in 1 part hot water). Shake and serve in a collins glass with ice and soda water, or scale up and dole it out as a punch in a big bowl for all.

Death in the Afternoon

1 oz Haint Absinthe, 4 oz sparkling wine (preferably Cava). Pour absinthe into a Champagne flute or coupe, and top with bubbles.

Filed under
Share
Show Comments