edible notables
A-SPIRE-ing Spirit
Reno distiller captures Manhattan in a bottle.
WRITTEN BY BARBARA TWITCHELL
PHOTOS BY AMANDA TWITCHELL
It’s scavenger hunt time and your quest is to find a skyscraper in Reno. Where would you go? If you answered “a liquor store,” you win!
If you’ve actually tasted the manhattan cocktail inside that impressive, iconic skyscraper bottle, then surely you know that Reno’s Francovich Distillers has scored a winner, too.
No one knows liquor like the Francoviches. They’ve been importing barrels of it into Nevada for more than 150 years. Very much a family operation, everything produced at their distillery is handcrafted by family members, and bottled using their old 1940s bottling machine.
They’re well known locally for their traditional Holiday Nog, which is based on an old family recipe and has been sold commercially for the past 13 years. Wanting to utilize their distillery for the remaining 10 months of the year, the family decided to launch a year-round product based upon yet another family recipe.
“Drinking manhattans in the evening was a family tradition that went back for generations,” Sam Francovich says. “The formula evolved from years of the family making and tasting manhattans. We got really good at it.”
The Bitter Truth
The Francovich manhattan is comprised of aged Kentucky bourbon, California sweet vermouth, a dab of bitters (aromatic flavoring agents), and a splash of cherry juice. At a whopping 70 proof, it ranks among the strongest pre-mixes ever made and is one of the only pre-mixed manhattans on the market.
According to Francovich, the premium quality of its ingredients makes this drink able to stand up to any bar-made version. But being able to make it in batches, adding exactly the right amount of bitters, actually makes it even better. Controlling the bitters is the real secret to the success of this product, he says.
An impressive list of internationally acclaimed mixologists has given a thumbs-up to the cocktail mix. The September 2012 edition of Robb Report called it a “Must Buy for the Discriminating Manhattan Drinker.”
Easy Does It
Moreover, there is the convenience of having this complex, flavorful cocktail in a ready-to-pour version, without sacrificing taste.
“We’re hearing that people really like that they can pour a manhattan that’s consistent and great,” Francovich says. “And if they want just a little bit more, they can pour just a half a manhattan and it’s still just as good as the original one.”
The popular, easy-pour, 750-milliliter bottle adds to the economy and convenience for the home consumer.
Of course, the product also is available in the stunning 1-liter-sized skyscraper gift bottle manufactured by Bruni Glass of Milan. It’s an artistic feat that took more than two years to develop. The bottle won a Double Gold Wow Factor Award at the 2012 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. The packaging (bottle, box, case) also won a Silver ADDY Award in 2012.
Despite its honors, Francovich says he’s gotten some complaints from liquor distributors about the skyscraper bottle.
“They said it won’t fit on the shelf,” he says. “And I said, ‘It most certainly will. It fits on the top shelf.'”
And as far as he’s concerned, that’s exactly where it belongs.
Reno freelance writer Barbara Twitchell is a former New Yorker who says she hasn’t tasted a manhattan this good since she left the Big Apple.
Note: Francovich Distillers received the first distilled spirits producers and bottlers permit in the state of Nevada to create a holiday eggnog in 1999. Currently, the company doesn’t create a raw spirit (such as vodka, rum, or bourbon); it rectifies, or blends, existing products in its drinks. The first permit issued to a craft distiller to create raw spirits was Churchill Vineyards with an experimental permit in 2006 and a basic permit in 2010. See related story in this edition on the new craft distillers movement.
