What do you do when your family sells off their distinguished company, leaving you with a large hacienda and several hectares of land, including an old distillery, on the edge of the town of Tequila?

For Guillermo Sauza, great-great-grandson of Don Cenobio Sauza, who started the Sauza tequila company in 1873, the answer was simple. Live in the house, and re-start the old distillery, making high quality tequila using the traditional methods of distillation. The distillery, named La Fortaleza (meaning fortitude),  used to be used to make Sauza tequila, but was mothballed in 1968 for being too inefficient. In 1999 Guillermo Sauza kicked the old girl back into life, and started making inefficient tequila there again.

To put things into perspective, the fifth-generation Sauza’s tequila, Los Abuelos, is produced in quantities of around 24,000 litres of tequila per year. Around the corner at Sauza's La Perserverancia (Perseverance) distillery, production reaches around 22 million litres per year. Continuing in the tradition of his family before him, Guillermo Sauza makes great tequila. When you have a dynasty with the pedigree that his has, he didn’t have much choice.

Walk into the small production area at Los Abuelos, and in one corner sits the traditional clay oven used for cooking the agave. At the other end are the six 3000 litre wooden fermentation vats – stainless steel became the norm years ago – and in the middle sits the tahona. The large stone wheel, traditionally pulled by mule or oxen to crush the cooked agave and release its sugary juice, is these days pulled by a tractor, but the effect is the same. The tahona manages to squeeze about 35 – 40% of the juice from a pina, whereas modern milling and steam diffusion techniques produce around 85 and 95% respectively.

The labour intensive work doesn’t stop in the still room. Every bottle for the finished product is hand blown, making for some inconsistencies in shape. The logo of the distillery is then hand screen-printed before the label is applied. Finally, the bottle is capped, with a ceramic pina, painstakingly crafted, you guessed it, by hand.

In the tasting room, which is reached through a series of underground caves, the benefits of all the hard work come to life. Each of the three variants, blanco, reposado and anejo, have great balance and poise, and the flavours literally jostle for space on your palate, due to their vibrancy. The 9-month-aged reposado was the highlight for me, with loads of fresh citrus and jalapeno, along with the slightest hint of vanilla, but never losing the distinct earthiness of the agave.

Bottled as Los Fortaleza in the US due to a name conflict, this tequila is only available in Mexico and the US, and even then is not easy to find. I have a bottle of the reposado in my bag, so providing it makes it back to New Zealand safe and sound, there will be an extra treat to go with the already great line up at Sauza tastings in the next few months. All in the name of fortitude and perseverance. And family.

Drive through the tequila producing areas of Jalisco, in Central Mexico, and you can’t help but see agave plants poking their spiny leaves out of the ground everywhere.

And I mean everywhere. There are over 300 million plants in the region, which spread their roots over 176, 000 acres of land. Being the base material for the famous mescal that comes from this region, all of the agave plants are the Agave Tequilana, or Weber Blue Agave, which by law, is the only agave allowed to be used to make tequila. There are, however, over 200 types of agave, including sub-species, growing throughout Mexico. With a little care, the agave is an easy plant to grow – it actually benefits more from a lighter rainy season than a wetter one, but like all crops has pests that can weaken or destroy the plant, including the picudo, a species of borer that gets inside the agave piña and lays its eggs.

A recent development in Jalisco is the cultivation of organic agave plots.  Organic is nothing new - small tequila disitlleries such as 4 Copas, Dulce Vida and Casa Noble have been producing certified organic tequila since 2007, but the industry’s big boys have been lagging behind. Now, in order to cater for the profitable US market, it seems some of the larger distilleries are beginning to produce organic tequilas, and Sauza has 2% of its agave plants, around 1100 hectares, being grown organically. The distilleries of Jalisco have always used sustainable practices, using both the stripped leaves of the agave, and the fibres of the cooked piña for natural compost at the agave plantations, so organic production is adding another string to its bow.

With the team at Sauza pushing forward with developing natural pesticides, such as a fungus that is sprayed on the agave to ward off the dreaded picudo, this is possibly an interesting growth market for the tequila industry. I asked Mario Salamanca, one of the principal research scientists at Sauza whether this research would have them moving into following Rudolph Steiner’s processes for making a biodynamic product. He laughed, and said that they might, one day, but not at the moment, currently “they are having too much fun with organics”.

Remember your first job? And for those in the trade, remember your first bar job? I'll never forget taking my first order off a customer: nervously pouring a pint with clammy palms, asking for the required payment in a voice barely above a whisper. I definitely had 'new guy' stamped all over my behaviour.

What I also remember is the support I got from the old hands, welcoming me into the family  and showing me the tips and tricks needed to get through a ten hour shift dealing with the public. Not only that, I remember my first manager introducing me to the fine art of alcohol tolerance post-shift as well. For a wide-eyed 19 year old, it was magic.

With the large number of private education institutions around, many bartenders now get their start with a qualification. As part of my job, for the last two years I've been working with The Professional Bar and Restaurant School, where budding young bartenders and waiters get a practical foundation in the hospitality business. The school has over 1000 students in campuses in Auckland and Wellington, and plays a vital part in getting new faces into the industry.

The high point of the year is the awarding of the Beam Global scholarship, run in conjunction with the school, and awarded to the student who is completing their diploma level studies. The recipient receives a $2,500 contribution to their fees, and perhaps more vitally, a week out on the road with myself doing ambassador-type-stuff, which gives them an opportunity to network and meet a range of people from across the industry.

It's one of the highlights of the year for me, and 2011 has seen some exceptional candidates for the award who were all subjected to a fairly rigorous interview and selection process.

The winner will be announced August 11, watch this space for an interview with the 2011 recipient.

Sunday's can be an unknown quantity in the 'let's go out and have a great time' stakes. The odds become more favourable when one of your favourite watering holes decides to get together to raise funds with a Tiki Clambake. Yep, a Clambake.

There weren't any clams, and no baking that I could see, but the Tiki gloves were off at Suite in Auckland, to help James 'Sugarfoot' Goggin raise funds to get him to New Orleans for the 2011 Tales of the Cocktail festival later this month. After impressing the judges with his punch at the 2010 festival, young Sugarfoot has been invited back, this year as a cocktail apprentice - and holds the unique honour of being the first bartender from New Zealand to hold the position.

It's a long way from Auckland to New Orleans and bartenders are notorious for frittering their wages away on late night shenanigans. Knowing this all too well, last night a few of the local distributors got together and, through the all encompassing power of tiki, used the power of donated spirits and dodgy mixology to raise a few bucks to help James to get to Louisiana.

Needless to say, it was a very good night, as can be seen by the photos here...big thanks to Tim Sendrove for the great snaps.

Before we kick off today's proceedings, I'm going to qualify my position. Over the past twelve months I've taken around 85 domestic flights, and spent about 150 days away from home. Logic then dictates that I've eaten out a lot. During this time, I've never requested a meal be sent back, nor had to talk with a manager about rubbish restaurant service. I'm pretty laid back about these sorts of things, and am pretty easy to please.

Now let's begin.

Tuesday night is quiz night in my house. Being the type of person who loves to prove they know a lot about sod-all, I get pretty excited on Tuesdays. We go to the Gables Speight's Ale House on Jervois Road. There's no argument that it's a Poly-filler, chain-style shadow of the pub that used to sit on the site, but I've been going there for ages and I like the quiz master.

Normally it's a couple of drinks and bowl of chips, but last night the team and I thought it would be good to get a meal in, despite the fact that the place charges about 20% too much for it's food. (A burger is $21.90. A burger!).

To cut a long story short, the food was pretty disgraceful, apart from the burgers, ironically, which looked pretty good. I thought I'd ward off the winter chill with the Three Star Pie, and after requesting a spoon to eat (slurp) what tasted like a salty beef soup underneath a soggy pastry lid, took the advice of the team and asked to have it returned. It would have been a Three Star Pie if the marking schedule was out of twenty.

I promise I was diplomatic, polite and relaxed while talking to the duty manager. I said the food was a bit rubbish - since when did you need a spoon to eat a pie - and asked if I could have something else.

I also promise that the behaviour of the Duty Manager made the problems with the food look tiny.

In what felt like a scene out of boarding school, I was told in no uncertain terms that it was a 'Hot Pot Style Pie and that was how it came and that was that'.  The duty manager/matron even told me that he thought it was great value for money. It was $19, so I can now call him a bit of a liar. There was no courtesy, and he came across like taking any responsibility for the food was beyond his remit.
 
I'm not really in the business of naming and shaming but this time thought it necessary. For the sake of a bit of customer service, he could have saved our dinner, and ensured his loyal weekly customers ate there again. Instead you get me telling you that the quiz is great but avoid the food, and the service if you can, at all costs. 

You'll be way better off for it.

For a smallish state, both in population and area, Kentucky seems to have punched above its weight in the famous folks stakes, and considering everything today went smoothly on our trip from Palmerston North to Nelson, I thought we’d look instead at some of Kentucky’s most famous sons and daughters.

First up, Jim Bowie, creator of the Bowie knife, was born in Logan County and died at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, aged 40. He first used his now famous large-bladed hunting knife in a fight with a Sheriff called Norris Wright. Bowie disemboweled Wright with his knife after being shot in the hip. Charming.

Larry Flynt, the founder of Hustler magazine, and

Hunter S. Thompson both called Kentucky home. These two fine,upstanding and noble citizens were two of the most influential  underground media folk of the twentieth century. If you haven’t read The Rum Diary, you’re missing out.

From a Hollywood perspective, George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp and Ashley Judd were all born in the state. Whether this is a good or bad thing is up to you. What is a bad thing is that Nick Lachey, that clean cut crooner from terrible boy-band 98 Degrees, who married Jessica Simpson, is also from Kentucky.

Finally,  the 16^th President of the United States, Abraham

Lincoln, the  man responsible for leading a new nation through

the crisis that was the American Civil War, was born in Kentucky. Even better was the fact that his vice-president was a man named Hannibal Hamlin, which is an excellent moniker.

So there you have it.

Fried chicken, massive knives, Gonzo journalism, explicit pornography, assassinated presidents and bourbon.

What more could you want?

Bourbon Fact of the Day:  During the 14 years of Prohibition,  Jim Beam (the distiller, not the brand) was forced to try making money another way. Even though tequila, rum and whiskies from both Canada and Europe were pouring over the border into the US, bourbon distillers got a raw deal. Thanks to the Volstead Act of 1919, otherwise known as Prohibition, or more colloquially as a ’bloody stupid idea’, distillers in the US were not allowed to produce, distribute or sell their whiskey. As a result James Beauregard Beam moved into coal mining in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, and growing oranges in Florida. He lost money in both enterprises, which isn’t that strange when you consider that the family business had been bourbon since 1795.

The latest instalment of the 2011 Fred Noe Roadshow saw us travelling and tasting in Taupo and Palmerston North. Being a terrible navigator in land-locked cities, I got lost in Palmerston North. Three times.

Beam fans that turned up to today’s events were pretty interested in all the stories about the Prohibition era – but very few knew about the ripple effect that Prohibition had on the rest of the world, and more importantly how close New Zealand was to being just like the United States in the early 20^th century.

Let me fill you in.

You have heard the modern complaints against our drinking culture and get daily updates from various alcohol watchdogs about how badly alcohol abuse is damaging certain parts of society. These protests are not new.

There was a strong temperance movement here in New Zealand throughout the 19^th century with groups such as the NZ branch of The Sons and Daughters of Temperance, International Order of Templar’s and the Independent Order of Rechabites all doing swift business protesting against the demon drink. Over the latter half of the 1900’s the movement grew in numbers and voice, and soon people were divided on the effects of alcohol on their fledgling society.

After several referendum-type votes where Prohibition was narrowly defeated, 1919 brought the Prohibition movement’s best chance of success. Following a ballot domestically where Prohibition gained a foothold into law by 14 odd thousand votes, the people of New Zealand eagerly awaited the results from the votes of soldiers still stationed overseas after World War I.

Clearly a sensible bunch, the soldiers voted against Prohibition, by 31, 981 votes to 7, 723, and the swing in the total number of votes quashed the ambitions of the Temperance movement for good. Except for in Invercargill, where alcohol sales were outlawed from 1905 – 1945. They like to do things a little differently, those Southlanders.

Basically, if it wasn't for a bunch of ANZAC's, NZ may have been a dry nation. In the legal sense of the word, anyway.

Tomorrow: the South Island, ash cloud dependent.

I stole quite a bit of the data above from this article, which is an excellent insight into the social history of alcohol in New Zealand.

Bourbon fact of the day: Each day, the two distilleries Jim Beam operate in Kentucky use fifty acres of corn to make their spirit. Those fifty acres a day will produce 95 million litres of bourbon a year, which will be packaged into six million cases.

Boom.

There’s more where that came from this week - I’m spending eight days with seventh-generation Beam

 Frederick Booker Noe III, and we’re on the road, heading through heartland New Zealand spreading the bourbon gospel. With a range of tastings, signings, lunches and dinners for Jim Beam loyalists and bourbon newcomers alike, Fred is earning his keep entertaining event attendees with tales from the 216 year history of the family business. Despite the heartbreak of watching Christchurch brought to its knees again, and one eye on what Fred is referring to as the ‘goddamn ash cloud’, we’re making the most of his second trip to Aotearoa.

A road trip with a seventh generation Beam is great fun, and though I know a little more than the average drinker about the origins and production of America’s native spirit, learning  from the master distiller of the world’s biggest bourbon producer is a humbling experience.

Today saw tastings in Hamilton, Cambridge and Tauranga and some real fans came out of the woodwork – spurred into action by the appearance of a member of a distilling family they truly regard as bourbon legends. They brought all manner of memorabilia to be signed and swapped stories with Fred about their personal history with Jim Beam here in NZ.

It certainly brings home the mark that Jim Beam has made here in New Zealand, and talking to people who have been drinking nothing else for longer than I’ve been alive shows me just how much I have left to learn.

Tomorrow: Another fact and the back-roads from Tauranga, through Taupo and on to Palmerston North.

As a native of Christchurch, last months events were particularly sobering. After spending five days in the city post-quake, assisting my parents with a serious cleaning and boxing-up job at their house, which had been our family home for 20 years, it seemed irrelevant to be waxing cynical online about the afflictions of our hospitality industry.

Now the operation in our second largest city has turned to rebuilding for the future, so what lies in wait for the city's hospitality workers? Many have moved out of town and The Press has reported that 900 hospitality workers are out of work after the quake. From a hospitality perspective the central city is particularly badly affected - one liquor company sales representative has lost over fifty accounts. In the face of an ongoing depressed on-premise job market, it is going to be difficult to find positions for displaced workers. It will take time for the ongoing work by action groups set up by hospitality operators across the city to reap any positive benefit.

It is possible that there is a silver lining amongst the rubble. Talk amongst New Zealanders of building a well designed, modern, energy-efficient city of international repute is a fantastic idea. This could easily translate to developing world-class precincts of restaurants, bars and venues throughout the city, which would have the potential to develop hospitality tourism - something cities like Melbourne, Paris and Barcelona have managed to achieve.

A great pipe dream? Yep, and while this may protect the long term incomes of Christchurch hospitality workers, right now about 900 of them just need a job.