How to buy a bottle

A good bottle is one whose plant you can still taste, at a strength that can survive a drink, from a maker who was willing to say what is in it. Price is a weak guide past a point. The bottom shelf is often silent. The very expensive shelf is often a story about age or scarcity. The useful bottles live where the label makes a specific claim and the glass confirms it.

What to look for

• The plant, named. Agave species, grape, grain bill, cane juice or molasses. If the label will not say what was fermented, assume the marketing is doing the work.
• The place, specific enough to check. A village, a region with rules, a distillery. “Crafted with passion” is not a place.
• The strength. Forty percent is the legal floor for a lot of spirits, not a sign of quality. Forty-three to fifty often tastes more complete when you sip it, and it will need a little more dilution once it is in a drink. Higher is not better. It is hotter until the ratio catches up.
• Age, read correctly. A number is the youngest spirit in the bottle, in wood, not a score. No age statement is not a fraud. It means they won’t claim one. Very old often means more oak. Oak can cover the plant you came for.
• What was added. Tequila that says 100% agave is a different bottle from a mixto. A rum that tastes like vanilla cake before you add syrup may already contain sugar. “Small batch,” “reserve,” and “handmade” are not regulated compliments. Ignore them.

How to taste before you commit

1. 01

   Read the label out loud

   Plant, place, proof, age if any. If you can’t, you don’t know what you’re buying yet.

2. 02

   Smell it neat, then with a few drops of water

   The burn should step back and the plant should step forward. If water only makes it thinner, there wasn’t much there.

3. 03

   Write three words

   The plant. The weight — light, oily, hot, silky. The oak, or the honest lack of it. You will not remember a paragraph.

4. 04

   Ask what job it is for

   Would this survive lemon, or is it a sipping bottle? A bottle can be excellent and wrong for the drink you meant. Buy the smaller size of anything you haven’t tasted. A half bottle of a true one beats a full bottle of a guess.

What you taste for

• Whiskey: grain under the vanilla. If all you get is oak, caramel, and sweetness, the barrel did the whole job.
• Gin: juniper first. Citrus or flower second. Cucumber with no juniper is a different spirit. Don’t buy it to be a martini.
• Rum: cane. Grassy and saline if it was fresh juice, darker fruit if it was molasses. Dessert, before any syrup, means someone sweetened the bottle.
• Tequila: cooked agave, pepper, a citrus edge. Vanilla candy is a warning. Look for 100% agave.
• Mezcal: smoke plus a plant — pineapple, wet clay, herbs — not smoke alone. The agave should still be there when the smoke fades.
• Brandy: wine, then oak. If it could be any brown spirit, the grape got lost.
• Vermouth and amaro: taste them straight, at a sip, and buy the small bottle. They are perishable. The fridge is part of the purchase.