Day Journey: Rachael Petach, C. Cassis

Rachael Petach spent 20 years in hospitality, from Chez Panisse whereas attending UC Berkeley, to internet hosting a pop-up restaurant in her Madrid residence, to operations and programming director for the Wythe Resort in Brooklyn. However in 2017, a brand new obsession took maintain. Petach started to experiment with blackcurrants (unlawful to domesticate within the U.S. till 2003), hauling kilos of fruit as much as her third-floor Brooklyn walk-up to craft small batches of liqueur. The outcome, based in December 2020, is C. Cassis, a contemporary tackle the basic liqueur, which Petach now makes in her Hudson Valley facility and tasting room.

5:30 a.m.

I quietly get away from bed for an hour to myself earlier than anybody else wakes up. I make some black tea, do yoga, then take our canine, Ramona, on a run. She’s a 3-year-old Border Collie combine and we each want it. My son is 5 and he’ll sus out once I’m awake. I get his breakfast collectively and make him lunch for varsity. Then my husband and I chat about what’s occurring with C. Cassis and his day. He’s a graphic designer for a artistic studio, but additionally does all graphics and visible communications for the model. At 8:30, I drive to Rhinebeck, about 25 minutes away. It could be the proper time to make cellphone calls, however the cell service is horrible, so I hearken to a podcast like Heavyweight.

9 a.m.

Since opening the tasting room final fall, I successfully erased my days off. I do some early emails then verify the tanks. We now have 4 300-liter tanks and three 1,000-liter tanks, and every may very well be at any stage of the method. Recent blackcurrants are harvested in July and recent frozen as a result of they’re such a distinct segment crop. We macerate the chilly fruit on a base of hybrid rosé wine and water—the temperature and alcohol delay major fermentation for a DIY cold-soak technique.

As soon as fermentation begins, we permit 12 to twenty hours earlier than including a impartial grain spirit comprised of natural New York corn to up the ABV and minimize fermentation. It macerates on the skins for an additional 5 to seven days, then we press it and sweeten with uncooked, wild honey. It’s much less syrupy than most liqueurs, with a extra drinkable, aperitif high quality. We add a botanical infusion to enrich the blackcurrants, which have huge, vivid acidity and depth, and this herbaceous, nearly savory high quality. We add inexperienced cardamom, lemon verbena, lemon and orange rind, and bay leaf, and steep for about three weeks. After straining, the tank rests for an additional month earlier than we bottle. 

11 a.m.

Morning calls and one other cup of tea. I verify in with our distribution companions, distributors, and collaborators. I additionally contact base with our culinary director, Katy Moore, on plans for the week.

Midday

All of us have lunch collectively—myself, Katy, our operations supervisor, Kendra Lansing, and our manufacturing assistant and backyard supervisor, Nicole Vascimini. Lots of my very own manufacturing duties are math heavy, so I’ve detailed spreadsheets and calculations for proofing alcohol, ratios for batches, and new challenge R&D. I’m tremendous excited concerning the culinary R&D that Katy is engaged on with byproducts of the liqueur to discover secondary and tertiary makes use of. Pressed fruit could be pickled, fermented, dehydrated, salt-cured or made into syrups, jams, and candies. We’ve made a salted currant compote and a tea mix that makes use of blackcurrant leaves, lemon verbena, and cardamom to play off the flavour profile of the liqueur. 

2 p.m.

Tank tasting with Kendra. We pull samples from tanks holding completed product, making choices round timeline, course of, and bottling. She ensures we have now all gadgets for manufacturing in-house—wax, corks, bottles, botanicals, and so forth. In the meantime, Nicole tends to the backyard the place we develop the whole lot from veggies for the kitchen to tiny mouse melons that get brined for garnishes.

4 p.m.

We attempt to wrap issues by 4, which could be arduous however feels actually useful to have time to reside after work. I usually head proper house for childcare, but when we’re mixing drinks on-site, I’ve a powerful affinity for the Spanish custom of vermouth and soda from once I lived there. I’ll combine an oz of Cassis and an oz of dry vermouth, topped with seltzer and garnished with an orange and olive. We additionally do a Manhattan variation, subbing within the Cassis for the vermouth. We’re all the time ideating on enjoyable methods to make use of what we develop and make, and the tasting room is the primary place the place you’ll be able to see what we’re enthusiastic about.