תעתיק 🔗
WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:13.100
You can tell a lot about a person by what's in their glass.
2
00:00:13.100 --> 00:00:19.120
Sometimes it says, "I appreciate true craftsmanship." And sometimes it says, "I'm going to explain
3
00:00:19.120 --> 00:00:22.760
my crypto portfolio to you at a child's birthday party."
4
00:00:22.760 --> 00:00:26.000
I'm Tim Fulton, and this is Character Proof.
5
00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:28.600
Tasting notes and character flaws.
6
00:00:28.600 --> 00:00:34.120
In every episode we pour one bottle — bourbon, scotch, tequila, whatever's on the shelf — give
7
00:00:34.120 --> 00:00:40.920
it an honest tasting, and then lovingly, specifically roast the exact person who drinks it on purpose.
8
00:00:40.920 --> 00:00:50.240
So grab a glass, pull up a chair. Let's get pouring.
9
00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:56.200
Rittenhouse Rye is a bottled-in-bond workhorse from Heaven Hill — one hundred proof by law, four years
10
00:00:56.200 --> 00:01:01.100
minimum by law, one distillery, one season, all by law,
11
00:01:01.100 --> 00:01:07.200
which makes bottled-in-bond the federal government's only good contribution to cocktail hour.
12
00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:13.060
It runs about twenty-seven dollars, and it is quietly one of the most important bottles in America,
13
00:01:13.060 --> 00:01:17.180
because when the cocktail renaissance needed a rye that could stand up in a Manhattan without
14
00:01:17.180 --> 00:01:20.520
bankrupting the bar, this was the answer,
15
00:01:20.520 --> 00:01:21.960
and it still is.
16
00:01:21.960 --> 00:01:26.680
The nose is rye spice, cocoa, and citrus pith over caramel.
17
00:01:26.680 --> 00:01:32.920
The palate is sturdy and dry — pepper and clove up front, then chocolate, a little mint, orange
18
00:01:32.920 --> 00:01:37.280
oil — and the finish is warm, spicy, and structured,
19
00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:40.880
less a solo performance than a load-bearing wall.
20
00:01:40.880 --> 00:01:42.200
And that's the thing:
21
00:01:42.200 --> 00:01:45.280
this whiskey was born to be built with.
22
00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:46.920
Sip it neat and it's good.
23
00:01:46.920 --> 00:01:49.900
Put it in a Manhattan and it's correct.
24
00:01:49.900 --> 00:01:55.740
Which brings us to Miles Abernathy, for whom "correct" is not a compliment but a destination,
25
00:01:55.740 --> 00:01:59.100
and the Manhattan is not a drink but a thesis
26
00:01:59.100 --> 00:02:04.060
he has been defending, at home, nightly, for six years.
27
00:02:04.060 --> 00:02:08.980
Miles is thirty-three, works in academic publishing, and owns more bar equipment than several
28
00:02:08.980 --> 00:02:10.540
bars we could name.
29
00:02:10.540 --> 00:02:12.860
The home setup has zones.
30
00:02:12.860 --> 00:02:14.700
There is a jeweled ice press —
31
00:02:14.700 --> 00:02:17.140
Julian Reyes makes clear ice;
32
00:02:17.140 --> 00:02:19.540
Miles makes clear ice with facets —
33
00:02:19.540 --> 00:02:25.100
a lever-action crystal mixing glass, three sizes of julep strainer, and a small refrigerated
34
00:02:25.100 --> 00:02:29.700
drawer, installed at real expense, containing only vermouth,
35
00:02:29.700 --> 00:02:36.300
because Miles believes — correctly, maddeningly — that you are storing your vermouth wrong.
36
00:02:36.300 --> 00:02:40.860
It's wine, he'll tell you, uninvited, hand already moving toward your pantry in
37
00:02:40.860 --> 00:02:42.500
gentle rescue.
38
00:02:42.500 --> 00:02:43.940
It's fortified wine,
39
00:02:43.940 --> 00:02:48.460
it's been open since March, and what you have there is not an ingredient,
40
00:02:48.460 --> 00:02:50.180
it's a haunting.
41
00:02:50.180 --> 00:02:54.260
Watch him build the Manhattan, because the build is the point.
42
00:02:54.260 --> 00:02:59.980
Rittenhouse, two ounces, because — and here comes the sermon, settle in — at a hundred proof
43
00:02:59.980 --> 00:03:03.300
it "carries the vermouth" instead of drowning in it,
44
00:03:03.300 --> 00:03:08.860
and bonded means consistency, and consistency means the variables are his.
45
00:03:08.860 --> 00:03:10.940
Stir, never shake —
46
00:03:10.940 --> 00:03:15.900
shaking a Manhattan, in Miles's cosmology, sits somewhere between a parking violation
47
00:03:15.900 --> 00:03:17.060
and arson.
48
00:03:17.460 --> 00:03:20.220
Fifty revolutions, counted silently.
49
00:03:20.220 --> 00:03:22.900
The cherry is a Luxardo, obviously;
50
00:03:22.900 --> 00:03:23.900
there is a jar;
51
00:03:23.900 --> 00:03:26.100
the jar has a designated spoon;
52
00:03:26.100 --> 00:03:29.860
the spoon has never touched anything else and never will.
53
00:03:29.860 --> 00:03:34.180
The orange peel is expressed over the surface at a distance Miles has settled on through
54
00:03:34.180 --> 00:03:37.940
what he calls "testing," meaning years,
55
00:03:37.940 --> 00:03:42.740
and the peel is then draped, not dropped, because a dropped peel is a peel that has
56
00:03:42.740 --> 00:03:44.080
given up.
57
00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:46.960
And when he hands it over he doesn't say "here" —
58
00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:49.120
he says "tell me what you think,"
59
00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:53.240
which sounds like a question and is in fact a quiz.
60
00:03:53.240 --> 00:03:56.600
The drink, it must be said, is magnificent.
61
00:03:56.600 --> 00:03:58.360
It is always magnificent.
62
00:03:58.360 --> 00:04:01.880
That's the maddening engine of the whole personality:
63
00:04:01.880 --> 00:04:04.520
the results keep vindicating the process,
64
00:04:04.520 --> 00:04:08.040
the way Theo's margaritas keep vindicating the sermon.
65
00:04:08.040 --> 00:04:09.640
Here's the thesis:
66
00:04:09.640 --> 00:04:12.120
Miles doesn't actually drink much whiskey —
67
00:04:12.120 --> 00:04:17.240
one cocktail a night, occasionally two on a weekend, measured to the quarter-ounce.
68
00:04:17.240 --> 00:04:20.440
What Miles drinks is control.
69
00:04:20.440 --> 00:04:21.720
Publishing is chaos,
70
00:04:21.720 --> 00:04:23.240
peer
Load full transcript
review is chaos,
71
00:04:23.240 --> 00:04:25.560
his inbox is a war crime —
72
00:04:25.560 --> 00:04:31.440
but at nine p.m., in a two-hundred-milliliter system with five variables, the world becomes fully
73
00:04:31.440 --> 00:04:32.960
knowable.
74
00:04:32.960 --> 00:04:35.920
Every variable in the Manhattan answers to him —
75
00:04:35.920 --> 00:04:38.120
the proof is bonded and fixed,
76
00:04:38.120 --> 00:04:41.160
the vermouth is fresh because he refrigerated it,
77
00:04:41.160 --> 00:04:45.800
the dilution is a function of stir count and he counts the stirs —
78
00:04:45.800 --> 00:04:50.360
and in a life where a manuscript can be four years late and a reviewer can be cruel for
79
00:04:50.360 --> 00:04:55.800
no reason, there is exactly one system Miles has ever fully solved,
80
00:04:55.800 --> 00:05:00.160
and he solves it again, correctly, every single night.
81
00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:01.880
The pour is a means;
82
00:05:01.880 --> 00:05:03.800
the build is the point;
83
00:05:03.800 --> 00:05:09.920
the whiskey is the one manuscript that always comes back accepted.
84
00:05:09.920 --> 00:05:13.600
And here's the affectionate part, because there's always one.
85
00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:16.200
All that apparatus points outward.
86
00:05:16.200 --> 00:05:18.880
Miles's Manhattans are made for people —
87
00:05:18.880 --> 00:05:21.760
the neighbor going through the divorce gets one on the porch,
88
00:05:21.760 --> 00:05:25.320
the visiting author gets one that ruins hotel bars forever,
89
00:05:25.320 --> 00:05:29.040
and every houseguest leaves with a typed recipe card,
90
00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:34.080
actually typed, on a typewriter, which is insufferable and also the nicest thing
91
00:05:34.080 --> 00:05:36.480
anyone's done for them all month.
92
00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:41.360
The vermouth lecture is a love language with a refrigeration requirement.
93
00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:44.800
So count the fifty revolutions, Miles, and hand it over —
94
00:05:44.800 --> 00:05:46.320
we'll tell you what we think:
95
00:05:46.320 --> 00:05:47.560
it's magnificent,
96
00:05:47.560 --> 00:05:49.280
it's always magnificent,
97
00:05:49.280 --> 00:05:51.560
you know it's magnificent.
98
00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:58.240
A twenty-seven dollar rye, a federal law from 1897, and a man who believes your evening deserves
99
00:05:58.240 --> 00:05:59.560
peer review.
100
00:05:59.560 --> 00:06:01.040
The system works.
101
00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:03.200
The wall bears the load.
102
00:06:03.200 --> 00:06:04.200
Class dismissed.
103
00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:20.080
Well, the glass is empty, and the verdict is in.
104
00:06:20.080 --> 00:06:23.080
That's going to do it for this episode of Character Proof.
105
00:06:23.080 --> 00:06:27.400
If you saw yourself in tonight's pour — first of all, we love you.
106
00:06:27.400 --> 00:06:31.560
Second, hit subscribe, leave a five-star review, and send this to the friend whose
107
00:06:31.560 --> 00:06:34.160
bar cart costs more than their car.
108
00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:36.360
Got a bottle you want us to put on trial?
109
00:06:36.360 --> 00:06:40.320
Drop it in the reviews or find us on socials, and you just might be next week's
110
00:06:40.320 --> 00:06:41.320
character.
111
00:06:41.320 --> 00:06:46.040
Until next time: drink responsibly, pour generously, and always check your
112
00:06:46.040 --> 00:06:47.360
character flaws.
113
00:06:47.360 --> 00:06:47.920
Cheers.