Win Favorite Child Status: Jonathan's Mother's Day Spirits Picks
Three Bottles That Will Lift Mom’s Spirits on Mother’s Day
To honor Mom on her special day, we have selected three bottles that should excite her more than that finger-painted portrait you made her in grade-school (but only by a little bit). I’ve chosen spirits that will enhance anyone’s cocktail-making abilities. Whether she’s a negroni fanatic or a margarita enthusiast or just a plain old fan of spirits, you’re sure to win “favorite child” status if you gift her one of these.
Scarlet Aperitivo: The Negroni Upgrade
Scarlet "Aperitivo" Bitter Liqueur (700ml) $54.99 If mom is a fan of Negronis, Scarlet Aperitivo is the bottle that will put her recipe over the top. Made at Iseya Distillery in Sagamihara, Japan, it takes inspiration from the Italian red bitters of the 1970s—think old Campari style—but stands firmly on its own thanks to 25 estate-grown and locally sourced botanicals, including the wormwood and yomogi (mugwort) used as bittering agents alongside lemon balm, golden berry sprouts, sage, angelica root, licorice, cinnamon, jasmine flowers, and blood orange peel. Founder Tatsuya Motonaga notes that Japanese-grown botanicals have vastly different flavor profiles than their European counterparts, and you can taste it—in the glass it opens with a gently mentholated nose of gentian, lemon verbena, rose petal, and myrrh with a hint of fruit-forward espresso, then settles into an earthy, velvety palate of red fruit, white pepper, aloe, and orange peel with clove, sandalwood, and prickly ash on a long, drying finish. One thing worth knowing before you gift it: the red color comes from cochineal insect dye, so this one is not vegan.
Portofino Gin: A Bottle That Smells Like the Mediterranean
Antica Distilleria Quaglia "Portofino" Dry Gin (750ml) $59.99 Built around 21 botanicals sourced from the hills above the Portofino harbor—lemon, juniper, rosemary, lavender, marjoram, sage—this is a gin that leans Mediterranean and bright rather than piney and sharp. Put it in a good gin and tonic with a slice of lemon and a sprig of rosemary and it will completely change her mind. It's the kind of bottle that looks beautiful on the bar and tastes even better than it looks.
Lost Explorer Blanco: The Tequila for Sipping and Margaritas
Lost Explorer Blanco Tequila (750ml) $44.99 Lost Explorer Blanco is the tequila for the mom who is a margarita person but hasn't tried one made with a really good blanco tequila. It's 100% Blue Weber Agave from Jalisco, double distilled in small batches, and it has that bright citrus and cinnamon thing going on that makes it work just as well neat as it does in a cocktail. This is not a mixer-grade tequila dressed up in nice packaging—it's the real thing, and she'll know the difference after the first sip.
- Jonathan Goldstein, K&L Spirits Buyer