In the stylish and social traditions of northern Italy, the talented Bar Toscana Mixologists – Bar Manager/Mixologist Brighid Maguire in collaboration with Mixologists Miguel Hernandez and Robert Carder – have designed four Spritzers for guests to mingle over a pre-dinner cocktail at the recently redesigned bar and restaurant in Brentwood. Considered the most popular cocktail in Italy, and differing from the American Spritzer, the Bar Toscana Spritzers are created with premier Italian liqueurs of grape, rose and bitter citrus mixed with spirits of Aperol, Campari and Cynar, prosecco, fresh fruit juices and soda.
The Spritzers, in addition to the Bar Toscana specialty drink menu, include the Michelangelo; the Donatello; the Raphael; and the Leonardo. The cocktails have been created to complement the extensive Italian Stuzzichini menu of light appetizers and shared plates created by Chefs Hugo Vasquez and Justino Quirino at Bar Toscana. All Spritzers are priced at $14 and will be available beginning March 20, 2018.
From Toscana website
BAR TOSCANA ITALIAN SPRITZERS
Michelangelo
bitter bianco, pamplemousse, prosecco, soda, grapefruit twist, raspberry
$14
Donatello
aperol, pavan, lemon, prosecco, soda, lemon twist, grape
$14
Raphael
italicus rosolio, campari, lime, blood orange, prosecco, soda, blood orange twist
$14
Leonardo
italicus, bitter bianco, lemon, prosecco, soda
$14
Available March 20, 2018 and continuing
Nightly from 5:30 pm
Bar Toscana
11633 San Vicente Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90049
310.826.0028
ABOUT BAR TOSCANA:
Bar Toscana is where traditional Italian cuisine meets the modern art of craft. LA Confidential credits Bar Toscana as increasing the interest in Italian aperitifs and aperitif-based cocktails in the United States.
Located in the heart of Brentwood next door to the legendary Toscana, Bar Toscana is an intimate restaurant and cocktail bar showcasing a simple, elegant menu of small plates – or Stuzzichini – an array of hand-crafted cocktails and an Italian-focused wine list. At once relaxed and stylish, this neighborhood spot is ideally fashioned for imaginative market cocktails and sparkling conversation.
The Minty says, “Cocktails incorporating fresh produce are a rare find in Brentwood. If you’re ever looking for a place to eat or drink in Brentwood, don’t miss this place.” Gayot.com states “the emphasis at Toscana’s vibrant little sister, Bar Toscana, is on imbibing…but the food will compel you to plan a return visit.”
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About Georgos Nu-Greek Wines
What I didn’t expect was the wide selection of sake and shochu I would want to taste, and a couple of educational classes thrown in for good measure. You ready for your sample? (Most of the photos I took I compiled into three grids that can be seen 
There is a little more magic to mention: the invisible cellar, the shuttered chateau. But I do not want to emphasize this. Xavier does not play any of this up: like the vineyards, all of this disappears. There is no show: only wine. He does not even make a show of his methods; he never mentions his own devotion; he never draws distinctions between his way of working and his neighbors’. He does not celebrate or elevate what he does; he is utterly matter of fact. He never mentions “purity” or any other value. His only point of pride, if I read him right, is his wine’s relation to time. His only theory, insofar as I could grasp, is related to what he calls “matière”– “matter.” His labels have alchemical references (see photo); I think that he means something old-fashioned and metaphysical by this. He does not just mean “matter” or even something like information. He talks about his farming being devoted to translating matter from the field (not just the soil) to the grapes, and his pressing being devoted to translating the matter from the grapes to the juice. The density of this wine is due to this attention to matter– and also the complexity, I think. But this means that “matière” is not just some concentration of molecules, but some kind of system, with architecture, proportion, interrelation. For what else is complexity? His matter, I think, is something more like spirit or soul– not necessarily in the Christian sense, but in a way that Aristotle would understand.
The first bottle is a white wine from 2004. He makes only two wines, one red, one white. The white, 100% Chenin. Six years in barrel before bottling, then, in the case of this wine, four more years before release. Robert asks about skin contact (Xavier speaks no English, I translate as best as I can). No skin contact. We discuss the press regime and fermentation for 30 minutes. In great detail. He uses an old champagne press with a capacity of about 500 liters– very small, and exactly the same capacity as our presses at Tenbrink. A typical day during the white harvest has the following rhythm: wake up, harvest as much fruit as the press will hold, bring it back to the winery (“where do you do the work?” I ask, pointing to the overgrown yard and the complete absence of what we would call a crush pad. “Where you can,” he says with a smile). Load the press. Begin pressing. Go past midnight. Adjust the pressure. Assess. If all seems good, go home. Sleep, wake, return to the winery, release the pressure, break up the grapes (“Whole cluster?” “Yes. We do not crush or destem anything”), re-apply pressure, go harvest fruit, return, unload the press, begin the cycle again. They work with about 3 vineyards typically but make 3-4 passes in each vineyard. There could be a dozen days of pressing; sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. They break up the cake of compressed grapes only once and gently. He wants as little friction and trituration as possible. There is no breaking up of the fruit on the way into the press or in the press as we do (“makes the fermentation too fast,” he explains. “Oh yes, how fast? What counts as a rapid fermentation for you?” “Three weeks.” Ah, that is rapid. What is the optimal time for you?” “A few months . . . . A year.” “Ah yes, we call those ‘French Fermentations.'” He smiles.)
Tasting With Emilien Boutillat
