fjauss

Point well taken. You're absolutely right about the wine being overpowered by everything else, so I'll go cheap. Thanks for your help.

Thanks for the recommendation about Snooth.com. I had never heard of it before. I'll add that to my bookmarks. However, after discussing it with the person who gave me the recipe, he is arguing against using catawba wine because while it is traditional, most of it is so godawful. And considering that there's not likely to be any place in the area that sells it, I'm left with trying to order something online which will be a complete shot in the dark - could be palatable, could be alcoholic welshs grape juice. He recommends using a drinkable sweet rose. Any recommendations for something decent?

I'm interested in making up a batch of Chatham Artillery Punch for assorted devious purposes this fall. The traditional recipe calls for Catawba wine, which while once prevalent in the United States, is not so much any more as people started liking drier wines. It would be great if I could find a local winery that made and sold Catawba wine. Does anyone have any ideas? If not, does anyone have any ideas as to what would be an appropriate substitute for catawba? Bear in mind that the the recipe calls for 3/4 of a gallon of wine, mixed with approximately 1.5 liters of assorted spirits and is topped with champagne, so I'm not looking for top shelf wine here. Thanks!

Here are two more requests for hard to find spirits: Qi White Tea Liqueur - http://www.qispirits.com/Qi%20White%20Product.htm It's apparently made by St. George Spirits, the same fine folks who make Hangar One Vodka. Sotol - It's a cousin of tequila and mezcal but it's distilled from the Desert Spoon plant, rather than agave. I was in Houston recently and had a fantastic margarita/pisco sour hybrid drink using this as the base spirit. The bartender used Hacienda De Chihuahua Sotol, if I recall correctly. Any ideas? -Fred

Joe - I wish I had known that Ace Beverages carried such a large selection of hard-to-find spirits. My wife hauled about half a dozen bottles back to DC on Amtrak that were purchased at Astor Wine and Spirits in Manhattan, including Lucid, Creme de Violette, St. Germain and Aviation Gin. This is probably a long shot, but any chance that you could look into whether Hayman's Old Tom Gin can be imported into the US? Link If it's not available, have you heard of any other distillers in the US who are going to introduce an Old Tom Gin? Thanks, Fred