A few days ago I was invited to a gin and cocktail soaked fund raising event to benefit The Hospice of Orange & Sullivan Counties, NY. I coerced fellow blogger Joey D. to join me at Painter's Restaurant and Inn, located in the small but picturesque town of Cornwall on the Hudson (near the Storm King Arts Center and the U. S. Military Academy at West Point) to help me evaluate the prospective gins.

For a lucky few there was a lottery prior to the event, and sixteen folks from Manhattan were chauffeured by white, super stretch limos (provided by Hendrick's gin and Plymouth gin) to and from Painter's. I drove up and Joe and I grabbed rooms for the night. This way we could get there early enough for a fantastic meal at the restaurant, and so that we wouldn't have to make the 2 hour drive to drop Joe at his Queens, NY abode after having a few cocktails.

The event was attended by Gary and Mardee Regan of Ardent Spirits.com and Regan's Orange Bitters #6 fame (produced, bottled, and distributed by The Sazerac Company.) Gary is also the author of "The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft", several other books, and a whole slew of articles on drinks and spirits.
On Wednesday evenings Martha, the bartender at Painter's runs what they call Martha's Organized Chaos. For this event Gary stepped behind the bar to help Martha, and they brought in Charlotte Voisey- Hendrick's Gin brand champion & class magazine (U.K.) best bartender 2004/5 and Simon Ford- brand relations manager for Plymouth Gin and former London bartender "extraordinaire" to help with the cocktail tossing. Besides the presence of those two big wigs from Hendrick's Gin and Plymouth Gin, Andrew Auwerda- President of Philadelphia Distilling (who make the fabulous Bluecoat Gin) had driven in from Philadelphia, PA for the evening with many bottles of their great gin as well as a few Bluecoat polo shirts and baseball caps to hand out to the quivering crowds.

Besides conversations with Gary, Charlotte, and Simon; I got to chat briefly with the renowned spirits expert, LeNell of LeNell's Wine and Spirit Boutique in Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY (one of my favorite wine and spirit's shops), some folks from eGullet.com., and many others from here and there, and had a fine old time indeed.

At the crowded event you could order your gin's straight, or in mini-flights of three Aviation cocktails with each one based on a different gin. The Aviation is a great cocktail to use to compare various gin's because the ingredients don't hide the flavor of the gin, but in most cases amplify it.

At one point late in the night I got together with Joe and played stump the bartender, asking Gary to make a variety of old fashioned gin based cocktails from the Era of the Cocktail in the first half of the 20th century. If I remember correctly Joe had several versions of the martini, including one a bit more traditional than today. It was made with the recipe circa 1900 which was a 1:1 ratio of Bluecoat Gin and Dry Vermouth with a dash of bitters, and a Martini with a Spot which has a tiny bit of Pernod added, with the anise flavor bringing out the botanicals in the gin. I tried a few sips of these with him but went on to drinking a few of my favorite gin's on the rocks.

I was even handed a bottle of spirits as a present by the owner of Painter's, this was some Yang Ling brand San She Tan Chiew (Three Snake Liquor), a 39% abv. Chinese spirit packed in a bottle filled with three dead snakes. Maybe one day I will get up the nerve to taste it if I can conquer my squeamishness. I feel very bad for the snakes since I really like reptiles and used to raise them.

Just some of the gins available were: Gin No. 209, Aviation, Beefeater, Bluecoat, Bombay, Bombay Sapphire, Boodles, Broker's, Bulldog, Citadelle, DH Krahn, Distiller's Gin no. 6, G'Vine, Hendrick's, Junipero, Magellan, Martin Miller's, Old Raj, Plymouth, Sartilicious, Tanqueray, Tanqueray Jangpur, Tanqueray No. Ten, Van Gogh, and a few others. Among the ones I had were the following:

• New gins that I never tried before- Sartilicious and the new Tanqueray Jangpur that was released on a limited basis last summer and will be somewhat more available in the next few months.
• Gin I haven't had in several years- Broker's
• Gins I just recently tried and I am in the process of reviewing- Distiller's No. 6, G'Vine, Old Raj, DH Krahn, and Junipero
• Gins I just plain like- Bluecoat, Hendrick's, Plymouth
• Gin they ran out of that I wanted to try, but didn't- Aviation Gin