The Kinks, in the summer of ’66, said it best: I love to live so pleasantly/Live this life of luxury/Lazin’ on a sunny afternoon/In the
summertime.
Of the South Fork’s many summertime pleasures, a sunny afternoon at the Sagaponack Farm Distillery’s tasting room might be the fairest. Like a clandestine cocktail lounge amid the verdant countryside, it offers spirits that come straight from the surrounding land. “We’re actually farmers,” says Marilee Foster, who with her brother, Dean Foster, leads the small-batch distillery. Their ancestor, Capt. Josiah Foster, founded the Foster Farm in 1870; the siblings are the sixth generation to work the farm.
The elements comprising their vodkas, whiskeys, gin, aquavit, and rhubarb liqueur are “some of the freshest ingredients off of our own ground,” says Dean. “What we utilize from the field has to be at the freshest component of its life in order to really bring through the terroir of this place.”
In the summertime, thoughts turn to Sagaponack Farm Distillery’s American Gin and, for a subtle woodsy note, Barrel-Finished Gin, its citrine-colored sibling. “It’s a wheat-based gin.”
Marilee says. “And then you put in all these beautiful herbs to bring it to life” — these being juniper, of course, along with coriander, cinnamon bark, angelica root, lemon and orange peel, ginger, lemongrass, and cardamom. “It’s got a nice citrus note to it, very clean-tasting.”
The scene may conjure the Kinks’ classic to those of a certain age, but many more sing a different tune: The favorite gin drink here happens to share a name with one of hip-hop’s catchiest tracks.
“I named this cocktail before I knew about Snoop Dogg’s Gin and Juice,” Marilee says. The name instead honors the late Norman Madison, who worked on the farm for a half-century. Madison, “who was drinking gin before Snoop Dogg was born,” preferred gin, ice, and “whatever juice was offered.”
Here, a Gin and Juice is made with equal parts of the distillery’s American or Barrel Finished gin, its Rhubarb Liqueur, fresh lemon juice, and Current Cassis (from a friend’s farm up in Rhinebeck), with a splash of demerara syrup. Shaken, served with rocks and a fun garnish, “it’s delicious,” Marilee says.
Another favorite — light years from the hip-hop era in inspiration — is Sagaponack Farm Distillery’s take on a Jazz Age cocktail, the Route 27. “It’s basically a French 75,” says Marilee, “but we don’t have Champagne, so we use Channing Daughters sparkling wine” from the nearby winery. “That’s a really nice summer drink, as well. We’re good friends with the folks at Channing, and it’s fun to use their sparkling wines.”
The Route 27 is one ounce American gin, a half-ounce fresh lemon juice, and, if preferred, a touch of simple syrup, shaken and strained into a Champagne flute topped with Channing Daughters Pétillant Naturel.
“It’s light, bubbly,” Marilee says. “Almost like a mimosa.”