By the Smoke and the Smell

My Search for the Rare and Sublime on the Spirits Trail

By: Thad Vogler

Narrated by: Alexander Cendese

We care so much about the food we eat: how it is made, by whom, and where. Yet we are far less careful about the spirits we drink, often allowing the biggest brands with the most marketing dollars to control the narrative. In By the Smoke and the Smell, Vogler is here to set the record straight. This remarkable memoir is the first book to ask the tough questions about the booze industry: where our spirits come from, who makes them, and at what cost.

By the Smoke and the Smell is also a celebration of the people and places behind the most singular, life-changing spirits on earth. Vogler takes us to Normandy, where we drink calvados with lovable Vikings; to Cuba, a country where Vogler lived for a time, and that has so much more to offer than cigars, classic cars, and mojitos; to the jagged cliffs and crystal-clear lochs of Scotland; to Northern Ireland, Oaxaca, Armagnac, Cognac, Kentucky, and California. Alternately hilarious and heartfelt, Vogler's memoir will open your eyes to the rich world of traditional, small-scale distilling - and in the process, it will completely change the way you think about and buy spirits.

©2017 Thaddeus Vogler (P)2018 Tantor

Slow Food Frat Bro

Thad Vogler is a Slow Food frat bro of San Francisco. This is a book about his exploits, with a fair bit of information about the some of the world’s major spirits, how they used to be made, how they’re dominantly made today, and how they could be made.

Some readers may find it difficult to get past Vogler’s crassness, and I won’t begrudge them such boundaries.

The title of the book is sourced from an Irish, and later Appalachian, folk song about distilling, sometimes called “Rare Old Mountain Dew.”

The book documents seven spirits from various regions of the world, as told through Vogler’s trips to these regions:
1. Calvados (France)
2. Cognac (France)
3. Armagnac (France)
4. Rum (Cuba)
5. Scotch (Scotland)
6. Mezcal (Mexico)
7. Bourbon (USA)

As you might expect, multinational cartels dominate these industries. Although we have these corporations to thank for the renown of these spirits, we also can place the blame on them for producing a product that is homogeneous and almost entirely divorced from place. Vogler’s expeditions, (and the products in his bars in San Francisco) offer a view of a different world, of those few artisans that have gone against the grain, making spirits that carry with them both their heritage in production, and let the tastes of their agricultural foundations come through.

Much of the processes in modern distilling—the addition of caramel coloring, the column still, commodity-grade feedstocks, chill-filtering—remove the eccentricities that remind us of the unique place from which a spirit arises. Luckily, similar to the trends seen in the craft brewing movement, we’re seeing a resurgence of distilleries willing to make something that not only distills the alcohol, but distills the essence of a place.

This book leaves much to be desired, but also gives a taste of another world.

Feeling conflicted

I think the voice reading the book impersonating accents was condescending and inappropriate, though this has less to do with the author. I think when writing about other cultures it’s important to be sympathetic to greater systemic issues. I found the chapters on Oaxaca to be cringe worthy, simplistic and even sexist on top of inaccurate. There are a multitude of Indigenous groups in the state of Oaxaca and none of them are Maya, I realize this book is anecdotal, but a quick google search will do the trick to make sure when you are speaking about other cultures you’re at least paying them the respect to know something about them.