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Photo courtesy of Juan Lamarca
Even wine lovers sometimes stray from their initial passions. And with the hot summer days, a refreshing cocktail can be tempting. The spirit of choice? Let’s make some gin. Maybe a simple, straightforward, clean gin and tonic with a lemon wedge on the edge. How about a tendril made with gin, simple syrup, and freshly squeezed lime juice?
Or maybe you want to ‘reimagine’ your gin cocktail and go for ‘The Roldan’. What are you asking? Well, Nic Roldan, whose cocktail is named after, explained, “It’s a cocktail made with crushed strawberries and gin topped with fresh basil served on ice. Fresh and perfect for summer. And his favorite gin? Why his own High Goal Luxury Gin, of course.
Those who know Polo, and there more than a few aficionados of the “Sport of Kings†in this rarefied valley, know Nic Roldan well. He is one of the best polo players on the planet and currently has an impressive handicap score of 8 goals. They tell me it’s below par. A former captain of the US polo team that travels the world polo circuit for matches, he spends his summer months here in Aspen playing weekly at the Aspen Valley Polo Club in Carbondale and various other venues across the valley.
In April of this year, he released the aforementioned High Goal Luxury Gin, a tribute to the sport Nic excels at and an extension of the ambitious polo lifestyle. “Polo is not a mainstream sport so we need to find ways to broaden the reach,” Nic said on a recent afternoon in the club room at Casa Tua d’Aspen, where he sipped a homemade version of his namesake cocktail.
The High Goal Luxury Gin is a collaboration between a trio of friends from Florida – Roldan, financier and entrepreneur Diego Urrutia and spirits professional Matti Anttila, all of whom have a taste for the finer things in life, including gin. . “I fell in love with the gin culture in the UK where I went for eight years to play polo,†says Roldan. He rode on the winning side of the 2018 Queen’s Cup, a prestigious and decidedly chic British polo competition. “Everywhere you go, especially in the summer at Polo Fields, Gin and Tonic, G&T calls them, have been poured out. I just loved the different styles of the mind.
At the start of 2019, a conversation between the three Floridians turned into a business plan. “We felt the US market was in a perfect location for an innovative gin product. They put together 20-30 brands of gins with different styles and did an in-depth analysis – and a taste test – of the attributes they liked and didn’t like. “My palate hasn’t gone for the stronger juniper flavors, I prefer something a little more subtle than some of the gins that rely heavily on juniper as the main flavor,†said Roldan.
Working with Antilla, co-founder and CEO of Grain and Barrel, a company that produces a variety of different spirits brands, they opted for an infused blend that has instant notes of Meyer lemon and mint on the palate. It’s a combination of plants that seems to suit Roldan. “We think this is something that can appeal to a younger generation of drinkers. They might say, ‘Hey, I like that, I can drink gin,’ â€he said of the High Goal wording. “We like to say it’s best served over ice with a lemon wedge and fresh mint.”
Okay, but High Goal also works well as the main spirit for a plethora of refreshing cocktails. In addition to the Roldan, I poured in some G&T, gin and ginger, both with Fever Tree mixers, and combined a simple mint syrup for mixing with High Goal and sparkling water. Everything made the heat of this summer a little more bearable. Roldan and the High Goal team are appealing to local bars and restaurants with the gin, hoping to expand the opportunities here for consumers.
Launched in April of this year, High Goal is produced in Charleston South and is made in small batches of just 3,000 bottles at a time. The base is six times distilled from corn, and a macerated infiltration process infuses flavors from regionally inspired botanicals, including Meyer lemon, mint, juniper, cilantro and cardamom. An Italian-made bottle features a raised image of a polo player (Nic?) To the world. “
For Nicolas Ezequiel Roldan (known as Nic) this has surely been the case. Born in Argentina to a German mother (Dee) and a third-generation polo champion father (Raul), his family moved shortly after his birth to Wellington, Florida, the home of American polo. “I guess I was about 3 when I started riding and turned pro in high school.”
Over the next three and a half decades, he competed on five continents and won just about every prestigious polo trophy, including the US Open (at 15, the youngest to do so), Argentina’s Copa Camara de Diputados in 2006 (80 years after his great-grandfather won it), the Australian Open and the aforementioned Queen’s Cup. In addition, the affable and good-looking athlete has become a regular in fashion magazines as a professional model, as well as gossip sheets as an eligible bachelor widely known for her high-profile relationships.
Courtesy Image
Currently, he splits his time between Aspen and his native Florida, where he is a regular racer at Marc and Melissa Ganz’s Aspen Polo Club and the Grand Champions Polo Club in Wellington, two of the best polo facilities in the country. He is also an ambassador for the local Aspen Buddy program and on July 4th won his age group, finishing second overall in the Buddy 5K race on July 4th.
“I am so lucky to have the opportunities that I have had and I really try to give back one way or another.” The week of this interview, he hosted a number of children from the Buddy Program on a barn tour with the horses that are the stars of the polo season. “Children need mentors in this toxic world and because I travel so much I can’t do it, but I do what I can to help. Seeing the kids around the horses at the barn… it hits my heart in a different way than other things. I love the Buddy program.
Let’s drink to that.
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