You may know Steven Grasse as the man behind Hendrick’s Gin, Sailor Jerry Rum, and the historically minded Art in the Age Spirits Root, Snap, and Rhuby. His latest creation is Spodee, a concoction we tuned into recently at epicurious.com.

Earlier this week, Epicurious picked up on a new kind of hooch being made by Steven Grasse, the guy behind the impeccably-promoted Hendrick's Gin and Sailor Jerry Rum. For our Great Recessionary times, he's trying to bring back something called Spodee, a spiced mix of fortified wine and moonshine that was born during the Depression.

Wine or moonshine? Wine or moonshine? If you find yourself trying to make this decision more often than not, then you’ll be happy to hear that Spodee has just hit the Philly market! Spodee isn’t your average wine; it is a wine fortified with high proof moonshine, that you mix into cocktails, like a spirit! Don’t fear the unusual because it’s said to be delightful and refreshing, unlike any drink before it.

Steven Grasse is the man behind Hendrick's Gin, Sailor Jerry Rum, and the historically minded Art in the Age Spirits Root, Snap, and Rhuby. His latest creation is Spodee, an unexpected blend of fortified wine and high-proof white whiskey (commonly called moonshine). As with Root, Snap, and Rhuby, Spodee looks to the past and is based on the Depression-era practice of combining country wine with strong homemade liquor plus whatever else happens to be on hand, such as fruit and spices.

This past week, we were invited to check out the newest invention of Steven Grasse, the guy that came up with Hendrick’s Gin, Sailor Jerry Rum, Root, Snap and Rhuby. This time around, he’s got a sort of fortified wine called Spodee, made with grape wine, moonshine and spices, and it’s definitely interesting.

Coming from Philly's boozy renaissance man -- who's behind everything from AITA's retro hooch to Sailor Jerry -- Spodee is a 36-proof resurrection of a backwoods concoction of country wine, moonshine, and garden herbs made popular enough during the Great Depression that Jerry Lee Lewis later wrote a song about it, then set his piano on fire. For the new version, which tastes like high-end Raisinets with notes of cocoa and grapes, he's mixing sweet vino from Brotherhood (America's oldest winery) with his own "legal" moonshine, and packaging the stuff in old school, cork-topped milk bottles… sans delivery via the dude who's probably your dad. Because you'll no doubt be all, "But bro, how in the world could this white whiskey wine benefit me more than normal wine?", here's a situational guide that highlights Spodee's superiority: