• The Bottled Cocktail Company — Unprecedented Tradition

    The Bottled Cocktail Company — Unprecedented Tradition

    The term ‘unprecedented’ was, in 2020, a well-worn refrain — one that might not please an overcritical historian. But though there are many precedents of mankind facing illness in history, the way in which our generation experienced the pandemic was, without question, new. The internet age transformed isolation into a paradoxically collective phenomenon, as people…

  • Champagne Telmont — Organic Growth

    Champagne Telmont — Organic Growth

    Environmentalism is such an enormous and crucial duty that, for many, it bypasses comprehension altogether.  In fact, in its current gridlocked iteration, most people feel pretty powerless to affect meaningful change – and indeed to halt it altogether. The climate crisis is a regulatory issue, it has to be a collective stride and to do…

  • Avión Tequila — Cristalino Clear

    Avión Tequila — Cristalino Clear

    In the past decade, tequila has enjoyed a much deserved boost of image. Gone are the days where a shot of tequila was a grimly tolerated steppingstone towards getting “blackout blotto”.     Tequila is one of Mexico’s most famous – or infamous – exports, but this newfound prestige may have something to do with…

  • Royal Salute 51 — A consumable NFT?

    Royal Salute 51 — A consumable NFT?

    You might see the words ‘whisky’ and ‘NFT’ and wonder how they could possibly overlap. One is a new-fangled entity that facilitates digital ownership while the other is a real life drink you can hold in your real life hands and experience on a multi-sensory level. The beginnings of their similarities – or similarity in…

  • A Grandfather’s Legacy — Ron Abuelo

    A Grandfather’s Legacy — Ron Abuelo

    Quite literally translating to “grandfather”, Ron Abuelo can count itself as a founding pioneer of heritage rum. Forget coconut flasks and paper umbrellas. This sweet spirit hailing from the fertile fields of the Azuero Peninsula, Panama counts its very antiquity as its secret weapon. Don Jose Varela founded the country’s first sugar cane fields and…

  • Midleton Very Rare — The Arboreal Nectar of Kylebeg Wood

    Midleton Very Rare — The Arboreal Nectar of Kylebeg Wood

    Four ancient forests. Seven carefully chosen trees. A multitude of stories immemorial, given voice by way of cask and dram. Midleton – one of the world’s most revered makers of whiskey – have gone about their aging process in perhaps the most enchanting way we’ve yet witnessed. Their new range is called Dair Ghaelach, which…

  • Tercet — Born of Brotherhood

    Tercet — Born of Brotherhood

    One would think that an institution as esteemed and established as Rémy Martin would have hit something of a(n extremely lofty) plateau by now. The legendary cognac house is nearly 300 years old. The fact they have lasted – or rather, dominated – for so long is not down to reaching pinnacle status and resting…

  • Welcome Home — Glenlivet’s New Crib

    Welcome Home — Glenlivet’s New Crib

    It’s a curious phenomenon, our resistance to change. Change, really, is the staple ingredient to improvement and is in fact the one-word definition of what nature is; so, naturally, there is nothing more natural. So why can it feel so wrong? I think the root of that pain in change is in an urgency to…

  • Rolls-Royce Cellarette — Where Cigars & Whisky meet

    Rolls-Royce Cellarette — Where Cigars & Whisky meet

    I must admit, it came as a big surprise to me to learn one of the industries most affected by the pandemic is the cigar market. In fact just yesterday morning, I received a received a message asking if I knew anyone that supplied Cohibas due to a shortage of cigars for a top client…

  • Worth the Wait

    Worth the Wait

    You may have heard that little picture by the name of ‘No Time to Die’ is hitting theatres in two weeks. The new James Bond has been marred by COVID-induced delays and our anticipation has been equally feverish. Frustrating as the wait is, it’s good to know that Eon Productions et al are taking the…

  • Benromach — A Dormant Dram Awakens On Speyside

    Benromach — A Dormant Dram Awakens On Speyside

    In the north of Scotland, in an ancient town that strikes across the Moray coast, something has been lying dormant for the past 40 years. This isn’t the opening line to some Highland fable but it may as well be. The town in question – Forres – has been the scene of many mysterious events…

  • Olmeca Altos Tequila

    Olmeca Altos Tequila

    Accessing the world of tequila (or any spirit, for that matter) can be a bewildering affair. There are often many factors to consider, few of them obvious, and any tequila worth its salt would balk at the branding of an ‘entry spirit’. Olmeca Altos provide a tequila that has all quality and credentials one would…

  • Remy Martin presents — Team Up For Excellence

    Remy Martin presents — Team Up For Excellence

    What is the link between the land of cognac, jazz, blues and hip-hop? This is the question posited to us by multi-Grammy Award winning dance floor behemoth Usher in the opening to Rémy Martin’s ‘Team Up For Excellence’ short. There is an indomitable zest for life shared by the respective proponents of cognac and music.…

  • Redbreast — One for the Birds

    Redbreast — One for the Birds

    The tradition of keeping the bottle is a marvellous exercise. Any act of converting the disposable into a trinket or keepsake has to be considered worthy. If cracking open a bottle of something special is a way of marking an occasion – the birth of a child, the union of marriage, a graduation – then…