• Decem — Modern Spirits for Modern Times

    Decem — Modern Spirits for Modern Times

    It’s an unfortunate paradox, the fact that the more we drink, the less we remember. There are so many hours in a night out, with those towards midnight so readily dulled by our enjoyment of cocktails. Sobriety is always an option, so too is restraint. Thankfully, DECEM have invented something to help us avoid such…

  • Stereotypes exist to be broken

    Stereotypes exist to be broken

    The truth about stereotypes is that they may have once existed for a reason, but there often comes a time when they are no longer reflective of the ideal. I could literally write a thesis on the number of outdated stereotypes pandered around modern society like they were fact. From the classics “Women can’t drive”…

  • Remy Martin XO by LEE BROOM

    Remy Martin XO by LEE BROOM

    The idea that change is “necessary” to remain relevant is something that the classicists have fought for years. Having said that on the other side of the coin, the modernists could argue that if you don’t change you will get left behind. A conundrum indeed. This is where what I call “tasteful re-interpretation” comes in…

  • Heart in the Mouth — Appleton Rum Revisits a Fan Favourite

    Heart in the Mouth — Appleton Rum Revisits a Fan Favourite

    Esteemed rum masters Appleton Estate are revisiting their Hearts Collection and bequeathing connoisseurs with a second instalment of the sought after capsule. Created for true rum aficionados, the exquisite 1984 and 2003 vintages have been hand-selected from Appleton Estate’s legendary stock and are comprised of 100% pot still single marque rum. Normally, distilleries create rums with varying aromas and…

  • The Belle Epoque Society

    The Belle Epoque Society

    Every now and then it’s time for a space to be reimagined; not because there is necessarily anything wrong with it — but because it could be even better. For many of us, lockdown was that period. Confined to one location, there was ample time to consider your environment, and more importantly how you would…

  • 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…