Last week, Teeling Whiskey Company made history by releasing the first Dublin-distilled whiskey in almost 50 years: Teeling Single Pot Still. We caught up with co-founder Stephen Teeling to talk fruity mash, Irish whiskey’s soul, and the anticipation of a little peated number…
If there’s one thing that Teeling Whiskey Company is particularly good at, it’s preserving the essence and tradition of Irish whiskey while at the same time pushing – no, steamrolling – the envelope.
As we collectively hurtle towards 2019, our minds can’t help but wonder what the coming year has in store. We need not wonder. Diageo, one of the world’s largest distillers, has enlisted Jack Sotti, UK Senior Ambassador for World Class and Tanqueray Gin, and competitor Daniel Warren, to report the trends from the cocktail competition’s global finals. Here’s what they had to say…
You might’ve heard of World Class, one of the world’s biggest cocktail competitions. As Sotti explains during a talk at London’s Black Rock bar, the final offers a snapshot of the biggest trends in the global drinking scene. “The UK, one of the biggest cocktail hubs in the world, often leads those trends,” he adds.
It may be one the oldest of the great Cognac houses, but Martell isn’t scared of a little innovation. Quite the opposite: fearlessness is the backbone of its philosophy. MoM headed to its Cognac HQ for a dig around the founder’s historic home…
Even by spirits industry standards, Martell is super old. Not wartime old, nor Prohibition old. We’re talking about centuries of Cognac heritage. In fact, if you were to lay the historic documents and letters in Martell’s vast archive end-to-end, they would stretch for five kilometers. The company employs a full time archivist to look after them all.
The great pisco war of South America* has been waging for centuries, and while Peru and Chile may never agree on the spirit’s origin, the former tends to take centre stage. We delve into the DNA of Chile’s national spirit, in all its grape-based, historic, cocktail-worthy glory…
Locals have been making pisco in Chile for more than 500 years. Vines were first introduced to the country by Spanish settlers, and thanks to plentiful copper resources, it wasn’t long before the folks there were distilling wine with gusto. In fact, the first record of the word ‘pisco’ in America dates back to 1733, in the inventories of the first Chilean producers, says Javiera Lorenzini, brand ambassador for Waqar Pisco.
The evolution of family-owned Distillerie Merlet & Fils – trade eaux-de-vie supplier, world famous liqueurs producer, third-party distiller and own label extraordinaire – is unlike any other distillery in the Cognac industry. We took a tour with fifth generation family member, Luc Merlet…
“We are quite a diverse company,” outlines Luc Merlet, as we wander around one of the company’s warehouses. His father, Giles, founded the Merlet brand with the launch of his world-renowned fruit liqueur range in 1983, in response to the Cognac grape glut of the sixties and seventies – but the family has been distilling eaux-de-vie since 1850.
Norwegian roots, experimental blends, and eaux-de-vie that dates back to the 19th century: MoM stepped into the cellars of historic Cognac merchant Bache-Gabrielsen…
The house was founded by a Norwegian army officer named Thomas Bache-Gabrielsen, whose father ran a spirits monopoly in the north of the country. Together with friend and fellow Norwegian Peter Rustad, the duo bought a house called Edmond Dupuy back in 1905, naming it Bache-Gabrielsen and Rustad, and then eventually Bache-Gabrielsen.
‘No-alcohol’ is the biggest beer trend since ‘craft’, and the UK’s first alcohol-free brewery, London’s Nirvana Brewery, is proof. We stopped by for a chat with co-founder Steve Dass, to discover how and why a passionate beer lover would choose to brew sans booze…
If magic happens when barley meets water, hops and yeast, the work of Dass and his team at Nirvana Brewery, the UK’s first alcohol-free brewery – and the only organic brewery in London, as certified by the Soil Association – is entirely cosmic.
Following on from Friday’s story, MoM delves deeper into the DNA of the latest addition to Gordon & MacPhail’s Private Collection: two ‘twin’ whiskies, the “oldest Longmorn single malts ever released”, selected by identical twin brothers Stuart and Richard Urquhart.
The final instalment of the ‘Private Collection’ range – which comprises four rare single cask bottlings, each chosen by an Urquhart family member* – sees the release of not one but two supremely delicious drams, chosen by Stuart Urquhart, Gordon & MacPhail’s associate director of whisky supply, and his twin brother Richard, the company’s international sales manager for Asia & Americas.
The Giraud family has been tending vines in Grande Champagne since the 1600s; generation after generation has distilled wine, aged eaux-de-vie and supplied fine spirits to merchants across the region. Today, led by renowned farmer, distiller and blender, Paul-Jean Giraud, the domaine exclusively produces Cognac Paul Giraud.
“We’ve been vinegrowers since 1635, but we know that we sold Cognac in the 1800s,” Paul-Jean Giraud tells me. “In the past there was space for corn, vegetables, horses, cows; [the family] made many things to survive. But today, we just exclusively make just Cognac. The entire farm is for the vineyards – we have two hectares for my horse, and that’s all.”
It’s all well and good drinking it, but how much do you really know about France’s beloved grape-based spirit? Here, David Boileau, Cognac ambassador for the Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac (BNIC), details eight Cognac facts that every spirits geek should know…
You know that all Cognac is brandy, but not all brandy is Cognac. You’re aware it’s aged in oak barrels. You’ve heard that terroir is a thing that producers care about. But is there a gap in your otherwise flawless eaux-de-vie expertise, perhaps one you’re unaware of?