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Master of Malt Blog

Category: Wine

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The Nightcap: 27 July

July 27, 2018 4:00 pm

As a bevy of drinks companies post their full-year results, let’s get down to business with this week’s The Nightcap. Greetings from another Friday! You’ve made it through a week,…

As a bevy of drinks companies post their full-year results, let’s get down to business with this week’s The Nightcap.

Greetings from another Friday! You’ve made it through a week, which is always an achievement of note and worthy of commemoration. As you settle into the weekend, do so with a brain full of booze news – get ready for another edition of The Nightcap!

Firstly, let’s look at the week that was here at MoM Towers. Our Annie chatted to whisky industry legend Charles MacLean, and then got us ready for London Mezcal Week by interviewing festival co-founders Thea Cumming and Melanie Symonds. Kristy introduced yet another whisky-based excursion to add to our ever-expanding bucket list with the Hebridean Whisky Trail. Sam said goodbye to Rum Month with a run-down of ace dark rums. Henry showed us why we shouldn’t fear the sommelier, and gave us a look at the new range of Mortlach whiskies due to hit shelves later this year. And finally Sam drilled down into Diageo’s results. On that note, on with The Nightcap booze news and those all-important numbers!

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Wine

How to order wine at a restaurant

July 25, 2018 12:09 pm

Feel lost ordering a bottle in a restaurant? Want to impress a friend/partner/hot date and paralysed with The Fear? We can help! Read on for an actual sommelier’s top tips…

Feel lost ordering a bottle in a restaurant? Want to impress a friend/partner/hot date and paralysed with The Fear? We can help! Read on for an actual sommelier’s top tips for tasty wine every time.

Picture the scene: you’re at a swanky restaurant. You’ve just been handed the wine list and everyone is looking you expectantly. The waiter glides over to take your order but just at that moment your mind goes blank, so you point to a name that looks vaguely familiar and when the wine comes, it’s a bit disappointing. We’ve all been there. But now help is at hand from Donald Edwards, the sommelier at hot new restaurant St Leonards in Shoreditch*, the brainchild of chefs Jackson Boxer and Andrew Clarke. It’s been described by Marina O’ Loughlin in the Sunday Times as “a classic in the making” – so you’ll want to pay attention. Here, Edwards gives us his top tips on how to get the most from a wine list.

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The Nightcap: 13 July

July 13, 2018 5:06 pm

Friday the 13th might be unlucky for some, but not if you follow the world of booze! It’s been an action-packed week, and we have the glorious highlights right here,…

Friday the 13th might be unlucky for some, but not if you follow the world of booze! It’s been an action-packed week, and we have the glorious highlights right here, right now. It’s The Nightcap!

Happy Friday, folks! The weekend is here and it’s time to celebrate with something tasty. Perhaps a delish and straightforward dram. Or, as Beam Suntory was highlighting when we stopped by this week, a Highball in all its glory. Or a G&T, Daiquiri, Margarita… the possibilities are endless. And now we’re distracted.

So. The tumultuous week that was. England tumbled out of the World Cup (at the semi-final stage so we’re still pretty proud here at MoM Towers), Brexit was back in the headlines (did it ever leave?!), and the astonishing Thai Cave rescue came to a successful close (huge respect to the rescue team, and of course we remember Saman Kunan, the brave diver who tragically died while saving others).

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Imbibe 2018: What goes on at the UK’s biggest booze trade show

July 5, 2018 5:05 pm

Imbibe Live: You might have heard of it. You may even have been along to it. It’s one of Europe’s top drinks trade shows where trends are spotted and ideas…

Imbibe Live: You might have heard of it. You may even have been along to it. It’s one of Europe’s top drinks trade shows where trends are spotted and ideas shared. Want to know what you’ll be drinking next? Our Henry headed to Imbibe 2018 to find out…

There’s always a moment when I first arrive at a trade show where I feel like a rabbit in the headlights. I am sure this would happen to me at Photocopier Expo but at Imbibe Live, one of Europe’s largest on trade shows, I was particularly overwhelmed with the bibulous possibilities on offer. Thank heavens then for Pol Roger, which had a quiet tent offering bacon sandwiches and its vintage 1999 Champagne – just the thing at 10 in the morning. While I nibbled, chairman of Pol UK, James Simpson, told me about a stash of ancient bottles that they had just discovered in a cellar that collapsed 118 years ago. Apparently they are in great condition. I am now waiting for an invite out to Epernay to try one. Watch this space.

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Wine

The Importance of Light Strike Awareness Day

June 21, 2018 1:30 pm

Have you heard of Light Strike Awareness Day? If not, Henry is here to give you the low-down… Today, the 21st June, the longest and potentially sunniest day of the…

Have you heard of Light Strike Awareness Day? If not, Henry is here to give you the low-down…

Today, the 21st June, the longest and potentially sunniest day of the year, is Light Strike Awareness Day. What, you didn’t know? Well, I’ll grant you it doesn’t have quite the same level of recognition as Movember or British Sausage Week, but if you’re a rosé drinker in particular (and these days who isn’t) then you should be paying attention.

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The Nightcap: 8 June

June 8, 2018 5:06 pm

Jack Daniel’s-maker Brown-Forman lines up a new CEO, World Gin Day hype aplenty, and fizz in space? It can only be The Nightcap! It’s Friday and the world’s most eclectic…

Jack Daniel’s-maker Brown-Forman lines up a new CEO, World Gin Day hype aplenty, and fizz in space? It can only be The Nightcap!

It’s Friday and the world’s most eclectic round-up of booze newses is back for another week! We’ve got a whole host of hot-off-the-press product launches, bar happenings galore and incoming CEOs up our sleeves. But first, let’s look back on the week that was…

While we were all recovering from the mega week-and-a-bit of Fèis Ìle 2018, Annie was bar flying-it-up at Artesian as the renowned bar team unveiled a new menu. Then, on Tuesday, she hightailed it over to The Zetter Townhouse to check out its partnership with cocktail maestro Tony Conigliaro… It’s a hard life.

On Wednesday, we had a look at your top 10 gins across Master of Malt to make what we think is a cracking list of must-tries ahead of World Gin Day (it’s tomorrow, team! Perhaps there’s just enough time to sneak in a next-day delivery…). Sticking with a theme, yesterday Adam caught up with Alex Kammerling, who just happens to have released a Kamm & Sons gin! Good timing, right?!

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The Nightcap: 18 May

May 18, 2018 5:00 pm

It’s Friday, which means the weekend is here – and with it we’ve got another edition of The Nightcap! Read on for your handy digest of the week’s biggest booze…

It’s Friday, which means the weekend is here – and with it we’ve got another edition of The Nightcap! Read on for your handy digest of the week’s biggest booze news, all in one useful place!

It’s Friday, folks! Congratulations on making it through another week. It’s been a busy one in the world of all things sippable, so we suggest you get comfy, pour yourself a dram/G&T/anything else that takes your fancy, and join us as we recall another busy seven days in drinks.

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American Whiskey Beer Cocktails Irish Whiskey News Scotch Whisky Whisky Wine

The Nightcap: 11 May

May 11, 2018 6:48 pm

Folks, it’s Friday! And it’s been another busy one in the world of drinks. Thank goodness then for The Nightcap, a handy round-up of boozy goings on in one easily…

Folks, it’s Friday! And it’s been another busy one in the world of drinks. Thank goodness then for The Nightcap, a handy round-up of boozy goings on in one easily sippable digestif!

This week we have news of a rather exciting Game of Thrones/whisky tie-up, awards galore from Spirit of Speyside, a bold new bottle design and a Tabasco sauce update. Oh yes!

But first, we must recap the week that was, and for us on the UK it was a short one after the Early May Bank Holiday! So after a Monday snooze, on Tuesday we caught up with Cara Laing, director of whisky at independent bottler Douglas Laing, as the family-owned company marks its 70th anniversary. Then it was all about The Glenlivet on Wednesday, as the Speyside distillery revealed the results of a dabbling in Cognac cask finishing. We also checked in with the team at Scarfes Bar, London – the new recent history-inspired menu is sure to be a hit.

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Get in on the hybrid spirits trend with these delicious drops!

Kristiane Sherry

May 10, 2018 4:48 pm

Any 2018 drinks trend round-up worth its salt will mention ‘hybrid spirits’. But what the hell are they, are they any good, and why should we bother anyway when the…

Any 2018 drinks trend round-up worth its salt will mention ‘hybrid spirits’. But what the hell are they, are they any good, and why should we bother anyway when the composite parts are already tasty on their own? We scoured the MoM warehouse shelves and found five delectable examples of the deliciousness that can occur when spirits worlds collide…

Gin that thinks it’s a wine? Whiskies made in one place and matured in another? Vodka with a hint of Cognac? For spirits purists (and many of the rest of us) the booze world has gone a bit bonkers of late. So-called hybrid spirits – where one or more drinks categories blur boundaries for a new expression, basically the Transformers of tipples – are billed as the innovative brave new world of liquor, developed to court picky consumers with a thirst for the original. But are they actually any good?

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Wine

English Sparkling Wine: MoM gets into the Gusbourne groove

April 19, 2018 4:56 pm

With St. George’s Day approaching, we wanted to celebrate the growing strength of the English sparkling wine category. Luckily for us, Gusbourne was more than happy to accommodate. There was…

With St. George’s Day approaching, we wanted to celebrate the growing strength of the English sparkling wine category. Luckily for us, Gusbourne was more than happy to accommodate.

There was a time when the mere mention of English wine would result in raised eyebrows, audible laughter or visible disgust – but those days are long behind us. Wine production in England has come an awfully long way in the last 20 years, particularly for sparkling wine in Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

Champagne is no longer the automatic festive tipple, Michelin star restaurant menus no longer list token bottles and England’s homegrown sparkling wines have proved hugely successful in blind tastings and numerous competitions. Taittinger even became the first French label to invest in English sparkling wines.

According to Wines of Great Britain (the official body for the UK wine industry), in 2015 the number of commercial vineyards in England totalled 502, while the number of wineries stood at 133. In 2017, one million vines were planted in the UK, the largest number ever planted in a single year, while hectarage has doubled in the last 8 years and is set to grow by a further 50% by 2020.

English fizz is rising to the top, thanks to producers such as Gusbourne. This week, the team of Kent-based wine wizards kindly let MoM explore their wonderful vineyards and winery while they explained the brand’s process and ethos.

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