There is no finer place to drink rum than Havana, Cuba’s splendid capital. Whether you want to try it, buy it or learn more about it, Colin has found you the best places to do so.
Burns Night at Duke's Hotel
“Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!”
In case your Gaelic isn’t as fluent as mine, a translate of the rousing opening lines of Burns’ “Address to a Haggis” is:
“Good luck to you and your honest, plump face,
Great chieftain of the sausage race!”
Duke’s hotel, one of my favourite Mayfair hotels, has some lovely treats with which to banish the January Blues, and celebrate the birthday of the Bard of Ayrshire, Robert Burns. Duke’s has teamed up with The Exceptional Scotch Whisky and cigar makers Hunters and Frankau to put together some great fun for Burns Night 2020. Hunters and Frankau are the exclusive UK distributor for all Havana cigars in the UK.
On 25th January, birthday of the Bard, they are hosting a Burns Night supper in GBR (Great British Restaurant) – the restaurant at Duke’s. Their famous Head Bartender, Alessandro Palazzi, has created a new take on an Old Fashioned. The inspiration was from a memory of homemade boozy cherries in his grandmother’s larder, he told me. The central spirit is The Exceptional Blended Malt, one of the featured whiskies of the night. Alessandro muddles orange peel at the same time as the brown sugar before adding the sugar syrup and the bitters that he makes himself, the whisky and then finally a garnish of two glossy cherries in Kirsch.
Once you’ve supped on your Old Fashioned to the sounds of a live Bagpiper, supper awaits. Executive Head Chef, Nigel Mendham, has created a four course menu to enjoy paired with counterpart whiskies. It gives a contemporary twist on Scottish dishes to make them light and delicious, without losing the traditional taste elements that make up a proper Burns’ Night supper. Alongside the haggis, of which I am very fond, the salmon from loch Duart is amazing and the cranachan is divine.
For cigar and whisky fans, there are two whisky and cigar pairing evenings on Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 January in the Drawing Room at Duke’s. Starting at 6pm with Alessandro’s fabulous Old Fashioned, there follow three expressions of The Exceptional whiskies and canapés – the Grain, the Malt and the Blend. Each is excellent and beautifully balanced, the Grain having marmalade and crème brulee flavours, the Malt being a fuller bodied whisky with lots of dried fruit flavours and the Blend a perfect balance of young and old whiskies with complex fruit and oaky flavours. However cold it might be, Duke’s cosy walled cigar terrace is always kept toasty with heaters and snuggly blankets so you can enjoy a Monte Cristo Number 2 in comfort. The whisky does its bit too, warming you from the inside out.
I think these are great value for an evening of fun at Duke’s. The Burns supper is £65 per person and the whisky, canape and cigar nights are £55. Worth every penny.
Address: Duke’s London, 35 St. James’s Place, London SW1A 1NY
Telephone: +44 (0)207 491 4840
By Caroline Hampden-White
The 12 days of Giftmas - Huge giveway!
To celebrate the launch of Part Two of The Three Drinkers do Scotch Whisky, we’re giving away 12 drinky prizes to 12 winners, picked each day from 1st December. To enter and for all T&Cs, head over to our competition page here!
The Prizes
1st December: Uncle Nearest Bourbon Pair
Two very special Bourbon whiskies from exciting brand Uncle Nearest. The whiskey honours a former slave called Nathan ‘Nearest’ Green who was the first premium distiller in Tennessee and even taught a certain Mr Jack Daniels. These whiskies by Nearest Green Distillery honour ‘‘the best whiskey maker the world never knew... until now’. The 1856 RRP £55 & the 1884 small batch whiskey is RRP £45 but not yet available in the UK. Find out more here.
2nd December Old Bakery Gin & Rum
We’re loving this brand new, yet super old, small batch distillery gin that has made a big splash on the likes of Dragon’s Den. When owner Ian Puddick bought an old bakery in London’s Palmers Green, he discovered a centuries old illicit distillery on the premises and set about sourcing original recipes. They now have three gins and a rum, which has just been released. Yum! Gin RRP £38 Rum. RRP £43. Find out more here.
3rd December Le Serre Nuove dell’Ornellaia 2015 MAGNUM
Our friends at Armit Wines have offered a magnum of red wine from one of Italy’s most famous Tuscan wine estates: Ornellaia. Le Serre Nuove is an elegant, silky blend of Bordeaux varietals. Drinking now but will keep! See more here.
4th December: Coravin Model One Black
The original Coravin gadget that allows you to have a glass of wine without pulling the cork! It works by sending a needle through the cork and replacing the wine with inert argon gas. Genius! RRP £199 See more here.
5th December Giant Glencairn Glass
Remember the oversized glass from our Loch Ness episode? Well, award-winning family business Glencairn Crystal - creators of the whisky industry’s favourite glass - is offering you the opportunity to win a limited-edition giant Glencairn Glass. The oversized version is 12 inches tall and can hold just over three bottles, or nearly 100 drams! Collectable, with only a small number made each year. This glass is worth is worth over £150. See more here.
6th December: 30 year old ‘Blue Flower’ Baijiu
Photo credit: Cheng International Co. Limited
Baijiu is the world’s most popular spirit but have you heard of it? This stunning, grain spirit from China has many guises, but we love this elegant, 30 year old ‘blue flower’ Baijiu from Fenjiu. It’s pretty rare and has an RRP of £150. See more @fenjiu_london
7th December: Ice Cool Luxury Wine Cooler
These compact Ice Cool Wine Coolers are beautiful and practical. They maintain the temperature of a wide range of bottles yet take up less space than an ice bucket and don’t get the label wet! Available in a variety of finishes and with a personal engraving. See more here.
8th December: Master of Malt 6 Month Whisky Dram Club Subscription
Our friends at Master of Malt are offering six months worth of their Dram Club subscription to one lucky winner! You’ll receive five carefully selected whiskies worth up to £100 a bottle, right to your door. Read more about them here.
9th December: Eto wine decanter
The decanter reinvented, Eto is a work of art that works as a decanter and a wine preserver at the same time. It works by displacing air thus not allowing wine to spoil for up to 2 weeks. Perfect for that one (!) glass in the evening and keeping the rest. RRP £125-145. See more here.
10th December: Frapin 1270 Cognac and Cocktail Kit
Frapin 1270 is a versatile cognac which can be enjoyed neat or mixed, thanks to its great aromatic richness. Win a full size 70cl bottle, two cocktail glasses and a cocktail mixing kit with all the essentials you need to start mixing like a pro and impress your friends with classic Cognac cocktails such as Mint Julep, Side Car and Old Fashioned. Prize worth over £100. See more at @cognacfrapinofficial
11th December: Armand de Brignac Brut Gold Champagne
Gold Brut is the most iconic cuvée in the Champagne Armand de Brignac range and is created using the old world traditions of champagne blending. This prestige cuvée is a trio of vintages from some of the most highly-praised terroirs in the region and expresses vibrant fresh fruit character, and layers of complexity. RRP £300. See more here.
12th December: Personalised bottle of 18 year old Highland Park
A rich and fruity 18 year old Highland single malt bottled in 2019, this whisky from The Whisky Exchange is limited edition (only 276 bottles) and will arrive personalised with a message of your choice. Prize worth £99.95. See more at @whiskyexchange
Rediscovering Cognac: Focus on Tercet by Remy Martin
For so many people in the drinks world, the new decade ahead will be all about rediscovering spirits that have been maligned or ignored for too long. Cognac is one of these; a brown spirit with a lot of history that we at The Three Drinkers have fallen head over heels back in love with in recent times.
Made with distilled fine wine (rather than grain as whisky is), cognac has a soft, velvety texture with warming notes of citrus peel, fudge and marmalade. A great introduction is to try it with tonic in a simple highball as a much more interesting G&T alternative or in a classic cognac cocktail like a Sidecar or in an Old Fashioned (Go for the VS or VSOP quality levels if mixing). Cognac tasted by itself however or over a simple chunk of ice, is a truly indulgent treat. This is when you will reach for the XO styles that have more age or special bottlings that beg you to appreciate every nuance.
One cognac we’ve tried recently is brand new to the market and a little bit different. Tercet by the famous, much-loved house Rémy Martin is a bit of a departure from their normal range of classic cognacs.
Tercet is the story of a trio of experts who came together to create this blend over ten years of dedicated research. The first was Baptiste Loiseau, current Cellar Master at Rémy Martin who discovered that certain eaux-de-vie (the spirits that are blended together to make cognac) had a particular, unique character that while it was fabulous, was not technically in line with the house style. These spirits were particularly pure and elegant with expressive, exotic fruit aromas.
Baptsite kept these special eaux-de-vie aside while he decided what to do with them and finally, called in the expertise of two other men: Francis Nadeau, a wine producer, and Jean-Marie Bernard, a master distiller with forty years of experience. Together, these three men would combine their individual expertise to work out which terroirs the eaux-de-vies came from and how they should use them to create something special. Over the years, they tested the oak barrels, yeast strains used for fermentation, the methods of pressing, the grapes themselves from different terroirs and more. Finally, they began to unravel the secret and were able to recreate it. The result was Tercet: a premium cognac that is also the ideal place to start anyone’s cognac journey thanks to its exotic, lychee, pineapple and apricot aromas, gentle sweet spice and long, complex length. Soft enough to have alone and ridiculously good with hazelnut macaroons and a slice of dried pineapple.
See more about Tercet cognac here.
Buy it here. RRP circa $100 / £78
This Is Now The Most Expensive Whisky In the World!
We love a whisky story or two but this one is a jaw-dropper.
If you are a bit of a “whisky geek” like us you may well have already heard that a stunning collection of Macallan bottles were up for auction at Sotheby’s in London on 24th October. But as if this wasn’t exciting enough, a 60-year-old bottle of 1926 Macallan has only gone and sold for almost three times over its initial valuation of £350,000-£450,000, at a record-breaking £1.5 million (US$1.93 million)!
This 60-year-old Macallan comes from the same cask #263 of Macallan which some of you may remember yielded the previous record-breaking bottle of whisky that sold for a value of £1.2 million at Christie’s auction last November.
Cask #263 was distilled in 1926 when the distillery was 60-years-old and only yielded 40 bottles. 12 of these bottles bear labels designed by Italian artist Valerio Adami, 12 more by Peter Blake, a further 2 were sold individually and given private labels one of which was hand-painted by Irish artist Michael Dillon, and the remaining 14 bottles, including the one auctioned today, were adorned with Macallan’s ‘Fine and Rare’ label and are the oldest in this series by both age and vintage.
Our thoughts on this big news… cheers to expensive taste!
Could you drink dead people?
Picture this: Halloween is hot on your heels, you have your decorations and food all sorted but you’re still wondering what gruesome drink to serve your unsuspecting guests. Well, we’ve found one that is sure to send chills down the spine of even the bravest drinker. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you ‘Graverobber’ whiskey.
Cool name, but can it really be anything macabre?
Graverobber is a blend of whiskey launched by Tamworth Distilling and true to form (anyone else remember their House of Tamworth Eau de Musc that contains oil extract from the castor gland of the North American Beaver?!), it is another frightfully well thought-out whiskey.
This time, however, it isn’t the living they have used to flavour their whisky but rather the dead. Let us explain: Tamworth Distilling, based in New Hampshire, houses a “malignant old maple” on its property whose roots have burrowed deep into the nearby, unmarked Colonial Era graveyard. While it is normally believed that tapping maple from a graveyard tree is a big no-no for fear of disturbing the dead and conjuring up spirits, it hasn’t stopped Tamworth who have already, well, conjured up a spirit...
Not been put off yet? Here is its flavour profile:
Described by the company as “spicy yet sweet, evil yet divine,” Graverobber is a 90-proof, 3-year-old rye whiskey that takes on a layered profile punctuated by charred oak and burnt sugar. Full-bodied and peppery, Graverobber is blended with “sinister cemetery” syrup and gives off aromas of cinnamon, dried orange peel and a hint of rye cracker. The sweet yet unholy maple soothes the burn from the rye spirit on the palate and gives way to a warm, long finish that creates a devilishly drinkable intoxicant.
If you’re feeling brave enough to get your hands on a bottle, you can find it here.
Liked this? How about checking out this famous mummified toe cocktail?!
Premium Spirits Subscription Service? Yes please!
Our friends over at 31Dover have good news for budding bartenders and cocktail aficionados alike in the form of their brand new, premium spirits subscription service: Off the Still.
Your own home bar
Over the course of twelve months, subscribers will gradually put together the ultimate home bar while learning all about the magical liquids in each bottle. From spiced, world rums, to boutique gins and rare whiskies, each delivery comes with serving inspiration, production information and colourful stories from the people who made them. It’s a great way to kick start a journey into mixology where all the hard work is done for you by the experts.
Director of Buying Ashika Mathews says “We’ll be conjuring the spirit of adventuring and exploring, using visual cues like maps and evocative imagery to ensure members feel like they’re being transported to where these amazing bottles are made.”
The monthly subscription costs £40 and includes a bottle of premium spirits, two hand-picked mixers and another small bottle or gift. There are also options to have a box bi-monthly or quarterly.
Early subscribers can take advantage of 50% off their first month Off the Still subscription with the code SPIRITED50. Go to www.offthestill.com for more details and enter the code when prompted.
Whisky buyer, collector or investor? You need to know about Cask Trade.
There’s a new whisky cask trader in town and it’s dubbed the first, truly ‘trustworthy marketplace for trading exceptional whisky casks’.
Introducing Cask Trade: founded by entrepreneur and angel investor Simon Aron with help from our very own Drinker, Colin Hampden-White and several other famous whisky masters including Lee Tomlinson ‘The Trader’ and Dr. Theo Empleslidis MD, ‘The Oracle’.
As a passionate whisky collector for over 25 years who has seen astronomical gains in the value of some whiskies over the years, Simon had been burned many times by sellers in the past, becoming frustrated with false promises and dishonest dealing. Now was the time, he decided, to create a much more open and honest marketplace for investors, bottlers and collectors.
An expert-led approach
Thanks to their crack team of experts team of masters, Cask Trade offer unparalleled whisky trade expertise to their clients and guarantee the most stringent checks and processes, so customers can rely wholeheartedly on the quality, provenance and ownership of any whisky they buy. All customers can ask to receive samples of their whisky or to visit their cask whenever possible and Cask Trade only sells whisky it owns itself, in whole casks.
“We are not brokers but stockists,” says Aron. ‘Our aim is to build a true, and safe, marketplace… We are six experts covering all angles of the cask whisky trade and we have clients from all around the world. Having traded thousands of casks, our knowledge of whisky and its value is our most valuable asset. Throughout my 25-years’ of collecting I suffered from all sorts of false promises which I will never subject my clients to.”
To view a live stock list, register an account today at casktrade.com.
The first live auction website dedicated to exceptional whisky
As an extra plus, customers also have the option to put their casks into Cask Trade’s new quarterly online auction to sell, either to other customers or eventually, back to Cask Trade themselves. With complete transparency, a low buyers’ fee of 15% + VAT and no sellers’ fee at all, customers get the actual hammer price. The first auction will take place in October 2019 and will then be hosted four times a year. See more at auctionyourcask.com.
For more information on whisky cask investment, Simon and his team offer frequent editions of Cask Trade’s Cask Investment Guide.