20070326

Cane Spirits spreads the gold

Ten different distillers' products took best-in-category gold medals at the 2nd Annual International Cane Spirits competition held in Tampa's historic Ybor City area.

The event was run by Dori Bryant of The Polished Palate.

The full list of medal winners:

CACHACA, UNAGED
Best of category gold: Agua Luca
Gold: Leblon
Silver: Beleza Pura, Fazenda Mae De Ouro
Bronze: Cabana, Cuca Fresca

CACHACA, AGED
Best of category gold: Ypioca 160
Gold: Fazenda Mae De Ouro Single Barrel 5 Year Old, GRM Small Batch 2 Year Old
Silver: Cuca Fresca Gold, Rochinha Single Barrel 12 Year Old, Ypioca Ouro
Bronze: Armazem Vieira Onix Solera 16 Year Old, Ypioca Prata

RHUM AGRICOLE, UNAGED
Best of category gold: Clement Premier Canne
Silver: J.M. Rhum White

RHUM AGRICOLE, AGED
Best of category gold (tie): J.M. VSOP, J.M. 1997
Gold: J.M. Rhum Vieux X.O., J.M. Gold
Silver: Clement Cuvee Homere, Clement V.S.O.P., Depaz Blue Amber Rhum

WHITE RUM
Best of category gold: Prichard's Crystal
Gold: Mount Gay Special Reserve
Silver: Bacardi Ruby Rey Reserve, Ron Botran White, Santa Teresa Blanco

BRONZE
Havana Club, New Grove Oak Plantation, Mainstay Cane

DARK RUM
Best of category gold: One Barrel Rum
Gold: Khukri XXX, Vizcaya VXOP Cask 21
Silver: Pirate’s Choice Molasses Reef
Bronze: Jack Tar Superior Dark Rum, Rogue Dark

RUM, AGED UP TO & INCLUDING 8 YEARS
Best of category gold: Tortuga 5 Year Old
Gold: Goslings Black Seal, Mount Gay Sugar Cane, Prichard’s Fine Rum, Ron Barcelo Imperial
Silver: Bacardi 8, Cockspur Fine Rum, Diplomatico Reserva, Goslings Gold, New Grove Oak, Santa Teresa Gran Reserva
Bronze: Appleton Estate Reserve, Appleton Estate V/X, Bacardi Select, Centenario Anejo Reserva Especial, Mount Gay Eclipse, Ron Botran Anejo 8 Year Old Ron Botran Oro)

RUM, AGED 9-15 YEARS
Best of category gold (tie): Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva, Tortuga 12 Year Old
Silver: Mount Gay Extra Old, Ron Botran 12 Year Old, Ron Zacapa 15 Centenario Year Old, Santa Teresa Selecto

RUM, AGED +15 YEARS
Best of category gold (tie): Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 Year Old, Santa Teresa 1796
Gold: Pyrat XO Reserve, Pyrat Cask 1623, Ron Macuro Anejo Ultra Premium
Silver: Centenario Fundacion, Goslings Old, Ron Botran Solera

LIQUEURS / FLAVORS / CORDIALS
Best of category gold: Santa Teresa Araku Ron Y Coffee Liqueur
Gold: Clement Creole Shrubb, Santa Teresa Rhum Orange Liqueur
Silver: Castries Peanut Rum Crème, Prichard’s Sweet Georgia Belle Peach Mango Liqueur
Bronze: Beleza Pura Caipirinha, Pirate’s Choice Lime Rum, Prichard’s Cranberry Rum, Rogue Hazelnut Spiced

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.

20070325

Letters: Can I make my own Beefeater?

Dear Mr. Dowd:

Years ago I heard that if you mix together the cheapest bottle of vodka you can find and the cheapest bottle of gin you can find, you will have the equivalent of Beefeater Gin. Can this possibly be true? Or, possibly I heard this from someone too cheap to buy a good bottle of booze.

-- Jeanie in Virginia

Dear Jeanie:

That's kind of a stretch. While gin and vodka both begin as neutral grain spirits, they diverge markedly in the process of creating the final products.

Also, if you mix two cheap ingredients you get one cheap result. Beefeater's quality level and taste are anything but cheap.

Gins have a usually complex set of botanicals infused into them, with each distiller having its own secret recipe. They may let you know which botanicals are used, and often display that information on their labels, but they won't divulge the proportions, the geographic origins of the items, and so on. Also, the type of local water used in the distillation process makes a huge difference from place to place.

Vodka must, by law, be odorless, tasteless and colorless. However, a decent palate can easily detect taste variances, particularly among vodkas made from potatoes and those made from grains and those made with a mix of the two. Also, many vodka distillers also offer lines of products with various flavor infusions.

I hope that answers your question. Thanks for writing.

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.

Icons of Whisky named

"There are only really three things that are important in the whisky business -- people, product and place. When you blend these things together you get the passion, craft and history behind every drop of the good stuff."

So say the editors at Whisky, the UK magazine that for six years has sponsored the "Icons of Whisky" awards, an international judging in various categories. This year, the judging process was changed to encompass regional heats in the United States, Japan, Ireland and Scotland, with only industry members of the respective countries voting in their heats. Regional winners then went into the field against the rest of the world.

The main award winners:

Distiller of the Year: Buffalo Trace, a family owned company in Franklin County, KY.
Lifetime Achievement Award: Jimmy Bedford, master distiller, Jack Daniel's, Lynchburg, TN.

The full list of winners in every category, with explanations, is available on the Whisky magazine Web site.

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.

World's oldest distillery re-started

A piece of Irish history returned to the public eye this week when the oldest licensed whiskey distillery in the world was re-started.

A new operation opened in the 250-year-old Kilbeggan Distillery, with a refurbished old pot still fired up 53 years to the day distilling stopped in 1954. The pot still is the oldest still working in the country. The re-firing of it was witnessed by direct descendants of three families –- the McManuses, the Codds and the Lockes, who among them operated the distillery for more than 200 years. A new 15-Year-Old Super Premium Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey was launched in honor of the event. It is expected to be exported to the U.S. and other markets in the coming months.

The Old Kilbeggan Distillery, located about 60 miles west of Dublin, will initially produce up to 250,000 bottles of whiskey a year which then will be allowed to mature in adjacent stone warehouses.

Kilbeggan Irish whiskey, named after the old distillery, is the top selling product of the Cooley Distillery, an independent company. Its other labels include Connemara, Lockes, Millars, The Tyrconnell and Sainsbury's.

Cooley Distillery won three major awards last week at the Icons of Whisky 2007 ceremony in London: Irish Distiller of the Year, Irish Whiskey Innovator of the Year and Ambassador of the Year for Cooley chairman John Teeling.

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.

20070320

New brandy is one in a million

When I reported last week on what is purported to be the world's first coconut brandy, it was because of its unique recipe. Now, there's another unique aspect worth mentioning.

Mendis International Inc. today announced the first bottle of Mendis premium coconut brandy ever produced will be offered for sale for a cool million dollars.

“Mendis is about sharing our heritage and story with our customers,” says Chris Richardson, President and CEO of Mendis International. “Customers will always be our focus and that is why we are thrilled about this opportunity to have them be a part of this significant event. We are very proud to be able to offer this exclusive collector’s bottle as a prestigious marker in our history.”

For the purchaser of the bottle, Mendis says it will provide a first class airfare to the Indian Ocean island nation of Maldives and a stay in a five-star resort there. An excursion to Sri Lanka is included, as is a personal tour of the distillery by W.M. Mendis, founder of The House of Mendis. At the tour’s conclusion the $1,000,000 bottle, signed and numbered by W.M. Mendis, will be presented.

What about the second bottle?

Mendis is giving it away in an online draw, part of the product launch publicity campaign.

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.

20070317

The gin comeback is under way

PHOTOS BY WILLIAM M. DOWD (double-click to expand images)
At one time, gin was such a ubiquitous liquor it would have been unthinkable to talk about a comeback for the white spirit. What did the drink of both society sophsticates and college sophomores have to come back from?

Then came the Vodka Age.

The virtually global acceptance of vodka as a one-for-one substitute for gin in mixed drinks and as a standalone drink in flavor-infused styles has in the past two decades sent gin reeling. Last year, Americans drank about four times as much vodka as gin.

Ian Fleming's superspy James Bond helped fuel the change, and the comeback of the "cocktail culture," when his vodka martinis caught the imaginations of would-be adventurers and changed what had been a gin-based drink since its inception.

Gin was one of the earliest spirits many of us tried, usually as a gin-and-juice drink that made some of the less palatable but affordable brands more drinkable. I recall it being the leisure libation of choice in the sports car racing circuit I frequented in the late 1960s, as well as a common ingredient in sweet cocktails made for summer barbecues.

The popular gins then were Gordon's, Gilbey's, Beefeater, Plymouth, Bombay, Boodles, Fleischmann's, Seagram's. Some still are hanging in there, particularly Bombay, the English distiller whose Sapphire is the top-selling gin in this country. But, like vodkas, there seems to be a new brand each week vying for the now-limited shelf space the standard gin labels had been clinging to, and they all are trying to differentiate themselves from the pack while tamping down the traditional juniper berry flavor of gin.

Aviation, for example, is a lavender-touched brand cooked up in the Pacific Northwest. Old Raj, from Scotland, has more of the traditional juniper notes but there also is a detectable saffron element. Hendrick's, another Scottish gin, makes quite a point of its distinct cucumber notes.

Incrementally, gin is coming back through better marketing and less reliance on generations-old traditions.

Gins are, essentially, vodka in that each is at the start a neutral grain spirit. Under U.S. law, gin "shall derive its main characteristic flavor from juniper berries,'' so it needs the addition of botanicals to be complete. Conversely, basic vodka must be colorless, odorless and tasteless -- which makes one wonder why lawmakers think anyone would adhere to the letter of that law.

While vodka distillers tend to use only a few extra flavors in lengthening their product line, gin distillers tend toward using a global shopping list to fill their complicated recipes. In addition to the necessary juniper, it is not unusual to find citrus, almond, licorice, orris root, coriander, angelica, cassia bark and cardamom in various combinations.

I recently spent time with Sean Harrison (right) of Plymouth Gin, made in the English port city of that name. He’s the keeper of a coveted two-century-old gin recipe and the master distiller for Plymouth, the English favorite that not only won “best gin” but “best of show/white spirit” awards at the prestigious San Francisco World Spirits Competition last summer, which means it also topped all vodkas.

Harrison is a gin man through and through, but he admits there are some very good vodkas on the market that are huge hurdles for gin to clear in its attempt at a comeback. However, he notes of the continual tinkering with vodka recipes, "If they keep on going, pretty soon they'll invent gin."

Not only is recipe tinkering going on, but packaging has become more important than ever in the battle for consumer attention.

Martin Miller's, for example, and Plymouth each have sleek, sharp-angled clear glass bottles contrasting with traditional royal blue labels.

Plymouth, which has a clear, light juniper nose, medium body, and plenty of up-front juniper with a spicy finish, retained the ubiquitous sailing ship logo in its new design.

Miller's, which carries the name of the British designer, has a wonderful combination of citrus and juniper that reminded me of a stroll in the forest. The bottle traces the manufacturing of the gin, from the small-batch distillation in England to shipping the distillate to Iceland to be blended with spring water there.

But not all packaging is restrained and clean. Citadelle, a French entry, has a busily decorated bottle that supports its botanical barrage recipe, trumpeting its 19 flavoring ingredients that include such things as Chinese licorice, French savory and star anise, and Indian nutmeg.

In purchasing gin, avoid the cheaper priced offerings. Good botanicals cost good money, and the retail prices should reflect that. Cheaper gins tend to be flavored with oils and essences. Better gins use fresh botanicals. A good tipoff is the use of the terms "distilled gin," "London dry gin" and "dry gin" and "London dry gin," all of which can be used only if the gin has been flavored through redistillation rather than simply dumping in flavorings and mixing them up. The best distillers are the pickiest shoppers.

As Plymouth's Harrison told me during our private tasting session, “We don’t buy any botanical from just one supplier because you never know the quality from year to year, or how a change in the crop of one botanical can interact with another botanical that also might be slightly different from year to year. We get several samples of each and distill sample batches to see what comes closest to our standard for consistent taste.”

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Tasting Notes latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.

Soju so far for Anheuser-Busch

You can't accuse Anheuser-Busch of rushing into the spirits field.

I reported on its first effort back in November 2005 with Jekyl & Hyde, a dual-drink effort. Now, at last, its second drink effort beyond beer and non-alcoholic drinks is soju, an ancient Korean sweet potato distillation that is loosely classified as a vodka.

A-B is teaming up with Ku Soju Inc. of Laguna Hills, CA, to test market and distribute Ku brand soju, distilled by Doosan of Seoul, South Korea.

Among soju's selling points are that it has about one-third fewer calories than vodka and, at 48 proof, contains less alcohol.

The low alcohol volume will help in marketing the drink because it can be sold by A-B's network of nearly 700 distributors to stores licensed to sell beer, wine and — as is the case in New York and California with licensed on-premise accounts -- beverages with no more than 24% alcohol, which makes it 48 proof.

“There’s huge potential,” Ku Soju President Norman Suh told Brandweek magazine. “This is a mainstream brand for everybody. It’s much smoother, and if you compared Ku against any super premium vodka on the market — Grey Goose, Belvedere, Chopin — we’ll come out on top in any taste comparison.”

Of course, not everyone is interested in a straight drink. Soju mixed with Sprite and various kinds of syrup is popular in Korea, especially among women and young people in general, as is a concoction of one part soju, two parts Sprite plus lemonade powder.

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.

20070315

New products, new flavors


• The Tommy Bahama brand has added a Barbados distilled, blended and bottled rum to its prodict line. It's a joint effort of Foursquare Rum Distillery and the Sidney Frank Importing Co. The rum comes in two aged blends –- Tommy Bahama White Sand, a clear, light-bodied rum, and Tommy Bahama Golden Sun, an amber rum.

• Malibu-Kahlua International has unveiled new flavors for its Malibu Rum and Kahlua Coffee Liqueur lines. A new tropical banana flavored rum has been added to a line that already included coconut, passion fruit, mabgo and pineapple flavors. Kahlua has added French vanilla and hazelnut to its liqueurs.

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.

20070313

That's using your coconut

The old Caribbean party song says you "put the lime in the coconut." But, at distiller W.M. Mendis & Co. Ltd., they're putting coconut in the brandy.

The company, a subsidiary of Mendis International Inc., is poised to launch what it says is the world's first clear ultra-premium coconut brandy. The initial U.S. rollout will concentrate on the New York City area.

"We are very excited about the pre-launch and are thrilled to be able to offer consumers a new appealing alternative to the glut of flavored vodkas and rums out in the market," says Chris Richardson, President and CEO of Mendis International. "Mendis coconut brandy will give consumers exactly what they are looking for -- 100% natural flavor in a clear mixable form.

"Just as Grey Goose shook up the vodka market, so will Mendis for brandy."

Mendis's 80-proof distillation is made from the essence of the coconut flower in French pot stills and matured for a minimum of two years in Hamilla wood casks. It retains a subtle taste of coconut.

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.

20070312

Party time approacheth


Now that the major holiday season is well behind us, we can get away from the traditional drinks that accompany Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's and think ahead to spring and summer entertaining with imagination.

I like to invite a group of interesting people -- preferably not all of whom know each other, put out some great canapes, and post a cocktail menu of a half-dozen or so drinks for the evening rather than have people fall into the same old drinks rut.

Making sure you have the right ingredients to do that takes some thought and a few bucks. But, even if you're on a budget, don't despair. The folks at Tastings, the Web site of the Beverage Testing Institute, have put together an article titled "Building a Best Buy Bar" that looks like a good guide to being a complete beverage host without breaking the bank.

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.

20070310

Irish pride more tainted than tinted


Every few years I get so fed up with the idiocy of St. Patrick's Day that I can't contain myself. It's boiled over again in the face of the annual avalanche of plastic shamrocks, green beer and fools on TV and in print adding an "O" to their names and promising pots of gold to anyone who would listen to their sales pitch.

Just a few days ago I heard a talk-radio caller saying someone was "as drunk as an Irishman." Some cops still called the police van a Paddy wagon. It is difficult not to trip over all the plastic leprechauns and shillelaghs laying around taverns, stores and restaurants. A lot of politicians run around with name tags that stuck an O' in front of their names and make the usual gratuitous remarks about loving the folks from the Auld Sod.

In this ethnically, religiously and racially diverse nation we have been sensitized to the effects of stereotyping people. We understand when African-Americans and Italian-Americans, Polish-Americans and Jewish-Americans, Arab-Americans and Mexican-Americans -- perhaps even Martian-Americans -- become angry at hurtful, demeaning jokes and remarks about their heritage. But we seem, as a society, incapable of understanding why some Irish-Americans "get their Irish up" when they're regarded as fair game for insults.

Even in Ireland itself, what once was a quiet day of religious contemplation has disintegrated into a booze-fueled mess catering to tourists. Irish authorities last year reported more than 700 violence- and alcohol-connected arrests on St. Patrick's Day.

It is baffling enough that it's happening there. Perhaps it is because the Irish also are widely regarded as amiable folks, the kind of people who take little ethnic slurs as good-natured fun. But in the U.S. it seems seldom remembered the slurs are a nasty holdover from a time when they had their turn at the bottom of American society -- being denied education, being relegated to back-breaking jobs like digging the barge canals, driving the railroad spikes, clawing coal from the bowels of the earth miles down where the air was foul and the life expectancy short.

A time when signs saying "No Irish Need Apply" were commonplace on rooming houses, business places and restaurants. A time when the Irish were jammed into ghettoes later occupied by succeeding generations of immigrant groups; when the "Paddy wagon" hauled a lot of them off to jail on the slightest pretext. A time when the likes of immigrant Kate Mullaney had to risk life and limb to get Troy's laundry workers a modicum of respect and pay and, in the process, formed the first female labor union.

Some say the ideal would be for Americans of all backgrounds to forget about roots and become generic, non-hyphenated Americans. That may be desirable in the sense it could foster a togetherness now missing in our national dialogue, but it never will happen.

People do, to some extent, like to be different. Maintaining ties with one's heritage makes them so, and keeps alive the rich inheritance from that culture that adds to the marvelous American stew.

But, isn't there a classy way to do it?

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.

Scotland vs. Cape Breton, Round 2

They didn't get anywhere with Canada's Trade-Marks Opposition Board, so as expected the Scotch Whisky Association is taking its case against a Nova Scotia distiller to the federal appeal level.

The Scotland-based SWA wants Glenora Distillers International Ltd. of Cape Breton to stop calling its single-malt whisky Glen Breton. Reason? It contends that the use of the word "glen" confuses consumers into thinking it's a whisky from Scotland.

The Glen Breton distillers respond, and the regulatory board agrees, that the use of the word "glen" is legitimate because the company is named Glenora, the community is named Glenora, its next to a community called Glenora Falls, and coupling "glen" with "breton" is merely a legitimate combination of local place names.

In January, the Trade-Marks Opposition Board in Ottawa ruled in favor of Glenora. The SWA is appealing the decision, claiming Glenora is "unfairly trading on Scotch whisky's international reputation."

Meanwhile, Canadian consumers are weighing in with money, grabbing up the Glen Breton Ice version with abandon.

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.

20070308

What will they think of next? (The debut)

From time to time I come across some truly innovative cocktail recipes. Rather than let them go unappreciated by the reading public at large and enjoyed only by the select circle that frequents those cocktail bars, I've decided put together a monthly compilation of such drinks.

Here goes with installment No. 1 of "What will they think of next?"



• Gold Bar, 389 Broome St. near Mulberry, New York, NY (212) 274-1568.

Honey is for more than hot tea or flapjacks. A daiquiri here is a Bees Kiss when the usual sugar component is replaced with honey and mixed with rum and lime juice. For a Margaritas Begone use honey, tequila and lime juice. And, for a Gold Rush whiskey sour, mix honey with bourbon and lemon juice and serve it very well chilled.


Bison Witches Bar & Deli, 326 North 4th Avenue, Tucson, AZ (520) 740-1541

The BLTini, made by bartender Gary Crystal, turns the classic BLT sandwich turned into a drink. It begins with a generous pour of potato vodka, an inch or so of Bloody Mary mix, and a garnish of freshly-cooked bacon hanging off the side and a bit of leafy lettuce. He sometimes rubs the rim of the glass with the bacon.


Taste.com.au

This Australian Web site invites readers to contribute their own cocktail recipes. Valli Little came up with this strawberry cocktail recipe to serve eight:

1 pound strawberries, hulled
1 tablespoon fine sugar
Crushed ice (optional)
2/3 cup vodka, chilled
1 bottle sparkling wine, chilled

Place the strawberries and sugar in a blender or food processor and blend or process until mixture forms smooth puree. Pass the puree through a fine sieve into a bowl and discard the seeds in the sieve. Cover the puree with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator. Half-fill 8 champagne flutes with the crushed ice, if using. Divide the chilled strawberry puree among the flutes, then top each with 1 tablespoon vodka. Top up with the sparkling wine. You can make the strawberry puree up to two days ahead.

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.

20070307

Inner Circle Rum gets new owner

Inner Circle, the maker of a particularly good Australian rum, has been purchased by brewer Lion Nathan.

The purchase, which includes Inner Circle's Beenleigh distillery, is part of Lion Nathan's expansion into the spirits and ready-to-drink beverage niches. Lion Nathan itself is 46% owned by Kirin, the Japanese brewer.

I was fortunate to sample the full range of Inner Circle rums last year as a judge in the first Cane Spirits Festival Tasting Competition, held in Tampa's historic Ybor City area. This year's competition, incidentally, is schededuled for later this month in the same city.

There, Inner Circle -- once made only for employees of the CSR sugar refinery, thus the name -- won gold medals for its Red Dot, Blue Dot and Green Dot rums, silver for its Black Dot and bronze for its Traditional Pot Still rums.

Inner Circle remains a relatively small manufacturer since being revived in 2000 after a 14-year closure, but industry observers see the Lion Nathan resources as something that will improve sales and distribution.

Lion Nathan already sells clear spirits such as vodka and white rum through a joint venture with the world's biggest rum maker, Bacardi, and has purchased McKenna Kentucky Straight Bourbon as well.

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.

100 Años broadens U.S. product line

Since it hit American stores in 2005, 100 Años Tequila Reposado has been selling well. Well enough, in fact, for 100 Años Tequila Blanco to join it in the U.S. market as of this month.

The brand, popular in Mexico, is a product of Beam Global Spirits & Wine Inc., a unit of Fortune Brands Inc., and Sauza Tequila, one of the world’s largest tequila brands. The suggested retail price for the blanco is $19.99 for a standard 750ml bottle.

The 100 Años portfolio is the No. 1 seller by volume in the Mexican tequila wholesale market and No. 2 in the Mexican retail market, according to ISCAM figures from last October. Its reposado showed 129.5% percent growth in the past 52-week period, according to A.C. Nielsen research figures released in January.

The drink specialists at 100 Años call the blanco "a mixable tequila that can be served on the rocks, sipped, or combined with a number of mixers."

I haven't yet sampled the blanco, so I may think differently after doing so, but my experience with the reposado tells me to refrain from mixing it too much. The 100 Años line tends to have a crisp, slightly fruity flavor I find best sampled over ice without diluting it with other ingredients.

Sauza, on the other hand, produces a Hornitos reposado that I use as my "house brand" for mixed drinks. It maintains its own flavor in mixtures and imparts a citrus-floral nuance.

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.

20070306

Drive responsibly, and luxuriously

Drinking responsibly just might be a little easier to do if you get behind the wheel of this Rolls Royce Phantom.

It's done up in Grey Goose's signature shade of blue as part of a joint campaign bewteen the automaker and the vodkamaker.

Two customized versions of the extended-wheelbase Phantom are being used to promote a "sip responsibly" message. Grey Goose said the vehicles will be used at high-profile events. Specially trained and assigned "chauffeurs" will educate passengers on the merits of the drink, the car and being socially responsible.

The autos, powered by a 6.75-liter 453-horsepower V12 engine, have the GG logo embroidered on headrests and integrated into the trim of the car. It was handcrafted in-house, designed, engineered and hand-built by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars at Goodwood, England.

Only 100 of the extended wheelbase Phantom have been produced.

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.

20070305

A very old tale of whisky and ice

Whisky over ice is nice. Whisky preserved in ice? That's another story.

And this story, told by the Evening Standard's online entertainment guide This Is London, involves an Antarctic explorer and two cases of MacKinlay's Rare Old Whisky.

It seems Shackleton (seen here) left the drink behind when he and his crew threw in the towel 98 miles short of their goal in a 1908 expedition to reach the South Pole and abandoned their icy hut.

The cases were discovered by a conservation team excavating ice from beneath the hut.

"It was a magic moment. It's a very exciting find," This Is London quoted Al Fastier, the New Zealander managing the conservation program at Cape Royds on Antarctica's Ross Island.

Shackleton and a crew of 14 built the hut as their base, then spent nine months in it when temperatures dropped as low as 58 below zero. According to their records, the subsisted on 1,600 pounds of Yorkshire ham, 100 pounds of Colman's Mustard, hundreds of packs of biscuits and tins of syrup.

MacKinlay's, a family distilling company in Leith, Edinburgh, was the expedition's official whisky supplier. It now is part of Whyte and Mackay. The explorers apparently finished off 10 of the 12 donated cases.

The bottles of whisky have been left in the cases where they were found. If removed, Fastier explained, they could be damaged. Although he agreed it is tempting to find out how the whisky fared, "It's better to imagine it than to taste it. That way it keeps its mystery."

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.

20070303

The race to excess

In our never-ending crusade to keep you up to date on all things financially excessive, we bring news of a gold-dusted cocktail priced at £800, the equivalent of US$1,556.

The concoction, called "When Louis Meets Louise," was unveiled at the Gilt Champagne Lounge at the Jumeirah Carlton Hotel in London's tony Belgravia section.

The formula: A blend of Louis XIII cognac with 1998 Cuvée Louise Blanc gets the addition of a cube of sugar cube, a dash of Angostura bitters and a sprinkling of real gold dust.

Head barman Vaibhav Rustagi told This Is London, "This is the mother of all champagne cocktails. Its key is the contrast between the bubbles and the aftertaste of the bitters and the sugar. We only use 15 milliliters of cognac in the cocktail, which is 10 less than a normal shot, because it is so strong. It would otherwise kill the taste of the champagne. The sugar keeps the champagne bubbly so you can see the gold dust swirling around for ages."

Why so pricey? The cognac costs US$1,943 a bottle, the champagne US$485. And then, there is the gold dust. Plus, you get to keep the Prima Donna Moser flutes, priced at US$485 a pair.

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.

Chivas releases Longmorn 16


Chivas Brothers is counting on 1991 being a very good year.

The Scotch whisky distiller is releasing its Longmorn 16-Year-Old malt whisky, replacing the 15, to the super-premium category at a suggested retail price of $100. It's a sweet, fruity distillation with notes of cinnamon, and has a spicy nose with nuances of banana and honey.

A new bottle design has a stitched leather base. An aluminum seal stamped with the "g" from the Longmorn logo is tied around the bottle neck.

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.

20070302

Highland Whisky Festival in the works


Left to right, distillers Eric Walker of Glen Ord, Graham Eunson of Glenmorangie, Andrew Scott of Dalmore and John MacDonald of Balblair.

Four distilleries are teaming up for the first Highland Whisky Festival, scheduled for June 2-3 in the Ross-shire area of Scotland.

The participants are Balblair at Edderton, Dalmore at Alness, Glenmorangie at Tain and Glen Ord at Muir of Ord. Each will host a series of “master classes” and work with local business to provide food sampling and coopers’ displays.

Each also will conduct guided tours. In the case of Balblair that's a change of procedure since the distillery usually is not open to the public.

Eric Walker, senior manager with the Glen Ord Group, said at a press conference announcing the project, “As a company, Diageo has a long association with the tourism industry across Scotland. I am delighted that we have been able to build on these links along with our whisky industry colleagues, to support the inaugural Highland Whisky Festival in this way.”

ScotlandWhisky, an industry umbrella group formed in 2003 to encourage tourism in the country, is working with each of the distilleries to prepare the festival. Chris Conway, of ScotlandWhisky, said:

“This is a fantastic opportunity to work with four leading Highland distilleries to bring together a prestigious event. It is especially encouraging that these great whisky brands have come together with the common objective to grow whisky tourism in the Highlands outwith the peak tourism season. This co-ordinated approach from distilleries has been highly successful in other areas of Scotland and there is clearly a demand for such events from the consumer.”

To Dowd's Spirits Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Wine Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's Brews Notebook latest entry.
To Dowd's No-Alcohol Drinks Notebook latest entry.
Back to Dowd On Drinks home page.