Drinks

How lovely on a workday to have a virtual tasting with Hernan Parra, the Master Blender for Dictador rum, and Marc Larminaux the Creative Director of Lalique.

The new Dictador Generations En Lalique rum had been delivered in a sublime package just in time for the on-screen meeting, plus a lovely video.

I was prepared. Deep leather armchair, check, Zoom screen set up, check, Cohiba Maduro 5 Magicos cigar, nope, gave those up decades ago, but it was a nice thought.

Your intrepid taster wanted a diversion from lockdown blues during the lead up to Christmas and so appropriately tasted 26 effectively randomly chosen gins.  
    

So International Excellence met up with Hernan Parra, Dictator Master Blender, Zoltán Kovács, Dictator Winery Director and Drew Mayville, Dictator Master Blender for a sumptuous tasting of their new release: Dictador 2 Masters Royal Tokaji Rum.

Rampur Whisky is a very different single malt from Radico Khaitan, India’s third largest distillery established in 1943.

Rampur is distilled in traditional copper pot stills in the oldest distillery in India, dating from 1943 with 73 years of distillation expertise. The Himalayas provide polar opposite of climate conditions throughout the year with the flavour of the famous Indian summer giving Rampur an added dimension and depth.

WineGB’s version of a traditional contest for pruning vines common in a number of European wine-producing countries, which was held at Tinwood Wine Estate in West Sussex last quarter, saw Davenport Vineyards take top team spoils, with Gusbourne in Kent taking the yellow jersey in the individual competition.  

International Excellence Luxury Magazine have selected the finest spirits and blended them into supreme cocktails that should make Christmas a smooth and uplifting celebration.Midleton Very Rare Whiskey XXXVI Cocktail
(35ml MVR, 20ml burgundy Chablis syrup)
Vacuum pack the following ingredients and leave in the fridge to rest for 24 hours
1 x bottle of Chablis
2 x pealed pears
1 x stick of vanilla

Midleton Very Rare Whiskey 2019 was launched at The Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin by Master Distiller Brian Nation. This superb whiskey combines only hand-selected single pot still and single grain Irish whiskeys of exceptional quality and rarity, from the Midleton inventory. Each whiskey has been matured exclusively in lightly charred ex-bourbon American oak barrels for between 13 and 34 years. 2019 marks the oldest collection of casks used to create a Midleton Very Rare.
Brian Nation explains: