The Macallan has released its third limited edition Lunar New Year gift set featuring the Double Cask 12 Years Old whisky to welcome the year of the rat. While brands like Prada have been releasing their own exclusive collections and others paying homage to the rodent, The Macallan is offering a toast. As is known for good luck, the packaging is a traditional dark red. The facade showcases traditional Chinese knots with an artistic representation of the rat zodiac symbol in gold color. The symbol represents longevity and eternity and has had a long history in Asian culture. And just like that, the rat is receiving more dedications than ever before, and all the better with a good ol’ Scottish whisky. Slainte!
As true believers of the work hard, play hard mantra, we present you with It’s Been a Long Week, a weekly column aimed at awarding some liquid appreciation to you for just being yourself, dammit. Make yourself a glass or two, on us — you deserve it.
For whiskey aficionados, Teeling Irish Whiskey comes as the first-time Irish whiskey that has been awarded the World’s Best Single Malt at the 2019 Whiskies Award for its 24-year-old. One of the most innovative and exciting spirit companies on the market, Teeling offers an array of signature bottles including the newest single pot still and chestnut-cask rested single cask options. For those who do prefer their whiskey in cocktail form, we’ve taken a peek at a yummy autumn cocktail in a Nick & Nora glass.
As true believers of the work hard, play hard mantra, we present you with It’s Been a Long Week, a weekly column aimed at awarding some liquid appreciation to you for just being yourself, dammit. Make yourself a glass or two, on us — you deserve it.
Happy Valentine’s Day! Drunk on love or on Stillhouse whiskey, we’ll take one of each, please. We’ve got a cherry take on a traditional whiskey sour, perfect for an aperitif or a nightcap if you please. And if you hadn’t had enough, Stillhouse bottles are easily portable in their stainless steel cans.
As true believers of the work hard, play hard mantra, we present you with It’s Been a Long Week, a weekly column aimed at awarding some liquid appreciation to you for just being yourself, dammit. Make yourself a glass or two, on us — you deserve it.
It’s week 2 of 2019 and we know you’re trying to stay healthy so we threw it some carrot syrup into this week’s cocktail– that is in addition to the Rabbit Hole rye whiskey, brandy, Chartreuse and prosecco. You’re set! The warming whiskey effect and the bubbly will surely leave you wanting more. Here’s a sneak peek at how to make your own:
Featured photo by Paolo Pellegrin | Courtesy of Magnum Photos.
What do you do when you have the world’s best whisky on hand, a subterranean distillery being built, and aversion to any kind of traditional advertising moments? You call over Magnum Photos to document the process and bottle it into an exclusive collection piece whisky. Ken Grier, creative director at The Macallan at the Edrington Group, did just that and took the bottle for a liquid appreciation trip through Mexico.
With Grier at the helm since 1999, Macallan has witnessed some of the brands most creative collaborations, three Guinness Records for the most expensive bottles on record, and a new distillery that is almost 100% sustainable on a normal day. Jumping on the collaboration bandwagon, Macallan turned to its longstanding relationship with Magnum to document the progression of the building through one of the most historic uses of photography — architectural documentation.
Photo by Paolo Pellegrin | Courtesy of Magnum Photo.
The summation of the four-year construction is bottled in a single malt made from a combination of eight casks, each representing the particularities of each photographer. A special edition bottle, an exclusive book with images from the construction site, and a selection of six signed prints are packed into an object d’art box as the newest addition to the Masters of Photography series. “We have a DNA and a heritage and we are trying to do stuff that’s meaningful and interesting,” says Grier and so he made the ultimate cabinet of whisky curiosities.
Image: Courtesy of Macallan.
“A photography project about the construction of the distillery has a potentially very small audience of interest — Macallan, but if the work you make is also about the act of seeing and the act of photography then that opens a whole other audience,” says one of the photographers, Marc Power. “This has a life beyond.” Power took an extraordinarily careful, zen-like approach to when capturing the construction even though he was usually knee-deep in mud with his wife holding an umbrella over him. Each photographer took their specialty and brought it to the table with their individual point of view without a defined brief ahead of them from Macallan itself.
Photos by Marc Power | Courtesy of Magnum Photos.
Launched in Mexico City, the photo exhibit spent a few weeks at a gallery before the bottle set out for other Mexican destinations full with a 4D VR visit to the distillery and a mandatory tasting, of course. “People like to discover their own trends. They like to learn through experience,” says Grier. His entire approach to the brand has been unconventional from day one. “I think there is a lot more interest in people having different enriching experiences and people get a lot more quality and craft from the experience.”
Marc Power and Ken Grier | Courtesy of Macallan.
Enamored with the drink itself, Grier is also quite the rebel with a sort of teenage desire to do exactly what seems impossible. A distillery upgraded straight out of Teletubbyland? Sounds about right as a culmination of a brilliant career with outstanding achievements at the spirit brand which he is set to depart.
On a muggy and rainy Tuesday evening, dressed in black we climbed up to Beekman Hotel‘s Turret Penthouse to honor Mauve, the pet pig of WhistlePig Rye Whiskey and the 5th Edition of the Boss Hog. Charlotte’s Web part 2, the boozy version, is a story of a pig named Mauve who loved apples and feasted upon alcohol-infused barley on a farm in Vermont.Photo: Courtesy of WhistlePig
Mauve was one lucky pig — her wake was held in one of New York’s most dreamy hotels and her spirit forever engraved on the 5th edition of The Boss Hog, a 13-year straight rye whiskey. The flavor is an all-New England blend of sweet and spiced flavors — at the nose is a perfectly balanced autumn flavor that will easily cure a cold with it’s mulled cider, ginger and tobacco tones. The palate then opens up into a vibrant maple syrup and pears balanced by dark chocolate. The lasting spice is still the signature Vermont maple syrup, also made at the farm.
WhistlePig itself is relatively new, after launching in just 2007 on a farm in Vermont. The estate is a proper slab of 500 acres of maple trees, pigs, sheep, goats, bees and horses. It is the perfect antidote to the city, with no connection to the outside world — quite literally as there is no cellphone service. Here in this mysterious place, WhistlePig makes the Bordeaux of whiskeys and here is where Mauve lived and died. RIP.
As true believers of the work hard, play hard mantra, we present you with It’s Been a Long Week, a weekly column aimed at awarding some liquid appreciation to you for just being yourself, dammit. Make a glass or two on us, you deserve it.
WHAT
Monster Mash
You’ve been working in the lab late at night, why not take a break with this devious concoction from Gentleman Jack Daniel‘s – a spooky treat that is sure to raise a little hell.
HOW
Ingredients:
1 oz. Gentleman Jack Daniel’s
0.5 oz. Monin stone fruit syrup
0.5 oz. Fresh lemon juice
0.25 oz. POM Wonderful
Image: ESSENTIAL HOMME, Gentleman Jack Daniel’s, Pom Wonderful, and Le Sirop de Monin.
THEN
Shake with ice and fine strain into a fun Halloween shot glass. Dry ice is optional (but super awesome).
As true believers of the work hard, play hard mantra, we present you with It’s Been a Long Week, a weekly column aimed at awarding some liquid appreciation to you for just being yourself, dammit. Make a glass or two on us, you deserve it.
WHAT
American Whiskey’s Millionaire’s Row To celebrate the Kentucky Derby this Saturday, 5/2/15, we asked American Whiskey, the New York restaurant and bar that boats over 150 American-made whiskeys, for suggestions on the best Derby refreshment this year. With an expertise in exactly that, bartender Jessica Duré recommends American Whiskey’s signature Millionaire’s Row, a bourbon meets blood orange pale ale cocktail ready for the races.
HOW
Ingredients:
2 oz. Basil Hayden
0.5 oz. Amaro Lucano
0.5 oz. Rose syrup
0.5 oz. Lemon juice
1.5 oz. Great South Bay Blood Orange Pale Ale
Image: Essential Homme, Great South Bay Blood Orange Pale Ale, Basil Hayden, Amaro Lucano ReaLemon
THEN
Combine all except the pale ale. Drop in two wheels of fresh blood orange and shake vigorously. Before straining, add pale ale and strain all into a glass over a couple cubes of fresh ice. Garnish with additional peel if desired.
Image: Essential Homme, Paul Wagtouicz courtesy of SNOB at The Americano.
As true believers of the work hard, play hard mantra, we present you with It’s Been a Long Week, a weekly column aimed at awarding some liquid appreciation to you for just being yourself, dammit. Make a glass or two on us, you deserve it.
WHAT
SNOB’s 30 Day Aged Rock & Rye You’ve heard the words “good things take time,” but never has the phrase been so teasingly appropriate as SNOB’s 30 Day Aged Rock & Rye. Straight from the newly opened rooftop restaurant atop Hotel Americano in New York City, the classic rock and rye cocktail drink gets a holiday twist with essentials spices that—after almost a month of marinating with the drink’s other goodies—perfectly balance out the rye whiskey, citrus, sugar, and bitters.
HOW
Batched ingredients (to be placed a large mason jar for 30 days)
Place all of the ingredients in a mason jar for 30 days. After this period has ended, strain out all raw items. To serve, pour 3.5 oz. of the recipe into a mixing glass with ice and stir for 30 seconds. Strain over rocks glass with one large ice block. Add two dashes of angostura bitters and garnish with fresh orange wheel and a maraschino cherry.
Blood Orange is his name and the stage is what he mopped during his set at Brooklyn Night Bazaar in Greenpoint, Brooklyn this past Wednesday (April 2nd) night.
The singer—real name Devonté “Dev” Hynes—was on-hand (and pitch) at the launch of Cutty Sark‘s newest whisky marque: Prohibition Edition. Hynes, known for his writing/producing work with artists such as Solange, Sky Ferreira, and Kylie Minogue, performed a set that included his smash You’re Not Good Enough(joined on stage by girlfriend Samantha Urbani), as well as Chamakay, Uncle Ace, It Is What It Is, a cover of Solange’s Bad Girls, plus a tribute to the legendary Frankie Knuckles.
Said Hynes, “Cutty Sark’s background is steeped in the history of Prohibition – a time when people pushed boundaries and rebelled against the status quo in pursuit of authenticity. My musical style is similar in that it can’t be categorized into one style. The main reason I began writing my own music is because it was the kind of music I actually to hear.”
Sean Kenyon recently won Nightclub and Bar Awards Bartender of the Year 2014.
The trend in high proof spirits began about two years ago when the NY Times first reported, “High-alcohol spirits — variously sailing under the terms overproof, cask-strength and barrel-strength — are becoming commonplace.” Since then, the tick has continued to surge up up up, thanks no doubt to Hollywood’s renewed (and ever-vacillating) fascination with bygone eras (Mad Men, The Great Gatsby, Boardwalk Empire). This past February, Maryland lawmakers voted to forbid the sale of grain alcohol that’s at least 190-proof (the bill now moves to the House of Delegates — fun stuff). But people are just people; we want what we want, and we want our high proof spirits.
“The General Consumer is getting better educated on spirits and recognizes more now than they did 12 years ago that flavored cocktails like apple martinis are a joke, where as a Rye Old Fashioned is not only appropriate, but if you’re a real man (or woman), also delicious,” says bartender and Creative Director Steve Yorsz from Rochelle’s Bar in New York.
According to bartender/restauranteur Sean Kenyon, the increased interest in high proofing also directly coincides with the return to prominence of the classic cocktail. “Today’s conscientious bartenders are looking to authentically recreate the classics and most of the 19th century era recipes call for high proof spirits.”
So which is the highest growing spirit of the bunch? North American whiskey, the second-largest spirit category in the US, represents 23% of sales and is growing at nearly twice the rate of the total spirits category. Cutty Sark whisky is one of the labels abetting trends by introducing Prohibition Edition, a nod to the brand’s origins dating back to the 1920’s. Here’s what you ought to be stirring up:
The Glasgow Dagger
2 oz. Cutty Sark Prohibition Edition
0.5 oz. Lustau Amontillado Sherry
0.5 oz. Lustau Pedro Ximenex Sherry
2 dashes Angostura Bitters In a mixing glass, stir all of the ingredients with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass, garnish with orange zest.
Here’s something something luxurious you’ll want to layer with your Fall 2013 look. Suntory—the pioneer of Japanese Whiskey (yes, the whiskey Bill Murray sent to Japan to promote in Lost in Translation)—will launch two new whiskies in the US for next season…and one you’ll have to fly to the Land of the Rising Sun just to taste. (Pass the velvet red ropes this way…)
First is the winner of the World’s Best Single Malt Whiskey at the 2012 World Whiskies Awards—Yamazaki 25-year-old. It’s hue is the official color of Fall 2013— deep, burgundy red (See: Pitti Uomo)—and has been aged in sherry casks since…just after the first Issey Miyake store opened in the US. Dried fruits and a rich woodiness arrive on the nose with a strawberry jam, rosemary and cocoa palate, finishing with a robust bittersweetness. It’s like sherry, but it’s not sherry. Something impressive to consider for after the meal.
Next up, campfire in a bottle—The Hakushu Heavily Peated. Hakushu is one of the highest in the world, brewed in the forests of Mt. Kaikomagatake deep in the Japanese Alps. It’s actually normally used to suss up other Suntory whiskies with a smokey flavor but for fall, they’re giving the whiskey its own bottling. Good move, because the from the Hakushu Heavily Peated’s toffee-vanilla-smokey start to the sweet smokey finish, it’s really the modern man’s version of how to get warmed by the campfire. Especially so if you’re doing so from the neoteric confines of NYC’s 21 Grams basement bar (where I got to taste some late last week).
And Hibiki 21—the one you’ll want, because you can’t buy it here, but also because it has the kind of smooth, woodsy, sweet complexion that’s easy to digest and rather amenable to cocktail making. Hibiki is created from a selection of single malt whiskies and aged in various types of casks (one being Mizunara, a rare Japanese oak) and, just as stirring, it comes in the kind of swank bottle you’d like sitting out on your bar.
