Ron Zacapa XO

Now, when global spirits giant, Diageo, took over the world’s best rum brand, things were always going to change, despite what the fine men at Reserve Brands might say.

Thankfully, for those that were lucky enough to stumble into the path of a bottle before Diageo turned rarity to luxury, it appears the product so wonderfully selected by Master Blender, Lorena Vasquez is not amongst the things that will change.

The partnership of families who grew the canes and made the rich, flavoursome rum may slowly be drifting towards a more corporate structure since exposure and the brands flagship, the XO, will lose its Centenario designation, in front of, somewhat predictably, opposition from the company who ‘owns the term’ as the Americans say it, Jose Cuervo.

Now, I’ve written about the 23 year old before, but thanks to last weeks Rum Club, I now know a lot more about this fantastic spirit. To say that it is different from most rums is an understatement in the extreme. Most rum is produced from blackstrap, a type of molasses that is a by product of sugar refining. Blackstrap is a little bit bitter and tastes and smells very cooked. Rhum Agricole, the French version of this most naval of spirits, is produced from the first pressings of the sugar cane juice, in much the same way as the Cachaca spirits form further South in Brazil. Zacapa is made from neither of these. Sugar cane juice is pressed and cooked, purely for the purpose of making the spirit. The cooking process drives off the water, and after smelling the sugar cane ‘honey’  it also provides a measure of carmelisation, although not to the same burnt levels as blackstrap. It is quite literally, somewhere in the middle.

The next difference in Ron Zacapa is the aging of the distillate. It is taken to “The House in the Clouds,” a facility 2300 metres above sea level. Here the distillate is subjected to a Sistema Solera, an aging sytem invented by the Spanish to produce Sherry and brought to the America’s by the invaders. Simply put, a Solera ages the distillate through different levels or ‘criadera.’ The barrels on the first level are filled with fresh distillate, when it is ready it is moved down a layer and mixed with spirit that has already aged. This fractional blending ensures a smooth end product and is used to create a level of consistency between batches, years and decades. That might sound a touch complex, and it is. Zacapa, hopwever, take things one massive step further.

The distillate is taken from the still and poured into American Whiskey barrels. These barrels are first fill Bourbon barrels (FFBB) This means that they have only had Bourbon in them before and no other spirit. The rum stays in these barrels until Lorena or one of her master blenders decide it is ready. This can take between 1-3 years, give or take. The blender has the final say.

Once the rum is ready, it goes to a 17,000 litre American Oak mixing barrel for intermediate mixing (IM). The rum is blended with an amount of Old Reserve (OR) from the Zacapa warehouse. the amount of rum is a closely guarded secret, but the Master Blender is looking for a paticular set of characteristics before it can go back into the barrels.

The rum is then put back into Bourbon barrels, this time though they are highly charred(HCBB), giving an ‘alligator skin’ effect that imparts a lot of flavour. Once again, the rum rests until the blenders nose says it is ready, before once again heading to the intermediate mixing to be blended with the Old Reserve (OR)

The third stage sees the rum aged in Sherry Butts, (SB) I haven’t yet worked out why Sherry barrels are called butts, maybe one of you can enlighten me. The Sherry barrels impart a fruity depth to the rum. Again, only the Blender decides when it’s had enough time, and can go back to intermediate mixing for a third time.

The fourth aging stage is in Pedro Ximenez Sherry Butts (PXSB) This Sherry is very sweet and the barrels impart deeper fruity flavours, sultanas and muscatels. At the completion of the fourth stage the rum is once again mixed with the Old Reserve. At this point, the rum can be bottled as Ron Zacapa 23. Some of the IM barrel at this stage is also sent back to the warehouse to replenish the Old Reserve.

The final stage in aging that sets the XO apart is aging in French Oak Cognac barrels (FOC) This gives the rum a dryness and quality of finish that is hard to find anywhere else in the family of sugar based spirits. French Oak ex-Cognac barrels are some of the most expensive of all barrels that are traded around the world.

The rum is blended one last time with the Old Reserve, again some is held back to fuel the future processes. It then leaves the Solera, is filtetred through Cellulose, bottled and distributed around the world.

The Ron Zacapa XO bottle points to its Cognac finish, and somewhat predictably to its price tag. It’s not the most expensive Rum on earth, but at 200 bucks a bottle here in Australia, it is in pretty special territory. I first tried it in Japan, over a hand carved ice diamond. It cost around 50 bucks a shot, but the memory of it has stayed with me a long time, so I’d have to say it’s absolutely worth it. Anyone who is a rum nerd should try it out at least once…

There are bottles behind the bar at Low 302, Rockpool and the Bayz. With Diageo bringing it in, rarity it might not still be, but luxury it certainly is.

Filed under: Spirit , Ron Zacapa, You're not in Guatemala anymore Dr. Ropata, Rum Club, XO, Sistema Solera, Guatemala, Cognac finished, Distillationa and aging, The finest rum on earth, Lorena Vasquez

Oxley Gin

Two real treats arrived for me off the plane from England. First, my good friend Marty, back from a couple of years as Brand Ambassador and general rapscallion for 42 Below over in England. The second treat was the hip flask of Oxley Gin Martin had slipped into his luggage.

I had first heard bout Oxley over at the Dizzy Fizz, and a few times on Twitter. Marty managed to fill in a few more juicy details.

Oxley has been developed by Bacardi, in response to an acknowledgement that the traditional style, premium Gin segment is growing very quickly and that the stalwart of their portfolio, Bombay Sapphire, doesn’t really deliver a good enough juniper hit amongst its 12 beautiful, if a little floral, botanicals.  Bombay uses the Carter Head still, reckoned by many to be the pinnacle of distillation.

Oxley is a big step away from the Carter Head still. Bacardi have patented a new type of still, to produce the spirit at sub zero temperatures. At sea level, the world over, alcohol is known to boil away at 78.3 degrees Celsius and water at 100. It is precisely this gap that makes the wonderful process of distillation possible. What some smart bastard at Bacardi must have noticed is that boiling points drop at higher altitude. Boiling a pot of water on Everest will only be tepid, as opposed to piping hot. Getting stuff to boil at sub zero temperature requires considerably more effort, there being no mountains higher than Everest and running a still in an unpressurized plane being frightfully expensive.

Now, according to the marketing spiel, the process is a closely guarded secret, distillation occurs at -5, then at -100 the vapour is cooled back into pure, lovely Gin. It does sound  very fancy and hard to work out. However, it’s really not. Those standard temperatures for boiling are at 760 mm Hg, which is an expression of pressure, as measured by mercury in a vacuum, or barometer, as it has come to be known. What Bacardi have done is to create a still whose pressure can be cranked down to a mere 12.6mm Hg approximately 1/350 of the normal pressure on earth. Which pretty much means they create an environment pretty close to the atmospheric pressure on the Moon. (actually about ten times the Moon’s pressure, but it’s a factor of ten we can’t really measure). Water would boil around 11 degrees at that pressure.

The point of all this physics (for any of you who are still reading) is that in normal distallation, the heat quite literally cooks the botanicals, degrading them and bringing out odd tastes, the freezy method means the 14 botanicals that Oxley includes stay snap frozen fresh. The result is a Gin that is very smooth, with good juniper and a nice balance of grapefruits. A little less spicy than the Beefeater 24, but very much its own thing as well.

The leather strapping, the tin bucket, the four day a week production schedule, the 240 bottle batches, the individual numbers all point toward a pretty special product. The 60 pound price tag will be seen by many (including me) as taking the piss, in the same way Absolut’s  Level did with vodka.

All that said, I can’t wait to try it in a martini.

Filed under: Spirit , Carter Head Still, Gin, Oxley Gin, physics, Sub Zero distillation, tin, Ultrapremium

UPDATED: Jim Beam Small Batch Bourbon

I received a very special little present yesterday. The newest in the line of small batch bourbon’s from Jim Beam. I am a big fan of Basil Hayden’s and this bottle at least matches that. It was even signed by the Fred Noe, 7th Generation distiller of these fine Kentucky bourbons.

This latest small batch has port added to the spirit. The small batch website hasn’t been updated to talk about this new release, so I’m not sure as to how much port has been added, but the spirit still carries 40% ABV so I’m guessing not much. If you’ve tried the port finished Glenmorangie, which is single malt finished in a port cask, the addition of liquid port is noticeable in the Jim Beam product, but it works very well.

I’ve just been contacted by the Jim Beam team here in Sydney. This little beauty has been developed out of this market, which is why it doesn’t make an appearance on the website. Hopefully that means that it will only be sold down here, adding to the modest haul of great products that are exclusive to, rather than excluded from, this market.

Anyone who has tried a Ruby Manhattan before will know that port deepens the cakey, sugary, fruity flavours in a good bourbon. This bottle from Jim Beam certainly delivers on that front with a complex, rich, almost Christmassy flavour to the spirit.

The bottle is the same as the one used for the Knob Creek, and the wax seal feels very plasticy. Unwrapping it uncovers what looks like a piece of duct tape and I ended up cutting of the bottom part of the wax, as it just seem to get in the way.

You’ll forget about all of that as soon as you smell the product though, so let’s not get too hung up on the little things.

It makes an excellent Old Fashioned with Peychaud’s bitters and a truly wonderful Manhattan with an amazing colour and one of the richest spicy finishes I’ve ever been lucky enough to experience. It’s very well distilled, and the port makes it incredibly smooth.

At $46.99, this is the bargain of the Small Batch range. You can pick it up online here as well. Shipping Australia wide. This would be the perfect little glass to be leaving out for Santa this Christmas Eve, just don’t be surprised if the bottle is gone by morning.

Filed under: Spirit , Great Value, Jim Beam Small Batch, Manhattan, Old Fashioned, Peychaud's Bitters, Port finish

Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve

It seems that the use of single malts in cocktails has finally shaken loose a few of the world’s whisky drinkers and opened them up to a new level of blended whisky, one that offers an extremely smooth finish and an interesting complexity. Coupled with the strength of the Asian whisky market. It’s not hard to see why Johnnie Walker has just bought this new product to the market for Christmas.

The Gold Label Reserve is premium from the start. Well boxed and with a heavy foil closure, it delivers on a great ritual opening the cap for the first time. The shadow moulding of Johnnie walking is raised from a heavy and nicely designed piece of glass and filled with a great color of liquid. One tiny misstep before the whisky hit my lips, one of those annoying anti refilling device thingies but it works well once you give it a shake.

The tasting notes talk of vanilla and honey and they’re there along with the expected Walker smoothness, especially when you take it simply, over ice.

I mentioned a drink before that I think suits the new arrival beautifully, The Stengah. The drink harks back to a time when the British had an Empire, not a soccer marketing franchise stretching around the world. An administrative bureaucracy forced on people’s left many hours free to be filled with tennis, mixed race love affairs and grain spirits from mid afternoon.

The Stengah.

Fill a highball glass with ice, add whisky to taste and fill the glass with soda.

The drink opens up the flavour of the spirit and the length and ice in the drink make it a lovely way to spend an afternoon. I might even try and shake it up into something later today.

Scotch isn’t my beverage of preference, but I really like this. It goes on sale tomorrow, and at $120 it would make a great gift. Diageo owns the brand, so you can probably expect distribution to be reasonably wide.

Filed under: Spirit , Blended Whisky, Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve, Soda, Stengah

Moore’s Vintage Dry Gin

One of the real gems that I found at the Bar Show was Moore’s Vintage Dry Gin, produced only an hour’s drive (on a good day without traffic) outside of Sydney at the St. Fiacre Distillery on the beautiful central coast.

Handcrafted by self proclaimed wizard of the still, Philip Moore, this Vintage Dry Gin is the product of a sevenfold blend of vapour infused distallates. These are produced in a Carter Head still.

Now you may have noticed a level of explanation that I don’t usually go to, and there is a very good reason for that. There are only reckoned to be five operational Carter Head stills on this green earth and guess who has used one to produce a delightful, delicate Gin that has taken the world by storm? who else but Hendricks, of course. They too blend a number of infused distillates together to create their masterpiece.

Where Hendricks could be taken as a Scottish thumbing of noses at the bastions of English Gin conventions, Moore’s is an unashamedly Australian affair. A strong and pleasantly oily citrus base of grapefruits, Tahitian limes and wild limes from Queensland forms the base flavour and takes it towards Tanqueray Ten or Beefeater 24 territory. Setting this Gin firmly on its own in the marketplace is the addition of four Australian botanicals. Cinnamon Myrtle, Coriander seeds, Illawarra Plum and Macadamia nut give a very different finish, smooth, subtle and pleasurably different.

The branding is a bit crap, it certainly doesn’t do the product inside the bottle justice and with my marketing hat on it’s going to be tough for the brand to have the sort of success that Hendricks has, with the way its speaking now.

However, you should still find yourself a bottle, because (1) its great to have a local product that has been made this well and tastes this good, (2) you can be the cool kid introducing something before everyone knows about it, (3) It will be amazing in a long G&T or Collins this Sydney summer and (4) you can’t buy this in America (and with FDA approval of non-US native botanicals being what it is, you maybe never will be)

Philip Moore also produces a range of Australian liqueurs (38.00), which are on sale alongside the Gin (49.95) on the St. Fiacre Distillery web store if you can’t find it in a local store, or make the trip up the coast.

There’s a reason I mention the liqueurs. I’d like to update a David Wondrich cocktail to make something a little more local.

The Central Coast Classic.

60 mls Moore’s Vintage Dry Gin, 10 mls Native Plant Spirits Mandarin Liqueur, a couple of dashes of Fee’s Rhubarb Bitters. Give that a good stir over ice in a tin, and strain it over a couple of big ice cubes in an old fashioned glass and I have been garnishing pretty much everything with the peel of those amazing blood oranges that are in season right now.

Delicious.

Filed under: Cocktail, Spirit, Sydney , Gin, Moore's Vintage Dry Gin, Central Coast, Local, Excellent, Central Coast Classic., Fee Brothers Rhubarb Bitters, Carter Head Still

Ilegal ✝ Mezcal

Okay, so here’s my first post out of bar show and the bar awards. I’ll start by saying thanks to Dave Spanton and Simon McGoram from Spanton Media, the guys who produce the show, the awards, 4bars.com.au and Bartender magazine.

They sorted me out with press accreditation for the whole deal and seated me at the best table in the building. Phil Bayly from Cafe Pacifico and his crew were awesome.

To my left on the table was Steve from Ilegal Mezcal. He produces an artisnal mezcal that is quite something. The taste is smoky and earthy, but exceptionally refined. Kind of like a Talisker scotch without the attitude.

There’s a lot of crap online rubbishing mezcal in favour of tequila, largely due to a big amount of mezcal being produced for the wanker tourist market that comes down from SoCal to see a donkey show and cut loose. There are differences, tequila can only be made from the blue agave, and must be from Jalisco province. Most Mezcal comes from Oaxaca province, and mezcal can be made with other agave varieties. Where tequila producers roast the pina in an oven, mezcal is baked in a ground oven, like a hangi or umu in the pacific.

The result is magical. I will be tracking Ilegal Mezcal. check out the webiste, it speaks to a small scale production, a passion for the spirit and its handcrafted nature.

I can’t wait to be able to add a bottle to my liquor cabinet.

Filed under: Spirit

Salve, Gruppo Campari

Gruppo Camapri have just announced that they’re opening a Sydney office! They are looking to hire a whole team, from Marketing Director to Logistics and everything in between.

The group owns a largish family featuring a heavier than usual showing of Aperitifs, Camapri (the bitter orange classic), Aperol (made with both bitter and sweet, a slightly smoother experience), Cynar (again, a bitter aperitif, made from Artichokes and featuring one on the label), Cinzano (Italian vermouths across the colour spectrum) & BiancoSarti (the vigorous aperitif, largely unknown outside of Italy). On the spirit side, they’ve acquired Skyy, Wild Turkey, Cabo Wabo Tequlia and a whole range of Brazilian brandies and scotch.

You can find all of the job listings for Campari Australia here.

Filed under: Spirit, Sydney , Campari, Jobs

Bacardi Reserva Limitada

If you’ve visited this blog before, you’ll know I’m a big fan of a good story and an even bigger fan of using special products to promote a brand.

Last night at the Sydney Rum Club, the boys from Bacardi bought along something that’s pretty special. Bacardi Reserva Limitada.

This rum is the jewel in the crown of Bacardi’s rum empire. Aged rums are blended after as many as 16 years languishing in the Caribbean sun, the result is a rum not quite as robust as Bacardi 8, and not quite as smooth as Ron Zacapa Centenario XO. Reserva Limitada wins the race in terms of how fine a spirit it is. Subtle, with nary a trace of heads nor tails, Bacardi’s masterpiece is comparable to a cognac or a great grappa, it is distillation at it’s finest.

Where can I buy a bottle? I hear your say. This wonderful rum is only available at two locations (although the guys from Bacardi Lion claimed only one.) Both are are fair trek from this, the Lucky Country. Your options are  (1) The Bacardi Distillery in Puerto Rico and (2) The Bacardi Store in Nassau. You will save yourself a whole 5 bucks if you’re in the Bahamas.

I think it’s going to be a while between drinks on this one. I’d love to try it in an old fashioned with some Fee Brothers orange bitters.

Filed under: Spirit , Bacardi, Bacardi Reserva Limitada, Rum, Special Edition Bottle, Ultrapremium

Barcelona Gin

I believe the first cocktail I ever made was a Gin & Tonic. My father taught me how to pour two fingers of Gin into a glass, top it with cold tonic and add a slice of lemon. While I now ice the glass, Dad’s two finger instruction has proved a winner, growing with me as my hand size and tolerance increased.

My early exposure has meant that no matter how much I’ve learnt, or which spirit I have developed a lusty affair for, Gin remains the ‘proper’ drink, be it in a Monkey Gland, Martini or bubbling fresh with tonic and squeeze. I’m always interested in new entrants, and I must admit the new Port of Barcelona has whet my appetite for the juniper gods once more.

Now, I haven’t been lucky enough to receive a bottle like Rick at Martini Groove, but there were a couple of things that piqued my interest when I read through the scuttlebutt online.

First, it seems like good value, $30 for a triple distilled, 13 botanical Gin. Quality that won’t bruise the wallet.

Secondly, it flies in the face of convention, many of the new Gins that have been released in the last few years have focussed on being ‘cocktailing’ spirits. Attempting to become an open book for bartenders to play with has seen the juniper content dialed down (juniper gives Gin it’s Ginnyness) and light tasting spirits that are really Gin masquerading as vodka become the norm. Port of Barcelona sounds as though they have gone for a full flavored, but balanced approach, with juniper, citrus, vanilla and star anise featuring in a big buttery Gin.

Can’t wait to see if it lives up to the billing.

Filed under: Spirit , Gin, New Release, Port of Barcelona, Spain

Time for a Tea Party?

I must admit that I’m not really a huge fan of flavoured vodka, in particular when the flavour is manufactured at the International Flavor Institute just of the Jersey turnpike. Raspberry flavour that originates here contains precisely zero raspberries.

I’m told that where the myriad of flavours that Absolut bring to market come from, by a man claiming to be a professor of vodka.

All that aside, I felt I had to post on this, Absolut are making a special flavour, just for Boston. While Black Tea & Elderflower vodka probably  contain no tea or elderflowers I kind of like the idea. Always a sucker for a limited edition bottle, tying an edition to a specific location really appeals to me.

Previous Absolut flavors include black pepper and mango in New Orleans and pomegranate, blueberry, acerola cherry and açai berry for Los Angeles.

What flavour would Sydney be?

Filed under: Spirit , Absolut, Black Tea and Elderflower, Boston Edition, Special Edition Bottle