Inventory for May 1st, 2016

Welcome back to our weekly inventory! This time around we got: Gn Chan winning the 2016 Bacardi Legacy, Reisetbauer releases its first vodka. Brown-Forman extends its whisky portfolio, there’s a anti aging gin going around, and Vulson launches an aged French rye in the UK.

Back in the day, hundreds of years ago, the residents of the the Scottish island of Ardberg used to smuggle their whisky off the island in the middle of the night, just to have it magically appear on the mainland the next day. To honor this “dark part of history” the annual Islay Whisky festival is hosting Ardbeg Night on the 28th of May. If you can’t make it to Scotland but happen to be in Hamburg, you’re in luck. Over 500 members of the Ardbeg committee are set to meet at Hamburg’s harbor to try this year’s limited edition of Ardbeg Dark Cove. Ardbeg Night will take place in many cities around the world, for more information follow their Twitter account here.

1. Gn Chan Wins Bacardi Legacy Global Cocktail Competition

Last week in San Francisco the American Gn Chan was declared the winner of the 2016 Bacardi Legacy Global Cocktail competition with his drink, the Venceremos. Chan beat out a total of 36 international bartenders with the cocktail that’s made “with BACARDÍ Superior, coconut liqueur, pineapple juice, cucumber juice, lime juice, and a dash of sesame oil”. Judge Dale De Groff said of the winning drink, “It was a unanimous decision tonight to name Gn Chan the winner”.

For us at MIXOLOGY MAGAZINE next year’s global final of Bacardi Legacy will be some kind of very special, local affair, since Bacardi announced, they’d be holding 2017’s competition in the world’s most beautiful city – “our” Berlin!

2. Creator of Popular Elderflower Liqueur Robert J. Cooper Dies

Senior vice president of the marketing and innovation at the Cooper Spirits Company confirmed that Robert J. Cooper died at the young age of 39. Cooper was the brains behind the popular St-Germain elderflower liqueur which, as The New York Times notes, “was so completely embraced by the cocktail community that it became known as ‘bartender’s ketchup’”. The Time goes on to list his numerous accomplishments, including putting elderflower liqueur back on the market and helping to “resuscitate the dormant liqueur business”. Cooper also return “bygone bar ingredients like Creme Yvette and Hochstadter’s Slow & Low” to the bar. A great loss for the community.

3. Reisetbauer’s Vodka

Ten years after the launch of Blue Gin, Reisetbauer released a vodka. Axberg vodka is produced in the heart of Austria, where the soil is loose and rich in nutrients and thus produces good wheat. Have a look at the newly released promo video here, it’s hilariously earnest with some gorgeous landscape imagery. And hey, it gets the job done!

4. Brown-Forman to Purchase the BenRiach Distillery Company Limited

For approximately £285 million the purchase would mean that Brown- Forman’s portfolio would expand by The GlenDronach, BenRiach, and Glenglassaugh. The purchase will include the brand trademarks, its three malt distilleries, the bottling plant, and the company’s headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland though The BenRiach Distillery Company will operate as a subsidiary of Brown-Forman. Brown-Forman’s Chief Executive Officer Paul Varga says

“The acquisition of these super premium brands will allow Brown-Forman to re-enter one of our industry’s most exciting and consistent growth segments, Single Malt Scotch Whisky”. The transaction is expected to close around June 1, 2016.

5. Gin with ‘Anti-Ageing’ Properties Guarantees to Fight Off Wrinkles

Listen, can we all not just agree on the fact that there is no such thing as “hangover free booze”, similar to how “age defying gin” really, really won’t work? Doesn’t mean people won’t still try … The Anti AGin (really? With the puns?) promises to “defy the ageing process” because it’s “distilled with ingestible collagen and ‘age-defying’ botanical”. Commissioned by Warner Leisure Hotels the gin was created by Bombas & Parr it will retail for £34.99.

6. Vulson launches Aged French Rye in the UK

French Alps-based distillery Domaine des Hautes Glaces just released an aged version of its organic Vulson White Rhino Rye in the UK. “Made from malted rye grown on-site at the distillery’s farm, Vulson Old Rhino Rye has been matured for one year in French new oak casks and three years in Cognac casks”. The Spirits Business quotes the expression as “very mineral taste with spicy notes of gingerbread”. The Old Rhino Rye is the aged version of Vulson White Rhino, “described as a ‘rye eau de vie’ and ‘French moonshine’, first launched in the UK in 2014.