Inventory for June 26th, 2016

Cheers big ears! This week Lagavulin released a special bottle celebrating the inagural whisky writer Alfred Barnard in honor of its 200th anniversary, Tales of the Cocktail’s Spirited Awards released its short list of nominees, a Spanish firm is trying to make blue wine a thing, and Liquor.com had a stroke of genius and decided to freeze its bubbly.

Negroni Week might be officially over but honestly, who cares? We still feel that it’s one of the most classic drinks to have while ringing in a mild summer’s evening. Might we suggest a light salad for dinner? Packed with all the fun things you crave (avoados, grilled corn, and chickpeas) it’s perfect with some freshly prepared garlic bread, or some crusty French baguette.

Lagavulin 200th Anniversary Edition

In celebration of Lagavulin’s 200th aniverssary, Diageo just released a limited edition bottling of Lagavulin Eight Year Old honoring Victorian whisky writer Alfred Barnard. The special whisky will only be available twice this year and only in global travel retail. In his writings, the first ever whisky journalist and traveller Alfred Barnard described his visit to Islay in the late 1880s. There, he tastes the 8 Year Old Lagavulin and deems it “exceptionally fine” and “held in high repute”. Drink Int. quotes Diageo’s global marketing director Peter Fairbrother “Single malts represent the fastest growing segment of the whisky category in travel retail, growing 12.5% in the last recorded year and now valued at $800m”. Happy 200th.

2015 Spirited Awards Top Four Finalists

After announced their top ten finalists last week, the Spirited Awards have narrowed it down to the top four. To no one’s surprise Jeffrey Morgenthaler made the list of American Bartender of the Year, as did Chris Hannah, Bobby Heugel, and Ivy Mix. Another given? The fact that the only German bar (or bartender for that matter) to make it on the list is Hamburg’s Le Lion, nominated for the Best International Cocktail Bar. The top contenders for the International Bartender of the Year are Marian Beke, Ryan Chetiyawardana, Zdenek Kastanek, and Hidetsugu Ueno. Should be an interesting year!

Blue Wine for Everyone

Natural wine lovers might be ringing in the age of orange wine, but if the Spanish company Gik has it their way, we might all be drinking blue wine soon. Food and wine notes that, instead of some artificial fluke the “sweetened, alcoholic beverage is indeed made from Spanish grapes and the color comes from grape skin extract and natural indigo pigmentation, resulting in a shockingly unnatural-looking liquid”. The bottle sells for 10 Euros. A gimmick? For sure. A neccessary one? Nope, nobody needs this “sweetened, alcoholic beverage” besides 16-year olds getting tipy for the the first time (not that we condone that).

Champagne (on) Ice

Every now and then a kitchen hack comes along, that seems to actually make sense. Nothing will reinvent the wheel, but people continue to try. We’re a big fan of this tip though: freeze any leftover bubbles (Champagne or prosecco, though that begs to answer the question: why woud you have any leftover Champagne?) in a ice tray and pop them into your next glass of orange juice or cocktail, that could use a hit of bubbly.

Liquor.com makes  a solid note, “because of their alcohol content, these cubes will freeze a little less solid than those made out of pure water, but we think you’ll agree: Champagne tastes way better than water in almost any drink”. Truer words have never been spoken.