Week in pictures: 1 – 7 June 2024

This week in pictures features Sarah Neish at Lake Garda, Douglas Blyde at Fettercairn and with X MUSE, Freixenet in Barcelona, and -196 at Konbini.

Garda DOC

This week editor of the drinks business Sarah Neish has attended a special trip to Garda DOC to taste the consortium’s producers’ ranges of still and sparkling wines.

Fettercairn

Douglas Blyde flew to Aberdeenshire’s Fettercairn distillery in the foot of the Cairngorms, to taste the two extremes from its forthcoming 200th Anniversary Collection. Encapsulated in a brass, copper, and Scottish oak cabinet intended to evoke sunlight filtering through leaves by well-known designer John Galvin (Dalmore Luminary No. 1, L’anima), just ten six-bottle sets will be available worldwide from September at £100,000. The range opened with the surprisingly vital 60 year old, being Fettercairn’s oldest release to date, harking from the 1964 birth year of distillery manager Stewart Walker. Having been raised in American white oak and then married into aged sherry, the 40.2% expression brimmed with notes of lime-flecked white chocolate orange, followed by a sense of spring meadow on the palate, then brown crystal sugars. This contrasted the closing bottle, which on paper barely constitutes Scotch. A bold inclusion given its mere three years of age, 2021 resulted from a “blood tub” formed from fallen Scottish oak, processed at a local sawmill. Served blind, it startled with its deep, teak-like hue combined with bright, new olive oil-like luminosity and a structural (60.4%) palate replete with cinnamon bun notes. It arises from the year Fettercairn launched its Scottish Oak programme, planting 13,000 saplings so whisky connoisseurs more than two centuries in the future may savour spirit from local barley matured in casks coopered from trees grown within sight of the distillery.

Blyde also tried a sparkling survivor from his birth year. “This is a wine we forgot in the cellar for more than 40 years,” said self-proclaimed “humble farmer” Maurizio Zanella, founder of Ca’ del Bosco, of the 1980 rendition of what became known as Anamaria Clementi. Launched to the elders of the UK wine press by distributor Berkmann, the parcel of 6,000 bottles was subject to 43 years of slumber under cork – 34 “sur pointe” – and disgorged 42 years later. It was shown “for the first time outside Italy” said Zanella, in Burgundy goblets alongside pineapple-scented 36 months mature Parmesan, beside ecclesiastical stained glass windows at Harry’s Bar, Mayfair. The zero-dosage bore a sparky freshness, with aromas akin to the snapped fuse of a Christmas cracker, followed by subtle yellow brioche notes over a fine, carbon fibre-like core, replete with a tight bead. Like with Blyde, the troughs of a weak vintage, which started wet, have been impressively gilded over time. Representing the second incarnation of the cuvée, given reserves of 1979 are microscopic, the collage of Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, and Chardonnay is encapsulated in a bottle wearing a metal label and, to unveil, silk cord. Approximately half the production is reserved for Italy, where bottles are currently offered for up to €1,500 per bottle.

X MUSE

Stevie Burton of The Guards Bar at Raffles London at The OWO, won the second edition of the “Art of Bartending” competition by Scottish blended barley vodka, X MUSE Vodka. The final occurred at X MUSE’s home, the Jupiter Artland sculpture park, five miles west of Heriot-Watt University, famous for its degree in Brewing and Distilling.

Contestants were tasked with creating two bespoke cocktails: one drawing inspiration from their favourite contemporary artwork or artist and the other, their version of a perfect vodka martini. The jury comprised X MUSE founders Robert Wilson and Vadim Grigoryan, joint founder of The Cocktail Lovers Gary Sharpen, and Turner Prize nominee Anya Gallaccio, whose amethyst grotto is a centrepiece of Jupiter Artland. Of the experience, Burton, who studied art, told Drinks Business: “this took me back to my art roots and made me realise that the way I want to make art through drinks is possible.”

Freixenet

This week saw the 50 years Freixenet Cordón Negro Party in Barcelona. Pictured from left to right is Pedro Ferrer (CoCEO & Vice-President Grupo Freixenet), Dr. Andreas Brokemper (CEO Henkell Freixenet) and Martina Obregón (CMO of Henkell Freixenet).

-196

To celebrate the exclusive launch of unique Japanese pre-mix alcohol brand -196, it launched at Newspeak House in London.

The Konbini -196 experience was a reimagined Japanese convenience store transporting visitors to the country.

-196 (minus 196) is available in lemon and grapefruit flavour and is produced by global Japanese drinks company Suntory.

It is made from shochu, vodka and soda using Suntory’s propriety freeze crush technology that freezes the whole fruit by using liquid nitrogen at -196°C. The frozen zest, pulp and juice are then crushed into powder and infused with vodka.