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A L C O H O L With food & drink writer Chris Madigan

L I F T I N G T H E S P I R I T S GUIDE

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THREE GINS, THREE SERVES

Salute the coming of spring with Britain’s most popular – and versatile – spirit

An increase in those deciding not to drink alcohol has resulted in a crop of delicious teetotal alternatives T he way we drink is changing. The effects of alcohol on our health are well documented and no one is renouncing the demon drink more readily than millennials. Since 2005 there has been an 11 per cent increase in 16-24 year olds going teetotal. Whatever the reason for not drinking – health, cultural, New Year’s resolution or just ‘because’ – Seedlip Grove 42 (right) is a sophisticated spirit that’s packed with healthy botanicals. Try it in one of these delicious drinks…

ON ITS OWN It’s perfectly acceptable these days to enjoy a flavoured gin without a mixer and this one is ripe with plump English fruit – sip it straight with ice, or lengthen it out with a dash of soda or lemonade. Whitley Neill Blackberry Gin, £25, page 112

INTEL

On the nose Call it a matter of taste, but most flavour is sniffed, not sipped. So smell your way around our whiskies using this guide to becoming a connoisseur

SIMPLE FIZZ Refreshingly straightforward, simply delicious. Over a tumbler – copper if you have one – filled with ice cubes, pour 50ml Seedlip Grove 42 and top up with ginger beer. Garnish with a slice of lime and a matching straw. WARMING TODDY While there’s still a nip in the air, fill a glass mug with 120ml of freshly brewed Assam tea, 50ml Seedlip Grove 42 and a teaspoon of coconut sugar. Garnish with a sliver of fresh ginger. SHOWSTOPPER Fiddly but worth it. Fill a wine glass with ice, add 50ml Seedlip Grove 42, 15ml cordial (steep three chopped stalks of lemongrass in 250ml hot water with 200g sugar for two hours) and 10ml apple vinegar. Top up with soda.

WITH TONIC This London dry gin has thrived from the very earliest days of gin making in Britain and is still a bestseller 250 years on. Pair it with a floral or spicy tonic for surprising flavour combinations. Gordon’s Gin, £13, page 112

very whisky has a different flavour profile and it can be educational, and fun, to spend time comparing them. Instead

THERE ARE THREE STAGES TO A whisky’s flavour profile: nose, palate, finish. Take a small sip, let it roll around your mouth and repeat – its flavour should evolve. Then swallow. The final chapter in the flavour story might reveal a twist. Like a good book, you can revisit the story–withadropofwater toopen it up. CERTAIN CLUES CAN HELP YOU GUESS something about the whisky’s identity: fruity and floral (probably a Speyside Scotch); earthy and smoky (an Islay malt – the malted barley is dried over peat fires); boiled sweets (likely

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of tasting, whisky experts call it nosing, as around 80 per cent of flavour is smell. The idea is to spend more time on the aroma. USE A GLASS THAT FUNNELS AROMAS to your nose, such as a Glencairn or sherry copita. Swirl and gently inhale the aroma…what fruits, sweets and

SEEDLIP Grove 42

IN A COCKTAIL Try this popular London gin in a Negroni: into a tumbler of ice pour 25ml gin, 25ml Martini Rosso Vermouth, 25ml Martini Bitter and stir gently. Garnish with a twist of orange zest. Bombay Sapphire Gin, £20, page 113

other foods does it remind you of? What about smells from nature or man-made aromas, such as wood varnish? What memories does it evoke? Don’t be shy of saying “the lemon sherbets grandpa kept in his leather-topped desk while we glued model aeroplanes” if that’s what you think of.

As a refreshing and deliciously different tipple, Ben Branson (below) created Seedlip Grove 42 to be zesty, complex and completely non-alcoholic. This distilled blend is a citrus-forward combination of bitter orange, blood orange and mandarin, mixed with uplifting spice distillates of ginger and lemongrass. Enjoy it over ice, with tonic and a twist of orange peel or mixed in tempting cocktails that everyone can enjoy. 700ml

an Irish whiskey); nutty and buttery (could be bourbon).

THAT IS WHISKY TASTING. So how should you drink it? Ice, water, soda, in a cocktail? The answer: any way you like – it is, after all, your whisky.

Long-Haul Flights • British Brand £26 SAVE £2 (RRP £28) LR792

In the late 19th century, US whiskey barrels were aged under government supervision, but anything could happen once they’d left. The 1897 Bottled In Bond Act set rules including more control, and that whiskey had to be bottled from a single distillery’s six- month ‘season’. Jack Daniel’s Bottled-In-Bond still follows that rule to make the US equivalent of a single malt Scotch. £28, page 115 T H E N A M E ’ S B O N D …

HERO

A T A S T E O F I T A L Y

Italy may not be the first country you’d associate with gin, but there is a strong logic to the Bottega disti l lery’s Bacûr Dry Gin , from the Veneto region. It was in northern Italy where apothecaries first added botanicals to aqua vitae and created alcohol ic tonics. And many of the herbs, spices and citrus peels – even juniper

– used in British gins are sourced from Italy, as are the sage and lemon zest that characterise Bacûr. Bottega has 40 years’ experience disti l l ing some of the world’s best grappa, using innovative maceration and disti l lation techniques that, when appl ied to gin, produce something complex and elegant. £35, page 113

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