A tight, minerally wine with classic Hamilton Russell Vineyards length & complexity. Unusually prominent pear & lime fruit aromas & flavours are brought beautifully into focus by a tight line of bright natural acid & a long, dry minerality. An elegant, yet textured & intense wine with a strong personality of both place & vintage. ...

Low-vigour, stony, clay-rich soil, cool maritime mesoclimate, naturally tiny yields of under 30 hl/ha & their philosophy of expressing the terroir in the wines
- give rise to a certain tightness, tannin line & elevated length to balance the richness & generosity of the Pinot noir. Not overtly fruity, soft & sweet & it generally shows hints of that alluring savoury primal character along with a dark, spicy, complex primary fruit perfume.
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As the name suggests, this gin sets out to replicate an original style of English gin, a slightly sweetened distilled gin which many people refer to as Old Tom. Old English Gin is distilled at Langley Distillery using a John Dore copper pot still called Angela, the oldest such gin still in use today. The recipe used dates back to 1783, one of many old recipes in the safe at Langley, & uses 11 botanicals. Ten of these botanicals are readily communicated by the brand owner Henrik Hammer (of Geranium Gin fame) & one is something of a secret. The ten are: juniper, coriander, lemon, orange, angelica, cassia, liquorice, cinnamon, orris & nutmeg. A hidden message on the brand's graphics hints at the identity of the 11th botanical
- the rounded triangular silhouette of the cross-section of a cardamom seed sits above the shield on the bottle. In his own (hidden & clever way) Henrik wanted to emphasise the use of cardamom as he distils this separately himself, because cardamom is a very dominant botanical & I want to make sure that the balance of the gin is absolutely perfect. After the distillations (by Langley & Henrik) a small amount (4 grams per litre) of sugar is added to the blended distillates prior to bottling at London's Thames Distillery, as many believe is in keeping with the old English style of gin (Old Tom). The use of a recycled champagne bottle (not from recycled glass but washed & reused) harks back to a time when gin would be sold from the barrel & transported from the shop in whatever container was at h&. This silkscreen printed bottle is sealed with a natural cork & organic wax
- the soft wax is easy to cut & you'll need a cork screw to pull the driven cork. Take a closer look at the bottle & you'll find another hidden clue in the graphics which relates to Henrik's father's name, Hudi. He was named after Rud Hud Hudibras, the ancient British King, & had four sons. If you look at the shield you will find one of his initials on each of the four hammers. CLASS Magazine UK
- rating: 5+ Eye For Spirits DE
- rating: 10/10 Nominated the Best Green Launch 2012



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This rum is the perfect all-rounder, a fantastic full bodied sipping rum that also lends itself to bringing depth & complexity to mixed drinks. Aged for a minimum of 8 years in the tropics after a long, natural fermentation, this blend of 100% traditional Pot Still marks is characterised by a high ester profile & tropical notes. A well-balanced & tasty blend of ripe fruit, spices, & phenolic aromas. Affirming an authentic & natural character, Hampden Estate 46% is a proud representative of Pure Single Jamaican Rums. Nose: Pineapple, passion fruit & new-car leather. Candied & jellied fruit notes develop: papaya, guava, lime, Seville orange, blood orange & nectarine. Banana & toasted spice notes build, with prominent clove notes. Palate: The spice & bananas lead: creamy banana pie with a generous dusting of ground clove & cinnamon. The banana remains as apples & pineapples roll in. Dark & weight oily notes sneak in behind. Finish: Cinnamon spice & sweet banana fade to reveal apple jam & mint. Layers & layers of fruit are carefully balanced by cream & a touch of dark & dirty oiliness. ...

A delightful hamper containing white wine, brie, chocolate & treats. Hamper Francais Blanc in a wicker basket
- colour may vary
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This Single Barrel Bourbon is deep amber in colour, the nose is light & sweet, with traces of mango & papaya. The body is full, & the palate shows a nice, if simple, balance of honey, clover, a slight fruitiness, & a dash of spices. The finish is long & warm. A well crafted whiskey. Drink it on the rocks or in a Manhattan. ...

This weird & rare South Asian citrus variety is beautifully aromatic. The lemon flavour is delicate but deep & complex. Folks in China hang them in their closets to make their clothes smell good. Hangar One can't get them all the time so sometimes they run out. There are lots of citrus-flavoured vodkas, but most are flavoured with highly purified extracts, which means they have only a single note. Hangar One is made with whole fresh fruit, which of course

Includes:: seeds, skin, pits, & juice, & all the fresh citrus oils. That's why Hangar One vodkas have far more complex flavours. They hit the palate in more spots. They just taste richer. When you taste the Buddha's H&, it doesn't have only the focused intensity of, say, a standard lemon. It also has wonderful jasmine overtones, as well as hints of fruitcake spices. The Buddha's Hand citron is one of the oldest citrus fruits. What's really great about distilling Buddha's Hands is that when you cut one open, they don't have any juice inside; they're entirely pith (that's the white stuff inside the peel). & unlike most citrus, the pith of the Buddha's Hand citron is sweet, not bitter. This allows them to get incredible depth of flavour without having to deal with high-acid citrus juice, which is really hard to stabilise in a bottle & has less complexity. Rumor has it that Buddha's Hand citrons got their name because they look like the upturned fingers of Buddha statues; the mutation that gave them the fingers started around 200 ad. Buddha's Hands are highly aromatic & are hung to perfume rooms & closets. They also make great candied lemon peel & marmalade.

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Unusual & knobbly Indonesian lime. Hangar One use the leaves too
- they are the ones you see in Thai cuisine. Great fresh lime
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Totally fresh tangerines in the infusion, with fresh tangerine flowers added. It's like peeling an actual tangerine, a really good one: the tiny spray of oil that comes up from your thumbnail is exactly what their vodka smells & tastes like. One night as Lance Winters walked from his apartment to the laundromat, he went by an orange tree in full bloom. The fragrance blew him away. Later he asked a friend if he could pick the flowers off her orange tree. She thought he was kind of crazy, but let him pick a bucketful of blossoms. Lance distilled them right away, &
- it came out perfectly. So the Mandarin blossom infusion was the first idea that came to mind when St George Spirits decided to to make a high-end vodka. Many parts of a citrus tree have the same fragrance & flavour characteristics as the fruit. Hangar One like using the Mandarin flowers because they allow them to capture complex & floral citrus characteristics without having to depend on unstable acids from the fruit's juice. It takes about 100 pounds of Mandarin blossoms (that's about the size of an oil drum) to do two bottlings of the Mandarin Blossom vodka. It takes someone about an hour to harvest one pound of Mandarin blossoms, & they have to be picked at the height of bloom (which also means there are lots of bees)
- so it's a pretty labour-intensive process, but the result is so worth it! Incidentally, the Mandarin Blossom vodka makes a great perfume. Bottle design may vary.

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Jorg Rupf & Lance Winters figured out how to make straight vodka taste good. First they pot-distill a vodka from expensive viognier wine. Then they blend it into an excellent column still wheat vodka. Here's the magic: there's no harsh alcoholic smell or taste, just soft beautiful purity. Hangar One's 'straight' vodka is a blend of grain (wheat) neutral spirit & a vodka crafted from viognier wine. They use the viognier vodka to diminish the alcoholic overtone found in most other vodkas. Viognier is an old varietal wine grape that makes a delicious white wine, but it's relatively new to California. Viognier grapes are hard to grow, & they don't produce a whole lot of fruit. To get the full flavour, you have to pick them when they're perfectly ripe. ' But despite, or perhaps because of, this precariousness has the most amazing clear, golden colour & the aroma of flowers & fruits at their freshest.' ...