SPIRITUAL GUIDE | ISSUE 8

WELCOME TO THE

SPIRITUAL GUIDE A guide for spiritual enlightenment by the pious team at Glengarry.

Join us monthly as we explore everything spirit related.

Welcome to the eighth edition of our journey into the spiritual world.

This issue, we have put together our ‘Summer Gin Guide’, much like a Gig Guide, only for your palate and providing a bench mark of which gins are must try and how best to enjoy them, we see the return to New Zealand of The Glenlivet 12-year-old and ask where has this popular malt been hiding?

We also delve into the history of one of the most iconic cocktails of all time, the Negroni.

Our congregation meets monthly as we heighten our senses and understanding of the spirits surrounding us, we hope you’ll continue to join.

SUMMER GIN GUIDE

With summers long hot days fast approaching, we have put together our ‘Summer Gin Guide’, much like a Gig Guide, only for your palate and providing a bench mark of which gins are must try and how best to enjoy them! So, pour yourself a delectable Gin & Tonic, sit back and read the below to find your next summer sippers.

Scapegrace Dry Gin

Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz Gin

Proudly produced here at the bottom of the

What could possibly be more Australian than a

world, the team at Scapegrace have made a

supply of sandpaper in your cricket gear bag?

real splash at the top of the globe with their

Bloody Shiraz, that’s what! This tasty beverage

Gold expression taking out “World’s Best

sees the classy Four Pillars Gin with a dose of

London Dry Gin” at the recent International

Shiraz juice from some of Aussies finest

Wine & Spirits Competition held in London of

grapes, leading to a stunningly individual gin.

all places. This is a classical style gin,

Spot fixing aside, this makes one stupidly

providing a great choice for a crisp and

delicious Negroni, so… “Where the bloody hell

refreshing G&T. We would pair it with the East

are ya?”

Imperial Tonic Water, with a slice of freshly shucked Orange!

Christian Drouin Le Gin

Gordon’s Pink Gin

A truly unique offering, Le Gin is distilled from

The latest craze, in what is already the latest

30 or more varieties of Apples originally

craze! This Pink Gin is inspired by a recipe first

destined for the production of Christian’s

developed over 130 years ago, combining the

Normandy Calvados. Each botanical is

traditionally crisp and refreshing character of

individually distilled with this apple-based spirit

the classic Gordon’s London Dry with the

before blending to produce an elegant offering

natural sweetness of raspberries and

with the complexity and gravitas to be enjoyed

strawberries. A good dose of this Gordon’s

solo on a bed of ice. If that isn’t quite your

Pink Gin over ice, accompanied by Fentimans

style, top it off with soda water and garnish with

Premium Indian Tonic Water and frozen

a slice of sweet, delicious apple.

berries, will feel awfully summery.

Hayman’s Old Tom Gin

Sundown Gin & Cucumber Soda

Based on an old family recipe, this Old Tom

Sometimes making your own G&T’s just isn’t

Gin harks back to a style rarely seen since its

an option. Luckily, Sundown Gin has your back

hay-day in the 18th Century but has made a

with a premium Ready-To-Drink offering that

resurgence of late as part of a changing

combines their uniquely New Zealand style gin

cocktail culture and the discovery of old historic

featuring Kawakawa and Horopito alongside

cocktails. A sweeter offering than the ever-

the usual suspect botanicals, with, in this case,

popular London Dry Gin, this is a gin that gives

natural Cucumber and Soda. Refreshing and

a mild manner to cocktails and shines bright in

only requiring the twist of a cap! Summer made

well-made martinis, especially those on the

easy.

dirty side.

It is looking to be another long, hot summer this year and refreshing gin concoctions are one delicious way to counter the heat. The above is only a guide, and barely touches the plethora of stunning gins gracing our shelves.

Come see our team in store or peruse our virtual shelves to find your perfect gin companion for the summer daze!

- T.J

THE GLENLIVET 12-YEAR-OLD

November sees the return to New Zealand of

By law, an age statement on a bottle of Single

The Glenlivet 12-year-old, one of the highest

Malt must be the youngest Whisky used to

selling Single Malts in the World and also one

produce that bottle. If you are selling 1 million

of the most notable absentees from the market.

plus cases per year of a 12-year-old product

Why did it disappear are you asking?

without careful management something is going to give. Unfortunately for us it meant the 12-year-old being pulled from a lot of markets to help relieve this pressure and even more so it heralded the rise of NAS.

Non-Aged Statements…such dirty words it seems. Depending on who you ask. We’ll start with me, shall we? I suppose my gripe in this instance is a product was ready to go, almost straight away. You can’t buy our 12-year-old any longer as we don’t have the aged stocks required to keep making this, but here is another product just as good for just a little bit less. No age on it but an inventive name, though it must at least be 3 years old by law to be called Whisky so at least we have some

The Glenlivet 12-year-old, not Glenlivet but

protection. The success of this release

'THE' as in the original Glenlivet Distillery from

suggests the opposite is felt, with over 200,000

the Glenlivet area, and not some illicit copycat,

cases sold worldwide – the accountants would

has enticing aromas of spiced apple pie, honey

take that any day. Thus, the NAS became a

and fruit typical of a Speyside dram. Rich and

success and we now many Private Release,

luscious in length leaving you wanting more

Owners Casks, Reserves, 'insert random

and more. As the best value Single Malt money

unpronounceable name here', being released

can buy, you should always have this one open

with stories from the marketing department

at home! The Glenlivet 12. Back at last! The

about terroir and the expensive price tags to go

end of the NAS movement? Not a chance.

with it.

- A.S

They are not all bad though. One of the true greats in the world, Ardbeg Uigeadail, has no age statement and has been around since before NAS was a thing. Go back to selling casks to independent bottlers to release rare single cask bottles I reckon. on Or you know just expand your distillery from a production of 11 million litres per year to over 20 million, that should help keep one of the classic malts in our little part of the world!

THE ICONIC NEGRONI

The Negroni is one of the most iconic cocktails of all time. The classic version is perfectly balanced, consisting of equal parts gin, sweet red vermouth and Campari, garnished with orange peel. Always stirred on the rocks, never shaken.

It’s perhaps the king of apértif drinks, though

Camillo Negroni was a real character, his true

after tasting wine all day you’ll often find the

status as a ‘Count’ being questionable. He’d

local winemakers downing these at the bar to

travelled around America in his younger years

keep the night going.

and lived the life of a Cowboy. He also spent a lot of time in the gin bars of London. Perhaps

While the exact origins of the drink are

this evening he was feeling nostalgic, so asked

unknown, the most common story is that it was

the bartender Fosco Scarselli to substitute the

first made in Florence in 1919 at the Caffé

soda water for gin. Rather than the typical

Casoni. One of the regulars was Count Camillo

lemon garnish, Scarselli added orange to show

Negroni, who used to drink the ‘Americano’, a

it was a different drink. Before long word had

cocktail of Campari, vermouth rosso and soda

spread and people were coming into the bar

water.

specifically for one of ‘Count Negroni’s drinks’.

Camillo Negroni

Orson Welles a Negroni fan

If you’ve never tried one before it can be a The drink became so famous that the Negroni

shock to the system, as there is no escaping

family took advantage of its success and

the strong bitterness from the Campari, which

founded the Negroni distillery that same year in

is accentuated by the gin. If made correctly,

Treviso. There they produced a ready-made

then the sweet red fruit flavour of the vermouth

version of the drink sold as Antico Negroni,

comes in to balance at the end. Given its equal

perhaps the first RTD! Orson Welles was

proportions it’s also very easy to make well at

working in Rome in 1947 and wrote of this new

home. Generally, if you’re going to muddle with

drink called the Negroni. “The bitters are excellent for your liver; the gin is bad for you.

They balance each other out.” James Bond often drank one when he wasn’t in the mood

the recipe though, it always pays to go heavier on the gin.

- R.M

for a Martini.

EVENTS AND TASTINGS

CARDRONA DISTILLERY | PONSONBY IN-STORE TASTING The family-owned artisan Cardrona Single Malt Distillery sits high in the Cardrona Valley between Wanaka and Queenstown. The driving force behind the enterprise is Desiree Whitaker: 'Our spirits are made from scratch by traditional handcrafted methods, using only three ingredients: malted Scottish two-row

WHEN: Saturday 10 November

barley, pure alpine water and yeast. This is an

WHERE: Glengarry Ponsonby,

in-store tasting so no need to book, just pop on

139 Ponsonby Rd Ponsonby

down to the store and try a selection of Spirits

TIME: 4:00pm-6:00pm

from 4.00pm - 6.00pm.

BOOK NOW ONLINE

NOVEMBER MALT CLUB | CHEESE AND MYSTERY TREATS | VICTORIA PARK Just like Wine, Whisky is up to the task of pairing itself with Cheese. So far the duo may not be a predictable match but the number of supporters are growing. Jak's Malt Club sure does its part in sharing the appreciation for the two. From creamy Brie to crystallised Edam WHEN: Thursday 15 November WHERE: Glengarry Victoria Park 118 Wellesley St West Auckland TIME: 7:00pm

and from Speyside to The Highlands. Join us on the 15th of November for our Whisky and Cheese match-up evening. You be the judge as we work our way through Whisky and Cheese together to find the ultimate pairing!

Guiding us through the tasting experience will be Jak Jakicevich, our Malt Supremo and Tonci Jakicevich, our Malt Devotee. Finishing off the night with a challenge, our hosts will treat us to a couple of Mystery Malts to put us to the test!

BOOK NOW ONLINE

KHYBER PASS MALT CLUB -

Join as at Glengarry Khyber Pass as we

CHIVAS REGAL

journey through Chivas Regal’s extensive

The blended Scotch whisky made by the Chivas brothers can trace its roots back to

range and taste the incredible heights that blended malts can achieve! Is there a better way to kick off the festive season?

1801 with the opening of their grocer’s store in Aberdeen. The store specialised in selling luxury foods, coffee, exotic spices, French brandy and Caribbean rum to its wealthy clientele. By 1842 the brothers were supplying the royal family at Balmoral Castle and in 1843 Chivas Brothers was granted a Royal Warrant to supply Queen Victoria. The brothers began a tradition of cask-aging their whiskies in the cellars beneath their store, and they began to blend their stocks. In the 1850s they launched Glen Royal, their first luxury blend, which WHEN: Thursday 22 November

eventually lead to the creation of the Chivas Regal selection of blended, aged whiskies. The

WHERE: Glengarry Khyber Pass,

Chivas Regal home is the Strathisla distillery,

409 Khyber Pass Rd Newmarket TIME: 7:00pm

founded in 1786 and the oldest working distillery in the Highlands.

BOOK NOW ONLINE

TAKAPUNA GIN CLUB One might almost be forgiven for thinking that the 17th Century tulip mania has resurfaced in an infatuation with gin, such is the burgeoning range of mainstream and more boutique options available to Glengarry regulars.

Fortunately nobody is having to mortgage their property to get in on this craze, but with such a huge selection to choose from the task of WHEN: Thursday 29th November

selecting what to sip on a sunny Sunday

WHERE: Glengarry Takapuna,

afternoon isn't quite as straightforward (or

Cnr Hurstmere & Killarney Takapuna TIME: 7:00pm

boring!) as it once was. With the goal of easing these tough decisions in mind, and the requests of dozens of aficionados ringing in our ears, we are hosting a tasting night focused

BOOK NOW ONLINE

entirely on gin, with a selection of fine options being opened to be explained, discussed and enjoyed. Book quickly as the gin craze is showing no signs of abating and places will fill quickly!

MALT AND CHAMPAGNE TASTINGS

Glengarry Head Honcho Jak Jakicevich and GM Liz Wheadon both have their fixation. Jak is a committed fan of Single Malt whiskies, while Liz is a champagne fiend from way back.

They are teaming up to take their respective obsessions on the road, perhaps in an attempt to justify them to the rest of NZ, or maybe they just want to share some gems they know about

AUCKLAND

with those of you who don’t. Anyhow, there they both are, out on the road, taking it to the streets. Each of them will be flourishing the

TAURANGA

attributes of six of their favourites. Is it a duel?

A face-off? We don’t know. Will it be

WELLINGTON

entertaining and enlightening? Absolutely.

VIEW ALL TASTINGS

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL SPIRIT TASTINGS

That's it for this month's Spiritual Guide.

Issue Nine will be coming your way next month with more guidance through the spiritual world.

Cheers,