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December 2011
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The Whisky Special
How A Single Malt is Made
The various steps and processes that make a great spirit
Page 6
20 Great Single MaltsA selection of the best single malt whiskies from across the worldPage 12
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October 2011
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Speed DemonWhat makes the Formula One machine special Page 12
An Insider’s Guide To Rogue TradingEveryone seems to be doing it. Here's how you can, too Page 29
Top Of The PackHarsha Bhogle on the best cricket matches he has witnessed Page 30
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A status report on Indian polo
Page 16
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February 2012
exclusive excerpts and pictures from Fendi’s handbook on fine Italian craftsmanship
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made in AlbaThe Pio Cesare family’s hand-crafted Piedmontese wines have arrived in IndiaPage 20
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TwentyGreat Single Malts
T here is much more to single malt whisky than those famous brands you stock up on every time you fly through Heathrow. Not only can single malts dazzle with a variety in textures, flavours and finishes, they can also surprise you with provenance. Some of the world’s best malts are not Scottish at all. Indeed, there are
enough single malts out there to have you exploring for a lifetime. To get you started on your journey, this is a selection of 20 of the best single malt whiskies from all over the map. By Joel Harrison [email protected]
From the shoreline of islay comes a heavily peated and
smoky whisky with rich hints of sherry. Not for the
faint-hearted.
ardbeg Uigeadail
Islay, scoTland
A remarkable offering from dalmore, a whisky that has
been matured in French wine barriques, Maderia drums,
sherry butts from Jerez, sicilian Marsala barrels,
port pipes from the douro, and bourbon barrels from
Kentucky. Very rich and full of flavour.
Dalmore King alexander iii
HIgHlands, scoTland
Family-owned distillery glenfarclas produces
consistently high-quality old whisky with its 40 years old
being one of the best. But stop that process 25 years in, and
you get this, a wonderful dram of spice and fruit.
Glenfarclas 25 years old
speysIde, scoTland
glenfiddich is the world’s best- selling single malt and there is a simple reason for that—it’s very good. Works well at all ages, but
for me, the 18 years old is the pick of the expressions, with a good balance of all flavours to
sooth your palate.
Glenfiddich 18 years old
speysIde, scoTland
glenlivet is one of the most recognized brands in the world and rightly so, as its output is high quality and consistently
good, especially in the old age. the 21 years old shows how well the spirit lasts with subtle spices,
fruits and a lovely wood note.
Glenlivet 21 years old
speysIde, scoTland
only just part of scotland—it was given to scotland by
denmark—the orkney isles are home to scotland’s most northerly distillery, Highland park, whose 18 years old is a wonderfully rich, yet slightly
smoky, dram.
Highland Park 18 years old
orkney, scoTland
For the money, probably the finest single malt around if you like peaty, earthy,
smoky whisky. An institution, Lagavulin is sought after the
world over, and the rich flavour of toffee and smoke in this
bottle shows why.
lagavulin 16 years old
Islay, scoTland
Macallan makes some of the finest whisky in the world, and the 18 years old sherry oak is
a fantastic example of why this it is so highly regarded. packed
with fruit, ginger spices and dark sugar flavours, this will really appeal to any palate.
Macallan 18 years old sherry oak
speysIde, scoTland
redbreast 15 years old is made at the same home
as Jameson, but is a richer, more mature whisky that
shows off what the guys at the Midleton distillery can really do with their high-
quality spirit.
redbreast 15 years old
Ireland
Yamazaki produces some of the finest whisky in
Japan, and their 18 years old expression is rich, oily, dark and rammed with flavours of oak, spices and rich red
fruits.
Yamazaki 18 years old
Japan
Made using a mix of indian barley and scottish peated
barley, this real indian single malt is rich in flavour with
enough of a smoke hit to make the experiment worthwhile.
amrut Fusion
IndIa
An irish single malt, triple- distilled and matured for a
minimum of 16 years in three types of wood— American oak, spanish sherry casks
and, finally, port pipes—which lends to a rich, thick and fruity
whisky.
Bushmills 16 years old
Ireland
the dalwhinnie 15 years old is a simple whisky with vanilla and wood flavours cutting through to make it
more like an india pale ale, or ipA, than a single malt.
Dalwhinnie 15 years old
HIgHlands, scoTland
Available in batches and bottled at high strength,
this heavily sherried single malt will knock your socks
off.
aberlour a’bunadh
speysIde, scoTland
A honeyed dram that is matured in two types
of wood—American oak followed by European sherry
oak—giving the whisky its name.
Balvenie DoubleWood
speysIde, scoTland
the quintessential islay malt, this whisky is packed with earthy, medicinal flavours, which, if you love, hit the spot. Not for everyone,
however.
laphroaig 10 years old
Islay, scoTland
Nikka from the Barrel not only comes housed in one of the
most beautiful bottles i’ve ever seen, which is both stylish and practical, but the high-strength
Japanese whisky inside is just fantastic and, flavour-wise, provides the missing
link between a scotch and a bourbon. A must when it comes to discovering Japanese whisky.
nikka From The Barrel
Japan
one of the most successful single malts in the world,
talisker 10 years old is heavy on the smoke and the
salt, leading to a real sea- fisherman’s whisky—warming and smoky, but powerful and
packed with flavour.
Talisker 10 years old
Isle of skye, scoTland
A whisky from sweden? Using some swedish oak casks? Yes, and gives an all-round lovely hint of vanilla and spice. Well,
worth trying.
Mackmyra The First edition
sweden
springbank is always the whisky that, when i see it
behind a bar, makes me trust the bartender and his stock.
Not widely known, it is a great alternative if the peat of an
islay malt is too much, but you still enjoy the salty, maritime aspects of a coastal whisky.
springbank 18 years old
campBelTown, scoTland
Japan
SwedenIreland
Scotland
INDIA
INDULGE | December 201112 13INDULGEDecember 2011 | 13INDULGENovember 2012 |
Cover Cover
Photographs: iStockphoto, Getty Images
A World OfCocktails
Making cocktails using white spirits is a wide and varied subject. Cocktails came about largely due to the poor quality of spirits being produced in the early 20th century and flavourings such as orange juice, mint and sweeteners were added to make the rough spirit more palatable for the drinker.
Although a lot earlier (circa1600s), this can be seen in the development of gin, which found its flavour though the addition of botanicals (often to take away from the early, bad spirit compounds) and then later on with the addition of sugar. This gave birth to a new gin style known as old Tom, a sweeter and more palatable version on the traditionally ‘‘dry’’ drink.
Here, we look at five simple cocktails to make using gin, vodka, white rum and pisco, all of which use their main ingredient to balance out other flavours in the mix.
By Joel [email protected]
THe MoJiTo: WHiTe ruM
There are so many gin cocktails to choose from that it could fill a supplement on its own. From the Aviation to the Gin Fizz, there is a flavour to suit every palate.
However, at the moment there is a real renaissance for the Negroni. A drink named after Count Camillo Negroni, who around 1920 was at bar in Florence, Italy, and is rumoured to have asked for an Americano ‘‘with a bit more kick’’. It wasn’t long before his version became popular with the locals and became known as the ‘‘Negroni’’.
One of the simplest of cocktails around, this involved just three ingredients, all alco-holic.
Fill a tumbler with ice and leave to sit. Take one-part gin (Beefeater), add in the same amount of Campari, and the same again of Noilly Prat (or Martini Rosso) sweet vermouth. Stir. Take the ice out of the glass and replace it with one large clear cube. Pour the mix over the ice and garnish with orange zest.
THe neGroni: Gin
The choice of 007, James Bond, this drink is sheer class and probably the best-known white spirits cocktail there is. Personally, unlike Bond, I believe that the perfect mar-tini should neither be shaken nor stirred, but simply poured. An incredibly simple drink, I like mine as dry as possible.
All you need for the perfect martini is some good quality gin (Tanqueray or Beefeater 24) or vodka (Belvedere or Grey Goose) and some vermouth.
Vermouth is a fortified wine, flavoured with herbs and spices and comes in two forms:
Dry vermouth: Aromatic, zesty and power-fully flavoured, this is one of the core flavours within a classic gin-based dry martini. Noilly Prat and Lillet make the very best quality dry vermouth available.
Sweet vermouth: Essential when creating a Manhattan or a more sweetly flavoured cock-tail. Try to avoid the inferior Rosso vermouth varieties and seek out the Capano Antica formula—deep amber or red in colour and highly aromatic, this premium quality, sweet vermouth is made to an original recipe dating back to 1786 and has an amazingly unique spicy flavour.
My favoured way to make the martini is thus: pour 3cl of dry vermouth into a martini glass that has been resting in the freezer. Swirl the vermouth about the glass and then discard. From a height of around three inches, pour a healthy measure of gin (or vodka) into the glass. Serve with a zest of a lemon or an olive if drinking vodka.
Simple, easy and utterly delicious. Be careful. More than two of these can be very dangerous.
THe MarTini: Gin or Vodka
Pisco is not a drink I expect many people to have at home, nor to find in many bars you visit. Unless you are in South America and, increasingly, parts of Europe and the US. The sweet grape-based spirit is finding a foothold in the most unlikely parts of the world and is being consumed in varying ways. One of the most refreshing drinks I’ve discovered this year is pisco with tonic water, over ice and a wedge of lime. It’s honestly a real delight.
However, if you were to visit Peru, the home of pisco, then you will no doubt be of-fered a pisco sour. Made in much the same way as a whiskey sour, this is a wonderful drink, almost luminescent in colour, that is sure to quench any thirst.
The most complicated and unusual drink on this list, the pisco sour dictates that you need sugar syrup, a sweetener that you can buy in bottles (very cheaply) or make yourself by simply boiling two parts sugar to one part water in a pan until you get a syrup. Decant into an empty, clean bottle, and this will keep for around three weeks in the fridge.
For the sour itself, you want to take one lime and cut it into quarters. Squeeze this into a cocktail shaker or a blender (if using a cock-tail shaker, leave the limes in the mixer, but do not put them into a blender). Add in around 3cl of sugar syrup and 6cl of pisco (any brand will do at this early stage of pisco drinking). To this, add ice and the white of one egg. Shake (or blend) and strain into a glass over ice. This should leave you with a creamy, frothy head on top of your drink. A dash of bitters on the top and you’re good to go! Go on, give it a go... if you can find a bottle of pisco.
THe pisco sour: pisco
A classic and refreshing vodka cock-tail is the Moscow Mule, which hails from early 1940s America, is a simple mix of bitters, ginger beer and vodka. Simply take two portions of vodka and mix with a dash of Angostura bitters. Top up with ginger beer and a good squeeze of lime, dropping a slice in, too, for good measure. Serve over ice or in a frozen glass.
Bitters are a cocktail’s best friend, giving you the chance to add highly concentrated aroma and taste to any drink. They create extra bite and help bring out the distinct balance of fla-vour when mixing spirits, wines and liqueurs in the cocktail shaker.
Angostura bitters are the most popular in cocktails, adding hints of orange and spice to the drink. However, lots of different flavours are available from chocolate to chillies!
THe MoscoW Mule: Vodka
The origins of the classic white rum cocktail, the Mojito, are not prop-erly know, save to say that it would have developed in the Caribbean islands, due to two of the main ingredients being sugar and rum.
Not quite as easy to make as the Megroni or the Martini or the Moscow Mule, the only real reason for that is not having the fresh mint and limes at home. Making it is otherwise simple.
Take a lime, cut into wedges, and about seven or eight mint leaves plus a teaspoon of brown sugar and place them into a large, tall glass. Crush them all together using a long-handled spoon. At this stage add around 6cl of rum (Bacardi works well) and some ice. Fill the glass with soda water, stir well, and garnish with some ‘‘bruised’’ mint (clap it between your hands first to release the aroma). Add a straw.
Tip: Make sure the mint is near the straw and the first aroma that hits the drinkers nose will be the freshly bruised mint.
INDULGE | November 201212
Go GlobetrottingSeptember OctOber NOvember December
Destinations Destinations
By the time you finish this issue of indulge, you might be tempted to pack your bags and put your tourist cap on. But then you may realize you are bored with the regular touristy places. not to worry. after some brainstorming, we prepared for you a list of the most interesting (and some rather off-beat) things to do this winter.Write to us at [email protected]
The Grape Throwing FestivalWhen: Last weekend of SeptemberWhere: Mallorca, Spain What: The Spanish are wonderful people who know how to celebrate. So if you missed the La Tomatina, worry not. There is another version that involves grapes instead. The Grape Throw-ing Festival is held in the wine-growing village of Binissalem in Mallorca to celebrate the harvest. The main attractions of the festival include a grape-stomping competition, grape-throwing fight and, of course, lots of wine and fun.
The history of the event is somewhat lost over the years, but the locals say it is celebrated to ensure a good harvest season by removing the not-so-good grapes before the winter. It started when people did not know what to do with the grapes that were not good enough to make wine.hoW to reach Binissalem: Mallorca is easily accessible from most of Europe by air and the travel time is less than three hours.
Open House WeekendWhen: 22-23 SeptemberWhere: LondonWhat: If you happen to be visiting London around the third week of September, you wouldn’t want to miss this one. This event happens once a year and allows the public access to the otherwise strictly private buildings, including homes, govern-ment buildings, workplaces, historical sites and many more, all across the city. And this September, London will celebrate 10 years of the Open House Weekend. It’s a hugely popular event that celebrates the impact architecture can have on all our
lives. And guess what, it’s absolutely free.hoW to reach london: You really don’t need
our advice here, but what the heck. London is served by five international airports
and is connected with all the ma-jor cities you can name.
King’s Cup Elephant Polo When: 12-16 SeptemberWhere: Hua Hin, ThailandWhat: Polo games are fast and fascinating. And if you like polo, chances are that you will like elephant polo, too. King’s Cup Elephant polo will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and will be hosted in the seaside resort city of Hua Hin in Thailand. The event attracts teams from all over the world. One can also indulge in the post-game evening cocktail parties.
The only differences from normal polo are that the pitch is three-quarters the length of a standard polo pitch and there are three players in both the teams.hoW to reach hua hin: Hire a taxi from Bangkok, around 300km from Hua Hin. The roads are good and the journey should take around three-four hours.
Regular bus services are also available from the Southern Bus Terminal in Bangkok. There are trains as well that run between Bangkok and Hua Hin.
Oktoberfest When: 22 September-7 OctoberWhere: Munich, Bavaria, GermanyWhat: There is just one word to describe it—beer. If you have ever had a pint of this wonderful drink, there is not even a remote chance you would not know the Oktoberfest. But for the uninitiated, this is an annual beer festival held for just over two weeks in Munich starting late September. The Oktober-fest began in 1810 as a wedding party thrown by King Joseph Maximilian of Bavaria, and now similar fests are held in many parts of the world.
The Munich festival, however, remains the biggest and the best beer fest in the world. The beer, and five million litres of it (hick!), must be brewed within Munich and have to conform to Reinheitsgebot, or the German purity law, at approximately 6% alcohol, to be served at the Oktoberfest.hoW to reach munich: Munich International Airport is lo-cated about 28km from the city centre. Nearly all major airlines fly to Munich. Neighbouring countries are connected to Munich by train as well.
Sunburn FestivalWhen: 27-29 DecemberWhere: Candolim Beach, GoaWhat: Sunburn is a three-day, non-stop celebration of music—one of the biggest electronic music festivals in the country—held at the beautiful Candolim Beach in Goa. At this time of the year, Goa becomes a virtual paradise for music lovers and party-holics. The festival brings together artistes from all over the world and from all genres of music.
Goa becomes a big open-air discotheque during these three days, with beach parties and music round the clock duly complemented by sumptuous food and non-stop shopping op-tions—an experience of a lifetime.hoW to reach Goa: The international airport in Goa is at Dabolim, around 30km from capital Panaji. Goa is also well con-nected by rail and roadways.
Cologne CarnivalWhen: 11 November till Ash WednesdayWhere: Cologne, GermanyWhat: If you thought carnival meant just Rio, think again. Cologne is Germany’s answer to that, and the Germans actually put on a pretty good show.
Each year, on 11 November at exactly 11.11am, the magic hour of the so-called ‘‘council of eleven”, the Carnival Season, the fifth season of the year, begins officially in the city of Co-logne. And thus begins one of the biggest parties on Earth that continues for a couple of months till Ash Wednesday.
But the real fun starts the Thursday before Ash Wednesday with the women’s carnival. They can kiss any man they like after cutting off their tie. What follows are six days of drinking, singing and dancing. Closing times for pubs are suspended and the most reticent of Germans have the time of their life.
The party ends officially on Ash Wednesday, but the hango-ver lingers on till the next year, they say.hoW to reach coloGne: Cologne has an international airport that receives flights from all over Europe and is located 15km from the city centre. Cologne is also connected to most of Eu-rope through rail services.
The Holiday SeasonWhat: No matter what part of the world you are in, it is impossible to concentrate on work as December grows old. Red caps gaze from every corner of department stores. Waist-high, some-times even higher, trees decorated with bulbs and bells, and laces and gifts adorn every vacant space of a shop. And the luckiest are those who don’t have to go to work the next day.
No matter where in the civilized world you are, they all celebrate the build-up to Christmas and New Year’s Day the same way. Enjoy the customs of the place where you have decided to spend your vacation.
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day ParadeWhen: 22 NovemberWhere: New York, USWhat: The 86th edition of the three-hour annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, often shortened to Macy’s Day Parade, begins at 9am on 22 November on the streets of New York.
Since the parade was first held in 1924, when it was hosted by the employees of the department store, many things have changed. Large animal-shaped balloons replaced the live ani-mals, Mickey Mouse balloons entered the parade in 1930s and, ever since, the balloons have marked pop culture in America and many other important events. The parade was suspended between 1942 and 1944, during the World War II. One thing that hasn’t changed though is the party spirit that marks the start of the holiday season.hoW to reach neW York: As they say, most of the roads across the world lead to this city. New York is connected to nearly every major city via air. Rail and bus connectivity to the city is also excellent.
12
Rajasthan International Folk Festival When: 26-30 October Where: Jodhpur, RajasthanWhat: The blue city of Jodhpur comes alive when more than 250 musicians and performing artists from across Rajasthan and around the world come together to celebrate their musical heritage and create new sounds through innovative collabo-rations, for five days in October each year, in and around the spectacular Mehrangarh Fort.
This eclectic festival, the first of its kind in India, started in 2007 and features an assortment of events such as a jazz night, a Ra-jasthani night, gypsy and traditional dance forms, among others.hoW to reach Jodhpur: Jodhpur is well connected by air, rail and road. It has regular flights from Delhi and Mumbai, and is connected to most major cities of the country by train. Jodhpur also has excellent road connectivity and there are regular bus services within Rajasthan as well as with outside the state.
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Sun FestivalWhen: 22 OctoberWhere: Abu Simbel, EgyptWhat: Built around three millennia ago on the banks of the Nile, the Abu Simbel temples are probably next only to the pyramids of Giza in terms of beauty and grandeur. And the two temples built by the pharaoh Ramesses II have been inviting foreign visitors since Victorian times.
One of the temples built by Ramesses II, which otherwise nestles in darkness for most of the year, is built at such an angle that twice a year—during the months of February and October, on the birth anniversary and the coronation of the emperor—at the break of dawn, natural sunlight streams into the complex and throws light on statues of him and the sun gods, besides illuminating the sanctum. The statue of Ptah (the god of dark-ness), however, remains in the shadows. The Sun Festival at Abu Simbel is accompanied by fun, food and dance later in the day.hoW to reach aBu simBel: Abu Simbel is located near the Egyptian border with Sudan and is accessible by air, bus and boat. The closest town to Abu Simbel is Aswan. To reach Abu Simbel by air, board a flight from either Cairo or Aswan. One can also reach Abu Simbel by coach or minibus from Aswan, or by travelling in police convoys. And one can also reach there by cruise ship from Aswan through Lake Nasser.
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Los Dias de Los Muertos (The Days of the Dead)When: 2 November Where: MexicoWhat: Los Dias de Los Muertos (the Days of the Dead) is the Mexican way of remembering the dead. Where the rest of the Christian world observes All Souls’ Day and All Saints’ Day with solemn masses and quiet visits to cemeteries, Mexico does it with decorations, coloured paper garlands, little skeletons performing daily tasks and sugar skulls inscribed with names, something similar in theme to Halloween.
The festival is a remnant of pre-colonial days, when ances-tors would be remembered with a festival that was decidedly high spirited, with sacrifices, feasts and impressive ceremonies being part of the celebrations.
The festival is divided into two distinct parts—1 November is devoted to the remembrance of dead children, and the next day is more festive, marked by street festivals and parades. It’s not a day of mourning.
Compiled by Pradip Kumar Saha/Mint
Photograph: Wikimedia Commons
Photograph: aFP
Photograph: Getty images
Photograph: Getty Images
Photograph: David iliff via Wikimedia Commons
INDULGE | August 201212 13INDULGEAugust 2012 |
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Hundreds of new watches are launched at Basel each year. Many will never be heard of again. a handful will go on to become legends. For now, these are our absolute
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