Bottoms up: New spirits to try in September 2022

Kick back with these sophisticated spirits that offer layers upon layers of flavour.

Nocturne Noir
What happens when you put the finest European eau de vie and single-origin Arabian coffee together? You get Nocturne Noir,an award-winning home-grown coffee-infused spirit that has nabbed the gold medal in the World Spirits Competition in 2019 and 2020. The grain-based eau de vie, made with barley, wheat and rye, has been distilled five times in a copper still and triple-filtered with basalt lava rocks and quartz sand to remove impurities. It is then aged with coffee beans, filtered again and bottled with no added sugar, colouring, flavouring or additives. Mildly sweet and slightly creamy, the aromatic drink has hints of vanilla, toffee, chocolate, butterscotch and amaretto. Tobia Gorn, the panel chair at the International Wine and Spirit Competition, describes the palate to be “light and gentle for a proper spirit drink with only a hint of richness.” The coupling of caffeine and alcohol also means that it can help you unwind without you swan-diving into sleepiness.

Royal Salute 30 Year Old Key to the Kingdom
Royal Salute is reputed to be the whisky of the British monarchy, having been originally created to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Since then, the distillery has marked several significant events and traditions of the royal family with new expressions, such as the 70-bottle Royal Wedding Edition in celebration of the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and the Platinum Jubilee Edition as a tribute to the 70-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II. This year, the Ceremony of Keys – an ancient ritual in which the monarch is symbolically offered the keys of the city of Edinburgh as a welcome gesture, is the inspiration behind Royal Salute’s latest release, the 30 Year Old Key to the Kingdom. Sweet, smoky and fruity with notes of juicy pears, blood orange and rich honey, the new bottling by master blender Sandy Hyslop is a blend of the finest whiskies, each aged for a minimum of 30 years. In typical Royal Salute fashion, the opulent bottle is crowned with a stopper reminiscent of the hilt of ancient Scottish swords, while the box features an intricate illustration depicting ceremonial horns, royal roses and regal crests.

Balvenie’s new Cask Finishes
The Balvenie has added three new expressions to its Cask Finishes range of single malts, each made using a cask finishing process pioneered by the distillery’s malt master David C. Stewart. The method involves adding a layer of flavour to the whisky by taking it from one period of maturation and moving it into a different cask for a shorter period of maturation. The updated range includes The Balvenie Madeira Cask aged 15 years, The Balvenie French Oak Cask aged 16 years and The Balvenie Pedro Ximénez aged 18 years. In particular, the 16-year-old French Oak Cask is rather special, as it is the first time in the distillery’s 129 years that it is experimenting with Pineau from the French Charentes vineyards.

This story first appeared in the September 2022 issue of Prestige Singapore