Dictador 2 Masters Chateau d’Arche 1979
- Nose : Dark chocolate orange with notes of summer fruit compote. Ripe plums and orange zest add energy to nose which also gives some light ginger notes and rich Madagascan vanilla. Vintage leather completes the package.
- Palate : Crepe Suzette at first, followed by tangerine sweetness and some red apple notes. There is an underlying earthy note that adds complexity, followed by a sweet grape overtone that lift the taste again. A good balance between sweetness and earth.
- Finish : Rounded notes of candied orange peel and pear slices, coupled with a hint of smoky oak char.
- Matured in American Oak - Quintessence
- Time of Finishing : 34 months
- Quantity : 237 bottles
Dictador 2 Masters Hardy 1974/77
- Nose: Ginger snaps at first and a beautiful note of stone fruits comes through in the glass. This is backed by smoke, delicate toffee and strawberry notes, with a hint of grape.
- Palate: The ginger notes on the palate set up spices of cracked black pepper and vanilla which give way to plums, toasted coconut and black cherry. These come back with another wave of oak spices before more of the red fruits come to the fore.
- Finish: An oaky vanilla with subtle spices and some cigar smoke comes through giving a long and lingering finish.
- Time of Finishing: 35 months
- Matured in Limousin Oak Cask
- Quantity : 971 bottles
Dictador 2 Masters Glenfarclas 1974
A 44-year-old Dictador Rum from a 1974 single vintage cask finished in whisky cask and then shipped to Glenfarclas in Scotland, where it further spent 14 months in a Glenfarclas 1992 forth-fill Hogshead Sherry Cask.
- Nose: Vintage leather in an old car, a carriage from the Orient Express. Well kept cigar boxes, cinnamon and nutmeg backed with just a hint of summer fruit compote.
- Palate: Rich and smooth with some elements of delicate sherry coming through, a hint of toasted vanilla and some light toffee tones. A touch of orange and a hint of milk chocolate truffle.
- Colour: Woody notes of old castles living rooms, brings us right back to where we started, that vintage car once again.
- Matured in 4th fill Hogshead Sherry Cask
- Time of Finishing: 14 months
- Quantity : 378 bottles
Bittermens® Winter Melon Bitters
Back in 2012, our Spanish importer asked if we could make bitters that would complement a gin and tonic that had a heavy cucumber note to it. The bitters that we came up with were amazing – bright briny cucumber notes and aroma that were supported by tart Chinese winter melon and aromatic juniper berries.
Unfortunately, these bitters were impossible to make in volume as one of the key ingredients, a hydrosol (or water distillate), was only available after the cucumber harvest and was only made in such small volumes that we couldn’t make more than a hundred cases a year.
For the past four years, we’ve been trying to find a way to reproduce the bitters without the hydrosol, but we’ve never got it to work exactly right. However, one test batch did something completely unexpected. The sourness of the winter melon came forward, the berry notes became a bit more prominent and the cucumber moved into a supporting position. The result was a bright bitterly sour blend that worked beautifully with a whole range of clear spirits.
Bittermens Orchard Street Celery Shrub
Though we love pickles here at Bittermens Central, we never really understood the allure of the pickleback. We like our pickles and we like our hooch. Hell, some of us have been known to have a pickled egg or two while drinking – and pickles and beer are a great combination. Just keep the pickles on the plate and the booze in the glass.
Yet, for as much as we may not understand the pickleback, during colonial times, shrubs were extremely common – vinegar-based refreshers, many times combined with alcohol or allowed to ferment so they had a bit of a kick. Maybe we’re just trying to find a way back to our cocktail roots?
Talking about roots, for those of you whose families emigrated from Eastern Europe to New York in the late 1800s or early 1900s, your ancestors probably spent some time in the immigrant tenements in the Lower East Side. Though most of the old world has been replaced by people selling cheap accessories, there is (until recently, unfortunately) Guss’ Pickles, a pickle purveyor since 1910 and Russ and Daughters – one of the last appetizing shops, who recently started to make a really tasty beet shrub.
Thinking about the Lower East Side, one of the classic flavors during the tenement era was Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray Soda, a celery soda so popular during the ’30s, it was nicknamed the Jewish Champagne. Though the only flavor that is declared is celery seed, we always got a sense that there was a bit of ginger and apple in there somewhere.
Wrapping all of this history together, we decided to take all of these ideas and run with them. We took an idea of a brine, a shrub and a classic soda and decided to dedicate it to Orchard Street, home of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Funny that something that we made to honor the Eastern European immigrant experience works so damned well with Scandinavian Aquavit!
See our cocktails using the Orchard Street Celery Shrub
Bittermens Boston Bittahs
A peculiar combination of citrus & chamomile. We recommend adding a dash to libations that you’d rather drink while relaxing outdoors on a warm summer night.
After the rousing success of the ‘Elemakule Tiki® Bitters, we set forth to come up with a new bitter that celebrated both the return of summer and our return to Boston after 14 years. It’s citrus, citrus, citrus and more citrus, supported with a heavy dose of chamomile. We think it smells like summer. Try it in your favorite fizz, sour or bright tropical drink. It works extremely well with pisco and scotch as well.
Primary Flavors: Citrus, Chamomile and more Citrus
Click here to see some recipes using our Boston Bittahs
Chateau d’Anglès Classique Blanc 2018
Pale yellow colour with golden glints. Elegant bouquet of spring flowers and fresh spices such as anise or fennel. Smooth mouth revealing a rich and long complexity of white fruits balanced by a mineral freshness.
Enjoy fresh and fruity in the first 5 years. Ageing potential of 8 to 10 years. Try the Classique White as an apéritif with salmon cream toasts or simply dry nuts! Excellent with grilled fish and also white meat. Perfect with goat and sheep fresh cheese. Aerate and drink at around 14°C. If served too cold, this wine will not develop its full aroma.
Mourvèdre (80%), Syrah(10%), Grenache (10%)
BenRiach 23 Year Old 1995 Cask 7385 Batch 16 Peated Olorosso Butt
Aged : 23 years
Cask Type : Oloroso
Appearance : Antique gold.
Nose : Intense smoked vanilla, with orange and ground ginger. Pear and smoked applewood emerge with nutmeg and cherry tree bark.
Palate : Apple and calvados fill the palate with waves of guava, acacia honey and sweet birch. The exceedingly long finish leaves nutmeg and roasted apple.
Orin Swift 8 Years In The Desert Gift Set
Dark garnet with a lucid rim, the wine exhibits aromas of briar fruit, ripe blackberry and dark plum with a tinge of minerality and charred meat. Brawny on the entry, it has an equally big mid-palate with complex flavours of ripe brambly fruit, a touch of earth and notes of espresso bean. Still massive through to the finish with soft drying tannins, the unique varietal characteristics of the blend clearly reveal themselves over time.
- Varietal : 56% Zinfandel, 34% Petite Sirah, 10% Syrah
- 750ML x 8 (1 case of 8 bottles)
- ABV : 15.7%
Glenglassaugh Torfa
At Glenglassaugh, we also produce a very limited quantity of whisky using richly peated malted barley as the cereal varietal. Glenglassaugh ‘Torfa’, with its peaty, phenolic nature, is a unique expression, and is quite different to the usual style of whisky produced in the Highlands.
- Colour : Gleaming yellow gold
- Nose : Vivid, sweet, sooty campfire smoke and sea-air infuses zest of lime, apricot jam and ripe soft fruits; all gently warmed by hints of stem ginger and cracked black pepper.
- Palate : An eloquent, sweet coastal pear smoke engulfs candied peel over melon, pineapple and roasted red apples. Oat biscuits, hints of heather honey and a gentle cigar box spice combines to give a terrific balance to the expressive smoke character.