DI’s Lucy Britner distils her own in pursuit of an alternative career

Actually, all I had done was go to Plymouth distillery, select some botanicals and put them in a flask full of neutral spirit. The distillery…

DI’s Lucy Britner: A vintage approach

By inconsistency I mean single-barrel reserves, vintage years and special editions, rather than a consistent age statement or blended product that is supposed to taste…

DI’s Hamish Smith was at the 2011 Cognac Summit where the big question was: Can you measure pleasure?

For the 40-strong throng of sommeliers, journalists and bartenders assembled for the event, the bar had been raised. Gone were yesteryear themes of cognac cocktails.

  • DI’s Lucy Britner embarks on a voyage of discovery

     February 14, 2011

    Somehow, in the year between taking the advanced course and now, I have managed to forget the angst, the maps scribbled on notepaper and stuck to the wall, the waking up next to a dribble-stained textbook… That is until I was climbing the stairs to day one of the diploma. I. AM. MAD. Luckily, day one of the two-year part-time course was all about my…

  • DI’s Lucy Britner heads out for a bitter bite

     January 14, 2011

    Scotland-based Innis & Gunn brewery made its name for its oak-ageing process. This came about in 2002, after a “famous scotch whisky distiller” contacted Dougal Sharp – founder and owner of Innis & Gunn – to see if he could help them make a beer-finished whisky. Sharp created a beer to season the oak barrels with its sweet, malty character and after 30 days the…

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