The Three Drinkers team up with Rabbie’s to offer whisky tours around Scotland

The team behind Amazon whisky travelogue show ‘The Three Drinkers do Scotch Whisky’ have teamed up with the popular tour company Rabbie’s to offer whisky tours around Scotland.

“‘The idea behind the series was to inspire people to travel to Scotland and to taste whisky, perhaps even for the first time,’ says Helena Nicklin, one of the show’s presenters. ‘With the programme now in 167 countries and territories worldwide, it makes perfect sense to team up with Rabbie’s - the experts in their field for whisky tours - to offer a natural next step for our viewers.”

The partnership joins the dots for viewers inspired by the show, which is now streaming live on Amazon Prime, to easily book a wide range of whisky and tourism experiences from 1 to 8 days around Scotland from London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness and Glasgow.

"From etiquette to the provenance of the ingredients, we love to help travellers discover Britain and Ireland's drinking culture,” says David Scott from Rabbie’s. “When we saw Three Drinkers, we knew this was a great opportunity to form a partnership. Their show introduces people to some of our country's finest products, and we help customers enjoy these flavours at their source without having to worry about the drive home!"

A competition to celebrate the partnership

Rabbie’s and The Three Drinkers are celebrating the partnership by giving away a series of luxury, 8-day whisky tours around Scotland in competitions for both Europe and the USA. Each tour will take in Speyside, Islay and Edinburgh, giving a true flavour of the country.

The first competition (Europe) goes live on Wednesday 15th May and runs for six weeks.

Prospective winners need to check The Three Drinkers or Rabbie’s social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) for details of how to enter. Competition dates 15th May - 21st June 2019.

See the tours on offer at https://www.thethreedrinkers.com/scotland-whisky-tours

Hotel Esencia, Cancún

It started with a blank canvas, an empty white page, a bare wall. Then came lines, words, walls and windows as the masters try to create a work of art – a piece, a story, a hotel that makes a statement.

When art collector and entrepreneur Kevin Wendle purchased the Hotel Esencia in 2014 he added eleven new accommodations and edited the design of the twenty-nine existing bedrooms and suites back to a nearly blank canvas. The surfaces shine a pure white that mirrors the way the hot sun overexposes the famed sand beaches of the Xpu Ha region of Mexico. The deep brown wood edges the doors and walls like the frame of a finished work. Wooden accent pieces are arranged around the room in a manner both aesthetic and functional. Spots of color create artistic splatters in the form of flower arrangements, unique local art pieces and abstract designs on pillows and duvets.

Fifty minutes south of the tourist section of Cancún, opposite the island of Cozumel, the Hotel Esencia sits on the eastern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula as the pinnacle of unpretentious refinement and luxury. From the private white sand beaches to the open yoga studio to its varied restaurants and bars, the hotel’s offerings reflect the cool yet classy vibe of the décor. Hotel Esencia’s Mistura restaurant serves up an authentic Mexican gastronomic experience through its use of seafood dishes and specialties from the grill whereas BeefBar Esencia offers a selection of exceptional meat cuts from Australian Black Onyx and Wx Wagyu beef, and Certified Japanese Kobe beef.

The lush green jungle and crystal blue Caribbean create the perfect backdrop for the newly expanded Hotel Esencia. The doors of the central hotel open to the garden paths that meander along the coast and through the trees, connecting the jungle and beach rooms and suites to the spa, gym, restaurants and bars. The hotel works in conjunction with nature from the minimally invasive construction techniques of the new structures to the locally sourced food featured on the many food and drink menus.

Hotel Esencia offers a variety of accommodations from single rooms to three bedroom villas either nestled under the canopy of trees or along the white sand beach. Guests are provided even more options when it comes to refreshments and activities. From fine dining at Mistura to the juice bar that transforms into a cocktail lounge as the sun makes its way access the sky, Hotel Esencia strives to provide traditional favorites with a global flare and offers an array of dishes to please a variety of appetites and provide guests the energy they need to enjoy the hotel’s many amusements. Within twenty minutes of the hotel are the Robert Trent Jones 27-hole golf course and the Mayan ruins of Tulum, or guests can experience the local wildlife by snorkeling the reef just outside the hotel or by hitting the swanky nightclubs on the Riviera.

Hotel Esencia’s crowning achievement is that it presents its guests with not only a blank canvas but also the tools and freedom to shape the holiday of their dreams.

Address: Carretera Cancún – Tulum km 265, Xpu-Ha, Quintana Roo 77750 Mexico
Telephone: + 52 984 873 4830
Website

Tasting Port in the Douro

Port. Or Port wine, as the Portuguese call it. A drink that is so quintessentially British, some people even presume it comes from the UK.  Colin Hampden-White visits the Douro to discover some of the Port region’s finest offerings.

Some will say that when visiting the Douro, Taylor’s is a must; others that the place not to be missed is Quinta do Noval.  There is a third: Quinta da Romaneira owned by Christian Seely of Noval fame, but has only been under his tenure for ten years. Recently, I spent some time in the Douro and visited the three port houses, uniquely different in their history and outlook.

 Quinta da Romaneira is not far from Noval; in fact Christian could see the estate as he worked at Noval and had in mind one day to acquire the estate. Ten years ago he managed this.  The estate boasts an exclusive hotel where the likes of Brangelina have stayed.  This idyll is also now Christian’s home and the estate thrives under his command.

 Quinta da Romaneira stretches for about two miles along the river Douro with 400 hectares of land, of which 300 hectares are grade A vineyards. Much of the land is now planted, but there is still ample space for expansion. As well as the production of traditional port, fabulous red wines have also been created over the last ten years, alongside a crisp white and a wonderfully balance, aromatic and delicate rosé.

 Back in Porto, I was welcomed through the doors of Villa de Gaia on the opposite bank of the river from Porto, for a sojourn at the Yeatman Hotel. It’s a recently-built hotel that feels as if the city had specially reserved just the right space for it, overlooking the river with a magnificent view of the Unesco protected old town of Porto.

 The hotel makes a fantastic base for visiting the Douro offering the only Michelin star restaurant in Porto, a luxurious spa, conference facilities and space to land your helicopter.  Try the revolving bed in the Bacchus suite so you can switch between TV and magnificent view.  between TV and magnificent view. This hotel is all about wine; each bedroom is sponsored and themed by a winery or port house and corridors educate guests about cork production and the history of wine in the Douro. The cellars (which can be visited) have an extensive list of Portuguese wines alongside other old and new world wines.

 An old-fashioned train ride is the best way to experience the spectacular views of the Douro, following the river, winding up the valley, a new view around every corner. Traditional white villages nestle among the vines or are poised on the shore edge as if about to take a dip.

 Passing through tiny stations with their colourful tiles Quinta Vargellas had its own station where I was greeted by Alistair and Gillyane Robertson, 4th generation of the Taylor’s family, we walked up the cobbled roads to the Quinta. Quinta Vargellas is a country home for the Robertsons who return at harvest, hosting lucky guests and immersing them in the world of port. A folly, built for Alistair and Jilly’s 40th wedding anniversary, overlooks all the differing types of planting style of vines - traditional walled terraces, mound terraces and linear arrangements. These patterns in the hillside start to give the idea of how much love and care is put into the land to create the ports. Watching the sun go down over the vines with a glass of Chip Dry Taylor’s white port mixed with tonic and a little mint was the perfect journey’s end.

Port comes in many differing styles; Ruby is a blend of vintages,  LBV (late bottled vintage) is kept in barrel longer than vintage port before bottling to create a port which can be drunk immediately.  Tawnies are aged even longer in barrel and released after 10, 20, 30 and 40 years. The single vintage expression of a Tawny is known as a Colheita and can be much older than the aged expressions. Finally there is vintage port; this can be a blend of various Quintas (or farms) giving an overall house expression such as Taylor’s Vintage Port, or can be released as single Quinta vintage ports, such as Quinta Vergellas for Taylor’s, or Quinta do Noval, a single estate owned by AXA Milliseme.

Supper on the terrace, to the rhythm of the cicadas, was all about port.  From vibrant and refreshing gaspatcho soup, subtly enhanced by a dash of white port, to delicate fruit pudding with 20 year-old Tawny; cheese was accompanied by a rare 1991 Quinta Vargellas vintage port.

 As though attending a late-night party, we joined harvest workers in the lagard, reminiscent of a small, shallow swimming pool, to tread the grapes.  Purple-stained legs danced to tunes from an organ. To round the night off, we sat by the pool with 20 year-old Tawnies from both Taylors and Fonseca to appreciate the differing house styles.

The Nogueira winery is Taylor’s main winery in the Douro and is just 45 minutes’ drive from any of the quintas from which they receive grapes to ensure perfect conditions for vinification.  It’s next to Quinta da Roêda of Croft, another Taylor’s brand, acquired in 2001. Much work has been accomplished in the vineyards since Taylor’s ownership; close inspection of the vines at Quinta da Roêda showed how the differing grape varieties need discrete positioning and spacing.  This creates a lattice of green across the hills which is like no other wine region.

 Croft has improved a great deal.  David Guimaraens, the great-great-great grandson of the founder of Fonseca, Manuel Pedro, has been the head winemaker since 1994.  An inveterate story-teller; he oversees the winemaking and blending for all four Taylor Fladgate Port houses.  He’s most proud of making the Croft 2003 as the conditions were difficult to control and the year very hot, yet he managed to produce a wonderful wine.

A most memorable of tasting at Taylor’s office included not only the complete range of ports from three of the houses owned by Taylors, but also some very old colheitas from the newly acquired Kohn port house. Incredibly rich and complex, these dated back to 1863 and showed how good port of that age can be. The tasting concluded with the magnificent and other-worldly Taylor’s Scion Tawny from 1855.  It has everything from zesty orange peel to deep dark bitter chocolate and a massive range of dried fruits including prunes, figs and dates.  This is not just an interesting old wine, but a hedonist’s dream, creamy in texture, balanced beautifully with the acidity, leaving the palate clean and eager for more.

Porto is littered with port lodges; each port house has a lodge where the wine is stored in huge vats before shipping and Taylor’s is one of the most impressive with vats varying in size from a few hundred litres to 100,000 litres. Here we had lunch with the present CEO Adrian Bridge whose wife, Natasha, is the 5th generation of the family.

The second half of my trip took a very different turn. From the huge warehouses of Taylors to a single quinta estate of Quinta do Noval. Sitting amongst the vines a few miles outside Pinhoa in the heart of the Douro, the quinta nestles on an outcrop overlooking the Pinhoa and Douro rivers.

Quinta do Noval is owned by AXA millesimes, an offshoot of the French insurance company, which also owns Pichon-Baron in Bordeaux. The quinta has been sympathetically restored and modernised.  It’s tasting room overlooks vats of the new wine but the buildings retain a romantic feel: picturesque tiles line the dining room walls, narrow passageways with stained glass between the buildings lead to the vines, it all feels like a bygone era.

Only 200 - 300 cases a year are produced of legendary vintage Noval National, created from non-grafted pre-pheloxora vines grown on a tiny 2 hectare plot next to the quinta. Chatting with Christian Seeley, MD of of Axa Millesimes, at a tasting in London of Nacional vintages dating back to 1963 confirmed this amazing estate on the itinerary.  The tiny Nacional plot even has its own pigs to provide fertiliser, and when individual vines eventually die, the same variety vines are planted back into the ground to keep the plot free of grafted vines. The rows are tended by a mule and his human companion; mechanisation can not penetrate here.

Quinta do Noval has a Ruby port which has been re-branded as Noval Black, aimed at introducing port to a younger market.  They also produce excellent 10 – 40 year old tawny ports, a 2000 Colheita, LBV 2007 and the new vintage port of 2011, the final port showing again how good the vintage ports of 2011 are. The 2011 vintage is so good that individual house styles are easily distinguishable, that of Quinta do Noval being lush, juicy and red fruit style in its youth.

For dinner the quinta’s table wines were served with the cook’s speciality of goat, before a delicious 1976 Colheita and finally a 1994 Noval National, this last wine has such purity and density of fruit, balance and elegant you’ll never want the bottle to end.

The next day I spent in the vineyards with my host Catia, learning about the viticulture of the estate and meeting some of the harvest workers. There was rain forecast and the best of the grapes where hurriedly being harvested before this crop damaging event took place.

In the afternoon a visit to the warehouse showed the wines ageing in old wood, which is simply meant as a vessel for the wine as it ages. As we wound through the barrels and vats we met José Gouveia who at 84 years old was still mending vats having worked on the estate for well over sixty years. Far from tired, he was engrossed in his work, his face animated as he kept the precious liquid safe in their surroundings. 

During the evening, the weather closed in and by the morning the rain was coming down hard. Even in these adverse conditions the hills of the Douro have a mystical feel as hillsides disappear behind clouds, reappearing looking like great whales breaking the surface. The sound of the rain drumming on the vine leaves has the same enchantment as sitting under a tropical forest canopy in a storm. I could have stayed there quite happily, letting time do its stuff, waiting for the next great vintage to emerge.

Duane Street Hotel

Families, professionals and lone travellers alike will be enticed by the sophistication and worldliness offered by the extraordinary eats and comforting beds at the Duane Street Hotel. This hotel is part of The Independent Collection; a cluster of boutique establishments in residential neighbourhoods that deliver guests an authentic experience in whichever city they are visiting.

With 43 rooms, a grab-and-go breakfast station and a delicious restaurant featuring Indian flavours, the Duane Street Hotel appeals to both international guests and locals looking for respite from their busy lives. Young lodgers will delight in the complimentary iPad service. With two delicious restaurants and an in-room mini-bar, guests will be grateful for the gym passes at Equinox, located right across the street. Bicycles are available for loan giving you easy access to Tribeca, which was a hot spot for artists in the 1960s and ‘70s and is now one of the most desired addresses in New York. With each suite equipped with eleven-foot ceilings, hardwood floors and oversized windows however, it may be hard to tear yourself away from your room.

Address: 130 Duane Street New York, New York 10013
Telephone: 212 964 4600 
Website

Mango Tree Belgravia

Mango Tree is nestled in the heart of Belgravia. Like its original location in Bangkok, Mango Tree offers exquisite and authentic Thai cuisine right near Buckingham Palace. Guests will be greeted by a warm and spacious environment and be seated in a stylish venue reminiscent of restaurants in Thailand.

The space has been feng-shui designed to ensure guests have a comfortable and enhanced dining experience. Mango Tree offers classic Thai cuisine of the highest caliber while also being innovative. The finest ingredients are sourced both locally and abroad and each culinary region produces a particular flavor for each Thai dish.

The north provides rich and mild dishes, spicy dishes come from the east, the central region provides mild dishes influenced from Chinese style, and the south produces the hot and spicy dishes. Guests can enjoy a wide variety of Thai dishes like the Pla Plow. Pla Plow is a grilled fillet of sea bass artfully wrapped in a banana leaf and fresh lemon grass. Savor an explosion of flavors that includes spicy lime sauce, larb pla tuna, and corn-fed chicken in green curry. Stop in for an exquisite bite of authentic Thai cuisine and enjoy the genuine Thai hospitality.

Address: 46 Grosvenor Place, London SW1X 7EQ
Telephone: 020 7823 1888
Website

Lanes of London

Located on London’s Park Lane with stunning views of Hyde Park and the Marble Arch, Lanes of London is an all-day casual dining experience which should not be missed. This restaurant focuses on creating a seasonal British menus featuring various decedent breakfast options from French Toast to Full English Breakfast and Avocado on toast. Lunch and dinner are no less indulgent, with menu items such as Guinea fowl with thyme, white onion, wild mushroom and cavolo nero, a selection of Beef Steaks, Duck breast with carrot, orange, brassica and sweet potato and Sticky Toffee Pudding. No matter what you choose, the quality of these seasonal ingredients is impeccable and the tastes will please even the most discerning palate.

Lanes of London also offers a Botanical Afternoon Tea comprising of a wonderful selection of finger sandwiches, fresh scones, cakes, and pastries all inspired by botanicals and English garden ingredients. There is a stunning selection of loose leaf tea varieties available to compliment your Afternoon Tea, however, for those that would prefer a little tipple, the option of adding a glass of Champagne or upgrading to a bottomless bubbly Afternoon Tea is available.

Seen as soon as you enter from the Park Lane entrance, the bar at Lanes of London also leaves a striking first impression that will only be improved after trying a couple of cocktails. This casual bar offers a delightful locale equally suited to after-work drinks, pre-dinner cocktails, or late-evening nightcaps. Though casual in atmosphere, the cocktail menu aims to please customers with elevated palates and is a Gin lovers dream with a selection of over 50 to choose from.

Address: 140 Park Lane, London, United Kingdom W1K 7AA
Telephone: 020 7647 5664
Website

Devonshire Club

SUSD, a creative real estate consultancy, brought a new meaning to desk-to-drinks when they launched the Devonshire Club. The Club is designed as a two-floor space to be used for doing work or grabbing drinks. The area boasts three distinctly different bars, two lounge areas, and one eatery full of fresh, delicious foods.

After working hard and imbibing, guests can relax in rented bedrooms. Single and family accommodations are available, with over 68 amiable choices.  Complete with sprawling Apple TVs, high-speed WIFI, and Hypnos beds, these luxurious rooms can be utilized by members and non-members alike. The Devonshire Club is built in the heart of London, next to both the financial district and trendy nightlife neighborhoods, so there is plenty for club-goers to do if they can tear themselves away from the superb amenities.

Address: 5 Devonshire Square, London, EC2M 4YD
Telephone: 020 3750 4545
Website

Smith & Wollensky

Smith & Wollensky is a steakhouse known to “end all arguments” with various locations in the U.S and one in London. Founded in 1977, this is one of the many restaurants that exhibits true American hospitality, from the warm welcome when you arrive to the knowledgeable staff at your table, making your experience a pleasing one from your first bite to your last sip! They are delighted to announce the launch of a brand new American brunch menu that will be served on Saturdays and Sunday morning through mid afternoon.

The menu is over the top in all the right ways. Imagine eggs 12 ways including 5 styles of Eggs Benedict. From hearty USDA Prime steaks to healthy salads and rye sandwiches, and for those who are wondering about waffles or blueberry pancakes on the menu, they’re included too!

When it comes to the Bloody Mary’s, there is more than one to choose from. Alongside the classic, there’s also a French inspired concoction, along with Japanese, Mediterranean, American, and a Bloody Shame for those of you who don’t want alcohol in the morning. Start your day the American way at Smith & Wollensky!

Address: The Adelphi Building, Covent Garden Riverside, 1-11 John Adam St, London, WC2N 6HT
Telephone: 020 7321 6007
Website