Spirit of Wales Online Tasting
The Spirit of Wales Distillery in Newport, south Wales, runs online tasting sessions, which is a great way to try several spirits with the owner himself.
There’s no doubt that if we could wind back the clock we’d all choose to have an existence where Covid-19 never happened. However, we can’t, so instead we try to find something positive to come out of it all. One of those things has definitely been the surge in virtual or online tasting events.
Before the pandemic, who had heard of Zoom? Now everyone has a Zoom account, whether it’s used for business meeting, family get-togethers, catching up with friends, or attending events remotely. In the last year or so I’ve been able to go to spirit launches on the other side of the world, tasted spirits with the people who make them, from Scotland to South America, and having a lot of fun (and saving a lot on travel costs) in the process.
Spirit of Wales Distillery
A few months ago I wrote about touring the Spirit of Wales Distillery in Newport, south Wales, with some friends, and we all had a terrific time. Founder Daniel Dyer was keen to share his expanding range of spirits – vodkas, gins, rums, even absinthe – including some made in small batches that you could only get at the distillery.
When Daniel’s team asked me if I’d like to sample their online tasting sessions, I didn’t need asking twice. One thing I love is that a few days before your tasting, a box of goodies arrives on the doorstep. Opening it is like being a kid on Christmas morning again.
Online Tasting Goodies
In the box from the Spirit of Wales I found:
- 4 x 5cl Samples of Spirit of Wales Spirits
- 4 x Fever-Tree Mixers and Tonics
- 4 x Botanicals to pair with each drink
- 1 x Spirit of Wales Chocolate to pair with a drink
- 1 x Bag of Jones Crisps to help cleanse the palate (and because they taste good)
- 1 x Bingo Card
A bingo card? Yes, because as if sitting round drinking spirits wasn’t enough, the distillery throws in a game of musical bingo for even more fun. Partway through the tasting, snippets of lots of songs are played, for you to identify and mark off on your bingo card. The first to fill their card wins a prize, of course.
I’ll draw a veil over my own dismal show. Being an aging hippy, I’d never even heard of people like Rizzle Kicks or Tinie Tempah, let alone know what they sound like, but I was able to cross of Madonna, Duran Duran, and The Drifters before someone from the bar shouted ‘House!’
One of the entertaining things about the event was that not only were there a bunch of us attending from home, there was also a handful of people hanging out in the distillery bar, adding to the atmosphere.
Online Tasting: The Spirits
First up to be tasted was the signature Steeltown Welsh Dry Gin. Daniel guides us through the tasting. First nose the gin on its own and notice the strong citrus notes. Then take a sip and the citrus is joined by a menthol taste. Add an ice cube and taste again. Do you notice any difference? Finally add the Fever Tree Lemon Tonic that was provided, and the lemon garnish (also provided), and now Daniel’s tasting lemon curd, floral tastes, and grapefruit.
Our box also contained a sheet on which we could record our four drinks – what mixer and garnish we used, our notes on appearance, aroma, taste, and mouthfeel, and finally marks out of five which we shared in the Chat box.
The tastings are broken up by different things, for instance a video of Head Distiller James Gibbons showing us around the distillery, which is surprisingly small given the incredible range of spirits they produce. One of which is next to be tasted, a Welsh Blueberry Gin. This is their standard gin with the addition of wild blueberries and heather tips. This one is paired with a straight Indian Tonic Water and the addition of a packet of juniper berries, which also came in the box. It’s another delicious and unusual spirit from the Spirit of Wales portfolio, with the heather tips adding both a sweetness and a herbal taste to the drink.
Smoked Vodka
The third sample was the one I was looking forward to tasting the most: The Spirit of Wales’s Smoked Vodka. This is made from their standard Steeltown Vodka, a wheat vodka made with Welsh water and filtered through Welsh anthracite. The smokiness comes from it then being infused with lapsang souchong tea, an idea that Daniel had simply because he likes tea.
The result is a vodka that is very smoky on the nose, what Daniel describes as a ‘campfire vodka’. Daniel’s colleague Victoria, who is helping him with the tastings and making sure the event runs smoothly, says emphatically: ‘That is smoke!’ To this they add ice and lime, and some Fever Tree Madagascan Cola, something I would not have thought of doing but it’s brilliant. Daniel and Victoria also suggest we try making a Smoked Vodka Screwdriver, or a Smoked Vodka Moscow Mule.
Dragon’s Breath Spiced Rum
The Spirit of Wales is heavily into rum, and Daniel says they’ll have 14-15 rums coming out over the next several months. He also says they’ll soon be ready to release what will be the first ever Welsh absinthe, which causes some excitement in the Chat box.
We get to taste their Dragon’s Breath Welsh Spiced Rum, a 45% ABV (90 proof) spirit that has already won a Bronze in the International Wine and Spirits Competition. This starts off as a white rum which is macerated in contact with repurposed bourbon barrels. What this means is that some of the bourbon barrels are made into chips that are put into the rum to increase the surface area of the wood that the rum is in contact with.
The rum is rested for a week with vanilla and cinnamon, and then in the second week they add orange peel, cloves, allspice, and cassia bark. Trying it neat, Daniel says that ‘the cinnamon goes on forever’. They’ve chosen a mixer that piles on the flavours, a Fever Tree Smoky Ginger Ale. Daniel also adds some lime, or you could use dried pineapple, he says. The result is a drink that is a heady mix of cinnamon, cloves, smokiness, ginger, vanilla, and much else besides.
The Spiced Rum is a fitting finale to our online tasting with the Spirit of Wales. The Smoked Vodka remained my favourite, getting a 5/5 from me, but the Spiced Rum was only a notch behind. All in all it was two hours well spent, both educational and entertaining. To find out about future online tastings, visit the Spirit of Wales’s Experiences page on their website. You can of course buy the spirits in their shop.
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