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Email from Captain Cognac - Bottling another Barrel of finest Paul-Marie & Fils artisanal Cognac The pictures: Bottles are all primed by adding a few ounces of cognac and shaking them to clean up the inside Once cleaned, bottles are corked to prevent anything from contaminating the inside while waiting for bottling They are then filled up using this old school system I have a friend of mine (cooper) made for me: a 400 liter cask converted into a "bottling-cask" so I can fill it up from the top, let the cognac settle, still have it breath and interact with the wood and....bottle, one at a time, by gravity. Very slow. But very efficient. Once filled, bottles are taken one by one and level is adjusted with a pipette Overall speed is mind-blowing: an astonishing 20 to 22 bottles per hour are done this way. So fast a classic camera could barely catch my moves. Ok, may be I am exaggerating a bit You can see below the waxing and labeling process of this Ju...

THE IMPROVED MANDARINE COLLINS NO I served in LE Lion • Bar de Paris - Hamburg Summer in the City. It's hot in Hamburg this days - time for a great refreshment. And even if we think, that a Estival Manhattan is kind of fruity way to go for a classic drink, from time to time we need it a little bit more refreshing. Smashes, Sour, Fizzes und Collins are the way to refresh yourself the Old Skool way. Don't forget a d Pimm's Cup but why should we go more fancy for a Summer refreshment? This simple classic's will do the best job for refreshment. So, this spring I created kind of the first independent German Bartender Competition. The Liquetition . As the named says, Cocktail lovers were called to use a liqueur as one of the main ingredients for the drink.   Sven Sudeck, Gobal Brand Ambassador for Sierra Tequila from BORCO Markenimport Hamburg introduced me to an very old guy I meet like ten years ago. BORCO today is responsible for the Distribution of Mandarine N...

Last week  Mr. Kappes and Mr. Meyer finaly made it: Tasting Mr. Palazzis Cognac The "Kappes Kognac" History "Kappes Kognac" - Lions looking around for soem great Cognacs - do you have? Kappes Kognac Part I In march we announced our plan to find some good Cognac for Le Lion. Something rare and outstanding. Already a few days later I wrote about our new "project" "Kappes Kognac" I had to write about Mr. Palazzi. (KK Part I.). Sounds like this man is a serious cognac lover. So he send us one of his bottles, and after finally tasting it, we have to say: It was a shame to wait this long time. Because the Product is fantastic. Mr. Palazzi was so kind to send as a bottle of PAUL_MARIE & Fils Cognac "Barrique devant la porte". So Mr. Kappes and me had no idea whats inside this bottle, we opened it and had a nice sip. Wow.  52 %Vol - so smooth? Very complex, very dry, but still fruity. I can't remember ever drunk a spirits cal...

Well, rumors starts. Gerd Schmerschneider, Importeur for Compass Box Whisky in Germany, running fine Spirits Company called Prineus in Kiel, announced, some "nice" bottles in the post. He never disapointed us. And because he has the kind of humor I like, I made sure that we NOT talk about Dujardin and Friends. Tonight, I recived a great e-Mail from Nicolas Palazzi. The Picture is called "my Mentor" - rest I liked reading. Lets wait and see what the next days bring. We will discus all bottles here. Back to the email from Mr. Palazzi: " Hey There, A friend of mine sent me the link to your post: and YES there are some great stuff out there and not necessarily made by big houses. Truth is, few people actually know that cognac is like wine in that sense that there are as many styles, flavor and aroma profile as they are guys (girls?) distilling and aging this spirit. Most of the stuff out there is “manufactured” and artificially brought do...