Peter's Weekly Selection - w/c 2nd November 2015

A slight deviation from wine this week - I'm focusing on white spirits. Not the sort of thing that you clean paint brushes with, but vodka, gin, white rum - that sort of stuff. 

Gin is exceptionally popular - we are going through a gin craze at the moment and there are so many interesting variations on this spirit. Take for example our biggest seller - Tarquin's Dry Gin. Arguably one of the finest gins from the UK, it is made in Cornwall by Tarquin Leadbetter and is a stunning take on the London Dry style. Then we have Big Boss from Portugal - a dry style of gin, perfect for Martinis or drinking neat. Two lovely gins from Ferdinand's of Germany - their Saar Dry Gin, made with Riesling Spatlese wine, and their Quince gin - OK, so it is yellow, not white, but I think it still counts. And I couldn't miss out the lovely Rock Rose from Caithness in Scotland - stunning gin from so far north on the mainland that you can't go any further without getting your feet wet.

If Vodka is more your thing, you have to take a look at two potato vodkas from the UK. The pioneer in the UK was Chase Distillery - still a stunning vodka and has been named 'The best spirit in the world'. There is another producer doing fabulous work with spuds - Ogilvy. This is a Scottish potato vodka from Glamis and is a true family affair with everyone pulling together to make this lovely spirit.

If you fancy some stranger things, from Korea - Jinro. It is delicious - a vodka like drink made out of Tapioca, Sweet Potato and rice, and at 24% volume, it is very tasty ice cold and straight and from Greece, is Skinos - smelling like stuffed olive leaves, it has a wonderful sweet basil flavour. Finally, we had to include a tequila, and the Calle 23 is delicious. A wonderfully balanced white tequila, it is almost a shame to mix it!