Cointreau

Cointreau

Guatemala
Vat 69

Violeta
Goliath

Prov.31:4
"It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: "
Deut. 14:21
"Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk."

Erynn dans un champ de colza

Springtime Wishes

Kittens

Brown Bears - San Diego Zoo

Sylvia Falls

On the National Pass walking track at Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains of Australia.

 Ladybugs in Grass

by Ocean / Corbis

Chess: "Cointreau" "Vat 69" "Goliath" "Guatemala" "Kosher"
Cointreau

Cointreau is a brand of triple sec liqueur, and is produced in Saint-Barthélemy-d'Anjou, a suburb of Angers, France. Cointreau sources its bitter oranges from all over the world, usually Spain, Brazil and Saint-Raphaël, Haiti.
In addition to being imbibed as an apéritif, Cointreau is sometimes used as a digestif. Cointreau is considered to be either a premium brand triple sec or a unique category of liqueur. With a 40% alcohol content, Cointreau is strong for a triple sec which usually has an alcohol content around 23%
Vat 69

Vat 69 whisky is a scotch blended whisky, produced by William Sanderson.

In 1882 William Sanderson prepared one hundred casks of blended whiskey and hired a panel of experts to taste them. The batch from the vat with number 69 was proclaimed as the best tasting one and the famous blend got its name. The whisky was at first bottled in port wine bottles.

History

William Sanderson, born in Leith in 1840, started an apprenticeship with a wine and spirituous liquors producer at the age of 13. In 1863, he already owned his own business and produced liqueurs and whisky-mixtures. In 1880, his son William Mark joined the business. He convinced his father to bottle the different blends. Sanderson already bottled his liqueurs, but he did not like the idea of bottling whisky. His son was finally successful in convincing him.

The typical VAT 69 bottle was introduced to the market and was not changed for the next hundred years. In 1884, Sanderson bought the Glengarioch Distillery. It was situated in the middle of a barley field. The distillery was meant to ensure the delivery with grain-whisky. Sanderson took care that there were always new products to be blended, because DCL, which was a strong society at that time, controlled such a big amount of the production, that it could influence the supply of the competing company very sensitively. Therefore Sanderson, together with Usher and Bell founded a company to produce grain-whisky, which still exists today as the "North British Distillery". Sanderson got a few Malt Whiskies that he needed to blend his VAT 69 from a friend, John Begg, who owned the "Royal Lochnagar Distillery". When Begg died, Sanderson became director of Begg's Distillery. In 1933, Sanderson's company merged with Booth's Distilleries, which merged again with the DCL-Group in 1935. In autumn 1980, "Vat 69 Reserve" from the House of Sanderson had its world-première in England. Chosen and optimal stored malt whiskies are used to produce this De-Luxe-Whisky.

Blend

Despite the name it is not a vatted malt but a blend of about 40 malt and grain whiskies. The different malts are blended with each other at the optimal ripening stage to ensure the best blend. This means that a light malt of eight years, having reached its ripening summit and coming from the Lowlands adds the same result to the blend as an 18-year-ripened peat malt from Islay. Therefore, there are no standardised , age-descriptions of Vat 69 Reserve.

Since autumn 1980, Glenesk, which is a 12 year old Highland Single Malt (40 %), is available from Sanderson in Germany. Glenesk is stored for at least 12 years in sherry barrels. Since 1964, William Sanderson & Sons Ltd. overlooks the sale of "Antiquary", which is a 12 year old De-Luxe-Scotch-Whisky (40 %).