Top 10 Christmas gift ideas for spirits lovers
Keep things merry and bright this Christmas with our present recommendations for the spirits fans in your life.
‘Tis the season to be jolly – and for spirits lovers, it’s an opportunity to gift, open and toast with something delicious and carefully sourced.
But it can be hard to know where to look for the perfect Christmas gift – so we’ve put together 10 suggestions to remove the guesswork.
From luxury vodka and premium rum to statement gin and some delicious ready-to-drink cocktails, these products have the potential to make excellent presents.
Keep scrolling to see our top 10 Christmas gift ideas for spirits lovers.
Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel
This Kentucky straight Bourbon made its debut in the US in 2020 and recently landed in the UK. The whiskey begins as a small batch Bourbon that is put through a second maturation at barrel strength in custom-toasted new American white oak barrels.
Designed in partnership with the Independent Stave Company, the finishing barrels are crafted from 18-month air-dried oak, which is put through a two-step process. First, the barrels are toasted, before being flash-charred using a moderate toast temperature and duration.
The result is a Bourbon that boasts an extra layer of sweet oak and a whisper of smokiness, enhanced with flavours of milk chocolate, baking spices and some pepper – Christmassy and delicious.
Bottled at 47% ABV, Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel is priced at RRP £49.75 (US$65).
El Supremo 5 Years Old
For fans of rum, check out El Supremo 5 Years Old. This bottling is crafted in Paraguay from pure sugarcane juice using a 500-year-old method – a great talking point around the Christmas dinner table. Post-distillation, the spirit is aged in Incienso Marrón barrels, and finally finished in French oak casks.
El Supremo 5 Years Old clocks in at 38% ABV and is priced at around RRP €30-€35 (US$33-US$38). It’s best served in classic cocktails, like Daiquiris, Chupitos, or in simple serves like a Highball.
Flavour-wise, this is the perfect option for someone looking for soft, grassy aromas with some vanilla, walnut, fruit and floral notes. On the palate, there are vegetal flavours, toffee, spice, a pinch of black pepper, and a hint of vanilla sweetness.
Don Fulano Imperial
If you’re looking to impress the Tequila expert in your life, pick up a bottle of Don Fulano Imperial for their Christmas stocking. Made entirely from Blue Weber agave, the Tequila is distilled in a double-distillation tower and left to mature for a minimum of five years.
The result? A Tequila with notes of ginger, candied fruits, leather, nuttiness and some black cherries; a beautifully rounded spirit.
The packaging stands out, too, with its navy ceramic bottle. The Tequila sits at the more ultra-premium end of the market, retailing for around £137 (US$189) per 700ml bottle, but it’s worth the money for the right buyer and recipient.
Lex by Nemiroff
The epitome of luxury vodka – Lex by Nemiroff is ideal for the vodka enthusiasts out there. The Ukrainian spirit is distilled from wheat grown in the Podilia region of Eastern Europe, and made with water sourced from local springs, honey from nearby apiaries, and linden flowers.
Lex was created to see what was possible in vodka production; it undergoes a 13-stage filtration process – including silver, platinum, shungite, and amber filtrations. Each step adds to the smoothness and flavour of the vodka, adding clarity and a light golden hue. The Art-Deco-style bottle is made from perfume glass, produced by Saverglas in France, and was designed to be reusable once emptied.
Lex by Nemiroff’s texture is silky and luxurious, with biscuit notes and a round finish. Serve chilled over ice, or in your preferred style of Martini. Bottled at 40% ABV, Lex by Nemiroff is priced at RRP €80 (US$95) per one-litre bottle.
Cygnet 77
In April this year, Welsh gin brand Cygnet, co-founded by classical singer Katherine Jenkins OBE, released an aged expression: Cygnet 77. The gin was created to be a sipping gin, following its time in ex-Welsh whisky barrels with Manuka honey.
The resultant liquid boasts fresh blossom and botanicals on the nose, leading to juniper, gentle camomile and Manuka honey on the palate. There’s a subtle woody character, too, but this is a gin that’s silky-smooth in texture with lingering sweetness on the finish.
The name, Cygnet 77, is a nod to the number’s relation to embracing transformation, reflecting the gin’s time in barrel and the flavour development it undergoes.
Bottled at 44% ABV, the gin retails for £129 (US$172).
DropWorks Rum Gift Set
Why buy one bottle when you can gift three? English distillery DropWorks has created this stocking-sized gift pack with a trio of its bold, British, batch-distilled rums: Clear Drop, Barrel Drop, and Spice Drop.
Clear Drop Rum is unaged, unadulterated rum at its finest, and showcasing flavours of vanilla ice cream, blueberries, fresh green apples, summer berries and walnuts – all natural, and all occurring from the distillery’s meticulous production process.
Barrel Drop, meanwhile, is aged in a selection of casks, including a world-first rum hybrid American and Portuguese oak barrel, which imparts flavours of rum and raisin ice cream, jammy dates and warm winter spices.
And completing the trio is Spice Drop – a spiced rum, but not as you know it. No added spices go into this rum – the flavours of spiced apple pie, honeycomb and ginger are all derived from the distillation and maturation.
Each rum has an ABV of 40% ABV.
Król IV Vodka
This organic Polish vodka is the brainchild of Suk Dhillon and his son. Król IV is created from high-quality organic rye, and is distilled five times to deliver a pure flavour. To add a little extra intrigue, the vodka is infused with hemp.
In the bottle, what you’ll find is a vodka that is clean and elegant on the nose, but layered with biscuit, citrus, peppercorn and fresh herbs. When sipped, you’ll find this vodka to be round and creamy, with a green, nutty quality that lingers – ideal for a Martini or neat serve over ice.
Bottled at 40% ABV, it is currently retailing for €101.41 (US$118) on the Master of Malt website.
Giraffe Gin
You might have a star or an angel atop your Christmas tree, but do you have a giraffe stopper on your gin bottle? Not only is Giraffe Gin’s design guaranteed to put a smile on someone’s face this Christmas, the award-winning liquid inside is superb.
Giraffe Gin has a London Dry gin base, made with 14 botanicals from around the world. These include juniper berries from Macedonia, coriander seeds from Bulgaria and liquorice from Italy. From there, the gin is infused with mango and passion fruit extracts from hand-picked fruits from Zanzibar, completed with additional flavourings to give the gin its yellow colour, reminiscent of a Masai giraffe.
The giraffe-head cork stopper is hand-painted and comprises a real wooden cork.
At 40% ABV, Giraffe Gin has an RPR of £37.95 (US$52).
Maya Pistola Reposado
Avid readers of The Spirits Business will know there’s been a trend building in the last couple of years for agave spirits made outside of Mexico. Maya Pistola is one of those brands, and proud to be India’s first aged 100% agave spirit.
The range comprises a quartet of spirits – ‘agavepura’, as the brand calls them – and any would make a fine gift this Christmas. But we’re particularly fond of the Reposado expression.
Maya Pistola Reposado is made from wild agave Americana, grown in India for between eight and 14 years until it reaches maturity. Maya Pistola is distilled twice in part-copper pot stills in Goa, India, and aged, blended and bottled in Goa, too.
Reposado is aged for four to six months in ex-Bourbon and American oak casks, which impart flavours of vanilla, marshmallows, tobacco and sweet spice with a touch of black pepper. It sits at 40% ABV and retails for around £34.95 (US$46).
Coppa Cocktails White Choc & Passion
This is the first cream liqueur cocktail from Coppa Cocktails and is the perfect indulgent drink for Christmas. Smooth, velvety cream and delicate white chocolate sweetness, topped off with passion fruit – it’s a yes from us.
Offered in a fun cocktail shaker-shaped bottle, the ready-to-serve cocktail has been designed to be enjoyed chilled or over ice – offering a simple, yet sophisticated serve for at-home drinking.
The only catch is this was created as a limited edition release for global travel retail, so make sure you pick up a bottle if you’re heading to an airport this festive season, or call on a jet-setting friend to seek one out for you.
Available to travellers across Europe and the Middle East – including Spain, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Lebanon and the UAE – Coppa Cocktails White Choc & Passion sits at 11% ABV and is priced at RRP €17 (US$20) for a 700ml bottle; 100ml formats are also available.
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