A Spirited Holiday Gift List

Whether it’s a holiday dinner or a toast to the new year, G.H.Mumm Grand Cordon can add the sparkle you need to make the event special. The Grand Cordon has all the quality and taste you expect from Mumm: toasty notes with orchard and stone fruit, pastry, and yeast. In addition to premium Champagne, you get the stunning bottle, designed in collaboration with the brilliant Ross Lovegrove.

For the Mumm bottle, Lovegrove, who is avant-garde by any definition, reined in his tendency toward the futuristic to reinterpret the classic Mumm Cordon Rouge sash.

The red sash is an homage to the red sash of the Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest civilian award. The sash is laser etched onto the bottle, and to make the package even sleeker, they’ve opted to screen the Mumm signature directly on the glass.

Moving on to spirits, Belvedere Lake Bartezek is the distiller’s attempt to demonstrate that “terroir” is important to spirits production, not just wine. Part of Belvedere’s single estate series, the Lake Bartezek, takes its name from the Polish lake in the Masurian Lake District. Made with rye from a single source, the vodka is clean, crisp, and a touch spicy with rye notes. You’ll pick up notes of menthol and spearmint, too, making this vodka sippable but clean enough to star in your favorite cocktails as well.

Want something striking for a friend’s or loved one’s back bar? Crystal Head Vodka features the stunning artwork of founding partner and artist John Alexander. His partner in the endeavor, Saturday Night Live alum, actor, and musician Dan Aykroyd, wanted to feature the clear waters of Newfoundland in a Canadian-born vodka.Given their artistic bent, a simple bottle was never going to be enough, so Alexander designed the beautiful skull bottle that is now the signature of the brand. Distilled with Peaches and Cream Sweet Corn, Crystal Head is filtered seven times, including three passes through semi-precious stones.There are no additives in the bottle, so you get a pure, clean expression of the neutral spirit, which means it’s the ideal palette around which to create cocktails.

Monkey 47 Schwarzwald Dry Gin takes the old formula for gin – lead with juniper and add a few botanicals – and tosses it in the trash.The name comes from the 47 botanicals that are part of the distillation process that creates one of the world’s very best gins. Why settle for four or eleven botanicals when you can create a product full of adventure and discovery? Truly, half the fun is keeping the list of botanicals close to hand to see what your palate can pick out.

Sourced from the Black Forest and India, the botanical blend includes lingonberries, citrus, herbs, bittering agents, flowers, and spices. Rather than a muddled flavor profile, you get layers of complexity and surprises at every sip. Add a cube and taste the transformation. Monkey 47 isn’t really designed for cocktails; it’s made for gin drinkers who love craftsmanship and the discovery of new flavors. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make a martini with it.