TD 1
BARFLY Shamim de Brún Michael McDermott 1. 2. ZA
ZASHE ZDOROVIE At the Moldovian wine festival, guests can taste 50 wines for just fifteen euros in the lux surrounding of the Moldovan Embassy. Moldovan wine has been a thing for generations, even if it has taken this long to reach our Island shores. Technically in Moldova, wine counts as food to get around licencing laws. Moldova makes some real undiscovered gems regarding wine and at some proper bargain prices. Look out for light, fresh whites and big booji reds. In all likelihood, you won’t recognise any of the wines because the country has stuck mostly to local indigenous grapes. But if it’s bang for your buck you’re after, and quality wine to boot, then check it out on May 24. SDB Tickets on Eventbrite, search ‘Moldova Uncorked’. COCKTAIL-A-HOOP BAR 1661, the Dublin 7 barthat-could has been nominated for the Best International Bar Team in the European category of Tales of the Cocktail. This annual competition run by a non-profit cocktail education company that’s all about showing the world what cocktails can do. The true blue locals’ local were ranked alongside the best bars from Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, London and more. 1661 launched a staunchly Irish thirty-two cocktail menu last year that catapulted them from Dublin darling to a major player on the international circuit. The team have mastered the arts of flavour and crafting great drinks while putting Irish history front and centre. For anyone looking to dive headfirst into the menu, the drink is Generation Six. Think spicy poitín Margarita. It’s a symphony. The winners will be announced in New Orleans in July. SDB 3. MAKE A B-LINE Whiskey Live is the annual pinnacle of the whiskey industry in the RDS. Basically, every single Irish distillery and bonder is represented, and you can taste however many whiskeys you want from 21-year-old Redbreast to limited edition Cask Strength ditties. Tickets are less than fifty euros which is what one 35ml pour of Redbreast 21 would cost you at a well-priced whiskey bar. The event is also peppered with master classes and Love Food trucks. It’s a great day out, even if you’re only mildly whiskey curious, as there’s always a cocktail stand. The event takes place over four sessions from May 19 to 20. If you’re going, make a B-line for the Midleton Very Rare 2023, it’s a good one this year. SDB whiskeylivedublin.com 4. JUST THE TONIC We always stack up on magazines when we get the chance to travel and managed to discover some great titles in the International Magazine Store in Antwerp last month. Tonic, which we feature in Magnified (pg 58), is one such title which piqued our interest. It’s a self-professed “heady cocktail of drink, travel and adventure” founded by Rob Ellison and Benita Finanzio. The sheer breadth of its features is what is particularly fascinating. From microbrewery endeavours in Botswana to oyster festivals in Denmark, Thomas Jefferson’s inability to produce decent American wine to pisco in Peru or poitín on our own shores, Tonic is a blend of intrigue and discovery. MMD thetonicmag.com 5. CROWNING GLORY Yes, we too thought that simple crown atop the head of Guinness coupled with their tagline, ‘Good things come to those who wait’ was marketing genius at its very refined best. Of course, we only subsequently found out that it didn’t emanate from their well enumerated agencies but rather was a spoof by Australianbased creative, Anthony Smith. “I think I kind of deep down hoped it would get some traction, but I didn’t expect it to go as bonkers as it did,” he said. “I do feel like there’s part of it that just lived in its own ecosystem of LinkedIn and was just appreciated by the industry. It only really broke out onto Twitter and stuff because of a little bit of controversy with Ireland and the monarchy.” It was the sort of viral hit a brand dreams of. MMD @underdogdub 40