Dumangin Ratafia Craft
$48.74
This bottling of Ratafia Champenois from Gilles Dumangin is made of 2/3 Pinot Meunier and 1/3 Pinot Noir. Multiple vintages with a minimum age of 6 years were chosen to be married together before a further 9 years of maturation took place in casks that previously held wine from Northern Rhone. Bottled at 18% ABV.
Ratafia Champenois is a fortified wine from the Champagne region of France typically made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Brandy or a neutral grape spirit is added to the grape juice before fermentation. The Ratafia has a lovely tawny colour and rich, complex dried fruit flavours. Gilles recommends serving it with melon, cheese and chocolate desserts.
Dumangin Ratafia Single Barrel 16 Year
$173.24
If you have never tried Ratafia, you are in for a treat. Dumangin is one of our Champagne exclusives and one of the last few producers to make this specialty. The base is half brandy (distilled from Champagne grapes) and half unfermented grape juice from the region, aged for 16 years in a combination of old oak and other vessels via the Ratafia method. Ratafia is an ancestral method of preserving fruit juice in the same way that salting was used to preserve meat. It involves four stages: first, in oak casks from Crozes-Hermitage (Alain Graillot). Second, aged Soléra style - an ancestral method of maturing and gradually assembling different vintages, generally used for the great Port wines. Third, the cask is closed tightly and left outside, where it is subject to changes in temperature. Fourth, in stainless steel tanks. The result is a sweet wine in a mouthwatering style similar to Pineau de Charentes that can be cellared for an additional 25 years. The bouquet shows cinnamon and spices with ripe tropical fruits and figs, nuts, baking and brown sugar. The palate reflects the nose and is clean without being cloying. There's a nice amount of fruit with great richness and nutty notes. The finish delivers a baked character of dry biscotti and vanilla. It makes a beautiful aperitif or as the final touch to a great meal.
Dumangin Whisky Ardmore 2009
$159.99
Ardmore in Ratafia. Hmmmm. Anyone else imagining Braveheart meets Versailles? Trust our friend Gilles Dumangin to marry a rough-and-tumble Highlander with the elegance of French wine. This peated malt spent 9 years in a Refill Hogshead before being moved into an ex-Ratafia Champenois barrel for a 2 year polishing.
281 bottles. Natural colour and non-chill filtered. 48%
Dumangin Whisky Benrinnes 2008
$159.99
Gilles Dumangin doesn't make things easy on himself when he wraps his whiskies in wine. He has a habit of stacking the deck against himself by picking distilleries that boast some of the most challenging profiles in all of Scotch Whisky: Benrinnes, Ardmore, Fettercairn, Craigellachie. These aren't exactly the most mild-mannered of malts. It's a testament to the man's craft. I love the whole 'if you're going to swing, swing for the fences' mentality.
This Benrinnes spent 10 years in a Refill Hogshead before 23 months in Ratafia Champenois.
347 bottles. Natural colour and non-chill-filtered. 48%
Dumangin Whisky La Piautre
$139.99
After three years of primary maturation, this French Single Malt was then shifted into an ex-Ratafia Champenois cask for 15 months. Incredibly exciting for not only being one of the very few French Single Malts on the market, but also one that's been decked out in a fancy finish. Beyond singular.
As for proper notes...all we know so far is that maverick producer Gilles Dumangin says this one is 'oily and opulent.'
345 bottles. Natural colour and non-chill filtered. 46.3%
Dumangin Whisky Craigellachie 2007
$167.99
One of Scotland's beloved, lumbering, and - let's face it - challenging distilleries smashes headlong into the delicacy of high end wine. Strange bedfellows, indeed. This is most definitely the most exciting of the newly-arrived Dumangin whisky releases.
12 years in refill Hogsheads before 15 months in an ex-Ratafia Champenois cask.
297 bottles. Natural colour and non-chill-filtered. 48%
Dumangin Whisky Cooley 2009
$134.99
Double distilled Single Grain Irish Whiskey from Cooley. Just to be clear, before we even address the cask finishing, grain whiskey (or whisky) is generally column-distilled and Irish Whisky is often triple distilled. Already we're in strange waters. Now factor in the fact that we have a grain whisky matured for 10 years in refill Bourbon and STR casks before being re-racked into Ratafia? Guaranteed you've not seen a whiskey quite like this.
258 bottles. Natural colour and non-chill filtered.
47.1%
Dumangin Whisky Bushmills 2014
$134.99
This one says its first maturation was for 6 years in (probably in ex-Bourbon) before a 12-month finish in a Ratafia Champenois Barrel. So...a seven-year-old then, rather than 6? Who knows? Maybe they were short a day or two somewhere in there. Either way, we love Bushmills. Especially when it comes from the indie bottlers.
282 bottles. Natural colour and non-chill filtered. 47.3%
Dumangin Whisky Invergordon 1986 Bt. 20
$309.99
Bottled at a cask strength of 48.2%, this Single Grain Scotch was produced at Invergordon Distillery in 1986. It spent 34 years maturing in a refill hogshead before a finishing period of 13 months in a Ratafia Champanios Barrel. It was bottled at 36 Years Old in May 2022.
From The Producer
"The Power of Whiskey combined with Ratafia Champenois’ Velvet. Over time and his numerous visits to distilleries, Gilles Dumangin has become a collector of the most beautiful “World Whiskies”. Intimate, confidential or even eclectic, his most beautiful bottles come straight from Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Taiwan, India, Japan or even the United States … Lover of the noblest of spirits who, like Champagne wine, is a matter of time, knowledge, terroir and experienced know-how, the winemaker is now expanding his know-how through an emblematic collection of 6 exceptional whiskies with a strong character and various aromatic profiles."