Granny’s wine makes a comeback in Kilkenny

The mark of a really good gourmet gift hamper is that there’s something left to appreciate when all of the edibles have been enjoyed. With Powerscourt Distillery’s Fercullen Gold whiskey and food hamper, that could be the Soilse soy wax candle, the Fercullen whiskey tasting glasses, the Spotify soft Irish music playlist, or the two-for-one voucher for a distillery tour and tasting.

The hampers, which range in price from €90-€115 and are available for nationwide delivery, pair three 50ml miniatures of Fercullen whiskies with a variety of local artisan products including Wooded Pig salamis, Wicklow Ban cheese and Sheridans crackers, Olly’s Farm honey, Miena’s Nougat and Fercullen whiskey chocolates from the Chocolate Garden.

You can also download a video of the distillery's inhouse food historian and food and beverage specialist Santina Kennedy talking through the pairings. Kennedy, who previously ran Kennedy's gourmet food shop and cafe in Enniskerry with her husband Andrew and has a masters in gastronomy, initially developed the food and whiskey pairings as part of the distillery tour, and created the hampers earlier this year. See powerscourtdistillery.com.

Customer favourites from the complimentary chocolate selection at the Butlers Chocolate Cafes have been turned into three new Cafe Collection boxes. So if your favourite is salt caramel, you can choose a box of 16 of those, in four milk and dark chocolate varieties. There are also caramel and nut, and milk chocolate collections (€12.95).

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Highbank Organic Orchards in Kilkenny, makers of a huge range of apple products including juice, syrup, vinegar, liqueurs and cider, is about to release its first batch of Irish Apple Wine.

What the Calder-Potts family call "Granny's wine" was originally made by Elsie Iago, who gifted a barrel of it to her daughter Gypsy Calder-Potts when she returned with her young family to live at her ancestral home in Cuffesgrange. Rod, one of Gypsy's four sons, has spent the past eight years working on how to recreate it, and the first bottles have now gone on sale.

The barrel-aged, organic, fortified dessert wine has an abv of 20 per cent and the bottle costs €47. See highbankorchards.com.