The Surprising Return of High-Proof Spirits

If you just read the headlines, you’d think everyone was running scared of alcohol; that there was only one way for drink’s strength to head – and that was down. But rather counter-intuitively, high-proof spirits are also on the up – not just in whisky (which has a tradition of cask-strength bottlings) but also gin, rum, and tequila.  

Take the new British luxury gin Aureus Vita – it’s bottled at 123.6 proof/61.8 percent abv, which is several degrees higher…