Ralfy at Work

 

 

 

Ralfy has a new single malt scotch whisky video review online available at  http://www.ralfy.com/ Click on “Whisky Reviews” to view his latest.

On the road in Michigan this week, but had the chance to sneak across the Detroit River to Windsor, Ontario…where Canadian Club has been produced for 151 years at the Hiram Walker & Sons Distillery in the Walkerville neighborhood of Windsor. Hiram Walker’s headquarters building is now the Canadian Club Heritage Center, and this classic building patterned on a 16th century Italian palace will appeal to whisky lovers, art lovers, and architecture fans alike. CC’s Tish Harcus tells us about the building’s history over a dram or two. Plenty of new releases in the news, including a 50-year-old Glenfiddich, the debut of Suntory’s Hibiki blended whisky in the U.S., and a dozen single-cask bottlings!

To listen to Episode 209 please visit WhiskyCast at http://www.whiskycast.com/

Part of the Classic Malts Distillers Edition range from Diageo who own a large number of distilleries in Scotland (an around the world). This sample has been ‘double matured’ once in an unspecified wood for the bulk of maturation and then finished for a short period in ‘Old Muscat cask-wood’. The nose is quite delicate with warm brown sugar, antique cabinets (inside), orange, fruit cake, cocoa cola, and cold tea. Very pleasant however not a ‘big’ dram. Further wood aromas. The taste is quite woody and delicate, again not a big dram. One to savour. There is also light tobacco, leather and dried rich fruits (apricots, pears, raisins etcetera). The finish is once again delicate and rich. The finish does not swerve off in one direction, it’s a steady path featuring the characteristics previously described. Good balance between nose, taste and finish. The sweet cold tea returns and is quite pleasant. A slight hint of aspartame towards the very end.

£43 at The Whisky Exchange http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/

and C$85 in Canada

Score 82 points

Macallan Fine and Rare Bottlings.

(A few editions available, exclusive to Alberta)
 
The following bottlings and cask numbers are available and can be facilitated either at a store where a buyer has an existing relationship, or the agent is able to suggest if need be.

1937 – Aged 37 Years, cask unknown
1938 – Aged 31 Years, cask unknown
1940 – Aged 35 Years, cask unknown
1952 Aged 49 Years, Cask 1250
1968 Aged 33 Years, Cask 5913
1970 Aged 32 Years, Cask 241
1976 Cask 1040, age To Be Confirmed

Visit the Macallan at http://www.themacallan.com/ and contact the Brand Ambassador J. Wheelock at JWheelock@edrington.co.uk

“The Macallan Rankin bottling has just arrived.  Only 6 of these are coming to Canada!  $1949.99/bottle.  Scottish whiskey making and Scottish photography combine with the launch of The Macallan Masters of Photography Rankin Edition. Rankin is a famed Scottish photographer and he was chosen to Easter Elchies House, the “spiritual home of The Macallan.” He spent a summer interpreting the The Macallan Estate through his camera lens. The result is 1,000 unique bottles of The Macallan Fine Oak 30 year old single malt whisky each bearing an original Rankin image, captured on Polaroid. Since Polaroid was discontinued this year,The Masters of Photography represents the end of an era. The black-and-white pictures include artistic studies of the lovely Tuuli, Rankin’s muse, shown on this bottle, as well as pictures of Easter Elchies House, shots of craftspeople at the distillery, and still life images of the surrounding flora and fauna at the estate. Each bottle comes in a black leather box lined with velvet and containing an original Rankin Polaroid. Each bottle will have an individually printed label which matches the specific Polaroid contained within the box and a booklet of authenticity signed by Rankin.

http://www.kensingtonwinemarket.com/

Concert Event

On 29th August 2009, an estimated 20,000 fans will visit the shores of the Tay for a special Runrig concert event. This continues the band’s well travelled quest for live concerts in scenic and iconic outdoor locations that celebrate Scottish history and heritage.

The supporting bands for the day will include:
° Peatbog Faeries-traditional composer of the year
° Blair Douglas Band-featuring Kathleen McInnes
° King Creosote-new kid on the Fife block
° Fred Morrison-renowned piping sensation
The concert will be in the Scone Palace Parklands, half way between the North bank of the River Tay looking up towards the Palace itself. The venue campsite opens 12 noon on Friday 28th August and will close at 12 noon on Sunday 30th August.

Tickets are selling fast, so don’t miss this memorable event! For ticket sales and additional concert information, visit Runrig’s website at http://www.runrig.co.uk/scone/

Whiskie of Scotland Marquee

Duncan Taylor & Co will be exhibiting at the exclusive Whiskies of Scotland marquee located in the bars and stalls area within the general arena. We will be promoting the Scotch Whisky industry to visitors from the UK, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.

Visit the marquee and enjoy sampling select whiskies from Duncan Taylor & Co as well as twenty other exhibitors, relax with a dram from the bar, and place orders for products that will either be available when exiting the arena or shipped to you directly.

Dram of Destiny

Duncan Taylor & Co will also be releasing a limited edition ‘Dram of Destiny’ to commemorate this Homecoming 2009 Runrig event. The bottling is a Highland Park distilled in 1986 and at 46%. Each bottle features a custom label with details of the concert, cask and bottle numbers.

http://www.duncantaylor.com/ 

info@duncantaylor.com

The Bruichladdich bottling hall will be humming;

Bruichladdich Distillery have announced a few forthcoming releases for the summer:

17yo Rum Finish RRP £53.99
Classic 3ppm multi vintage bourbon casked RRP £33.99
Sherry Classic 3ppm multi vintage mix of sherry types RRP £33.99
Infinity 3rd Edition 20ppm Multi Vintage, refill sherry/Tempranillo 50% RRP £43.99
X4+3 3ppm, bourbon, 63.5%, 15,000 bottles worldwide RRP £49.99
Organic 5yo, 3ppm bourbon casked, 15,000 bottles worldwide RRP £39.99
1992 17yo Fino 3ppm bourbon/fino sherry RRP £55.99
1992 17yo Pedro Ximenez bourbon/PX sherry RRP £55.99
1989 Black Art 19yo 3ppm, 51.1% Bourbon Ace’d assorted French Wines RRP £79.99
Port Charlotte 8yo 40ppm packaged in 6 different tins 60.5% 40ppm RRP £66
Octomore II 140ppm RRP £79.99

For full Bruichladdich Information visit them at http://www.bruichladdich.com/

From Preiss Imports;

We have some very exciting additions to our Lonach range from Duncan Taylor. These value whiskies don’t come along very often.
 
Springbank has released their first whisky from the new Mitchell’s Glengyle Distillery, Kilkerran. This will be available toward the end of this month. A unique chance to taste whisky from Campbeltown’s newest distillery in over 100 years!
 
Please be sure to check out this month’s SPOTLIGHT. We have a limited amount left of the truly rare Ayrshire Single Malt…
 
And, for the first time you will be able to download a current Scotch List of all our currently available bottlings.
 
Cheers,
 
Ken Young
Preiss Imports
ken@preissimports.com

New Lonach Blended Scotch Whiskies
Great Value / Superb Quality
 
As most of you know, the Lonach brand is produced by Duncan Taylor Co.-bottlings that make the most of DTC’s underproof barrels. Unable to be bottled as a single cask, this extraordinary stock of wonderful whiskies are blended together to create these Lonach gems. Take advantage of this terrific opportunity! 
 
Lonach Blended Scotch 35 yr old
Lonach Bunnahabhain 1969 39 yr old
Lonach Glendaroch 1966 42 yr old
Lonach Glendaroch 1967 41 yr old
Lonach Glenlivet 1970 38 yr old
Lonach Strathisla 1967 42 yr old
Lonach Strathisla 1968 40 yr old
Lonach Tomatin 1965 43 yr old
 
The best part about these bottlings is their incredible pricing – most of these will retail around $200, though it can vary greatly by market. It is a great opportunity for scotch enthusiasts to have some really mature whisky at value prices.

Kilkerran Single Malt

“Work In Progress”
 
Kilkerran is the first in a series of releases from the Mitchell’s Glengyle Distillery

AVAILABLE end of JULY

Mitchell’s Glengyle Distillery is Campbeltown’s first new distillery in over 100 years. This marks the inaugural global release from the distillery, and kicks off the “Work in Progress” series that will follow the maturation of Kilkerran Single Malt to 12 years of age.

Malt Advocate’s John Hansell interviewed Frank McHardy, Director of Distilleries for Springbank & Mitchell’s…Why Kilkerran when they are already producing three other malts?

“After all, he’s already making three different kinds of whisky at the Springbank distillery-lightly peated Springbank which is distilled 2½ times, heavily peated Longrow which is distilled twice, and unpeated Hazelburn which is triple-distilled.” Frank’s response was that he wanted to make a more traditional Campebeltown style whisky- distilled twice and lighty peated (about 10-12 ppm phenol).           
-maltadvocate.com

Kilkerran Single malt is lightly peated for 6 hours, and is double distilled.

Nose: An initial burst of perfume leads into a sweet, fruity and ultimately spicy aroma. Palate: Cloves, more fruits sweetness. Considering that this dram is a work in progress, it is already lively, zesty and full of flavor. Finish: The sweetness lasts through to the finish with hints of vanilla lingering on the tongue.

Duncan Taylor Rarest of the Rare 1973 Ayrshire 34 Year Old 
Truly Rare
 
Preiss Imports was lucky enough to get their hands on this little-known distillery bottling. Ayrshire, which is the name of the town where this malt was distilled, is a very rare single malt. It was distilled at Ladyburn in 1973 – though the name Ladyburn has not been used out of respect for the distillery’s owners.
 
The distillery was opened by William Grant & Sons in 1966. Its original intent was to sustain their needs for blended whisky. It is rumored that a few casks were set aside, and this is one of them. The distillery was shut down in 1975, just two short years before this malt was distilled.
 
To our knowledge, this is 1 of only 2 or 3 single cask Ayrshire single malts to ever be released. A true treasure!
 
Fittingly, this rare whisky comes in a beautiful mahogany box complete with a tasting glass and collector’s miniature.
 
Only 29 bottles remain in the Preiss Cellar…SRP around $1000

 
For full details on Preiss Imports please visit them at http://www.preissimports.com/

Dear All,

We’re very grateful to have received such a massive response to the question ‘anyone for a Jura tasting?’ and, indeed, it has left us with a problem (130 people chasing 50 places). To alleviate this we’ve managed to get a second tasting lined up a few days later so you’ll have to choose between:-

Isle of Jura (Tuesday 11th August at 6.30pm)

Willie Tait the Brand Ambassador NOT Distillery Manager (naughty us!) will be running through 7 different expressions from the Isle of Jura distillery, at least 5 of which you’ll almost certainly never have tasted (one of them isn’t released and you’ll be the first members of the public to try it J )

VS.

Amrut Indian Single Malt (Monday 17th August at 6.50pm)

Ashok Chokalingam the International Operations Manager from Amrut Distillers in Bangalore will be coming along to show off 6 whiskies from their range:-

Amrut New Make Spirit

Amrut 46%

Amrut Peated 46%

Amrut Fusion 50%

Amrut Cask Strength 61.9%

Amrut Peated Cask Strength 62.8%

 AND 2 Single Malts from Scotland……

THIS WILL PRINCIPALLY BE A ‘BLIND’ TASTING, so you’ll need to be on your toes to pick out the scotches from this excellent line up

————————————————————————————-

Tickets for BOTH of these events will be available to book from 3pm on Tuesday 21st July   BUT!!!!!   you’ll have to decide which one you want to attend, as we intend to give as many people as possible a chance to get places at one of these events. If there are places remaining on either event after the close of business on Tuesday, we’ll make it an option for you to grab a slot on the other event.

If this sounds too confusing, when you ring to book just say which one you want to go to, and if you want to do both we’ll take a contact number from you and let you know if you’ve been successful!

Tickets for the Isle of Jura tasting will be £30pp, Amrut will be £20pp and there’ll be a maximum of 2 places per booking

Best of luck with the redial button

The Team

The Whisky Exchange

Vinopolis

1 Bank End

London

SE1 9BU

Tel:-  +44 (0) 207 403 8688

Fax:- +44 (0) 207 403 8788

e-mail:-   vinopolis@thewhiskyexchange.com

website:- www.thewhiskyexchange.com

A bonus, a 5th tasting note from the series of Four Days of Tobermory.

A single cask bottling from Dewar Rattray, the independent bottler, without the addition of artificial colour or chill- filtration. Why can’t everybody do it this way?? The nose is very sweet, vanilla, oak, pear, mild oranges, oak, light butter and an ever so slight hint of peat smoke. There is also a very slight back round aroma that is meaty and a very slight hint of damp card board that fades in and out. Despite the high alcohol the sweetness continues to build with time. With water some green notes pop up; malt, freshly cut hay and the sample becomes very sweet. Very fragrant, but not perfumed, heather, juniper, mint? Also wood notes, quite spicy. The taste is sweet and very malty and quite strong, loads of brown sugar, vanilla, honey and dried fruits. A back ground taste of the damp card board. Also very strong. With water the sweetness jumps out along with gentle malt, honey, tobacco, stewed apricots and toffee. The finish is very malty and sweet and chewy. The green notes have vanished however the gentle peat smoke has returned. After a few minutes the finish turns quite dry and continues with dry chewy malt. Not a dull mouth feel. Vibrant.

Actually it’s a very tasty whisky. C$125

Score 86 Points

Visit Tobermory Distillery at http://www.tobermorymalt.com/