More unhappiness in the scotch whisky industry; for full details on the story visit the Scotsman newspaper at http://tinyurl.com/myutvs

The advance release for the Ardbeg Committee with a brown paper label rather than the traditional black label. The nose is of sweet strong peat with the suggestion of some youth evident in the vibrancy of the aromas. There is also some fragrant heather, damp Hessian, brine, very light rose water and multi faceted peat smoke (including faint aromas of burnt stick, think of poking a branch in an open fire). Very much a quality Ardbeg nose. With water the sample opens up and changes significantly to bring out chocolate, a more subtle peat smoke and some malt. The taste is once again quite vibrant and is an accurate hand drawn facsimile of the nose and very strong with lashing of lovely peat smoke, some sweet sherry notes and even more peat smoke with a thick mouth feel. Excellent. With water the sample is quite excellent and is very much sweet peat smoke. The finish is woody with initial arrival of lemon, chocolate, some heavy brine and then some burnt floral notes. The finish carries on for an extremely long time with some final tussle between dry oak, peat smoke and an unidentified sappiness. Spoken too soon; the finish is still developing after 15 minutes; for a while it was very much peanut butter or roasted peanuts.

A nice dram.

Score 87 Points

US$150

*$94 in Canadian Dollars

Whisky Intelligence has secured from Whisky Fun the only bottle of Glen Wonka to be made available in Canada.

Please visit http://www.whiskyfun.com/TheGlenWonkaProducts.html for details on the entire line of the very imaginative line of Glen Wonka*

*You do know it’s all a spoof, right?

To celebrate the tremendous success of our 30 year old and 40 year old single malt scotch whisky’s at the recent International Wine and Spirit Competition, where they both won Trophies, we are going to offer customers the opportunity to buy a twin pack of 20 cl bottles, one containing the award winning 30 year old and the other the award winning 40 year old.

To make the offer as affordable as possible the pack will consist of only the two bottles with the minimum of outer packaging. There will be no cut crystal decanters, no glasses and no wooden boxes. The labels will be the minimum required to meet our statutory obligations and protect our brand and there will be no engraving on the bottles.

This offer will only be available through our own on-line shop, which will be launched soon, or directly from the distillery and there will only be around 250 packs available which will retail at £500.00 per pack, plus postage.

It is extremely rare for 1 distillery to win 2 Trophies at the IWSC awards in the same year and that makes this offer absolutely unique. We hope to have these packs ready for sale by the end of August but if you want to pre-order your pack now then please let us know at shop@glenglassaugh.com

Visit Glenglassaugh Distillery at http://www.glenglassaugh.com/

An Update from Ian Buxton at Classic Expressions (the photo as shown is of the original  book and not the reprint);

It’s at the printers now, so the Founder Subscriber offer is closed. We’ll have postage prices (and thus the confirmed final price to subscribers) shortly once we get the final weight.

We can still take orders, so people need to email us, but all future orders will be at the published price (£99 + shipping)

The Original Offer from Classic Expressions;

We have some good news for you regarding your interest in J A Nettleton’s The Manufacture of Whisky and Plain Spirit.

You’ll remember that this is our planned facsimile reprint of this classic 1913 distilling text book – for many years the standard reference work and an essential source of information for authentic distilling practice from before World War One.    It’s never been reprinted and you’d expect to pay close to £1,000 for a copy, if you could ever find one.

The Manufacture of Whisky and Plain Spirit is packed with technical detail and copiously illustrated.  It’s over 650 pages long, larger than usual in format (24 x 15½ cm), contains more than 70 plates and as is usual for Classic Expressions, will come in a handsome slipcase with a fully searchable PDF on a handy CD.  The edition size will not exceed 300 and all copies will be individually numbered.  The names of our Founder Subscribers will appear as a frontispiece.

You asked us to reserve a copy, without obligation, while we assessed interest and priced the reprint. 

We estimated the cost then at £85-100 for Founder Subscribers, a discount on the published price of up to £125, plus shipping.

Well, scanning of the book is now nearly complete (this is a time-consuming process, as you can imagine) and we have print prices.  With the recent recovery in the international value of the pound sterling,

 I’m delighted to tell you that the Founder Subscriber price will be £79, plus shipping. 

Once we close the Founder Subscriber list the price will rise to £99.  We’re getting ready to print and expect to be shipping the books in August to our Founders.

Contact Classic Expressions at info@classicexpressions.co.uk 

http://www.classicexpressions.co.uk/

Society Whisky Tasting Experiences: The Unusual Suspects
The Society’s latest collection of private whisky tasting experiences are truly one-of-a-kind.

Each has its own individual personality, whether it’s passionately seductive, internationally eclectic, shamelessly indulgent or unanimously triumphant. These partners in crime all have their own unique guilty pleasure.

The Society offers unrivalled single cask, single malt whisky tasting experiences at each of our three striking venues in Edinburgh, Leith and London. Or, if you have your own place in mind, we’ll take our Unusual Suspects out on the run. Anywhere in the world, the choice is entirely yours (as long as its a million miles from Humdrum of course!).

There’s also something to suit all tastes, our collection of whisky tastings include: ‘Introduction to Single Cask Whisky’, ‘International Society Spirits’, ‘The Panel’s Unanimous Choice’, ‘Love is Blind’ and ‘Whisky and Chocolate Workshop’

Or if you would like something more bespoke, we can do that too. We’ll put you in touch with a Society Whisky Ambassador who will help create your very own whisky tasting experience.

For further Scotch Malt Whisky Society details visit them at http://tinyurl.com/ksrn47

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, Macdonald House, 18 Westerton Road, Broxburn EH52 5AQ
Contact: sales@smws.com or call 0131 555 2929 (Mon-Fri 9am-4.45pm).

A New DNA in Every Cask! August09 Bottling Douglas Laing

Old & Rare 45% ABV:       Straight from the Cask
MACALLAN 30 YEAR OLD
 
This interesting Macallan without the sherry maturation is an example of refined complexity.  The graceful and fresh nose carries a buttery, fruity sweetness (apples and apricots) and a hint of eucalyptus is coming through.
The palate opens honeyed and runs to spicy caramelized baked apples and sweet ripe grapes.  The finish is long and fresh, still sweet and develops a late and fruity tang.

Old Malt Cask
All 50% ABV: No Chill Filtering & No Nonsense

CAOL ILA  19 YEAR OLD    CLARET  WINE  FINISHED
Nose:  Red fruit and spices preface a sweet peat/maritime style
Palate: Mouthcoatingly salty, tarred and phenolic (no hint of wine)
Finish: Still peaty, warmly spiced now + tar + light wood-smoke 
 
CLYNELISH 20 YEAR OLD
Nose:  Sweetly citric + dark spices/liquorice
Palate: With macerated sultanas/currants and oak
Finish: Carries espresso, light smoke + dry spices

GLEN SCOTIA  17 YEAR OLD   BOURBON CASK MATURED
Nose:  Carries its bourbon cask influences evident – vanilla!
Palate: Totally different from the nose – beachy, dry and salted
Finish: The nose and palate combine here  most interestingly
 
SPRINGBANK  16 YEAR OLD
Nose:  Briny, clean and fresh – with sweet smoked nuts.
Palate: Saline, gristy and lightly (citric) fruited in style
Finish: Tannic, smoked, spiced and warming

Information or to order contact bobkyle@raredrams.com (British Columbia)

Copper Fox Distillery, Virginia
With Rick Wasmund – Wasmund’s Single Malt Whiskey
Tuesday, August 4th. 5:00 – 7:00 P.M.

Rick Wasmund

Among the most talked about of the over 200 whiskies on our Grand Harbor Whiskey Cruise last May were the Wasmund’s from northern Virginia’s Copper Fox Distillery. There were one Single Malt and an American Rye Whiskey. Both were like nothing else there.
They are the product of Rick Wasmund’s three- person distillery and his dream. Tuesday, you can meet him and taste his four whiskies, the two above and the two barrel-proof spirits from which they are made.
We’ll have all for sale plus something special to Wasmund’s. You can get a two-liter barrel with a couple of bottles of either Spirit and barrel-age the whiskey yourself at home , sampling it from time to time until it gets to the perfect wood level for your taste.

Wasmund’s Single Malt Whiskey Reg. $41.99 – Sale $37.99

Rye Whiskey 45% (VERY LIMITED) Reg. $41.99 – Sale $37.99

Single Malt Spirit 62% Reg. $26.99 – Sale $23.99

Rye Spirit 62% Reg. $26.99 – Sale $23.99

The Barrel Kit contains – 2 bottles of Spirit ( Single Malt or Rye ) with (1) 2 lt.. Barrel with a stand and gives you the chance to age the spirit to the degree of wood that you want, whether you prefer Malt or Rye and to sample the process while the spirit is evolving

Be the first kid on your block with your own Barrel of Whiskey or Rye!!!

Barrel Kit Single Malt = 1- Barrel with stand – 2 bottles of Malt Spirit
Reg. $110.00 – Sale $99.00

Barrel Kit Rye Spirit = 1 – Barrel with stand – 2 bottles of Rye Spirit
Reg. $110.00 – Sale $99.00

Please pass this on to any friends who are scotch enthusiasts.

Joe Howell
Federal Wine & Spirits

——————————————————————————–

Email: joe@federalwine.com
Phone: 617-367-8605
Web: http://www.federalwine.com/

Our friend Serge at Whisky Fun releases the news on the 100 year old Glen Wonka Single Malt Scotch Whisky which scores 99.9 points!*

Visit Whisky Fun at http://www.whiskyfun.com/

*Prior to reading please insert tongue firmly in cheek.