Duncan Taylor Club Newsletter September 2010

We can’t believe it is September already, where has the year gone?!  With colder days, torrential rain and the nights closing in, there is not a better excuse to treat yourself to a lovely warming bottle of DTC.  Read on for new bottlings, tasting notes and general news of what is happening with us here at Duncan Taylor.
  
New Bottlings

  
Duncan Taylor Rare Auld Collection Single Malts

Aberlour 1993 17yo C2840 54.7%
Caperdonich 1972 37yo C6735 51.4%
Glen Grant 1972 38yo C1648 48.7%
 
Duncan Taylor OQ Cask Range

Glen Grant 1972 38yo C446483 54.8% 
  
Lonach

Bunnahabhain 1969 40yo 40%
Glenlivet 1970 40yo 40%

Tasting Notes

Duncan Taylor Rare Auld Glen Grant 1972 38yo C1648 48.7%
Nose:  Stewed fruits, bramble bushes, aniseed, old leather, earthy, soft red apples and traditional lemonade.  Water brings out candyfloss, barley water and juicy fruits.
Taste: Liquorice, green pears, syrupy.  Touch of Parma violets and limeade.  With water much softer and more fruity, very refreshing.  Pear drops, fruit salad – melon and black grape.
 
Lonach Glenlivet 1970 40yo 40%
Nose: Sweet, fruit cake mix, hot cross buns, spiced apples. Delicate hint of oak.  Water brings out raisins, fruit dumplings and bruised apples.
Taste: Initially spicy, lots of apples and a mixture of Custard and tablet.  With water a pinch of salt, more vanilla custard notes and a little grassy finish
 
Duncan Taylor Rare Auld Aberlour 1993 17yo C2840 54.7%
Nose: Mint, cinnamon, brown sugar, gingerbread, Satsuma and glacier cherries.  Water adds more caramel, toffee and heather notes with a touch of carrot cake and pine sap.
Taste: Oranges, chocolate, spring water and victory v’s.  Water makes this much creamier with pancake mix and hot crumpets and then liquorice and blackcurrant develop.
 
Staff Updates
 
Jemma is back to work having been on maternity leave for the last year and is getting right back into the swing of things!  The tasting of the new bottlings helped!
 
Awards

At the recent Whisky Magazine Independant Bottlers awards we were very lucky to pick up the following awards.
 
Independent Bottlers Challenge 2010

Campbeltown
12 YEARS & UNDER
BRONZE – NC2 Springbank 1996
 
19 YEARS PLUS
SILVER – Rare Auld Glen Scotia 1991
 
Highland
12 YEARS & UNDER
SILVER – NC2 Ben Nevis Madeira 1998
13-18 YEARS OLD
BRONZE – Lonach Glengarioch 1989
 
Islands (non Islay)
19 YEARS PLUS
GOLD – Runrig Highland Park 1987
 
Islay
13-18 YEARS OLD
BRONZE – NC2 Laphroaig 1997
 
Lowland
12 YEARS OLD & UNDER
GOLD – Whisky Galore Auchentoshan
19 YEARS PLUS
BRONZE – The Octave Cameronbridge 1978
 
Speyside
12 YEARS & UNDER
SILVER – NC2 Craigellachie 1999

 
Whisky Magazine – New Releases

Our Rare Auld Glen Moray 35yo and our Octave Range Glenrothes 40yo have won recommended awards in Whisky Magazine Issue 90 in the new releases tastings.
 
The whiskies are judged blind by their tasters and then marked out of 10.  Only whiskies scoring more than 17 out of 20 in each edition are awarded the recommended title.
 
Glen Moray – Scored 17 out of 20
Glenrothes – Scored 18 out of 20
 
You can see the certificates on our website http://www.duncantaylor.com/reviews.htm
 
Reviews

Our 1970 Caperdonichs go down a treat with Serge at Whiskyfun.com, 15th Sept 2010

These 1970 Caperdonich are rather less well known than the excellent 1972s, maybe because Duncan Taylor have fewer of them?

Caperdonich 38 yo 1970/2009 (42.3%, Duncan Taylor, Rare Auld, cask #4376, 158 bottles) Colour: gold. Nose: we’re close to a fruitbomb at first nosing, the oak being quick to kick in but in a gentlemanly manner. Develops very classically after a few seconds, with the expected honey, mirabelle jam, quinces, beeswax, yellow flowers and just a little cinnamon and ginger plus vanilla and mint. Archetypical, as they say. Mouth: perfect attack, superbly fruity, fresh, hugely complex right from the start, with all things around bees and their products, many dried and stewed fruits and a wide asortment of secondary notes such as tobacco, lime, pina colada, longans, mead… All perfect. Finish: medium long, clean, easy, honeyed. White pepper, mint and cinnamon in the aftertaste, as almost always with these oldies. Comments: ha-ha, the 1972s have serious competition! But warning, this is very drinkable. SGP:641 – 91 points.

Caperdonich 38 yo 1970/2009 (45.9%, Duncan Taylor, Rare Auld, cask #4377, 205 bottles) Colour: gold. Nose: this is going to be short: less fruits and honey, more nutmeg, eucalyptus and vanilla than in its sister cask. Still very nice on the nose but suffers from the comparison with its fruitier twin… Until it starts to become a little rounder and herbal at the same time. Hints of dill and celery and then a little ginger, as if it was re-racked in newer oak – which I doubt would have happened. Mouth: we aren’t too far from #4376 but this is rather less luxurious and ‘wide’. A little more on plums and on oaky spices, cinnamon, nutmeg… But there a very nice citrusy notes in the background. Finish: a tad longer that cask #4376 but also a little narrower. Quite some pollen. Comments: all good and even almost perfect, it’s just that #4376 was in its way. SGP:541- 89 points.

Caperdonich 38 yo 1970/2009 (46.8%, Duncan Taylor, Rare Auld, cask #4381, 153 bottles) Colour: gold. Nose: hold on, this is funny, this one’s even grassier and less fruity than cask #4377. Don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful whisky, it’s just that you can’t beat an old fruitbomb that aged to perfection. After a few minutes: more quinces and orange marmalade as well as a little soot and something pleasantly metallic. Citron jelly. Globally fruitier. Mouth: it’s now really wunderbar, rich, punchy, fruity, honeyed, spicy… Old liqueurs, various honeys, lemon marmamalde, herbs, thyme, mint, liquorice… Even hints of ‘mojito’ – yes. Finish: long, punchy, fruity, citrusy, with just the right amount of spices. Comments: right, maybe it was a tad more austere than the others at very first sniffs but it just would stop improving after that. Frankly, this is perfect whisky at almost 40 years of age. As I may have suggested before, buy one, pour it into a shiny crystal decanter (you can find some nice ones for EUR 10 each in any flea markets but watch lead) and there you go, you have your prestige bottling (and just saved a few Ks). SGP:541 – 92 points.

Events & Shows

Hi everyone, it’s Mark here,
 
I had a couple of hectic weekends back to back in Denmark recently. The first weekend was at Hans-Henrik’s excellent Hotel Falster where Lago held their annual get together with Duncan Taylor stockists from across Denmark.  We previewed the Macallan sherry finish, which will be exclusively bottled for Denmark next week.
 
The following weekend I was back in Copenhagen for Whiskymessen meeting up with 3500 whisky fans with a large contingent coming from Sweden.  I was on a busy stand with Michael and his team from TØNDEN where we had 65 different whiskies on offer – all Duncan Taylor bottlings from Big Smoke 40 toNC2  Imperial 1997, through to Port Ellen 1983 to Highland Park 40yo.  It was a long day but it was great to see some old friends and meet many new Duncan Taylor fans.
 
You can see more of my trip on our website
 
http://www.duncantaylor.com/news/index.php,
 
Whisky Live Paris
 
We will be saying au revoir to Kirsty who will be heading to Whisky Live Paris on the 25th, 26th and 27th of this month.
 
Autumn Speyside Whisky Festival
 
Mark will be in Dufftown for the festival and he is hosting a tasting on the Monday 27th September at 6pm.  There are still a few tickets available from Spirit of Speyside website.
 
We hope to see you on our travels.
 
Regards,
The Sales Team
 
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