All of the Jolly Toper’s whisky tastings take place on Thursday nights from 7:30pm until approximately 10pm at the Tolbooth Tavern, 167 Canongate, Royal Mile, Edinburgh, meals available up to the time of the tastings.

Tolbooth Tavern, Canongate Royal Mile, £21/18(ish)

Tasting 27th May 2010 Edinburgh

Glenlossie 1978 – 2007 Gordon and MacPhail refill sherry hogsheads 46%

MacDuff 16yo cask strength butt Cadenheads

Hazelburn 9yo 46% Duthies sherry cask (to be confirmed)

Ardbeg Rollercoaster

Cambus grain 24yo Bladnoch Forum

a mystery dram

Visit the Jolly Toper himself at http://www.jollytopertastings.co.uk/

American Distilling Institute

Five Spaces Left Hands-on Whiskey Distilling Workshop

May 30th June 6th

at Stillwater Spirits, Petaluma, CA

-five night stay at the Metro Hotel
-tour of Germain Robin & Solomon Tournour
-distiller Jordan Via on brewing, distilling and maturation
-brewer Bill Owens on mashing and fermentation
… and more

(bring your video camera, and record everything)

The whole five-day package:  $3500
Register online at http://www.distilling.com/workshop.html

Left to right, Jim Blansit Copper Run Distillery, Lincoln Henderson Master Distiller, Sherman Owen Artisan Resources with the drill mixing corn mash and in the white shirt in the background is Dave Shceurich Woodford Reserve Distillery (these gentlemen wont be at the hands-on class, we will however be making corn mash using the same technique).

Share your love of Whisky at the first Whisky Lounge Festival at Tower Bridge Hilton on 15th May, where Berrys’ spirits experts will be showing a number of Whiskies including, for the first time, 1989 Mortlach and 1989 Girvan Grain. Masterclasses, blending shows and live music are also included in the £18 ticket price.

Berry Bros. & Rudd, 3 St James’s Street, London, SW1A 1EG

http://www.bbr.com/

For full information on the London Whisky Lounge please visit http://tinyurl.com/33844n3

Compass Box Bo Age Statement Oak Cross (43%, OB, +/-2009)

From the Compass Box Website;

We call this malt whisky Oak Cross because it offers the best characteristics of both American and French oak aging. A rich, medium-bodied malt whisky, Oak Cross combines vanilla characters from American oak and spicy, clove-like characters from French oak.

Innovative New Oak Casks

We work with a small mill in France that produces some of the highest quality cooperage oak in the world. It was our work with this mill that led us to experimenting with secondary maturation of malt whiskies in casks fitted with new French oak heads. This is something no one else in Scotland does. The result is malt whisky with more character and complexity. We use this technique on about 50% of the malt whisky in Oak Cross and it results in a superior finished product.

The Signature Range from Compass Box

Oak Cross is part of the Signature Range from Compass Box. The three Scotch whiskies in this range offer the spectrum of Scotch whisky style, from the delicate, sweet character of Asyla, to the rich, spicy, malty character of Oak Cross, to the peaty-smoky character of Peat Monster. Each is made from casks chosen individually, cask-by-cask, to ensure perfect maturity. The casks are combined according to recipe and returned to wood for “marrying” up to 12 months before bottling. Steps like these enhance complexity, flavour integration and soft mouth feel. Extra steps, but we think they’re worth it.

W.I. tasting note:

The nose is dusty malt, heathery, light chocolate followed by some hints of wine. It is very clean yet ripe and full at the same time, the aromas concentrate with a little hand warming, there are hints of the spice island in the back ground, again a rich clean nose. The taste is smooth, honeyed, malty, heathery and warming. It is slightly shy at first but grows in the mouth, a really good collection of flavours. The finish is malt, with loads of Fry’s cocoa, the heathery notes and more oak spice and quite dry toward the very end. It is also quite long and never wavers…

It’s good.

Score 85 points

C$58

Visit Compass Box at  http://www.compassboxwhisky.com/

Woodford Reserve® Bourbon Announces Partnership with KFC Yum! Center

Louisville, Ky., (May 10, 2010) – Woodford Reserve bourbon along with Louisville Arena Sports and Entertainment Properties (LASEP) today announced a new partnership with the KFC Yum! Center. LASEP is the locally based entity of Learfield Sports which oversees the arena’s advertising and sponsorship sales initiatives.

Woodford Reserve’s five-year agreement provides the naming rights for the KFC Yum! Center’s largest meeting/event room overlooking the Ohio River. This scenic lounge will be accessible to anyone with a ticket to get into the facility. As part of the agreement, the room will be called “The Woodford Reserve Club” and will serve as a full service bar during games, concerts and special events. Woodford Reserve will also have exterior and inner-bowl signage as part of its sponsorship agreement.

“Since its introduction in 1996, Woodford Reserve has quickly grown to become Kentucky’s best selling small batch bourbon,” said Wayne Rose, vice president and group brand director of Woodford Reserve. “We are proud to add our name to the list of local companies supporting the new arena.  When adult patrons come for a game, concert or special event, the Woodford Reserve Club will be the perfect place to gather for a cocktail.”

Today’s announcement comes on the heels of a naming rights announcement in April. A $13.5 million, 10-year agreement is between Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM) and Team Services, LLC. resulted in the arena officially being named the “KFC Yum! Center.”

About Woodford Reserve

Woodford Reserve, the “Official Bourbon of the Kentucky Derby”, is crafted at the historic Woodford Reserve Distillery in Versailles, Kentucky – the heart of thoroughbred country. Woodford Reserve is one of the fine spirits produced and marketed by the Brown-Forman Corporation. For 140 years, Brown-Forman has enriched the experience of life by responsibly building fine quality beverage alcohol brands.  The company’s brands are supported by nearly 4,000 employees and sold in approximately 135 countries worldwide.  For more information about the company, please visit http://www.brown-forman.com, and for more information on Woodford Reserve visit www.woodfordreserve.com. Please enjoy your bourbon responsibly.

For more information regarding the KFC Yum! Center, please visit www.arenaauthority.com.

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society of America has redesigned their website (and it’s very nice). To see for yourself and possibly to join as a member, visit them at http://www.smwsa.com/ The ‘members area’ has their latest edition of Outturn, the current bottling list.

MAKER’S MARK BOURBON TASTING

The tickets for the Makers Mark tasting  on the 20th of May at 7pm are now on sale. They are £15 each  with a maximum of 2 tickets per  ooking and are obtainable  by calling us on 0207 403 8688.

Please remember we only have one phone line, so patience is a virtue.

Many thanks,

The Team

Compass Box NAS Peat Monster (46%, OB, +/-2009)

From John Glaser, Whiskymaker:

Complex and Multilayered

A malt whisky for real peat heads, and for lovers of complex, multilayered whiskies. What makes it fit into the Compass Box house style is the balance of richness and subtle sweetness that the old casks of Ardmore provide to the smoky-peaty Islay malts. This is the great benefit of combining single malts from different distilleries. We are not limited to the produce of one distillery. Like a wine maker blending grape varieties, we can create layers of complexity. And, as of late 2007, we’re introducing even more complexity by adding some south shore Islay malt to enhance the peatiness and earthiness. As with all our whiskies, several months of marrying before bottling allow the flavours of each of the whiskies to knit together.

Peat Monster is part of the Signature Range from Compass Box. Each is made from casks chosen individually, cask-by-cask, to ensure perfect maturity. The casks are combined according to recipe and returned to wood for “marrying” up to 12 months before bottling. Steps like these enhance complexity, flavour integration and soft mouth feel. Extra steps, but we think they’re worth it.

For those who love big, rich smoky-peaty malt whiskies, this is your whisky. Peat Monster combines very smoky and peaty whiskies from the island of Islay with rich, medium-peated Speyside whisky. The result is a balanced, very drinkable peaty malt.

www.compassboxwhisky.com

W.I. tasting note;

The nose is of peat smoke right off, no prisoners, no malt, oak just a charge up the face and into the head. After a moment to gather the senses there is now earthiness and sweetness in the form of milk chocolate (think of the aromas of a chocolate bar that has been accidentally left in the sun); altogether it is vey nice. The taste is malty, peated along with some oak spice and dry cocoa (not the sun enhanced milk chocolate) and some hints of fruit (tinned & not berries) and a hint of heather which floats in and out. Again this is very good and very drinkable. The finish is of bbq’d pork rind, more of the chocolate oak, dryness, some hints of sweetness and some gentle peat that carries on for quite some time. At the tail end of the finish there is  the sudden arrival of a little bit of orange to mix with the chocolate and peat; like an Islay Terry’s Chocolate Orange.

C$58

Score 87 points

GLENFIDDICH COOPERS MAKE PIONEERING CLIMB UP BEN NEVIS

Team of ten build 40kg barrel at the top of Britain’s highest mountain

Dufftown, 10th May 2010: A team from Glenfiddich, the world’s most awarded single-malt Scotch whisky, this weekend (8th May 2010) completed a pioneering 1,344 metre climb up Ben Nevis, Britain’s highest mountain, armed with a 40kg barrel – which they re-constructed at the summit.

The feat, organised to celebrate cooper Jackie Ross’ retirement after 42 years as a Glenfiddich cooper, took a gruelling three hours to complete. The team of ten, which collectively have more than 200 years of service at Glenfiddich, included six coopers and a piper.

Jason Roberts, leading the team said, “We wanted to do something special to mark the end of Jackie Ross’ career at Glenfiddich and what better way to echo Glenfiddich’s pioneering spirit than to do something truly unique with his final cask?”

The climbers raised a total of £1,000 for local causes, including the Girvan Muat Thai Class, Girvan under 10 football team and Girvan under 19 football team.

Notes  

* The eleven coopers’ names are;

·         Jason Roberts

·         Paul Ross

·         Robert Davidson

·         James Brown

·         Peter Copland

·         Kenny Doak

·         Barry Cunningham

·         Wallace Sheddon

·         Tam Houston

·         Taylor Davidson

About William Grant & Sons

William Grant & Sons is an independent family-owned distiller founded by William Grant in 1886 and today still controlled by the fifth generation of his family.  The Company distils some of the world’s leading brands of Scotch whisky, including the world’s favourite single malt Glenfiddich®, the handcrafted range of The Balvenie® single malts and one of the world’s leading blended Scotches, Grant’s®, as well as selected other spirits, including Hendrick’s® Gin and Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum

Click on www.williamgrant.com for more information on the Company and its brands

The Loch Ness Whisky Festival

14 – 15 May 2010

Two days of whisky events celebrating our northern highland distilleries here at Fiddler’s, Loch Ness.

WHISKY TASTINGS – WHISKY CRUISES-MASTERCLASS – DISTILLERY VISIT – BARBECUE-MUSIC – CHARITY AUCTION

Highlights include:

TALISKER/RNLI WHISKY CRUISE
– FRIDAY 14TH 7p.m. – £20
Meet at Fiddler’s at 7 O’clock for a Pre-cruise Festival Dram then get picked up by minibus and taken to Temple Pier Harbour where you will jump aboard one of two locally skippered boats and taken on an evening cruise. After a demonstration of the RNLI’s rescue boat Mitch Bechard the Brand Manager for Talisker will guide you through a vertical tasting of Skye’s famous dram in the shadow of Urquhart Castle, from New-make to 25 year old. After the tasting you will be transported back to Fiddler’s for a late supper at about 9.30. At Ten O’clock there will be a charity auction.
There is a bad weather plan with the tasting being held indoors.
20 tickets available

BALBLAIR WHISKY PARLIAMENT TASTING
– FRIDAY 14TH 7p.m. – £20
Meet at Fiddler’s at 7 O’clock for a Festival Dram then join members of the Loch Ness Whisky Parliament for one of its Quarterly Sessions, this time in the company of John Macdonald of Balblair Distillery who will guide us through the best of Edderton’s Highland Drams. Distillery Bottlings will be accompanied by the usual wildcard Independent Bottlings to give a full and comprehensive illustration of Balblair.
After the tasting there will be a late supper served at about 9.30.
At Ten O’clock there will be a charity auction.
35 tickets available

GLEN ORD PARLIAMENTARY VISIT
– SATURDAY 15TH 11a.m. – £20
Join the first ever Loch Ness Whisky Parliament Juncket on its first fact-finding tour. Meet at Fiddler’s to be transported to Glen Ord Distillery for a tour of our Local Distillery. After a nosing visit to one of Glen Ord’s warehouses a tasting of Glen Ords past and present will take place accompanied by one of the Distillerie’s Senior Guides. Delegates will be transported back to Fiddler’s in time for the Afternoon Tasting Session.
12 tickets available

TOMATIN WHISKY CRUISE
– SATURDAY 15TH 12 a.m. – £20
Come and have a Dram with The Locals, Gordon Menzies, Skipper of the Morag-ma-criche and Douglas Campbell, Manager of the Tomatin Distillery. Get picked up at 12 a.m. and be taken by minibus to Temple Pier Harbour where you will join Gordon and Douglas on a cruise to Urquhart Castle and find out a little bit more about Loch Ness and Tomatin’s Big Whisky.
10 tickets available

FIDDLER’S AFTERNOON OF WHISKY AND FOOD
– SATURDAY 15TH 2 till 5 O’clock
Welcome to Fiddler’s Malt Whisky Bar, Malt Whisky Bar of the Year 2007, 2008 & 2009. From 2 O’clock to 5 O’clock our doors will be open for both Whisky-lovers and future Whisky Lovers. Taste our Northern Highland Malts and find out why we think they are amongst the best Scotland has to offer. Speak to Distillery Representatives and let them explain why they are so proud of what they produce. Enjoy some of Fiddler’s Scottish Food in our Comfortable Restaurant. Remember the day with one of our Nosing Glasses.
8 Tasting Tickets – £5
8 Tasting Tickets and Nosing Glass – £10
Food Ticket – £7.50
8 Tasting Tickets, Nosing Glass and Food Ticket – £15

Distilleries represented (so far):

BALBLAIR – BEN NEVIS – BRORA – CLYNELISH – DALMORE – GLENMORANGIE – GLEN ORD – OLD PULTENEY – TALISKER – TOMATIN – GLEN ALBYN – GLEN MHOR – MILLBURN – ABHAINN DEARG – LOCH EWE

For more information phone us on 01456 450678 info@fiddledrum.co.uk

– All funds raised over the festival will go to The MacMillan Unit at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness and the RNLI –