I’m on the road this weekend at Whisky Live Paris, and it’s a weekend full of new whiskies to taste! We’ll hear from Thierry Benitah of La Maison du Whisky, along with Kerry White of GlenDronach, Amrut’s Ashok Chokalingam, Michael Urquhart of Gordon & MacPhail, Marcin Miller of Number One Drinks Company, and three of Australia’s leading distillers!

Visit WhiskyCast at www.whiskycast.com

STAR-STRUCK! GLENDRONACH VISITOR CENTRE AWARDED FOUR STARS BY VISITSCOTLAND
 
VISITSCOTLAND has awarded GlenDronach’s Visitor Centre four stars in recognition of its excellent facilities and services, making the Aberdeenshire distillery one of Scotland’s top tourist attractions.
 
The Tourist Board’s Quality Assurance Inspector visited the Forgue distillery this summer and says she was most impressed by the efforts it has made to welcome visitors from home and abroad.
 
VisitScotland says its grading schemes take the guesswork out of planning a holiday or short break, giving reassurance to visitors quickly and clearly.
 
The report noted that visitors travelling along the A96 are given an excellent opportunity to navigate to the distillery, via the comprehensive system of brown tourist signing.
 
The Inspector found the clock display showing the next available tour very helpful and she had high praise for the decorative state of the Visitor Centre.
 
She commented: “Its new interiors are very contemporary and of high quality, which has certainly brought the Visitor Centre up to date.”

She was also very complimentary about the daily tours visitors are given around the distillery.
 
“The tour was very ably undertaken by Karen who was very easy to recognise given her corporate appearance. Tours are tailored carefully to meet the expectations of visitors, being structured around the product itself for the enthusiast or a good dash of history for the general visitor.”
 
She also welcomed the fact that some of the staff are able to speak a number of foreign languages, helping to make the tour intelligible and interesting for the international visitor.
 
GlenDronach’s Marketing Manager Kerry White oversaw the Visitor Centre’s transformation during the summer. She said: “Everyone at GlenDronach is delighted with this latest award. It’s a wonderful tribute to our staff at the Visitor Centre and reflects the care and attention to detail we have lavished on it this year. It also shows that we have achieved high levels of excellence and offer exceptional service to the thousands of visitors who come here every year.
 
“The Report was very helpful in indicating some areas we can do even better, and we are now aiming to get five stars very soon.”

INTRODUCING THE GLENDRONACH DISTILLERY MANAGER’S CASK
 
VISITORS to the GlenDronach Distillery in Aberdeenshire this autumn can now fill their own special bottle from the Distillery Manager’s Cask.
 
Alan McConnachie has personally selected a cask for bottling – and people visiting the distillery can take home a unique malt they have personally decanted from the cask.
 
Alan has chosen a single cask GlenDronach (No. 564) distilled in 1993, aged for 17 years in an Oloroso sherry cask and bottled at cask strength 58.4% vol. Each bottle is hand-labelled by the visitor, hand-numbered and signed by Alan. A record is then kept in the Distillery Manager’s book.
 
He commented: “This is a superb expression from 1993. Its appearance is startling – a pronounced red wood glow with a rich gold edge. On the nose, earthy elements merge with sweet fine oak aromas complemented with sweet cloves and allspice. And on the palate, mocha and hazelnut influences emerge, leading to a sweet rich finish. It’s spectacular.”
 
The bottles are exclusively available from the GlenDronach Visitor Centre at £66.99 per bottle.
 
Contact the Visitor Centre for more information on 01466 730 202 or email info@glendronachdistillery.co.uk
 
GlenDronach Distillery, Forgue by Huntly, Aberdeenshire AB54 6DB.
 
Our picture shows a recent visitor, Mr Jimmy Cairns (left) from Falkirk in Scotland, with GlenDronach’s Alistair Walker, after buying the 1993 bottle, with Alan McConnachie’s cask in the background.

Balvenie Peated Cask Whisky Launch Event at Aventine

582 Washington Street (between Hotaling & Montgomery)
San Francisco, CA
415 981 1500

What are you doing Wednesday (September 29th) night? Be our guest (liquor.com) at Balvenie’s Peated Cask Whisky launch and earn some liquor bragging rights.

You’ll be one of the first people in the country to taste the new Balvenie limited-edition 17-Year-Old Peated Cask Single Malt Whisky. The complex Scotch has the brand’s signature honeyed sweetness, plus notes of spice and smoke.

Balvenie brand ambassador Nicholas Pollacchi will lead you through a tasting of the brand’s full portfolio of spirits, culminating with the new Peated Cask, at the Financial District’s Taverna Aventine. Each Scotch will be paired with an hors d’oeuvre created by the restaurant’s chef.

And did we mention it’s free? You just have to RSVP to attend this festive evening.

Cheers, and see you there!

(Each RSVP is good for just one person, so tell your friends to sign up now before the list closes.)

http://liquor.com/balvenie-peatedcask/

Isle of Skye Whisky the toast of the Clan MacLeod Parliament

Photocaption: Held in Dunvegan on Clan MacLeod’s home island of Skye every four years, over 170 clans folk from overseas, including America, Tasmania, Malta and South Africa attended the Clan MacLeod Parliament from Saturday 24 – Friday 30 July.

20 September 2010, Edinburgh: Isle of Skye Blended Scotch Whisky, owned by independent family company Ian Macleod Distillers Ltd, was the Official Whisky Sponsor of the Clan MacLeod Parliament World Gathering 2010.

Held in Dunvegan on the Clan MacLeod’s home island of Skye every four years, the Clan MacLeod Parliament ran from 24 –30 July. Over 170 clans folk attended, many from as far as America, Tasmania, Malta and South Africa.

As well as supplying the whisky for the Clan MacLeod Parliament finale ball, each attendee received a miniature of Isle of Skye Blended Scotch Whisky to sample and take home. Ian Macleod Distillers also provided four limited edition decanters of Isle of Skye 21 Years Old Blended Scotch Whisky and one bottle of the extremely rare Isle of Skye 50 Years Old Blended Scotch Whisky for a silent auction, that raised over £800 for charity.
 
Iain Weir, Marketing Director of Ian Macleod Distillers commented: “We are incredibly happy to be supporting the Clan MacLeod Parliament and celebrate the history and culture of Skye and the Clan MacLeod.

“Created from Ian Macleod’s original family recipe, Isle of Skye Blended Scotch Whisky seemed the perfect fit to toast the return of the MacLeod diaspora to their native island and gives those from further afield the opportunity to taste the high quality blended Scotch whisky, perhaps for the first time.”

Dr Malcolm Macleod, OBE, President of the Associated Clan MacLeod Societies, said: “This was the sixteenth Clan MacLeod Parliament World Gathering to be held in Dunvegan, the spiritual home of many MacLeods whose ancestors left Scotland to begin new lives overseas. 

“I thoroughly enjoyed welcoming some of their descendants from all over the world and renewing friendships that have built up over the years of these wonderful gatherings.”

The week long event included visits to sites of historical and cultural significance to the Clan including climbing MacLeod’s Table, attending the Dunvegan show and a visit to the residents of the Orbost Estate on Raasay.
 
The modern Clan MacLeod Parliament is based on the definition of a Parliament as “a meeting or assembly for conference on public or national affairs”. The Parliament is a world gathering of MacLeods with the purpose of bringing together MacLeods from all over the world to talk about the Clan.
 
For more information on Isle of Skye Blended Scotch Whisky see: www.isleofskyewhisky.com

For more information on Clan Macleod Parliament World Gathering 2010 please see www.clanmacleod.org

Notes

Isle of Skye 8 Years Old has its origins in that most celebrated of Scottish Islands: Skye, home of Clan Macleod.

Ian Macleod, the founder of Isle Of Skye Blended Scotch Whisky, was justifiably proud of his family’s 19th century recipe which contains a high proportion of carefully selected Island and Speyside malts. Its smoothness, mellowness and quality are guaranteed by the fact that every whisky in the recipe has been mellowed in oak casks for at least 8 years – the recognised age of maturity for many malt whiskies.

Layers of peat dovetail with barley and grain while a wisp of honey sweetens things; stunning. Magnificent, fresh oily peat spins around the palate, but leaves a smoky, toasty, oaky trail with a hint of marmalade fruitiness; ridiculously long, remaining sweet and viscous with no shortage of oak and malt to bring the curtain down – eventually!

The Warrant Officers’ & Sergeants’ Mess of the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada is pleased to present Scotchtoberfest. This year Scotchtoberfest will be celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the founding of the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada.

When: 7 PM Saturday, October 2nd, 2010 (doors open at 6PM) Where: The Seaforth Highlanders Armouries, 1650 Burrard St. Vancouver BC.

 Cost: $125 (including HST), $45 food only tickets Dress: Smart business casual

What is included:
– 8 outstanding Whiskies
– Commemorative Glencairn Tasting Glass
– Robust Scottish Appetizers

Event Highlights:
– Tastings led by Andrew Starritt of Caskstrength
– Performance by the Pipes and Drums
– Silent Auction
– First public tasting of the Seaforth 100, 21 year old Highland Park Whisky

To Register

Email: Scotchtoberfest@seaforth100.com Please tell us your name and the names of your guests. Then send your cheque to the address below.

A message from Hervé Coornaert at Whisky Du Monde

WHISKY DU MONDE : find a lot of information on our group about  distilleries, whisky, tasting, tasting guide, Whisky-Fair in Europe…

HAKUSHU 10YO 40.5%.

Single malt coming from the province of Honshu Tasting result:

Nose: the first notes are floral and leads us towards an orchard of apples green, grass fresh and mints.
Palate: very odorous, it confirms the nose. The flowers of the fields reveal an at the same time soft and dry palate.
Finale: rather short, marrowy and slightly smoked. It is prolonged a few moments with a soft return of heather.

Comment: A good whisky which could matur a few years more to have appeared fully.

Email: whiskydumonde@gmail.com Office:Paris, France, 75000

Whisky Intelligence has no idea why this was submitted but we are really quite curious to see what happens next…

Loch Fyne Whiskies Stocks Bruichladdich PC An Turas Mor OB 46%Abv.

Tasting note soon…

A multi-vintage version of this Port Charlotte An Turas Mor from Bruichladdich

Bruichladdich Port Charlotte PC Multi Vintage
Barcode: 618105002029

Price excluding VAT: £29.36
£34.50 Including VAT at 17.5%

Visit Loch Fyne Whiskies at www.lfw.co.uk

All Things Whisky

All Things Whisky went live on August 13th of this year.  After much reservation and deliberation on the part of humble folk behind the scenes, the decision was made that, yes…we did have something to offer. 

Essentially an offshoot of a small Calgary whisky and book club called Liquorature (www.liquorature.com), All Things Whisky was sort of born out of necessity.  The members of Liquorature oversee a blog, which had initially been created as an outlet for club members to voice reviews, opinions and general inanities.  This blog suddenly found itself with a decent amount of web traffic and some industry folk taking note of the reviews therein.  The whisky side of things began to take precedent on the website, so a decision had to be reached.  Instead of reining it in…we decided to let it run. 
 
An initial reluctance to embrace a website/blog focused entirely on whisky, and actually aiming for readers, was overcome after a careful consideration of intent.

The first question we asked ourselves, of course, was whether or not we could do something that would stand out and be worth reading.  There are plenty of sites out there, run by folks with much more experience and more adeptness with pen and palate.  To answer this, we had to determine our goals.
 
First and foremost…we wanted to create a great jumping off point for people looking to the world of whisky for an enhancement to their lives.  There are now, and will always be, people out there just like you and I who are new to the intimidating world of malts.  We want to open that door for them through simple tutorials, advice columns, tips and reviews.  This will all be augmented with whisky news as it is sourced, feature articles and interviews with the folks in the industry who make it all happen for us.  Occasionally, we’ll simply post to chat about whisky.

The primary focus is, and will continue to be, whisky reviews.  We want ATW to become a place you visit to find a wide array of independent and unbiased reviews.  In this context, of course, ‘unbiased’ refers to a lack of sponsored involvement.  Our personal biases are bound to show in the reviews themselves.
 
We hope to build a library of reviews originating from a single source.  The logic behind this is consistency, of course.  Over time readers will pick up on the ATW bias and palate, and determine just how that stacks up against their own palate.  Even if they don’t agree, we hope they see why we reached the conclusions we did.

These reviews will be a continual focus, and new additions are being added regularly.

 
Second…we wanted to allow a Canadian voice to have a more resonating echo in the whisky spheres.  This will be something that in theory should transcend borders with our friends south of the 49th (the US) as well.  Our currencies are not all that far apart and product availability should be much more analogous.  What we see in the European forums, news and blogs is often a tease here, as many of these malts never make it to North American shores, or when they do, are extremely cost prohibitive. 
 
Third and finally…ATW will continue to be a source of shared knowledge and information.  We will be collecting news where and when we can get it and sharing it with our readers.  We link to the sites we enjoy reading so our readers can find the best of the best out there.  Let’s face it…we’re all in this together.  All of our individual experiences make for a pretty amazing whole when we share information. 

As long as we continue having fun, and our friends out there continue to drop in…we’ll be around.

Slainte!

Curt Robinson
http://www.allthingswhisky.com/