SCOTCH WHISKY EXPORTS UP – DIAGEO COMMENTS

Single Malts Exports up by 18%

The Scotch Whisky Association announced this week (WI is palying catch up!) that 2010 was a record year for Scotch Whisky. Global shipments were valued at £3.45bn, a 10% increase on 2009. Scotch Whisky exports  have increased by 60% since the turn of the century, adding an extra £1.29bn in value.

Single Malt exports increased by 18% (to £577m) and bottled Blended Scotch Whisky shipments rose by 5% (to £2.6bn).

There was a comment from David Gates, Diageo’s global category director for  Whiskies. He said:

“As the largest Scotch whisky producer, today’s SWA’s figures on the increase in Scotch exports come as no surprise.

In the last financial year, we’ve seen our Scotch portfolio grow by 6% with the key driver of this growth being through Johnnie Walker in emerging markets where net sales grew 23%. Where economies are growing, Scotch is growing and sometimes spectacularly in markets such as Mexico, Eastern Europe, duty free and South East Asia through blended Scotch brands such as Johnnie Walker, J&B and Buchanan’s.

Together these markets have driven almost an additional million cases of Scotch versus the same period last year.

Diageo continues to invest in Scotch production and late last year opened the first major new malt distillery for 30 years – Roseisle – as part of a capital investment programme in Scotland of £600 million announced over the past 6 fiscal years.”

Straight from the Still

Hello everyone,

We have some very exciting and can’t-miss events coming up at the distillery this summer and fall. Hi, this is Keith Kerkhoff co-founder and distiller at Templeton Rye. Mark your calendar for Rock & Rye in conjunction with the historic RAGBRAI event passing through Templeton on Monday, July 25th. Whether you are a spectator, support person, or rider, we would love to have you stop by the distillery. We will be conducting tours of the distillery and the town will be hosting a big party adjacent to the distillery with a beer garden, food, misters to cool you all down, and of course entertainment. Our team is anticipating a barrel of fun and the town of Templeton could grow a hundred fold that day. We will be taking a group picture at 1:00 pm in front of our large distillery sign for everyone wearing a Templeton Rye bike jersey. Speaking of that, for those of you who have not yet purchased one, but would like to, follow this link to get yours today. Get them ordered soon as the cutoff day is approaching.

Back by popular demand, we will be having our second volunteer bottling campaign in late November or early December. Be sure to watch our website for scheduling and sign up. We have kept in touch with many of our participants from last year and they have requested that we do this again so stay tuned.

This is a super busy time of the year for folks in the agricultural industries. I personally, along with my son Kody and extended family, are in this discipline. As our distillery manager Kevin Boersma likes to say, “It’s Go Time” around here. I currently have about 75% of my corn acres planted which is about average in our part of the state. Many other areas and states are struggling to get planting accomplished so hopefully it will dry up for them soon. Always remember “safety first” as accidents can be prevented only if we concentrate on what we are doing.

My last comment is that freedom is not free. This past week the war effort hit very close to home. James Justice, from nearby Manilla, lost his life in Afghanistan. He was a young man who had a magnetic personality that everyone admired. I personally have been friends with all the Justice family for years and want to share my condolences to them for this tragic and unfortunate loss. I would like to remind all of our friends, whether you encounter a military man or woman in an airport or on the street, to approach them and let them know we are thankful for what they are doing. Hope to see you all this summer!

Sincerely, Keith Kerkhoff

Visit Templeton Rye at www.templetonrye.com

Ben Nevis OB 25yo 54.0%alc.

A single cask bottling of 526 bottles, distilled in 1984 and re-racked from bourbon casks to a sherry cask in 1998, bottled in 2010.

Cask # 98/35/12

Another Atlantic storm from The Ben, an expression of West Coast solidity, bigger than the elements and I don’t mean earth and wind and wot-not but bigger than the whole periodic table of the elements.

It’s big in the glass, raising anticipation with a rich, bitter, sherry-wood aroma, dried fruit; sultanas, dates, figs… And a little bit of sherry wood match-head.

Soft on the tongue, especially considering the degree of prickle in the nose. Sweet and sour and a lovely stimulating swallow that I can only describe as acrid – but a good acrid. There is a juicy start to a very long finish with a haaar (exhale back into the nose & mouth arena) of matchbox striking surface. That finish is still as strong now as was to begin with. An ace.

Distilled 20 December 1984 and put in Bourbon barrels

Transferred to Sherry butts 14 October 1998

Bottled 2010

Limited to 526 bottles having spent almost 14 years in fresh Bourbon casks and then the remainder in fresh Sherry butts.

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

Master of Malt Launch the World’s Oldest Whisky Liqueur

Online Retailer and Independent Bottler, Master of Malt ( http://www.masterofmalt.com/), has launched the world’s oldest whisky liqueur. Based on the very finest 40 year old single malt Speyside whisky from one of Scotland’s most legendary distilleries!

From a Secret Distillery

The 40 year old single malt at the heart of this liqueur hails from a Speyside distillery, and whilst the exact origins remain a closely guarded secret, it is reputed to be one of the world’s most famous, and one known for its rich, sherry-matured whiskies.

“The key part for us was that the whisky shone through,” says Master of Malt’s Sales Director Ben Ellefsen, “this is a liqueur for single malt connoisseurs, so we spent an incredible amount of time picking subtle flavours which highlighted the malt, rather than creating something that was just sweet and overpowering. We’ve used top quality, authentic ingredients including cinnamon bark, cloves and orange peel, and we couldn’t be more proud of the results.”

The 40 year old joins Master of Malt’s range of single malt Speyside whisky liqueurs, and the prices range from £26.95 for the 10 year old, up to £219.95 for the 40 year old.

The Liqueurs 

– Master of Malt 10 Year Old Speyside Whisky Liqueur – £26.95
– Master of Malt 15 Year Old Speyside Whisky Liqueur – £39.95
– Master of Malt 21 Year Old Speyside Whisky Liqueur – £59.95
– Master of Malt 30 Year Old Speyside Whisky Liqueur – £109.95
– Master of Malt 40 Year Old Speyside Whisky Liqueur – £219.95
– Tasting Set of all 5 – £29.95

About Master of Malt

– Established in 1985
– One of the UK’s leading Online Spirits Merchants
– A highly rated independent bottler, all of whose single cask whiskies scored over 90 points in the Jim Murray Whisky Bible 2009

Master of Malt Twitter @masterofmalt
Master of Malt – http://www.masterofmalt.com/

The Tolbooth Tavern

Thursday May 12th:- P/O/U/R/S £20/17*

Thursday May 26th:- non-Scottish peaty drams £tbc
India: Amrut 62.8%
U.S.A.: McCarthy’s
Japan: t.b.c.
England: St. Georges
Ireland: Cooley

Thursday June 9th:- P/O/U/R/S £20/17*

Thursday June 23rd:- Arran £tbc
Machrie Moor peated 46%
‘Oran Mor’ 56.4% sherry cask 236 bottles
10yo 57.1% Bourbon cask 219 bottles Loch Fyne Whiskies bottling
Cadenheads 1998 12yo 57.4%
plus another one to be confirmed

Thursday July 7th P/O/U/R/S £20/17*

Thursday July 21st Lagavulin £tbc
LG2
Distiller’s Edition 1994 – 2010 43%
16yo 43%
1995 12yo European oak 48% Friends of Classic Malts
and a fifth expression to be confirmed

Future Themes:

18yo- ‘Us’ and ‘Them’: comparisons of distillery bottlings with independant expressions – Highland Park, Glendronach and Tamdhu, Ben Nevis: Cadenheads 1996 – 03/2009 12yo 57.1% Bourbon hogshead 256 bootles, 10yo 46%, single blend, single grain, Cadenheads ‘dumpy’ 06/1965 – 12/1981 16yo 46%, Bladnoch: Rare Malts 23yo, Cadenheads 17yo 55.1% Bourbon hogshead, peated, sherry cask plus one other example

Peaty blends 40%: Islay Mist, Islay Hallmark 8yo, Black Bottle 10yo, Black Grouse, Black Bottle, plus a special guest (Brora or Port Ellen) Template design by Web-Kreation.

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

True Tales in Philadelphia

Hello,

True Tales events are now happening in different countries around the world and I would like to encourage you to attend one if the opportunity arises.

I have been to a few since the Manchester event I wrote about here, but I wanted to mention the last event in Philadelphia as I had a particularly good…(please click on the link below to read the rest of the post from ‘Behind the Blend with Ludo’)

http://blog.grantswhisky.com/2011/05/true-tales-in-philadelphia/

Kind regards,
Ludo

May Outturn: 13 Mesmerizing Malts

This spring it’s time to reawaken the senses with May’s Outturn, 13 mesmerizing malts drawn straight from the cask

Society Recommendations:

Perceptive Pair:
Buy 77.22 & 39.79 together for £88.50 (save £20.10)
77.22 Plentiful sweet delights
Highland Northern
£44.10 inc. free p&p
Meadowsweet, elderflower, laurel, lily – with sweet delights – vanilla, marmalade on toast and strawberry jam on scones (with clotted cream)

39.79 A lush chameleon
Speyside Lossie
£64.50 inc. free p&p
Brittle toffee, white paint (oil then poster-paint, then Play-Doh and crayons), wine gums, eiswein, ripe peaches and pomegranate

Count to 1..2..trio:
Buy 4.152, 44.49 & 53.150 together for £132.50 (save £27.00)
4.152 Hay bales in a limestone cave
Highland Island
£55.30 inc free p&p
Raspberry and strawberry sweets (Jolly Ranchers) candied orange, hay bales, cereals, cardboard tubes of Smarties and slight smoke

44.49 Lamb chops, mint sauce and blueberries
Speyside Spey
£44.10 inc free p&p
Some found lamb chops with boiled potatoes and mint sauce while the rest of us found cherry pie, white pepper, dried fruit and pot pourri

53.150 Beachcombers’ convention dram
Islay
£60.10 inc free p&p
Seaweed, sea-scrubbed nylon ropes, tar and brine; but then another bunch of beachcombers approached – some smoking roll-ups, some cooking bacon on bonfires

Six Scents: Take the Perceptive Pair, the Count to 1..2..trio and add 1.157 – six bottlings for only £260 (save £55.40)

1.157 Spicy chocolate raisins
Speyside Spey
£47.30 inc. free p&p
Coconut, liquorice root, chocolate raisins, jasmine tea, hot tubs, dry wood, glossy magazines, spice and furniture polish

All bottlings from May’s Outturn are available by the bottle and dram at our three Members’ Rooms – The Vaults, 28 Queen Street, Greville Street

Drams at Hotel du Vin & Malmaison

Joining the fine selection of drams we have behind the bar at Hotel du Vin & Malmaison from this month’s Outturn:

50.41 Winter Fireworks

2.79 Puff candy on a tropical Island

Society Tastings & Events

New Members Tasting – London, Mon 16 May
A Crash Course in single malts – The Vaults, Tue 24 May
Dunfermline Preview Tasting – Garvock House Hotel
Guildford Preview Tasting – Manor House Hotel, Thu 26 May
York Preview Tasting – Bedern Hall, Fri 27 May
Liverpool Preview Tasting – Malmaison, Fri 27 May
Cardiff Preview Tasting – Novotel, Fri 27 May
Champions League Final – Queen Street, Fri 27 May

Society Whisky Tastings

Whatever and wherever our tasting or event, the main focus is to give members an informal, enjoyable and relaxed night out..with a taste of the single cask good stuff!

Events range from step by step instruction in how to get the most from tasting single cask, single malt whisky to more adventurous couplings of whisky with food.

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society,
The Vaults, 87 Giles Street, Leith EH6 6BZ
Contact: sales@smws.com or call 0131 555 2929 (Mon-Fri 9am-4.45pm).

Visit the Society at http://www.smws.co.uk/memberships for your chance to join and to take advantage of their great offers.  

Derby Trifecta Challenge: Take your best shot!

Kentucky Derby 137 is ready to run. Put your handicapping skills to the test! Log-in to the Buffalo Trace Saloon and pick 3 horses – win, place and show. If you guess all 3 in the correct order, you win! It’s that simple.

In the event of a tie, the shots you’ve earned from your regular Saloon activities will be added and used as the tie-breaker (so it could really pay to play around in the Saloon!)

The winner will experience Kentucky the way everyone should: scenic horse farms, a rustic 200-year-old distillery, southern food and of course, lots of bourbon tasting, courtesy of Buffalo Trace.

Go to the contest page for complete details.

Not a saloon member yet? Sign up now and take your best shot.

Share this contest with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Good luck,

Buffalo Trace
Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

Where Has This Year Gone To?
 
2011 seems to be passing very quickly with 1/3rd of it gone all ready. Winter was over rather quicker than we expected here and we are now well into spring with a changing faces at the distillery, new cask releases and new products being developed.

Cask Owners Looking Out to Sea at Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival

New Aged Over 30 Years

We recently started filling our latest “Aged Over 30 Years” cask bottling, this whisky which is 34 years old was matured for almost 33 years in a refill sherry hogshead before spending the last 15 months of its life in a first fill ex-Sauternes cask. The result is a stunningly complex dram full of fruit notes and spices and with a long lingering after taste. Perhaps our best yet in the “Aged Over 30 Years” range? well that is a personal decision but for me it is right up there with the very best.

New Aged Over 40 Years

This single cask bottling is from 1966 refill sherry cask and is 45 years old, rich in sherry notes and spices with the influence of the long maturation apparent, simply a classic.

The First “New” Glenglassaugh Bottling

We will be announcing more information on this bottling in the coming months but I can reveal that we will be releasing a single cask bottling of the very first “new” whisky from Glenglassaugh since the refurbishment and which will only be available from the distillery or through our internet shop.

The first cask filling took place on the 16th December 2008 and we have already identified one of these casks to become our first release at the end of this year. Our plan is to empty the cask and then fill the bottles at cask strength and have them shipped in time for Christmas.

There will be around 650 bottles available and the price is likely to be £50.00 excluding shipping.

This is a truly one-off opportunity and I am sure that the demand will be high and is likely to outstrip available bottles.

I will provide more information over the coming months, including details of the whisky cask, confirmation of the price and details of how to order.

The Chosen Few

Following the success of The Manager’s Legacy Series we have developed a new series of single cask releases which have been chosen by individual members of the team here. Each release will be unique and could be from one of our existing older aged whiskies while others will be from one of our newer whiskies, once they are at least 3 year old.

The first of the releases is a 1976 cask which spent most of its life in a refill sherry hogshead and has then been further matured for a final 15 months in a first-fill ex sherry hogshead. The cask was chosen by Ronnie Routledge, after a hard painstaking search through many samples which seemed to last a long, long time and which always ended up with Ronnie leaving with a smile on his face each evening.

New Importers

We hope to be able to announce that we have increased the number of countries that we export to, shortly as we are in discussions with a number of companies in different parts of the world. Although it is too early to say exactly which new countries we are discussing exporting to, I can say that we are hopeful of increasing the availability of our brands in Asia.

Recent Festivals and Forthcoming Events.

I recently attended the inaugural Hamburg festival which suffered similar teething problems to other first events with a very low turnout but I am sure given the support from the industry and the enthusiasm of the organisers then it will prove to be successful in what was a first-class venue in an excellent location.

The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival proved to be a success once again with a large number of people taking advantage of our half-price offer on “The Ultimate Tour” while other took the opportunity to fill their Octave Cask and others filled their very own limited edition “Spirit of Speyside” Spirit Drink which had matured for 2 years in a first-fill ex-Bourbon cask. All-in-all a great weekend which was enjoyed by everyone.

Fill Your Own Bottle at Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival

On the 4th June Ronnie will be at “Whisky ‘n a that” in Ayr. This is organised by Robbie’s Drams.

On the 2nd and 3rd July we will once again be involved with the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival which takes place annually in Portsoy.

Changing Faces

Following on from the last blog when I announced that Mhairi McDonald had rejoined us, this time I have some sadder news. Graham Eunson has decided to leave and will soon join Tomatin as distillery manager.

Graham has become very much associated with Glenglassaugh and has been my right-hand man throughout the last three years. Our relationship has been built on trust and respect for each other’s skills and knowledge and we have operated very much as a team. I will certainly miss Graham and he leaves behind a big pair of shoes to fill but life moves on and Glenglassaugh will continue to grow and to develop.

Although Graham won’t be leaving until July, I want to take this opportunity to record my thanks and to wish him all the very best for the future. He is moving to a big challenge but one that I know he will tackle with relish and will be successful.

As always, all comments are welcome.

Slange

Stuart

Visit Glenglassaugh Distillery at www.glenglassaugh.com

SPRINGBANK 14 YEAR OLD AMONTILLADO CASK 305 

Limited release of 524 bottles of Springbank fully matured in Amontillado sherry casks for 14 years, exclusive to Preiss Imports. —- Tasting Notes – Nose: Toasted oak and tobacco. Warm leather. Aromatic herbs. Black pepper. Tropical fruits. Palate: Woody. Pepper. Nutty, roasted hazelnuts. Slightly acidic. Finish: Clean and woody.
              
Code:    Size: 750ML    ALC. VOL: 55.40%
 
SPRINGBANK 14 YEAR OLD FINO CASK 265 

 
               
Limited release of 576 bottles of Springbank fully matured in Fino sherry casks for 14 years, exclusive to Preiss Imports. —- Tasting Notes: Woody, floral and fruity. Green grapes and apple blossoms. Sandalwood. Delicate and pleasant. Palate: Oaky, Slight smoke. Wild herbs. Heather. Dry. Finish: Nutty and dry.
               
Code:    Size: 750ML    ALC. VOL: 55.30%

SPRINGBANK 14 YEAR OLD MANZANILLA CASK 259

  
         
Limited release of 546 bottles of Springbank fully matured in Manzanilla sherry casks for 14 years, exclusive to Preiss Imports. —- Tasting Notes – Nose: Sharp with notes of almonds, marzipan, cinnamon, camomile. Lime zest. Orange marmalade. Palate: Dry, dough like. Lime juice. Parma Violets. Fruity and floral. Finish: Fresh, dry and bitter.
               
Code:    Size: 750ML    ALC. VOL: 54.80%

SPRINGBANK 14 YEAR OLD OLOROSO CASK 268

  
      
Limited release of 546 bottles of Springbank fully matured in Oloroso sherry casks for 14 years, exclusive to Preiss Imports. —- Tasting Notes – Nose: Nutty and spicy – walnuts and ginger. Mulled wine. Citrus fruits. Brown sugar. Ginger cake. Leather. Tobacco smoke. Zesty. Palate: Warm and fruity. Blood oranges, lemons, citrus fruits. Dark chocolate truffle. Chewy. Rubber. Finish: Leather and smoke.
               
Code:    Size: 750ML    ALC. VOL: 56.20%

Visit Preiss Imports at www.preissimports.com