INTERNATIONAL ACCOLADE FOR SA WHISKY DISTILLERY

The James Sedgwick Distillery, situated at the foothills of the Bain’s Kloof Pass in the Boland town of Wellington, has been named Best Brand Innovator in Whisky Magazines’ Icons of Whisky competition. The award is in recognition of the state-of-the-art facilities at the distillery as well as the innovative whiskies produced here.

The Icons have been established to acknowledge the people and the places behind the world’s best whiskies and an independent panel compiles a shortlist from the entries received for the various categories.  The winners are chosen by vote and this year, only a few votes separated the winners from the rest of the pack.

According to Andy Watts, manager and master distiller of The James Sedgwick Distillery, it is great to see South Africa now seriously competing against the best in the world.

“The award reflects the global nature of the whisky industry and today, people are taking note of countries such as ours, realising South Africa has the facilities and skills to produce exceptional whiskies.”

Watts is only the sixth manager in the distillery’s 125 year history. Under his watchful eye the production facilities were recently upgraded and a new tasting room was created. Watts, has since his appointment in 1991 as manager of the distillery, been instrumental in shaping a South African whisky platform. He has established many firsts for South Africa on the whisky front with a single malt and a 100% locally blended whisky for the Three Ships brand and more recently the first single grain whisky, Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky.

The distillery is named after Captain James Sedgwick, who settled at the Cape as a purveyor of quality liquor, tobacco and cigars and in 1886 his company purchased the buildings which today house the distillery. 

The award-winning whiskies produced include the Three Ships whisky range of Select, Premium Select 5-year old, Bourbon Cask Finish, the limited edition Three Ships 10-year old single malt and the 100% single grain Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky.

Glencadam 21yo (46%, OB, +/-2010)

“Unchillfiltered and No Added Colouring” What a great start. The nose presents as quite sweet but with a strong back ground that is both gently of heather and tinned fruit cocktail (with the syrup). There are also some pleasant green notes much like a green head of plump barley. The taste is warming and again sweet with a good solid taste, hints of leather and tobacco along with oak spice and of course the sweetness. A flash of coconut. A very ‘big’ feel in the mouth, loads of flavour. Quite excellent actually.  Some what of a different style from many whiskies  and not ambushed by the oak influence, all in harmony. The finish is quite long, mildly fragrant, chewy malt. Some ginger something pops up in the finish to give the whole picture a bit of a twist. Sweet malt at the very end.

A damn fine dram, impress your friends. Refined and still vibrant. Well done.

£50 at Loch Fyne Whiskies

Score 87 points

Grant’s on WhiskyCast

Hi all,

I met with Mark Gillespie from the world-famous WhiskyCast, while on a short visit to Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago. Now in its sixth year, the internet’s best whisky podcast comes to life a few miles outside Philly in ‘the charming yet regrettably dry town of Haddonfield’, as Mark so eloquently puts it….(click on the link below to read the rest of the post)…

http://blog.grantswhisky.com/2011/03/grants-on-whiskycast/

Kind regards,
Ludo

Masterclasses Now Online

Tickets for the show go on sale Monday, April 4th through Roy Thomson Hall’s box office http://www.roythomsonhall.com/eventdetail?eventId=787 at which time masterclasses may be reserved when making your purchase. The full line up for this year’s Masterclass Series is now online, with an expanded line-up of twelve tastings sure to offer something for everyone. http://www.spiritoftoronto.ca/masterclass.html

So now comes the hard part… decisions, decisions. Without a doubt the most popular tastings are from ‘grand cru’ distilleries, and perennial favourites such as Glenrothes, Highland Park and Remy Martin have never disappointed. We are further chuffed to also be welcoming one of Scotch whisky’s most respected statesmen, Willie Tait from Isle of Jura.

The opportunity to meet the whiskymakers in person doesn’t come along often, so it’s equally tempting to savour 10 years of innovation with John Glaser of Compass Box Whisky, or taste cask samples of the whiskies John Hall uses to blend Forty Creek.

Others believe that variety is the spice of life: they will be handsomely rewarded by the independent bottlings of Gordon MacPhail being presented by Michael Urquhart. Fan favourite Regis Lemaitre will also be conducting his own Scottish tour, sampling peated whiskies alongside their non-peated siblings as he visits the islands of Arran, Mull and Islay.

Speaking of variety, this year’s series also includes a rum education courtesy of Ian Burrell, the UK Rum Ambassador. The chance to have him sample the solera aged Ron Zacapa, or Brugal finished in ex-Macallan casks, was just too good to pass. Rum is being touted as the new “malternative” so we look forward to having Ian profile the depth and complexity of whisky’s spiritual cousin.

Sticking closer to home, Matt Jones will be discussing the do’s and dont’s of handmade bourbon in a tasting that features top shelf American whiskey including the recently released Makers 46 that I just can’t put down.

And speaking of home, this year’s Spirit of Toronto presents a very special masterclass: “The Golden Age of Canadian Whisky” hosted by whisky writer and Malt Maniac Davin de Kergommeaux of www.canadianwhisky.org. Davin will be travelling back in time to 1950’s and 1960’s when Canadian whisky still reigned supreme.

The Fine Print

Early admission is $29 (HST included) and reserves seating in any one of the pre-show masterclasses starting at 5:30pm, with priority entry into the main tasting hall when the class is over. The remainder of the classes are scheduled for 7:00pm and 8:30pm and may be reserved at a cost of $10 (HST included) per person per class.

Seating is limited so if you are interested in a masterclass, do make your reservation as soon as tickets go on sale.

Please note that reservations in any one time slot are limited to the number of tickets purchased for the show. As an example, purchasing 2 tickets to the show entitles you to reserve a maximum of 2 masterclass seats at 5:30pm, 2 seats for the 7:00pm sessions and 2 seats for the 8:30pm sessions.

Visit the Spirit of Toronto at http://www.spiritoftoronto.ca/

Whisky – Under the Influence of Stars

Single malt is enjoyed by Hollywood stars, astronauts may reach for stars, drunks may even see them, now the greenest whisky ever made is distilled under the influence of stars.
 
The world’s first ever biodynamic whisky has been distilled at Bruichladdich Distillery from barley sown, grown and harvested according to an astral calendar.

Biodynamic Bruichladdich is über-organic, the barley being grown according to the controversial agricultural principles of the messianic Dr Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925).
 
Steiner, an Austrian philosopher, educationalist, spiritualist and lecturer, is considered the ‘Galileo of organic science’; to critics, he was just a cosmic nutter.

To counter the over-dependance on agrochemicals, Steiner set out an holistic approach to agriculture, where the farm unit becomes “biologically dynamic”.

Steiner codified the 18th century farming ways, an accumulation of 8,000 years of agricultural know how, when Man was more in tune with earth’s natural cycles.

Farmers are guided by a cosmic calendar, where phases of the lunar and astral cycle indicate the ideal time for sowing, pruning or treating – not only the tides.

Whisky is an agricultural product and barley is key. Thanks to industrial production, the basic tenet – its provenance – has been lost. We have been busy working to reconnect it and this is the Holy Grail.

100% of our whisky comes from 28 farms – an unprecedented 50% of is grown on Islay, and 50% is organically grown on the mainland.

Biodynamics, what with astral calendars, nettle insecticides and cow horn fertilisers, sounds far too hippy and alternative. But there’s method to this madness: 

Stripped down, it’s essentially a modern farming creed based on ancient knowledge, know how that was lost when folk left the land for the cities.

We are very proud to have produced Biodynamic Bruichladdich, to be the first people to distil such an extra-ordinary spirit, and an Islay single malt at that.

8 of the world’s 10 best wine makers  (Leflaive, Bize-Leroy, Romanee Conti, Zind Humbrecht etc. ) produce wines from biodynamically grown grapes.

Notes:

100% Scotch: 28 Scottish farms – an unprecedented 50% of Bruichladdich’s barley is grown on Islay, and 50% is organically grown.

Spring 2011 pioneering Anaerobic Digestion project provides 100% of power needs from pot ale waste stream.

Top 10 winemakers: Gault & Millot

Biodynamic Bruichladdich certified by Demeter will not be available until after several years of maturation, until at least 2018

The Organic is available from whisky specialists and on line at www.bruichladdich.com

Old Pulteney WK209 “Good Hope” 46% (distillery pre production sample)

Old Pulteney WK209 ‘Good Hope’
• Follows a highly successful WK499 ‘Isabella Fortuna’ as Old Pulteney’s travel retail offering
• Limited to only 1,600 cases (of 6 x 1 litre bottles)
• Unchill-filtered, natural colour
• Bottled at 46% ABV
• Matured entirely in European sherry casks
• Named after a steam Herring Drifter WK209 ‘Good Hope’ built in Wick in 1948, first boat in Wick to use echo sounder

Malt and honey on the nose to start although the malt is of the ‘dusty’ variety like when you scoop a handful of dry malt from the kiln. There‘s also a little meatiness in the background just behind some leather notes and then moments of clove, but just moments. A little hand warming intensifies the afore mentioned characteristics nicely. The taste is brilliantly honeyed and malty at the same time with just hints of the leather which is now some really good oak spice and cocoa. This is very nice, the oak spice, cocoa, honey, sherry and malt work really well together.  Ah, some orange notes also. The finish consists of blasts sweet sherried malt quickly followed by the other notes, it is quite long and it holds together very well and after a number of minutes the malt and the orange notes are the last impression.

Very drinkable and moreish.

Score 88 points

LOCH FYNE WHISKIES www.LFW.co.uk 01499 302219 ship@lfw.co.uk

Shackleton

– Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt – Limited edition bottling

• Special commemorative bottling of a truly unique blended whisky liquid.
• Faithful reproduction of the actual Mackinlay’s whisky taken on the ill-fated Shackleton Antarctic expedition to the South pole in 1907.
•Presented in a replica bottle and wooden case – just as Shackleton left it “The most exciting find of scotch whisky since days began”
• 1907, Explorer Ernest Shackleton took 25 cases of Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt on his famous, ill-fated expedition to the South Pole, and left 11 bottles behind, buried in the ice.
•2007 Two priceless cases discovered and one taken to NZ by the heritage trust.
•2011 Richard Patterson of W&M analyses the liquid and reveals a truly awesome whisky.
•2011 Richard recreates this sensational blend, lost for over a century
•Malts from Speyside, Islands and Highlands including Glen Mhor from 1983, the year the distillery closed.
•Limited edition – Only 50,000 bottles will be produced
•Each bottle sold will generate a £5 donation to the Antartica Heritage Trust

Tasting Note:

Colour – Light honey, straw gold with shimmering highlights.
Nose – Soft, elegant & refined. Delicate aromas of crushed apple, pear and fresh pineapple arouse the senses. The spirit is exciting and vibrant with attractive notes of oak shavings that release hints of buttery vanilla, creamy caramel and nutmeg. A whisper of marmalade, cinnamon and even a tease of smoke, ginger and muscovado sugar completes this spectrum of delight.
Taste – With a generous strength of 47.3% this gives the spirit plenty of impact on the palate but in a mild warming manner. Harmonious and exhilarating. Whispers of gentle bonfire smoke slowly give way to spicy rich toffee, treacle and pecan nuts. These enticing flavours linger lovingly on the palate but are soon combined by a sensual, complex array of creme brulee, orange rind and freshly baked bread. It is a remarkable tapestry of tantalising taste sensations which truly rewards the palate.

RRP £100.00 due with Loch Fyne Whiskies Soon

… whisky review 193 – Glenlivit Nadurra 16yo (ralfy @ www.ralfy.com introduces a big Producer’s ‘craft’ version of a globally available Malt,    … and a decent result too!)

Due to a high demand of you looking for this very collectable whisky, we have managed to get our hands on more. Don’t miss out this time………..

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Light, delicate and subtle. Floral, grassy armoas developing into a sweet malted barley. A hint of almonds (think marizipan, amaretto biscuits). Delicate liquorice as well as raisins and sultanas. Slight hint of vanilla and tropical fruits; bananas and mangos. A waft of peat smoke in the background.

Palate: Starts very soft and creamy with notes of vanilla, honey and sultana; then peppery chilli-like spice kicks in followed by caramel, toasted almonds and liquorice. Light smoke again present. Palate runs from sweet to spicy and then dry.

Finish: Hot, spicy and long. Tangy and refreshing with prominent notes of sweet barley, peppery bonfire smoke and woody vanilla oak dryness. Very moreish!

£70.00 inc VAT

http://www.singlemaltsdirect.com/royal-wedding-commemorative-bottle.html

‘DRAMFEST’ BOOKINGS PROVE WORLDWIDE POPULARITY OF SPEYSIDE WHISKIES

Whisky fans around the world have been putting their money where their favourite dram is and snapping up tickets for the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival in their thousands since this year’s programme was announced on 14th January.

Whisky enthusiasts from nearly 100 countries worldwide have already checked out the Festival website, with 20 different nationalities taking advantage of the online booking system to ensure they have a ticket for their favourite event. Topping the ticket sales for this year’s Festival, which runs from 28th April – 2nd May, are whisky fanatics from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.

Advance ticket sales show a 15% increase on this time last year exceeding a value of £50,000 and representing a welcome low season boost to Speyside, Moray and the wider Scottish economy.

More than 40 of over 200 events, which cater for whisky lovers as well as their friends and family, have already sold out. Specialist whisky events and tours have proved the most popular, particularly visits to distilleries not normally open to the public such as Mortlach, Auchroisk, Dailuaine, Glendronach. Also sold out are tours around the Seven Stills of Dufftown and the Five Stills of Elgin, as well as some of the unique train tours to Strathisla Distillery and several of the whisky and food pairing events.

The five day ‘dramfest’, now in its twelfth year, is one of Europe’s largest whisky festivals. It annually attracts around 26,000 visits to events generating around £750,000 for the local economy, with tourists arriving from both home and abroad.

This year’s programme also features a selection of new events. Whisky lovers can become a Benromach Warehouseman for the day, take part in Food and Whisky Tours, try their hand at whisky themed craft taster sessions and choose from a selection of traditional musical events and ceilidhs.

Organisers are delighted at the response to this year’s Festival so far. Chairman Jim Royan extended a warm welcome to all visitors who plan to include the Festival in their travel plans this year, with a special invitation to Scots around the country from the Borders, to the Central Belt to the Highlands to come and experience the region and its world famous product during the Festival.

“The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival highlights the rich variety of landscapes, history and leisure opportunities that the area has to offer. It’s the blend of whisky, music, food and fun that guarantees Festival visitors are immersed in the culture of Whisky Country and experience the true taste of the Speyside spirit of hospitality.”

Paul Bush OBE, Chief Operating Officer at EventScotland, the national events agency, said: “As supporters of the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival, EventScotland are delighted to see that the festival continues to attract large numbers of visitors from such a diverse range of countries.

“The event, which is amongst Europe’s largest and most-recognised whisky festivals, continues to seek out inspiring and innovative ways to showcase the very best of Scottish food and drink. Set against Moray’s picturesque landscapes and featuring events at some of the world’s most renowned distilleries, it’s a fantastic example of why Scotland is the perfect stage for the best food and drink events”

Notes:

– Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival 2011 runs from Thursday, 28th April-Monday, 2nd May.

www.spiritofspeyside.com– Speyside is easily accessible by rail or air, including a number of low-cost airline options to Aberdeen and Inverness airport

– The Festival runs a subsidised dial-a-bus service and taxi voucher scheme

– The Festival also runs several competitions and awards including a Whisky Cocktail Competition, Photographic Competition and the prestigious Spirit of Speyside Whisky Awards

– Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival 2011 has received funding from EventScotland and is also financially supported by many other private and public partners

– EventScotland is the national events agency. EventScotland is working to make Scotland one of the world’s leading event destinations. By developing an exciting portfolio of sporting and cultural events EventScotland is helping to raise Scotland’s international profile and boost the economy by attracting more visitors. For further information about EventScotland, its funding programmes and latest event news visit

www.EventScotland.org

– The Year of Active Scotland is a Scottish Government initiative being delivered by EventScotland and VisitScotland which began on the 1st January 2011. For more information go to

www.eventscotland.org/activescotland– A series of focus years running from 2010 to 2013 will ensure co-ordinated national activity that will spotlight some of Scotland’s great assets as we journey towards 2014. The four focus years are centred on domestic and international tourism and the development of the events industry in Scotland. These focus years will celebrate our reputation as a land food and drink, as an active nation, as a place of culture and creativity and as a place of natural beauty.

– EventScotland in partnership with Volunteer Development Scotland is delivering Event Team Scotland, a new web – based portal which matches volunteers across Scotland with exciting sporting and cultural events. For more information please visit

www.eventteamscotland.com