The Cold Blast of Winter before the Spring Revival

While the rest of Europe, including England, was recently freezing in arctic like conditions and plummeting temperatures the Moray Firth coast escaped the snow and sub-zero temperatures of the last two winters. I would like to think that it is due to the heat that is being generated by all the hard work that we are doing at Glenglassaugh, as you will read about below, but alas I don’t think that we are having such a significant effect on the weather.

Octaves – What is Your Favourite Cask Type

I am never sure if we should listen so closely to customers suggestions but we do aim to please so when I was asked if we could find ex-Port Octaves and ex-Fino sherry Octaves then I at least had to try.

The result is that we have now managed to locate a number of additional options for Octave cask maturation. In addition to the original refill casks in 2011 we added ex-Oloroso sherry and ex-PX sherry and subsequently ex-Bourbon. These casks will form the basis of our core range for future sales.

However we have managed to obtain around 50 ex-Port Octaves, which will be the only ones of this type purchased in 2011 and I cannot guarantee that we will manage to get them again next year. The first 30 arrived yesterday and the aroma from these is fabulous.

We will also, in around 2 months time, take delivery of a very small number, around 12 of each, of ex-Fino, ex-Amontillado and ex-Manzanilla Octaves.

We have already changed the order form on the website with details for the ex-Port Octaves and the price for the other new sherry options is the same price as the Oloroso and PX Octaves.

Earlier in the month we filled 5 ex-Bourbon Octaves for a group of animators from a certain animation studio in California, who were just completing work on a forthcoming film, which is based in Scotland. We had great fun with the cask filling as you see in you tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-ideR9DAhQ&context=C3b6c0fdADOEgsToPDskL8Th2tp4nPWMgkckRiIo65

Visitor Centre

Progress continues to be made with a new disabled access ramp installed and a small piece of decking at the front entrance. The internal work is progressing well but there is still a lot of work to be done to complete the work although we are still hopeful of it being ready to open at the end of March.

Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival

Yes I know that we are not in Speyside but a proud Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky, nether the less we are very close geographically and one could say a fringe neighbour.

Anyway once again we will have several events taking place including “Behind The Scenes” tours, “Fill your own cask” and “Bottle your own Glenglassaugh whisky”.

You can also spend a luxury weekend at our very close neighbours, Durn House, and enjoy a special tour and tasting of some of our very special whiskies with Ronnie Routledge.

Details of all the events can be found at http://www.spiritofspeyside.com/events.php

Out and About

We are just finalising our plans for attending events around the UK during the year but we will once again be visiting a number of locations including, for the first time, The Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh in June.

The RHS coincides with The Traditional Boat Festival in Portsoy so we will be very stretched that weekend and the current plans mean that Ronnie and I will be in Edinburgh while Mhairi will be mustering a team from the distillery to manage the stand in Portsoy.

I will be heading further afield over the next few weeks and months and having already been at the Finest Spirits Festival in Munich, I will shortly be visiting our importers in Netherlands, Belgium and France and then heading to Moscow for a view days.

At the end of March I will be at WhiskyFest in Chicago and the following week at the Whiskies of the World fair in San Francisco, while at the start of May I am planning to go to Banff, not the one in Scotland but the one in Alberta, Canada.

Production

We have also been busy at the distillery with production back on stream while in the warehouse there has been a lot of activity including a large number of Octave cask fillings.

January is normally a quiet month in bottling but not this year for us as we received a very significant order from one customer which has kept us busy.

Later in the year we are planning to extend and alter our small bottling facilities so that we can continue to meet the growing number of orders which we are receiving.

Revival

We have completed the final designs for our forthcoming new product called Revival, and are now eagerly awaiting the delivery of the packaging materials.

Revival will be the first whisky produced at Glenglassaugh since the distillery was refurbished and has already been featured in whisky tastings in Linkoping in Sweden and in Munich and on both occasions was extremely well received. A number of you will also have tasted a “nearly Revival” as a miniature of this was included with The First Cask Bottling.

We expect to have the bottles available for shipping by the end of March but will provide more information before that.

That’s all for now.

Slange

Stuart