Check out the first of Belgian whisky blogger Mark Dermul’s Whisky Ramblings on video: 1st Xperiment, created at Whiskyblender.com.

http://youtu.be/srXuYgqWr1M

Ten things you may not know about Grant’s

Hi all,

I am in India today preparing my speech for the opening ceremony of Whisky Live . Grant’s 12 Years Old is set to launch the proceedings as hundreds of professionals and whisky enthusiasts gather in Delhi, all eager to discover new whiskies and meet producers from around the world.

I will share pictures of the…(please click on the link below to read the remainder of the article)…

THE LINK

Kind regards,
Ludo

Glenmorangie and The Open CHAMPIONSHIP – THE PERFECT PARTNERSHIP OF TWO SCOTTISH ICONS

— Scotland’s favourite single malt whisky Glenmorangie, teams up with golf’s most famous competition – The Open Championship —

— Pairing of two Scottish icons golf and whisky announced in three year partnership —

Scotland is celebrated the world over for whisky and golf, so what could be more appropriate than today’s (February 2012)  announcement of a three year partnership, that will see Glenmorangie become the Official Whisky of The Open Championship.

The pairing of Glenmorangie and The R&A organisers of The Open Championship, is a natural fit as both have huge global followings.

Glenmorangie is enjoyed in over 130 countries worldwide and of course in the UK where it is Scotland’s favourite single malt whisky.

The Open Championship is golf’s most famous tournament watched on television by an estimated 458 million households in 196 territories worldwide. Over 200,000 visitors flock to Britain’s finest coastal golf courses every year to enjoy the drama of The Open in person. Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club, near Liverpool, will be hosting the Open Championship in 2012 (15-22 July).

Both Glenmorangie and The Open have a proud heritage dating back over 150 years. Glenmorangie was first produced in 1843 and is a leading player in premium single malts, whilst The Open is golf’s oldest Major Championship dating back to 1860 and offers the famous Claret Jug as its prize.

Just as Glenmorangie goes to unnecessary lengths to craft its award winning single malt whisky – using the tallest stills in Scotland and only the finest quality oak casks – so The Open is renowned every year for its meticulous preparation of the greens, fairways and bunkers of each Championship course.  

Peter Dawson, The R&A’s Chief Executive welcomed Paul Skipworth, President and Managing Director of The Glenmorangie Company, to St Andrews, and expressed his delight at the partnership.

Paul Skipworth said: “Glenmorangie is proud to become a part of this amazing Championship, which will see our whisky showcased to as many as 200,000 visitors at each Open. Glenmorangie is delighted with our partnership with The R&A, an association of our mutually high standards. Like The Open itself we believe in going the extra mile in the pursuit of perfection.”  

Peter Dawson said: “We are thrilled to welcome Glenmorangie as the Official Whisky of The Open Championship. Glenmorangie is an iconic Scottish brand which like golf is enjoyed the world over.”

Notes:

About Glenmorangie:
Glenmorangie single malt Scotch whisky originates in the Scottish Highlands where, at the Glenmorangie Distillery, it is distilled in the tallest malt whisky stills in Scotland, expertly matured in the finest oak casks (used only twice), and perfected by the Men of Tain. The Distillery was founded in 1843 and is renowned as a pioneer in its field uniting tradition with innovation to create ‘unnecessarily well-made’ whiskies.

Glenmorangie has won a remarkable total of 18 ‘Gold Best in Class’ medals over the past five years at the IWSC – the most internationally-recognised awards body. This is more than any other single malt Scotch whisky, making Glenmorangie the ‘best awarded’ of any single malt.

About the Glenmorangie Company:
The Company is one of the most renowned and innovative distillers and marketers of Scotch whisky brands worldwide and is part of Moët Hennessy, the wine and spirits division of Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH). Headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, the Company produces Glenmorangie Single Highland malt whisky and Ardbeg Single Islay malt.

The R&A
Based in St Andrews, The R&A organises The Open Championship, major amateur events and international matches. Together with the United States Golf Association, The R&A governs the game worldwide, jointly administering the Rules of Golf, Rules of Amateur Status, Equipment Standards and World Amateur Golf Rankings. The R&A’s working jurisdiction is global, excluding the United States and Mexico.

The R&A is committed to working for golf and supports the growth of the game internationally and the development and management of sustainable golf facilities. The R&A operates with the consent of 143 organisations from the amateur and professional game and on behalf of over thirty million golfers in 128 countries.

The Open
The Open Championship is golf’s oldest Major. Played since 1860 on British links golf courses, it is the game’s most international Major Championship with qualifying events on every continent. For one week each year, the pursuit of the famous Claret Jug trophy is the focus of the sporting world, followed globally by millions of fans.
Organised by The R&A, The Open delivers an annual economic benefit of £100 million to its host region, while the Championship’s commercial success supports the development of the game, worldwide.

In 2012 The 141st Open Championship will be held at Royal Lytham & St Anne’s Golf Club in Lancashire 15-22 July.

Responsible Drinking:
The Glenmorangie Company advocates responsible drinking and suggests that drinkers savour Glenmorangie whiskies in moderation and in line with recommended daily guidelines for alcohol consumption. 

The Whisky Barrel has just posted a new article about Ben Nevis Distillery and you can read it by clicking on the link below;

THE LINK

ARCHIVES First Release Now available at http://shop.whiskybase.com/

GLEN GRANT 1975 Arc 46.6%, 36-year-old , Hogshead #5476, 81 bottles This Glen Grant is the oldest one of the ARCHIVES First Release. There were only 81 bottles left is this hogshead. Maybe the warehouse keepers liked it too? Nose: grand old whisky full of fruit: raspberries, strawberries, prunes, flowers, oak, nutmeg and some cardamom Taste: raspberry cream, ripe banana, honey, bay leaf, liquorice, grapes, lemon grass Finish: red fruit, oak, macarons and a little pepper.

DAILUAINE 1983 Arc 47.3%, 28-year-old , Hogshead #865, 265 bottles Dailuaine is one of main components of Johnnie Walker blends. Sometimes a good cask goes to an independent bottler… Nose: soft citrus with vanilla, caramel, toffee and butter. A bit later fruits like strawberry, apple, cider, plum blossom and mangoes Taste: a sweet mix of buckthorn, grapefruit, marzipan and again the strawberries together with fresh cake Finish: a lingering finish with lemon zest, honey, vanilla with hints of nutmeg and cinnamon.

GLEN GARIOCH 1990 Arc 54.0%, 21-year-old , Hogshead #252, 267 bottles A clean and green whisky from a little known distillery in the Eastern Highlands. Nose: green tea, mineral, caramel, fudge, lilly, mead, apricots, cherries Taste: chocolate, sweets, apple, honey, heather, peaches Finish: long, oranges, heather and camphor.

LEDAIG 2004 Arc 61.9%, 7-year-old , Hogshead #900009, 302 bottles This young but powerful whisky comes from the Tobermory distillery on the Isle of Mull. Nose: flinty, zesty, peaty, very clean, honey, sweet, BBQ smoke Taste: smoky, lemony, grain, wool, ginger, cardamom, butterfudge and salt, easy drinkable for such a strong whisky even without water Finish: peaty, zesty, minty, fresh sea breeze, marmelade.

Tickets on Sale Monday April 2 at 10am!

Belated Happy New Year… it’s a grey winter day but hopefully this missive finds you healthy, happy and looking forward to this year’s 8th Annual Spirit of Toronto on Saturday, May 12 at Roy Thomson Hall.

We’re pleased to announce that tickets for this year’s show go on sale Monday April 2nd at 10:00am. Tickets may be purchased from Roy Thomson Hall’s box office online, by phone or in person. Tickets are $129 HST included and a reminder will go out on April 1st for those of you subscribed to this list.

Please note that masterclasses may be reserved at the same time as you purchase your tickets, and once again we expect that most classes will be fully reserved the same day that tickets go on sale.

Speaking of masterclasses, we’ve been hard at work programming this year’s schedule. Both this year’s show and Masterclass Series will offer something for everyone, with the opportunity to sample from a very diverse range of whiskies and fine spirits from the four corners of the globe.

In the meantime, please stay tuned for more news about this year’s show. Another update will be going out once the website is revised and we are ready to start announcing our 2012 guest speakers.

In the best of spirits,

Johanna

Executive Producer
Spirit of Toronto 2012
http://www.spiritoftoronto.ca/ 

SPRINGBANK SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

Greetings Society Members

Things are starting to hot up here in Springbank, and I don’t mean theweather. We are getting into Open Day mode and starting to think about tours for this year.

We also have a new bottle out within the next couple of weeks – not for the Society – for general release, but I’ll tell you more about that later in the newsletter.

OPEN DAY – THURSDAY 24TH MAY

We will of course be having Masterclasses at both Springbank and Glengyle, but probably a slightly different format this year, so that you don’t get fed up with the same thing every year. These will be hosted by Gavin & Frank and Ranald.

We are also having a Springbank tasting in the Tasting Room with a little food to match the whisky in the morning, hosted by Jenny. In the afternoon there will be a Cadenhead tasting in the Tasting Room hosted by Grant, who has started to nag me already that I sold far too many tickets last year. BUT I am ignoring him. There will also be tastings in one of the warehouses, buy the tickets for this on the day – no need to book this one.

There will be two single casks, bottled on the day, still to be chosen. Free tours will be at specified times, so that we don’t get in the way of the Master Classes.

Local crafters will be joining us with a selection of their products: Gigha’s Natural Skin care, The Bathtime Cafe, Kintyre Design, Kintye Lampwork, Wee Toon Carver, Kintyre Candles, Eric Norman (wood turner), cheese from the local Creamery, with hopefully a few others.

There will be food from Auntie Mo’s, Ifferdale Lamb and we hope MacMillan Smokehouse. Fyne Ales will also be joining us for the entire day.

Music has still to be confirmed but there will be live music during the day, and in the early evening we will have one of the junior Pipe Bands, followed by another live musician (to be confirmed).

This year we will again have a “spooks” tour, and I have been promised it will be bigger and scarier than last year.

If we can keep Donald calm during the day he will be cooking burgers in the evening. I have probably forgotten some of the things we will have, but I will be updating as we go along. The master classes will have to be booked in advance as will the Tastings in the Tasting Room – Grant keeps reminding me that space is limited here!!!

Society Golf Open

This year’s golf open is being held on Friday 25th May at Machrihanish Golf Course. I am just finalising the details, but can tell you that it will be played as a 4 ball, tee off times between 9.06 am and 10.42 am. We are arranging for bacon rolls and coffee pre golf with a carvery lunch at the end. I will send the details of how to book your tee time very soon.

RUNDLETS & KILDERKINS

This will be available within the next few weeks from the shop – the price will be £57 plus postage and packing, but you will get your discount of 10%.

Here’s a wee photograph and a wee cartoon with the tasting notes: For the most part of the 17th and the 18th centuries Campbeltown was a smuggling centre, an occupation that was supported by the area’s geography, topography…. and the local gentry. One famous story tells of an old woman living in the town who was up before the Sheriff for smuggling. She had been found guilty and before passing sentence the Sheriff told her:

Colour: Russet

Nose: Honey, vanilla, chocolate, nougat and toffee in abundance followed by hints of wholesome freshly
ground nutmeg.

Palate: Creamy and rich as expected from the nose, with notes of chocolate covered honey comb mixed with
pistachio and crushed almonds. Rich and oily from its maturation in small casks, it gives an impression of  being older than its ten years.

Finish: “e ground nutmeg is still evident on the finish but the creaminess outstays the spices to a long smooth and sweet finish. With water this dram develops and even sweeter finish, fruity and sugar candy, it becomes even smoother.

So, as you can see, it is full steam ahead towards May.

We still have some of the latest Society bottling, Longrow 10 year old from a fresh sherry cask at £45 and we also have some of the Springbank 14 year old bottled in 2010 for Society members, also at £45.

We will be looking for something else to bottle for you very soon. I’ll see if we can get something a wee bit older, with some spiders in it!

Springbank spiders are very scary.

Janet
Contact Janet via society@springbankwhisky.com for details on how to join the Springbank Society

J & A Mitchell and Co Ltd, The Tasting Room, 9 Bolgam Street, Campbeltown, Argyll, PA28 6HZ
Tel : + 44(0) 1586 552009 Fax : + 44(0) 1586 553232

Visit Springbank Distillery at http://www.springbankwhisky.com

February 2012 Outturn Offerings

Dichotomy of sweet and savoury

Cask No. 16.31
Highlands, Eastern Highlands

Sweet and savoury aromas greeted the Panel – tinned fruit, cinder toffee, honeycomb, Rumtopf peaches, grapes, tomato vines, Vosene shampoo and roast pork & cranberry; although there was a slight butyric whiff. The palate was more of the same although nutty with cinnamon, slightly burnt caramel and strawberry cider with added pineapple sherbet fizz. Water introduces strawberry strudel, sandalwood church pews, rum-soaked-oranges and grease paint, while to taste it was sickly sweet with liquorice rolling papers, over-ripe plums and incense but a bitter dry finish reminiscent of peanut skins balanced it out. From Scotland’s oldest distillery that is home to the Famous Grouse.

Drinking tip: For reflection of fruity memories

Colour: Strawberry syrup
Cask: Refill gorda
Age: 10 years
Date distilled: March 2001
Alcohol: 55.7%

$95

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Gentle Giant

Cask No. 33.111
Islay, South Shore

Although this was an initial blast of peat smoke, smoked bacon, vegetable oil, brine (from hot dogs) it was sweet and delicate. There was toffee dust (the stuff you find at the bottom of a big jar from the sweet shop), white bonbons, all interlaced with a mineral character. Big, salty, smoky, and earthy to taste but a delicate perfumed herbal note gave the impression of lightness. Water stabilised this gentle impression; now it was nutty, grassy, herbal and more perfumed although the smoky bacon was still there. Liquorice, walnuts, pine resin and salty ash were added to on the palate.

Drinking tip: On your way to Islay or for an education in the art of smoky whiskies

Colour: 9 carat gold
Cask: First-fill barrel
Age: 9 years
Date distilled: October 2001
Alcohol: 57.6%

$90

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Gesundheit!

Cask No. 50.45
Lowlands, Borders

The nose was gentle, sweet and fruity – chocolate raisins, red apples, red cherries and jif lemon, but also sneeze-inducing with dusty hay, woven baskets and quarry dust. We thought the palate unusual – dark chocolate, toffee and Butterkist popcorn and sliced apples sprinkled with salt, paprika and chilli powder. The reduced nose remained invigorating and inviting – fresh fruit salad, 7UP, marzipan, pear and frangipani tart and worn leather. The reduced palate became an attractive balance between sharp and sweet, like bitter lemon; the mouth-feel resembled pandrops on the tongue, leaving a pleasant aftertaste. The distillery lies close to Scotland’s ‘book town’.

Drinking tip: To get your juices flowing

Colour: Tarnished brass
Cask: Refill barrel
Age: 20 years
Date distilled: July 1990
Alcohol: 49.2%

$145

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Cockle-warming citric crush

Cask No. 73.46
Highlands, Speyside (Isla)

The head-clearing nose offered peach schnapps, fruity white wine, lemon grass, marzipan, barley sugars and summer fruit salad, served with ice-cream and mint Matchmakers. The palate was an easy-drinking, cockle-warming melange of sherbet, gewürztraminer and lime sorbet with a creamy toffee, dulce de leche mouth-feel. The reduced nose was gloriously fresh – a citric crush of orange and lime (fruit, rind, leaves – everything) along with brown sugar, hints of leather and crunchy pea-pods. Swizzle double lollies, mushy strawberries and flying saucers floated on the reduced palate, held in place by a slightly tannic, minty after-taste. The distillery name means ‘big stream’.

Drinking tip: After a session of berry picking, or with dessert

Colour: Spring barley gold
Cask: Refill barrel
Age: 12 years
Date distilled: May 1999
Alcohol: 57.6%

$105

Please click on the LINK to read further and visit the SMWS of America at www.smwsa.com  for information on how to join.

January is finally behind us, and although the evenings are getting lighter it’s still pretty cold – which, means it’s still whisky weather! We’ve got a bunch of great new drams arriving in our warehouse (some of them exclusive to TWE), ready to fill your hipflask or warm your cockles on a winter’s evening.

Karuizawa 1981 Sherry Cask #6256
Bottled exclusively for TWE, this is a long-awaited cask strength first-fill sherrybomb
http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-13006.aspx

Rittenhouse 100-Proof Rye Single Cask
Another exclusive TWE bottling – a sensational single cask high strength rye whiskey from Rittenhouse
http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-16353.aspx

Chichibu ‘The First’
We’re very excited about this – the inaugural release of single malt whisky from Japan’s newest distillery!
http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-15256.aspx

Highland Park Thor 16yo
A beautifully-presented cask strength 16yo from HP – the first in their new Valhalla Collection
http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-16341.aspx

Abhainn Dearg 2008 First Bottling
First legal single malt whisky released from tiny new distillery on Isle of Lewis. Comes with a free miniature of the whisky!
http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-16027.aspx

Glenmorangie Artein 15yo
Finished in Sassicaia red wine casks
http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-16301.aspx

You can see our full newsletter online 

Loch Fyne Whiskies Stocks, ‘Loch Lomond 1966’

Loch Lomond 1966 44yo 40% abv

£83.50 inc vat £69.58 ex vat 

Best regards,
Loch Fyne Whiskies
david@lfw.co.uk