July Previews: 4 New Releases

We’ve released 4 preview casks from July’s Outturn… be amongst the first of our members to preview the new list before its release on Fri 6 July.

Poles Apart Pair: 41.52 & 76.91 only £95
41.52 Boiled sweets and Playdoh & 76.91 Caballero in an orange grove. A young bourbon cask and an old sherry cask, this pairing contains plenty to delight the sweet-toothed explorer.
BUY

July’s Tasting Panel Favourite: 3.189 – £61.10
3.189 Echoes of bonfires and funfairs (Islay) The taste could best be described as fierce but pleasant – ash, smoke, burnt toffee, toffee apples, echoes of bonfire night; dry clove and mustard heat to finish.
BUY

Seaside Stunner: 4.165 – £82.30
4.165 Soft peat and seaside piers (Highland Island) A chewy taste of toffee crisp, soft heather, mint hot chocolate, Murray mints with saccharin bitterness and a minerally peat heat left the Panel pleasantly surprised.
BUY

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.

www.ralfy.com goes Vintage again with Whisky Review 284 – Coleburn 1979 30yo (Mackillop’s Choice)

A note from Chris at Compass Box;

Starting in Inverness just after midnight, at 12.01am, John Glaser and Dominic Roskrow proceeded to host 8 different whisky tastings in 8 Whisky Shops across 8 cities between Inverness and 643 miles away in Brighton.

Travelling by car, the team reached their destination in Brighton bang on time at 11.30pm, 30 minutes within their 24 hour deadline. There were many highlights, but drinking Great King Street Highballs with more than 25 whisky fans in Edinburgh at 4.30am in the morning will live long in the memory!

Guinness were unfortunately unable to process the World Record attempt before it actually took place….but kindly replied three days afterwards (!) to confirm that it would have been a new world record category for them. So it’s the ‘World Record’ that wasn’t…Oh well, it was still an amazing day!

Glenrothes NAS 1988/2011 (43%, OB, 2011) 

On the nose there is some very light fruit (which grows with time in the glass), a good dollop of citrus, hints of leather and tobacco, a little lumber yard. When all are taken together it makes for a heady and pleasing combination. The taste leans towards the leather and tobacco followed by the fruit which is now in the form of stewed prunes and raspberries along with some of the citrus, orange zest? No matter it’s quite good and solid. The finish warming and a very good reflection of the nose and the taste and therefore quite well balanced. There’s a little more of the leather and tobacco with some spice in the finish which is a good addition to the mix. 

Well done Glenrothes! 

$115 

Score 85 points

Sample kindly provided by David King of Anchor Distilling, Whisky Intelligence recently had a chance to chat with David and covered the follwing topics;

David has been in the whisky industry since 1989 and his father was a customs officer in a scotch whisky distillery.  In ’95 he first came across The Glenrothes and in 1998 he started working full time with The Glenrothes. The distillery only uses 2% of liquid for bottling as The Glenrothes (the rest goes into other blended whisky). The 1988 Vintage, which is jsut now arrving in the USA, is different from the predecessor vintages. The spirits used for the Glenrothes single malt is determined by cask selection and not by an age statement hence the use of vintages.

The Glenrothes is now with Anchor Distilling (a boutique craft international group) and The Glenrothes is the biggest brand in the portfolio.  The Glenrothes works well for Anchor’s portfolio because of the evolving market place – consumers want education and smaller craft products – “maturity not age”  The Glenrothes motto really works well in this market place. David’s also said that they plan to have a significant commitment to focusing on events and festivals in order to talk directly to consumers. 

Following the latest Gold Medal Award from the San Francisco World
Spirits Competition 2012, Arran 10 yr old will be available in
50 ml bottles in the U.S.

It is bottled at 46% without any chill filtration
Absolutely no artificial colouring whatsoever
Jim Murray from Whisky Bible rated Arran 10 yr 93 points

We are very excited to have the Arran 10 yr old available in miniatures
• Can be used for the “Newbie” to Arran
• Fill a well deserved space in one’s miniature collection
• Serves as a good gift idea for travellers, colleagues, corporate gifts, friends, family members, etc.

RRP $ 6.99/btl

Current accolades for Isle of Arran Distillery include:
Winner for Best New Exporter (2004), Queen’s Award for International Trade (2005),
Scottish Distiller of the Year (2007) and Scottish Drinks Producer of the Year (2007)

Product awards include: Best Whisky Liqueur (2007), ‘Best Single Malt Scotch 12 Years & Under’ for The Arran Malt Amarone Cask Finish (2008) ‘Best Single Malt Scotch 11-15 Years’ for The Arran Malt Sherry Single Cask 1998 (2010) and ‘Best Single Malt Scotch 11-15 Years’ for the Icons of Arran Peacock (2011)

Arran- The Devil’s Punchbowl 52.3%

Limited release of 6,660 bottles

Cask strength vatting of 24 casks including ex-bourbon, sherry and peated malt.

Named after a stunning landmark on the Isle of Arran.

Dare to meet the devil?

£74.99 (£62.49 ex VAT)

Ralfy publishes Whisky Review #283 Lochside 1981 30yo Malt (BB&R)

MORRISON BOWMORE DISTILLERS CELEBRATES AWARD-WINNING YEAR 

Further underpinning its vision of becoming the Single Malt specialist 

June 2012:  Morrison Bowmore Distillers, the leading producer of Single Malt Scotch Whisky, has further exemplified its company vision as the Single Malt Specialist, by winning a series of prestigious industry awards for its remarkable spirits this year. 

The Glasgow-based company is the producer of four major brands of Single Malt Scotch Whiskies – Auchentoshan, Bowmore, Glen Garioch and McClelland’s – and possesses over 200 years of whisky making experience combined. This year, these exceptional whiskies have won the following awards: 

World Whiskies Awards:

• Best Islay – Bowmore Maltman’s Selection
• Best Lowland – Auchentoshan 1999 Wine Matured
• Best Highland (12 Years Old & under) – Glen Garioch 12 Years Old

San Francisco World Spirits:

• Double Gold – Auchentoshan Three Wood
• Double Gold – Glen Garioch Founders Reserve
• Gold – Bowmore 12 Years Old

The Spirits Business Scotch Whisky Masters:

• Masters Islay Single Malt – Bowmore Small Batch Reserve
  • The top award for this new expression released in April 2012
• Gold Islay Single Malt – Bowmore 12 Years Old
• Gold Islay Single Malt – Bowmore 15 Years Old ‘Darkest’ 

Since leaving the blended scotch market in 2006, Morrison Bowmore Distillers has focused solely on the development of its world class Single Malt brands. As a close-knit company of only 200 individuals, the company is passionate about all aspects of Single Malt production, from investing in the best quality wood, to quality control, to its globally sought-after limited editions portfolio. The strategy has seen the firm invest £5.4m in an ambitious project to upgrade and expand its Glasgow based bottling, blending and office facilities. 

The idea of maintenance of traditional values and innovation in the marketplace is also directly behind the creation of its new corporate logo, which sees them rebrand as MBD to clarify their desire to be seen as The Single Malt Specialist. The copper still signifies its adherence to time-honoured traditions yet the overall logo retains a contemporary look and feel.   

As further evidence of the company’s confidence in the Single Malt market, they have repackaged and extended the Bowmore and McClellands ranges as well as launching a new range of Auchentoshan, Scotland’s only triple distilled Single Malt, exclusively for the global travel retail market. All done in the first half of 2012. 

Mike Keiller, CEO of Morrison Bowmore Distillers, comments: “We’re delighted to have received these awards and proud that the fruits of our labour have been internationally recognised. We’re a small company, with a dedicated team who give our all to realise our vision of being the Single Malt specialist. As anyone in the industry will understand, Single Malt production requires care and patience, and the investment we’re putting in is reaping its rewards.” 

For further information on Morrison Bowmore Distillers please visit www.morrisonbowmore.co.uk and www.suntory.com

The Relaxed Whisky Weekend 7 – 9 September 2012

Fellow whisky-enthusiasts,

Can you believe it’s just over 10 weeks until Maltstock? It’s about time for an update. We have some great new additions to this years program.

Sam Simmons returns

We don’t known how but somehow he found time for a relaxing weekend in his very busy agenda. He will host a special Balvenie tasting at Maltstock. We don’t know what the line-up will be, but we know it will be entertaining.

Barrel Race
As always we like to do something new, something different at Maltstock (remmeber the barrel-pinata from last year?). This year we’ll have a Barrel Race! Everyone can compete. And there will be a fantastic prize for the fastest barrel-boy or girl. So you better start practicing! Roll out your barrel. If you don’t have a barrel, get out your bin, your milk-can, your water-butt or your mother-in-law and start rolling!

Special Glenfiddich with Tony

We’re very proud to welcome back one of the most enthusiastic whisky ambassadors we’ve ever seen: the one, the only, the Tony! He always gets a thumbs up. This time he will host a special virtual distillery tour of Glenfiddich. A distillery some of the whisky enthusiasts tend to oversee sometimes. But it really is one that’s worth a visit. At this masterclass you will virtually visit the distillery and feel like you’ve actually been there. And there will be some very special Glenfiddich along the tour as well. Highly recommended!

Club Bottle Battle

You’ve heard it before, but just a small reminder: we will be selecting the best club bottling at Maltstock. So if your whiskyclub has done one or more own bottlings bring over a bottle and enter it into the Club Bottle Battle. It’s also possible to send over a bottle to enter this unique battle.

Masterclasses

When can you book your masterclasses? We will inform you about that in one of our next newsletters. We’re currently waiting for the last ones to confirm. As soon as we have the full program we will send out a newsletter with the booking inforamtion.

Tickets

If you haven’t bought your tickets yet, make sure you do so as soon as possible. We do currently still have a few tickets available. Remember last year we sold out, and it looks we’re going that way again this year! Click here to go straight to the Maltstock shop and get your tickets.

See you in September, see you at Maltstock!

Arthur, Bob, Eline, Rogier & Teun
www.maltstock.com

£66.69

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW

**available for PRE-ORDER only**

**despatch date – mid July**