STALK & BARREL SINGLE MALT WHISKY

This is a reminder that the first bottles of STALK & BARREL SINGLE MALT WHISKY we be available directly at our onsite retail distillery store on Saturday, April 27 10:00am to 4:00pm.  This is the first single malt whisky mashed, fermented, distilled, aged and bottled in Ontario. Made from 100% Canadian two-row malted barley in small batches in a custom built copper pot still, it is bottled exclusively as single cask offerings in individually numbered bottles. We never chill-filter or add aritificial colouring. Quantities are limited and we are sorry that we cannot take advance orders or reservations.

• Cask 1 (62.3% alc./vol.) @ $99.95
• Cask 2 (61.3% alc./vol.) @ $99.95
• Cask 3 (46.0% alc./vol.) @ $69.95

All prices include taxes, LCBO markups and bottle deposit

Location & Hours

We are located at 150 Bradwick Drive, Unit #26, Concord, Ontario. For directions, click here.

Our hours are:

• Monday through Thursday 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
• Friday 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
• Saturday and Sunday by appointment
• Except for Saturday, April 27, 2013 10:00 am to 4:00 pm

UK vlogger Joe Ellis a.k.a Whisky Wednesday reviews Aberlour 12 Year Old Single Malt.

http://youtu.be/OnYrjbfBDdY

http://Facebook.com/whiskytube

http://Twitter.com/whiskytube

Gordon & MacPhail Wins Queen’s Award For Enterprise For The Second Time

The growing success of Benromach whisky has helped family-owned whisky specialist Gordon & MacPhail win a second Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade.

The whisky specialist and distiller brought the Benromach Distillery back to life in 1998 when it was officially re-opened by HRH The Prince of Wales. Since then the Forres distillery has unveiled a series of hand-crafted single malt whiskies including the flagship Benromach 10 years old.

Managing Director, Michael Urquhart expressed his delight at winning the prestigious award for a second time, saying: “This is a wonderful achievement and recognition for the company and our dedicated staff, as well as for our customers and suppliers worldwide. The Queen’s Award is recognised across the world as a mark of outstanding quality and I have no doubt that winning the first award in 2009 has contributed to our recent growth.

“I am particularly pleased that the continuing success of Benromach whisky has played such a major part in our winning this award once more. The launch of Generations in 2010 with a 70 Year Old Mortlach then a 70 Year Old Glenlivet in 2011 were also highly sought after additions to the extensive range of single malt whiskies Gordon & MacPhail can offer to the market. As a result total exports have almost doubled in three years to more than £6m in 2012.

“We have been championing malt whisky for more than a century by buying and storing casks of whisky from distilleries across Scotland. But it’s been a particular pleasure for us as a family to drive the growth of our own Benromach whisky.”

Scotch Whisky Association Chief Executive, Gavin Hewitt welcomed the endorsement, saying: “Further congratulations to Gordon & MacPhail are very much in order. I am delighted that they have again been recognised for their outstanding export performance. The Scotch Whisky business is doing very well in our many overseas markets. Gordon & MacPhail is one of the beacons and an inspiration to others.”

The family-owned company is proud of its Moray roots and the company, its directors and its staff all play an active role in the local community. The company’s support helped secure Forres as the host town for the European Pipe Band Championships over the next three years when Benromach will be the principal sponsor.

Successful marketing of the Benromach brand has included sponsorship of the National Theatre of Scotland’s highly acclaimed production of The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart which toured extensively overseas following sell-out performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. As part of the performance, audiences have the chance to enjoy a dram of Benromach.

Gordon & MacPhail employs almost 140 people in Elgin and Forres. With around 300 different whisky brands stored in its warehouses, it cares for some of Scotland’s oldest and rarest casks.

Neil Urquhart, Michael Urquhart, Stephen Rankin

About Gordon & MacPhail

Gordon & MacPhail is an independent, family-owned Scotch whisky specialist which has been based in Elgin, Moray, since 1895. Four generations of the Urquhart family have continued the tradition of seeking out the best and rarest Scotch whiskies.

Since its foundation, Gordon & MacPhail’s policy has been to send casks to distilleries throughout Scotland, fill them with ‘new make’ spirit and mature them either at the distillery of origin or in the firm’s own bonded warehouses in Elgin.

Now one of the world’s leading malt whisky specialists, Gordon & MacPhail exports to more than 55 countries. It offers more than 300 presentations of own-bottled single malts.  In 2009, Gordon & MacPhail was awarded the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade.

In 1993 Gordon & MacPhail purchased Benromach Distillery and re-equipped it before it was officially opening by HRH Prince Charles in 1998. A four star visitor centre is open to the public throughout the year for tours and tastings. Benromach distillery is a member of the world famous malt whisky trail.

In 2010 Gordon & MacPhail made history by bottling the oldest cask ever released – a 70 Year Old Mortlach, distilled in 1938. They followed this up by releasing 100 70cl and 175 20cl decanters of 70 Year Old Glenlivet in 2011. They have now released the remaining 100 70cl decanters from this cask.

Gordon &MacPhail is proud of its Moray roots and the company, its directors and its staff play an active role in their local community by supporting local charities and sponsoring local events.

Click here to read the article

A new way to search: FindTheBest, a new search and comparison engine that has been featured on the New York Times and TechCrunch, has developed a comparison utility for Whiskies. The tool offers users access to a vast database of different brands and labels and allows them to search, filter, and compare by name, region and category, price, tasting notes, years aged, ABV, and other factors.

FindTheBest’s Smart Rating for its whisky comparison is determined by the weighted average of five whiskey-rating sources: the Beverage Testing Institute, the International Wine and Spirits Competition, the LA Whiskey Society, the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, and Wine Enthusiast’s Magazine.

The website realizes that something as subjective as individual experiences with different whiskies cannot be presented entirely objectively, which is why in addition to the smart rating, it also welcomes user reviews. FindTheBest welcomes and encourages all registered users to submit a review and rating. Users can also submit their own listings if they find that the comparison does not currently include a particular label.

The website also allows its users to compare different brands side by side, matching each relevant data point, such as individual tasting notes, nose, finish, and palates.

Join the Glengoyne Family  

They say you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family. With Glengoyne you can with the official launch of a new online loyalty program – the Glengoyne Family.

Following the re-launch of the brand last October and a new dedicated website, the Family is a way for likeminded Glengoyne enthusiasts to benefit from exclusive promotions and regular offers. The launch coincides with Glengoyne’s 10-year anniversary since being acquired by Ian Macleod Distillers, one of Scotland’s leading, independent, family owned distillers.

As well as receiving a regular e-newsletter, Family members will also benefit from early notice of new releases (in particular limited editions), exclusive special offers and promotions with affiliate partners as well as Family member bottlings and the opportunity to be part of the selection panel.

Iain Weir, marketing director for Ian Macleod Distillers, said: “It is an exciting time for the brand and we are delighted to officially launch the Glengoyne Family on the 10 year anniversary of welcoming Glengoyne to the Ian Macleod Distillers portfolio.

“The Family is something we have been developing for some time and it is an opportunity for us to offer on-going benefits whilst developing a long term relationship with both new and existing members. The past decade has been an exciting one for Glengoyne and we look forward to the next 10.”

To celebrate the official launch of the Family, the Distillery is marking the occasion with a special competition. Any new members who sign up to the Glengoyne Family from today will be entered into a prize draw to win an outstanding decanter of the Glengoyne 35 yo, a rich malt with a tropical fruit intensity and a liquorice and dark chocolate finish. The winner will be announced in 2014.

Iain continued: “The Glengoyne 35 yo will be officially released in June and is an exceptionally rare whisky and we are excited to be offering this prize to one lucky Family member from our reserves of rare single malts. We look forward to presenting this extra-special decanter to the winner in 2014.”

To find out more about Glengoyne visit www.glengoyne.com

or follow us on Facebook and Twitter – https://www.facebook.com/GlengoyneSingleMalt  https://twitter.com/theglengoyne.

TWE Whisky Show 2013 – Balvenie Masterclass & Early-Bird Tickets

Organisation for TWE Whisky Show 2013 continues apace and tickets are selling even faster than we were hoping. We’ve got a couple of announcements that are going out today across our various show channels and thought we’d take the opportunity … Continue reading >>

The post TWE Whisky Show 2013 – Balvenie Masterclass & Early-Bird Tickets appeared first on The Whisky Exchange Whisky Blog.

Whisky Ramblings Via Video #44

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, puts two Auchentoshan Casks #803 head to head. They are both 31 years old! One is a 1966 bourbon hogshead, the other a 1973 sherry butt. Both are simply marvellous whisky’s from that Lowland distillery. Enjoy!

http://youtu.be/p-6XGDXn034

SULLIVANS Cove Named Best Australian Single Malt 

Tasmanian whisky brand Sullivans Cove has been named “Best Australian Single Malt” at the World Whiskies Awards in London last week. This prestigious award comes on the back of scoring 90 points out of 100 at the Ultimate Spirits Challenge held in March in the USA.

Sullivans Cove is Tasmania’s top selling and most decorated single malt. Last year Sullivans Cove was named World Whisky Grand Master at the annual Spirits Masters in London, whisky guru Jim Murray named it his Southern Hemisphere Whisky of the Year in the 2013 Whisky Bible and Dominic Roscrow named it Australasian Distiller of the Year.

Speaking from the distillery in Cambridge, Sullivans Cove distiller Patrick Maguire said: “Once again we have had a fantastic result. It is still quite unbelievable that we keep winning these incredible international awards and it just goes to show the quality of Sullivans Cove as a truly world class single malt whisky, a fact that is borne out by some fantastic export sales over the past year”.

Speaking about the awards, Whisky Magazine editor and World Whiskies Awards chairman Rob Allanson said: “This is one of the hardest whisky competitions in which to win a medal. This is mainly down to the rounds that the whiskies have to go through to qualify…there cannot be enough praise heaped upon those whiskies that win a sub category, you have to be an outstanding drop, showing great balance and character.”

A limited amount of the winning whisky (French Oak cask HH434), described by World Whiskies Awards judge Jim Anderson as “Graceful and balanced” is available from the distillery. Please enquire online at www.sullivanscovewhisky.com

About Sullivans Cove Whisky

Tasmania Distillery produces Sullivans Cove Tasmanian Single Malt Whisky. Sullivans Cove Tasmanian Single Malt Whisky is double distilled using only Tasmanian barley with only the purest wilderness water from local mountains and forests. Matured in hand selected oak casks and allowed to settle and clear naturally, the whiskies retain full, creamy and lingering flavours that are winning fans the world over. Each cask is bottled separately, yielding only around 450 bottles, making each bottle a rare item to own and enjoy.

Tasmania Distillery Pty Ltd

http://www.tasmaniadistillery.com.au/

Ka Va Lan Whisky in Canada – arriving in BC!

Sitting on the east coast, Ka Va Lan is the largest single malt whisky distillery in Taiwan. (See Mark Gillespie’s Whisky Cast on Ka Va Lan: http://youtu.be/WVIHFPFONB0). The Ka Va Lan Distillery is owned by one of the largest food group “King Car” in Taiwan. With the ambition to craft the best whisky from Taiwan, the whisky team spent one month in 2003 in Scotland in search of the perfect distill shape and variation in whisky making.

See Malt Advocate on Ian Buxton’s visit at Ka Va Lan in Taiwan.

Ka Va Lan obtained consultation from Dr. Jim Swan on crafting the whisky flavours fitting for a hot and humid tropical weather in Taiwan. They utilized the bio-chemical lab King Car company owns to produce a special yeast that will yield tropical flavours. To date, there are four single casks variation and four core range malts. In addition, there are mystery casks such as ex-Laphroaig casks, peated malt, etc. aging in the warehouse. Since 2011, single cask purchases are being offered to the public.

The whisky distillery was built in 2005 with a purpose to be a tourism destination. The current visitor center can easily accommodate two thousand people, and a cafeteria serving their award winning coffee, snacks and delicious hot lunches. There is also an in-house shop showcasing the King Car group variety of products. Currently there are 45,000 barrels in the aging process, separately housed in two warehouses.

Some virtual reality 360 view of the distillery
Lobby: http://vr.17high.com.tw/Entertainment/Yilan/Kingcar_Whisky/vr-03.html (this sure looks like a hotel grand lobby)
View of the warehouse and column distills: http://vr.17high.com.tw/Entertainment/Yilan/Kingcar_Whisky/vr-09.html
Outside the distillery: http://vr.17high.com.tw/Entertainment/Yilan/Kingcar_Whisky/vr-06.html