FREE Nosing Glass with orders over £50 or FREE Whisky Bible 2012 with every order over £100 on any Whiskies of Scotland or Duncan Taylor bottlings. (*while stocks last*)
www.ralfy.com introduces a good quality standard Speyside malt with Whisky Review 358 – Aberlour 10yo
Whisky Ramblings Via Video #46
Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, puts an independent bottling of Dalmore from Holland to the test. He tries his hand at the Dalmore 21 Year Old 1990 from The Ultimate. Enjoy!
‘SPIRIT OF THE OPEN’ GLENMORANGIE ANNOUNCES KINDRED SPIRIT PARTNERSHIP WITH TROON GOLF
Troon Golf unveil its association in Glenmorangie’s “Unnecessarily well made golf courses” campaign
Troon, the leader in upscale golf course management, development and marketing has announced a strategic partnership with Glenmorangie, one of the world’s most famous Single Malt Scotch Whiskies. To mark the second year of Glenmorangie’s association with The Open Championship as the ‘Spirit of The Open’, a unique campaign will be showcased to discover the world’s most “Unnecessarily Well Made” golf courses. Troon Golf’s partnership will give monthly prize winners, drawn from entrants who nominate their chosen golf course, the opportunity to experience a Troon-managed venue from its impressive global portfolio that includes the likes of Abu Dhabi Golf Club, The Grove, and Prince’s Golf Club.
“Glenmorangie and Troon Golf have the strong brand synergies of discerning experiences, excellence, and meticulous process,” commented Bruce Glasco, Managing Director, International Operations, Troon Golf. “The ‘Unnecessarily Well Made’ golf courses campaign is centred on a topic that has long been debated between golfers the world over and it will be interesting to see what the distinguished ambassadors come up with. I know I speak for all our venues when I say we are thrilled to be involved and look forward to giving each winner a memorable experience.”
The campaign is a search for the top 18 most “Unnecessarily Well Made” golf courses in the world. A panel of experts; Sir Nick Faldo, Tony Jacklin CBE, Robert Trent Jones, Jr. and legendary golf course photographer David Cannon have been tasked with identifying candidates for inclusion in this prestigious accolade. Consumers have been asked to nominate via the microsite: www.glenmorangie.com/golf with each entry being put into the prize draw for a Troon experience.
“Troon Golf presented an obvious partner for our campaign,” remarked Michael Atkinson, Global Marketing Manager, Glenmorangie. “They are responsible for some of the world’s finest golf courses and have a reputation around the world for their attention to detail and unparalleled expertise. We pride ourselves on similar values, which will see this relationship flourish.”
Troon has an unparalleled reputation for delivering innovative marketing programs for its client portfolio. This partnership is a further example of Troon’s unique ability to forge exciting industry partnerships aimed at delivering strong returns for both consumers and owners alike.
About Troon Golf:
Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, Troon Golf EMEA is committed to developing Troon Golf’s presence in Europe, Middle East and Africa. This rapidly expanding division now oversees operations at 38 courses in 14 countries including Dubai, England, Russia, and Spain with further expansion planned across all regions.
Headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., Troon is the world’s largest golf management company, overseeing operations at Troon Golf (daily-fee & resort) and Troon Privé (private) properties located in 28 countries, 30 states. Additionally, 47 Troon facilities enjoy a Top 100 ranking by national or international publications. Troon properties include The Grove, London, England; Classic Club, Palm Desert, Calif; Lumine Golf Club Tarragona, Spain; and Saadiyat Beach Golf Resort in Abu Dhabi.
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, 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.
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. This competition is only open to entrants who are of legal drinking age in their country of residence. No prizes of Glenmorangie Whisky will be offered.
NEW DIRECTION REVEALED FOR WHISKY ENTREPRENEURS FRED AND STEWART LAING
Douglas Laing & Co owners forging new chapters for the next generation of the family
May 1, 2013 (GLASGOW) – The owners of Douglas Laing & Co, the successful independent Scotch whisky blenders and bottlers, have announced that they are to go their separate ways and focus on different projects from today.
Established by Fred Douglas Laing in 1948, Douglas Laing & Co has continued to thrive under the guidance of his sons Fred and Stewart Laing for the last 40 years. Now, Fred and Stewart are looking to build a secure future for the next generation of their families by concentrating on the industry in their different ways, with Fred continuing to head up Douglas Laing & Co, while Stewart launches a new company, Hunter Laing & Co. Full details of Hunter Laing & Co’s formation are being announced today, as is further detail on Douglas Laing’s development.
The assets of Douglas Laing & Co have been split between the two brothers. Stock, brands and other functions of the business have been divided, giving both brothers equal value.
Stewart will retain Old Malt Cask, the Old & Rare Selection, Douglas (of Drumlanrig) range of Single Malts, Douglas Blend, House Of Peers, Sovereign Single Grain and John Player Special blend as well as the bottling facility in East Kilbride.
Douglas Laing under Fred will continue to offer their Single Cask Provenance range, Director’s Cut, Double Barrel, Premier Barrel, Clan Denny Malts and Grains, Epicurean Blend, the King Of Scots range, McGibbon’s and Big Peat.
In a joint statement, the brothers said: “The Scotch whisky industry is in great shape at the moment and this presents each of us with the perfect opportunity to diversify and explore different projects with the next generation of our families.
“As drinkers around the world expand their whisky repertoire and seek out new flavours, the opportunities for niche players will flourish. Our commitment is to creating a solid business for the next generation of our families and the business structures now in place allow us to capitalise on the opportunities the market place provides for their long-term benefit.”
High Spirits at Leading Scotch Whisky Firm Douglas Laing as it Welcomes the Third Generation
May 1, 2013 (GLASGOW) – Today, Fred Laing realizes his career-long ambition of taking total control of Douglas Laing & Co. the business his father Fred Douglas Laing established in 1948, which is now regarded as one of Scotland’s most successful independent Scotch Whisky blenders and bottlers. As Fred restructures for the future, it has also been announced that the company will maintain tradition with a senior appointment from the third generation of the family.
Cara Laing, Fred’s daughter, joins the company as Head of Brands Marketing, bringing with her impressive industry experience and proven marketing expertise. She leaves behind Morrison Bowmore Distillers where she led both Bowmore and Glen Garioch Single Malts as Marketing Manager, to take up this role. Specialising in brand strategy and innovation, Cara was previously Global Brand Manager of Jura and also worked on Dalmore Single Malt at Whyte and Mackay.
Fred and Cara now have an exciting opportunity to develop fresh, innovative, new brands for Douglas Laing. The first of these new brands – a premium Single Cask range – for the company is expected to be unveiled in September. Most recently Fred created and launched the Big Peat brand; a modern, quirky Islay malt with a big personality that continues to grow YOY, out-performing the Malt category. It has also won numerous awards, most recently stealing the show at the ISW International Spirits Awards 2013, to win ‘Grand Gold’.
Beyond innovation, Douglas Laing will continue to invest heavily in stocks appropriate to protect their malt, grain and blended core brands such as ‘Directors’ Cut’ and ‘Provenance’ both of which are performing well and out-pacing the Malt category with strong double digit growth.
Douglas Laing brands include:
Single Malt: Provenance, Directors’ Cut, Premier Barrel
Single Grain: Clan Denny Grain
Blended Malt: Big Peat, Double Barrel,
Blended Scotch: King of Scots, McGibbons, Epicurean
Fred Laing said: “This is the start of a fresh new chapter at Douglas Laing with our third generation and I’m delighted to have Cara join the company my father established over 60 years ago. I confess, she brings exceptional and arguably better experience in the industry than I do. She has a great head for business, and an energetic, creative take on what’s needed in the industry; a trait that’s particularly important given our determination to strengthen Douglas Laing’s niche as a progressive, innovative company. We look forward to developing our current whiskies as well as our new brands, which are already in the pipeline.”
Cara added: “Douglas Laing has a long and interesting history; one that I’m delighted to officially be part of now. The company’s reputation has been built on being individual, never following the crowd and always insisting upon the best quality. Dad has been a massive inspiration to me as the driving force behind Douglas Laing, so I’m looking forward to working with him, strengthening the characteristics and brands that he introduced and emphasising our progressive, original spirit through clever marketing and strategic development.”
As has always been the case, Fred will continue to hand-select all of Douglas Laing’s casks as well as writing the tasting notes in conjunction with Malt Ambassador, Jan Beckers. Fred has also retained other key members of the original Douglas Laing team, including Finance Director Alick Bisset plus Head of Logistics Archie Hamilton and Head of Production Stephen Gardiner who cumulatively bring more than 50 years experience with the company. The 12 strong Douglas Laing team will be expanded on in the coming months with several senior new appointments.
Notes:
Established more than 65 years ago, Douglas Laing & Co. is a leading independent Scotch Whisky blender and bottler specialising in the finest Single Cask bottlings.
The company was founded by Fred Douglas Laing in 1948 and is still owned and run by the Laing family.
The company philosophy is to bottle the way the distiller intended – at a high strength and non-chill-filtered to preserve the robust and unique character of the whisky. Douglas Laing’s industry reputation and many awards is testament to this ethos.
NEW SCOTCH WHISKY COMPANY SET TO BECOME MAJOR FORCE AMONG INDEPENDENT BLENDERS AND BOTTLERS
Hunter Laing & Co Ltd begins trading under the guidance of Stewart Laing and his sons
With the fortunes of the Scotch whisky industry continuing to rise, a new company has been formed by experienced whisky entrepreneurs, Stewart Laing, and his two sons, Andrew and Scott, to capitalise on the opportunity and provide the ever-developing audience of whisky drinkers with new products.
Formed on 11th February 2013 and trading from today at its new headquarters in Park Circus, Glasgow, independent bottler and blender Hunter Laing & Co begins operations with considerable key assets that have been retained by Stewart Laing following the de-merger of Douglas Laing & Co’s ownership, which was also formalised today. These assets include the whisky brands Old Malt Cask, Old & Rare, Douglas Blend, John Player Special and Sovereign, plus a bottling plant, a workforce of eight (not including shareholders) and three generations of whisky business knowhow.
With a network of importers and retailers stretching across 65 markets, Hunter Laing & Co will be embarking on a strategy of strengthening the position of brands now in its portfolio and developing new products to meet the increasing demands of drinkers in Asia, North America and the Nordics, especially.
Joining the business as shareholders are Stewart’s two sons, Andrew and Scott. Both will be bringing valuable experience to the business – Andrew and Scott were directors of Edition Spirits Ltd, an independent bottler of single malt Scotch whisky. Scott, who has an MBA and a degree in law, is company secretary. Hunter Laing & Co will bring Edition Spirits and its brands into its fold.
Commenting upon the formation of the new company, Stewart Laing, Managing Director, said: “My father provided a sound basis for me to have a very enjoyable 40 years in the whisky business so far and with Hunter Laing & Co we’ll see the family tradition maintained for the next generation of the Laing name. With the industry fast developing, it is important for small players to be flexible, innovate and use their relationships to maximum effect. The structure of Hunter Laing & Co will allow us to do exactly that as we build momentum with our portfolio of much-loved brands.”
Adding to his father’s comments, Andrew Laing, Export Director said: “The whisky industry is in buoyant mood and the future outlook is promising. Being able to join my father in business and glean from him the insight and knowledge that has served him so well will be invaluable as we build Hunter Laing & Co into a major independent blender and bottler.”
“With Edition Spirits, we secured some fabulous casks for bottling and have developed a sound brand. The assets now at our disposal will give us a far greater degree of flexibility to create and bottle some very special whiskies. It’s a challenge that we are all relishing,” said Scott Laing, Business Development Director.
The brands now under Hunter Laing & Co ownership are:
Single malt: Old Malt Cask, Old & Rare, Douglas of Drumlanrig
Blended Scotch: Douglas Blend, John Player Special, Langside, House of Peers
Single grain: Sovereign
The bottling facility in East Kilbride now owned by Hunter Laing & Co will continue to service third party companies and brands. The new company will be run by its three shareholders, along with David Armour, Finance Director, and a sales, marketing and operations team of seven.
Notes:
• Douglas Laing & Co, the independent Scotch whisky blenders and bottlers demerged on April 30th 2013, with the owners, Fred and Stewart Laing, announcing they are to go their separate ways to focus on different projects from May 1st 2013.
• Fred will continue to head up Douglas Laing & Co, with Stewart launching a new company, Hunter Laing & Co, and the assets have been divided equally between the two.
Canadian Whisky Book Review and Twitter Tasting
Be a part of the world’s first ever whisky book review/twitter tasting. Social media are changing the way we read and the way we taste whisky. We’ve decided to integrate the two! Each Sunday for the next four weeks we will review several chapters from the book Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert and discuss them on Twitter. And we will do this while we taste a representative whisky from that chapter.
If you wish to comment on the book, interact with author, Davin de Kergommeaux, or discuss a Canadian whisky you are tasting, please join us each Sunday at 3:00 pm Eastern time, on Twitter at #DavinTT.
The twitter reviews and tastings begin this Sunday, May 5th at 3:00pm EST when we will be talking about chapters 10 – 13. Davin will join us to answer questions, and contribute to discussion among the participants, etc.
After chatting for about 30 minutes about 15 participants from around the world will open a mystery bottle that we have sent to them. You didn’t get a bottle? Feel free to join in anyway. The more the merrier. After tasting the sample and talking about it we’ll reveal which distillery it came from and which whisky we tasted. Sound like fun?
This Sunday we’ll begin with chapters 10 – 13. Then, Sunday May 12th we will discuss chapters 14 – 17; Sunday May 19th, chapters 18 – 21; and Sunday May 26th, chapters 22 – 25.
We invite the whisky bloggers among us to blog about the book, the experience, the whiskies and/or Davin. Let the fun begin!
If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with me, @WhiskyLassie on twitter.
Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert is available at Barnes & Noble, Chapters/Indigo, and many other fine bookstores, or on-line at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca.
Loch Lomond 11yo 2000 (57.8%, SMWS G9.1, Refill barrel, USA 48 Bts., +/-2012)
“Sweet and sour mélange”
From the distillery that Captain Haddock was so fond of. On the nose it’s very ‘whisky’ but different (that last is a cop out) however there is some good earthiness and a certain creaminess along with a little ‘metallic’ notes and it is actually quite different. There is still some grain and wood notes but the earthiness and the metallic are very prevalent. There is also a really strong presence of American whisky, specifically Buffalo Trace but this could be imagination masquerading as talent. The taste undiluted in cool-aid powder, lots of cask influence, the earthiness and the metallic with the B.T. taking a position in the rear. This is good but quite different. Lots of black pepper in there also, a curious combination with the pepper, the earthiness and the B.T. The finish is long and warming with more of the pepper (now muted), the earthiness and the B.T all merrily going to meet Captain Haddock.
Certainly different and curious.
$100
Score 83 points
3 of 4 this week. Samples kindly provided by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society of America
2013 International Safety Awards Hat Trick for Scotch Whisky Distiller
Morrison Bowmore Distillers Limited is proud to announce a major coup which has been awarded to the company by the British Safety Council.
Mr Neal Stone, Director of Policy and Communications of the British Safety Council, stated:
“The Trustees and Executive of the British Safety Council congratulate Morrison Bowmore Distillers Ltd on their achievement of a distinction, the highest accolade, in our 2013 International Safety Awards. The company is to be specially congratulated on gaining a distinction for the third year running – the only company in the food and drinks sector to achieve this accolade.”
Morrison Bowmore Distillers is one of only four organisations to have achieved this award with distinction the maximum possible number of three times.
Mr Andrew Rankin, Morrison Bowmore’s Operations Director, commented “This is a truly excellent achievement and I would personally like to thank all our staff and contractors for their dedication and commitment in enabling us to maintain such a high level of performance. To be recognised by the British Safety Council in this way is further testimony to our commitment of integrating health and safety into the heart of the way we work.”
Morrison Bowmore’s brands include Bowmore Islay Single Malt, Auchentoshan Lowland Single Malt and Glen Garioch Highland Single Malt.
