Burns Night 25th January

Greetings!

With the Festivites of Christmas all over and the cold month of January upon us, the next social gathering to look forward to is Burns Night. What better excuse than to gather round your closest friends and family and the toast the great Baird himself with a glass of the Amber nectar.

Check out our great Burns Night offers below.

Single Malts Direct

Delightful Burn’s Night Drams

Why not toast the Baird with a glass of Arran’s Robert Burns Single Malt. A single malt from the Isle of Arran distillery, celebrating the famed Scottish poet, Robert Burns. This bottling is officially endorsed by the World Burns Federation, it is said that Burns held whisky in great regard. Only £30.00 a bottle.

Or why not design your very own Burn’s inspired label. Choose from a selection of whiskies and make your very own tartan label. Go to www.singlemaltsdirect.com and look for the label desinger. Or contact Teresa at teresa@singlemaltsdirect.com.

Ducks at Kilspindie partners with The Scotch Malt Whisky Society

Ducks at Kilspindie is thrilled to announce that it has been welcomed a partner bar of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society – the world’s foremost malt whisky club. Ducks is now an official ‘home from home’ for Society members and whisky lovers alike where they can enjoy an extensive range of the Society’s exclusive cask whiskies in the comfortable and relaxed atmosphere of Ducks’ new whisky snug.

Open to everyone, guests at Ducks will have the unique opportunity, initially, to sample sixteen of the Society’s distinctive single casks which are usually only available to members and their guests, making it the premier destination for any true malt whisky lover. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society has worked closely with bar staff at Ducks to ensure that they can share the Society’s vast knowledge with their customers, providing an authentic Scotch Malt Whisky Society experience.

Ducks will also be hosting exclusive Society tasting dinners, where meals will be served based on their ability to compliment each whisky, they are also happy to arrange private whisky tastings for groups of two to eighty people.

Commenting on the venture, Mark Van Der Vijver from The Scotch Malt Whisky Society said:
“Ducks is synonymous with superb food, drink and service in the heart of East Lothian and with their hand-selected range of SMWS single cask whiskies, they have a rare and exclusive string in their bow. Malcolm and the team are now able to offer local malt enthusiasts and Society members an ever-changing variety of SMWS whiskies across their bar, award-winning restaurant and private events.”

Malcolm Duck added:
“This is massively exciting for us at Ducks. Members of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society can now use Ducks as their own wee bar, whilst non members will also be able to sample these one off single barrel bottlings. We will be starting out with sixteen different bottles, including one from Japan.”

Notes:
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society allows members to discover the very best single cask, single malt whisky anywhere in the world. Only ever bottled from a single cask, selected from a range of over 120 whisky distilleries, every Society whisky bottling is exceptional. To join the Scotch Malt Whisky Society visit www.smws.co.uk/memberships.
www.smws.co.uk

Located in the picturesque village of Aberlady, Duck’s at Kilspindie House is a relaxed, family run restaurant with rooms which offers guests two separate dining experiences; from two AA Rosette fine dining in Ducks Restaurant, to excellent bistro cuisine in Donald’s Bar Bistro. Ducks also offers twenty-three extremely comfortable en-suite bedrooms.
www.ducks.co.uk

Photo compliments of Malt Madness

The Tall Tale of Ben Nevis Distillery

Ben Nevis is not lacking in the colourful history category. With a foundation date of 1825 the story starts just after sweeping changes to the stifling regulations and taxes governing whisky production led to a boom in distilling. ‘Long’ John MacDonald (b. 1796- he was 6 foot 4: not at birth you understand), from Wester Ross farming stock, with a partner was just twenty-seven years old when some Lochaber lairds chose him to head up their distilling project. Siting the distillery at the strategically located garrison town of Fort William at the foot of Ben Nevis using water from Scotland’s highest spring Buchan’s well (alt. over 1200 metres), it wasn’t long before his brand ’Dew of Ben Nevis’ became well respected. Its highest profile visitor was no less than Queen Victoria in 1848, she was gifted a cask for the future king George’s 21^st birthday celebrations. Originally a single the brand later switched to a blend late in the nineteenth century.

Despite suffering a sequestration two years before the death of Long John in 1856, which saw a shut down common at the time for rural distilleries, the distillery soon blossomed thanks to his son Donald Peter’s enthusiastic rebuilding of 1863-65 at a time of general economic recovery and subsequent demand for stocks from blenders. Like his father Peter was youthful, twenty years old , when he took charge. Peter’s biggest contribution was the construction in 1878 of a new bigger distillery ‘Nevis’ (also referred to as ‘Lochaber’ and ‘Glen Nevis‘- the latter shouldn’t be confused with a Campbeltown distillery of the same name). Located close to the mouth of the river Ness the distilleries were very close to one another allowing the sharing of certain facilities like a pier for the company‘s own steamers which was constructed in 1887 during a further extension to the works. At this time the famed cataloguer extraordinaire Alfred Barnard reported ten thousand casks stored on site were all owned by customers, further evidence of the confidence brokers blenders and bottlers had in the distilleries’ quality. Thanks also to Barnard’s visit we can see a sketch of the Nevis still room which shows purifiers were employed on the wash still arms while he states one of the wash stills to have a considerable 16 000 litre capacity. Ten years after his father’s death Peter had increased the company’s output from 200 gallons a week to an impressive 3000 gallons. By 1889 the distilleries’ output was nearly twice that of their nearest rival at around quarter of a million proof gallons and boasted the largest maltings in the industry at the time. Around 200 people worked at Nevis giving some insight into the significance of the operation. A further boost to the well being of the area came in 1894 when the West Highland Railway reached the town providing many benefits such as a cheap route for coal deliveries via the distillery‘s own siding. Peter passed away in 1891 handing the company on to the third generation of the family. In 1908 the two distilleries were integrated with the maltings at Nevis trading as Lochaber Maltings while the storage facilities was under the title Lochaber Warehouses.

In 1921 the brand ‘Long John’ and the distilleries parted company when the London wine and spirit company W. H. Chaplin acquired the name. From this point Ben Nevis traded under the name ‘D. P. MacDonald‘. Come 1936 Chaplin were taken over by the long established (1805) English gin distillers and wine and spirit merchants Seager Evans. In 1927 Seager Evans built Strathclyde grain distillery in Glasgow, which was briefly home to the Kinclaith malt facility. They also bought Glenugie distillery in Peterhead (later parts from this distillery were to be recycled when used at Ben Nevis after Glenugie shut) as well as commissioning Tormore distillery in Speyside. In 1956 the American firm Schenley Industries acquired Seager Evans before passing S. E. on to Rapid America in 1969. The English brewer Whitbread purchased the subsidiary Long John International (as Rapid America was then known) in 1975.

Returning to the first half of the twentieth century we see the MacDonald family ownership of Ben Nevis come to an end in 1941. Enter a most intriguing individual- Joseph Hobbs. Hobbs went to Canada in 1904 and served in the navy during World War I. During his time in Canada he acted as an agent for Peter Dawson the Scottish distillers, he also ran Scotch into the US during prohibition, was involved in both the shipping and distilling businesses before moving to Scotland in the 1930s. Through the Glasgow based subsidiary of Associated Distillers of America, Train & MacIntyre, Hobbs oversaw the acquisition of Glenury-Royal, Bruichladdich, Glen Kinchie and North Esk (A.K.A. ‘Glen Esk’ and ‘Hillside‘, later converted to grain production under the name ‘Montrose’ and back again as well as being the home to a large maltings) in 1936-38. Also under the banner of Associated Scottish Distillers he purchased Strathdee (in Aberdeen), Fettercairn, Glen Lochy (including the Lochaber warehouses and maltings) as well as Ben Romach. Most of these stills were to pass on to DCL in 1954. An indication of Hobb’s business mind is given when shortly after the outbreak of World War II he bought a fire extinguisher company, not to mention acquiring the Norwegian patent for sub-sea welding equipment. By 1952 he had been elected chairman of an alternative ‘independent’ version of the Scotch Whisky Association representing 34 member companies rallying against what some felt was monopolistic influences within the industry. Selling his stake in Associated Scottish Distillers in 1955 allowed Hobbs to buy Ben Nevis distillery (from this point operated as ‘Ben Nevis Distillery (Fort William) Ltd.’) and Glen Lochy castle with 50 000 acres which he turned into a high class hotel. Legend has it that the very day he originally procured the distillery he sold the old Nevis warehousing for the same sum – £20K while moving the Nevis gates to Ben Nevis (they are now not big enough to meet when closed). At this stage he also set up the Great Glen cattle ranch. His whisky innovations include installing a patent still (the first post-war example) an addition repeated at his other distillery Lochside (opened 1957 in Montrose which he converted from a brewery). Also he introduced concrete mash tuns, ‘blending at birth’ (where malt and grain new spirit is mixed at the cask filling stage) and maturation in beer barrels. On a more local Edinburgh note it is thought a floating restaurant in Leith once belonged to Hobbs and took him across the Atlantic. Joseph Hobbs died in 1964.

The company stayed in the Hobbs family until his son sold out in 1981, three years after production ceased, to Long John International the spirits division of Whitbread plc, hence reuniting the distillery with the Long John brand which Whitbread possessed. The Coffey still was removed at this time, the new owners not immediately concerned with restarting distilling but most interested in the maturation facilities. After brief operations starting 18.04.1984 under current manager Colin Ross following a £2M refit when the curious concrete wash backs were replaced by more traditional wooden examples and a new mash tun replaced the old cast iron example production stopped in 1986. Ross spent a period at Laphroaig before returning in 1989 and is expected to retire in the near future. Ownership changed once again when it became the second Scottish distillery to be owned by a Japanese company, Nikka, currently owned by Asahi brewers, in 1989. The Japanese intervention came ten years after the passing of Nikka’s founder Masataka Taketsuru who was hugely influential in the Japanese whisky industry and who had studied distilling in Campbeltown not so far from Ben Nevis. Presumably the thought of his legacy leading to the ownership of such a prestigious Scottish distillery and the brand being the 7^th best selling malt in Japan (in 2010) would have seemed quite fantastic to the young scholar.

Production has been constant since 1990. It appears an ancient 63 year old expression of 90 bottles was released in spring of that year but details are vague, a more accessible 10yo at a generous 46% has been available since 1996.

From a more technical view point the distillery now uses water from Allt a’ Mhuillinn (Mill Burn) and uses peated barley from Ord maltings, the Lauter mash tun feeds 8 large (42,000 litre) wash backs which in turn fill 2 wash stills with a 21,000 litre charge followed by two spirit stills fills of 12,500 litres. All stills are indirectly heated and their design dates from the 1865 refit and were installed in 1955. The substantial size of the stills, their wide and short necks followed by sloping lyne arms all contribute to a robust spirit suited to maturation in sherry and red wine casks. Although the use of shell and tube condensers presumably contribute a lightening effect of the spirit character, the worm tubs, removed in 1978, would surely created an even weightier style. A substantial spirit receiver of 50.000 litres is capable of filling around 200 hogsheads from it 50,000 litre capacity all of which are stored on site within the seven warehouses which are a mixture of old and new. Full capacity is in the region of 2 million litres but production is typically about half this. The distillery is popular with visitors, more than 30,000 take the tour annually.

Mark Davidson…

Of a distinguished Banff 1968 vintage Mark Davidson has a short but full body and so marries well (& subsequently producing two limited editions), frequently seen at whisky fairs in Scotland yet curiously difficult to find outside his domestic market it is hoped his inaugural launch on the Canadian scene will be well received. He is at home in independant bottling circles being most commonly found in the William Cadenhead livery where he has enjoyed a 13 year finishing period, however as a stand alone single expression under the Jolly Toper brand he can come into his own while being a fine mixer.

There’s an old saying (anon) “God invented whisky so the Irish would never take over the world”, well my Dad and his, and his and so on, all came from the west coast of Scotland, this Celtic area always loved a dram, more to the point, its history is a mix of Irish and Scot. This ancient kingdom is where “modern” history began. With history from the time of Moses, mingled with legends like St. Patrick and St. Columba, Dalriada was first the name for the land in Northern Ireland (Ulster). Founded by Cairbre Riadia who settled in this area, and later, the name was applied to the Scottish area where three brothers: Angus, Lorne and Fergus settled. There are several stories about the origins of Dalriada – a legend is a legend!  “In the time of Moses”, so the legend goes, there was a man named Gaodhal Glas who had been bitten by a serpent. Moses is said to have cured him and to have promised that `no serpent or other poisonous thing should infest the happy western island’ that his descendants would one day inhabit (there are no snakes in Ireland). Could this be down to the famous quote by W. C. Fields; “Always carry a flagon of whisky in case of snakebite, and furthermore, always carry a small snake.” Was he actually Scottish?

The Isle of Destiny foretold by Moses. “Their leader at this time was Milesius whose wife was also named Scota. Scota and her eight sons, their families and followers finally set out on the voyage to their Isle of Destiny (Scotland). In later ages the land was called Scotia and the people were called Scotti. Scota brought from Egypt a stone of black marble on which strange runes were carved. They landed in Ireland and fought the people there. Scota died in Ireland and later there was a warrior of the Goidelic line called Tuathal. He founded a kingdom at Tara. By the fourth century the Scotti were assailing the Roman province of Britain. They filtered across to the Southern Hebrides and to the mainland of what is now Scotland, what was then Caledonia. Was that black stone what we now call “The Stone of Destiny”? see? back to Perth again (where I now live).

We return to Cairbre Riada, a descendant of Tuathal, had settled his people first in Munster (Ireland), but famine caused him to abandon this land (history repeats eh!). He established a kingdom between the Antrim Mountains and the sea. He obtained this territory between 254 and 273 AD. The word `Riada’, or `Righfadna’, means `the long-armed’. Cairbre Riada was a nobleman of high parentage. His father was Conaire II, King of the Province of Ulster from AD 212 to 220 and his mother was the daughter of the illustrious Warrior King, Conn of the Hundred Battles. The centre of his kingdom was the ancient Dunseverick Castle set on a great rock rising sheer from the Atlantic in the strongest defensive position of Ireland’s northern coast. Dal’ means ‘descendants’ and in a secondary sense `the territory of the descendant’. The word `Dalriada’ therefore signifies ‘the territory of the descendants of Cairbre Riada. Cairbre Riada’s heir, Eochach Dubhlein, married a Pictish princess, the daughter of the Albain King Obdaire. She bore him three sons, known in legend as the `three Collas’. The oldest, Colla Uais, aspired to the High Kingship of Tara but was defeated by a cousin. He and his brothers fled to Alba (Scotland -possibly to Colonsay). In due time they returned to Ireland and they won swordland and founded a Kingdom called Oriel. Cairbre Riada’s descendants ruled the coast area of Antrim until Colla Uais grandson, Erc of Dalriada, died. Erc had twelve sons, the youngest being Fergus, Lorn and Angus. The recorded history of Argyll begins in the 5th Century AD when it was invaded by the Scotti (Celts). The Scotti were the Gaelic-speaking people who had gained ascendancy in the north of Ireland. About the year 502 AD, Fergus, with Lorne and Angus, led a great organized invasion of the Scottish coast by the warriors of Dalriada. They successfully occupied the area now know as Argyll and some of the islands including Islay. Thus the Dalriadic settlement in Argyll was founded by the three sons of Erc. THUS, as it is known that the Irish invented whisk(e)y, and it was Irish who were the very first Scots, and my clan; Maclean is related to the High Kings of Ireland.  The name Maclean – so history says – can link back to the kings of Dalriada. That’s one link, the other is Paul’s mum. She and her family are originally from Kilkenny in the Republic of Ireland. Yet more links: the Daly (Daley) coat of arms features a Lion, as does the Scottish Royal flag. Paul lived in a house is called Armagh, Paul’s mum lives in Portrush Street. We need go no further! Well, actually aye, please read on … so what has this all to do with whisky? I hear you ask. Easy; it is plainly obvious to me and any sane person, that it was a Maclean who invented whisky!

TO CONCLUDE;  Conn of the Hundred Battles; well I have 100 whisky bottles at home, its sometimes a battle to decide what to down. Oban and area (where Dad came from) now has a distillery, so too Mull (Tobermory) with another being built over the water at Ardnamurchan. The Kingdom of Dalriada included Arran, Jura and Islay – see anything cropping up here related to whisky? Distillery plans also for Lewis and a wee distillery already there. Ok, my great ancestors were Irish, we all know that, my recent ancestors are Scottish, I am a Celt (is it any wonder I support Glasgow Celtic?), it is well known I love both Scotch and Irish drams, the mid ancestor Macleans were mixed with Vikings. The Norse have a great love for whisky. And then we have cousin Charlie (Maclean), so; to end, it must have been Maclean’s who invented whisky.

Story by Paul McLean; www.mcleanscotland.com whisky tours, www.angelswhiskyclub.com  free to join worldwide online whisky club, Patron Charles Maclean.

Paul is from Connel near Oban, having also lived in England, Wales and Ireland, now in Perth.

The International Order of The Companions of the Quaich Sidney Peninsula Chapter

Our menu for the evening includes:

•           Scotch Broth: A traditional Scottish lamb soup

•           Roast Beef “tatties & neeps,” and  an optional side portion of haggis

•           “Tispy Laird”: Whiskey trifle with stewed fruits

•           Oatcakes & Cheese

Monday, January 7, 2013, Sidney Pier Hotel, 7:00 PM “Robbie Burns Dinner” 

This special event will feature a traditional Robby Burns dinner with the last of Robert Orr’s famous haggis accompanied by four special whiskies in celebration of Scotland’s national poet. Pipe Major Mel Johnston will pipe in and address the haggis and entertain us with his small pipes over dessert. Glenn Todd, of Victoria Whisky Festival fame, will introduce the four Arran Malts. including the recently released “Devil’s Punch Bowl”, all of which are dedicated to the bard. Smart casual Highland Dress or tartan attire welcome.

A 3 Course Dinner & 4 Whisky Tastings

Members $60 – Guests $70 – Designated Drivers (Dinner only) $50

Please RSVP by email 

Attendance is on condition that you do not drink and drive

A new blog focusing on Scotch whisky tastings and reviews. Some whiskys will be old favourites, some will be new, quirky and curious. It’s all about sharing a passion and promoting an interest in the greatest of all beverages.

URL: selectscotchwhisky.blogspot.com.au

A new year is upon us and so is the latest selection of our one-of-a-kind single cask whiskies.

The January Outturn is now available here:  www.smws.ca

If you spent the holiday season treating everyone else, now is the time to treat yourself, so here’s a peek at what might tempt you:

Cask No. 5.35 Laundry in the bakery
12 years old; 2nd fill hogshead; 54.7%abv
Initial nose is fresh and light, green apples and lemon puffs with deeper, sweeter notes developing like baking bread or jam doughnuts. Quite hot and lively to taste, strawberries with black pepper, and to finish, cold peppermint tea and fresh slightly soapy laundry.

Cask No. 4.168 Gunpowder, treason and plot
15 years old; refill gorda; 57%abv
The nose offered fresh toast with lashings of marmalade topped with unsmoked bacon. Then rum & raisin ice cream served on a worn copper spoon. To taste, mesquite marinated BBQ’d meat washed down with an Australian Riesling with notes of burning rubber.

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society Canada
104-1240 Kensington Road NW, Suite 160
Calgary, AB, Canada T2N 3P7

Contact the Society at curious@smws.ca for your chance to join and to take advantage of their great offers

Paul Mclean to the LEFT!

Paul had an away day (overnight) trip to Ed-Dram-Burgh,

Saturday 29 & Sunday 30 December 2012. 

Here is his report; I took the train from Perth to Edramburgh, och it was full of screamin kids, an hour of purgatory later, we arrived at Waverly, whereby I set oot for some breakfast – it was still early! A favourite place of mine is Whiski on High Street (Royal Mile), apart from being a good bar, they have lots of whisky and great food. I settled down with an Irn Bru and ordered an Eggs Benedict, it was on my plate nae more than 5 minutes, grand stuff! Followed by a Dalmore – medical reasons you understand. After a wee bit of shopping, well I need get something for Liz, I headed up to the whisky experience near the castle (www.scotchwhiskyexperience.co.uk).

They were really busy, I mentioned what I was after and immediately was sent to level 3 to the whisky fair, even at 1pm it was busy. I wandered in, many excellent bottlings to sample, so I did. Dondered over to Ben Nevis (www.bennevisdistillery.com), old pals o mine, whereby a dram was placed in front of me. Ben Nevis Distillery is one of the oldest licensed distilleries in Scotland, nestled at the foot of Britain’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis, 4’406 feet above sea level. This imposing mountain provides an impressive background to a traditional Scottish craft. I enjoyed the craft with a 10 year old single malt, introduced to the market back in 1996 using whisky produced in 1986, the last year that Long John International produced whisky at Ben Nevis distillery. They were awarded a grand gold medal by Monde Selection in 1999 and again in 2000. It also won a gold medal in 2001 and a trophy for three consecutive years of being awarded gold and grand gold medals. Quickly followed by McDonald’s Traditional Ben Nevis Highland Single Malt Whisky, Distillery Bottling. A special edition whisky from Ben Nevis in celebration of their 185th year. It is an attempt at recreating the McDonald’s Traditional Ben Nevis which was a popular dram in the 1880s. The Clan MacDonald are no far from we Maclean’s, it was superb!

After promising to go back (which I did) Dewar’s followed (www.dewars.com), it was calling me, well, Big Ross and George were! After “hello’s” – hadnee seen the lads for ages – I settled into a dram or three; DEWAR’S Signature – a superb blend, as usual, I enjoyed it more being a sample (free). “Anything new for me?” I enquired; as it happened, aye, Bits of Strange, 16 year old, man! What a smooth dram that is – dinnae believe me? see the photo. After more chat and more samples, I bade them farewell (for now), heading over to Inver House (www.inverhouse.com). I started with the Balblair 1975; fantastic dram, iconic bottle shape with a liquid inside to charm a snake handler! Spicy, raisins, sherry, honey and green apple, a long smooth finish that stayed with me ages! So much so, I had to get over to the cheese table to cleanse my mush. There was a line waiting to be served, myself included. Then, my eyes flew wide open, closely followed by my mouth, other people around me the same, what could this be? Some big troll of a woman was after cheese … “cheeeze” she slobbered as she pushed through, dear me, she had a face like a vandalised Scotch egg and a slash of a mouth, red eyes and the size of an Ork (is that right spelling? Lord of the Rings). I tell you, people (myself included) got out of the way fast! Cheese can do later I told myself. Jeeze, that could scare dogs!

Back to the whisky – quick. Tried another favourite; Glenfarclas 40 year old (www.glenfarclas.co.uk). But hey, hold on a smidge here, it was one of the smallest measures I had ever seen! My neighbour standing next to me said the same, come on guys, superb whiskies but dram sizes? If that was what they were doin, I was away. So went for a good smack of a dram to Tomatin (www.tomatin.com), where a 40 year old had my name on it. Had this before, no disappointed again either, great stuff. I was slowing down by now, peeping through people to find the troll, scary, she was nowhere to be seen so I dondered to the cheese again. “What the hell was that?” I asked, the poor lass and big fella there were still in shock, a nice bit of applewood cheese cleansed my pallet before heading back into the fray. I ventured into a Drambuie (www.drambuie.com ). After the Battle of Culloden, 1746, Prince Charles Edward Stuart fled to the island of Skye. There, he was given sanctuary by Captain John MacKinnon of Clan MacKinnon. According to family legend, after staying with the captain, the prince rewarded him with this prized drink recipe. This version of events is disputed by historians who believe it to be a story concocted to boost sales of the drink.The legend holds that the recipe was then given in the late 19th century by Clan MacKinnon to James Ross. Ross died young, and to pay for their children’s education, his widow was obliged to sell the recipe, by coincidence to a different MacKinnon family, in the early 20th century. The latter MacKinnon family has been producing the drink since. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Drambuie being bottled in Edinburgh, the makers launched a new style of bottle and embarked on a television and print advertising campaign. I had for bypass Diageo as I ran out of time (and the will to live after the troll from hell). I said farewell’s to pals and headed into the sanctuary of the bar, had a quick Ben Riach 25 year old to settle me nerves, before heading out into the glorious summer warmth and sunshine of Edinburgh (I wish). I stumbled into the Bow Bar, great selection of real ales and even better whisky selection, I ordered a triple wood Balvenie and a haggis pie (dinnae tell Liz), ate up and chatted to a couple of Australian’s here for the whisky (sitting next to me), a good long chat, gave a few helpful (I hope) tips and moved on, a wee bit more shopping, before taking a taxi to my hotel.

Kirsty welcomed me in again and I was shown to my den. Quick shower, change and brush up, before heading out to the Dome – my favourite Edinburgh haunt. A whisky/champagne cocktail and I was happy, the place was looking fantastic, it was heaving full, I squeezed up at the bar to a few lassies waiting to be served, “might I be cheecky and ask you to include my next drink with your order?” sure enough, nae bother, the blond girl even paid for it! Great I thought, until it was my turn to get a drink, there were four of them, one of me! Oh well, stumbled back to my hotel over the road and dropped on the bed. I did have a nice bottle of Merlot to keep me company, so dropped me clothes (as you do) fell on the bed and looked at Match of the day (football) on telly. It was then the nightmare started again!!!

Outside the window a frighteningly haggard face was looking at me, I was terrified – the troll! And I was 7 floors up! As I panicked and tried to get under the bed, no mean feat for a stodger like myself, the face went higher, it was a bloody halloween balloon!!! Breathing heavy (nae, dinnae go there!) I carried on with a glass of wine watching the footy, eventually falling into a heavy daze and waking up 8 ish on Sunday, thinking about breakfast.

I arrived home to Perth, settled down, checking every room for the troll, before sittin doon with a glass of wine. An eventful couple of days, but they always are eh? Was it worth it? Aye. Dram of the fair? It has to be the Dewar’s Bits of Strange, I will be chatting to Ross again about this one, it’s only available at the distillery, thankfully that’s 40 minutes away, even better, Ross lives in Perth! Until my next outing, slainte!

Paul is owner of www.mcleanscotland.com and www.angelswhiskyclub.com along with Liz, who is away in India, missing all the fun.

The Relaxed Whisky Weekend
6 – 8 September 2013

Fellow Whisky Enthusiast,

The Mayas were wrong, we are still here, and 2013 has arrived! (With our without last night’s hangover) The year in which Maltstock will be organized for the 5th time already! Incredible! We hope to meet you in September!  We would like to wish everybody a wonderful, happy, healthy and above all: relaxed 2013!

Arthur, Bob, Eline, Rogier, Teun and the Maltstock crew

For information and tickets please look at our website. The new site and webshop will be fully operational next week. If you have any questions or cannot wait please contact us via this form. (click here)

Greetings!

I hope you had a spectacular holidays with your family, loved ones and friends, and this second day of 2013 finds you recovering and ready to “get back at it”.

As I started to consider whiskies for this first email of the year, I found myself also reconnecting with our vision for the ForWhiskeyLovers experience: What we offer you, our members. Or put another way: How we at FWL hope you, our members will think of us when you hear our name.

This New Year reset also caused reflection on some of what we’ve achieved in the last year or two, including:
• Bringing on Managing Editor Caroline Dewar and our world-renown team of contributing editors

• Launching our Private Tasting Expeditions
• Kicking the Whisky Explorers club up a few notches with help from the chaps at Masters of Malt
• Relaunching The Drammie Awards, thereby placing the power of “recognition” back in the hands of whiskey consumers.
• Winning the Icons of Whisky Best Online Retailer for 2012
It quickly became evident that two words were threaded through everything we do: Quality & Value. At every touch point where you experience FWL, we want you to have a high quality experience, that provides real value.

Oh…and it should be fun!

And so having reconnected with Quality and Value (over-laid with “fun”), I quickly arrived at one of my favorite – always on my bar – whiskies for this weeks email: Ardbeg 10 YO Islay Whisky.

The Ardbeg distillery was established in 1815, but was mothballed after running into some financial difficulties the distillery closed in 1981 and it was not until 1989 that distillation resumed, although on a very small scale. After closing again in 1996, then owners Allied Domecq put the distillery up for sale.

Bought in 1997 by Glenmorangie Co it was was, at last, restored to its former grandeur. Its chief water source, Loch Uigeadail (pronounced ‘Oog-a-dal’), or ‘dark and mysterious place’ in Gaelic, became the inspiration for a bottling launched in 2003 under the same name.

Ardbeg Uigeadail was later Jim Murray’s 2009 World Whisky of the Year, a title held previously by Ardbeg’s ten year-old. Ardbeg has become known for its rich, peated whiskies, very easily identifiable by their fullness of body and perfect harmony of flavor.

Ardbeg Ten Years Old is non chill-filtered and has a strength of 46% ABV, thus retaining maximum flavor, at the same time giving more body and added depth. It is revered around the world as the peatiest, smokiest, most complex single malt of them all. Yet it does not flaunt the peat; rather it gives way to the natural sweetness of the malt to produce a whisky of perfect balance.

So we are thrilled to offer you a bottle of Ardbeg 10YO Islay Whiskey, for $54.95/ bottle…and if the quality of Ardbeg 10 isn’t enough (and it darn well should be!), to assure “value” we are including a 50mL bottle of Ardbeg’s acclaimed Uigeadail with your order, FREE!

Next week: The 2013 Drammie Awards.

Until next week…I wish you high spirits!

Doug Stone
Founder
ForWhiskeyLovers.com

ARDBEG 10YO ISLAY SINGLE MALT & UIGEADAIL 50ML