Whisky Ramblings Via Video #67
Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, enjoys the new Auchentoshan 14 Year Old by Cadenheads, one of the oldest and still independently owned bottlers. Mark Watt recently joined the company at its HQ in Campbeltown and launched the new dumpy series with that wonderful retro look.
OLD PULTENEY SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY AND US SAILING
ANNOUNCE FINALISTS FOR THE 2013 MARITIME HEROES AWARD
Old Pulteney Single Malt Scotch Whisky and US Sailing announced this year’s finalists for the 2013 Old Pulteney Maritime Heroes Award. Now in its second year, the Maritime Heroes Award seeks out men and women across the country who are making significant contributions to their local sailing community and the overall sport of sailing. Three finalists were chosen this year.
“We continue to be impressed by how many men and women dedicate their lives to improving and preserving the sport of sailing,” said Amy Larkin, Marketing Director of US Sailing.
Each finalist was nominated by another member of their sailing community and carefully selected by Old Pulteney and US Sailing representatives.
“These finalists embody everything an Old Pulteney Maritime Hero should be: dedicated, compassionate and selfless,” said Pat Graney, President of International Beverage USA. “We recognize and appreciate the lasting impressions they have made in both their local communities and the sailing community as a whole.”
The winner will be determined by public vote and recognized at an award ceremony in February 2014 during US Sailing’s National Sailing Programs Symposium in San Diego, California. Friends, family and members of the national maritime community are encouraged to vote for their favorite finalist. Public voting for the Old Pulteney Maritime Heroes Award will be open through December 1, 2013. For official rules please visit www.maritimeheroes.com.
About Old Pulteney
Old Pulteney Single Malt Scotch Whisky is crafted at Pulteney Distillery in Wick, Scotland. The distillery was founded in 1826 by James Henderson at the height of Wick’s herring boom. The distillery lies in the heart of “Pulteneytown,” which was one of the largest and most important herring fishing ports in Europe. Old Pulteney has a long standing association with the sea and is the official scotch of US Sailing. Its carefully crafted taste carries the windswept and rugged character of the North, the salty and fresh air of the North Sea, and the distillery’s rich maritime heritage runs through every drop of this fine malt.
About US Sailing
The United States Sailing Association (US Sailing), the national governing body for sailing, provides leadership, integrity, and growth for the sport in the United States. Founded in 1897 and headquartered in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, US Sailing is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization. US Sailing offers training and education programs for instructors and race officials, supports a wide range of sailing organizations and communities, issues offshore rating certificates, and provides administration and oversight of competitive sailing across the country, including National Championships and the US Sailing Team Sperry Top-Sider. For more information, please visit http://www.ussailing.org/.
NOVEMBER OUTTURN TASTING
LEGACY LIQUOR STORE
1633 Manitoba, Vancouver
Wednesday, November 6th 7:00pm
$35 members/$45 non-members
To register please call 604-331-7900
Vancouver’s November Outturn tasting will be held at Legacy Liquor Store on Wednesday, November 6th.Please join us for what promises to be an evening of great company and great scotch (including another 30th anniversary release) around Legacy’s beautiful tasting table!
Early November Outturn Offerings
Marriage in the merry month of May
Cask No. 59.41 $195
Highland, Northern
We were greeted by the very intense smell of an array of quality perfumes and very expensive flower bouquets. After a while deeper notes appeared, polished pew wood, old hymn books and incense – we got the impression of being a guest at a wedding in a historic catholic church. The taste, rich toffee, rum truffles, raisins, chocolate covered almonds and the sugar coated icing of a mini egg. Careful when adding water – we have now left the church and photos are being taken in a cherry blossom orchard. There are also fresh fruity notes of water melon, mango and white grapes. The taste now floral – possibly roses, slightly oaky and the dusty icing sugar on the wedding cake. Very enjoyable, from the distillery in Allness which was completely renovated in 1974.
Drinking tip: Ideal for a hipflask at a wedding
Colour: Honeycomb gold Date distilled: November 1983
Cask: Refill hogshead Alcohol: 45.7%
Age: 29 years USA allocation: 72 bottles
Buttery waffles on polished wood
Cask No. G7.4 $190
Grain
The nose was delightfully sweet – toffee sauce on ice-cream and banana, apple pie, corn candies, iced caramels, dusty muesli and dried apricots; added interest came from flowers, sawdust and fag packets in an oriental massage parlour. The unreduced palate had golden syrup, maple syrup, chocolate fondue with fruit and a dusting of oaky spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, clove); quite bourbon-like. On the reduced nose, leather and polished wood supported the sweetness of buttery waffles and salted caramel. The palate was sweet yet musky, like a Mars Bar with old spice – lip-smackingly tasty, we thought. The distillery is near the Ayrshire coast.
Drinking tip: After a nice lunch or with banana split dessert
Colour: Jill Masterson’s skin in Goldfinger Date distilled: May 1984
Cask: Refill hogshead Alcohol: 58.4%
Age: 28 years USA allocation: 60 bottles
Complex, carefree and curvaceous
Cask No. 7.82 $150
Speyside, Lossie
The nose – classic lady’s leather handbag (cigarette packets, nail varnish, perfume, custard creams, ginger biscuits) – then seductively sweet (crème brûlée, salted caramel, apricot jam) and fruity (lemon, green apple, dried bananas, peaches, lychees). The palate spread pools of velvety sweetness (crystallised pineapple, soft toffee, syrup on toast) from which bubbles of acceptable bitterness would pop (perfume, pepper, marmalade, green wood). The reduced nose got us thinking about pine tree fresh, perfumed bath salts – heady and seductive stuff! The sweet, fruity palate now seemed complex, carefree and curvaceous, trilling under gentle kisses of oak. The distillery claims connections with Saint Marnoch.
Drinking tip: A dram for day-dreams, fantasies and reveries
Colour: Antique gold Date distilled: April 1993
Cask: Refill hogshead Alcohol: 53.0%
Age: 19 years USA allocation: 144 bottles
A ballerina in stilettos
Cask No. 46.21 $100
Speyside, Lossie
The nose was immediately promising – offering buttered popcorn, puff candy, caramel, burnt orange peel, toasted almonds, pot-pourri, molasses and Christmas essential oils. The palate had good viscosity and an expanding universe of flavours – orange and lemon zest, moist gingerbread, wood-sap, candied angelica, pepper and Lea and Perrins – chewy and tasty, with spicy tingles. The reduced nose found malt, maple syrup on bacon, porridge and a wood-panelled room. The palate now suggested duck with orange sauce, syrup of figs and leather thongs – and seemed to dance around the tongue like a ballerina in stilettos. Named after a tributary of the Spey.
Drinking tip: A nice wee dram to provide warmth and contentment in the winter months, especially at Christmas
Colour: Wedding band gold Date distilled: May 2002
Cask: Refill butt Alcohol: 60.9%
Age: 11 years USA allocation: 114 bottles
To get lost in the moment
Cask No. 53.186 $160
Islay
The nose neat is extremely fresh and clean, some mentioned tea tree toothpaste with baking soda, others lime zest and green Starburst candy and there were also parallels drawn to very fine new fresh cashmere or angora wool. We all agreed it felt like a sunny day at the machir with a warm salty sea breeze in our faces. The taste, salted butter, pistachio nuts with a hint of burnt heather. With water soft and woolly with a sweet smoke and a little soapy like ‘Radox Watermint & Sea Minerals’ shower gel. The taste sweet and malty; a mug of Horlicks with milk and honey and a lime cake with salted caramel frosting.
Drinking tip: Enjoying a sunset on the beach
Colour: Virgin olive oil Date distilled: December 1989
Cask: Refill hogshead Alcohol: 54.2%
Age: 23 years USA allocation: 120 bottles
Please visit the Scotch Malt Whisky Society at http://www.smwsa.com/
Ralfy here . . . just to let you know that I am currently promoting a little Crowd funding Project at http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/bonneville-speed-week-2014/ where we aim to raise the funds to secure logistics of transportation of two motorbikes to Bonneville in 2014 for the Centenary of Speed Week.
The Team are current Double World Record Holders and have every chance of achieving up to six more World Record as part of the Isle of Man Year of Culture Event. Our mission is to show our community that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things with ambition and perseverance.
Bottles of whisky will continue to be involved on a regular basis, whether at auction as fund-raisers or as morale-boosters !
Cú Dhub Black Whisky (Black Dog) 40% Alc Speyside
Bottles (1/70CL). Duty Paid. There’s more to Cú Dhub than just the novelty fact of it being the World’s only Black Whisky. Cú Dhub translates as ‘Black Dog’, and is distilled near the Forest of Gaick, where the Witch of Laggan (allegedly) roamed and encountered the creatures who gave this dram its name… A dark, dark whisky from the village of Drumguish near Kingussie. Check out this award winner at a great price…
Tasting Notes
Colour: Solid black
Nose: Light and mild, sweetness, burnt wood, root of liquorice giving a cool impression.
Taste: Vanilla, hot notes of liquorice come forward, sweet, smooth and well-balanced.
Finish: Good balance between sweet and a hint of strong coffee. A whisky with a ‘bite’. The malt comes through.
…just £21.78 inc VAT per bottle!
£21.78 inc VAT
£18.15 ex VAT
Special Offer Save 15% Was £25.62
Whisky Ramblings Via Video #66
Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, tries the Auchentoshan Select. It was one the Lowland distillery’s NAS expressions. Bottled for the first time in the early 90s, it moved to the duty free range in 2008, but is no longer being produced as of 2012. It has been replaced with the Springwood & Heartwood. But Mark will try an old bottling, from 1994, for the Italian market. This is still a very nice, albeit undemanding, summer dram.
Scotland’s Distillery Boom
New Morrison Distillery planned for Perthshire
Ernie – Ernst J Scheiner, The Gateway to Distilleries at www.whisky-distilleries.net
The Exchequer of James IV put the Tironensian and Lindores monk John Cor on the agenda of Scottish whisky history in 1495 by writing: “To Friar John Cor, by order of the King, to make aqua vitae VIII bolls of malt.” In Latin he noted: „Et per liberacionem factam Fratri Johanni Cor per preceptum compotorum rotulatoris, ut asserit, de mandato domini regis ad faciendum aquavite, infra hoc compotum viij bolle brasii.“
The wider Lindores area around Newburgh will become a distilling centre again with the working farm distillery Daftmill and the proposed micro Lindores-McKenzie-Smith-Distillery.
A further distillery will join the two Lowland distilleries according to plans which have been lodged with local planning authority and revealed just recently to The Gateway to Distilleries. The new whisky plant will be located just some miles west from the overgrown ruin of Frair Johanni’s Lindores Abbey in the small village of Aberargie, near Abernethy which is just south-east of the blending centre Perth.
The famous whisky dynasty, the Morrison Family of Bowmore, who sold their distilleries Bowmore, Auchentoshan and Glen Garioch to the Japanese drinks giant Suntory in 1994, will join in the distilling industry with verve again. Mid October plans were published by Tim Morrison who will built a 500,000 litre distillery in Glasgow’s famous Queen’s docks. After about 100 years the River Clyde will see a whisky distillery again.
His brother Brian, former chairman of Morrison Distillers, and his son Jamie will also invest in a distillery project in rural Aberargie where they own farmland around the proposed production site. Their intention is to use barley grown by their own farm and adjoining local farms. It is said that the new commercial distillery will produce double distilled single malt only. „Capacity has not been decided yet,“ explained Kenny MacKay, managing director of the Scottish Liqueur Centre in Perth. The Mackays and the Morrisons are the main shareholders (89%) of the Perth bottling and blending firm which has revived the former Thomson label Old Perth this year. Kenny MacKay has also set up the distinguished Cárn Mór cask bottlings launched in 2008. In their portfolio are also the Highland liqueur Bruadar and the premium cream liqueur Columba with single malt whisky sourced from Tullibardine distillery.
The new distillery will not produce any grain whiskies but double distilled malts which would supply the whiskies for the new Blended Malt Old Perth. It would also allow „swapping spirits“ with other distilleries to secure further single cask bottlings of the Cárn Mór series. Thus they are following the footsteps of other successful Scottish independent bottlers like Andrew Symington and Ian Macleod who had aquired the Highland distilleries Edradour, Glengoyne and the Speyside Distillery Tamdhu.
‘Our project is now in for planning permission, and once, and if, we know that we have it then we can start to look at the build project in much more detail, it doesn’t happen overnight,“ said Kenny MacKay, one of the main shareholders of the Scottish Liqueur Centre.
The distillery will be owned by a company (KIC Holdings Ltd, Perth) controlled by The Morrison family and the new site which will also contain a bottling and blending plant which will be operated by the Scottish Liqueur Centre.
Information:
www.scottish-liqueur-centre.com
Photos
Kenny Mackay at the Whisky & Tobacco Days 2013 in Hofheim, Germany. Copyright Ernie- Ernst J. Scheiner 2013.
About the Author: Ernie – Ernst J. Scheiner M.A. was a director in an adult education centre. Ernie offers courses on whisky distilling, writes for newspapers, magazines and blogs in Germany. He is the editor of The Gateway to Distilleries at www.whisky-distilleries.net which gives an excellent photographic and educational insight into the whisky industry of Scotland, Ireland, Europe and Asia.
Please see also: http://www.whisky-distilleries.net
THE DRIVERS SHARE – what about a round of applause for the drivers! Normally, this is what the driver has at each distillery; a cup of tea/coffee or an empty glass. We hope you all appreciate your drivers for whisky tours, being a driver myself (Paul) I know how it feels. The Drivers Share; An interview with our Irish whiskey tour driver; Mark Burgess, a Scot, now living in Belfast.
1. Mark, what does it feel like driving a whiskey tour group when you cannee drink? A; Well I take great pride in driving the Whiskey tour, as I was brought up in the whiskey world, with my father being a master distiller (retired now) way up in Speyside at one of the stills, so I feel a strong pull and connection while on tour and love getting to know the groups and getting to know there interests and the whiskey clubs from around the world, but I have to say the worst part of the job has to be the fact that I am the driver. So no sample’s for me during the day.
2. Watching the group (and myself) enjoy samples usually with a satisfied smile, is it hard when do don’t even get to sample anything? A; Watching the group enjoy the samples on tour, does give me a bit of mixed feelings, (not bad ones) I love watching peoples reactions on tasting as everyone knows, each persons taste is different and I like hearing what they think, but on the down side, I do feel a little jealous when the groups get a wee special one to taste, which I know I will most likely never have the chance to try again.
3. back at the hotel each night, if asked what dram you would like, what would you choose? A; Back at the hotel I would often be offered a dram or 2, what I choose would depend on the area I was in, for instance if I was around the Middleton area of Co Cork I would choose something from the Jameson collection, or even trying a whiskey I have heard of but not tasted, basically having my own personnel tasting
4. again, at the hotel, how does it feel when you stop drinking at 8.30pm? A; Being a driver on tour does have disadvantages, having the Responsibility’s of having passengers on your coach, you have to very sensible and responsible and only trying one or two drams in the evening is enough, as the passengers safety and enjoyment is the most important part of the tour, so I don’t mind sitting with the groups drinking soft drinks as the crac is always great.
5. I know on our tours, we normally give you samples and drams to take home, would it not be better to be able to join in on the tour? A; Paul has always been kind to me and gives me samples to take home with me which is a real bonus for me and makes my tour even more special, as I can’t wait to get home and and try them and fill my whiskey notebook in with my own notes, but I must say it would be nice if you could sample the whiskeys with the groups on the visits to the stills, but as they say its the nature of the job.
6. At home, what are your whiskies of choice? A; At home, I like to have a good peat whiskey both from Scotland and Ireland, a few being, the Coal Ila 12 year old, Laphroaig quarter cask, and the Connemara single malts.
7. Finally, having driven tours for us this year myself, I do feel sorry for all drivers and know myself the drivers share is usually NOTHING, or a CUP OF TEA/COFFEE. Do you have a parting shot? A; The drivers share ha ha, what can you say? a tea or coffee sir, yes I do feel I am missing out on that special one, but I love the job it very interesting and very rewarding just to see my groups with big smiles on there faces after each visit and mostly empty wallets as well, but it would be nice if the stills did think about the driver and give a little sample to take away with him to try at his own leisure. Its not that he wants a bottle, just a little sample in a sample bottle would go a long way to a happy driver!
Interview by Paul McLean www.angelswhiskyclub.com and www.mcleanscotland.com
A COMPLETELY new type of Scotch single malt has been crowned World Whisky Of The Year in Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible 2014.
Glenmorangie Ealanta was distilled as Scotch but matured in the style of American bourbon. The 19-year-old malt has been given a record-equalling 97.5 points out of 100 to see off the Kentucky bourbon William Larue Weller, which came in second.
In explaining his choice, Jim Murray said the unique Glenmorangie had pipped its rival “because it went out and did something very different: not only did it blow me away with its deftness, beauty and elegance, but it gave an aroma and taste profile completely new to me in over 30 years of tasting whisky”.
For the tenth anniversary edition of the Whisky Bible, Jim Murray tasted over 1,100 new whiskies from all over the world which had entered the market in the last year.
Ten years after the launch of the first Whisky Bible, the sales of which are now heading towards half a million copies, Jim Murray has also reprised his campaign against the use of caramel to falsely colour whisky.
Jim Murray insists that, despite whatever the distillers may claim, caramel dulls the taste and aroma of whisky and misleads consumers as the colouring is often not listed as an ingredient.
Jim Murray added: “Ten years ago, my campaign against caramel had a huge and positive impact on many distillers and independent bottlers around the world. But it is a shame that, a decade on, some of the bigger boys continue to use it. I hope my campaign will lead at least to legal acknowledgement on labels of the presence of colouring, as is the case in Germany.”
Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible 2014 is available to buy now from http://www.whiskybible.com/ and good bookshops and liquor stores throughout the world.
