New videos: Part II – the Family Reserve

Hello,

As promised, here’s part II in our series of Grant’s films. Today I am introducing Family Reserve, the best-selling family-owned Scotch whisky. Why not pour yourself a dram and let me know if you can taste the same rich, honeyed flavours? Do visit again tomorrow: we look at a unique whisky, Grant’s Ale Cask Edition, in…(Please click on the link below to read the remainder of the article)…

THE LINK

Kind regards,

Ludo

CHARLES DANCE TAKES CENTRE STAGE IN CHIVAS REGAL’S LATEST CAMPAIGN

Chivas Regal, the world’s original luxury whisky, is launching ‘Barman’, the latest instalment of its long-running ‘Live with Chivalry’ advertising campaign. The ad features legendary British actor Charles Dance, of Game of Thrones fame, and award-winning Danish director, Adam Hashemi, whose debut feature film starring Cameron Diaz and Benecio del Toro premiers in 2014.

With Dance playing the role of a charismatic barman, director Hashemi takes the audience on a journey through some of the most iconic cocktail eras. The ad showcases the timeless nature of Chivas and the prevelance of the enduring values of generosity and integrity to the modern gentlemen, no matter what the era.

The TV and cinema ads feature The Kills track DNA and are part of a fully integrated campaign which will launch in markets around the world from the 1^st October 2013.

A new web app (www.chivas.com/honour), Made in Your Honour, has also been developed to complement the advertising. The app lets users show their own generosity of spirit by honouring a friend with a barman’s ultimate tribute; a Chivas drink created in their name. The personalised video featuring the unique drink and recipe based on their friend’s characteristics will be sharable through Facebook and Twitter.

Richard Black, Global Brand Director for Chivas Regal, says: “Since its 2008 launch, the Live with Chivalry campaign has been incredibly effective in helping Chivas to connect with modern gentlemen around the world. We believe that this latest instalment gives a deeper meaning to what it takes to Live with Chivalry, demonstrating that modern gentlemen show their generosity of spirit.” 

Notes: 

About Chivas Regal

Chivas Regal is a truly global brand, selling 4.9 million 9L cases annually in more than 150 countries across Europe, Asia Pacific and Americas. The Chivas Regal range is the epitome of style, substance and exclusivity and includes Chivas 12, Chivas 18, Chivas Regal 25 Year Old and Chivas Brothers’ Blend.

About Chivas Brothers

Chivas Brothers is the Scotch whisky and premium gin business of Pernod Ricard – the world’s co-leader in wine and spirits.  Chivas Brothers is the global leader in luxury Scotch whisky and premium gin. Its portfolio includes Chivas Regal, Ballantine’s, Beefeater gin, The Glenlivet, Royal Salute, Aberlour, Plymouth gin, Longmorn, Scapa, 100 Pipers, Clan Campbell, Something Special and Passport.

In July 2010 Chivas Brothers launched The Age Matters campaign to help consumers understand the importance of Scotch whisky age statements.

For further information please visit www.chivasbrothers.com

• 2000 Aberlour 13 Year Old K&L Exclusive “Exclusive Malts” Single Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky 750ml ($64.99)
After the success of last year’s 21 year Aberlour, we weren’t planning to buy a repeat from this lovely little distillery. That all changed in David Stirk’s little warehouse south of Glasgow. This lovely hogshead was just singing to us. Its rich and warming style will delight any lover of Speyside whisky. On the nose we get powerful toasted grains, biscuits, honey (some exotic type, tilleul?) and pears. The palate is super soft and rich, which more of the oak spice evident than on the nose, but the similar blend of sweet floral and grainy flavors. On the end those spices come back with a heavy dose of that biscuit (I’m thinking Walkers). Maybe this is not the most exciting whisky on paper, but it will certainly be several peoples’ favorite this year. (David Othenin-Girard, K&L Spirits Buyer)

• 2002 Bowmore 11 Year Old K&L Exclusive “Exclusive Malts” Single Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky 750 ml ($75.99)
We love us some Bowmore here at K&L. When Bowmore is on, it’s unstoppable, mainly because no other Islay distillery has the same richness of fruit and oily texture in conjunction with all the peaty campfire smoke. This young barrel of Bowmore we found outside of Glasgow represents everything we love about the distillery’s special style: light in color, smoked plums on the nose, fresh fruit and vanilla on the palate, swimming with the perfect amount of saline seawater and peat. The first thing David and I said to each other was: “this tastes like a younger version of the 17 year old!” Alas, the wonderful, magical, ethereal 17 year old is no longer in production at the distillery and we’d both finished our last bottles. The chance to perhaps replicate that gentle flavor profile at full proof was just too good to pass up. For the price, this is a no-brainer. There’s not one Islay fan out there who wouldn’t go ga-ga for this whis ky. Supple, fruity, smoky, salty, luscious, nutty, complex, and tasty. Now we just have to hope there’s enough to go around for everyone. (David Driscoll, K&L Spirits Buyer)

• 1979 Faultline 32 Year Old Single Barrel Cask Strength Blended Scotch Whisky 750ml ($109.99)
This is just some sort of ridiculousness. When we stumbled across this absolutely wacky cask in a warehouse in Southern Scotland, we hadn’t even realized it was in the realm of legality to sell this sort of whisky. This is from a lot of whiskies all distilled in 1979. At some point in its maturation, it was blended and rebarreled in a single sherry hogshead. It’s highly likely that was done relatively recently, but honestly it could have been done two decades ago. We think that this whisky may have come either from a larger blender who was planning to add this to one of their house blends and either lost it in the warehouse or sold it as part of a larger parcel. Otherwise, we think it could have perhaps been a lot owned by a smaller broker which was ultimately consolidated as the whiskies began to evaporate. Either way, this stuff is totally unique. We have no knowledge of another cask strength single cask single vintage blended whisky being released in this country or any other for that matter. If you know differently please let us know. What’s really important about this whisky is that it’s absolutely delicious. It’s got all the complexity and depth of the best blends and is exceptionally well balanced even at full proof. Plus, the price is uncomfortably low for the age and quality of the whisky. This is truly a unique gem plucked from a dingy warehouse, which ended up polishing up perfectly.

• 1995 Fettercairn 17 Year Old K&L Exclusive “Exclusive Malts” Single Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky 750ml ($89.99)
Fettercairn distillery has been around since 1824, when it was established by Sir Alexander Ramsay, and has enjoyed a tumultuous sales history since that time. It was sold in 1830 to Sir John Gladstone, turned over to his son John Roberts in 1890, who then bought out the other investors in 1912. The distillery was closed in 1926, but reopened in 1939 by new owners Associated Scottish Distillers. In 1971 it was purchased by the Tomintoul Distillery Co, which was subsequently bought out by Whyte & Mackay in 1973, who had nothing but mergers and buy outs over the next three decades. Today Fettercairn is owned by United Spirits, which is partially owned by Diageo, again leaving the distillery in a netherworld of confusion. Fettercairn is pretty much absent in the states because most of the whisky is used in bulk production for private UK businesses like Tesco and Asda, leaving the distillery little chance to showcase its potential as a single malt. This 1995 vintage barrel we found outside of Glasgow is simply charming with aromas of ripe fruit and flowers on the nose. The palate exudes a classic malty core of flavor with wood spices and rich vanilla on the finish. It’s almost too easy to sip. This is a fantastic deal for mature, full-proof, well-made Highland single malt whisky. It’s also a chance to learn more about a historic distillery completely lost in the shuffle of industry business and financial uncertainty. We jumped all over this. (David Driscoll, K&L Spirits Buyer)

• 2005 Island Distillery 7 Year Old K&L Exclusive “Exclusive Malts” Single Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky 750ml ($59.99)
This little mystery malt was a favorite of ours from the moment the bung popped out of the cask. Both David and I are huge fans of young, smoky whisky, and this is one of the best under-10 year olds that we’ve found. It’s vibrant, salty, supple, with all the intense that you’d want out of the best young peaters, but beautifully restrained as well. Now this whisky was distilled on one of Scotland’s numerous Isles, that’s about all I can tell you regarding the specifics of the distillery. I can tell you that it is not from the Island of Islay, I can tell you that this blows the young Caol Ila that we loved out of the water and I can tell you that our price for this whisky is well below what we’d expected to pay, not to mention well below the cost of that Caol Ila. One thing that struck us about this cask was how different it was from others that we’d seen from this distillery. This whisky is powerful, but with a great deal of nuance at this age. A subtle fresh rubber quality transitions to subtle fruit (maybe light red berries). Altogether a wonderfully idiosyncratic whisky and the first of what we hope to be several young peaty mystery malts to come. (David Othenin-Girard, K&L Spirits Buyer)

NEW ARRIVALS

• 1998 Bowmore 14 Year Old Cadenhead’s Small Batch Collection Single Malt 750ml ($89.99)
• 1989 Cameronbridge 23 Year Old Cadenhead’s Small Batch Collection Single Grain Whisky 750ml – 4 available ($119.99)
• 1977 Caperdonich 35 Year Old Cadenhead’s Small Batch Cask Strength Collection Single Malt 750ml – 4 available ($399.99)

BACK IN STOCK

• Glenfarclas 21 year old, Distillery Bottlilng 750ml – 6 available ($129.99)
• PC10 – Port Charlotte “Tro Na Linntean” Single Malt Whisky 750ml – 11 available ($149.99)

K&L Wine Merchants
http://www.klwines.com
Phone: 877-KLWines (toll free 877-559-4637)
Email: wine@klwines.com
San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA

Part I – an introduction to Grant’s 

Hi everyone,

This week I’d like to share some new videos for those who’d like to learn a little more about Grant’s without having to travel to Scotland or attend one of my tasting sessions.

Part I focuses on our story to date, whilst the others look at our individual blends, including the crafting process and resulting… (please click on the link below to read the remainder of the article)…

THE LINK

Kind regards,

Ludo

Tuesday, October 15, 5:30 PM 

Scotch Malt Whisky Society Tasting

In Cooperation with The Strath Ale Wine & Spirit Merchants

Red Brick Café, 2423 Beacon Ave, Sidney, BC 

7 Whisky Tastings Accompanied by Appetizers

Members $35 Guests $45 Designated Drivers $5 (non-tasting)

We will blind taste seven Society bottles and later reveal their origin. In the meantime enjoy the whiskies and decide if the names on the bottles such as “Caballero in an Orange Grove” or “Big Brooding, Masculine and Intense” provide clues as to the origin, cask, nose and palate.

Please RSVP via email

Attendance is on condition that you do not drink and drive

Whisky Ramblings Via Video #64

On the Isle of Jura, on the west coast of Scotland, boasts only one distillery with a rather obvious name: the Isle of Jura distillery. The locals, called Diuriachs, are vast outnumbered by the deer that roam the island. The distillery produces around 2 million litres of spirit per annum. Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, tries the Isle of Jura 16 Year Old, the duty free range offering from this distillery on the Isle of Jura.

http://youtu.be/cBlLY0AUda8

It’s Dramming Time!

Well done. You’ve done it. You have successfully survived that terrible, great summer to emerge on the other side into the more customary wind and rain (speaking if you are in the UK of course).

Well, I am here to tell you that it isn’t all bad. We here at TWL have been cooking up a few things for you to look forward to this autumn, including a handful of exciting new bottlings, our Blind Islay Fury series and more festivals than you can shake a stick at! Plus the usual news and quiz…

NEW BOTTLINGS

As you know, we don’t often delve into the dark arts of bottling whiskies ourselves, but occasionally we are offered things to good to be true that we think you need to taste! So we therefore submit for your pleasure the following little beauties. As always we have bottled these all in the 20cl format, although a couple of them are also available in 70cl this time round!

THE BOMB Blended Malt Whisky

First up we have a very new and exciting pair, inspired by a certain US TV series. Both are technically blended malts but the majority of the liquid is actually the product of one distillery – one that you would rarely see in an independent bottling and goes by the uber-glamorous title of Westport in its ‘tea spooned’ format. Regardless this stuff is incredible, matured for 15 years in traditional ex-Bourbon casks but then finished for a matter of weeks in tiny 50 litre Octaves that previously contained Pedro Ximinez or Oloroso sherries. The result is big, rich and spicy whiskies, with the Oloroso (47.4%) being more mocha/chocolatey and the PX (45.4%) being more sweet, fruity and juicy.

The 20cl PX is just £21.99 inc. UK delivery and the Oloroso is £22.99, whilst the 70cl versions are just £60.99 and £61.99 respectively.

The Legendary Salty Sea-Dog BATCH 2

After the sell-out success of the first litter, how could we deny you some more? This single malt version is feisty, unruly with utterly no respect for discipline or its elders. if you like your Islay malts vigorous, salty and with plenty of youthful peaty notes then this is the one for you!

The Salty Sea-Dog is just £20.99 for a 20cl bottle including UK delivery.

FESTIVALS!

Our final three festivals of what has been a humungous year are coming up fast! If you haven’t already got your tickets for Manchester and York you’d better be quick as these are just about full up. For Aberdeen folk we have our usual juicy early bird offer of 2 tickets for £40 on for a limited period. Just click on the relevant banner above to be taken to the booking pages.

Yes its that time of year again when we roll out Islay’s newest and/or finest in the blind tasting series that everyone loves! Come and test your palate to the max among similarly minded whisky-nuts as we taste six whiskies from Scotland’s (mainly) peaty whisky isle! The dates:

LONDON  Tuesday 29th October, The Red Lion, SW1
LONDON  Wednesday 30th October, The Red Lion, SW1
BRIGHTON Thursday 31st October, The Hilton Metropole
SHEFFIELD Tuesday 12th November, The Blake Hotel
LEEDS Wednesday 13th November, The Cross Keys
YORK Friday 15th November, The Brigantes
NEWCASTLE Friday 22nd November, Blackfriars
MANCHESTER Saturday 23rd November, The Britons Protection

These dates are now available to book online at only £20 per person – simply click on the relevant date/venue combination.

NEWS

A round-up of the latest industry news…

2nd October 2013 – The Spirits Business
FIRST EVER BRITISH BLENDED WHISKY RELEASED

30th September 2013 – The Spirits Business
DISTILLER PLANNED FOR HISTORIC BIRTHPLACE OF SCOTCH

27th September 2013 – The Spirits Business
REDBREAST 21 YEAR OLD IRISH DISTILLERS’ POT STILL FAMILY

26th September 2013 – The Drinks Business
GLENFIDDICH LAUNCHES FIRST NO-AGE STATEMENT COLLECTION

25th September 2013 – Off Licence News
KILCHOMAN RELEASES 2007 VINTAGE

24th September 2013 – The Spirits Business
HIGHLAND PARK CREATES £25,000 LINN TURNTABLE

14th September 2013 – The Spirits Business
ISLAY TO GET NINTH DISTILLERY

11th September 2013 – The Herald Scotland
WHISKY BOOM PUTS GLENCAIRN ON GROWTH PATH

5th September 2013 – The Drum
THE SCOTCH MALT WHISKY SOCIETY LAUNCHES POP-UP BAR AS PART OF 30TH ANNIVERSARY

QUIZ

And finally…
The monthly quick quiz. Whisky general knowledge this month, and a little bit geekier, but with a prize of a pair of tickets to a tasting of your choice valid until January 2014 – does not include Islay trips!! As usual, the first to answer gets the prize.

1. What is the temperature of the 1st set of waters during mashing?
2. What is the normal %ABV a (scotch whisky) distiller will reduce spirit to before filling into cask?
3. What does the age statement on a bottle of whisky technically signify?
4. What name have William Grant’s given to bottled single malt from Kininvie Distillery?

Tie-Break
How many expressions of Bruichladdich have there been since the distilleries re-launch in 2001?

Last month’s winner is;
Thomas Draper of Hove in Sussex – well done, a sample of something interesting will be on its way to you soon!

THAT’S ALL FOLKS!

Thanks for listening, happy dramming and we’ll see you at a Whisky event soon we hope.

Slainte,

Eddie, Amanda and Joe
The Whisky Lounge Team.

New City of Waterloo Museum exhibit features Seagram’s V.O.

(Waterloo, Ont. – Oct. 7, 2013) The City of Waterloo Museum’s latest exhibit, Initial success: 100 years of V.O. Whisky, showcases the product’s 100-year-old history.

What:  Initial success: 100 years of V.O. Whisky    

Where: City of Waterloo Museum, located at Conestoga Mall (near the food court)

When: Oct. 2, 2013 to Jan. 31, 2014 

There is a mystery surrounding the origins and naming of Seagram’s V.O., one of the most well-known whiskies produced at the former Waterloo distillery. Family tradition states that “V.O.” stands for “Very Own,” as this was a whisky blend created for the nuptials of Joseph E. Seagram’s son Thomas to Dorothy Pearson in 1913. Others claim that the initials stand for “Very Old” in keeping with the distiller’s assertion that it was a blend of very old Canadian whiskies.

Initial success: 100 Years of V.O. Whisky traces the product’s 100 year old history, with highlights into the life of Thomas and Dorothy, its production, packaging and marketing while trying to demystify the origins of the initials. Throughout the exhibition, the integral relationship of Seagram’s V.O. with Waterloo is highlighted. Of particular interest are photographs and artifacts from the production and bottling stages at the former Seagram Waterloo Distillery.

No matter what the facts, this famous Canadian whisky is still “honoured the world over” as “only V.O. is V.O.”

The City of Waterloo Museum is open Wednesday to Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., with free admission for all.

Information on this exhibit is available by visiting www.waterloo.ca/museum.

Reader’s Challenge 2013 results

Glen Grant 1953 / Rare Vintage / Gordon & MacPhail

A 1953 vintage from Glen Grant distillery, matured in first fill and refill sherry casks for over 50 years. Bottled in 2006 by Gordon & MacPhail as part of their Rare Vintage series.

£665.00  (£554.17 ex vat)

Click here to buy Glen Grant 1953 Rare Vintage