SMWS January Tasting Sat 4PM 1/11/14 $45.00

SMWS January Tasting Sat 6PM 1/11/14 $45.00

MS Calgary Whisky Festival 2014 1/16/14 Tickets are now on sale for the 2014 MS Calgary Whisky Festival at the Epcor Center on Thursday January 16, 2014 at 6pm. 100% of the proceeds raised are going to the MS Society of Calgary and Southern Alberta. Tickets for this event are only available through the MS Society of Calgary and Kensington Wine Market. Last year’s event featured 25 different exhibitors and more than 150 different whiskies. This year’s event will be even bigger and better! Three Master Classes, to be announced at a later date will be offered before and during the event at an additional cost of $20/each. Master Class tickets will go on sale in December. Physical tickets for the Festival and the Master Classes will be mailed out, or made available for pickup in December. Please note these tickets are NON-REFUNDABLE, and NO Store Credit will be issued on cancellations. If you find you cannot attend, you can give your ticket (s) to someone else. If you wish to purchase a Master Class ticket when available, you must first have a Festival ticket.Travel Safe It is Strongly recommended that you use public transportation, walk or arrange a ride to and from the event. Please pre-book your taxi! $90.48

MS Calgary Whisky Festival Master Class1 1/16/14 Master Class 1 will feature a head to head by Michael Urquhart of Benromach/Gordon & MacPhail vs. James Robertson of Tullibardine. It will take place from 5:20-6:00PM, wrapping up just in time for the start of the Festival proper. You must have a MS Calgary Whisky Festival ticket to purchase a Master Class Ticket. No physical tickets will be distributed for the Master Classes, registrants names will be recorded on a list. Please note these tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable. $20.00

MS Calgary Whisky Festival Master Class2 1/16/14 Master Class 2 details will be published on New Year’s Eve. It will be held between 6:40 and 7:20. You must have a MS Calgary Whisky Festival ticket to purchase a Master Class Ticket. No physical tickets will be distributed for the Master Classes, registrants names will be recorded on a list. Please note these tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable. $20.00

MS Calgary Whisky Festival Master Class3 1/16/14 Tomatin Master Class with Distillery Manager Garham Eunson. 8:00-8:40PM. This Master Class will feature a range of six whiskies different from those being shown on the Festival floor, including a 1976 Vintage, the Tomatin 25 & 30 years and the 15 year Tempranillo finish. You must have a MS Calgary Whisky Festival ticket to purchase a Master Class Ticket. No physical tickets will be distributed for the Master Classes, registrants names will be recorded on a list. Please note these tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable. $20.00

Scots Wha Hae 1/25/14 Caledonians Unite! It’s time to celebrate all things Scottish. Duncan Taylor are the featured producers for this 9th annual Robbie Burns Supper, and Peter Currie is our special guest. The first to host the event twice. We’ll have bagpipes, poetry, haggis with neeps and tatties and six amazing whiskies from Duncan Taylor, including some new exclusives to KWM! No previous whisky experience required. Location: Fort Calgary 750 9 Avenue, SE 7:00pm start time. Sat Jan 25 $99.00

Scotland in 7 Drams 1/30/14 Can you define a country and industry in 7 whiskies? We’ll crisscross the Lowlands, Speyside, Highlands, Islands, Islay and Campbeltown, tasting Scotland in 7 drams. Thr Jan 30 7:00pm Start Time $40.00 SOLD OUT

Please click HERE to Register for  any of these events

Whisky Intelligence has added a new category called ‘Vignettes – Moments in Whisky’ which will feature whisky moments as experienced by the readership. If you have a whisky moment please feel free to submit your moment and we’ll do our best to publish it.

Go on, you know you want to be famous…

OBAN PUB EXPERIENCE – name with-held for obvious reasons! Story by Paul.

The whisky classic – in the pub, enjoying a dram at the bar. Three old guys (aye, older than me!) also at the bar dramming. Got chatting to them, wondered where the hell I am from? Cannee make out my accent – no matter, even my mates can’t. Once we had establish I was from Connel – 5 miles away – all was fine and happy, they bought me a dram. My turn, I bought 4 drams (myself included) of Aberlour 10yo. Let it linger in ma mooth and enjoyed it, as did the others; Jack, his usual is a half of Best with a dram. Euan, a JW Black, usually drinks Cally Best. Ronnie, he was persuaded to try a Glenlivet, he liked it and smacked his lips! As he disappeared to the toilet, I mentioned to the other two, “it’s known as the ladies whisky, coz its easy to drink”, they thought this funny. As he came back they told him and laughed more, he ordered a Lagavulin – he downed it nicely and said “there’s a real mans dram for ye!” The barman gave us all a nip on the hoose; me; Black Bottle, Jack; Famous Grouse, Euan; Glenfiddich, Ronnie; JW red – don’t go mad now with the expense! Just as things were calming doon, in walked an American couple, soaked to the skin and freezing, they BOTH ordered a Lagavulin! All four of us laughed so much we were choking – a mans dram eh!

 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

OBAN PUB TALE – IRISH BAR – name with-held for obvious reasons! Story by Paul.

I walked in, went to the bar and ordered a Tullamore Dew single malt. Fella next to me said to his pal “now there’s a man who knows a good whiskey”, they both had thick (but understandable) accents. They chatted away arguing about Irish whiskey, so I bought myself a Redbreast 10yo, and a Writers Tears and a Connemara Peat, once each for the two fellas. Mayhem followed! Great craik, two “rounds” of whiskey followed, they asked where I was from?  “Connel” says myself. Confused looks spread over their faces, they had had a few by now, “what county is that in?” says (let’s call him) Paddy, “it’s 5 miles doon the road” I say, oh they say. When I mentioned my mum is from Kilkenny, they lit up! “ we are from Co Kilkenny!!!” Two drunken Irishmen chatting about home, whiskey, my mum, I just about managed to escape!

 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Monday 23 December; distillery day today, started with a drive to Ardnamurchan, furthest westerly point of British mainland. Back tracked a little to where Adelphi are building a distillery. I reckon about 3 months to the finish now. With Concerto barley, being grown especially for the distillery, next to their bottling warehouse in Fife this will be a totally Scottish whisky!  Whisky industry veteran Graeme Bowie is to run new distillery. Graeme will initially oversee the visitor centre project. He moved from Inver House’s Balblair Distillery in Ross-shire, where he has been assistant manager. All the buildings, except for the visitor centre are now up. Even though, as images show, not quite finished, it can’t be long before I am there again, dry this time!  It was a hell of a day on my visit!  Remaining completely independent, Adelphi is able to select its single malt whiskies from as many distilleries as possible. Adelphi will only put its name to an outstanding whisky, they bottle single malt Scotch whiskies from only the very best single casks available. No two casks mature their contents the same, and with only 100-700 bottles produced from one cask, Adelphi single malt bottlings are both rare and highly sought after, only the very best single cask, single malt whiskies are good enough to be bottled on their own. With the help of Charles MacLean, it selects a mere 4% of those that are offered. Your guide and host (Paul McLean) will vouch for that, having tried many!  Too many.

From here a fantastic drive (ok, some really bad weather) to the Corran ferry, and on to Fort William (again), where I had a meeting arranged with Colin Ross of Ben Nevis distillery.  A good long chat with Colin in the boardroom, chatted over distillery tours, special bottlings and all sorts of things, even bible man! There will a new distillery visitor centre opening next year (2014) and a new whisky name also! Warehouse Number 7, this will replace Legend of the Dew. Warehouse 7 is now where the current visitor centre is located. Two very exciting bottles soon to be available; 21 year old Port finish looks good, in it’s own decanter, also exciting, the 25 year old, again in decanter, only approx. 500 of these available and 200 of the 21 yo available in decanters, looking at £400 ish for the 25, a limited edition. So don’t say I didnee warn you!

Back at the pub for the final night, sitting at the bar, there was an American couple staying, also seated at the bar, after a wee opening chat, with the ok from Steve (owner) I nipped to the room for some whisky bottles (200 ml), we then had a blind tasting, another “silence of the drams”! I told them how it worked and they were up for it. Bottles included, BenRiach 1995, Templar dram; 21 yo Speyside, Bruichladich Rocks and a Cutty Sark Storm. After the pen and paper bit, we then chatted away with the 4 drams. What did we think? Overall winner by far, BenRiach! One comment re BR; “anyone who does not like this whisky, needs surgery!”  I like to these silence tastings, no one can speak until we all wrote down what we thought, no suggestive comments made to influence the others, my own idea (Paul). For a finish we enjoyed a Famous Grouse chocolate bar!

Paul McLean was on a selfish, chill out trip, all on his own (except for Stan the Stag)! But can repeat the trip for anyone who wishes to tour with MCLEANSCOTLAND in 2014, a west coast thriller! See facebook for many images of this trip; McLean Whisky Tours

http://www.mcleanscotland.com/

http://www.angelswhiskyclub.com/

On Sunday January 5th, 2014 Whisky Intelligence will publish the best and most complete profile of the now demolished Lochside Distillery. It’s a fascinating read…the article is written by Mark Davidson, the Jolly Toper himself.

Charles Gordon, Life President of William Grant & Sons

Dec 24th, 2013. The death has just been announced of Charles Gordon, Life President of William Grant & Sons, who died in New York at the weekend. He was 86 years of age.

Charles was a key driving force in building William Grant & Sons into a strong independent family-owned company with a unique global reputation for excellence.

His son Glenn, the present Chairman of the company, paid this tribute to his father: “We are all very proud of my father’s achievements in his very full and energetic lifetime, and give thanks for the legacy that he has left us with. He touched the lives of many, many people and will be sorely missed by all.

“In our family and our business, which my father always intertwined, he very much believed in a spirit of partnership. In his memory, we will continue to build this spirit, and with it our independent family business, for future generations”.

Stella David, Chief Executive of the company said: “On behalf of all of us at William Grant & Sons, we recognise the truly exceptional contribution Charles Gordon has made to our company. Indeed few people have made a greater contribution to the scotch whisky industry over such an extended period of time. The company is fully committed to continue to build on Charles’ remarkable legacy. We pass on our sympathies to the Grant Gordon family.”

Ardbeg Auriverdes

A World Cup Homage?

See for yourself here

Longship Distillery Ltd in Orkney has appointed Mr Jim Robertson as Senior Advisor.

Mr Jim Robertson of Orkney, Scotland, has been appointed Senior Advisor for Longship Distillery Ltd, Orkney. Jim’s long and fruitful experiences in combination with his excellent contacts in the whisky business will be of great value for the shareholders of Longship. 

Jim is best known and appreciated for his long time as Distillery Manager at Highland Park, Orkney. 

Working experience

13 years at William Grant & Sons Ltd (Girvan, Balvenie, Glenfiddich). 10 years at Highland Park, Highland Distillers Keeper of the Quaich in 1999 Chairman of Orkney Chamber of Commerce Vice Chairman of the Orkney Enterprise Company and the Health Board

Web: http://www.longship.se/

Twitter: LongshipD

UK vlogger Joe Ellis a.k.a Whisky Wednesday starts 2014 with a review of The Whisky Shop Exclusive single cask Arran 15 Year Old. 

http://youtu.be/YU_y63rh4GU 

http://Facebook.com/whiskytube

http://Twitter.com/whiskytube