THE BENRIACH DISTILLERY COMPANY WINS TEN MEDALS AT IWSC 2015

THE BenRiach Distillery Company has won 10 medals, including two Gold and four Silver Outstanding, across its three brands at this year’s International Wine and Spirits Competition.

And rounding off an excellent performance at the Awards, the Edinburgh-based company was again shortlisted for the 2015 UK Spirits Producer award.

Founded in 1969, the International Wine and Spirit Competition is one of the most prestigious in the world. It currently receives entries from over 90 countries, giving it global reach. It was set up to seek out, reward and promote the world’s best wines, spirits and liqueurs. Now in its forty-sixth year, the IWSC’s pursuit of excellence underpins every aspect of the competition today.

Judging for the competition is unique in that it has two stages; first, the products are tasted blind by expert panels, selected from over 300 fully experienced and qualified industry judges. Then, products which receive the top medals are subject to technical analysis before results are released; this crucial stage ensures winners receive complete validation.

The company’s full list of awards is:

Gold Medal

GlenDronach 12YO

Glenglassaugh 30YO

Silver Outstanding Medal

BenRiach 12YO Sherry Wood Matured

BenRiach 10YO

GlenDronach 8YO

BenRiach 35YO

Silver Medal

GlenDronach Cask Strength Batch 4

Glenglassaugh Revival

Glenglassaugh Torfa

Glenglassaugh Evolution

Sales Director Alistair Walker said: “An IWSC award is an internationally-recognised badge of quality and we’re delighted to win ten this year, especially as they are spread across all three of our brands.

“To receive a Gold Medal for the GlenDronach 12 Years Old is particularly satisfying as it is both our flagship expression and our best-selling brand this year with fantastic worldwide sales and growth. It is also very gratifying to see the Glenglassaugh 30 Years Old taking gold too. It was the first release from the distillery after we took over in 2013 and has been critically acclaimed in all our markets. It bursts with flavour and is full of the distinctive Glenglassaugh coastal character.”

He added: “Winning four outstanding silvers is also very pleasing, especially the two for our brand-new releases, the BenRiach 10YO and the GlenDronach 8YO. The BenRiach 10 Years Old is Classic Speyside in character and the cask formula focuses on ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks – exactly the types of wood we favour at BenRiach. And the GlenDronach 8 Years Old, known as The Hielan’, is a rich and immensely satisfying dram with a classic sherry signature.

“It is a huge achievement for a small independent to make the UK spirits producer shortlist in the company of global companies and we are thrilled with these fantastic results.”

Our July auction is now live and ends on Monday 3^rd August 2015!

View July Auction

This is an incredible auction with 1,300 bottles available. We have a few highlights for you this month, starting with Johnnie Walker Director’s Blend 2013. A whisky that was only gifted to the upper echelons of Diageo. 

This moth we also have both a Killyloch 1967 and a Glen Flagler 1976, two single malts from the long closed Moffat distilling complex. When it comes to rare, closed distilleries, these are sure fire winners!

Bruichladdich have produced the most heavily peated whisky in the world… time and time again. This lot is an almost complete range of the legendary Bruichladdich Octomore available! 

The highlight of our world whiskies this month is the Hirsch Reserve 1974 16 year old. From the closed Michter distillery this has been described as one of the best bourbons ever. 

Please remember!

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With close to 20 years of experience in the whisky industry, Whisky Auctioneer specialises in auctioning whisky whether it be fine, old, rare, collectable or affordable. Formed in 2013 and based in Perth, central Scotland, we aim to be the most comprehensive website for the buying and selling of whisky online.

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This week Joe Ellis reviews the new Arran White Stag bottling.

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THREE SHIPS WINS WORLDWIDE WHISKY TROPHY 

The Three Ships 10 Year Old Single Malt has become the first South African whisky to be awarded the Worldwide Whisky Trophy and a gold outstanding distinction at the annual International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC) held in London.  In a second round of blind tastings, the gold winners from all the participating countries with the exception of Ireland and Scotland competed for the trophy and judges chose the South African whisky above those from the USA, Canada, Australia, the UK, France, Germany, Japan and Taiwan.

A delighted Andy Watts, master distiller of the range, said in the 33 years he had been involved in making Three Ships, he had time and again been astounded by the international acclaim for these whiskies.

“Who would have thought back then that we would be able to create such interest in South African whiskies? Traditionally, South Africa is known as a wine and brandy country, and many felt at the time we should rather leave whisky-making to those countries in the Northern Hemisphere with centuries of experience in making it. Thankfully we didn’t listen but followed our dream!”

Another Three Ships entry in the competition, its Premium Select 5 Year Old, took gold. This whisky is in many ways a tribute to the time Andy spent on the Isle of Islay at the start of his whisky-making career. It was here where so many years ago, he fell in love with the island’s iconic peaty whiskies. The Premium Select, which spends five years in oak, is a blend of peated barley distilled in copper stills made for the James Sedgwick Distillery by Forsyth’s of Scotland, and grain spirit distilled in column stills.

The Three Ships 10 Year Old Single Malt, of which only a limited quantity was released at the time of its launch, has long been sold out. Only a few whisky lovers might still have a bottle or two in their collections while others might still harbor fond memories of the whisky, which was matured for ten years in carefully selected oak barrels. The Three Ships Premium Select 5 Year is available nationwide and retails for about R160. Visit www.threeshipswhisky.co.za for more on the range.

Aberlour, Chivas & Glenlivet Whisky Tasting 20th August 

Price: £20.00
Date: Thursday 20th August 2015
Time: 7:00PM
Location: N&P Cellars

Book Tickets Online

Phil Huckle from Pernod Ricard is coming to the store’s cellars on Thursday 20th August to present an evening of Scotch whisky!  Expect special drams from Aberlour, Chivas and the Glenlivet distilleries. Plenty of fun to be had at this one! For further info, email David Gardener or phone him on 01384 394518. Starts 7:00 pm

Nickolls & Perks Ltd
37 Lower High Street
Stourbridge West Midlands DY8 1TA
UK

New Members’ Tasting – 19 Greville Street – Tue 28 July  More >

Birmingham Preview Tasting – Hotel du Vin – Fri 31 July More >

Durham Preview Tasting – Radisson Blu – Fri 31 July  More >

Stirling Preview Tasting – The Golden Lion Hotel – Fri 31 July  More >

Harrogate Preview Tasting – Hotel du Vin – Fri 31 July  More >

August Outturn Preview Tasting – The Vaults – Thu 6 Aug  More >

New List Open Tasting – 19 Greville Street – Sat 8 Aug  More >

Steak & Whisky Tasting – 19 Greville Street – Mon 10 Aug  More >

FREE ENTERTAINMENT AT THE VAULTS

Live Music with Main Street Blues >  Wed 5 Aug

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, The Vaults, 87 Giles Street, Leith EH6 6BZ Contact: sales@smws.com or call 0131 555 2929 (Mon-Fri 9am-4.45pm). Visit the Society at here for membership information

This is your chance to join and to take advantage of their great offers!

Spot the SMWS bottles in this amusing You Tube video

Browse All Tastings >

Whisky Ramblings Via Video #114

Mark Dermul, Belgian Whiskyblogger, tries an independent Blair Athol. Blair Athol is a lesser-known distillery in the Highlands, which produces primarily for the famous Bell’s blend. There are barely any official bottlings, so if you want to try this whisky, you will need to look at independent bottlers. I tried a single cask from 2002, bottled under the Hepburn’s Choice label, a subsidiary of Hunter Laing.

http://youtu.be/ET-1BI3aBpA

NEXT AUCTION NOW LIVE!

Our next auction will go live next week, beginning on Monday 27 July and ending on Tuesday 4 August. You’ll find a wide range of bottles, with plenty of single malts, bourbons, everyday drinking whiskies and a good selection of miniatures. Here are some of the rarest bottles you can bid on:

• Highland Park Rebus – to celebrate 20 years of the literary detective Rebus. Fewer than 160 bottles were released.

• Balvenie 50 Years Old cask 5507 – from a single sherry cask released in 2012 – one of the best-ever Balvenies.

• Bowmore Bicentenary – a stunning OB bottled at cask strength in 1979 for the Italian market.

• Macallan 1950 handwritten label – released by Gordon & MacPhail in 1981.

• Karuizawa 1980 Noh Cask 3565 – only 335 bottles, exclusively released in Norway and Sweden.

Best wishes, The Whisky Auction team.

THE GLENROTHES VINTAGE RESERVE LAUNCHES IN UK 

Berry Bros. & Rudd Spirits is delighted to announce the UK release of Vintage Reserve from award-winning Speyside distillery, The Glenrothes.

Vintage Reserve is the expression that best epitomises The Glenrothes Vintage Single Malt philosophy of bottling whisky only once it has reached the peak of its maturity. Vintage Reserve marries together a good many carefully selected Vintages from the last three decades.

The combination of Vintages aged in a variety of casks creates a balanced whisky with mature experience and vibrant youth: the most venerable constituent brings mellow oak and dried fruits. The younger Vintages add soft, mature, sweet vanilla; the more youthful Vintages add exuberance and lemon citrus notes.

Malt Master, Gordon Motion has hand-selected the very finest casks to create the Vintage Reserve, using character and flavour as his guide, not a pre-determined age. Gordon Motion’s flavour notes appear on the front label: “Mellow, soft fruits, citrus and honey.”

Ronnie Cox, The Glenrothes Brand Heritage Director, states: “This is our most complex Reserve to date. Unlike other malts that bottle by age, we choose whiskies that represent the best of a particular year and marry them together when they are ready. That is in contrast to many distillers who bottle simply based on the age of a whisky. The emphasis is on the quality, taste and flavour of the whisky – not the age.”

The Glenrothes Vintage Reserve 40% ABV

Appearance:  Brassy gold.

Bouquet:                 Unusually fragrant, soft in style, wafts of mature citrus and honeycomb accompanied with characteristic red fruits.

Palate:          Very soft silky/creamy mouth-feel. Red berry fruits swirl and dominate with time over the nebulous nuttiness.

Finish:           Mid to long citrus and honeyed vanilla and the faint reminder of 1st fill sherry casks.

The Glenrothes Vintage Reserve is now available at The Whisky Exchange and Gordon & MacPhail with a recommended retail price of £39.99

For more information about The Glenrothes, visit www.theglenrothes.comor contact Maxxium Customer Services on +44(0) 1786 430 500 for further information.

Notes:

The Glenrothes was founded in 1879.

Only 3% of the distillery capacity is bottled as Single Malt to ensure exceptional quality.

Of the 22 Vintages released to date, 14 have entirely sold out.

Owned by Berry Bros. & Rudd Ltd, the wine and spirit merchants established in 1698, The Glenrothes is an award winning Speyside Single Malt Whisky of exceptional quality from the town of Rothes in Speyside -Scotland’s whisky heartland.

Established in 1879, the Glenrothes is a pioneer in Scotch Whisky. All our single malt is vintage malt. When we say vintage, we mean whisky distilled and put in cask in a single year. When judged to be at its peak of maturity, character and flavour, then we carefully marry selected vintages together as Reserves, or bottle them individually as Single Vintages.

At The Glenrothes, maturity matters more than age. A combination of many factors, including our unusually slow distillation process in tall copper pot stills, deliver our characteristic sweet, fruity and elegant spirit. Further flavours are derived from our extensive knowledge of maturation in oak casks. Each expression has its own unique personality, underpinned by the distinctive, hallmark characteristics of the distillery – ripe fruits, citrus, vanilla and an exquisite spicy finish all encased in the creamiest of textures and with a complex and well-poised balance.

The Glenrothes is only selected for bottling when it has reached its zenith of maturity; each cask is carefully checked, nosed and tasted many times. An age statement does not reveal the maturity of the whisky and so the Glenrothes is bottled only when ready, meaning mature and at its peak of perfection. Malt whisky matures at its own pace as shown by the two casks selected.

Some of our recent awards and accolades for current bottlings: 

The Glenrothes, Vintage Reserve

• Gold, Scotch Whisky Masters 2015

• Double Gold, China Wine & Spirits Awards 2015

• Gold, The Asian Spirits Masters 2015

• “Officially Amazing”, Guinness World Record holder for largest Burns Supper, 2015The Glenrothes Select Reserve

• Gold, Scotch Whisky Masters 2015

• Gold, San Francisco Wine & Spirits Competition 2012
• Scotch Whisky Master, The Spirits Business Masters 2008
• Best in Class, World Whiskies Awards 2008

The Glenrothes Sherry Cask Reserve

• Double Gold, WSWA 2015
• Recommended, Whisky Magazine, Issue 123, February 2015
• Difford’s Guide, Exceptional 5 out of 5 stars 2014

The Glenrothes Alba Reserve

• Excellent, Highly Recommended (92/100), Ultimate Spirits Challenge, 2014
• Double Gold, San Francisco World Spirits Competition, 2010
• Silver, International Spirits Challenge 2010

The Glenrothes Select Reserve

• Gold, San Francisco Wine & Spirits Competition 2012

• Gold, The Asian Spirits Masters 2015

The Glenrothes 1998 Vintage

• Silver medal, International Wine & Spirits Competition 2011
• 93/100, Excellent/Highly Recommended, Ultimate Spirits Challenge 2011
• Silver, International Wine & Spirits Competition 2010
• Silver, San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2010

The Glenrothes 1995 Vintage

• Gold, Hong Kong International Wine and Spirit, 2013
• Silver, International Wine & Spirits Challenge, 2013
• 92/100, Excellent/Highly Recommended, Ultimate Spirits Challenge 2011

The Glenrothes 1988 Vintage

• Silver, The San Francisco World Spirits Competition, 2012

The Glenrothes 1978 Vintage

• World’s Best Speyside Single Malt. World Whiskies Awards 2008