Springbank 16 year old UK Exclusive – Fresh Sherry Cask

A brand new bottling of Springbank always brings some cheer, and this limited edition 16 Year Old Fresh Sherry expression is no exception. Drawn from a single cask, it has been bottled at a cask strength of 54.2%. The good news? We have a limited amount of stock available to purchase today! Please note this release is limited to one bottle per customer. (The bad news)

£129 Click to buy

 
Springbank 25 year old

This whisky has been matured in a combination of sherry and bourbon casks before being married together in port casks. It has been bottled at 46% and is limited to only 900 bottles worldwide. Please note, this whisky is limited to one bottle per customer. Tasting Notes: Very well balanced with notes of toffee apple, brandy butter, liquorice, milk chocolate and honeycomb.

£350 Click to buy

www.ralfy.com reviews a whisky which was discontinued and is now not discontinued because that situation was discontinued with Whisky Review 579 – Johnnie Walker Green Label re-reviewed 2016

IRISH DISTILLERS CROWNED WITH TOP ACCOLADES AT SAN FRANCISCO WORLD SPIRITS COMPETITON AND WORLD WHISKIES AWARDS 

Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard continues to lead the field in the Irish whiskey category with top honours at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition (SFWSC) and World Whiskies Awards (WWA)

Redbreast 21, from Ireland’s most awarded single pot still Irish whiskey range, was awarded ‘Best in Show’ at SFWSC, overcoming all other whiskeys – not only Irish but Scotch, American and from the rest of world. In an equally impressive feat, Green Spot Chateau Leoville Barton, was crowned World’s Best Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey at WWA,

Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard collected an outstanding haul of awards across its portfolio of Irish whiskeys in both competitions:

• Redbreast 21, ‘Best in Show’ (SFWSC)
• Green Spot Chateau Leoville Barton, World’s Best Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey (WWA)
• Redbreast 12, Gold Medal: Single Pot Still Whiskey (WWA)
• Jameson Caskmates, Gold Medal: Irish Blended Whiskey no age statement (WWA)
• Jameson Original, Category Winner: Irish Blended Whiskey no age statement (WWA)
• Midleton Very Rare, Best Blended Irish Whiskey and Double Gold medal (SFWSC)
• Redbreast 15, Double Gold medal (SFWSC)
• Redbreast 12 Cask Strength, Double Gold medal (SFWSC)
• Yellow Spot, Gold medal (SFWSC)
• Powers Signature Release, Gold medal (SFWSC)
• Redbreast 12, Gold medal (SFWSC)

In total, The Midleton Distillery claimed 20 awards across the two prestigious competitions. Commenting on the awards, Brian Nation, Master Distiller, stated that, “These awards are testament to the dedication and commitment of the passionate craftspeople at the Midleton Distillery; past and present. We should remember that many of the whiskeys that are receiving plaudits today were imagined and distilled many years ago and are now being brought to life by our current team of very skilled whiskey makers”

Now in its 16^th year, San Francisco World Spirits Challenge is one of the most influential spirits competitions in the world, widely recognised as one of the most reliable indicators of excellence in spirits.

World Whiskies Awards are part of the World Drinks Awards programme, launched in 2007. Presented by Whisky magazine and TheDrinksReport.com, World Whiskies Awards reward and promote the best whiskies to consumers and trade across the world.

Notes

About Irish Distillers Irish Distillers was formed in 1966, when a merger took place between Irish whiskey distillers, John Power & Son, John Jameson & Son and the Cork Distillery Company. In an attempt to reverse the decline in Irish whiskey sales, the company decided to consolidate production at a new purpose-built facility alongside the existing distillery in Midleton, Co. Cork. Irish Distillers was bought by Pernod Ricard in June 1988 and today, Jameson is the No.1 Irish whiskey in the world, selling over 4 million 9L cases worldwide and contributing more than any other Irish whiskey brand to the phenomenal global growth of the category. Irish Distillers is committed to driving continued, sustainable growth of the Irish whiskey category.

Irish Distillers’ portfolio of whiskeys is comprised of Jameson, the world’s no.1 Irish whiskey; Irish favourite Paddy; Powers, the robust premium whiskey for discerning drinkers; and the much-acclaimed brands that comprise the Irish Distillers’ Prestige Collection – the Single Pot Still Whiskeys of Midleton which includes the Spot range (Green Spot, Yellow Spot) and Redbreast, Ireland’s most awarded single pot still whiskey brand – and the pinnacle of the Prestige Collection, Midleton Very Rare. www.irishdistillers.ie

About Pernod Ricard Pernod Ricard is the world’s n°2 in wines and spirits with consolidated Sales of € 8,558 million in 2014/15. Created in 1975 by the merger of Ricard and Pernod, the Group has undergone sustained development, based on both organic growth and acquisitions: Seagram (2001), Allied Domecq (2005) and Vin&Sprit (2008). Pernod Ricard holds one of the most prestigious brand portfolios in the sector: Absolut Vodka, Ricard pastis, Ballantine’s, Chivas Regal, Royal Salute and The Glenlivet Scotch whiskies, Jameson Irish whiskey, Martell cognac, Havana Club rum, Beefeater gin, Kahlúa and Malibu liqueurs, Mumm and Perrier- Jouët champagnes, as well Jacob’s Creek, Brancott Estate, Campo Viejo, Graffigna and Kenwood wines. Pernod Ricard employs a workforce of approximately 18,000 people and operates through a decentralised organisation, with 6 “Brand Companies” and 85 “Market Companies” established in each key market. Pernod Ricard is strongly committed to a sustainable development policy and encourages responsible consumption. Pernod Ricard’s strategy and ambition are based on 3 key values that guide its expansion: entrepreneurial spirit, mutual trust and a strong sense of ethics.

Pernod Ricard is listed on Euronext (Ticker: RI; ISIN code: FR0000120693) and is part of the CAC 40 index.

BUFFALO TRACE VOTED BEST STRAIGHT BOURBON

Judges select their favorites at the 2016 San Francisco World Spirits Competition 

FRANKFORT, Franklin County, Ky (April 12, 2016) Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey was distinguished as “Best Straight Bourbon” at the 16^th annual San Francisco World Spirits Competition where a record-breaking 1,899 entries were submitted for a blind tasting.

Thirty-nine of the industry’s finest spirits experts reviewed each entry before ultimately awarding Buffalo Trace with its celebrated Double Gold Medal. Seven additional medals were awarded to other Buffalo Trace Distillery brands.

Double Gold

• Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

Gold

• Eagle Rare Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
• Thomas H. Handy Straight Rye Whiskey
• Blanton’s Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
• Colonel E.H. Taylor Jr. Barrel Proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
• Wheatley Vodka

Silver

• Stagg Jr. Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

• Hancock’s Reserve Single Barrel Bourbon Whiskey

“We’re extremely honored to accept these awards,” Master Distiller Harlen Wheatley, said. “Quite humbling to be recognized among the world’s best.”

Complete results for the 2016 San Francisco World Spirits Competition can be found here.

About Buffalo Trace Distillery

Buffalo Trace Distillery is an American family-owned company based in Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky. The Distillery’s rich tradition dates back to 1773 and includes such legends as E.H. Taylor, Jr., George T. Stagg, Albert B. Blanton, Orville Schupp, and Elmer T. Lee.  Buffalo Trace Distillery is a fully operational Distillery producing bourbon, rye and vodka on site and is a National Historic Landmark as well as is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Distillery has won 17 distillery titles since 2000 from such notable publications as Whisky Magazine, Whisky Advocate Magazine and Wine Enthusiast Magazine. It was named “Brand Innovator of the Year” by Whisky Magazine at its Icons of Whisky America Awards 2015.  Buffalo Trace Distillery has also garnered more than 300 awards for its wide range of premium whiskies. To learn more about Buffalo Trace Distillery visit http://www.buffalotracedistillery.com/.

Zuidam back at Maltstock

We can proudly say that after Patrick’s first Masterclass at Maltstock last year, he will be back with even more geekyness, even more MASTER-class, even more whisky, and even more awesomeness.  Last year Patrick brought a wooping amount of different styles of Zuidam whiskies, young, old, very young, experiments, on sherry, on bourbon and anything inbetween. People learned about distilling, wood influence, temperatures, nots, bolts, cask shapes and everthing else a whisky nerd thinks is cool. However last year’s Masterclass lasted for nearly 3 hours, Patrick wasn’t done. He will be back to continue where he left off, and will have some nice surprises up his sleeve for you to enjoy. And who knows, he might team up with someone. With Patrick (Zuidam), Mark Watt (Cadenhead), and Yumi (Chichibu) three masterclass are out in the open already, and it’s not even March yet. Many more masterclasses are going to be communicated to you in the next couple of weeks. Follow us on Facebook to get the news the fastest. Keep in mind, no ticket = no masterclass, so if you don’t have a ticket yet, please hurry in a relaxed manner to our webshop at maltstock.com. Click here

selfie competition

Be creative, be original, be crazy and above all be relaxed with the Maltstock logo, polo, or whatever Maltstock related object you can find. And win a bottle of whisky. Make a selfie with that object or objects and share it on Facebook with a #maltstockselfie tag and send the photo with your name to selfie@maltstock.com. The photos will be shown during the camp fire tasting, where the winner will be announced as well.

PROMO TOUR CONTINUES

This Saturday you can find us at the sold out Whisky in Leiden festival in the booth of a Brand New Day, where we will be pouring you their very relaxed whiskies.  Like every year, Maltstock will tour the Spirit of Speyside festival with the Relaxed Maltstock Promo Tour Car sponsored by passievoorwhisky.nl  Maybe spot the car and make a relaxed selfie with it? Just an idea. Maltstock will be present at Limburg Whisky Messe in Limburg am Lahn as well.

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This year the Maltstock breakfast will be made by a Keeper of the Quaich. How relaxed is that? Congratulations Wullie, it’s well deserved!

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Agenda (Maltstock visiting other festivals): Whisky in Leiden 16 Apr. 2016 Limburg Whisky Messe 23-24 Apr. 2016 Speyside Whisky Festival 28 Apr. – 2 May 2016

Macallan 1988 – Speymalt

New from Independent bottlers Gordon & Macphail is this 1988 vintage Macallan. Beautiful and inviting colour on this Speyside single malt Scotch whisky, aged for around 28 years before being bottled in 2016 as part of the excellent Speymalt series.

£229.80

Launching the Jim Beam Devil’s Cut, Jim Beam Double Oak and Jim Beam Apple

– Also introducing other renewed Jim Beam brand products –

Beam Suntory’s Japan business (Suntory Spirits Limited) is newly launching bourbon whiskies Jim Beam Devil’s Cut and Jim Beam Double Oak and the liqueur Jim Beam Apple of the Jim Beam brand, from July 5 in Japan.

As the popularity of Whiskey-Highball drinks continues to increase, the mild flavor of our bourbon whiskey Jim Beam and the television commercials featuring television personality Rola have been well received, contributing to the large 62% year-on-year growth in sales volume for 2015.

Now, in order to promote the Jim Beam brand’s wide range of unique character, bourbon whiskies Jim Beam Devil’s Cut and Jim Beam Double Oak as well as the liqueur Jim Beam Apple are being newly added to the lineup.
At the same time, the packaging of Jim Beam Black, Jim Beam Rye will be renewed and Jim Beam Honey will renew its taste and packaging, in order to reinforce the Jim Beam brand.

Jim Beam Devil’s Cut
This is blended by using its unique method of extracting unblended bourbon whiskey trapped inside the cask in which bourbon was aged. It is characterized by the deep aroma of oak with a taste of bitterness.

Jim Beam Double Oak
This uses unblended bourbon whiskey that was aged a second time in a new American white oak cask, following four years of aging in a different bourbon cask. It is distinguished by a flavor that is sweet and smooth like caramel.

Jim Beam Apple
This is Apple liqueur infused with Kentucky Straight Bourbon and taste smooth, mild and refreshing taste.

Discover the secrets of Speyside Distillery during Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival

Speyside Distillery – the home of SPEY whisky – is opening its doors to the public for the second year in a row for the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival. Visitors to the Festival – which takes place from Thursday April 28 to Monday May 2 – will have the rare opportunity to see inside the picturesque distillery at exclusive behind the scenes tours and tastings.

For 360 days of the year, the skills behind producing SPEY whisky is kept a closely guarded secret as the distillery is not open to the general public.

But all that changes during the Festival – a five-day celebration of Scotland’s most famous export – when a small group of lucky visitors get to discover the secret for themselves and see what goes on behind the distillery’s closed doors.

Distillery manager Sandy Jamieson, who has 37 years of experience in the industry, says that feedback from last year’s Festival was extremely positive and he’s looking forward to doing it all over again.

He adds, “Last year we were the newcomers to the Festival, so we didn’t really know what to expect. The entire five days went by so quickly and by the end we were all overwhelmed with all the fantastic responses we received from visitors.

“It was great meeting with whisky enthusiasts who were all extremely interested in SPEY whisky and how it’s created. As the distillery is not normally open to the public, people get a real feel for how the place runs on a day-to-day basis. It’s always really rewarding meeting people who are genuinely interested in what we do.

“We keep the groups quite small, as we’re a small distillery, so it’s very personal and they’re able to ask questions and interact with me throughout.”

The picturesque distillery, which is located near Kingussie in the south of the Speyside region, is hosting exclusive distillery tours on each day of the Festival.

Guests will then have the chance to participate in nosing and tasting of four of Sandy’s specially selected single malts, which will include expressions with vintage or cask finishes such as bourbon, sherry or port.

The ticket price of £30 also includes tea, coffee and light bites, and there may be an opportunity to view Speyside Distillery’s artist in residence Joanna Miller at work. Joanna is a former student of the Princes School of Traditional Arts and has provided artistic links between SPEY and the school. She specialises in print making, with a special interest in screen printing.

This year, visitors have the chance to take home a bottle to remind them about their experience. An exclusive retail shop will be set up selling a range of rare and limited edition SPEY bottlings that are not available anywhere else in the world. The shop can only be accessed by Festival visitors, and will close down as soon as the curtain falls on the event.

Festival-goers will also be able to sit back, relax and enjoy the taste of SPEY whisky whilst on board the Strathspey Steam Railway. Speyside Distillery is providing afternoon tea with a whisky-infused twist – an on-board nosing and tasting of four different expressions and two limited editions, all accompanied by sandwiches, scones, cakes, tea and coffee. Tickets are priced at £35.

Tickets for all of the events at Speyside Distillery are available to buy now through the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival website, http://www.spiritofspeyside.com/ The Festival comprises almost 500 different events, including distillery tours, whisky tasting, food events and music.

Speyside Distillery, home of the SPEY brand of malt whisky, has been in production since 1990 and is operated by Speyside Distillers Ltd. For further information about Speyside Distillery, visit http://www.speysidedistillery.co.uk/ and info@speysidedistillers.co.uk. Follow Speyside Distillery on Twitter @SpeySingleMalt and on Facebook at facebook.com/speysidedistillery

Picture caption – Distillery manager Sandy Jamieson will be leading tours at Speyside Distillery which is opening its doors exclusively for the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival.

The ultimate expression of handcrafted excellence! Composed of specially selected casks of single malt Scotch whisky (80%) and carefully matured Scottish grain whisky (20%) for binding purposes, the youngest whiskies contained within are a minimum 40 years old. Varying amounts of whisky from former American Bourbon barrels, European hogsheads and former Sherry butts (70 originating from the Speyside region, 25% from the Highlands and 5% from the Lowlands) were married together at 25 years old. After an additional 15 years of aging, this whisky was finished in sherry casks, originating from Jerez, for an additional six months before bottling.

 The Classic Cask 40yo

Tasting Notes

COLOR: Deep burnished gold

NOSE: Rich, fruity, dark vanilla, raisins & hints of Demerara rum

PALATE: Nutty with hazelnuts, oak and hints of spice.

FINISH: Extraordinarily long with traces of cedar and bits of fig

Cask and Barrel Club · 10208 NW 50th Street · Sunrise, FL 33351 · USA

Now To The New Stock…

We can now let the world have a chance to grab a bottle of the new William Cadenhead Speyside 40 year old. So many of you who wanted this dram last week only to find the initial stocks had sold out on pre order, well lucky me I managed to get a good supply to release to the world this week. I say a good supply it’s only a few cases but given how quickly things sell these days more than 6 bottles is a good stock level to have at Cadenheads London.

The label states the region obviously being Speyside, then we have the amazing age statement 40 years old. This is a bourbon oak cask matured whisky, so perfect for those who want a nice clear range of tastes.

It’s very smooth naturally for a dram that’s 40 years old, with the right balance of soft oak and spice along with hints of bread and butter pudding (Ok i am hungry now)

We tried this dram with salted caramel chocolate and it was a real delight. Some soft edges towards the end of the dram gave way to a little nuttiness too.

The full official tasting notes will be on the site. Price per bottle £123.95