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ImpEx Cask Evolution Currently Available: 02/2016 Bourbon Barrel Cask Number: 470/2011   Strength: 60.1% ABV Distilled: 11.8.2011   Bottled: 16.5.2016

ImpEx Cask Evolution series celebrates the quality maturation process of a fantastic Scotch whisky.  The Kilchoman Bourbon Barrel is first fill and craftily chosen by Anthony Wills, Kilchoman Founder & MD.  It is truly a rarity, from its traditional floor malting to its sea flavor, and it is exclusively available in the US.  Highlights include:

• Kilchoman receives all their Bourbon Barrels whole directly to Islay.
• All of their Bourbon Barrels are sourced exclusively from Buffalo Trace Distillery in Kentucky allowing for uniquely efficient and consistent maturation.
• Bourbon Barrels are used to mature whisky and enhance it with a flavor that can range from vanilla sweetness to Christmas cake, evoking a sense of nostalgic longing for the holidays; each person’s experience is different!

“Single Cask Single Malt is the purest representation  of any Scotch whisky, it is an unfiltered and undiluted representation of distillate and cask type.”  Anthony Wills, Founder & MD.

Tasting notes

Nose:  Peat smoke with citrus, vanilla and floral sweetness

Palate: Butterscotch, caramel, citrus sweetness and light smoke

Finish: assertive with smoky sea salt and tropical fruit

Springbank Local Barley 16yr – Springbank Distillery, located in the lesser known area of Campbeltown, is near and dear to our hearts here at The Party Source. This is the first release of two new expressions from Springbank this year, and the first general release of Local Barley since 2001. All the barley was grown just outside Campbeltown, and only 9,000 bottles were released worldwide. Showing flavors of vanilla, lemon, and honey, hints of smoke and classic Springbank earthiness, and all with a kiss of peat, this bottle is sure to impress.

www.thepartysource.com 95 Riviera Drive, Bellevue, KY 41073  (859) 291-4007

Highland Park 2007 Cask Strength

Island Single Malt Scotch Whisky

2005 VINTAGE LIMITED EDITION CÙ BÒCAN RELEASED

Highland-based Tomatin Distillery have launched a limited 2005 vintage edition of their peated Cù Bòcan single malt.

Bottled at a strength of 50%, the whisky is stronger than its core range counterpart, and is matured in ex-Bourbon and Sherry casks. Described as having aromas of butterscotch and toffee apples with flavours of candy floss and a gentle touch of peat smoke, typical of the Cù Bòcan range, there are only 11,400 bottles of this limited edition available worldwide.

The Cù Bòcan brand is named after a mythical Highland hellhound which was rumoured to haunt the village of Tomatin and was launched in 2013 as a lightly peated alternative to the traditional fruity flavours of Tomatin single malt. The distillery has been producing peated malt for the last week of every year since 2005.

This latest release follows previous limited editions including the 1989 vintage in 2014, along with the Virgin Oak, Sherry and Bourbon expressions in 2015 with the latest release the 1988 vintage launched in May 2016.

Stephen Bremner, Sales Director commented:

‘When we started distilling peated whisky in 2005 it was intended to be used for our on-site blending activities. However when it became of age we recognised it had to be released as a single malt and so Cù Bòcan was born. Three years down the line, we are constantly looking for ways to develop the brand and experiment with new expressions. This vintage release celebrates how our light, fruity flavours when combined with peated barley make for a sensational smoky spirit.’

The vintage creation is currently being rolled out worldwide and is expected to retail at £49.99. A list of stockists can be found here: www.tomatin.com//shop.

Notes

1. The Tomatin Distillery Co Ltd is a producer and blender of Scotch whisky, boasting a strong core range of single malt whiskies along with a range of popular blends.
2. Website: www.cu-bocan.com   and www.tomatin.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cubocan www.facebook.com/Tomatin1897

Twitter: www.twitter.com/Tomatin1897

3. The distillery was established in 1897, and while historically the whisky produced was primarily sold for use in other brands of blended whisky, the company is now very focussed on growing the Tomatin single malt brand in its own right.Tomatin Distillery produces Cù Bòcan Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky and Tomatin Single Malt Scotch Whisky.
4. The company’s most popular blends are The Antiquary, The Talisman and Big ‘T’.
5. The distillery is owned by Japanese company Takara Shuzo: http://www.takarashuzo.co.jp/english/index.htm

Whisky is for summer – not just for Christmas

Being a dedicated Scotch whisky drinker, I normally don’t do that well in summer. Traditionally, Scotch whisky is associated with cooler weather, and the past month here in London has not provided me with a suitable environment to sit around in a comfortable armchair with a dram, unless I’ve had a large fan pointed at my face. However, Scotch whisky is much more versatile than it’s given credit for – here’s how I’ve been surviving the summer in three easy steps:

1) Long Drinks

It may be blasphemy to some, but whisky is a great ingredient in long drinks. When it’s summer outside, you want something to slake your thirst and cool you down, and as long as you choose a whisky with a punchy-enough flavour, you can stretch things out without hiding its character.

My summer drinking kicked off on the summer solstice on 21 June. It was the longest day of the year and after an afternoon of rain, the clouds cleared and we had a long evening of summer sun. In true, decadent whisky-blogger fashion, I was on a Dalston rooftop drinking Highland Park cocktails. My favourite of the night was the simplest:

Simmer Dim 50ml Highland Park 12 Years Old 25ml elderflower cordial 25ml lemon juice Soda water

Fill a tall glass with ice, add the whisky, cordial and juice and stir. Top up with soda water and garnish with a lemon slice.

The sweetness of the elderflower and sourness of the lemon cancel each other out, and the soft smokiness of the Highland Park peeks out around the edges. One for warm evenings and hot afternoons.

2) Classic Cocktails

While the Prohibition-style cocktail obsession is (thankfully) starting to die down, I’m still a fan of the classics – simple, short drinks developed and popularised around the time that showcase a spirit rather than hiding it under layers of fruit juice or cream. American whiskeys are the most commonly used in my favourite recipes but Prohibition opened the door for illicit spirits imported from overseas, including Scotch whisky.

The simplest of the classics, although a drink that’s easy to make badly, is the Old Fashioned. It’s just three ingredients – spirit, bitters and sugar – but from those humble origins there’s a huge range of drinks you can create. Sticking with Scotch whisky, you want one that will stand up to being both chilled and diluted, as well as not get overtaken by the addition of sugar and bitters. I generally look for a punchy blended whisky, without the subtlety that will disappear when cooled and without too much spice, so the bitters add a flavour rather than amplifying something already present in the drink. Cutty Sark Prohibition fits the bill perfectly, beefing up Cutty’s regular easy-drinking style with more weight and a higher bottling strength of 50% ABV.

Everything in moderation – including ice.

Rather than spending hours stirring an Old Fashioned – the standard way of making the cocktail and the reason why asking for one in a busy bar will earn you death stares from the bartender – I go for a much simpler approach. While I claim it’s because I like the way the drink changes as you work your way through the glass – starting strong and whisky-heavy, ending with rich spice – it’s really because I’m lazy…

Lazy Old Fashioned 50ml Cutty Sark Prohibition A few dashes of Angostura bitters A pinch of sugar

Add the sugar and bitters to a tumbler with a little splash of whisky and stir it up until you get bored or the sugar dissolves. Fill the glass with ice, add the rest of the whisky and give it a quick stir. Drink slowly.

3) Chilled

Cooling down whisky has a bad reputation. It does massively change the flavour and can kill the more subtle notes in a dram, but sometimes a cold whisky really works. While filling a glass with ice will cool things down, it will also dilute your dram and wreak havoc on single malt – many of them can take a good slug of water, but too much will ruin your whisky. Using a really large ice cube will reduce the amount of dilution, but that’s also not always what you want. Whisky stones (small rocks that you keep in the freezer and add to your drink) don’t dilute but they also don’t cool very well. This leads to a simple solution:

Keep your whisky in the fridge.

Freezing a whisky is going a step too far for me, but chilling a bottle down in the fridge before an evening of warm-weather dramming works perfectly. You need to choose the whisky well and one that’s been working for me this month is the recently revitalised Inchmurrin 12 – it’s very fruity and chilling doesn’t diminish that character, instead quietening the weightier notes. Here’s what I found when tasted straight from the fridge:

INCHMURRIN 12 YEARS OLD

Nose: Creamy and fruity, with apple sauce, mango, pineapple and vanilla.

Palate: All of the fruit: sultanas, grapes, apples, pears, candied lemon, sweet mango and dried papaya. Hints of spice build as it warms in the mouth.

Finish: Short, with a hint of fruity sorbet.

In short: experiment. Scotch whisky can be great all year round, as long as you look outside of the more traditional approach to drinking it. Ignore the people who complain that you are destroying your dram – it’s your whisky, do what you want with it.

Evan Cattanach: 1935-2016

August 2, 2016 – Evan Cattanach was one of the giants of the Scotch Whisky industry, in size and in stature. Standing well over six feet tall, with a piercing stare counter-balanced by a large laugh, he knew more about Scotch Whisky than almost anyone and generously shared that knowledge with everyone. Even in his final years after a stroke forced him to use a wheelchair to attend whisky festivals, his smile and spirit never waned as he greeted longtime friends and whisky newcomers alike. The 80-year-old Cattanach passed away Sunday (July 31) in Mount Kisco, New York, where he had settled after relocating from Scotland……..please click here to read the remainder of the article by Mark Gillespie of WhiskyCast.

Macallan  Speymalt 1974

Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky

Macallan Speymalt 1974 Single Malt Scotch 43.0% ABV. Speyside whisky from Scotland, Gordon & MacPhail bottling Sherry Cask matured.

United States – Kentucky

Orphan Barrel “Rhetoric” 22 Year Old Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey (750ml – ships like 1.5L due to bottle shape) $119.99 View

Scotland

Glen Scotia 15 Year Old Single Malt Whisky 750ml  $79.99 View

Lagavulin 8 Year Old Limited Edition Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky (750ml)  $59.99 View

Loch Lomond ‘Lomond Reserve’ Blended Whisky 750ml  $16.99 View

Loch Lomond Original Single Malt Whisky 750ml  $32.99 View

Loch Lomond Single Grain Whisky 750ml  $27.99 View

K&L Wine Merchants
http://www.klwines.com
Phone: (877) KL-WINES (Toll Free 877.559.4637)
Email: wine@klwines.com
San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA

DIAGEO WELCOMES ALCOHOL INDUSTRY PROGRESS AGAINST PRODUCERS’ COMMITMENTS

Global efforts to tackle harmful drinking by Diageo helped industry build momentum  

Diageo welcomes today’s release of the latest Producers’ Commitments Report by the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking (IARD), which shows signatory companies have stepped up implementation of their Commitments to contribute to the global target of reducing alcohol-related harm by 10% by 2025.

Diageo is one of 12 leading producers of beer, wine, and spirits who are signatories of the Commitments to tackle alcohol-related harm. This is the third annual report following a ground-breaking agreement for the alcohol industry to collaborate in 2012, and the first since the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were agreed by governments in 2015.

Ivan Menezes, Chief Executive, Diageo, said: “I am proud of Diageo’s significant contribution towards the industry’s overall progress in reducing the harmful use of alcohol, particularly our work to prevent underage drinking and ensure the next generation has a positive relationship with alcohol. We are three years into the most ambitious initiative our industry has ever collectively undertaken to address harmful drinking and, while we have made good progress, there is still more work to be done. At Diageo, we are committed to doing more.”

2015 report – Diageo highlights: Reducing underage drinking

This year’s report highlights particular progress in programmes to prevent underage drinking. Collectively, the 12 signatory companies implemented 257 underage education initiatives in 2015, a 49% increase on the previous year. These programs directly engaged nearly 30 million unique adult influencers such as parents, teachers, and community leaders on the importance of respecting legal age limits on buying alcohol. Over 192 million additional individuals were reached through education programs, mass media and social media campaigns.

Diageo underage initiatives, which took place in 29 markets last year, include ‘Smashed’, an award winning theatre and education programme that informs young people about the dangers of alcohol. Launched in the UK more than a decade ago, it has reached over 300,000 young people in more than 1,400 schools across the UK. Building on this success, the Smashed Project is now being rolled out globally, with projects running in Vietnam, Taiwan, Jamaica, Peru, Thailand, China and Mozambique this year, aiming to reach over 135,000 young people around the world.

To see an example of Diageo’s work to combat underage drinking in Mexico, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqYyfjan1YE

Reducing drinking and driving

In 2015, IARD members and industry organizations supported 345 drinking and driving prevention programs. Diageo supported drinking and driving prevention programmes in 39 countries last year, including its flagship #JoinThePact programme. To see how this was activated in the UK in December last year, go to https://youtu.be/IxqAhJAK-2c?list=PL7yKiyUVNV3fZm6ZViDrIiNgJNFYmL0gH

Diageo’s strong track record in drink driving programmes also led the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) to select Diageo as a partner for a two-year partnership entitled “Road Safety Initiative for Cities” which aims to improve road safety globally earlier this year. Scheduled to start in late 2016, training will be run in 15 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin and Central America, focusing on countries with the highest death rates related to road traffic accidents, with over 60 countries invited to participate.

Providing consumer information and responsible product innovation

Diageo is committed to providing consumers with the information they need to make informed decisions about drinking as part of a balanced lifestyle and has been providing nutritional information for its brands on its responsible drinking website, DRINKiQ.com, since 2006. Last year, 100% of Diageo products produced in countries including Brazil, Kenya, Mexico and Nigeria carried one or more responsible drinking symbols on their packaging, alongside a link to DRINKiQ.com which appears on all Diageo products.

At the start of 2016, Diageo relaunched DRINKiQ.com, making the site available in 12 languages across 25 countries, featuring enhanced alcohol content and nutritional information for all its brands, including a breakdown of calories, carbohydrates and protein as well as, for the first time, detailing saturated fat, sugar, caffeine and sodium content.

Enlisting the support of retailers to reduce harmful drinking

The Guiding Principles on Responsible Retailing were published in November 2015 at the World Retail Congress in South Africa. Collectively, the signatories rolled out a total of 253 local responsible retailing initiatives in 75 countries where signatories are commercially active in 2015, up by nearly 20% from the previous year. Local responsible retailing initiatives are now in place in 89% of the countries in which Diageo is commercially active.

In Italy, for example, Diageo, in partnership with the Italian Ministry of Health and leading retailer Auchan, has successfully run a programme to deliver responsible drinking hints and tips direct to consumers in-store for four years. Last year, Diageo and Auchan increased the number of hypermarket participants to 150 outlets, reaching 3million consumers. 

Strengthening and expanding marketing codes of practice

In 2015, an alternative method for assessing advertising placement was adopted by the signatories to address who was being reached by alcohol advertising in data-poor environments. This information is critical to ensuring that company marketing is directed to adults through channels which have a minimum of 70% adult audience, as intended.  The 2015 data demonstrates that in Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria, the three countries studied, alcohol advertising by signatory companies exceeded the industry standard for reaching adult audiences.

Diageo has a well-established and strict code for the marketing of all its products, the Diageo Marketing Code, and also enforces a Digital Code of Practice. To read about our policies, go to https://www.drinkiq.com/en-gb/what-diageo-is-doing/diageo-marketing-code/

As part of the Producers’ Commitments, Diageo also ensures that the same rigorous standards are followed by the companies that it works with – 94% of contracts between Diageo and commercial partners such as marketing agencies now include clauses mandating responsible marketing.  

About Diageo

Diageo is a global leader in beverage alcohol with an outstanding collection of brands including Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, JεB, Buchanan’s and Windsor whiskies, Smirnoff, Cîroc and Ketel One vodkas, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Don Julio, Tanqueray and Guinness.

Diageo is listed on both the London Stock Exchange (DGE) and the New York Stock Exchange (DEO) and our products are sold in more than 180 countries around the world. For more information about Diageo, our people, our brands, and performance, visit us at http://www.diageo.com/. Visit Diageo’s global responsible drinking resource, www.DRINKiQ.com, for information, initiatives, and ways to share best practice.

Celebrating life, every day, everywhere.

The Sazerac Company Unveils Mr. Boston Website

Comprehensive site contains more than 10,000 recipes,

replaces ubiquitous red book found on bars everywhere     

New Orleans, LA (Aug. 2, 2016) – For more than 80 years, the Mr. Boston Official Bartender’s Guide has sat on bars across the world, offering not only cocktail recipes, but party planning tips and historical tidbits on drinks.  Now, the book once called the “Bible of Booze” has entered the digital age, with the launch of the website mrbostondrinks.com/, which contains more than 10,500 drink recipes, each of them entered into a drinks database as originally found in the printed books.

            The Sazerac Company bought the Mr. Boston brand in 2009 and immediately started  working on taking the famous red book into the next century by building this comprehensive website. It started by rounding up as many of the editions of the Bartender’s Guide as the company could find, which was at last count 58 out of the 75 guides published. From there, every single piece of data was entered into a custom built database, ending up with 210,780 points of data and 10,539 recipes (so far!)

            “The Mr. Boston books have covered the evolution of the cocktail in America since Prohibition, but sadly, they were let go over the years,” said Mark Brown, president and chief executive officer, the Sazerac Company. “The ties between our company and that brand are inextricably linked, with not only the Sazerac Cocktail, but our heritage in New Orleans, a city long synonymous with the cocktail culture.  It was a natural fit to bring it all together where we are ensuring the future of the brand for at least another 80 years as the ‘go to’ site for professional and amateur mixologists.”

            Upon entering the site, visitors are greeted with options to look for a specific cocktail, or explore areas such as bar basics, history, spirits, and a shop.  One can search for drinks by specific ingredients (example, bourbon, vodka, etc.) or even specific color (example, if you want to have a green party).  There are instructional articles and videos on the site such as “view types of garnishes” and “learn to make your own grenadine.”

            If one is feeling nostalgic for the former print editions, 12 of the past editions between the years of 1935-2012 have been digitized, providing users the opportunity to view an original cocktail recipe with today’s current recipe to see how the drink has evolved through the decades.

            Users can interact with the site as well, by creating their own bar book, which will allow users to “favorite” different recipes to build their book for future use and share the contents of the book with others on social media sites. Users also have the opportunity to review each recipe listed and add commentary about the cocktail which may be published on the site.

            Other features to come soon include more instructional videos, a section for rare and esoteric cocktails, seasonal drinks, a guest editorial section, and a reservoir of well written articles on cocktails to serve as a reference.

            Sazerac does plan to obtain the remaining 17 Official Bartender Guides it is missing and incorporate those recipes into the site as well.  Future plans also include establishing a physical Mr. Boston Homeplace at a location yet to be determined, as well as developing bartender recognition awards and working with bartender training schools.            “We’re very excited to see the culmination of seven years of work come together in this beautiful website,” added Brown. “We want it to be a true resource for those in the spirts industry and those making cocktails at their home bar.  We intend to keep adding to this site to make it even more robust than it is now.”

About the Sazerac Company

            Sazerac is one of New Orleans’ oldest American family owned, privately held companies and has operations in New Orleans, Louisiana; Frankfort, Bardstown, Louisville and Owensboro, Kentucky; Fredericksburg, Virginia; Carson, California; Baltimore, Maryland; Lewiston, Maine; Manchester, New Hampshire; and Montreal Canada. For more information on Sazerac, please visit www.sazerac.com/.