Reading that will pair perfectly with your next whisky…

Scotch Whisky
The Whisky Magazine Annual

If you’re anything like us, by now you’ve likely worked your way through every unread book and magazine on the shelf and even that junk mail that just came through the door is beginning to look like it might help pass the time…

Don’t do it! We have something far better for you to peruse while enjoying a dram from your favourite distillery: our new Scotch Whisky annual!

Packed with interviews, distillery focus features and blind tasting reviews, Scotch Whisky turns the spotlight on brands old and new, large and small.

This new title has been curated by Whisky Magazine’s Scotch Whisky Editor, Christopher Coates, and is a valuable addition to any whisky lover’s bookshelf.

Available in print and digital editions, Scotch Whisky forms the perfect ‘year in review’ for any whisky enthusiast looking to bring themselves up to date with the latest developments.

• 132-page ‘bookazine’ •

• Includes six in-depth interviews with the great and good of whisky •

• Distillery features on Highland Park, GlenAllachie, Macallan, Rosebank, Raasay, Glenturret and many more •

• More than 100 blind-tasted Scotch whisky reviews •

• Tasting notes and progress reports on unreleased spirits from some of Scotland’s newest distilleries •

Find out more!

Best wishes,

The team at

Hope you are all safe and well. It’s incredibly quiet here at the distillery. Whisky production on pause. Everyone self-isolating. Fèis Ìle cancelled.

However, as ‘glass-half-full’ kind of people, we are delighted to announce that our Fèis Open Day will go ahead – bringing our Friends around the world together virtually. Register at the link below to join our live tasting event on May 26th from 18:15pm (BST).

REGISTER HERE

Master Ambassador Simon Brooking and I will host tastings of 10 Year Old, Quarter Cask and Lore and discuss whisky, friendship…and…well, whatever you would like to suggest… Whilst we can’t open our distillery gates on ‘Open Day’, we will be open to any questions you have on the day. Submit your questions to Simon and I as we taste and we will answer as many as we can. Think of it as an informal #LaphroaigLive: No camera crews, no script, no room full of Friends… but a chance to sip a dram and share a toast together through the wonders of technology.

For those who need to restock, we have some tasting bundles here.

We can’t guarantee delivery before the live event due to the current situation we all face, however we will record the tasting which will be available for you to replay and enjoy again.

With Simon and I joining from our respective homes, we also wondered where you will be celebrating Fèis this year? Perhaps you have never been? Perhaps you go every year? Either way, we want to see your home bar, your armchair, your life-size replica of the Laphroaig kiln – whatever but always together with your favourite bottle of Laphroaig. Post your pictures on Instagram or Facebook with the tag #MyLaphroaigMoment for your chance to win a bottle of Càirdeas 2020 edition, 15 sample bottles to share with friends and an exclusive, private virtual tasting with me for you and your friends in July. We will choose the winner and our favourite image during the live session on May 26th!

…and if you still have time on your hands after posting your #MyLaphroaigMoment image, perhaps try this at home.

Slàinte,
John and the Laphroaig Distillery Team

We’re already looking ahead to our next virtual tasting, where we’ll be enjoying a flavour safari round Scotland’s whisky regions. If you were lucky enough to get your hands on a Festival Discovery Pack, with five 25ml drams from this year’s festival bottlings then join us online for an evening of untamed entertainment on 29 May.

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

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 311: Vital Spark 5 Year Old 2013

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky vlogger, tries an undisclosed Ileach. Vital Spark is a release from the Meadowside Blending Co, which we are familiar with because of their releases of The Maltman and The Grainman. While it is not mentioned as such on the label, it is a public secret that this third batch is a single oloroso sherry cask of my beloved Caol Ila (which is not necessarily true for batch 1 and 2!). Oh, will you look at that color…

https://youtu.be/RB4ap-AZyfc

CAMPARI CANADA ADDS TO ITS ONGOING SUPPORT FOR HOSPITALITY WORKERS AFFECTED BY COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Premium Spirits Company Donates $50,000 to Canada’s Bartenders Benevolent Fund

May 14, 2020 (Toronto, ON) – Campari Canada yesterday announced a $50,000 donation to the Bartenders Benevolent Fund, a Canadian non-profit organization that is raising much-needed funds for bartenders, servers and other hospitality staff who have fallen under serious financial hardship. The hospitality industry continues to be one of the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

This latest donation is part of the #ShakenNotBroken initiative that Campari Group has undertaken globally during the ongoing crisis. Campari Group’s #ShakenNotBroken campaign has deployed various initiatives to support the hospitality industry around the world.

Campari Canada’s first initiative to support the hospitality industry launched on March 27. The Campari Stir Crazy program, in collaboration with Bartender Atlas, engaged over 130 bartenders to create cocktails and content. Through this program, Campari Canada paid over $35,000 directly to some of Canada’s most creative bartenders. The company has also partnered with Longslice Brewery and The Aviary Brewpub to buy meals for those in need. With the latest donation, Campari Canada is totaling over $85,000 in support to the hospitality industry.

Campari Canada has also produced high-alcohol sanitizer at its Grimsby-based Forty Creek Distillery, which was delivered to local community organizations including the Canadian Red Cross and St Catharines Hospital Niagara.

“Our company, globally and locally here in Canada, has always made community involvement a core principle of our organizational efforts. Our #ShakenNotBroken initiatives around the world are meant to support our friends and peers in the hospitality industry who have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic,” said Melanie Batchelor, President, Campari Canada. “We understand that as the majority of bars and restaurants have been closed by order of provincial governments for safety reasons, the financial impact on those employed in this sector has been immense. We are also aware that even as some regions prepare to slowly and responsibly reopen, some of the challenges faced by these dedicated professionals will remain. Through this donation and other initiatives, Campari Canada will continue to do everything possible to support the Canadian hospitality industry in their time of significant need,” concluded Batchelor.

About Campari Canada:

Campari Canada serves as the nationally-focused extension of global beverage leader Campari Group. Designed to fortify the Campari Group legacy across the national landscape, Campari Canada serves as owner, importer and marketer of a diverse portfolio of over 30 internationally-recognized brands spanning across all fine spirits categories. Among them is Canadian spirits company, Forty Creek Distillery Ltd., known for its award-winning range of complex, yet approachable whiskies. With the Grimsby, Ontario-based Forty Creek location serving as the company’s bottling plant and warehouse, and corporate office headquartered in Toronto’s bourgeoning Liberty Village, Campari Canada continues in the Group’s steadfast commitment to building lifestyle brands and people with passion. Its portfolio of internationally-renowned brands includes Aperol, Appleton Estate, Bulldog Gin, Campari, Cinzano, Forty Creek, Grand Marnier, Glen Grant, SKYY Vodka, Espolòn Tequila and Wild Turkey.

For more information: http://www.camparigroup.com/en.

Please enjoy our brands responsibly.

About Campari Group:

Campari Group is a major player in the global spirits industry, with a portfolio of over 50 premium and super premium brands, spreading across Global, Regional and Local priorities. Global Priorities, the Group’s key focus, include Aperol, Appleton Estate, Campari, SKYY, Wild Turkey and Grand Marnier. The Group was founded in 1860 and today is the sixth-largest player worldwide in the premium spirits industry. It has a global distribution reach, trading in over 190 nations around the world with leading positions in Europe and the Americas. The Group’s growth strategy aims to combine organic growth through strong brand-building and external growth via selective acquisitions of brands and businesses.

Headquartered in Milan, Italy, Campari Group owns 21 plants worldwide and has its own distribution network in 21 countries. The Group employs approximately 4,000 people. The shares of the parent company Davide Campari-Milano S.p.A. (Reuters CPRI.MI – Bloomberg CPR IM) have been listed on the Italian Stock Exchange since 2001.

For more information: www.camparigroup.com/en.

Please enjoy our brands responsibly.

About the Bartenders Benevolent Fund:

Created in 2013, the Bartenders Benevolent Fund is a non-profit financial resource for bartenders, servers and front-of-house support staff working in the hospitality industry in Canada. They provide funding for those who have fallen under serious financial hardship, and their mission is to work in earnest to ensure that those in need can make ends meet. The Bartenders Benevolent Fund’s mandate is to offer support to the hospitality industry, by the hospitality industry: funds are awarded anonymously by local hospitality professionals from each market.

New Online Tool to Stop £23m Whisky Scam Market

Cheshire based whisky broker Mark Littler Ltd has released a Cask Calculator to help stop the £23m global whisky scam market.

The increase in fraud during the Covid 19 outbreak has been well documented but fraudulent activity isn’t just limited to pandemics. Since the 1990s, globally over £23 million pounds has been pumped into fraudulent whisky cask ventures; and that is just the ones that have been shut down.

Mark Littler developed the Cask Calculator as a straightforward way to show all the costs involved in bottling a cask of whisky including, duty, VAT, uplift, bottling and shipping. The calculator gives an equivalent per bottle cost that can be cross referenced against bottle value prices to verify the cask price and prevent fraud.

‘Until now there has been no resource available to verify whisky cask prices like there is for property or shares (e.g. Zoopla or Morning Star). However prices for whisky bottles are widely available, so if you can turn a cask cost into a true per bottle cost then you can start to verify the price of a cask,’ explains Mark Littler, founder of Mark Littler Ltd and creator of the Cask Calculator. ‘By simply adding the details of a cask into the Cask Calculator it generates a realistic figure for a per bottle cost, which can then be compared to publicly available per bottle prices.’

The free calculator has been used more than 2,000 times in the last month alone.

Whisky cask scams are an issue in the unregulated industry. The Napier Spirits Company was set up in 1995 and alone sold £3.2million of casks to the unsuspecting public. In some instances Napier sold casks that were worth £500 for £3,500.

Napier Spirit Company was eventually shut down but cask mis-selling still happens today.

‘One of the worst instances I have encountered was just a few months ago at the start of 2020,’ says Mark Littler. ‘The asking price on a cask was so inflated it would have been cheaper to purchase comparable distillery bottled product at full retail price including shipping and taxes and decant those bottles back into a cask than pay the asking price for the cask. We want to make that kind of price disparity impossible.’

Alongside the cask calculator Mark Littler Ltd. have released a large number of other educational tools to help potential cask buyers purchase a whisky cask at a fair price. Resources include a 10 part video guide series, a 52 page printed or PDF Cask Buying Guide and dozens of blogs that cover everything from avoiding scams to everything you could possibly want to know about a cask.

Mark Littler Ltd is an independent antiques consultant and whisky broker with over 300 five star reviews of their services. They have sold everything from medieval rings, classic Porsche, vintage Rolexes and casks of Macallan. They also provide a cask brokering service with the ethos of helping their customers buy quality whisky casks at a fair price.

Contact:

Mark Littler

casks@marklittler.com

01260 218 718

Since 1685 Glenfarclas has been owned and managed by just one family, the Grants of Glenfarclas. Now in the hands of the fifth and sixth generation of the family, the Grants remain committed to the vision of creating the best quality Highland Single Malt Whisky, in the traditional Speyside style.

BROWSE OUR FULL GLENFARCLAS RANGE HERE

Episode 6 of the Japanese Whisky Lockdown is just minutes away. Tune in now.

Discover the famous whisky from one of Japan’s most renowned distilleries.

Buy Two or More Bottles, Get $1 Shipping

Need a restock? Our Port Cask Finished Virginia-Highland Whisky is available for online purchase, along with our other award-winning products.

When you order two or more bottles, you’ll only pay $1 shipping.

Win a Year’s Supply of Whisky!

Happy World Whisky Day!

In honour of our 15th anniversary year, we’re giving one lucky person the chance to win a Year’s Supply of Whisky!

There’s two ways to enter: 

1. Buy a bottle of our Batch Strength blended malts and use the code YEAROFWHISKY at checkout for 10 entries into our competition. We’ll also give you £5 off delivery when you use YEAROFWHISKY at checkout.

2. Complete the form on our website for 1 entry into the competition

SHOP BATCH STRENGTH WHISKIES

A Year’s Supply of Whisky is equal to one bottle of whisky per month.
Terms and conditions apply – see website for details