Kentucky Bourbon Benefit Raises Over $3 Million, 

Tripling Goal for Western Kentucky Tornado Relief

Auction Proceeds Donated to Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund

FRANKFORT, Ky. – The Kentucky Bourbon Benefit auction of rare bottles, private barrel selections and more raised over $3 million to help ease suffering and restore hope for residents of Western Kentucky whose communities were ravaged by a tornado outbreak earlier this month.

The Kentucky Distillers’ Association partnered with the Bourbon Crusaders charitable organization and Bourbon curator Fred Minnick on the six-day auction. The fundraiser culminated with a live-streamed finale Tuesday night which alone raised $1.77 million.

The total – which is expected to climb – was $3,429,203 as of mid-day Wednesday.

The www.kybourbonbenefit.com auction site is still accepting donations and businesses continue to match funds. Proceeds from the benefit are going to the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund. The state-operated fund assesses no fees on donations.

Angel’s Envy, Beam Suntory, Brown-Forman, Diageo, Four Roses, Heaven Hill, Michter’s, Rabbit Hole and Wild Turkey also donated in excess of $1 million directly to the state’s fund, and Beam Suntory gave an additional $500,000 to the American Red Cross.

Those donations bring the distilling industry’s total impact to nearly $5 million.

“The outpouring of support, care and love for Western Kentuckians is truly unparalleled in the history of Bourbon. We are forever grateful for the generosity of distillers, donors and bidders,” KDA President Eric Gregory said.

“Through this event, thousands of participants are helping lift spirits across Western Kentucky, provide new hope and create momentum for the years of rebuilding and healing ahead,” Gregory said. “This is the spirit of Kentucky shining through.”

Minnick, a best-selling author and Bourbon expert, said the auction’s success demonstrates the fabric of Kentuckians and Americans. “In life, you get a handful of moments you hope to relive in your final moments. Tuesday night was one for me,” he said.

“The only comparison I have for what happened here was going to Iraq as a soldier and experiencing the full depth of the American military coming together under one mission. My team worked with two highly professional organizations in the Bourbon Crusaders and the KDA.

“While different than my Army days, I believe the Kentucky Bourbon Benefit represented the best of America. At the core of who we are, we are a people who want to help our neighbor. And in Kentucky, our neighbors needed our help,” Minnick said.

“The response was tremendous, far beyond our wildest hopes,” said R.J. Sargent, founder of the Bourbon Crusaders. “Our members pulled out treasures from their collections and the community responded enthusiastically.

“You can see it in the auction results. These rarities attracted lots of bids, and every dollar raised is going to be used to help Kentucky.”

A total of 5,158 bidders vied for the benefit auction’s 429 lots. Bidders came from all 50 states, Washington D.C. and as far away as Puerto Rico and Guam. Kentucky, by far, led the way with nearly 1,000 registered bidders, followed by Ohio (400), Florida (250) and Texas (240).

Highlights included:

A 19-year-old barrel of Willett sold for $401,001 – which Minnick said was the highest ever paid for a full barrel of Bourbon. The Bardstown distillery then donated another barrel which was matched by the second-place bidder for a total of $802,002 raised.

A private barrel selection at Four Roses Distillery, aged 17 to 24 years, sold for $278,000. The Lawrenceburg distillery also matched the barrel to its second-place bidder, totaling $556,000. With other rare donated bottles, Four Rose’s final tally was $569,920.

Willett also had the third best-selling item: an 8-year-old barrel that sold for $143,000. Again, the distillery donated a matching barrel to the losing bidder, raising a total of $286,000 for that lot – and nearly $1.1 total from Willett’s donations alone.

A barrel experience of cask-strength Angel’s Envy went for $130,000. An Elijah Craig barrel-strength barrel sold for $77,000. Wild Turkey and New Riff private barrels sold for $45,000 and $43,000 respectively.

Nevada-based Distillery Smoke Wagon’s lot of 60 bottles of Rare and Limited Special Batch Small Batch Bourbon sold for $45,000. Smoke Wagon donated another set of 60 bottles and the runner-up matched at $45,000. Smoke Wagon also had two separate donations that went for $26,000 and $6,650, bringing the company’s tally to $122,650.

An exclusive tour and tasting experience at Castle & Key in Woodford County – combined with a private suite at Keeneland for the distillery’s annual Bourbon Stakes in 2022 – sold for $44,000.

A hand-engraved decanter of 23-year Old Rip Van Winkle, one of only 1,200 released in 2009 and donated by Preston Van Winkle, went for $44,000.

Private barrel experiences at Maker’s Mark, Old Forester, Boone County, Woodford Reserve and Jefferson’s Ocean, which donated a 300-bottle lot, all sold between $30,000 and $35,000 each.

The “Mayfield Collection” of 14 bottles recovered intact from Carr’s Steakhouse in downtown Mayfield, Ky., which was destroyed in the EF 4 tornado, sold for $69,475. Nearly all of the bottle’s brands are matching the sales prices with half of the money going to Carr’s for its 29 employees – with a combined 22 children – many of whom are now homeless.

The total amount raised from the Kentucky Bourbon Benefit will continue to climb throughout the coming days as final results are tallied, including matches from Vendome Copper & Brass, Independent Stave Company and the Kentucky Travel Industry Association (KTIA).

Auctioneer Bill Menish, founder of Menish Productions in Louisville, Ky., donated his services for the live auction and waived all of his fees. Westport Whiskey and Wine, the benefit’s official retail partner, is assisting with fulfillment.

For a list of the auctioned lots and their sales prices, visit www.KentuckyBourbonBenefit.com.

To watch the live auction call, visit Fred Minnick’s YouTube Channel.

Happy Hogmanay, or as you may know it, Happy New Year’s Eve.

Here in Scotland, Hogmanay is a celebration steeped in history and tradition. Famed across the world we sing “Auld Lang Syne” and toast the bells with whisky.

Hogmanay literally means “last day of the old year.” And what a year it’s been.

Together, we welcomed thousands of new Friends of Laphroaig with open arms. We also bid farewell to John – our Distillery Manager of 26 years – with tears in our eyes.

We added our 10-year-old Sherry Oak to the core range to cheers of delight, unbottled history with our third expression in the Ian Hunter Story, and celebrated our second ever virtual Fèis Ìle with a traditional dram in hand, all online at our #LaphroaigLive events.

None of it would’ve been possible without your Friendship.

So Happy New Year, good health and every good blessing to you.

Now it’s time to stop looking back and start looking forward to another amazing year together.

From all of us here on Islay, we hope 2022 treats you well.

Sláinte.

Inspired by our deep-rooted connection to nature, the first release in this new series is an exploration into the world of sustainable packaging. The Harmony Collection Rich Cacao brings together the worlds of chocolate and whisky in collaboration with renowned pastry chef Jordi Roca and Casa Cacao, a hotel and chocolate factory in Girona, Spain.

In homage to its chocolate influence, this single malt is presented in sustainable packaging, made using discarded husks from cacao pods in the chocolate making process.

Sustainable Innovation

A by-product in the chocolate-making process, these cacao husks would have been sent to landfill or destroyed but have now been reborn with a renewed purpose.

In Collaboration with Casa Cacao

Discover our collaboration with Casa Cacao and Jordi Roca for The Harmony Collection Rich Cacao, bringing together sustainability and chocolate.

The Macallan Distillery Experience,

The Macallan Distillers Ltd,  Easter Elchies,  Craigellachie,

Moray AB38 9RX, Scotland, +44 (0)1340 318 000

Our December 2021 auction ENDS SOON!

Place your bids (from Friday 17^th December 2021) until Sunday 2^nd January 2022.

www.whiskyhammer.com

Every month, we present an incredible selection of whiskies and other fine spirits to our members right across the globe. You will find everything here from limited edition releases and vintage bottles to whole casks of rare whisky. There is certainly something for everyone – whether you are looking to collect, invest or enjoy!

Macallan – 50 & 57 Year Old (Lalique) 

Black Bowmore DB5 – 31 Year Old (1964)

Balvenie – 42 Year Old (Tale of the Dog)

Macallan  – 23 Year Old (Fine & Rare) 1988

Balblair – 1953 (Gordon & MacPhail)

Selling whisky? Why not arrange the pick-up of your bottles using our global courier service? If you’re based in Scotland, you might want to arrange the personal collection of your bottles. Wherever you’re based in the world, we will make getting your bottles into our monthly auction as simple as possible. Get in touch with the Whisky Hammer team now by dropping them a message at sales@whiskyhammer.co.uk.

The first 11 years in 1st and 2nd fill bourbon casks then the final year Oloroso sherry casks creating a seductively nutty, sweet, sherry finish.

Ideally paired with Speyside Chocolate from Chocisky.

Editor – this is one of those bottles that should always be available to pour at home.
Distilled at Balvenie Distillery and Bottled by Wm Grant, Dufftown, Scotland.

£40.00

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 419: Auchentoshan 17 Year Old 2000 The Ultimate 850^th Cask

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, tries yet another Auchentoshan. The Ultimate barely needs introduction. The Dutch independent bottler van Wees releases single casks under this banner, often at cask strength. Meanwhile, there are more than 1000 and in the run-up to that they released some special bottles and this one belongs in that list. This was the 850th single cask in The Ultimate, a 17-year-old Auchentoshan at 60.2% ABV. That’s why it was released in a nice box.

https://youtu.be/KbizXh47Kck

Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible 2022.

A Septuagenarian Scotch is named Single Cask of the Year While A Staggering Bourbon wins the Bible’s World Whisky of the Year Title.

One of the oldest single malts ever commercially bottled has this year been named as the World Finest Single Cask Whisky in Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible 2022.

Distilled in 1948 – the same year that the Big Bang theory was first hypothesised – Jim Murray considered the 72-year-old Glen Grant, Cask 440, from Gordon and MacPhail to be truly stella, giving it 97.5 marks out of 100.

Said Jim: “This whisky has had 72 years for something to go wrong with it. Instead, we have the near miraculous situation of a whisky sitting for 72 years in oak and everything going right with it. The chances for a whisky to reach this type of antiquity and hit this level of excellence is mind-blowing: it has to be one-in-a-million or more.”

The score equals the highest-ever recorded in Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible, which has now been published each year for the last 19 years, with over 20,000 whiskies tasted by Mr Murray during that time.

As well as being named the world’s finest single cask, it has also picked up the title of Scotch Whisky of the Year.

However, the actual World Whisky of the Year was again won by a bourbon, George T Stagg, from the Buffalo Trace distillery in Kentucky. This is a “big bang” whiskey in its own right, bottled at 65.2%abv, more than half the strength again of a standard bottle of whisky.

It was named World Whisky of the Year in the first-ever Whisky Bible, back in 2003 but had not won the coveted title since 2006.

But it means bourbon has been named World Whisky of the Year for five of the last 6 years.

Mr Murray explained: “Bourbon is going through a golden era right now with distilleries taking extraordinary care in many of the bottlings they produce. The high-end products, like George T Stagg, are individual works of art and it takes hours in the glass to fully unravel their secrets and mysteries.

In his notes on it Jim concluded: “Stagg hovering around about its ultimate. And we know what that means: one of the greatest whiskey experiences of your life. This is one of those whiskies where it is not a case of whether it is good enough for you. The question is whether you are good enough for it? Staggering. Quite literally.”

Stagg’s, stablemate from the Buffalo Trace Distillery, Thomas Handy Sazerac Barrel Proof Rye was named the World second-best whiskey, repeating a 1^st and 2^nd placing last achieved in the 2013 edition.

A Scotch single malt came in Third. Again it was Glen Grant, this time with their 18-year-old, the third top three placing it has achieved in the last six year.

Of it, Mr Murray wrote: “You know that moment when the last notes fade on Vaughan-Williams’ A Lark Ascending, or you are in a hilltop meadow and a real lark sings sweetly above your head for its mate before fluttering and parachuting back to its grassy home, and you sit there quietly pondering on what you have just experienced. And so the nose, the best I have experienced all year, has the same effect here.”

This year Jim Murray tasted over 750 different whiskies from around the world.

Said Mr Murray: “We set a target of 750 this year instead of excess of 1,000, should I not be to travel because of Covid. Well, much of the book was written during Lockdown, travelling was impossible and so it was truly amazing that we hit our target. Hopefully next year I’ll be back travelling and we’ll be back to over 1,000 whiskies again.

Editor’s Notes Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible 2022 contains tasting notes for nearly 5,000 drams from around the world. This is the biggest selling whisky guide, now in its 19th edition. Available from 25/11/21 at all good bookshops, retailers and whiskybible.com, priced £14.99. Press enquiries: Jane Garnett +44 (0)117 317 9777; jane@whiskybible.com

News at the Cutting Edge From Glencairn Crystal Studio

It’s been another busy year here at Glencairn Crystal and hard to believe it’s November already! We hope this newsletter finds you all well and that you’ve all had a healthy and successful 2021 to date.

This year not only have we been celebrating the 40^th anniversary of Glencairn Crystal Studio since the company was set up back in 1981, we’ve also looked to the future and invested over £2 million into ensuring that we are making our business as sustainable and environmentally sound as we possibly can – we don’t have all the answers yet but we’re doing our best to find them.

We’ve also been in the news with some stunning Glencairn Crystal decanters that we’ve had the privilege to create for some exceptional whiskies and have further news for you about a short story competition we’ve launched as well as a very special whisky auction in December.

Crystal clear on sustainability

As a socially and environmentally responsible family business we are strongly influenced by our families’ children’s views on the environment, as they are the future of both our business and our planet.
Hot on the heels of Glasgow hosting the COP26 conference this month, we’ve undertaken an extensive expansion and remodelling of our factory and offices at our headquarters in East Kilbride, just outside Glasgow, as part of our strategy to increase our level of sustainability and to re-use and reduce rather than just recycle.

This marks an exciting moment for us as we strive to become 100% dependent on our own solar energy. The energy generated by our brand new solar storage system will be over and above the required amount for our company to run off and any excess electricity generated will be sent back to the grid and can be repurposed for other local usage.

We’ve also invested in various other key initiatives and aim to remove the use of all plastic packaging entirely over the next five ears as well as the removal of gas energy altogether over the next ten years.

An extraordinary piece of whisky history to be auctioned for charity

With contributions from some of the world’s most iconic master blenders, we will be auctioning our Glencairn Ruby Tribute Blended Scotch Whisky in a unique hand crafted ruby encrusted decanter to mark our 40^th anniversary as part of The Worshipful Company of Distillers’ One-of-One Charity Auction, in partnership with Sotheby’s.

This very special whisky was originally presented to Glencairn Founder and CEO Raymond Davidson at Fettercairn Distillery in December 2004, to celebrate the production of Glencairn’s one millionth Glencairn Glass in a surprise gathering organised by Whyte and Mackay’s Richard ‘The Nose’ Paterson. A special assemblage of malt grain aged whiskies – all at least 18 years old – were blended together and filled into a miniature oak cask and gifted to Raymond.

The auction takes place on 4th December at Barnbougle Castle on the Dalmeny Estate, near Edinburgh and the money raised will go to The Distillers’ Charity Youth Action Fund, helping to improve life chances of Scotland’s young people.

We’re hoping that the auction will capture the imagination of someone who would like to own a piece of whisky history and will help us to raise money for this important charity. Please visit www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/the-distillers-one-of-one-2 for further details and spread the word!

Glencairn Crystal in the news

We’ve been in the drinks and packaging media lately with our latest decanter releases

In September came perhaps our most challenging decanter created to date – a contemporary cube shaped decanter for the oldest single malt Scotch ever bottled – Generations 80 Years Old from Glenlivet Distillery (Gordon & MacPhail’s).

Designed to appear as hewn from a single solid block of crystal, only 250 decanters were created and each decanter’s curving core needed to be individually hand-blown.

September also saw the launch of the 60 Years Old single malt scotch by Speyside distillery Glen Grant to celebrate master distiller Dennis Malcolm’s six decades in whisky.

We created each of the 360 decanters from hand-blown crystal glass and the shape was inspired by Glen Grant’s tall, slender pot stills. Each one is beautifully engraved and infilled with a champagne gold finish.

We had the honour of creating the exquisite decanters and lunawood packaging for the exceptionally rare Karuizawa 1981 single cask whisky ‘The Legend of Asama’ launched at the end of summer. Each rare set (only 30 exist) includes two bottles of the precious Japanese single malt whisky, one from each of two remaining casks (no. 4059 and 6183). For details about ‘The Legend of Asama’ Karuizawa 1981 collection, please visit: www.legendofasama.com

Berry Bros. & Rudd Royal Brackla Christmas Edition 70cl

The delicious Brackla was matured for around 12 years in refill hogsheads before being given an additional 2 years in a fresh ex-Pedro Ximenez butt.

Distilled: 2007 Bottled: 2021

Limited: 539 Bottles

Natural Colour | Unchill-Filtered

Tasting Notes:

Nose: An initial whack of milk chocolate combines with a wonderful spiced mix of fresh and dried fruits, apples, pears and melon from the distillate and sticky figs and date from the wood.

Palate: Leans more towards the thick sherry wood influence with prunes, clove rock, toffee and honeycomb all swirling around.

50.6% ABV

£91.80

Shop now

A New Collectible Triumph from an Islay Icon
Ardbeg 19 Year Old “Traigh Bhan – 2021 Release” Batch #3 Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky (750ml) ($299.99)

Today’s offer brings us an absolutely rocking Islay standout from everyone’s favorite peat monster. It’s not every day that such a well-known and widely loved brand turns out a milestone addition to their regular roster. The Ardbeg 19 Year Old “Traigh Bhan – 2021 Release” Batch #3 Islay Single Malt is the latest version of a stellar new age-stated entry in the distillery’s line-up, the first such in over 20 years, and the results couldn’t be more astounding. Aged in a combination of American oak and ex-Oloroso sherry casks, this 95-point bruiser shows the highest degree of elemental, earthy complexity that long-time fans have come to love from this iconic, seaside distillery. Whether you’re shopping for a hard-to-please whisky fan or that hard-to-please whisky fan is you, this spectacular new addition to one of the Scotch world’s most beloved line-ups is a singular, one-of-a-kind bottling that belongs in any world-class collection.

Ardbeg 19 Year Old “Traigh Bhan – 2021 Release” Batch #3 Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky (750ml) ($299.99)

95 points Whisky Advocate: “The early nose offers hand-rolled tobacco, ginger, black pepper, and fragrant woodsmoke. Medicinal notes, brine, and lemon develop in time. Sweet peat smoke, tropical fruits, toffee, and aniseed on the palate, with smoked haddock and a suggestion of tar. Iodine, black pepper, and sea salt in the lengthy finish. (GS)” (02/2020)