https://youtu.be/e-aUBcBX4JA

Bushmills is such a well known name, with well known staus across the globe, that sometimes ignorance from certain parts of the whisky community tends to run rife in the idea of commonality.

When I tried that 29YO Madeira Cask last year, my mind was blown apart by how good it was. But, where does trying to access whisky like that come from? Well the ability to release bottles like that to a baying fandom of whisky drinkers is all built upon regular sales of regular stocks, and personally, I believe that Bushmills 10YO is one of the best value single malts that exists on the planet.

Whether you’re into Irish whiskey, or not. Bushmills are responsible for such a huge chunk of the Irish whiskey world, that in my opinion, this bottle deserves some attention.

Landmark moment for The Cairn as first spirit produced

It was a landmark moment at the new distillery at Grantown-on-Spey as the first spirit flowed from the stills.

The Distillery and Executive Teams were joined by members of the Urquhart family, the owners of Gordon & MacPhail, for the first spirit run following completion of the commissioning phase of the distilling equipment.

Ewen Mackintosh, Managing Director of Gordon & MacPhail said: “This was a very special moment – a moment to mark the efforts of all the people involved in the project over the last few years and a moment to signify the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Gordon & MacPhail as the company celebrates over 127 years of trading.”

“Later in the year, when the visitor experience is finished and the landscaping completed, we intend to invite all colleagues from Gordon & MacPhail, and the many other people who have helped us to this point to experience The Cairn Distillery for themselves ahead of opening to the public”, Ewen added.

Commenting on the new-make spirit, Mhairi Winters, Distillery Manager at The Cairn said: “Over the last weeks we have been conducting test distillations, tweaking the process to create the desired character.  The result is a complex, medium to full bodied new-make spirit, with a sweet, malty base and vibrant, fresh fruit top notes.

The spirit was then transported off site for the first filling of the casks. And the iconic Cask No 1 was signed by Mhairi Winters, The Cairn Distillery Manager, Operations Director Stuart Urquhart and Keith Cruickshank, Distillery Manager at Benromach Distillery, Gordon & MacPhail’s first distillery.

But it will be a long wait for those who want to sample The Cairn for themselves as the first bottles will not be available to purchase until the mid-2030s.

Sitting on the banks of the River Spey at Craggan, just outside Grantown, The Cairn is a second distillery for renowned whisky experts Gordon & MacPhail, the Moray based family firm.

Planning permission for the distillery was granted in 2019 and work started on site once COVID restrictions on construction were lifted in July 2020.

Opening to the public later this year, The Cairn Distillery has a spectacular view, looking across the River Spey towards the Cairngorms.  It will offer a selection of immersive visitor experiences, whisky tastings, and carefully selected gifts.  Visitors will also be able to eat @ The Gathering and experience the finest produce sourced from across Scotland. It has been designed to sit within this world class setting with features including the recently installed “green” sedum roof.

Gordon & MacPhail has built strong relationships with its local communities in Forres and Elgin and is determined to continue that approach in Grantown on Spey. The distillery will become a major tourist destination on the outskirts of the town and act as a gateway to Speyside.

Notes

Gordon & MacPhail is a family-owned premium spirits company based in Elgin, Scotland. Owner of Scotch whisky distilleries, Benromach and The Cairn, Gordon & MacPhail is also a Scotch whisky maturation expert, the owner of Scottish Gin brand, Red Door and the operator of a wholesale business in the United Kingdom selling premium Scotch whiskies and spirits, along with a high-quality retail outlet.

The company owns Benromach Distillery located in Forres in Moray.  Benromach Single Malt Scotch Whisky is handcrafted using traditional methods by a small team of distillers using the finest Scottish barley and the purest spring water from the nearby Romach Hills. The multi award-winning portfolio of single malts is enjoyed by whisky drinkers worldwide.

The company launched Red Door in the summer of 2018. Created at Benromach Distillery, this award winning, small batch Scottish gin now forms a strategic part of the company’s product portfolio.

Work commenced in July 2020 on The Cairn, the company’s second distillery, overlooking the River Spey towards the Cairngorms.  The new site will add further distillation capacity and brand ownership to the company’s asset base and is a key part of the plans to continue building a long-term sustainable business.  A high-quality visitor experience offering tours and tastings will also attract visitors from around the world.

Since the founding of the business in 1895, Gordon & MacPhail has sent casks to Scotch whisky distilleries throughout Scotland to be filled with new-make spirit, before being left to mature for many years either at the distillery or in their bonded warehouses in Elgin.  The Gordon & MacPhail portfolio offers some of the world’s rarest and most sought-after Single Malt Scotch Whiskies to discerning whisky drinkers globally.

The company’s wholesale business serves customers throughout the United Kingdom selling Benromach Single Malt, Red Door gin and Gordon & MacPhail whiskies into the on and off trade. The business also exclusively represents a number of ‘distributor’ brands and stocks premium whiskies and spirits.

The retail shop in Elgin remains the ‘spiritual home’ of the business, 127 years after it was first established in 1895.  The shop is home to a large selection of Single Malt Scotch Whiskies and is a destination for many whisky aficionados from around the world.

Two stunning House of Hazelwood Collections

The first is The Legacy Collection: unique flavour profiles, ghost distilleries and key moments in Scotch production history. Alongside is The Charles Gordon Collection: the most precious of their stocks consisting of rare liquids laid down over half a century ago. It is a pleasure to stock these special bottles.

The Legacy Collection

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The Charles Gordon Collection

GLEN GRANT DISTILLERY

28 Year Old 1994 Old & Rare

Glen Grant 28 Year Old 1994 vintage Speyside single malt Scotch whisky. Single refill barrel bottled May 2022 by Hunter Laing & Co. for the Old & Rare Platinum series. 179 bottles. This light gold whisky has a summery nose of candy floss, fruit salad, and toffee chews. The palate is sweet but gentle with notes of strawberries, pears, and garden flowers. The finish is long, with lingering sweetness.

£374.80

Established in 1840 by brothers James and John Grant, the business prospered and in 1897 Glen Grant No. 2 Distillery was established across the road in order to meet the high demand for Glen Grant whiskey. During the late nineteenth century a Victorian garden was laid out in the valley behind the distillery and is now open to distillery visitors. Glen Grant is a Speyside malt whiskey distillery situated in Rothes equipped with eight stills and an on-site bottling plant. Gordon & MacPhail has released some rare vintage single malts dating back to the 1950s.

Rare Character 6 Year Old “Bay Bridge” Barrel #RIO-254 Cask Strength Indiana Bourbon Whiskey (750ml)

$79.99

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Rare Character has taken some incredible MGP distillate and raised it up in the famous brick warehouse at Castle & Key. At 6 years old this cask is absolutely singing. Add to that the incredible artwork of K&L’s very own Abraham Ortega (A.B. as he is known to K&Lers) and you’ve got a sure fire collectors item’s. A.B.’s stunning photography offers a unique perspective on Bay Area living as seen from unique vantage points and his artistic framing.

Welcome to this week’s episode of the show. A number of events have lead me to believe that an episode of the show on Tormore was well overdue.

https://youtu.be/GYjkOtvw854

THE OXFORD ARTISAN DISTILLERY CELEBRATES SUMMER WITH EASY RYDER

 The Oxford Artisan Distillery announces its seventh batch of rye whisky.

Easy Ryder is a marriage of nine specially selected casks chosen by Master Distiller, Francisco Rosa, to achieve a smooth yet intricate ride through The Oxford Artisan Distillery’s distinct heritage grains and distilling practices.

As with all of the Oxford’s Rye releases, the distillery produced this whisky using heritage grains grown by the distillery’s regenerative and organic farming partners. These grains require no pesticides, fungicides or herbicides, supporting sustainability and biodiversity in their fields. Easy Ryder is a celebration of farmers letting nature work its magic in a healthy field, restoring the land and supporting biodiversity with every harvest.

Each cask selected for this expression has been through a different journey, from the starting point at the cooperage, to its size, the filling strength, its age and the warehouse in which it rested. After three to four years of maturation the new make flavours have diverged in to nine different spirits all with something in common. This blend of ryes showcases all these harmonies coming together, elevating the complexity and nuances of each cask.

From the American oak of varying toasts, chars and origins, to the Moscatel Roxo cask, together with the grain and distillery character as the backbone, the oak complexity merges with the sweet and fresh flavours from the Portuguese Moscatel fortified wine cask from Setúbal. (N.B Full list of cask information is given below.) The result is a whisky which is creamy with notes of pastry, chocolate, refreshing spice and a pronounced savoury character.

Francisco Rosa comments: “Our flavour keeps evolving and slowly showing heritage grains’ true character as we continue our journey through time and flavour, rooted in our Oxfordshire surroundings.” 

“When our grains evolve under fermentation with our in-house cultures, a lovely butter dimension comes to life which is then influenced by distillation and maturation, it deviates from custard or pastry to white chocolate, or bog butter as an earthy (field-like) expression of the grain. In this release, there is a pronounced savoury character as a result of the sandy soils from Oxford combined with the sandy soils by the sea in Setúbal.”

Bottled at 50% ABV, Easy Ryder is priced at £55 for 70cl and is the distillery’s largest run so far, with 2,782 bottles now available through the distillery’s website and specialist whisky retailers.

www.theoxfordartisandistillery.com

The Oxford Artisan Distillery:

The distillery opened for business at its purpose-built site in Oxford on 27th July 2017.

It is Oxford’s first ever distillery and produces a range of spirits, including gin, absinthe, vodka and whisky, all with total provenance from grain to glass. The Oxford Artisan Distillery is rare amongst UK distilleries in producing its own spirit, rather than purchasing Grain Neutral Spirit (GNS) from other sources.

The distillery has a licence to produce spirits for the University of Oxford and has a notable partnership with the University of Oxford’s Botanic Garden.

About Heritage Grain:

The Oxford Artisan Distillery is the only distillery to use genetically diverse populations of heritage grains – revived from historical sources by a leading archaeo-botanist and grown sustainably on over 350 acres, known as land races, both close to Oxford and on prestigious estates such as Highgrove and Sandringham. The distillery’s grain contributes to biodiversity and soil health in the English countryside. The grains are the result of John Lett’s lifelong research on heritage grains: John has spent a large part of his life sourcing and growing heritage grains together, as polycultures. John takes 30-100 varieties of grain, mixes them up, and grows them together in the same field, at the same time. These sustainable fields are similar to what you would have seen in medieval times – the grains are grown specifically for the distillery, making The Oxford Artisan Distillery the only distillery in the world with a license to use John’s grains, grown exclusively for flavour and not yield.

Easy Ryder Cask Information:

American Oak (AO)

Grade 1 Char (G1C)

Lochlea Our Barley
First Release

The third release from the the new single malt distillery on Lochlea Farm, Ayrshire. An independent, family run distillery, this is true field to cask whisky using their own barley and on-site natural water source.

Bottled at 46% ABV, the whisky has been matured in first fill Bourbon barrels, STR barriques and Oloroso Sherry butts distilled using locally grown barley.

Overseen by John Campbell (formally Laphroaig) this is one of the biggest Scotch whisky releases of 2022.

£47.00

Buy – Lochlea Our Barley Single Malt >>

Nose: Pear syrup, fruit bon bons, warm cut grass, marmalade.

Palate: Golden syrup, pepper, rye bread, macadamia nuts, cream soda.

Finish: A long finish with a lovely lasting orange beeswax note.

Lochlea Distillery was established by Malcolm Rennie in August 2018 on the site of a cattle farm in South Ayrshire. The family-run farm they produce their own barley, where Robert Burns once lived and worked. The summer of 2021 sees the first ever release of single malt Scotch whisky from Lochlea Distillery.

Evan Williams 12 Year Old “Red Label” Kentucky Straight Bourbon (750ml, Japanese Import)

$199.99

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Here we have it! Bourbon aficionados will know that it’s extremely rare to find an age-stated whiskey from Heaven Hill, and that’s what makes the Evan Williams 12 Year Old “Red Label” such a discovery. Bottled at 101 proof, it’s an amped up version of everything the EW devotees love about this brand. The nose is dominated by classic tones of maple and brown sugar with a little bit of praline and toffee to take things even further into opulence. The rich palate conveys honeyed almonds, butterscotch, candied orange peel, and hints of fresh tobacco leaf. At this proof, there is heat to this dram, but the overall intensity of the profile more than stands up to the heat. This is a bottling that any fan of Heaven Hill should have behind their bar, in their cabinet, or stashed away for special friends or special occasions.

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You’ll also receive an offer code for £/€5 off your next order!

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