Allow us to introduce The Archive Collection, a limited series honouring the Distiller’s craft, patience and hard work.

The first release in our newest Collection is a 36-year-old single malt which brings a new dimension to the unmistakable flavour of Laphroaig.

This whisky’s journey began in the mid-80s and during its 36 years maturing, six different Distillery Managers have watched over it. Murdo Reed was Distillery Manager when the spirit was laid into casks. Over its 36 years, it has been watched over by Colin Ross, Iain Henderson, Robin Shields, John Campbell and finally Barry MacAffer.

Colour
Rich honeyed amber

Nose
Honey sweet with hints of white peach and mango, followed by creamy dark toffee, vanilla and cedar wood, then subtle oil of wintergreen and notes of singed sage and liquorice root

Palate
Zesty and sweet with orange and tropical fruit, mouth coating initially then moving to mouth drying

Finish
Warm and lingering to finish which brings out the peat in the mouth and the salt on the lips

Maturation
Matured in American oak casks and finished in a sherry-seasoned Oloroso hogshead, giving rich flavour and depth.

Sea glass is a rare find on the beaches of Islay. It takes years of weathering from the salty sea waves to turn the sharp edges of glass fragments into the smooth curves that can be found by the eagle-eyed once they wash up on the shores.

The Archive Collection 36 Year Old is also the result of many years’ work, sharp flavours gradually rounding into smooth as the liquid ages from its teens to its twenties and then to its thirties. Liquids of this age have been through many changes in flavour, but the quintessential Laphroaig taste of peat always makes itself known.

As our Master Blender knows only too well, preserving the peat and smokiness of a 36-year-old is a singular challenge that requires years of patience and intuition. From deciding which casks to use, to considering the weather and climate, a lot of thought and effort goes into the making of a whisky as special as The Archive Collection 36 Year Old – it’s as much a science as it is an art.

A BROAD SPECTRUM OF FLAVOURS

Laphroaig whiskies of this age tend to go through a ‘change curve’ of flavours, according to Distillery Manager Barry MacAffer. First come the red fruits in its teenage years, then tropical fruit flavours push the peat smoke to take a backseat in the twenties. By the time the liquid reaches its thirties, the fruity flavours from the ex-bourbon casks have really come into their own, and the smoky, peaty notes begin to come out of retireme.nt.

As one of our oldest releases yet, The Archive Collection 36 Year Old is full-flavoured and peaty with a salty edge. Its maturation happens in American Oak casks, with finishing in a second fill Oloroso hogshead adding layers and layers of subtle, complex depths. This whisky has a powerful character, but gradually unveils a surprisingly fruity flavour beneath our signature style with tropical fruit notes topped with dark toffee and sweet vanilla.

Distillery Manager Barry MacAffer could hardly contain his excitement at getting to taste this first release from The Archive Collection for the first time. This 36 year old is a striking and refined tasting experience, with its sherry seasoning making for a hearty, rich depth of flavour then, in Barry’s words, “right at the end the peat smoke reminds you – it’s Laphroaig“

Read more about this release

Our Founder’s Private Cellar is an incredibly rare release of some of our most individualistic casks. We are incredibly proud each time we release a cask from the cellar, which was first started by James Nelstrop, our founder.

This single malt whisky was distilled in early August 2007 and was one of the first port casks we ever filled. 16 years later, the whisky is delightful, with a hint of smoke and a wonderful taste of juicy dark fruits, ginger biscuits and a lovely oily texture creating a good long finish.

This sublime bottling is testament to the quality of whisky produced by The English Distillery. and a celebration of our Founders dream to make whisky in England.

TASTING NOTES

Blanton’s Red “Takara” Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon

(Japanese Import)

(750ml)

$210.00

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Blanton’s Takara line is bottled exclusively for the Japanese, the home country of the brand’s owners Ancient Age International. This unique expression of Blanton’s is aged for a minimum 2 extra years over the standard Blanton’s in the famous warehouse H at the old Buffalo Trace plant outside of Frankfurt, KY. This facility is one of Kentucky’s most historical and high quality, but the Blanton’s is totally unique in there portfolio. Not only is it made using the elusive “High Rye” mashbill, but it is aged exclusively in Buffalo Trace’s only corregated metal warehouse. All the others on the property are made of brick, giving Blanton’s a unique character that only a handful of other Buffalo Trace products share. Like all Buffalo Trace products the Blanton’s stocks are heat cycled through steam injection directly into the warehouses, which remain warm and humid throughout the cold winter months. Takara Red is bottled at 93 proof with a minimum age of 8 year. It’s re-imported from wholesalers in Japan and remains one of the rarest bottles of Bourbon on the market today.

Email: wine@klwines.com
Phone: (877) KL-WINES (Toll Free 877.559.4637)
K&L Wine Merchants 3005 El Camino Real Redwood City, CA 94061 USA
San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA

Introducing the third and final releases from our winter single cask collection, Heliotrope Fancy and Zephyr & Bloom…

Heliotrope Fancy

14 Year Old Tobermory

Tobermory is the only distillery on the picturesque Hebridean Isle of Mull, lying off the west coast of Scotland, south of the remote Ardnamurchan and Morvern peninsulas. This vintage 2008 Highland single cask is a traveller through time with its bright, bold nose of parma violets and lavender with notes of fresh yoghurt and barnyard, which leads to a sour yeasty fruit-filled finish. 

Punchy on the palate with a subtle sweetness of apple, floral notes and honeydew with a hint of rosewater, Heliotrope Fancy delivers a medium to long finish with an impressive herbal and earthy finale.

SHOP HELIOTROPE FANCY UK

SHOP HELIOTROPE FANCY EU

Zephyr & Bloom

15 Year Old Dailuaine 

Dailuaine derives from the Gaelic ‘An dail uaine’ meaning ‘green valley’. Considering the distillery’s idyllic placement among the gentle green undulations of the Spey valley, this vintage 2007 single cask malt literally brims with bold orchard fruits with buttery baked pears, green apples and strawberries with cream on the nose.

The fruitiness carries through on the palate with a general cereal character building into vanilla and icing sugar with a short to medium crescendo of white pepper, vanilla, red apples and pencil shavings.

SHOP ZEPHYR & BLOOM UK

SHOP ZEPHYR & BLOOM EU

Wemyss Malts Wemyss Family Spirits Ltd. 4 Melville Crescent Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh EH37JA

We hope you have enjoyed the arrival of autumn and are easing into the festive stretch.

If you’re finding the shorter days and colder, wetter weather hard going, take solace in the fact that it is the perfect season for warming your soul with a dram or two…

Along with festival tickets now available for many of our 2024 festivals, we wanted to bring you something a bit different, as a gift for a fellow whisky-lover (or even yourself!).

With that in mind, and with our festival slate all wrapped up for the year, we’re coming to the rescue with a solution that’ll keep you incredibly well-supplied with top-notch whisky right through till Christmas…

We’ve teamed up with our whisky pals at TopWhiskies to bring you a very healthy 40% off their luxury Scotch Whisky Advent Calendars.

Using the code WHISKYLOUNGE at checkout will score you a near £100 saving on a calendar chock-full of well-aged single cask, cask strength whiskies from a remarkable line up of independent bottlers.

Trust us when we tell you this is a calendar full of Whisky Lounge “Dream Dram” level whiskies, featuring at least a dozen whiskies aged 18 years or more, with several matured for more than 25 years (and some as old as 30!).

You can score yourself this deal at the following links for the 2^nd or 3^rd editions; but don’t hang around, stock is limited and expected to sell out by the end of the weekend!

Just hit the buttons below for further info and to purchase, should you so wish.

Pick your favourite, then use the code WHISKYLOUNGE at checkout to get your discount.

You can see some #spoileralerts for the contents on the product pages themselves…

TWL 2024 FESTIVALS

Head on over to the website for the latest festivals to be added to next year’s roster…including Manchester 2024! There are still some amazing ticket offers, so it may well be worth your while…

Take me to the 2024 Festivals page!

GATEHEAD WHISKY NEWS

Connas is at it again, the wee (!) scamp! Check out the latest from our ruddy, whisky-loving Gateshead correspondent!

READ HERE

More to come, take care and have a great weekend.

Slàinte!

Eddie
and The Whisky Lounge Team

New Guided Online Study 

We finished our in-person teaching for the year at Arniston House last week with another fantastic group of Diploma in Single Malt Whisky candidates.

For next year, we’re pleased to announce the return, due to popular demand, of three-week guided study sessions for the Online Diploma in Single Malt Whisky. While the immediate start, self-study option remains available and open to all, we’ve added three courses throughout 2024 which instead run to a schedule (start dates: 12 April, 2 August and 1 November).

Feedback was clear that the live tutorials, deadlines and weekly drop-in dram events added both enjoyment and a communal feel to the course.

So put yourself in the picture and earn your SQA Diploma with us next year either online, at the Port of Leith Distillery (11 &12 March, 14 & 15 March) or Arniston House (23 & 24 May, 23 & 24 September, 26 & 27 September).

Learn More

Edinburgh Whisky Academy 15 Fountain Road Bridge of Allan, Scotland FK9 4ET

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 510: Armorik Yeun Elez

Mark Dermul, Belgian whiskyblogger, tries a peated French whisky. In addition to the Armorik single malt, the Distillerie Warenghem in Lannion, France, also produces a peated malt called Yeun Elez, named after a nearby peat field. Mark had the pleasure of tasting this on the wild Brittany coast.

https://youtu.be/Kg8kUz0IN18

NEW AUCTION RECORD FOR ANY BOTTLE OF WHISKY:

Bottle of The Macallan 1926 Sells for £2.2 Million / $2.7 Million

18 NOVEMBER 2023 – This afternoon at Sotheby’s in London, a new auction record for any bottle of spirit or wine was set when The Macallan 1926, featuring the Valerio Adami label, sold for £2,187,500 / $2,714,250 – almost three times the pre-sale low estimate (est. £750,000-1.2 million) and eclipsing the previous record of £1.5m ($1.9m) achieved by Sotheby’s in 2019, for the Fine & Rare version.

After being aged in sherry casks for six decades, just 40 bottles of The Macallan 1926 were bottled in 1986, representing the oldest Macallan whisky ever produced at that time. The appearance of any of these bottles at auction over the years has produced extraordinary results – across 2018 and 2019, the auction record was broken three times by three of the different variations (Sir Peter Blake, Michael Dillon, Fine & Rare).

Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s Global Head of Spirits, said: “This record-breaking result for The Macallan 1926 is nothing short of momentous for the whisky industry as a whole. When we first set the record for the Fine & Rare back in 2019 it was a defining moment not just for Sotheby’s, but for me personally. This new record result for The Macallan Adami feels all the more emotional for me, having worked directly with the consignor and distillery to recondition, nose and authenticate this bottle, then finish this journey on the rostrum fielding bids in the room and on the phone. Bringing down the hammer for a new whisky world record is a feeling I’ll never forget.”

Sotheby’s worked directly with The Macallan to recondition and authenticate this bottle, the first time this has ever been done for a 1926. As part of the process The Macallan Master Whisky Maker, undertook a nosing of the whisky.

Kirsteen Campbell commented: “Being involved in the sensory analysis of this incomparable whisky was an incredible privilege.

“The whisky had an incredible depth of character – rich dark fruits, black cherry compote alongside sticky dates, followed by intense sweet antique oak, which is for me a recognisable note of such aged Macallan. Dark chocolate, treacle, ginger… the notes go on and on. It was a very special moment to experience the opening of this iconic 60 Years Old single malt, first bottled 37 years ago, and I hope the new custodian will enjoy the same privilege.”

The reconditioning process involved replacing both the capsule and the cork, applying new glue to the corners of the bottle labels and taking a 1ml liquid sample to test against another 1926 bottle at the Edrington offices in Glasgow. The bottle sold today is now the foundation for all other 1926 bottles that may undergo testing in the future.

Of the 40 bottles drawn in 1986, 14 were decorated with the iconic Fine and Rare labels. Two bottles were released with no labels at all. Of these two, one was hand painted by Irish artist Michael Dillon – when sold in 2018, it became the first bottle of whisky to surpass £1 million.

Of the remaining bottles, in 1986 twelve were labelled by Pop Artist Sir Peter Blake, whose work saw the most notable events from this year in the roaring 20s depicted in black and white sketches and photography. In 1993, a further 12 bottles had their labels designed by Valerio Adami. The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 is now the first bottle in history to exceed £2 million.

The rarity factor contributing to this particular bottle appearing on the market was amplified further in the knowledge that one of the Adami-labelled bottles is thought to have been destroyed during a Japanese earthquake in 2011. It is also believed that at least one of the has been opened and consumed, verified by images taken in Japan. Therefore one can assume that of the 12 Valerio Adami bottles originally created, only 10 remain in existence.

The Italian artist Valerio Adami (born in 1935) was recommended to The Macallan by their Italian agent, Armando Giovinetti. Limiting his palette to black and white for the label, Adami produced a design that has since become iconic in the world of whisky.

Today’s sale was part of Sotheby’s ‘Weekend of Whisky’, a two-day event which also established an auction record for a collection of Japanese whisky. Yesterday, KODAWARI | The Greatest Japanese Whisky Collection realised £1.8 million / $2.2 million, headlined by a bottle of Karuizawa 1960 – a 52 Year Old whisky from Cask #5627 – taking the top spot. The sale was predominantly made up of single cask releases from the closed Karuizawa distillery, many of which rarely come to auction.

About Sotheby’s

Established in 1744, Sotheby’s is the world’s premier destination for art and luxury. Sotheby’s promotes access to and ownership of exceptional art and luxury objects through auctions and buy-now channels including private sales, e-commerce and retail. Our trusted global marketplace is supported by an industry-leading technology platform and a network of specialists spanning 40 countries and 70 categories which include Contemporary Art, Modern and Impressionist Art, Old Masters, Chinese Works of Art, Jewelry, Watches, Wine and Spirits, and Design, as well as collectible cars and real estate. Sotheby’s believes in the transformative power of art and culture and is committed to making our industries more inclusive, sustainable and collaborative.

*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium or overhead premium. Prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer’s premium and overhead premium and are net of any fees paid to the purchaser where the purchaser provided an irrevocable bid.

Glengoyne Unhurried Collection Sensory Tasting Experience

Scotland’s slowest distillery, Glengoyne, is encouraging whisky lovers to take the time to fill their senses this festive season with the launch of the Unhurried Collection Sensory Tasting Experience.

Whisky enthusiasts can slow down with a moment of escapism this Christmas with a gift pack featuring three of Glengoyne’s single malts, 10, 12 and 15 Year Old. Each dram has been thoughtfully taste matched with three artisan chocolate bars from Coco Chocolatier to create a harmony of flavour.

This wonderful offering is elevated with an immersive audio guide with the distillery’s experiential ambassador, Gordon Dallas. Accessible through a QR code in pack, Gordon guides drinkers through the tasting experience, focusing on each expression and demonstrating Glengoyne’s commitment to slow distillation.

Recipients can sit back and relax while being transported to the tranquil Glengoyne Distillery in the Scottish Highlands. The gift pack is completed with four original watercolours from Scotland-based artist Wil Freeborn. Each painting depicts an aspect of Glengoyne’s maturation artistry, from the gorgeous natural scenery to the golden stills of the distillery.

Available today in all John Lewis stores and online at Johnlewis.com, Glengoyne.com and Glengoyne Distillery. RRP £35.

Tasting Notes:

10 Year Old:

NOSE: Sweet, with toffee and popcorn aromas. Slightly nutty, with fresh green apples coming through.

PALATE: Clean. Green apples and grass, soft oak and a hint of sweet liquorice. Water brings linseed oil and almonds.

FINISH: Sweet and malty

PAIR with Dark Chocolate

12 Year Old:

NOSE: Coconut oil, honey, lemon zest, dried oak

PALATE: Toffee apples, cinnamon spice, ginger, orange, shortbread

FINISH: A hint of sherry and soft oak. Very well balanced

PAIR with Milk Chocolate

15 Year Old:

NOSE: Fresh Hay, Malt Flour, Rosehip, Citrus and dried fruit

PALATE: Clean with a gentle sweetness, a hint of tropical fruit, candied lemon, cinnamon, vanilla and apple pie.

FINISH: Pleasant dry finish with gentle spice and lingering oak

PAIR with Dark Sea Salt Chocolate

Ardbeg “Anamorphic – Committee Release” Islay Single Malt Whisky (750ml)

$229.99

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Ardbeg’s Note: ABV 48.2% Color Amber Cask Innovative Cask charring technique Nose Earthy, dusty, and biscuity on the nose, this is a most curious Ardbeg, almost from an alternative universe. The sooty/tarry notes are clear but restrained, and balanced by silky vanilla. Taste Peppery and warming, preceding an explosion of fiery, spicy flavors: Chili chocolate, bittersweet mocha, briar wood, birch tar, black pepper and smoked artichokes. The tarry notes build to a crescendo of rich, smoky flavors, with an incredible, lingering aftertaste of charcoal almonds and molasses.

Email: wine@klwines.com
Phone: (877) KL-WINES (Toll Free 877.559.4637)
K&L Wine Merchants 3005 El Camino Real Redwood City, CA 94061 USA
San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA