We hope you can join us. (if not, it just means more Bourbon for the rest of us.)
You’re invited!
We hope you can join us for a fun, informative evening with Heaven Hill Bourbons poured by Tracy Mellon of NYC’s own ‘American Whiskey’. Details are in the invite below – please contact us with any questions.
Cheers!
Jonathan, Eric & Marlon
The Park Avenue Liquor Shop
270 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016
212-685-2442
jonathan@parkaveliquor.com
eric@parkaveliquor.com
whiskyconn@gmail.com
www.parkaveliquor.com
Glenmorangie at the Whisky Shop
Friday, September 8th 5-7PM:
Come by for an in-store scotch tasting featuring Glenmorangie Distillery. Founded in 1843, Glenmorangie has produced some of the finest and rarest Highland Single Malt Whiskies in existence. Guests will be treated to a selection of award-winning drams, with distillery representatives and whisky experts present throughout.
This tasting is one of two Glenmorangie tastings in September, the second is
Friday September 22nd from 5-7 PM.
Fine and Rare Tasting with Jolyon Dunn, Monday 4th September
Returning to Milroy’s for the final time this year is our Fine and Rare Tasting. We are excited to open the bottles at the end the shop to share with you, our lovely customers! The evening will showcase some of the finest whiskies bottled over the last 50 years!
This event will seek to demonstrate the ways in which these whiskies deserve their cult status amongst whisky drinkers, as well as examining the value of collecting and how to buy in the fine and rare world. Limited spaces available.
Please call the shop if you have any questions about the event on 0207 734 2277. P.S That is a 1969 Old Overholt Rye 1810, we can’t wait to try it!
September Outturn Alert
September Outturn goes on sale this First Friday at 9am. This month delivers an exotic cargo of flavours to taste and explore with 19 marvellous malts, including our first ever blended malt Scotch whisky. Don’t miss out on your favourite bottlings, click over to our website now and read the full listing ahead of the release.
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
Whisky Auctioneer is gearing up for an exciting announcement very soon, but before we get to that we first need to introduce our August Auction!
A wonderfully varied and interesting range of bottles have come through our doors this month, from dusty vintage gems to shiny premium releases, we’ve seen it all.
We guarantee that this is an auction worth exploring. You never know what you might discover and there’s no better time or place to start than with our featured highlights below!
GLENLIVET GORDON & MACPHAIL 1950S SELECTION
This month we feature some fascinating vintage whiskies and spirits dating back to the middle of the last century. Originally purchased from Hay & Son Ltd. Sheffield, the collection includes several of these stunning 1950s Glenlivet bottlings!
MACALLAN 1957 RINALDI ANNIVERSARY MALT 25 YEAR OLD
A particularly special Macallan released in 1982 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Italian importers Rinaldi Brothers Inc. It doesn’t get much better than this!
GLENMORANGIE 1993 SWAMP OAK 12 YEAR OLD
An unusual bottle with a tale to tell! It is believed that the entire shipment of 247 bottles was lost in transit to the US only to be found years later and returned to Glenmorangie, where the majority are still held.
MOON IMPORTS 30TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION
A set of 9 single cask bottlings released to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Moon Import. Renowned for their colourful label art, as this collection clearly demonstrates!
HANYU ICHIRO’S MALT THE JOKER ‘MONOCHROME’ & ‘COLOUR’
What a treat it is to feature both incredible bottles in the auction! One of the rarest and most sought after Japanese whiskies around, the Monochrome Joker is one of only 241 bottles, containing liquid distilled in 1985.
PAPPY VAN WINKLE 20 YEAR OLD FAMILY RESERVE
This month’s auction is an American whiskey bonanza with an incredible range of Pappy bottlings alongside many other rare and unusual bourbons!
Our August Auction is live until Monday 4th September, there is no fee to register on our site, our commission structure is very competitive and we offer worldwide shipping. For our terms and conditions please click here.
Happy bidding!
FREE LONDON COLLECTION – 27TH SEPTEMBER TO 1ST OCTOBER
If you are in the London or M6/M40 area and have bottles that you would like to enter for auction get in touch now to arrange your free pick up!
The Whisky Exchange Quiz of the Year – how’s your whisky knowledge?
This week saw the inaugural Whisky Exchange Whisky Quiz of the Year. Five intrepid teams gathered in our Covent Garden shop to do battle for the honour of being crowned as the first champions.
The quiz in full flow…
Across six rounds, complete with ‘guess which whisky is in your glass’ as the final task in each, our teams put up a valiant fight against quizmaster and shop assistant manager’s Chris Bolton’s occasionally very hard questions and even worse jokes. In the end, while ‘Glenlivet Let Die’ walked away with a bottle of Glenfarclas 15yo for the evening’s best team name, it was ‘For Peat’s Sake’ that took away the grand prize: tickets to The Whisky Show.
The quiz will return next year, but for now, is your whisky knowledge up to scratch? Here are my favourite 12 questions of the evening, a mix of the taxing and comparatively easy. If you score more than eight, then you’d be in with a chance of winning…
Who is this former distillery manager?
Which Macallan does Daniel Craig drink whilst starring as James Bond in Skyfall?
Which whisky distillery holds a Royal Warrant, and who are they ‘by appointment to’?
Name the song and artist
How many stills are used in Springbank’s complex distillation process?
What name is commonly given to the waste liquid left in a wash still after distillation?
What is the name of the single malt whisky produced at Pradlo distillery in the Czech Republic?
Which distillery houses these stills?
Which Indian whisky became the biggest-selling spirit in the world in 2014, replacing Smirnoff vodka?
The Girvan grain distillery in Ayrshire was once home to which closed single malt distillery?
Who is this?
Which family has been associated with the Springbank distillery since it was founded in 1828?
You can find the answers here. How did you do?
You can sign up to our events mailing list to hear about the next quiz and lots of other tastings here, or see what’s available at the moment on our events page.
Home of Whisky Festival, Salutation Hotel, Perth, Saturday, 19th August 2017, 1.00pm – 5.30pm
Exel Wines once again hosted the popular Home of Whisky Festival in Perth. The 2017 Festival started at 1pm with a welcome from Willie Wilson, Depute Provost (Mayor) of Perth. “C’mon Willie, wanting a dram here!”
Now then, having known the nice people at Exel for some years, Liz and myself did receive some extra guidance this year – well that’s our secret eh! There was a great selection of whiskies to try from a grand bunch of exhibitors. Guests were given 10 tokens in total (plus a complimentary dram on arrival of Old Perth) but sadly no option to buy more. There were 2 masterclasses hosted by Tomatin Distillery and Bruichladdich Distillery. The Tomatin hosted by another old contact, Ali – who provided taste-bud ticklers with whisky-based cocktails. There were 5 whiskies– Tomatin 12 Year Old, Tomatin 14 Year Old, Tomatin 18 Year Old and two mystery malts – Tomatin Mystery Malts were: Five series Earth which is peated and the Limited Release 36 Year Old. Brooch masterclass were 5 whiskies tasted –Classic Laddie, Islay Barley, Port Charlotte Scottish Barley, Port Charlotte Islay Barley, Octomore 6.1, Liz almost hit the roof at the last one!
List of exhibitors: Benriach, GlenDronach, Glenglassaugh, The Glenturret, Bruichladdich, Douglas Laing & Co, Compass Box, Morrison & Mackay, Fraiser, Tomatin, Gordon & MacPhail, Wemyss Malts, Ian MacLeod Distillers, Murray McDavid, Indie Brands, Glenfarclas, Kilchoman. There were crackers for people to munch on as they tasted the whiskies as well as jugs of water. All the stock for sale at the pop-up shop was at special prices for the day of the festival. There was also a tear-off voucher on the back of the brochure that could be used when buying whisky in the shop during September.
The Glenturret Range Scotland’s oldest working distillery focuses on profiling the taste of the malt, three tastes to choose from, Sherry, Triple Wood and Peated. Here is where I got confused; Triple Wood – a combination of American sherry oak, European sherry oak and American bourbon oak casks have been used to create the distinct oaky flavour. Yet with all that sherry … a mix of orange peel, vanilla and peardrops (sweeties fae schooldays) with a taste of cedarwood, cinnamon, marzipan and a hint of coconut – so where is the oaky taste? Answers on a psot card please to Paul.
Of course there were many people “behind the tables” we knew well, having been in this whisky industry selling whisky tours for over 21 years. It was nice meeting up again, specially Jacque (Wemyss whiskies) who we also met in Oban, Helsinki and others! That girl moves about. Ali from Tomatin and Jan – a timerous beasties of a man. It was busy on Saturday, not too busy like some we have attended (one comes to mind where punters were 5 deep waiting for a dram) but just about right. I was fortunate to see the programme before the event, and a good job of this was made, not all festivals do this. Before the event – well 4 days before actually, I had been tasting in the shop and aye, went home with two Perth pals, Old Perth bottles – ha! The 21 year old was not available at the show, am chuffed with this as I have one. It’s no often I get my hands on a 21 year old these days. Dianne Wilkie, Director of Exel Wines told me, ‘We first hosted the Home of Whisky Festival in the Salutation Hotel in 2014 (I was there at that too!), and it is a privilege for us to be able to bring the event back to this venue again this year. Perth has long had a love affair with the ‘water of life’ and the Home of Whisky Festival is a great way to celebrate this by not only raising awareness of the whisky-making heritage of Perthshire, but also throughout Scotland, giving those attended an opportunity to sample some of the best whisky Scotland has to offer and learn more about whisky production and distribution across the globe.’ Can I just mention the girls at the shop, ever charming, knowledgeable and reliable; these two are great fun and classed friends of mine.
Established in 2009, Exel Wines have gone from strength-to-strength over the years to become one of the UK’s largest online retailers of wine, whisky, craft beer and spirits. With a shop on 47 South Street, it is also Perth’s best whisky retailer offering wine and whisky enthusiast a treasure trove of delights, including many rare and collectable bottles. I know this for sure, I have shopped and come out many times with more than one bottle. They also offer superb tasting nights, with a limited audience, enabling much serious dramming without a crowd, hosted by experts too! So the moral of this story is – get along to Exel shop, festival events or the tastings, or like me, all!
Paul McLean www.whiskytours.scot/
CIGAR PAIRING MASTERCLASS
HUNTER & FRANKAU AND IAN MACLEOD
2.00pm – 2.40pm
We’re joined by cigar expert Patrick Williams from Hunter & Frankau and Brand Ambassador Alan Wardrop from Ian Macleod Distillers, for a sensational cigar pairing session on the venue’s rooftop terrace. Don’t wait too long to secure your spot – there are only 20 tickets available!
MASTERCLASS TICKETS £15
– HUNTER & FRANKAU –
Founded in 1790, H&F are the leading importers of the world’s finest cigars and have been bringing them into Britain since they were first enjoyed over here. They even once owned two large Cuban cigar factories!
– SHOW TICKETS –
With Early Bird tickets long sold out, our Saturday tickets are selling FAST so if you’re thinking of attending our biggest show yet, grab yours now to avoid disappointment!
Whats included?
• Access to all whiskies on taste
• Access to a mini Masterclasses
• Branded nosing glass to take away with you
• One Dream Dram token (exchangeable for a super premium tipple)
• Festival brochure
Early Bird Saturday Tickets £35 (Sold Out)
Saturday Tickets £40
Deluxe Glenfiddich Tasting with Stephen Rutherford (13:00-13:45) £40
Cigar Pairing with Hunters & Frankau and Ian Macleod (14:00-14:40) £15
VENUE & SHOW TIMES
thestudio
7 CANNON STREET
BIRMINGHAM
B2 5EP
Saturday 16th Sept 12:00pm – 5:00pm
(last pour at 4:30pm)
