WHISKY AN’ A’ THAT VII
 
We are delighted to announce that tickets for next years Whisky An A’ That VII Festival, which is being held on Saturday 29th May 2010,are now in stock.

Ticket cost £16.00

(Which includes 6 sampling vouchers, Dram glass, food voucher, bottled water and discount voucher)
 
If you would like to order your ticket for this wonderful event, then please phone our hotline number on 01292 284279
or email festival@robbiesdrams.com
 
We look forward to hearing from you.
 
Regards
Derek Sweeney
Manager
Robbie’s Drams
www.robbiesdrams.com
www.robbiesdrams.co.uk

A Bruichladdich tasting with Andrew Gray will be held at the Dakota Hotel in early December in conjunction with WoodWinters Wines and Whiskies.

8th December (Tuesday), 7:30pm (will last approx 90 mins)
Dakota Hotel Forth Bridge
Queensferry
Edinburgh
EH30 9QZ
Tickets: £10 (includes £5 money off voucher for use with Bruichladdich purchase at Woodwinters)

Line up is 7 whiskies including 17yo Rum finish and 1989 Black Art.

Contact Shane at WoodWinters on 01786 834894 or email Shane@woodwinters.com if you’re interested in going.

Many thanks to David for this notice.

7PM Tuesday December 8th South Calgary Community Association

This year’s distillery is  Ardbeg,  and the theme is giving; giving away heels that is!  Everyone attending is required to bring at least one ¼ full bottle of single malt (a heel), festively wrapped.  These will be collected at the door, numbered and then raffled off after the blind tasting; everyone is guaranteed to win one, and if you bring 2 you’ll end up with 2!  You may not receive exactly what you want, in fact we’re hoping you won’t; that will encourage you to trade with others until you do!

There will also be a silent auction to raise funds for the chapter!  Donations don’t have to be large, expensive, or extravagant; anything will help us on our way…  Jane Cameron is on point, with respect to the silent auction; she can be contacted at jaca@telusplanet.net !  I suggest that you alert her in advance with what you are planning to donate.

I look forward to seeing all of you there, and Merry Christmas.

Slainte!

Date/Time:   Tuesday December 8th / 7-9PM (Formal) 9-10 (Optional)
Location:  South Calgary Community Association  3130 16th St SW (Off 14th St. SW behind the Calhoun Library)

Price (members): $50.00 + At Least one ¼ Full—Wrapped Heel of Scotch Whisky

Price (guests):  $60.00 + At Least one ¼ Full—Wrapped Heel of Scotch Whisky

Registration Payment: Please pay in advance by cheque made out to Dan Allan.  These can be dropped off at the Kensington Wine Market to my attention! *

Registration Deadline: Friday December 4th @ 5PM

Please confirm your attendance and drop off your registration form and cheque by this date and time.  Registration will be limited to 40!
Food:   There will be some appetizers, sandwiches and dessert.

You are encouraged to have a light meal before coming.

Transportation: The event is close to downtown, which should make taxis a good option.

Theme:  Tasting and slides from Ardbeg distillery
1) We will begin by sampling our assembled range of Ardbegs.
2) We will be conducting a silent auction to raise chapter funds.
3) We will raffle off both heels brought by guests and those from chapter events.  Everyone is guaranteed to win at least the same number of heels they bring with them!

Order of events: 6:45 – Welcome/Mingling/Bidding Opens on Silent Auction Items
7:00 Sharp – Tasting & Slides
7:45 – 8:15 Mingling/Food/Bidding on Silent Auction Items
8:15 – Raffle Off Heels
8:30 – Silent Auction Update/Trading Begins On Heels
9:00 – Silent Auction Closes/Winners Announced
9:15 – Open Social Time
10:00 – Event Ends Cleanup Begins
Last Minute Contact:  Please call Andrew Ferguson on his cell 968-1056

If you have any questions or require more information please call Andrew Ferguson @ 283-8000, or e-mail scotchguy@kensingtonwinemarket.com .

All of the Jolly Toper’s whisky tastings take place on Thursday nights from 7:30pm until approximately 10pm at the Tollbooth Tavern, 167 Canongate, Royal Mile, Edinburgh.  For more details on the tastings themselves, please click here.

December 3rd normal 6 dram tasting: SOLD OUT

Signatory Cambus single grain 27.7.9 – 10.9.9 18yo refill butt 664 bottles 51.9%- another rare grain.

Longrow 7yo 55.8% 1 1/2 years in Gaja Barolo Italian red wine cask- youth, wine and peat might sound a difficult combo but this is a best selling dram.

Cadenheads Highland Park 1992 – 06/09 17yo 64.0% butt 512 bottles- bit of a wildcard but I’ve faith some will go for it in a big way.

Highland Park 25yo 50.7%- a classy drop from a quarter century of maturation

Ballantines 17yo 43%- voted best blend by Jim Murray.

+ a mystery dram

December 10th £20/17

Cadenheads Royal Brackla 1976 – 11/06 30yo 53.6% Sherry hogshead 126 bottles

Springbank 06/97 – 01/09 11yo Madiera wood expression 55.1% 2090 bottles (Loch Fyne Whiskies’ whisky of the year)

Cadenheads Ardbeg 1994 – 06/09 15yo Bourbon hogshead 284 bottles 58.1%

Something unusual

Something rare

+ a mystery dram

December 17th: Blind tasting of 6 drams: SOLD OUT

January 7th: For Peat’s sake:

Ardbeg Supernova 58.9% 100+ ppm

Jura Prophecy

PC8 60.5%

Octomore 2 62.5% 5yo 140 ppm

Kilchoman

St. George Chapter 4 new make spirit 46%

January 21st: ‘usual suspects’: something old, rare, unusual, peaty and sherried £tbc:

50yo 1937 – 1987 speyside single malt

Dalmore 21yo 43%

Clynelish distiller’s edition seco 46%

Highland Park 21yo

Sheep Dip ‘Old Hebridean’ 19yo 40%

+ a mystery dram

http://www.jollytopertastings.co.uk/

Hi All,

Good news!

I was about to say I am sorry to drop this on you, but I suspect most of you will thank me for it! Many of you have requested, nae demanded, that I present one more tasting before Xmas. Not good enough for you is it that I have a wonderful – and it will be wonderful – Whisky and Dinner event coming up this Friday (a few tickets still available!), but no…
…you want more!!!

Well, I have deliberated. I have asked serious questions of myself. I have mulled it over with a dram or twelve.

I have made my decision…but the real decision is in your hands!

If at least 20 of you good people sign up for the following, then the tasting will go ahead. If not, it won’t – simple as that. This is an exclusive, once in a lifetime opportunity, never to be repeated tasting that frankly should require no selling on my part!
Anyway, here we go…

Ardbeg – The Ultimalt Underground Vertical Tasting, Part 1
Friday 11th December 2009
Blackfriars, Friar Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne
7.30pm, £30 per ticket

Very Young Ardbeg was launched in 2003 purely for members of the Ardbeg ‘Committee’ and then upon their ‘approval’ (apologies for all the ‘ ‘), a commercial bottling was released in 2004. Still Young followed in 2006, Almost There in 2007, Renaissance in 2008 and now the brand new 10 Year Old is firmly established.

We will be tasting all six of these remarkable drams – including the Committee ‘For Discussion’ bottling – and talking all things Ardbeg on this very night. Most of these whiskies are now extremely hard to get hold of, and in some cases would cost you the same as a workable used car, so this really is a very rare opportunity – even as Brand Ambassador for Ardbeg and Glenmorangie I was never able to assemble such an amazing array of young Ardbegs.

One thing you should know…

All of these whiskies, bar the 10 Year Old, are bottled at cask strength, so this is not a tasting for the faint of heart.

In respect to the whiskies involved, and to the people willing to come along, I will only be selling 30 tickets as a maximum. Please do not hesitate – in order to be fair to Blackfriars and those already signed up, I need to know of your booking by this Friday. If you want it bad enough, this tasting will happen!

I look forward to hearing from you very soon!

Cheers,
Eddie

Eddie Ludlow
Whisky Evangelist

thewhiskylounge
http://www.thewhiskylounge.com
eddie@thewhiskylounge.com
07515 854210
01904 466227

Many thanks to Gordon Homer of http://www.spiritofislay.net/ for this lead.

Ladies and Gentlemen, a gentle reminder.

Next Monday, on the evening of the 30th November, we are hosting a tasting with some very special whiskies indeed.

 We have all the new bottlings from our Award winning Single Malts of Scotland range, including some really left-field distilleries (Braes of Glenlivet or Glenburgie anyone?), along with releases from the more familiar favourites like Bunnahabhain and Longmorn.

We will also be showing the new-improved Port Askaig 25yo and brand spanking new 30yo, as well as 3 new editions to our Elements of Islay range.

For those of you who have never been to one of our launches before, this is a relaxed event. You will find us presenting the various whiskies form behind a barrel, and for only £20 you get to try 8 of the different whiskies from the selection available on the night.

 We will be kicking off the evening at 6.45, and finishing around 9pm and as there is no actual talk going on you can come and go as you please throughout that time (although we advise giving yourself a bit of time to get through the 8).

Tickets can be purchased in the usual way, by calling us here at the shop and we will take payment there and then. There is no limit to the amount of tickets you can buy, so knock yourselves out!

We hope to hear from you soon,

Kind regards,

The Team

The Whisky Exchange

Vinopolis

1 Bank End

Southwark

London

SE1 9BU

 Tel:-  +44 (0) 207 403 8688

Fax:- +44 (0) 207 403 8788

e-mail:-   vinopolis@thewhiskyexchange.com

website:- www.thewhiskyexchange.com

An update on this event submitted by Charlie McCartan;

Suntory Distilleries Whisky Tasting  at Nickolls and Perks cellars 18th November 2009

Wednesday 18th November £15
Tom Jones/Suntory Japanese Whiskies
Yamazaki 12 yo
Yamazaki Peated 1993 62%
Yamazaki Sherry butt 48%
Yamazaki 18 YO
Hibiki 15 YO
Hakushu 12 YO

The night started with us gathering to take our seats and sample some of Yamazaki’s 12 year old  while  Master Blender Dr Koichi Inatomi AKA Dr Tomi gave us a very full background to whisky distilling in Japan, the cultural and business reasons of why and when it grew up. We then got a photographic tour round the Suntory Distillery in Yamazaki, a suburb of Kyoto. All the while the cellars filling with the aromatic smell of the Yamazaki 12 year old.

Then on to more tasting,  a Yamazaki 18 year old – very dark flavours – Green & Black’s 85% Dark Chocolate, intense raisin and black cherry. Followed by Yamazaki Sherry Cask 48% ABV but very smooth and fruity and the one I would love to try as an ice-cream flavour!

A break now to savour what was left of the sherry cask and clean the palate with some cheese and oatcakes. Then on with the tasting, it’s a tough life…

The second half was devoted to whiskies made at the Hakushu Distillery high in the mountains above Tokyo kicking off with Hakushu 12 year old, a little-known and therefore under-rated complexly flavoured whisky. Next was the bit hitter of the night for me – Hibiki 12 year old. Only launched this year, this is matured in plum liqueur cask and this fact hits you as soon as you smell it. Not a bit fan of plums myself, the aroma nevertheless is a sumptuous fruity blast. A very notable and distinctive whisky, as are the Hibiki bottles made with 24 faces to commemorate the old Japanese calendar of 24 months. 

The Hibiki 17 year old Blended was for me overshadowed by the massive plummy aroma that was still with me from the 12 year old but a taste I grabbed of it later confirmed its quality. While we lingered over the whiskies Dr Tomi told us of how Japanese whisky was never marketed abroad until 2003 when Yamazaki 12 year old won a gold medal at the International Spirits Challenge and they realised their products were good enough to sell to the world! Exports have roughly doubled every year since then, while the number of awards has increased every year. Given the quality we tasted on the night it’s not hard to see why.

Dr Tomi stayed to chat and answer questions from the forty-ish people present before saying goodnight and heading for an Indian restaurant. We hope he will be back.

Some future tastings at Nickolls and Perks

All tasting events start 7:30pm.

We are 15 mins from M5/M42 Junction

Contact David for Tickets on 01384 394518 or see http://www.Finemaltwhisky.co.uk for all details.

Tuesday 24th November £20
Douglas Laing with Jan Beckers
Rosebank OMC 1990 19 YO 50%
Bladnoch OMC 1992 16 YO 50 %
Speysides Finest OMC 1991 17 YO 50 %
Macallan OMC 1993 13 YO RUM FINISH 50 %
Caol Ila OMC 1990 19YO 50%
Ardbeg OMC 1991 18 YO 50 %

Thursday 3rd December £25
Andrew Gray lets us at em!
Bruichladdich Classic Laddy
Bruichladdich 17 YO Rum
Bruichladdich Infinity 3rd Ed
Bruichladdich X4 3YO 63.5%
Bruichladdich 12 YO
Bruichladdich PC 8

See http://www.Finemaltwhisky.co.uk for all details.

This arrived a wee late but is still informative….

Dear Malt Messenger Subscribers,

As many of you know tomorrow night is the official release for our cask of BenRiach 1994 Madeira Finish. This whisky was poured as a teaser at our hugely successful Fall Single Malt Festival on Thursday night and was easily one of the highlights of the show. More than a dozen bottles were pre-ordered that night alone…

The cask was selected by the customers of the Kensington Wine Market with my assistance and direction at the first of three Whisky Democracy Tastings (The other two being Springbank and Jack Daniels). The decision was a tough one with one cask each of peated and unpeated BenRiach showing very well. Ultimately the decision was made to go with Cask 4810 which is a spectacular expression of unpeated BenRiach distilled in 1994 and finished in a single Madeira barrel. I am especially excited about its release and tomorrow night is your first formal opportunity to taste it.

There are still about 15 of the 60 spaces open for tomorrow night’s BenRiach Cask Release Party. I have included below information on the distillery as well as the event. Tomorrow night’s event will include a formal introduction to our cask as well as the opportunity to try the full range of whiskies from BenRiach and Glendronach distilleries. If you have a free evening tomorrow what better way could there be to spend it than with like minded company and some great whiskies? Oh and BenRiach Brand Ambassador Alistair Walker will be there too…

Hope to see you there.

Slainte!

Andrew Ferguson

BenRiach Cask Release Party – Tuesday November 17th – $40

Tomorrow night’s BenRiach Cask Release Party is going to be an incredible event. Alistair Walker, Brand Ambassador for  BenRiach and Glendronach distilleries will be on hand to help us celebrate the launch of our 1994 Madeira finished cask of BenRiach. For $40 you will receive, your own Glencairn crystal single malt glass, have access to some incredible “one night only” deals on BenRiach single malts and will also have the opportunity to sample some of the following whiskies:

1.       BenRiach 1994 KMW Cask 4810

2.       BenRiach 10Yr Curiositas

3.       BenRiach 12Yr

4.       BenRiach Arumaticus Fumosus 12Yr

5.       BenRiach Herodotus Fumosus 12Yr

6.       BenRiach Importanticus Fumosus 12Yr

7.       BenRiach 15Yr Jamaican Dark Rum Finish

8.       BenRiach 15Yr Madeira Finish

9.       BenRiach 15Yr Tawny Port Finish

10.   BenRiach 16Yr

11.   BenRiach 20Yr

12.   BenRiach Authenticus 21Yr

13.   BenRiach 25Yr

14.   Glendronach 12Yr

15.   Glendronach 15Yr – Not yet available in Canada!

16.   Glendronach 18Yr – Not yet available in Canada!

All this and Alistair Walker for only $40!

If you would like to register for this event please call the store at 403-283-8000!

A Little About BenRiach Distillery

BenRiach is one of about a dozen independent distillers in Scotland. The distillery was purchased in 2004 by a South African group headed by former Burn Stewart Director Billy Walker. In just a few short years Billy and his son Alistair managed to transform BenRiach from a closed, obscure, Chivas distillery into one of the most innovative and interesting distilleries in Scotland. Before the purchase BenRiach was almost exclusively used in blends like 100 Pipers, Chivas Regal and Queen Ann, with only a small amount directed towards a rather lousy 10 year old expression.

When new buyers purchased the distillery in 2004, they lost little time in rebranding and diversifying their product base. Post purchase the distillery’s focus has changed considerably, they still cask a considerable amount of whisky for blending, but far more of their casks are now directed towards the single malt market. BenRiach’s Core Range now consists of some 16 or more whiskies, both peated and unpeated. In addition to this there have been many special releases.

Benriach was founded in 1897 along the main road between Rothes and Elgin adjacent to its sister distillery Longmorn. Although the distillery itself was closed for a total of 65 years in the 20th C., its warehouses (some of them used by Longmorn) remained in continuous use, and its floor maltings operated until 1999–uninterrupted for more than 100 years.

Located just five minutes south of Elgin along the highway to Rothes, Benriach is nearly impossible to miss. But although it is one of the easiest distilleries in the Speyside to find, it is not yet open to the public for tours. When I was there in September the distillery manager indicated there are many plans in the works for Benriach. One of the short term goals is the construction of a visitor center; the other–more long term–is the desire to reopen their own maltings.

———————

If you have any whisky questions or comments concerning The Malt Messenger please contact me by e-mail, phone, or drop by the store. Feel free to forward me any whisky news you feel should be included in a future issue of The Malt Messenger; it might just get included.

All of the products mentioned in THE MALT MESSENGER can be purchased in store, over the phone or from our website at www.kensingtonwinemarket.com.. All prices quoted in the Malt Messenger are subject to change!

Thanks for reading the Malt Messenger!

Slainte!

Andrew Ferguson
KWM Scotchguy

403-283-8000
888-283-9004
1257 Kensington Rd. NW
Calgary, AB, Canada
T2N 3P8

scotchguy@kensingtonwinemarket.com

Just two days before our ground-breaking Iconic Whisky Tasting Evening, tickets are still available.

Both performers have been rehearsing every day and can be said to be in the peak of condition – fit, enthusiastic and only the very slightest sign of lack of sleep. Whatever, we are looking at a very enjoyable evening. There is accommodation locally and drivers will not have to buy a ticket, obviously (but people have still asked).

Visit Loch Fyne Whiskies at https://www.lfw.co.uk/

ARDBEG WHISKY TASTING featuring Corryvreckan

Dates: Monday 30th November 2009 (St. Andrews Day)
Time: 8PM
Cost: £15.00

Join us as we work our way through the legendary Ardbeg family of malts. Ardbeg is a heavy hitter among Islay malts and very peaty and the distillery has been awarded many accolades. Ardbeg Uigeadail has been named World Whisky of the Year in Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible 2009 and their latest release of Corryvreckan is gaining brilliant reviews.

Hosted by Ardbegs Brand Representativess, Cory Soutar and Martin Grant , this evening will be entertaining and informative.

See here for more information and to book
http://www.whiskibar.co.uk/Ardbeg.html

Join us on St Andrews day, 30th November 2009 to try them for yourself…WHISKI Bar
119 High Street
Edinburgh