Here’s something you don’t see every day; a vintage Highland Park. Released last month, it was created exclusively for duty free and (what we in the trade call) Global Travel Retail markets.

The guys who look after duty free asked us to make a whisky that is like the 12 year old… but smokier. So we hand-picked a selection of Highland Park casks from 1997 – with an emphasis on American oak sherry casks – and vatted them together in the time-honoured fashion. The result is a deliciously complex single malt with a long smoky finish.

Why the emphasis on American oak sherry casks? As you know, the biggest single influence on whisky flavor is the oak in which the whisky matures. At Highland Park we use expensive sherry seasoned casks; those made from American oak give the whisky soft, creamy vanilla and coconut sweet flavours which allow the aromatic smokiness of our whisky to fully express itself. Some refill European oak sherry seasoned casks have been used in the 1997 vintage to provide complexity, citrus sweetness and that all-important Highland Park sense of balance.

In terms of style, Highland Park 1997 vintage is closely related to the 16 and 21 year old expressions. We hope you have as much fun savouring it as we did putting it together for you.

Highland Park 1997 40%
Colour: Soft amber hue.
Nose: Classic American oak sherry cask notes of sweet vanilla, hints of butterscotch and coconut to the fore. Background notes of ripe citrus fruits with a whiff of teasing toffee and camphor.
Palate: Beautiful balance of sweetness and heather peat smokiness.
Finish: Long and smoky.

Highland Park 1997 is available in one litre bottles at €42. Look out for Highland Park 1997 when you are at any of the following airports; Berlin/Tegel, Berlin/Schönefeld, Köln/Bonn, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover, Hahn, Frankfurt, Weeze, Copenhagen, Trondheim, Wien, Linz, Graz, Dalaman, Ankara, Izmir, Istanbul, Antalya, Budapest, Dubrovnik, Pula, Rijeka.

For more information about the Best Spirit in the World visit www.highlandpark.co.uk

Gerry
Head of Brand Education, Highland Park

The Scotch malt Whisky Society of America has released its June 2009 Bottling List featuring many exceptinal limited bottlings from all the regions of Scotland.

The list may be viewed at http://www.smwsa.com/members/index.html

The Society is famed for the quality of its single cask bottlings released without chill filtration or the addition of coloring.

You may join the Society at http://www.smwsa.com/join.html

A brand new bottling from Tomintoul Distillery in Speyside and a welcome addition to the official bottling range released by the distillery. The nose is quite delicate and follows the Tomintoul tradition of being ‘the gentle dram’ with malt, cereals, faint green beans, honey, and vanilla. Light oak in the back ground and happily a distinct lack any off notes. The taste is creamy with leather, tobacco and malt being the first impression. Some heat in the mouth followed by some light heather notes and sweetness; honey, fruit and light vanilla followed by tea (shades of the leather and tobacco). The finish is quite long and has many of the previously described characteristics  which arrive in different waves, perhaps some minor addition of candle wax; the scented variety often associated with hand made candles. Additional malt and fruit with more of the leather and tobacco.

Excellent!

£31

Score 86 Points

Visit http://www.tomintouldistillery.co.uk/ for more on Tomintoul Distillery

Please be advised Beer Hunter, Whisky Chaser (9781906000042) is available to order from Meluki Book Marketing for $23.95. Beer Hunter, Whisky Chaser is a new writing on beer and whisky in honour Michael Jackson with contributions from Stephen Beaumont, Dave Broom, Ian Buxton, John Hansell, Julie Johnson, Charles MacLean, Hans Offringa, F Paul Pacult, Roger Protz, Lucy Saunders, Conrad Seidl, Carolyn Smagalski and Gavin D Smith. Please see the attached flyer for more information on this title.

Other new whisky titles available include:
9781903238677 Goodness Nose $35.95
9781841586526 Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom $69.95

And soon to arrive in stock:
9781906476038 A-Z of Whisky new edition price TBA
9781841585567 MacLean’s Whiskypedia price TBA

For more information on these titles, trade discounts, or to place an order, please contact us directly or visit our website http://store.meluki.ca/spirits.html

Meluki Book Marketing
604-925-4415 (tel)
604-925-4438 (fax)

This bottling is the newest permanent addition to the distillery’s core range and consists a vatting of 80% sherry casks and 20% bourbon barrels which has been bottled at 46% without colouring or chill-filtering. Of the 7,800 bottles produced for the world wide market, a grand total of 180 were allocated to the Canadian Province of Alberta (the remainder of Canada was out of luck). The nose reveals fruit, raisins, Christmas cake and is actually not as assertive as one would expect from an abundance of sherry casks used in the vatting. Some slight smokiness with some very light wood notes. A slight tinge of furniture polish perhaps? Very pleasant. The taste is sweet and luxurious, rich and slightly creamy cooked dark fruits (plums) fruit tart and apricot. The smoke is much more evident than on the nose but not over whelming; also the taste is quite dry layered with toffee and wood notes. It’s very pleasant and whatever amount is in your glass the inclination is to add more. The finish is quite long; at first there are lots of sweet fruit components but after a short time you’re left with a lot of dryness and wood notes. Exceptional.

 C$150

 Score 88 Points

Visit http://www.springbankwhisky.com/ for further details.

Macallan 1965 – Fino Sherry Butt

Macallan 1965 – Cream Sherry Butt

North of Scotland 1973

Linlithgow 1982

Visit www.lfw.co.uk for further details on these bottlings however please be seated when viewing the pricing!

Further information on Carn Mor is available at http://www.scottish-liqueur-centre.com/index.php

Double Barrel, is also a vatting but just a combination of 2 casks. The first bottling is made of a vatting of Macallan and Islay single malts. The Islay is quite dominant but the Macallan, makes everything rounder and more accessible.

Big Peat, is a vatted malt (or blend of malts as we now have to call it), from Islay malts, containing Caol Ila, Bowmore, Ardbeg and Port Ellen. As the name suggests, it is a Malt that is big on the smokey, salty Islay character.

Visit Douglas Laing for more information on their complete and exstensive line of whiskies.

Tasting Notes for the OLD MALT CASK RANGE

OMC1698 TAMDHU 17 YEAR OLD
Nose: Gently spiced – subtly floral – lightly gristed.
Palate: Now drier/heavily spiced + a honey mouthcoat.
Finish: Now sweeter! Still heavily spiced – and warm. (F)

OMC1694 ARDBEG 18 YEAR OLD
Nose: Carries an iconic Islay style: big, phenolic, beachy.
Palate: Starts softly – builds to seaweed, tar, creosote, ash.
Finish: Replicates all the qualities of the palate. (F)

OMC1686 MANNOCHMORE 18 YEAR OLD
Nose: Dryly spiced and gristy/hinting at Autumnal fruits
Palate: Sugary – still spiced/ Malty – heads sweeter/citric
Finish: Now drier + spices/ barley/oak + a late fruit “fizz” (F)

OMC1695 “TACTICAL” from Skye 18 YEAR OLD
Nose: Clean, fresh and sweet + vanilla pod + distant smoke
Palate: Opens sweet, carries to peat, smoke and dying embers
Finish: Long, replicates the sweet and ashy quality of the palate (J)

OMC1710 BENRIACH 19 YEAR OLD
Nose: Sweet with baked waffles + fruit + cream then herbal
Palate: Rich, spicy and sweet runs to a peppery hint of smoke
Finish: Tangy with burnt oak and a bitter chocolate quality (J)

OMC 1696 BUNNAHABHAIN 19 YEAR OLD
Nose: Fresh then spicy with dried fruit and a nutty style
Palate: Mouthcoating + more fruit + sweet spices + sprinkled salt
Finish: Long and round + strawberries and pepper lingering (J)

OMC1708 LAPHROAIG 20 YEAR OLD
Nose: Rich & spicy + log fire ashes + smoky, salty sea character
Palate: Mouthcoating + sweet spices then big smoke + peat + ashes
Finish: Long with more ashes, creosote and salty smoke lingering on. (J)

OMC1700 BENRINNES 21 YEAR OLD
Nose: Spicy and grassy with dried herbs then barley sugar
Palate: Sweet + a baked quality with spiced fruit character
Finish: Spicy sweetness then an oak tang lingers on and on (J)

OMC1709 MACALLAN 24 YEAR OLD
Nose: Opens with leather+spices, runs to baked bananas+nuts.
Palate: Spicy, sweet, creamy, vanilla’ed+a fruit Macedonia – trifle style.
Finish: Remains sweet, still fresh with a herbal tang. (J)

OMC1688 CAOL ILA 25 YEAR OLD
Nose: Sweet + peat + earth + ozone +(old style) haircream.
Palate: Saline, dry, “beachy” and peated – lightly ashed.
Finish: Tarry sweet – now oily – with soft coffee tones (F).

OMC1697 BUNNAHABHAIN 30 YEAR OLD
Nose: Richly spiced with coffee, salt and fruit.
Palate: Oily and complex + late sweet peat + barley.
Finish: Softly spiced now, lightly oaked, partly honeyed. (F)

OMC1682 GLENLIVET 30 YEAR OLD
Nose: Big, sweet, plus citrus (lime?) – malty
Palate: Velvety, barleyed, still citric + vanilla toffee/tablet
Finish: More tablet! + more citrus + drifting smoke (F)

OMC1684 DALMORE 32 YEAR OLD RUM FINISH
Nose: Massively red fruited and perfumed/now spiced with honey + barley
Palate: Full, round, still spiced (Christmas style and homebaked)
Finish: With tobacco/mocha/warming spices/late smoke (F)

OMC1689 TOMINTOUL 33 YEAR OLD
Nose: Loads of citrus with honeyed Malt + delicate pinewood.
Palate: Carries vanilla caramel + warming spices with barley sugar
Finish Interestingly different spices + more fruit in thick syrup (F)

OMC1699 INCHGOWER 34 YEAR OLD
Nose: Toffee + chocolate & oranges + a medicinal herbs style
Palate: Full bodied, rich, spicy + chocolate on caramel bavarois
Finish: Long with a caramelized and herbal sweetness (J)
And lastly, Tasting Note for the CIGAR MALT is:

OMC1671 BLAIR ATHOL 10 YEAR OLD
Nose: Full, sweet, (citric) fruited and spiced
Palate: Rich with more fruit and vanilla toffee
Finish: Still lively, spiced, sweet/lightly smoked (F)

OLD & RARE RANGE Tasting Notes are:

OAR0075 GLENCADAM 32 YEAR OLD
On the nose detect truly attractive round, toasted, sweet, fruity, vanilla’d and gristy tones. Initially on the palate it
is massively spiced and distinctly citric, with marmalade-on-toast flavours. All of this leads to an attractively
“perfumed” finish which is zesty, still spiced and deep down warming. (F)

OAR0072 ARDBEG 36 YEAR OLD
This rare Ardbeg has maintained a lot of its original feisty character even through all those years of maturation. On
the nose discover the chimney with smoked meats, the maritime, creosote character with a citric influence – still
oily and peaty. Initially the palate is complex, subtle and delicate, even sweet but then opens up to ashes and rich
peat smoke which coats the mouth. The suggestion of smoked ham returns on the finish with wet ashes and soft
tar lingering on and on and on… (J)

PROVENANCE RANGE  Tasting Notes are:

PRV0574 HIGHLAND PARK 10 YEAR OLD
Clean – hints at orange, oak then honey, sweet spices, brylcreem (?) all on the nose. The palate starts
mouthcoatingly sweet – held there it turns spicy, gristy and barley sugared – finishing warmingly spiced, tailing
drier, with smoke and liquorice. (F)

PRV0573 GLEN ORD 11 YEAR OLD
Light, clean and honey fresh/barley sugared with spices on the nose – it continues to a round sweet palate still
with that distinct honey influence. Its finish is soft, smooth, sugary sweet, succulent and slightly spiced. (F)

Further details to be found at http://www.douglaslaing.com/index.htm

Three new single malts from Loch Fyne Whiskies;

Jura Paps 15yo Mountain of Sound

Jura Paps 15yo Mountain of Gold

Jura Paps 15yo The Sacred Mountain

Or a Gift Set containing all three of the above!

Jura 1974

Dalmore 1974

Visit https://www.lfw.co.uk/blog/ for further details on all these new bottlings.