GlenAllachie Cask Strength Batch 4
Moving onto the fourth batch of cask strength whisky from GlenAllachie distillery, this latest special release has been matured for 10 years in a combination of sherry puncheons and virgin oak casks. Bottled at 56.1% vol and a lot darker than we’ve seen from previous batches.
PENULTIMATE WHISKY REVEALED IN GORDON & MACPHAIL’S 125th ANNIVERSARY SERIES
— 40YO Mosstowie is third of four ‘last cask’ single malts —
Gordon & MacPhail has revealed its third commemorative whisky released to mark the company’s 125th anniversary.
And continuing the theme, the remarkably rare Gordon & MacPhail 1979 Mosstowie from Miltonduff Distillery constitutes the independent bottler’s last remaining cask from the distillery, matured with spirit from the now-removed Lomond Stills.
Located within Miltonduff Distillery in Morayshire, Mosstowie was founded in 1964 under the ownership of industry pioneer Hiram Walker – who championed the use of longer, more versatile Lomond Stills to give a variety of flavour profiles.
The stills, which produced Mosstowie’s smoky, soft spirit, operated for just 17 years before being removed in 1981 due to the longer arms of the stills being notoriously difficult to clean.
Gordon & MacPhail 1979 from Mosstowie Distillery [RSP £1500*]
Only 164 bottles are available worldwide of this full-bodied whisky, full of sherry influences and dark chocolate notes. The 40-year-old whisky was laid down in Gordon & MacPhail’s Elgin warehouse on Thursday 13 September 1979 in cask number 20323, a refill Sherry Hogshead.
Bottled at 49.8% ABV, the whisky is dark gold in colour, with aromas of vanilla pod, butterscotch and stewed apples. On the palate, flavours of black pepper are complemented by spiced grapefruit, dark chocolate and raspberries, before giving way to a long and medium-bodied finish with hints of fresh mint leaves.
Stephen Rankin, a fourth-generation member of Gordon & MacPhail’s owning family and the company’s Director of Prestige, said: “Each of the extremely rare whiskies released to commemorate our 125th anniversary is truly unique as they are the last cask of that particular make we have maturing in our warehouse. With no official bottling ever available of the elusive Mosstowie malt, we are particularly excited to bring this special whisky to the market.”
For more information visit www.gordonandmacphail.com.
#GordonandMacPhail
*Prices in international markets may vary due to local taxes and import duties.
Tasting notes:
Gordon & MacPhail 1979 Mosstowie from Miltonduff Distillery
Matured in cask 20323, a refill Sherry Hogshead, and bottled at 49.8% ABV. Outturn of 164 bottles.
COLOUR: Dark Gold
AROMA: Fragrant VANILLA POD and BUTTERSCOTCH aromas lead to CANDIED PEEL and hedgerow BLOSSOM. LEATHER and STEWED APPLE notes come to the fore alongside BLACKCURRANT LEAVES.
TASTE: Flavours of BLACK PEPPER complement SPICED GRAPEFRUIT and subtle SHERRY influences. DARK CHOCOLATE undertones develop accompanied by tart RASPBERRIES and STRAWBERRY LIQUORICE.
FINISH: Long and medium-bodied with a hint of fresh MINT LEAVES on the finish.
About Gordon & MacPhail Whiskies
For over 125 years, Gordon & MacPhail has been driven by a simple mission: to create single malt Scotch whisky of exceptional quality. Through four generations of family ownership, the company has matched spirit from over 100 Scottish distilleries to its own bespoke casks. It is this unique depth and breadth of experience that enables Gordon & MacPhail to combine oak, spirit and time to create a portfolio of iconic whiskies found nowhere else in the world.
‘Generations’ – A prestigious collection of old, rare, and exclusive masterpieces
Bimber Distillery unveils its 2020 Country Collection
Range of twenty Country Editions crafted to meet growing demand for Bimber’s single malt whiskies
Expressions produced for distributors across Europe, Asia, Australia and the US
Cask strength, single cask releases drawn from the distillery’s stock of ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, virgin American oak and ex-peated casks
London’s Bimber Distillery today announced the upcoming release of its 2020 ‘Country Collection’ of single cask, single malt whiskies.
Following increasing international demand for Bimber’s products over the past twelve months, twenty cask strength, single cask ‘editions’ been bottled exclusively for Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Taiwan and the USA.
Each exceptional cask was hand-selected to showcase Bimber’s award-winning single malt spirit with the unique personalities derived from four different cask types – ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, virgin American oak and ex-peated casks.
Bimber’s Country Collection marks a significant expansion of the London-based distillery’s global reach – and a recognition of the burgeoning demand for the craft producer’s single malt whiskies.
The ‘French Edition’ bottled for La Maison du Whisky was released in early October 2020 as a precursor to the remaining 19 single cask editions which will be available from November 2020.
Each of the Country Collection Editions were crafted to Bimber’s exacting standards. The spirit was produced from the distillery’s single farm barley and malted on a dedicated floor at Warminster Maltings before being fermented for seven days in bespoke, on-site constructed American oak washbacks. Distillation took place in Bimber’s customised stills, which possess an increased copper surface area, resulting in a light and fruity, but layered new make spirit.
Speaking of the upcoming release of the Country Collection, Bimber Distillery spokesperson Matt McKay said: “We’re delighted to see the budding worldwide excitement for our London single malt whiskies. As a small, field to glass producer, we hope that in releasing our Country Editions we’re able to meet some of the demand from Bimber enthusiasts who are located outside of the UK. We’re excited to be witnessing the continued emerging interest in English whisky – and we’re thrilled to be playing our part in driving that thriving interest forward.”
Notes to editors
Bimber 2020 Country Collection
The twenty expressions in the 2020 Bimber Country Collection are comprised of:
Cask #137 (Ex-sherry), 57.7% ABV – Produced for Australia
Cask #140 (Virgin American Oak) 58.1% ABV – Produced for Australia
Cask #135 (Ex-sherry), 57.7% ABV – Produced for Top Malts, Belgium
Cask #142 (Virgin American oak), 58.1% ABV – Produced for Top Malts, Belgium
Cask #169 (Ex-bourbon), 58.9% ABV – Produced for CRT Spirits, Denmark
Cask #93 (Virgin American oak), 58.5% ABV – Produced for La Maison du Whisky, France
Cask #96 (Virgin American oak), 58.3% ABV – Produced for Kirsch Import E.K., Germany
Cask #128 (Ex-bourbon), 58.1% ABV – Produced for Kirsch Import E.K., Germany
Cask #66 (Ex-bourbon), 58.8% ABV – Produced for Beija-Flor, Italy
Cask #133 (Ex-sherry), 51.9% ABV – Produced for Beija-Flor, Italy
Cask #139 (Virgin American oak), 58.2% ABV – Produced for Beija-Flor, Italy
Cask #87 (Ex-bourbon), 59.7% ABV – Produced for Whiskysite.nl, the Netherlands
Cask #168 (Ex-bourbon), 58.9% ABV – Produced for Bresser & Timmer, the Netherlands
Cask #115 (Ex-sherry), 58.2% ABV – Produced for Tudor House, Poland
Cask #141 (Virgin American Oak), 58.1% ABV – Produced for ARen Trading, Taiwan
Cask #138 (Virgin American Oak), 58.3% ABV – Produced for ARen Trading, Taiwan
Cask #125/9 (Ex-Peated Cask), 54.1% ABV – Produced for ARen Trading, Taiwan
Cask #45 (Ex-sherry), 58.9% ABV – Produced for the USA
Cask #95 (Virgin American Oak), 58.6% ABV – Produced for the USA
Cask #154 (Ex-bourbon), 58.6% ABV – Produced for the USA
About Bimber
Bimber Distillery produces world-class single malt whisky, handcrafted with passion in West London. As a leading distiller of English whisky, we combine generations of rich distilling heritage, with the finest quality ingredients to create the ultimate craft whisky experience.
Springbank WAS in da house!
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The three riders of Campbeltown
As we see the trees dropping their coats and creating layers of colours on the ground, we settle on our chairs and embrace the drinkable warmth. From your window you can see the wind and the rain, but what are you going to do with all those spooky costumes?
Fear not! We got a fantastic solution for you; strengthen yourself with our new range of sublime range of Springbank whiskies. This set will shield you from the weather and from all of those laughing pumpkins, since you will have the last laugh for sure!
Let’s start with the Springbank 12 years old cask strength (56.1%)! This whisky is a brilliant continuation of the Springbank legacy, as it delivers basketful of fruity flavours, mixed with soft ashiness and cigar box- like touch. The finish takes you back to the ground with its balanced earthiness and woodiness.
How about something deeper and darker? I mean, it depends how far you want to go, but I would highly recommend stopping at Hazelburn 13 years old, as it offers delicious chocolate notes, with layers and layers of dry selections of berries. This whisky is familiar, yet offers an adventure of flavours that will take you through the dimmest of seasons.
Where shall you travel after this, you might ask? There are only a few distilleries in the world, which can deliver such quality at a young age like Kilkerran. Their new 16 years old is a must have for all the fans and new explorers of Campbeltown malts. Season after season, the distillery proves its exceptional and ever-expanding range of “taste-scapes”. This whisky a true blast of flavours, taking you between creamy nuttiness, to dry sceneries of peppery spice and fresher elements of fruits. On the top of all of this majesty, you have that trademark Kilkerran peat, which dances in harmony with the slight briny notes.
Before we get to the range, we would like to apologise a few issues our customers experienced during the last release. Apparently there were some products appearing as “coming soon” when in fact, they were already sold out. For some reason our system did not update this text.
If you are a Springbank society member, you are aware that you are able to get a discount on some Springbank products. You must be able to supply your Springbank society number and ID, thank you for understanding.
Quick important update, we have just received an update. Due to the weather in Campbeltown, sea levels in the location have gone to a phenomenal state, winds gusting at 22-27 knots. Some of our deliveries did not arrive on time, so please be aware that we will have another delivery of these whiskies for next week.
Springbank 12 years old – 2020 – 56.1% – 70CL
45% Sherry 25% Bourbon 25% Burgundy 5% Port multicask matured.
Nose: This cask strength whisky packs a lot of signature Springbank characteristics in from start to finish. The peat smoke is immediately present and very welcome with lovely ashiness. Aromas of bruised apples, mahogany, and tobacco leaves. There is a candied sweetness with notes of glazed red cherries and sugar-coated cola cubes.
Palate: It is rich and sweet to taste with ripe and juicy red fruit flavours. Strawberries and raspberries give way to orange-flavored chocolate and gooey toasted marshmallows and bubbling caramelized sugar.
Finish: In the finish, the earthy, dusty notes remain as well as the mouth-drying tannins from the burgundy casks. The whisky is deliciously sweet and smoky with the familiar Springbank characteristics prevailing.
Kilkerran 16 years old – 2020 – 46% – 70CL
Nose: Initially delicate with herbal and citrus characteristics before opening up to reveal brighter and zestier notes with orange peel and tart lemon meringue pie. There is also a creamy, nutty aroma that develops over time and a hint of tropical pineapple. A fleeting briny component reminds you that this is definitely a Campbeltown Single Malt.
Palate: The palate reveals layers of complex flavors. Cereal and malt notes are present alongside soft dry peat smoke, herbs, black pepper, and tones of sandalwood and beeswax. The bourbon maturation allows a fragrant aniseed note to carry through from the spirit, which also lends a waxy texture to the dram.
Finish: The dry and ashy peat smoke influence continues as does the deep-rooted coastal brine. Overall this is a bright and complex whisky that is not overly sweetened from the bourbon maturation. It is fragrant, grassy, and gently peated.
Hazelburn 13 years old – 2020 – 50.3% – 70CL
Oloroso Sherry Cask
Nose: Juicy red grapes, raspberries and redcurrants followed by stewed strawberries and mint humbugs.
Palate: Initially a rich sweetness of marzipan, prunes, and raisins, developing into orange rind, dark chocolate and vanilla cheesecake.
Finish: Red apple, digestive biscuits, wholemeal toast, black cherries and almonds.
Cadenhead’s London
Cadenheads Whisky Shop & Tasting Room
26 Chiltern Street, London, W1U 7QF
It might be Halloween but don’t worry – there are no scary monsters here. Just 19 creature comfort casks to soothe your soul and help you coorie in for the upcoming festival season. Explore the spectrum of uplifting bottlings along with our home comfort suggestions to find your perfect remedy for the winter ahead.
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
This little distillery outside of Pitlochry is one of Scotland’s most picturesque. Few know it well on this side of the pond, but there’s a constant stream of visitors arriving to tour the famous home of Bell’s Blend. This regional blend is very popular in the U.K. and we’ve been lucky to have a steady stream of casks coming from the lovely distillery. Located just a few clicks south of the even tinier Edradour distillery, the beautiful stone buildings were originally constructed in 1798, but closed soon after opening. Now covered in vines, the distillery reopened in 1825 only to be mothballed again a century later in 1932. Finally, in 1949 it was purchased and reopened by Arthur Bell & Sons destined to become the heart malt for their eponymous blend. The distillery features 2 wash and 2 spirit stills and a total capacity of 2.5 million liters per year, although it’s unlikely they get close to that quantity. The spirit’s character is medium to full-bodied with a distinct herbal character that lends itself nicely to maturation in sherry casks. We’ve managed to keep these excellent first fill sherry casks at an altogether reasonable price point despite the increasing age and unbelievable quality. This is one of the more complex and savory sherry butts we’ll see this year with a full body and an unctuous texture. It’s not designed for those expecting sweeter flavors, but also refrains from crossing the savory line toward sulfur. This butt turned out 262 bottles at cask strength.
GlenAllachie 12 & 15 Year Old
The latest batch of 12 & 15 year single malts are now in stock.
Impressive colour on these latest expressions.
The History of Johnnie Walker with Dr Nick Morgan
For those in the drinks industry and numerous whisky fans around the world, Dr Nicholas Morgan is a well known figure. With a thirty-year career working for Diageo – starting there even before they company took that name – he’s been most recently known as the public spokesman for the world’s largest whisky maker. However, the past few years have seen him take a break from his role as ‘Diageo’s Human Shield’, to quote the Whisky Sponge, to focus on a different project: writing the history of Johnnie Walker ready for its 200th birthday – A Long Stride: The History of the World’s No.1 Scotch Whisky.
We sat down with Nick before the book hit the shelves to find out more about how a history lecturer became one of the best-known voices in whisky, and what lessons the rise of Johnnie Walker has for both the whisky industry and whisky drinkers.
Billy Abbott: Your background is in history and academia – how did you get involved with Scotch whisky in the first place?
Nick Morgan: I was teaching Scottish history at Glasgow university and had been away on a sabbatical doing a piece of work on Glasgow urban history, and I came back and – most people may not understand this now as it was 1989 – I had a massive pile of correspondence on my desk. I spent about two days sifting through all this stuff, and in the middle of it was a letter from a company called United Distillers asking me if I’d like to come down to London to talk to them about taking the position of archivist with the company, which I found quite intriguing. So, I went down and spoke to them and was offered the job of setting up a historical archive for United Distillers.
I was taken on to do that job and I wasn’t an archivist, so I was lucky enough to be able to appoint proper archivists to come and work for me, and spent about three-odd years putting that together. But in addition to doing the archive work, I was pulled into doing marketing work right from the start, and after three or four years discovered that I wasn’t an archivist any more and had some sort of marketing role in a department in London. The rest is history.
BA: How did the book come about?
NM: I’ve had the idea of writing a book almost since joining the business thirty years ago, and certainly in my rather meagre annual performance reviews, when I had to state my ambitions, I can honestly say that for about the past twenty years I’ve simply put every year ‘Write the history of Johnnie Walker for 2020’. So, I made it very clear to people that’s what I wanted to do.
I was also able to talk to some really bright people and explain to them why it would be a good idea to have a history of Johnnie Walker, and people like David Gates, who was running Scotch whisky for Diageo at the time, was a very keen sponsor of this. So the only sort of disagreement was when I would start doing it, and I would have loved to have started a bit earlier than I did, because I could have done a bit more work.
I started about three-and-a-half years ago, spending about 85% of my time researching and then writing the book.
BA: Where did you find the information?
NM: Obviously, the starting point was the Diageo archive, which is a phenomenal resource and brilliantly managed by a team of professional archivists – it’s best in class. In that archive, the Johnnie Walker collection is by far the largest, albeit far from complete, but it’s absolutely huge. In that collection we have a few fragmentary very early records which were very important for piecing together the early history of the business.
From 1857, when Alexander Walker – who was John Walker’s son – took over the business, we have his annual account book, and that’s every year’s stock taking. At the beginning that’s quite detailed stock takes, but as the business gets bigger and bigger and bigger, you can’t fit it all in the book. So, that’s invaluable for seeing how a grocery business that blends whisky grows into an international whisky business in twenty or so years, which is quite phenomenal.
We have correspondence from Alexander Walker in that collection as well, and a whole range of other stuff once it becomes a limited company and there was more legal obligation to keep records. Lots of blending material from the twentieth century, and quite a lot of export-related material as well.
So, there’s a huge amount in there. But in writing the book, we also wanted to put it in a broader context. There was a very clear agreement when I started writing that this wasn’t going to just be a conventional company history, when you start off with the founder and end up with a picture of the chairman in his office and all that – we were doing a proper book to place Johnnie Walker in the context of Scotch whisky and Scotch whisky in the context of whatever else was going on. Very often whisky history is seen through a tunnel vision, and I wanted to expand on that.
To do that from the booze business perspective, I spent a lot of time looking at trade journals, not all of which have been used in the past. Some have – Harper’s, for example – but I found a few that had not been used and were highly informative. Not so much about Johnnie Walker, but more about the Scotch business and the context of that. Also, I looked at newspapers, which has been transformed with all the digital libraries, which Laura Chilton spent a lot of time working on for me. Again, she didn’t find out much about Johnnie Walker, because they hid themselves so very well, but it was really valuable.
Then also a whole range of stuff to put Scotch in the context of popular culture – a whole range of weird and wonderful journals, some of which you’ll see in the footnotes, and others that aren’t there but really informed what we could say about it. Finally, advertising journals, which really unlocked the story of the development of the Johnnie Walker brand through the twentieth century.
BA: One of the things that struck me about the history of whisky through the Walker lens are the parallels with the present day. Some of the comments in the book on the early days of whisky are things that you have discussed before about more modern situations. Are there any particular lessons from the history of Johnnie Walker that we need to pay attention to in modern Scotch whisky?
NM: There’s one that people seem to be particularly preoccupied with at the moment. About four or five months ago people started phoning me up from different bits of Diageo saying, “Is there going to be anything in the book about how the brand came through hard times?”
There is a theme of resilience, which is important for today, because I think it would be easy to look at the circumstances we are in and think that the sky’s falling in, but the sky’s fallen in on Scotch many times before, and on the Johnnie Walker brand. While not all brands survive – for example, after the First World War lots of brands disappeared – every time Johnnie Walker’s gone through one of those situations, it’s come back stronger, bigger and better, bouncing back. I think that’s an important message for everyone to have.
I think maybe there’s also a parallel today with the way that people think about the relationship between malts and blends. I was very struck by that coming out of the discussion of the ‘What is Whisky?’ case, and you’ll see there’s quite a lot in the book about it. Also, there are similarities with elitism in the world of whisky, and the idea some whiskies were far superior to others, and particularly that malt whisky was better than blends.
Culturally, that argument becomes quite complicated in the early twentieth century, not least because of the Aeneas MacDonald book [Whisky by Aeneas MacDonald, a pen name for journalist George Malcolm Thomson], which people today consider to be a sort-of bible about whisky. Not only was the book plagiarised, broadly speaking, from a whole range of other people, but it was a polemic, and a polemic written by a not very nice person – Scotland’s best-hated man, as he was known.
The views that he pronounced and his dismissal of people that drank blended whisky – a view that is very elitist and that I find quite offensive – do echo some of the comments that you still hear today from people, and the way they dismiss blends and praise themselves, of course, and single malts. I wanted to make people aware that there is a theme that is there and hasn’t gone away. I’ve also tried to suggest that it’s not really a very pleasant way to think about the category, broadly speaking.
BA: I’ve read about the ‘What is Whisky?’ case many times before, but always from the perspective of the malt producers. It’s very interesting to see it from the other side for once.
NM: That was quite an important bit for me. When I went into it, I had certain preconceptions, as you might imagine, writing from the perspective of the blended Scotch business. But I hadn’t really understood the full complexity of the situation and the degree to which these new proprietary brands of Scotch whisky were absolute disruptors in a whole range of very well-established relationships, and they blew all of that apart. The culmination, and if people read the book they’ll see this, is that by the time of ‘What is Whisky?’ everyone was asking ‘Why are these guys still trying?’. The boat has left and they were not on it. But that was the culmination of twenty or thirty years or more of these deeply vested stakeholders struggling to claw back this sort-of preeminence in the business, in the retail trade, in agriculture. I think it has to be seen like that.
BA: The history of whisky seems to have quite a circular nature, with malts back in the early days as the entrenched part of the business and blends as the disruptors. Now blends are the entrenched part of the business…
NM: …and malts are the disruptors! They’re getting their own back.
BA: The final comment in my notes on that section was ‘the power of the consumer palate’: the focus in whisky-making to create something that people like and want.
NM: What surprised me in the research – and this is the stuff that comes through from the trade journals – is that many people emotionally clung to the idea that single malts were better, and that Highland whisky was better than grain whisky, and all of that stuff. But at the end of the day, they all just had to say, “But this is what people want to drink – this is what consumer tastes are”.
Even with blended whisky, you have to remember that styles of blends changed enormously. From the mid-to-later 19th century, you have what I would call ‘toddy whisky’, because for respectable drinkers that was how you would drink it, with hot water and sugar and lemon – if you were lucky: you could never get lemons in Glasgow, people would complain, but that was how it should have been drunk. These were really heavy whiskies – there’s a great description of them in the book – oily and heavy and peaty. Of course, as soon as you start drinking whisky with soda, which became the craze from the late 1890s, then you want a lighter drink.
Styles are always going to change, to reflect what consumers want. I think that’s the same as Walker today: is it the same as it was a hundred years ago? Well, no of course it isn’t, for so many different reasons, but the principle one is what people like to drink.
BA: Are there any insights into whisky from the story of Johnnie Walker for whisky drinkers?
NM: One of the things I think people should be aware of, which I think they’re sometimes a bit dismissive of, is the – I don’t apologise for using this word – obsession that whisky makers have with the quality of their whisky, and it sings through in the Johnnie Walker story. It’s not marketing bullshit, it’s all there, it’s absolutely real. Walker’s, more than anyone, thought that it was quality that sold their whisky, almost to their cost at different points, as they refused to advertise until they were dragged into that in the Edwardian era.
I think…no, I know, from my thirty years experience in the business, that the people who make whisky today, whether they’re distillers or blenders – and they might be quite different people from the ones that were doing it even when I joined the business, and certainly from thirty or forty years before that – they’re equally passionate about what they do, and put their all into delivering the best quality product they can, whether it’s a blended Scotch or a single malt or a single grain. I know, for what it’s worth, that sometimes they’re very hurt personally when they read some of the thoughtless comments that people put on social media in particular now about different brands and different products and different companies.
I think that passion for quality still is at the heart of all of Scotch, and if we lose that, what have we got? We’ve got nothing. And certainly for a brand to be as big as Johnnie Walker and to have persisted for this long, quality, and the consistency that goes with it for a global brand, is absolutely critical.
A Long Stride: The History of the World’s No.1 Scotch Whisky hits the bookshelves on 29 October.
Personalised by hand
The perfect whisky gift. Every bottle is unique.
Our personalised Whiskies From the Cask are single cask whiskies, bottled straight from the cask at cask strength. Once filled, the bottle is dipped in wax and completed with a handwritten label that includes all the whisky details, date bottled and your name or message. Simple choose a whisky, select a bottle size and tell us the message you would like written on the label.
NEW SINGLE CASK COLLECTIONS IN STOCK
We have delved into our whisky archives and carefully selected the last bottles from several of our previous single casks to create these unique whisky collections. Whether you’re an avid collector or a tasting enthusiast, these one-of-a-kind collections are a fantastic compliment to any whisky portfolio. Each unique set highlights a particular flavour style that can be found in Scotch whisky, from exotic fruits to rich bakery delights. There is only one of each of these single cask collections so grab them while they are still available from our online shop.
