Glenmorangie Tùsail Savours The Renaissance of a Rare Barley

A LITTLE SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO

Dark, cold January. For many it’s a time to fight back against the indulgence of the holiday period. But we’re nearly there. The trousers are a little looser, the bank balance recovering. You may even have seen a glimmer of daylight outside office hours! Keeping your eyes on the prize can be excellent motivation so what will it be? Holiday, cake, or perhaps a fabulous little preview bottle from the February Outturn…

Young & spritely
48.50

Mirror, mirror on the wall…
Imagine Snow White feasting on shiny red apples, juicy peaches whilst perched on a newly varnished pine stool. Lemon meringue pie and pink wafer…

13 years old
Refill ex-bourbon hogshead
BUY >

£44.70

Spicy & sweet
77.36

Easy peasy lemon squeezy
Salted lemons and wild flowers. Earthy and leathery. Lemon cake and lime sorbet flecked with chilli, topped with nutty granola…

13 years old
First fill ex-bourbon barrel
BUY >

£47.10

Oily & coastal
3.237

‘Candle taking its last breath’
A fairly robust nose; oily smoked mackerels, sherry soaked sultanas, sticky barbecue ribs and salty pork scratching. Big on the palate – a real butcher’s barbecue!

17 years old
Refill ex-sherry butt
BUY >

£62.40

Browse New Outturn >
Browse All Bottlings >

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

GLENDRONACH RELEASES BATCH 11 OF ITS SINGLE CASK BOTTLINGS

GLENDRONACH has today, 29 January, released the latest batch, its eleventh, of single cask bottlings.

It comprises nine outstanding casks from the award-winning Aberdeenshire distillery that were bottled in November and all are available as of today.

Ranging from 43 to 18 years old, there is huge and intriguing variety across the nine, six of which were matured in Pedro Ximenez Sherry Puncheons, two in Oloroso Sherry Butts and one in an Oloroso Sherry Puncheon.

Typically for GlenDronach, each cask demonstrates the classic robust and richly sherried style infused with mouth-watering, zingy fruits.

All nine single casks have been hand-selected by BenRiach’s Managing Director and Master Distiller Billy Walker who described them as “sensational” and added:

“I believe Batch 11 makes a very simple point – the wood has a huge influence on the spirit. You immediately sense – and taste – the influence of the casks on these nine sublime single malts. The subtle interaction of the ex-sherry wood with the Highland spirit over long dark years in the warehouse creates a luxurious and amazingly complex raft of flavours. In these nine expressions you feel the pulse of our inventory at GlenDronach and the idiosyncratic personality of the casks coming through. That, plus the passion and craftsmanship of our people, is what produces these incredible whiskies time and time again.”

Batch Eleven has a number of superb highlights.

The oldest, 1971 cask number 2920, at 48.6% vol, is a monster 43 years old malt matured in a Pedro Ximenez Sherry Puncheon. Intense treacle toffee floods over sour plums and roasted coffee. Harmonising waves of leather and tobacco give great depth and are balanced perfectly by a subtle toasted walnut and date back note.

As a contrast the 18 years old from cask number 244, at 56.9% vol, is the youngest, distilled in February 1996. Matured in a fine Oloroso Sherry Butt, there is a tremendous balance of mixed candied peel and stewed dark fruits sprinkled with dark Demerara. Delicious waves of toffee, cracked barley and warm oak spices combine to give a long and elegant finish.

 The cask details are as follows: 1971 cask # 2920 /  43 years old / Pedro Ximenez Sherry Puncheon / 48.6% vol.  1990 cask # 1020 /  24 years old / Pedro Ximenez Sherry Puncheon / 53.8% vol. 1990 cask # 1162 / 24 years old / Pedro Ximenez Sherry Puncheon / 52.9%vol.  1994 cask # 54 / 20 years old / Oloroso Sherry Butt / 56.6% vol. 1994 cask # 3201 / 20 years old / Pedro Ximenez Sherry Puncheon / 56.2% vol.

1994 cask # 3386 / 20 years old / Pedro Ximenez Sherry Puncheon / 53.6% vol.

1995 cask # 538 / 19 years old / Pedro Ximenez Sherry Puncheon / 55.0% vol.

1995 cask # 4941 / 19 years old / Oloroso Sherry Puncheon / 57.0% vol.

1996 cask # 244 / 18 years old / Oloroso Sherry Butt / 56.9% vol.

Early February 2015 Outturn Offerings 

Cask No. 35.106                             $145

Fantastically floral

Speyside, Lossie

The nose was fantastically floral – grand gardens, creamy carnations, frivolous freesias, rampant roses and even courgette flower fritters. We also got Crunchie bars, donuts, peach cobbler, apple turnover, vanilla candles, and oak sawdust – very attractive. The palate was Bourbon-sweet and nutty (popcorn, marzipan, sugared almonds, coconut) – with peach, putty and pot-pourri and mildly bitter notes of perfume, grapefruit, oak and walnut. The reduced nose offered peach melba, honey on rye, fresh figs, custard creams, lady-finger biscuits and cedar sap. On the palate, ice-cream sundae sweetness was barely restrained by dry and mildly bitter flavours. The distillery is near Elgin’s ‘gallows-hill’.

Drinking tip: A sweet celebration of 4th July – especially if enjoyed in pleasant garden surroundings

Colour: Deep honey gold

Cask: First-fill designer barrel

Age: 16 years

Date distilled: December 1996

Alcohol: 54.4%

USA allocation: 120 bottles

Cask No. 1.179                               $210

The Artists Studio

Speyside, Spey

The panel had a collective memory of an artists studio with aromas of wooden easels, paintbrushes, linseed and canvas. Our painter had arranged white lilies in a pewter jug. While he contemplated his subject he enjoyed a slice of toffee sponge cake and a cup of sweetened espresso. To taste they found figs, dates and fresh almonds, then chocolate brownie and coffee cake. Water released runny caramel, golden syrup and advent calendar chocolate. The texture was deliciously coating and salivating and one panel member was reminded of licking the bowl after baking. A hint of mint completed the masterpiece.

Drinking tip: For inspiration

Colour: A ships bell

Cask: Refill hogshead

Age: 27 years

Date distilled: December 1986

Alcohol: 47.2%

USA allocation: 60 bottles 

Cask No. 29.154                     $185 

Camping with M*A*S*H

Islay

Wow – the nose had so much – hessian, canvas, leather, bandages, first aid boxes, surgical soap, seashells, sea-weed, tar, bonfire smoke – it was like M*A*S*H set up camp on an Islay beach. The palate spoke confidently of harbours and hospitals – lobster pots, fish boxes, fishing boats, salted macadamias, heather and mussels lined up against Big Red gum, elastoplasts and sweet peat-smoke. After reduction, the nose twitched at a breeze carrying heather, peat and crab claws over the machair. The palate became easy-drinking; medicated sweetness, both cooling (menthol throat sweets) and with pleasant heat on the finish. The distillery looks out to Texa.

Drinking tip: An end of the pier sundowner.

Colour: Sinister gold

Cask: Refill hogshead

Age: 23 years

Date distilled: October 1990

Alcohol: 49.8%

USA allocation: 90 bottles

Cask No. 84.16                       $130

‘A beaker full of the warm south’

Speyside, Spey

The nose was ‘a beaker full of the warm south’ – heady flowers on a midsummer Canary Island breeze; various sweet wines (Madeira, Sauternes, muscat, sweet pale sherry), Müller fruit corner and honey dribbled over ice-cream. The neat palate (completely un-aggressive) was deliciously warm and tasty – hibiscus flowers in syrup, spun sugar, candy floss and flooding honey intensity – but all complexified by the glow of a dying charcoal fire and some muted orange zest and lemon rock. The reduced nose – lemon bonbons and honey was ‘sweet delight on a summer’s night’. The palate – wood sap, lemon drizzle cake and honey – Ab Fab.

Drinking tip: On a summer night, in the garden, counting shooting stars.

Colour: Frascati in the moonlight

Cask: Refill barrel

Age: 13 years

Date distilled: October 2001

Alcohol: 56.6%

USA allocation: 90 bottles

Cask No. 123.9                       $145

The big fat tipsy wedding

Highland, Southern

Imagine a feasting table set with sweet mashed potato with butter, rye bread with beef dripping, figs and balsamic and hoppy IPA to wash it down. Deserts of chocolate and ginger, spiced treacle tart and sticky toffee pudding served with lashings of Turkish espresso. To taste, a knuckle of lamb with a wine jus, pork crackling and beef soppet (cooked juices), then curiously Bonjela and cola cubes. Water reminded the panel of Bovril broth and roasted pumpkin. A bathroom cupboard with talcum powder, violet fresh towels and shaving foam on the nose and walnuts and Jaffa cakes on the final taste.

Drinking tip: Better neat. Just get on with it!

Colour: Buffed mahogany

Cask: First-fill butt

Age: 16 years

Date distilled: July 1998

Alcohol: 56.6%

USA allocation: 120 bottles

www.smwsa.com

SPRINGBANK UPDATE

We are still awaiting a final release date for the new Springbank 17, 21 & 12 year old cask strength, as soon as they arrive we will feature them on the web shop front page.  I am sure you will love the new 21 and 17, and the new 12 cask strength is a bit of a gem, one I am sure will be a fast mover.

TASTING ROOM UPDATE

The Tasting Room has become so busy we are booked out until May for most of the evening sessions, this includes extra dates we have been adding. We are reviewing the schedule with the view to increasing them from every Thursday to every Tuesday & Thursday from Mid May until further notice. We hope this helps the many 100s who have tried to book over the last month or so only to be told it’s a 3-4 month wait.

Distillery Profile No 2 – Springbank

When people research the history of whisky one distillery is always mentioned or acknowledged in some way, J&A Mitchell Springbank Distillery.

The distillery we see today was established in 1828 on the site of a distillery run by the Mitchell family as far back as the early to mid 1700s because like so many distilleries at that time it was operating illicitly few records survive just the family records and internal history thats passed down from one generation to another.

Springbank is the most complete and original of Scotland’s original distilleries, they still produce 100% on-site from Malting the Barley then distilling and maturing on site to the final process of bottling the matured spirit.

If you have ever visited the distillery then you will understand how unlike other distilleries Springbank is be it the number of staff working on site to the original equipment still in use from the 1800s. No gloss and shine at this small iconic distillery just honest old fashioned values allowed.

Springbank has the only 2.5 times distilled whisky made via reduction and a back and forth distilling process (Too complicated to explain here) After distilling the whisky is stored in Bourbon or Sherry casks that will be used a maximum of 3 times, the cask are stored in the No’3 Bond for part of the time the oldest earthen floor bonded warehouse in Scotland, cask are stacked 2 high to allow the resting spirit to breath and mature equally.

The bottling hall is built into the old Longrow Distillery that operated like 32 others in Campbeltown from the 1800s until prohibition in the USA took its toll on the once whisky capital of the world Springbank was the only distillery to survive the downturn because unlike the others it did not rush to what was then the worlds fastest growing economy the USA that like all others had a period of political instability or an act of a leader who wishes to leave their mark usually to the detriment of the economy or society.

After the second world war Springbank like many other distilleries was growing its market once again which continued on the whole undisrupted until like many others it suffered the economic instability following the oil crisis of the 1970s then the biggest threat came during the 1980s as the then UK government decided to shift vast swathes of the economy to move away from manufacturing to a service based economy and the loss of millions of jobs, luckily thanks to some forward planning the distillery survived and grew in the new whisky markets, its reputation has grown not only with whisky drinkers but also within the industry.

It’s iconic 21 year old was named malt of the century much to the dismay of some back in 1999 thanks to the votes of whisky drinkers around the world this was a great moment for the distillery.

Between 2000 & 2005 Springbank 21 had sold out then a surprise release hit the market in 2005 which sold out quickly leaving us with another few years with-out the vintage, over the last few years every January early February another bottling hits the market. In the last 2 years some rather special editions have been released with a cask strength limited edition Sherry cask 17 year old due out in February 2015. And for those who love the truly rare then another 25 year old is due out late October to Mid November 2015, the 2014 edition sold out in London less than 25 mins from being released.

Not bad for a distillery that was called ODD back in 2008! Now there is a real Gem Springbank ODD a whisky bottled exclusively for our shop in London and to celebrate and bask in the glory of being ODD! Long may it continue.

And finally, don’t tell anyone this but…

The 2015 London Exclusive is going to come from a small Island off the West coast of Scotland, the only other clue is it’s not from Jura, Skye or Mull, and its old.

Cadenhead’s Whisky Shop & Tasting Room

26 Chiltern Street London W1U 7QF

Tel: 020 7935 6999

50th Anniversary Release – GlenDronach & The Green Welly Stop

Body:  The Green Welly Stop was established way back in 1965 as a little post office and shop.  50 Years on, we’re now ‘The famous Green Welly Stop’, known around the world as a fantastic stop off point on travels around the west of Scotland.

We’re going places online – in the ‘Icons of Whisky Scotland’ awards, we’ve been awarded the  2015 Whisky Online Retailer of the Year – Highly Commended.

We’ve teamed up with GlenDronach to have a Single Cask bottled for our 50th Anniversary.  Chosen by our team, here are our own tasting observations:

THE NOSE – Oranges & Lemons, Refreshers & Cream Soda; Old fashioned sweetie shop, Stately Home, Fruit Cake, Sticky Toffee Pudding with lashings of sauce.
THE PALATE – Rhubarb Creme Brulee, Creamy, Smooth, Sherbet Dib Dab sweetness, Treacle Toffee, Spices coming through.
THE FINISH – Spices and sweetness with a long finish.
CONCLUSION – Buy it. Drink it. Enjoy it. Collect it.

Cask Type: PX (Pedro Ximenez) | Outturn: 649 bottles. | Strength: 54.4% vol.

Price – £49.94

Jim Beam Releases New Premium Take On Rye Whiskey Staple

Deerfield, Ill. – January 2015 – Today, Jim Beam^®, the world’s No. 1 bourbon, announces the refresh of Jim Beam^® Rye – the classic Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey offering that’s been a staple on whiskey bars globally for decades.

New Jim Beam^® Pre-Prohibition Style Rye, bottled at 90-proof, has a distinct spicy flavor and long, soft finish, and makes the product perfectly mixable for any classic or contemporary rye whiskey cocktail. Founded in 1795, Jim Beam Rye is a pre-prohibition style rye whiskey made from one of the Beam family’s oldest recipes, and is distilled with the same exacting standards that have governed Jim Beam for more than 200 years.

“We’ve heard loud and clear from bartenders and whiskey fans that  they are looking for a bolder Rye that stands up better in cocktails,” said Fred Noe, Jim Beam’s 7th Generation Master Distiller. “We listened to this feedback, and know that the time is right to Make History by taking a classic product that’s loved around the world and making it even better.”

About Jim Beam^® Pre-Prohibition Style Rye Whiskey

• Now bottled at 90-proof, the new Jim Beam Rye is a pre-prohibition style Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey
• Jim Beam Pre-Prohibition Style Rye is spicy and warm with a bit of a black pepper bite which gives way to vanilla and oak undertones. The finish is warm and inviting.
• Jim BeamPre-Prohibition Style Rye has a rye spicy aroma, with hints of vanilla and oak notes, with a golden amber color.
• Jim Beam Pre-Prohibition Style Rye will have an updated bottle label design to reflect the premium quality of product

New Jim Beam Pre-Prohibition Style Rye has a suggested retail price of $22.99 for 750mL, and will be available in select on-premise locations and retailers nationwide starting in January 2015.

For more information about Jim Beam Pre-Prohibition Style Rye, “like” our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/JimBeam), follow us on Twitter (@jimbeam) or visit http://www.jimbeam.com/other-bourbons.

About Beam Suntory Inc. 

As the world’s third largest premium spirits company, Beam Suntory is Crafting the Spirits that Stir the World.  Consumers from all corners of the globe call for the company’s brands, including the flagship Jim Beam bourbon and Yamazaki Japanese whisky, as well as world renowned premium brands including Maker’s Mark and Knob Creek bourbons, Hakushu and Hibiki Japanese whiskies, Teacher’s,  Laphroaig, and Bowmore Scotch whiskies, Canadian Club whisky, Courvoisier cognac, Sauza tequila, Pinnacle vodka, and Midori liqueur.  The company generates annual worldwide sales of approximately $4.6 billion excluding excise taxes.

Beam Suntory was created in 2014 by combining the world leader in bourbon and the pioneer in Japanese whisky to form a new company with a deep heritage, passion for quality, innovative spirit and entrepreneurial culture.  Headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois, Beam Suntory is a subsidiary of Suntory Holdings Limited of Japan.  For more information on Beam Suntory, its brands, and its commitment to social responsibility, please visit www.beamsuntory.com and www.drinksmart.com.

Arran 2004 (bottled 2014) Orkney Bere Barley 56.2%

£54.95 Arran’s Orkney Bere Barley is back, and this time at cask strength. Bere Barley is an old strain of barley…

BUY NOW

Yamazaki Suntory 10 year old 40 % Alc Japan Whisky

£87.95 The Yamazaki 10 Year Old is a discontinued single malt from Suntory, Yamazaki’s age stated whiskies…

BUY NOW

Hakushu 18 Year Old 43.5%

£156.00 A superb 18 year old Japanese whisky from the Hakushu distillery. This is a massive step up in qaulity…

BUY NOW

Benromach 10 year old 43%

£33.23 Benromach 10 Years Old is a multi-award winning Single Malt Scotch Whisky hand-crafted at Speyside’s…

BUY NOW

The 2015 Authentic collection has arrived, and it was worth the wait! So we can make sure we get the rare and wonderful to as many of you as possible some whiskies will be limited to one bottle per customer, we are sorry to have to set limits as it does not make commercial sense I know, but we are doing our best to give as many as possible the opportunity to buy the most sought after bottlings.

St. Magdalene (Linlithgow) Distillery 1982 32 Year Old – 70 cl / 58.1%

One bottle per customer only. We will not forfil any multiple or double orders on this product

The long awaited St. Magdalene is finally here. This 32 Year old vintage from the long dismantled lowland distillery is going to be gone very fast.  St. Magdalene distillery was opened in the late 1800s on the site of a former leper colony that dated back to the 1100s, the distillery was one of the first to have a licence to distil, sadly like so many others it was closed during the 1980s.  This is one of the most famous closed distilleries – a real collectors favourite.

Just £36.95 Following on from the privious exciting releases of Big Peat, Scallywag and Timirous Beastie, Inspired by the sea and brought to us by Douglas Laing we now have The Rock Oyster, a blend of Island malts! These include Malts that are distilled on the Island of Islay, Arran and Orkney. Bottled at 46.8% this whisky is created using the finest maritime Malts carrying a hidden delicacy inside.

Rock Oyster 46.8%