New Benromach wood finish whiskies launched 

Two exciting new wood finish single malt whiskies have been launched by the Benromach Distillery Company Ltd.

The Hermitage Wood Finish was matured in first fill bourbon casks before being finished for 27 months in hand-selected Hermitage wine casks from the northern Rhône region of France.

The Château Cissac Wood Finish was also matured in first fill bourbon casks prior to being finished for 20 months, again in hand-selected wine casks, this time from the Haut-Médoc near Bordeaux in south-western France. 

The wood finishes join a stable of classic whiskies with a pre-1960s Speyside character, led by the flagship Benromach 10 Years Old.

Each is hand-crafted by just three distillers using the finest natural ingredients at the Forres distillery.

Ewen Mackintosh, Chief Operating Officer of Gordon & MacPhail which owns the Benromach Distllery Company Ltd, said: “We are proud of our role as custodians of the old crafts of distillation and maturation and as those who are familiar with Benromach know, we like to experiment a little.

“These two wood finishes – Hermitage and Château Cissac – have been finished in casks from two distinguished French wine regions and have a lot of character, which we expect will appeal to both existing and new customers.”

Benromach Hermitage Wood Finish and Benromach Château Cissac Wood Finish will adopt the same new look as that for the 10 Years Old, which was unveiled in April this year.

The new bottle style and packaging reflects the hand-crafted character of the Benromach whiskies.

The elegant bottle’s neck and shoulder resembles the shape of the Benromach stills while the box, complete with embossed hand-drawn lettering, replicates their colour.

A limited release of approximately 4,200 bottles of each product will be available.

The UK recommended retail price for the Benromach Wood Finishes is £39.75. Prices may vary in export markets because of duty and import taxes.  

Notes

Leading malt whisky specialist Gordon & MacPhail is the owner of the Benromach Distillery Company Ltd. Established in 1898, the distillery was virtually derelict when the family-owned company bought it in 1993.

Following a painstaking restoration and re-equipment, it was re-opened by HRH Prince Charles in 1998.

In reopening Benromach Distillery, Gordon & MacPhail decided to recreate a classic Speyside single malt – a style that draws its influence from pre-1960s Speyside whiskies.

Benromach Distillery is located on the outskirts of the ancient market town of Forres. A four star visitor centre is open to the public throughout the year for tours and tastings. Benromach Distillery is a member of the world famous Malt Whisky Trail. 

Benromach 10 Years Old 

Benromach 10 Years Old is created from the finest Scottish barley and pure spring water from the nearby Romach hills. After being matured for at least 10 years, it emerges golden in colour and displays rich fruit, sweet chocolate and delicate spicy aromas. With a rich sherry influence, the mouth-watering palate coats the senses with exotic fruit flavours, toasted malt and a delicate hint of smoke.

GLENDRONACH LAUNCHES NEW 12 YEARS OLD SAUTERNES CASK FINISH

AWARD-WINNING GlenDronach has today (26 November) launched its new 12 years old Sauternes Cask Finish single malt Scotch whisky.

It replaces the acclaimed 14 year-old Sauternes wood finish expression, launched four years ago, which has now been discontinued.

Bottled at 46% vol, without colouring or chill filtering, the 12 year-old Highland malt was initially matured in European oak and then finished in a small batch of Sauternes wine casks.

Sauternes is a sweet dessert wine made in the French region of Bordeaux, an area famous for its wine-growing. The aim of finishing the GlenDronach single malt in the wine casks is to create an extraordinarily refreshing single malt – delicate and sweet with a balanced acidity and fruity complexity.

Master Distiller Billy Walker’s tasting notes:

Appearance: Crisp summer gold.

Nose: Torrents of fresh fruits, apricots and nectarine flow to honeydew melon and distant hints of overripe banana. A gentle aromatic floral note balances with creamy vanilla to give a sophisticated back note to the nose.

Palate: Wildflower honey floods over sweet sultanas and green apples. A dusting of ground almonds, vanilla and creamy toasted oak combines with a vibrant citrus twist, giving a rich, spicy depth and contrasting fresh balance.

Finish: Sweet, fresh and fragrant with balanced acidity. Lots of finesse and elegance, whilst still maintaining the lively youthful elements.

The GlenDronach 12 Years Old Sauternes Wood Finish is available from today.

Scotland – Single Malt Scotch

• 1997 Ledaig 17 Year Old “Exclusive Malts” Single Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky 750ml – 1 available ($139.99)

• 2004 Speyside 10 Year Old “Exclusive Malts” Single Port Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky 750ml ($99.99)

• 1996 Springbank 18 Year Old Refill Sherry Butt Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky 750ml – 4 available ($199.99)

• 1994 Springbank 19 Year Old Refill Sherry Butt Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky 750ml – 2 available ($219.99)

• Springbank 21 Year Old Fresh Rum Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky 750ml – 2 available ($449.99)

United States – Bourbon and Rye

• 1792 Ridgemont K&L Exclusive Single Barrel Reserve Bourbon 750ml (ships as a 1.5L) ($29.99)

• Sonoma County Distilling Batch #5 Cask Strength California Rye Whiskey 750ml – 5 available ($59.99)

• Wild Turkey Diamond Limited Edition Bourbon Whiskey 750ml – 7 available ($129.99)

• Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. Bottled in Bond Straight Kentucky Rye 750ml ($74.99)

K&L Wine Merchants
http://www.klwines.com
Phone: 877-KLWines (toll free 877-559-4637)
Email: wine@klwines.com
San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA

Holiday Outturn (Late November) New Offerings 

Cask No. 117.5                                                       $295.00

Smouldering, brooding and alluring

Ireland

The alluring nose presented apple sours and cherry pieces in dark chocolate, Brazil nuts and coconut macaroons; hints of Bovril, cinnamon, sandalwood and manuka honey. At full strength, the palate was mouth-drawing and dry but full of flavour – Black Forest gateau, Kirsch, treacle toffee, blackcurrant jam, Campinos, fried sage leaves and brooding eastern spices. The reduced nose suggested smouldering aromatic woods, herbs and incense, with even more cherries, chocolate and nuts. The palate was a trance-inducing mix of teasing textures and delicious tastes of salted caramels, Moffat toffees and vanilla.

Drinking tip: This will take you to another place – prepare for a journey of the senses

Colour: Gothic coke

Cask: Refill Sherry hogshead

Age: 22 years

Date distilled: September 1991

Alcohol: 55.5%

USA allocation: 72 bottles 

Cask No. 5.40                                                         $130

Soft, Sweet and Fluffy

Lowland

The initial impression was one of delicate sweetness, soft and elegant like baby lotion and talcum powder. This was followed by sweet lemonade, sweet coconut milk, hazelnuts, coffee and chocolate ice cream and the hint of a perfume/floral aroma, possibly hydrangea. Super sweet on the palate neat but then at the same time an intriguing spiciness of cinnamon and nutmeg. The finish had an ever so slightly bitter and tangy hoppy flavour like in a chocolate stout. Water made it feel like crawling into a fluffy onesie at the end of a long day with sweet waffles and a hot chocolate by your side.

Drinking tip: In a ‘onesie’ or even better – ‘twosie’

Colour: Yellow plums

Cask: Refill hogshead

Age: 13 years

Date distilled: October 2000

Alcohol: 56.7%

USA allocation: 81 bottles 

Cask No. 29.152                                                    $185

Chapter and verse

Islay

Chapter and verse of the anthem of smoky drams! The sweet maritime nose took us to the beach – wooden boats, salt-sea spray, machair, lobster pots, wicker deck-chairs and chocolate wafer ice-creams. We also got hospital laundry (clean!) honey, aniseed, peppercorn, peat-fires and heather smoke. The palate was an amazing sweet, salty, earthy intensity of tastes – salty prawns, bacon, Arbroath smokies, wood smoke, ash, tobacco and dark chocolate. The reduced nose was lighter – clean wood-ash, salted caramel, harbour ropes and menthol cigarettes. The palate – salty, fresh, cooler – citrus, cigar smoke, hazelnut chocolate and chewing gum. Johnston’s jackanory juice o’ the barley.

Drinking tip: On the beach or after playing golf on the Links

Colour: Winter sunrise

Cask: Refill hogshead

Age: 23 years

Date distilled: October 1990

Alcohol: 49.8%

USA allocation: 108 bottles 

Cask No. 54.29                                                       $100

Bright-eyed and Bushy-tailed

Speyside, Spey

The panel delighted in the Spriteliness of this young dramsel. The nose was vanilla and almond pastry with green grapes, grapefruit and pear and a dusting of white pepper. Plastic erasers and cut grass reminded the panel of the first day at school. On the tongue, tinned pears, tangerine segments and grilled grapefruit. They found it had a surprisingly long silky finish of peach. Water made the texture more syrup like with melon and pear fruit salad with lychees. It does everything it says on the tin, it is youthful and fun and the panel loved it.

Drinking tip: It’ll put a spring in your step!

Colour: Chardonnay grape

Cask: Refill barrel

Age: 9 years

Date Distilled: February 2005

Alcohol: 57.7%

USA allocation: 115 bottles

Cask No. 77.35                                                       $115

Fresh, vibrant and attractive

Highland, Northern

Our panellists were transported from November drizzle to sunny, summer meadows and hay lofts – it was young, fresh, vibrant and attractive (the whisky, not the panel), with oranges and lemons, jam tarts, pears, apples and grapes; hints of bourbon and vanilla. The palate gave us pleasant tingling heat (chilli, ginger, cardamom, clove, liquorice) with sapid citric flavours of blood orange and sherbet lemon fizz – not complex, but a good bitter-sweet duality. Water brought more woodiness to the nose, with quinine, quince and orange blossom, while the palate sweetened up nicely – cloudy lemonade, apple sponge and lemon drizzle cake. An ordacious dram.

Drinking tip: A good session starter or aperitif – served with the Ord-oevres?

Colour: Pale sunlit straw

Cask: Refill barrel

Age: 11 years

Date Distilled: April 2002

Alcohol: 58.4%

USA allocation: 146 bottles

Please visit the Scotch Malt Whisky Society at www.smwsa.com

The much anticipated return of our Four Roses Barrel Strength Private Selections have arrived. We just received two barrels this week, and expect four more next week. We are still waiting for our second barrel of Old Forester and more barrels from Wild Turkey, Knob Creek, Smooth Ambler and three barrels of Weller 107 Antique. We have just brought down some new barrels to our sales floor.

NEW RIFF OKI Reserve Straight Bourbon Whiskey 8 Year TPS Private Barrel – $53.99

FOUR ROSES Single Barrel Bourbon TPS Private Barrel – $34.99

FOUR ROSES Barrel Strength OESK Bourbon TPS Private Barrel – $58.99

FOUR ROSES Barrel Strength OBSF Bourbon TPS Private Barrel – $58.99

1792 RIDGEMONT Reserve Barrel Select Bourbon TPS Private Barrel – $23.49

RUSSELL’S RESERVE Single Barrel Bourbon TPS Private Barrel – $48.99

JEFFERSON’S Small Batch Bourbon TPS Private Barrel – $22.49

BUFFALO TRACE Bourbon TPS Private Barrel – $23.99

BERNHEIM Small Batch Wheat Whiskey TPS Private Barrel – $28.99

Deanston 1994 Whiskies of Scotland 55.4% ABV | 50cl

Our own label “Whiskies of Scotland” Deanston 1994 55.4% picked up the BRONZE award in this year’s Scottish Field Whisky Challenge with an impressive 14.95 points out of 20 in the £40 – £80 price category. Bottled in 2013, this expression of Deanston is arguably the finest I had ever tasted from that particular distillery so decided that it merited entry into this year’s competition.

The Deanston was up against stiff competition too with Glenmorangie’s Companta 46% winning the category Gold with 16.15 points and the Glendronach 18 Year Old 46% taking the silver award with 15.4 points out of 20. All of the nosing and tasting is completely blind so you don’t even know which category a whisky is entered into, which makes it very fair to everyone.

Deanston 1994 55.4% 19 year old:

Official Tasting Note
Nose: Full and sweet, fruit salad, gentle oak notes, vanilla and coconut with hints of sherry. Traces of milky chocolate and cappuccino too. Palate: Rich and spicy, quite full and oily. Rich toffee, caramel, bananas, vanilla and milk chocolate and hints of sherry again.

My Tasting Note On The Day
Light and buttery. Kiwi and passion fruit, round and balanced. A little closed but intensely sweet and sugary with amazing balance and a blanket of honey.

Other Judges Comments
“Fairly shy aromas – honey and waxy lemons – with a sugary sweetness and hints of green apple”. “A powerhouse: lots of well integrated spice and aromatics wrapped in a fruity, gently sherried whisky cask”.

Slainte, Ronnie

Buy Now

Price £46.67 ex VAT £56.00 inc VAT

HOT AS A CRACKLING LOG FIRE: MEMBERS FAVOURITE FIVE

It’s easy to find yourself gazing in wonder at all the bright and brilliant bottlings on offer. Trickier to home in on the perfect choice. So why not let us shed a little light? Your faithful fellow members have been ‘whisked away to the excitement of Christmas morning as a child’ whilst shopping from this list. See what’s hot as a crackling log fire with this week’s top 5 sellers. Just don’t spend too long pondering, order your bottlings before they take flight. #happysharing

No 1: Sweet, fruity & mellow

100.11

Picnic party dram

£49.20

No. 2: Deep, rich & dried fruits

72.41

Girlie holiday breakfast dram

£43.60

No. 3: Young & spritely

36.80

Dorothy dances the Yellow Brick Road

£45.00

No. 4: Spicy & sweet

7.107

The Good Old Days

£48.40

No. 5: Spicy & sweet

9.99

A fairground attraction

£44.00

This is just a special selection!

See the full list here: Browse New Outturn

Or: 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

Final new releases of 2014

The final new release of the year from our Distillery has arrived and is already proving a very popular item on the Christmas list of many Arran enthusiasts! The Arran Malt Orkney Bere Barley 10 Year-old Edition is now available on our web site priced at £59.99 and there are only 75 bottles available on there. It will also be available through many of our worldwide distributors. This is the second time we have released an edition of Arran made from Bere Barley however this time we have bottled at a cask strength of 56.2%. You will also find Machrie Moor 5th Edition and Machrie Moor Cask Strength on our web site. These were released at the end of September and have proved incredibly popular so far as the only whiskies in our range which are peated.

You can find out more about our limited edition whiskies in the private White Stag section of our web site. Our newly re-designed 10 year-old, 12 year-old Cask Strength and 14 year-old Single Malts are proving popular choices for Christmas as they are a special choice of whisky that can’t be found on every supermarket shelf. Our ever-popular Arran Gold Cream Liqueur has also been given a fresh look for 2014 and you will find it in our web shop too – just in time for Christmas when it is perfect on its own, over Christmas pudding or even mince pies!

November 2014 Release – Springbank 12 y/old Green & Rare Springbank 25 y/old

As we have been saying for some time now Springbank are releasing a new 12 year old expression called Springbank Green. It’s an organic barley but we hope you will find it’s the best of its kind on the market with its distinctly rich aroma of soft peat smoke being a notable difference to other Springbanks of the same age.

The second and no doubt most anticipated is the rather rare Springbank 25 year old matured in Sherry & Bourbon casks then for the last few months married in a port wine cask. Only 180 bottles in the UK

Whisky Tasting & The 2014 Chiltern Street open evening 27.11.2014 12 noon – 9pm

We will be marking the beginning of the Chiltern Street Christmas season with another open day tasting session.

We will have some of our favourites open as one would expect such as The Tasting Room London’s favourite Miltonduff 20 & Clynelish 24. We will also have a very limited supply of Springbanks January 2015 special release of 17 Year Old Sherry Cask and depending on availability Springbank Green.

Also at this tasting we hope to have some of the Macallan Malts available so we can help you discover the new range from one of the worlds most iconic distilleries.

The whole of Chiltern Street will be hosting sampler events or meet and greet sessions so you can discover the amazing variety of shops in our neighbourhood. I am sure a lot of you will have seen or read about Chiltern St being the coolest place in London as celebrity after celebrity has been photographed arriving or leaving Chiltern Fire House, The top restaurant and boutique hotel in the masterfully restored Fire Station across the road from our store.

WHISKY TASTING

At Cadenhead’s Whisky Shop & Tasting Room London

If you wish to attend one of our tasting sessions in 2015 then you can buy a tasting voucher online for yourself or as a gift.

Once your ready to book then simply call us on 0207 935 6999 to check availability and give us the vouchers unique number.

Visit The web site for info and to buy vouchers

THE EXCLUSIVE MALTS BACH #6 

ImpEx Beverages, Inc. is delighted to announce the new release of widely popular Exclusive Malts Expressions. After a careful selection process, the new five casks have been bottled and are currently en route to the United States. They should be available in November 2014. Please check the next pages for more information and prices. 

 ImpEx Beverages encourages responsible drinking

360 Swift Ave Side B # 9, South San Francisco, CA 94080

Ph. 650-872-1113, Fax 650-872-1114

www.impexbev.com

 *****

 Ben Nevis’ 98 15 yr Highland

102.20 proof

Matured in a Port Cask

Situated at the foot, and named after Scotland’s tallest mountain, the Ben Nevis distillery has spent much of its life contributing to blended Scotch intended for the Japanese market. Its whisky is often full-bodied and robust, and this cask does not disappoint with an added sweetness from the Port cask maturation.

RRP $ 139.99

 *****

Littlemill’ 88 25 yr Lowland

103.80 proof

Matured in a Sherry Cask

A rare gem from a now lost distillery. Littlemill was demolished in 2004 and only a few casks remain of this wonderful, fruity whisky. This cask has slowly matured for 25 years in a refill ex-Sherry hogshead, resulting in a rare example from this exceptional, yet sadly missed distillery.

RRP $ 229.99

 *****

Speyside’04 10 yr Speyside

115.40 proof

Matured in a Port Cask

This cask distilled at an undisclosed Speyside distillery near Aberlour, is a brute of an offering. Full bodied, sweet and fruit-laden this cask has been bottled at natural cask strength. So it may take a moment or two to show its full complexity, and, perhaps a drop or more of water to really bring it to life.

RRP $ 109.99

 ******

‘Ledaig’ Tobermory’97 17 yr Island

109.80 proof 

This smoky Island whisky is distilled on the Isle of Mull at the Tobermory distillery – a distillery not normally associated with smoky whisky. Using dried peat in the kilning process, the barley is infused with the peat smoke. This results in a whisky redolent with bonfires, barbecues and burning heather. A real distillation of the Islands of Scotland.  

RRP $ 149.99

 *****

Tomatin’04 10 yr Highland

114.80 proof

Matured in a Sherry Cask

Situated just outside the Highland city of Inverness, Tomatin Distillery was once the largest in Scotland providing its malt whisky to most of the large blenders. Now its sought-after whisky can be found as a single malt. This cask, matured solely in a refill ex-Sherry cask is full of the sweet fruit associated with this wonderful distillery.