Loch Fyne Whiskies Stocks ‘Longrow 18yo 2012 Bottling’
A darker bottling than last year…
http://www.lfw.co.uk/blog/2012/08/09/longrow-18yo-2012-bottling/
£82.50 Including 20% VAT
(Price excluding VAT: £68.75)
Loch Fyne Whiskies
david@lfw.co.uk
This month we have selected seven (7) new Malts to add to the PROVENANCE collection, whose Tasting Notes follow:
PRV 0806 Glen Spey 9 Year Old
Opens fresh and clean on the nose running to a buttery vanilla’d quality – home baked style. The palate opens with a gristy sweet character and develops to a sweetly spiced fruit trait. All this concludes in a drier finish with an orange pith tang. (J)
PRV 0771 Glenrothes 10 Year Old
Opens clean and fresh on the nose running to a sweet, macerated fruit character plus some toffee. The palate remains fresh and fruity (now wine gums in style) and runs to a sweet gristy style. The finish is sweetly spiced and carries a toffee’d apples quality. (J)
PRV 0914 Arran 12 Year Old
Fresh and fragrant on the nose carrying a summer fruit quality plus a real vanilla style. The palate remains fresh and fruity – developing to a gristy sweet character. This all runs to a creamy finish replete with a sweet almond essence. (J)
PRV 0916 Glengoyne 12 Year Old
Opens fresh, clean and fragrant on the nose, carrying a buttery and sweet quality – cookie dough style. The palate opens with a gristy sweet character then runs to crushed sugar and an attractive home baked style. Now citrus – lemon zest style – appears and lingers on the medium long finish. (J)
PRV 0917 Benrinnes 12 Year Old Sherry
Opens spicy and dry on the nose then dried fruit and vanilla custard appear. The palate is mouth coating, sweetly spiced and carries a toffee and mocha character plus some late tobacco. This all runs to a long finish that develops to a drier style with a soft oak tang with caramel still lurking. (J)
PRV 0913 Caol Ila Young and Feisty Batch 3
Opens sweetly, carrying a freshly cut grass style plus a damp forest quality before gentle smoke becomes apparent on the nose. The palate remains sweet but the Islay character quickly appears – ashes – soft tar and rock pools. The finish is long with dark chocolate and smoked ham lingering. (J)
PRV 0912 Bunnahabhain (Young/Sweet but Feisty)
Attractively aromatic, lightly spiced, rather gristy – with a bit of brine on the nose. Palatewise, it opens distinctly sweetly – almost honeyed with some interesting toffee and tar flavours appearing – all neatly parcelled into the long, still sweet – camphor carrying finish. (F)
We hope you will appreciate these additions to the PRV selection.
All best wishes
Fred Laing
Visit Douglas Laing at www.douglaslaing.com
TOP PICKS
Scotland – Single Malt Scotch
Bunnahabhain Toiteach Peated Single Malt Whisky 750ml ($85.99)
Caol Ila 20 Year Old Hart Brothers Single Malt Whisky 750ml ($139.99)
Glen Grant Major’s Reserve Single Malt 750ml ($26.99)
Scotland – Spirits Pre-Arrival
1990 Aberlour 21 Year Old K&L Exclusive “Exclusive Malts” Single Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky 750ml (Pre-Arrival) ($89.99)
For all the esoteric, exotic, and out-of-the-ordinary casks of single malt we plan on bringing back from Scotland this year, we feel the need to balance them out with some sure-fire, no-nonsense whiskies that offer old-fashioned quality for a fantastic price. The Exclusive Malt warehouse outside of Glasgow offered us so many fantastic expressions at great prices that we couldn’t help but take every one of them. Perhaps the most impressive of the bunch was a 21 year old cask of Aberlour, one of the most popular Speyside distilleries around. With the recent upsurge in sales for their 12 year old and A’Bunadh single malts, we knew the time was right for an older expression that built upon the foundation of flavor our customers love so much: sweet barley, rich vanilla, hints of creme brulee and burnt sugar, with a rich and opulent finish. At 51.1%, the whisky is easily drinkable at the bottled cask strength, but a drop of water really opens up the palate to more complexity. The less-than-10 year old cask strength A’Bunadh sells for $60 on the shelf, but for an extra $30 we’re offering more than a decade of extra barrel aging and far less sherry-dominated character. This is the bottle you buy for someone who likes Scotch whisky of any kind. It’s very, very tasty and just about everyone can get behind its classically-styled flavor. A ripe deal from a fantastic new bottler. (David Driscoll, K&L Spirits buyer)
1984 Benriach 27 Year Old K&L Exclusive Single PX Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky 750ml (Pre-Arrival) ($179.99)
While tasting through the cask samples at Glendronach, David and I noticed a few older barrels from Benriach as well, its sister distillery run by the same ownership group. We’ve really championed the former whisky, but Benriach has always remained in the background at K&L. We like the whisky, especially the fantastic new 12 year expression, but it had never lit a fire under us. However, when David noticed that one of the casks was dated “1984,” our curiosity instantly peaked. During the early 80’s, when Benriach was still owned by Seagrams, the distillery was known as an experimental laboratory, turning out all kinds of interesting malts, some of them heavily peated. We poured ourselves a sample, noted the rich sherry color, and suddenly the whiff of peat smoke tickled our noses. This was one of those storied whiskies – a PX sherry-aged peated whisky of 27 year old maturity with the same integration of richness and smoke that one finds in old Islay malts or the legendary peated Brora. In fact, David and I were so floored by the quality, we thought it was better than some of the older Lagavulins and Broras we had tasted. “No one is going to believe us if we talk that way,” I said, but the truth couldn’t be denied. This whisky is phenolic, oily, briny, supple, chewy, rich, raisined, and smoky. It hangs with the great aged island malts, but priced far below them. Easily one of the top three whiskies from the trip and destined to become a K&L classic. (David Driscoll, K&L)
1993 Glendronach 18 Year Old K&L Exclusive Single Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky 750ml (Pre-Arrival) ($115.99)
On the heels of our Glendronach 16 year old cask–perhaps the most generally beloved of any cask we’ve ever purchased for K&L–we knew we had to look for a quality successor. Even if we couldn’t match the greatness, the concentrated sherry sweetness with that unctuous, chewy, malty goodness, we had to at least try. Our relationship with Glendronach went from non-existent to bosom-buddies in 2011 after our visit. This year, our trip to the remote Highland institution offered us another chance to scour their wonderful selection of aged stocks. First off, we tried some younger 10 to 12 year old casks, but found them less interesting than the already fantastic distillery bottle. Some twenty year old casks were rich and decadent, but they were perhaps too over-the-top. The 18 year old selection, however, smelled of Armagnac and rich caramel with roasted fruits and big sherry aromas. The palate was soft, integrated, and very smooth, even at full proof. The richness was powerful, but unlike the older selections, it was completely in check and balanced by the spice and alcohol in the malt. It offered many of the same characteristics that last year’s cask displayed, but in a more subdued and elegant way. The result is a familiar, yet intriguingly new expression of Glendronach bottled entirely for K&L and it’s the same price as last year’s cask! I find this 18 year to be even more accessible and expect it to be even more successful. (David Driscoll)
United States – Other Spirits
Charbay R5 White Whiskey 750ml – 3 available ($49.99)
BACK IN STOCK
Scotland – Single Malt Scotch
Kilchoman Machir Bay Islay Single Malt Whisky 750ml ($53.99)
It’s no secret that we’re big fans of Kilchoman distillery here at K&L. Our recent visit to the distillery on Islay really opened our eyes to the incredible job they’re doing. Kilchoman is a tiny operation, producing on one still and malting whatever they can inside their humble barn. Because of their small scale, their cost of production is higher and prices for their whisky have not been inexpensive. But having tasted the new-make spirit right off the still, I can firmly say that, in my opinion, there is no higher quality peated whisky being produced anywhere else. Kilchoman’s hands-on style and attention to detail make a world of difference. Every release has been better than the last, albeit extremely limited in supply. All that said, this small farm is finally introducing a full-time, affordable, house recipe, rather than another pricey single barrel release. The Machir Bay is not only incredibly delicious, it’s a huge victory for a distillery that had to overcome huge obstacles. At $54, this is what Kilchoman fans have been waiting for: incredibly delicate, finely-tuned flavors of soft smoke, sea salt, creamy vanilla and butterscotch. It’s a more subdued version of their high-toned barrel expressions, but it’s still very much Kilchoman. Think Bruichladdich meets Lagavulin. Think possible best whisky of 2012. (David Driscoll, K&L Spirits buyer)
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
BenRiach 1971 / 40 Year Old Single Cask 1947
BenRiach 1971, cask 1947 is the oldest in BenRiach’s 2011 range of limited edition single cask releases. 40 years of age and part of batch 8, this wonderful single malt whisky scored a massive 96.5 points in Jim Murray’s 2012 Whisky Bible. If you don’t take the ‘bible’ as gospel, it also received an excellent 93 points by Serge via www.whiskyfun.com
Only £570.00
(£475.00 ex vat)
Click here to buy BenRiach Single Cask 1947
Abbey Whisky
enquiries@abbeywhisky.com
www.abbeywhisky.com
0800 051 7737
We are pleased to offer this month two (2) new additions to the DOUGLAS (of Drumlanrig) range. Their tasting notes follows:
DOD0215 Glengoyne 12 Year Old
Nose: Fresh & fragrant + a buttery sweet, cookie dough style
Palate: sweet gristy character + a home baked character
Finish: Medium long, carrying a fresh lemon zest quality (J)
DOD0217 Benrinnes 12 Year Old Sherry
Nose: Opens spicy, carrying a dried fruit style + creamy vanilla
Palate: Mouth coatingly spiced + sweet mocha + late tobacco
Finish: All drier now + a soft oak tang + lingering caramel (J)
We hope you and your clients will like these 2 new bottlings as much as us – all to be followed next month by 5 or 6 new bottlings.
All the best
Fred H Laing
Managing Director
Visit Douglas Laing at www.douglaslaing.com
BenRiach Releases Latest Batch of Single Cask Bottlings
BenRiach has today, 3 August, released the latest batch, its ninth, of single cask bottlings.
It comprises in total some three thousand bottles from ten outstanding casks. Bottled in July, all are available as of today.
Ranging from 22 to 35 years, the release demonstrates the range of multi-layered expressions for which BenRiach is renowned. As would be expected from BenRiach, there is tremendous variety across the ten casks – including “classic Speyside”, peated expressions and various wood finishes (Pedro Ximenez, Tawny Port, Sauternes and Rioja).
Incidentally, Jim Murray was especially complimentary about the delicate influence of BenRiach’s PX sherry wood finishes. In his 2012 Whisky Bible, he says of the 15 year-old: “This is one of the world whisky noses of the year: absolute perfection.”
All ten casks have been hand-selected by BenRiach’s Managing Director Billy Walker.
He said: “Getting the wood right can be expensive but it’s one of the things I’m most proud of since we took over BenRiach.”
And what an amazing range Batch Nine has. Billy’s tasting notes convey a seductive mélange of styles ranging from “waves of damsons, plums and raisins” to “sweet honey with vanilla”, “buttered toast” and “a beautiful combination of peat reek, dates and dark chocolate”.
The cask details are as follows:
1976 cask # 5317 / 35 years old / Pedro Ximenez Sherry Finish / 54.1% vol. / approx 204 bottles
1976 cask # 6967 / 35 years old / Classic Speyside / 59.0% vol. / approx 339 bottles
1976 cask # 8804 / 35 years old / Peated / 54.9%vol. / approx 232 bottles
1977 cask # 2593 / 34 years old / Sauternes Finish / 44.2% vol. / approx 278 bottles
1977 cask # 2588 / 34 years old / Rioja Finish / 44.1% vol. / approx 280 bottles
1983 cask # 291 / 29 years old / Classic Speyside / 43.1% vol / approx 264 bottles
1984 cask # 1052 / 27 years old / Peated, Pedro Ximenez Sherry Finish / 50.7% vol / approx 258 bottles
1984 cask # 4050 / 27 years old / Peated, Tawny Port Finish / 52.2% vol / approx 283 bottles
1985 cask # 7190 / 26 years / Peated, Pedro Ximenez Sherry Finish / 48.7% vol / approx 211 bottles
1990 cask # 2596 / 22 years / Tawny Port Finish / 53.4% vol / approx 624 bottles
Keep an eye on our website and Facebook page over the coming weeks for more information on these new releases, tasting notes and exclusive product photography.
If you would like to receive more information regarding Batch 9 releases, please contact us on info@benriachdistillery.co.uk
August Outturn: Alluring & Dangerous
Ulysses tied himself to the mast of his boat to resist the sirens…buckle-up and ride the wave of utterly alluring and dangerously good single casks this August Outturn.
Lost at sea? Dive-in with our August Recommendations:
PAIR: 35.69 & 37.52 for £83.00
35.69 Sticky toffee pudding for dieters &
37.52 Bottle essence of gardens and orchards
BUY
TRIO: 36.69, 37.52 & 3.186 for £135
35.69 Sticky toffee pudding for dieters
37.52 Bottle essence of gardens and orchards &
3.186 Mermaids at play in Lochindaal
BUY
CASE: 35.69, 4.168, 37.52, 3.186, 44.53 & 41.53 for £279
35.69 Sticky toffee pudding for dieters
4.168 Gunpowder, treason and plot
37.52 Bottle essence of gardens and orchards
3.186 Mermaids at play in Lochindaal
44.53 Lip-smacking, chewy and chunky &
41.53 Manly perfumes in mum’s handbag
BUY
35.69 is exclusive to our August Offers
*New Distillery bottling 129.1 will go onsale on Mon 6 August via our telephone line – 0131 555 2929 (one bottle per member)
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 http://www.smws.co.uk/memberships for your chance to join and to take advantage of their great offers.
Black Bull 40 Year Old Batch 3 41.6% alc/vol
Black Bull 40YO batch 3 is a mix of 14.4% Grain Whiskies and 85.6% malt Whiskies from some of Scotland’s premium distilleries. The spirit in this, third bottling of Black Bull 40 year old contains whiskies from the following distilleries: Ben Nevis, Bunnahabhain, Caperdonich, Glen Grant, Highland Park and Invergordon.
Tasting Notes:
Colour: Bright Gold
Nose: Raisins, roasted almonds, butter scotch, dark chocolate, orange zest, freshly cut grass.
Taste: Citrus fruits, manuka honey, faint smoked oakiness, wild berries with a distance coastal flavour emerging.
Finish: Long mouth coating finish with a delicate traces of chocolate covered cherries, with salty traces fighting their way to the front.
Comment: This is a dram to be savoured and enjoyed.
£167.99 inc VAT
Single Malts Limited | 36 Gordon Street | Huntly | Aberdeenshire | AB54 8EQ |
Early August Outturn Offerings
Peeling tangerines in hospital
Cask No. 3.182
Islay, Loch Indaal
We found quite a bit of fruit on the nose – tinned pears, passion fruit and ‘someone peeling tangerines in a recently painted hospital’ – in addition we enjoyed lavender, orange blossom, patchouli, burnt paper, smoky bacon and well-kept stables – quite complex all in all. The palate had Elastoplasts and gauze bandages, star anise, walnut fudge, honeysuckle, nutty tobacco and baklava. Water brought freesias and parma violets, creosote and peat fires to the nose, while the palate became sweeter, developing slightly burnt treacle tart, sugar cane and dark chocolate coated marzipan with some coconut to finish. The distillery was built in 1779.
Drinking tip: A good barbeque or camp fire dram
Colour: Brass door knob
Cask: Refill hogshead
Age: 21 years
Date distilled: August 1990
Alcohol: 46.4%
$145
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Attractive as apple pie
Cask No. 7.69
Highlands, Speyside (Lossie)
The enticing nose – ‘attractive as apple pie’ – offered maple syrup, toffee, vanilla, Danish pastries (with cinnamon and almonds) and hints of tobacco and hay. Even with water, it remained beautifully warm and inviting – ice-cream, toffee apples, fudge and jasmine perfume. The palate was hot but smooth – flavours of honey, apple, and butterscotch, spiked up by the zing of Fentimans Victorian lemonade with ginger; some tobacco and leather tannic dryness lengthened the finish. Water seemed to allow the toffee and syrup sweetness to come through, while retaining the chilli, peppercorn heat. The distillery has links to one Saint and many sinners.
Drinking tip: Would suit early evening – but is very versatile
Colour: Bright yellow gold
Cask: First-fill barrel
Age: 8 years
Date distilled: May 2003
Alcohol: 61.6%
$85
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Sweet, but with grown up flavours
Cask No. 24.122
Highlands, Speyside
The satisfyingly fragrant nose offered dried pear, green apple, fruits in syrup, scented soap, light Pernod, vanilla, caramel and dark chocolate gingers; also hints of smoke (from burning paper). The palate conveyed ample sweetness (amaretti biscuits, honey, bourbon creams) but also some quite ‘grown up’ flavours – cinnamon, clove, star anise, chilli, salt, menthol and gunpowder. The nose was much lighter with water – jasmine, daffodil and floral soap, alongside poached pear, creamy dragon fruit, plantains and tree bark. The reduced palate was sweetly fruity, with pleasant lingering Christmassy spices, carrot cake and Rooibos tea. The distillery lies between Aberlour and Craigellachie.
Drinking tip: A perfectly reasonable alternative to afternoon tea
Colour: Yellow gold
Cask: Refill hogshead
Age: 16 years
Date distilled: September 1995
Alcohol: 53.0%
$120
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Long, hot sweet delights
Cask No. 30.68
Highlands, Speyside (Rothes)
Salty, dry and earthy – this really didn’t hide its cask influence; we were getting treacle toffee, chestnuts, polished leather, mushrooms, smoked almonds, raisins, sandalwood bark, ink, dark Indonesian soy sauce, and matchboxes. The taste revealed savoury meaty notes of Szechuan peppered steak, wild mushrooms and tuna steaks but also the sweet delight of peaches in Sauternes. Water released Pedro Ximenez soaked prunes, more matchboxes, hot sandpaper, root veg (beetroot), electric storms (!), sticky dates and raspberry syrup. Long, hot, tannic to taste with dark chocolate, pine trees and raisins. From the distillery that is vintage bottled by its London owners.
Drinking tip: Too big to take lightly
Colour: Ripe apricots
Cask: Refill gorda
Age: 10 years
Date distilled: March 2001
Alcohol: 60.6%
$95
Please visit the Scotch Malt Whisky Society of America at www.smwsa.com for further information on their single cask bottlings.
Loch Fyne Whiskies Stocks ‘GlenDronach 1993 19yo Cask 487’
Exclusively available in the UK
As dark as a dark thing, (technically ‘dark mahogany’ or ‘treacle’ – according to our LFW tasting mats). A thick aroma you could climb up!, composed of vanilla, butter and spice, with a faceful of Dundee cake. Water reveals cloves and old paperback books. A magnificent taste that zeros in on the sour and then the bitter and sweet. It makes the juices run and run long after the swallow, there’s more of the Christmas pud (figgy too) and a splash of sauternes.
On the Flavour Map it’s as rich as rich can be, J5 – Rich.
A single cask for sale exclusively in the UK
Distilled 19 February 1993
Bottled July 2012
Matured in a Oloroso Sherry Butt # 487
Limited to 673 bottles
‘GlenDronach 1993 19yo Cask 487’
Loch Fyne Whiskies
david@lfw.co.uk
