Art for arts sake, whisky for my sake

Boisdale Group Welcomes ‘Wild Water’ Larkfire for Whisky Fans

Top London venues make a splash with new whisky mixer

One of the most prestigious names in the food and drink scene will now offer whisky with a splash of Larkfire – a new ‘wild water’ which brings out the full flavour of every dram.

All venues in The Boisdale Group – Mayfair, Belgravia, Canary Wharf and Bishopsgate – will list Larkfire as their recommended water for whisky, with a special tasting event being held on February 11th at Boisdale Belgravia to officially launch the collaboration.

The news comes as a number of top London venues have started to offer Larkfire – including Soho Whisky Club for their regular tastings, and Islington restaurant Frederick’s, to accompany their range of world whiskies.

James McIntosh, co-founder of Larkfire, said: “These well-known and respected names are highly regarded for their quality and impeccable taste, making them perfect for Larkfire.

“We’re thrilled to bring Larkfire from the Isle of Lewis to London, giving whisky fans in the capital the chance to make the most of their dram.”

James travelled the length and breadth of Scotland and visited countless distilleries before creating award-winning Larkfire, which was recently named Best Premium Drink at the World Beverage Innovation Awards.

He added: “Many whisky drinkers are unaware that tap water and mineral water can interfere with the delicate flavours of whisky, due to mineral content and added chlorine or fluoride in the water, but Larkfire is pure and naturally soft helping create a natural chemistry.”

Larkfire was launched after a study by Swedish chemists Björn Karlsson and Ran Friedman in the Scientific Reports journal helped prove that water boosts the concentration of flavour compounds at the surface of whisky, enhancing the flavour.

A percentage of sales flow back into the Outer Hebrides via a partnership with The Stornoway Trust – a community landlord that looks after 69,000 acres of land on the Isle of Lewis, where the water is sourced.

To find out more or to buy Larkfire online, visit www.larkfire.co.uk. For more about The Boisdale Group, visit www.boisdale.co.uk.

 – It’s World Wetlands Day – 

At Glengoyne, we’re very proud of the positive impact being generated by our wetlands, a project we have invested more than £245,000 in to date. We’ve been working with the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), which conserves, restores and creates wetlands. Why are they so important? It’s because as well as providing a home for plants, invertebrates, birds and other wildlife, wetlands are extremely energy efficient. They cover less than five percent of the world’s surface, but lock away around a third of its terrestrial carbon.

We were the first distillery in Scotland to trial using wetlands to treat our spent lees – the liquid we don’t need after distillation. Instead of sending the lees to an industrial treatment plant, we treat it on site by having it make its way through a series of twelve pools – each thick with reed beds. This slows the flow and removes anything that would harm our local burn’s delicate balance before it makes its way into Loch Lomond.

Because gravity is used, we only need a 1.5KW pump to send the spent lees on their way. The process has cut our waste by around 25%, meaning around 21 transports a week from the distillery are no longer required.

Far more satisfying though was to hear the results of a recent site survey, which recorded a dozen species of birds on the site, including House Martins, Grey Herons, Moorhens, Sedge Warblers, Reed Bunting and Pied and Grey Wagtails! Not only that, but from an initial planting of 22 different species, a further 65 species of plant have now colonised the area, including marginal ones such as Skullcap and Water Figwort.

So here’s to making whisky the right way; in harmony with nature.

Sláinte!

Glengoyne 

New & Improved UK & European Shipping Rates

Shipping to Mainland Europe

TWB is delighted to reveal new 2020 improved shipping rates to Europe
Now from just £11/€13

UK Shipping

Not forgetting our UK customers – the same great fast service.
UK shipping is now just £2.95/£6.95 Express

Read More – TWB Shipping Costs

🚚 Free UK Delivery on all orders over £25 📦
🌎 We also ship worldwide! 🌍

Highland Park 30 Year Old
2019 Release 

This 30-year-old expression is the second oldest in Highland Park’s range, and was first released in 2013. This latest edition is limited to just 2,667 individually numbered bottles. A complex and award winning malt, that tops the bucket list of many whisky enthusiasts!

Was £800.00

NOW £699.00

On the last working day of 2019, the team gathered for a group picture to celebrate the end of another successful year, and raise a toast to the last decade at the annual Christmas party.

Over the last decade, Glenfarclas has experienced some of the busiest periods of production since legal distilling began at the distillery some 180 years ago. Record-breaking production levels have been expertly overseen by our fantastic production team, who were also paramount to the successful introduction of upgrades to the still house in summer 2019.  As John Grant said at the Christmas party, “I couldn’t work it!” However the Grant family has complete faith every valued member of their highly experienced team.  It seems fitting for this record breaking production decade to be rounded off with Callum Fraser being named the Icons of Whisky Scottish Distillery Manager of the Year, an award he dedicated to the whole team – without them, none of these incredible achievements would have been possible.

Over the last 10 years the accolades didn’t stop at production. As our popularity grew, record levels of Glenfarclas Single Malt Scotch Whisky were exported to 90 different countries all around the world.  Our thanks go to everyone who makes this possible: from the office team who handle the export and logistics so our whisky gets to you, our loyal whisky aficionados; to the faithful warehouse team who work tirelessly to ensure an ever higher numbers of casks are sleeping peacefully in our traditional dunnage warehouses; not forgetting the visitor centre team (past and present) who every year welcome record numbers of visitors.  To end the 2010s as the Icons of Whisky Scottish Distillery of the Year was a fitting conclusion to what has been a remarkable 10 years of change, growth and teamwork.

The office staff at Glenfarclas posing for their annual Christmas jumper photo, when they collected money and gifts for a local children’s charity (MFR Cash for Kids Mission Christmas).

The Chancellor’s Cask

In our last newsletter we shared how Kenneth Clarke, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, filled a cask of Glenfarclas in 1994 and came back 25 years later to approve it for bottling. In November, John Grant (Chairman of Glenfarclas and 5th generation of the Grant family) met Kenneth Clarke and James Simpson in London to hand over the proceeds from this very special bottling to the Salvation Army, the charity of Mr Clarke’s choice. We were delighted to learn that the Salvation Army chose to allocate these funds to the highlands of Scotland, so they will be doing good close to home. A handful of these bottles are still available from the Visitor Centre.

Glenfarclas 2020 Events

January 31^st An Exclusive Evening with Glenfarclas  (Love Lane Brewery, Liverpool)
February 13^th-15^th Cinderella Whisky Festival
February  7^th – 9th  Alkmaar Whisky Festival, Holland
March 14^th/15^th Roma Whisky Festival
March 21^st Hong Kong Whisky Festival
March 26^{th –} 28^th Whiskyschiff Luzern
April 25^th/26^th Limburg Whisky Festival
April 29th – May 4th Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival

… More to follow!

Archie Jackson chose the 2019 Distillery Exclusive well, as it went onto win gold at the Scottish Field awards in the £50-£100 category and took the trophy in the summer challenge.  This is now sold out, however we will have a new distillery exclusive available soon, watch this space!

Bargains To Add To Your Collection

We’ve dropped prices across some of our favourite bottles including BenRiach, Highland Park, Glen Scotia and more!

🚚 Free UK Delivery on all orders over £25 📦
🌎 We also ship worldwide! 🌍

Shop Now

Whisky originates from Ireland

For a limited time only, get 10% off.

It’s 2020, it’s Rabbie Burn’s Birthday and we’re feeling generous, so we’re offering 10% off Smokehead Original and Smokehead High Voltage in our online store. It won’t be forever though, offer ends 31st January.

(As always – see website for full terms.)

SHOP NOW

Burns Night with Jim and Dennis

Glen Grant for Burns Night with Jim Murray and Dennis Malcolm

What did you do for Burns Night 2019? Did you spend it in the UK’s tallest building, sipping award-winning drams with arguably the world’s best-known and longest-standing whisky writer, and the master distiller in charge of crafting Scotland’s finest single malt? I did. Yep. Not sure how I’ll top that this year. In the meantime, let’s find out why Glen Grant 18 Year Old could be perfect not just for Burns Night but, to hear Jim Murray tell it, near-on perfect in general.

Glen Grant 18 Year Old – Whisky Bible 97 Points

Two of Whisky Bible‘s most sought-after titles – Scotch Whisky of the Year and Single Malt of the Year (Multiple Casks) – were unified in one single malt whisky in 2019: Glen Grant 18 Year Old. Of which, Jim Murray said the following:

“This is so in tune and well balanced it is impossible to nail what leads and which follows. Instead, one is left mesmerised…” – and that’s just on the nose.

So what sets it apart from the competition? Well, for one thing, consistency.

Dennis Malcolm, Master Distiller at Glen Grant distillery:
I would never put Glen Grant’s reputation on the line with a single cask. They’re a snapshot, whereas I want to make a consistent product. As a result, I don’t nose like Jim does. I don’t have that kind of nose; I’m not looking for that kind of nuance. I know Glen Grant’s profile: fruit, nuts, spice. That’s what I’m looking for.

Jim Murray:
The first fifteen years of drinking whisky, it’s all discovery. It’s like having sex for the first time. It’s amazing. Now it’s like, ‘ah, have I got to do that again?’.

The first thing I do when I taste whisky is look for faults. I probe it for failure. Then I do it again, and again. With the Glen Grant 18, there are none. There’s a purity to it. It’s very elegant. It’s got a lot to do with the wood, I think.

Glen Grant 18 Year Old

Dennis:
When I started at the distillery as an apprentice cooper, I learned a lot about wood. That if you put good spirit in an exceptional cask, you might enhance it. If you put really amazing spirit in a not-so-good cask, you’ll ruin it.

Glen Grant is a vulnerable whisky, because it’s all American oak, primarily ex-bourbon, and primarily second-fill. There’s no sherry in it, and that means there’s nothing to hide behind.

Jim:
Yeah, it’s naked whisky.

I look for the best whisky in the world, and this one is always in the running.

Glen Grant on Burns Night

Jim clearly likes a drop of Glen Grant, then. But would he drink it with his Burns Night supper?

Jim:
Never, ever drink whisky with food. Why on earth would you f**k up a whisky like that by drinking it with food? Drink it before or afterwards, after a black coffee, but never during. That’s what beer and wine are for. The spices in a haggis will destroy a whisky like [Glen Grant 18].

Haggis – anathema to nuance

Well then, that about sees us out, doesn’t it? If you want to ignore Jim and treat yourself to what he believes to be the finest Scotch single malt whisky on the planet, pick up a bottle here. Or if you’d rather follow his advice and pick up an alternative, Billy has waxed lyrical on multiple occasions on the relative suitability of wine, beer, sherry, whisky, gin and more. Our resident Master of Wine and head buyer at The Whisky Exchange, Dawn Davies, has also curated a list of 20-odd drams, any or all of which will see you happily through the evening. Slàinte!