CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR 2019

A Year Of Taste

Before we sign off for the year we have one final newsletter for 2018. We don’t really have anything new for you, just wanted to have a quick catch up before you all settle down for the holiday season with your selected drams.

2018 has been an incredible year, in which we had the opportunity to share some amazing whiskies & rums with our old and new customers. It was a year of surprises and lessons, as time after time we learnt to look beyond the label.

We were particularly proud to release several stunning young whiskies, which showed us how much wood treatment has improved over the years. Of course we should not forget about the older drams, which as expected, made people excited and thirsty for more mature flavours.

We were glad to see how our world whisky range expanded with numerous excellent drams. One of the really interesting ones was the English 8, which completely caught us off-guard, imagine, in our very own homeland.

There were several favourites over this year, such as Mortlach 29, Ben Nevis 21, Linkwood 30 and Ledaig 20, giving wonderful older expressions from these distilleries. For us, bottling such whiskies is a calling and dedication, which we happily share with our customers.

TOP 2018 DRAMS ACROSS THE BOARD 

Where we have a few bottles left, we have linked to them…

STAFF SELECTION

1. Creations 10.
2. Macduff 29.
3. Paul John 6 SB / Kilkerran 12 (Yes 2 at No 3)
4. Ledaig 20
5. Mortlach 29

TASTING ROOM SELECTION

1. Kilkerran 12 46%
2. Paul John 6 SB
3. Cameronbridge 29
4. Speyside 23
5. Fettercairn 29

CADENHEAD CLUB & SPRINGBANK SOCIETY

1. Kilkerran 11
2. Paul John 6
3. Laphroaig 20
4. Springbank 21
5. Cameronbridge 29 (London Label)

GRAND FINAL SELECTION 

The top whiskies  chosen by the people in 2018 – the best of the best, or assumed maybe?

In reverse order…

No 10. Springbank (Any and all)

No 9. Dailuaine 13 46%

No 8. Kilkerran 8 Cask Strength

No 6. Fettercairn 29

No 4. Linkwood 30

No 3. Speyside 23

No 2. Paul John 6 S/Batch

No 1. Cameronbridge 29 (London Label)

So, what do you think?

Let me point out first, why the almighty Springbank range is No10 in the list. It was due the pressure on the supply on demand.

On the other end we had the amazing (and controversial) Cameronbridge 29, which caused tears of joy, mostly. The Cameronbridge 29 was selected by one of the London Tasting Panels, and it even visited a few of the Vintage 21+ tastings and private events leading to those who tried it to love it. For some club members Cameronbridge was a dram of some controversy because it was NOT and Islay or Littlemill. Given it was tasted by a lot of people and liked by over 75% of those on the panels, it was also one of the most popular whiskies of the year.

A FEW FINAL THINGS 

This year consisted of numerous tastings, which we did in and outside of the shop. It seems that the demand for such tastings is getting higher and next year looks thirstier than ever for our organised tasting sessions. We will be introducing a new type of tasting, which will provide people with a whole set of new flavoursome adventures in the world of spirits.

We here at the London shop were really impressed by the great work done in our Campbeltown office and it seems that success is continuing next year as well. If you want to be part of this and jump on the train of the winners, keep yourself updated by joining the club, we have the Cadenhead Club and Springbank Society packs available in the store right now, for more info call us on 0207 935 6999

Shop opening hours December 24th To January 5th

• Monday 24th Christmas Eve 10:30AM – 4:00PM, orders can be collected until 6:30PM
• Tuesday 25th Closed
• Wednesday 26th Closed
• Thursday 27th 11AM – 5:30PM
• Friday 28th 11AM – 6:30PM
• Saturday 29th 10:30AM – 6:30PM
• Sunday 30th Closed
• Sundays as normal
• Monday 31st 10:30AM – 4:30PM
• Tuesday 1st January 2019 Closed
• Wednesday 2nd 11AM – 6:00PM
• Thursday 3rd 11AM – 6:00PM
• Friday 4th 11AM – 6:00PM
• Saturday 5th 10:30Am – 6:30PM

Regretfully, we will not be sending anymore web orders until December 27th.

We at Cadenhead’s Whisky shop London, would like to wish you a merry Christmas and Happy new Year!

Springbank Society

Today is the last day at work of 2018 for the Springbank team. Before we leave for a couple of weeks we wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for your continued and unwavering support of Springbank.

2018 was another highly successful year for our proud distillery and we couldn’t have done it without our amazing fans and customers, especially the members of the Springbank Society.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us to all of you.

See you in 2019!

The Springbank Team

http://springbank.scot/

From Gift Sets to Special Treats: Hamish has the answer!

Still time to order your favourite whiskies – while stocks last!

Free Standard Delivery on UK orders over £75
We ship all over the world

Highland Park 12 Year Old Gift Pack

This fantastic whisky from ‘The Orkney Malt with Viking Soul’ was first released in 1979 and has a established a firm reputation as a great all-rounder. This beautifully presented gift pack includes two Highland Park branded whisky glasses.

£37 Buy Now

Daftmill 2006 Summer Batch

Distilled in 2006 at the family-owned and operated Daftmill distillery in the Kingdom of Fife, this Lowland single malt is part of a limited release of just 1,665 bottles produced in the summer of 2018.

£195 Buy Now
Limited to 1 per customer

The holidays are about enjoying the moments. Through the hectic chaos of shopping, holiday dinners, and family get-togethers, don’t forget to take a minute for you. Here are a couple of spirits that will keep you in the spirit as you recharge throughout the Holidays.

KILCHOMAN MACHIR BAY Single Malt Scotch Private Barrel

Reg $64.99 | Sale $62.99
Established in 2005, one of Islay’s newest distilleries is also known as Islay’s Farm Distillery.  Their 100% Islay range is Scotland’s only single malt produced from barley both grown and malted on Islay, using only local, traditionally cut peat.  This collaborative vatting of Machir Bay utilizes a high proportion of bourbon barrels (85%) to sherry cask (15%) influence, creating a very special union of tropical fruitiness and aromatic smokiness.

COMPASS BOX Blended Whiskies

Compass Box is one of those rogue bottlers and producers that blend Scotch Whiskies. Whether on purpose or by accident Compass Box continues to set the bar to new heights. They are great blenders with an eye looking forward, but they always have one steady foot firmly planted in the past and rooted in tradition. If you are looking to get started in the Scotch category, Compass Box is a great way to begin. Similarly, if you’re looking to freshen up your glass with something unique and artfully done, Compass Box has a complete line with a wide variety that will hit your palate in just the right place.

thepartysource.com
95 Riviera Drive, Bellevue, KY 41073
 (859) 291-4007

Christmas Novelties

Ahhh, Christmas: a time for family, food, good cheer and annoying singing Santa… ornaments? Are they ornamental? Are they toys? Singing Santas, anyway. And somehow all the silliness only contributes to the overall atmosphere of loveliness. It’s like being hugged (hygged?) by the world.

Christmas is also a time for great drinks. We gift them to each other, we get them in specially and we drink them together. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of the silliest and festive-est bottles we could find to help you get the absolute most out of your Christmas drinking. Brace yourselves…

Glenfarclas with bobble hat

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We’ll ease you in gently. While not necessarily festive per se, nothing screams cosy like sherry-aged single malt and a good woolly hat. We’re running with it, so there.

Maker’s Mark in Christmas Jumper

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Yes, you did read that correctly, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. A bottle of Maker’s Mark Bourbon Whisky, swaddled in an appropriately stylish – and presumably very itchy – Christmas jumper, complete with ABV. Because nothing says ‘Merry Christmas’ like properly-observed European labelling standards. No, seriously – they make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Big Peat Christmas Edition

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The illustrated personification of flavour himself comes storming back in his whiskyful sleigh, bringing with him another edition of the perennially (obviously) popular, cask-strength, Christmas cheer-inducing dram.

Spey Chairman’s Choice – Merry Christmas 2014

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Looking for something a little more sensible? This Speyside single malt whisky follows in the tradition of the Chairman’s Choice, whereby the Chairman of the company would select the best casks to share with his family on Christmas day. A quality dram we’d be proud to pour post-turkey.

Scotch Islay Silver Award

We are delighted to announce that our Highland Laird ‘The Lairds Choice’ Bunnahabhain 1991 has been awarded a silver medal.  This is in the Islay category of this years Independent Bottlers Challenge run by The Whisky Magazine.

We were very proud of this bottling so to win an award for it really does mean a lot to us.

We still have 90 bottles (out of the 144 bottled) left so grab one while you can!

Link to Bunnahabhain

 20% OFF until December 31st 

1SHOP OUR ONLINE STORE (Discount Code: WHISKY20)

Virginia Distillery Company
299 Eades Lane
Lovingston, VA 22949

 20% OFF until December 31st 

The Whisky Exchange 

Imagine you were asked to take one of the world’s most famous blended whiskies and create a limited edition that paid homage to one of the world’s most revered lost distilleries. Where would you start? How would you do it justice? And how many times would you wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat?

It all sounds impossibly daunting, unless, in a masterpiece of nominative determinism, your name is Beveridge, Jim Beveridge, and you’ve spent almost 40 years immersed in the world of whisky making. Here, Johnnie Walker’s talented master blender tells us about how he crafted the latest in the Ghost & Rare series: the magnificent Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ghost & Rare Port Ellen

Did you have a clear idea of what the finished whisky would be when you started, or is it a more experimental process?

I think it is a bit of both. You’re dealing with rare whiskies – there’s not much of them, there’s not much choice. That’s the reality of it. But you take what you’ve got and say ‘how am I going to express those flavours?’ That’s very much around having a sense of what you want the blend to be like, and then using what you’ve got in a particular direction.

The preparation for that point is to understand the whiskies themselves, and then from that you begin to think, okay, how am I going to use them to create this flavour and style that I’m looking for?

The blend style for Johnnie Walker Ghost & Rare: Port Ellen is quite different to Blue Label, and that’s deliberate. The idea of the blend is to showcase the individual whiskies, which is not the purpose of Blue Label – Blue Label is more a complete picture, the profusion of flavour that comes from complexity.

Do you have access to all the remaining Port Ellen stock, or were you given specific casks?

For this blend I had freedom to choose. We obviously have a deep understanding of the stock available, and from that we knew which ones we wanted to use for the blend.

How do you approach creating a blend like this?

There are some basic rules. One is about the balance of flavours, so you assess the whiskies first – and I think it’s fair to say with Port Ellen that you know that its flavour is going to come in at the end. So in the thinking you know you’re creating something that will be complemented by the smokiness of Port Ellen, that’s really where it starts from.

So then you start thinking about the flavours of the malts; the sum of all those flavours and the best ways to express them individually. The big part of the puzzle is about the balance of these flavours, this idea of the light and accessible sweetness versus the more intense fruitiness that comes with the individual malts. So one of the big decisions is – how important is that balance?

Having worked out that balance is a bit of a watershed. Once that’s been solved you’ve essentially got the core essence of the blend and you’re then adding top notes to it, to bring in additional flavour without compromising the balance that was created.

How much Port Ellen went into the blend?

Anyone who knows and understands smokiness in blends knows that you don’t need a lot of smoke in there to have that overt smokiness, The amount of Port Ellen we added to this blend is in that place – the level you need to add to a blend to make it smoky.

How long did it take you to go from start to finish?

A project like this can take quite a long time, there are a lot of conversations that go around it. The first week’ll be spent just basically pulling things together and seeing what the options are, then after that – I’ll go back to this point around the watershed moment about the balance – there’s a lot of iterative work around getting to that watershed.

That can take days, it can take weeks, depends where you are with it – sometimes it means not being comfortable with what you’ve got and getting other expressions of those malts brought in. If you’ve got an idea set of malts, it can take a couple of weeks, if you’re needing to re-sample and reassess it can take much longer.

How did it compare to creating the Ghost & Rare: Brora edition?

In a way the challenge here was that because it was going to be called Port Ellen, the expectation was that it was going to be smoky – so it was then around how we make that smokiness work in a blend style that emulates that of the Brora. The styles are connected, it’s like a family: these are individual expressions trying to showcase the malts that you find in Blue Label, and to do that we take a lighter more accessible approach.

Ghost & Rare: Port Ellen is memorably light and fruity – is that something that will come as a surprise to fans of the range? 

It was deliberate – we lead with sweetness and layer the fruit on top of that, using that sweetness to bring out the flavours of those individual malts. The lighter style helps to express that fruitiness – that estery tropical fruit aspect that comes through – and using the sweet vanilla flavours to bring that out is an important part of it.

Would you hope that Ghost & Rare: Port Ellen will be drunk by people who’ve never tried Port Ellen before? How would you like people to approach it for the first time?

I think at the end of the day my target is the blend, and in a way Port Ellen is part of the story of the blend, rather than this is the story of Port Ellen. Of course, as part of the story is that Port Ellen’s in there, clearly you need to reflect the flavour you’d expect from Port Ellen. If you turn that angle it on its head, then this is an expression of Port Ellen in a different way – you’ve never really experienced Port Ellen like this.

Still searching for the perfect gift? Left your shopping to the last minute?
Don’t worry, Wemyss Malts has you covered!

There are only a few days left to get your orders in for shipping in time for Christmas, order by the 12pm on the 20th December to ensure delivery!

Not only are we offering free shipping till the 20th December, but we have also discounted one of our ‘From the Wemyss Archive’ collections!

Head over to our web-store on the Kingsbarns Distillery Website to purchase now!

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We have taken a huge £100 off our Single Cask Collection ‘Smokey Treats’!

Six smokey bottlings, five from Islay and one from the Highlands unveil the complexities and multiples styles of peated whisky. Containing; Bunnahabhain, Caol Ila, Croftengea and Bowmore this really is a special collection of treats!>

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Personalise Your Bottle

Personalise a bottle of their favourite whisky with a thoughtful, heartfelt message, engraved by a member of our team to ensure the bottle lasts much longer than the whisky!

Next day UK delivery available
International shipping

Shackleton Engraved
with free Limited Edition Glass & Ice Mould

Inspired by the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton and the whisky discovered under the ice of his Antarctic base camp, Richard Paterson has recreated this lost whisky in a personal and deeply felt project. Combining the best Highland malt whiskies and allowing them to marry over a long period, Paterson has created an enigmatic blended malt with a dash of body and a whisper of smoke. With complex notes of vanilla, honey and orchard fruits, the whisky has real warmth and depth, much like Shackleton himself.

£45 Buy Now

Glenmorangie
18 Year Old Engraved with Free Glass

Glenmorangie 18 Years Old is a single malt Scotch whisky of serious distinction. Once it has spent fifteen years maturing in American white oak casks approximately 30% is transferred into Spanish Oloroso casks to spend a further three years maturing. Then, when both elements have reached 18 years, they are blended back together to create a whisky with a rich bouquet and full, rounded flavour. A living legacy, rare in its complexity, yet perfectly balanced.

£109 Buy Now