Ralfy ends twelve long months with Whisky Review Malt of the Year 2016

Chivas Brothers Success at the Whisky Magazine Icons of Whisky Awards

We are very proud to announce two members of the Chivas Brothers family were successful at the Whisky Magazine Icons of Whisky Scotland awards recently. The prestigious ceremony was held at Surgeons’ Hall in Edinburgh on 2 December.

Master Blender for The Glenlivet Alan Winchester was named Master Distiller / Master Blender of the year, and Rikki Scott of Aberlour Distillery won Visitor Attraction Manager of the year.

We are sure you will join us in wishing both many congratulations on these well-deserved accolades.

Full list of winners and biographies here. 

CELEBRATE: EDINBURGH HOGMANAY AT THE SOCIETY

HOGMANAY IN THE DINING ROOM 

Location: 28 Queen Street, Edinburgh

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Finishing off the Christmas season in style, Glenfarclas! Now, typically for people that know my drinking habits, Glenfarclas isn’t something that normally makes my drinks shelf. I’ve always found it a bit too subtle. However, times change and after searching for a number of years, i’ve finally found a Glenfarclas that ticks all of my boxes.

This 1994 vintage was bottled in 2014, at the age of twenty-years old. It has everything that you could ever want from a rich and sweet Speysider! It’s such a buttery style of single malt which sadly only has a wee bit left in the bottles. Thank you to my work colleagues who bought this for me in 2015 for my birthday, they know me better than i know myself. Enjoy, folks!

View the review here

Our Favourite Whiskies of 2016

As we approach the end of 2016, it’s time to look back at the TWE blog team’s favourite whiskies of the past 12 months. It doesn’t have to be a new release; just the drams we happened to taste this year that we loved the most. So, what did we go for? Read on…

Stuart

My choice goes to a whisky from a distillery that’s under the radar for most drinkers, despite sharing a name with a rather famous mountain that happens to be Britain’s tallest: Ben Nevis. Located in the western Highlands, the distillery stays firmly in the shadows, despite being owned by high-profile Japanese whisky giant Nikka.

The whisky I’ve chosen is Ben Nevis 10 Year Old, a robust, full-flavoured dram that oozes notes of orange peel, chocolate, coffee and a touch of peatsmoke. What really impresses is the complexity – this dram tastes much older than 10 years, and I would put money on the liquid being closer to 15 years old or even more.

There’s something delightfully old school about the packaging, too – a welcome break from the try-hard glitz and glamour of some bottles – and it says to me that all the hard work has been spent on the liquid, which, when you taste it, is definitely the case. Oh, and a bottle will set you back less than £40 – I’m struggling to think of many whiskies that offer so much for the price.

Billy

My favourite whisky of the year is one that surprised me – Inchmurrin 12 Year Old. For years, Loch Lomond Distillers, the maker of Inchmurrin, hasn’t had a great reputation, but since a recent change of ownership it has been making waves. Inchmurrin 12 appeared at The Whisky Show in 2015 and reports were impressive – stacks of tropical-fruit flavour. The whisky lived up to its reputation and I’ve spent this year shocking people by revealing that the whisky that they’ve just drunk is an Inchmurrin.

Nose: Creamy and fruity, with apple sauce, mango, pineapple and vanilla.

Palate: All of the fruit: sultanas, grapes, apples, pears, candied lemon, sweet mango and dried papaya. Hints of spice build as it warms in the mouth.

Finish: Short, with a hint of fruity sorbet.

Keep an eye on Loch Lomond, as the new Inchmurrin is just the first step. The distillery’s relaunched single grain is excellent (and very well priced) and there’s much more to come.

Rocky

It’s hard to choose just one whisky as the best I’ve tried this year, but one that I consistently come back to is an old favourite – Amrut Fusion. Sitting in the middle of the Indian distillery’s range in smoky terms, it’s a fusion of barley: unpeated from northern India and peated from Scotland.

It’s wonderfully complex and moreish with notes of orange, black pepper, vanilla and light smoke. A superb example of the top-quality whiskies coming out of India today, I love showing this blind at tastings and seeing people’s reactions when they discover where it’s from – give it a try and prepare to have your perceptions challenged!

All three whiskies are available on our website; keep your eye on the blog for our favourite spirits of 2016, too.

Laphroaig 2016 “Cairdeas” Madeira Cask Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky (750ml)

$79.99

Phone: (877) KL-WINES (Toll Free 877.559.4637)

Email: wine@klwines.com

K&L Wine Merchants 3005 El Camino Real Redwood City, CA 94061 USA

San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA

Wednesday, December 28th 5-7PM

Belle Meade Bourbon

Enjoy a holiday spirits tasting with Belle Meade Bourbon! Known for its spicy high rye content, Belle Meade Bourbon’s signature recipe was designed to be a versatile Bourbon to be enjoyed whether served neat, with a splash, on the rocks, or in a well-made cocktail.

With each hand-selected batch being made from only four barrels of whiskey, Belle Meade is a truly small-batch bourbon. An extensive selection process is utilized to make sure every batch is perfectly balanced before release, resulting in a smooth, award-winning whiskey.

Click Here to RSVP on Facebook

December Quarterly Newsletter

Are you there Society? It’s me, Nathan.

Some of you haven’t heard from me in a couple of months, I hope you are all still well. Things have been very busy here at Springbank Towers, and for me specifically (I’ll address that in the next section of this newsletter) so it hasn’t always been easy to keep in touch. Therefore, I thought it best to send out the next edition of our “regular” Quarterlies before the Springbank office closes for the holidays; from Wednesday 21st December 2016 until early next year.

Nevertheless, please be assured that Springbank (and Glengyle) continues to march forward as steadily as we always have. The nights get darker, the wind gets colder and the days get shorter but we are a hardy sort in Campbeltown so we keep on keepin’ on, dreaming of the warmth of spring.

Actually, once we get to spring time, it won’t be long until a certain festival…

More on that next time. First though, let us discuss these pesky Society bottles.

Society bottle update 

I can happily say that, after initial delays caused by waiting on the lottery draw to happen, there has been substantial progress in getting people’s society bottles out to them and many of you have your bottles or, at the very least, have confirmed arrangements regarding how you are going to obtain them in the future. If this sounds like you (and it should sound familiar to many of you) and you have your bottles, feel free to skip forward to the next section of this email.

Everyone else, this section is for you. If you emailed me at the start of November (especially if you contacted me on the 1st or 2nd of November) and have not heard back from me, please send me an email at society@springbankwhisky.com and I shall get back to you as soon as possible in the new year.

Also, if you have received confirmation from me that you have secured a bottle/bottles and would like it delivered to your personal address, please get in touch at the same address and I shall do my best to get your order to you as soon as possible.

Lastly, if you are having your order sent to one of the European Cadenhead shops (Cologne, Berlin, Odense or Salzburg) I shall be in touch with you as soon as I can to let you know when you can pick up your order.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it; to everyone that does not then I hope you enjoy the holiday period in whatever way you wish. With a dram or two, perhaps?

Have a happy new year and I look forward to speaking to you all in January. I will not be in the office during the dates I mentioned above (21st Dec – early January) so if you email me please do not be alarmed if you do not receive a reply during this time. I will reply to you as soon as possible upon my return.

Year in Review

What a year 2016 has been and while it is nearly gone, it will never be forgotten. Obviously, the highlight of the year happened in April as that is when I joined the company…

No? Ok then, lets have a look at some of the more memorable events, facts and figures of 2016.

Almost 400 new members joined the Society; welcome aboard all of you. I’m sure you’ll love being a part of the Springbank family, and Mairi Paterson, who wrote you all a Christmas message last year, has told me that the number of people going on distillery tours has gone up by 16% (excluding December figures). We are continuously delighted that people enjoy coming to our distillery and our town. Thank you to everyone that came in 2016 and if you didn’t make to Campbeltown this year, I hope we see you in 2017.

Away back in January we had the first Local Barley general release since 2001. I wasn’t working at Springbank then but I am told that went down rather well, especially amongst Society members. Should we wait another 15 years before releasing the next one?

We celebrated the 12th birthday of Kilkerran in March, followed by the release of Kilkerran 12yo in August which was a proud moment for so many people at J&A Mitchell.

We featured in a BBC documentary entitled “Scotch! The Story of Whisky” that I am sure you can still find it online if you look. The presenter, David Hayman, came to Campbeltown to film during the Malts Festival. The Campbeltown Malts Festival, and our Springbank Open Day within, continues to grow and is now an immovable centrepiece of the Springbank year. I met many of you for the first time at this year’s festival and I am sure I will meet so many more of you in May 2017.

Over the course of the year our sales team, Manager Ranald Watson along with David Allen, Grant Macpherson, Melanie Stanger and Fraser Milloy, visited 21 countries (challenge: name them all), attended 61 whisky shows/festivals and conducted approximately 100 tastings; including one Grant did on a nuclear submarine.

Melanie’s year could almost be split in half: the first half of the year was all about Kilkerran before her attention returned to Springbank.

And David did a bungee jump; he wanted me to mention that.

Upcoming Trips and Events 

This section is dedicated to listing the upcoming events our sales team shall be attending in the early part of next year. When I did this for the last quarterly, the list went on for about a thousand pages but thankfully Jan-Mar is a much quieter period of time in the whisky world.

13th-14th January – Grant is attending the Harrow Whisky Festival

14th January – David is in Tromso, Norway for the Arctic Whisky Festival.

18th January – Melanie starts a tour of Canada, beginning at Edmonton Whisky Fair.

19th January –  Then she is off to Calgary for their Whisky Fair

21st January – Melanie attends the Victoria Whisky Festival

23rd January – And to finish, Melanie is at the Whiskey Classique in Vancouver

16th-18th February – This time it is Sweden for our Dave; he is at the Viking Cinderella Whisky Fair.

10th-11th March – Whisky Lounge Newcastle takes place and Grant will be there

11th March – Melanie will be at Whisky + Friends in Warsaw, Poland

17th-18th March – Grant is on the road again; he is at the Midlands Whisky Festival for Nickolls and Perks

31st March – 1st April: Melanie is our representative at Whiskyschiff Luzern

And finally, I wanted to remind everyone that has not signed up to the Society section of our website that they are missing out if they don’t!

As well as keeping the general news section of our website up to date with news from the distillery and new releases as they happen, we also have a dedicated news section for our special Society Members. In this section you will be able to keep up to date with the latest special Society bottlings and be the first to find out news. Of course, when we have very important information to give you such as a new Society bottling or any new release from the distillery then this information will continue to be emailed but other day-to-day news will be added to the website.

I would urge all members to register for an online account to keep up to date with the news as it happens. To create an account please follow these instructions:

• Go to www.springbankwhisky.com
• Click on the ‘Society’ tab along the top of the page
• Click on the ‘Confirm Log-In Details’ orange tab
• Please enter all the information that is required
• Once you have submitted this information, a notification should be displayed to tell you that an email has been sent to your given email address and it will ask you to verify this email address
• Please open this email in your email account and click the link to verify your email
• Once you have done this, I will receive a notification informing me that a new member has signed up to the website so I will then activate your account for online use
• When your account has been activated, you will be able to read all news stories in the Society section. To log in, just click the ‘Log-In to Society News’ tab where you will just be asked to enter your username and password for access.

And so, we have reached the end of both this newsletter and this year. I have attached the opening times for the Campbeltown Cadenhead Shop to the bottom of this email for your attention.

Campbeltown Cadenhead Shop Contact Details:

email: shop@wmcadenhead.com

phone: +44 (0)1586 551710

I will be back in touch with you all in January when everything begins again.

But not everything will be the same.

#Change Jan2017

Slainte

Nathan

For the Springbank Society

For information on how to joint he Society please contact Nathan via society@springbankwhisky.com

https://www.facebook.com/officialspringbankwhisky/

https://twitter.com/Springbank1828

The Whisky Advocate has unveiled their award winners for 2016 and in response we’ve scrambled to make sure our shelves are stocked-up with the top picks. After some urgent calls to our distributors, we’re thrilled to announce we’ve secured the winners for the following categories: Speyside Single Malt, Islay Single Malt, Highland Single Malt, Irish Whiskey, and Japanese Whisky.

2016 has been a banner year for spirits as we’ve seen a meteoric rise in both quality and diversity. The top award winners here reflect the very best in an increasingly competitive market. These category defining benchmarks and are absolute must-haves for collectors. As you would expect, quantities for many of these bottlings are limited, so you’ll need to act quickly to secure these award winners.

Glenrothes Vintage Reserve Single Malt Whisky (750ml) (Elsewhere $44.99) ($32.99)

Whisky Advocate: “The 1989 whisky is said to bring mellow oak and dried fruits to the overall composition, while 1998 whisky accounts for more than 25 percent of the total makeup and gives soft, mature, sweet vanilla notes. The youngest whisky (from 2007) adds lemon citrus character. The overall effect is a beautifully harmonious, complex dram in classic Speyside style. Purists may prefer individual vintage year bottlingsand 1995, 1998, and 2001 expressions are currently available in the U.S., but the price of Vintage Reserve makes it an attractive alternative and allows the imbiber to appreciate all the varying facets of this single malt.”

K&L Notes: The Whisky Advocate’s choice for 2016 “Speyside Whisky of the Year,” the Glenrothes Vintage utilizes whiskies distilled 1989, 1992, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 that have been married together in wood.

Redbreast “Lustau Edition” Sherry Finished Irish Whiskey (750ml) ($64.99)

Whisky Advocate: “Theres something special about the oloroso influence on the single pot still style that works beautifully here. The sherry sculpts the whiskey, giving it definition and producing a clean, refined elegance. The nose is intensely fragrant, bursting with fat dates and squidgy prunes, red apple and Battenburg cake. Its fruity, yet delectably bone dry with oak, walnut, and spices. In the mouth, there are red berry fruits, apples, and marzipan, and the whiskey delivers a creamy yet oily consistency with a clean, sweet oloroso finish.”

K&L Notes: Winner of the Whisky Advocates 2016 “Irish Whiskey of the Year” award. Redbreast’s classic pot-still Irish whiskey collides with rich and round Lustau sherry in this new Midleton distillery edition. What I particularly love about the whiskey is that the sherry is artfully and gracefully integrated into the true Irish character. It’s more like a light frosting on a delicious Midleton cake. The soft vanilla notes are still present, the light fruits and gentle grains that real Irish whiskey fans hold so dearly, but they’re elevated, enhanced, and lifted by the sherry, particularly on the finish where the richness combines to create an oiliness with the grainy notes. I’d drink this over the Green Spot any day of the week. To me, it’s a vast improvement. (David Driscoll, K&L Spirits buyer)

Nikka “Yoichi” Japanese Single Malt Whisky (750ml) ($79.99)

Whisky Advocate: “A compelling nose of black earthy peat, smoldering fires, a turned-out pocket of briny seashells, whole lime, lemon twist, sugared orange, ground ginger, and licorice. Silky smooth on the tongue, with light, fruity sweetness developing into tangy Spangles, kiwi, and lime juice. The smoky peat is the weft woven through the fruit structures warp. Menthol, peat, and leather go the distance. This Japanese whisky is delicious, elegant, and affordable; perfectly pitched for cogitative drinking by those loyal to the Japanese single malt scene.”

K&L Notes: Winner of the Whisky Advocate’s 2016 “Japanese Whisky of the Year” award! Nikka’s latest release from Yoichi distillery no longer carries an age statement, but it does bring a classically Japanese whisky profile back to the market. All the delicacy, grace, and subtle complexity is alive and well in this release, buried deeply into a whisper of malt for those who take the time to let it be heard. The first sip is almost ghostly, but it’s the second and third return that yield the slightest hint of peat smoke, the creamiest of malts, and the lovely roundness of sweet stonefruit. This is textbook Japanese whisky: a flavor reserved so as not to overwhelm potential food pairings like sushi or other delicate offerings, yet a wonderful depth of flavor done with the slightest of hands. Yoichi is located on Japan’s Hokkaido island where such food pairings are prevalent. It’s definitely a single malt with a sense of place. The gentle smell and flavor of the sea linger long on the finish.

Andrew Stevens | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: September 21, 2016

This may be my favorite offering from Nikka, which is saying something. The whisky opens with fruit, hints of spice, and of course a lovely layer of peat. Unlike some of the other Nikkas, this whisky plays on a more fruity note, loaded with baked pears and green apple, and baking spices like cinnamon and cardamom finish it off. The peat here is more smoldering than outright smoke and adds to the complexity. The lack of age statement here in no way diminishes from how good this bottle is, working well either neat or as a highball.

Lagavulin 25 Year Old Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky (750ml) ($1,149.99)

Whisky Advocate: “The 25 year old is fascinating in its complexity, both on the nose and palate. Aromas of new leather, tropical fruits, brittle toffee, and brine are backed by spicy peat smoke, while smoky sherry notes develop in time. It is at its best neat, with the strength being no deterrent. The palate is rich and confident, with sweet peat, brine, muted sherry, figs, gentle spices, tangerines, and lemons. The finish is lengthy, with a barbecue note, malt, and lots of gentle smoke. An extremely fine Lagavulin.”

K&L Notes: The Whisky Advocate’s 2016 choice for “Islay Whisky of the Year,” this 25 year old edition of Lagavulin commemorates the 200th anniversary of the legendary Islay distillery. Aged in prime sherry butts.

Brora 38 Year Old Limited Edition Special Release Single Malt Whisky (750ml)  ($2,199.99)

Whisky Advocate: “It possesses all the balance, variety, and complexity along with the robust, old-fashioned coastal, oily, smoky virtues that make Brora such a consistently high scorer, but there is a greater emphasis on ashy peat than in last years equally excellent bottling. Lost distilleries such as Brora tend to attract a sense of mystique and romanticism simply because they are no longer active and, in many cases, have disappeared beneath shopping malls and housing developments. Brora, however, remains intact with its old, riveted pair of stills in situ, and visitors to Clynelish may get a peek into the stillhouse, if they ask nicely! Mystique and romanticism apart, Brora stands up to any scrutiny as a fantastic whisky”

K&L Notes: The Whisky Advocate’s 2016 “Highland Whisky of the Year” selection, Brora has always held a soft spot in the hearts of single malt’s most devoted drinkers. The distillery was founded in 1819 as Clynelish, and traded as such until the construction of a ‘new’ Clynelish alongside the old two-pot operation during 1967-68. At that point the Clynelish name was brora-38transformed to the shiny, modern version, and ‘old’ Clynelish was briefly mothballed before being resurrected in 1969 as Brora. The 2016 Special Release of 38 year old Brora was the fifteenth, and the oldest house bottling to be released. It was matured in a mix of refill American oak hogsheads and refill European oak butts.

Phone: (877) KL-WINES (Toll Free 877.559.4637) Email: wine@klwines.com K&L Wine Merchants 3005 El Camino Real Redwood City, CA 94061 USA San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA

Glen Garioch 21 Year Old – 1994

We continue The Rare Casks story with this magnificent Glen Garioch, the sixth release in the series. Distilled in 1994 and fully matured in a refill hogshead until 2016, only 126 bottles have been filled exclusively for Abbey Whisky.

As with each previous release in The Rare Casks series, the whisky has been bottled in it’s natural form, at full cask strength, without chill filtration or colour additives.

£99.98