Day 15 of the Scotch Whisky Advent Calendar 

SCOTCH WHISKY ADVENT CALENDAR 3RD EDITION DAY 15 BLOG #149 – MALT WHISKY COMPANY MACDUFF 16 YEAR OLD

Back in the drivers seat today is Stuart Nickerson from Malt Whisky Company with a bit of a favorite distillery for me. I have had some really good MacDuff whisky over the years and one single cask in particular from A.D. Rattray always stands out for me. Knowing how good Stuart is at picking great casks I have been anticipating this for quite a while.

MacDuff is a Highland Distillery that was originally known as Glen Deveron. You can still find whisky bottled under this name but mostly older casks as even independent bottlers have embraced MacDuff. It was founded in 1962 and is now owned by Bacardi who used the bulk of its Single Malt Whisky for their blends like Dewar’s.

It seems to me that a lot of the independent bottler’s that I work with are finding the merits of using good quality refill casks to allow all of the delicious distillery character to shine through. Today’s whisky is no exception with Stuart choosing a refill cask for this 16 year old MacDuff.

Malt Whisky Company MacDuff 16 Year Old aged in a Refill American Oak Hogshead # 500720 and bottled at the cask strength of 54.9%. No shenanigans involved like caramel coloring or chill filtration here.

Color:   Another extremely light whisky which is the norm for refill casks especially American oak. After 16 years however it is a touch darker than the other refill casks we have seen so far. A nice light wedding ring gold.

Nose:   Hot buttered rum tropical notes. Pineapple and papaya over vanilla bean sorbet.

Palate:   Crunchy fresh breakfast waffle with hints of chunky pineapple and strong Seville orange marmalade sauce dusted with white chocolate flakes. This should be a thing…

Finish: The orange marmalade comes through more strongly than the hint of tropical once we get to the finish. Very fresh and mouth watering. 54.7% is warming and long with just the right amount of bitter orange rind to bring the marmalade note to a delicious conclusion.

Yummo Stuart I know that you guys in the UK love your marmalade but sprinkling in some tropics as well is just crazy. Enough of this frilly Highland nonsense I hear some of you peat inclined saying. Well just because I love you too we will be heading to Islay tomorrow for a dram from those beloved Italians Samaroli.

We can see just how much Johanne loves this MacDuff at whiskylassie.

For those of you that enjoyed this MacDuff, I have good news. We will be getting a very small amount and it will be available for those that act quickly. Please email me at jonathan@secretspirits.com for details.

On this day in the second edition we had the A.D. Rattray Invergordon Single Grain that you can read about here.

I hope you have enjoyed the variety so far as we head into the last 10 days of the calendar which as some of you know is perhaps the best part of the whole experience counting down to Christmas day and hopefully getting more and more family time and fun in along the way.

I look forward to our Islay encounter tomorrow

Slainte

Jonathan – taster of secrets

http://www.singlemalting.com/category/whisky-advent-calendar-2016/

COLLECTORS LOFT

Climb the ladder

If you come and visit us here in Loch Fyne and lift your eyes to heavens, you’ll be able to have a gander at some very special bottles that we keep overhead in our Collector’s Loft. If you can’t make the trip to Inveraray then there’s no need to feel left out – just take a look at some of the collectable bottles we have online!

Next day delivery available on UK orders Worldwide shipping

Loch Fyne Whiskies tel: 0141 427 2919 info@lochfynewhiskies.com www.lochfynewhiskies.com

WhiskyFest Tickets Make a Great Holiday Gift!

ORDER TICKETS

More than 350 whiskies • Seminars by whisky experts • Gourmet buffet

Welcome to you all on this wonderful winter Wednesday. Balvenie, a single malt producer who are known around the world for a luxurious and rich style of honey’d whisky, truly fabulous. However, within their range, as indeed with many other whisky distilleries, there are always a few stranger bottling’s, this is one of those. 

Not very typical in anyway that we really know, Balvenie for. Spicy wood notes, lemon peel, angelica root and hints of eastern spices. Single barrel, all sherried delight aged for fifteen years in one of the finest sherry casks that I’ve ever had the pleasure of owning part of. Enjoy!

—

Whisky Reviews every Wednesday

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Day 14 of the Scotch Whisky Advent Calendar 

SCOTCH WHISKY ADVENT CALENDAR 3RD EDITION DAY 14 BLOG #148 – AINNEAMH SPEYSIDE 18 YEAR OLD

Whisky Wednesday today, also known as hump day for a lot of people as you climb that hill and then speed toward the weekend. Well no need to be afraid of not having fun every day of the week as we get to dip into the 3rd edition for yet another enticing dram.

A second expression from the boys at Ainneamh (remember its pronounced an-yoov). We are certainly getting a great pendulum swing from delicate to peaty so far in this edition. Are you keeping up with this roller coaster ride?

So another mystery dram from Ainneamh. I do love these fun whiskies where you get to decipher clues and see if you can figure out the originating distillery.

Ainneamh Speyside 18 Year Old Single Malt, Cask number 14432 refill American Oak Hogshead. Banffshire bottled at the cask strength of 54.7% with no caramel or chill filtration.

Color: Yep another light whisky in a refill cask. Makes you really think about the massive amounts of artificial color added to whisky in the industry. Why does a whisky have to be dark to be perceived as quality? Only because that’s the line that has traditionally been pushed on you all these years. As we know even a gorgeous 30 year old single malt can be very light and massive on flavor.

Nose:   Flora in spades on this one with oats and honey like top quality steel cut oatmeal freshly drizzled with honey and topped with cream.

Palate:   Candy apple toffee, the red sort (not caramel apples). Crunchy apple acidity like Jonathan apples (yep my namesake fruit). A zesty creaminess like cream stirred with sherbet.

Finish:   Tingly and long, coating and fresh. This is a fantastic aperitif whisky as a palate freshener before dinner. Perhaps between courses instead of the high end ball of shaved lemon ice. I could see a serving of this kind of whisky really taking off in some white table restaurants. I know I would be making my reservation.

If you were in doubt that there is a whisky for every occasion then doubt no more. Fantastic little Speyside here Ainneamh team and amazing freshness for an 18 year old. I do love quality refill casks for this reason. Almost emulates what Samaroli do with their lightly toasted new oak casks.

On this day in the second edition we had the Samaroli Blended Malt comprising of Glenallachie, Glentauchers and MacDuff. You can re-read all about it here.

Whiskylassie is having quite the journey and you can continue to follow her in-depth experiences by visiting here.

If you love this whisky then I unfortunately have bad news for you. Nothing left for us after filling our calendar bottles. We had an unusually high amount of whiskies that ended up being done and dusted once the mini’s were filled this edition. We will try hard to make sure that there is more of each delicious whisky next time around.

Tomorrow we are heading back to my mate Stuart at the Malt Whisky Company for another one of his amazing casks. Highlands here we come.

Slainte

Jonathan – taster of secrets

http://www.singlemalting.com/category/whisky-advent-calendar-2016/

The Malt Maniacs Awards 2016 Results will be published at 10AM tomorrow.

Here. On Whisky Intelligence…

Octomore 2008 – French Oak

A big and powerful Octomore from the Rest & Be Thankful Whisky Company. Aged for 7 years, this heavily peated Islay Scotch whisky from the Bruichladdich distillery was filled into a French oak cask #2008000908, 19th March 2008. 316 bottles were filled at 63.9% vol.

Limited Stock at this price! 

RRP £193.96 AW £180.00 Now!

£167.00

Day 13 of the Scotch Whisky Advent Calendar 

SCOTCH WHISKY ADVENT CALENDAR 3RD EDITION DAY 13 BLOG #147 – A.D. RATTRAY AUCHROISK 25 YEAR OLD

Welcome to lucky day 13 of the 3rd edition. As a treat for being so lucky we have the oldest whisky so far in the lineup waiting to be poured into your NEAT glass.

Auchroisk (pronounced Ah-thrusk) is a Speyside distillery that started production in 1974. Owned by the Diageo group, the brand that is most recognizable to consumers is Singleton as it was called starting in 1986 to make it easier for those outside of Scotland to pronounce. It was released as a Flora and Fauna series by Diageo in 2001 as Auchroisk but then changed back to Singleton of Auchroisk in 2008. Now that we are even more confused than ever but thankful that A.D. Rattray managed to get this rare older expression of a unique distillery, lets get on with some tasting. Auchroisk is a big distillery in the Diageo stable and produces 3.1 million liters of pure alcohol per year and is mostly used for the juggernaut Blended Scotch brand J&B.

A.D. Rattray Auchroisk 1991 – Aged for 25 years in an American Oak ex Bourbon barrel # 7531 without chill filtration or caramel color and at the cask strength of 53%.

Color:   14 Carat Gold

Nose:   Fresh sweet spiced apples ready to bake into a pie. If I were to pick the apple I would say Granny Smith.

Palate:   Freshness and sweet zesty tangy apples and pears with a hint of star anise, clove and vanilla.

Finish:   53% is there but not overpowering and the apple pie that started on the nose is still there for me but this time the baking is done and some biscuit crumble base underlines the fruit.

This is a great example of a fresh older whisky. I absolutely love this style of single malt. Zesty freshness meets barrel aging complexity. A rare find for A.D. Rattray and one that I was really happy to scoop up for the 3rd edition. Alas there are absolutely no bottles available to purchase which is such a shame and unfortunately the reality of single cask whiskies.

Lets see what the fun and famed whiskylassie thinks of this rarer older treat here.

On this day in the 2nd edition we had the pleasure of introducing Single Cask Nation for their debut in our calendars. Their Undisclosed Islay 2008 was also the first whisky ever to have zero full bottles available after we took whisky for the Scotch Whisky Advent Calendar mini’s. It is fitting I guess that today’s dram suffers the same fate (booo).

It was indeed fantastic to have a 20 something whisky today to showcase what good older whisky can bring to the table but also underline how good some of the younger whisky has been so far. Remember that age is only an indicator of expense not quality.

Tomorrow we are tasting another single cask from the guys at Ainneamh. This time from a different region.

Until tomorrow you had better savor your Auchroisk 25 year old because there is no more unless you seek out a second calendar.

Slainte

Jonathan – taster of secrets

http://www.singlemalting.com/category/whisky-advent-calendar-2016/

Inspired by the long-gone tradition of our daily whisky ration, the cask strength Teapot Dram V is deliberately young and bold. A strictly limited release of just five first fill Oloroso sherry butts, it’s only available from the distillery. Packed with flavour – porridge, strawberries and pepper on the nose, spicy oak, cinnamon swirl and walnuts on the tongue – the Teapot Dram is the perfect way to show your appreciation of that special whisky-lover in your life. And to keep them sweet for the year to come.

BUY THE TEAPOT DRAM

ONLY THE GOOD STUFF FOR THE GLENGOYNE TEAM

The workers’ daily dram: a vital part of distillery life until the 1970s. It was usually a meagre tumbler of new-make spirit, hot off the stills. But not at Glengoyne. Our daily dram was always from a young, flavour-packed sherry cask – so that’s exactly what you’ll find in the Teapot Dram V. What better way to show our appreciation of the team’s time and care?

FIRST ORDERS, LAST ORDERS

The first orders should be landing on doorsteps by Friday 16 December.
Want to be sure it’ll be there for Christmas? Here are the last order dates:

Last order date for UK shipping: 18 December
Last order date for international shipping: 15 December

QC Relish and Whisky publishes their sixth issue focussing on the very best of food and drink to make your holidays merry and bright. This edition highlights a very special gift for any whisky connoisseur, Secret Spirits’ Scotch Whisky Advent Calendar. Canadian whisky barons, Gooderham and Worts share the history of their iconic brand. All the tips, gifts and spirits you need to celebrate the season.

ISSUE WINTER 2016