Ralfy sails into the Atlantic off the coast of Africa with Whisky Review 620 – Glenfiddich 19yo Madeira cask finish.

Universal Whisky Experience, 1621 Central Avenue, Cheyenne, WY 82001

Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose Springbank.

Hello everyone!

I hope 2017 is treating you well so far. I’m sure it is. We are all back at work, some of our sales team have even been away to whisky shows already. Life in Campbeltown plows on as usual, largely unaffected by the outside world. It has not been that cold though (relatively speaking) considering it is January in Scotland. I’m sure winter will come.

And when it does we have whisky to keep us warm and on that note…

I am pleased to be writing to you all to talk about 2 Springbank releases.

Springbank 25yo

Yes, it’s finally ready. After unfortunate delays, I am pleased to say the new Springbank 25yo (46% abv) is bottled and ready to go.

Tasting notes

Nose: Lots of fruit with a mixture of grapefruit peel, dried tropical fruits, wine gums and a touch of cassis

Palette: Orange peel, honeycomb, brandy snaps, black pepper and tobacco leaf

Finish: Mineral notes combining with fennel, tea leaf and leather against a background of soft burning embers

It is available in our Campbeltown Cadenhead shop now and elsewhere in the UK from the end of this week. Releases in other countries/markets will vary throughout the weeks ahead. Please contact your local retailers and stockists for more information, details of whom can be found by visiting shop@wmcadenhead.com .

If you would like to buy it directly from us you can contact our Campbeltown Cadenhead shop by calling +44 (0)1586 551710 or email shop@wmcadenhead.com. I will not be taking orders for this as I am not aware of our shop’s stock or allocation. There will be approximately 900 bottles available worldwide.

Need to know:

• The Campbeltown Cadenhead shop will be selling the Springbank 25yo for £350.00
• This is not a Society exclusive bottle
• This is not considered a core product so there will be no Society discount on this bottling.

Springbank 12yo Cask Strength

The second bottling I am happy to tell you all about is the Springbank 12yo CS, matured in 70% Sherry casks, 30% Bourbon casks and bottled at 54.2%.

Tasting notes

Nose: Forest full of pine and chestnut trees with iodine and a hint of peat

Palette: rich citrus marmalade on toast and toasted marshmallows, hint of vanilla and pepper. Meaty.

Finish: Viscous, with salty edge. Ham join marinated in a honey sauce.

It is available in our Campbeltown Cadenhead shop now and elsewhere in the UK from the end of this week. Releases in other countries/markets will vary throughout the weeks ahead. Please contact your local retailers and stockists for more information, details of whom can be found by visiting http://www.springbankwhisky.com/distributors/.If you would like to buy it directly from us you can contact our Campbeltown Cadenhead shop by calling +44 (0)1586 551710 or email shop@wmcadenhead.com. I will not be taking orders for this as I am not aware of our shop’s stock or allocation.

Need to know:

• The Campbeltown Cadenhead shop will be selling the Springbank 12yo Cask Strength for £47.00
• This is not a Society exclusive bottle
• This is a core product so the Society discount does apply on this bottling!

As you should all see below, there are some product sheets attached to this email which has tasting notes and other product information on them in a bit more detail than I included above. I am sure we shall all speak soon.

Slainte,

Nathan

For the Springbank Society

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

Twitter –  https://twitter.com/Springbank1828

Instagram –  Search Springbank Whisky (@springbankwhisky1828)

(I hope enough of you got the Trainspotting reference at the start of the newsletter)

Please contact Nathan if you wish to join the Springbank Society

Hi folks. We are making a change to our terms and conditions. From the 71st auction there will be a new insert fee of £15 for non-alcohol items. Cask ends, paintings, prints, magazines, books, glasses, toys, water jugs etc will have the higher charge levied. These items are very bulky or awkward to handle and pack and therefore take up more time than bottles of whisky.

Regards from Glasgow

The SWA Team

Morning, everyone! Old Islay whiskies are something to be thoroughly enjoyed by all. There’s something very distinctive about having that smoke element die down and allowing those big, exotic, oak driven fruit flavours to shin through. This one specifically has that in bucket loads.  

Caol Ila may be the largest distillery in Islay, and a lot of it’s stock gets used for blending, but what is bottled is always fantastic! When it’s above the age of 18 years old, it’s something to be put on a plinth and celebrated in as many ways as possible. Enjoy! 

https://youtu.be/eejnsTyCWR8

Whisky Reviews every Wednesday

Facebook.com/whiskytube

Twitter.com/whiskytube

Youtube.com/whiskywednesday

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 151: Smoking Buffalo 8th Edition (Caol Ila)

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, tries a special peated whisky. Smoking Buffalo is a label from a Belgian bottler under which they release peated whisky to honor the local football club AA Gent. For this 8th edition, they bottled a feisty Caol Ila 2010 at cask strength, a whopping 60,5% ABV. It turns out this is the ideal winter dram. The video was shot at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

https://youtu.be/JQcEsYcQhBQ

Ardbeg “Kildalton” Single Malt Scotch Whisky

Only 3 Available!

Exclusive Web Price £617.95

Tasting notes –

Dense and fragrant nose with plenty of heather honey, fish oils and slightly astringent coastal notes. Lightly phenolic with a touch of tar, very herbal peat and late coffeed notes. Dense and fleshy with barley and soft fruit. Freshens as the coastal notes arrive. The peat is pleasantly herbal with a light coffee note. Long, mouth-watering and sooty finish with hints of violet, wood and a lightly tarry aftertaste. A lovely Islay, with a seriously sooty finish.

The classic Islay nose of peat bogs with a hint of basil and fennel. The palate delivers more fennel and peat and some cinnamon. Finish is like apple doughnuts and smoke.

Oyster shells, palate is flinty and sweet like sea foam on slate.

Buy Now

Ardbeg Distillery is a Scotch whisky distillery in Ardbeg on the south coast of the isle of Islay, Argyll and Bute, Scotland, in the Inner Hebrides group of islands.

Free In-Store Whisky Sampling

Wednesday 25th January

We’re inviting you to join us for a free whisky tasting in-store on Wednesday 25th January.

Visit The Whisky Shop to try all six of the drams avaialble for tasting with guidance from our staff. Toast the Immortal Memory with each one and get your Burns Night celebrations off to a good start!

The following stores will be hosting an in-store sampling from 1pm on Wednesday 25th January:

Bath Birmingham Brighton Edinburgh, Victoria Street Edinburgh, Waverley Mall Essex, Lakeside Glasgow Guildford Inverness London, Paternoster London, Piccadilly Manchester Newcastle, Metro Centre (Gateshead) Norwich Nottingham Oxford Stoke on Trent, Trentham Gardens York

All the whiskies available for sampling will be included in our W Club members-only offers, so if you want 10% off the price of a full bottle – along with a host of other benefits – join the W Club in-store on the day or online now for only £20 per year.

Ralfy explores the growing influence of Whisky auctions with Ralfy Review 619 – Whiskies I bought at Auctions.

Jim Murray – ‘I went to Talisker and it changed my life’

In the first part of our exclusive interview, Jim Murray tells Stuart how Lord Lucan helped him get into whisky, how he helped create the rye boom, and why sulphur is the enemy of a great dram…

Before you wrote about whisky, you were a Fleet Street reporter. How did you get involved in journalism? I was still at school. I covered league cricket at the age of 14, so earned my first pennies at that tender age. After school, I wouldn’t go home, I would go to the paper and during my holidays I’d work for them, too. I set up my own press agency when I was 20, covering the Midlands. I was getting stories on the front pages of national newspapers, so I was known around Fleet Street. I did hard investigations – I specialised in murders, turned over crooks, paedophiles, you name it. It was a long, hard, enjoyable and diverse career.

Why the move into whisky? Jim Milne of J&B was holding a seminar where he had these whiskies marked X, Y and Z, but they didn’t say the name of the distillery. I nosed one and said ‘This doesn’t go in your blend; it’s Fettercairn.’ He looked at me and said ‘Yes, that is Fettercairn, and the only reason it’s here is because it’s a mistake.’ We talked and we became mates because there was great respect between us. It was Jim who told me that I should write my views on whisky, because until then all I’d done was generic pieces on history and distilleries. I remember turning to my [now] ex-wife and said I was going to give up Fleet Street and do this full time, which horrified her. I was on a well-paid job and there was no guarantee of earning anything whatsoever.

Where does your love of whisky come from? I was working on the Lord Lucan story at the age of 16, which was fun. I finally got a holiday and I was determined to get to a distillery, and determined to get to an island. I went on the boat to Skye, got to Talisker distillery and it literally changed my life. I remember the aromas, the sounds, I remember going into the warehouse. It’s as if it happened yesterday, it’s so vivid.

You’re a huge bourbon fan, too… I got my taste for bourbon before I went to Talisker. When I left school at 16, I spent a month in America with relatives before joining the press agency. I tasted about 40 whiskeys – I looked a lot older than 16! [Later] I went to live in Kentucky for about four months and kept going back. I learned and learned. The one thing I said to them was they have to start producing more rye, but they said rye is dead. I said no chance, because people can’t get enough Islay whisky, and rye is their Islay – it’s the big, ballsy one that makes a statement. And rye has now gone through the roof.

I’m proud of the fact I got the American industry to re-examine rye. And I got the Irish whiskey industry to get pot still going, because that was dead. It’s the old campaigning journalist in me – if you believe in something, you go out and fight your campaign. And people are drinking Japanese now. I was on a flight and the guy next to me said ‘Are you Jim Murray? My God, you’ve cost me some money. The Yamazaki [Sherry Cask 2013, which won Jim’s 2015 World Whisky of the Year] – I managed to get three bottles and each one cost me £2,000 each, but it really was the best whisky I’d ever tasted in my life.’ It’s lovely when you hear things like that, because you feel vindicated.

Talking of sherry-cask whisky, you’re notoriously outspoken about sulphur… Everyone should have an issue with sulphur! You get ridiculous PR people who are paid to do what they’re told coming out with ridiculous statements saying that this [sulphur] just adds to the flavour of whisky. It doesn’t add; it detracts, it ruins whisky. That is why you’ve got copper pot stills, to make it nice and clean, beautiful and bright, and honeyed and sweet, and then you put it into sulphur and you f*** it up! Sorry, but there are so many thick people in the industry, it’s terrifying, and they’re all covering their tracks.

I remember there was a guy in America who had his own column about whisky, and I mentioned the sulphur thing, and he goes ‘What problem?’ I said ‘Are you serious? You’re a whisky writer. That’s like being a football correspondent and not knowing what offside is.’

What’s the most underrated distillery? God, there are so many. From Scotland, I would say two: Clynelish should be brought out as a really special whisky. It [Diageo] doesn’t do with it what they could do with it. But I understand why, because Clynelish is such an important blending whisky because it’s got so much character. The other one would be Glentauchers, which I discovered back in the early 1980s.

And the most overrated? Fettercairn.

What’s the next big country for whisky? The two countries that could do really well are Australia and India. Australia is fantastic – what they’re bringing out, there may not be much of it but my God, I do look forward to doing the Australian section [of Jim’s Whisky Bible]. I think Australia has so much potential. And Taiwan is making some brilliant whisky.

What do you drink when you’re not drinking whisky? Real ale – I love it. And I’m pretty useful on rum, but I don’t think it’s understood at all. Rum is the only spirit you should put caramel in, for instance. I don’t think you should put caramel in whisky. The industry says caramel does not affect the flavour; yes, it does, massively. I’m pretty good on gin, but I don’t have time – writing the Bible alone takes four to five months a year, and the rest of the time I’m going round the world doing TV and shows.

Would you recommend people buying certain whiskies to invest? The whole point of the Bible is to actually enjoy the whisky. For me, it’s about tasting it, not stashing it away and making loads of money. I would never say to people to go and buy a whisky for investment. I went to Clynelish [a number of years ago], and the manager took me to the original distillery, renamed Brora. He showed me a warehouse and said to me: ‘This is our Brora. I’ve got two warehouses of this. The blenders don’t want to use it because there’s only x amount of it, and once it’s run out, it’s run out. They want to use whiskies that they can continue using; we don’t know what to do with it.’ And he added ‘If you know anyone who wants to buy all this stock…’ I swear, two warehouses of Brora!

What about NAS whiskies? I can understand why it’s happening. I don’t have a problem with NAS personally – the original Glenfiddich had no age statement, for example. It was like eating a slightly underripe gooseberry – it had this tartness to it, but also this really gorgeous natural feel, and it was refreshing. But when they brought it up to 12 [years old], you could feel that maybe they’d upped the caramel a bit, and that tartness and the liveliness vanished and down it went. I think age can be a red herring.

Read the second half of our Jim Murray interview next Sunday (January 29th), in which he reveals his strict rules for choosing his World Whisky of the Year, his response to critics of the Whisky Bible, and his retirement plans.