www.ralfy.com takes a sober look at liquor with Whisky Review 605 – The Seven Levels of Intoxication

Five Questions: Kirsteen Campbell, master blender, The Famous Grouse

Kirsteen Campbell is master blender for both The Famous Grouse and Cutty Sark. We caught up with her to ask her about blended whisky, single malts and more.

What are the key stylistic and flavour profiles of Famous Grouse you keep in mind when creating a new batch? First and foremost, it’s important to ensure consistency for every batch – while there might be slight tweaks in terms of casks batch to batch, it’s essential that the flavour remains the same. For Famous Grouse we are looking for its signature sherry style – dried fruits and spices from European oak balanced with sweet vanilla and citrus notes from the American oak. It’s also important to consider a lovely smooth mouthfeel and good-quality grain whiskies play a big role in this.

What is the core single malt that The Famous Grouse couldn’t do without? The Famous Grouse contains some highly renowned single malts, including The Macallan and Highland Park. Another malt which is very important is Glenturret.

What’s the single-most important skill for a master blender? You have to have a natural nosing ability to be able to smell and pick up aromas but it is also essential to be able to describe what you are detecting, particularly pulling apart quite complex aromas. A lot of being skilled as a master blender does come down to experience and learning what flavours work well together and picking up ones which don’t work quite so well.

What’s the biggest misconception about blended whisky? That blends are inferior to single malts. All whiskies have their own unique style, and suit different drinking occasions. Successfully blending whiskies is a skilled process which can take months. Blends are highly complex whiskies made up from casks from several different distilleries, from a mix of wood types, delivering an enormous range of flavours – that’s something that isn’t always appreciated.

What do you like to drink when you’re not drinking whisky? I’m a big lover of wine, but my knowledge is fairly limited and I want to learn more – so much so that some friends and I have set up our own wine club!

Caol Ila 2003 Private Collection

New 2016 expression matured in Sassicaia wine casks selected and bottled by Gordon & MacPhail. The result is a single malt with a curious mix of summer fruits, bonfire notes and milk chocolate. Nose: Cured bacon aromas lead to blueberry, strawberry, and apricot notes. A defined peat smoke edge is present. Palate: Smooth and tangy; tangerine, raspberry, and ripe banana flavours are complemented by milk chocolate. Bonfire embers linger on the finish. Caol Ila Distillery is famous for the stunning view from its still house windows looking out across the Sound of Islay and for the objects which have passed by including naval battleships, submarines and whales. Caol Ila was established in 1846 by Hector Henderson on a sheltered but rocky stretch of coast on north east Islay. Now the largest malt whiskey distillery on Islay it produces peated and some un-peated malt whisky with the distillery range including Caol Ila 12 year old and the Distiller’s Edition. Caol Ila participates in Feis Ile, the annual Islay Festival of Malt and Music.

£49.68

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Join us for a christmas shopping evening at st George’s distillery Thursday 10^th November 2016. 5:30pm – 8:00pm Come and enjoy a glass of mulled wine while you browse the shop offering unique gift ideas. We are also offering FREE 15 minute mini guided tours of the distillery, and entrance is FREE!

Looking for unique gifts? Engraved decanters and more

Get a unique gift for a wedding, anniversary or special event. From only £39.99, we can produce a personalised label with your whisky of choice. Alternatively we can produce an engraved bottle with the text, logo or image of your choice from only £54.99.

Forgive me, it has been a long time since our last conversation.

How is everyone? Hope this email finds you all well.

We have been very busy here at Springbank Towers but I am delighted to finally announce the new Society bottles! That’s right, 2 Society bottles:

We have a Longrow 14yo Fresh Sherry cask and a Springbank 15yo Jamaican Rum cask and the details are below. However, before we get to that I must ask you to read on because I have a bit of explaining to do and there is important information that you need to know.

Please read this entire message before replying.

Firstly, how come there are 2 bottles this time?

The reason is not that mysterious or extreme, in fact it is quite simple. As most of you will know the Springbank 15yo was chosen by the members who attended the Society tasting during the Campbeltown Malts Festival. However, we later came to the conclusion that this cask would not give us enough bottles and far too many members would be left disappointed and without a Society bottle.

So we changed our plan. The Longrow 14yo came second in the voting that day so it seemed the obvious choice to release as the main Society bottle.

Autumn 2016 Society Bottle – Longrow 14yo Fresh Sherry 53.2%

NOSE: Rich walnut, pecan, notes of stewed fruits with woodiness and scent of worn leather TASTE: Stewed fruits remain, rhubarb, dunnage warehouse flavour and woody FINISH: Meaty and chewy, dry with menthol as the smokiness builds up.

Society members can buy a maximum of 2 bottles of the Longrow 14yo and the bottles cost £65.00 each. There is a total of 600 bottles.

To purchase your bottle(s) please contact me using the details below:

email: society@springbankwhisky.com 

telephone: +44 (0)1586 552009

So what is happening with the Springbank 15yo?

A very good question!

We always planned to release this whisky to the Society; we just had to work out how to do it fairly given the limited availability. We decided to do a lottery, thus giving everyone an equal chance of getting a bottle.

If you would like to be entered into the lottery then please send me an email telling me you would like to be included. If you are ordering a Longrow 14yo, then you can include in that email that you would also like to be included in the draw (you do not have to order a Longrow 14yo to enter the lottery, you can do these things separately).

The deadline for entry into this lottery is 12 noon (British time) on Monday 14th November 2016. Shortly after this I shall conduct a random draw allocating each of the bottles of Springbank 15yo.

Important: the only members I can guarantee a bottle of Springbank 15yo to are the people who attended the Society tasting at which this bottling was chosen. If you are one of these members can you please contact me within the 2 week deadline and confirm to me if you would like a bottle.

Bonus Bottle – Springbank 15yo Jamaican Rum Cask 51.2%

NOSE: Citrus notes, zesty with fresh orange peel, key lime pie and and milk chocolate TASTE: Ripe bananas and demerara sugar, watermelon and grapefruit FINISH: Sweetness continues with grenadine syrup, sweet potato, root ginger with brine and the saltiness of a Springbank dram

The Springbank 15yo will also cost £65.00, just like the Longrow 14yo, and I shall contact everyone who is allocated one after the draw to arrange payment. There is a total of 228 bottles.

Delivery

As we have welcomed a lot of new members to the Society over the past few months, here is some information on how the Society bottles work when it comes to delivery:

There are a couple of different options for delivery. You can either have the bottle sent to your home address or have it sent to one of our Cadenhead Shops for collection.

Excluding the USA (due to strict import laws), we are able to ship bottles worldwide so if you would like to know the shipping costs for 1-6 bottles to your country then please email me and I will send you over the details. Our prices include all taxes and costs on our side but does not cover any entry fees or taxes which may incur when the whisky reaches it’s destination country. We do not make any money from postage costs, we just charge what we have to to cover our costs.

As mentioned above, we can also ship your Society bottles to the following Cadenhead Shops for collection:

• Edinburgh (UK) for £2 per bottle
• London (UK) for £2 per bottle
• Cologne (Germany) for free
• Berlin (Germany) for free
• Salzburg (Austria) for free
• Odense (Denmark) for free

If you would like your bottle delivered to any of the Cadenhead shops mentioned then PLEASE state this when ordering your bottle.

If you order your bottle to be delivered to any of our European stores then you will pay for the bottle when you collect it from the stated shop. The European shops usually get orders every 2-3 months so if you would like it sent there then please let me know and I can arrange it with the next shipment. Please allow a bit of time for the delivery and as soon as I have a shipping date then I will let you know. Can I kindly ask that you wait until you have heard from me before phoning the shops to ask if they have arrived.

In addition to the two options above and for any of our members living in Canada, one of our stockists in Calgary, Kensington Wine Market, are able to import Society bottles so if you would like to have your bottle sent to them for collection then please let me know this and we can get it arranged.

Please note:

For practical reasons relating to the bottling schedule, we had to bottle the Longrow 14yo shortly before it officially became 15yo. I mention this incase anyone has concerns about the label but please let me assure you that the label on the front of the Longrow 14yo is correct, although at first it may look as if we can’t count 😉

And lastly, please be aware that I shall probably experience a high volume of emails and calls over the next few weeks (definitely during this week) and as such I ask that you please give me a couple of days to reply to any queries or questions. I will reply to you as soon as I am able.

To summarise, the Longrow 14yo is available for purchase right now. Allocation of the Springbank 15yo will be decided by a random draw; you have until 12 noon on Monday 14th November to put your name forward for that. Both bottles cost £65.00.

I hope that all makes sense to everyone but if you do have a question just drop me an email and I shall get back to you as soon as possible.

Lets not leave it so long this time…

Slainte

Nathan

Springbank Society

To join the Springbank Society please contact Nathan at society@springbankwhisky.com

Kavalan Amontillado Cask Matured

Released as part of the Kavalan Solist range from King Car distillery is this Amontillado sherry cask matured single malt whisky from Taiwan. Bottled in 2016, 521 bottles were filled from cask at 55.6%.

Read more…

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 148: Caol Ila 9 Year Old 2006 for MMM

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, together with his buddy Imanuel, founded MMM in May 2016. MMM – short for Mark & Manny’s Malts – launched their fourth and final bottling in the Animal Series. It was dubbed The Elephant because this Caol Ila truly is a mighty animal with its cask strength of 59,8% ABV. Mark and Imanuel are quite happy with the discovery (and acquisition!) of this cask. You should have seen their faces when they first tried it. Without a word they looked at each other and immediately had a big smile on their faces. ‘Sold!’ they shouted in unison, followed by a huge guffaw and a high five.

https://youtu.be/mFUul2QmMQI

Angel’s and Demons Cinnamon Whiskey – Forget the big brands, this is the new kid on the block. It’s sugar sweet and cinnamon spicy and goes down so smooth. Keep a bottle in the freezer and enjoy it with all your angelic and demonic friends this weekend.

Backbone Bourbon – Skeletons beware, this will tickle your ribs and warm your spine! It’s a great young bourbon that will warm you on a cool Halloween night. Cheers, -The Party Source Liquor Department.

thepartysource.com

95 Riviera Drive, Bellevue, KY 41073  

(859) 291-4007

Part 4/7 in the Beginners Guide to Whisky – Balblair 2005 & GlenDronach 12 Year Old.  

The Whisky Exchange Whisky Show 2016 – Bowmore: From One Master To Another

If you made a list of the all the Scotch whiskies to try before you die, it’s a fair bet that Black Bowmore would be on it. And for those in The Whisky Show’s 2016 Bowmore masterclass, not only did they tick that particular whisky off their list, they also got to try it in the presence of Eddie MacAffer (master distiller) and David Turner (distillery manager), who have a staggering 75 years’ experience of Bowmore between them.

Edide MacAffer (left) and David Turner of Bowmore (© Simon J Hanna)

Eddie has just retired, and has passed the baton to David, so this could have been the final time the duo sat down to talk about the whiskies they have made together. ‘This will go down as a legendary tasting,’ began our host, whisky writer Dave Broom. He wasn’t wrong.

In Their Own Words – Eddie MacAffer and David Turner

Eddie: ‘They used to give us a bottle of Bowmore Deluxe a month, rather than a few drams a day. But they must have decided it was too good, because they started giving us bottles of Rob Roy instead’

David: ‘When Bowmore gets to 17 or 18 years sold, the smoke tends to die out, and you get a lot more stewed fruit’

E: ‘Our No.1 vaults are right by the sea, almost below sea level. The whiskies are at peace in there – there’ll be ghosts in there, drinking drams’

D: ‘Dave Broom did an apprenticeship with us for two nights; he didn’t turn up on the second one!’

E: ‘The 1980s were difficult [for Bowmore] because it was push, push, push, and that affected the quality. Our fermentation was short – about 44 hours – the still was running hot and we were getting all those unwanted flavours in there. You could tell from the smell in the distillery’

E: ‘In the 1960s, there’d be a queue about 100 yards long to try the new-make; in the late 1980s, you’d be lucky to have two or three people waiting!’

D: ‘Suntory had a big impact; from 1989, they invested heavily in good wood’

E: ‘You can hear the roar of the ocean when you taste Sea Dragon. It has a lovely flowery fruitiness’

E: ‘The water [source] doesn’t have any effect on the end product’

D: ‘Our reputation was really made with [the 1964] bottling of Black Bowmore. It was one of those whiskies that changed people’s mindsets about what single malts could become’

We Tasted

Bowmore Tempest 10 Year Old Clean and refreshing – fresh lemon peel mixed with coal embers and grilled pineapple.

Bowmore Deluxe (Bot. 1970s) Gorgeous notes of salted caramel and woodsmoke, then a big hit of lemon and apple. Delicious!

Bowmore 25 Year Old More coal and bonfires but the fruit is drier and richer, adding complexity.

Bowmore 30 Year Old Sea Dragon Fruity and aromatic, with pineapple and grapefruit to the fore, along with Earl Grey tea, sea spray and a whiff of smoke.

Black Bowmore 1964 30 Year Old (2nd edition) Big sherried nose upfront, with raisins, mocha, stewed fruit and Christmas-cake spices. Even richer on the palate – Maya Gold chocolate, tobacco, cardamom, nutmeg and clove. Stunning.

Bowmore 1964 Fino Sherry Cask (46 Year Old) So fruity! Aromas of grilled pineapple and Starburst sweets along with grilled peaches and the merest suggestion of peat. Saltier and brinier on the palate, but waves of generous fruitiness quickly take hold – apricot, lemon, orange.

Favourite whisky

The final two whiskies were sensational and lived up to the hype – not something you can always say when trying something with such a big reputation. But I’m going for the NAS Deluxe bottling from the 1970s, which summed up Bowmore for me: tropical fruit with an undercurrent of smoke.

Having not tried many of these whiskies before, I understand know why Bowmore fans are so passionate about this distillery. The no-holds-barred fruitiness of the whiskies was amazing, as was the way the peat played its part but never took over. Thanks to Eddie and David for a wonderful masterclass.