Whisky Ramblings Via Video #115
Mark Dermul, Belgian Whiskyblogger, tries the Glengoyne 10 Years. The distillery can be found in the valley of the geese (which translates into the Gaelic Glenguin, hence the name of the distillery). It is one of the few distilleries that never closed. Glengoyne has been in production since its opening in 1833. Mark tries their entry level malt, the Glengoyne 10 Years.
PRIVATE BARREL UPDATE
In case you haven’t heard the news already, we have some excellent selections available from the John Hughes Collection. Help us in celebrating the life of a beloved coworker and help us give to a good cause.
All profits will be donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation in John’s name.
>>>Click HERE to Shop the JOHN HUGHES COLLECTION
Other barrels that have just hit our warehouse:
MASTERSON’S Straight Rye Whiskey French Oak 10yr TPS Private Barrel – $73.99
WOODFORD RESERVE Double Oaked Bourbon TPS Private Barrel – $57.99
The Party Source, 95 Riviera Drive, Bellevue, KY 41073.
This week Joe Ellis reviews and explores the now silent Caperdonich 1998 Vintage bottled by Gordon & Macphail.
Old Man of Hoy, one of the stories in Frank Demain’s collection of four short stories, Off the Beaten Track.
Our unsuspecting hero, Peter Sinclair, crosses from Scotland to the Orkney Isles in search of his family roots and discovers an illicit distillery – to his cost – and I mean substantially more than just a sore head from drinking substandard whisky!
The intrepid traveller also encounters some unexpected adventures whilst seeking a leisurely break with family and friends. He is drawn into a dispute between rival criminal gangs as he cruises around the Canary Islands and is drawn into an attempt to smuggle stolen diamonds into Spain; he is accidently caught up in a planned uprising led a criminal resurrection of the National Liberation Committee of Istria in Croatia; and he encounters a band of ruthless smugglers in a cave on the North Yorkshire coast of England.
Off the Beaten Track is now available from Amazon on your Kindle, iPad or other e-reader for less than the price of a latté!
LUSH CASKS NEW ONLINE
With the recent run of rain and sun, every green space has exploded into a leafy, flowery, tendrilled bounty, bursting with wildlife. And who are we to impose order? Instead, we’ve decided to join in and let the whisky run colourful riot. Peeping out from a shady hedgerow, we’ve spotted a couple of sweet little fledglings: G5.9 Coffee in a patisserie and G5.10 Sugar and spice and all things nice have fluttered briefly into our venues but never flown as far as the website before. August’s two most popular drams ran out in days but despite the harsh pruning a few more bottles are pushing out green shoots of Fruitilicious fun. Enjoy them in a bower, field or terrace but don’t lounge too long or they’ll hop off into the sunset, never to be seen again…
TOP AUGUST GROWERS
No. 1: Oily & Coastal
66.67 An apothecary on a motorcycle Just back after a fast sell-out! £46.10
No. 2: Lightly peated
93.64 Holidays at the beach £59.60
No. 3: Spicy & sweet
36.88 Fruitilicious! Just back after a fast sell-out! £49.20
No. 4: Oily & Coastal
4.209 The Cinderella cottage £76.00
No. 5: Peated
3.244 Film noir £72.90
NEW ONLINE FLEDGLINGS
Sweet, fruity & mellow
G5.9 Coffee in a patisserie £67.50
Spicy & sweet
G5.10 Sugar and spice and all things nice £67.50
Browse New Outturn >
Browse All Bottlings >
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, The Vaults, 87 Giles Street, Leith EH6 6BZ Contact: sales@smws.com or call 0131 555 2929 (Mon-Fri 9am-4.45pm). Visit the Society at here for membership information
This is your chance to join and to take advantage of their great offers!
Spot the SMWS bottles in this amusing You Tube video
www.ralfy.com visits the Mill on the River Bush in Northern Ireland with Whisky Review 549 – Bushmills 10yo Irish Whiskey
men of Knock
Any single malt Scotch whisky can only be as good as the people who shape it. The Men of Knock, as our team came to be known, are a vital part of anCnoc’s success story. Their dedication to remarkable craftsmanship is second to none.
In our latest blog we’d like to introduce you to Ian Dingwall who started working at Knockdhu in December 1991. Find out more about how he mastered the distilling craft, the most difficult lessons he’s learned as a whisky-maker and what he really thinks is the best part of working in a Scotch whisky distillery.
Read our interview with Ian Dingwell, one of our renowned ‘Men of Knock’
Mortlach 18 year old
Was £180
Now £148
Formerly one of the less well-known gems of Speyside, coveted by those in the know, Mortlach’s light is now being firmly pushed from under its bushel with a luxurious new range of single malts. Now only £148
Royal Salute 21 year old
Was £150
Now £94
Originally created by the Chivas master blender as a salute to Queen Elizabeth II on her coronation in 1953, a blend of whiskies no younger than 21 years old. Now only £94
Speyside 47 year old
Was £555
Now £295
This Old and Rare Platinum expression is one of only 204 bottles drawn from a Sherry Cask – Distilled June 1966 and bottled in November 2013. Bottled at a cask strength of 48.5% volume. Now only £295
Written by Senior Brand Ambassador, Edrington. Martin Markvardsen.
On the 2nd of July the Finnish Viking Raid came to Orkney. For over a year, a cooperation between The Finnish Whisky Association, the founder of the Finnish whisky Fair ” Uisge” (Mika Jansson), Paul McLean of mcleanscotland whisky tours and Edrington Finland, came together. Senior Brand Ambassador Martin Markvardsen welcomed them as arrived by coach on Orkney. ” This trip for the Finnish whisky fans has been on it’s way for a long time. For the last couple of years Mika Jannson and I have talk about this. Highland Park is one one the favourite malts in Finland and every time I’m in Finland to do maste classes it’s always the first to be sold out”, tells Martin Markvardsen.
The group was welcomed at Highland Park Distillery by Patricia Retson, myself (Martin Markvardsen) and tour guide Martin Gray. They had a fantastic tour around the distillery before the two Martins took them on a special tour round Orkney taking in Hobbister, Cliffs of Yesnaby and Skara Brae. Martin Gray, gave the group the best insight of history and tales about Orkney whist acting as tour guide for the mcleanscotland group. A tasting was done in the cask room at the distillery, where the Finnish group also had a special guest with them; Jani Bergström a guitar builder and a true Highland Park fan. Graham Manson Highland Park Distillery Manager and Patricia were there when he handed over a new Valhalla banjolin…. LOKI .
It has been hard work especially from Edrington Finland to keep the interest for Highland Park growing. There will be a lot of special tastings in the future in Finland, and Highland Park will for be present at the next whisky fair in Helsinki, Finland.
Paul Mclean of MCLEAN SCOTLAND (working with Mika and Martin), arranged the distillery tour (the coach tour sold out in 60 seconds) and was really pleased at the result. Paul also invited Martin to be guest for dinner the previous evening, where they all shared a few good drams! All in all, this trip went – as usual – very well.
In their own words – George Grant, Director of Sales, Glenfarclas
Glenfarclas is a rare example of a Scottish distillery that is still in independent hands. I sat down with director of sales, George Grant, as the distillery celebrated 150 years of Grant family ownership.
George Grant in a typically shy and retiring pose for a Dutch advert
‘The big advantage to being family owned is that you have one person to ask the questions to and you can get an answer immediately. The negatives are you don’t have that team behind you, or that massive marketing budget.’
‘Being traditional leads to more innovation, we look at things on a longer-term basis, we’re very anti-finishing, but we still use other casks: port, Cognac, fino – there’s lots of different things we have done, and we’re still doing. We’ve just filled lots more quarter casks for the future. It is very long term.’
‘If we run out of one our age-statement bottlings, we pull it from the market until stocks get old enough again. There’s a lot of NAS whisky out there, but we would rather keep an age on the bottle.’
‘I drink beer during long tastings in Germany. People laugh at me, but I tell them if I drank the 12 whiskies I wouldn’t be able to stand and keep talking!’
‘The best thing about being a whisky drinker is you know what you’re going to get for birthdays, Christmas and Father’s Day.’
‘The non-Glenfarclas whisky I drink the most of is Johnnie Walker Black Label. It’s everywhere and you know exactly what you’re getting.’
‘Maltings are a bit like restaurants. If you ask for a medium steak and it arrives well done, you send it back. If you burn your steak at home, you just eat it. It’s best to use barley from someone who malts full time!’
‘If we need space, we just build another building. You have to consult any neighbours within a couple of miles, but we own all the buildings for three-and-a-half miles in all directions.’
‘The slowdown in blended whisky sales means some distilleries are down to five-day working (a reduction of 20% in production), which will have a big effect in output in the next 10-20 years.’
‘Germany is our biggest market and I enjoy going there to talk about whisky. You do a tasting in the UK, you have an hour; it’s 30 minutes in the USA. You do it in Germany and they expect a five-hour tasting! It’s very rewarding as they’ll all end up buying a bottle and they have so many questions, the audience really get involved.’
‘People are realising there’s an awful lot of good whisky out there that is 10, 15 or 20 years old. For a long time, people thought: “older, older, older” and we’ve had a generation that haven’t fully appreciated younger whiskies. I think people are going back to basics.’
‘The new 40 Year Old will be very limited. I wanted to do it at 46%, but sadly the cask strength was lower than that, so we’ll have to release it at 43%. There was no conspiracy to lower the strength.’
‘If we had an offer to sell, we wouldn’t. If you were losing money, you’d just stop producing to reduce costs and sell the 60 years’ worth of stock.’
