www.ralfy.com gets all watery and hangover-aware with Whisky Review 530 – Gordon & MacPhail Ardmore 1990 13yo @ 55.8%vol

Whisky Ramblings Via Video #107

Mark Dermul, Belgian Whiskyblogger, tries a bottling from the little-know but quite large Loch Lomond Distillery. Due to the fact that they have different types of stills, they produce lots of different styles of whisky, both malt and grain. Mark tried the Inchmurrin 12 Year Old, which is not the worst offering from this Highlander he has tried so far, but is still a far cry from a good whisky, he feels.

http://youtu.be/qXymRPDYEGA

So far 2015 has been an amazing year

March 19th at the Waldorf Hotel London, Cadenhead’s received the Icons of whisky award for 2015. The award was for the Whisky retailer of the year 2015 multiple outlets, we also won an award for Longrow Red as best Campbeltown malt (More due later in the year) Our Stores in Scotland also won best retailer of the year in the Scottish retailer awards.

We would like to thank the team at Whisky Magazine for the award and for hosting an amazing evening for the whisky industry here in the UK and from around the world.

Our biggest thanks has to go to you our loyal customers who have helped us grow and develop the range over the years. Without you we would not still be trading 173 years after we opened the first whisky bottler & independent merchant shop in Aberdeen.

Cadenhead’s Whisky Shop & Tasting Room

26 Chiltern Street London W1U 7QF

Tel: 020 7935 6999

www.ralfy.com discusses alcoholic strength impact with Whisky Review 529 – Benromach 10yo Cask Strength @ 57%vol

What does the future hold? A bottle of Ardbeg Perpetuum if you’re lucky.

Dear Committee Member Its incredible balance… its complexity… its peaty perfection… The reasons we love Ardbeg are endless. So it’s fitting that the name of our limited edition 200th anniversary bottling should reflect our ultimate quest – to keep making incredible whisky forever and ever.

We’ve named it Ardbeg Perpetuum and it’s Ardbeg’s past, present and future – bottled. Dr Bill Lumsden, our Whisky Creator, has taken inspiration from the differing styles of whisky his predecessors have created over the last 200 years.

Ardbeg Perpetuum will be on sale this Ardbeg Day, 30th May 2015. But paradoxically, it won’t be available forever. So if you wish to own one in perpetuity you will have to be quick.

Keep an eye on your inbox in the very near future to find out how to get your hands on a bottle and where your nearest Ardbeg Day event will be held.

Slainte!

Mickey Heads

Committee Chairman

Join the Ardbeg Committee at http://www.ardbeg.com/ardbeg/committee to receive further updates

This week Joe Ellis reviews Ballantine’s 21 Year Old Blended Scotch Whisky.

https://youtu.be/1ftw44yDLy8

http://Twitter.com/whiskytube

https://www.facebook.com/whiskytube

United States – Bourbon and Rye

• Four Roses K&L Exclusive OBSF (11 year & 6 months) Single Barrel Cask Strength Bourbon 750ml ($66.99)

• Four Roses K&L Exclusive OBSK (9 year & 8 Months) Single Barrel Cask Strength Bourbon 750ml ($66.99)

• Four Roses K&L Exclusive OBSO (11 year & 2 month) Single Barrel Cask Strength Bourbon 750ml ($66.99)

• Four Roses K&L Exclusive OESF (10 year 9 month Barrel #48-2Q) Single Barrel Cask Strength Bourbon 750ml(OESF) ($66.99)

• Low Gap 2 Year Old Blended Whiskey 750ml – 5 available ($59.99)

• Low Gap 2 Year Old Wheat Whiskey 750ml – 3 available ($59.99)

K&L Wine Merchants
http://www.klwines.com
Phone: 877-KLWines (toll free 877-559-4637)
Email: wine@klwines.com
San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA

WHAT’S NEW THIS SPRING

March has been another very busy month for us. We were at Nth 2015 Universal Whisky Experience in fabulous Las Vegas. After that, we attended the World Whisky Awards closely followed by Whisky Live in London. All the events were fantastic with a real buzz about them. At the same time our design studio and production facility have been very busy on a number of exciting and challenging projects we’ll tell you more about in the coming months.

There will be no letting up as we move forward into April. We’ll be attending a number of events around the world including three in America. You can read all about this by clicking the news section below.

We’ve also produced a Case Study on our recent collaboration with new Irish distillery Teeling. It’s free to download and read, as are all our Case Studies. Lastly to give you an insight into the work that our talented teams carry out in general, you can watch a short film about Glencairn in this email too.

CASE STUDY – THE CHALLENGE OF A NEW BRAND RELEASING A VINTAGE PRODUCT Find out how a new Dublin distiller overcame the odds to produce a range of vintage whiskies. Click HERE

LATEST NEWS: ATTENDING ADI, BINNY’S & WHISKYFEST 2015 Find out what we’ve been upto and where we’re going next. Click HERE

Glencairn Crystal

11 Langlands Avenue
Kelvin South Business Park
East Kilbride, GlgG75 OYG
United Kingdom

Africa – the next big whisky market?

We all know the big whisky world markets, North America, South America, Europe, Aisia, Scandinavia, Russia etc etc. but what about Africa? Africa is a continent NOT a country, a billion people. It is 54 countries. And changing by the day it seems. Poverty and a rich top shelf (like anywhere) blend in a hot religious and ethnic mix. Famine, wars and poverty are the daily norm, a growing middle class, so what chance whisky?

Johnnie Walker have found their way. Diageo and Pernod Ricard are the giants. Diageo established itself through a Guinness brewery in Nigeria in the 1960’s. Whisky is the most popular alcohol in Africa and Scotch the most popular whisky. Diageo sells to the premium markets in Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia, Angola, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and plans to extend into Ethiopia, Angola and Mozambique. Who knew there were whisky markets there? Certainly not me. My view of Africa as a whole is probably blighted by the news media; poverty and war. So who are the players and where do they play? As afore mentioned, the big boys are already in.

Nairobi ; A bar in the Westlands district – pool tables, flat-screen televisions, and middle income 20-somethings. drinking Scotch.   A Johnnie Walker tv ad, shows an African dressed as “Johnnie Walker” in red tailcoat and cravat, carrying an iPad, hostesses with glasses of Red Label. A Johnnie Walker app going on about the character of the dram a flavour experience no other ordinary whisky can match, it says, c’mon JW, they may be up and coming, may be getting more wealthy and able to afford the dram, but they are not daft! According to research, as many Africans get richer, they drink Scotch, according to the Scotch Whisky Association. Johnnie Walker is doing even better: sales doubled in east Africa in 2010, to 790,000 litres. By global standards, Africans don’t drink much whisky. Each Nigerian sups a third of a glass each year on average. A Frenchman gulps doon 40. Diageo has a 20-storey ad on the side of a skyscraper in Nairobi showing JW Black. Africans will drink it to show off (like many a place), with its patronage on culture, whiskies with distinctive labels do well. A bottle of JW Red in a Kenyan market goes for $11 (obviously they do not have to pay the sassunach tax).

Countries such as South Africa, Angola and Morocco offer an opportunity for growth in whisky sales. Tanzania and Ethiopia have emerging Scotch Whisky markets where Scotch is an aspirational drink. The opportunities are great but the challenges even greater methinks. Protecting consumers from counterfeit products, ensuring recognition of Scotch Whisky as a drink made in accordance with the Scotch Whisky Regulations. For instance, a haul of smuggled whisky was discovered at the port in Libya’s capital, Tripoli. It is also illegal to drink alcohol in the Muslim North African. Ethiopia has a good club, Addis Ababa Whisky Club. A fellow Angel Hans Offringa told me a story of North Africa, he was offered bottles of “John Walker”, with the exact same logos and design as JW!

Let’s move south … Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky is distilled and double matured at The James Sedgwick Distillery situated near the foothills of the Bainskloof Pass in Wellington – a 45 minute drive from Cape Town, where South Africa’s first Single Grain whisky is created. In 1850 James Sedgwick, captain of the clipper “Undine” and the pioneer after whom our whisky distillery is named, sailed into Table Bay and decided to make it his home. Nine years after settling at the Cape, he established “J. Sedgwick & Co, purveyor of quality liquor, tobacco and cigars” and in 1886 the company purchased a distillery in the picturesque town of Wellington. The rest, as they say, is history.

And guess what? Aye there is always a Scot aboot; Scot, Andrew Geddes Bain built the Bainskloof Pass which winds across the Limietberg, connecting the town of Wellington to the interior. The Pass was completed in 1853, named after the pass builder Andrew Geddes Bain, Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky is crafted from only the finest South African grain. It’s then distilled and double matured, living its first three years in first-fill bourbon casks before released and re-vatted for a further two years in first-fill bourbon casks. Another award winning brand sneaking out from here is the Three Ships range, tried em, good! Still in SA; WhiskyBrother, Johannesburg’s first speciality whisky store and part of our Angels network. Specialising only in whisky, this new store offers famous blends to lesser known independent single malts, in-house whisky geeks assist with in-depth info and offer recommendations based on taste preferences. WhiskyBrother aims to offer the largest range of whiskies under one roof in South Africa.

To end this wee trip to the Dark Continent, let’s build on some real positives. This year we are looking after a pipe band from Jo Berg; South African champion grade 2 and grade 4 pipe bands of The Transvaal Scottish Pipes and Drums. They are here to take part in the “Worlds” in Glasgow this August. The world champion pipe bands competition attracts bands from the world over (we are also looking after bands from Canada and USA). Whilst here, they will also be making a visit to Tullibardine distillery in Perthshire and sampling many drams in and around Glasgow – look out for them at the Pot Still. Last year we enjoyed the company of 6 guys from Kenya on a whiskey tour of Ireland, including Tullamore, Kilbeggan, Jamesons distilleries etc, plus many tasting events in and around Dublin, they went home … happy! Even came back to us asking about purchasing casks! Finally, there were the fantastic couple from Jo Berg (again) who won a prize with Diageo, who hired us to design and undertake a Diageo distillery tour for them; Oban, Talisker, Blair Atholl among the visits – in the middle of December, not what they were used to.

So, how to end? I am not privy to the big boys plans and only tell my stories from information gained on tour, chatting to fellow Angels and contacts in the industry. But I am sure there will be an explosion of whisky (and whiskey) into the continent not so far away, if it has not already happened. It can’t be long before a new distillery opens up or a new independent arrives. We welcome the day. Now, after all this heavy thought, it’s late, am going to settle down with a nice bottle of THREE SHIPS 10 YEAR OLD SINGLE MALT. Launched in 2003 as a limited release, I was lucky enough to be “gifted” this on my birthday, slainte!

PAUL MCLEAN writes for ANGELSWHISKYCLUB.com

NEWS FROM THE DISTILLERY!

March has been another busy time for the team at Scotland’s Oldest Distillery.  We’ve featured just some of what’s been going on in this article but to find out more why not take a look at our blog and catch up with all our latest news?

SCOTLAND’S OLDEST DISTILLERY INSPIRED BY NEW EXPERIENCES

As a departure from the more traditional distillery tour we have just launched 5 new experiences allowing our visitors to engage with whisky in new and innovative ways.
Find out more about our new experiences here

Global Icons of Whisky Awards

The team are delighted to be included in the top 3 whisky visitor attractions in the world. Find out the full story about this prestigious event here