The official deadline for receiving your final UK orders (all overseas deadlines have now past) for delivery before Christmas is MIDDAY, Friday 19th December. We will of course continue to send out after this deadline, but this is the official courier cut off point for guaranteed delivery. Call us with any queries 0131 524 9380.
For guaranteed Christmas delivery to:
BELGIUM, DENMARK, FRANCE, GERMANY, IRELAND, LUXEMBOURG, MONACO and NETHERLANDS.
Please order by 12 noon tomorrow, Wednesday 17th December. Will are still accepting order after this but will not be guaranteeing a Christmas delivery.
Has there ever been a whisky more aptly designed for the festive season than our very own Great King Street Glasgow Blend? With its full body, rich vein of smokiness, sherried nose and characteristic Compass Box sweetness it is a paragon of versatility for the weeks of feasting that lie ahead. Big, bold and complex enough to be enjoyed neat as a digestif, it can also be paired throughout your festive meals with blue-veined cheese, charcuterie, gingerbread or spiced puddings. Or if you’ve a little time on your hands, why not try a warming Glasgow is Burning cocktail: take 45ml Glasgow Blend, 15ml red vermouth, 2 drops Orange bitters and 1 barspoon Bénédictine. Stir with ice, strain and serve straight up garnished with orange zest. For more information about Great King Street Glasgow Blend, click here.
This week Joe Ellis reviews the most talked about whisky of the year, the Haig Club.
It is that time of year again when I get told I am to sit and write a newsletter and begrudgingly I start, wondering how I am going to fill the page, only to find that I have so much to tell you that space becomes a rare commodity rather than a problem.
In some ways this has been the longest year ever and in others it has gone in the blink of an eye. Let’s start at the beginning; after another cracking Christmas period and a rather good Jan / Feb, suddenly the brakes slammed on and it seemed the public of Britain simply stopped shopping. Luckily, you kept visiting the distillery, so no harm done. Slowly over the summer, you all appeared to realise your drinks cupboards were empty and life has returned to normal just in time for us to be able to turn on the heating – so thank you to all of you for your continued shopping habits!
The distillery has seen lots of changes. The first change this year was the building of Bond 3, which is our latest maturation warehouse. This extra space should allow us to mature over 4000 casks on site – which if you were to bottle them all at once would be well over a million bottles of whisky! Quite extraordinary really. Sadly we will never get to see all that whisky for a couple of reasons; the Angels in Norfolk are rather greedier than their northern relatives, taking nearly 3 times as much and some of the whisky will be in the sheds for 50 years, which may be beyond my expiration date. We have also put a little extension onto Warehouse 1 to allow a lovely covered doorway that you, our customers, can use. This is a great change to our distillery tours, the old video has been retired and in its place is a visit to Bond 1. A great improvement and appears to have been a good decision judging by the feedback from those of you who have done the new and improved tour. Bond 1 has even had some cool lighting installed to give a lovely atmospheric feeling to the area.
New arrivals at the distillery… lets start with the most fun and sometimes most annoying arrival – George. When George first arrived in Norfolk, he was adorable, a bit goofy and gangly but spent most of his time dozing or eating; somehow since July he has turned into a rather large, very handsome Labrador. He is the new distillery dog! We are still undertaking his training and he adores seeing people at the distillery, but he appears to have decided that the best way to welcome people to the distillery is with a very loud woof. Slightly intimidating for those who aren’t sure about dogs – so I am working on this. Also he hasn’t worked out that the coffee shop is a perpetual source of food – which worries me as I am taking this as an indication of slightly below average Labrador IQ!
We have been fairly restrained with new releases this year with just 2 new batches of chapter 13 and a chapter 16. The autumn Chapter 13 is fantastic and allows us to support the poppy appeal which seemed appropriate this year. We have also re-launched our Norfolk Nog after a brief absence. It is much improved as it is now made with full matured single malt and is a slightly gentler 21%, well worth trying.
By the time you get this newsletter – we will have a brand new swanky website up and running. It should make life easier for you to find out what is going on and to buy stuff. Please email or call us when you find a bit that doesn’t work or the obligatory spelling mistake. I will write and tell you all about the new website in the new year. It has some very cool new features.
The English Whisky Co. was a lifelong dream of my father James and having built the distillery in 2006, he watched with great pride as our whisky found market places around the world and picked up award after award. He was also very proud of the fact that we appear to have spearheaded a revival of the English whisky industry, with a potential 5 distilleries in the pipeline at present. Perhaps the thing he loved most though was the fact that a lot of you visited the distillery and he had a chance to meet you and say hello. James Nelstrop sadly passed away in September but will be immortalised by his whisky and his founding role in the emergence of an English whisky industry. He would have been incredibly chuffed to know that Chapter 14 has been awarded ‘Best European Whisky 2015’ beating our friends from Scotland and Ireland!
On a lighter note… I hope you have all had a great 2014, are looking forward to Christmas – hopefully to be spent in good company, with good food and good drink. We are very proud to have you as our customers and obviously hope you find time to enjoy a little English Whisky over the hols or even better – come and visit us. We are having a half day on Christmas Eve, will be shut Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years day, but any other time we will be open and delighted to see you.
Andrew Nelstrop
Managing Director
English Whisky Co. Ltd
St George’s Distillery
Harling Road Roudham
Norfolk NR16 2QW
www.ralfy.com needs direct action with a feisty malt with Whisky Review 508 – Glenfarclas 105 single malt @ 60%vol
The Whisky Shop Dufftown 12 Days to the 25th 25% Off Christmas Sale on 12 Stunning Whiskies
At The Whisky Shop Dufftown we are counting down to Christmas with a very unique sale which started on 13 December. With 12 (ish) days to go to 25th December we have selected 12 stunning whiskies and discounted them by 25%. And we are offering free delivery to UK addresses until the end of the year.
These whiskies are in very short supply so don’t delay!
Day – Whisky – Price – Sale – Price
1 Glenfarclas 1963 Family Cask Rifle and Shot Gun Cleaning kit £ 7,500.00 £ 5,625.00
2 Benriach 1966 46 Years Old Vestige £ 3,995.00 £ 2,996.00
3 Glendronach 1968 Recherche £ 2,750.00 £ 2,062.00
4 Private Collection Glenlivet 1954 £ 1,825.00 £ 1,368.00
5 Highland Park 40 Years Old £ 1,686.00 £ 1,264.00
6 Glen Garioch 1958 46 Years Old £ 1,500.00 £ 1,125.00
7 Old Pulteney 40 Years Old £ 1,490.00 £ 1,117.00
8 Director’s Cut Port Ellen 35 Years Old £ 840.00 £ 630.00
9 Dalmore 25 Years Old £ 600.00 £ 450.00
10 Isle of Jura 1976 £ 500.00 £ 375.00
11 Director’s Cut Ardbeg 1991 23 Years Old £ 485.00 £ 363.00
12 Old Malt Cask Macallan 1988 25 Years Old £ 455.00 £ 341.00
We have loads more offers in our festive sale. Check out all of our Special Offers here.
The prices are quoted inclusive of VAT. Shipping charges will apply but we are offering free delivery in the UK on all purchases made up until December 31st. No further discounts can be applies to any of our Special Offers.
The single cask bottles from independent bottlers Hunter Laing are of some of the most noteworthy Scotches in the market. Every cask is hand-picked and bottled at the peak of its flavour. This Douglas of Drumlanrig Mortlach 9 year old is one of only 381 bottles, distilled in November 2005 and bottled in April 2014 from a refill hogshead.
Mortlach 9 year old Was £63 Now £45 Click here to buy
Talisker 5 year old Was £72 Now £55 Click here to buy
Caol Ila 17 year old Was £129 Now £85 Click here to buy
Arran 18 year old Was £120 Now £85 Click here to buy
The nights are fair drawing in and so what better time of year to think about a comforting dram. I’ll soon set about the task of writing my Christmas cards for friends and family and I usually have a wee libation to keep me going. The last few months have been a whirl of distillery visits and tastings so here is a round up to distract you.
Thank you for your support over the year and wish you all a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year in 2015.
Annabel
Paul & Liz Visit Speside Distillery (PART 1)
The private whisky tasting was hosted by Exel Wines of Perth, a really good whisky shop with many hard to find whiskies lying about on the shelves!
It was given by Paul Dempsey, Commercial Manager, Speyside Distillers Company Ltd.
We were taken through three drams, the TENNE, Latin for Tawny, as it is a Port finish, and – beautiful! I better start from the start … When we say Speyside Distillery there are many that simply think of the region. This is THE Speyside Distillery, a wee thing down by Kingussie. This is a distillery that together with it’s owner company Harveys of Edinburgh had bags of stories to tell whilst we enjoyed a dram of their 12 year Old, 18 Year Old and the Tenne (Tawny style). Along with a selected few (including our guest Drew, from Phoenix Arizona) we sampled all three. My favourites of the evening were the Tenne and the 18 year old, how do I try and tell you what they were like? I won’t, I shall let you just try and find them for yourself, but be quick, limited supply at limited outlets – more on that later. For example, the 18yo; comes dressed in a nice looking tube, with certificate, a limited batch of only 1500 worldwide! I came away with number 883. When you see the photos you will see what I mean by dressed, the bottles are also real “lookers”. To say we had 3 tastings would be a lie, aye there were 3 bottles, but we tasted each more than once! I also came away with sample bottles courtesy of Paul.
A good evening? Aye, too right! This story will continue as I get to the distillery next week, then interview the CEO shortly afterwards. So watch this space…
