Top-Up Tipplers: which will you choose?
Ever come to our website for that special bottling, only to find that another lucky Member has snapped up the last one? We added an exciting selection of new-to-the-UK bottlings on Monday and they’re proving very popular with several already sold out. Here are your top five choices this week – but don’t worry: these are still available!

Online Exclusives: Members’ Top Five

1)  4.163 Soaring sweetness and ocean spray
11yo First-fill ex-bourbon barrel, £57.40Various bass notes grounded the nose (tobacco, creosote, burnt sticks, white pepper, chipotle chilli, balsamic reduction) but soaring on a breeze of clean, minty smoke and ocean spray, was a kite made of toffee, puff candy and chocolate melted over ice-cream More 

2)  35.86 Sumptuous breakfast dram
11yo First-fill ex-sherry butt, £43.90 The nose suggested sumptuous breakfasts – cinnamon toast, marmalade, bran flakes, prunes, coffee, pancakes with corn syrup, cranberries and Nutella on toasted bagels. More

3)  2.83 Intense explosion of taste
19yo Refill ex-bourbon hogshead, £80.50 The nose really grabbed our interest – so much in it – summer fruits, cherry Bakewell, apple and berry tea; maple syrup, toffee and Fry’s Turkish Delight; mulled wine, tobacco and old books. More

4)  27.101 Sweet and savoury, clean and earthy
16yo Refill ex-bourbon hogshead, £68.00 Smoky, oily and meaty – the nose evoked a restaurant kitchen’s back door – soft leather and wood  suggested upholstery shops – we also found dark chocolate, heather flowers, clove and citric notes intensifying over time. More

5)  35.80 Steamed Apple Sponge Pudding
21yo Second fill ex-bourbon hogshead, £66.90 We found ourselves in a cafe in a book shop with a variety of cakes on display; Viennese Apple Strudel, French Tarte Tatin, caramelised pineapple cake and slices of Battenberg. There is also a basket of oranges and Pink Lady apples to choose from. More

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 http://www.smws.co.uk/memberships for your chance to join and to take advantage of their great offers.

www.ralfy.com take to the fishing boats with Whisky Review 364 – Old Pulteney WK209 Good Hope

A word from Glen Garioch:

“We’ve launched our new website at GlenGarioch.com. It’s littered with information on our whiskies, stories from the distillery’s history, plus a brand new news section with writing from whisky experts from around the globe. Go check it out if you are adventurous enough to discover it!”

A Whisky Shop world exclusive Kilchoman 2008 is now in stock simply click the image to buy. Only available while stocks last!

We are very proud to announce the arrival of the new Kilchoman 2008 – bottled exclusively for The Whisky Shop. This expression has been bottled from a first fill bourbon cask at a natural cask strength of 61% volume.

One of only 260 bottles every created.

Only £84.99 – simply click here to buy

Irish Whiskey Tour with a group from Finland

May 2013, the Island of Ireland.

May 2013; an Irish whiskey tour with DaleyIrishTours, part of MCLEANSCOTLAND & Angels.

We took friends from Finland on tour with us to the Island of Ireland. A grand tour followed, we set out from Dublin airport, heading the three hours doon to Midleton, where we discovered Midleton Distillery Museum, a good tour was followed by a better tasting session, excellent to be precise. It’s just a shame we couldn’t see the actual working distillery, the museum was excellent, the size of that still! We then drove the short distance to our hotel – which, surprise, had a bar! But we headed out into town and found Paul’s favourite bar here, Paddy Casey’s followed by the Mad Monk, then a seafood restaurant, drinks appeared in each place strange enough! . A good night to start.

The day after we headed north to Kilkenny, we stopped here for a few hours, er, we found Tynan’s pub, we shared a dram and a Guinness, and Dylan’s pub, Dylans was particularly good, lots of drinks, a Titanic whiskey (no ice please) . From here to Kilbeggan distillery, another grand museum tour followed by many grand drams, our tasting expert here was John Cashman, who took us through many drams, all enjoyable. Good man. Heading then 15 minutes away to Tullamore and our hotel. Entertainment tonight was in Hugh Lynch’s pub, Emmet had laid on food, a whiskey tasting and traditional music, what a night! Many thanks must go to Paul’s pal PJ, of the Malt Teasers club, Dublin for helping arrange this night. We recommend everyone to visit here!

Third day; a morning visit to Tullamore Dew, another museum tour and grand tasting, many drams consumed here and a great “show round”, this is a new facility and they have made an excellent job of this, we were all impressed. From here, we drove to Letterkenny where we had a few hours free time. Followed by check in at the castle hotel in Donegal. Another enjoyable night, this time at the Scotsman’s bar in town, more music, many locals and many drinks! This is becoming a habit.

Following morning we headed out to Derry, we were met and welcomed by the Mayor and Paul’s chum Aoife, lovely girl so she is. Free time here before checking into our hotel, less said about that the better.  Anyhow, following morning saw us wandering over to the Giant’s causeway and Bushmills Distillery, where once again a grand (even in the hard rain) working distillery tour and even better tasting 10 drams here. Niall is a good man here folks! Down to the Republic again, near Slane, actually Navan for the night, good stuff! More Irish whiskey followed.  Following morning we hit Slane Castle, Alex welcomed us to his home and described how he will start building his own distillery here (ee; http://angelswhiskyclub.com/awc/slanecastlewhiskey.asp), meantime, we toured the castle and downed 4 good drams, including Slane Castle own!  I have to say here, Cooley used to supply him (and many other independents) but have now said no to all outside labels, hence his decision to build his own, away to go Alex. On to Dublin, check in for the final night in Ireland, but before we went another tasting was planned. With the help of Gillian of Castle Brands, we had Clontarf x 2, Knappogue Castle, Celtic Honey and Jeffersons Bourbon to sample, Paul took this tasting, his evenings are very different, fast, sharp and plenty of time for the tastings, no history business!  The Honey was not the most popular, we gave the bottle (what was left) to the bar (cafe en Seine, fabulous place), Clontarf went, so did Knappougue, so too most of the Jeffersons, the bar got a few drams and everyone went back to the hotel happy!

All in all, a very good Irish tour, everyone was really happy! Looking forward to the next one!

“After organizing a few truly excellent group trips for us in the isles of Western Scotland and the Mull of Kintyre, we decided to choose Mclean Scotland also as the organizer of Malt Whisky Association of Finland’s first-ever venture to Ireland. Now in hindsight this was a really wise decision, which we did not regret one bit, on the contrary! Our week-long tour of Ireland could not have been better organized, and the contents of the tour, pitstops, etc were all extremely well selected. The timetable was just right, not too tight, and we all thoroughly enjoyed what Ireland has to offer – local foods, culture, whiskey, and lively pubs with live music to entertain us! Our coach and driver were spot on, adding to the experience – a detail not to forget, due to the distances (we really went all over the island!). Paul’s network of contacts and ability to provide us with lovely, unexpected surprises (like a live local band & ex-tempore whiskey tasting, guided by an expert at Hugh Lynch’s pub in Tullamore – what a night!) really made us all extremely happy indeed. We will be back in Ireland – and in Scotland. Many thanks Mclean Scotland, Slainte!!!!”

Mika r. Jansson

President

Malt Whisky Association of Finland

UK vlogger Joe Ellis a.k.a Whisky Wednesday reviews Green Spot Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey.

http://youtu.be/iKizmJDi_8c

http://Facebook.com/whiskytube

http://Twitter.com/whiskytube

Today (May 29th) we are absolutely delighted to announce that we will once again be opening the doors to our distillery and island home in celebration of our annual island festival: the Feis Ile 2013.

Since we realise that not all of our lovely friends from around the globe are able to trek across to our neck of the woods, we thought we would bring the taste of Bowmore to some lucky winners instead. We are giving all whisky enthusiasts the chance to win one of three special bottlings of our Bowmore Feis Ile. This limited release of natural cask strength, bourbon matured and non-chill filtered Bowmore can only be purchased from the distillery itself!

If you fancy your chances at winning this fantastic prize, simply visit our website or Facebook page.

Exclusively matured in first and second fill ex-bourbon casks, then blissfully married together, Small Batch Reserve exhibits the best qualities of both. First-fill bourbon offers delicious vanilla sweetness, subtle spices and bourbon oak smoke to complement Bowmore’s gentle peaty smokiness, while the second-fill cask enhances Bowmore’s fresh fruity complexity and showcases its trademark honey and creamy malt character. Let us know what you think of it. Available at Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, Sainsburys and all good whisky specialists.

Slainte

The Bowmore team

Single Malt from Grain to Glass at Canada’s Shelter Point Distillery

You may view the WhiskyCast HD Episode HERE

The Yamazaki 1979 is now available to order only at The Whisky Shop

This exciting new Yamazaki 1979 Mizunara Cask could be the most collectable whisky to come out of Japan this year.

The Suntory Yamazaki 1979 was matured for 29 years in rare Japanese Mizunara oak casks, which are said to add a ripe cinnamon flavour. The whisky is copper in colour, with hints of pineapple and peach on the nose and a smooth vanilla taste bring together a balanced single malt with a long, sweet finish.

Priced at only £1450 we expect this to sell out very quickly.

One of only 294 bottles, bottled at 55% volume.

All orders will be dispatched week commencing Monday the 3rd of June.

Click here to buy

I am writing you just a stone’s throw from the world’s third largest tower, the Taipei 101 building in Taipei, Taiwan. I am nearing the end of a 3 week whisky and Baiju tour of Asia, and it has been an incredible adventure. I had planned to blog my way across China, Japan and Taiwan with regular twitter updates etc., but it didn’t quite work out that way. It brings to mind Burns’ musings on “the best laid plans of mice and men”… Twitter and Facebook were blocked in China, and mobile data is hard to come by in Japan, especially if you like me have remained loyal to Canadian Blackberry technology. To make matters worse my new PC crashed several days into my stay in Japan severing my ability to upload photos and posts. Suffice to say I will be catching up on my tour blog http://fergusonwhiskytours.com/?page_id=10 and related Twitter/Facebook posts largely on my return. But this was a blessing in disguise as it gave me more time to enjoy myself, my company and surroundings.

I won’t be back at work until Tuesday, but that doesn’t mean there is nothing going on in Calgary’s whisky scene. This Saturday, June 1st, around the world people will be celebrating Ardbog Day (not a typo). Calgary too will have Ardbeg “Ardbog” Day festivities and Kensington Wine Market as Canada’s (North America’s) only Ardbeg Embassy, is helping to sell tickets. More info will be provided below, but in short you have to buy them in store, or at Buchanan’s Chophouse and you must bring cash! Phone and web orders are not possible.

And it wouldn’t be Ardbeg Day without a special whisky to commemorate the occasion, in this case the Ardbeg Ardbog. As Canada’s only Ardbeg Embassy, we have the distinct pleasure of being able to offer it to you first. It will be exclusive for the first two weeks to the Kensington Wine Market. The price is $119.99 + GST, and we are taking pre-orders. As I’m away I’m not sure how many of the bottles are already spoken for, but well more than half of our allocation is almost certainly pre-sold. More on the Ardbeg Ardbog below.

I had hoped to get out a Malt Messenger before I left, but time did not allow for it. The Glenmorangie Ealanta, the latest release in the distillery’s Private Collection was released just prior to my departure, and it is rapidly selling out. The whisky’s tasting note can also be found below.

A couple of other “Just Arrived” whiskies are the Springbank 21 Year 2013 and Longrow Rundlets & Kilderkins. I’ve had the pleasure of trying the new Springbank 21 Year a few times over the last few months, and it is superb. More sherried and in my opinion an improvement over the 2012 bottling which was itself still quite good. The Longrow Rundlets & Kilderkins or R&K is the hotly anticipated follow up to the Springbank R&K which was a smash hit last year. Matured in small casks, the whisky has a character far beyond its years. There’s a little bit on the Springbank 21 Year and Longrow R&K below.

Finally, there are just 2 1/2 weeks until the Ultimate Ardbeg Tasting Featuring Double Barrel. This once in a lifetime Ardbeg tasting has an all-star lineup including Ardbegs: Uigeadail, Corryvreckan, Galileo, Ardbog, 17 Year, 1977 and the Ardbeg Double Barrel: a set of two 1974 Ardbegs valued at $15K. We are able to offer this tasting at well below cost thanks in large part to our partners Moet Hennessey/Charton Hobbs. There are more details on the Ultimate Ardbeg Tasting below too.

As I get caught up with my Asian blog posts and tweets over the coming weeks I hope you will continue to follow along on my adventures. As I am not back in the store until Tuesday, please don’t email me requests or orders. Please send these to whisky@kensingtonwinemarket.com , call 403-283-8000/888-283-9004 or pop by the store.

I hope you enjoy this Malt Messenger bulletin, I look forward to catching up with you soon.

Slainté!

Andrew Ferguson

PS – Don’t forget you can follow me on twitter www.twitter.com/scotch_guy and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/scotch.guy.1 .

IN THIS MALT MESSENGER BULLETIN

1. Ardbeg ‘Ardbog Day’ Goes on Sale Saturday
2. Tickets Are On Sale Now For Ardbog Day @ KWM
3. Less Than 2 Weeks Until the Ultimate Ardbeg Tasting
4. Glenmorangie Ealanta Selling Fast!
5. Springbank 21 Year 2013 Available Next Week
6. Longrow Rundlets & Kilderkins Now Available

ARDBEG ARDBOG GOES ON SALE SATURDAY! – $119.99 + GST

If you’d like to know more about the upcoming Ardbeg Ardbog, best check out the Ardbog Day Tasting listed below. For now, here’s what we know:

Ardbeg Ardbog Day – 51.6% – 10 Year – Matured in Manzanilla Sherry casks and Refill Bourbon Barrels – From the Distillery: “Aroma: Deep, enticing waves of pecan nuts, salty toffee & caramels combine with fudge, leather and with a distinct whiff of herbs, lavender and violets. The smoke is soft and aromatic, and is interwoven with salty, savoury notes, such as Iberico ham and olives. The addition of water brings forth herbal, perfumed notes, smoked rhubarb, aged balsamic vinegar and some salty, ‘graphite’ notes reminding you of the Manzanilla cask element. Taste: A full, oily/tingly mouth feel leads into a powerful, salty, savoury burst of flavours including salted cashews and peanuts, clove, aniseed flavoured toffee, green olives and a curious hint of anchovy. Finish: A long, lingering aftertaste, in which the classic Ardbeg sweetness (like a hint of maple syrup) is kept in check by oak tannins, clove and coffee grounds.” – $119.99 + GST

TICKETS FOR ARDBOG DAY ARE ON SALE @ KWM – $20

Ardbeg day is celebrated on June 1st of every year, Ardbeg’s Distillery Open Day during the Islay Whisky Festival. The Islay whisky festival has grown to such proportions, that the distillery has decided tot take the event to the people with Ardbeg events all over the world. Calgary’s event will be taking place on Saturday June 1st, and will include the Islay-Lympic Games and the bestowing of an Ardbeg Embassy on Buchanan’s Chophouse & Whisky Bar. For more details see the info that follows. Tickets can be bought for $20 cash by visiting Kensington Wine Market or Buchanan’s Chophouse.

Watch the Ardbeg Ardbog Day Film

Link to Ardbog Day Calgary on Facebook
Note the date is June 1st not 2nd

LESS THAN 3 WEEKS UNTILTHE ULTIMATE ARDBEG TASTING – $300

This once in a lifetime tasting event features three Ardbegs from the 1970’s and the legendary 17 Year in addition to Corryvreckan, Uigeadail, Galileo & and the new Ardbog. This is one tasting event you don’t want to miss:

The Utlimate Ardbeg Experience Featuring Ardbeg Double Barrel- 1974 is the most sought after of all Ardbeg vintages, and we’ll be sampling two 1974 single casks from the very rare Ardbeg Double Barrel ($15,210.49) set. In addition, participants will sample a selection of other Ardbegs including: 10 Year, 17 Year, Corryvreckan, Uigeadail, Galileo, Ardbog Day and possibly another rare vintage! The event will feature some tasty morsels, and will be held at the Southern Alberta Pioneers Hall, 3625 4th Street S.W., Friday June 14th at 7:00PM. – Friday June 14th – $300

GLENMORANGIE EALANTA SELLING FAST – $103.99

A very well priced dram considering it is a limited edition 19 year old, with older whiskies in the vatting. Scots Gaelic for ‘skilled and ingenious’, Ealanta is a 19 Years Old Glenmorangie, fully matured in virgin American white oak casks with a provenance that stretches all the way to the mountains of Missouri and the Mark Twain National Forrest.

Glenmorangie Elanta – 46% – 19 Year – 4th Release in the Private Edition series – “The result is a nose of American cream soda, milk chocolate, fudge, pineapple, and honey; spicy and creamy. Silky smooth in the mouth, with brittle toffee and orange notes; gently herbal, with a suggestion of cloves and newly-sawn wood. Long in the finish, with citrus fruit, oak, aniseed, and an enduring spicy creaminess.” – 90pts Whisky Advocate – $103.99

SPRINGBANK 21 YEAR 2013 AVAILABLE NEXT WEEK – $363.49 + GST

Springbank 21 Year 2013 – 46% – From the Distillery: “Nose: Sherry is the dominant aroma, accompanied by classic Christmas cake ingredients of raisins, sultanas, almonds and marzipan. You could nose this all night, the possibilities are infinite. Palate: Rich and creamy, bursting with flavour. Great oily texture like the previous edition. Concluding with a hint of treacle and salt. A whisky full of rich flavour that will not let you down. Finish: Goes on and on, deliciously sweet. Develops on the tongue for eternity, evolving continuously.” – $363.49 + GST

LONGROWN RUNDLETS & KILDERKINS AVAILABLE NEXT WEEK

Longrow Rundlets & Kilderkins – 51.7% – 11 Year – Matured in small casks (called Rundlets and Kilderkins) more typical of the 18th & 19th centuries. – From the Distillery: “Nose: Smoke is easy to identify from the beginning and is soon joined with medicinal notes and subtle burning embers. On returning to nose, sweetness such as toffee apple is more pronounced. Palate: Both peat and smoke are detected yet it is simultaneously sweet, particularly toffee and fudge. This is followed with the taste of liquorice. Rich and oily from its maturation in small casks, it gives an impression of being older than its 11 years. Finish: Long, smooth and sweet. Slow and lingering hint of peat with peat reaching a crescendo with a strong peaty aftertaste.” – $92.99 + GST

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If you have any whisky questions or comments concerning The Malt Messenger please contact me by e-mail, phone, or drop by the store. Feel free to forward me any whisky news you feel should be included in a future issue of The Malt Messenger; it might just get included.

All of the products mentioned in THE MALT MESSENGER can be purchased in store, over the phone or from our website at www.kensingtonwinemarket.com. All prices quoted in the Malt Messenger are subject to change, don’t include GST. In the case of discrepancies in pricing, the price in our in store point of sale will be taken as correct.

Thanks for reading the Malt Messenger.

Slainte!

Andrew Ferguson
Manager & Scotchguy
Kensington Wine Market
403-283-8000
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
www.kensingtonwinemarket.com

Owner & Opperator
Ferguson’s Whisky Tours
www.fergusonwhiskytours.com
scotchguide@fergusonwhiskytours.com