Ducks at Kilspindie partners with The Scotch Malt Whisky Society

Ducks at Kilspindie is thrilled to announce that it has been welcomed a partner bar of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society – the world’s foremost malt whisky club. Ducks is now an official ‘home from home’ for Society members and whisky lovers alike where they can enjoy an extensive range of the Society’s exclusive cask whiskies in the comfortable and relaxed atmosphere of Ducks’ new whisky snug.

Open to everyone, guests at Ducks will have the unique opportunity, initially, to sample sixteen of the Society’s distinctive single casks which are usually only available to members and their guests, making it the premier destination for any true malt whisky lover. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society has worked closely with bar staff at Ducks to ensure that they can share the Society’s vast knowledge with their customers, providing an authentic Scotch Malt Whisky Society experience.

Ducks will also be hosting exclusive Society tasting dinners, where meals will be served based on their ability to compliment each whisky, they are also happy to arrange private whisky tastings for groups of two to eighty people.

Commenting on the venture, Mark Van Der Vijver from The Scotch Malt Whisky Society said:
“Ducks is synonymous with superb food, drink and service in the heart of East Lothian and with their hand-selected range of SMWS single cask whiskies, they have a rare and exclusive string in their bow. Malcolm and the team are now able to offer local malt enthusiasts and Society members an ever-changing variety of SMWS whiskies across their bar, award-winning restaurant and private events.”

Malcolm Duck added:
“This is massively exciting for us at Ducks. Members of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society can now use Ducks as their own wee bar, whilst non members will also be able to sample these one off single barrel bottlings. We will be starting out with sixteen different bottles, including one from Japan.”

Notes:
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society allows members to discover the very best single cask, single malt whisky anywhere in the world. Only ever bottled from a single cask, selected from a range of over 120 whisky distilleries, every Society whisky bottling is exceptional. To join the Scotch Malt Whisky Society visit www.smws.co.uk/memberships.
www.smws.co.uk

Located in the picturesque village of Aberlady, Duck’s at Kilspindie House is a relaxed, family run restaurant with rooms which offers guests two separate dining experiences; from two AA Rosette fine dining in Ducks Restaurant, to excellent bistro cuisine in Donald’s Bar Bistro. Ducks also offers twenty-three extremely comfortable en-suite bedrooms.
www.ducks.co.uk

Photo compliments of Malt Madness

The Tall Tale of Ben Nevis Distillery

Ben Nevis is not lacking in the colourful history category. With a foundation date of 1825 the story starts just after sweeping changes to the stifling regulations and taxes governing whisky production led to a boom in distilling. ‘Long’ John MacDonald (b. 1796- he was 6 foot 4: not at birth you understand), from Wester Ross farming stock, with a partner was just twenty-seven years old when some Lochaber lairds chose him to head up their distilling project. Siting the distillery at the strategically located garrison town of Fort William at the foot of Ben Nevis using water from Scotland’s highest spring Buchan’s well (alt. over 1200 metres), it wasn’t long before his brand ’Dew of Ben Nevis’ became well respected. Its highest profile visitor was no less than Queen Victoria in 1848, she was gifted a cask for the future king George’s 21^st birthday celebrations. Originally a single the brand later switched to a blend late in the nineteenth century.

Despite suffering a sequestration two years before the death of Long John in 1856, which saw a shut down common at the time for rural distilleries, the distillery soon blossomed thanks to his son Donald Peter’s enthusiastic rebuilding of 1863-65 at a time of general economic recovery and subsequent demand for stocks from blenders. Like his father Peter was youthful, twenty years old , when he took charge. Peter’s biggest contribution was the construction in 1878 of a new bigger distillery ‘Nevis’ (also referred to as ‘Lochaber’ and ‘Glen Nevis‘- the latter shouldn’t be confused with a Campbeltown distillery of the same name). Located close to the mouth of the river Ness the distilleries were very close to one another allowing the sharing of certain facilities like a pier for the company‘s own steamers which was constructed in 1887 during a further extension to the works. At this time the famed cataloguer extraordinaire Alfred Barnard reported ten thousand casks stored on site were all owned by customers, further evidence of the confidence brokers blenders and bottlers had in the distilleries’ quality. Thanks also to Barnard’s visit we can see a sketch of the Nevis still room which shows purifiers were employed on the wash still arms while he states one of the wash stills to have a considerable 16 000 litre capacity. Ten years after his father’s death Peter had increased the company’s output from 200 gallons a week to an impressive 3000 gallons. By 1889 the distilleries’ output was nearly twice that of their nearest rival at around quarter of a million proof gallons and boasted the largest maltings in the industry at the time. Around 200 people worked at Nevis giving some insight into the significance of the operation. A further boost to the well being of the area came in 1894 when the West Highland Railway reached the town providing many benefits such as a cheap route for coal deliveries via the distillery‘s own siding. Peter passed away in 1891 handing the company on to the third generation of the family. In 1908 the two distilleries were integrated with the maltings at Nevis trading as Lochaber Maltings while the storage facilities was under the title Lochaber Warehouses.

In 1921 the brand ‘Long John’ and the distilleries parted company when the London wine and spirit company W. H. Chaplin acquired the name. From this point Ben Nevis traded under the name ‘D. P. MacDonald‘. Come 1936 Chaplin were taken over by the long established (1805) English gin distillers and wine and spirit merchants Seager Evans. In 1927 Seager Evans built Strathclyde grain distillery in Glasgow, which was briefly home to the Kinclaith malt facility. They also bought Glenugie distillery in Peterhead (later parts from this distillery were to be recycled when used at Ben Nevis after Glenugie shut) as well as commissioning Tormore distillery in Speyside. In 1956 the American firm Schenley Industries acquired Seager Evans before passing S. E. on to Rapid America in 1969. The English brewer Whitbread purchased the subsidiary Long John International (as Rapid America was then known) in 1975.

Returning to the first half of the twentieth century we see the MacDonald family ownership of Ben Nevis come to an end in 1941. Enter a most intriguing individual- Joseph Hobbs. Hobbs went to Canada in 1904 and served in the navy during World War I. During his time in Canada he acted as an agent for Peter Dawson the Scottish distillers, he also ran Scotch into the US during prohibition, was involved in both the shipping and distilling businesses before moving to Scotland in the 1930s. Through the Glasgow based subsidiary of Associated Distillers of America, Train & MacIntyre, Hobbs oversaw the acquisition of Glenury-Royal, Bruichladdich, Glen Kinchie and North Esk (A.K.A. ‘Glen Esk’ and ‘Hillside‘, later converted to grain production under the name ‘Montrose’ and back again as well as being the home to a large maltings) in 1936-38. Also under the banner of Associated Scottish Distillers he purchased Strathdee (in Aberdeen), Fettercairn, Glen Lochy (including the Lochaber warehouses and maltings) as well as Ben Romach. Most of these stills were to pass on to DCL in 1954. An indication of Hobb’s business mind is given when shortly after the outbreak of World War II he bought a fire extinguisher company, not to mention acquiring the Norwegian patent for sub-sea welding equipment. By 1952 he had been elected chairman of an alternative ‘independent’ version of the Scotch Whisky Association representing 34 member companies rallying against what some felt was monopolistic influences within the industry. Selling his stake in Associated Scottish Distillers in 1955 allowed Hobbs to buy Ben Nevis distillery (from this point operated as ‘Ben Nevis Distillery (Fort William) Ltd.’) and Glen Lochy castle with 50 000 acres which he turned into a high class hotel. Legend has it that the very day he originally procured the distillery he sold the old Nevis warehousing for the same sum – £20K while moving the Nevis gates to Ben Nevis (they are now not big enough to meet when closed). At this stage he also set up the Great Glen cattle ranch. His whisky innovations include installing a patent still (the first post-war example) an addition repeated at his other distillery Lochside (opened 1957 in Montrose which he converted from a brewery). Also he introduced concrete mash tuns, ‘blending at birth’ (where malt and grain new spirit is mixed at the cask filling stage) and maturation in beer barrels. On a more local Edinburgh note it is thought a floating restaurant in Leith once belonged to Hobbs and took him across the Atlantic. Joseph Hobbs died in 1964.

The company stayed in the Hobbs family until his son sold out in 1981, three years after production ceased, to Long John International the spirits division of Whitbread plc, hence reuniting the distillery with the Long John brand which Whitbread possessed. The Coffey still was removed at this time, the new owners not immediately concerned with restarting distilling but most interested in the maturation facilities. After brief operations starting 18.04.1984 under current manager Colin Ross following a £2M refit when the curious concrete wash backs were replaced by more traditional wooden examples and a new mash tun replaced the old cast iron example production stopped in 1986. Ross spent a period at Laphroaig before returning in 1989 and is expected to retire in the near future. Ownership changed once again when it became the second Scottish distillery to be owned by a Japanese company, Nikka, currently owned by Asahi brewers, in 1989. The Japanese intervention came ten years after the passing of Nikka’s founder Masataka Taketsuru who was hugely influential in the Japanese whisky industry and who had studied distilling in Campbeltown not so far from Ben Nevis. Presumably the thought of his legacy leading to the ownership of such a prestigious Scottish distillery and the brand being the 7^th best selling malt in Japan (in 2010) would have seemed quite fantastic to the young scholar.

Production has been constant since 1990. It appears an ancient 63 year old expression of 90 bottles was released in spring of that year but details are vague, a more accessible 10yo at a generous 46% has been available since 1996.

From a more technical view point the distillery now uses water from Allt a’ Mhuillinn (Mill Burn) and uses peated barley from Ord maltings, the Lauter mash tun feeds 8 large (42,000 litre) wash backs which in turn fill 2 wash stills with a 21,000 litre charge followed by two spirit stills fills of 12,500 litres. All stills are indirectly heated and their design dates from the 1865 refit and were installed in 1955. The substantial size of the stills, their wide and short necks followed by sloping lyne arms all contribute to a robust spirit suited to maturation in sherry and red wine casks. Although the use of shell and tube condensers presumably contribute a lightening effect of the spirit character, the worm tubs, removed in 1978, would surely created an even weightier style. A substantial spirit receiver of 50.000 litres is capable of filling around 200 hogsheads from it 50,000 litre capacity all of which are stored on site within the seven warehouses which are a mixture of old and new. Full capacity is in the region of 2 million litres but production is typically about half this. The distillery is popular with visitors, more than 30,000 take the tour annually.

Mark Davidson…

Of a distinguished Banff 1968 vintage Mark Davidson has a short but full body and so marries well (& subsequently producing two limited editions), frequently seen at whisky fairs in Scotland yet curiously difficult to find outside his domestic market it is hoped his inaugural launch on the Canadian scene will be well received. He is at home in independant bottling circles being most commonly found in the William Cadenhead livery where he has enjoyed a 13 year finishing period, however as a stand alone single expression under the Jolly Toper brand he can come into his own while being a fine mixer.

There’s an old saying (anon) “God invented whisky so the Irish would never take over the world”, well my Dad and his, and his and so on, all came from the west coast of Scotland, this Celtic area always loved a dram, more to the point, its history is a mix of Irish and Scot. This ancient kingdom is where “modern” history began. With history from the time of Moses, mingled with legends like St. Patrick and St. Columba, Dalriada was first the name for the land in Northern Ireland (Ulster). Founded by Cairbre Riadia who settled in this area, and later, the name was applied to the Scottish area where three brothers: Angus, Lorne and Fergus settled. There are several stories about the origins of Dalriada – a legend is a legend!  “In the time of Moses”, so the legend goes, there was a man named Gaodhal Glas who had been bitten by a serpent. Moses is said to have cured him and to have promised that `no serpent or other poisonous thing should infest the happy western island’ that his descendants would one day inhabit (there are no snakes in Ireland). Could this be down to the famous quote by W. C. Fields; “Always carry a flagon of whisky in case of snakebite, and furthermore, always carry a small snake.” Was he actually Scottish?

The Isle of Destiny foretold by Moses. “Their leader at this time was Milesius whose wife was also named Scota. Scota and her eight sons, their families and followers finally set out on the voyage to their Isle of Destiny (Scotland). In later ages the land was called Scotia and the people were called Scotti. Scota brought from Egypt a stone of black marble on which strange runes were carved. They landed in Ireland and fought the people there. Scota died in Ireland and later there was a warrior of the Goidelic line called Tuathal. He founded a kingdom at Tara. By the fourth century the Scotti were assailing the Roman province of Britain. They filtered across to the Southern Hebrides and to the mainland of what is now Scotland, what was then Caledonia. Was that black stone what we now call “The Stone of Destiny”? see? back to Perth again (where I now live).

We return to Cairbre Riada, a descendant of Tuathal, had settled his people first in Munster (Ireland), but famine caused him to abandon this land (history repeats eh!). He established a kingdom between the Antrim Mountains and the sea. He obtained this territory between 254 and 273 AD. The word `Riada’, or `Righfadna’, means `the long-armed’. Cairbre Riada was a nobleman of high parentage. His father was Conaire II, King of the Province of Ulster from AD 212 to 220 and his mother was the daughter of the illustrious Warrior King, Conn of the Hundred Battles. The centre of his kingdom was the ancient Dunseverick Castle set on a great rock rising sheer from the Atlantic in the strongest defensive position of Ireland’s northern coast. Dal’ means ‘descendants’ and in a secondary sense `the territory of the descendant’. The word `Dalriada’ therefore signifies ‘the territory of the descendants of Cairbre Riada. Cairbre Riada’s heir, Eochach Dubhlein, married a Pictish princess, the daughter of the Albain King Obdaire. She bore him three sons, known in legend as the `three Collas’. The oldest, Colla Uais, aspired to the High Kingship of Tara but was defeated by a cousin. He and his brothers fled to Alba (Scotland -possibly to Colonsay). In due time they returned to Ireland and they won swordland and founded a Kingdom called Oriel. Cairbre Riada’s descendants ruled the coast area of Antrim until Colla Uais grandson, Erc of Dalriada, died. Erc had twelve sons, the youngest being Fergus, Lorn and Angus. The recorded history of Argyll begins in the 5th Century AD when it was invaded by the Scotti (Celts). The Scotti were the Gaelic-speaking people who had gained ascendancy in the north of Ireland. About the year 502 AD, Fergus, with Lorne and Angus, led a great organized invasion of the Scottish coast by the warriors of Dalriada. They successfully occupied the area now know as Argyll and some of the islands including Islay. Thus the Dalriadic settlement in Argyll was founded by the three sons of Erc. THUS, as it is known that the Irish invented whisk(e)y, and it was Irish who were the very first Scots, and my clan; Maclean is related to the High Kings of Ireland.  The name Maclean – so history says – can link back to the kings of Dalriada. That’s one link, the other is Paul’s mum. She and her family are originally from Kilkenny in the Republic of Ireland. Yet more links: the Daly (Daley) coat of arms features a Lion, as does the Scottish Royal flag. Paul lived in a house is called Armagh, Paul’s mum lives in Portrush Street. We need go no further! Well, actually aye, please read on … so what has this all to do with whisky? I hear you ask. Easy; it is plainly obvious to me and any sane person, that it was a Maclean who invented whisky!

TO CONCLUDE;  Conn of the Hundred Battles; well I have 100 whisky bottles at home, its sometimes a battle to decide what to down. Oban and area (where Dad came from) now has a distillery, so too Mull (Tobermory) with another being built over the water at Ardnamurchan. The Kingdom of Dalriada included Arran, Jura and Islay – see anything cropping up here related to whisky? Distillery plans also for Lewis and a wee distillery already there. Ok, my great ancestors were Irish, we all know that, my recent ancestors are Scottish, I am a Celt (is it any wonder I support Glasgow Celtic?), it is well known I love both Scotch and Irish drams, the mid ancestor Macleans were mixed with Vikings. The Norse have a great love for whisky. And then we have cousin Charlie (Maclean), so; to end, it must have been Maclean’s who invented whisky.

Story by Paul McLean; www.mcleanscotland.com whisky tours, www.angelswhiskyclub.com  free to join worldwide online whisky club, Patron Charles Maclean.

Paul is from Connel near Oban, having also lived in England, Wales and Ireland, now in Perth.

A new year is upon us and so is the latest selection of our one-of-a-kind single cask whiskies.

The January Outturn is now available here:  www.smws.ca

If you spent the holiday season treating everyone else, now is the time to treat yourself, so here’s a peek at what might tempt you:

Cask No. 5.35 Laundry in the bakery
12 years old; 2nd fill hogshead; 54.7%abv
Initial nose is fresh and light, green apples and lemon puffs with deeper, sweeter notes developing like baking bread or jam doughnuts. Quite hot and lively to taste, strawberries with black pepper, and to finish, cold peppermint tea and fresh slightly soapy laundry.

Cask No. 4.168 Gunpowder, treason and plot
15 years old; refill gorda; 57%abv
The nose offered fresh toast with lashings of marmalade topped with unsmoked bacon. Then rum & raisin ice cream served on a worn copper spoon. To taste, mesquite marinated BBQ’d meat washed down with an Australian Riesling with notes of burning rubber.

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society Canada
104-1240 Kensington Road NW, Suite 160
Calgary, AB, Canada T2N 3P7

Contact the Society at curious@smws.ca for your chance to join and to take advantage of their great offers

The Relaxed Whisky Weekend
6 – 8 September 2013

Fellow Whisky Enthusiast,

The Mayas were wrong, we are still here, and 2013 has arrived! (With our without last night’s hangover) The year in which Maltstock will be organized for the 5th time already! Incredible! We hope to meet you in September!  We would like to wish everybody a wonderful, happy, healthy and above all: relaxed 2013!

Arthur, Bob, Eline, Rogier, Teun and the Maltstock crew

For information and tickets please look at our website. The new site and webshop will be fully operational next week. If you have any questions or cannot wait please contact us via this form. (click here)

Greetings!

I hope you had a spectacular holidays with your family, loved ones and friends, and this second day of 2013 finds you recovering and ready to “get back at it”.

As I started to consider whiskies for this first email of the year, I found myself also reconnecting with our vision for the ForWhiskeyLovers experience: What we offer you, our members. Or put another way: How we at FWL hope you, our members will think of us when you hear our name.

This New Year reset also caused reflection on some of what we’ve achieved in the last year or two, including:
• Bringing on Managing Editor Caroline Dewar and our world-renown team of contributing editors

• Launching our Private Tasting Expeditions
• Kicking the Whisky Explorers club up a few notches with help from the chaps at Masters of Malt
• Relaunching The Drammie Awards, thereby placing the power of “recognition” back in the hands of whiskey consumers.
• Winning the Icons of Whisky Best Online Retailer for 2012
It quickly became evident that two words were threaded through everything we do: Quality & Value. At every touch point where you experience FWL, we want you to have a high quality experience, that provides real value.

Oh…and it should be fun!

And so having reconnected with Quality and Value (over-laid with “fun”), I quickly arrived at one of my favorite – always on my bar – whiskies for this weeks email: Ardbeg 10 YO Islay Whisky.

The Ardbeg distillery was established in 1815, but was mothballed after running into some financial difficulties the distillery closed in 1981 and it was not until 1989 that distillation resumed, although on a very small scale. After closing again in 1996, then owners Allied Domecq put the distillery up for sale.

Bought in 1997 by Glenmorangie Co it was was, at last, restored to its former grandeur. Its chief water source, Loch Uigeadail (pronounced ‘Oog-a-dal’), or ‘dark and mysterious place’ in Gaelic, became the inspiration for a bottling launched in 2003 under the same name.

Ardbeg Uigeadail was later Jim Murray’s 2009 World Whisky of the Year, a title held previously by Ardbeg’s ten year-old. Ardbeg has become known for its rich, peated whiskies, very easily identifiable by their fullness of body and perfect harmony of flavor.

Ardbeg Ten Years Old is non chill-filtered and has a strength of 46% ABV, thus retaining maximum flavor, at the same time giving more body and added depth. It is revered around the world as the peatiest, smokiest, most complex single malt of them all. Yet it does not flaunt the peat; rather it gives way to the natural sweetness of the malt to produce a whisky of perfect balance.

So we are thrilled to offer you a bottle of Ardbeg 10YO Islay Whiskey, for $54.95/ bottle…and if the quality of Ardbeg 10 isn’t enough (and it darn well should be!), to assure “value” we are including a 50mL bottle of Ardbeg’s acclaimed Uigeadail with your order, FREE!

Next week: The 2013 Drammie Awards.

Until next week…I wish you high spirits!

Doug Stone
Founder
ForWhiskeyLovers.com

ARDBEG 10YO ISLAY SINGLE MALT & UIGEADAIL 50ML

Irish Whiskey Renaissance 

New Distilleries: Carlow and Horse Island 

Ernie – Ernst J. Scheiner, The Gateway to Distilleries at www.whisky-distilleries.net

Ireland in Kentucky

The most westerly European and Irish Dingle Distillery went into production last year (please see https://www.whiskyintelligence.com/2012/12/new-on-the-irish-whiskey-map-dingle-distillery-irish-whiskey-news). The Dingle Founding Fathers cannot wait to see their whiskey to be bottled in December 2015. More Irish distilleries are to come in the near future: Tullamore, Belfast Titanic, Carlow and Horse Island.

A surprising news came from the U.S.: „The Vendome whiskey stills, used by Alltech’s Lexington Brewing Company and made in Louisville, Kentucky, were shipped over (to Ireland) on 22 August (2012). The whiskey will be distilled in Carlow Brewing Company in Bagenalstown, Co. Carlow.“  The pot stills were used by Alltech Lexington Brewing Company to distil Town Branch Bourbon www.kentuckyale.com/town-branch.

In the Heart of the Bluegrass-Country the Lexington distillers were also making an Irish type of whiskey.  Both whiskeys received gold medals at the 2012 World Spirit Awards www.world-spirits.com.

Alltech’s founder and renowned scientist Dr. T. Pearse Lyons revived whiskey distilling in Lexington, Kentucky, in 2008 which had stopped at the beginning of the Prohibition in in 1920.  Lyons is of Irish background, he worked as a biochemist in the Irish whiskey industry with the Irish Distillers Group and has been a master brewer for Storehouse Guinness, Dublin. The successful entrepreneur set up Town Branch Distillery not to distil Bourbon but Kentucky’s first double distilled single malt whiskey  Pearse Lyons Reserve  www.kentuckyale.com/pearse-lyons-reserve.

Today’s onion shaped pot stills were manufactured by Forsyths of Rothes in Scotland. The first new Kentucky malt was filled in a first-fill Bourbon cask in September 2008 and presented at the World Equestrian Games in 2010 (Alltech is the main sponsor). The annual production capacity is about 450.000 litres of new make spirit.

See: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/09/26/2351606/new-alltech-distllery-to-open.html

Tables turned: back to the roots 

„Global animal health and nutrition company Alltech is moving (parts of ) its whiskey business to Ireland,“ was the news which surprised the people of Co. Carlow.  Back to the „heimatland“ was the notion. The Irish master brewer and distiller who was born in Dundalk, Co. Louth, just cannot deny his whiskey roots, another of his whiskey dreams came true in Carlow. Lyons is now the only independent distiller to produce whiskey in the U.S. and Ireland.

He said: “A truly momentous event has happened as the first stills are shipped from Kentucky to Ireland, completing the cycle with this fantastic craft finally returning to its place of origin. This will set the stage for a new Irish whiskey with a Kentucky flair.”

Carlow Brewing Company, also known as O’Hara’s Brewery, founded in 1996 by the O’Hara family, was chosen as the Irish production site. It is a good address, they are proud of their beer: „The renowned O’Hara’s Irish Stout, won two gold medals at the International Brewing Awards, a high profile industry competition, and this success attracted a lot of international attention.“ See www.carlowbrewing.co.

Managing director Seamus O’Hara was exited about the new joint venture which would bring new jobs to Carlow.  His craft brewery will also act as an importer of the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale which is brewed by Alltech Lexington Brewing and Distilling Co.  The American ale is specially matured for six months in Kentucky Bourbon casks to add more flavours and aromas of the whiskey to the beer.

The two Kentucky stills were set up in the Carlow Craft Brewing House and distilling began in November 2012. The wash still has a capacity of 1,900 litres and the spirit still 1,000 litres. The American stills are constructed with a boil pot and a column on top which allows to distil different spirits. The spirit is made of  100%  malted barley only. They use their own developed distiller’s yeast with a fermentation period of the wash for  about 65 hours (Dr. Lyons has got a doctor’s degree in yeast fermentation) and run a double distillation to produce a malt whiskey which is non-peated at the moment.  The micro-distillery is fully manual. The spirit will mature in casks from The Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company in warehouses on site. Lyons said: „This way we will keep the Kentucky-Ireland connection alive.” See  www.alltech.com.

A new Irish-American whiskey dynasty is born as Dr. Lyons’ son Mark also received his PhD in brewing and distilling from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. 

Island Whiskey Horse 

Another whiskey distillery will be built in the South of Ireland. Horse Island, just south of Cork, is privately owned by Adrian Fitzgibbon. His company Roaring Water Farm & Enterprises (growing of crops combined with farming of animals) handed in a planning application at Cork County Council (see for further details the application form, no. 12752 of December 2012).

The application plan comprises a mash and fermentation house, a still house and a visitor centre,  a restaurant-cafè with a whiskey-bar and two warehouses. A sea water pump and waste water treatment plant with water tanks are also planned.

The distillation unit comprises a set of three pot stills to produce a triple distilled new make. They intend to distil Irish pot still whiskey which is traditionally made of unmalted and malted barley.

The grain and malted barley will be delivered by a roll-on-roll-off ferry and silos may store about 32 tonnes of grain. The production water will come from a well in the island and the cooling water will be sourced from the sea. The expected annual production capacity will be around 900.000 litres of new make spirit. The whiskey will mature on the island, the draff will be fed to livestock on the island. There are plans to employ about 20 peopl.  „Production should start in 2014.“

You may spent your holidays in Horse Island, there are three luxurious cottages available: www.4beachnuts.com/property/485

About the Author: Ernie – Ernst J. Scheiner M.A. was a director in an adult education centre and teaches “Germans how to drink whisky.” Ernie offers courses on whisky distilling and writes for newspapers and magazines in Germany.

He is the editor of The Gateway to Distilleries at www.whisky-distilleries.net which gives an excellent insight into the whisky industry of Scotland, Ireland and Continental Europe. Contact: info@whisky-distilleries.net

MCLEANSCOTLAND on tour with Russian guests. 

GlenDronach & BenRiach distilleries asked MCLEANSCOTLAND, one of the top whisky tour operators in Scotland, to manage a 4 day visit for 14 Russian guests in 2012.   The group are distributors for  the 2 distilleries in Russia.  Whilst in Scotland they sampled  many drams, enjoyed the Scottish scenery and excellent food including a whisky dinner at GlenDronach Distillery.

MCLEANSCOTLAND arranged transportation and daily visits including both distillery tours and tastings, a day trip to Inverness with lunch, a visit to Speyside Cooperage to watch casks being made and repaired and a farewell dinner.

““They were a very nice group to work with, I enjoyed myself immensely, drinks of each evening proved lots of fun, even though things were sometimes lost in translation!   I would welcome them again at any time. 

Paul McLean, Senior Partner, MCLEANSCOTLAND, Perth.  www.mcleanscotland.com

Unfortunately the way we ship alcohol to North America will change as of next week.

The Civil Aviation Authority is stopping the transport of high alcohol products in non-freight aeroplanes, as they are now classing these liquids as ‘dangerous goods’.

We are currently evaluating alternative solutions, but this is a complex issue and will take some time. As such Royal Mile Whiskies are to suspend shipping to North America as of the 8th January 2013 until further notice.

Obviously, we have enjoyed and greatly appreciated your custom in the past and we hope to be able to serve you again in the future.  We know this is as disappointing for you as it is for us and we will do what we can to find a legal and cost effective method of shipping as quickly as we can. We should also point out that it is not just Royal Mile Whiskies that will be affected by these new regulations and all companies shipping alcohol over 24% alcohol using non-freight shippers will also be subject to the same regulations.

If you want to stock up before these new regulations take effect, there should be time for one last order at current costs before our courier stops collecting from us on 8th January. We would need to receive the order by 12 noon (GMT) on Monday 7th January.  Please note that we will not be able to order ‘Out of Stock’ products from our suppliers in time to complete web orders before the deadline, so suggest that you order products that show ‘Good Availability’.  If there is an item out of stock we will get in touch very quickly to let you know.

Please also note that due to public holidays our offices will be closed on New Year’s Day and the 2nd January. We realise this is bad timing, however, we wanted to give you as much forewarning as possible. We will be back in the office on Thursday 3rd January to answer any queries you may have.

Once again all of us at Royal Mile Whiskies thank you for your business and wish you well for the New Year.

From the RMW team

Nabil has written a very interesting E-pistle on the “supertaster” phenomenon that manifests itself by a higher concentration of taste buds on the tongue:

http://www.maltmaniacs.net/E-pistles/Malt-Maniacs-2012-09-Supertaster.pdf

Happy reading and Happy New Year,