Call us freephone: 0800 107 1936
Orders with us before THURSDAY afternoon delivered in time, but please don’t wait till then!
(LWF says it how it is without embellishment – WI)
Christmas Countdown: 15% Bottle Savings
We’re counting down to Christmas with special single cask treats for members…yesterday our Cask Ends Sale and today (all weekend and Monday) we’re offering a massive 15% off all our individual bottles of whisky.
15% Bottle Sale ends: Mon 17 Dec
Last Orders for Christmas Delivery: Wed 19 Dec (midday)
Spreading Christmas Cheer…
1.97 Orange syllabub
Speyside Spey, WAS £134 NOW £113.90 * with gift box
We settled on the comforting notion of orange syllabub, with a significant quantity of zest grated on top. The taste at cask strength has the bitterness of Seville Oranges subsiding to leave toasted cereals. BUY
7.76 A broad canvas of fruity flavours
Speyside Lossie, WAS £75.20 NOW £63.92
Blackcurrant jam, peach, bramble, cherry, apple, banana, strawberry hubba-bubba and ‘luxury spangles’; also pencil shavings, Bakewell tart, marzipan and rose perfume. BUY
26.89 An exotic tearoom experience
Highland Northern, WAS £87.60 NOW £76.46
Adding water led to notes of vanilla ice cream and toffee sauce, lemon sorbet, spiced apple tea and an indulgent orange spiced soap! BUY
3.190 Heather honey and burnt toast
Islay, WAS £62.10 NOW £52,79
Gentle smoke on the nose was burnt heather and combined seductively with savoury and sweet aromas – rye bread, pastrami, apricots, heather honey and cough mixture. BUY
35.71 Like a hug from your mum
Speyside Lossie, WAS £280 NOW £238
The nose gave us happy, homely feelings – ‘like a hug from my mum’; mellifluous sweetness of maple syrup, marzipan and heather honey – but also marmalade on toast, jaffa cakes, leather and polished wood. BUY
Pick a dram for Santa…Browse all bottlings
15% Bottle Sale doesn’t include packs and parcels that have already been discounted – Christmas Parcels, Cask Ends, Mighty Minis, Whisky for a Year.
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.
Christmas Gifts Ideas from Glengoyne Distillery
The Glengoyne elves are busy stuffing the Stillmen’s stockings with bottles of our new cask strength, 15 Year Old and 18 Year Old, plus trinkets and curiosities of the finest kind; a selection of which are featured below. Remember, Christmas is a time for giving Glengoyne. To a loved one, or better still, yourself, but hurry – if you want to receive your Glengoyne gifts in time for Christmas, we will need to receive your order by Tuesday 18th December for UK Delivery.
Discounted postage, discontinued whiskies, toasts, a Christmas gift finder and more…
It’s been a rather busy few months at TWE and that’s before we’ve hit the Christmas rush. We like to show off some of the things we’ve done from time to time, so here are some things. Firstly, we’ve been … Continue reading >>
www.ralfy.com presents a re-review with Whisky Review 324 – Glenfiddich 12yo Scotch re-reviewed and offers few opinions on a Billionaire Property Tycoon demanding a boycott of Glenfiddich!
Whisky Tasting: The Glenlivet at TWE Vinopolis
We had a superb tasting at Vinopolis a couple of Mondays back. We were delighted to welcome the affable and gregarious Ian Logan, ‘The’ Glenlivet’s global brand ambassador to introduce no less than eight outstanding drams to a packed crowd in Vinopolis’s newly-revamped … Continue reading >>
A quick note of note from Colin Southcombe General Manager The Strath Ale Wine & Spirit Merchants located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada;
Vancouver Island Based Members of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society.
I am pleased to announce that I now have bottles of the December Outturn available for tasting. Unfortunately we weren’t able to present these in the soon to be regular “First Friday” format. However we wanted you to have the opportunity to taste these fabulous new whiskies; you should all have received a copy of the December Outturn by email from our Canada headquarters.
You are invited to attend an informal stand-up tasting in the store next Saturday December 15th between 3:00pm to 6:00pm. I will be pouring all seven of the December Outturn and thanks to generous subsidizing by the Society, I am offering this for a nominal $10 per member and $15 for non-members. If anyone wants to check out any of the remaining October and November releases, you are most welcome to do that too.
Just drop in any time between 3:00pm and 6:00pm. No ticket is required, just pay at the door, but don’t miss out. If you can let me know you are coming, that would help.
New members who have not as yet picked up their Membership Kit, can do so at the same time. Anyone joining the Society at the time, becomes instantly eligible to purchase any Society whiskies. Gift memberships can also be purchased and we have the kits here, so there is no delay.
As always, if you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Slainté!
Colin Southcombe General Manager The Strath Ale Wine & Spirit Merchants 919 Douglas Street, Victoria BC, V8W 2C2 Tel: 250-370-9463 Email: whisky@strathconahotel.com
Email the Society in Canada at curious@smws.ca for your chance to join and to take advantage of their great offers. Bottlings are currently available in Alberta (via Kensington Wine Mart Calgary) and in British Columbia (via The Strath Ale, Wine & Spirit Merchants Victoria and Edgemont Fine Wines, Spirits & Ales, Vancouver).
I hope my festive season letter finds you well.
It is the time of year when I look back on some of our highlights – and what a year it has been! We reached two major milestones: It was the ‘coming of age’ for the Friends of Laphroaig as we celebrated our 18th birthday at this year’s Feis Ile and, just before we reached our 18th birthday, the 500,000th plot was taken! Our Cairdeas special bottling this year also commemorated the FOL 18th birthday.
The Distillery
I am pleased to say that we had a record year for distillation, so it’s hats off to the whole team – please toast them, they deserve it! Indeed it was also a record for visitors to our distillery with over 17,000! Many if not most were Friends of Laphroaig making their pilgrimage and claiming their “rent” – a dram of our finest of course. What really pleases me is that both these records have meant that we have had the pleasure of recruiting four more local islanders to our team, two working in distillation and production and two in the Visitor Centre. It’s great to be able to do our bit in these difficult times.
Islay
Talking of our island community, may I thank all of you who participated in our monthly charity auctions on the website. You raised £5,000 which went to the Islay Museum for the installation of a temperature controlled environment – very important for some of the more delicate artefacts. If you would like to read more about this there is a picture and link on our facebook page.
Friends of Laphroaig Tartan
As you know we ran a competition this year to design the official FOL Tartan and we had 5,000 entries! The winning entry has now been hand made and you can see a picture of of our winner Patrick McCoy wearing the new kilt on our facebook page. The first items for sale have now been made at the Woollen Mill; they are a tartan scarf with the FOL logo embroidered on it and a beautiful blanket/throw. If you would like one they are now on sale in your online shop. We will be adding other FOL tartan merchandise in 2013.
Laphroaig Live Germany
In late September we had our annual ‘Laphroaig Live’, which this year came from Nürnberg in Germany and broke all previous viewing records around the World! I hope you all enjoyed it (any of you who did not see it at the time can view the recorded show at www.laphroaig.com/live). It was terrific fun comparing our classic 10 year old Laphroaig with two other peated single malts from the Highlands (Ardmore) and Ireland (Connemara), but perhaps the most unusual aspect was tasting a special German ‘Smokey’ beer that had been matured in Laphroaig Quarter Casks.
Friends of Laphroaig Christmas trees
Some of you will recall that this Spring we had to extend the original FOL Plots area as we had run out of land – indeed we had been placing plots in the nearby fir tree wood. Earlier in the year we expanded the FOL area and this has meant that the wood is now free of plots. As a result we have therefore been able to donate two of your Christmas trees to the local community in Port Ellen, and have taken one for ourselves which now has pride of place in the courtyard outside my office!
All that is left for me to do is to wish you Seasons Greetings from myself and all of us here at Laphroaig. I hope you have a great holiday and a superb Hogmanay.
Slàinte,
John Campbell
Distillery Manager, Laphroaig
Visit www.laphroaig.com to join the Friends of Laphroaig; it’s free!
TOP PICKS
• Lagavulin 12 Year Old 2012 Edition Natural Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky 750ml ($109.99)
Whisky Advocate: “Brought back as an annual limited edition to satisfy the cravings of those who like their peat full-on and never understood why Lagavulin moved to 16 years of age, this is the Kildalton coast single malt at its most boisterous. Aromatically, it blazes a seaweed-strewn, zigzag pathway between sea, shore, and land: bog myrtle and samphire, beach bonfire, sea spray, and melon before, with much-needed water, there’s slow-burning Latakia pipe tobacco and Lapsang Souchong tea. ” K&L Notes: A limited edition, natural cask strength single malt whisky from the essential Islay distillery, Lagavulin, on Islay’s rocky south coast. Ninth of a series of special 12 year old releases from the original distiller’s stocks. Vatted from refill American oak casks, each at least 12 years old. Available in limited quantities worldwide. An elegant classic; massive smoke and purity of flavour supported by complex aromas and delicious sweetness. Less rich and plummy than the 16 year old, this starts with a fresh moss nose that is well hidden in the standard bottle.
• Lagavulin Distiller’s Edition Single Malt Whisky 750ml ($109.99)
The 2012 limited edition is here, loaded with the Pedro Ximenez sherry from the double maturation. Big, cakey, and round with tons of richness. This whisky is always a big hit. We’ve been getting about five requests a day for this lately, so it appears the DE Lagavulin is the new hot thing on the street! I have never been a big fan of this whisky, but I finally got around to tasting this year’s expression and I was quite taken aback. This 2012 edition is exactly what I hope Lagavulin with extra sherry will taste like, but never seems to actually do. A burst of rich raisiny sherry comes first with all the classic Lagavulin smoke and brine on the back end. The fudge lingers long on the finish, mingling between cocoa and campfire smoke. I’ve found that previous editions have overdosed on the sherry and drowned out the peat. Not this one. It’s perfectly harmoneous. It’s totally balanced and right where it needs to be. I think it might be the best Lagavulin I’ve tasted in years. Much better than the standard 16 in my opinion. Fans of the distillery will be very pleased. This whisky is delicious. (David Driscoll, K&L Spirits Buyer)
NEW ARRIVALS
Scotland – Blended Scotch
• White Horse “HM King” Cellar Blended Scotch Whisky – 1 available ($649.99)
Scotland – Single Malt Scotch
• 1966 Ben Nevis 26 Year Single Malt Whisky 750ml (Elsewhere 1200) – 1 available ($899.99)
• Clynelish Distiller’s Edition Single Malt Whisky 750ml ($89.99)
• Dalwhinnie 25 Year Old Single Malt Whisky 750ml – 1 available ($299.99)
• 1975 Glen Garioch 12 year Samaroli Eastern Highlands “Fragments of Scotland” old Single Malt Whisky 750ml (Elsewhere $620) – 1 available ($549.99)
• 1979 Glenrothes Vintage Distillery Bottle Single Malt Whisky 750ml – 1 available ($399.99)
• Longrow 11 Year Old “Red” Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky 750ml ($84.99)
• Longrow 14 Year Single Burgundy Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Whisky 750ml ($109.99)
• Longrow Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky 750ml ($54.99)
• 1973 Longrow First Distillation, Last Cask Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky (Elsewhere $5700) – 1 available ($4,095.00)
• Mortlach 12 Year Old Gordon & Macphail Single Malt Whisky (Elsewhere 500) – 1 available ($299.99)
• 1972 Mortlach 22 Year Old Rare Malts Single Malt Whisky 750ml (Elsewhere $600) – 1 available ($499.99)
BACK IN STOCK
United States – Bourbon and Rye
• Russell’s Reserve 10 year old Small Batch Bourbon 750ml ($33.99)
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
