Day 8

We love the festive season here at Abbey Whisky!

The cold and frosty weather, fun times with friends and family and copious amounts of eating and drinking…what better excuse to enjoy a special wee dram in celebration!
 
December heralds the return of Abbey Whisky’s Winter Whisky Festival for 12 days on the run up to Christmas. On each of these days we will feature a daily offer on a range of special malts. In keeping with the season, these prices will remain frozen for the duration of the festival.
 
On the eighth day of Christmas Abbey Whisky gives to you…

The Blends…

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Springbank Edinburgh Festival 2008
Blended Whisky

A limited edition of 2008 bottles celebrating the Edinburgh Festival in 2008.

Blended and bottled by J.and A. Mitchell and Co LTD. (Springbank)

List Price £40.00
Festival Price £30.00

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Bells Christmas Decanter 1994
Blended Whisky

Bell’s Christmas Decanter 1994 is a superbly crafted porcelain decanter finished in 22 carat gold.

This wonderful decanter contains Bell’s extra special eight year old scotch whisky.

List Price £45.00
Festival Price £39.00

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Whyte & Mackay, Royal Wedding 12 Year Old
Blended Whisky

Whyte & Mackay created this deluxe 12 year old blended scotch whisky to commemorate the wedding of H.R.H. The Prince Of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer, 29th July 1981.

Matured in oak casks for 12 years then bottled in this rather ornate packaging.  

List Price £95.00
Festival Price £89.00

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Michael Jackson Special Blend
Blended Whisky

Whisky Magazine and wine merchant Berry Bros & Rudd have created this very special blend using the whisky from Michael Jackson’s private collection. 

List Price £90.00
Festival Price £79.00

Abbey Whisky | Specialist supplier of rare, collectable and exclusive scotch malts. | Edinburgh, Lothian PO Box 23996, United Kingdom

Last year we brought you our ’12 Drams of Christmas’ but this year we thought we’d turn the festive tables and let you decide which drams make the list.

Between now and Wednesday the 14th of December we’d love to hear your nominations for your favourite festive whiskies. Then on Thursday the 15th we’ll publish the list of the top 12 drops of festive drammage as chosen by you, along with accompanying retail details so they can be enjoyed by all over the festive period and indeed beyond.

To take part just email us your top three favourite festive whiskies, that we’ll then use to help compile our ’12 Drams of Christmas’ 2011. Please remember to mark the subject line of your email ‘XMAS DRAMS’.

Everyone who enters will have their name added to our Santa hat and on the 16th one name will be drawn and one lucky winner will be sent a bottle of GlenDronach 15 year old. We’ll also do our best to ensure the winner receives their bottle in time for the big day.

Which drams will make the final 12?
You decide!

Grant’s 12 Year Old Launch in Malaysia

Hello,

Last week I was in Kuala Lumpur for the launch of Grant’s 12 Year Old in the Malaysian market.

Just over 100 years after Charles Gordon sold the company’s first 35 cases in KL (see the bottom left corner of Charles’ diary below), I was delighted to follow in his footsteps as I introduced The Family…(please click on the link below to read the remainder of the article)…

THE LINK

Kind regards,
Ludo

www.ralfy.com presents Whisky Review 237 – Pig\’s Nose & Sheep Dip . . . silly names for decent quality whiskies.

Day 7 – Kilchoman

Founded in 2005, Kilchoman was the first distillery to be built on Islay for 124 years, and is now the smallest and most westerly distillery in Scotland.

Located on Rockside farm on the west coast of Islay, Kilchoman is one of only six distilleries to carry out traditional floor malting’s, with around 30% of their production coming from the barley that is grown and malted at the distillery.

Producing 90 to 100,000 litres of alcohol per year, Kilchoman spirit is filled into a combination of fresh bourbon barrels from Buffalo Trace Distillery, Kentucky and fresh Oloroso sherry butts direct from Spain.

Since production started back in 2005 Kilchoman have released many exciting malts that have been released in very limited numbers.

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Kilchoman Winter 2010 Release
3 Year Old
Islay Single Malt Whisky

The 5th release from Kilchoman is the Winter 2010. A 3 year old single malt that has been matured in fresh bourbon barrels,. Very tasty indeed, one of our favourites at present.

List Price 45.00
Festival Price £41.00

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Kilchoman Single Cask 120 2007 Whisky Import Nederland
Islay Single Malt Whisky

A single cask release from Kilchoman, this time exclusively for Whisky Import Nederland. Aged for three years in a fresh bourbon barrel.

Cask number 363/06. 

List Price £140.00
Festival Price £125.00

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Kilchoman Single Cask 154 07
The Whisky Show 2010
Islay Single Malt Whisky

Matured in bourbon barrels, Kilchoman released this 3 year old single cask exclusively for The Whisky Show 2010. 

List Price £190.00
Festival Price £150.00

Abbey Whisky | Specialist supplier of rare, collectable and exclusive scotch malts. | Edinburgh, Lothian PO Box 23996, United Kingdom

Day 6 – Springbank

Springbank Distillery situated near the Mull of Kintyre in Argyll, Scotland, was founded in 1828 on the site of Archibald Mitchell’s illicit still. It is one of the last surviving producers of Campbeltown single malt whisky, and is the oldest independent family owned distillery in Scotland.

Owned by J & A Mitchell & Co Ltd, Springbank is a very traditional distillery carrying out the full production process on the one site. Traditional floor malting, maturation and bottling are all done at the distillery in Campbeltown. It is also the only distillery in Scotland to produce three different styles of single malt whisky, Hazelburn, Springbank and Longrow using three different production methods.

Lightly peated and distilled two and a half times, Springbank is the most popular variety out of the three produced at the distillery, and is touted by some as being the very best whisky produced in Scotland.

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Adelphi Springbank 35 Year Old
Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky

Of all malts, Springbank takes great age best. This is a refill butt and has given the whisky a good mahogany hue – not as dark as some we have seen, but indicating that the whisky may not have been dominated by wood.

An extraordinary whisky, to be savoured with dark chocolate, espresso coffee and Robusto Havana!

List Price £350.00
Festival Price £325.00

 Springbank, Amontillado Cask
Christmas 2006 – Private Bottling
Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky

Private bottling, exclusively for the shareholders, Directors and staff of J. and A. Mitchell and Co. (Group) Ltd.
Amontillado wood finish release of 66 bottles given to the Springbank staff and directors, Christmas 2006.

List Price £499.00
Festival Price £450.00

Springbank Open Championship 2000
Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky

Distilled and bottled in Scotland for Vincent Fusaro proprietor of the renowned Luvians bottle shop in Cupar, Fife to commemorate the famous golf tournament held in the millennium year at St Andrews, the home of golf.

List Price £250.00
Festival Price £200.00

Abbey Whisky | Specialist supplier of rare, collectable and exclusive scotch malts. | Edinburgh, Lothian PO Box 23996, United Kingdom

Christmas & whisky: how to make the perfect Christmas cake

One of things I enjoy most at Christmas is sampling the delightful festive food that is on offer, especially Christmas cake.  Many of you will know that rich fruit cake, compliments many of the whiskies I make, so I set about finding out how to create the perfect Christmas cake. 

Now I’m first to admit that I’m not a brilliant baker so in my mind there was only one woman for this job and that was Bernadette from our I.T department.  She makes the most wonderful cakes and if I’m honest I find myself ‘breaking’ my computer quite a bit so that I have an excuse to pop along to the I.T department to see what goodies are on offer.

Bernadette agreed to share her top secret recipe with me and I’ve posted the details below.  She asked me to remind you all that you need to make your cake now to give it time to rest and also to allow you time to add a little extra bit of Whyte & Mackay into it!

Hope you all enjoy it.

Bernie’s Christmas Cake

Ingredients

    •    350g SR Flour – you can use plain flour to give a denser cake but I prefer Self Raising
    •    2 teaspoon of mixed spice
    •    100g ground almonds
    •    4 eggs
    •    75ml milk
    •    75 ml Whyte and Mackay Special
    •    225g butter
    •    225g caster sugar
    •    1kg bag mixed fruit
    •    Small tub glace cherries – halved

Preparation

    •    Preheat oven to 150 Centigrade, 300 Fahrenheit, gas mark 2
    •    Grease and line 23cm round cake tin (or 20.5cm square)
 
Method

    •    Sieve the dry ingredients together into a small bowl
    •    In another bowl or jug beat the eggs with the milk and Whyte and Mackay special
    •    In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg mix and flour mix in four batches alternating between the two
    •    Add the fruit and mix well.
    •    Place into your prepared tin and bake for 3.5 to 4 hours.
    •    Protect the cake whilst baking by fastening a double band of brown paper 2 inches higher than the tin around the outside and cover the top with paper after 2 hours – standing the paper on the paper collar NOT the cake!

How to make the cake extra special

After it has cooked but still warm make up a quantity of whisky syrup and brush over all the cake – especially necessary if you think it has over-baked a little.  Leave to go cold.

You can feed the cake with more Whyte and Mackay Special during this time by unwrapping carefully, make small holes in the top and base of the cake with a cocktail stick or small skewer, then spoon over a few teaspoons of. Whyte and Mackay Special

Whisky Syrup

    •    3 tablespoons of sugar
    •    3 tablespoons of water
    •    3 tablespoons of Whyte and Mackay Special
    •    Place water and sugar in a pan, bring to the boil and boil for 1 minute.  Remove from the heat and add the whisky – use whilst still warm.

Decorating the cake

Decorate the cake with marzipan and royal icing applying the marzipan 1 week before the icing but if you are running short on time you can get away with a day or 2 if you use the white marzipan.

You will need about 500g of marzipan – best to buy the white rather than the yellow.  Reserve 1/3 for the top of the cake and roll out the rest to cover the side.

Warm some apricot jam and brush the cake with it before applying the marzipan – this helps it stick to the cake.

How to make Royal icing

    •    5 egg whites
    •    2 teaspoons glycerine
    •    1kg sieved icing sugar
    •    Lightly beat the egg whites and glycerine together; add half of the icing sugar and mix well. Add the rest of the icing sugar a little at a time.
    •    For a nice and easy finish just spread this onto the cake and using your knife pull into soft peaks.

Although this still is very much a Netherlands, Belgium (Flanders) happening it may be nice to share again, for the 2nd time. Coming next is an International version of The Whisk(e)y Design Awards !

Starting in September 2011 forum members where asked to submit their nominees with the best designed Whisk(e)y bottle and optionally packaging . On November 13, two polls where placed on the forum containing the selected contestants for the two categories of the “Het Whisky forum Design Awards 2011″ (the, Dutch=het).

This time we started using two categories to differentiate bottles of € 250,- (appx. $ 335,-) and less and those more expensive than € 250,-

Forum members where allowed to vote for one bottle in each category.

In the category above € 250,- We had 4 finalists: Glenmorangie Pride 1981, The Glenlivet 70 Year Old, Gordon & MacPhail, The Macallan 60yo Lalique Curiously Small Stills decanter and Yamazaki 50 Years Old, 2011 release.

Long time we saw a head to head strugle between the first three mentioned. Surprisingly after an exciting battle between these three, the Yamazaki 50 Years Old, with its minimal-design made a spurt and eventually won this years contest with just one vote. Number 2 was the Glenmorangie Pride 1981 and the number three The Glenlivet 70 Year Old, Gordon & MacPhail.

In the category € 250,- and below, it was a very different story.

Right from the beginning the Highland Park Earl Haakon gained most votes and easily won the battle leaving the numbers two and three, “The Laddie 10″, Bruichladdich 10yo and GlenDronach octarine 8yo, behind with a shared second place.

An also shared third place went to Nikka Taketsuru 12 year old Pure Malt and to Mackinlay’s Replica Highland malt.

For photo’s, details and the full background see “Het Whisky forum”, Dutch-language only, but the photo’s and polls speak for themselves.

http://www.hetwhiskyforum.nl/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2211#p24835

Starting today we opened a new website for a global version of The International Whisk(e)y Design Awards! See: WhiskyDesignAward: http://www.whiskydesignaward.com/

The nights have been drawing in and the temperature is dropping here on the island and this can only mean one thing – Christmas is nearly upon us! The decorations are up and everyone at the distillery is getting into the festive spirit.

If you’re looking for the perfect gift, you can never go wrong with a bottle of Jura. We’ve got something to suit every person and every palate. Click here to have nosey at our full range of single malts and see what takes your fancy.

Slainte

Willie Cochrane
Jura Distillery Manager

P.S. If you have friends or family who also share your passion for Jura whisky and might like to become Diurachs send them to www.isleofjura.com where they’ll discover more about our mystical isle.

Whisky Review 236 – Blend-your-own Whisky (by Ralfy at www.ralfy.com) always happy to share some whisky-experience with whoever’s interested.

Go on malt-mates, Blend your own!