WHISKY OF THE YEAR 2024
LOCH LOMOND 18 YEAR OLD

Choosing our Whisky of the Year is never easy, but thanks to our panel of industry experts and the attendees at our judging event in London, we whittled down a shortlist of six whiskies to one winner for the year ahead: Loch Lomond 18 Year Old.

This year’s shortlist included whiskies from Scotland’s Highlands and Islands, a smoky red wine cask-finished single malt, a rich Speyside whisky and a fruity, coastal malt. Save £8 on our Whisky of the Year 2024 or browse the rest of our shortlisted whiskies for more impressive Christmas gift contenders.

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With the Christmas season all wrapped up, e have some suggestions below as to how you might spend any upcoming downtime exploring your passion for whisky.

GOT 30 MINUTES?

Designed to give you a feel for how the EWA learning platform works, our Free Resources offer the perfect accompaniment to an afternoon dram. From How to Pronounce Scotch Whisky Distillery Names to Where to Start with Scotch Whisky, The A-Z of Scotch Whisky and The Scotch Whisky Tasting Toolkit, there’s plenty to get stuck into. We even have an Ultimate Quiz for Scotch Whisky Lovers if you’re feeling particularly competitive with family and friends.

GOT AN HOUR?

Our standalone Modules (£25) are a great way to spend an hour or so online. Focus on Flavour details the various stages during the Scotch whisky production process where key flavours are created. Wake Up Your Whisky Nose offers an overview of how your sense of smell works, with practical tips to boost your aroma memory. Both modules encourage you to consider your favourite drams a little differently and offer a greater appreciation of what goes into the glass.

GOT A DAY?

While there’s no deadline or time restriction for completing a Certificate course, we think there’s around 8-10 hours of material in both the Certificate in Scotch Whisky and Certificate in Irish Whiskey (£120). These detailed modular courses cover the fascinating history and business of each category, before journeying through the entire production process from grain to glass. With expert contributors including Dr Gordon Steele and Vic Cameron (Scotch) and Matt Healy and Fionnán O’Connor (Irish), you can be sure that you’re learning from the very best in the industry.

GOT A FEW WEEKS?

Immerse yourself in the world of single malt whisky when you study our flagship Diploma course online. For 2024, we’re pleased to announce the return of three-week guided study sessions for the Online Diploma in Single Malt Whisky (£1,015). While the immediate start, self-study option remains available and open to all, we’ve added three courses throughout 2024 which instead run to a schedule (start dates: 12 April, 2 August and 1 November). With live tutorials, regular drop-in dram sessions and a Community section, you’ll be in good company with likeminded whisky lovers from across the globe.

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Bowmore 22 Year Old “Aston Martin” Limited Edition 102 Proof Islay Single Malt Scotch (750ml) $399.99 View

This rare Scotch is a partnership between Bowmore master blender Ron Welch and Astin Martin Chief Creative Officer Marek Reichman. Inspired by the Golden Ratio and perfect proportions that make the world’s best Scotch both balanced, harmonious and timeless, the duo partnered to create this sublime Islay Single Malt.

Email: wine@klwines.com
Phone: (877) KL-WINES (Toll Free 877.559.4637)
K&L Wine Merchants 3005 El Camino Real Redwood City, CA 94061 USA
San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA

Wyoming Whiskey 10 Year Old Anniversary Edition Straight Bourbon Whiskey (750ml) $189.99 View

In celebration of their 10-year anniversary, original Master Distiller, Steve Nally, and Master Blender, Nancy Fraley, have barrel selected and batched a rich and balanced 10-year-old bourbon worthy of the milestone. 68% Corn, 20% Rye, 12% Malted Barley. Tasting notes from WW: COLOR: Deep copper to mahogany NOSE: Heady notes of Rye Manhattan cocktails with brandied cherries, mincemeat pie, Medjool dates in thick syrup, cayenne pepper-candied pecans, and baklava drizzled with orange blossom honey. PALATE: Candied yams with pecans and toasted marshmallows, black currant liqueur, sweet cornbread muffins with honey butter, and cinnamon toast with blackberry-maple syrup. MOUTHFEEL: Soft, warming alcohol, with caramelized wood sugars and a tingle of rye spice enveloping the mouth cavity. FINISH: Lingering notes of dark dried fruit mingled with warming brown baking spices.

Email: wine@klwines.com
Phone: (877) KL-WINES (Toll Free 877.559.4637)
K&L Wine Merchants 3005 El Camino Real Redwood City, CA 94061 USA
San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA

Learn how to pair whiskey and cigars like a PRO

Our regular contributor Maggie Kimberl explains her tried-and-tested method

With so many options to choose from, picking a whiskey to drink and a cigar to smoke can be tough decisions — especially if your budget is limited. Thankfully, Whisky Magazine regular contributor and American Whiskey Magazine content editor Maggie Kimberl has a tried and tested methodology she’s been teaching for over a decade that will help you learn how to pair cigars and whiskey like a PRO!

Whether you prefer cigars from Cuba, Nicaragua or the Dominican Republic, and Scotch, Japanese, or American whiskey, this guide to pairing whiskey and cigars is for you. Instead of telling you which whiskies she thinks will work well with particular cigars, Maggie’s approach will teach you the skills you need to make the decision for yourself, to suit your taste and budget. The great thing about this methodology for pairing cigars and whiskey is that it works for Scotch, bourbon, and, well, any style of whisky you like!

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OUR FAVOURITE
SPEYSIDE SINGLE MALTS

Rich, bold and often with distinctive notes of dried fruit and spice, single malts from Speyside continue to be loved by drinkers and connoisseurs the world over. If you’re looking to expand your Speyside collection, here are our pick of some whiskies we think encapsulate this style, from a cask-strength favourite from Glenfarclas to a heavily sherried 15-year-old from Tamdhu.

  DISCOVER NOW 

The elegant flavours of our whisky will be perceived differently by different people as they allow the complex character of our dram to unfold in their glass over time.

So, we won’t issue any ‘official’ tasting notes and instead encourage folk to explore the scents and sensory experience of The Hearach single malt from a more personal point of view.

Instead, each batch will come with some simple words written by someone from our local community as they enjoy a glass and delve a little deeper into their island memories and imagination, to help things along.

The personal tasting notes for Batch HE0000123 were provided by Shona Macleod from Carragreich, who is also our distillery blender…

“I get a gentle peat smoke on the first sip which reminds me of island home fires burning when I was growing up. It comes along with a toasted maltiness. I can also taste homemade apple sauce and smell machair flowers, particularly white clover which springs up on our west coast every summer. Mixed spices appear, and an old-fashioned sweetness from things like candied ginger, vanilla, and honeycomb. Finally, there’s a long, clotted-cream note, mixed with a lasting sense of new leather.”

We’d love to hear your personal tasting notes too. Learn more about our whisky and submit your sensory stories via the button below.

OUR WHISKY

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM

GLENFARCLAS DISTILLERY

!It has been a very busy year here at Glenfarclas with time flying by so quickly we can’t believe its nearly Christmas already! It has been an exciting 12 months for us with lots of new additions and releases. Before we finish for Christmas to enjoy a lovely festive break we wanted to share the highlights of our year. We hope you will join us in enjoying a dram of Glenfarclas whilst you read all about 2023!

2023 Icons of Whisky Scottish Distiller of the Year

We were delighted and honoured to start 2023 being named as Icons of Whisky’s Scottish Distiller of the Year.

During the annual Icons dinner in Edinburgh Douglas Belford, Managing Director and Callum Fraser, Distillery Manager had the honour of accepting the award. It is proudly on display here at the Visitor Centre in recognition of the whole team’s hard work and dedication.

Launch of our 50 Year Old Limited Edition

At the end of last year we announced the global launch of our 50 Year Old Glenfarclas which was released at the beginning of this year. The limited release of 836 bottles at 50% abv coincides with our Chairman John Grant’s 50th year in the Scotch Whisky Industry. These specially selected casks, which have been housed here at Glenfarclas for half a century, have been beautifully presented inside a gold-engraved decanter. It is a stunning dram which has made it’s way around the world with launch events in Switzerland, Canada and Taiwan.Proudly photographed above is our Distillery Manager, Callum (left) with our Chairman John (right) holding our limited release decanter.

Introducing our 35 Year Old Red Warehouse Door Edition

To complete our Red Warehouse Door Collection we have introduced a 35 Year Old Glenfarclas which sits beautifully between our 30 and 40 Year Old expressions. This bottling will be released in limited quantities globally each year. It has already made its way around the world and we are looking forward to the next release in 2024.

For anyone who is curious about the tasting notes of the 35 year old, Callum has created his own set of very enticing tasting notes:

Colour: Beautiful coppery amber.
Nose: Sweet floral toffee notes with hints of leather and waxy green apples.
Taste: Treacle toffee and boiled sweets give way to cocoa powder, soft cinnamon spice, and even a touch of peach.
Finish: Long lasting with a buttery/silky effect deep on the palate.

Lifetime Achievement Award Honour for John Grant

This year’s Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival saw our Chairman John Grant receive the Lifetime Achievement Award during the opening dinner in recognition of more than 50 years of dedication to the Scotch Whisky industry in Speyside.

Since John could not attend the dinner in person, Callum Fraser accepted the award on his behalf and later presented it to John here at Glenfarclas, who said he was “honoured and surprised” by the recognition.

50 Years of the Glenfarclas Visitor Centre

This year marks the 50th anniversary of our Visitor Centre here at Glenfarclas. In 1973 we opened our doors to the public for the first time and have been welcoming visitors from all corners of the world ever since. In honour of this special occasion our Visitor Centre team hosted a dinner in the Ship’s Room during the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival where guests were lucky enough to sample our new 50 year old release and hear all about Glenfarclas through the years.

Photographed above (top) is the Glenfarclas Visitor Centre in the 1970s and on the bottom is the Visitor Centre today.

This month we also released a 2014 Distillery Exclusive bottled at 58.1% abv, which aptly holds cask number 1973. This single cask was specially selected by our Visitor Centre team with only 319 bottles being sold exclusively from our Visitor Centre at £150 per bottle.

One of One Auction

We were delighted to participate in the One of One Auction in support of the Distiller’s Venture. Glenfarclas developed and donated a twin set set of stunning decanters housing single casks from 1967 and 1968 which were presented in a bespoke solid wood ash cabinet. With Sotheby’s estimating the value between £20,000 and £30,000 we were thrilled to see this unique pair make the top end.

Aberdeen Staysure PGA Legends Tour

August was an extremely busy and exciting month for all of us here at Glenfarclas. We were thrilled to be the official Scotch whisky sponsors of the Aberdeen Staysure PGA Legends Tournament. Our entire team got involved throughout the week and we had a lot of fun introducing lots of new people to Glenfarclas!

During the event we offered tastings and the opportunity to test your skills with our brand new whisky inspired mini golf game which was designed specially by our production team.

It was a fantastic week all around from the Celebrity Pro-Am to seeing our very own Murray Drummond represent Glenfarclas in the Alliance Individuals. Throughout the week we had the pleasure of meeting golfing legends and seeing them play the course.

To mark the occasion we bottled a limited PGA 12yo edition. We still have a small number available at our Visitor Centre priced at £60.

As you can see it is has been quite the year for the team here. We are looking forward to many exciting new projects and releases in 2024.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and all the very best for the New Year!

Season’s Greetings from The Macallan

From our home to yours, The Macallan wishes you a peaceful and joyous festive season