The Whisky Exchange Suspends Shipping to Germany

A message from Tim F at the Whisky Exchange…

Good news and bad news for our German friends today.

The bad news is that The Whisky Exchange is temporarily suspending shipments to Germany while we sort out a tax agent.

A gutted German whisky fan, today.

All is not lost, however.

This is pretty much the same thing that happened with Sweden a couple of years ago.  We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused to our German friends as a result of this bureaucratic hoop that we’re being forced to jump through, but hopefully it’ll be sorted pretty quick – we are working very hard to ensure that normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.  Concerned Germans, such as the above, should email my colleague kiran[at]thewhiskyexchange.com for more details.

On the other hand, it’s not all doom and gloom for our German chums – The Hoff still loves you, and so do we:

Hoffy Valentine’s Day, everyone.

Whisky Review 184 2/2 – Aberfeldy 1989/2007 Gordon&Macphail (C.C.)

… at ralfy.com now showing how to rectify a Whisky which comes in “below the line”.

Dear Customer,

We don’t know how you think about traditional Scotch whisky, but certainly images of big green valleys, fireside armchairs and tartan may well spring to mind. However, whilst the old school distilleries will always be popular, a few modern malt makers are experimenting with a range of unusual methods, and one of the most interesting of which is “cask-finishing”.

Cask finishing involves ageing the whisky in a standard sherry or bourbon cask, before moving it into an unusual cask for the latter part of its ageing period.

The result of all this experimentation is a number of utterly unbelievable whiskies. With this in mind we’re going to look at 5 of the best and most interesting wine-aged whiskies from recent years.

Cheers!

– The Chaps at Master of Malt –

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Mixing Grape with Grain

Five of our very favourite wine-finished whiskies from recent years…

Edradour Sassicaia Straight from the Cask –You can’t discuss wine finishes without mentioning Scotland’s smallest distillery, Edradour. Their whisky is a little unusual to begin with (rum-like, very thick and sweet), so it lends itself to experimentation. The Straight from the Cask range is one of the best examples of wine and whisky working together and this particular example was finished for two years in a Sassicaia hogshead. The cask came from Italian wine producer Tenuta San Guido, and their Super-Tuscan, Sassicaia, is one of Italy’s foremost “Bordeaux-style” reds. It is even rumoured that San Guido creates their wine using vines that originated from Château Lafite Rothschild! Buy a bottle for £40.95

Bruichladdich First Growth Cuvée E: Sauternes – Bruichladdich are a bit like the self-appointed kings of the wine finish and their Master Distiller Jim McEwan has an insatiable appetite for trying out new things. The First Growth range was a selection of six malts, which were finished in wine casks from France’s most legendary wineries. Our favourite example – and by far the most popular of the range – is the Sauternes finish. The casks came from none other than the First Growth wine maker Château d’Yquem – heralded as one of the world’s very best producers of dessert wines. Buy a bottle for £46.95

Arran Madeira Cask Finish  – One of Scotland’s youngest distilleries, Arran was founded in 1995. Critics like Jim Murray regular comment on how wonderful Arran’s malty, citrusy whisky can be and we just love this particular example, which was finished off in a cask that previously held Madeira wine! Madeira is a fortified wine from the islands of the same name and it’s marvellously rich and spicy – particularly good in the Winter months! Buy a bottle for £34.95

Springbank 12 Year Old Claret Wood– The great Campbeltown distillery, Springbank distilled this in May 1997 and finished it for 3 years in fresh Claret wine casks. The result is a single malt that offers the oily coastal character of Springbank, with the oaky, supple mouthfeel of a top quality red Bordeaux – well worth a try! Buy a bottle for £38.95

BenRiach 18 Year Old Gaja Barolo Wood Finish – Speyside’s BenRiach distillery is very creative and it’s one of the few distilleries in the region to experiment with peat, and of course wine-finishes! One fine malt that really stood out for us was their Barolo finished 18 year old. The Barolo casks came from “the undisputed king of Barbaresco”, Angelo Gaja, whose world famous wintery produces some of the finest Italian reds you’ll ever try. Buy a bottle for £48.95 

Visit Master of Malt at www.masterofmalt.com  

Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, we’d like to apologise for not being in touch for a while. After an incredibly eventful Christmas, and with so much going on around the capitol for Burns Night, we lamentably had to give January a miss in the tasting stakes. Fear not, however, as we have an ever-burgeoning list of tastings and events lined up for the rest of the year to entice and enliven your palates.
 
”The Whisky Exchange, Vinopolis’ – Best Independent Spirits Retailer 2011

Those of you who receive our ‘Special Offers & News’ mailings may already be aware of this, but if not we’d like to mention that last week, TWE Vinopolis was awarded ‘Best Independent Spirits Retailer of the Year 2011’, making us the winner for an impressive 3 years running now. Huzzah!
 

This week’s episode comes from Edinburgh…no, not THAT Edinburgh. I’m actually in Edinburgh, Indiana on family business, but talked with Alistair Longwell of Ardmore and Ryan Maloney of Julio’s Liquors in Westborough, Massachusetts before I headed west. They’ve been working on the first official single cask Ardmore bottling that will make its debut at Julio’s later this month. In the news, Diageo has an eye on Beam Global’s future, a Kentucky distilling family wants to return to its roots, and much more.

Visit WhiskyCast at www.whiskycast.com

Follow the link below to see the latest blog post on Behind the Blend from Ludo

A Day with Nick Nairn

Hello,

I certainly would not call myself a chef. I can cook basic meals but life on the road (or rather in the air) as a global ambassador often takes me to restaurants and the odd fast food chain. I’ll admit it – I was a tad nervous when I received an invitation from Nick Nairn,…

http://blog.grantswhisky.com/2011/02/a-day-with-nick-nairn/

Kind regards,
Ludo

What is your 2011 supply and allocation?

Below is our Dec ’10 – Dec ’11 preliminary allocation. We will be sending these cases to each market at the beginning of each month. As you can see, we sent nearly 80% of our December allotment to Iowa and will continue to do our best to supply our home state while balancing the future growth for our company. Most people in the industry think we are crazy to allocate this much product to Iowa but it is important to us as Iowa guys and as an Iowa company. Please support us on this fact if you hear folks saying we are “sending all our product out of state.”

Why is Templeton Rye so hard to find in Iowa?

Iowa is what is known in the industry as a “Control State”, meaning the State of Iowa acts as the distributor for spirits in the State. We sell every bottle of Templeton Rye in Iowa to the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division or ABD.

The ABD applies a “mark-up” or tax, and sells the product to Licensees, or Spirits Retailers. Please note that despite serious pressure, we have not changed our price to the ABD. The ABD applies a set mark-up and retailers have the liberty to set the final price charged to consumers. The ABD allocates the cases we send them every month to “uniformly distribute” them amongst Licensees. The ABD decides how many cases each licensee can order every month and they begin to fill orders on a certain day. Iowa Licensees order on either Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday with delivery the following day. Depending on what day of the week a Licensee orders and the amount of product sent in that month, they may or may not get any product that particular month.

Each party mentioned above is in a tough spot because of the supply/demand situation. We realize that and truly appreciate their efforts. What we want to make clear is that once we sell product to the ABD we do not control where it ends up or the price on the shelf. We have a lot more influence on those items in other states and quite frankly, if Iowa were not our home state we would probably allocate much less product here.

Visit Templton Rye at www.templetonrye.com

I thought it was time for an update on cask availability. 

I’m looking forward to my first trip to Linköping’s Whiskyexpo (http://www.whiskyexpo.se) where I hope to meet many of Sweden’s whisky enthusiasts who I know by name only at present.

If you have any interest in specific whiskies please send me an email. I am compiling a list of whiskies which I hope are of interest to people.

Last week Carntyne Transport delivered the latest lorry load of casks to Bladnoch. These consisted of 20yo whisky from Port Dundas, North British, more of the excellent value Blair Athol. I’ve uploaded some of the photographs into a new “gallery” page on my website, but by far the easiest way to view all of the photographs is  by visiting the Facebook page given at the end of this email. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A MEMBER OF FACEBOOK TO VIEW THIS PAGE!

Still to be delivered are hogsheads of 2009 Bunnahabhain and hogsheads of Cragganmore distilled in 1989 and 1991. The Cragganmore have been priced approximately below, but must be delivered and re-gauged before a final price can be set.

The stock is still growing and I hope that I will soon have something for everyone.

More details on each of the above whiskies can also be found on my website, or by replying to this email with your enquiry.

Please write a comment on the guestbook of my website, especially if you have purchased a cask. Finally, if you have any website related suggestions, don’t hesitate to send me an email.

Martin Armstrong

www.whiskybroker.co.uk

info@whiskybroker.co.uk

www.ralfy.com has a new review  –  Whisky Review 184 1/2 – Aberfeldy 1989/2007 Gordon&Macphail (C.C.)
with the emphasis on first impressions of whiskies.

… go enjoy malt-mates !

February Outturn: Red Hot Lovers

Let’s take a look at the single casks getting you HOT…here’s the TOP Five fastest-selling whiskies from February’s Outturn:

    1.     127.7 A sense of elemental freedom

    2.     44.48 Turkish seduction

    3.     29.89 The dark edge of Saturn

    4.     64.28 Lots of ginger (SMWS HOT favourite)

    5.     53.146 A saline gargle, with peanuts   

    Not forgetting our February Offers:

    PAIR: 53.146 & 36.51 for £90 (save £17.70)

    THREESOME: 29.89, 64.28 & 44.48 for £131 (save £26.40)

    CASE OFFER: 53.146, 36.51, 29.89, 64.28, 44.48 & 1.156
    for £259.50 (save £50.00)

Society Tastings & Events (48 Society tastings online)

6 Nations Wales V Scotland Lunch – The Vaults, Sat 12 Feb
6 Nations Wales V Scotland – Queen Street, Sat 12 Feb
Valentines’ Champagne & Whisky Tasting – Queen Street, Mon 14
Dining Room Valentine Dinner – Queen Street, Mon 14 Feb
Valentine Dinner at The Vaults – The Vaults, Mon 14 Feb
Wokingham Preview Tasting – Cantley House Hotels, Fri 25 Feb
Harrogate Preview Tasting – Hotel du Vin, Fri 25 Feb
Brighton Preview Tasting – Hotel du Vin, Fri 25 Feb
6 Nations Ireland V Scotland Lunch – The Vaults, Sun 27 Feb
6 Nations Ireland V Scotland – Queen Street, Sun 27 Feb

SMWS Venue News: If you go down to the Members’ Rooms, be sure of a big surprise…

28 Queen Street: Enjoy Queen Street only Valentine Offers and Treats, more >

The Vaults & London: Sample drams of the Society’s oldest bottling – at 47 years old!

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.