Stuart writes;

Just finished spending the weekend in InterWhisky Frankfurt where I met old friends, gained new ones and had a very interesting time with Blush and we received an innovation nomination.

Friday as usual was the trade day and it was a good opportunity to explain the qualities of our products and gain some good contacts. It also proved that we continue to be recognised as being extremely original with our importer/distributor, Cammineci (Wine & Spirit Partner) being one of the 5 nominees for innovator of the year for the Glenglassaugh range. We didn’t win but the recognition that we are doing things that are different is fantastic. We now need to build on this in 2010 and we have a few ideas but for now we are concentrating on building what we have started.

Saturday was the busiest day and saw a number of sales of bottles as new people discovered Glenglassaugh and appreciated the delights of bottled products while a number were also interested in the cask purchase scheme which we have and I anticipate that we see a number of new sales before Christmas as Octaves may well be added to a number of Christmas present wish lists.

Sunday and although quieter, turned out to be an exciting day. We gave some blush to one of the bartenders at the fair to create a cocktail and Stefan Hartmann (Art of Barttending) turned whisky sour into “The Blushing Sour”. In my humble opinion the colour is exciting, the flavour is better balanced than using a whisky as the base and it is truly a great drink. He is so excited by it that he is going to enter it into the regional rounds of a German completion for cocktail drinks which start in January. But don’t take our word, he eventually ended up selling 3 bottles worth of this drink in one afternoon as it proved so popular.

As an aside and to show that we appreciate other great whiskies, I tried Fusion from Amrut and was very impressed this is a superb drink. I also tried the 18 year old Yamasaki Single Malt and found it another very impressive drink and like Amrut show that it is not just Scotland that can make very good malt whiskies. I will not mention another couple of whiskies which I tried from other countries that I felt just did not come up to the mark, but everyone has their own taste. I also tried the new Kilchoman 3 year old and although young is developing well and I am sure will become a really great Islay in the future.

In the week ahead Graham and I will be travelling to the IWSC awards dinner in London to pick-up the trophy for The Best Cask Strength Scotch Whisky, awarded to our 30 year old Single Malt. On Sunday I then travel to Sweden for a week-long tour of whisky clubs which I am really looking forward too.

As usual if you have any comments or questions then please feel free to post them here ( http://www.glenglassaugh.com/News/Blog/?p=201 ) or email me direct.

Slange,

Stuart

Andrea Caminneci and myself (large and little!)

McKinlay’s Rare Old Scotch Whisky was one of the many brands destined to be part of the history books…until two cases of McKinlay’s were discovered in 2006 beneath a hut used by Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition from 1907 to 1909. Now, whisky lovers all over the world want to know what a whisky stored in ice for a century would taste like. We’ll hear from Al Fastier of the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust and Richard Paterson of Whyte & Mackay on plans to recover the whisky from its icy home in February…and what should happen to it. In the news, Edrington Group plans to mothball Tamdhu Distillery, a new master distiller for The Glenlivet, and Whisky Magazine presents its U.S. Icons of Whisky Awards

Listen to episode #227 at http://www.whiskycast.com/

In two new episodes of Ralfy Whiskyreviews 91a and 91b are a docuvlog (documentary video log) of a family buying a Cask of Whisky at Glengoyne for their baby daughter’s future.

These Vlogs put a cask purchase into a personal perspective.

Ralfy at Work

Visit Ralfy at http://www.ralfy.com/ Click on “Whiskyreviews”

Whisky Intelligence has reproduced (with permission) The Gauntleys Whisky Newsletter for June 2007; a look back in time. The author, Chris Goodrum, has some excellent insights into the whiskies being commented on which makes for excellent reading on a Sunday.  Enjoy!

Dear Whisky Customers,

Ever get the feeling that you are saying the same thing over and over again? I know I do! So what’s he going on about this month I hear you ask, can you guess? Awards!

It feels like every month there is someone handing out awards for something or other and lo and behold issue number 63 of the whisky magazine which landed on my proudly proclaiming it to be the ‘Awards Issue’ and ‘The best whiskies in the world’. And the top gong goes to Talisker 18! Now there is nothing wrong with awards, but what do they really achieve? Most whisky customers I have spoken to generally roll their eyes and utter comments like ‘oh there’s another sticker for the bottle?’ and this is my point exactly, there are too many so called competitions and it is always the same things that win and don’t those companies take out expensive adverts in the whisky magazine? Cynical? Moi! No!

I would personally like to see two completions a year, for new bottlings release that year. One for distillery releases and one for independent bottling companies. I mean it is all well and good for the likes of 18 year old Talisker, 12 year old Highland Park et al to win competition after competition. We know that they are good whiskies, we don’t need to be told it every month or two. What we do want to know is what new things have been released, and should we part with our hard earned for them! I doubt very much that the editor of the whisky magazine will send me a reply, he certainly didn’t after my comments in the last newsletter. My guess if that it probably ends up in his junk email box, and we know what’ll happen then. Anyway if anyone else has any comments please let me know.

GLOBAL WARMING AND THE FUTURE OF WHISKY

Now I know what you are thinking, what does global warming have to do with the future of whisky production. Well directly nothing, but indirectly an awful lot. This thought all came about because I was reading an article in the money supplement of the Sunday Times about how to make money through global warming and one of their investment tips was companies that produce biofuel. Now the most common form of biofuel worldwide is Ethanol, which can be produced from starchy grains such as barley, wheat, corn, maize and sugar cane. Do you see where I am going with this?

Doing some further research into this subject it would appear that the European Union has set the following targets for member states. By 2010 all states should achieve at least 5.75% biofuel usage of all traffic fuel. This rises to 10% by 2020. This will obviously produce increased demand for raw materials globally and will obviously push up their price; hence the cost of a bottle of whisky will be set to soar. In fact earlier this year there were a number of reports linking stories as diverse as food riots in Mexico due to rising prices of corn for tortillas and reduced profits at Heineken, due to the increasing use of corn grown in the US Midwest for bio-ethanol production. (In the case of beer, it is more that barley acreage was cut to meet growing demand for corn, rather than the direct conversion of barley to ethanol.)

So where does this leave the UK? Well there is currently quiet a bit of debate as to how useful bio-ethanol will be in replacing fossils fuels in vehicles. The chief policy vehicle in the UK for encouraging biofuel development and its use is called the ‘Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation’ (RTFO). This will require fuel companies here to replace 2,5% of their total transport fuel with biofuels by 2008/9, 3.75% by 2009/10 and 5% by 2010/11. A recent report commissioned by Rolls Royce says that final figure (5%) is equivalent to 1.2 billion litres of bio-ethanol and 1.35 billion litres of bio-diesel. If this was to be produced in the UK, 1.2 million hectares would be required, about 20% of the UK’s arable land.

The report goes onto say that the bulk of our biofuel requirement will be imported and based on soy, palm oil and sugar cane. However I think that there will still be a lot of pressure put on barley and wheat production in the UK, especially with regard to price, and with the current flurry of distillery building projects, whisky manufactures will be in direct competition with bio-fuel producers for the raw materials, which can only lead to an increase in the cost of production and thus an increase in the price of a bottle of whisky. If this happens and it is and of course at the moment still hypothetical then it could lead to a down turn in sales, distillery closures, job losses and an end to the boom time in scotch whisky.

Not wishing to be the harbinger of doom, but life has a tendency to move in cycles, boom one day, bust the next!

Right rant over, time to taste some whisky!

MURRAY McDAVID NEW MISSON RELEASES

My good friends at Murray McDavid kindly sent me some samples of their new Misson releases, and are probably waiting with baited breath as I pass judgment. No I’m only kidding! I think the days have long gone that you could accept without question any new independent bottling. I know that I may lack the experience of some in the industry, but over the time I have been doing this job I have tasted a fair number of good, bad and indifferent whiskies, and this latest selection follows a very familiar path, there are some that make you realize that whisky can be the greatest alcoholic beverage on the planet and some that make you think??. Oh you know what I mean.

THE BAD

1985 Craggenmore (21 year old) 55.6%

Bourbon/ Tempranillo

What is it with red wine finished whiskies? Maybe it’s me; maybe I just don’t get on with them. However in saying that the nose of this is superb and I thought  finally a red wine finished whisky I like and to give it its dues it has the finest red wine finished nose I have ever tried, but, and there’s always a big but isn’t there!……….

The nose opens with a slight floral note, followed by spicy redcurrant/ cherry fruit, sweet natural honey and luxurious buttery bourbon oak lying just beneath the spicy top note. It displays a magnificent multi-dimensional depth. I really could sniff this all day. Then it goes horribly pear shaped. On the palate it has a mouthwatering intensity, but it is so one-dimensional it is untrue and short. How could such a gloriously complex nose lead to such a disappointing palate, even a drop of water doesn’t help the proceedings. This really is a shame and goes to show that first sniffs can be deceiving.

1989 Highland Park (17 year old) 52.6%

Bourbon/ Fortified Cellier de la Donna Grenache Blanc

Murray McDavid has bottled some great expressions of Highland Park???????.. In the past!

I’m sorry guys this is innocuous at best and down right awful at worst. On the nose there is a spicy red winy top note floating above some coastal fruit and a touch of peat. It is very floral but not particularly wild and heathery. I certainly would have guessed the distillery.

THE INDIFFERENT

1986 Glenglassaugh (20 year old) 55.3%  £68.95

Sherry

One smell and yes this is a sherry cask, with all that in yer face? lush rich, spicy, succulent sherry fruit. There is absolutely no distillery character in sight, but one has to ask if Glenglassaugh ever had any distillery character (apart from wild grassy gorse and sackcloth or old hessian), I mean its owners Highland Distillers never thought it had enough character to bottle it in its own right, (family silver excluded) and most of its production went for blending in Famous Grouse and Cutty Sark, although it has to be said it is a damn fine sherry cask. On the palate it is rich, honied and sherried (no surprise) it is raw and up front and personal. It reminds me of and old bottling of theirs, the 1990 Linkwood with those heavy vegetal notes. A drop of water brings out a slight sulphur/ gun smoke note (which unfortunately lets it down).

So in summing up it Sherry 1 v Distillery Character 0. I love its intensity and frankly if it wasn?t for that sulphur note it would definitely be a good!

THE GOOD

1978 Glenturret (28 year old) 45.8% £76.95

Bourbon/ Rioja

Well knock me down feather. What was I saying about red wine finished whiskies? A glorious nose, the mature bourbon influence is obvious from the start but it is supported by some gloriously oily, rich, mellow fruit dripping in natural honey, beeswax and a touch of red wine fruits. Subtle it isn’t, the aromas engulf the senses, this is gorgeous! Quiet a sweet entry onto the palate, heavily bourbon laced mature fruit with red winey fruit notes and natural toffee along with a slight peaty note on the middle. It has a lovely crisp garden pea freshness but finishes a bit short. However this is immediately rectified with a drop of water which lengthens it and emphasizes the glorious honeyed notes. Well there you go this is the first red wine finished malt that isn?t over powered by the finishing cask. Is it a case of practice makes perfect or a fluke? Either way it is gorgeous!

1989 Rosebank (17 year old) 55.3% £59.95

Bourbon/ Guigal Hermitage Blanc Marsanne

A stunning, crisp, clean, textbook rosebank nose of sweet garden fruit, lime, lemon, mango and a touch of lavender(?) nicely supported by some delicate winey notes. The balance is sublime with oak coming through and adding a lovely butterscotch note. My how it keeps building in complexity, with a late toffee-popcorn note. The palate is rich and fruity with the tangy citrus winey fruit battling against the butterscotch, shortbread and toffee-popcorn flavours. And it goes on with the citrus fruit, a touch of flowers, salt, guava and melon rolling over the tongue. Very long with some wood tannins noticeable in the finish. A drop of water emphasizes the bourbon oak on the nose and allows the tropical fruit notes to linger luxuriously on the palate. There can’t be many casks of this sublime quality left, so grab a bottle whilst you can. It has been said many, many times before, but it is a real shame this distillery has gone.

1982 St Magdalen (24 year old) 58.3% £94.95

Bourbon/ Port

Luxuriously rich aromas of coffee, honey, tawny fruits dipped in oh so sweet spices. Awesome complexity with some lemon fruit notes. Lovely and soft on the palate, again very spicy with the cask finish dominating the palate with touches of tawny fruit, quiet dry with a good length with a touch of salt and wood tannins. A drop of water really brings this malt to life emphasizing the mature honey and natural caramel on the nose. On the palate it allows the distillery character of perfumed grassiness to just about force its way through the port, and I have to say it has a lovely balance for a port finish.

1984 Caol Ila (22 year old) 54.1% £86.95

Bourbon/ Maury VdN Red Grenache

Initially this redolent of luxurious and richly fruity redcurrant and berry fruits, which are promptly blown away by the classic, crisp saline infused subtly peaty aromas. Good grief is this really 22 years old, I’d have put it down as mid teens, is this the Peter Pan of whiskies, clinging on to its probably un-misspent youth. It has an intriguing sweetness to it and I must say that the finish (sorry enhancement) works very well. On the palate again the sweet fortified red fruits begin the proceedings followed by the tangy, crisp coastal fruits and delicate peat. Tongue tingling alcohol somewhat masks the finish, yet it leaves behind a beautiful sweet aftertaste. A small drop of water makes the nose sing! Melding all the components together nicely in a near perfect balance. On the palate it softens it and again brings it all together. The wine cask effortlessly supports the intense citrus coastal fruit and the lazy peat drifts over the tongue. The finish is extremely dry and salty with touches of garden fruits, earth and soil. One word sums this malt up ? Harmonious!

A GENERAL ROUND UP

1989 Auchroisk (16 year old) 63.9% £50.95

This isn’t exactly a new bottling but as I was given a sample I thought it would be rude of me not to review it! What is interesting about this bottling is that it is from a Boubon cask, whereas most of the bottlings of Auchroisk I have come across have been sherry casked, apparently the reason for this is because the whisky they produced was naturally light and the obvious use of sherry casks would give it more robustness.

On the nose it is soft and quiet light and oily with tangy citrus fruit, pear, banana, natural honey, bourbon oak, and a touch of grassiness and dunnage floors. Quiet Lowland-esque and quiet charming. On the palate it is pretty much as the nose. Undiluted the alcohol somewhat dominates. However a drop of water brings out a beguiling sweetness, a juicy yummyness with a delicate touch of orange and a larger-esque malt note. It lengthens and brings out a touch of gin-like botanicals on the finish. A delightful summer malt.

Ardbeg Almost There? (9 year old) 54.1% £36.95

Now this is brand spanking new! Oh so clean, textbook aromas of rich, oily orange fruit, coastal peat, fisherman?s sowesters and tar. Compared to the ?Still Young? it has a more pronounced oiliness. It’s amazing what a couple of years has done to the depth and complexity. It has been a fascinating journey from the ‘in yer face’ brashness of the ‘Very Young’ through the flawed excellence of the ‘Still Young’ to where it is now.

On the palate it is silky, quiet oily with a citrus sea fruit entry, followed by gentle peat and coal smoke wafting in. It really builds on the tongue and without water it is so silky smooth. Lovely length with the tar, fisherman’s outer garments, a touch of grapefruit and bonfires partying on the palate. This is really showing it fruitiness now. Again it is a lot more oily than the ‘Still Young’, less orangy and quiet mellower, the peatiness is a lot subtler, now playing a supporting role rather than screaming at you.

Whereas a drop of water killed the ‘Still Young’ with the ‘Almost There’ it emphasizes its glorious coastal fruit and rubberyness and brings out a lovely sweet note on the nose. On the palate it brings all the flavours together, emphasizing the bonfire smoke and the palate coating juicy/ oily fruit. It really brings out the monstrously intense yet subtle peat, enveloping the senses. Really you just sit there and go wow after a few sips with a silly grin on your face!

Well that’s it for now. Any comments or orders to the usual address please.

Sincerely

Chris Goodrum

http://www.gauntley-wine.co.uk/

MASSIVE SAVINGS FOR XMAS

We have a great range of Christmas gifts and special offers this year to help ease the painful decision of what to buy. 
 
FREE Aberfeldy 12 year old Miniature with every Aberfeldy 70cl

We are also giving away a free copy of this month’s “Whisky Magazine” absolutely FREE with every single order (while stocks last)

Happy shopping and thanks for your custom.
Duncan & Ronnie

Visit Single Malts Direct at https://www.whiskyintelligence.com/

Our friend Ralfy of  Ralfy Whisky Reviews has passed an important milestone of 100,000 views of his excellent video whisky reviews!

Well done Ralf!

Visit Ralfy at http://www.whiskyreviews.blogspot.com/

The Dalmore Oculus reportedly sold at auction at Bonhams Auction in Edinburgh for £23,000 and the oldest whisky in the blend was distilled in 1868, with others selected from 1878, 1922, 1926, 1939 and 1951.

Scottish Field Merchant Challenge
Back on the 2nd October 2009, Regis gave his day to a good cause, The Scottish Field Whisky challenge.

Tasting over 50 different whiskies followed by a review of 23 of them, which were re-tasted and marked. What a fun time this was!

Look out for the Scottish Field Magazine December issue (OUT NOW!) and acquire your copy of the Whisky supplement to find out more about the blind tasting notes from REGIS and the other 6 judges.

Visit Scottish Field at http://www.scottishfield.co.uk/

http://www.regiswhiskymad.co.uk/

The on-line forum for Whisky Magazine has added three sub forums to the popular “Collectors Corner” in the form of ‘For Sale’ , ‘Wanted’ and ‘Valuations’

Visit the Whisky Magazine Forum at http://www.whiskymag.com/forum/

Richard Paterson comments;

You may have heard me mention on the whisky podcast (or if you’ve bumped into me recently) that there’s two crates of whisky belonging to Whyte and Mackay down at the South Pole from Sir Ernest Shackleton’s trip in the early 1900’s that I might be getting a sample of soon.

In January a team from Antarctic Heritage Trust are going back to Shackleton’s abandoned base  at Cape Royds (97 miles from the pole) that he used before abandoning his quest for the pole in 1909.

However two feet under the ice, just outside the hut, are two crates of whisky (which cost a pricely 56 shillings!). An old brand from McKinlay and Co called ‘Rare Old’ that was part of a consignment of 25 crates given to Shackleton for his expedition.

Now it’s hoped that if the bottles can be recovered, perhaps one or two can come back home, which seems right. It’s been laying there lonely and neglected. It should come back to Scotland where it was born.

The problem is there are international treaties preventing us taking it. However we may get one or two. Failing that, we may get a sample back (by putting a needle in through the cork). We might even get enough to be able to take a stab at recreating it.

But, judging by the questions I get sent to Ask Richard, what you all want to know is: how will it taste? To which the answer is: cold.

Seriously, whiskies back then – a harder age – were all quite heavy and peaty as that was the style. And depending on the storage conditions it may still have that heaviness. For example, it may taste the same as it did back then if the cork has stayed in the bottle and kept it airtight.

But if the whisky is on its side, the cork may have been eroded by the whisky or air may have got in some other way – especially if the corks have been contracting and expanding with the temperature changes over the years and seasons.

As I show to a lot of people, I’ve got the original letter from Shackleton about the whisky so it would be great to have a dram of the actual drink to put next to it.

And you can bet, I’ll be talking a lot about this in January.

The background story;

By Emily Stone — Special to GlobalPost
Published: October 26, 2009

Updated: October 30, 2009

CAPE ROYDS, Antarctica — This spit of black volcanic rock that juts out along the coast of Antarctica is an inhospitable place. Temperatures drop below -50 Fahrenheit and high winds cause blinding snowstorms. The only neighbors are a colony of penguins that squawk incessantly and leave a pungent scent in their wake.

But if you happen upon the small wooden hut that sits at Cape Royds and wriggle yourself underneath, you’ll find a surprise stashed in the foot and a half of space beneath the floorboards. Tucked in the shadows and frozen to the ground are two cases of Scotch whisky left behind 100 years ago by Sir Ernest Shackleton after a failed attempt at the South Pole.

Conservators discovered the wooden cases in January 2006. They were unable to dislodge the crates, but are going in with special tools in January during the Antarctic summer to try to retrieve them. An international treaty dictates that the crates, and any intact bottles that are inside, remain in Antarctica unless they need to be taken off the continent for conservation reasons. The whisky’s condition after a century of freezing and thawing is unknown.

Polar explorers of that era relied on their alcohol of choice to help them and their crews through the long Antarctic nights and insomnia-inducing days. And Shackleton knew a thing or two about being well prepared for an adventure. On a later trip to the continent he kept all 28 members of his crew alive during 15 harrowing months after their ship got marooned in and then slowly devoured by ice. So it’s no surprise that he brought 25 crates of Scotch with him when he set off on an expedition to the South Pole in 1907.

The earlier trip didn’t go well, either. Shackleton turned around 97 miles short of his destination, telling his wife, “I thought you’d rather have a live donkey than a dead lion.” When the ship arrived in 1909 to pick the men up, they left their supplies behind in their hut, including reindeer sleeping bags, tins of boiled mutton and bottled gooseberries. And, as we now know, they also abandoned two cases of Charles Mackinlay & Co. whisky.

Al Fastier is a program manager in New Zealand with Antarctic Heritage Trust, the group charged with preserving the hut at Cape Royds along with three others on that section of Antarctic coastline. He was there the day the crates were discovered. The team was clearing out a century’s worth of ice that had accumulated under the hut and was causing structural problems.

“It was a very exciting time of actually finding artifacts that possibly hadn’t been seen since the historic explorers left,” he said. The group also found felt boots and jugs of linseed oil. The other 5,000 or so artifacts left behind are inside the hut or on the ground nearby and had been catalogued and viewed by the occasional tourist and on the internet.

In January, the conservationists will use a special drill that chips into the rock so they can pull the crates out and let them melt free in the omnipresent Antarctic summer sun.

So what will century-old, Antarctic-iced Scotch taste like?

Richard Paterson, master blender at Whyte & Mackay, the Glasgow whisky company that now owns the Mackinlay label, is eager to learn of the whisky’s fate. He’s equally hopeful that he gets to taste some of it.

He has a 1907 letter from Shackleton acknowledging receipt of the cases, along with a photograph of the bottles’ label. The company may have donated the cases, which Paterson said cost 28 shillings each, as polar explorers came looking for sponsors for their trips, which were usually run on tight budgets. “Shackleton has been one of my heroes for many years,” he said. “It’s nice to think that perhaps we helped him when his other spirits were down, that our spirits kicked him up a wee bit.”

Paterson said he’d expect that when bottled, the whisky was heavy and peaty, which was the style in that era. He’d like to sample it by sticking a needle through the cork and extracting some of the liquid with a syringe. If the bottles stayed airtight — a big if since the corks may have shifted as they were expanding and contracting with the changes in temperature — the whisky would likely taste much as it did in Shackleton’s day, Paterson said.

A whisky’s flavor develops as it’s aged in barrels because air is able to reach it. Once it’s bottled and cut off from external oxygen, it stops changing in taste. If oxygen was sneaking back into the bottles, the whisky would have continued aging and could have started to go bad, much like food that’s left out too long.

Even if the bulk of the bottles remain in Antarctica for historic reasons, Paterson is hopeful that a couple can be returned to the company. One would go in the Mackinlay family archives and the other could be auctioned off, he said.

Helen Arthur, who has written six books about whiskey from her home in southern England, said it’s difficult to guess what a bottle of Shackleton’s whiskey would fetch, but if it’s in good shape and the label is intact, it could be upwards of $1,000. While she doubts the whisky still tastes very good, she doesn’t think a buyer would be interested in it for sipping, but rather for its lineage.

If the bottles stay in the hut, which sees about 900 visitors a year, they will be protected from any over eager collectors, Fastier said. No one is allowed into the huts without a guide, and the value of an artifact often dictates how high up on a shelf it’s placed.

Paterson said he’ll be disappointed if that is the whiskey’s final resting place.

“It’s been laying there lonely and neglected,” he said. “Can it not come back to Scotland where it was born?”