A Rare Opportunity: Loch Dhu & 1920s Macallan Samples Available Now 

Mark Littler Ltd is selling 10ml drams of Macallan-Glenlivet 22 Year Old Whisky Liqueur distilled in the 1920s, as well as drams of the infamous Loch Dhu 10 Year Old The Black Whisky. 

The opportunity to try rare and expensive whiskies is increasingly scarce, thanks to the rising prices and increasing rarity of prized whiskies. However, much to the excitement of whisky lovers, Mark Littler Limited has bottled 10ml drams of two rare whiskies for you to taste in what could be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Macallan-Glenlivet 22 Year Old Whisky Liqueur 10ml Dram – £100 

This Macallan-Glenlivet 22 Year Old Whisky Liqueur was distilled in the 1920s and bottled in the 1940s by Row & Company Distillers Ltd for export to the USA. The importation into the USA followed the Prohibition, the Wall Street Crash, the Great Depression, and World War II.

The whisky-making process at Macallan, as well as the barley varieties used, would have been very different in the 1920s. This is one of the oldest bottles of Macallan on the market, and so is one of the only chances to sample authentic 1920s Macallan, distilled in the same era as the iconic Macallan 1926 60 Year Old.

The Macallan-Glenlivet 22 Year Old Whisky Liqueur was tasted and reviewed by Angus MacRaild at WhiskyFun, who awarded the whisky an astonishing 93 points. The tasting notes, also drawn up by Angus, feature notes of bitter marmalade, crystalised ginger, and fir on the nose. On the palette, drying peat smoke, cocktail bitters, and eucalyptus. The finish is long with notes of crystalised honey, saltiness, and old-school sherry.

Each dram comes with a tasting note card showcasing Angus’s tasting notes so that you can drink along with one of the experts. Can you pick out the flavours in this dram?

Only 30 of these drams are available. Don’t miss out! 

Loch Dhu 10 Year Old The Black Whisky 10ml Dram – £15  

The Loch Dhu 10 Year Old The Black Whisky is one of the most polarising and controversial whiskies on the market. The whisky was created in the late 1990s and was something of a marketing gimmick on the part of Mannochmore.

The deep black colour is produced by a very high amount of spirit caramel, which itself is a very controversial topic in the whisky industry. Spirit caramel, or E150a, is the only additive legally allowed in Scotch whisky. It is most often used to create colour consistency and brand familiarity both in blends and in single malts and, in small quantities, it does not affect the taste or mouthfeel of a whisky (or does it?).

Whilst some hail the Loch Dhu as a sweet and smooth whisky, some describe it as a car crash with an overwhelming taste of burnt caramel. Serge Valentin of WhiskyFun gave the whisky 49 points, describing the palate as “catastrophic”.

The question is: just how bad is it? Is the Loch Dhu 10 Year Old The Black Whisky the worst whisky in the world? Or do you find it palatable? There is only one way to find out.

Each Loch Dhu 10 Year Old The Black Whisky dram comes with a postcard showing Serge Valentin’s tasting notes so that you can drink along. They also come with complimentary Tic Tacs just in case you think Serge is right!

The Loch Dhu 10 Year Old The Black Whisky 10ml Dram is available now on the Mark Littler Shop. Perfect for satisfying your own curiosity or perhaps a great secret Santa gift for that one relative or colleague…

About Mark Littler Limited

Mark Littler is an independent whisky broker, market analyst and consultant with over a decade of experience in the industry. Each week he publishes new videos on his YouTube channel about topics such as cask investment fraud (and how to avoid it), the history of distilleries and bottles, debunking whisky investment myths and much more. For more information visit marklitter.com.

Email: whisky@marklittler.com

Telephone: 01260 218 718

Lindores Abbey Distillery | The Oct Newsletter

On the 5^th October we were delighted to celebrate the Distillery’s 6^th anniversary. With the help of renowned Tartan Noir author Ian Rankin and whisky legend Richard Paterson, the doors to the Distillery and Visitor Centre opened six years ago and the legacy of whisky making was reinstated to Lindores. Of course, in a way, we are celebrating our 529^th anniversary, and it has been a pleasure over the past years to share the incredible story of Lindores with visitors from across the globe.

It has been an amazing and eventful six years – even with the slight hiccup of a global pandemic, we have managed to achieve an awful lot. Our visitor centre team have won and maintained a five-star reputation, whilst our production team have been raking in the awards for our spirits: gold at The San Francisco World Spirits Competition and gold at the International Wine and Spirits Competition to name a few!

Of course, none of this would have been possible without the tireless work of our fantastic Lindores team and our loyal members and customers. We can’t wait to see where the next six years will take us!

Slàinte

Drew & Helen McKenzie Smith
Custodians of Lindores Abbey

Opening Day!

DISTILLERY NEWS

We are thrilled to have returned to mashing following silent season. Our break has allowed us to carry out some essential maintenance, and now we are back up and running with all guns (or mash tuns) blazing! Production has been running smoothly with October being an easier month to make spirit thanks to temperature and humidity sitting just right. The staff from the distillery and visitor centre alike are happy to be back working again amongst the delicious aromas of distillation.

We received a delivery of 60 casks from Casknolia in Spain. With three varieties of Sherry Butts on board, the team swiftly unloaded a mixture of Oloroso, Pedro Ximinez and Paulo Cortado casks. We can’t wait to see what complex flavours they impart on to our spirit – the hard part about whisky making is always the waiting!

The bottling hall has been busy bottling and labelling a variety of single casks for both export and home markets as well as producing our core products, the cask owners release and 1494 member’s release.

Slàinte

Gary Haggart
Distillery Manager at Lindores Abbey

 SQUAREMILE INTERVIEW

Have you ever wondered how we have managed to blend our desire for innovation with our respect for the 800+ years of Lindores history? Well, for those who missed it – our founder, Drew Mckenzie Smith, answers just that in a fascinating interview in Square Mile magazine.

READ NOW

ONE OF ONE AUCTION

On the 5^th October, Sotheby’s hosted the second edition of their Distillers One Of One auction at Hopeton House. We were delighted to donate a very special Thiron virgin oak cask to the auction to be included amongst some other incredible and unique lots.

The sale of the cask contributed towards the £2.25 million raised for the Youth Action Fund which helps to improve the lives of disadvantaged youth across Scotland. We hope that the successful bidder will join us in raising a dram for such a brilliant cause!

WHISKY LIVE WARSAW

Production Operative, Scott, was excited to attend his first international whisky show. He, and his girlfriend Lily (who handily speaks Polish!), jetted over to Poland for Whisky Live Warsaw as our Lindores representatives. They had a fantastic time and Scott reported that the show was great fun. He was pleased to meet so many Lindores fans (and to convert some new ones!) and he said that several visitors to the stand were “blown away” that our whisky was so young given its depth of flavour and complexity.

Judging by how much he enjoyed it, we’re sure he will be first to volunteer for the next show, so maybe some of you will meet him repping for Lindores at a stand in the future!

LINDORES INTERNATIONAL

On the export side of things, we have had a great beginning in Sweden, officially launching there on the 16th October. It was fantastic to receive a call just two days later that all of their Lindores had sold out. The second order is leaving imminently, and we have a feeling that we have a bright future with Sweden!

 DISTILLERY EXCLUSIVE

Our newest release hit the distillery shelves earlier this month and the reception has been excellent.

Available exclusively to buy at the distillery, our Old Forester Bourbon ASB has a delicious aroma and palette. On the nose you can expect, smooth buttercream and caramel, whilst the taste will give you mellow vanilla, apple and banana.

As a cask strength bottling, this dram packs a punch at 60.8% ABV, but the delicious complexity of our spirit really comes through in this dram, with a sweet compliment lent from the impressive Old Forester casks.

The chance to get your hands on a bottle definitely makes a visit to the distillery more tempting than ever!

WATCH: Whisky Magazine goes on tour in Kentucky

The teams from Whisky Magazine and American Whiskey have been on tour in Kentucky! A jam-packed itinerary of distillery tours, tastings, interviews, and more culminated in a visit to the world-famous Kentucky Bourbon Festival in Bardstown — and we caught the whole trip on camera.

We’ll be releasing a video per week for the next 10 weeks and we don’t want you to miss a moment. Hit subscribe, enable notifications, and follow us on our journey as we receive some real Kentucky hospitality!

Subscribe to our YouTube channel now!

We visited the Kentucky Bourbon Festival in Bardstown!

We visited the Kentucky Bourbon Festival in Bardstown! In the first episode of Whisky Magazine and American Whiskey Magazine’s Kentucky tour, Christopher and Maggie take in the world-famous bourbon whiskey festival in Bardstown

Bardstown’s Kentucky Bourbon Festival was recently reinvented and now offers whiskey enthusiasts more than ever before.

From unlimited pours of a diverse range of whiskey styles to festival-exclusive barrel picks and masterclasses to live music, the festival is a true bucket-list event for whiskey enthusiasts, connoisseurs, and collectors.

Distillers old and new, commercial and crafty were all in attendance at the 2023 show, pouring for attendees who had flown in from all over the United States and beyond. Now a true destination event, we sent Whisky Magazine’s editor-at-large Christopher Coates and American Whiskey Magazine’s contributing editor Maggie Kimberl to learn more.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel now!

WATCH NOW

Introducing Founder’s Highlights Regular update from Dan

It’s been a whirlwind few weeks, with two major trade shows last week providing a chance to speak with bartenders in Manchester and a pub/restaurant owners from around the country.  This was followed by surprise news from France, that King Charles had been offered a dram of Cotswolds Single Malt by our fantastic French brand ambassador Hugues during his appearance in Bordeaux – an amazing coup which was picked up by many British newspapers.  Immediately following that was a day spent on our stand at the London Whisky Show, one of the highlights of the autumn whisky calendar.

A few days later I spent two days on our stand in Cannes at the Tax Free World Association’s annual conference, the largest international gathering of the duty-free and travel retail business.  Lots of good meetings and we hope to be back in nearly all UK airports by year-end.  Then off to a whisky masterclass in Nice, a visit with our Italian distributor in Genoa, and back home in time to host over 60 investors for the first of our two Investor Days.  And finally an enjoyable Sunday showing the Alessandro Palazzi (the venerable head Bartender from Dukes in London) and his team around the distillery.

One of the things I am most excited about is the near-finishing of work on our new Wetlands ecological treatment system.  It should be ready for commissioning in a few weeks, and will use plants to naturally treat the effluent from our whisky distillery.  Our investors were given a preview the other week, and seemed to be very impressed – I cannot wait to show it to all of you soon. Last week marked the official launch of our new Harvest Series whisky, Flaxen Vale, with beautiful artwork from local painter Annabel Playfair.

We rolled out our new whisky advertising campaign, ‘English for Whisky’, celebrating our position as the UK’s top-selling English whisky and leader in New World Whisky

And it was also the kick-off for an exciting new ad campaign – our first – for our whisky, which we hope you will all see very soon.  Then it was off to Northumberland for a meeting of the English Whisky Guild, October is always a busy month, but this year has to be a record!

Cheers
Dan

Whisky Magazine issue #195
Be the first to get your hands on our latest issue!

The cover stars for this issue are the team behind Holyrood Distillery. Edinburgh’s first whisky distillery to open in recent times is drawing inspiration from the city’s brewing heritage, from malts to yeasts, to create one of the country’s most innovative spirit ranges.

Make sure you don’t miss out!
Buy your copy of Whisky Magazine today.

GET YOUR COPY TODAY

GET YOUR COPY TODAY

Dailuaine 25 Years Old Mission Gold Aberdeen Whisky Shop Exclusive

This unique malt was bottled exclusively for our shop. Distilled in 1997 at Dailuaine Distillery, known for its oily, orchard fruit-filled spirit and aged in a bourbon hogshead for two decades before finishing in a compact bourbon cask from Koval Distillery.  This is an unprecedented example of Koval cask maturation. Never before has an older single malt rested for so long in those small casks. Nearly six years in the bourbon cask resulted in a wonderful balance between elegant old spirit and vibrant American oak.  Bottled by Murray McDavid at natural cask strength without chill-filtration or artificial colouring.

NOSE Poached pears, grilled apple and baking spice.

PALATE Green orchard fruit, fresh nuts and mellow oak.

FINISH Warming malt, herbal, gentle sweet spice.

Only 137 bottles were produced.

£180.00

Shop now

A TALE OF TOKYO

70cl | 46% ABV

A Whisky born out of Master Distiller Dr Bill Lumsden’s obsession for the culture, fashion and food of Japan. The contradictory and multi-faceted nature of Tokyo inspired Dr Bill to reflect it into a Whisky.

After a decade of searching, Dr Bill finally managed to source some casks from one of Japan’s most sought-after trees, Mizunara oak. The result is a Whisky designed to bottle some of the wonders of Tokyo – multi-faceted, contradictory and always surprising!

Aged in Mizunara, Bourbon and Sherry casks. Dr Bill says: “This liquid is crazy. Its flavour notes are insane, dissonant and impenetrable.”

£74.95

Add to Basket

TASTING NOTES:

NOSE
Pungent and herbal, with hints of incense and toffee, along with a curious herbal top-note, like saddle-soap or beeswax, followed by wood resin and a touch of cedar wood.

TASTE
A peppery mouthfeel leads into the flavour of chewy oak, fennel or vetiver root, ground white pepper, tangy oranges, bitter cherries, almond and wood resin.

Over 60% Off a Historic Craft Irish Whiskey
Kilbeggan Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey (750ml)
(Previously $40) ($14.99)
“Sublimely good Irish whiskey.” — Whisky Advocate

For anyone who hasn’t thought about Irish whiskey lately, this stupendous deal should ignite your interest in quick fashion. Kilbeggan has been quietly turning out exceptional craft whiskeys that capture the perfect essence of the Irish style, and now at a mind-boggling Insider’s price of over 60% off.

Kilbeggan Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey (750ml) (Previously $40) ($14.99)

93 points Whisky Advocate: “The follow up to Small Batch rye, this single pot still is double-distilled at the historic Kilbeggan Distillery with a mashbill containing 2.5% oats, inspired by a Locke family recipe from the late 1800s. Pot still spices hit the nose first, with candied peel, baked peach, apricot, creamy vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ground pepper. Flavors of orange, apricot, cake, and vanilla combat fizzing pot still spices. Sublimely good Irish whiskey. *Best Value* (JM, Spring-2020)”

93 points Wine Enthusiast: “Fresh cut apple and a hint of smoke lead the nose. The robust, flavorful palate offers a surprising plummy note, finishing long and drying with cayenne and clove heat. Altogether, the pleasing effect is like spice cake doused in whiskey. *Top 100 Spirits for 2021* (KN)” (04/2021)

K&L Notes: 100% distilled and matured at Ireland’s oldest licensed distillery. Kilbeggan closed in 1953 only to be refurbished and reopened by the king of Irish craft whiskey, John Teeling, the founder of the Cooley distillery, in 2010. This is the oldest expression to be released to date and represents the most traditional style of Irish whiskey, a first to be featured in the modern Kilbeggan era. Designed to be sumptuous and appealing to almost any palate, this new limited release bodes well for the future of the ever-expanding Irish whiskey category, not by offering innovation, but by returning to the category’s roots in the perfect way.

Andrew Whiteley | K&L Spirits Buyer | Review Date: October 11, 2023

The great correction that people have been waiting for in spirits pricing is finally here, and like all corrections, it is swinging farther than it needs to in some cases. Kilbeggan is a classic, old, single-pot Irish whiskey brand of impeccable pedigree. At $40, it was fairly priced for the quality, but suffered from a crowded field and a lack of focus from its corporate owner. At $15, it is a steal of a deal you cannot ignore. A textbook example of overcorrection. From the consumer side, it was lost without an age statement or big branding efforts to sharpen the focus on its quality and heritage. The fact is, Ireland’s unique single-pot style (a mix of malted and unmalted barley in the same mash and pot-distilled) is poorly represented in the whiskey world. Brands like Redbreast and Green Spot hold up the mantle, but other greats like Kilbeggan are available and worth your attention. Originally founded in 1757, Kilbeggan is Ireland’s oldest licensed distillery. With the demise of Irish whiskey in the early 20th century, it shuttered and wasn’t revived until 2010, well into the category’s resurgence. Mellow in texture and yet full and chewy Kilbeggan offers tons of fresh fruit ranging from juicy citrus to succulent stone fruit, sweet malt, grain tea, and gentle baking spices. It’s creamy on the palate, sweet, and easy-going on the finish. If you love the wares of the Emerald Isle, you’d be silly to not add at least one bottle to your bar at this wild price.

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