Canadian Whisky Book Review and Twitter Tasting

Be a part of the world’s first ever whisky book review/twitter tasting. Social media are changing the way we read and the way we taste whisky. We’ve decided to integrate the two! Each Sunday for the next four weeks we will review several chapters from the book Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert and discuss them on Twitter. And we will do this while we taste a representative whisky from that chapter.

If you wish to comment on the book, interact with author, Davin de Kergommeaux, or discuss a Canadian whisky you are tasting, please join us each Sunday at 3:00 pm Eastern time, on Twitter at #DavinTT.

The twitter reviews and tastings begin this Sunday, May 5^th at 3:00pm EST when we will be talking about chapters 10 – 13. Davin will join us to answer questions, and contribute to discussion among the participants, etc.

After chatting for about 30 minutes about 15 participants from around the world will open a mystery bottle that we have sent to them. You didn’t get a bottle? Feel free to join in anyway. The more the merrier. After tasting the sample and talking about it we’ll reveal which distillery it came from and which whisky we tasted. Sound like fun?

This Sunday we’ll begin with chapters 10 – 13. Then, Sunday May 12^th we will discuss chapters 14 – 17; Sunday May 19^th, chapters 18 – 21; and Sunday May 26^th, chapters 22 – 25.

We invite the whisky bloggers among us to blog about the book, the experience, the whiskies and/or Davin. Let the fun begin!

If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with me, @WhiskyLassie on twitter.

Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert is available at Barnes & Noble, Chapters/Indigo, and many other fine bookstores, or on-line at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca.

2013 International Safety Awards Hat Trick for Scotch Whisky Distiller 

Morrison Bowmore Distillers Limited is proud to announce a major coup which has been awarded to the company by the British Safety Council.

Mr Neal Stone, Director of Policy and Communications of the British Safety Council, stated: 

“The Trustees and Executive of the British Safety Council congratulate Morrison Bowmore Distillers Ltd on their achievement of a distinction, the highest accolade, in our 2013 International Safety Awards. The company is to be specially congratulated on gaining a distinction for the third year running – the only company in the food and drinks sector to achieve this accolade.”     

Morrison Bowmore Distillers is one of only four organisations to have achieved this award with distinction the maximum possible number of three times.

Mr Andrew Rankin, Morrison Bowmore’s Operations Director, commented “This is a truly excellent achievement and I would personally like to thank all our staff and contractors for their dedication and commitment in enabling us to maintain such a high level of performance.  To be recognised by the British Safety Council in this way is further testimony to our commitment of integrating health and safety into the heart of the way we work.”

Morrison Bowmore’s brands include Bowmore Islay Single Malt, Auchentoshan Lowland Single Malt and Glen Garioch Highland Single Malt.

Get the Party Started with New Chivas App

Using your smart phone or tablet at a social gathering is now a way of bringing people together, thanks to Chivas. The new Chivas MASHTUN Games App gets people playing, active and laughing and is perfect for getting the party started.

Free on iTunes, Chivas MASHTUN offers a contemporary twist on your favourite, classic parlour games, comprising five options designed for a minimum of two people. It automatically suggests the number of teams and players on each team, based on guests and phones or tablet devices in the room.

James Slack, Global Brand Director of Chivas, commented: “Chivas MASHTUN combines elements that we know modern gentlemen love: games, gadgets and, above all, being a great party host. Chivas has always been about bringing people together, celebrating friendship and generosity. With this new venture, we wanted to change the rules of gaming technology, which can be insular, and make hosting at home sociable, entertaining and memorable.”

Chivas MASHTUN nods to the mash tun, which is the brewing vessel for mashing grain and water to make wort for Scotch whisky. Making a mash is about bringing together the right ingredients in the right way, a lot like hosting a great party.

Chivas MASHTUN is now available for free download on iTunes. See chivas.com for more details.

NOTES:

Chivas MASHTUN is an App, offering five games to choose from, comprising:
1. MASHJAM
A game of rhythm and memory. Play back the rhythm as accurately as you can by tapping or shaking
2. MASHACT
Players act out words as they appear on the device. Help your teammate guess as many as they can before the time runs out.
3. MASHRELAY
Sing, hum, whistle or shout to propel your team’s piece along the course. A head-to-head relay race.
4. MASHTIP
A physical game whereby players are asked to perform a random physical action while holding their device as steady as possible to balance a tower of virtual blocks displayed on screen.
5. MASHSEEK
A modern take on the game of hide and seek: find a device hidden in the room using a series of remote prompts to make it vibrate, beep, flash or take a picture.

Chivas Regal is a truly global brand, selling 4.9 million 9L cases annually in more than 150 countries across Europe, Asia Pacific and Americas. The Chivas Regal range is the epitome of style, substance and exclusivity and includes Chivas Regal 12, 18 and 25 Year Old.

For further information please visit www.chivas.com

Chivas Brothers is the Scotch whisky and premium gin business of Pernod Ricard – the world’s co-leader in wine and spirits. Chivas Brothers is the global leader in luxury Scotch whisky and premium gin. Its portfolio includes Chivas Regal, Ballantine’s, Beefeater Gin, The Glenlivet, Royal Salute, Aberlour, Plymouth Gin, Longmorn, Scapa, 100 Pipers, Clan Campbell, Something Special and Passport.

Scholarships Awarded at Annual KBF Sampler

Bardstown, KY –Anne Margaret Deatrick and Morgan Nichole Riggs were the recipients of the 2013 Kentucky Bourbon Festival Scholarship.  Jerry Summers, chairperson, along with several KBF Board of Directors members, were in attendance to present a certificate of achievement to these young ladies during the fourteenth annual Kentucky Bourbon Festival Sampler held at the Guthrie Opportunity Center Saturday, April 27.  Both individuals attend Assumption High School.

Anne is the daughter of Patricia and William Joseph Deatrick.  Mr. Deatrick is employed by Brown Forman.  Anne plans to attend Bellarmine University next year.  Morgan is the daughter of Shana and Robert Riggs and plans to attend the University of Kentucky in the fall.  Morgan’s mother Shana is an employee of Brown Forman.

This year’s sponsors of the scholarship were Bluegrass Ice Company, Smith Brothers Trucking, Toddy’s Liquors and Woodford Reserve Distillery.  The winning essays will be published in the 2013 Kentucky Bourbon Festival program.

April 2013, Islay:  A new release by Islay’s only farm distillery, Kilchoman, is already receiving rave reviews, having been named Whisky of the Year at the prestigious International Whisky Competition (IWC).

Kilchoman’s Machir Bay was awarded the highest score of the entire competition, following a blind-tasting of over 50 whiskies by an expert panel. 

Owner and founder of Kilchoman Distillery, Anthony Wills, was also recognised at the awards, winning the title of Master Distiller of the Year.  As a new category this year, judges unanimously agreed Anthony and the Kilchoman team deserved the recognition not only for producing a superior Single Malt, but also to further highlight that Kilchoman has only been distilling whisky since 2005.

Sylvain Allard, managing director of the International Whisky Competition, said: “Machir Bay and Kilchoman Distillery are worthy winners in this year’s IWC.  To have such a young whisky receive the highest score is unprecedented.

“Compared with the bigger brands’ younger releases, it’s a significant accomplishment that Kilchoman has only been bottling Single Malt Whisky since 2008 on a mirco-distillery.”

Anthony Wills, founder and owner of Kilchoman, said: “We’re honoured to receive recognition at the IWC for both Machir Bay and the distillery overall.

“We launched the Machir Bay as our core range last year and have been thrilled by the response from experts and our customers. We practice a very strict wood policy regime at Kilchoman which is crucial in our ability to produce such a high-quality young Single Malt.”

Machir Bay is a vatting of four and five year old ex-bourbon casks, with the four-year casks being finished in Oloroso sherry butts for four weeks prior to bottling. Bottled once a year, each release contains more mature casks allowing Kilchoman fans to follow the development of the unique malt as it matures. Machir Bay also won the prestigious IWSC 2012 Gold Medal – Best in Class.

Founded in 2005, Kilchoman is one of the smallest distilleries in Scotland and the first distillery to be built on Islay for 125 years. A working farm distillery, it is one of only a handful of distilleries still practicing floor malting. Kilchoman also grows its own barley, and completes all parts of the production process, from barley to bottling, on the island.

Launched in April, the new bottling, Machir Bay 2013 is bottled at 46% ABV and is now available from UK specialist drinks and whisky stores and Kilchoman’s distribution partners worldwide, priced at RRP of £39.99/€47/$60.

UK stockists include Royal Mile Whiskies,  The Whisky Shop at www.kilchomandistillery.com and The Whisky Exchange.

www.kilchomandistillery.com

facebook.com/pages/Kilchoman-Distillery

twitter.com/Kilchoman05 

Notes:  

Tasting Notes: Machir Bay 2013 Single Islay Malt Scotch Whisky

A classic Islay malt now showing the benefit of additional ageing.

Colour: light beech

Nose:  soft cooked fruits with strong peaty aromas

Palate: mixed fruits and vanilla with an intense sweetness

Finish: a long lingering finish

About Kilchoman

With an ambition to take whisky production back to its traditional roots, Anthony Wills founded and built Kilchoman Distillery in 2005 on a farm situated on the rugged west coast of Islay.

Since the first bottling was released in 2008, Kilchoman has quickly established itself as a high quality Islay Single Malt within the whisky industry. Awards include two prestigious IWSC Gold and a Silver medal in 2012, Malt Advocates Artisan Whisky of the Year 2011 and GQ’s 100 best things in 2012.

For further information and results from the IWC 2013 visit: whiskycompetition.com

THREE SHIPS LIMITED EDITION TAKES GOLD IN THE USA 

The limited edition Three Ships 10-year old single malt recently added gold from the San Francisco Spirits Competition to its collection of medals. Altogether 1 407 entries from 63 countries were evaluated by a panel which included some of the world’s foremost judges.

The whisky was matured for the full 10 years in American oak casks of different ages with the older small wood contributing the exceptional smoothness of the whisky while also imparting a slight sweetness to it.  It is a full-bodied and well-rounded whisky with a hint of peat and estery notes that add a slightly sweet fragrance hinting of dried fruit and fudge.

With only 8 000 bottles coming on the market in October last year, you might just be lucky enough to find a bottle at liquor outlets and so make this exceptional whisky part of your collection.

The Three Ships range of whiskies is produced by master distiller Andy Watts at The James Sedgwick Distillery, situated in Wellington in the shadow of the Cape’s Drakenstein Mountains. The distillery was established in 1886 and over the past two decades underwent several upgrades which transformed it into a state-of-the-art distillery, the only one in Africa. The range consists of Three Ships Select, Three Ships 5-year-old Premium Select, Three Ships Bourbon Cask Finish and the limited-edition Three Ships 10-year-old Single Malt Whisky.

The Three Ships 10-year-old Single Malt is available from fine liquor outlets and retails for about R230.

Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky celebrated its world title last night (23 April) at a function held in Johannesburg with a performance by Zamajobe. The team attending from Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky included Andy Watts, master distiller, who received the World’s Best Grain Whisky at the annual Whisky Magazine’s World Whisky Awards (WWA) held in London in March. And to celebrate, they invited the who’s who of Johannesburg to The Venue to taste and experience this proudly South African whisky.

Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky became the first South African whisky to be awarded this coveted accolade, ahead of those from traditional whisky-producing countries such as Ireland and the USA. The whiskies were assessed blind, based on three tasting rounds, by an independent panel of judges that included some of the foremost international whisky palates.

Watts said “This isn’t just a win for Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky but for South African whisky-making.

“Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky, launched in 2009, was created to express the extraordinary properties of South Africa’s very best home-grown grains, fermented and distilled locally. With a distinctive South African taste profile, the maize is the same as that which was imported into Scotland up until the mid 1980s to make Scotch whisky.

“The whisky is proudly South African in profile. By taking the World’s Best Grain Whisky title we have amply demonstrated that South Africa can make exceptional whiskies. The 2013 title follows last year’s win by Three Ships 5 Year Old of the WWA’s World’s Best Blended Whisky, puts South Africa as a whisky producing country, squarely on the map.”

Green says that South Africa’s warm climate contributed to the excellence of its whiskies. He explained that the maturation process was accelerated by the faster interaction between wood, spirit and air to produce whiskies of great smoothness. “Essentially, the higher ambient temperatures mean our whiskies reach maturity at a younger age.”

Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky is uniquely double-matured to allow the maximum interaction between the cask and whisky. The whisky spends three years in specially selected ex-Bourbon casks and is then re-vatted for a further two years in a fresh set of casks, resulting in attractive toffee, floral and vanilla aromas softened by sweet, spicy undertones, with a warm mouth-feel and a smooth finish.

Inspired by the Bain’s Kloof Pass and its natural beauty, Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky is distilled and matured at The James Sedgwick Distillery, situated near the foothills of the Bain’s Kloof Pass in Wellington, in the heart of the Cape’s Boland.  The whisky pays tribute to Andrew Geddes Bain, the pioneering pass builder who planned and built Bain’s Kloof Pass which connected Wellington to the interior in 1853.

Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky is available from leading liquor outlets and retails for approximately R200 per 750ml bottle.

Zamajobe

WILD TURKEY LAUNCHES HONEY FLAVOURED BOURBON LIQUEUR, AMERICAN HONEY

The makers of premium whisky brand Wild Turkey are introducing an exciting honey-flavoured bourbon, American Honey to the UK this month. American Honey, is blended with real Kentucky Wild Turkey bourbon and hand-selected American honey and has been developed to be shared with friends, chilled from the bottle as a shot.

Unlike other honey flavoured bourbons, American Honey retains the taste and kick of straight bourbon but introduces subtle notes of sweet honey, caramel and orange giving it a much smoother finish. American Honey was the first ever bourbon liqueur with honey to launch in the US and is one of Wild Turkey’s signature drinks made in their distillery near Lawrenceburg in Kentucky, USA.

American Honey is smooth without being overly sweet and is perfect straight out of the bottle as a shot, chilled or over ice, or works well with mixers like cola.

American Honey will be touring University Student Unions around the UK with a branded American Honey photobooth and will also be offering the chance to win a US Road Trip in summer 2013. For more details go to www.facebook.com/americanhoneyuk

Southern Comfort Releases Limited Edition World Series of Poker® Gift Pack

LOUISVILLE, Ky – April 15, 2013 –  Southern Comfort 100 proof has released a limited edition gift pack in conjunction with its partnership with the World Series of Poker. The gift pack contains a 750ml of Southern Comfort 100 proof, a deck of playing cards and 10 poker chips. It is available in 13 markets (Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Virginia) across the US.

Southern Comfort is the presenting sponsor of the 2012-2013 season of the World Series of Poker Tour. The season-culminating National Championship event takes place at Harrah’s New Orleans from May 21-23, 2013.

ABOUT THE WSOP

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the largest, richest and most prestigious gaming event in the world awarding millions of dollars in prize money and the prestigious gold bracelet, globally recognized as the sport’s top prize. Featuring a comprehensive slate of tournaments in every major poker variation, the WSOP is poker’s longest running tournament in the world, dating back to 1970.  In 2012, the event attracted 74,766 entrants from 101 different countries to the Rio in Las Vegas and awarded over $222 million in prize money.  In addition, the WSOP has formed groundbreaking alliances in broadcasting, digital media and corporate sponsorships, while successfully expanding the brand internationally with the advent in 2007 of the World Series of Poker Europe.  The WSOP Circuit Tour is entering its ninth season in 2012-13.  For more information on the World Series of Poker, please visit www.WSOP.com.

ABOUT SOUTHERN COMFORT

Southern Comfort®, a fruit, spice, and whiskey flavored liqueur, was created in New Orleans by bartender M.W. Heron in 1874. Today, it is enjoyed by friends in over 100 countries around the world and continues to grow as an icon brand.  Please visit us at SouthernComfort.com and facebook.com/southerncomfort.

ROCK TOWN DISTILLERY

WINS TOP HONORS IN 2013 WORLD SPIRITS COMPETITIONS 

“Competitions held in London, Chicago and San Francisco” 

Little Rock, AR – (April 15, 2013) – Phil Brandon, founder of Rock Town Distillery, Arkansas’ first legal distillery since prohibition, is happy to announce his hand crafted spirits have won top honors in recent prestigious spirits competitions.

Early in March, Rock Town was awarded the rating of “Exceptional – Gold Medal” for both our Arkansas Young Bourbon and our Hickory Smoked Whiskey by the highly respected Beverage Tasting Institute in Chicago.  The Beverage Testing Institute’s International Review of Spirits Competition is one of America’s oldest and most influential spirits competitions operating since 1994.

“On March 21st we were stunned to learn our Bourbon was awarded Best Bourbon (no age statement) at the World Whiskies Awards in London, England” said Phil Brandon distillery founder.  The World Whiskies Awards had more than 300 whiskies battling it out during three intensive blind tasting rounds, for the coveted title of ‘2013 World’s Best Whiskies’. Judges for Whisky Magazine’s independent editorial panel were drawn from the best drinks journalists and retailers across the world, with industry representatives made up of master blenders, distillers and brand ambassadors in the final round.

On March 24^th Rock Town received more great news from the San Francisco World Spirits Competition that our Bourbon won the top award of Double Gold Medal in the ‘Small Batch Bourbon up to 10yrs Old’ category.  The annual San Francisco World Spirits Competition commends the finest spirits from across the globe.  More than 1,400 spirits from 63 countries were judged this year as part of the largest competition in the event’s 13 year history.

“Receiving these accolades really is a testament to the hard work, dedication and craftsmanship we put into our whiskies” said Phil Brandon.  “We’re very proud of the fact that we use locally sourced Arkansas grains to make world class whiskies”.

For a complete listing of winners online:

World Whiskies Awards 2013 – http://www.whiskymag.com/awards/wwa/2013/

San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2013 – http://sfspiritscomp.com/results/browse

International Review of Spirits 2013 – http://tastings.com/LatestSpiritsReviews.html

Rock Town Distillery is also proud to announce it has also recently partnered with Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) and is now available in Georgia and Florida through RNDC.  Soon RNDC will distribute Rock Town’s products in Texas and Louisiana as well.  Rock Town’s products are also distributed in Arkansas, Tennessee, Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, Oregon, and Oklahoma.

ABOUT ROCK TOWN DISTILLERY

Rock Town Distillery, Arkansas’ first legal distillery since prohibition, produces the award winning Brandon’s Vodka, Brandon’s Gin, Arkansas Young Bourbon Whiskey, Arkansas Hickory Smoked Whiskey, Riverboat Rum, as well as three moonshines called Arkansas Lightning, Apple Pie Arkansas Lightning and Lightning Hot Arkansas Lightning.  The distillery located in downtown Little Rock at 1216 E 6^th Street, Little Rock, AR 72202.  The distillery is open for tours and tastings.  For more information please visit www.arkansaslightning.com