Finishing off the Christmas season in style, Glenfarclas! Now, typically for people that know my drinking habits, Glenfarclas isn’t something that normally makes my drinks shelf. I’ve always found it a bit too subtle. However, times change and after searching for a number of years, i’ve finally found a Glenfarclas that ticks all of my boxes.

This 1994 vintage was bottled in 2014, at the age of twenty-years old. It has everything that you could ever want from a rich and sweet Speysider! It’s such a buttery style of single malt which sadly only has a wee bit left in the bottles. Thank you to my work colleagues who bought this for me in 2015 for my birthday, they know me better than i know myself. Enjoy, folks!

View the review here

SAZERAC COMPANY PURCHASES TENNESSEE DISTILLERY 

East Tennessee Distillery allows Sazerac Company

to start producing Tennessee Whiskey 

LOUISVILLE, KY (Dec. 22, 2016) The Sazerac Company has purchased a distillery located in Newport, Tenn. The purchase is of the Distillery only, not any brands.  All employees at the Distillery will be retained, including Master Distiller John Lunn and Master Blender Allisa Henley.

The purchase will allow Sazerac to start producing Tennessee whiskey, using the Lincoln County process.  (The Lincoln County process is a filtration process through charcoal chips before it goes into the barrel.)

“We see a lot of potential in the distilling capabilities of this operation,” said Mark Brown, president and chief executive officer, Sazerac.  “We are excited to have the talents of John Lunn and Allisa Henley on board and we look forward to utilizing their expertise to start laying down true Tennessee whiskey.”

Sazerac will begin investment into the Distillery to modify the pot stills for the Lincoln County process. It is expected the Distillery will be up and running producing Tennessee whiskey in early 2017.  The purchase price is not being disclosed.

About the Sazerac Company

        Sazerac is one of America’s oldest family owned, privately held distillers with operations in Louisiana, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, Maine, New Hampshire, Maryland, California, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. For more information on Sazerac, please visit http://www.sazerac.com/.

Our Favourite Whiskies of 2016

As we approach the end of 2016, it’s time to look back at the TWE blog team’s favourite whiskies of the past 12 months. It doesn’t have to be a new release; just the drams we happened to taste this year that we loved the most. So, what did we go for? Read on…

Stuart

My choice goes to a whisky from a distillery that’s under the radar for most drinkers, despite sharing a name with a rather famous mountain that happens to be Britain’s tallest: Ben Nevis. Located in the western Highlands, the distillery stays firmly in the shadows, despite being owned by high-profile Japanese whisky giant Nikka.

The whisky I’ve chosen is Ben Nevis 10 Year Old, a robust, full-flavoured dram that oozes notes of orange peel, chocolate, coffee and a touch of peatsmoke. What really impresses is the complexity – this dram tastes much older than 10 years, and I would put money on the liquid being closer to 15 years old or even more.

There’s something delightfully old school about the packaging, too – a welcome break from the try-hard glitz and glamour of some bottles – and it says to me that all the hard work has been spent on the liquid, which, when you taste it, is definitely the case. Oh, and a bottle will set you back less than £40 – I’m struggling to think of many whiskies that offer so much for the price.

Billy

My favourite whisky of the year is one that surprised me – Inchmurrin 12 Year Old. For years, Loch Lomond Distillers, the maker of Inchmurrin, hasn’t had a great reputation, but since a recent change of ownership it has been making waves. Inchmurrin 12 appeared at The Whisky Show in 2015 and reports were impressive – stacks of tropical-fruit flavour. The whisky lived up to its reputation and I’ve spent this year shocking people by revealing that the whisky that they’ve just drunk is an Inchmurrin.

Nose: Creamy and fruity, with apple sauce, mango, pineapple and vanilla.

Palate: All of the fruit: sultanas, grapes, apples, pears, candied lemon, sweet mango and dried papaya. Hints of spice build as it warms in the mouth.

Finish: Short, with a hint of fruity sorbet.

Keep an eye on Loch Lomond, as the new Inchmurrin is just the first step. The distillery’s relaunched single grain is excellent (and very well priced) and there’s much more to come.

Rocky

It’s hard to choose just one whisky as the best I’ve tried this year, but one that I consistently come back to is an old favourite – Amrut Fusion. Sitting in the middle of the Indian distillery’s range in smoky terms, it’s a fusion of barley: unpeated from northern India and peated from Scotland.

It’s wonderfully complex and moreish with notes of orange, black pepper, vanilla and light smoke. A superb example of the top-quality whiskies coming out of India today, I love showing this blind at tastings and seeing people’s reactions when they discover where it’s from – give it a try and prepare to have your perceptions challenged!

All three whiskies are available on our website; keep your eye on the blog for our favourite spirits of 2016, too.

Laphroaig 2016 “Cairdeas” Madeira Cask Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky (750ml)

$79.99

Phone: (877) KL-WINES (Toll Free 877.559.4637)

Email: wine@klwines.com

K&L Wine Merchants 3005 El Camino Real Redwood City, CA 94061 USA

San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA

Wednesday, December 28th 5-7PM

Belle Meade Bourbon

Enjoy a holiday spirits tasting with Belle Meade Bourbon! Known for its spicy high rye content, Belle Meade Bourbon’s signature recipe was designed to be a versatile Bourbon to be enjoyed whether served neat, with a splash, on the rocks, or in a well-made cocktail.

With each hand-selected batch being made from only four barrels of whiskey, Belle Meade is a truly small-batch bourbon. An extensive selection process is utilized to make sure every batch is perfectly balanced before release, resulting in a smooth, award-winning whiskey.

Click Here to RSVP on Facebook

Boxing Day Flash Sale!

We’d like to say a big thanks for your continued support during 2016, by offering you 10% off all stock* for the next 24hrs!

Use discount code AW-BOX-10 when processing through the cart. Merry Christmas & a Happy New year.  Slàinte The Abbey Whisky Team

*Cannot be used in conjunction with any other discount or offers. Offer ends midnight GMT 27th December 2016. 

Abbey Whisky Ltd
Registered Office
Dollar, FK14 7AS
United Kingdom

CASK END PARCELS:  DON’T MISS OUT

We hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and shared an SMWS dram or two with loved ones.  A quick reminder, limited numbers of our Cask End Parcels are still available in our online shop.  In true Boxing Day style, we have also added a new 10% discount to three of our Christmas Parcels. Don’t miss out, order NOW before they vanish.

10% Parcel Discount:  simply use promo code BOXING10 at the checkout to redeem your discount against the three parcels listed below.  The promo code applies to these three selected parcels only. Discount cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers or vouchers and cannot be applied retrospectively. Limited parcels are available on our whisky page »

R&B Distillers in Scotch at The Balmoral

Proud to pioneer handcrafted whiskies of uncommon provenance, R&B Distillers, an exciting new whisky brand, launched their new premium whiskies in November 2015. Firmly ingrained in family history whilst simultaneously being a taste of the brand’s evolving future, Raasay While We Wait and Borders, two distinct and characterful whiskies, mark a new chapter for R&B Distillers.

R&B stands for Raasay and Borders, two unique landscapes brought together through one unique whisky company. Co-founder Alasdair Day embodies this coupling. His great grandfather, Allan MacDonald, hailed from the Hebrides while his other great grandfather, Richard Day was a master-blender in the Borders in the early 19th Century. It is this history that has prompted R&B’s ongoing project to build distilleries at these twin roots in the Isle of Raasay and in the Scottish Borders.

R&B have now been granted permission by the Highland Council to bring the first legal distillery to Raasay in the Inner Hebrides, an island where illicit distilling was once rife. While the distillery is being built, R&B Distillers have released the aptly named Raasay While We Wait whisky, a preview of the calibre and flavour of whisky yet to come – every sip certain to transport the drinker to the rugged island of Raasay.

With Raasay While We Wait, R&B Distillers have crafted a single malt whisky by bringing together two expressions from one distillery: one peated, one un-peated. This precise combination is a tantalising prediction of the flavours that will be produced at the new distillery on the Isle of Rasaay, off the remote west coast of Skye. The smoky peat aroma is softened in the finishing process which occurs in French oak Tuscan red wine casks and results in a unique, lightly fruity aroma and a heather hue. Raasay While We Wait has now been awarded three prestigious international awards: In May 2016, Raasay While We Wait received a bronze medal in the International Spirits Challenge (ISC), in August this was followed with a Silver Medal at the International Wine & Spirits Competition (IWSC) and in November a bronze from the Hong Kong International Wine & Spirit Competition (HKIWSC). The awards are tremendous accolades for such a young whisky.

Meanwhile, Borders echoes the soft rolling landscape of its future location in the South of Scotland. This single grain whisky is lighter and softer in flavour than the smoky peat dram of Raasay While We Wait. Matured in Bourbon casks and finished in Oloroso sherry casks, Borders has been produced to reflect a lowland style. Alasdair Day’s great-grandfather blended whisky in the Coldstream and now, over 150 years since the last distillery in the Scottish Borders, Alasdair is returning to his roots and planning to reinstate whisky in this forgotten region. In 2015, Peebles was selected by the Scottish general public as the preferred location for the new distillery. In November 2016 Borders was awards its first international award – a bronze medal in the HKIWSC.

As a precursor to the new distilleries being built, R&B Distillers also unveiled membership to their Na Tùsairean club (Scots Gaelic for ‘The Pioneers’) – an exclusive offering for whisky aficionados. The inaugural 100 casks of Raasay whisky will be bottled exclusively for Na Tùsairean members who will receive one bottle each year for ten years, gradually acquiring up a rare collection of R&B Whisky. Members will also receive miniatures so they can experience a dram of the whisky without breaking into their collector’s bottle, are entitled to the equivalent of one night’s stay per year for the duration of their membership in the luxury members accommodation.

Raasay While We Wait, priced at £56.95 and Borders priced at £49.95 are available to buy directly from the R&B Distillers website: www.rbdistillers.com

T: 0131 564 0761 E: sales@rbdistillers.com

For trade prices and further press information, please contact Kapranos PR

T: 020 3659 8914 E: harriet@kapranos-pr.com & anne@kapranos-pr.com

NOTES

RETAILERS UK:

 Master of Malt (online)

 Whiski Rooms (Edinburgh shop)

 Oban Whisky & Fine Wines (Oban)

 Shop4Whisky (online)

 JL Gill (Crieff)

 Royal Mile Whiskies (Edinburgh & online)

 Raasay Community Store (Raasay)

 Jeffrey Street Whisky & Tobacco (Edinburgh)

 The Whisky Shop (Dufftown)

 Mainstreet Trading Co. (St Boswells, Scottish Borders)

 Oblo Bar (Eyemouth, Scottish Borders)

BARS/RESTAURANTS

 Whiski Rooms (Edinburgh bar)

 Teuchters Landing (Edinburgh Leith)

 Teuchters West End (Edinburgh West End)

 Drysbrugh Abbey Hotel (Drysbrugh)

 Raasay House Hotel (Raasay)

 Sconser Lodge (Skye)

TASTING NOTES:

‘While We Wait’

Aroma: Surprisingly very little smoke on the nose but instead light fruity notes come through.

Colour: Natural colour, heather tinted imparted from Tuscan red wine oak casks.

Taste: Instantly there is peat smoke and spice (a distant campfire, black pepper, liquorice, oak and then the sea breeze) slowly this is balanced with the dry fruit from the Tuscan red wine casks (black currant, blackberry, raspberry and cherries).

Finish: A long lingering finish.

Food Pairings: Pairs well with Sconser Scallops, Smoked Salmon, game, grouse, woodcock, venison, creamy blue cheese, bacon, haggis.

ABV: 46% Non-Chill Filtered

Year released: November 2015 – 1st Release Limited Edition

‘Borders’

Aroma: Prominent sherry notes on the nose, hints of sugar-coated nuts.

Colour: Natural colour, lightly golden taken from sherry finishing casks.

Taste: Surprisingly dry on the palate with the sherry influences dominating. Walnuts balanced with vanilla, herbaceous and floral notes coming through towards the end, and just a touch of warm spice.

Finish: Lingering, dry and complex.

Food Pairings: Pairs well with Cocoa Black dark praline chocolates.

ABV: 51.7% Non-Chill Filtered

Year released: November 2015 – 1st Release Limited Edition

December Quarterly Newsletter

Are you there Society? It’s me, Nathan.

Some of you haven’t heard from me in a couple of months, I hope you are all still well. Things have been very busy here at Springbank Towers, and for me specifically (I’ll address that in the next section of this newsletter) so it hasn’t always been easy to keep in touch. Therefore, I thought it best to send out the next edition of our “regular” Quarterlies before the Springbank office closes for the holidays; from Wednesday 21st December 2016 until early next year.

Nevertheless, please be assured that Springbank (and Glengyle) continues to march forward as steadily as we always have. The nights get darker, the wind gets colder and the days get shorter but we are a hardy sort in Campbeltown so we keep on keepin’ on, dreaming of the warmth of spring.

Actually, once we get to spring time, it won’t be long until a certain festival…

More on that next time. First though, let us discuss these pesky Society bottles.

Society bottle update 

I can happily say that, after initial delays caused by waiting on the lottery draw to happen, there has been substantial progress in getting people’s society bottles out to them and many of you have your bottles or, at the very least, have confirmed arrangements regarding how you are going to obtain them in the future. If this sounds like you (and it should sound familiar to many of you) and you have your bottles, feel free to skip forward to the next section of this email.

Everyone else, this section is for you. If you emailed me at the start of November (especially if you contacted me on the 1st or 2nd of November) and have not heard back from me, please send me an email at society@springbankwhisky.com and I shall get back to you as soon as possible in the new year.

Also, if you have received confirmation from me that you have secured a bottle/bottles and would like it delivered to your personal address, please get in touch at the same address and I shall do my best to get your order to you as soon as possible.

Lastly, if you are having your order sent to one of the European Cadenhead shops (Cologne, Berlin, Odense or Salzburg) I shall be in touch with you as soon as I can to let you know when you can pick up your order.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it; to everyone that does not then I hope you enjoy the holiday period in whatever way you wish. With a dram or two, perhaps?

Have a happy new year and I look forward to speaking to you all in January. I will not be in the office during the dates I mentioned above (21st Dec – early January) so if you email me please do not be alarmed if you do not receive a reply during this time. I will reply to you as soon as possible upon my return.

Year in Review

What a year 2016 has been and while it is nearly gone, it will never be forgotten. Obviously, the highlight of the year happened in April as that is when I joined the company…

No? Ok then, lets have a look at some of the more memorable events, facts and figures of 2016.

Almost 400 new members joined the Society; welcome aboard all of you. I’m sure you’ll love being a part of the Springbank family, and Mairi Paterson, who wrote you all a Christmas message last year, has told me that the number of people going on distillery tours has gone up by 16% (excluding December figures). We are continuously delighted that people enjoy coming to our distillery and our town. Thank you to everyone that came in 2016 and if you didn’t make to Campbeltown this year, I hope we see you in 2017.

Away back in January we had the first Local Barley general release since 2001. I wasn’t working at Springbank then but I am told that went down rather well, especially amongst Society members. Should we wait another 15 years before releasing the next one?

We celebrated the 12th birthday of Kilkerran in March, followed by the release of Kilkerran 12yo in August which was a proud moment for so many people at J&A Mitchell.

We featured in a BBC documentary entitled “Scotch! The Story of Whisky” that I am sure you can still find it online if you look. The presenter, David Hayman, came to Campbeltown to film during the Malts Festival. The Campbeltown Malts Festival, and our Springbank Open Day within, continues to grow and is now an immovable centrepiece of the Springbank year. I met many of you for the first time at this year’s festival and I am sure I will meet so many more of you in May 2017.

Over the course of the year our sales team, Manager Ranald Watson along with David Allen, Grant Macpherson, Melanie Stanger and Fraser Milloy, visited 21 countries (challenge: name them all), attended 61 whisky shows/festivals and conducted approximately 100 tastings; including one Grant did on a nuclear submarine.

Melanie’s year could almost be split in half: the first half of the year was all about Kilkerran before her attention returned to Springbank.

And David did a bungee jump; he wanted me to mention that.

Upcoming Trips and Events 

This section is dedicated to listing the upcoming events our sales team shall be attending in the early part of next year. When I did this for the last quarterly, the list went on for about a thousand pages but thankfully Jan-Mar is a much quieter period of time in the whisky world.

13th-14th January – Grant is attending the Harrow Whisky Festival

14th January – David is in Tromso, Norway for the Arctic Whisky Festival.

18th January – Melanie starts a tour of Canada, beginning at Edmonton Whisky Fair.

19th January –  Then she is off to Calgary for their Whisky Fair

21st January – Melanie attends the Victoria Whisky Festival

23rd January – And to finish, Melanie is at the Whiskey Classique in Vancouver

16th-18th February – This time it is Sweden for our Dave; he is at the Viking Cinderella Whisky Fair.

10th-11th March – Whisky Lounge Newcastle takes place and Grant will be there

11th March – Melanie will be at Whisky + Friends in Warsaw, Poland

17th-18th March – Grant is on the road again; he is at the Midlands Whisky Festival for Nickolls and Perks

31st March – 1st April: Melanie is our representative at Whiskyschiff Luzern

And finally, I wanted to remind everyone that has not signed up to the Society section of our website that they are missing out if they don’t!

As well as keeping the general news section of our website up to date with news from the distillery and new releases as they happen, we also have a dedicated news section for our special Society Members. In this section you will be able to keep up to date with the latest special Society bottlings and be the first to find out news. Of course, when we have very important information to give you such as a new Society bottling or any new release from the distillery then this information will continue to be emailed but other day-to-day news will be added to the website.

I would urge all members to register for an online account to keep up to date with the news as it happens. To create an account please follow these instructions:

• Go to www.springbankwhisky.com
• Click on the ‘Society’ tab along the top of the page
• Click on the ‘Confirm Log-In Details’ orange tab
• Please enter all the information that is required
• Once you have submitted this information, a notification should be displayed to tell you that an email has been sent to your given email address and it will ask you to verify this email address
• Please open this email in your email account and click the link to verify your email
• Once you have done this, I will receive a notification informing me that a new member has signed up to the website so I will then activate your account for online use
• When your account has been activated, you will be able to read all news stories in the Society section. To log in, just click the ‘Log-In to Society News’ tab where you will just be asked to enter your username and password for access.

And so, we have reached the end of both this newsletter and this year. I have attached the opening times for the Campbeltown Cadenhead Shop to the bottom of this email for your attention.

Campbeltown Cadenhead Shop Contact Details:

email: shop@wmcadenhead.com

phone: +44 (0)1586 551710

I will be back in touch with you all in January when everything begins again.

But not everything will be the same.

#Change Jan2017

Slainte

Nathan

For the Springbank Society

For information on how to joint he Society please contact Nathan via society@springbankwhisky.com

https://www.facebook.com/officialspringbankwhisky/

https://twitter.com/Springbank1828