THE MACALLAN LALIQUE 62 YEAR OLD AND MORTLACH-70 YEAR OLD LEAD BONHAMS EDINBURGH WHISKY SALE  

The Macallan 62 years old in a specially designed  Lalique decanter and a decanter of the rare Gordon & MacPhail Generations Mortlach-70 year old lead Bonhams whisky sale in Edinburgh on 1 October.  They are estimated at £20,000-30,000 each. 

 The Macallan decanter is numbered 200 of a limited edition of 400.  It comes in a fitted wooden presentation case with a crystal stopper and is in its original cardboard  packaging.  This is the product of a long association between Lalique and Macallan  – each luxury branding reinforcing the other.  The whisky, which was distilled in 1950, is said to have the taste of rich dried fruits with layers of sweet ginger, figs and oak.  

The Gordon & MacPhail Generations Mortlach-70 year old was distilled in 1938 and bottled in 2008.   It is bottle number 53 of 54 and comes in a hand blown glass decanter with sterling silver stopper and cradle.  In tasting notes the noted whisky commentator Charles MacLean describes it as “a delicate, fresh, vital, fruity whisky, but with unusual attributes of waxiness and smokieness – uncommon today, more usual before the 1960s.” 

Bonhams Whisky specialist Martin Green said, “We are fortunate to have two such rare and sought after whiskies to lead the sale and I expect this will generate strong interest from collectors.” 

NOTES  

Bonhams, founded in 1793, is the world’s third largest auctioneer of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America. Today, Bonhams offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street and Knightsbridge; and a further three in the UK regions and Scotland. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Carmel, New York and Connecticut in the USA; and Germany, France, Monaco, Hong Kong and Australia. Bonhams has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries offering sales advice and valuation services in 60 specialist areas. For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of Bonhams specialist departments go to www.bonhams.com

Haig Club – whisky for the cocktail fan?

There’s been talk about Diageo’s new Haig Club whisky for months, with much speculation and discussion about its celebrity connections, thanks to endorsement by Simon Fuller and David Beckham. One thing that’s been missing, however, is information about the whisky itself. We’ve talked about Cameronbridge, the distillery where it’s made, but as we’ve not had any bottles to put on the website we’ve not said much about the Haig Club.

However, it’s now up on the site, so here’s a bit more background to share with you.

Firstly, some tasting notes:

Haig Club, 40%, £46.75

Nose: Toffee and bananas up front, with green grassy notes, and gentle ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon spiciness.
Palate: Sweet and creamy to start, with soft caramel and toffee. Lemon peel zestiness develops, with tingly cinnamon. Creamy lemon posset with a cinder toffee?
Finish: Spice, toffee, soft anise and a touch of warmth.
Comment: Light and sweet with more complexity than you might expect. It’s not a whisky that you’ll be sitting down to examine over hours, but it does have good flavours, which are strong enough to shine through even when mixed.

As it says on the back label, this is a whisky focused at mixing, either in short, old-fashioned cocktails or in long drinks. The Haig Club team have put together a selection of drinks, but these are our favourite two:

The Haig Clubman
50ml Haig Club
35ml sparkling apple soda (Appletise or one of its friends should work nicely)
6 dashes of ginger bitters (we like Bob’s Ginger Bitters)
Add all the ingredients to tumbler with some ice and stir gently to combine. Garnish with a thin slice of root ginger.

The cocktail appears to be named after an old advertising slogan for John Haig’s whiskies from the early part of the 20th century – The Clubman’s Whisky. It’s a spicy apple pie of a drink, with fruit from the apple, buttery sweetness from the whisky and a touch of heat from the ginger.

Haig Club New Old Fashioned
60ml Haig Club
10ml sweet vermouth (a spot of Gancia Rosso would do here – you don’t want anything too heavy)
2 dashes of orange bitters (we’d go for Gary Regan’s Orange Bitters No.6)

While we’d probably call this a “Haig Club Rob Roy on the rocks” rather than a New Old Fashioned, it certainly fits the bill as a twist on the more classic Old Fashioned. Focused on the whisky, with the vermouth adding a touch of both sweetness and bitterness, it showcases the spirit’s fruity notes.

It’s a versatile whisky, with enough punch of flavour to work in a long drink, but without some of the rawness that appears in Cameron Brig (which is also made at Cameronbridge). We suspect we’ll see this popping up in bars across the country as the launch rolls out, and it’s certainly worth a try.

The Haig team, as well as Diageo whisky ambassador and cocktail expert Andrea Montague, will be at this year’s Whisky Show. So, if you want to have a chat about the whisky and try some cocktails, make sure you get a ticket – we are close to running out of tickets…

Companions of the Quaich

Thomas Chen & Barry Dunner

request the pleasure of your company

at a Companions of the Quaich

Whisky Tasting & Dinner

Featuring

Master Distiller Mike Nicolson

Event Theme: Made By Mike

Sample 5 Diageo single malt whiskies

* Linkwood * Royal Lochnagar * Glen Ord * Blair Athol * Coal Ila *

 Wednesday, the 8^th of October

two thousand and fourteen at seven o’clock

 Whiskies • Dinner • Dessert

Sample five whiskies made by Mike (plus a mystery dram)

sumptuously paired with a four-course meal

(Meal details to follow)

 Venue

Vancouver Lawn Tennis Club

1630 W 15th Ave, Vancouver, BC, V6J 2K7

RSVP by September 19, 2014                    Programme: October 8

Companions of the Quaich                        Reception: 6:45 pm

140-6751 Graybar Road,            Whisky tasting & dinner: 7:00 pm

Richmond, V6W 1H3                                    Casual attire

email info@vanquaich.com            Couvert: $85; $95: non-members

At the Door: $10 more           Seating limited to 25 participants 

• The Companions of The Quaich is a non-profit society dedicated to sharing knowledge and enjoyment of Single Malt Whisky •

• A ‘Quaich’ is the traditional Scots drinking vessel for whisky • The name comes from the Gaelic ‘cuach’ which means ‘cup’ •

WHISKYSHOP WEBSITE
We are very pleased to announce that at long last we have upgraded our website to make it much more user friendly.

You will find products much easier to find with much improved search functions as well as more pictures and better tasting notes. There are other features too such as recommended whiskies and the ability to write reviews of whiskies you have purchased from us. We now will also offer discounts for bulk purchases as well as gift certificates, gift wrapping etc. Please check out: www.whiskyshopusa.com

ACCOUNT SETTINGS
Unfortunately with the migration over to our MUCH improved website we were not able to transfer account settings such as login and password information, this is due to legal requirements and we could not find a way around it. Therefore the set up of a new account and passwords is required.

The Whisky Shop
360 Sutter Street
San Francisco, CA, 94108
415 989-1030
www.whiskyshopusa.com

Ardbeg Supernova 2014 – SN2014 to its friends

Ever since the label leaked in the US this past April, the internet has been awash with rumours about a new whisky from Ardbeg. Finally, the details have been announced and we can let you into the secrets of the latest Ardbeg Committee Release – Ardbeg Supernova 2014, aka SN2014.

Ardbeg whisky maker Dr Bill Lumsden in a space suit. Any excuse to dress up…

The third release under the Supernova name, this whisky celebrates the return to earth of The Ardbeg Space Experiment. That’s rather an over-the-top name for a project where vials of Ardbeg new make spirit and wood shavings where held on the International Space Station for a couple of years, to see how wood/spirit interaction changes in a microgravity environment. Specifically it’s all about terpenes, but as I gave up chemistry after GCSE, I’ll stop there.

The samples are now on their way back to earth (or are already here, if they came back on the Soyuz that landed this morning) with Friday 12 September as Ardbeg’s big day – the reuniting of the space samples with the control samples that were left on the earth, and the release of Supernova 2014.

The first edition of Supernova appeared during a slightly silly time, when the Islay distilleries were competing to produce the peatiest whisky. While Ardbeg might not have won the war (that accolade goes to Bruichladdich’s Octomore whiskies) they certainly came out of it with some credit: Jim Murray crowned Supernova 2009 the Scotch Whisky of the Year and Second Finest Whisky in the World in 2010.

If you’re looking for the earlier editions, we do have still have a few bottles, but they’re starting to become hard to find: Ardbeg Supernova 2009 and Ardbeg Supernova 2010.
This new edition steps back from the silliness, but still packs a flavoursome punch.

Ardbeg Supernova 2014, SN2014, 55%, £125

Nose: Big mulchy peat, with sweetness and brine. There are some soured cream notes, with grassiness and a touch of herbal mint. More savoury herbal notes come in, along with coal smoke and burning seaweed. There’s also a bit of straw and hay, adding to a decently farmy background.
Palate: Softer than the nose suggests, at least at first. Gentle, sweet orange peel starts, but intensifies with charred peel, mint leaf, damp earth and pungently sweet peat smoke. Liquorice notes sneak in behind, with ferns, TCP and brine. Dark chocolate bitterness is joined by a hint of cherry fruit, with rich loam and wood smoke adding a dryness.
Finish: Sweet smoke – both peat and wood – dark chocolate and ashy touches. Menthol hints linger.
Comment: It may be quite light in colour and relatively fresh on the nose, but it’s still a beast. There are darker notes underneath the initial feisty smoke, and a fair whack amount of complexity. It’s Ardbeg looking fondly back on the crazy days of the late noughties.

It’s an Ardbeg Committee Exclusive release, exclusive to Ardbeg Embassies in the UK, and will be available from Friday 12 September in our London shop. We will start start selling it online on Wednesday 17 September at 1pm – first come, first served.

However, if you’d like to try before you buy, we will have some to taste at The Whisky Exchange Whisky Show in October. The folks at Ardbeg will be bringing along a huge 4.5 litre bottle for their stand, and we will be saving a few bottles to go on sale in the shop during the show. We still have some tickets for the Sunday of the show, so head on over to our tickets page to grab one.

Buffalo Trace Distillery Hosts Two nights of“ Disturbia at the Distillery”

Event for Adults to be held Oct. 30th and 31st

FRANKFORT, FRANKLIN COUNTY, KY (September, 2013) Buffalo Trace Distillery will again combine spooks and spirits for two nights of dinner, drams and drama this Halloween. Tickets are on sale now for Disturbia at the Distillery scheduled for Oct. 30th and 31st.

The evening will begin at 6 p.m. with an optional Ghost Tour starting in the Buffalo Trace Distillery Visitor Center. At 7 p.m. guests will be welcomed in the Buffalo Trace Clubhouse as dinner and the antics of the Bluegrass Mystery Theatre actors begin.

Guests will try to figure out “who did it” as they enjoy a three course meal prepared by one of the region’s best chefs. In between acts, attendees will be treated to a bourbon tasting of some of the Distillery’s award-winning products. As the event winds down around 9 p.m., guests will vote on who they think the guilty party is, and have a chance to win prizes.

Tickets for this event are on sale now for $60 per person and may be purchased by calling 502-696-5930 or email: events@buffalotrace.com. Dress for the evening is casual.

Costumes are optional for this event but there will be a contest with prizes. This event is for adults 21 and over only.

About Buffalo Trace Distillery

Buffalo Trace Distillery is an American family-owned company based in Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky. The Distillery’s rich tradition dates back to 1786 and includes such legends as E.H. Taylor, Jr., George T. Stagg, Albert B.

With the Autumn upon us, the next issue of Whisky Magazine publishes on December 2 and with this we announce the Icons of Whisky, North America results. Ian Buxton looks at the architecture of a variety of Whisky Distilleries and we take a look at the region of Australia & Tasmania reviewing various distilleries with Martine offering us some culinary delights using the regions whisky. We stay with food with a focus on whisky and chocolate.

Blair and Davin continue their Great Whisky Adventure to San Francisco in the issue published January 23, 2015 and they also review Artisanal Distilling in this region. The Travel Focus is Japan and we look at the developments of whisky. Continuing with our global awards we reveal the winners of the Icons of Whisky, Scotland together with the results of The Independent Bottlers Challenge.
________________________________________

Editorial Features

Issue No.123
Special Features
Whisky Travel: Australia & Tasmania
Whisky & Chocolate
Icons of Whisky, North America awards announced
Publication Date: December 2

Issue No.124
Special Features

Whisky Travel: Japan
Artisanal Distilling
Publication Date: January 23

________________________________________

To find out more about advertising in these two issues, or to receive details on the full year, contact:
Dave Sweet
Senior Vice President
dave@whiskymag.com
________________________________________
Whisky Magazine
Celebrating the whiskies of the world

Follow us on twitter [@WhiskyMagazine]
Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/WhiskyMagazine

With just a day to go before the start of our next series of tastings, we wanted to remind you of the dates and also of our fantastic, new ‘Tasting at Home‘ pack. This means even if you can’t make it to the tasting, you can still take part from the comfort of your own home!

The tasting itself is one of our most popular formats, with six whiskies from all over the globe being tasted, blind – although not literally!

Many of you will be aware of the emergence of so-called ‘World Whiskies‘. a good number of these have been extremely well received and have gone on to win awards a-plenty. However, we at The Whisky Lounge are always looking for an excuse to try a few more, so we have assembled a sextet of world-beaters for you to enjoy.

The London and Newcastle dates are now sold-out so we haven’t included these in this calendar, but the others have varying numbers of tickets still available.

SHEFFIELD            Tuesday 16th Sept          The Tap, Sheffield Station
LIVERPOOL            Wednesday 17th Sept    Jenny’s Bar, Fenwick St.
LEEDS                    Thursday 18th Sept         The Cross Keys, Water Lane
BRIGHTON             Thursday 18th Sept         Lord Nelson, Trafalgar St.
MANCHESTER       Friday 19th Sept              Britons Protection
YORK                      Saturday 20th Sept         Brigantes, Micklegate

Simply click on whichever one of these rocks your boat and get booking!

If you would like to order a ‘Tasting at Home‘ pack for yourself or a loved one, simply click here. We will send you all the whiskies and everything you need to get yourself up and running in a lovely TWL gift box!

We promise a full September newsletter in the next few days with some announcements about our next tasting series and festivals…Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter – @thewhiskylounge – and like and share our Facebook page to keep bang up to date with the latest news about our events and more.

We look forward to seeing you over a dram or two soon.

Sláinte!

Eddie & Team Whisky Lounge

American Distilling Institute seeking proposals for conference presentations 

American Distilling Institute is seeking proposals for presentations at our 2015 Conference & Expo in Louisville, KY, and we want to hear from you! 

Our goal is to bring our attendees quality speakers representing every facet of our industry. The most impactful presentations come from our membership. By sharing your knowledge and experience with your peers, you will help build our great community, and foster our art. 

If you are not ready to present, but would like to suggest a session that would benefit your trade, you can do so here as well. Take this opportunity to give us your valuable feedback. 

Click here to be taken to our proposals submission form. The deadline for submissions is September 30th. 

The Devil returns to Bowmore – The Devil’s Casks Batch 2

[Sadly, we’ve sold our initial allocation, but you can sign up here to be notified should we manage to find some more.]

Arguably the most anticipated Scotch whisky release of 2013 was the first edition of Bowmore The Devil’s Casks. It created such a buzz that we sold our allocation in under two minutes (it would have been the fastest-selling product of the year, but for the matter of that Karuizawa…). One year on and the second batch has been released – like the first batch, it was matured for 10 years in first-fill sherry casks, bottled at high strength (56.3% abv), and once again there were only 540 bottles for the UK.

Legend has it that the Devil once visited Islay. Heading straight for the capital, Bowmore, he initially wanted to hide in the town’s church. As it’s round, there were no corners for him to conceal himself, so he headed into the distillery and hid in a cask. And when the distillery released the new dark expression, the name was easy to choose.

This is what we thought:

Bowmore The Devil’s Casks Batch 2, 56.3%.

Rocky:

Nose: Rich – notes of treacle, Werther’s Originals and toffee combine with liquorice and smoke.
Palate: Warming – prune, chocolate, Christmas cake, raisin, truffle oil and cinnamon are all balanced against the backdrop of peat smoke and the merest hint of lit matches.
Finish: Long, with smoky raisins continuing to the very end.
Comment: Very well-balanced – sherry-cask maturation and peated whisky can be a difficult combination to get right, but the high abv is not overpowering and the whisky is moreish – even at this strength.

Stuart:

Nose: Weighty, heady aromas of treacle toffee, Demerara sugar, candied orange and a hint of leather.
Palate: A few drops of water exorcise the whisky, releasing notes of toffee, clove, cinnamon and chilli chocolate, along with subtle peatiness.
Finish: Big spices and dark chocolate linger long.
Comment: Big, big flavours, but everything is in balance. A dram to take your time over.

So how did the second release differ from the first? Comparing them side-by-side, the first release was slightly darker in colour and this was apparent showed on the palate – the new bottling was very slightly sweeter than the original, but was still full of the hallmarks of sherry-cask maturation: raisins, Christmas cake and chocolate.

Hopefully this won’t sit on people’s whisky shelves gathering dust, it’s tasty and deserves to be drunk – if you get a chance to grab a dram, make sure you do.