Whiskey

Ok…we’re nearly at the point of publishing reviews for the new Macallan 1824 NAS series.  Before I get to that little bit of fun however, I kinda wanted to knock out at least one more of these Macallan featurettes.  In a previous piece on the Sherry Oak series, I promised at least two, and possibly three, more runs of tasting notes from the Macallan ranges.  Moving on from the Sherry Oak releases we checked out here, let’s take a peek at a handful from the Macallan Fine Oak line.  Here are a few bits of insight regarding this, one of the main branches of the Macallan tree. A few years back Macallan decided to have a little fun.  Or maybe it was a cost-savings venture*.  Not really certain.  Already famous for single malt whisky matured in butts from their own Spanish bodegas, the good folk at Macallan began sourcing ex-bourbon barrels from the US.  These barrels were sherry-seasoned, and whiskies matured in these casks were married with other, more typical, stocks from the distillery.  The result was an entire new range for Macallan that since 2004 has run in parallel with the Sherry Oak releases. *When you consider the price of American bourbon barrels vs the price of Spanish sherry butts…egads!  We’re looking at a difference of (if rumours are correct) around 1000%.  Ouch. Anyway…the whisky…starting with the new make spirit as a benchmark… Macallan New Make Notes:  63% abv.  Crystal clear. Nose:  Slight nuttiness.  Malty.  Fresh bitter fruit.  Rubbery acetone.  Metallic note somewhere in there.  Oh yeah…and some cereals. Palate:  Fire water.  With a bit o’ citrus.  Estery.  Please put this waxy young thing into the rock tumbler (ahem…a fine sherry bucket) and knock those edges off. Thoughts:  Unrecognizable as a Macallan really.  Shows you what the distillery’s wood policy really means.  Cool as hell to see this as a new make. Macallan 10 Fine Oak Notes:  40% abv. Nose:  Dusty oak.  Red fruit.  Barley.  A wee bit dry and mildly figgy.  Orange.  Honeyed woods.  Cereal.  Slightly sharp and thin. Palate:  Again…disappointingly thin.  And a little sharp.  Really?  This is Macallan?  High notes of citrus.  Oak. Thoughts:  Simple.  Underdeveloped.  Pleasant, but…simply not ‘my’ Macallan. Macallan 15 Fine Oak Notes:  43% abv. Nose:  Some orange and just a touch of white pepper.  Lots of soft creamy vanilla.  Grains.  Some light lavendar notes.  Slightly grassy.  A touch of nutmeg and scone. Palate:  Pie crust with a touch of spice.  Some oaky notes and strong vanilla.  The top fire-toasted layer of creme brulee. Thoughts:  Clean.  A definite step up from the 10 y.o.  Quite unassuming, but well-made and refreshingly drinkable. Macallan 17 Fine Oak Notes: 43% abv. Nose:  Green fruit skin.  Hint of ginger.  Caramelized sugars.  Oak peeks through as it opens.  Hay and mellow spice. Palate:  Fruits arrive with a little more confidence.  Oaky and drying.  Everyone leaves but the woods, which arrived late anyway.  Surprisingly drying. Thoughts:  Fresh and vibrant.  Wife called this one ‘wintery’.  Hmmm.  Not so sure ’bout that, but…it does have a rather refreshing coolness to it.  Really liked this one. Macallan 21 Fine Oak Notes:  43% abv. Nose:  Candied or maybe honeyed.  Rising bread.  Tropical fruits.  Hay.  Slightly floral.  Grains.  Sweet buttery toffee.  Honey and a perfect melange of X-Mas spice.  Wood influence at a perfect age.  Sweet.  Orange zest. Palate:  Unfolds slowly.  Woods arrive first.  Spice and zest.  Buttery baking and drying fruit. Thoughts:  A lot more ‘electric’ than the rest of the range.  Great nose with excellent balance.  Palate is a little duller than the nose, but still very good.  This one surprised and charmed me.  More please? Macallan 25 Fine Oak Notes:  43% abv. Nose:  Waxy vanilla.  Green and dill-like (basil?).  Aged bourbon cask notes (ghostly fruit and sweetness).  Caramel apple

Welcome to this week's Inbox. For those that have recently discovered us, Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our email inbox. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece received. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday.Within Inbox we aim to write a few lines detailing each press release/piece of news/PR event that we have received and provide links, where possible, for you to find out further information. Here is the news that has attracted our attention this week ...________AnCnoc - Three is the magic numberThe Highland distillery of Knockdhu have announced the third expression in its acclaimed series of single malts launched in collaboration with Scottish illustrator Peter Arkle - the AnCnoc Peter Arkle 'Bricks'. This follows on from the first two in the series entitled 'Ingredients' and 'Casks'. The series sees Arkle design limited edition packaging for new expressions of AnCnoc. This third edition shows the bricks of the dunnage warehouse walls at the distillery.The whisky has been matured in a mixture of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks and is bottled at 46% ABV. There are just 6,000 bottles of AnCnoc Peter Arkle Limited Edition No.3 'Bricks' available, which will retail at the recommended price of £50. It will be available shortly in selected markets including Canada, Germany, Japan, Russia, Taiwan, the UK and the USA.In additon, to mark this collaboration the #youranCnoc competition will take place on June 17 - fans will be asked to tweet a photo of their 'perfect anCnoc moment' on that day. Ten entries will be selected by Peter Arkle - these will then be hand-drawn, transferred onto individual bottles of anCnoc and sent to the winners. Additionally, one lucky winner will be taken to New York to meet Peter. For more information, follow @ancnoc_whisky on Twitter.Ardbeg - Ardbog Day is comingThe annual release of the Ardbeg Committee bottling always creates a frenzy amongst whisky folk and this year is no different. The 2013 offering is named Ardbog in celebration of the peat bogs which supply the fuel that gives Ardbeg its distinctive smoky flavour. We reported a couple of week's ago about the release - click here to read. This week we bring you news of events which are happening around the globe to celebrate Ardbog Day, which is on Saturday June 1.Plenty is scheduled to happen at the distillery on Islay, but the other main event in the UK is in London. This will see Ardbeg fans set of on a march through the City of London, along with a tractor and a flock of sheep. Anyone can join and the meeting point is Monument Underground station at 10am. The march will end at Potter's Fields in the shadow of Tower Bridge, where a day of festivities will take place from 11am. This includes whisky, live music, peat cutting and the ancient art of welly-wanging.For details of an Ardbog Day event or an Ardbeg Embassy near you, please go to www.ardbeg.com. Until then here is an excellent little teaser video to whet your appetite ... Diageo - Islay Festival bottlings The Islay Festival of Malts & Music kicks off today and runs until next Saturday June 1. The festival sees whisky fans from across the globe descend on the Scottish island. Each of the eight distilleries located there, plus Jura just across the water, have their own open day and each normally release a special bottling to celebrate. These are snapped up quickly and only available to festival goers. This year is no different and Diageo, who own two distilleries on Islay, have announced the details of their bottlings.The Caol Ila bottling was distilled in 1998 and has been matured in three types of cask - re-fill casks of different sizes (butts, hogsheads and barrels) for 12 years, then in active hogshead casks and finally in European oak. It has been bottled at 56.5% ABV. There are just 3,000 bottles which will be available from

High West Double Rye     Nose: Nestle Mint Munchies, Lofthouse’s Fisherman’s Friends, a damp earthy Alpine forest, honey suckle, freshly torn basil leaves, ground black pepper, clove studded clementine’s, juniper berries, liquorice root, kaffir lime leaves, brazenly bashed lemon grass, cassia bark, toasted oak, baked peaches, Kirsch cherry liqueur, warm vanilla fudge, a cinnamon danish

Dow’s is one of the Port Houses belonging to the Symington Family whose ancestry in the Port trade spans a period of over three and a half centuries. This family’s association with Dow’s began in the early 1900′s when Andrew James Symington, became a partner in Warre & Co, the first and oldest British Port company established in Portugal. The Warre Family at the time owned Dow’s; but apparently had little interest in managing the company and invited Symington to manage the vineyards and lodges of Dow’s as well those of Warre & Co.. In 1912, Andrew Symington, acquired 30 % ownership of Dow’s, and later, in 1961 the Symington Family gained full control and sole ownership of the entire company. Dow’s Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) Port wines are produced from grapes grown in a single year from Dow’s best vineyards. The wine has been matured for between four and six years and is filtered prior to bottling. Because it has been matured and then filtered, this style of Port wine is ready for immediate consumption and will not require decanting or filtering of sediment before serving. (Note: I was provided a sample bottle of Dow’s Late Bottled Vintage Port 2006 by The Bacchus Group, who are responsible for its importation here in Alberta.) You may read my full review by clicking on the following excerpt: Review: Dow’s Late Bottled Vintage 2006 Port Wine “… As you let the wine breathe the fruity smells begin to grow slowly seeping into the air with smells of blackberries, plums and dark red cherries. There are hints of dry fruit, as well as grape skins and stems adding to that earthy quality underneath …” I hope you enjoy this review of what I consider to be an outstanding Late Bottled Vintage port. Tagged: Dessert Wine, Dow's, Late Bottled Vintage, Port Wine, Port Wine Review, Wine Review

Most of you probably know the highly successful Elements of Islay bottling range by Speciality Drinks. Here the Islay distilleries have been assigned pseudo-chemical symbols, so the bottles look like as if were snatched from the shelf of a chemistry lab. Wouldn’t it be nice to expand this concept to a full-blown periodic table like the ones gracing the walls of school rooms and university lecture theatres? After all, there is a lof of chemistry going on in whisky making, so the analogy is not entirely pointless. After quite a few hours of data collection, brain tormenting and formatting here is the result, downloadable as PDF file: The table contains both working and closed Scottish malt and grain whisky distilleries as well as a selection of important blend brands. Displayed data includes founding and closing years, number of stills (malt distilleries only), production capacity and current ownership. Two major issues had to be tackled: the assignment of symbols and the ordering. The table has more than 150 entries, and symbol assignment was not an easy task. To avoid confusion, the Elements of Islay symbols should not be altered, and there should be no one-letter symbols to avoid the impression that some distilleries or brands were something special or somehow rated above others. Since there are more than 30 “Glen” distilleries, not every distillery can have a two-letter symbol starting with its first letter. Three-letter symbols were out of question. So for some of the Glens the second part of the name was used for symbol assignment. A special case is Glengyle that received the Ki symbol. Suitable second letters after G were running out, so Ki was chosen to represent Kilkerran which is the brand name Glengyle uses for its whisky. Unlike in chemistry the ‘elements’ are not numbered. The number of a chemical element equals the number of protons in an atom, clearly defining it. For a whisky distillery there is no equivalent, only the founding dates could justify a numbering, but then the entire table would have to be based on that. How should the distileries be ordered then? In chemisty the elements are grouped by periodic similarities in the configuration of electrons, so it could be argued that whisky distilleries should be grouped by similarities in style. But while some distilleries like Laphroaig or Glenfarclas do indeed have rather distinctive house styles, others like Benriach or Bruichaddich offer a wide variety of styles. Experimentation with casks and peating levels have steadily increased, so grouping distilleries by style would cause a serious headache. In this table the active malt whisky distilleries are horizontally grouped by geography. The concept of whisky regions has often been criticized, also on this very blog, not the least because of the problems of styles just mentioned. But used simply as a geographic guiding line, it can be useful for an overview of distilleries. Lowlands and Islay take the outer ends – if there are any regions that display at least a minimum of regional character, than these two. Islands next to Islay is fairly straightforward, the remaining distilleries are grouped by a virtual tour across the Scottish Highlands with Speyside in the centre. The grouping is of course subjective because there are no clearly defined sub-regions. Vertical arrangement is by distillery capacity from low to high. Closed malt whisky distilleries as well as grain whisky distilleries and blended whisky brands are ordered alphabetically. Capacity data for closed distilleries is hard to find and thus omitted. And regional grouping would have looked very patchy. Lochside and Loch Lomond are only listed as malt whisky distilleries, even though they produce(d) also grain whisky. Please note that Carsebridge was founded in 1799 as malt distillery, it only switched to grain in the mid-1850s. The limited space of the table does not permit to include sub-brands like Longrow or Ledai

A month of discussing the book, Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert reaches its grand finale on Sunday, May 26, 2013, at 3:00 eastern time. Please join us on Twitter for the final installment of #DavinTT. This week we’ll be discussing Chapters 22 through 25 while we sip a wee dram of Canadian whisky. If you want to join in, any Canadian whisky will do. However, this week we are discussing Highwood, Hiram Walker, Forty Creek, and Valleyfield distilleries so if you have a whisky from one of these distilleries on hand, all the better. Search for #DavinTT on Twitter at 3:00 eastern time, Sunday and join in the discussion, add your comments and discuss a Canadian whisky you are tasting. We invite bloggers to blog about the book, the experience, and the whiskies. Let the fun begin! If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with @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. And don’t forget, Father’s Day is just around the corner. There is nothing Dad would like better than a book about Canadian whisky!

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo Today sees the official release of the 3rd Memories of Karuizawa. It’s available to members of Bond#1 right now; from next week, it will also be on the shelves of selected retailers here in Japan. The 3rd release is one of the few casks left from the 1996 vintage, and it is – in fact – a sister cask (#3684) of our very own Nonjatta Karuizawa (#3681). There’s definitely family resemblance so it won’t surprise you to read that we are quite fond of this new single cask. On the nose, there’s fruit, of course – assorted berries, dried apricots and raspberry meringue – but there’s also fresh ginger ale and grass in early summer with some very subtle wood smoke in the background. After a while, a nice orange marmalade note comes to the fore, accompanied by over-ripe kiwis, honey-roasted almonds, shiso leaf and a touch of eucalyptus. On the palate, it packs quite a punch neat: orange zest and raspberries on the attack, then slightly under-ripe grapefruit and gooseberries. It really needs water – only then does it reveal its charms on the palate: milk chocolate, hazelnut cream, nougat, candied orange peel again, ramune candy, then caramel pear mousse and pumpkin seed spread. Resistance is futile… it’s a phenomenal amalgam of flavours. The finish is long and lingering on sweet jam notes but with a lovely tart edge. Now for the bad news: there are only 303 bottles. Since no one will bother to ready any further, we’ll just sign off wishing you a nice weekend... and it will be if you manage to score a bottle of this. Read more about Karuizawa Distillery here.

BOURBON BOOM CAUSES PERIODIC BOURBON SHORTAGES AT BUFFALO TRACE DISTILLERY FRANKFORT, Franklin County, Ky (May, 2013) Bourbon whiskey consumption has been on a roll, and Kentucky’s bourbon distilleries are struggling to keep up with demand. Nowhere is this more true than at Buffalo Trace Distillery, producer of brands such as Blanton’s, Buffalo Trace, and Pappy Van Winkle. Despite the increase in distillation over the past few years, demand for bourbon is outpacing supply. Bourbon must be matured in new oak barrels and Buffalo Trace ages many of its barrels for eight to ten years, and some even as long as 23 years. That’s a long time to wait for a bottle of bourbon. Not to mention, with the amount of bourbon lost to evaporation each year a barrel is half empty after ten years. This is the price paid for well-aged whiskey, but not good news for a world thirsty for every drop of bourbon coming out of this 226-year-old Distillery. “We are making more bourbon every day. Our warehouses are filling up with new barrels. Waiting for the bourbon to come of age is the hard part. While we wait, there could be temporary product shortages, even on favorites like Buffalo Trace, and Eagle Rare,” said Kris Comstock, bourbon marketing director. “This announcement is not meant as some sort of scare tactic to get people hoarding bourbon.  We always want to be upfront with our fans.  We won’t take drastic measures to mitigate the shortages, such as raising prices excessively, lowering the proof or reducing the age of our whiskies,” continued Comstock. “We’ve made a commitment to quality that we’re not willing to compromise. What this means is that there simply may be times when some of our brands are missing from store shelves.” Comstock stresses that any bourbon shortages from Buffalo Trace will be temporary, as new barrels are coming of age and are being bottled daily at the Distillery, and will soon find their way to the liquor store shelves and bars.  He notes, “We just ask our fans to remember, aging good bourbon takes time, and we’re doing our best to keep up.” Over the years the Distillery has taken several steps to try to prevent any shortages, such as increasing distillation, installing additional bottling lines, hiring more people, and managing brands on allocation. In fact, Buffalo Trace will hire another person dedicated to watching and balancing bourbon inventory with sales. Because of these efforts, Buffalo Trace Bourbon continues to become more available each year, as well as Weller, Eagle Rare, and Blanton’s. It just might not be enough.  Buffalo Trace estimates the bourbon shortage could start at any time and may last a few years, based on current sales trends. About Buffalo Trace Distillery Buffalo Trace Distillery is a family-owned company based in Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky. The Distillery’s rich distilling tradition dates back to 1787 and includes such legends as E.H. Taylor, Jr., George T. Stagg, Albert B. Blanton, Orville Schupp, and Elmer T. Lee.  Buffalo Trace Distillery is a fully operational distillery producing bourbon, rye and vodka on site and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Distillery has won seven distillery titles since 2000 from such notable publications as Whisky Magazine, Whisky Advocate Magazine and Wine Enthusiast Magazine. It was named Whisky Magazine 2010 World Icons of Whisky “Whisky Visitor Attraction of the Year.” Buffalo Trace Distillery has also garnered more than 200 awards for its wide range of premium whiskies. To learn more about Buffalo Trace Distillery visit www.buffalotracedistillery.com

Surprised? Intrigued? Grain Update Our Tasting Panel love to select the very best flavour experiences for you, wherever they may come from. No noses will be left upturned by our unique and sparkling single cask grain whisky selection. Here’s a peek at the top five grain whiskies that have been intriguing and surprising the members this month. 1) G1.9 The palate gets a Ping! 21yo Refill ex-bourbon hogshead, £54.70 More 2) G3.5 Chocolate Cafe Latte 33yo Refill ex-bourbon hogshead, £86.60 More 3) G10.4 A witch’s Christmas tipple 23yo Refill ex-bourbon hogshead, £61.20 More 4) G3.3 Curious but good 26yo Refill ex-bourbon barrel, £68.10 More 5) G3.4 Pride of Bengal 27yo Refill hogshead, £72.10 More Grain Pair: Going fast – only 15 left at £116 G7.5 Smoky Werther’s Original  & G10.4 A witch’s Christmas tipple More The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, The Vaults, 87 Giles Street, Leith EH6 6BZ Contact: sales@smws.com or call 0131 555 2929 (Mon-Fri 9am-4.45pm). Visit the Society at http://www.smws.co.uk/memberships for your chance to join and to take advantage of their great offers.

FRANKFORT, Franklin County, Ky (May 2013) The whiskeys from Buffalo Trace Distillery were honored at the World Whiskies Awards, sponsored by Whisky Magazine.  The event took place in London in March and featured more than 300 whiskies battling it out during three intensive blind tasting rounds, seeking the coveted title of “2013 World’s Best Whiskies.” Buffalo Trace Distillery had three whiskeys winning top honors, most notably George T. Stagg, which won the top honor of “World’s Best North American Whiskey.”  In addition, Stagg was named “Best Bourbon American Whiskey” and “Best Bourbon American Whiskey 8 Years and Over.” George T. Stagg was described by Whisky Magazine editor Rob Allanson as, “Big and bold, mouth coating with toffee and caramel notes. The oak is here too bringing spices and soft cream pastries…Nothing small about this, but it is all in balance.” Buffalo Trace’s Colonel E. H. Taylor, Jr. Straight Rye was named “Best Rye American Whiskey No Age Statement” and Sazerac Straight Rye was named “Best Rye American Whiskey 7 Years and Under.” For a complete list of winners, check out: http://www.whiskymag.com/awards/wwa/2013/ About Buffalo Trace Distillery Buffalo Trace Distillery is a family-owned company based in Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky. The Distillery’s rich distilling tradition dates back to 1787 and includes such legends as E.H. Taylor, Jr., George T. Stagg, Albert B. Blanton, Orville Schupp, and Elmer T. Lee.  Buffalo Trace Distillery is a fully operational distillery producing bourbon, rye and vodka on site and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Distillery has won seven distillery titles since 2000 from such notable publications as Whisky Magazine, Whisky Advocate Magazine and Wine Enthusiast Magazine. It was named Whisky Magazine 2010 World Icons of Whisky “Whisky Visitor Attraction of the Year.” Buffalo Trace Distillery has also garnered more than 200 awards for its wide range of premium whiskies. To learn more about Buffalo Trace Distillery visit www.buffalotracedistillery.com