Whiskey

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

Alasdair Day the owner and re-creator of The Tweeddale (a small batch, limited edition Scotch Whisky) will be in Toronto from Monday 27th May to Saturday 1st June 2013. His latest and 3rd release of The Tweeddale will be available for the first time outside the UK, as one of the LCBO’s Disttiled Treasures available in their stores from 25th May. Please see the links below for more information from the LCBO. http://www.vintages.com/index.shtml http://www.vintages.com/circular/circ_130525pdf.shtml http://www.lcbo.com/lcbo-ear/lcbo/product/searchResults.do?ITEM_NAME=tweeddale&ITEM_NUMBER=&language=EN As part of Alasdair’s visit he will be conducting in-store tastings and bottling signings. He will also be giving away his copy of Ian Buxton’s revised & updated edition of 101 Whiskies to Try Before you Die. The Tweeddale is included in this edition as one of the 101. Alasdair’s copy bears the following signed inscription from Ian “With best wishes for every success with the launch of The Tweeddale in Canada, 2013. Slainte!” You will be able to taste The Tweeddale and meet Alasdair on;  Thursday May 30th 4 – 8 PM – 2946 BLOOR STREET WEST, TORONTO BLOOR & ROYAL YORK (KINGSWAY) Friday May 31st 4 – 8 PM - 321 CORNWALL DRIVE, OAKVILLE CORNWALL & TRAFALGAR The Tweeddale was first produced by J&A Davidson established in 1820 in Coldstream in the Scottish Borders. Alasdair’s family connection began when his Great Grandfather, Richard Day joined the business as an office boy when he left school in 1895. in 1923 Richard Day took over the business and continued to trade until the start of World War 2. There was a 70 year gap from when Richard Day last produced The Tweeddale until May 2010 when his Great Grandson produced his recreation. As part the bottle design for the 3rd release Alasdair has included a sketch of his Great Grandfather and so The Tweeddale Legacy lives on.

May 2013 NEW Outturn Offerings  Cheshire cat whisky  Cask No. 1.164                                             $175 Speyside, Spey ‘Sweet manna from heaven’ – toffee, fudge, caramel, Toffifees, vanilla, honey – but more – tea chests, spice racks, aromatic smoke, burnt heather and pencils in a library – we could have sniffed it endlessly. Water opened up the fruit – sherbet, orange zest, peach, strawberry, tinned grapes, sweet sap and light smoke – panellists grinning like Cheshire cats. The sweet, oaky palate had tablet, fudge and bread dough – by an open fire; but it also had a darker side – woody, earthy, drying, with sticky cassis and treacle. Water brightened it up – Starbursts, Skittles and spicy Advocaat. From the distillery always directed by John or George. Drinking tip: It needs time – one for a long journey perhaps – or for an evening with no pressure Colour: Polished gold                                 Date distilled: October 1985 Cask: Refill hogshead                                 Alcohol: 52.1% Age: 27 years                                               USA allocation: 60 bottles The Camping Trip  Cask No. 3.188                                             $115 Islay Remember the last time you were camping? The smell of the dew touched grass in the morning a distant memory as the sweat, deep heat and old tent pierce your nostrils. An oily smoked fish caught earlier in the day mixes with the aroma of roasting marshmallows and ash. The barbecued green peppers, mushrooms and lemon dressing on the palate make way for heat and lavender. When the water is added, the campfire smoke intensifies, the petrol used to light the fire maybe wasn’t such a good idea as it catches the nose, but that won’t retract from the comforting beach aromas and the budget chocolate bar you’ve been sitting on all day. Drinking tip: On a camping trip Colour: New Engine Oil                              Date distilled: September 1997 Cask: Refill butt                                            Alcohol: 58.8% Age: 14 years                                               USA allocation: 120 bottles   Superb sweet and salty symbiosis  Cask No. 27.100                                           $110 Campbeltown The nose took us places – a harbour wall (fish boxes, lobster pots) – an old bike shed – a coal shed (coal-sacks, newspaper) – a smoke-house (fish again) – a sandy beach – a tennis locker – a Greek seaside taverna (salted pistachios, ouzo, lemons, fish again, well-done loaves from a wood-fired oven); quite a journey! The palate presented a superb sweet and salty symbiosis and a warm, mellow mouth impact – wonderful sweetness (sugared almonds and peanuts, liquorice allsorts, popcorn); yet muscular, with the nippy heat of aniseed, mustard and chilli. Even the fishiness was sweet (sweet-cured herrings, sweet smoky barbecued fish). From the quintessential Campbeltown distillery. Drinking tip: While sailing around the Greek islands, of course! Or with food. Or with friends, singing ‘Campbeltown Loch, I wish you were whisky…’ Colour: Pale moon gold                             Date distilled: March 2000 Cask: Refill barrel                                        Alcohol: 52.4% Age: 12 years                                               USA allocation: 90 bottles    Flip-flops up a chimney  Cask No. 33.120                                           $85 Islay Quite a nose! We found delicate smoke wafting from snuffed candles, mint humbugs, char-grilled prawns, hessian sacks, sandy beaches, maple-cured bacon, sherbet, pencil boxes, vanilla pods and recently washed hospital floors. Water brought apples, plums and red grapes, liquorice, Murray Mints and flip-flops up a chimney. The unreduced palate was very nicely layered and constructed, with tar, tobacco, stir-fried seaweed, anise, liquorice, muscovado sugar and Bendicks dark chocolate mints. The reduced palate – a fabulous balancing act between sweet and smoky – gob-stoppers, smoke-flavoured Edinburgh Ro