December 30th, 2008
Are you finally going to make that trip to Scotland to tour distilleries? Or perhaps tour Kentucky bourbon distilleries? Maybe you’re going to finally open that special bottle of whisky you’ve been letting collect dust on your shelf. Or maybe you vowed to get a bottle from every Islay distillery to drink.
Maybe it’s to drink more whisky. (Or less.) Or cook more with whisky.
What’s your whisky New Year’s resolution for 2009? Do you have one you would like to share?
December 29th, 2008
The new owners of Glendronach (they are spelling it GlenDronach) will be introducing a new line of whiskies which will include 12, 15, 18 year old and other expressions this coming March, in addition to to other enhancements to the distillery. Here’s the press release I received last week explaining everything, which was embargoed until today.
GLENDRONACH DISTILLERY DEFIES DOWNTURN WITH £250,000 DEVELOPMENT
Work has started today (Monday December 29, 2008) on a £250,000 development of the GlenDronach malt whisky brand.
The Aberdeenshire distillery, one of Scotland’s oldest, was bought earlier this year by the Larbert-based BenRiach Distillery Company.
BenRiach Managing Director Billy Walker said: “This is the beginning of our strategy to re-package and re-launch GlenDronach in markets worldwide. We will take Glendronach back to how it was originally, promoting it as one of Scotland’s original sherried whiskies.”
Mr Walker and his colleagues purchased GlenDronach from Chivas Brothers, the Scotch whisky business of Pernod Ricard.
“GlenDronach is a bit of a sleeping giant and was not part of Chivas’s expansion plans,” said Regional Sales Director James Cowan. “But we have great plans for it in our markets in the UK, Germany, USA, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Italy, Switzerland, France, Canada, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and China, amongst others.
“We’re looking forward to breathing new life into it and giving it the attention and commitment it deserves.”
Industry veteran and Master Blender Mr Walker revealed that GlenDronach will release a new core range in March 2009 which will comprise twelve, fifteen and eighteen-year-old malts. It will also release a non-aged product, single cask bottlings and some incredibly rare vintage malts.
Marketing Executive Kerry White said: “Tradition will play a significant role in the new branding. The current packaging, design and logo have been retained but are being enhanced with a few changes. A new proprietary bottle will also be incorporated later in 2009.”
But a major part of the quarter million investment is the development of a new Visitor Centre at the distillery.
Alan McConnochie, GlenDronach’s Distillery Manager, said: “We aim to create an educational and vibrant visitor attraction where both connoisseurs and those new to whisky can learn more about GlenDronach and engage more fully with the brand.
”As part of the development, we will also be hosting corporate evenings at which guests can stay overnight at Glen House, the distillery’s country house. The package will include an evening’s stay, a special tour and master class tasting and fine dining.”
The investment also includes a brand-new website where customers worldwide can use it as a first port of call to find out more about GlenDronach and the maturation techniques that make it so special.
“GlenDronach” is Gaelic for “the valley of the brambles” and takes its name from the Dronach Burn which winds its way through the grounds of the distillery. Founded at Forgue, Aberdeenshire, in 1826 by James Allardice, one of the original whisky entrepreneurs, GlenDronach Distillery produces a series of single malt whiskies ranging in age from twelve to thirty-three years old and currently has the capacity to produce almost one and a half million litres of whisky a year.
December 22nd, 2008
A representative of the Amrut distillery in India contacted me about a month ago. He told me that they want to start importing their whisky into the United States beginning in 2009. I have never tried their whisky before, but always wanted to. Jim Murray rates most of their expressions in the 90s, so they must be doing something right.
They sent me samples of three different expressions: their standard single malt, a limited edition cask-strength single malt, and a limited edition peated cask-strength single malt. I got them last week and am looking forward to trying them. Unfortunately, it will have to wait a few more days until I get over a nasty cold I picked up last week and am still trying to shake.
I’ll let you know what I think of the whiskies in the near future. If all goes well, they’ll be pouring their whiskies at WhiskyFest in 2009.
December 19th, 2008
On Christmas Day, after my family opens up their gifts in the morning, we get together with our close friends every year and celebrate by drinking Christmas beers and eating good food.
However, I also crack the seal on an unopened bottle of whisky too! I still haven’t decided on what it will be yet. I’ll let you know what it is when I do. It gives me an excuse to open something that’s been collecting dust for too long.
How about you? Will you be drinking a special whisky on the 25th? If so, what?
December 17th, 2008
The wait for Octomore is finally over. Here’s a brief press release I received yesterday on it. With 131 ppm phenol barley and 63.5% ABV, if this whisky doesn’t remind you that you’re alive, I don’t know what will.
Bruichladdich distillery announce the release today of the world’s the most heavily peated whisky ever.
The inaugural bottling of Octomore, a single malt Scotch whisky distilled at Bruichladdich from barley peated to 131 ppm, is three times more peaty than any other whisky ever produced.
6000 bottles were produced at natural cask strength of 63.5% ABV, selling at £79 a bottle.
Such was demand amongst ‘peat freak’ whisky aficionados that stocks were sold out before the whisky was released.
December 17th, 2008
This is straight from the press release I was emailed today. The photo I included shows the bottom part of the still being installed:
Scotland’s tallest whisky still has been launched into place at the Glenmorangie distillery in Tain, Ross-shire today.
The five-metre-tall, swan-necked still is the last of four new stills being installed at the G
lenmorangie Distillery. This will allow The Glenmorangie Company to meet the growing future demand for premium single malt whiskies from existing and emerging markets in the USA, Far East and central Europe.
Measuring 5.14 m in height, the stills are made from copper to exacting modern standards, but they follow exactly the same design of the original stills when the distillery opened in 1843.
The expansion of the Tain distillery is a key plank of The Glenmorangie Company’s recently announced £45m two-year investment programme to focus on building its highly successful, iconic premium single malt Scotch whisky brands – Glenmorangie and Ardbeg.
Dr Bill Lumsden, Head of Distilling and Whisky Creation at The Glenmorangie Company, said: “The new stills will allow us to significantly increase our production capacity and deliver long term growth for the Company as well as the local and Scottish economy.
“The installation of the new stills, which are each an exact replica of the current stills, will be a particularly closely supervised procedure, as the handcrafted quality of the spirit produced at Glenmorangie is always of paramount importance.”
The distillery – which is home of the world-renowned single malt Glenmorangie – was founded as Macdonald and Muir in 1843 and is renowned as a pioneer in its field uniting tradition with innovation.
December 16th, 2008
We have many independent bottlers of Scotch whiskies, from the primary ones that have been around for a long time (Gordon & MacPhail, Cadenhead’s, Signatory) to the ones that followed in their footsteps. Some of the Indie-bottled whiskies have been great, while others not so.
But what about a house style? Wouldn’t it be easier to embrace (trust) a given independent bottler if you knew that, when you bought a bottle from them, there would be some consistencies you could count on?
I didn’t really think about it that much until I began tasting the Mackillop’s Choice whiskies the first few years they were released. I noticed a consistency–one of balance of flavors rather than eccentricity. No excessive sherry. No excessive oak. Even the usually aggressive Islay whiskies were balanced and toned down.
You might like this or you might not. But, I did see a pattern being established–one that you could count on if you were considering buying a Mackillop’s Choice whisky. Lorne Mackillop tells me it’s his wine background that aids him in his selection process.
So, what do you think? Do you see a house style from independent bottlers? If so, who? What’s the style? And do you like it?
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