Work For Royal Mile Whiskies

I see on the royal mile site that they are advertising for staff in there London store! Sounds like a great wee job (bar the London bit!) Just think free whisky fringe tickets and staff discount on a huge selection of whiskies!

I'm sure there is worse jobs!

http://www.royalmilewhiskies.com/viewindex.asp?article_id=diary

Whisky Kidnapper was Lorry Driver

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6914246.stm

What a cracking ploy! drive away with a lorry load of whisky make on you have hijacked and then split the profits with your mate. Only thing you have to ask is why would you steal a lorry load of Dewars?

Adelphi Glen Elgin 1991 Cask 2599

A new bottling of Glen Elgin 16yo from Adelphi presumably from a sherry butt as it is one of 566 bottles bottled at 55.1% - the dark colour also gives the sherry away!!!! Must pay homage to all companies that don't mask everything with caramel! (Actually I don't mind caramel colouring too much for "consistency" purposes but it's people who try and hide it that really piss me off!

Anyway enough rambling lets taste!

Nose: Big sherry rum and raisin notes, and a little meaty note.

Taste: Again big sherry and slight toffee notes. Like warm caramel sauce on "yellow" vanilla ice cream with a hint of chocolate!

Finish: Not to long for something so richly flavoured - coats the side of the mouth and lingers there but short otherwise.

Comment: A very pleasant dram - maybe that is the only thing wrong with it - its pleasant and yes I would happily drink this again and again but its not something amazing.

Score: 86/100 recommendable!

Macallan 18yo 1985 43%

Got my hands on a slightly old miniature of 18yo (sherry cask) Macallan tonight, ok the 85 - 18yo wasnt that long ago but (lets sound like an old boy) but it does't seem that long ago since the 18yo was a 1982 vintage and I think they have now released the 1989 vintage>

Ah well I say vintage..... I have been told that up until 1981 it was a true vintage but it changed to have older whiskies in it, recently as you See on this miniature it will say "the youngest whisky was distilled in wxyz year"

Anyway on with the tasting!

Nose: initially very big (is it to big?) obvious big sherry notes but meaty slightly sulphury notes. After giving it time it gets more Calvados like.

Taste: Again this is a big dram, huge sherry a touch of cream as well though - some slight orange notes and a touch of spice.

Finish: A touch of maple syrup in the finish and again big sherry.

Comment: Yes I like this - I like it a lot but actually when you come to scoring it there is nothing amazing about this due to the huge over influnece of sherry (maybe fine oak is a good idea!)

Score: 85/100

ps: will taste again some night when I haven't had 5 whiskies and three pints of guinness!

"the taste of salty, lime flavoured ass" aka Miller Chill

So this great review on http://www.liquorsnob.com/ today and just about split my sides so thought i would share it with you below.

Great to see a site that truly says what it thinks!


"We're usually huge fans of Miller products (Champagne of Beers 4 Life!) but we tried Miller Chill recently and were unimpressed. It's described as a Chelada and judging by all the Spanish on the site, it's being aimed at the Latino market. We hope they like the taste of salty, lime-flavored ass, because that's what they're being given."

Oh you can find out more about salty ass beer at http://www.millerchill.com/ if your interested.

Whisky Celebrations Back on Ice in Mumbai

Well before the whooping and cheering of the SWA had stopped ringing in Vijay's ears - India has turn round and slapped a cheeky back hander at the Scotch Whisky Industry by allowing each state in India to set its own Import levels. So although the basic import rate is 150% (down on previous levels) each state can add its own duty level on top of this. Mumbai have just announced that they will be slapping on a 200% tax making things not much different from what they were before.

Will be interesting how the ever so "smug" (OK they were last week) SWA react to this.



http://business.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1101252007

http://www.theherald.co.uk/business/news/display.var.1549333.0.0.php

Adelphi Glenrothes 2000 Cask 2413 56.5%

Right enough of this re-typing story malarky lets have a whisky - this one should be good! One of my favourite distilleries Glenrothes and this bottling is from Adelphi, although Adelphi bottlings tend to be expensive they also tend to be bloody good!

Their notes on this 6yo Cask strength glenrothes can be found here:

http://www.adelphidistillery.com/whisky/glenrothes2000

So lets see what my notes are - First thing I have to say is that for 6 years this dram has a cracking mahogany colour with a red hue about it! Anyway here goes:

Nose: Rich, obvious sherry and a meaty note like a roasting tin! Raisans, a touch of cream and malt loaf and butter

Taste: Big, big, big! Initially difficult to pin down on this one! has the big sherry character - almost verging on bad but still staying on the edge, of rich chocolate, a "red" note - god I wish I knew what that was! and verging on balloons but in a good way.

Finish: The finish is again big - a little to much verging towards the slightly rancid meat that a big sherry cask can give you.

Comment: I am not sure about this dram - I think it has slightly flawed "rancid" meat type sulphury notes but i don't mind them at all - it also has huge body and character - the sherry has perhaps dominated but you can still make out Glenrothes shouting behind the background.

All in all a good whisky but for a 6yo its a great whisky! (but only if you like sherry!)

Score: 87/100

Indians Love Rum! Blow for Whisky

Various reports have came out in the last few days that it turns out that that the majority of India's new middle class and young fashionable drinkers prefer rum or white spirits in particular in cocktails. It is however the 35-40yo plus brigade that is keeping whisky sales high. What we tend to forget is that although yes duty will becoming down on whisky in India - I am yet to be convinced as a punter is a good thing for me struggling to buy malt at a decent price in Scotland - it will also becoming down for white spirits and if they market themselves correctly which in all honesty they usually do a lot better than whisky then perhaps the boom will not be so sonic for whisky as we all think!

Scotsman Recycles More Stories!!! Oh Roseile Diageo Distillery

Must be no news today in the Scotsman hence they had to repeat there story on Diageos new distillery at Roseile.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1083282007

So its going to be a green distillery - and its going to cost £40million blah blah blah have we not heard this in the Scotsman before or am I cynical!

Still good to see new distilleries opening!

Chivas to Invest!

The continuing boom in whisky has lead to Chivas to invest £4.75million in facilities - at Paisley and Dumbarton - luckily they are getting a "Regional Selective Assistance Grant of £950,000 from the Scottish Executive" or else they might not be able to afford it!

All good news for the industry though!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6260980.stm

Greene King Hop Beer 5% (AKA Butt plug bottle!)

Bought a bottle of this in Tesco tonight it was formerly known as The Beer to Dine for. Thought that I would give it a go, not bad wee beer but nothing great fairly easy going, touch of citrus notes and a bit of a bitter after taste: They recommend drinking it with slightly spicy food with a touch of sheer coincidence I finished it along with a Chicken Biriyani and to be honest it did improve a bit giving off slightly creamery notes.

Very much a session beer for drinking on a hot summers day with a bit of spicy food. If had to rate it then I would say about a 7/10.

Interestingly on the Greene King website http://www.greeneking.co.uk/ they do not mention this beer - may be as some of the stuff I found on this beer on the internet people were complaining that Greene King perhaps have chickened out and went to far down the commercial route!



The best quote I found on the internet about this though came from http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/greene-king-hop-(formerly-the-beer-to-dine-for)/24678/



"Comes in a bottle that looks like a butt plug, so my expectations weren’t very high." - Classic!

Whisky Prices to Rise by 10% or more

Ken Grier from the Edrington group has came out and openly stated that whisky prices on malt will have to rise by at least 10% - stating that "the days of cheap whisky are over." So is suppose that means an end to all the cheap Macallan that is currently on the market!!!

I imagine that now all whisky companies will be following up this first move and stating that they will have to put prices up to cope with the demand from China which the experts predict will only get great and greater.

May be ab idea to stock up on the cheap whisky while we still can!

http://business.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1025622007