Non Progressive Hebridean Distillers!

Bruichladdich Not For Girls Either!

Had to laugh when I read this on google alerts today - when commenting on the success of their new Gin Mark Rainer attributed their success to the fact that the distinctive spirit - infused with 31 flavourings - is being snapped up by women "used to their husbands going on about whisky"

Ok it may have been taken out of context but don't men like gin? And is Bruichladdich not appreciated by women? The scary thing about this post is that i am half way down a bottle of Darcy's view at the minute so therefore I probably thought it was funnier than it actually is!

I just find this a very backward way of thinking for a "progressive Hebridean distillery" that said can't wait to try their Gin!

Must post some Gin reviews soon!

Glenfiddich Snow Pheonix

Glenfiddich are showing that there is not a trick to be missed when it comes to creating a new bottling. There new Snow Pheonix is only available to members of the Glenfiddich explores club and as there was only 1000 bottles available then it is likely to sell out very quickly. I had actually joked with people that there will be an official bottling to commemorate the big sna' of 2009 but I never thought that it would be Glenfiddich. I suppose fair play to them and they are donating money to the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue team so it has to be a good thing!

One thing I will say it is much more limited than the Don Ramsey bottling they did a few years ago which was limited to something crazy like 274 casks!

Benriach to buy Black Bottle - well I could be wrong!

Meant to post this the other day when I saw this article in the Scotsman stating that Benriach are looking to buy a global blended whisky to help them move forward. Just putting 2 and 2 together and probably getting 74 but wouldn't black bottle be a good fit for them?

Black Bottle I think is currently owned by CL Brands who are in real trouble - word has it that Bunnahabhain is in real need of investment but little money is available for standard up keep of the distillery. With Billy Walker's Burns Stewart background and therefore understandable knowledge of the Black Bottle brand could this be a possible fit?

As I say it may be pie in the sky but if I am right you heard it here first. I imagine something will be announced that they have bought shortly as I doubt it is coincidence that Benriach say they want a blend without having an iron in the fire somewhere.

Talisker 10yo RNLI Gift Pack

Ever feel guilty about buying yourself a bottle of whisky now you have the perfect excuse! Diageo have teamed up with the RNLI and are offering a limited gift pack in aid of the RNLI - a truely worthy cause. The proceeds from the sales of these bottles will go to help fund the RNLI which is purely charity based. It cost £378,000 a day to run the RNLI so what better excuse to buy a bottle. And what better excuse for me to taste one of my favourite drams - Talisker 10yo! Tasting notes will follow shortly.

Talisker, Arran, Highland Park, Scapa, Tobermory, Jura all Homeless

Having been reviewing the new SWA rules for Scotch Whisky - yes I know I need to get out more - I see that they have only protected 5 regions. Speyside, Highlands, Islay, Lowlands and Campeltown. So no mention of Islands which most people class as the sixth region so where does that leave these Islanders!

I know that the SWA (please note that there website is http://www.scotch-whisky.org.uk/ and not http://www.swa.org/ as I wrongly put in my address bar and ended up at the Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach! ) reinstated Campbeltown as a region as it has 3 distilleries there now - does that mean that if a new distillery was put on Orkney that they would be an official region. Using that Arguement should, Rothes and Dufftown not be designated regions - what about making Longmorn, Miltonduff and Benriach into a region!

Just a thought!

Whisky For Everyone

Just came across this new blog - Whisky For Everyone - definately worth a look and much more active than I am!

Make sure you give them a look.

Compass Box Hedonism 43%

It was announced today that Compass Box Hedonism had won best grain whisky in the world for the second year running at the world whisky awards - hosted by whisky magazine. So congratulations to them, however always being one to point out trivial points - should they have really won it? I am lead to believe that the WWA is only open to official bottlers so as an type of (and a very good one at that) independent bottler are they really eligible! Who cares! Their whisky is always good!

Nose: Very sweet, bags of vanilla. Sweet wood, pencil shavings and a hint of honey!

Taste: Again very sweet, lots of oak influence but very balanced. very creamy! A little bit of hay and cheap yellow vanilla ice cream! A hint of white chocolate.

Finish: A fairly short finish but very very soft. A hint of peach yoghurt and soft vanilla.

Comment: I find this whisky to be dangerously drinkable! On a warm summers evening this would be perfect outdoor sipping whisky. Perhaps a little one dimensional but then that is me being over picky! Great whisky.

Score: 89/100

Darlings Hits Drinkers Again - Duty on Whisky up 2%

I have not got the official figures from Mr Darling yet as to what the new duty rate will be but it says in several sources that it is to rise by 2%. Yet again hitting the whisky drinker in the pocket! All in all though most of this is psychologically damaging than actually financial for serious whisky consumers.

At present duty on spirits is £22.20 per litre of alcohol. 2% on this would increase the duty to £22.64 per litre of pure alcohol. So for a standard bottle of whisky 70cl x 40% Abv the duty will rise from £6.22 to £6.34 per bottle an increase of £0.12 per bottle. By the time you add VAT and say a retailers mark up this will equate to say £0.21.

So even if you were buy 1 bottle of whisky a week this will only see you out of pocket by £10.92!

So yes the budget is a pain in the arse and will cost us money but it is not as bad as people think. Many people think the price of the whole bottle will go up by 2% and that is where budget increases can be dangerous!

Laphroaig 15 No More

Just saw on Scotchwhisky.net that Laphroaig 15 year is no more and is going to be replaced by an 18 year old. I hope that this is at a resonable price some of the recent special releases from Laphroaig have been just too high for my price bracket.

On the other hand if you see some of the 15 year old grab it while you can - only 65 bottles left according to their press release!

Campari Acquires Wild Turkey

Subject to approval Gruppo Campari are to buy Wild Turkey for $575 million. A hell of a lot f money but probably better value than they paid for Glen Grant and in Jimmy Russell they get one of the greatest characters in the whisky industry! I think a lot of this deal will be to do with growing distribution channels as is stated in this article.

Will be interesting to see what happens - throwing that kind of money about maybe Campari could buy Whyte and MacKay? Again just a thought!

Read Campari's press release here

Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey corks 1,000th barrel

Noticed this article today that Stranahan's today filled their 1000th barrel - congratulations to them on that. I have to say that I tried this stuff the other day and I was highly impressed ok it was towards the end of the night - or should I say towards the middle of the morning - but I thought it was a decent enough dram. Will need to try it sober some day and get some notes.

Congrats again and raise a dram to the next 1000!

Not to sure about the silver bottle top though!

Macallan Cutting Back Whisky Production

I heard from one of the stillmen at Macallan that they are cutting back production at the distillery and that they will now be dropping back to only working 5 days a week. Kind of makes you wonder why they spent so much money opening up the second still house again?

Worrying times as the whisky loch is growing again!

Happy Animals in Trinidad

I saw an article in the Trinidad Express that four men had been caught trying to smuggle in nearly $2.5 million dollars worth of whisky into the country disguised as animal feed. What they really should have described it as was Sheep Dip! legend has it that it worked for the farmers of Oldbury used to claim they were buying when putting there expenses through! (Although I think this story has been removed from the new packaging). Mind you probably a bit easier to sneak through and a little more justifiable than £60K for a second house!

Visitor centres getting good returns!

It was a report in the paper the other day that 1,236,329 people visited a distillery in 2008 spending a total of £25 million pounds so that is £20.22 per visitor not a bad return really - how much can shortbread cost! All in all I would like to say though that when you think about how many people spend a fortune a distilleries it makes you think how many people spend nothing! Sorry had a few drinks this evening bizarly no whisky though just red wine and port! oh well they need the empty cask for some form of wood finish!

What I am trying to say here is that some people spend an absolute fortune on whisky and this was brought home to me when I was on the Edinburgh whisky blog ( A new blog to me but bloody good make sure you check it out!) when they were speaking about buying a Springbank 1919 for £50,000 a bottle.

Even more bizarre is that I have tried this whisky (twice) the first time it was amazing (actually both times it was) but the first time was really something special to try something so rare and so old was unbelievable. I actually thought that it tasted like a very old cognac and was something very special indeed. It was a little woody but not over the top. A good dram but would I have paid £15,000 a bottle that was what it was worth when I tried it i don't think so but if you can get to try it and not re-mortgage your house I would say that you really should.

The second time I tried it the bottle was corked and the whisky was actually revolting - I don't want to sound like a W-anchor by saying that but actually it was and at least 6 other people agreed with me. Ca you imagine if you had paid £50,000 for a bottle of whisky and it tasted crap! (If only to have so much money to be disappointed!) Anyway I type to much! To those of you who buy the Springbank 1919 either from Springbank or from the world whisky index I wish you luck and hope you get my first experience and not my second!

Having said that if you have the money why not! And it could turn into a tidy investment for you!

Whyte and Mackay and Burn Stewart for Sale

It was revealled in the Sunday times that it is rumoured that Whyte & Mackay and Burn Stewart distillers are both up for sale. Worrying times for all those who work there but who would be likely to purchase these companies. My thinking is that perhaps they would need to break up the groups before anyone in today's market would be willing to buy them. I doubt anyone would take the whole company off of either of them.

Looking at Whyte & Mackay then maybe La Martiniquaise could be interested but having bought Glen Moray (interestingly nothing seems to have changed at Glen Moray since the takeover) they probably have enough bulk malt so maybe they might just be interested in taking Invergordon. This would allow them to scrap their plans for a major grain distillery and potential small malt distillery in Bathgate. As for Burns Stewart obviously Bunnahabhain would be of interest to people but I can't see many people falling over themselves to get Deanston or Tobermory and definitely not at the prices distilleries were going for last year.

The one prediction that I would see as being plausible but not really probable would be that William Grant's could go for Bunnahabhain, It would seem to make sense to add an Islay to their portfolio. I had expected William Grant's to have announced their purchase of Parkmore distillery by now but all seems to have gone quite on that front maybe they are saving their money for elsewhere. Pure speculation but you never know.

Anyway it will be interesting to see what happens!

The Drammies

The Drammie Nominations from the excellent Scotch Blog have been announced make sure that you cast your vote. Intresting that the Benriach Famagusta have been nominated as most inovative products after what I said the other day. I do love the whiskies just I struggle with the names!

Get voting!

GlenDronach to team up with Phil Collins

Ok so I made that bit up. But Glendronach are to be releasing a non-age statement whisky called GlenDronach Genesis! A strange name but then not as strange as some of the names that have came out of now sister distillery BenRiach such as the Anorthisis Famagusta bottling. Ok so I made that one up too and I know it would wind up the Rangers daft Walker from BenRiach as I remember a certain Illian Kirakov running rings round Rangers in a European game, shame he didn't do that when he played for Aberdeen. Anyway I digress....

One other thing that seems to becoming clear is that GlenDronach will follow in BenRiach's footsteps by putting an absolutely pointless capital letter in the middle of the distillery name. I wonder what other distilleries could do this, EdraDour springs to mind....

Anyway can't wait for the new Glendronach's to come out should be some belters.

Macallan Estate Eco-Friendly Whisky - Not!!

The Macallan has just launched a whisky proving how environmentally conscious they are with their new Estate Oak bottling. For Each bottle of the whisky sold an oak tree will be planted at the Macallan Estate to help the environment. Also the whisky does not come in wasteful packaging but instead comes just in the bottle with labels being certified by the Forest Stewardship Council what ever that means.

Now I must applaud Macallan for what they are trying to do here - after all we must all take responsibility for the future of the planet. However it is a bit hypocritical really from the company that brought us the elaborately overly packaged Lalique decanters!

The really daft point about this environmentally friendly whisky is that it is a world duty free exclusive so the only way that you can get it is by travelling on an aeroplane! Thank god it's environmentally friendly then eh!

Their quote from their press release is a cracker!

“We anticipate it will be a huge success with people wanting to make a difference to the environment,” said William Ovens, The Edrington Group’s global travel retail area director.

On another point linked to this Macallan had previously sold there Woodland Reserve bottlings where by you could buy a bottle and have a tree planted at Macallan with your name on a plaque. Having visited Macallan recently I noticed that probably around a quarter of these trees were dead, so is this new initiative just away of getting more pr for trees that you are having to buy anyway to replace the last lot that died?

Just a thought!

Tullibardine Not For Sale - Unless you Offer!

An article in the Scotland on Sunday reveals that Tullibardine distillery could be up for sale. Although the directors are stating that there is no for sale sign up - that they are listening to offers.

The paper quotes a figure of £15million for the distillery - I would say this seems a bit cheap - however if it includes the retail complex next to it then maybe not?

Will be one to watch - interestingly I drove past the distillery yesterday and there were no signs up adverting the distillery?

Definately one to watch.

Latest Daft Finish - Cling Film Cask Finish

A report in the Daily Record confirms that Diageo for the past 5 years or so have been experimenting with covering casks in plastic wrap - to prevent the angels share being so high. This makes me laugh because often when I have tasted an old whisky that has had a very high ABV I have often joked the "the cask must have been wrapped in clingfilm!"

They say that experiments are not on going but that the feel that it does not affect the flavour - this I doubt very much however I would imagine that Diageo would prefer to keep this experiment quiet. Come to think of it in a day and age when everyone is eco-friendly and keeping their carbon foot print down as much as possible - how enviromental friendly is plastic wrap!

Anyway the real question is who will be the first which company will be the first to release a limited edition cling film cask finish. I would say you would get short odds on Bruichladdich, Arran, Benriach or Glenmorangie. Now whats Gaelic or Latin for Cling Film!