Whiskeria Winter 2016

As I see it…

Ian P Bankier —

Illustration: Fran Waddell

! What do stamps, toys, tea sets, cars, wine and whisky all have in common? They are all collectable – and in most cases, investable.

Investing in collectables has become a global craze with activity levels hitting record highs.

This is clearly a consequence of the economic times we live in. There is little or no financial return to be made on savings and people are naturally asking, “what else?”. When it comes to investing in collectables, I am a paid up fan.

I love the concept of having something tangible, that may be beautiful to look at or taste, and has a value… that potentially can go up. Deposits and shares, on the other hand, leave me cold. They are just numbers on bits of paper.

At The Whisky Shop, we are certainly seeing high levels of activity, as whisky is uniquely positioned to attract this rising market. The strongest attribute of whisky compared to other collectable investments is that it does not deteriorate in the bottle and takes up limited space. And to state the obvious, but important, it needs no maintenance or upkeep. Compared to investing in wine, whisky is a relative newcomer, but it does benefit from an inherent advantage, in addition to its unquestionable durability.

Fine wines have been investable for the greatest part of the 20th Century up to present time and, as a result, the bottle population of invested wine must be vast. The population of investable whisky bottles, by comparison, is small.

Taking Scotland as the largest region, the total number of Scotch malt distilleries is less than 100 and the number that are collectable is much less again. The vital point I make is that all collectable whisky should be capable of being traced. For the importance of this, read on.

“ What do stamps, toys, tea sets, cars, wine and whisky all have in common? They are all collectable – and in most cases, investable. ” The impression we get is that a lot of investors around the world have turned away from wine and into whisky, not only because of its durability, but because of the number of scandals involving counterfeiting of fine wines. I daresay this dark practice has gone on for a long time, but since the fine wine market took off in Asia, more than ten years ago, famous wine labels have been counterfeited on an industrial scale. On this front, whisky has not been immune, sadly.

Over the recent past we have witnessed a trickle of incidents, but the numbers of individual whisky bottles involved has remained low.

The fundamental reason for this is that limited releases of the most expensive whiskies are, by definition, confined to very small numbers – unlike an entire growth of a Premier Cru wine, for example.

Provenance is key and I cannot stress highly enough the requirement to know your seller.

We have seen a population of internet auction sites popping up and whilst very many will be absolutely legitimate, it has to be said that the internet is the best and favourite modus of crooks and criminals. As a buyer, you cannot meet the seller, you cannot see the operation

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and, fundamentally, you cannot handle the goods.

This, by definition, does leave a lot to trust.

At The Whisky Shop we service a growing list of clients from around the world who are active collectors and investors. Currently the low price of Sterling is an attractive added bonus for many of them. When buying from us, provenance is guaranteed. This means a lot to our customers.

The very best investable whisky releases are incredibly limited, but we expect and receive more than our fair share because of our buying power in servicing the whole retail estate.

With the re-launch of The W Club this autumn, we have made a pledge to W Club members that they will be the first to know of pending releases and they will get the first opportunity to apply. A reason in itself to join the club!

The barriers to entry to collecting and investing in whisky are low. There are no intermediaries, no fees and no minimum investments. You will find in this edition of Whiskeria several items that are affordable and worth a punt.

And you know what everyone says when they invest in whisky?

“Well, if all else fails I can drink it!”

Compliments of the Season and Slàinte.

Ian P Bankier, Executive Chairman,

Competition —

WIN! A luxury meal for two at Restaurant Andrew Fairlie, Gleneagles

In the spirit of Christmas indulgence and festive generosity, our wonderful cover star Andrew Fairlie has donated a very special prize for our winter competition…

We’ll be giving away a voucher for two people to enjoy the eight course Dégustation tasting menu plus a matching wine flight at his two Michelin-starred Restaurant Andrew Fairlie.

To enter, simply tell us: In which luxury five star hotel is Restaurant Andrew Fairlie located?

Answers should be emailed to: competition@whiskyshop.com Please include your full name and answer.

Terms & Conditions The winner will be selected from all entries received via the email address stated above by midnight on 31st January 2017. The judge’s decision will be final. This competition is not open to employees of THE WHISKY SHOP Ltd. All normal competition rules apply. UK entrants must be 18 years old or over to apply.

International entrants must be of legal drinking age in their country of residence.

–– produced by Ascot Publishing Limited PO Box 7415 Glasgow G51 9BR –– contact enquiries@whiskyshop.com

–– commissioning editor GlenKeir Whiskies Limited –– executive producer Claire Daisley claire@whiskyshop.com 0141 427 2919 –– executive chairman Ian P Bankier ipb@whiskyshop.com –– product photography Subliminal Creative 01236 734923

–– creative direction a visual agency emlyn@avisualagency.com –– feature writers Brian Wilson; Charles MacLean; Gavin D Smith; Claire Bell; –– feature photography Brian Sweeney Christina Kernohan –– illustration Francesca Waddell Kate Timney

–– Glenkeir Whiskies Limited trades as THE WHISKY SHOP. Opinions expressed in WHISKERIA are not necessarily those of Glenkeir Whiskies Limited. Statements made and opinions expressed are done so in good faith, but shall not be relied upon by the reader.

This publication is the copyright of the publisher, ASCOT PUBLISHING LIMITED, and no part of it may be reproduced without their prior consent in writing. No responsibility is taken for the advertising material contained herein. © ASCOT PUBLISHING LIMITED.

–– Prices effective October 2016.

All prices in this edition of Whiskeria are subject to change.

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Contributors Winter 2016 —

Illustration: Fran Waddell

Brian Wilson

Claire Bell

Gavin D. Smith

Charles MacLean

— Brian Wilson, formerly an MP, held several Government Ministerial posts during his political career. He lives on the Isle of Lewis, from where he pursues various business interests, notably in the energy sector. He also led the regeneration of the Harris Tweed industry and is currently Chairman of Harris Tweed Hebrides Ltd. His first love was writing and he continues to write books as well as opinion pieces for national newspapers.

— Claire Bell has written on travel for Time magazine, The Herald, The Times, The Guardian and Wanderlust.

She lives in Glasgow where she runs The Old Barn Bookery, a book charity that helps build libraries within disadvantaged schools in her native South Africa. Her adventures have taken her across the globe, from exploring her new home in the West of Scotland, to adventuring in Eastern Europe.

— Gavin is one of the world’s most prolific and respected whisky writers. He’s regularly published in a range of top magazines and has written more than a dozen books on whisky, while co-authoring many more. Most recently he has prepared a new version of Michael Jackson’s seminal whisky publication, The Malt Whisky Companion.

— Charles has published fourteen Scotch whisky books to date, including the standard work on whisky brands, Scotch Whisky, and the leading book on its subject, Malt Whisky, both of which were short-listed for Glenfiddich awards. He was also script advisor for Ken Loach’s 2012 film The Angels’ Share and subsequently played the part of the whisky expert in the film (which he claims to be his biggest career highlight to date).

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Contents Winter 2016 — 12 18 24 29 50 58 63 86 94 96

A Time In History Paris My Craft Donald Clark Distillery Visit Glen Scotia New Releases Winter 2016 My Whiskeria Andrew Fairlie Travel Bulgaria THE WHISKY SHOP Section Mixing It Up Gleneagles Expert Tasting Banff / Glen Grant Burns' Night Toasts

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| a time in history

Considering the auld alliance of Scotland and France, Brian Wilson explores the past, present and future of good taste in one of Paris' most exclusive postcodes...

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Illustration: Kate Timney

! Scotland and France have been trading drinks for a long time. Throughout several centuries, the favourite tipple for lowland Scots was claret, imported through the port of Leith as testimony to the links that existed directly between the two countries, prior to the Act of Union 1707.

In more recent times, the compliment has been spectacularly reciprocated. France is one of the biggest markets in the world for Scotch whisky by volume and second only to the United States in value. In the first six months of this year, exports equated to 190 million bottles. And of course, they still send us a decent supply of wine!

The great French army of whisky drinkers includes a highly discerning clientele which appreciates the nuances of composition and significance of origin. As with fine wine, so with great whisky. All of that cried out for a place of celebration where the complexities of whisky could be discussed, appreciated and sampled.

Enter The Whisky Shop in the most appropriate of venues.

There’s probably no address in the world more closely linked with elegance and, quite literally, good taste than the Place de la Madeleine in the 8th Arrondissement of Paris. Just around the corner in the Rue Royale and Rue de Faubourg Saint- Honore are all the great names of fashion – Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada and the rest.

Within the square itself the neoclassical magnificence of the Madeleine Church as its

centerpiece the surrounding emphasis moves subtly to the luxury end of the food and drink market. This is a place for the connoisseur of quality and tradition. So where more appropriate – tucked in a corner of the square at Number 7 – to find The Whisky Shop, opened earlier this year and making a clear statement about where the product belongs?

Ian Bankier, Chairman of The Whisky Shop, confirms that the intention – nurtured for several years until the right spot became available – was to create “a flagship store for brands that rightly claim a luxury status”. He explains: “There are products now coming out of Scotch distilleries and blending houses that are extraordinary in their quality and complexity. They deserve an appropriate setting in which to be experienced and enjoyed, far from the madding crowds of airports and supermarkets”.

The same team of architects and contractors that created the much-admired branch of The Whisky Shop in Piccadilly, London, have produced a setting of arguably even greater elegance in Paris. The building, originally a mansion house like others facing the square, had been home to a classic silverware business since the 1930s. The ornate interiors have been restored with a magnificent Belle Epoch staircase linking the two floors. On the lower one, in addition to retail browsing, there is the Angels’ Room – a nod in the direction of the ‘Angels’ Share’ – the amount

Knowledge Bar

Whisky Shop Paris OPENED: 7TH APRIL 2016

1 Address: 7 Place de la Madeleine, Paris, 75008 1 Opening times: 10am–8pm Mon–Sat, 12pm - 6pm Sun 1 Website: whiskyshop.fr

The interior of The Whisky Shop Paris, including The Johnnie Walker Salon and the refurbished Belle Epoch staircase.

of whisky which evaporates from the casks during the maturation process.

The response has been overwhelmingly favourable. For example, the Paris edition of Time Out noted: “In this room, regular free tastings and workshops are organised to sample the various whiskies they offer. Upstairs, meanwhile, there’s a beautiful salon stretching the breadth of the building and tasting room, done out in elegant baroque style and sponsored by Johnnie Walker House, which offers a fantastic view onto the Madeleine Church”.

In short, the aim of creating a Parisian setting which does justice to the premium product has been amply achieved while the knowledge and friendliness of staff further enhance the overall experience. At present, visitors to the shop divide roughly equally between Parisians and visitors to the city. For whisky lovers from around the world, it is destined to become a place of pilgrimage both in its own right and also as part of the square’s overall offering to followers of great food and drink.

The Madeleine church, as we now see it, was conceived of as a temple to the glory of Napoleon’s Great Army in 1806. The construction industry could not keep pace with history and long before it was completed, Napoleon was dead, the monarchy restored, and Louis XVIII got his own back by ordaining that it should instead be a church devoted to Mary Magdalene, just as the original church on the site had been. Nowadays, it is probably useful to have a place of reflection or even confession in the midst of conspicuous consumption.

In the Place de la Madeleine, the temptations are many and various. Turn left into the square, bidding temporary leave to the big fashion houses and the tour begins with a mouth-watering array offered by the highly artistic chocolatier, Patrick Roger, as a close neighbour to The Whisky Shop.

There’s no doubt that the tipping point has been achieved at which everyone who is anyone in the gourmet world wants to be seen in this location, a trend which started back in the mid-19th century and has recently gathered pace.

The aristocrat among French grocers, Hediard, has been there since the 1850s with the original fare of jams, marmalades and patés de fruit still best-sellers today. Then there is the flagship store of Fauchon, a business founded in 1886 off the back of a fruit and veg cart on the same site. Now the bold revamp by designer Christian Biecher, in the eye of one critic, “elevates food shopping to couture level with its spectacular pink packaging”. It is another respect in which the worlds of food and fashion are not far apart.

One of my own favourites from a leisurely stroll round the square – and everyone visiting Paris should do it – is Mariage Freres, which has been a tea importing and wholesaling company since the days of the French East India Company, more than 200 years ago. In the 1980s, it also became a retailer offering hundreds of teas from around the world, immaculately stacked in wooden drawers like you might have seen in an old apothecary’s shop, but surrounded by more samovars and tea accessories than you ever knew existed.

Keep moving and there’s the fairly eponymous La Maison de la Truffe – truffles infused into pretty much anything – a couple of caviar specialists, and even one devoted to apparently limitless types of humble – or not so humble – mustard. And so it goes on; an endless array of visual delights even without actually tasting any of them.

My own introduction to this part of Paris was through the presence of the British Embassy and residence five minutes away on the Rue de Faubourg Saint-Honore. As in so many capitals of the world, one has to wonder how the Brits got their hands on such extraordinary real estate.

Nowadays they tend to serve primarily as venues for British companies to showcase their wares, as well as rather nice places for Ambassadors to reside. Paris is one of the best, within hailing distance of the Elysee Palace and a bastion of Britishness since the Duke of Wellington bought it from Napoleon’s sister after she decided that, on the whole, Elba was a better option.

The 8th Arronidissement offers limitless attractions and places of interest, no matter how often one goes there. Sadly, at present, the Paris visitor numbers are down because many have been deterred by terrorist incidents over the past couple of years – a fate that could befall any city at any time. But Paris has come through a lot worse than this and recovered in all its grandeur, irrepressible joie de vivre – and exceptionally good taste.

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| my craft

There’s something in the water here in Scotland – how else can you explain the bounty of delicious things it produces? Creel fisherman Donald Clark welcomes us aboard to discover more…

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Photography: Brian Sweeney Assistant: Albion

We caught up with Inveraray creel fisherman, Donald Clark, to gain ani nsight into his fascinating craft, and get some culinary inspiration just in time for Christmas…

shorter days. You tend to get bigger langoustines in the winter, but really, I don’t think there’s any philosophy to creel fishing.

The weather, obviously, affects when I can work. The country we live in, it’s blowing a gale most days.

In the summer you get up at the crack of dawn – it’s great! You get a flask of tea or coffee, and I’ve got a good sound system on the boat now. When I first took it over, all I had was an old car stereo and Gaelic Radio was the only station I could get. I do love bagpipe music, but it was driving me round the twist after a while.

In Scotland, the word ‘creel’ refers to a basket similar to a lobster pot, which you use primarily to catch langoustine and squat lobster up at Loch Fyne on the North West coast. How exactly do you ‘fish’ with a creel?

I’ve got about 500 creels, which is a lot for a single operator, and about 16 fleets – a fleet is what you call creels that are all joined together.

You shoot a fleet in an arc so trawlers can get round and leave them, say, 48 hours. That gives them a good soak.

Your family have owned and run The George There’s a string in the middle of each creel – Hotel in Inveraray for many years, and we’ve I buy herring, cut them in half and suspend noticed some delicious seafood on the menu… them from the strings. Each creel has two We’re six generations in the hotel – that’s special inlets, so the catch can get in, but about 160 years! Most of my catch comes here; can’t get back out. last Easter week, 100 kilos of my fish came through The George kitchens.

Do you have different schedules depending I do private sales as well. Take Dunderave on the seasons?

Castle; it’s privately owned, and I got married I work the daylight hours, so in winter it’s there, so if the flag is flying we’ll leave a big

bucket of prawns on the slipway for them. You don’t get much fresher than that!

If there’s any surplus it goes to Spain, but I do think prawns should stay in this country.

It breaks my heart to send them to Spain, to be honest.

How do you keep your prawns fresh between catching and selling them?

Prawns are so hard to keep alive – especially because I don’t have refrigeration on my boat.

They don’t like rain water, excess temperature, sunlight, even wind. I have what’s called a keep, it’s basically a cage.

I suspend them mid-water. If you tie them too near the surface the salt water will kill them, too near the bed and sea snails will kill them – they have a probe that goes into the back of the prawns to suck all the meat out! So, if you leave them on the sea bed for too long – they’re gone.

Where did your creels come from – how are they made?

There’s a lot of work goes into making a creel – you’ve got to bind right round the whole frame, put the netting on, tie in the knots. I have a special needle for doing repairs, but don’t make creels from scratch.

It’s coming up to Christmas. Will you be cooking something special with your catch?

I don’t cook with them, actually. Eric, the head chef [at The George Hotel] is French, and he goes foraging – at the moment it’s bumper season for Chanterelles.

What we’ve done before is mix up forest with the sea. He was in the forest in the morning, I was out on the loch, and we put what we found together. Eric has Chanterelles, I’ll get squat lobster, and he’ll put it with Pernod, cream, and garlic. It’s absolutely magic!

So, how about whisky with fishing: do you ever have a cheeky dram to warm you up on the boat?

No, when you’re the skipper you don’t mix drink with it.

I do have an inch of gin which used to belong to an uncle of mine, who sadly passed away. He was fondly known as ‘The Exorcist’ – you’d invite him to your house and he’d rid you of all your spirits!

Is there anybody who comes to work on the boat with you?

Nope – it’s usually just myself! Kris comes out occasionally. You really need to have someone with you who knows what they’re doing. Otherwise, it’s a bit of a nightmare.

out the corner of my eye, about 50 meters away, a huge big whale came up. The noise was the blowhole from a whale!

I was absolutely gobsmacked. It was between me and the shore. It fluked (which means it brings its tail out of the water), dived, then came up another 300 metres away, fluked Tell us more about how you got into creel again, and I never saw it after that. fishing and ended up with your own boat.

Everyone asked, “why didn’t you get a It all started when I was laid up with a picture?!” but honestly, I was just rooted football injury and an opportunity came up in to the spot. the interim. I’ve always been a keen diver – very I spoke to the guys at the mussel farm, and water orientated. I actually used to be part of we established it must’ve been a humpback the coastguard here. whale. We’re 44 miles to the open coast from Now I’ve been fishing for 5 years. I love here, so that was pretty magical. the fresh air and the freedom – particularly in I remember, when I was a kid you’d see summer! I got my boat from Aberystwyth. Its basking sharks running their backs into the pier name – Rhiannon – translates to a Welsh horse and onto the barnacles, but I haven’t seen one goddess. in 5 years. Sometimes in the morning there are porpoises in the water, and there are spinner What’s it like being out on the water alone? dolphins, a lot of different sea birds, and seals You spend most of your time hanging onto too. It’s enough to keep you company. a rope! You’ve got to be a good dancer – a good skipper – on a boat, because you’ve got to be Do the sea birds give you some competition in able to jump quickly. I usually clip a knife to my the fishing department? braces, because if you get a wrap around, you’re The gannets dive in with their heads under going over the side. the water. You see them coming in from 100m away, and they hit the water at about 80 miles Have you ever fallen off? an hour. Their long vision must be really good, No – touch wood! I’ve been knocked off my but I’m convinced they must be short sighted. feet by a creel shooting between my legs. A lot They’re totally dopey; once one had its head of the trawler guys say, “I wouldn’t do what you under the water really close by, looking right do, going out on your own”. up at the boat. It was quite surreal.

You make a visual judgement of the The gannets are beautiful, they have yellow weather on the day. But this loch is notorious markings and vivid blue eyes. And the shags and for being flat calm then blowing up a gale – I’ve the cormorants, they have green eyes and are been going sideways and all sorts. There have pretty amazing. The guillemots I’ve got at the been a few hairy moments, but that’s part of moment are really cheeky, really funny. They’ll the job. actually come up and bite the main rope. You could literally bend over the side and touch You say you’re alone on the loch, but we’ve them. Yesterday they were pecking, diving heard there’s lots of amazing wildlife here… backwards and forwards under the water.

There’s a wonderful thing, where the boat is moored, called a firework anemone. It’s got You grew up in Inveraray – have you always these big sort of feathers! Those are protected. lived here?

Two years last October, I was maybe 150m No. I went and worked in Australia in wine off the shore – it’s quite deep water there – and production. Then twice I went to Israel. It was I heard a ‘psssshhhhh!’ noise I hadn’t heard on 9 months in Australia at a small family winery, the boat before. So, I came out of the wheel north of Melbourne. And then I was oyster house, had a look to see if anything was wrong; farming for two years. After that I decided I everything’s fine. wanted to go travelling, so spent a bit of time It was a beautiful October day: flat calm, in New Zealand and going through Asia. and hardly a cloud in the sky. It was stunning. I was getting a creel up out of the hauler when, Find Donald's catch on the menu at The George Hotel – Main St East, Inveraray, Argyll, PA32 8TT www.thegeorgehotel.co.uk 20

Knowledge Bar

Whisky & Shellfish…

"Smoky on smoky!"

Whisky and shellfish pairing from Donald’s brother, Kris Clark, manager at The George Hotel 1 Whisky is probably better with a smoked fish.

1 Try a nice Islay whisky, and smoked hake.

1 We do hand-dived scallops at The George.

They come from the Isle of Mull and are good with Laphroaig, a nice smoky dram…

Donald checks his creels on the beach in Inveraray; Brothers Donald and Kris outside The George Hotel; Freshly caught langoustines and prawns.

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| distillery visit

After a tumultuous 20th Century, Campbeltown is firmly back on the Scotch map. Gavin D. Smith explores a true phoenix from the ashes story at Glen Scotia Distillery.

Knowledge Bar

Glen Scotia ESTABLISHED: 1832

1 Glen Scotia maintains much of it's original designs, including the fermemters, the stillroom, and the dunnage warehouse 1 Current distillery manager: Iain McAlister 1 Master distiller: John Peterson 1 Currently owned by: The Loch Lomond Group 1 Address: 12 High Street, Campbeltown, PA28 6DS, Scotland 1 Tours available Mon–Sat, starting at £15 per person

2 “ The distillery has a long and proud history having been founded in 1832 and is one of only three distilleries left in Campbeltown, the fifth designated Scotch whisky region.”

Opposite: Glen Scotia Distillery as it stands today; Above: Looking out from behind the counter in the new Glen Scotia visitors' centre; Right: Gazing up at the freshly gleaming stills and newly installed spirit safe; Overleaf: Campbeltown native Distillery Manager Iain McAlister noses the distillery's creations in the dunnage warehouse.

! glen scotia deserves a place in that special group of whisky-making enterprises that have endured repeated periods of silence and multiple owners, and have sometimes been thought lost forever – namely ‘distilleries that refused to die’.

Glen Scotia is located in Campbeltown on the Kintyre peninsula, and illicit distillation was rife in remote Kintyre during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Indeed, there were more than 50 working unlicensed stills, but the 1823 Excise Act led to a proliferation of legal enterprises, and 24 new distilleries commenced production between 1823 and 1835.

One such was Glen Scotia – originally just Scotia – established by members of the Stewart and Galbraith families on the High Street of the historic Argyll fishing port during 1832, four years after its fellow Campbeltown survivor, Springbank.

Fast forward the best part of a century, and what ‘distillery bagger’ Alfred Barnard had described in the 1880s as ‘Whisky City’ had become barely even a whisky hamlet. Glen Scotia closed in 1928, as the region’s whiskymaking momentum ground to a near halt.

It had been acquired from the Galbraith family in 1919 by West Highland Malt Distillers, but that company went bankrupt five years later. Duncan McCallum, a former Director of the firm, took over Glen Scotia, but he

was also declared bankrupt in 1828, having been the victim of a business swindle. The distillery closed and two years later McCallum committed suicide by drowning. Successive generations of distillery workers claim to have seen his ghost on the site.

In a way, Campbeltown became a victim of its own success, with some whisky-makers turning out poor quality, quickly-distilled spirit to satisfy demand, leading to the town’s whiskies gaining an unenviable reputation.

Prohibition in the United States between 1920 and 1933 was also a serious blow to the Campbeltown distillers, who enjoyed a thriving trade with North America. Additionally, the town’s remoteness by road from major centres of population, such as Glasgow, was also becoming an issue, and blenders were switching from the peaty, assertive Campbeltown malts to the more elegant offerings from Speyside.

In 1930 Bloch Brothers (Distillers) acquired Glen Scotia and recommenced whisky-making three years later, selling the plant on to Hiram Walker (Scotland) Ltd in 1954. They in turn also found the distillery surplus to requirements, and it passed to the Glasgow blending and bottling firm of A.Gillies & Co, which became part of Amalgamated Distillers Products (ADP) in 1970.

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Between 1979 and 1982, more than £1 million was spent refurbishing Glen Scotia, but another period of silence commenced in 1984, lasting until 1989 when production resumed at the behest of ADP’s new parent, Gibson International.

Glen Scotia underwent yet another change of ownership when it was acquired

by Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse Ltd. in 1994. Glen Catrine also owned Loch Lomond and Littlemill distilleries, and began distilling small amounts of whisky at Glen Scotia in 1999, courtesy of an arrangement with Springbank staff, though passers-by could be forgiven for thinking that the site was actually inactive, such was the air of dilapidation that hung around the old black and white-painted distillery.

Gradually, however, investment was forthcoming from Glen Catrine, and Glen Scotia began to take pride in itself again, with money being spent on infrastructure and distilling equipment. 2008 saw the key appointment of former Scottish Water engineer and Campbeltown native Iain McAlister as distillery manager, and four years later a new portfolio of four aged Glen Scotias appeared.

The distillery was not done with changes of ownership just yet, however, and in the spring of 2014 the Loch Lomond Group – belonging to Exponent Private Equity –

2“ Taking on the role at Glen Scotia was the best move I ever made. I love the job. It’s great to see what’s been happening with the distillery and its single malt. In a sense, we’ve both been progressing together.”

purchased the Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse Ltd. business.

Subsequently, three additional washbacks have been installed at Glen Scotia, along with a new spirit safe and boiler, while the tun room and stillhouse have been re-roofed.

The formerly dark and uninviting pair of stills has been subjected to a rigorous cleaning regime by renowned coppersmiths Forsyth’s of Rothes, and now gleam proudly. There has been expansion of warehousing capacity, and the creation of a stylish visitor centre, complete with shop and tasting room.

Last, but far from least, the previous range of expressions has been replaced by Double Cask (finished for three to four months in ex-Pedro Ximinez sherry casks), 15-year-old (finished in oloroso sherry casks) and the cask-strength Victoriana. All three are un-chill-filtered and bottled at 46%ABV. So how do Glen Scotia’s latest owners view their acquisition? According to Marketing Manager Scott Dickson, “Glen Scotia sits as one of our premium single malt offerings within our portfolio and gives our customers and consumers the opportunity to explore and try a Campbeltown single malt. The distillery has a long and proud history having been founded in 1832 and is one of only three distilleries left in Campbeltown, the fifth designated Scotch whisky region. Campbeltown whiskies have a distinct coastal character, with hints of peat

and fruit, and we have created a range with those characteristics at its heart.”

Noting the creation of dedicated visitor facilities and infrastructure improvements to the distillery, Dickson adds that “We have done this to ensure we can grow the brand moving forward. Combined with new premium packaging, Glen Scotia is now ready to be discovered and enjoyed by a new wave of consumers. Since the relaunch the new range is growing at 100 per cent year on year as we expand into over 90 countries worldwide.

Some of our core markets are the UK, US, South Africa, France and Taiwan, where we have had success with the new range.”

Distillery manager Iain McAlister says that “The visitor centre and shop have proved a great asset. The distillery is now a destination in its own right for tastings. It’s been doing exceptionally well this year. We’re constantly upgrading the distillery and carrying out maintenance, and we’ re now making over 500,000 litres of spirit per year. When I started work here nearly nine years ago we were only making 100,000 litres. We’ ve been able to increase capacity because of the three additional stainless steel washbacks that have been added, and we now have a total of nine.”

In terms of warehousing, too, significant improvements have been made, with McAlister explaining that “We now have racked and palletised warehouses, and a small ‘dunnage’ warehouse. There was a derelict area right in 26

the heart of the distillery which we have renovated, and it can hold 8,000 palletised casks.”

Each year Glen Scotia now makes an amount of lightly peated (15ppm) and heavily peated (50ppm) spirit, and McAlister says that “We may increase overall production slightly, and our Distillery Bottlings have been a great success.

Each is from a single cask, and only available at the distillery. We’re now on our third, and the first two sold out, as did our two open day single cask bottlings.

The new owners are putting lots of money into the distillery and the brand, which was crying out to be pushed. Taking on the role at Glen Scotia was the best move I ever made. I love the job. It’s great to see what’s been happening with the distillery and its single malt. In a sense, we’ve both been progressing together.”

— www.glenscotia.com

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New Releases Winter 2016

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Aberfeldy 1991 Single Cask THE WHISKY SHOP EXCLUSIVE

24 YEAR OLD SINGLE HIGHLAND MALT 53.5% VOL | 70CL | £320 Pale amber with moderate beading. The attractive waxy aroma found in old Aberfeldy’s is immediately apparent, backed by a fresh-fruity complex (pear, melon) and completed by a thread of smoke (snuffed candle). The texture is both smooth and chalky; the taste sweet and tannic, with a hint of grapefruit; the finish long and warming.

! aberfeldy Aberfeldy Distillery was built in 1898 by the Dewar brothers, John, Alexander and Tommy, to supply malt fillings for their successful blends – by 1898 John Dewar & Sons was ranked among the ‘Big Three’ blending houses. The brothers had already leased Tullymet Distillery at Ballinluig for the same purpose and, as their blends grew in popularity, would acquire many others, usually in partnership with other leading blending houses.

1898 was the very height of the first great ‘Whisky Boom’, and while I was researching the history of Dewar’s some years ago, I was shown a very interesting document from the company’s archive, dated around the same year.

It is titled In Quest of the Truth: The Future of Scotch Whisky – ‘An interview at John Dewar’s by a Medical Man’ and provides a useful reminder of how recent was the fashion for Scotch. Here is a short extract: “Whisky has attained to a popularity which even the most rash would have hesitated to prophesy for it ten years ago. And in this connection it is well to bear in mind that temperance has increased and drunkenness declined more rapidly than in any previous decade in this century.

“It is well within the recollection of every middleaged man that the Whisky formerly in demand was almost exclusively Irish. I have it on authority that twenty years ago a dozen gallons of Irish Whisky were consumed to one of Scotch. Now this proportion has been reversed – and more, for where one gallon of the product of Hibernia is drunk, twenty gallons of Scotch Whisky are taken. And it is worthy of remark that whereas not very long since very few Irish hotel keepers sold Scotch Whisky, to-day there is not an hotel of repute in all Erin where ‘Scotch’ cannot be had, and where its sale is not increasing.”

By 1900, Dewar’s master blender, A.J. Cameron, was experimenting with ‘marrying’ the malt components in his blends, then returning them to cask for three or four months before adding the grain whisky components.

He wrote that this gave “greater uniformity and more dependable consistency to the blends and, notwithstanding its complexity, has been retained as an integral part of our blending system”.

His successors to this day – and there have only been seven master blenders in the company’s history – continue this time-consuming practice, for Dewar’s Deluxe blends.

Aberfeldy is generally considered to be a

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bench-mark example of a Highland malt – lightly sweet and fruity, on a base of heather pollen and beeswax. Stephanie Macleod, Master Blender, has selected this new expression of Aberfeldy 1991 exclusively for The Whisky Shop. It has been bottled at natural strength, without colouring or chill-filtration, and displays many of the delectable characteristics of the make, notably a slight waxiness, which I find most attractive.

Aultmore 1996 Single Cask THE WHISKY SHOP EXCLUSIVE

19 YEAR OLD SPEYSIDE SINGLE MALT 50.4% VOL | 70CL | £250 The colour of polished rosewood (with magenta lights); excellent beading. The nose is surprisingly alcoholic for its strength. The top note is of rich dry fruitcake, with maraschino cherries and raspberry jam on a base of almond oil, developing into coconut oil. It has a thick texture and a very rich, sweet taste, drying considerably in the long finish, and leaving an aftertaste of rose petals. Delicious!

! aultmore Aultmore Distillery was built by one of the unsung heroes of the whisky industry, Alexander Edward of Sanquhar Estate, Forres, in 1896/97.

He had inherited Benrinnes Distillery from his father, when he was scarcely out of his teens, and built Craigellachie Distillery in partnership with Peter Mackie of White Horse between 1888 and 1891, and the Craigellachie Hotel in 1896. He had been the shooting tenant over the Aultmore site for some years, renting from the owner, the Duke of Fife, and in 1896 purchased the land outright.

Work began on the site immediately. Alexander Edward was around 30 years old, and in January, The Banffshire Herald remarked: “Mr. Edward’s success in having amassed an independent fortune before he was barely entered in his thirties is regarded as a perfect marvel. He is not contented to make his pile by the thousand, but by his potent tact and skill can accomplish this by the tens of thousands.”

He would go on to head the consortium which bought Oban Distillery in 1898, supported the establishment of Benromach Distillery the same year, and of Dallas Dhu Distillery in 1899.

His obituary in The Elgin Courant (March 3rd 1946) describes him as “one of the oldest and bestknown distillers in Scotland… One of the most popular men in the trade, Lord Dewar was among his closest friends” yet until last year there was not even a known photograph of him.

The Autmore site is on the edge of an area of wild country known as the Foggie Moss, stretching north of Keith towards the coast at Buckie, with numerous springs and abundant peat deposits

which made it a haunt of illicit distillers in the 19th century.

As late as 1934 an elderly local remembered a ‘small still’ being worked by one Jane Milne on the Auchenderran Burn, which supplies the process water for Aultmore, and the DCL Gazette of that year notes “four bothies, still visible in the burn and gullies where an ample supply of water could be obtained.” The illicit spirits were taken to Keith, Fochabers, Portgordon and Buckie, all less than ten miles distant, where it was said to have been in great demand from publicans and innkeepers.

The whisky from Aultmore is ranked ‘Top Class’ by blenders; from 1923 the distillery was

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owned by John Dewar & Sons, so joined the Distillers Company Limited (DCL) in 1925. It was a key filling malt for Dewar’s blends and was only bottled as a single by its proprietor in 1991.

At that time it was owned by United Distillers (the successor to the DCL) and when UD merged with Independent Distillers & Vintners to become Diageo, the company was obliged to sell a major brand and a clutch of distilleries.

Dewar’s, Aberfeldy, Aultmore, Craigellachie and Royal Brackla were acquired by Bacardi.

In 2014 Dewar’s/Bacardi at last made bottlings of Aultmore more widely available, bottled at 12, 18, 21 and 25. This 20Year Old is exceptional.

The Loch Fyne Honey & Ginger Liqueur SCOTCH WHISKY LIQUEUR 25% VOL | 50CL | £28

Very pale in colour. The nose is immediately gingery, with a mead-like middle and a base of honeysuckle and clover flowers – surprisingly fragrant (Buddhist temples come to mind) and inviting. Cool and smooth in the mouth; sweet but not cloying. A nice balance of ginger, mild honey and tropical flowers, with a short, herbal finish.

! the loch fyne honey & ginger liqueur The Loch Fyne Liqueur was launched by Loch Fyne Whiskies in Inveraray in June 2004. Its creator, Richard Joynson, wrote in the launch pamphlet: “The Loch Fyne Liqueur is relaxing and satisfying.

Less sweet than other liqueurs, it has a warming aroma of de luxe Scotch whisky, spicy orange cake and a tiny whiff of log fires… Created for whisky lovers seeking a sophisticated and complex alternative, it is superb on its own – even for those less enthusiastic about whisky – but it also mixes like no other.”

Now it has been joined by The Loch Fyne Honey & Ginger Liqueur – in time for Christmas!

Both honey and ginger are known to pair well with whisky.

The association with heather honey traces back into legend – indeed to a time before the first written reference to whisky. In 1475, King James III sent a punitive expedition into the West to curb the activities of John Macdonald, 4th Lord of the Isles. It was led by the Earls of Atholl and Crawford. Atholl received information that the Lord of the Isles was hiding in the hills of Mull, and was in the habit of drinking from a small well in a basin-like rock. He ordered that the basin be filled with a mixture of whisky and oatmeal.

The fugitive was so enchanted by this magical potion that he dallied by the well for too long and was captured. The compound has ever since been named Atholl Brose.

Sir Walter Scott’s famous cook in St. Ronan’s Well, Meg Dod – described as “the supreme arbiter of the Caledonian kitchen” – sensibly omits the oatmeal. It was the Hogmanay drink of choice in the Highlands, especially among the

Highland Regiments.

Whisky and ginger became a popular mixture in India during the British Raj. The famous Whisky Mac, named after one Colonel Macdonald, combines 2 or 3-parts whisky with 1-part Green Ginger Cordial. The favoured cordial was Crabbie’s, made to a recipe that John Crabbie had obtained from Margaret Balmer, wife of Andrew Usher, the first whisky blender. Indeed, the tradition in the Usher family was that Andrew had been taught to blend by his wife… So ‘The Father

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of Blending’ is not a ‘Father’ at all, she’s a ‘Mother’!

The other traditional ginger-mix is the Horse’s Neck: whisky and ginger ale. In his excellent recent book, Whisky: The Manual, Dave Broom writes: “Ginger is the Rita Hayworth of the mixer world.

There’s a smouldering, seductive aspect to ginger, which then ignites into spiciness on the kiss-off…

Ginger is the natural partner with the sweet spices in many whiskies.”

Now The Loch Fyne Whisky & Ginger Liqueur combines these classic flavours in a single drink.

It is unusually fresh and delicate, and not as sweet as many ‘stickies’ (as posh people refer to liqueurs!). Makes a pleasant aperitif (served over hard ice), but comes into its own as a digestif, or straight from a flask in the open air on a chilly winter’s day.

Jack Daniels 150th Anniversary 100 Proof TENNESSEE WHISKEY 50% VOL | 1L | £160

Burnished copper, with blood-orange lights; unusually slow legs. The nosefeel is mild and luscious with gravid fruit – cling peaches, ripe mango, table grapes – on a sandalwood base, developing hints of rich fruitcake. It does not require reduction. As expected it has a creamy texture; the taste nobly balances sweet and dry, with a medium length finish, leaving a winey aftertaste.

! jack daniel’s 150th anniversary The label tells us this is “A special 100° Proof Old No.7 Tennessee Whisky” and, elsewhere, “The year 2016 marks 150 years of the Jack Daniel Distillery, the oldest registered distillery in the United States of America…

A tribute to the legacy of whiskey craftsmanship and the birthplace of an American classic”.

Let me deconstruct this.

First, ‘Proof’.

Before hydrometers were invented, the commonest method of ‘proving’ the alcoholic strength of a spirit was to mix it with gunpowder and putting a match to it: the mixture was deemed to be ‘proved’ when it ignited, if it did not do so it was ‘under-proof’. In time, British (Imperial) and American proof came to vary: American proof is simply twice the Alcohol by Volume (ABV) present in the liquid – so 100%Vol is 200° US Proof, 43%Vol is 86° Proof, etc – while the Imperial system makes 100%Vol 175° Proof, 43%Vol is 75° Proof. In the United States spirits are still labelled with their proof strength; since 1st January 1980, proof was replaced throughout Europe by ABV. Second, ‘Tennessee Whiskey’.

Tennessee whiskey, of which Jack Daniel’s is the leading example, is a bourbon up until the point at which it is filtered – ‘mellowed’ – through a bed of sugar maple charcoal ten foot deep, known as the ‘Lincoln County Process’, which is when it becomes a Tennessee Whiskey. Lynchburg, where the Jack Daniel Distillery is located, was in Lincoln County when the eponymous Jack invented the process. The distillery’s master distiller, Jeff Arnett, says: “If you taste the white dog coming off the still [i.e. new make spirit] it’s astringent. After mellowing there’s a different mouthfeel. It’s clean and light”.

But the process is expensive and time consuming.

Third, ‘Old No. 7’.

It is not known for certain how JD Old No. 7 – until relatively recently, the trademark’s only brand – got its name. One story has it that seven barrels of Jack’s whisky were mislaid, and on their recovery the number seven had been chalked on their sides. The retailer who received the barrels forever asked for ‘that number seven whiskey’, and the name stuck.

What is certain is that Jack Daniel’s Old No.7 whiskey won a gold medal at the Wold Fair at St. Louis, Missouri in 1907, and the brand soon began to be marketed overseas. Jack himself died the following year, from septicaemia contracted when he injured his toe kicking a safe which refused to open.

Fourth, ‘150th Anniversary’.

Jack Daniel registered his distillery in 1866,

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the year after the conclusion of the American Civil War, when he was aged twenty. He had learned his trade as a boy when he was staying with a farmerdistiller and Baptist minister, from a slave with the charming name, Nearest Green, who was also the farm’s master distiller, and bought the still in 1860 (when he was fourteen!).

It is said that he did a good trade selling his ‘firewater’ to the local populace during the Civil War – although excise duties were reintroduced

by President Lincoln in 1862, they were not enforced until the War ended. Jack had just expanded his operation and moved it to Lincoln County, near Lynchburg, in 1866, naming it after himself and applying for a license. It thus became the first registered distillery in the U.S.A. after the Civil War. Every drop of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey is made there to this day.

Glenfiddich Project XX SPEYSIDE SINGLE MALT 47% VOL | 70CL | £50

Old, highly polished brass. A fragrant top note of dried mixed herbs, wallflowers and gewurztraminer grapes on a tarte Tatin base. A drop of water adds a mossy note, with boiled sweets (orange flavoured) and some elusive dried herbs. Full-bodied in the mouth, with a sweet start and a dry, spicy/herbal taste in the lingering finish. More-ish!

! glenfiddich project xx The blurb which accompanied the box introducing the Glenfiddich Experimental Series begins: “When you have mastered your art and are at the top of your game, there’s only one way to push things further – and that is to unlearn everything you know… …Open your mind to new and unlikely experiences; think playfully, problem solving through creativity; do all the things that you have learned as an adult not to do”.

Intriguing! I read on: this is “a new range that combines the brand’s passion for pushing Scotch whisky boundaries and collaborating with trailblazers from the whisky world and beyond…Designed to inspire unusual and unexpected variants…”

The box contained two small bottles labelled ‘IPA Experiment’ and ‘Project XX’ (i.e. ‘Twenty’), an orange and a petrie dish of sea salt. I assumed the ‘unexpected variant’ was to apply tequila tactics: lick salt, shoot whisky, bite on orange… The whole kit looked intriguing, entertaining and fun, even if the puffery was a bit over-blown.

There was also a memory stick in the box, however, which explained what they were up to: “The Glenfiddich Experimental Series is the result of unlearning what we know and being who we say we are: the Maverick Whisky Makers of Dufftown”.

Well, who would have thought…!

The first sample to drive back the boundaries of whisky experience, the Glenfiddich IPA Experiment, is simply a NAS Glenfiddich which has been finished in beer barrels that had formerly contained India Pale Ale, I think from the Speyside Brewery. I thought William Grant & Sons had done this before, perhaps for Family Reserve. The difference may be that the barrels had been used for maturing whisky before they were seasoned with beer. The result was pleasant but not unlike existing

expressions of Glenfiddich.

Project XX is more ambitious.

Twenty Glenfiddich Brand Ambassadors from seventeen countries – “many of them foremost experts on Glenfiddich in their respective countries” – were invited by Brian Kinsman, William Grant’s talented master blender, to travel to Dufftown and each select a favourite cask. The resulting choices – new and refill ex-bourbon casks, ex-wine and ex-fortified wine casks - was skilfully blended by Brian, “to reflect their individual tastes and interests”.

His ambition was to “create one remarkable single malt, by combining the curiosity and knowledge of these twenty experts”, and he is justifiably pleased with the result. “The final liquid was exceptional – and a special tribute to each individual cask the malts came from… It has the warm summer fruits fruity character of classic Glenfiddich, but then its ‘multiple personalities’ are revealed…”

This makes it sound somewhat schizophrenic,

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which it’s not! As Brian says, Glenfiddich’s distillery character is not masked by flavours coming from the diversity of casks employed in the vatting; these serve to add subtle nuances of smell and taste.

As I was assessing this whisky, William Grant & Sons results were announced: the company’s profit before tax in 2015 was up 6.7%, to £177.2 million, “helped by surging sales of Glenfiddich and Hendrick’s gin”. Sales of Glenfiddich have continued to increase by 5% year on year.

By the way, the role of the orange mentioned above was not explained in the ‘perfect serve’ instructions, although one was advised to sprinkle a few flakes of sea salt on the rim of the glass for a special sensation… This worked well!

Brora 38 Year Old Special Release 2016 38 YEAR OLD HIGHLAND SINGLE MALT 48.6% VOL | 70CL | £1450 Old gold in colour, with slow-running legs. Slightly nose-drying. Sweet tobacco (flavoured with prune juice) and well-seasoned tobacco pipe; saddle soap and leather polish; after a while a trace of vanilla sponge and a suggestion of snuffed candle. The taste is sweet and slightly waxy; fragrant, lightly spicy and with scented smoke in the finish and aftertaste.

No need for water, but this increases the waxiness.

! brora 38 year old For the first 150 years of its existence, Brora was named Clynelish, then in 1967/68 a new distillery was built nearby, imaginatively also named ‘Clynelish’. The original distillery was mothballed for a couple of years, then resumed small-scale production. Between 1972-74, while Caol Ila Distillery was being rebuilt, it produced a heavily peated malt for blending purposes, then in 1975 a new mash house was installed and the name was changed to ‘Brora’ to avoid confusion with Clynelish No.2. The distillery finally closed in 1983, although the buildings still stand (they are listed) and much of the old equipment is still in situ.

The spirit from Clynelish/Brora has long enjoyed a high reputation. The trade journal, Harper’s Weekly, remarked in 1896 that “the make has always obtained the highest price of any single Scotch whisky. It is sent out, duty paid, to private customers all over the kingdom; and it also commands a very valuable export trade; the demand for it in that way is so great that the proprietors… have for many years been obliged to refuse trade orders”.

This is highly significant, since by the 1890s 99.9% of the malt whisky distilled went into blends: the blending houses in ‘the trade’ were the distillers’ key customers and annual production was entirely geared to their requirements. The great Victorian oenophile, Professor George Saintsbury, named it as one of his favourite malts in his Notes from a Cellar Book (1920).

Both distilleries use the same water supply, piped from a weir on the Clynemilton Burn which, along with other streams in the Strath of Kildonan, is rich in particles of gold. In the 1860s there was a gold rush to the district; a friend of mine has a ring made from gold panned by his greatgrandfather and set with fresh-water pearls

from the River Helmsdale. Permits to pan for gold are still issued locally.

Kildonan was made infamous by the brutal removal of tenants by the owner of the land, the Countess of Sutherland, and her husband, the Marquess of Stafford (later Duke of Sutherland), in order to replace them with more profitable sheep. Both were “seized with the rage for improvements”, in the Countess’ own words, and as well as agricultural ‘improvements’, which necessitated the eviction of 15,000 souls between 1811 and 1820, they planned a coal-pit, salt pans, a brick works and a distillery. The latter was founded in 1819.

As well as providing employment and (to quote the Sutherland’s Lands Commissioner, James Loch) “affording the smaller tenants on the estate a steady and ready market for their grain”, it was hoped that the distillery’s existence would put an end to illicit distilling in the district, which “had nursed the people in every species of deceit, vice, idleness and dissipation”.

Diageo has released expressions of Brora annually since 2002, usually bottled at 30 years old (25 years old after 2008); in 2014 260 bottles at 40 years old were released exclusively in travel retail at an RRP of £6,995 – Diageo’s ‘most expensive malt ever’.

There are only 2984 bottles of this 38 Year Old available, and we are glad to have a small allocation.

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Linkwood 37 Year Old Special Release 2016 37 YEAR OLD SPEYSIDE SINGLE MALT 50.3% VOL | 50CL | £600 Polished brass. The nose takes time to open up, but then presents delicate fresh-fruit notes – a fruit salad including melon, grape, apple and pear – gradually becoming deeper (fruit salad in syrup) and more winey (Gewürztraminer). A smooth texture and a sweet taste overall, with baked apple in the mid-palate, a long warming finish and an aftertaste which combines milk chocolate and sanded hardwood.

! linkwood 37 year old Linkwood has long been regarded as a classic Speyside malt – sweet, elegant, stylish – and ranked ‘Top Class’ by blenders. As a result only a small amount is bottled as a single by its proprietor, Diageo, (at 12 years, in their Flora & Fauna series). This is the oldest expression they have ever released, and is limited to 6,114 bottles.

The distillery was built by Peter Brown of Linkwood in 1821. He was the factor of the Seafield Estates in Moray and Banffshire and one of the foremost agricultural improvers in the northern counties. His brother was General Sir George Brown, who commanded the Light Division during the Crimean War; his father, also named George, was six times Provost of Elgin.

Anderson’s Guide to the Highlands (1834) remarks that: “Society in Elgin comprehends an unusual proportion of persons of easy or affluent circumstances”. The Browns of Linkwood would certainly fall into such society.

On his death in 1868, Peter Brown was succeeded by his son William, who demolished the original distillery and replaced it in 1873 with “spacious new premises”. The local newspaper reported that “nothing has been left undone… that could add to the convenience, durability, or appearance of the establishment… The manufacture of spirits has now been going on for a considerable time, and we are glad to say that the aqua produced is quite equal in flavour, and in every other respect, to that which attained the celebrity of Linkwood whisky as produced by the older and very much smaller work now superseded”.

In 1933, the distillery was bought by Scottish Malt Distillers, the production division of the Distillers Company Limited, who appointed one Roderick Mackenzie as manager. In common with

some others – not least Sir Alexander Walker of Johnnie Walker – Mackenzie believed that the flavour of the spirit might be influenced by external factors in the environment of the still-house, and when the plant was replaced in 1962 he insisted that the new stills should not only be exact replicas of the previous stills, but should incorporate their every patch and dent.

Sir Alexander Walker was even more particular and went ballistic when he heard that an over-zealous manager at Cardhu Distillery had tidied away the cob-webs in the still-house!

Both stories illustrate just how little was understood about the influences upon flavour in the production of whisky. Even in the 1980s it was believed that a key factor was the nature of the process water; production manuals of that time

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say very little, if anything, about the influence of wood during maturation.

But the stories also illustrate the concern distillers have to make sure there is no change in spirit character when stills are replaced, and this is as true today as ever. Such was the demand for Linkwood that a replica distillery was built alongside the original in 1971, named ‘Linkwood B’.

This operated in parallel with Linkwood A until 1985, when the old Linkwood distillery closed.

The spirit from each was vatted before being filled into cask, to ensure consistency.

Port Ellen 37 Year Old 16th Release 37 YEAR OLD ISLAY SINGLE MALT 55.2% VOL | 70CL | £2500 18CT gold with tawny lights. Initial scents of tropical fruits and chewy fruit sweets fade into artists’ oil paint and hemp cordage, with an ever-present thread of scented smoke. More mineralic with a drop of water, now with traces of linseed oil and reduced smoke. An oily texture and a sweet taste, with a warming, smoky finish, lightly mouth-cooling (cloves). I was reminded of a Halloween turnip lantern (sweet, smoky, candle-waxy).

! port ellen This is the 16th release by Diageo of this legendary malt. The first, released in 2001 had an RRP of £95; last year a bottle of this achieved £1,885 at auction. There are only 2940 bottles available, and we are glad to have a small allocation.

Apart from its flavour – and this example is exceptional in my view – the attraction of Port Ellen is its relative rarity. It was mothballed in 1983 and terminally closed in 1987 – a casualty of the chronic trading conditions in the early 1980s.

During the previous two decades there had been a dramatic increase in production capacity in order to meet the ever increasing demand for Scotch – by 1980 the amount of whisky being held in bond was more than four times what it had been in 1960.

But during the mid-1970s the U.S. economy went into sharp recession, and America was the largest export market for Scotch. Between January 1973 and December 1974 there was the worst stock market crash since the Great Depression (January 1973 – December 1974), and this was compounded by the conclusion of the Vietnam War (August 1973), which had stimulated the American economy, and by the first Oil Crisis (October 1973 – March 1974), when the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Producing Countries (OPEC), the principal suppliers of crude oil to the West, imposed an oil embargo as a protest against America’s continuing military support of Israel.

Inflation in Western economies, which had been running at about 2.5% per annum since 1900, rose to 6% after 1970 – topping at 13% in 1979 – while unemployment also increased, leading to interest rates of unprecedented levels of over 12% per annum. Manufacturing industries in the West began to decline.

To make matters worse, fashion was turning

away from Scotch – it was ‘Dad’s drink’; no longer aspirational, no longer stylish. In both America and the UK, the two leading markets, there was a shift in consumer taste towards blander spirits (white rum and vodka) drunk with mixers, and to wine, which benefited from lower duty than spirits in the UK, in accordance with EC agreements.

To make the situation even worse, between 1981 and 1983 the world economy fell rapidly into recession. Output of both grain and malt whisky declined sharply (in 1983, it was at its lowest level since 1961).

The Scotch whisky industry had no alternative but to cut back. Between 1981 and 1986, no fewer than twenty-nine distilleries were taken out of production; eighteen of these have not worked since, and several have been demolished. For the rest of the decade, only 75 distilleries were 37

in operation.

Port Ellen was always a blending whisky.

Its powerfully peaty taste made it a useful ‘top dressing’, described by some blenders as ‘condimental’ – like salt and pepper, only a very small amount was required to influence the flavour of the blend. The distillery’s owner, the Distillers Company Ltd., also owned two other Islay distilleries producing peaty whisky, Lagavulin and Caol Ila, and there was simply no need for a third.

When Port Ellen’s many devotees question the wisdom of closing such an iconic distillery, they should remember that in 1983 the smoky malts of Islay had few followers, and they might reflect on how vulnerable the industry is to factors beyond its control. This is especially relevant in the current climate of massive expansion of distilling capacity.

Bunnahabhain 46 Year Old ISLAY SINGLE IMALT 42.1% VOL | 70CL | £5000

Deep amber with khaki lights; big slow legs. The first aroma is reminiscent of a hessian sack full of ripe plums.

Gradually a scent of antique, leather-bound books emerges, buffed with scented wax polish. A smooth texture and a sweet taste (crystalline brown sugar), with candlewax in the middle and a lightly sour finish, and an aftertaste of scorched paper. Exceptional whisky.

! bunnahabhain Bunnahabhain Distillery was built between 1881 and 1883 by William Robertson of the Glasgow firm of blenders and brokers, Robertson & Baxter, in partnership with Greenlees Brothers of Campbeltown, who owned Hazelburn Distillery and the best-selling blended Scotch of the day, Lorne, and also the Old Parr and Claymore blends. Old Parr was the first Scotch to become popular in Japan, towards the end of the 19th Century.

Bunnahabhain was designed to produce whisky for blending. By the 1880s popular taste was moving away from the robust malts of Campbeltown and the pungent Islays – a very small amount of either will dominate a blend.

Non-Scots Scotch drinkers looked for a brandy substitute – remember, thanks to the aphid Phylloxera devastating the vineyards of France, Cognac was not available, and brandy (with soda) was the drink of the English middle classes.

Scotch-and-soda was poised to replace it.

So the new distillery used unpeated or lightly peated malt, and its designers went so far as to draw the process water from a spring in the Margadale Hills, to the south of the distillery, and pipe it down so as to avoid contact with peat. It is the most remote and most northern distillery on Islay. Its construction was not without difficulties: two large boilers were blown off the beach where they were waiting to be fitted during the first winter of building, and as well as a village of cottages, with a school and other facilities, a mile-long road had to be laid up a steep cliff to connect the site with the road to Port Askaig, the nearest village.

But, once completed, it was much admired.

Alfred Barnard, the original ‘distillery-bagger’, visited the distillery five years after it went into

production and described it as: “A fine pile of buildings in the form of a square and quite enclosed.

Entering by the noble gateway one forms an immediate sense of the compactness and symmetrical construction of the work”.

William Robertson went on to buy Glen Rothes-Glenlivet Distillery (in 1887) and merge it with Bunnahabhain to form Highland Distilleries, which, with Robertson and Baxter, was renamed The Edrington Group in 1999. Somewhat surprisingly, Bunnahabain Distillery was sold to Burn Stewart Distillers in 2003 for £10 million and is accordingly now owned by the Distell Group, owners of Burn Stewart since 2013. In his invaluable Malt Whisky Yearbook (2016), Ingvar Ronde remarks that, although the out-turn was the smallest of all the Islay distilleries apart from tiny Kilchoman, over the past five years it has doubled: 38

“In part, this is due to the re-creation work of the company’s [former] master blender, Ian MacMillan.

He decided to stop colouring and chill-filtering, and also started bottling at higher strength… At the same time he released new versions where peated Bunnahabhain define the character”.

One might add that Ian also introduced some superb older expressions – a 34 Year Old in in 2005, a 30Year Old in 2010 and a 40Year Old in 2013. This 46 Year Old, released this year under Bunnahabhain’s new team, is the distillery’s oldest release yet and is outstanding.

The Dalmore 35 Year Old HIGHLAND SINGLE MALT 45% VOL | 70CL | £3500

Deep amber with thick viscosity and a profoundly rich aroma, presenting, at first, ground almonds, dark chocolate truffles and a spray of orange zest. An unctuous texture, and a taste which is lightly sweet to start, drying elegantly, with a suggestion of cordite in the long, warming finish and traces of dark chocolate and coffee in the aftertaste. Complex and well balanced.

! the dalmore 35 year old This year, Dalmore’s Master Blender, Richard Paterson, is celebrating fifty years in the whisky trade. He is a legend in the industry, a brilliant presenter and a pioneer in several aspects of malt whisky as we know it today, not least wood finishing and the bottling of rare whiskies.

This 35 years old Dalmore was released in September this year. The ‘assemblage’ (to use Richard’s word) was a single ex-bourbon barrel, a 30YO Matusalem oloroso sherry butt from Gonzalez Byass - Richard has a monopoly on their use - and one Colheita port pipe. I asked him what inspired him to use them.

“When I began to work for Whyte & Mackay, the company also owned vineyards in France, so I made a study of the subject. I was intrigued by the idea of manipulating the flavour of my malt whiskies by filling the spirit into ex-wine, port or sherry casks. I had no clear plan; I was simply experimenting… But now, when the marketing department want new expressions of The Dalmore – which is increasingly common! – I am able to supply!

“I also explored total maturation in European oak ex-wine casks, but found that they soon masked the distillery character, the original and unique flavour of the whisky. So I start off by maturing the spirit in American oak ex-bourbon casks to let it settle, before finishing the maturation in other casks. Sometimes I then return the liquid to first-fill ex-bourbon casks to round off the flavour. It’s time consuming and expensive, but it’s worth it at the end of the day.

“As for very old whiskies, until quite recently, it was believed that long-aged whiskies held no appeal for consumers – one distillery owner said that after 12 years they tend to become ‘slimy’! – so they were used to bolster the flavour of blends. Also, the marketing people could not imagine that consumers or collectors would

pay large sums for such whiskies, but I saw the prices being achieved by some top-end wines and said to them: “Just you wait; it will come. People will pay for rarity…”

“And come it did, helped by the fact that during the economic down-turn which began in 2008, whisky was seen as a good investment. As a result, prices have rocketed…

“Since 2009, I have released very limited amounts of The Dalmore at between 30 and 64 years old. The last, Trinitas (named so because there were only three bottles!) was the first whisky to sell for £100,000; later, another bottle was sold privately for £120,000 and 39

I understand that the owners of these have already received substantial offers for their bottles, but have refused them…”

Whether or not this The Dalmore 35 will be in that league remains to be seen, but it is a great drinking whisky! It is also a generous gift - presented in a bespoke, hand-blown Baccarat crystal decanter, decorated with Dalmore’s signature ‘royal’ stag emblem, made by Hamilton & Inches of Edinburgh, who hold the Royal Warrant as Jewellers to Her Majesty The Queen.

Kavalan Sherry Cask TAIWANESE SINGLE MALT 46% VOL | 70CL | £90

Deep amber: polished mahogany, with copper lights.

A rich aroma of dried fruits (moist Xmas cake, Xmas pudding), toasted almonds (and fresh marzipan), a trace of nutmeg and mace. A smooth texture and a sweet taste – crystalline sugar in the dregs of espresso coffee, dark chocolate and a hint of black pepper in the finish. Refined and satisfying.

! kavalan sherry cask In early 2010, I was asked by Magnus Linklater, Scottish editor of The Times newspaper, to organise a tasting of the recently released St. George’s single malt – the first English whisky, made in Norfolk – and compare it with some Scotch samples.

Aged three years it was only just old enough to be ‘whisky’ (prior to that, it must be termed ‘spirit’).

We arranged a date and I left Magnus to find the samples to compare it with, telling him to make sure they were of a comparative age: it would be most unfair to use older whiskies. I also said it was essential that the tasting be completely blind.

Together we assembled a panel of six, including myself. The tasting was to take place in The Vintner’s Room Restaurant, on the ground floor of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in Leith. As I was leaving to go there, I remembered that I had been given a sample of a three year old malt from Taiwan a month before. I put it in my brief-case and handed it to Silvio Preno, manager of the restaurant, asking him to add it to the samples – there were six altogether – and to bring them to us in pairs.

I told the panellists to describe what they could smell and taste, for the benefit of the journalist who was writing up the event, then to give each a score out of ten.

In the final analysis, the Taiwanese whisky, Kavalan, scored seven; two blends from Ian Macleod & Company scored five each; St. George’s scored four, and the final two, with three and two points, were Scotch malts from the same distillery. I won’t say which!

Under the headline ‘Taiwan whisky beats Scotch’, the story was given half a page and was

He is also a world expert on wood maturation, and this is key to Kavalan’s phenomenal success.

Taiwan’s climate is hot and humid; on the upper floors of the distillery’s four racked warehouses temperatures can easily reach 42˚C, producing an Angels’ Share of 15% each year (in Scotland, 2% is allowed by HMRC). This has the effect of speeding up maturation, so that the whisky is ready to drink after only three or four years.

The brand’s success in international competitions has been unparalleled. Since launching in 2008 it has won over 190 gold medals. Last year it won ‘World’s Best Single taken up all over the world – even appearing on the Malt Whisky’ in the World Whiskies Awards. front page of Le Figaro. It literally put Kavalan on So far this year the record is: the map. As a result I was invited to go to Taiwan – ‘World’s Best Single Cask Single Malt’ in the and meet its talented Master Distiller, Ian Chang.

World Whiskies Awards The name of the distillery is actually King Car – 5 golds at the 2016 International Wine & Spirits (the name of the owning company) Yuan Shan Competition, one of them ‘outstanding’ (the address); Kavalan is the brand name, derived – 5 golds at the International Spirits Competition. from the Yilan, the earliest tribe to inhabit this – 4 double-golds and 5 golds in the San Francisco part of Taiwan. It was designed in conjunction World Spirits Competition with Dr. Jim Swan, who I would rate as the leading – 5 platinums at the International contemporary distillery designer.

Review of Spirits Impressive!

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Togouchi Premium

Togouchi 18 Year Old

JAPANESE BLEND 40% VOL | 70CL | £60

JAPANESE BLEND 43.8% VOL | 70CL | £160

Very pale, with a touch of green; fast falling legs. A faintly alcoholic nose, delicate and closed (even with a drop of water), then faintly chalky and mineralic, with perhaps a hint of lychees. The taste is sweet and youthful, with acetone in the finish. In the brand owners own words: “Utilize the youthfulness, the whisky has been finished with a light flavour but comes with a kick” !

Full gold; fairly swift legs. A dry nose: closed and lightly mineralic, with just a trace of vanilla and a note of rice wine after a while, and disappears altogether with water. A sweet, slightly salty taste, which then becomes pleasantly floral (wallflowers) for a moment before its short and somewhat bitter finish.

! togouchi I have to admit never having heard of Togouchi and a cast through the web was even more mysterious.

It seems the brand is owned by a company named Chugoku Jozo, based in or near Hiroshima, which produces sake, shochu, plum wine, liqueurs and alcoholic fruit juices.

They don’t distil whisky, nor do they buy whisky from Japanese distilleries: they import Scotch malt and Canadian grain in cask and mature it in the town of Togouchi – in a tunnel, originally built for a railway line which never opened. The whiskies are blended on site.

Mmm. So Scotch and Canadian whiskies blended in Japan become Japanese whisky?

Who would have thought…?

The packaging is plain and stylish – unadorned fine corrugate boxes; heavy stoneware bottles with simple, gold embossed. But here the mystery deepens again: an enigmatic quotation from the Pensées of the French proto-existentialist philosopher, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) appears on both labels: “Trop et trop peu de vin; ne lui en donnez pas,

›

“Too much and too little wine;

›

don’t give him any,

Shirai, will help: “Alcohol is not merely a beverage. It enriches lives like a good friend, letting us kick back and relax.

What on earth is that all about? On a Japanese They are a ‘culture’ in itself. Since our establishment whisky! The ‘pensée’ is headed Misère de l’homme as a brewer of many alcohols, such as sake, shochu, sans Dieu 17, which doesn’t help. Among many and whiskey, we have devoted ourselves to constant others, Pascal was famous for his aphorism: “I have improvement to make our own imprint in this culture. only made this letter long because I have not the “Born from years and years of the traditional time to make it short” (in 1657), which is surely the harvesting and fermenting process, alcohols are a gift conundrum of the Tweeter. from nature. Brewers make alcohols with delicate tastes Maybe the words on Chugoku Jozo’s website and flavors by polishing the five senses, including taste, from the company’s President and CEO, Koichiro il ne peut trouver la verité;

›

it [or he] cannot find the truth;

donnez-lui en trop, de même.” › give him too much, even so.”

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and exerting their utmost skills.

“With these blessing from nature combined with our brewers’ sensitivity, traditional skills, and the spirit to challenge old ways, we make alcohols. Some things must not change. Others must be challenged. Only a balanced mix of these will give birth to satisfactory alcohols.”

Hopefully enlightenment will come when you try these Japanese blends for yourself.

Ardmore 7 Year Old 7 YEAR OLD HIGHLAND SINGLE MALT 46% VOL | 70CL | £69 Full amber in colour, with a faint blush of pink. Some pepper on the nose, and an aroma which might be taken for an Islay – grubby smoke, mulchy seaweed, dry overall - but with a hint of grape-skins. At full strength the taste is sweet and salty, then dry with a winey note in the middle, and a warming, peppery finish.

! ardmore Ardmore Distillery was commissioned by Adam Teacher, successor to his father, William, in the family firm, but he died shortly before it was built in 1898.

William Teacher & Sons was the largest pub owner in Glasgow, and also exported its successful blended Scotch, Teacher’s Highland Cream, to Asia, Australia, Europe and the West Indies.

Adam and his brother, William II, purchased land near Kennethmont in Aberdeenshire in 1895 and commenced building their distillery two years later to supply fillings for their blends.

In 1893 Adam had been joined by his nephew, William Manera Bergius, who wrote: “At Adam Teacher’s death in 1898 we were faced with an impossible task… We found ourselves with Ardmore Distillery half built, and a good block of shares in the Ardgowan Distillery Co., Greenock, also half built. None of us knew anything about distilling”. [Ardgowan was a grain distillery].

With the help of friends in the trade, both projects were completed, however.

William Manera Bergius went on to invent the replaceable stopper cork in 1913: prior to that date, whisky bottles were all closed with driven corks, like wine bottles, and had to be opened with a corkscrew. Teacher’s advertised it as “The Self-Opening Bottle (Patented)… Bury the Corkscrew”.

Sales of Highland Cream increased dramatically, although the stopper cork was not widely adopted until the 1980s.

Teacher’s dram-shops in Glasgow closed in 1960, and all went well for the company until the slump of the early 1970s (see Port Ellen, p.37) and during the frenzie of take-overs this precipitated, the directors became concerned about a hostile

take-over. They also needed additional capital to maintain growth and meet the high taxation on UK whisky sales. By this time the Teacher family interests were much reduced and the support of a larger organisation seemed essential. In 1976 Adam Bergius, William Manera’s son, now Chairman of the company, approached Allied Breweries and within three days a take-over had been negotiated.

Although special bottlings of Ardmore at 12YO and 21YO were released in 1998 to mark the distillery’s centenary, Allied and the distillery’s subsequent owner, Jim Beam (since 2014, Beam Suntory), has been reluctant to release and promote Ardmore as a single malt.

Traditional Cask appeared in 2005, replaced by Tradition in 2015, when Triple Wood was also released.

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Ardmore is unusually smoky for a mainland malt, with a peating specification of 14/15 parts per million phenols. The peat comes from St. Fergus in Buchan and has a different character to West Coast peat, imparting a dry earthiness.

Ardmore was also one of the last distilleries to fire its stills directly, with coal. Hard work and dirty, but traditionalists maintain that this plays a key role in the flavour of the spirit. Since 2002, Ardmore’s stills have been fired indirectly by steam-heated pans and coils.

This vigorous expression of Ardmore at 7YO comes from the independent bottler, Hunter Laing in Glasgow. It has been wine finished, which has given it a faintly pink light, but it retains the true character of the make.

Clynelish 18 Year Old 18 YEAR OLD HIGHLAND SINGLE MALT 54.9% VOL | 70CL | £240 White wine in colour, with moderate beading, the nosefeel is prickly and etheric. The key-note waxiness is soon apparent, supported by earthy and ashy scents, and when a drop of water is added, vegetal and herbal notes (bog myrtle). The taste is surprisingly sweet; the texture waxy (teeth-coating) and the finish warm, leaving a herbal aftertaste.

! clynelish I have mentioned elsewhere in this edition of Whiskeria that there have been two Clynelish Distilleries (see Brora p.35), the second one being built adjacent to the earlier one in 196768. The owner was Scottish Malt Distillers (SMD), the production division of the mighty Distillers Company Limited (now Diageo), and between 1962 and 1974 they built or re-modelled twelve distilleries to meet the ever-growing demand for (blended) Scotch whisky.

The distilleries are: Balmenach (1962), Royal Brackla (1964/65), Craigellachie (1965), Glen Ord (1966), Glentauchers (1966), Clynelish (1968), Linkwood (1970/71; see p. 36), Teaninich (1970), Mannochmore (1971), Glendullan (1972), Aberfeldy (1972/73) and Caol Ila (1974). All follow a similar design, known as the ‘Waterloo Street’ style, after SMD’s headquarters in Glasgow, and devised

by Dr. Charlie Potts, the company’s chief engineer, to be efficient, aesthetically pleasing and pleasant to work in. A key feature contributing to the latter was very large windows in the still-house, which could be opened, making the room bright and airy.

The key characteristic of Clynelish is ‘waxy’ – from new make spirit to long matured examples like this one – and this aroma is what Diageo’s quality control experts require from every batch of spirit. Some years ago the scent disappeared.

The manager received a phone call, and since a manager’s key responsibility is to maintain spirit character, he was understandably concerned, especially when the next few weeks’ distillate failed to regain the desired waxiness.

A senior chemist was sent to Clynelish Distillery to investigate and after rigorous enquiry discovered that shortly before the waxy character disappeared, a spirit receiver tank had been replaced. While this was being done, the

engineers took the opportunity to clean the pipes… It turned out that this delectable flavour comes from slimy gunk which builds up in the pipe-work and tank! After a while the waxiness returned of its own accord.

This expression of Clynelish comes from the family company, Hunter Laing, and is bottled under their super-premium Platinum Old & Rare label, about which they say: “Whilst we are proud to place the Laing family name on all the casks we bottle, there are some whiskies which are so remarkable that they deserve a little extra 43

recognition. Hunter Laing's Old & Rare name signifies a rare single cask malt that has been bottled at the peak of its flavour. Whether it was the water, the wood, or even the location in the warehouse, circumstances have conspired to create a sublime drinking experience which once consumed, can never be repeated”.

The whisky is bottled at natural strength and colour, without chill-filtration and is presented in a wooden box, with a certificate including tasting notes from the company’s ‘nose’.

Strathclyde The Sovereign 25 YEAR OLD SINGLE CASK SINGLE GRAIN WHISKY 47.2%VOL | 70CL | £125 Pale gold in colour. A light aroma, with some prickle. Fresh solvent scents and warm vinyl (a new car interior) float above planed oak wood; very sweet to taste – etheric and lip-tingling. It benefits from dilution, which brings out pale floral scents and acid drops (boiled sweets). The taste remains sweet and light, the finish short.

! strathclyde Scotch grain whisky has long been regarded as malt whisky’s poor relation.

This is unfair. Certainly it is lighter in style, but the spirits from each of our seven operating grain distilleries are all subtly different. All have their own character, a clean, sweet, lightly fruity flavour, much of it influenced by the casks it has been matured in, usually first-fill ex-bourbon barrels and hogsheads.

Until recently only two single grain whiskies were available – Cameron Brig and Invergordon (now discontinued) – and two blended grains, The Snow Grouse ( a Famous Grouse variation) and Hedonism, the latter from the independent bottler, Compass Box. Then in 2014 came two expressions of Girvan (from William Grant’s distillery of the same name in Ayrshire) and Haig Club (from Diageo’s Cameronbridge Distillery in Fife), the latter heavily promoted by David Beckham. Is this a sign of a revival in interest in grain whisky?

Currently, there are 118 operating malt whisky distilleries in Scotland, with the capacity to produce around 370 million litres of pure alcohol per annum. There are only seven grain whisky distilleries, but they can produce 419 million litres, and almost all are currently working to capacity. Their product is, of course, essential for blended Scotch whiskies.

Grain whisky is made by cooking unmalted cereal grains – usually wheat, but maize is sometimes used – and then adding around 20% of malted barley to kick-start the fermentation.

Distillation is done in patent stills which operate continuously – as opposed to malt whisky, which is distilled in batches, in pot stills. This makes for a purer, lighter, higher strength spirit.

Strathclyde Distillery stands on the south

bank of the River Clyde in the Gorbals district of Glasgow. It was built by the long-established, London-based distiller and blender Seager Evans in 1927, originally to produce spirit for rectification into gin and later, when they acquired the wellknown brand, Long John, for whisky blending.

In 1956 ownership passed to the American distiller, Schenley Industries, who installed a malt distillery, Kinclaith, on the site, to supply fillings for Long John. When they sold to Whitbread, the brewers, in 1976, Kinclaith was dismantled to make room for expanding Strathclyde.

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Whitbread’s spirits interests were bought by Allied-Lyons in 1990, and the new owner spent a lot of money further expanding Strathclyde’s capacity, and when the company was broken up in 2005, the distillery was sold to Chivas Bros., Pernod Ricard’s Scotch whisky division.

I know of only one bottling of Strathclyde , at 13 years old and 55.7%Vol; Douglas Laing & Co. released a 2005 some years ago, and now Hunter Laing has released a 25 years old at 50.6% Vol in their Sovereign range of grain whiskies, often of considerable age.

Glenlossie Distiller's Art 18 YEAR OLD SPEYSIDE SINGLE MALT 48% VOL | 70CL | £120 Pale gold in colour, Chardonnay; good viscosity.

A mellow nose, relatively closed initially, then revealing tinned pears in syrup, fondant (the stuff of sweet cigarettes!), with a faint solvent base.

Light overall. The taste is also mild and easy, starting sweet, finishing tart (typical of Glenlossie), with white chocolate in the aftertaste.

! glenlossie distiller's art The label tells us that Glenlossie Distillery was the brainchild of a local publican, John Duff, tenant of the Fife Arms, Lhanbryde, who had formerly managed Glendronach Distillery in Aberdeenshire.

Together with a couple of friends, Alexander Grigor Allan, Procurator Fiscal [i.e. solicitor and chief prosecutor] of Morayshire and H.M.S. Mackay, land agent and burgh surveyor of Elgin, plans were drawn up in 1875, with the help of an Elgin architect, and realised the following year.

The site chosen was three miles to the south of Elgin, close to the River Lossie (hence the name), deep in the fertile Laich o’Moray. The Aberdeen Journal was favourably impressed by “the adaptation of the buildings to the natural rise and fall of the ground… which will allow the work to be accomplished with a much smaller staff”.

It also noted “the abundance of excellent water to make the whisky and drive the machinery”.

In short, the design made use of gravity as far as possible and incorporated a large water-wheel, fed from a nearby dam with a 70 foot (21 metre) drop, making it independent of steam power.

Alfred Barnard, the redoubtable ‘distillerybagger’ who visited ten years later, also remarked on the extensive use of cement in the construction of all buildings except the still-house, which was built of stone, “looking beautifully white and clean under the sunlight”. Actually, the material was concrete – a mix of cement and small stones (in this case, carted up from the River Lossie), relatively uncommon at the time.

For a decade the business went well and John Duff decided to emigrate to South Africa with his family and build a whisky distillery there. Alas, the country’s president, Paul Kruger, was dead against any British involvement in the country. Duff lost

most of his money and returned to Elgin in 1892.

Here he managed to persuade some investors to back the construction of Longmorn Distillery (1893) and Benriach Distillery nearby (1895), but his bad luck still dogged him and he was ruined by the Pattison debacle (1899/1900) and went to America.

Glenlossie was badly damaged by fire in 1929, bravely fought by the distillery workers using a horse-drawn fire engine dating from 1862, and the following year it was taken over by Scottish Malt Distillers.

An interesting innovation at Glenlossie is the attachment of purifiers between the lyne arm and the condenser on each of the three spirit stills. This makes for a purer, lighter style of spirit. Curiously, these were not installed at Mannochmore Distillery, which was built by SMD on an adjacent site in 1971 as part of the company’s extensive expansion programme. (see Clynelish, p.43).

Hunter Laing say of their Distiller’s Art series: “A tribute to the artisans in Scotland’s distilleries who year after year produce such wonderful spirits, the Distiller’s Art series is a range of single-cask bottlings showcasing the character of a region, or of a distillery in particular. Bottled at the perfect drinking strength of 48% alcohol and as ever unadulterated with caramel or chill-filtration, these single malts are chosen from specially selected individual bourbon and sherry casks.

The distinctive and striking design of the presentation both does justice to the quality of the whiskies inside and makes a Distiller’s Art bottling stand out on any shelf.”

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Tobermory 42 Years Old 42 YEARS OLD ISLAND SINGLE MALT 48.1% VOL | 70CL | £2500 The colour of burr walnut in a vintage car dashboard; oily legs. The first impression on the nose is of depth: rich sherry, maraschino cherries and moist black bun, with a hint of candlewax and coal dust. Mouth-filling, distinctly salty after a sweetish start, with dark chocolate and espresso coffee in the mid-palate canvas, hessian and coal bunker in the finish, and a hint of spice and cloves in the aftertaste. An authentically old fashioned whisky.

! tobermory Having written about Tobermory Distillery in the previous edition of Whiskeria (see Ledaig, Whiskeria Autumn 2016, p.29), I want to share with you a letter I received today, which, although it was written in 1887 and describes a 40YO Bourbon, applies equally to this heroic 42YO Tobermory.

The author was an American lawyer and a famous orator. He was writing to his future son-in-law.

89 Fifth Avenue, New York Walston H. Brown, Esq. April 16, 1887 My dear Friend, I send you some of the most wonderful whiskey that ever drove the skeleton from a feast or painted landscapes in the brain of man. It is the mingled souls of wheat and corn.

In it you will find the sunshine and the shadows that chased each other over the billowy fields; the breath of June; the carol of the lark; the dews of night; the wealth of summer and autumn's rich content, all golden with imprisoned light.

Drink it—and you will hear the voices of men and maidens singing the "Harvest Home," mingled with the laughter of children.

Drink it—and you will feel within your blood the star-lit dawns, the dreamy, tawny dusks of many perfect days.

For forty years this liquid joy has been within the happy staves of oak, longing to touch the lips of men.

Yours always, R. G. Ingersoll

Tobermory Distillery was mothballed between 1930 and 1972, then sold. The new owner went back into production for only two years and

my understanding is that this 42YO expression contains at least some of the whisky distilled in 1972. Truly, the flavour opens a door into the past: so many of the smells and tastes encountered are ‘archaic’, not found in today’s whiskies. For example, the whiff of smoke, which is not that of peat, but of coal and probably comes from an illmanaged kiln; the attractive slight waxiness, which derives from under-rigorous pipe cleaning.

I think it is the oldest Tobermory ever bottled by its owner, and bears comparison with the

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superb Ledaig 42YO which was released last year.

Like the latter, my guess is that it has been matured in various refill casks, then re-racked into fresh American oak Oloroso sherry butts for at least fifteen years.

Only 650 bottles are available, presented in a bespoke presentation box, the bottle being revealed via a rotating door, which features an exclusive painting of Tobermory’s colourful waterfront cottages specially created by the well known island artist, Angus Stewart.

Macallan Edition No.2 SPEYSIDE SINGLE MALT 48.2% VOL | 70CL | £85

Bright polished mahogany, with thick legs. The first impression is of sticky toffee pudding with a background of sultanas, dried figs, Old English marmalade, a trace of Oloroso sherry, oak shavings and cooking spice (allspice and cloves), edging towards Jamaican gingerbread with a drop of water. A smooth texture and a taste which starts sweet, becomes tangy (Seville orange marmalade) and finishes lightly dry and spicy, leaving a dark chocolate and black pepper aftertaste.

! the macallan edition no.2 A friend said, sceptically: “Yet another Macallan without an age statement?” Initially, this was my reaction as well – until I tasted it, and was reminded of The Macallans of ‘the old days’ – rich and unctuous…

This is the second in a series of annual limited releases – originally available only in Travel Retail – designed to showcase the diversity of casks used to mature the spirit and to demonstrate the company’s commitment to sourcing only the very best.

Edition No.1, released at the end of last year, received rave reviews. It was created from eight different styles of American and European oak casks, chosen by Macallan’s modest and supremely talented Malt Master, Bob Dalgarno.

For Edition No.2, Bob has collaborated with the Roca brothers, founder-owners of El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, which holds three Michelin Stars and has twice been voted the best restaurant in the world. Each has selected a cask type which reflects their own taste and character.

Bob chose first-fill European oak butts from the Tevasa cooperage (contributing dried fruits and sherry notes); Josep Roca, the restaurant’s sommelier, chose similar casks, but from Jose Miguel Martin (adding spicy ginger); Joan Roca, head chef, went for a mix of first and second-fill American and European casks from Diego Martin (green wood and toffee) and Jordi Roca, pastry chef, selected first and second-fill American oak casks from Vasyma (light vanilla and citric notes).

The carton helpfully supplies full disclosure of the proportions of each wood type used – 52% butts, 27% puncheons, 21% hogsheads – but does not inform about the kinds of sherry

used to season the casks, nor the age of the whisky matured in each…

Bob says of his new creation: “With the natural colour of golden syrup, the nose leads with treacle, ginger, toffee apples and rich fruits.

Layers of vanilla open into tropical fruits and subtle green wood. The palate is warm with spice, as cracked black pepper and cloves join with hints of chocolate, brown sugar, oak and nuts. Finally, liquorice and brady snaps come to the fore. The finish is full, slow, warm and wonderfully viscous”.

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It is bottled at a generous 48.3%Vol, without chill-filtration or artificial colouring, and drinks well at this strength, although a teaspoon of water reveals other discreet aromas and tastes. This is classic, old school Macallan, rich, full-bodied, complex.

Congratulations, Bob! I look further to future additions to the range – ‘if I’m spared’!

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| my whiskeria

Andrew Fairlie — a man for all seasons

With a focus on passion, quality and premium provenance, Scotland’s only two Michelin starred chef Andrew Fairlie, is a man after our own hearts.

Who better to help us get in the foodie spirit this festive season?

—

Photography: Christina Kernohan Assistant: Greg Abramowicz Shot on location at Gleneagles and Andrew Fairlie's Secret Garden, Perthshire.

2“That’s where the creative part of it has been – I think for chefs – much more inspiring. It’s easy, actually, to say “we have a menu, and that works, let’s not touch it and leave it as it is”. This forces you to actually have to change, and look for things, and be more creative with what’s coming your way. ”

Seasonal produce, grown to exact specifications; Finding inspiration in experimentation; Andrew & his team (L-R: Chief gardener Jo, Head Chef Stevie, Andrew, Chef Russell); Meticulous organisation in everything from the shed to scheduling

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Tell us more about how your kitchen runs...

What we do is very detailed. We come in in the morning and make everything from scratch: stocks, ice cream, breads; it’s all done every single day.

We’ve got a very particular way of working in the kitchen – the way our service works with We took the secret garden over about 3 and timings is very confusing. There’s no other half years ago. This year has been brilliant. I love kitchen that works like it. We communicate it, coming down in the morning, it’s so peaceful. only by calling times to each other.

How we see the garden is as an extension So, for new guys coming in: they have a of the restaurant, it’s just 7 miles away. There’s time in their head and say, “I’ll be ready in six”, a kind of honesty and integrity to what we do, but actually six minutes goes like that, and where we really do follow the seasons. they’re not ready in six. It’s a nightmare, in the beginning.

You've always used Scottish produce as your starting point – has the garden revolutionised How about the drinks team, do you have a the way you think about provenance? hand in what they do?

I’ve always been of the opinion that, Wine lists will change with the food, as if you’re in France, Spain or Italy, they they are geared up purely for the food. There don’t even think about that. Of course you are wines you’ll never see anywhere else. would buy from the local market.

Everything seems very much like a team We’ve always had the philosophy that any effort. Very integrated. self-respecting chef would buy locally. You Take the cresses: we grow cress for the don’t have to go out and put it as part of table instead of flowers. Each front of house your mission statement, as it were. member will sow their own, and three weeks But I think vegetables were always the later can say, “I grew that”. missing piece of our jigsaw. We can buy brilliant meat, brilliant fish, all of that. And all pretty Where did you learn the quirks and much local. But the only downfall was having details you've introduced to the running to leave that message on the answerphone to of your restaurant? some vegetable wholesaler at the end of the The management side of things, I night, then rely on them. Now, having done this, would say I learned at Disney. Going from my we could never go back. It would be impossible. experience of kitchens that were pretty brutal – how kitchens were run at the 2 or 3-star level How long did it take you to change your I trained in – to Disney, where if you swore at mind-set and – excuse the pun – bed into anyone it was immediate gross misconduct, the idea? was a culture shock, to say the least.

The objective was to always do this, but the But then, actually taking the principals first six months were a real learning curve for us. of how to manage and motivate people, and And that’s where the creative part of it has how to run a business – it was invaluable. been – i think for chefs – much more inspiring.

It was probably one of the best moves I’ve It’s easy, actually, to say “we have a menu, and ever made. that works, let’s not touch it and leave it as it is”.

This forces you to actually have to change, What inspired you to go and work at Disney? and look for things, and be more creative Purely that – it was the management with what’s coming your way. training. It’s actually putting the staff and the team – they’re the most important people – first. Because if you get this bit right, the guests are going to be wowed.

We met Andrew at the home of his eponymous, two Michelin starred restaurant: Gleneagles.

Our first task? To visit the incredible secret garden.

Rarely opened to visitors, it was established by Andrew and his team to ensure every item on the menu really is of Scottish provenance.

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Is there anyone you've trained who you’re particularly impressed by?

There’s one guy, Ian Scaramuzza – despite his name, he’s from Maryhill in Glasgow. He just won the Roux Scholarship. I won the very first Roux Scholarship many years ago. My prediction is he’ll be the first Scottish chef to get three stars. He is one of the best young chefs I’ve ever worked with. We brought him in as a commis chef.

What was the first restaurant you worked in?

The Station Hotel in Perth. I started my apprenticeship there and finished it in London.

Then I won the scholarship when I was 20 and moved to the South of France. I stayed in france for five years, then I got travelling: Australia, then working in Africa, then back to Paris where I did Disney. Then back to Glasgow, then here.

Where feels most like home?

Here now. This is the longest I’ve ever stayed anywhere. But I grew up in Perth. I love Paris. Paris and Glasgow, in that order.

Do you interact with your customers much?

I tend to invite them into the kitchen. I’d much rather they came in and watched a little bit of service, where we can chat to them, and where I’m more comfortable.

Are the majority of your customers the real foodie types – people who are really passionate about what they’re eating?

We get every spectrum. People who save up for a really special occasion, people that book a table because they want to go there for their wedding day. And then we get people that dine like that all the time. There’s a guy who flies over from America to come for dinner!

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Do you still take that as massive compliment – someone seeing your restaurant as a destination?

Yes – that’s the thing. There’s not one single day ever do we think… Oh you know, this is just ‘another service’. We try and tailor the service to whoever is there, so we never take it for granted.

We still get nervous every night before service, and every day is a new day.

Do you think that level of care and attention translates into what you’re putting on the plate?

I think people can tell. There’s a few restaurants I’ve been in, even when I was younger – where I thought, my God you can actually feel the energy from the plate, you can tell that a lot of care and attention and love and everything has gone into doing that.

And there are restaurants – great restaurants – where you think, “oh, they’re just going through the motions here. They’re just churning out the same stuff every single day, and it’s boring”. It might be beautiful food, but it’s boring food.

Did getting a second Michelin star change your attitude? Did it make you feel different?

The first six months, I didn’t like it!

The expectation I didn’t mind. In my head, I opened a two star restaurant from day one.

That was my ambition– it was never said to Gleneagles or anyne else – but, I think secretly their expectation was that they needed to have a Michelin star.

You know, I think our customers changed, and our customers’ expectations changed.

Try as we could to keep everything normal, the staff changed! It was just joyless in the first six months. When summer arrived, I said to Gregor, “I need to change this”. And the easiest thing to do was open a new restaurant – the same space, but change it.

So, we changed the menu format, we changed the décor, we changed the crockery, cutlery, everything.

When you walk through Gleneagles, in the door and down the steps to the restaurant, it feels like a totally different place.

It even smells different. It’s all those little tiny details. You don’t want to walk into a restaurant and be thinking “Mmmm, that smells nice!”. You don’t want to be influenced.

With Jo Malone, we developed a scent.

It was all foodie – lime and basil. And again, it was all seasonal. We basically sprayed bay leaves and stuck them under the tables.

As soon as you walked in, the smell was completely different. It’s kind of subliminal, almost.

So, what do you plan to eat this Christmas?

I always have beef. Proper roast beef.

Do you have any christmas rituals or foodie traditions?

Christmas for me has to be luxurious. It’s traditional in a sense that we’re not reinventing anything, but I will buy lobster, we will buy seriously good beef, and things like that. I buy in some great wines for Christmas; I always buy great Champagne. It’s still a very special day.

It’s that one day where it is very luxurious.

Is it always you in the kitchen?

At Christmas i always cook, and never do the dishes. Once dinner’s finished… I don’t touch a thing after that!

I cook even when it’s not Christmas.

Generally, if I’m off, then I’ll cook.

I guess your family might feel short changed if you never cooked for them!

Do your staff eat well too?

We cook for the staff every day. If we get something any bigger than that [holds up tiny vegetable], then we can’t use it. So, the staff get it.

Do you have a dish primarily inspired by the garden?

The Secret Garden Salad. There has to be 20 things from the garden on it. But there can be various preparations of all the different vegetables that are there. Generally, it comes out on a big plate. So, for example, the fennel flowers – we take pollen from them, then we use that to garnish. It’s probably the signature thing we make.

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Knowledge Bar

Andrew's Top Tips for Christmas Dinner 1 Prepare well in advance. Two days in advance.

1 Cook veg a day in advance, chill it down and put it in the fridge to then reheat.

1 Make stocks in November and freeze them.

1 Don’t try and do anything that you haven’t tried before.

Do you ever pair whisky with your food – the special Adelphi selection you have in the restaurant, for example?

It’s something I get asked all the time: do we match food with whisky? Probably Craig [the Sommelier] is the best person to ask…

Craig: You can match anything with food. It’s where you do it that becomes important. So I wouldn’t match whisky with a starter course, because the great thing about chef’s cooking is there’s lots of little, delicate flavours. It’s all about keeping the experience.

Whisky with cheese is quite interesting, and especially the stronger cheeses. One of the things we do with the cask strength whiskies here, instead of just having it on its own, is we’ll give people a little bit of salted tablet.

So, Andrew, do you have any guilty pleasures?

Ice cream. I love Häagen-Dazs. Like, a movie and a whole tub of Häagen-Dazs. Always chocolate.

Chocolate is my thing.

Not any of the clichéd Scottish foods?

I don’t do Irn Bru. I don’t do Buckfast. Don’t do any of the Tunnock’s stuff. Deep fried Mars Bar is something people always say… but I’ve never actually seen anyone do a deep fried Mars Bar. Cheese on toast is about as outrageous as I get.

Do you have any foods that you can never reconcile yourself with?

Wild rice, and brains. I can’t do brains. There’s not much I don’t eat. I went to Japan a couple of years ago and there were a couple of things in Japan that… tested me. And it’s all live as well. So live snails and things like that.

Do you have livestock – or anything ‘living’ – grown, or nurtured, especially for you?

We have little suppliers for poultry with a very tiny small holding in Ayrshire, where they basically breed for us. Pretty much all our suppliers are like that. Take our game supplier: woodcock are very rare, so if they do get woodcock, then generally he’ll save them for us.

Andrew Fairlie in the restaurant

And will you have a big Christmas staff do?

Outwith here. Last year we went to Drummuir Castle. So we took that privately, took all the staff, and had a hooley for two days.

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| travel

Steaming through the former Ottoman Empire, Claire Bell shows us how to be a trainspotter and whisky sleuth in Bulgaria.

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Photography: Claire Bell

! Don’t bother trying to find the Black Label whisky bar at the Military Club in Sofia. The most recent guide books extol its splendid décor in a glittering nightlife scene, but it has closed down.

Across town, the Gentlemen’s Club at the luxury Hotel Marinela has a connoisseur’s whisky selection to suit an oligarch, but it is beyond the budget of most ordinary Bulgarians.

“You cannot see these whiskies anywhere else in Bulgaria,” says Ivan, the barman, pointing to an 18-year-old Macallan (£52 for a double shot) and an 18-year-old Laphroig (£23). Whisky is a Bulgarians’ second favourite drink after rakija, the local fruit brandy.

“We drink rakija with salad, but we drink whisky from morning through to night,” says Ivan. His favourite is Johnnie Walker Blue Label, but not only cannot he not afford it, he doesn’t trust what is sold in the shops.

“The problem in our country is that we have so much fake whisky. It might say Scotch, but it’s probably made in China. You can buy a bottle of Teachers at the supermarket for 16 lev (£7) and you know it’s not real but we have no choice. You can’t tell the difference until you open the bottle.”

Fortunately I stumbled upon a private whisky bar – in the backpack of Pete ‘Pendolino’, a retired train driver from Virgin’s tilting trains, who was sitting in a luxurious railway carriage built for the Shah of Iran, in the former royal train of the late King Boris III of Bulgaria. We were being pulled

across the Thracian Plain at the time, by a magnificent steam locomotive that is the only remaining working model of its type in the world.

The first time I saw Bulgaria was through the window of another train. Crumbling apartment blocks with windows like eyes in mourning, mascara streaming down their face, stared back at us as we hurried by, on our way to Istanbul. When we paused at one station for longer than normal I got out to investigate. A coterie of guards in red hats eyed me with suspicion. I looked up at the platform clock. 1954. And it felt like it.

It was with trepidation then, that I accepted an invitation to explore the country by steam train. But when I read that we would be travelling in carriages that once belonged to King Boris III, the country’s last monarch who was murdered by Hitler’s acolytes in 1943 because he refused to send 50,000 Bulgarian Jews to concentration camps, I was intrigued. Which is the right attitude to take with you to Bulgaria.

For 400 years the Bulgarians were oppressed by the Ottomans. “We were slaves in our own country,” says one tour guide.

“The roofs of our churches could be no higher than a Turk on horseback,” explained another.

The word slave actually comes from Slavic, a language spoken in this region. The Bulgarians

Knowledge Bar

Bulgaria OFFICIAL NAME: THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA 1 Bordered by: Romania, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey and the Black Sea 1 Capital city: Sofia 1 Population: 7,202,198 1 Area: 110,994 sq km 1 Last reigning monarch: Tsar Boris III

2“I have steam engine parts under my bed. I love steam engines more than my wife.

She is very jealous�

2 “I’m just grateful he’s not into porn,” says one of the few wives on the trip, as I comment that it’s not quite the trip I expected.

were shackled until the late 19th century with only a brief hiatus before the country found itself under the Soviet fist, post WW2. It is a country where you find yourself reflecting frequently on man’s inhumanity to man, rather than pleasure.

Fortunately, most of my fellow travellers are not pleasure seekers. Rather, in their anoraks, their shoulders hunched over with the weight of their cameras, they are railway enthusiasts, or more accurately bashers – a sub-clique that exists within the trainspotting community who are obsessed with taking pictures of steam trains.

As one man, who also happens to be the world expert on paddle-boat steamers, explains: “You’re trying to capture the perfect blend of light and movement. You have this object on a fixed schedule, and when you mix it together with light and smoke, at the right moment, it creates art.”

Their passion for metal, rust and light, means that the so-called highlights of our itinerary are not galleries and museums, but railway sheds and depots.

“I’m just grateful he’s not into porn,” says one of the few wives on the trip, as I comment that it’s not quite the trip I expected.

As it turns out, the Railway Touring Company (RTC) which has been taking old puffers around far-flung places including Kenya, Nambia and Sri Lanka for over 20 years, is keenly aware that the steam-obsessives are a dying breed, and that in order to attract new steam travellers, they need to 60

broaden their definition of ‘culture’, so every day we reinvent the itinerary to include side trips to ruins – of which there is no shortage.

Bulgaria has been at the crossroads (and crossfire) of east and west for millennia. Dig a hole and you can find relics of ancient Rome, Greece, Persia, Thrace and the USSR. In Sofia, across from the National Palace of Culture is the Monument to 1300 Years of Bulgaria, a fenced-off monstrosity that has the appearance of a physical scream, and that began to collapse within months of its completion in 1981. What does it say about a country when the monument to its history is in ruins?

We begin our journey on a vintage 1935 tram in Sofia, a decorative green and gold carriage that has been chartered exclusively for us. Of a late summer’s evening, Sofia has the feeling of a southern European city, with people enjoying the passeggiata through the city’s cafés and parks.

Passersby stop and point, their faces beaming as this piece of history glides by. I find myself even more fascinated by the yellow boxy trams still in operation, a nod to an era when hard-edges ruled over curves.

The following morning we set off in earnest, my husband and I settled into a wood-panelled compartment in King Boris III’s private coach, complete with an armchair and en suite toilet, and within an hour of leaving Sofia, are steaming our way along the Iskar river, a tributary of the

A steam powered journey through Bulgaria's diverse history and landscapes; Railway enthusiasts enjoy the ride; Whisky sampling in decadent surroundings

Danube, which has carved a path through a spectacular limestone gorge, its cliffs fringed with pine trees. We wind the handle to open the window, and a gentle breeze cuts through the sultry heat. By the end of the afternoon, every surface is covered with a thin film of coal dust.

We spend that night in Veliko Turnovo, a city perched on cliffs, and surrounded by an ancient fort, giving the appearance, especially when lit at night, of a Bulgarian Camelot.

The next morning, we have a new steam engine. Gareth, a railway engineer from England, who wears a different railway T-shirt for every day of the journey, interprets: “Yesterday we had a racehorse. This is like a shire horse, built for hauling heavy loads, but very slowly.”

We also have two new drivers – Emil and Albert, both employees of the Bulgarian National Railways – who spent one year restoring this ‘loco’ in their spare time.

“This train went out of service in 1976. To restore it, we worked Saturdays, Sundays, week nights. I have steam engine parts under my bed. I love steam engines more than my wife. She is very jealous,” laughs Emil.

Like most people on the trip, Emil fell in love with steam engines as a little boy. There seems to be something about steam that transports men back to the wide-eyed excitement of childhood.

Steam makes the steely faced station guards grin and freight train drivers hang out of the window, snapping with their iPhones.

After a long, slow day on the rails, we arrive at Varna on the Black Sea. After hours of chugging through post-Soviet blight, we have hung up hopes of being wowed by architecture or city planning, but Varna, with its golden sands buffered from the city by a forest-like park and carefree beachfront restaurants, is the ideal of a seaside resort. We spend a whole day transfixed by the natural beauty of the sea.

Back on the rails, our next stop is Stara Zagora, which has ruins of a Roman forum once built by Marcus Aurelius.

“Everyone visits Greece and Romania for their ruins, but not Bulgaria,” laments Irina, our guide, who takes us to see a preserved mosaic floor, decorated with deer, vines, fruits and the words “Welcome” and “Cheers” written in Greek, once the floor of a wealthy 4thC BC home, later destroyed by fire.

We have our own mutiny that afternoon, as our delayed train and ‘ruinous’ side-trip has meant that we cannot visit yet another railway shed.

“It is a better thing to travel hopefully than to arrive,” said Robert Louis Stevenson.

He obviously never travelled with the bashers.

We take the executive decision to go rogue and, while the others head off to ride and photograph the ‘2-12-4 “beast” 46.03’ on a branch line, we catch a taxi to Minerali Bani in the east Rhodope Mountains, famous for its healing 61

springs. That evening we follow local advice to Alofrangi, a romantic restaurant under the lime trees in the courtyard of a 19th century halftimbered house in Haskovo, where we eat rabbit risotto and goose liver cooked with pistachio and raisins. Bulgaria likes to keep her treasures hidden, and today we’re delighted to have found a few to our taste.

Perhaps most charming of all is the old town of Plovdiv, believed to be the oldest continually inhabited town in Europe and set to be the 2019 European City of Culture. Within its cobbled streets is a Roman Amphitheatre, a 600-yearold Dervish monastery turned restaurant and beautifully painted merchant houses, built during the National Revival period of the mid19th century, when the increasing wealth of the Bulgarian bourgeoisie empowered it to stand up to foreign oppression.

As we puff away on a narrow-gauge steam train, up into the mountains, I can’t help pondering what it will take, for this small country, beleaguered by corrupt politicians and Wild West capitalism to get back on the right track.

Further down the carriage, Pete Pendolino is reviving spirits by offering around his whisky.

The Railway Touring Company offers unique railway journeys by steam train to Ukraine, Peru, Bolivia, India, Slovakia, Tuscany and Poland. For more information visit www.railwaytouring.net

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Winter 2016 Whisky Shop Exclusives / 64 Loch Fyne Whiskies / 65 Stocking Fillers / 66 Miniature Gift Sets / 68 Whisky & Glass Sets / 70 Customer Favourites / 71 The W Club Subscriptions / 78 12 Drams of Christmas / 80 Personalised Engraving / 82 The Whisky Shop Directory / 84

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Whisky Shop Exclusives

Aultmore 1996 The Whisky Shop Exclusive

Aberfeldy 1991 The Whisky Shop Exclusive

We’re proud to stock a selection of whiskies you simply can’t buy anywhere else. From limited edition bottlings, to old and rare whiskies, single malts to singularly superb blends, these are the whiskies that only The Whisky Shop customers can buy.

What is it?

Distilled at Aultmore in 1996, this Speyside Single Malt has spent 19 years in the cask before being bottled exclusively for The Whisky Shop on 2nd October 2015 at a strength of 50.4% ABV. A (very) limited edition single cask expression, only 101 bottles exist!

What is it?

This limited edition single cask expression from Aberfeldy distillery in Perthshire was distilled in 1991, before spending 24 years in cask no. 6394. Bottled on 1st October 2015 at a strength of 53.5% ABV, it has been selected exclusively for The Whisky Shop by Dewar’s current master blender, Stephanie MacLeod. Only 195 bottles are available, so get yours while you can.

– 50.4% VOL | 70CL | £250

What’s it like?

Finished in a Rioja wine cask for 8 years, the colour is a deep burning amber, the aroma rich and intense with crisp burnt sugar, followed by sublime creamy vanilla. On the palate the jammy fruity notes exert their influence. Warming and smooth, gliding effortlessly to a sweet, biscuit finish. Read more from Charles MacLean on p.31.

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– 53.5% VOL | 70CL | £320

What’s it like?

Delicately sweet, this single cask expression promises smooth creamy toffee and desiccated coconut, lifted by a twist of lime and a wisp of smoke to finish.

Charles MacLean also references a “fresh-fruity complex” – read his full review on p.30.

Loch Fyne Whiskies Bottled (and in some cases created) in the tiny Loch Fyne Whiskies workshop, located in the Royal Burgh of Inveraray, the Loch Fyne Whiskies collection includes blends, rare single cask releases, the ever-evolving Living Cask series, and some delicious whisky liqueurs too.

The Loch Fyne Liqueur

The Loch Fyne Honey & Ginger Liqueur

What is it?

At the heart of this warming liqueur are the whiskies that make up the deliciously smooth Loch Fyne Blend. Reminiscent of Terry’s famous Chocolate Orange, it’s the perfect dram for Christmas. Give it as a gift, or keep for yourself as the ideal after dinner treat.

What is it?

Loch Fyne Whiskies has produced another gem of a liqueur using the classic ingredients of honey and ginger as its base and laced with a helping of the famous Loch Fyne Blend. At 25% ABV it is meant to be quaffed, ideally from the fridge, at any time of the day, as the occasion suits. A perfect accompaniment for opening the presents on Christmas Day!

– 40% VOL | 50CL | £28

What’s it like?

The nose promises a fresh top-note of tangerine peel, gradually deepening to orange, on a milk chocolate base. The texture is smooth, the taste sweet but never cloying thanks to the continuing presence of fresh orange, with hints of coffee and spice. The finish is much the same: rich cocoa and citrus with a slight smokiness, too.

– 25% VOL | 50CL | £28

What’s it like?

Sweet and pleasantly light, the Loch Fyne Honey & Ginger Liqueur will transition effortlessly from winter to spring and even summer.

As Charles Maclean describes on p.32, it has “a mead-like middle and base of honeysuckle and clove flowers – surprisingly fragrant […]

Cool and smooth […] sweet but not cloying”.

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Stocking Fillers

a Whisky Stones – SET OF 9 | £16.99

Get in the festive spirit with our selection of cracking stocking fillers, Secret Santa gifts, and added extras to accompany someone’s favourite bottle this Christmas. We’ve sourced the very best accessories to enhance any whisky drinking experience.

Ice, but not as we know it!

Whisky Stones are a nifty way to keep your drink cool, without impacting on the taste. One of our most popular whisky accessories, simply store this set of nine reusable, shiny hard stones in the freezer, ready to chill your dram time and time again.

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b Round Compass Flask – 6OZ | £33.99

Created by the skilled craftsmen and women at Sheffield-based pewter manufacturers, Edwin Blyde & Co. Ltd, this round, 6oz pewter flask has been hand crafted and embellished with a beautifully detailed compass design. It arrives with a useful cleaning pouch. What better gift for whisky adventurers this Christmas?

c Amethyst Cross Flask – 4OZ | £33.99

d Uisge Source Waters 3 Regions Gift Pack – 3X10CL | £11.99

Another eye-catching flask handcrafted by Sheffield pewter experts, Edwin Blyde & Co. Ltd. Holding up to 4oz of liquid, this handy pocket flask is a triumph of form and function, featuring a Celtic design inset with an Amethyst stone. It comes boxed along with a useful cleaning pouch and makes a beautiful trinket for your favourite whisky lover.

Experts recommend adding ‘a drop of the water that made the whisky’ to fully appreciate the aromas and flavours in any given dram. Uisge Source have bottled pure waters to complement whiskies from Scotland’s three main distilling regions: Speyside, Islay and the Highlands. With a 10cl bottle of each type, this set is a brilliant gift for keen Scotch drinkers.

g Glencairn Glass & Water Jug Gift Set

h Auchentoshan 12 Year Old Miniature With Glass

– 2 GLASSES & JUG | £29.99 Share the joy of drinking whisky with this splendid combination featuring two award-winning Glencairn crystal whisky glasses, accompanied by a stylish Glencairn water jug.

A great accessory to Christmas catch-ups, and the perfect gift for whisky loving couples.

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e Glencairn Crystal Cut Whisky Glass

f Glencairn Glasses Flight Tray

– 1 GLASS | £27.50

– 3 GLASSES | £27.99

The Glencairn Glass has been designed specifically with whisky drinkers in mind. It’s size and shape have been perfected to accommodate a 35ml pour (plus water, should you wish), keeping an optimum amount of liquid in contact with air to allow the aromas to develop, before capturing these in the tapering mouth upon nosing and drinking.

A must-have for whisky fans.

Nose, taste and appreciate your whisky collection the expert way with Glencairn’s whisky flight tray: three award-winning, official whisky glasses, perfectly balanced on a sleek wooden presentation tray.

Ideal for private whisky tastings – why not get one for yourself and a friend this Christmas?

– 40% VOL | 5CL | £14.99

Containing a 5cl bottle of Auchentoshan 12 year old plus the iconic Glencairn glass, this gift set is ready to pour from the moment the wrapping comes off!

Auchentoshan 12 year old is tripledistilled making it a very smooth and delicate single malt, with a tempting aroma of toasted almonds and caramelised toffee. A great way to toast Christmas day!

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Miniatures Gift Sets Can’t decide which whisky to gift this Christmas? Why pick one when you can give a selection!

Perfect for fans of particular distilleries or styles (or anyone who’s a bit indecisive) a miniatures gift set allows them to try a little bit of several styles in one beautifully presented, budget-friendly gift.

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a BenRiach ‘Classic & Peated’ Gift Pack 4x5cl

b GlenDronach Classic Gift Pack 3x5cl

An opportunity to experience four different expressions from the acclaimed BenRiach Distillery. This gift set includes a 5cl miniature each of BenRiach 10 Year Old Curiositas, BenRiach 12 Year Old, BenRiach 16 Year Old and BenRiach Authenticas 21 Year Old, promising a journey through characteristic Speyside flavours such as honey, caramel, vanilla, wood and even a hint of peat.

Known for producing lavishly sherried Speyside single malts, GlenDronach Distillery’s whiskies are the perfect fit for Christmas time! A truly indulgent festive gift, this set explores the rich, spicy, dried fruit and chocolate flavours GlenDronach is famed for, with a miniature each of the 12, 15 and 18 year old expressions.

– 4X5CL | £30

– 3X5CL | £30.50

c Isle Of Jura: The Collection – 3X5CL | £20 Hailing from the only whisky distillery on the Hebridean Isle of Jura, this intriguing gift box promises a taste of the island’s curiously unique spirit via three 5cl miniatures: Jura 10 Year Old Origin, Jura 16 Year Old Diurachs’ Own, and Jura Superstition. A great gift for wildcard whisky drinkers – expect the unexpected in every dram!

d Glenfarclas Mini Pack 3x5cl

e The Whisky Shop: Tour Of Scotland Gift Box

f The Whisky Shop: The Best Of Islay Gift Box

A visit to Speyside’s iconic, family-owned Glenfarclas Distillery via three 5cl tasting bottles: Glenfarclas 10 Year Old, Glenfarclas 12 Year Old and the Glenfarclas 105. Reputed for producing big, bold whiskies with lashings of dried fruit, spice, honey and sherry, you can’t go far wrong with a Glenfarclas gift set!

Send someone on a miniature tour of Scotland, with a taste of the defining characteristics of whiskies from each region. We’ve chosen the finest examples from four corners of the land: sweet Speysider BenRiach 10, the peatiest of Islay malts Ardbeg 10, the Lowlands’ sumptuously smooth Auchentoshan 12, and a big maritime Highland dram: Old Pulteney 12.

We’ve created a gift box to transport recipients across the water to Islay, without leaving the comfort of their own home.

A miniature trip around four of the island’s distilleries includes intensely peaty Ardbeg 10, smoky and medicinal Laphroaig 10, the ‘unusual Islay’ Bunnahabhain 12, and Bowmore 12 from Islay's oldest distillery.

– 3X5CL | £30

– 4X5CL | £35

g The Whisky Shop: The Best Of Speyside Gift Box – 4X5CL | £36

We’ve chosen some fantastic whiskies from the smaller Speyside distilleries – which also happen to be best sellers in our stores – to a create a seriously special Speyside gift box. Featuring BenRiach 10, Glenfarclas 10, Balvenie 12 and GlenDronach 15, it’s an ideal gift for fans of the smoother, sweeter style single malts the region is known for.

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– 4X5CL | £33

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Whisky & Glass Gift Sets Give the full package this Christmas with a whisky and Glencairn glass set.

We’ve created luxurious THE WHISKY SHOP gift boxes containing some of our favourite bottlings, from beautiful blends, to spectacular single cask expressions, plus our very special Glenkeir Treasures range, to bring you a selection of simple and spectacular gifting solutions this Christmas.

a Old Malt Cask 20cl with Glencairn Glass

b Glenkeir Treasures 20cl with Glencairn Glass

PICTURED: FETTERCAIRN 7 YEAR OLD

PICTURED: INCHGOWER 6 YEAR OLD

This expression of Fettercairn 7 Year Old from the Old Malt Cask range by Hunter Laing & Co. is a limited edition, single cask bottling. Distilled in March 2008 and matured in refill hogsheads until October 2015, it is non chillfiltered with no artificial colouring.

We’ve paired it with a classic Glencairn glass in a luxurious presentation box to create a superb gift for whisky purists.

Every whisky that bears the Glenkeir Treasures label is unique, different and special.

The Inchgower 6 Year Old promises citrus, oak and vanilla, with a slight saltiness and aniseed flavour. Presented in a striking THE WHISKY SHOP gift box with a Glencairn glass.

c The Loch Fyne Whiskies with 2x Glencairn Glasses

d Douglas of Drumlanrig with Glencairn Glass

PICTURED: THE LOCH FYNE LIQUEUR

PICTURED: GLENBURGIE 8 YEAR OLD

The perfect gift for sharing over the festive season. This bundle combines two Glencairn glasses with a 50cl bottle of the delicious Loch Fyne Liqueur, a sumptuous tipple with a delicious and moreish chocolate orange flavour, created using the same whiskies used in the Loch Fyne Blend.

Read more on p.65.

The Douglas of Drumlanrig line from Glasgow independent bottlers Hunter Laing & Co. is a range of specially selected single cask, single malt Scotch whiskies.

This Glenburgie 8 Year Old is one of only 328 bottles. A Speyside single malt distilled in 2007, it has matured for 8 years in a bourbon barrel, and been bottled non chillfiltered at 46% ABV.

– 50% VOL | 20CL | FROM £39

– 40% VOL | 50CL | £45

b

– 40% VOL | 20CL | FROM £23

c

d

– 46% VOL | 70CL | £60

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Customer Favourites Hunting for something a little different to your usual tipple, or want to gift a whisky that’s certain to impress?

Look no further than our customer favourites! These are the bottles The Whisky Shop customers simply can’t get enough of – and we suspect You’ll share their sentiments.

BenRiach 10 Year Old

BenRiach 20 Year Old

A seminal release from BenRiach Distillery, which was taken over

by Billy Walker in 2004, this core range expression was predominantly distilled under the new ownership. Tawny amber from time in American and European oak casks, it’s a triumph of fruity top notes and vanilla sponge on both the nose and palate. Sweet overall with a light acidity, this is a creamy dram with a long warming finish – it’s no wonder our customers love it!

A classic single malt from BenRiach, aged for 20 years in ex-bourbon casks for a gloriously elegant, smooth finish. Full-bodied, it boasts a multifaceted aroma layering spice, nuts, honey, floral and fruity notes. The palate is beautifully round and rich with everything from sweet honey and vanilla, to herbal complexity, woody spice and freshness from mint and green apple.

The finish is just as complex and lingering.

– 43% VOL | 70CL | £40

– 43% VOL | 70CL | £88

Customer Favourites Hunting for something a little different to your usual tipple, or want to gift a whisky that’s certain to impress?

Look no further than our customer favourites! These are the bottles The Whisky Shop customers simply can’t get enough of – and we suspect you’ll share their sentiments.

GlenDronach 12 Year Old

– 43% VOL | 70CL | £45

A signature single malt from the distillery famous for its richly sherried offering. Matured in both Pedro Ximenez and Oloroso sherry casks, it is imbued with an indulgent portfolio of flavours – beginning with aromas of stewed fruits, rhubarb and bramble jam, plus hints of hazel and brown sugar. There’s even a faint charcoal smokiness. The palate follows with rich sherried fruit, Turkish delight, and aniseed complexity. The finish is rich yet clean; spicy yet perfectly balanced.

GlenDronach 18 Year Old Allardice

– 46% VOL | 70CL | £90 Created using waters from the Dronac Burn – which has lent its name to the GlenDronach Distillery – this a superbly complex single malt made in the characteristic big sherry style. An ode to James Allardice, who founded the distillery and produced the very first drops of ‘guid Glendronach’, this expression has been matured in the finest Oloroso sherry casks. Rich and dark, it promises remarkable depth of flavour with stewed fruits and all-spice.

Bunnahabhain 18 Year Old

– 46.3% VOL | 70CL | £100

Originating from Islay’s north tip, and the distillery whose name translates to mean ‘mouth of the river’, comes a single malt that’s a wee bit different to its island contemporaries. Created using unpeated malted barley and pure spring waters that flow away from the peaty moorlands, Bunnahabhain is known for its unique fruit and nut style. This 18 year old expression adds extra sweet and spice to the mix thanks to a little longer in the cask.

anCnoc 12 Year Old

– 40% VOL | 70CL | £42

A whisky whose name isn’t taken directly from its home distillery, anCnoc comes from the Highland Knockdhu Distillery. Established in 1894 as the perfect embodiment of a modern distillery, Knockdhu lies on the border of Speyside and produces light, intriguing, forward-thinking whisky. Matured in a combination of ex-bourbon, sherry and second fill American oak casks, this expression is delicate yet complex, smooth yet challenging, and universally loved for it!

anCnoc 18 Year Old

– 46% VOL | 70CL | £84

Like it’s younger sibling, the anCnoc 18 Year Old has been matured in a combination of both ex-sherry Spanish oak casks and ex-bourbon American oak barrels. Unlike the anCnoc 12 Year Old, this older expression has been bottled non-chill filtered in its natural form, giving it the characteristic haze found in all whiskies of this ilk. More full-bodied than younger expressions from the unusual Highland distillery, the anCnoc 18 Year Old is all about big fruit notes.

Jura 16 Year Old Diurach's Own

– 40% VOL | 70CL | £56 Named for the people of Jura, this whisky gives You a true taste of the unique Hebridean isle, as defined by those who know it best!

Jura’s dram of the people has been treated to double wood maturation in American white oak ex-bourbon and ex-Amoroso Oloroso sherry casks; combined, they’ve lent the whisky a curiously bold character.

You’ll detect flavours of Christmas cake, dark chocolate and dried fruit from nose to toasty finish.

Customer Favourites Hunting for something a little different to your usual tipple, or want to gift a whisky that’s certain to impress?

Look no further than our customer favourites! These are the bottles The Whisky Shop customers simply can’t get enough of – and we suspect you’ll share their sentiments.

Glenfarclas 10 Year Old

Glenfarclas 105

One of Speyside’s most famous whisky producers also happens to be one of the last remaining family owned distilleries in Scotland.

With a huge range of much-loved whisky, Glenfarclas is somewhat fabled amongst Scotch drinkers, and this 10 year old is a perennial favourite. The nose is rich with Christmas cake, sherry, raisins, nuts and spice plus a hint of smoke. The palate surprisingly dry, before sweetening to a full body. The finish is long, nutty and also dry – a real classic.

A bold cask strength whisky from the legendary Speyside distillers at Glenfarclas, bottled at a mind-blowing 60% ABV and all the better for it! Powerful sherry with a distinct sweetness balanced against burnt coffee tones is evident on the nose. Astonishingly smooth to taste considering its high ABV, the palate promises spice, nuts and thick sweetness with a long peppery finish.

Matured for 10 years, it’s fantastic with a drop of water to really bring it to life.

– 40% VOL | 70CL | £45

– 60% VOL | 70CL | £66

The Dalmore 12 Year Old

The Dalmore 15 Year Old

It’s not surprising that our former Whisky of The Year retains its status as a firm favourite amongst The Whisky Shop customers. To recap for those who haven’t yet dipped a toe into The Dalmore portfolio, this single malt is a Highland triumph displaying signs of sherry wood maturation: full-bodied, thick, sweet and ‘muscular’. Leathery notes and a long spicy finish add finesse and make this popular dram an absolute must-try.

Matured for 15 years in a trio of ex-sherry casks, as well as exbourbon barrels, The Dalmore’s 15 Year Old is another core range whisky for your bucket list.

A stylistic evolution from The Dalmore’s famous 12 year old and just as popular, you can expect a similarly varied profile of chocolate orange sweetness, gentle spice and rich warmth.

It’s a true testament to the distillery’s creative and ambitious approach.

– 40% VOL | 70CL | £50

– 40% VOL | 70CL | £85

Customer Favourites Hunting for something a little different to your usual tipple, or want to gift a whisky that’s certain to impress?

Look no further than our customer favourites! These are the bottles The Whisky Shop customers simply can’t get enough of – and we suspect You’ll share their sentiments.

Glen Scotia 15 Year Old

Glen Scotia Double Cask

– 46% VOL | 70CL | £60

– 46% VOL | 70CL | £43

This confident Campbeltown single malt originates from a distillery that’s been going strong since 1832. It perfectly represents a region that many Scotch drinkers have overlooked in recent decades, but is finally experiencing something of a resurgence in popularity! Non chill-filtered and aged in American oak, it’s a triumph of flavour with everything from citrus to oak, ginger snaps to apricots and a hint of caramel.

Another cracking Campbeltown dram with plenty of ‘oomph’!

This double cask-matured whisky balances vanilla-infused oak with salty sea-air tones in an ode to the distillery’s coastal location and its time in first-fill bourbon barrels as well as Pedro Ximenez casks. The latter have lent bold fruit and spice to the mix, creating a whisky of wonderful depth and character.

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Bruichladdich The Laddie Scottish Barley

Glenrothes Sherry Cask Reserve

Balblair 1999

Balblair 2005

– 40% VOL | 70CL | £54

– 46% VOL | 70CL | £85

– 40% VOL | 70CL | £56

Still made to distilling legend Jim McEwan’s original 100% Scottish barley recipe: trickle distilled, matured on the shores of Loch Indaal and crafted from a selection of casks. Described as being “smooth as pebbles in a pool”, expect barley sugar with subtle mint developing to a freshly cut meadow on the nose. Brilliantly clean on the palate, barley and oak are followed by a gust of ripe green fruit, sweet malt, brown sugar and a warm finish.

Maturation in custom-made sherry casks from Jerez, southern Spain (despite costing around five times as much as American ex-bourbon equivalents), gives this whisky a unique, dried fruit and resinous character that underpins the sherry top notes. This indulgent new addition to our Customer Favourites has arrived just in time for Christmas. Expect orange peel, fruit cake, vanilla, ginger bread, black cherries and pear drops on the nose, ginger, spice and oaky notes with an explosion of crème brulee on the palate.

A full-bodied Highland single malt created at one of Scotland’s oldest and prettiest distilleries.

Truly representative of the Balblair house style, the initial aromas are of brown bread and butter that later develop to light vanilla and ground almonds. The palate also takes a journey from sweet to spicy thanks to time in Spanish oak ex-sherry butts. Salty flavours are present at full strength, and water enhances the maritime character with a faint oiliness, creating a softer dram overall.

The first release of the 2005 expression from Balblair – who mark themselves out by bottling by year, rather than vintage. Matured in ex-Bourbon casks, there’s definite honey and vanilla present in this predominantly sweet dram. The nose is all oaky vanilla and citrus with a suggestion of fragrant cut flowers. The palate is reminiscent of citrus and orchard fruits that lift the intense sweetness and lead to a delectably long, spicy finish.

– 50% VOL | 70CL | £50

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The W Club Subscriptions Our brand new W Club whisky subscriptions are the gifts that keep on giving! Each one promises the lucky recipient an exciting whisky sampling experience, delivered direct to their door every month. There are three different sampling experiences to pick from; you sign up for a rolling subscription online or choose from three, six or twelve month gift subscriptions – meaning there’s something for every taste, and budget!

Explorer Safari 2x10cl – £24.99/MONTH This subscription sends recipients on a voyage of discovery through the world of whisky, one theme at a time. Why call it a safari? Because we believe it’s the best way to describe the exciting journey about to begin! Once a month, for the duration of the subscription, we’ll post two 10cl samples of whisky direct to their door. Each bottle will contain four measures, allowing a good taste of each. It’s also perfect for sharing – so they might even invite you on Safari with them! A truly unique gift for whisky lovers.

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The W Club – MEMBERSHIP £20: / YEAR GIFT MEMBERSHIP: £39.99

We’ve relaunched our ever-popular W Club to be better than ever.

Including a whole host of exciting benefits – such as members-only discounts, a quarterly copy of Whiskeria magazine, exclusive competitions and more – an annual membership will continue to delight whisky fans of any age and experience, right up until next Christmas! For an extra special introduction to The W club you can’t go wrong with the gift membership box, complete with whisky miniature, Glencairn glass, and Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible 2017 too.

Dram-a-Month Deluxe Dram-a-Month 1x5cl 1x5cl – £12.99/MONTH

– £6.99/MONTH

An adventure through the realm of rare and hard-to-find whiskies.

Once a month, for the duration of their subscription, recipients will receive a 5cl sample of a very special whisky direct to their door. From aged and vintage expressions, to superb limited editions, this is a wonderful opportunity to sample exceptional and expensive liquids they may otherwise be unable to access – an ideal gift solution for the whisky aficionado in your life.

Send someone on a trip through the world of whisky, one dram at a time. We’ve got everything from new releases through to obscure drams and, every once in a while, a very special ‘Golden Dram’, which we’ll be posting to recipients one 5cl sample bottle at a time on a monthly basis. This is the perfect Christmas gift for novices, or anyone who wants to expand their knowledge of whisky!

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12 Drams of Christmas

12 Drams of Christmas 12x3cl – £70

Brand new from our ‘elves’ workshop’: a set of 12 world class drams, ready to hang on the Christmas tree (if you wish) and enjoy over the 12 days of Christmas.

Encompassing a range of styles, and including some wisely chosen Whisky Shop exclusives, this is a real treat to enjoy each day of the holidays! The perfect gift for your true love or any other whisky fan this Christmas.

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Personalised Engraving What could be more special than receiving an incredible bottle of whisky for Christmas, embellished with a bespoke engraved message? We’ve selected a range of excellent whiskies that can be personalised with stunning results. It couldn’t be easier – simply tell us what you’d like to say, and we’ll create a beautiful gift bottle to be treasured for years to come.

Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Select

Loch Fyne The Living Cask Batch 4

– 45% ABV | 70CL | £50

– 43.6% ABV | 50CL | £50

The highest standard is maintained when crafting and selecting Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel. In fact, just one out of every 100 barrels is set aside to mature in the highest reaches of the barrelhouses, where dramatic temperature changes cause the colour and taste to deepen further to a one-of-a-kind flavour with notes of toasted oak, vanilla, and caramel. As the distillery says: “It’s not easy making a whiskey like Single Barrel. But easy never interested us in the first place.”

This is not a single malt, but a living vatting of carefully chosen Islay and Speyside malts. Stocks are topped up and then left to marry before the next batch is released.

These batches are always limited, and always different. Batch 4 boasts fresh creamy vanilla on both the nose and palate, with dry citrus, fresh woodiness, and orchard fruit aromas. The waxy texture carries a lot of flavour: autumn fruit, cherry, peaches and plums combined with dry wood spice and a little cinnamon.

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Bunnahabhain 12 Year Old

Glenmorangie 18 Year Old

– 46.3% ABV | 70CL | £55

– 43% ABV | 70CL | £109

This 12 Year Old expression showcases the ‘fruit and nut’ signature style of Bunnahabhain.

Located at the north-eastern tip of Islay, the distillery name means 'mouth of the river' in Gaelic.

Bunnahabhain is quite distinct from the other Islay single malts – firstly, it is created using unpeated malted barley in a time-honoured distillation process and secondly, this isolated coastal sanctuary takes advantage of the pure spring water that flows freely underground away from the peaty moorlands.

A single malt Scotch whisky of serious distinction. Following 15 years maturing in American white oak casks, around 30% is transferred to Spanish Oloroso for a further three years. When both elements have reached 18 years, they are blended back together. A living legacy, rare in its complexity, yet perfectly balanced.

Expect sweet dried fruits and a complex, floral fragrance, with honey, malt and a subtle hint of wood smoke on the palate, moving to a tantalising finish with a subtle dryness from the Oloroso influence.

Directory 2016 The W Club Join The W Club and you will receive all future editions of Whiskeria.

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86 | mixing it up

The Century bar at luxury 5 star hotel Gleneagles has undergone a stylish renovation with more than a nod to its Art Deco heritage. Open morning till night, its menus are inspired by local produce, surroundings, and traditional country pursuits. —

Illustration: Kate Timney

Smoking Gun 40ml Balvenie Double Wood 12 Carpano Antica Formula 5ml Maraschino 2 dashes Boker's Bitters 30ml Birchwater Sulphur 1 Tom Jolly's signature serve is an ode to the sport of shooting, replete with line of ignited gunpowder, recently snuffed matches and replica shell‌ perhaps dont' try this one at home!

Spruced Up 120ml Justerini & Brooks, Sarcey, Brut, Champagne 25ml Pine needle cordial Dandelion & Burdock Bitters

1

Garnish with mint sprigs

House Mary 35ml Lagavulin 16 2 bar spoons of spice mix: garlic, shallots, honey, Tobasco, Worcester Sauce 15ml Tio Pepe Fino Sherry 5ml Orange Juice Top up with Tomato Juice 1 Garnish with rosemary and salted rim

Bonnie Prince Charlie 40ml Drambuie 15 20ml Cocchi Torino 20ml Averna

1

Method: shake over ice and strain

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| mixing it up

For a change of scenery and a warming dram after traversing Gleneagles’ famous fairways, visit The Blue Bar – a decadent yet cosy outdoor space with heated sofas and fire pit, dedicated to velvety smooth Johnnie Walker Blue Label.

Johnnie Walker Blue Label Perfect Serve 1

For the 'perfect serve "Johnnie Walker Blue Label should be enjoyed neat alongside a glass of iced water, which should be sipped first to cleanse the palate and hone the senses".

94 | expert tasting

Our resident ‘taster in chief’ Charles MacLean goes back to the 70s with Banff and Glen Grant.

—

Illustration: Fran Waddell

! banff 1976 Banff Distillery closed its doors in 1983, a casualty of prevailing global recession, and of Scottish Malt Distillers’ determination to reduce output in order to bring the level of maturing stock into line with the anticipated level of future sales. Indeed, by 1980 the quantity of whisky held in bond was four times what it had been in 1960.

Between 1981 and 1986, no fewer than twentynine distilleries were taken out of production; twenty of these have not worked since, and several have been demolished, including Banff.

The first Banff Distillery was founded at Mill of Banff in 1824, and between about 1850 and 1863 was managed by James Simpson & Son. It closed in 1863 and James Simpson Junior built a new distillery on a site at Inverboyndie, about a mile west of the Banff, overlooking Boyndie Bay on the Moray Firth, in order to take advantage of the railway line which had opened four years earlier and from which a spur was constructed into the distillery. Locally, the distillery was always known as ‘Inverboyndie’, indeed the whisky historian Brian Spiller reports that even in 1982, if visitors asked for directions to Banff Distillery, their enquiries “may be met with incomprehension”.

In May 1877 fire “consumed the whole of the premises and plant of the distillery”, but not the maltings or warehouses. It was rebuilt “within a wonderfully short time for its extent” and was back in operation by the autumn, also equipped

with a fire engine.

Alas, this appliance was not up to coping with an event which happened during the afternoon of 16th August 1941, when a single enemy aircraft flew low over the town and the distillery. Men of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, who were billeted in the malt barns, were machine gunned and a warehouse was bombed.

Exploding casks of whisky were seen to fly in the air, and others were smashed to prevent the fire from spreading. Helped by the troops, two fire engines from Banff had the fire under control by night-fall, and nobody was killed, but, as the local newspaper reported: “thousands of gallons of whisky were lost… and so over-powering were the results that even farm animals grazing in the neighbourhood became visibly intoxicated”.

Ducks and geese dabbling in the Boyndie Burn were recovered on the beach, and the cows could not stand to be milked.

Fire was a common hazard in distilleries when the stills were direct fired by naked flames, and Banff endured further fires in 1959 when a still exploded, and in 1991 when it was being dismantled section by section.

The appearance of the distillery changed little from the late 19th century, although the plant was up-graded. Unusually for a Highland distillery, the spirit was triple distilled until at least the 1920s.

The coal-burning furnaces that heated the stills were fed by hand until 1963, when mechanised

stoking was installed. They were converted to internal heating by steam coils and pans in 1970.

Supplies of barley, coal and casks were brought in by rail to Boyndie Station and collected from there by horse and cart until 1952, “when the horse, Willie, was then put out to grass, because he was too old and bit anybody who approached him” (Brian Spiller).

Before World War I Old Banff Pure All-Malt Highland Whisky was purveyed to the House of Commons, but the make was subsequently released by its owner only once, in 2004 at 21 years old and 57.1%Vol, under United Distillers’ Rare Malts label.

This 40YO single cask bottling comes from Hunter Laing and is part of their prestigious Old & Rare Platinum series. ! invergordon To Gaels, members of Clan Grant were known as Mac-na-Braiche, ‘the Children of the Malt’ and their homeland in Strathspey was well known for illicit whisky distilling. Today, nearly half of the operating malt whisky distilleries are located here.

The founders of Glen Grant Distillery, John and James Grant, had the “reputation of being famous smugglers” but ‘went legal’ in 1833. In 1840 they moved to Rothes and chose a site close to the fast-flowing Glen Grant Burn, which supplied both the process water and the motive power to drive the distillery’s machinery

Banff 40 Year Old Platinum Old & Rare

Glen Grant 43 Year Old Platinum Old & Rare

40 YEAR OLD HIGHLAND SINGLE MALT | 40.6%VOL HUNTER LAING PLATINUM SINGLE CASK SERIES

43 YEAR OLD SPEYSIDE SINGLE MALT | 49.1%VOL SINGLE CASK BOTTLED BY OLD MALT CASK

Full gold, khaki lights. The top note is of soft candlewax (from a recently snuffed candle), with attractive driedherbal notes in the middle (becoming more fragrant in the development), on a slightly mineralic/maritime base. I would have mistaken it for a Brora. The taste is complex: sweet throughout, with a hint of salt and a slightly spicy and fatty aftertaste (crisp chicken skin dusted with paprika).

Leonine, tawny gold in colour. Rich, mellow and fruity (fruit salad edging towards rum-toft - with paw-paw, mango, ripe plum, ripe pear and banana) with vanilla toffee (even rum toffee) in the middle and sandalwood at base. A light texture and a lightly sweet taste, drying slightly towards the lengthy finish, and leaving an aftertaste of wood-spice.

Trading as J. & J. Grant, they named their distillery – one of the largest in the Highlands – ‘Glen Grant’, after the burn.

In 1872 ownership of the distillery passed to ‘Young’ James Grant, later universally known as ‘The Major’, his rank in the local volunteer regiment. Within ten years he had increased the distillery’s capacity to over 600,000 litres a year, and was selling his whisky “...in England, Scotland and the Colonies, and commands a high price in the market, alike for use by itself [i.e. as a single malt] and for blending” (Alfred Barnard, 1887).

Business was booming.

The next ‘Glengrant’ was also a Major – Douglas Mackessack, James Grant’s grandson.

He had joined the business in 1929, and although he had no previous experience of distilling immediately set about expanding the market for Glen Grant as a single malt. In this he was a pioneer: very little malt whisky was bottled as ‘single’ in those days, 99.99% of the make going into blended Scotch.

He incorporated the business as a limited company then merged with George & J.G. Smith to form The Glenlivet and Glen Grant Distillers Ltd. On the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, he joined his regiment, the Seaforth Highlanders, narrowly escaping death the following year at St. Valery, where he was captured and spent the rest of the war as a PoW. In 1959 Major Mackessack was joined

contribution to the local community.

Dennis’s father worked at Glen Grant, and he joined the workforce in 1961 as an apprentice cooper, aged fifteen. Ten years later he was appointed ‘brewer’, second only to the manager in those days, so was partly responsible for making this rare 1973 expression.

“I modelled myself on Douglas MacKessack”, he says, “a gentleman distiller who really cared about people”. By 1970, Glen Grant was part of The Glenlivet Group, and in 1978 this company was bought by the massive Canadian distiller, Seagram. Douglas Mackessack announced this “with regret, but as being inevitable if Glen Grant’s economic survival was to be assured”. He then handed a cash bonus to every employee and retired.

Dennis says: “Seagram’s focus was all on Glenlivet and Chivas Regal […] I continued as manager, and was appointed Production Director for the whole group in 1992, which certainly kept me busy!”

After stints at a number of other distilleries, Dennis returned to manage Glen Grant in 2006 when the distillery was bought by the Italian Gruppo Campari. “I started work on 10 April 2006 and, since Glen Grant was their only distillery, they wanted to do it right, they wanted the place to shine.

As you might imagine, this suited me very well!”

He retired as manager last year, but continues as Master Distiller.

by his son-in-law, Hugh Mitcalfe, who was appointed marketing director, and soon after this the company was approached by Armando Giovinetti, who wanted to distribute Glen Grant in Italy. He was given fifty cases to start him off; by the mid-1970s he was selling 1.5 million cases a year – the first single malt to take off in an export market.

The history of Glen Grant over the past fifty years is embodied by the distillery’s long-serving manager, Dennis Malcolm, who was awarded an OBE in June this year for his outstanding

96 | burns night toasts

We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet…

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Illustration: Kate Timney

When the dark and cold month of January draws to a close and the joy and excitement of Christmas is but a faint memory, Scotland finds a reason to cheer itself up by celebrating the life and works of the world's most famous bard (second only to William Shakespeare), Robert Burns.

Burns was born in 1759 and died on 25th January 1796 aged 37 years. In his short life he laid down a remarkable volume of poems and songs that are repeated today the world over. In fact, we’d wager many of you will be singing his famous piece ‘Auld Lang Syne’ to see in 2017.

Despite Burns’ work being in the Auld Scots dialect, which is unintelligible to many, it rolls off the tongue pleasingly and adds to the whole mystic and culture surrounding the great man.

And so, on his birthday, the 25th of January, we can all look forward to Burns’ Suppers when whisky – and plenty of it – will be drunk with the traditional fare of haggis, neeps and tatties.

Deeply associated with Burns is uisge beata (pronounced uske baa) or, as we know it, whisky.

But why is that?

A domestic product distilled in practically every farm kitchen in 18th century Scotland, whisky was the daily national drink, and a one which Burns himself indulged in heartily!

Whilst wine and beer existed, whisky was cheap, plentiful and accessible. The average daily consumption was one dram, being one third of a pint, at 60% strength! And we worry about alcohol consumption today?

In truth, Burns’ somewhat hedonistic lifestyle quickly diminished the money he’d made as a successful young poet and – somewhat ironically – he became an Excise Man, collecting duty on whisky. Thereafter, Burns' job involved closing small domestic stills, as they were not subject to excise duty and were producing no income for the King who was funding the American War of Independence at the time.

In recognition of this great man we publish below a very small selection of his most famous stanzas plus accompanying drams. So, attending a Burns’ Supper or not, you can enjoy your dram and also impress your friends, family or just yourself with your recitation of Robert Burns!

Tam O’Shanter

The Banks O’Doon

When chapmen billies leave the street, And drouthy neibors, neibors meet, As market days are wearing late, An' folk begin to tak the gate; While we sit bousing at the nappy, And getting fou and unco happy, We think na on the lang Scots miles, The mosses, waters, slaps, and styles, That lie between us and our hame, Where sits our sulky sullen dame.

Gathering her brows like gathering storm, Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.

Ye banks and braes o' bonie Doon, How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair?

How can ye chant, ye little birds, And I sae weary fu' o' care!

Thou'll break my heart, thou warbling bird, That wantons thro' the flowering thorn: Thou minds me o' departed joys, Departed never to return.

! Recite as you enjoy a dram of: Cutty Sark Tam O'Shanter

Address to a Haggis Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!

Aboon them a' ye tak your place, Painch, tripe, or thairm: Weel are ye worthy o' a grace As lang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill, Your hurdies like a distant hill, Your pin wad help to mend a mill In time o need, While thro your pores the dews distil Like amber bead. ! Toast your haggis with a smoky, rich whisky, such as The Loch Fyne Living Cask 1745

Aft hae I rov'd by Bonie Doon, To see the rose and woodbine twine: And ilka bird sang o' its Luve, And fondly sae did I o' mine; Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose, Fu' sweet upon its thorny tree!

And may fause Luver staw my rose, But ah! he left the thorn wi' me. ! Enjoy with a sweet whisky just like the departed lover: the small batch limited release Glenfarclas 2000 (when it's gone, it's gone)

Auld Lang Syne Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And auld lang syne!

For auld lang syne, my jo, For auld lang syne, We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet, For auld lang syne. ! Keep it traditional and special with a dram of The Whisky Shop exclusive Aberfeldy 1991, sipped from an authentic Celtic quaich