WHISKY STUFF !

2012-01-29T19:39:00.000Z

Beware of 'Collectables' Hype malt-mates !

Whisky investors cheered by rise in values

Recent figures suggest it might be best to invest in whisky, rather than drink it. Picture: PA

By JANE BRADLEY
Published on Sunday 29 January 2012 00:00

CAREFUL with that dram – it might be better off left in the bottle, as Scotch whisky is now outperforming traditional investments, including the stock market and gold.

Figures from investment firm Whisky Highland show that some portfolios’ value has risen by almost 300 per cent in the last year.

Three-year figures reveal that an investment in the 100 best-performing whiskies in 2008 would have risen by 163 per cent in 2011, while gold – which has soared due to the recession – rose 146 per cent. Diamonds rose by just 10 per cent, while shares and crude oil stock values fell.

Arthur Motley, buyer at Royal Mile Whiskies, said: “Collectors used to be interested in whisky as a drink and wanted a good bottle as part of their collection. Increasingly, people are buying as they see prices rising on eBay or at auctions. It is simply seen as an investment.”

Former banker Andy Simpson, who founded Whisky Highland after leaving Bank of Scotland, said investors are only just starting to become aware of the value of whisky.

“It is expanding quite rapidly,” he said. “A few years ago, you might have seen the odd bottle tagged on the end of a wine auction. Now there are a lot of specific whisky auctions held all over the country.”

A total of 8,500 bottles of single malt – the most valuable form – were last year sold at auction, compared to 1,500 four years ago. The value of the auction market is estimated at £3.6 million and expected to rise to £17m by 2020.

Worldwide, investor and collector bottle retail sales are thought to total 85,000 – worth £44 million a year. The most expensive bottle of whisky so far is a bottle of limited-edition Dalmore, bought last year for £135,000 by a Chinese businessman in Singapore.

Another high-performing investment bottle, the Glenfiddich Foundation Reserve, went on sale in a limited-edition 500 bottle run last May for £50 and is now worth about £250.

David Robertson, Dalmore’s rare whiskies director, said: “People see whisky as an asset and with stocks and shares being so tough and interest from bank accounts so low, investors have been starting to look for other opportunities.”

Robertson said Dalmore regularly received calls – including from investors and whisky retailers in Asia and Africa – enquiring about specific bottles.

Mahesh Patel, 45, a British civil engineer who lives and works in the US, began collecting in his early 20s.

“My first serious bottles were bought 20 years ago on the Royal Mile – a Black Bowmore and an Ardbeg Provenance – which cost about £200 and are probably worth about £4,000 to £5,000 now. I have about 2,500 to 3,000 bottles, but I like to see it as quality, not quantity. My family used to think it was a mad obsession. Now they can see the benefit.”

2012-01-26T21:26:00.000Z

Tail-end of the Talisker TransAtlantic drama !

Well-wishers throw leeks to mark end of firefighters' epic Atlantic row

TWO Welsh firefighters have spoken of their emotional reunion with friends and family after rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic.

John Haskell and Jamie Windsor battled exhaustion, salt sores and 20ft waves in a rowing boat from the Canaries to Barbados.

The dynamic duo, from South Wales, were greeted by scores of well-wishers throwing leeks after an almost record-breaking 45 days, 19 hours and 21 minutes.

TWO Welsh firefighters have spoken of their emotional reunion with friends and family after rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic.

John Haskell and Jamie Windsor battled exhaustion, salt sores and 20ft waves in a rowing boat from the Canaries to Barbados.

They came fourth in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge and are hoping to raise £100,000 for Breast Cancer Care, Help for Heroes, WRVS and the Fire Service Fund.

Mr Haskell, 44, said of the challenge: “We’re both grown men, we’re both firefighters and we’ve done some pretty extreme stuff but the pair of us were terrified and we could see it in each others’ eyes.

“We’d have knockdowns on the boat, the waves were breaking on us and we had eyes like dinner plates. It was terrifying.

“But to be given the experience of doing that I do feel spoiled, as hard as it was sometimes.”

The second half of Team Pendovey Swift, Mr Haskell, said the return to shore was overwhelming.

“There were 100 people waving flags and throwing leeks at us because we are Welsh, which was brilliant. The two of us had tears in our eyes coming in,” he said.

The Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge saw 17 crews from around the world leave La Gomera in the Canary Islands on December 5.

But with two capsizes, seasickness and boat defects, only seven crews are still participating in the marathon 3,000-mile crossing.

2012-01-24T20:35:00.000Z

We hear these claims now and again !

Make Cheap Whisky Taste Like Fancy Whisky

1:30PM Yesterday | Kyle Wagner

You like whisky. You looooove good whisky. You can’t afford to drop hundreds of dollars on high-end bottle. You stick with rotgut, right? Nope. There’s a new process of hyper-aging booze that apparently turns run-of-the-mill whisky into dark and delicious firewater of the gods.

The process is called TerrePure, and it was dreamt up by a retired chemist named Orville Tyler. It involves pumping the whisky through oxygenated chambers, which “[subject it] to high-intensity ultrasonic energy”, which in turn trigger esterification, the process that creates flavour-imparting lactones in whiskey as it’s dehydrated.

According to someone who’s tasted a processed sample, the resulting whisky is a good bit less harsh, and the flavour is easier to take in. It’s a cool bit of boozehacking, but it’ll have to be pretty amazing to justify shipping off all your whiskey to South Carolina. [Terressentia via Popular Science]

2012-01-22T22:44:00.000Z

Crying Wolf !

'We won't back your whisky if you break away,' Hague tells Scotland

By MAIL ON SUNDAY REPORTER

Last updated at 2:12 PM on 22nd January 2012

Scotland’s most famous export will be hit by a Foreign Office ban if the country breaks away from the UK, says William Hague.

The Foreign Secretary says Britain’s 140 embassies and high commissions will stop promoting whisky and other products if Scotland becomes independent.

Many UK diplomatic missions help to promote whisky for free. Last year, whisky exports earned Scotland £3billion, equal to £125 a second and more than 20 per cent up on 2010.

Warning: Foreign Minister William Hague has said that Britain's embassies will not promote whisky if Scotland breaks away

Mr Hague told a private meeting that if Scotland goes it alone, embassies will stop promoting the drink. Scotland would have to take over the job – and pay for it.

More...

Meanwhile, David Cameron and Alex Salmond will meet within weeks for talks about holding a referendum on Scottish independence.

The talks were revealed as opinion surveys showed that support for a break up of the Union is higher in England than it is north of the border.

It is unclear whether the meeting will be held in London or Edinburgh.

Shot in the arm: Scotland's whisky trade is boosted by Britain's embassies

Two polls revealed widespread English support for allowing Scotland to go its own way – and hinted at a growing backlash against the country’s demands.

An ICM survey for the Sunday Telegraph found that 43 per cent of voters in England want Scotland to become independent, with only 32 per cent wanting the Scots to remain in the UK.

By comparison, 40 per cent of Scots supported independence while 43 per cent want to retain the Union. A Survation poll for The Mail on Sunday put support for independence at 26 per cent in Scotland, against 29 per cent in England.

The surveys are the first comprehensive opinion polls in Scotland and England since David Cameron decided to throw down the gauntlet to Alex Salmond.

Conducted separately in England and Wales by polling form Survation, the surveys apparently showed there is more support in England for Scotland leaving the United KIngdom than there is north of the border.

Scots do not want the English to meddle in whether they end their 300-year union with England, but English voters are much keener to have a say in the matter.

2012-01-21T21:33:00.001Z

Canadian Whisky Awards 2011

CelebratingCanada’s Best Whiskies

January19, 2012. Victoria B.C. - Canada’stop whiskies of 2011 were announced today at the annual CanadianWhisky Awards, a gala celebration at the Grand Pacific Hotel inVictoria, British Columbia.

The Canadian Whisky Awards reward the very besttasting Canadian whiskies, and recognize outstanding contributionsmade by highly successful individual whiskies and producers ingenerating favourable attention for Canadian whisky. Winners arechosen by a panel of seven judges following extensive blind tastings.Among the judges are some of Canada’s top whisky writers andbloggers.

Whisky makers nominate their very best whiskiescreating a strong competitive field. Among these, gold medals wereawarded to five entries, and silver medals to another twelve. Eightwhiskies were recognized with bronze. Awards of Excellence were alsopresented. Here are the details:

Kittling Ridge Estate Wines and Spirits took homethe award for Canadian Whisky of theYear with their 2011 release, FortyCreek John’s Private Cask No. 1. The whisky also won ConnoisseurWhisky of the Year – Domestic earningthe overall highest score for whiskies available only in Canada, andBest New Whisky of the Yearas the highest scoring new release. Kittling Ridge also won WhiskyValue of the Year for the Canadianmarket with it’s Canada Gold whisky.

Gold medals forCanada’s top whiskies went to several perennial favourites and onesurprising newcomer. Gibson’s Finest Rare 18 year old, ascrumptious creamy, long-aged whisky with both elegance and power isa limited production whisky, available in Canada only and a strongfavourite of Canadian whisky lovers. Wiser’s Small Batch, a rich,spicy and mouth filling delicacy was highly praised by the jury. Itsupscale stable mate, Wiser’s Legacy, a pot-distilled rye justbursting with rye spices also took home gold, as did Forty Creek:John’s Private Cask No. 1.

The pleasant surprise of the evening came whenMasterson’s Rye was announced as a gold medalist. Huh? Yes.Masterson’s is a whisky distilled in Calgary Alberta by AlbertaDistillers Limited for a Sonoma, California-based purveyor of finespirits, called 35 Maple Street. Released in the summer of 2012,Masterson’s has quickly gathered strength among American rye whiskylovers. As the highest scoring whisky available in the export marketonly – it is not yet available in Canada – Masterson’s wasvoted Connoisseur Whisky of the Year –Export. The company has promised torelease Masterson’s in Canada in 2012.

Wiser’s Legacy, available in both Canada and theU.S. got the nod for Connoisseur Whiskyof the Year – Multiple Markets.Wiser’s Legacy with its assertive rye flavour profile has quicklybecome a favourite of connoisseurs.

Awards of Excellencewent to Alberta Springs 10 year old as the Sippin’Whisky of the Year – Canada Only,Canadian Mist Black Diamond as Sippin’Whisky of the year – Export Only, andWiser’s Small Batch for Sippin’Whisky of the Year – Multiple Markets.Canada Gold took Whisky Value of theYear – Canada Only, while CanadianMist was acknowledged as Whisky Value ofthe Year – Multiple Markets.

The Awards also recognized CanadianWhisky Innovations. In a hotlycontested competition, the judges eventually settled on White OwlWhisky from Alberta’s Highwood Distillers. Introduced in Alberta in2010, White Owl really took the Canadian cocktail scene by storm thefollowing year, bringing whisky flavour to a whole new demographicand generating new interest in Canadian whisky. White Owl is made byfiltering long-aged Canadian rye whisky until it is as clear asvodka, making it an ideal mixer for bartenders wanting to give theirfancy cocktails a rye flavour boost.

Canadian Club took home an Awardof Excellence for Canadian Whisky Profile.This award recognizes the whisky or producer that in the opinion ofthe judges has contributed the most to raising the profile ofCanadian whisky. Highlighting the role of Canadian Club duringProhibition, the brand supplemented its prominence on the HBO series,Boardwalk Empire,with a strong social media campaign, putting the words “Canadianwhisky” (and its flavours) on the tip of many a new tongue.

The Award of Excellence for Line Extension wasagain, hard fought with Brown-Forman emerging as the victor with itsCollingwood whisky. Collingwood was one of the most successful newlaunches of 2011 bringing the Canadian Mist line to the connoisseur’swhisky shelf. Collingwood’s unique flavours are attributed toleaving the mingled component spirits to rest in a huge “marryingvat,” with staves of toasted maple wood.

The organizers would like to thank the VictoriaWhisky Festival for hosting the awards. More information about theCanadian Whisky Awards is available at www.canadianwhisky.org.

Themedalists:

Gold

Gibson’sFinest Rare 18 year old

Wiser’sSmall Batch

Wiser’sLegacy

FortyCreek: John’s Private Cask No. 1

Masterson’sRye

Silver:

CanadianClub Sherry Cask

FortyCreek Barrel Select

AlbertaSprings 10 year old

RoyalCanadian Small Batch

Pendleton1910

CanadianMist Black Diamond

FortyCreek Confederation Oak

Gibson’sFinest 12 year old

CanadianClub Reserve 10 year old

FortyCreek Double Barrel Reserve

CaribouCrossing Single Barrel

Wiser’s18

Bronze

Pendleton

Gibson’sFinest Sterling

Collingwood

CanadaGold

CentennialLimited Edition

CanadianMist

CanadianClub Classic 12

Aboutthe Canadian Whisky Awards

The Canadian Whisky Awards are presented annuallyto recognize the very best Canadian whiskies and to encouragedistillers to maintain the highest standards for making whisky. Onlywhiskies distilled and matured in Canada are eligible to compete. Apanel of independent whisky writers, bloggers, and broadcastersselects the winners after tasting each whisky blind. The Awards arefully and fiercely independent of the Canadian whisky industry andoperate on a not-for-profit basis.

Aboutthe judges

Chairman of the Judges, Davin de Kergommeaux publishes the Canadian whisky website canadianwhisky.org. His book, Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert will be released in May 2012 by McClelland & Stewart.
Jason Debly is a Fredericton New Brunswick-based whisky blogger who publishes Jason’s Scotch Whisky Reviews, jason-scotchreviews.blogspot.com “If the whisky tastes good or bad,” he tells us, “you will know, in no uncertain terms.”
André Girard is co-president of the Quebec City Whisky Club and co-founder of Quebecwhisky.com, an ever growing French-language independent database with tasting notes for nearly 1000 whiskies.
Mark Gillespie is a professional broadcast journalist in the U.S. and is the host and executive producer of Whisky Cast, the Cask-Strength Conversation, heard weekly at whiskycast.com. Mark is a Malt Maniac and long-time supporter of Canadian whisky.
Based in Southwestern Ontario, Kris Shoemaker is a whisky fan with a nose for Canadian whisky. While his website, Daily Dramaddicts, dailydramaddicts.blogspot.com, is taking a backseat to impending fatherhood, he continues to comment regularly about Canadian whisky on Twitter.
Edmonton, Alberta’s Chip Dykstra, aka Arctic Wolf, aka The Rum Howler, collects a wide range of spirits and reviews them on his Rum Howler blog, therumhowlerblog.wordpress.com.

. LawrenceGraham is a Malt Maniac, organizer ofthe always sold-out Victoria Whisky Festival and publishes the highlypopular website Whisky Intelligence, whiskyintelligence.com.

Theawards are hosted by, but independent from the Victoria WhiskyFestival victoriawhiskyfestival.com.

2012-01-16T20:38:00.000Z

The Diageo sponsored Atlantic Row sets record !

Man breaks 'toughest' Atlantic solo rowing record

Page last updated at 15:41 GMT, Monday, 16 January 2012

By Del Crookes
Newsbeat reporterAndrew Brown suffered from salt rash, blisters and cramps on his voyage

A 26-year-old man from Surrey has broken the record for the fastest solo Atlantic crossing.

Andrew Brown took 40 days to row 2,936 miles from Tenerife to Barbados in a 19ft (5.7m) boat.

He was taking part in the Atlantic Challenge, billed as the world's toughest rowing race, and was raising money for two UK children's charities.

Andrew Brown says it feels amazing to have finished the challenge and to have broken a record at the same time.

"I don't think the feeling has quite sunk in yet," he admitted.

"I thought perhaps the record was on from about the 15th day onwards if the conditions carried on.

"Even though I've had it in mind for such a long time, now it's actually happened I can't really believe it."

Emmanuel Coindre from France had held the record for the fastest solo Atlantic crossing since 2004.

Organisers say more people have travelled to space than have rowed across the Atlantic.

Power problems

Andrew Brown, who works in the toy industry, was narrowly beaten in the race by a pairs team.

Toby Iles and Nick Moore arrived in Port St Charles, Barbados, around half an hour before Brown.

They missed out on breaking the course record for a pair.

ANDREW BROWN'S ROW

Andrew consumed around 6,500 calories per day
He took just under a ¼ tonne (250kg) of food on the boat
He lost three stone (19kg) in weight
He's only the 26th person from the UK to have rowed solo across the Atlantic

Seventeen crews started the race on 5 December but eight have pulled out because of problems including poor weather and sea-sickness.

Other contestants were disqualified after calling for help - the rules of the race ban external assistance.

Two rowers, Tom Fancett and Tom Sauer, were rescued by a cruise ship when their boat capsized after being hit by a massive wave before Christmas.

Another team that includes four veterans who lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan, Row2Recovery, has had to take on emergency water supplies and also has a broken rudder.

Andrew Brown admits he had his own issues to contend with on the crossing including a serious power problem.

"Everything on the boat was powered by solar panels and for the first two weeks we didn't have much sunshine," he said.

"I became really tight on electricity, which I needed to make water.

"I was having to be really careful about how much I drank, which, when you're doing that much exercise isn't what you're wanting to be doing."

As well as power problems including a battery which needed to be fixed and regular storms, the 26-year-old also had to contend with salt rash, blisters and cramps.

His first meal on arriving in Barbados was a burger and chips.

Andrew Brown says he will return to the UK next Monday (23 January) after recovering in Barbados with his girlfriend.

2012-01-14T19:43:00.000Z

Interesting Times for Scotland, home of Whisky !

Analysis - Is a breakaway Scotland brave or foolhardy?

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By Matt Falloon

LONDON | Thu Jan 12, 2012 4:03pm EST

(Reuters) - An independent Scotland, the dream of generations of nationalists, would boast a cash-rich economy buoyed by North Sea oil and Edinburgh finance, but would create another small state on the edge of Europe vulnerable to global shocks.

Nationalists argue that Scotland, an independent kingdom until 1707, is Europe's next energy-rich Norway. Sceptics see another bailout candidate, an Ireland-in-waiting.

"Its economy is performing quite reasonably," said Brian Ashcroft, an economics professor at the University of Strathclyde.

"It stands very well compared to the rest of the United Kingdom. It would be quite a rich state," said Ashcroft, before injecting a note of caution.

"Oil revenues are very volatile - it's very dangerous to predicate your planned future spending on oil revenues."

"I suspect that they would have to introduce tax rises or spending cuts and seek to bank the oil revenues."

Scotland, a nation of more than five million, kept its own legal system after union with England in 1707, and has had a devolved government since 1999, with control over health, education and prisons. Proponents of independence feel the southeast of England, notably London, has enjoyed economic and social benefits at the expense of those 'north of the border'.

Led by the shrewd Alex Salmond, the pro-independence Scottish National Party shocked the British political establishment by winning an outright majority in the devolved parliament last May and promised a referendum on independence by 2016.

Opinion polls show support for independence has been slowly increasing, with about a third of Scots backing a breakaway and around half wanting to remain in the union.

Salmond is locked in a standoff with British Prime Minister David Cameron over the terms and timing of a vote, with Cameron pressing for an early poll to remove economic uncertainty and Salmond wanting to wait until 2014 to build support.

BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO

Salmond is recognised as one of Britain's most able politicians.

His rhetoric conjures images of Scotland's granite cities and sparkling rivers, but he is also a pragmatist who sells the country as a great place to do business on trips overseas.

He wants Scotland to get rid of British nuclear submarines based close to Glasgow and be producing all of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. Unlike an independent Ireland, Salmond would keep Queen Elizabeth as head of state.

However, Scotland, a nation similar in population size to Norway or Denmark with just over 5.2 million inhabitants, would face an acrimonious divorce from its long-term partner.

The SNP wants 90 percent of North Sea oil revenues, estimated at around 13 billion pounds this year, and eight percent of Britain's debt, in line with its population share.

London is likely to argue that North Sea oil is a resource that should be shared by the whole of the UK and perhaps even demand it is therefore divided by population.

As for debt, London could point out that it pumped billions of pounds into Scotland's banks during the credit crisis, ending up with an 83 percent stake in Royal Bank of Scotland.

TRIPLE A RATING?

Opinion is divided on whether Scotland would enjoy a triple-A credit rating, and depending too heavily on oil to boost the coffers is not something that analysts advise.

"It seems to me that bond rates would be reasonable but probably a little higher than the UK in the initial phase until the Scottish government built up a reputation for fiscal prudence," Ashcroft said.

The prospect of higher taxes or spending cuts and higher government borrowing costs would prove a drag on growth in a fledgling country which already has some catching up to do.

It might also mean an end to the free university tuition and prescriptions that have many English people looking enviously north of the border.

For the three decades to 2007, according to official figures, Scotland's average growth rate of about two percent lagged Britain's 2.4 percent rate and was well below Norway's annual growth of more than three percent.

Investors may, therefore, look warily at another small European economy entering the fray.

Jim Leaviss, a fund manager at M&G Investments, estimates that the combined assets of RBS and HBOS, another Scottish bank rescued in the credit crunch, amount to about 1400 percent of the Scottish economy, pointing out that Iceland's bank assets peaked at 1100 percent of GDP in 2008.

He warned in a blog this month that Scotland's claims of fiscal responsibility - the government boasts it has run a current budget surplus in four of the five years to 2009/10 - may not be enough for the markets.

"Countries with relatively low public debt to GDP ratios still get into difficulty because of their private sector debt," he says.

INVESTOR UNCERTAINTY

Confusion over independence also risks scuppering some of the SNP's own ambitions for growth, such as plans to create 130,000 jobs - a job market boost of more than five percent - by putting Scotland at the forefront of renewable energy.

Citi utilities analysts advised investors to "exercise extreme caution in committing further capital to Scotland" in a recent research note, warning the plans could prove too expensive for Scotland's small consumer base.

Foreign investment in Scotland could also be swayed by any hiccups in joining the European Union. The SNP, which is staunchly pro-European, is adamant that Scotland should automatically waltz into the EU, but others are less convinced.

"Our understanding is the UK's membership of the EU extends to the legal entity of the UK," said Chris Howarth, a political analyst at the Open Europe think tank in London. "Scotland would have to apply to join the EU as a non member and would have to go through the accession process."

Hugo Brady, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think tank and a former Irish government official, said the SNP's assumption of automatic membership "would be a very difficult ask because it would set a precedent for other new members that might join."

Then there is the question of the euro. New EU members are usually obliged to commit to joining the single currency bloc. That could prove a tough sell in Scotland, given the bloc's current woes.

WHISKY GALORE

However, economists also point out that Scotland has the foundations of a dynamic and robust economy.

"There is no doubt that Scotland would be viable as an independent entity," said Ashcroft.

On one measure, Scotland's economy was the only area in the UK apart from London to grow between 2007 and 2010, ranking as the third most prosperous region behind London and the affluent south east.

Its whisky industry is a world beater, with consumers in emerging economies acquiring a taste for it. The Scotch Whisky Association said exports soared by more than a fifth in the first half of 2011 to 1.8 billion pounds.

Nationalists say independence will give Scotland the chance to thrive, free of the shackles of a London-centric government.

"I think any country which is in a position to make policy decisions that are best suited to their circumstances is in a better position to foster economic success, but also to minimise the risks in a period of global economic uncertainty," said Angus Robertson, an SNP lawmaker in Britain's parliament.

2012-01-11T19:39:00.000Z

Good for Granny !

Newport woman marks 100th birthday with whisky and dancing

7:20am Tuesday 10th January 2012 in News

CENTENARY: Lily Dowden

A NEWPORT woman spent her 100th birthday singing Frank Sinatra songs, dancing and having a few glasses of Scotch whisky.

Lily Dowden puts her longevity down to staying active and simgs at her local church every Sunday as well as having a glass of whisky every night.

She celebrated a century on Friday at Blaen-y-Pant care home, Malpas, with family and friends, where she sang along to 50s and 60s songs, had a few drinks and even got up for a dance.

Mrs Dowden was a champion pole-vaulter in her younger days and now attends Malpas Road Evangelic Church every Sunday, plays bingo, enjoys reading and keeps up with the gossip through her daily intake of soap operas.

Mrs Dowden was born at 15 Oakley Street, Newport - in the year the Titanic sank - and lived through two World Wars. She was a housewife during the second when her late husband, Charles Henry Dowden was a police officer in the city.

Mrs Dowden, the last of 12 children, began working at 13, when she made faggots and peas at a cafe in Newport Market and later worked as a carer.

She says another secret of her longevity was the regular walks she used to take along the sea wall to the lighthouse at Goldcliff - with a couple of pints of Guinness en-route.

While she has lived at Blaen-y-Pant for eight years, Mrs Dowden did the daily shopping for friends and neighbours until her early 90s.

She has one daughter, Patricia Jones, four grandchildren Mitchel Jones, 45, Georgina Brown, 42, Clair Gough, 35 and David Jones, 32, as well as eight great grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren.

2012-01-08T22:39:00.001Z

Whisky Gigs around Burn's Night !
·

Where To Celebrate Burns Night In London

Don tartan, say the Selkirk Grace, pipe in the haggis, recite a poem, toast with whisky and do some ceilidh dancing to mark Robbie Burns’ birthday this month.

Photo by DodgyEye

Scottish restaurants Boisdale of Belgravia, Bishopsgate and Canary Wharf are getting in there early with their Burns Celebration on Monday 16 January. Expect all the traditional stops pulled out with a piper and a bloke in period costume stabbing the haggis at your table. Set menus from £42-69 per person.

Scottish Ale Week should get you in the mood for Burns revelry at the White Horse in Parson’s Green from Friday 20 January. They’re also serving up a traditional Burns supper menu in the pub on 25 January and upstairs there’s a special beer and food matching event, including an address to the haggis (£45, please book).

The Ceilidh Club runs a string of Burns Night ceilidhs at Hammersmith Town Hall on 20, 21, 27, 28 January and 4 February. Expect a slap up Burns Supper (dollops on paper plates) and a bar selling passable whisky but these events are all about the dancing. Get there early, put your coat in the cloakroom and get on the floor (tickets £13-25).

Take a tasty Scottish tour of London with Tastour’s Robbie Burn’s Haggis and Whisky fuelled Birthday Celebration on Saturday 21 January from 1.45pm (£5-15).

Join the Burns Club of London to take part in an elegant and old school black tie ball at the Caledonian Clubwith a traditional Burns Supper, reciters, toasts and ceilidh dancing on Saturday 21 January.

Friends of Tate South Lambeth Library throw a ‘pre-Burns Night Party‘ on Monday 23 January with free Scots culture, including haggis, neeps and tatties and news about the future of the library, from 7pm.

The Glasgow International Comedy Festival Gala provides laughs for Burns Night on Wednesday 25 January at Leicester Square Theatre. Will the not very Scottish Stewart Lee and Robin Ince kilt up? Book to find out (tickets £14.50).

The most Scottish pub in London, the Rob Roy at Paddington will celebrate, as is traditional, with their Piper, Mr. Dave Brooks, playing at the pub and around 7pm, the haggis will be piped in and addressed, before being decimated and distributed to everyone. All are welcome, including ‘well behaved Sassenachs’.

Albannach, the upmarket Scottish restaurant and bar off Trafalgar Square, hosts two sittings of a 5 course Burns Supper (including Tipsy Laird Trifle) on 25 January — one at 6.30 for 7pm (£70 per person) and another at 7.45 for 8.15pm (£85 per person) with poetry, piper and all that too.

Vinopolis throws an extravaganza of a Burns Night Ceilidh on 25 January from 7pm with a sit down supper involving unlimited drinks, recitals, toast to the haggis and dancing till late (tickets £89).

Green’s Oyster Bar is going for an upmarket approach to haggis, neeps and tatties, promising ‘no other Burns night supper London will compare‘. Book your table for 25 January at either the Duke Street SW1 or Cornhill EC3 restaurant for fine dining, whisky, poetry and tartan.

The Islington Barn’s serving up a Burns Night supper with all the works at £45 for 5 courses, including wine and whisky, courtesy of @pipsdish, on 25 January from 6.30pm.

You can also find a Scottish menu at Restaurant One08 in Marylebone on 25 January only (£29.50 per person, kids 4-12 half price).

Edible Experiences’ Supperclub dishes up a traditional Burns Night menu with a few contemporary twists on Friday 27 January (£25 per person, BYO wine).

Hootananny Brixton lays on storming pipe and drums, Braveheart hairy men and kilts to lift the roof off! Live folk music all night from 9pm-3am on Saturday 28 January (free entry).

Do you know someone at Middle Temple? Their Burns Night Ball on 28 January sounds fabulous. Get in if you can!

The Button Club’s 10th Spectacular Burns Nicht Extravaganza involves a 5 course Highland menu, copious wine and whisky and joupin aboot at the Royal Overseas Club, St James’s on Saturday 29 January from 7.30pm (tickets £100).

2012-01-01T15:55:00.003Z

Happy 2012 to all you malt-mates !

2011-12-29T23:29:00.000Z

Proceed with caution whisky-investors !

WHY WHISKY MAY BE JUST THE THING FOR JITTERY INVESTORS

For those in the know – and with the willpower not to drink up their assets – fine whisky can be quite a rewarding investment. A bottle of 1995 Brora, for example, was worth 100 euros in 1998. Now it sells for five times as much.

by: adminPricey whiskies can be worth holding on to (saschafatcat)

Whisky has become more than just a classy drink. It can also be a pretty good investment – better in some cases than stocks, at least when markets are all over the place, as they are now.

Because there is increased demand for a decreasing supply, Michel Kappen, founder of an online platform called the World Whisky Index, sees prices rising long-term. The ex-banker estimates annual yield at 12%. So it’s hardly surprising that more and more yield-oriented connoisseurs are buying whisky and hoping for price rises.

By way of example: a bottled 1995 Brora was selling for around 100 euros in 1998. By 2006 the value had doubled. Today, the 75 cl bottle costs no less than 500 euros.

The World Whisky Index presently tracks 46,610 bottles that together are worth 5.62 million euros. The site, created in 2007, brings buyers and sellers together. Whisky fans can build their own portfolio, and buy and sell. The most expensive bottle, a 1919 Springbank Single Malt, is presently quoted at 55,000 euros.

Whisky auctions have existed since the 1980s. But they’re risky for casual whisky fans since the lucrative market is littered with ever more fakes. According to connoisseurs, the Italian mafia has already firmly established itself in the fast-growing market. Even dealers occasionally get taken in. Tricksters use fake seals and labels on the bottles, or original bottles with fake contents.

"Never buy expensive bottles from an unknown dealer,” warns Tomas Ide, a foremost expert and founder of the Whisky Chamber. Before bidding on the Internet, he says, ask for pictures of the bottles and labels so that these can be compared with originals.

"Collectors should be on the lookout for bottles available only in limited quantities," says Ide. Whiskies from distilleries that have closed, such as Rosebank, are also an excellent bet. Pittyvaich is another potential winner, says Ide, as are whiskies from the Banff Distillery which closed its doors in 1983.

2011-12-23T18:22:00.002Z

Bad doggy wrecks the festive tree !

2011-12-21T20:22:00.001Z

" before the bubble burst "
(never put all your 'eggs' into bottles)

Flickr user lazysundae

Recession or no recession, there's always something worth investing in, and if you're not the rare coinage type, perhaps you'd like to sink your cash into something a little more...alcoholic? Whisky is apparently the investment of the moment, so put down that $117G wine bottle and grab some Johnnie Walker instead.

"Over the last 10 to 15 years, the demand for whisky has just increased," says Sukhinder Singh, director ofThe Whisky Exchange, on online whisky shop. "My feeling is that the risk in whisky is quite low." Auctions are opening up all over the world, with rare, old bottles from distilleries like Scotland's Macallan fetching huge numbers in America, Asia, and Russia, which has apparently forsaken vodka in exchange for the good stuff. A 64-year-old Macallan auctioned last year for charity went for a world-record price of $460,000.

For those seriously considering booze as a future, get a better idea of what's selling at the The World Whisky Index, the alcoholic stock market started by the founder of The Whisky Exchange. And recreational drinkers need not apply: plan to load up on 120-150 bottles before you're considered a serious player, and remember—you can't actually drink them. Don't stress too much, though—if your portfolio totally goes to shit, we hear whisky makes a great gift for the ladies.

2011-12-19T20:15:00.000Z

Personal bottle options from WhiskyBlenders.com

By Gillian Provan

Source: STV Local 17 December 2011 06:30 GM

Duo turn their love of whisky into a unique business

Andy Davidson and Drew NicholsonWhisky Blender

Andy Davidson and Drew Nicolson have launched the Whisky Blender website in time for Christmas

Two whisky enthusiasts have turned their passion into a new business which is offering something a little different for Christmas.

Andy Davidson and Drew Nicolson from Bothwell launched the Whisky Blender, a website which gives shoppers the opportunity to blend, bottle and name their own drinks, last month.

And the business has since gone from strength to strength with offers coming through the site from across Europe and the United States of America.

Andy explained it’s been fantastic to see the idea turn into a thriving business.

He said: “We were both quite casual but avid whisky drinkers we basically had this idea that it would be fun if people were able to come up with their own whisky.

“I work in the industry and Drew works in social media and after that initial concept the idea has snowballed into the world’s first online blending experience.

“We’ve kept it simple and we also have advice online about what works and tastes good.

“It’s a great idea for Christmas.

The whisky itself is blended in Hamilton and in case there’s any doubts about taste, there’s also wise words available on the site from malt expert John Lamond.

The schoolfriends are now looking to expand the business over Christmas and New Year.

Andy added: “We’re both very hands on but are both still working full time with our day jobs so we’re hoping it’s only going to get bigger over time and we’ll have people to do the actual bottling for us by February 2012.”

2011-12-18T22:52:00.000Z

Rough Sea's for Talisker Team.

Tom Fancett And Tom Sauer, Row Boat Racers, Rescued From Atlantic Ocean By Crystal Serenity

Eight days into the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, a two-month-long transoceanic rowing race that's staged every two years, Tom Fancett and Tom Sauer were paddling through rough seas. Their 28-foot boat, the PS Vita, which left La Gomera in the Canary Islands on December 4, was being steered by autopilot and seemingly navigating the 10-foot swells with little trouble.

They were in second place after eight days of racing, ahead of more than a dozen other boats, including one with a four-man crew, that were rowing the 2,933 miles from the Canaries to Barbados. It was the first time either of them had ever entered an ocean rowing race.

Then, around dusk on December 13, Fancett came on deck from the Vita's tiny cabin for his turn at the oars -- the two 23-year-olds worked in two-hour shifts -- and sat down, relieving Sauer, who went below. A wave that Sauer describes as "a wall of water" smashed into the slender blue boat at an odd angle and capsized it.

"I knew instantly that it wasn't going to be good," Fancett says.

Sauer swam out of the cabin, checked that his partner was uninjured and then, he says, "started surviving, really."

Their equipment, emergency beacon and a life raft were still on board. The water that evening was about 68 degrees, or as Fancett describes it, "warm for the first 10 minutes" before it feels "very cold." The men were nearly 500 miles from La Gomera.

"It's almost like we didn't have enough time to be scared. As soon as we capsized we realized, 'We have to act. We don't really have time to panic. If we panic, we'll probably die,'" Sauer says. "I was aware that if we didn't get the life raft, we'd be in serious, serious trouble. I told myself, 'I'm not bloody dying, we're doing this until we get the life raft.'"

Diving over and over under the overturned hull for what they estimate to be 40 minutes, the rowers finally freed the inflatable last resort from the jackstays that held it fast to the Vita. They also found and activated their emergency beacon, though they had no way of knowing if its signal was actually reaching anyone. And they had saved their "grab bag," the pre-packed emergency survival kit that contained, most critically, a manual water desalination device that could provide drinking water for weeks, if need be. They also had a fog horn, emergency rations, signal flares and at least one fish hook.

"Although it happened over the period of 40 minutes, it seemed to happen very quickly, so there wasn't really time to register a particular emotion," Fancett says. "It was hard to believe what was happening."

It was then about 8 p.m. Fancett, an Englishman who lives in London, and Sauer, a Dutchman who studied at St. Andrews but has spent most of his life in Russia, took stock of their situation, still afloat but cold and wet, with seawater occasionally sloshing in through the viewing portholes of their raft.

"It's very uncomfortable," Fancett says. "The overwhelming urge is to fall asleep, but you have to fight that because -- after setting off the emergency beacon -- the first 10 or 12 hours are your most likely window of being rescued."

They agreed to both stay awake, at least for the first 12 hours. The rowers set their watches to alarm every 30 minutes and agreed to each take a side of the raft, scanning 180 degrees of the horizon every half-hour for signs of, well, anything. They were in the middle of the world's second-largest ocean with no way to know when or if anyone would find them.

"You hope that someone has picked up the mayday, but you just don't know," Sauer says. "We were also mentally preparing for a longer stay."

And then, early in the morning of December 14, a cruise ship appeared. The Crystal Serenity, a vessel that can carry nearly 1,100 passengers in decadent luxury around the Mediterranean, the Caribbean or in this case, on a 13-day transatlantic crossing from Lisbon to Miami, for which list prices start at more than $4,000 per person, was coming to the rescue. Flagged in the Bahamas and christened by the English actress Julie Andrews in 2003, the 68,000-ton Serenity was under the command of Capitan Jon Økland, who'd been notified of the emergency by a branch of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in Falmouth, England.

Økland turned to the south, covering nearly 140 miles to search for the lost rowers. With the Serenity about seven miles from the life raft and well in sight, Fancett and Sauer fired a red rocket flare -- followed by several more flares for good measure. It was about 6 a.m., roughly 10 hours since they'd climbed into their raft.

Alongside the Serenity, the rowers weren't yet out of danger. Swells smashed their tiny craft against the portside of the ship. Fancett wondered if, given the conditions, the raft might pop, capsize or be sucked underneath the larger vessel. The Serenity's crew threw ropes repeatedly from a fourth-deck pilot door until the men below finally managed to snare one. A ladder was lowered. They climbed aboard, finally out of the Atlantic, wet and alive.

"We weren't going to consider ourselves rescued until we found ourselves safely on board," Fancett says, adding with considerable English understatement, "The rescue itself was an eventful part of the whole experience."

The men were taken to the ship's sick bay for evaluation. Sauer called home, asking his parents to contact Fancett's family and to send copies of their passports to verify their identities to the crew of the Serenity.

"Then we went to our room and had room service," Sauer says. "It was great." They ordered French onion soup, steak, French fries and a hamburger. Fancett drank a Sprite. Sauer had a Diet Coke.

The rowers are now bound for St. Maarten, the next scheduled port of call for the Serenity before it reaches Miami..

2011-12-17T20:54:00.001Z

Glenglassaugh Perspective.

At a moment in time when expensive marketing dominates the public message of Scotch Whisky it is both refreshing and insightful to have the opportunity to chat with an Industry professional like Stuart Nickerson, Director of Glenglassaugh Distillery near Port Soy in Scotland who covers many roles in his job of running a small, craft-orientated and Independent Distillery which continues to do things the old-school way, something which experienced whisky drinkers are increasingly more aware of in terms of intrinsic quality and worth. I am happy to introduce a wee question and answers session with Stuart which helps to enhance our perspective on what's behind the amber-nectar which we all enjoy so much

- could you introduce yourself to the whisky-fans Stuart and tell us your C.V. in the Industry ?

The story really starts when I left University back in 1979 (BSc in Chemical Engineering from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh – seems like a lifetime ago (and is) and started working with a company in Fife who, amongst other things manufactured by-products plants for the whisky industry. This led me to visit Convalmore distillery, Bunnahabhain Distillery, Aultmore Distillery and the Combination of Rothes Distillers (which is a large by-products plant owned by the Rothes distilleries.) as well as Cambus and Carsebridge Distilleries. So when I saw a job advertised in Dufftown with Arthur Bell & Sons then I jumped at it.

I joined Bells in 1981 as a project engineer and spent the next 3 years with them working at all of their distilleries (Dufftown, Pittyvaich, Blair Atholl, and Inchgower and Bladnoch).
In 1984 I joined Highland Distilleries as distillery manager at Highland Park Distillery and then in 1987 moved to take up the Glenrothes Distillery manager role, still with Highland, and at the same time managed Glenglassaugh which had recently closed but still had an on-site warehousing squad.
I moved to United Distillers ( a forerunner to Diageo) in 1989 and spent 15 months with them as a project manager with responsibility for malt distilleries capital investment. The time spent with them probably says something about how much I enjoyed the role there.
In 1990 the general managers role for Wm Grants at Dufftown became available which included managing Glenfiddich, Balvenie and Kininvie and that was my next move. I then spent the next 14 years with Grants, moving to Girvan in 1985 to become general manager of Girvan grain distillery and in 1986 I became Distilleries Director for the group with overall responsibility for all of their distilleries.
I left them at the end of 2004 to start my own consultancy as I had always wanted to run my own business and with my children having left home it seemed the perfect opportunity. In 2006 a new client asked me to carry out on a potential distillery purchase and this chance encounter eventually led to the purchase of Glenglassaugh and my moving into this role.
- - is there an entertaining story from anytime in your working life that stands out ?

Therehave been a few over the years, but one that recently happened waswhen an un-named person from Switzerland bought a port pipe and cameover to fill it with new make spirit for maturing on site atGlenglassaugh. He was carefully filling when I stepped forward witha camera to take a photograph and he lifted his head to look at thecamera, unfortunately he also lifted his hands and the spirit fromthe end of the filling hose hit the edge of the cask and sprayedeverywhere including all over my legs. I still have a photograph ofwet floor with 2 dry patches where my legs and feet were.

- Is there any time for personal hobbies outside yourworking schedule, if so, what fills your spare time ?

I used todo a lot of running but never seem to find the time these days, so abit of hill walking, as much exercise as I can manage and watchingIce-Hockey and Football on TV or live if I get the opportunity.

I alsoalways have my ebook with me and I enjoy most Scottish authors.

- What's going on at Glenglassaugh at the moment, andwhat are your plans for next year ?

Planningfor the bottling of whisky which has been produced since thedistillery came back to life and this takes place this Friday on 16^thDecember.

Next yearwill see the launch of a new product called Revival and from thereaction of whisky lovers in Frankfurt, Vienna and Graz who have allhad a foretaste then I think many people will be for a big surprisewhen it arrives.

We willalso continue with some special releases next year, the individualcountry releases have proved extremely popular and we hope to extendthis in 2012.

- whatin your opinion does the Industry need to consider changing in orderto enhance the future of Scotch ?

Ithink that the industry needs to continue to be vigilant to stopimitators and those that would attempt to cut corners to reduce costsand so I welcome the new regulations and in particular the one thatsays single malt scotch whisky must now be bottled in Scotland aswell as distilled and matured.

PersonallyI would go further and ban the use of caramel and I would also liketo see all scotch whisky bottled in Scotland, but I think that wouldbe a step too far for some.

Ithink that we should also review maturation regulations and allowsome innovation with extended wood surfaces and even maturing in nonoak casks, as long as it was declared on the bottle so that theconsumer knew what he was purchasing.

-if you were to give important advice to anyone considering a careerin the Industry, or starting a Distillery Business, what would it be?

Ifyou want a career in the industry then work hard and learn about theindustry and not just the product. In this industry you have to learnto make it part of your life but also remember that it is a businessand if the business is not run correctly then it will not survive andeveryone will be losers, employees and customers alike..

Ifyou want to start a distillery then seek out advise from someone withexperience and be prepared to pay to have a well structured and wellthought out business plan developed for you. Expect to have tofinance an initial large capital expenditure and continually investmoney for the first 10 years as you lay down stock and the whiskymatures. There are ways to reduce the continual need for investmentand at Glenglassaugh we have been innovative and have introduced anumber of products that have helped us but don’t think thatovernight you will have a money making machine.

Youneed passion, commitment and creativity.

- what causes your single biggest headache when managing theDistillery ?

Cashflow. Simply never having enough cash for all the things that we wantto do.

-I have to ask this of course, . . . three tips for choosing anddrinking whisky ?

Choose the right whisky for the right occasion, for me something light in the early evening or before a meal and something heavier at the end of the night The location, the weather and the situation can all impact on choice.
Choose what you like – don’t allow other to influence you on the “best” whisky or buy or drink one just because it is recommended by a particular book. Find the flavours and whiskies that you like and then explore – by all means listen to others but make your own mind up.
Quality not quantity. Drink less but drink better quality. Life is too short to drink vast quantities of inferior whisky when there are so many excellent ones out there, even if they cost a bit more.
- finally, name a non-whisky spirit you drink and why do you recommend it ?

Itwould have to be a good Caribbean rum. I was led astray once when Iwas around 21 and didn’t touch the product again for over 20 yearsand then I visited Guyana, Trinidad, Costa Rica, Barbados and TheDominican Republic and re-discovered the diversity of rums, thecomplexity within certain brands and the sheer enjoyment that can behad from the drink.

HoweverI still prefer Scotch Whisky and although I have worked in theindustry for over 30 years, I am still learning and making new andexciting flavour discoveries every day.
ThanksStuart.

2011-12-15T22:05:00.001Z

Yes Minister, Mr Haig calling !

2011-12-12T16:47:00.000Z

So, how are the Atlantic rowers getting on ?

Gales test resolve of Atlantic rowers

12 December 2011 | Worldwide

Storm force gales are proving the latest challenge to a team of six soldiers battling to row across the Atlantic.

The Row2Recovery team set off last Monday from the Canary Islands - one of 17 teams that are part of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.

The six-man team includes four amputees who are determined to row the 3,000-mile journey to Barbados.

Four of the team's members lost limbs during service in Iraq or Afghanistan and the attempt, named Row2Recovery, is hoped to raise £1 million for wounded soldiers.

This morning they were back in 3rd position, with 2,165 miles to go!

They have already raised £604,535 and the final amount will be distributed between three military charities: Help for Heroes, the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA) and ABF - The Soldiers' Charity.

In their latest website blog – Day Five - Ed Janvrin writes: “The weather has increased significantly over the past 24 hours and we’re in the middle of a force six gale which is making the rowing conditions pretty punchy to say the least.

“There is a big swell and we’re having to work pretty hard, although the strong following wind means we are covering some significant distances.

“With both auto helms breaking within three days of leaving after getting wet (what is that all about by the way? Auto helms for rowing boats that break when they get wet…grrrr) we’re having to use the foot pedal or fixed hand steering which means we are one rower down when the conditions get really heavy.

“We had a chance meeting with Atlantic Four on Sunday which was absolutely bizarre in the middle of the ocean. We bobbed up on the crest of a wave and spotted them about 30 feet away– with their sea anchor out – hankering down against the elements. We couldn’t resist the opportunity to try and destroy their morale so we contacted them on the radio and basically abused them for five minutes about them losing ground on us! Cruel, but all’s fair in love and ocean rowing!

“On the injury front, we’re monitoring everyone really closely and making sure any problems that are emerging are dealt with. Rory had quite a nasty blister which we lanced and is now in much better shape, although his stump is getting quite sore so he’s been doing a fair bit of rowing from the fixed position used by Neil.

“All of us are suffering salt rashes on our back sides with the emergence of small red spots the tell tail sign. Thanks to our “sew to recovery” team back on La Gomera our seats are holding up well!

“We needed a major admin session yesterday because both cabins had become absolutely foul. We managed to improve the conditions on board significantly which has been a good morale boost.

“We’ve also discovered the world’s most disgusting freeze dried meal. We’re not sure what it is yet but it basically tasted like a mackerel milkshake! Alex described it as ‘gastronomic genocide.’ I agree.

“All in all we are finding it tough, but loving every minute! Thanks again to everyone who is supporting us and following our progress. We appreciate it so much. Till next time!”

2011-12-10T23:38:00.001Z

Aldi's Big Marketing Scoop !

Dozens queue for a whisky bargain

10:20am Friday 9th December 2011 in News

By Andrew Ffrench »

IT WAS the bargain bottles of 40-year-old whisky that were seemingly worth braving the chilly morning for at a budget supermarket.

Shoppers queued outside Aldi’s Botley Road store from before dawn yesterday hoping to snaffle the advertised bargain of a bottle of Glenbridge, apparently worth £300 but on offer for £49.99.

But with only six bottles available at each Aldi outlet, tickets were given to the first customers who turned up at 6am at both the Botley Road and Banbury stores – two hours before they opened.

Aldi had advertised the whisky as a Speyside single malt, with only 3,000 limited edition gift sets available and aged for at least 40 years in one of “Scotland’s premier distilleries”.

Emma Kelly, 24, from Barton Lane, Oxford, who works in the catering department at Oxford Brookes University, arrived at the store at 7am to try to buy a bottle for her father Michael Kelly, 62.

She said: “I was told by one of the managers that the bottles had already been allocated to people who had queued up earlier.

“I don’t think it was fair to allow customers to reserve bottles. They should have been sold when the store opened at 8am.

“I feel cheated and I’m not planning to shop in Aldi again.

She added; “Now I will buy my dad a bottle of whisky from the specialist whisky shop in Turl Street instead.”

Retired telecoms worker Mr Kelly added: “It’s very disappointing the way Aldi handled this.”

Former Oxford Bus Company park-and-ride bus driver Michael Williams, 62, was another whisky fan who ended up disappointed.

He said: “I collect rare whiskies so I thought it would be nice to try this one for Christmas.

“I have spent £300 to £400 on bottles of whisky in the past.

“The Aldi whisky came from a distillery in Speyside, but they are not saying which one and there are dozens of them.”

According to the firm, connoisseurs can open the bottle “to find a beautiful mahogany liquid with the aroma of dark chocolate and dried figs.”

Botley Road assistant manager Kelvin Brooks said: “I gave the tickets to the diehards who were here at 6am so that they could go and sit in their cars instead of standing in the cold while they waited to pay for the bottles.

“I thought that was the fairest way to do it, and I explained to the people who turned up at 8am what had happened.”

Peter Hack, manager of The Whisky Shop in Turl Street, said he did not recognise Glenbridge as a listed distillery.

He added: “Last year, we sold a bottle of blended Scottish whisky called the 1960 Last Drop for £1,200.”

About 30 shoppers also queued for the whisky from 6am outside the Banbury Aldi in Ruscote Avenue

2011-12-06T22:33:00.001Z

Mulberry Bank Auctions Antique Whisky Tasting.
.. a quality and value event in Glasgow providing an opportunity to try some historic, original whiskies.

Inaugural pre-sale whisky tasting.

http://www.mulberrybankauctions.com/whisky-tasting.aspx

Facebook Angus Whisky-online

30 November 2011

We are pleased to announce our inaugural pre-sale whisky tasting, it will be taking place in our auction room at 7pm on Friday the 9th of December the night before our wine and whisky auction. Tickets are priced at £30 per person and can be purchased directly from the auction house, just call us on 0141 225 8181 to book your place. The tasting is strictly limited to 30 places so be quick off the mark if you want a ticket. The line up for this tasting focuses on old bottlings and older style whiskies. As you can see from the list below, this will be a fantastic opportunity to see how the flavour of whisky has evolved over the past decades.

Glenmorangie 10 years old, an official single cask distilled in 1980 and bottled 1990 at 60% abv.

Balvenie ‘As We Get It’. A rare independent example of Balvenie bottled in the early 1970s by Macfarlane, Bruce & Co of Inverness at a natural 105.2 proof.

Bowmore 12 year old, an old official edition bottled in the early 1980s.

Bowmore 21 year old, bottled in the mid 1990s.

Highland Park 1973 ‘The Dragon’. An exceptionally rare and stunning example bottled privately in the early 1990s for a shop on Orkney.

Glenlochy 1969 25 year old, bottled in 1994 this is one of the earliest and rarest expressions from the legendary Rare Malts series, a beautiful example of this great closed distillery.

Laphroaig 15 year old ‘Unblended’, one of the earliest editions of Laphroaig 15yo bottled in the early 1980s.

The tasting will be hosted by Mulberry Bank's whisky specialist Angus MacRaild. We hope to see you there.

2011-12-04T11:25:00.001Z

Dedicated rowers only need apply !

Courageous Rowers Count Down to the World's Toughest Rowing Race: Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge

By Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge

Published: Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011 - 1:02 am

LA GOMERA, The Canary Islands, Spain, December 1, 2011 -- /PRNewswire/ --

On the 4th December, teams from around the world will embark of the world's toughest rowing race - Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. Launching from Spain's San Sebastian de la Gomera in the Canary Islands, crews will follow the 'Columbus Route' westbound across the mid-Atlantic to Port St Charles in Barbados. They will face very tough conditions. On average crews will take at least 50 days to complete the challenge and will be rowing over Christmas and New Year and are expected to arrive in the Caribbean from mid-January onwards, although not all teams will succeed in finishing the crossing.

To see this release with a video and image please go to: http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/newsindex.shtml?/cgi/news/release?id=341564

For more images please go to : http://www.flickr.com/photos/storypr

17 boats are participating, with teams from all over the globe. There are two solo rowers, and then fifteen two, four or six person crews.

Row2Recovery is a team of six ex-servicemen, four of whom have serious injuries of war, including Neil Heritage, a double amputee. They aim to raise £1M for 'Help the Heroes': "Our aim is to send out a positive message to ex-servicemen and their families and to inspire people, injured or not, what it's possible to achieve with determination." Alex Mackenzie, co-founder. http://www.row2recovery.com

RowforFreedom is the first all female crew of six to row across the Atlantic and are aiming to break the world record for the fastest ever female trans-Atlantic row. They are raising money for ECPAT, a charity campaigning to end child prostitution and slavery. http://www.rowforfreedom.com

Tiger Team is a husband and wife team, raising money for St Mungo's and the Huntingdon's Disease Association: "As incurable rowers, we've done our fair share of going to interesting places and rowing in them, and an ocean is the ultimate next step. So this is less of a race for us and more of an ocean safari." Helena Smalman-Smith.

Atlantic Dash, Jamie Windsor and John Haskell, two firefighters from Wales, are raising money for the Fire Fighters Charity in a fire truck themed boat. http://www.atlanticdash.co.uk

Sons of Norway, a Norwegian duo, Emil Eide Eriksen and Trond Bratland Erichsen, are raising money for the national organisation for heart and lung disease, Landsforeningen for Hjerte-og Lungesyke. http://www.sonneravnorge.no

Team Amigo is a Canadian pair. Ole Elmer is 63 years old and this is his second Atlantic Row with the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. This year, he is rowing with his son, Michael. http://www.atlanticcampaigns.com

Andrew's Atlantic Challenge is Andrew Brown, is a solo rower raising money for Help a London Child: "I've sailed across the Atlantic before and the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge is the perfect opportunity for me to challenge myself further." http://www.andrew.rowtheatlantic.com/

Notes to Editors

The Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge

The first Atlantic Rowing Race was held in 1997, and thereafter every two years from 2001. It attracted huge publicity in 2005 when Ben Fogle and James Cracknell famously competed, and established ocean rowing as one of the world's toughest athletic challenges.

Talisker

Talisker, in its widely distributed 10 year old expression, is a powerhouse Single Malt Scotch Whisky with a formidable peat and sea-salt nose; smoky sweetness with malt flavours; and developing warmth with a huge, peppery finish. It is the only single malt whisky made on the dramatic Isle of Skye, where the distillery has been making this award-winning single malt whisky since 1830. See http://www.malts.com

For our global resource that promotes responsible drinking through the sharing of best practice tools, information and initiatives, visit DRINKiQ.com.

For further information or to speak to any of the above teams, contact Hannah Kamelmacher on +44(0)7540-533-291 or email her hannah@storypr.co.uk

http://www.taliskerwhiskyatlanticchallenge.com

2011-11-29T00:23:00.001Z

Benromach/ralfy signed Whisky auction result

A unique partnership between Indi: Distillery Benromach.com, Indi: internet commentator ralfy.com and Indi: internet auctioneers scotchwhiskyauctions.com along with a good dollop of on-line attention and a generous bidder has raised £500 for local Distillery charity Morayinshorerescue.org

A big thank you to everyone who has helped make this work so well.

It is much appreciated and has made for a great event.

2011-11-27T10:38:00.001Z

D.I.Y. Blending Service @ whiskyblender.com

Welcome · Blending lab · Whisky school · Bottle store · Our expert · Friends · FAQ · Get in touch

Welcome

You might be here because you're a big whisky fan and want to explore it in a new way. Perhaps you know someone who loves whisky and are looking to get them the perfect personalised gift. Whatever the reason we're glad you found us and hope you enjoy it (and tell your friends about us).

Based in bonny Scotland, with a team of whisky enthusiasts, we wanted to create something to allow people a simple way for them to own a unique bottle of blended Scotch whisky (or blended malt Scotch whisky) One which they've not only had a say into how it tastes and what it's called but also to have a little bit of fun in the process.

"Distilling is a science & blending is an art."

- Samuel Bronfmann

We know that this doesn't compare to the excellent work that professional master blenders do to give us beautifully crafted whiskies... it's just a wee bit of fun.

There's a certain sense of adventure with Whisky Blender though. The chance that the whiskies you decide to include - and how much of each one you choose - may just end up creating a truly delicious new whisky of which the world has never known.

Every whisky that is created here, as well having the potential to be blended for real and shipped out for you to enjoy, can be shared on Facebook and Twitter whilst being saved forever in a digital bottle store for others to try, or tweak or share with their buddies too!

There's more than just blending whisky on the site though, there's also a whole school of video clips explaining some of the basic fundamentals in whisky. There's wise words from our house expert, the Master of Malt, Mr John Lamond. We also give plenty of advice on where and how to buy your whisky thanks to the wonderful friends, we have here in Glasgow and all around Scotland, who sell the golden nectar.

Our primary goal, however, is to raise awareness and interest in one of Scotland's biggest and most interesting industries and allow people to experiment with whisky in a new way. We want you to try Whisky Blender for what it is and we trust you will enjoy it responsibly.

Sláinte!

2011-11-24T19:18:00.001Z

A good example of good marketing.

THE LAST VATTED MALT Limited Edition Vatted Malt Scotch Whisky

This is a valedictory farewell to the Vatted Malt, one delivered with honour and pride. At midnight on November 22nd, 2011, an era ends. After that point, it will be illegal for whiskymakers to use the term Vatted Malt to label a Scotch whisky made from the combination of two or more single malts.

From 23rd November 2011, this style of whisky will by law have to be labelled as a Blended Malt Scotch Whisky. To mark the occasion, Compass Box have created a limited edition bottling, The Last Vatted Malt, made from a marriage of fine, old single malt whiskies from Islay and Speyside distilleries.

An Homage to the Vatted Malt

We have been talking about this impending date for some time with our good friend Sukhinder Singh. Together we have decided to create a whisky to send off Vatted Malts in style, as an homage to this classic and very Scottish piece of the whiskymaker’s lexicon that is sadly being laid to rest. The Last Vatted Malt is a testament to the high merit of blending single malts—to create a whisky flavour profile that no single distillery can produce.

This whisky combines intense aromas and flavours of dried fruits and maltiness underscored by a subtle, sweet smokiness, all robed in the revealing signs of whiskies of antiquity. It is composed of two single malts: approximately 22% of the recipe is whisky distilled at the younger of the two distilleries in the village of Aberlour in 1974 (36 years-old), aged in a first fill sherry butt. The balance is from the famed distillery in the village of Port Askaig on Islay, made in 1984 (26 years-old),

aged in American oak hogsheads. To the Vatted Malt! We bid you adieu. John Glaser, Whiskymaker

Compass Box Delicious Whisky Ltd – 24 Great King Street – Edinburgh EH3 6QN www.compassboxwhisky.com

2011-11-22T21:15:00.001Z

Cooper talk !

Peter Ross at large: Skilled coopers are keeping Scotch whisky traditions alive

Cooper Dave Smith at work at the Cambus Cooperage, using traditional tools. Photograph: Neil Hanna

By Peter Ross
Published on Sunday 20 November 2011 00:00

IT IS hard to say what strikes you first, the stink of drink or the clamour of hammers, upon entering Cambus Cooperage near Alloa.

This is an extraordinary place. In the yard outside, empty casks are piled in pyramids 20-feet high, the blistering paint on their lids stamped with the names of distilleries long closed. Over these man-made mountains loom the green-grey mass of the Ochil Hills, their tops shrouded by cloud.

A cooper called David McGarrigle is busy dismantling casks that are to be restored. Despite the cold, he is stripped down to a vest, revealing the power in his arms and shoulders. Coopering requires a blend of finesse and brute strength. Taking his five-pound hammer and a driver made from beech and steel, he breaks open the lids on both ends of a cask and removes some of the iron hoops. These casks are oak and not light; they weigh up to 188lbs (85kg) when empty, but McGarrigle birls his as if it were a dancing partner.

He is 46 years old, has been a cooper since he was 15, and will have worked on something like 350,000 casks in that time. The McGarrigle family tally would be larger still. His father and grandfather were coopers, and no end of uncles and cousins and in-laws. It was inevitable that he would follow them into the trade. There was no escape. But he loves it.

“Coopering has always been hard, hard, heavy work,” he says. “But I’m passionate because it’s an auld craft, there’s not many of us left, and it’s good to keep the auld skills going. We don’t want to die off like the miners. It would be sad to see it go.”

All around the cooperage are huge bonded warehouses, built in dark brick; in these lie three million casks, stacked high in the darkness, time and the wood working their magic upon the spirit which, one day, will be officially classified Scotch whisky – or, to be specific, Johnnie Walker, J&B and Bell’s. These casks once contained bourbon or sherry, and the spirit, as it matures, takes on some of those flavours. It is a long, slow, silent, ancient process. In the meantime, as around 2 per cent of volume evaporates from within the casks each year, the angels take their share.

Casks, by the way, is the correct word. Not barrels. A barrel is a particular size of cask, holding 36 gallons. You also get pins, puncheons and butts. The most common size of cask used in distilling is the hogshead, holding 56 gallons of whisky, worth roughly £10,000, which is why they need to be made correctly. Casks are made from oak from America and mainland Europe, much of it from the French forest of Tronçais. American oak is known among coopers as “bastard oak” on account of its hardness.

Spirit is brought here from distilleries all over Scotland and placed into casks to age. The casks are the work of the coopers. There are 40 working here, which, when it comes to coopers, is a lot. If trades count as endangered species, coopers are on the brink of extinction. There are, perhaps, 200 left in the whole of Britain, the vast majority in Scotland. It was a job once so common it became a surname, and not just here; the German Fassbinder means cask binder. But now the men of Cambus find themselves asked, on occasion, “What’s a cooper?” – which is a sadness for them.

They could, if they wished, explain that the trade goes back thousands of years. The first evidence of its existence comes from a painting on the wall of an Egyptian tomb dating back to 2,690BC. The word cooper is thought to derive from the Latin word “cupa”, meaning vat, so you can be sure the Romans knew all about it. At one time, there would have been tens of thousands of coopers working in Britain, making casks for the preservation and transportation of all sorts of commodities. At the end of the 1980s, there were still approximately 2,500.

Increasing mechanisation and the use of metal casks for storing beer are the reasons for the decline in coopers. Yet it does not appear to be a terminal decline. There will always be a need for the judgment of a human eye and the skill of a human hand, which is why the Cambus Cooperage – which cost Diageo £10 million to build and which will have its official opening later this month – is full of men full of pride. There is plenty of robot technology here, yes, but the workshop walls are lined with tools of designs which predate the industrial revolution.

Here you will find the croze board and the adze; borer, bick iron and belly knife; scullup, shiv and swarth. Coopers on the east and west coasts of Scotland have different names for their tools. These are attractive, obscure-looking pieces of kit, their precise use unclear from their appearance. “You won’t,” I’m told, “buy one of them in B&Q.”

This is quite true. There is a tradition among coopers of making their own tools. It is a rite-of-passage of sorts that has become a practical necessity. These days, when there are so few coopers, there is little point in manufacturers mass-producing their tools. A number of the Cambus coopers have their names carved or stamped on the tools they made. This also has the advantage of making the tool uniquely theirs. Some of these tools will last a cooper his whole working life and so he guards them jealously; a hammer to a master cooper is akin to Picasso’s favourite paintbrush. As the shaft is made of wood, the cooper will, over time, wear the shape of his grip into the grain.

“The important thing about a cooper’s tools is that they are an extension of yourself,” explains Brian Tease, 49. “If I tried to use somebody else’s, it just wouldn’t feel the same.”

The Picasso comparison, by the way, is not entirely hyperbolic. Though the coopers are practical men making practical objects, they see a beauty in casks that most of us might miss. The voluptuous bulge, the elegant curve, the lack of leaks. Attention to detail is stressed above all things. No whisky would be lost if every stave at the top was not planed level, and yet it is. “It’s just pride in workmanship,” says Tease.

John Carberry, 38, has made some of his own tools, and stamped them with his name, but has inherited others from his late grandfather, who had himself inherited them from an old cooper. Sitting on the workbench known as a mare, shaving a stave with his grandfather’s belly knife, he muses on this legacy. “It’s an honour and privilege to do the same job he did. When I was a boy, I used to go with my mother to visit him, and he always used to leave out a wee tack-hammer, some nails, and some wood for me. That was how my interest started. Then, when he died, I got some of his tools. I didn’t understand what their true potential was at first, but I loved using them.”

He certainly understands their potential now, and is one of the tutors tasked with instructing the apprentices in the art of coopering. He is also pleased to note that his 11-year-old son has expressed an interest in the trade. Coopering seems to be one of those jobs, rare these days, that passes from father to son. The Clackmannanshire area has no shortage of coopering dynasties, whole families banging out a rhythm of hammer on wood down through the decades and beyond.

“I want to follow in my dad’s footsteps,” says Scott Dawson, 32, a second-year apprentice, whose father, Billy Dawson, is the longest-serving cooper with Diageo, having been in the trade for 43 years. “I think my dad’ll be really, really proud if I manage to pull it off, eh?”

Apprentice coopers, once upon a time, served seven years before they could become journeymen. Now, the apprenticeship lasts four years. It used to be that an apprentice, on the day when he finished serving his time, would be initiated into full cooperhood by way of a particular initiation rite. Health and safety concerns have, sadly, done away with this ceremony now, and Charlie Drysdale, the 57-year-old shop steward, was among the last to experience it – in 1975. “Thirty or 40 coopers put me in a cask with oil, dirt off the floor, urine, anything they could find. There was a lot of dust and it was difficult to breathe. It feels like an eternity when you’re getting rolled about in it. I’ve seen guys get nasty gashes or burst their noses open on the way into the cask.”

Those days are gone, and yet in a cooperage there is a strong sense that days are never really gone. This is a place in which the present takes on the flavours of the past, much as whisky takes on sherry or bourbon. These casks can last a century or more. They are made from trees which were centenarians themselves. They are worked on by men using inherited tools and skills that stretch back generations. All that swirling, distilled history and experience is locked in tight to every cask and not a drop is spilled.

“You take a bit of satisfaction when you tell people you are a cooper, aye,” says David McGarrigle. “When people enjoy a wee dram it’s aw doon tae me.”

2011-11-21T20:24:00.001Z

Old Whisky Bargain !

Bargain 40-year-old whisky on sale

(UKPA) – 20 hours ago

Whisky casked in a Scottish distillery in 1971 will go on sale in a supermarket chain.

Aldi expect queues out the door as they sell 3,000 bottles of a 40 year-old single malt whisky across their 450 UK stores on December 8.

They said they are the first supermarket to sell a 40-year-old single malt and they expect it to sell out within hours.

A spokesman for the supermarket said: "Whisky of this quality and age would usually sell for around £300 plus.

"Aldi is giving customers the chance to get hold of a very high quality luxury product for a very low price."

He added that he would not be surprised to see the whisky appearing for sale on eBay with customers taking advantage of the discount price of £49.99.

The limited edition, Speyside Single Malt Whisky comes from an unnamed Scottish distillery.

The taste is described as "intense and rich...with an aroma of dark chocolate and dried figs, the sweet taste gives off a marmalade zestiness, and the dry oak tannins fade into a lingering sweet and mellow finish".

A second bottle, a Glen Marnoch 24-year-old single malt whisky, is also available in the store from November 24.

2011-11-17T22:42:00.001Z

Whisky Pee-Pee !

Lady Gaga: I like to drink whisky.. and sometimes I pee in my dressing room wastebin

Nov 17 2011 By Bev Lyons and Clemmie Moodie

LADY Gaga says she enjoys a drop of the hard stuff even though whisky gives rise to a few wee problems...

Her tongue loosened after a few drams, the 25-year-old singer told chat show host Alan Carr that if shegets caught short, she uses the waste bin in her dressing room.Charming.

Gaga turned upat the Channel 4 studios yesterday to record her interview for Sunday night's episode of Alan Carrs Chatty Man wearing a long blonde wig and a pink tadpole hat. As you do...

But it was her shocking revelation rather than her weird headgear that left Alan lost for words.

Giggling, she told him: The only thing I do straight is my whisky.

After admitting that all the whisky was starting to make her slur her words, she continued: I got very drunk last night. They call me Drunky Gaga.

It was quite embarrassing but nobody was there to point and laugh. I put on a gown in my hotel room, drank lots of wine and danced around toBorn This Way on my own.

She then foolishly, perhaps told Alan: I do quite often pee in the dressing room, in the trash can. It would have been an interesting photo today because I had a big pink bow on and I was over the trashcan.

The bathroom is all the way down the hall. And I was naked. It was just me, my bow and my nakedness. Me and my dustbin have a very important relationship.

That really is a case of too much information.

Lets hope this un-Ladylike behaviour doesn't put Sir Elton John off collaborating with Gaga again they last worked together on his animated movie Gnomeo & Juliet.

Gaga, who is also godmum to the Rocket Man's young son Zachary, said: Iplayed him a song I wrote and he really loved it. Were working on my next album.

Also revealing that she has nowhere to live, she sighed: "Right now I don't have a home I'm like a gypsy. So my new stage for new tour is the Haus of Gaga. Im gonna put my home on the stage. Because I really don't have a home.

That probably explains her bin doubling up as a bathroom...

2011-11-15T23:38:00.001Z

Whisky Cask Funeral !

Johnny Depp wants whisky funeral

added: 15 Nov 2011 // by: Cover

Johnny Depp wants to be placed in a “whisky cask” at his funeral, so mourners can drink from it.

The Hollywood actor is currently starring in The Rum Diary, which is based on the novel of the same name by Hunter S. Thompson.

Johnny’s morbid idea was inspired by the late author, who committed suicide in 2005. He requested his ashes be fired from a cannon on top of a tower.

Now Johnny has other ideas following his own death.

"I could go in a whisky cask and everyone can take a sip,” he told British newspaper The Sun.

Johnny honoured his friend's wish following his death at the age of 67. The American actor reportedly spent two million dollars to have a tower and cannon erected for Hunter’s funeral in Colorado.

"Hunter had dreamed of a special way to go. He wanted to be fired from a cannon,” he explained. "Brilliant! So I built a huge cannon after his death in 2005 and fired his ashes into the sky."

Johnny is starring as journalist Paul Kemp in the Bruce Robinson-directed The Rum Diary, which also features Amber Heard and Aaron Eckhart.

2011-11-12T18:58:00.001Z

Another Distillery Sale !

Tullibardine Distillery sold to French wine group

MARK WILLIAMSON

11 Nov 2011

A leading French wine and spirits group has acquired the Tullibardine Distillery in Perthshire in a deal that underlines the appeal of Scotch whisky in international markets.

Picard Vins & Spiritueux bought the business from a group of private investors who brought the Blackford malt distillery back into production in 2003 after it had been mothballed under its previous owners for 10 years.

Owned by the eponymous family, Picard Vins & Spiritueux has bought Tullibardine to ramp up growth in the Scotch whisky business that it has developed in recent years.