If you’re a fan of whisky you’ll know that there are all sorts of writers and bloggers getting excited about new, rare and incredibly expensive releases, most of which we can’t afford and will never taste. It’s one of whiskies greatest ironies that a product which takes so long to make and which should be savoured slowly has become such a disposable commodity for whisky writers and bloggers.

So Golden Shots is all about going back to some of the whiskies which first got us excited about whisky, and which we may have forgotten about. Whiskies which warrant rediscovery and don’t require a mortgage to buy.

Sometimes though there is a duty for independent whisky journalists to have the courage to stand and up and say “NO!! THIS WON’T DO! TAKE YOUR SCUMMY WHISKY AND THROW IT DOWN THE SINK. BAH’ and unfortunately that’s the case with this week’s choice for Golden Shots. Or more exactly, Ginger Shots.  Ladies and gentleman, meet the year’s worst whisky release – Jameson Ginger.

Jameson is a name that you associate with fine quality whiskey, so this latest release comes as a shock. For a starter, it seems to break with its own past and casts a big eye across the water, and particularly to the Highlands and Islands. And it seems that its creators are quite happy to copy Macallan and steal the idea of using colour as a way of explaining the taste.

But ginger? What’s that about.

The whisky itself is also a bit of a shocker. The spirit is 30 years old, for a starter, and that’s old. Really old. Bordering on ancient. It’s like one big advert saying ‘forget youth, time to man up, accept your responsibilities and get on with it.’

On first impressions it’s not so bad. The nose is big. Really big. But then on the palate there’s oils and fish, with the slight taint of cheap perfume. Like a stolen snog in an Aberdeen back alley. It’s like someone has chucked in some peaty Islay whisky but it says loudly ‘don’t give me Edinburgh sophistication, don’t give me thriving Glasgow, give me gritty Aberdeen granite. I’m ginger and I’m proud and boo to Rangers.’ Metaphorically speaking.

What really sets this apart from most other releases, though, is the fact that when it’s left out in the sun, it changes from ginger to bright red.

And it’s best enjoyed if you’re Neiling.

Happy birthday to our W Club guru, Neil Jamieson, 30 years old today.

What I liked this week

Whisky tasting nights

After a lengthy spell of live tasting events I’ve managed to do four in with days – and wow, is whisky an exciting place to be right now.

Last night at the fabulously refurbished Sir Garnet pub in Norwich I was setting up when a group[ of students who looked like they had barely made it to 20, started commenting on the bottles. And it transpires that the brother of one of them, also in his 20s, collects whisky, buying two of each purchase, once for drinking and one for saving.

Even five years ago such a scenario would have been unthinkable. Whisky is reaching out in to new and exciting places and mixologists and barmen are lining up to find out more. Indeed when I had a stand for the Craft Distillers Alliance at the Manchester Boutique Bar Show, I was pleasantly surprised by the interest bar people showed in the new whisky producers.

The interest is reflected by the attendance at the tasting events, the highlights of which were two sold out W Club shop events, one to focus on Scotch whisky, the other, on the eve of World Whisky Day, to concentrate on whiskies form Ireland, Japan, America and Sweden.

My tastings have always attracted a youngish crowd with a good proportion of women, sand that is certainly still the case. But the most encouraging aspects to the events are two-fold: one, they attract  range of old faces and new, young an sold, and experienced whisky drinkers and malt novices; and two, people are much more willing to try new and unusual things, and to accept that Scottish aged single malt is not the only show in town.

Whisky is changing and for the better. We’re going to have to work hard to keep up – but that’s the sort of work we can well and truly live with.

World Whisky Day

If you haven’t heard of World Whisky Day then chances are that you will in the coming years. It has started to become established, has been recognised by the Scottish Government and it is now being celebrated across the world.

The day was originally held in March on the birthday of the late and great whisky writer Michael Jackson, but many felt that a world whisky day shouldn’t be centred around one individual. andBlair Bowman, who graduated from aberdeen University this year but started work on the idea as a student two years ago, has developed it in to a day when the world of whisky come together. We fully endorse what he is trying to do and will look to support the celebrations properly next year.

The Glenlivet Quercus

We’ve had some fabulous whisky released under the W Club moniker but rarely have we had a powerhouse like this one. Glenlivet is a truly iconic distillery and this is a 17 year old cask strength  single cask whisky of wonderfulness.

It’s not cheap – £200 – but it’s great – a rich, vanilla, honey and ice cream treat rich in yellow fruits but with the odd hint of preach and apple, too. We’re setting the bar high now, no doubt about it.

Available to buy while stocks last right here

Discover A Rare Find!

Shielded from the world’s prying eyes deep in the Highlands of Scotland, quietly producing small, precious batches of Single Malt Whisky, Glen Garioch is a Rare Find indeed.

Now, we want to share this little hidden gem in Scotland’s northeast with one lucky winner! We’re offering Glen Garioch enthusiasts the chance to experience Rare Finds across Aberdeenshire: a two day, all expenses paid trip to the Garioch, The Granary of Aberdeenshire. On a VIP tour of our Glen Garioch distillery, our lucky winner will discover the time-honoured skills at work and hear from the master craftsmen involved. After a private tasting held by our Master Blender, Rachel Barrie, the lucky winner will rest their head at Meldrum House: a luxury four star hotel situated in the beautiful countryside surrounding the market town of Oldmeldrum, the home of Glen Garioch.

The next morning, you’ll venture out into the wild to discover Rare Finds of the northeast. Guided by local experts, our winner will experience salmon fishing and gold panning at secret locations precious few will ever see. Competition runners up will also receive their very own Rare Find: a special, Limited Edition Small Batch release of Glen Garioch Single Malt Whisky. For your chance to win, simply enter via the Glen Garioch Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/glengarioch. Entry closes at midnight on 3rd June 2013: good luck!

Ardbog Day is almost here and to wet your appetite a little more Ardbeg have produced this great video so you can learn more about the Whisky… Enjoy

Congratulations to Carl Smith who was the lucky winner of this fantastic prize from Scottish Leader. Thank you to all who entered and we look forward to giving away some more great whisky soon!

Weekly Whisky Auction Watch

Andy Simpson

21.05.2013

Following along the same theme as last week, another less well known whisky auction house, Tennants, in North Yorkshire recently held one of their fine wine and whisky sales.

The auction included a very interesting mix of bottles with good representation from Ardbeg, Bowmore, Glenlivet, Bruichladdich and many older Connoisseurs Choice bottles.

This eclectic selection clearly drew the attention of many eager bidders as record sale values were achieved for many bottles.

The original Ardbeg ‘Mor’ breached the £1,000 barrier for the first time when the hammer settled on £1,050. I remember this being released and passing it by purely because it wouldn’t fit on my shelves. Silly me! The ‘Bigbeg’ has now seen a fourfold increase in its original retail price.

The older Ainslie and Heilbron bottles of 12 year old Clynelish have always been in high demand so it came as little surprise to see one of these 1980’s bottles sell for a new record of £340 (75cl, 40% variant).

The Signatory Silent Stills range has featured in these pages before with many of these older bottles seeing rapid increases in price at auction. A bottle of Silent Stills Glenury Royal (another distillery firmly embedded in my watch list) sold for £320, sailing past its previous best of £210.

A bottle of 1968, 16 year old Laphroaig (Connoisseurs Choice cream & brown label) sold for £420. I’ve seen many of these older bottles with their original price tags on them; most retailed originally for around £20.

Another silent distillery from the Connoisseurs Choice range doubled its 2010 value. A St Magdalene 1965 (bottled 1991) vintage hit £300 for the first time.

As mentioned previously, no whisky auction is worth its salt without a healthy dose of Macallan. Two bottles from this iconic collectors distillery achieved new record prices when a 1979 18 year old sold for £450 and a 1957 25 year old Anniversary Malt achieved £1,650.

A new record low price was achieved for a bottle of Loch Dhu creature from the black lagoon Black Whisky (rare 1 litre variant) when it sold for £90. That price is still roughly £20 more than you’d expect to pay for the 70cl variant. I would argue the bigger bottle should be worth less as there’s clearly more of the stuff in there! The bigger bottle would also require more time to pour down the sink! It’s been a while since I’ve had a cheap dig at black sludge so I just couldn’t help myself and apologies to any black gloop fans out there.

May is looking like being another record month in terms of the volume of bottles hitting the open market. Early signs for the month look like values are broadly remaining stable or increasing.

Until next week.

Slainte,

Andy.

Last night at the Paternoster store in the City of London, we had 18 customers attending a Glenfarclas tasting event (a nice mix of regulars and new faces, including one lady for whom it was her first ever whisky tasting and Facebook competition winner Indran Shivarajah).

Peter Donnelly from Pol Roger, the distributors for Glenfarclas in the UK, effortlessly took the crowd through a selection of their extensive single malt range and gave plenty of history and insight in to what is one of the last remaining family owned distilleries in Scotland.  He was excellent, informative and engaging and covered a vast array of subjects.

The whiskies selected from their range were the classic 10 years old, 21 years old, 2003 vintage (this is an exclusive bottled to celebrate the launch of the W Club), the cask strength 105 and the limited edition 105 20 years old.  The crowd favourites were the W club exclusive and 21 years old.

Peter stayed on to speak at length with everyone and answer further questions.  Cathy Cooper, the lady for whom it was her first ever whisky tasting, told store manager Matt Chambers,

“I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was much better and more informative than expected.  It was interesting to taste the whiskies side by side and compare them.  My favourite was the third one (the W Club 2003 vintage) – can I have another taste of it please? …”

The next tasting in the store is on May 21 when they welcome Colin Dunn from Diageo to sample the Talisker single malt range, including the new expressions of Storm and Port Ruigh

Exploring whisky

Having looked at the components of whisky over recent weeks, Dominic turns to the production process. And because wood has been featured recently, he starts at the end of the process – with maturation

A few years back I attended a tasting of three single cask Bowmores from the ’60s. Each had been filled in the same week some 40 years previously, two on the same day. But each was from a different cask type: one Oloroso sherry, one Pedro Ximenez, one bourbon. and although the Bowmore DNA was in each, they varied dramatically, demonstrating just how important the cask is in the making of whisky.

Some claim that up to three quarters of the flavour of malt comes from the maturation process, and unless caramel is added, so does all of the colour.

But what’s even more remarkable is the fact that if all three had been bourbon barrels and had been filled with the same spirit batch on the same day and matured next to each other for 40 years, they would still have been different to each other. They would have had different flavours and marginally different alcoholic strengths, and they would have matured at different rates.

What’s more, while much these days is known about the maturation process, a great deal isn’t. This is the magic – or miracle – of malt. Science is doing its best but it hasn’t got there yet. Let’s hope it never does.

So what do we know?

First, that malt spirit needs to be matured for no less than three years in a cask, and in Scotland that cask has to be made of oak. And because the spirit is delicate it cannot hold of the spicy tannins of new oak for three years, so it needs to be put in as cask seasoned with something else – normally sherry or bourbon.

In the cask the spirit circulates and expands and contrasts slightly with the changing of seasons and temperatures. And in the cask the liquid undergoes four processes:

Firstly, the spirit is forced in to the wood, picking up flavour and colour. Secondly, during this process the wood also moves some flavours, and in particular some negative ones such as sulphur. Thirdly compounds in the wood react chemically with the spirit to produce the array of flavours we associate with malt whisky.

And finally, we know that spirit escapes faster than water in maturation – at least it does in Scotland – because over the course of several years the strength of the spirit is reduced. But the cask does not collapse, indicating that oxygen enters the cask – and thus oxidisation takes place.

Once whisky has been made after three years, it’s up to the distiller to decide how long he wants to keep the whisky maturing, but he has two constraints: one, the strength of the liquid cannot be allowed to fall below 40% ABV; and two, the tannins and spices of there wood contribute to flavour but there will come a time when it will become noticeable, then dominant and finally overwhelming. The positive flavours imparted from the cask will peak, too, so the distiller must choose carefully when the optimum flavours and the oak are best serving the final flavour. And with every cask that decision is different.

That’s a tough ask with just one cask, but what if you are storing 100,000 or even a million?

* Next week we’ll look at maturation lengths and what effects them

Another amazing W Club giveaway. The W Club love nothing more than treating our members to some free whisky.  This time we are offering one lucky winner the opportunity to win the fabulous Scottish Leader 30 year old limited edition!

To be in with a chance of winning this unique single malt simply visit our Facebook page and follow the instructions on our Scottish Leader post. Winner to be announced this Friday! Good Luck!

Weekly Whisky Auction Watch

Andy Simpson

14.05.2013

As the appeal of rare and old whisky steadily increases, it’s almost natural that we start to see other impressive whisky sales at auctioneers throughout the UK.

Last week Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions held their first major rare whisky sale.

It’s not unusual to see hammer prices towards the lower side of expectations for an ‘inaugural’ whisky auction such as this; however, that was clearly not the case here. Many bottles achieved new record prices in what was a very keenly fought sale.

The auction included a good spread of modern day icons such as the Macallan Royal Marriage and Official Port Ellen releases. These, combined with some stunning 1970’s independent bottles were enough to keep virtually every whisky fan drooling with anticipation.

Before I get onto the more traditional bottles of Scotch; worthy of separate note was a small selection of 1980’s vintage Karuizawa. As the number of maturing casks rapidly dwindles from this closed Japanese distillery, some solid increases are being observed for existing bottled stock. Roughly two years’ worth of releases from Karuizawa remains maturing in cask…. Then it’s gone. Karuizawa definitely carries a ‘buy’ rating in my book.

Included in the sale were many long discontinued Cadenheads ‘dumpies’ (referring to the dumpy shape of the bottle). These old bottles are among the best recent performers at auction from independent bottlers.

A 1966 vintage Littlemill and a 1962 vintage Dallas Dhu both sold for new records of £350. These, coupled with other bottles from Ladyburn, Glenury Royal, North Port and St Magdalene made for an exceptional selection of Cadenheads ‘dumpy’ lots.

Older style Gordon and MacPhail Connoisseurs Choice bottles also reached new highs. A bottle of St Magdalene 1963 sold for £450 (first release style black and red label). That equates to a 125% increase in value over 2008 prices.

Certain old vintages performed to new record highs when two Gordon & MacPhail Glenlivet bottles, on a 1938 and a 1940 vintage, sold for £650 and £500 respectively. It’s incredible to think that these ‘golden oldies’ (among many others from Linkwood, Glen Grant etc) from Gordon and MacPhail were selling for less than £200 just four years ago.

Any whisky auction worth its weight wouldn’t be complete without a liberal smattering of rare Macallan bottles. A Macallan 1964/1981 sold unboxed for an all-time high of £600. One of the very early 18 year olds, vintaged 1966, also sold unboxed for a new record of £480. £200 would have bought one of these in 2008.

Auchentoshan is all too infrequently mentioned in these pages so it was great to see a bottle of 1965 vintage ‘Distillery Archive’ selling for £300. A scant two years ago this bottle was trading at £170.

There were also some good deals for buyers as certain limited release Ardbegs sold for well under current market value. Both ‘Ardbeg Day’ and ‘Rollercoaster’ sold for £110 each. Those prices were a good step back from recent sales and more representative of quarter three 2012.

The highlights of the auction were the older independent bottles. From my perspective, these wonderful old pieces of liquid history are rightfully now gathering pace as collectibles.

Overall, the market still remains positive with broad based increases in value continuing. In my opinion, the outlook still remains buoyant for the right bottles from the right distilleries.

Until next week.

Slainte,

Andy.