Single malts might have grabbed all the headlines in recent years, but there’s a growing feeling that there are two whisky categories that have been somewhat neglected but whose time will eventually come. And I’m starting to get the feeling that that time really isn’t that far away at all.

The first is grain whisky. Grain whisky is made in a totally different way to single malt whisky, on continuous stills which extract high strength alcohol by forcing grain beer against pressurised steam in large columns. It is the whisky which is mixed with single malts to make blended whisky, and it has had limited success on its own.

That’s partly because it has unfairly earned a reputation for being bland an uninteresting. But there are many examples where its sweet and vanillery components make for a delightfully refreshing alternative to single malt, and more than that, there are grain whiskies which are world class.

Indeed its biggest weakness can be its biggest strength. On the down side, grain whisky does not have as much flavour as single malt when it is first made.  – but the upside of this is that it is a blank canvas and if you put it in a high quality cask and leave it for long enough, all sorts of magic happens. Leave it for in excess of 30 years and it’s capable of developing the bourbony characteristics of the American oak bourbon cask but combining them with distinctly Scottish notes.

I’m fortunate enough to have tried a 50 year old grain whisky, and it is stunning example of what grain can be about.  Independent bottler Mahesh Patel is so convinced by grain that two aged grains from the 1960s form part of his four whisky Sirius range..

I think these sort of releases will become more common in the coming months as distillers look to new areas as they try to meet the huge demand for whisky worldwide and people discover the joys of aged grain. Grain also tends in general to be less expensive than single malt whisky, so it provides a great opportunity to taste genuinely old whisky.

The other category which is growing and set to stir the excitement is blended malt whiskies – and there’s an irony in this because blended malts are different to blended whisky because they don’t use grain. In the right hands they offer the opportunity to create something genuinely new taste-wise while moving away from traditional whisky imagery and packaging.

There are some real crackers around. Peat Monster and Spice Tree from Compass Box are blended malts, the Double Barrel range from Douglas Laing bring together malts from just two distilleries, and Clan Denny Islay and Speyside do exactly what they say on the tin, bringing together the best flavours for each region from a range of distilleries. And don’t forget The Big Peat, a surefire winner with Whisky Shop customers for nigh on two years now.

Exciting stuff – and absolute proof that  there’s always something new to excite the palate.

Dom’s weekly round up of the highlights from the world of whisky

Top drawer

The Whisky Shop has had an excellent working relationship with The Dalmore in the last two years, and the Highland whisky has risen from nowhere to a top selling whisky across the whole Whisky Shop estate.

Brand owner Whyte & Mackay’s other main malt, Isle of Jura, is also a a popular choice among Whisky Shop customers. So it comes as no real surprise to hear how well both malts are doing.  So well in fact that the Dalmore is now officially the world’s fastest growing single malt, according to new figures from leading research analysts IWSR.

The data reveals that the Dalmore is currently the fasting growing malt year on year with value growth of 69 per cent, taking over from Whyte & Mackay’s other single malt brand Jura which is now the second fastest growing malt in the world with value growth of 56 per cent. The phenomenal performance of the two brands compares with average growth of only 12 per cent across the top 25 malt brands globally – which in itself is pretty impressive.

Commenting on the figures, John Beard, Chief Executive of Whyte and Mackay said: “The global whisky market is continuing to experience a significant boom in sales and, within the malt category, competition is fierce to capitalise on this growth. So it’s testament to the hard work of our staff and the consistent quality of product that both of our malt brands are growing faster than any others out there. The Dalmore, in particular, is performing extremely well in this market and we are experiencing a growing demand from the world’s top retailers.”

Great news for a great whisky.

Denny does it every time

If you haven’t tried Clan Denny, then you should. Clan Denny Speyside and Islay are blended malts – a mixture of malts from different distilleries – and they do exactly what they say on the tin, offering the drinker the definitive experience for each regain. I don’t know who’s putting these whiskies together but they have always been good and the latest sample of Clan Denny Islay is the best yet – rich, smoky, peaty, sweet and full bodied.

I’ve been drinking a lot of classic Laphroaig and Ardbeg recently – never a struggle, certainly not a chore for me – and Clan Denny Islay matches up favourably even in this superlative company.

Congratulations Spain and Italy

There are many people who feel that the last two weeks of European football have been a disappointment  but I’m not among them. I’ve loved every moment of the tournament – well most: I’m English – and I’ll miss the nightly pre match ritual of loud rock music and a good whisky before sitting down to invariably choose to support the team which goes on to lose.

I’ve had some great whisky moments over the last two weeks – Redbreast 12 year old before the Ireland games (in one of which a player from my team Leicester City scored a goal), Glen Garioch before German games (don’t ask me why), Glenfarclas before Spain matches (sherry casks, you see), Glenlivet 15 year old before any of the Eastern European countries played and Laphroaig before England’s matches.

I had to listen to the England v Sweden game in the back of a car with John Glaser so rather than drink Mackmyra that win will be associated with Compass Box Spice Tree, though that whisky was my regular choice for Italy matches. Happy days…

But congratulations to Spain and Italy, who reached the final on merit. I love both countries – we have holidayed in either one of them practically every year since we had children 14 years ago – so my loyalties are split.

I’ll make a decision after a Glenfarclas and Spice Tree on Sunday evening. God help whoever I decide to root for.

Twenty four hours to Brighton: a  tour report…

They say that the darkest hour comes just before the dawn, and at this moment, I’m not arguing.

In Scotland at this time of the year dawn comes before 5am, and when I wake in a car on a street in Edinburgh at four, it’s pitch black save for a street light, rain taps a steady rhythm on the roof, my arm aches and I feel drained.

Inside the car with me are John Glaser from Compass Box,  and Andrew Torrance and David Whyte from the Whisky Shop, all asleep. We’re four hours in to our world record attempt, we’re exhausted, and we haven’t even done our second tasting yet. We all knew that we would hit a wall around four o’clock – it’s just we thought it would be four in the afternoon, not four in the morning. A dark hour indeed.

I think in those moments – tired, hungry, cold and disorientated – I mentally gave up for a few minutes. Eight tastings in eight towns and cities over nearly 700 miles in 24 hours? Sod that. How about breakfast in Edinburgh and a train home?

A few short minutes later John strolls in to the Victoria Street branch of The Whisky Shop to a rousing reception of party poppers, sparklers and an underwhelming recording of Eye Of The Tiger. The shop is full and John’s smile cuts through the dreachy early morning hour. This is to be a highlight of the day for John, and the moment kicks the early morning blues firmly back in to the shadows. Suddenly our world record attempt is back on track.

Half an hour later we set off again for Newcastle, leaving the hardy whisky folk of Scotland’s capital and a few Malt Maniacs to their dawn party. We hear later on the way to York that they finally leave the shop some two and half hours later.

We never look back. Our attempt to travel from Inverness to Brighton holding eight tastings in one day is a slice of madness and I learn en route that dragging an American and an Englishman across Britain in pursuit of a world record is actually a Scottish vanity project. Somewhere during the journey – on the road from York to Birmingham I seem to remember – Mark Gillespie from Whisky Cast interviews us by phone and Andrew Torrance explains how the idea of a world record attempt came about:

“I heard someone talking about the world’s biggest whisky tasting and I felt that it was a record that should be held by Scotland but it wasn’t,” he explains. “I got to thinking and had the idea that if we couldn’t do the biggest we should do the most, so that’s how it developed.”

And not just the most – but the longest. So here we are.

In order to attempt the record for Scotland John and I have to travel nine hours by train to Inverness, where at 12.01am we hold the first of the eight tastings. Each will have a different theme, but each will be based around three core Compass Box whiskies -  the award winning and highly palatable Great King Street blend, the feisty Peat Monster and personal favourite The Spice Tree.

The first tasting goes well but two miles out of Inverness David and Andrew realise they have left the Red Cross charity collection box behind and David is concerned his bag with laptop and passport – Andrew and David are to fly back from Gatwick tomorrow – are also left behind. This isn’t a great start.

It transpires he hasn’t left it, so we’re properly up and running.

Gateshead Metro centre is quiet for breakfast, but kippers and haggis for whisky pairing are on offer. All fine until John insists on bringing kippers back to the car as we head off towards York. The smell is overwhelming and we can only muse as to how fruity the vehicle will be by Brighton.

I don’t drive but as I understand it, to power a car a long way you need petrol. As we leave Gateshead  it seems we haven’t got any. We’re not just running low, we’re running on empty. We abandon the A1, call on the support car to track us and search for a garage.

Thankfully we find one immediately which is just as well because if we had run out of fuel John’s plan isn’t to use the support car to get some petrol, it’s for me and him to abandon David and Andrew an head off to York in the second vehicle. Hey, this man is driven – literally- and focused on just one goal.

Amazingly this turns out to be pretty much the day’s last hitch and David and Andrew, responsible for the driving while we drink our way south, play a blinder. To York (blending school) through to Birmingham (the importance of oak) to Oxford (cheese, fish and cake matching) and on to London (cocktails) we are operating to a tight schedule but we stay to it, even dealing with heavy traffic in England’s two biggest cities.

By mid afternoon, with a steady intake of Compass Box whisky on my part, some great in-vehicle banter and a growing belief that we are going to achieve our goal, the mood is buoyant. To be fair, it has been pretty good throughout. We’ve bonded in to a team and any potential pitfalls – David’s musical selections, for instance – have been parked at the side of the road.

Our tastings are short, sharp and to the point, and the journey becomes a bit of a blur. But there is just enough time to catch up with some old friends en route and to maker some new ones, and as we enter the capital the event is turning in to a  victory procession.

London is a blast. There’s a good turnout, we listen to England beat Sweden on the radio, we’re on schedule to achieve our goal, and the tiredness has been banished in to the night as darkness falls.

And we reach Brighton almost exactly at the planned finishing time of 11.30pm for a small but appropriate celebratory ending and a healthy glass of the Last Vatted Malt. John’s special bottling to mark last year’s law change banning the terri ‘vatted malt’ to history.

So we did it…eight tastings for more than 130 people in eight Whisky Shops in one long but highly enjoyable day.  As Andrew likes to put it, impossible is nothing, and a bizarre going marketing project between The Whisky Shop and Compass Box has become a bizarre reality.

Earlier Martk Gillespie had asked the question which firmly summed it all up: are you mad, he’d asked?

Probably. But the world of whisky has never seen anything like this. And worryingly, they’re already asking about what happens next.

It’s enough to make a man turn to drink…

Stand and deliver

It’s not every day you get the chance to help create a quality Scotch blend or to watch a master craftsman at work – so when William Grant & Sons asked me to join Brian Kinsman to do just that it was too good a chance to miss.

I nearly did miss it though – my flight to Aberdeen was delayed nearly four hours and I arrived just in time for the blending session.

William Grant & Sons has found an old recipe that dates back to June 11, 1912 – exactly 100 years ago to the day – so the plan was to use as many of the original whiskies as possible to recreate the blend, which is called Stand Fast.

It was a truly fascination exercise. Using an array of grains from different distilleries, including three that are now closed, and including a heavily sherried and sulphury sample, we made a blend using a mix of just three malts – from Glenfiddich and from Balvenie, both of which Brian had prepared earlier and which included malt of various ages, as well as a very earthy and peaty Highland Park.

The blend contained about 40 per cent malt and had a distinctive Highland earthiness and a surprisingly feisty finish.

There wasn’t any chill-filtering a century ago but Brian and global brand ambassador Ludo Ducrocq came up with a novel way of removing the fatty particles which cause clouding – egg white. Over a few days the egg hoovers up the congeners and the resulting deposit can apparently be easily filtered out. I’m not too sure about this as I have an egg allergy, but it made for an unusual twist to proceedings nevertheless.

We finished just in time to get to the Highlander in Craigellachie to catch England play France. Ludo, who is French, recorded the match and didn’t want to know the score, so we spent dinner and several late night drinks hinting that England had won 6-0.

Boys will be boys…

Ready to rock and roll

Just two days left to go before Compass Box’s John Glaser and I attempt to conduct eight tastings in eight cities over 700 miles and 24 hours.

How do you train for a 24 hour trek like that? Not sleep in practice so you’re tired before you even start? Or  try and sleep more so that you’re at maximum energy for the big day?

The William Grant trip and subsequent drinks in the bar meant that the second option was never on the cards.

We start at one minute past midnight on Thursday night/Friday morning at The Whisky Shop in Inverness and will be in Edinburgh for 4am. We’ll be joined by Whisky Shop head office heavyweights Andrew and David, who will be driving us.

The plan is to finish up in Brighton before midnight on Friday night. And it means that I’ll be listening to England beat Sweden in the back of a van in the company of an American and two Scots.

Oh Lordy mama!

A busman’s holiday…

My family has stayed at the lodges above Aberfeldy distillery three times now and every time it has been wonderful;. This visit, though, was the best of all. The weather was decidedly better than down south, we had great walks and discovered some great pubs. Perfect!

And then there was the inevitable trip to the distillery for a meeting on the last day. The family spent a happy hour at the Dewar’s World of Whisky, my 11 year old once again proved to be a far better blender than I am, and ambassador Stephen Marshall sent me off with an array of wonderful whisky including Aberfeldy 21 year old and Dewar’s Signature. A great way to end a great week.

Tally ho!

I returned home to find a gift from Diageo of all people – an unsolicited sample of both the Talisker 25-year-old and the Talisker 30-year-old. Both were enjoyed over the weekend – and both were wonderful.

I’ve long admired Compass Box chief John Glaser for the way he thinks outside the box and I love the fact that The W Club takes the view that anything’s possible – so I’m particularly delighted to announce details of what has to be one of craziest ideas the whisky industry’s seen in years.

John and I, supported by a back-up W Club team, are setting out on an attempt to get in to the Guinness Book of Records by setting out on 24 hours of utter madness.

Our aim? To hold eight whisky tastings in eight cities covering nearly 700 miles in just 24 hours.

We’ll be travelling by van with a W Club team, driving from Inverness to Brighton, holding hour long tasting events around three Compass Box whiskies in Inverness, Edinburgh, Gateshead, York, Birmingham, London, and Oxford before ending in Brighton.

The tour will take place on June 15, the Friday  before Father’s Day and tickets are being promoted through the individual shops. All money raised from tickets and from collecting on the evening will be donated to the Red Cross. People attending not only to get an up close and personal tasting from one of the whisky industry’s true legends, but will receive an ‘I Was There’ tour t-shirt.

My view on it all? Well it’s completely bonkers but very exciting and very rock and roll. It’s also a highly ambitious project which is being organised by several people behind the scenes to ensure everything goes smoothly. For instance, someone has to travel ahead of us at each state to make sure the tasting is set up and ready to go so that there no delays.

If you’re interested in being part of our 24 hours of midsummer madness then contact the shops directly.

Whisky trending – what I liked this week

Competition crazy

The W Club is going competition crazy and frankly it’s my humble view that we’re spoiling our members.

But it’s hard not to be impressed. I’m so keen to win a couple of them that I’ve adopted a couple of pseudonyms and am entering in disguise in the hope no-one will notice. That’ll learn ‘em.

We’ve just sent a lucky club member to Glen Garioch for what was an almost overwhelming trip, and now we’re following that with this little lot:

- a VIP trip to the BenRiach distillery in Speyside to select the cask which will be used for a Whisky Shop exclusive bottling

- a trip for two to the wonderful Gleneagles Hotel

- the chance to be a guest of Glenmorangie at the Open Golf Championship in July

- the chance to join the legend that is Richard Patersopn, master blender at Whyte & Mackay and one of the most charming and witty raconteurs you’ll ever meet, for an afternoon in his blending room

- the chance to attend a major Johnnie Walker launch event in Glasgow

Not enough? then what about the chance to win a trip for two to the brand new Mackmyra distillery in Sweden, or a trip for two, amazingly, to the Yamazaki distillery in Japan.

And if for some reason this all sounds like too much like hard work and you’d rather not get off your butt, then you ought to be trying to win a complete set of this year’s Islay Festival special bottlings. The prize is worth £1500 today but one week after the Festival is over that price will start heading upwards rapidly, leaving you with the ultimate dilemma – do you sit back and watch your investment grow, or open some of your special bottles and enjoy some of the finest Islay malt on offer.

what a choice

A diamond malt

I don’t think it’s any secret that I love Laphroaig, and of all the Laphroaig’s 18 year old is my favourite. In fact if I was really pushed I would put it in to my top three Scottish single malts.

So this special bottling diamond jubilee version of it provides me with the perfect excuse for me to buy another bottle. Mind you, there’s no way it’s going anywhere but very quickly in to my glass.

And before you ask, no I won’t share.

Boxing clever

Compass Box’s isn’t much to look at from the outside but inside it’s like being in an alchemist’s cave. I was down in London to see John Glaser for a couple of unusual issues – both of which will become clear in the next three or four days – and when I arrived he was working on his latest batch of special releases.

He’s engaging company and he treated me to  lunch at Jamie Oliver’s relatively new and moderatly priced Union Jack outlet -a sort of gastropub with traditional favourites presented with a twist. So does it get better than a chat with our greatest whisky pioneers, a pint of gorgeous Welsh cider, a hot chili pizza made with four different types of chili and covered in green leaf salad and accompanied by a little pot of curd.

not really. Except for the curd.

A taste of history

I picked up a parcel from the post office today and it contained a small sample of a 1953 58-year-old Glenfarclas. Wow! As George Grant says in the accompanying letter, he wasn’t born when it was made, his father was a little boy and his grand father was distilling. And just as amazingly, it was distilled the year after the Queen came to the throne.

Yep, that old…

I have decided it’s the perfect special whisky to start the weekend with. Trouble is, it’s my wedding anniversary so I’d have to give some to my wife. So I’ve hidden it.

No not really. She’s not that knowledgeable on whisky so I’m going to tell her it’s the 1953 but actually give her some Glenfarclas 10-year-old.

A bit mean i know, but the 10-year-old is rather good – and certainly good enough for her!!

Five cask strength BenRiach samples

You never quite know what you’re going to get from BenRiach – the distillery has such a range of whiskies. But The W Club is planning an exclusive specially made BenRiach and these five samples  are potentially the bottling’s component parts.

And they are superb. Two are described as ‘classic Speyside’ and are 16 years old and 21 years old respectively, but are destined for bottling after their 17 and 22 year birthdays in May. They are both sweet and fruity with honey and vanilla, as you might expect, but the first has a delightful fresh apple characteristic to it, and the second has a liquorice aniseed and oak combination from its age. Both are very good.

The third is 15 years old, finished in a Pedro Ximenez cask, and is set to be bottled as a 16 year old.It’s a big bold whisky with stewed plum, fig, date, mince pie and earthy, woody tannin notes.

But it’s the last two which are really exciting. They’re a year apart in age but will both be bottled as 17 years old. They are both finished in  virgin American oak and the effect  of the wood is all over them. These are dessert whiskies of the highest order. the first is cask 2775 from 1995 and combines banana split drizzled with caramel sauce,  or soft toffee filled chocolates. There’s hazelnut in the finish, too. The second, from 1994 and about nine months older, is much sharper, spicier and woodier, but still has a wonderful vanilla and candy heart if you add water.

Compass Box

It’s no secret that I am a huge admirer of the works of John Glaser and that I love what he and his team stand for.  John makes boutique whiskies with the finest Scotch and I’m delighted that they are a priority for The Whisky Shop.

The company’s whiskies fall in to two broad camps. There are sweet, gentle and easy drinking whiskies including two blends – Asyla and Great King Street, which I recently chose as the Blended Whisky of the Year in the Whisky Advocate annual awards; and a grain whisky called Hedonism. Grain whisky is soft and sweet and can be a bit characterless when young, but in this case it’s the whisky is delicious and refreshing. The other category hass more spicy, peaty and savoury releases and these include malts which are among my very favourites: The Peat Monster – have a guess – Oak Cross, which is matured in American oak casks with virgin European oak heads to give the whisky a spicy note; and best of all, The Spice Tree, which is feisty, challenging and a total treat.

Watch the news column for details of a marathon tasting tour with a difference featuring John Glaser.

The Dalmore Cigar Malt

I’ve already written about the return of this iconic malt and the changes that have been made to it. It’s an unusual Dalmore but a good one, and The Whisky Shop is the first British retailer to stock it. the first bottle sold went to a woman from Lincoln and was sold this week. Welcome back.

Sweden

I went as a guest of Maxxium to Stockholm to join the Viking Whisky Festival Cruise but before boarding we were treated to a tasting by the highly impressive Joy Elliott, who treated us to, among other things, a stunning Highland Park 1978 Vintage, and, amazingly, the 60 year old plus whisky which makes up the Macallan Lalique. Joy  claimed she didn’t have a wee taste while transporting the rare liquid to Sweden. If that’s true she’s stronger-willed than I am.

On board the cruise liner I met great people, hung out with the likes of Laphroaig’s John Campbell, Glenfiddich’s Ian Millar, Whyte & Mackay’s Richard Paterson and Glen Grant’s Dennis Malcolm, and discovered some very interesting new Swedish whisky.  Poor John wasn’t well but managed to hold a tasting which included Ardmore 25 year old, and a new expression of Laphroaig, a 13 year old whisky called Brodir.

On a related note – I have supported Mackmyra’s whisks in tastings for six years and am a big fan of the distillery and its people. So I am delighted that the great Mackmyra introductory malt The First Edition is now available through The Whisky Shop.

Emirates Airlines

What an amazing airline. Their stewardesses are the female equivalent of a box of Quality Street, a mix of races and all beautifully attired, very friendly and highly efficient. And if you managed to miss that they come from all over the world, the pilot lets you know just how many languages they can speak between them – about 12. The food is lovely, the planes spacious, and the entertainment amazing in its diversity. Thoroughly recommended.

Tintin

This is a whisky film. Whisky is a big player in the plot, a force for good and bad, used as a weapon and as plane fuel, and a constant in this delightful animated film.