Posts Tagged ‘Macallan’

Take a step inside Macallan

Look out for a sherried treat

At the Distillery

 

If you’ve been enjoying the exclusive W Club Glenfarclas bottling then get set for a treat later this year when The Whisky Shop launches an exclusive BenRiach.

The new whisky is a big, rich shirred treat, and very lovely, according to Inverness whisky enthusiast Desmond Masson. And he should know – he helped to choose it.

Desmond, aged 55, won the chance to spend a day as a VIP guest at BenRiach and to help make the selection.

“It was a great day,” he says, “and I was amazed because I thought I would be just watching on but I was very much part of it. There were nine whiskies and my views were listened to and eventually the three of us chose the one that will be bottled for later in the year. It’s a 1977 Pedro Ximenez cask so it’s sherried and very lovely.”

Desmond has been a regular customer at the Inverness branch of The Whisky Shop for about two years and buys malt both to drink and collect.

“I drink whisky socially and I’m always looking for something different. I like to always have something special and interesting open. But also if I ever have some apart money then I’ll buy something to keep,” he says. “Most of the stuff I buy to collect is priced between £100 and £200 but I do have one or two special bottles. The Whisky Shop helped me get me a Dalmore Candela, for instance, and has just helped me to get a special Macallan from Germany.”

Desmond was already a big fan of The W Club before he won the BenRiach trip and is encouraging others to join.

“I understand The Whisky Shop chain is a retail business and doesn’t discount as some supermarkets do but as a W Club member I get 10 per cent off everything, and I can go along to an evening tasting where I’ll get five free whiskies and be under no obligation to buy anything. About 20 or 30 of us went to a great night at The Whisky Shop recently, with five whiskies, before going on to see The Angels’ Share. And our first whisky was a Balblair to tie in with the film. That was a fabulous night. That’s what i like about The Whisky Shop. I’m treated like a VIP customer whenever I go in.”

Whisky trending – what I liked this week

Easter marks the end of a manic start to the year, but it’s great looking over what The W Club has achieved and to know that we aren’t even out of first gear yet. And this last week has been as manic as ever.
So what did I like?
Speyside
Always great to get to Speyside, but picking two days when Aberdeenshire broke the record on consecutive days for Scotland’s hottest March day on record, was a bonus. This week the very same place was eight centimetres deep in snow and facing freezing temperatures more than 20 degrees less than the week before.
I was met at the airport by Chivas Brothers international public relations director Jim Long who drove me to Glenlivet distillery to taste some of the cask samples the distilelry has been releasing.
The Whisky Shop will be stocking two single cask, cask expressions from Glenlivet soon: Helios, a 20 year old 50.7% hogshead refill whisky, and Josie, a 17 year old whisky at 57.3%.
I tasted the single cask selected by a small number of the Glenlivet Guardians and it was a delight – somewhere between the 15 year old French Oak reserve and the 16 year old Nadurra, with all the vanilla, sweet yellow fruits , coconut, spearmint and peach you associate with the latter, and some of the spice you get from the former. Rich clean and fruity, it was Spring in a glass and the perfect whisky for the day we were having.
I also tasted the 40 year old Glenlivet Atlantic – a venerable old church on Easter Sunday, with beeswax polish, flowers, old oak and incense spice in the air. On the palate was a large gloopy dollop of pineapple jam, then late on, astringency, oak, and spice.
Thanks Jim – short and sweet. But very, very sweet.
The Speyside festival plans
The festival organisers mean business these days and for the second year running the level of organisation has taken a major step up.
There were always great events at this Ferstival but you had to unearth them for yourself, and they seemed to happen somewhat randomly.
Not any more. Linked by Twitter and Facebook, the Festival’s getting a lot right, offering visitors an idea of  how long it will take from event to event and whether their personal tmetables are practical, offering information and ticket points, publicising late ticket availability with direct messaging, and linking up transport requirements with the supply of buses and taxis.
There are loads of events on offer, many of them still with tickets. The Ferstival runs from May 3 to May 7 and you can find out more about the whole Festival at its website – also watch for my video interview from the banks of the sunny Spey.
Tastings at The Artichoke, Broome, and at the Rumsey Wells, Norwich
Two big crowds, lots of great whisky, and plenty of laughs – what’s not to like?
To mark World Whisky Day both tastings were world whisky first half, Scotch whisky second – with Nikka Straight From The Cask and Jim Beam Black Label being the pick of the world whiskies and Compass Box’s Spice Tree and Peat Monster the pick of the Scottish malts.
New Douglas Laing samples
I received a batch of Douglas Laing samples and they have dominated my tasting evenings for the last few days.
There are very few that aren’t very good – though The Glenlivet is an oddball. Favourites included the following:
Provenance Tamdhu 12 Year Old 46%
Lots of zip and zesty fruit sherbet andf a healthy dash of marzipan.
Provenance Caol Ila Young and Feisty 46%
Arguably the best of the bunch, this is fantastic. Mix melon, lemon and lime with a sootiness and you get something not unlike Connemara. This is surprisingly balanced if it is very young, and pressing all the right buttons for me.
Royal Brackla 12 Year Old 52%
An awesome mix of toffee treacle, liquorice, burnt nut and sharp chili spice. Surprise, surprise…
Old Malt Cask Bunnahabhain 14 year old 50%
Feisty, green gooseberry nose and full green fruit and menthol on the palate with chocolate lime candy and sweet pear. Very, very nice.
Old Malt Cask The Macallan 18 year old 50%
Great but not typical of The Macallan, light and grapey with some grapefruit, liquorice and fizzy sherbet notes. It’s quite a big and chunky malt with some aniseed and hickory. Almost smoky and very nice.
52 Degrees North
52 Degrees North is a cafe-bar in Poland Street in Soho – Poland is at 52 Degrees North apparanetly – and it serves restaurant -quality food at reasonable prices. Fresh salads, stunning fishcakes, perfectly cooked sardines, the best chips I think i’ve ever hasd (really!) and a selection of drinks which include Innis & Gunn and Harviestoun on draught. The atmosphere is very informal and casual i had a stunning cocktail called a Miss Martini, and there’s a downstairs room which would be great for private functions. I loved it and will be back.
And finally…
I finsished my Whisky Opus book, due for publication in October, and a day later received copies of the monster book that is 1001 Whiskies To Try Before You Die, 960 pages and 350,000 words of whisky brilliance – and I can say that because I oversaw 25 writers so most of the entries aren’t mine. It’s out in early May and I’m very proud of it.

Whisky Auction Watch – March 28, 2012

Andy Simpson reports on the latest auction news:

“Firstly, following on from my comments last week, it’s interesting to see the effect a flooded market has on bottles of whisky. The Macallan Easter Elchies Cask release sold at auction last week for the equivalent of its original £145 retail cost. Granted, it was the full sized bottle without the mini but that’s a completely different ball park to the first recorded sale of £345.

This years release of Springbank 21 year old is also seeing some cooling in values with a sale of £195 following its early peak of £275.

Onto other auction prices:

Ardbeg
The Ardbeg 17 year old seems to be lifting back up a little with a sale of £190 being the highest recorded since October last year.

Another Ardbeg hit new highs last week with a bottle of ‘Almost There’ selling for just shy of £90. In 2008 these were changing hands at auction for £35 – £40.

Glenmorangie
Staying with LVMH, it’s good to see a new Glenmorangie record at £205 for the 1987 Managers Choice (bottled 2001). Might there be a more general upturn in older Glenmorangie prices? It would be nice to see.

Glenfiddich
Glenfiddich Snow Phoenix seems to have moved up to a consistent new trading level of around £100. That said, when there are a high number in the market at the same time, this bottle does experience significant price volatility and tends to see a downward spike to around £60.

Talisker
The final bottle this week is the supremely divine Talisker 1981 20 year old (the one with the gold map of Skye on the label). This just goes to show how important the quality of the whisky is when looking at what to buy. Back in 2008, believe it or not, you could pick these up for well under £100. One sold over the weekend for £450! From memory, these bottles retailed for £70 which represents an increase of 543%. I was going to drink my last bottle but I think I’ll hang into it now!

Whisky Auction Watch

There’s been much anticipation for two of the first heavily sought-after bottles of 2012.

The Macallan Easter Elchies Cask and the Balvenie Craftsman’s #1 have both been released and sold out faster than I can drink a dram of Port Ellen 1st Release! As would be expected, the secondary market is being flooded with both bottles. There’s almost a race to get the first bottles out to auction which is not particularly my thing but it makes some interesting auction watching!

• The Balvenie Cooper retailed at £65 and sold out within all but a day (great job from Balvenie as it was over £50 there was no extra charge for postage… very much appreciated). The price for this bottle seems to have levelled out at £200. This represents a good short term gain, however, I would see this bottle remaining at its current price for some time (at least until the oversupply calms down).

•The Macallan (released with a matching mini) was only available at the distillery and retailed for £145. The first two bottles (full sized with mini) to appear on the secondary/auction market sold for an impressive £335 and £345 respectively. Even the separate (free!) miniature has sold for as much as £110 on its own. As is to be expected, the market’s now being flooded and prices are tumbling. If you missed out initially and intend to buy one on the secondary market, hang fire for a while and wait for prices to come down to more sensible levels.

Other notable recent sales include:

• The fantastic Lagavulin 21 year old (6642 bottles released in 2007) topped £440 for the first time last week. At an original retail cost of £110, that’s a 300% gain over 5 years.

• The Bruichladdich ‘Laddieflu’ Valinch sold for £155. Interesting Valinch bottling as I understand only 40 or so were actually sold before the bottle was very tactfully pulled by the fine folk over at ‘Laddie.

• Whilst not UK records, there were a couple of good sales for Highland Park. The half sized Ambassador cask III went for £185 (previous ‘spike’ was up to £260) and a St Magnus Festival (one of 500 bottles released in 2006) sold for just shy of its previous best, realising £145… good growth from an original retail cost of £32.

• A final very special mention goes out to – NO NEW RECORDS SET BY THE RARE MALTS SELECTION! – I think it’s the first week in 18 months I’ve not seen a Rare Malts Selection bottle break a record, having said that, there were very few sold last week.

Next week sees Mulberry Bank Auctions and McTears on Wednesday the 28th. Real shame both these auctions are on the same day. On a positive note (whilst I appreciate commission bids and internet bidding will happen) there might be the odd bargain here and there! Here’s hoping…

Andy Simpson

Viva Dram Vegas – Friday night

You know Richard Paterson’s in town as soon as you walk through the door. Party poppers go off, there are screams of delight and then Richard’s rumble rules the room.

New York, London, Paris, Munich, everybody knows his pop music… and here in Vegas he’s doing his smoothie Sinatra bit to great effect.
But the party’s certainly not his alone – this is a whisky show wrapped in the opulence of one of Las Vegas’s most premier resorts, the Wynn Encore, a hotel the size of a small town dripping in glitter and gold, and the perfect place to host some of the world’s truly great whiskies.
Some of the style of Las Vegas has found its way in to the show, somewhat incongruously, given the modest nature of Scotch whisky, but it’s a show that is definitely different.
Friday begins with a preshow session for ‘High Roller’ ticket holders, who have paid extra for a series of privileges, and some early evening master classes. Once the show’s open the quality of the whisky on offer is phenomenal, with High Rollers entitled to an even higher level of whiskyn known as ‘super pours.’
To give you a flavour of the whisky on offer, the list includes, in no particular order, Glenfarclas 1966 exclusive cask 47.9%, Glenfarclas 1989 exclusive cask 55.4%, Mahesh Pastel’s new Siriius range (1962 North British, 1965 Carsebridge, 1966 Fettercairn, 1967 The Dalmore), Old Pulteney 17yo, 21yo and 30 yo, Glenlivet XXV and Archive 21 YO, Macallan 1950 Cask 600, Highland Park 30 year old and 40 year old, Glenfarclas 40 yo, 1962, 1972 and 1982, Glenfiddich 30 yo and 45 yo, Bsalvenie 30yo and 40yo, Jura 1976, Fettercairn and 30 yo and 40 yo and Dalmore 1974, 1978, 40 yo Astrum and 45yo Aurora.
They’re just the special ones. An amazing evening.

Viva Dram Vegas

the Nth Whisky Show Live, March 2, 2012

The Wynn Resort is vast and lavish -but  the second Nth Whisky Show takes some finding.. When you do so , though, it’s quite astounding.
We fly in to Las Vegas- always an awesome experience – just as tornados hit states including my second home Kentucky and Louisville – and as always the whole experience is a disconcerting one. This shouldn’t happen in the first week of March – God help these people over the next four months – before the hurricane season. It looks like hell.
But the Wynn Resort is quite amazing – lavish, classy, stylish and  the size of a small town. So big that they give you as map at reception.
To find the whisky show you have to walk for 10 minutes. Imagine a concert hall such as the O2 or the Birminghasm NEC only with expensive carpets, beautiful decor and fne art. That’s where we are.
And then you stumble upon it, and it’s an Alladin’s cave of great whisky.
The whole point of the Nth Whisky Show is to spotlight the world’s best whiskies, and  it’s hard to take in all that is on offer here. George Grant is here with a wide range of great Glenfarclas single malts. Richard Paterson and David Robertson are presenting the best of Dalmore, Ferttercairn and Jura, Ian Millar and Sam Simmons are presenting Glenfiddich and Balvenie malts face to face, and Pernod Ricard, Morrison Bowmore, and various independent bottlers are all well represented.
Best whisky of the night? Hard to say  but a Laphroaig from an independent Italian company was close.
Time for bed…