He also took us through a nosing of distillate samples, looking at foreshots five and thirty minutes into the distillation, and spirit samples, five, thirty, sixty and one twenty minutes into distillation. We also nosed a sample of feints.

Our tour then traveled up to one of their warehouses where we sampled their ten year old, not very impressive, and a 1973, an excellent example of a Jura in European, no wonder they were proud of it.

Our group was then handed over to Willie Tait for a tasting of their new Paps of Jura range, three new single malts named after one of the three mountains, ( Paps).

I’m not going to give you the gealic names as they’re unpronouncable so I will use the translated names. We started with Mountain Gold, a sixteen year old Jura finished for two years in Pinot Noir casks.

The flavours didn’t quite work for me but after adding water and warming it up a little it wasn’t bad at all.

The second whisky translated from it’s gaelic name was Mountain of the Sound, again a sixteen year old finished in Cabernet Sauvignon in French oak, this for me was the pick of the three, a nice balance of flavours and not too much of an influence from the wine itself, the french oak seemed to have softened the whisky down a little.

The third whisky was called the Sacred Mountain , again a sixteen year old.

This whisky was finished in a wine known as the wine of kings from the Barolo region in Italy.

This one was OK, slight hints of citrus and blackberries on the finish.

Each of the three whiskies were retailing at £100.

Our last session was in the Cooperage with Richard Patterson.

Richard took us through a potted high speed history of blending in his own inimitable manner.

We were all given samples of grain, lowland, medium highland, heavy highland, Islay peated and speyside whiskies, the idea was to make up our own blend with the best three receiving a prize for their efforts.

Jura are predominantly unpeated but they do a little peated each year and of course everyone knows about the Superstition bottling.

Off to Bruichladdich tomorrow to see Jim McEwan who is showing us round the Distillery as well as Kilchoman.

Later the same day we’re going round to Bunnahabhian Distillery where we’ll meet the Manager John Mcllelan.

See next report

Ian

Our East Coast Ambassador Freddy May was over in Kentucky recently during National Margarita day but he wanted to have a Glenfiddich so being the creative young man that he is he decided to simply have both,  in one glass, and so the Glenfiddich Margarita was born, the recipe is: 2 parts Glenfiddich, 1 part fresh lime juice, 3/4 a part agave nectar, shake and strain on the rocks, no salt rim and with a lime wedge of garnish, we tried it this week and it works really well.

Other serves for Glenfiddich are the Super Sonic: 12 year old with Sonic ( soda and tonic) served in a long glass with ice and a slice of lemon, very fresh and great just before a meal. The Sonic Boom; 15 year old Glenfiddich Solera with sonic, (soda and tonic)  served in a long glass with ice and a slice of orange , for an extra touch run the orange peel round the rim of the glass, again very fresh, the orange matching well with the citrus notes in the whisky.

I spotted a 17 year old Bowmore behind the bar so decided to try it, the whisky looks and tastes like a second fill sherry, a little sharp on the nose, typical of a sherry maturation, but very pleasant on the pallet, slightly floral on taste, Alice, my colleague from Shanghai said she found it slightly perfumed and this fits well with the floral, floral notes in a whisky are not unique but quite rare. As you would expect there was also a hint of peatiness but a good balance of peat that does not wholly disguise the true flavour of the whisky, I also picked up a grassy note at the end of the finish, very smooth at 43% without water, it cost a little more than the standard 12 and 15`s but I thought it was worth it.

There`s quite a lot of noise made in the west  about drinking whisky with green tea in China, green tea is as readily available in china as Coke is in the west so no surprise really that they use it in their whisky, lot`s of night clubs are serving Chivas or Johnnie with green tea so I decided I would try it so next day we mixed some chivas with green tea, one part chivas, two parts green tea, very refreshing , don`t knock it until you`ve tried it I say.

Ian

 Touring through Campbellton and Islay in June with Springbank and Glen Gyle Distilleries covered in this first report.

They produce, Springbank, Longrow and Hazelburn at Springbank, all Barley used at both Springbank and Glen Gyle is malted at  floor maltings.

Springbank and Glen Gyle (Kilkerran Single Malt) have the same peating levels, around ten to fifteen ppm.

Hazelburn is unpeated and is Distilled in one wash and two Spirit stills but in sequence so triple distilled.

Springbank is two and a half distillations and the Longrow simply one wash and one spirit Distillation, the latter condensed through a worm on the Spirit Still.

Longrow is heavier peated to similar values as Ardbeg, 35-40 ppm.

We tasted a Longrow that had been matured in Long Row red wine casks ( a wine company based in Australia) for only five years, the whisky was approx 58 abv but excellent in flavour and extremely pallatable.

Glen Gyle has now operated for five years,  ( Now six ) it has two large storage bins for malt which is delivered from Springbank, just round the corner, one grist bin, capacity seven tonnes, a bobey mill, stainless semi-lauter mashtun, four washbacks and two stills which they purchased from Invergordon, the stills had previously been used at Ben Wyvis Distillery.

The business is privately owned by the Wright family, descendents of the Mitchells who have owned it since it was built.

Hedley Wright is the current owner or managing director and runs the company along with Cadenheads, he bases himself in Edinburgh.

We were toured by Stuart Robertson, the Manager who joined us later for a pint along with Frank McHardy, the General Manager and Pete Curry, one of their two Whisky Ambassadors, the attention to detail and their approach to innovation alongside traditional whisky making methods will allow Springbank to deliver unique whiskies far into the future, it was good to see Stuart as we had worked together at Linkwood 1996-1998, also good to see both Frank and Pete as we have worked in various markets across the world together and when you`re a long way from home it`s nice to meet a well kent face.

We have now caught the ferry for Islay where we are due to take part in the open day at Jura with Richard Patterson and Willie Tait.

I will cover the Jura visit later in February.

Ian

On both days we had record audiences for the cruise where most of Scotland’s Malt Whiskies were on show. We ran a Masterclass on each day and sampled cask strength 15 and 18 as well as a 31 year old Glenfiddich Vintage and two older Vintages from 1958 and 1959 respectively, I also shared a 1955 sample with the Friday crowd as there was sufficient left over from an earlier tasting with Swedish Journalists.

Each cruise an auction is held to raise money for charity and this year we auctioned off a rare vintage of Glenfiddich 1965, a price of nearly £700 was finally realised for this bottle. see picture of Lennart Rosenqvist below with Kurre and myself, I am blowing on the bottle to dry my signature.

Furthermore, there was some Glenfiddich Private Vintage 1955 left over from the earlier nosing and tasting, this was auctioned off as 2 drams (ca 30ml each), first dram going to Göran Sandberg for SEK2600 ( £260 ) and the second dram going to Tobias Persson for SEK1600, ( £160 ).

All money raised through these auction items went to Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), very appropraite right now considering what`s happening out in Haiti.

Despite the heavy snow falls, 46 centimeters, Speyside is well equipped to deal with the weather and we are kind of used to it, nice to smell the first mash of the year going in as well, Distilleries are very cold places when there`s no production going on, the christmas and new year break also gives us a chance to carry out small projects and necessary maintenance before we start our 2010 production, please spare a thought for all the tradesmen who worked through this period, they are the unspoken heroes who make things happen while we enjoy our festive break, not just at Glenfiddich but at all the Distilleries throughout Scotland.

Off to Paris tomorrow to help launch our new 40 year old then it`s the Cinderella Whisky Fair off the coast of Sweden over the coming weekend.

Slainthe!

Of course we rely on the snow and the rain to provide our underground reseviours and springs with sufficient water to make whisky all year and at the moment it`s the only ingredient we get for free.

The picture below is of our visitor centre door taken during a light lull in the weather, I`m heading out of here at lunchtime before we all get snowed in, will have a wee dram when and if I get home, slainthe!

Welcome Barrels at Visitor Centre Doorway

My job was to present the whisky and explain a little about how it was put together, the taste, aromas and type of oak used in the maturation of this great whisky, so I flew out to Miami from Scotland to do just that, had an interesting altercation with Air France on the way out but least said the better.

The taste of this liquid is exceptional and of course everyone enjoyed the whole occasion.

Also in the audience was Ronnie Cohen, another whisky collector, like Billy, Ronnie doesn`t just collect whisky, he enjoys it as well, two great appreciators of fine whisky in the same room and both at my table, wonderful.

Have a great christmas everyone and a happy new new year, I`ve probably just had my first present, two drams of fifty, slainthe!!!

Potential bidders were invited to attend one of three hosted events for this unique occasion and all three venues were linked by a video conference, other international  bidders were linked to New York by phone. see next the press release and a couple of pictures from the New York event.

 NEW YORK, December 7, 2009 – A rare and precious bottle of Glenfiddich, the world’s most awarded Single Malt Scotch Whisky, was today auctioned for charity by Christie’s, at a price of $38,000.  One of the rarest and most precious expressions of authentic Single Malt Whisky ever released by Scotland’s most distinguished distillery, the bottle of Glenfiddich 50 Year Old was the first and currently only bottle available for home purchase in the United States.

 The auction raised money for Friends of Scotland, the charity founded by Sir Sean Connery, dedicated to advancing contemporary Scottish causes in the United States via educational scholarships, and to benefit veterans of foreign wars.  

 Following the auction, Glenfiddich 50 Year Old will be available exclusively at three U.S. hotels, making this one of the most sought-after expressions of Glenfiddich ever released.  Starting today, the remaining three bottles will be available at the Mandarin Oriental in New York, Miami’s Fontainebleau hotel and the Peninsula hotel in Los Angeles. 

“Time and tradition, and a small, significant measure of the unknown have contributed to making every drop of this beautifully-matured fifty year old whisky, some of the most precious Glenfiddich has to offer,” said David Stewart, the Glenfiddich Malt master, who attended the auction.   “It is some of our finest whisky, nurtured over many years by generations of dedicated and distinguished long-serving craftsmen using techniques lost to most other distilleries. Only an independent, family-owned distillery can remain true to its founding principles and continually pioneer in its pursuit of excellence.”

“As the world’s most awarded Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Glenfiddich has a long tradition of innovation and setting the benchmark for quality” said Caspar MacRae, Category Director – Scotches, William Grant & Sons USA.  “The introduction of Glenfiddich 50 is a testament to the quality and pioneering spirit that has gone into the production of Glenfiddich for more than 120 years, and we are delighted to be using this launch to raise money for a worthy cause.”

 

  David Stewart and Heather Greene sharing a dram

New York Audience with video conference linked screens to LA and Miami

Stuart Watts, Manager of Glenfiddich has decided to open the doors of our Distillery each weekend over the winter period.

This is a departure from the usual reduction of seven to five days for the winter period, ( Mid October to Mid March )the decision will delight local businesses and tourists wishing to see the Distillery during winter weekend breaks.

Winter opening times are;  Monday to Saturday 09.30 to 4.30 pm and Sunday noon to 4.30pm.

 We have one of the best Distillery tours, the  shop and restaurant will also remain open.

Come and see us!!