Scotch Addict

White Collar is a new crime drama on the USA Network and in the second episode, Glen Garioch makes an appearance as the team selects a 12-bottle case of Glen Garioch 1958 for a party they’re throwing to lure in a criminal known as “The Ghost.”

I always find it fun to identify scotches in television shows (a vintage Macallan recently made an appearance on Entourage!), it’s an opportunity to see my love on TV and learn how to pronounce the harder to say names (though Garoich and Macallan are hardly difficult to pronounce… probably why Bunnahabhain won’t be appearing anytime soon!).

Incidentally, the 1958 is the oldest Glen Gariouch. It’s a 46-year old Highland single malt and only 328 bottles were made available, 43 in the US. Retail price puts the 1958 at a few thousand dollars a bottle so there’s a bit of an inconsistency in the show (they have $5,000 for the party), plus that also means they almost half of the available US bottles!

General Glen Garioch, TV

When I visited Macallan in Craigellachie (we stayed at the Lynwood B&B, which is literally a minute away from Macallan and run by the most lovely and inviting of people), I really wanted to pick up a bottle of the sherry oak Macallan 18. I didn’t only because we figured we could buy it in the duty free shop at Heathrow and, since we still had a week left in our European Vacation, I didn’t want to carry around a bottle all the time (for weight and fearing that I’d break it!).

Unfortunately, the duty free shop at Heathrow doesn’t carry any of the standard bottles of The Macallan. Much like how The Macallan Elegancia was created for duty free and travel retail outlets, all of the Macallans at Heathrow (and I suspect elsewhere) had special names and lacked an age statement!

As it turns out, they announced on July 21st, 2009 (we started our trip before the announcement!) that they were launching The 1824 Collection specifically for the Global Travel Retail market! There are four expressions: The Macallan Select Oak, Whisky Maker’s Edition, the Estate Reserve, and the 1824 Limited Release.

While Macallan has spun this as a exclusive offer available only in duty free, maybe they did this so that you couldn’t just wait to buy the sherry oak or fine oak Macallans on the cheap in duty free.

General Duty Free, Macallan

Last night, my wife, two friends, and I went to a Celebrate the Macallan event in Washington D.C. We drove down from Columbia, hopped on the D.C. Metro, and walked about ten minutes or so to the Andrew Mellon Auditorium on Connecticut Avenue. When got there at around 8:20ish for an 8:30 event and the line was pretty long, but we weren’t worried.

We weren’t worried until one of the staff walked to the group in front of us and warned that the building only held 200 and they were around 220. Yikes. We didn’t travel nearly an hour just to turn around and go back!

Fortunately, they decided to let everyone in but only take the first 200 into the actual presentation and event. We first went into the entryway of the building, where small tables were setup along with a bar. As you entered, you were given a gold Macallan token that you could trade in for a sample of their 10 Year Fine Oak. We immediately made our way to the bar to get our sample!

As we waited in the next line to get into the presentation, we discovered that we were the first group to be denied entry. When we peeked inside, we saw that the other room they were in was packed to the gills. Even if we were let in, it wouldn’t have made for an all too pleasant experience.

We stayed in the outer room where very light h’orderves were served and were treated to samples of the Macallan 18, a treat we certainly accepted as a nice consolation prize. All in all, we still had a good time. They offered to put us on the VIP list for another event this week, which simply meant we were given priority to get in, but we didn’t think we’d make the trip a second time.

In the future, I hope Macallan fixes their RSVP system so that they don’t have this problem but they handled the circumstances quite well.

Events Macallan

Yesterday, The Dalmore introduced 12 decanters of “Sirius,” a limited edition rate vintage single malt that will retail for a mere £10,000 per bottle. If you want your own, you’ll have to visit one of the World Duty Free stores at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 or be a private buyer dealing directly with the distillery.

The Sirius vintage is drawn from a single cask dating from 1951, the oldest remaining in Dalmore’s distillery, which is set on the banks of the Cromarty Firth, north of Inverness.

It’s a beautiful but probably a little out of my price range.

Dalmore’s spirits raised by Sirius at £10,000 a bottle [Financial Times]

General Dalmore

Correction: My wife found the 15 year, not the 18 year, and it was $49.99.

My wife stopped at a Costco store in Delaware, where they are able to sell liquor, on her way to a friends’ house. While she was there, she saw a bottle of 18 year old scotch sporting both the Kirkland brand, which is Costco’s private label, and The Macallan Distillery! (I was very surprised to see this, but apparently they’ve done this in the past)

She immediately called me up, asking me if I wanted to give it a try. Apparently The Macallan does this regularly with any extra scotch that doesn’t make it into their other bottles because 1,200 cases are available at $59.99 a piece. A typical Macallan 18 goes for around $150, so the $60 price is a steal.

This particular bottle has a sherry oak finish and you can read more about it from the product label. I’ll be sure to give it a try the next time I get a chance!

General Costco, Macallan