Scotch Addict

Forbes has a very entertaining and educational article on the history of Scotch whiskies written by F. Paul Pacult, who writes the Spirit Journal. It discusses the origins of scotch whiskies, how whisky is produced today, and talks a lot about column still distillation, which was a more recent innovation. It then moves on to discuss blended scotches, with Pacult sharing his twelve recommendations (in alphabetical order):

• Ambassador Royal Deluxe 12 Year Old, 43% AbV, $20. A lovely, finely balanced blended Scotch with nuanced flavors of nut butter and old oak.
• Chivas Regal 12 Year Old, 40% AbV, $35. The classic luxury brand that put the “luxury” in blended Scotch when it was introduced in 1954. Strathisla is the core malt.
• Chivas Royal Salute 21 Year Old, 40% AbV, $180. One of the greatest, most sublime whisky experiences of any variety that one could have. A legend.>/li>
• Compass Box “Asyla”, 40% AbV, $40. Malt whiskies from stellar distilleries like Linkwood and Cragganmore form the soul of this lithe, feminine blended Scotch.
• Dewar’s Special Reserve 12 Year Old, 43% AbV, $25. Core malt whisky is Aberfeldy. A delicious, mature whisky with seductive flavors of nougat and baked pears.
• Duggan’s Dew, 43.3% AbV, $22. Another best-kept-secret blended Scotch that combines excellent value and outstanding flavor.
• Johnnie Walker Gold 18 Year Old, 40% AbV, $65. The heart of this great Scotch hails from the Clynelish Distillery in the northern Highlands. Simply thrilling.
• Old Smuggler, 40% AbV, $15. A big favorite during Prohibition, Old Smuggler is today an overlooked dram of character and style.
• Pinch The Dimple 15 Year Old, 43% AbV, $33. One of the classiest blended Scotches, whose core malts include Dalwhinnie and Glenkinchie. Elegance in a glass.
• Teacher’s Highland Cream, 43% AbV, $20. The foundational malts are Ardmore and Glendronach. The creamy/oily result is one of the best blended Scotches you can buy.
• White Horse, 40% AbV, $16. The sensational smoky/iodine taste is brought to you courtesy of the Lagavulin Distillery on Islay among others. Unbelievable value.
• William Grant’s Family Reserve, 43% AbV, $16. Both Glenfiddich and Balvenie malts contribute to the sophisticated character of this global favorite.

General Blended Whiskey

In early October, I, my wife, and a couple of my friends, went down to Washington D.C. to a Celebrate the Macallan scotch tasting event. Unfortunately for us, they overbooked the event and we didn’t get farther than the room of small eats and a sampling of the Macallan 10. They did make it up to us by pouring us generous helpings of the Macallan 18 so it wasn’t a terrible waste of a trip.

Through the power of the internets, I know now what actually happens inside the tasting room courtesy of David at Scotchblog.ca. From the photos, the event seemed to be much like the tasting room at the Macallan distillery tour. Tasters were treated to the 12, 15, 18, and 21 (plus the 10 in the beginning), making it a pretty good tasting considering the price (free).

As an added bonus, each taster was given a leather-bound, velvet lined shoe box with a Fine Oak 10, 12, tumbler, and pen. Not bad!

General Macallan

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

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

I guess Tomintoul now owns the crown of the largest bottle of whisky with a 105.3 liters of a fourteen year old Tomintoul single malt scotch. It’s a whopping 1.5 meter bottle made of 7mm thick pyrex and a custom cork. It’ll be on display at the Clockhouse Restaurant with normal-size replicas available in the whisky shop. It’ll be the largest bottle… until someone else makes one with more than 105.3 liters of the golden elixir.

Dru McPherson and Mike Drury made the monster malt to put the village of Tomintoul, Banffshire, on the map.

Tomintoul is a name I didn’t recognize until I went to Scotland earlier this year. It’s located right next/on top of to the more well known The Glenlivet distillery in Banffshire.

World’s largest bottle of whisky [The Scottish Sun]

General The Glenlivet, Tomintoul

[Slide 6 of the Slideshow]

Time has an incredible slideshow looking at the art of coopering at the Speyside Cooperage. If you aren’t familiar with the term, a cooperage is where whisky casks are made and the art of coopering is the craft itself. On a recent trip to Scotland, my wife and I tried to visit the Speyside Cooperage but arrived after it closed so this slideshow is the next best thing.

If you fancy another Time article, here’s a good one titled Whisky Business worth a look as well.

General Cooperage, Speyside

In August of this year, I’ll have the great pleasure of visiting Scotland on the tail end of what will be a nearly one month-long vacation in Europe. We’re visiting Scotland because my beautiful wife, knowing that I love scotch and knowing that it’ll be my birthday, thought it would make a fantastic birthday present – which it will!

We’ll be staying a night or two in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival, a month of comedians and other performers, and then drive our way up to Inverness. For those familiar with the geography of the region, that takes us in the heart of scotch distilleries in Scotland. We’ll be driving up the A9/A95 towards Craigellachie, home of The Macallan.

General Macallan, Scotland, Vacation

Did you know that there exists in this world a $30,000 bottle of Scotch?

Yep.

Another pricey Scotch whisky has been sold for an impressive number. This time it’s the Chivas Royal Salute. Gustad recently proclaimed his love of the 21-year-old Royal Salute, this scotch is the 50-year version which was created to mark the 50th birthday of the brand and the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Bottle number one of a batch of 255 was recently sold in Auckland for $30,000. The bottle was originally given to Sir Edmund Hillary in 2003 and it was bought back by Chivas Brothers, with the proceeds going to the Himalayan Trust for development work in Nepal. Not all the bottles were sold for such a high price, but they all sold for a minimum of $8888.

The story was from 2006 but it’s still pricey, three years later!

One Bottle of Scotch, $30,000 [Luxist]

General Expensive