Via WHISKYhost Blog, I give you a short sixteen minute video of highlights from the documentary Scotch Whisky: The Myth and the Magic:
Scotland – Scotch Whisky Documentary “The myth and the magic” Edited highlights from Hendry on Vimeo.
Last week, my wife and I met some college friends at Corks, a restaurant in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, MD. It had been quite some time since we’d been to Corks, the last time was for Baltimore’s 2007 Restaurant Week, because it’s not very often that we go into Baltimore for dinner. Back then, I hadn’t developed a liking for Scotch so I didn’t really keep an eye out for what they had available.
This time, armed with a little more experience, I spied several well known bottles on the shelf. They had your basic bar standards, Glenlivet 12 and a Glenfiddich, as well as a Macallan Fine Oak 17 that looked appealing. However, tonight I was in the mood for something with a little more punch and noticed they had a fairly healthy bottle of Laphroaig Quarter Cask.
Laphroaig is an Islay, which is generally characterized by a peatiness and smokiness completely absent from Speyside scotches like Glenlivet, Glenfiddich, and Macallan. What’s special about the quarter cask? The story they tell is that when whisky was transported by mules or packhorses, a barrel was too heavy so they used quarter casks. In those smaller casks, the whisky would continue to mature and be in greater contact with the oak – imparting more of the wood’s flavor into the dram.
How much more? It’s 30% more contact, by their calculations. To help maximize the flavor, they decided to bottle the quarter cask at 48 percent alcohol by volume, up from the standard 40 percent. Besides the additional maturation, higher alcohol by volume, the whisky is not chill filtered because it hadn’t been invented back when pack animals were used to transport the whisky!
Here are Laphroaig’s tasting notes:
When I enjoyed it, the peatyness and smoke were very evident. I think this has more to do with my own whisky experience, I enjoy mostly Speysides at home (a problem I must remedy in my next trip to the store), and less an indication of how strong those flavors are in Laphroaig. Also, there was a slight medicinal nose that persisted the entire dram. On the palate, it wasn’t as sweet and dry fruity as Speysides, those flavors likely dominated by the peat. I didn’t get any coconut, as the notes say, but the finish did hint of oranges once the heat of the higher ABV subsided.
I’d love to get this and the 10 year old Laphroaig side by side for a real comparison.
Balvenie emailed me a special sweepstakes they’re running for the holidays – you can win a scotch whisky aroma nosing kit.
Just in time for the holidays, The Balvenie is offering the chance to win a one-of-a-kind prize: An exclusive Scotch Whisky nosing and tasting kit. This unique kit contains 24 separate aromas and a dedicated nosing guide, as well as other essential whisky tasting tools. The lucky winner will also receive an exquisite Balvenie hipflask.
One of the coolest parts of the Macallan tour was their coopering and nosing areas where we could smell various aromas (it really highlighted the difference, at least for us, between dried and fresh fruits). This nosing kit is that fantastic experience in a kit and it’s appropriate that another premium scotch producer, Balvenie, is the one to come up with it. I’m a huge fan of their DoubleWood and at the moment I have a PortWood I bought in Heathrow duty-free just sitting in the case… waiting for the perfect occasion.
This would make a fantastic holiday gift, but I don’t believe they sell it.
Scotchblog.ca has a great feature this week for those seeking to find the perfect gift for a lover of Scotch. The guide starts with a fantastic bit of advice from Ian Millar, Global Brand Ambassador & Master Distiller at Glenfiddich”
“look for single malts between 12 and 18 years old that come in at $50 to $80.” This way there is some measure of quality as you aren’t ending up with something made for the sake of being inexpensive.
I think that’s solid advice, you can’t go wrong going into a store with that approach.
From there, they picked four bottles for the under $70 group, four for the $70 to $100 range, and two in the over $100. Each choice comes with an idea of what’s captured within the bottle, what it goes well with, and it’s important to match those up with whatever notes you’ve taken about the person its for.
If you know they hate peatiness or smoke, then going all out for a Lagavulin, even at $125 a bottle, is going to be less effective than if you bought a Macallan 12 at $90. It’ll also show you’ve been listening… which is always good right? 
The Glenlivet Gift Label Program is a cute little complimentary service The Glenlivet offers every holiday season. You have several options for the type of label they will send you.
For each of the three main expressions (12, 15 French Oak, and 18), you can opt for the standard label with up to six lines, 30 characters each, of text underneath the Glenlivet logo. Or, you can opt for one of several types of special labels featuring a deck of cards, a sailboat, a golfer, skating, toasting cups, or a cottage and then two lines of text. You can get two labels for free. The labels can be affixed to the bottle over the standard label.
For more information, visit Glenlivet. You may have to join the Glenlivet Society, which is free.
One of my more recent missions has been to find an affordable bottle of Scotch that I can enjoy on a daily basis without busting the bank. I’m generally a fan of the Speyside and Highland single malts and I’m always looking to find a good bottle in the $35-45 range for regular consumption. I’m by no means afraid of smoke and peat, but if I’m going to be enjoying just one dram, I tend to lean towards the sweeter and crisper flavors. The $35-45 price point is crucial because one can’t drink a Macallan 18 on a daily basis, unless you are aiming to get a bail out from the government.
For years, The Glenlivet 12 is my standard daily dram because at $37.99 retail, it’s both affordable and delicious. It’s the youngest of the Glenlivet expressions yet you can find this bottle at almost any bar in America and is the most best selling malt whisky in the United States! (according to Whisky.com) Matured in French oak casks that once held bourbon, I’m a particular fan of the sweetness to help me usher in the night.
What’s your daily dram?
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):
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!
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!
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.