If you’ve ever walked into a liquor store and seen several scotches lined up on the shelf, you’ve probably seen The Classic Malts Selection. Sometimes they’re on a little wooden pedestal, each bottle with a small plaque that identifies it (as if you couldn’t tell from the bottles) as one of The Classic Malts, sometimes they’re just shown together on the shelf. If you’ve ever wondered what makes them Classic Malts, it’s because the original set of six were all owned by Diageo. The original were Dalwhinnie, Glenkinchie, Cragganmore, Oban, Talisker, and Lagavulin. Since then, the Classic Malts lineup has been increased to include Caol Ila, Cardhu, Clynelish, Kockando, Royal Lochnagar, and The Singleton of Glendullan. Again, they are all owned by Diageo, which is why they were added to the Classic Malts selection. 
This year, they’ve also released some 2010 Limited Edition releases in time for the holidays. Here’s the list along with their descriptions: Read more…
I’ve heard of pairing scotch with dark chocolate but until Highland Park sent me an email about pairing their Highland Park 25 with vanilla ice cream, I’d never heard of pairing the two together.
As an aside, pairing chocolate with scotch is fantastic. If you haven’t tried it I really recommend it but you probably don’t need me to prod you. It’s like scallops wrapped in bacon (or anything wrapped in bacon), you take two incredible things and put them together and you’re liable to make something absolutely addicting.
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Dalmore had three bottles of its Dalmore 64 Trinitas and has sold two of them. The Dalmore 64 Trinitas has a price of £100,000/€113,510 each, or approximately $156,980 USD as I type this and only one bottle is left. The first buyer was American collector Mahesh Patel, who claims to have over 1,000 bottles in his collection. It’s unclear who purchase the second but the third was reserved for The Whisky Show 2010 in late October (you buy tickets to the show and a winner will get to sample some!).
Curious about the notes for the 64 Trinitas? Well, first of all they took a mix of their blends from 1868, 1878, 1926 and 1939 vintages that make up the Dalmore 62 and blended it with a vintage from the 1940s. The end result is an absurd Dalmore 64 Trinitas.
From the Independent: Read more…
Long time readers of Scotch Addict will probably recognize that I don’t drink many blended Scotch whiskies, as many of my tasting notes are of single malts, but I do enjoy a blend from time to time to add a bit of variety. One of the blends I’m familiar with is The Famous Grouse, close cousins to The Macallan and Highland Park (each is owned by the Edrington Group).
One of the things I was sent was a recipe for the Black and Blue, a drink inspired by barbecue and includes The Black Grouse. The Black Grouse is intended to be a more heavily peated special edition of The Famous Grouse. You’ll note how it’s called the “darker” grouse because of the smokier character and features a black grouse, rather than a red grouse.
The tasting notes read more like an Islay, with a peaty-smoke nose followed by sweetness. The taste features a smoky-sweet tones, hinted by the nose, followed by cocoa and spice. The finish is said to be long, peaty, and aromatic with gentle smokiness. Having never tried the Famous Grouse (yet), I have no basis for comparison but I suspect this popular blends satisfies even the most aggressive of peat lovers.
As an added bonus, The Famous Grouse donates 50p for every bottle sold to the RSPB to help safeguard the 85,000 acres that make up the native habitat of the black grouse.
The Black and Blue
2 ounce The Black Grouse Blended Scotch Whisky
½ ounce calvados (apple brandy)
½ ounce amaretto
¼ ounce Hazelnut Liqueur
All in all a simple recipe created by Beverage Manager Tinika Green and Andrew Duncan, bartender of famed BBQ restaurant Blue Smoke, NY.
Macallan is one of my favorite single malt Scotches and this holiday season, shipping in November, Macallan will be offering a new eye-catching dazzling box for all your gift giving needs (hint hint, nudge nudge). A photo of the new box is to the right. The bottling will be their most well known 18 Year, aged in Sherry Oak casks from Jerez, Spain (as opposed to their Fine Oak line), so nothing about the Scotch itself changes. What you get, for the same price, is a limited edition dazzling box that will definitely shine in your Scotch case or bar.
I visited the Macallan distillery about a year ago, took part in their Most Precious Tour and had a fantastic time. I sampled everything from their New Make Whisky to their 30 Year Fine Oak and can say that my favorite was the Macallan 18. The 30 Year was fantastic but you simply can’t beat the quality and price point of the Macallan 18 (around $150 for 750 mL).
If you aren’t sure what to get your favorite Scotch loving friend this winter, consider an old favorite in a fancy limited edition box.
Did you know that there hasn’t been a new distiller in Scotland in over 30 years?
That’s why it’s such big news that Diageo has opened a new distillery in Speyside to produce more of their blended Scotch whiskies – Johnnie Walker, Buchanan’s, Old Parr, and J&B. I’m not myself as big a fan of blended whiskies as I am of single malts, though I do enjoy the occasional blend from time to time. The facility cost £40 million, three years, and is located at Roseisle on Speyside with fourteen copper stills and an annual product capacity of 10 million liters. It’ll be one of the most environmentally sustainable distillers with most of its by-products recycled on site. Expect the taste the whisky it produces in 2012.
Balvenie is one of my favorite distilleries and the Balvenie 15 is very often my go to scotch these days. I really enjoy its fruitiness, subtle oakiness, and general sweetness (vanilla?) as a way to help wind down after a long day. Normally I can enjoy a peatier scotch but usually not for too long, as the heavy peat flavor starts to wear on me. So when I heard that Balvenie would be producting a 17 year bottle aged in a peated cask, I was intrigued.
The smoky and peaty flavors you find in classic Islays are usually introduce when the barley is being roasted. In the days of yore, they would roast the barley over peat, using it as a fuel source since it was abundantly available on the island, and that smokiness was infused into the barley. In years past, Balvenie has produced a peaty scotch in its Islay Cask, which put Balvenie scotch into a cask that once held a Islay scotch (thus imparting some smoky and peaty flavors).
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Much like how Champagne is sparkling white wine from Champagne, France, scotch is whisky produced in Scotland. When it’s produced anywhere else, it’s known as whisky (or whiskey in the United States). Since whisky is distilled fermented mash (like beer) aged in barrels, it’s not surprising to learn that many geographies produce whisky. Much like how the varied Scotches have different characteristics based on geography, from the water they use to the barrles, from the way the wheat is dried to how much the barrels are roasted, geography plays a big role in the final flavor.
That’s why I’m eager to dry a Japanese whisky. They’ve grown in popularity to give sake, the country’s best known alcoholic beverage, a run for its money. I’ve seen Suntory’s Yamazaki brand in stores lately but I was surprised to learn they’ve been in business for over a hundred years! In fact, the founder of Suntory, Shinjiro Torii, hired a distiller, Masataka Taketsuru, who studied in Scotland (Taketsuru later went on to found Nikka, another major producer).
I’m eager to give it a try!
Consumers pushing beyond sake to Japanese whiskies
[Associated Press]
I received an email from Laphroaig about two weeks explaining a new Scotch Whisky Association rule that requires all cask strength single malt Scotch whiskies to display a bottling date and batch number on each bottle. Laphroaig used to bottle all their cask strengths at 55.5% ABV but with the new rules, they’ll be bottling each batch individually with varying strengths and expressions. Since the cask strengths will no longer be blends of several casks, each will have slightly more distinction from bottling to bottling.
I’m not entirely sure why the rules were changed but it’ll certainly add a small little twist to each, here are the stats of Batch #1 of Laphroaig’s Cask Strength:
Batch 1 Facts
ABV: 57.8%/115.6 proof
Batch Date: February 2007
Tasting Notes: A full blast of massive peat smoke and seashore salt leads to a fading sweetness at the finish.
Batch Quantity: 5,100 bottles
Glenfiddich produced 61 bottles of a whisky that has been maturing in a cask (casks?) for 64 years and this past week they auctioned one of those bottles off. The bottle fetched 25,200 pounds, or $37,245, from an unknown purchaser over the telephone. It’s not the most anyone has ever paid for a bottle, by a long shot, but it’s a sign that Scotch whisky is still selling strong.
The whisky in the bottle was distilled on July 17th, 1937 and bottled on October 24, 2001. Quit a long period of time!