BenRiach Distillery Company Ltd, one of the country’s leading independents, has made its first acquisition with the purchase of the Glendronach Distillery from Chivas Brothers, the Scotch whisky business of Pernod Ricard.
The acquisition of the Highland malt distillery, one of Scotland’s oldest, for an undisclosed sum, will complement the award-winning BenRiach brand as a superb high-end quality product.
The new owners said they intended to re-package and re-launch Glendronach, which they described as “a sleeping giant”, in markets worldwide.
The name “Glendronach” is Gaelic for “the valley of the brambles”. Founded at Forgue, Aberdeenshire in 1826 by James Allardice, one of the original whisky entrepreneurs, the [click to continue…]
Well, I’m not 100% sure it’s only the weather. But this wonderful video from SingleMaltTV on YouTube that features Whisky Chef – Martine Nouet challenging a force 9 gale on Port Charlotte pier in the name of her favorite winter malts at least makes me wanna go Islay hopping.
Santi. Artist, freak, lover and friend according to his YouTube profile had a client coming into his studio. The order? A bottle of Lagavulin Single Malt Whisky 16 yrs made purely in mosaic.
In a series of 5 videos on YouTube we get to follow how Santi (who by the way thinks lagavulin is a bourbon) makes his artwork from sketch to final mosaic wall. I’m not 100% sure I would hang the piece in my living room, however I do think that if you’re the ultimate whisky freak, then this would be what you place in the bottom of your pool, on the wall of your mosaic covered spa or maybe on the wall of your secret “whisky grotto”
Warning! For whisky freaks only.
The video is split up into 5 parts. If you really wanna know how [click to continue…]
Bruichladdich has released two bottlings of the same vintage to compare and contrast.
In July 1998, identically distilled whisky was filled in to Sherry casks for full term maturation. Recent tastings proved that unexpectedly two types of casks were used.
One cask type had contained Oloroso, a dark, sweet, fortified wine, the backbone of ‘cream’ sherry. The other Manzanilla, a pale, dry, sophisticated wine aged by the Atlantic. Having absorbed [click to continue…]
I wrote yesterday about Lagavulin being used as fuel. Well, didn’t take long before I had another strange whisky fuel experiment in my inbox. This time it involved Bruichladdich.
BBC filmed an unusual biofuel experiment on the whisky island of Islay.
The experiment involved TV’s wine expert Oz Clarke and Top Gear’s James May attempting to run a high performance racing car on a special distillation of Bruichladdich single malt whisky.
Bruichladdich’s unique quadruple-distilled X4 Islay Spirit was first tasted by wine & spirit expert Oz Clarke for proof before 3 litres were filled in to the car’s fuel tank.
A 150 mph Radical SR4 racing car from Radical Sportscars, the Peterborough-based manufacturer, was selected for the test. The engine was not modified in anyway at all.
Using an Atlantic shore road closed to traffic by the island’s 5 policemen – cleared of sheep and cattle – the racing car achieved a hair-raising 0-60 in 3.5 seconds over four runs.
“The exhaust smells much better than petrol”, said Duncan MacGillivray, Bruichladdich distillery manager, “sure it’s a sustainable biofuel; but at £26 a litre, the Duty and VAT isn’t! Fuel here is a whopping £1.50 – £1.60 a litre – so it’s not a viable alternative – just yet. The police even tried to breathalyse the car but fortunately they had the wrong type of tester.”
Last week, Pernod Ricard, owners of the Glenlivet scotch whisky brand, unveiled an addition to The Glenlivet portfolio in the US. Named The Glenlivet XXV, it represents the oldest permanent release in the brand’s range, and will be available in the country in a limited quantity.
It’s made from hand-selected vintage that has been finished in [...]
Newstrack India got a little post about a different (and quite stupid) way to beat fuel costs.
With the cost of fuel going up day-by-day, crafty islanders have discovered a unique way to keep their wheels running – fuelling cars with whisky.
The locals of Islay have been running their cars on nothing but whisky, a fine [...]
Maybe this is a waste of your time, but definitely not mine.
ILoveIndia had a post the other day that gave some tips on how to store scotch whisky. Short but informative. Anyone have other ideas, feel free to comment!
How to Store Scotch Whisky
Do not expose the bottle directly to heat. Temperatures higher than 70 deg Fahrenheit [...]
Local charities on Argyll’s Isle of Islay are going to drop a whisky barrel on a parachute from a plane. Choose the position where the barrel will end up on our chart and YOU COULD WIN up to £250,000 cash!
Spot the Whisky Barrel is a unique fund raising competition from the Scottish whisky Island of Islay.
The rules are [...]
Independent bottler Douglas Laing & Co, headed by brothers, Fred and Stewart Laing released another eight new bottlings of their Old Malt Cask together with four (4) Premier Barrels .
Here are the tasting notes:
Tasting notes follow firstly
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Dream Drams today announced the launch of their online shop.
Although newly launched, the company behind Dream Drams, MWBH Bottling Co. Ltd, has been bottling one-off special cask whiskies for over 10 years.
MWBH Bottling Co. Ltd are based in Kendal, Cumbria and owned by Paul Smith who originally set up the company to help those caught [...]
The Kentucky straight bourbon brand Basin Hayden’s has partnered with Out and Chicago Home + Garden magazines for a design competition.
The rules are simple. To enter, create an
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