From the category archives:

Islay

The Bruichladdich A Paulliac Cuvée 16 it the first out of totally 6 limited editions to be released under The First Growth label.

The First Growth series comprises of 6 limited edition Cuvées – labelled A to F. Each is a 16 year old Bruichladdich, American oak matured, with an additional cask evolution in French oak casks from each of the 1855 first growth chateaux, including Sauternes. The famous 1855 Classification of Bordeaux rated chateaux into 5 groups according to quality and price of their wines. The First Growths were the best. Today these legendary estates use casks coopered from the finest French oak, 150 to 200 year old trees from the forests of Tronçais, Allier and Vosges.

Bruichladdich Distillery managing director Mark Reynier, ex wine trade, works closely with master distiller Jim McEwan who is also a cooper: “The unusual concept should appeal to both whisky and wine fans alike – especially those who like to compare and contrast between different bottlings.”

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Earlier today we wrote about the new Ardbeg Blasda. 

Since then Ardbeg has taken down the site I linked to. But instead, they’ve placed the Blasda as well as a Blasda Peatbox in the shop.

I of course threw my self in there and bought myself a bottle. So, now I’m eagerly standing by the mailbox awaiting my latest peat…eh…Ardbeg bottling.

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 On september 28th Ardbeg are about to release a new bottling called Ardbeg Blasda.

Ardbeg will launch a digital drive some time the coming weeks to promote the new expression. The campaign, created by Story, will target Ardbeg customers to create a buzz around the new drink, Blasda, which is means ‘sweet and delicious’, in Gaelic and is produced on the untamed spirit of Islay.

The drive will unveil how Ardbeg produces its whisky and customers will be sent an email, where they can click through to a Blasda microsite to ‘dig a bit deeper’ about the brand. They will also be encouraged to play a game of ‘tipple toppling’ and shop online for the sweet light expression of Ardbeg.

After some search I found the game hidden on Ardbeg.com. Go ahead and play a preview!

Ardbeg themselves describes the new Blasda as follows:

When it comes to peat, you might say we are outstanding in this field, so we undertook an experiment: to tame our usual mighty peating level all the way down to just 8ppm in the bottle.

The mind bog-gling result is Blasda, which in Gaelic means ‘sweet and delicious’. Of course Ardbeg’s fruity, floral flavours are never overwhelmed by the peat, but here they are unmasked and allowed to shine.

The remarkable discovery is that even with all that peat removed, Blasda is still perfectly balanced. Who on earth would have thought it?

The new bottling is scheduled for international release on the 28th of september. Already in the end of august, an unofficial launch tasting of Ardbeg Blasda was held at the Dr Jekylls Pub in Oslo, Norway. WhiskyViking’s corner got more info on that.

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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.

Enjoy!

 

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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…]

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Oloroso and Manzanilla in Bruichladdich latest whisky comparison experiment

August 14, 2008

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’ [...]

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More whisky in the tank

August 12, 2008

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 [...]

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A local of Islay pour Lagavulin whisky into his 1978 Rolls Royce

August 11, 2008

  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 [...]

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Ardbeg takes you an adventure into the heart of Corryvreckan with their latest whisky

July 27, 2008

I stopped by Ardbegs website today and I noted that I’ve missed the news that another piece of ‘gunpowder’ whisky has come our way. But, better late than never. The latest Ardbeg single malt whisky is called Corryvreckan – named after the fierce whirlpool to the north of Islay, and the Viking prince who braved [...]

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From the Alps to the Pyrennees – The Hills are Alive

July 18, 2008

The second edition bottling of 18 year old of Bruichladdich Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky has just been bottled and is leaving Islay for the first time. It was designed to compliment the original 18 year old bottling matured in American oak then refined in Willi Opitz’s Austrian sweet wine casks – which too quickly [...]

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Islay videos for Islay fans

July 4, 2008

Some of you might have seen the new menu option up to the right on WhiskyGrotto.com. I’ve gathered all my favorite Videos from YouTube on one page. I’m glad to see that others are doing the same. Today I noticed that Islay Weblog, a great blog about everything that you need to know about Islay, [...]

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Peat, Rocks & Waves when Bruichladdich release three new versions of their multi-vintage range of single malt whisky.

July 1, 2008

[updated with new photos of bottles and packaging 2008 07 03] I’ve always been a fan of Bruichladdich original styled Islay whisky, so I’m glad to report on some new “ cuvée’s” from the destillery. The multi-vintage range concept now launched by Bruichladdich was originally inspired by Champagne’s Remi Krug: “With a single vintage, it [...]

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