From the category archives:

WhiskyBuzz

old_pulteney_30_year

I am 37 years old. That’s 7 years older than the latest release from Old Pulteney. The single malt whisky has announced the launch of their oldest and most exclusive super-premium whisky. This rare 30 year old single malt was distilled at the most northerly distillery on the UK mainland and embodies the wind-swept and rugged character of the far north.

Matured at the distillery for 30 years in American White Oak, it offers connoisseurs of fine spirits and luxury scotch whisky enthusiasts an intensely complex single malt.

Already renowned for its 12, 17 and 21 year old whiskies, Old Pulteney’s 30 year old is perfect as an after dinner dram or to celebrate a special occasion. It is presented in a lacquered walnut burr box which is lined with sailcloth, reflecting the brand’s unique maritime heritage.

Old Pulteney’s senior brand manager, Iain Baxter: “We are really excited about the launch of our oldest ever Old Pulteney. This whisky has been looked after at the distillery for 30 years and the age contributes a huge amount of complexity. It has all the hallmarks of Old Pulteney; spice and green apples, and sweet vanilla and coconut notes from the American Oak. But unusually for such an old whisky there’s a remarkable touch of tropical fruit on the nose – some people have picked up guavas and mangos! I’d say that for a malt whisky with so much age and depth, it’s still incredibly approachable.”

To tie in with the launch of the whisky, Old Pulteney is running an online competition where visitors can win a bottle of this exclusive whisky. Each month for the next six months, visitors to the Old Pulteney website can guess where they think bottles of a missing crate of the 30 year old went missing around the coast of Wick where the distillery is based. You can find the competition at the Old Pulteney website.

Old Pulteney 30 year old retails at £250 in the UK, and due to limited supply it will be available from specialist stores only.

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A cold winternight, an open fire and in good company. That’s how Mackmyra themselves describes how you should enjoy their latest release – The Mackmyra Special: 01 – Eminent Sherry.

The new release lives up to its name. It’s a spicy yet sweet potion with a taste of raisins, dried fruit, vanilla, candy and toffee that has been aged on sherry casks. The whole thing has a nice smokey touch with a scent of oak to it. Being bottled at a strength of 51.6% I’m sure this beauty will live up to it’s name.

In Sweden Systembolaget has bought 8000 bottles and you better stand in line when they open the doors on the 1st of december, cause this beauty will be sold out.

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Last month we ran a competition on Whiskygrotto.com. The purpose was to increase the commenting on the posts. Traffic on Whiskygrotto.com is quite high, but it’s a quite traffic. So, a bottle of Auchentoshan, sponsored by the same awaited the top commentator and community poster.

The winner was Matt Henry from Arizona, USA under the nickname orangedogofglory. And in thought since Matt showed some passion Whisky I’d make a short interview with him. Here it goes:

Self portrait by the winner himself

1. Name & location
Matt Henry, Arizona, USA.

2. Why did you get into liking whisky?
My interest in whisky actually began with dumb luck. The long and short
of it boils down to, oddly enough, my winning a bottle of Johnnie Walker
Black. I made a bet with a friend of mine over March Madness brackets. My
bracket vastly outperformed his (of course), so he bought me a bottle.

3. Do you remember your first taste?
I remember the taste – not so much the original flavors. Although that
being said I do have some of that original bottle left, so I could revisit
it. I remember my impression being one of surprise, and my first thought
was “this is the next step after rum.” And that is meant with no slight to
rum – it just seemed to me that whisky was the progression in proper fit for
my palate.

4. What’s your top 3 list of whiskies?
My top three whiskies, by distillery, would be Balvenie, Laphroaig, and
Highland Park. Although Talisker would be a very close fourth. For
specific bottles, I would probably have to differentiate between regularly
available and affordable bottles, and rare and expensive bottles. [click to continue…]

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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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BenRiach acquires Glendronach

August 29, 2008

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 [...]

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Whisky Chef – Martine Nouet shows why an Islay whisky is different

August 17, 2008

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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The making a bottle of Lagavulin 16 yrs in mosaic

August 17, 2008

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 [...]

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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’ sherry. The [...]

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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 to run [...]

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How to store scotch whisky

August 10, 2008

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 [...]

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Spot the parachute-jumping whisky barrel on Islay

August 10, 2008

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 [...]

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