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Scotch Malt Whisky Society of Canada - January Outturn

Posted on January 9, 2017

We started of our 2017 in store tastings here at Kensington Wine Market with a bang - with three sold out Scotch Malt Whisky Society tastings held over two days. Tasting your way through seven cask strength single cask bottlings blind can be a grueling job but somebody has to do it.

As Andrew was on vacation I had the honor of leading everybody through the lineup - something that I have quite enjoyed doing when given the opportunity over the past year. It is made even easier when the Outturn is as solid as this one is. We are kicking off the new year with a vibrant and fresh lineup. Picking favorites was difficult on this one - which is always a good sign!



Here is the January Outturn:

1.) 41.76 - SUNSHINE IN A GLASS
This 11 year old Speysider is 60.4% after maturing in a 1st fill barrel
Flavour profile:  Juicy, oak & vanilla
Outturn:  192 bottles

Panel's tasting note:  "Lemon was the aroma dominating this one, not sharp and acidic but sweet and creamy; lemon sponge cake, lemon drizzle cake, lemon posset, lemon sorbet and a light lemon linguine. A lot livelier on the palate; freshly squeezed juice, Ricola lemon mint herb drops and zesty lemon tart but still as creamy as a caramelized lemon rice pudding. Water added the sweeter dimension of marzipan stollen with candied orange and lime peel, sultanas and raisins and the light perfumed scent of flowering gorse bushes (coconut). The taste still had an intensity which was in no way overpowering, but lip-smacking like a frozen lemon sherbet cocktail."

Drinking tip:  "Happy hours during sizzling summer months"

$133.99

2.) 36.101 - DANGEROUSLY QUAFFABLE
After maturing in a refill barrel, this 18 year old Speysider comes in at 57.9%
Flavour profile:  Sweet, fruity & mellow
Outturn:  198 bottles

Panel's tasting note:  "This light and fresh dram started with aromas of Prosecco, sponge fingers in strawberry jelly, a hint of perfume, pencil shavings and Mojito (fresh, salty, citric and sweet). Perfumed sweetness on the palate, trifles and then lots of strawberries (jam, cordial and fizzy sweets). Water made the aromas lightly floral (nasturtium), dusty (hay and sherbet lemons) and summery (sponge cake with butter icing and fruit cordial). It was ‘dangerously quaffable’ to drink. Light and milky in texture but also like a fruit juice’s drying aftertaste - lemon meringue pie and a fruit smoothie served in a coconut."

Drinking tip:  "For a garden party"

$188.99

3.) 26.117 - SILKY SMOOTH SUNDOWNER
This 14 year old Highlander is 56.8% and was finished in a 2nd fill Sauternes hogshead after spending 13 years in a refill hogshead
Flavour profile:  Light & delicate
Outturn:  282 bottles<...

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New beers, December 29th, 2016

Posted on January 3, 2017

Hello from the other side of the holidays!

I'm sorry if you all missed me last week, but the shop was entirely too busy for me to get any sort of writing done. This post should make up for it though, as I have so many new beers to share with you. I'll get to those in a moment, but first an update on a few things! We are nearly sold all the way through The Dandy 8th edition now so If you haven't had a chance to try our first exclusive beer from Dandy (a tasty and geeky bier de garde) make sure to get some before the last 2 cases disappear, and stay tuned for a possible resurfacing of this beer in a slightly different and unique form early on in the new year!

If you still thirst for local beers but think you may have tried them all, rest easy in the knowledge that there seem to be new brews to try nearly every week. New local guys we've received recently include Hell's Basement, Trolley 5 (in cans now!), Common Crown (arriving next week), and notable Outcast brewing (also next week on the growler bar).

Beer, beer and more beer. Anyways, here's an unusually long list of new brews from the past 2 weeks.



Twin Creeks Hermit by Ribstone Creek and Bench Creek:
A collaboration between two Creek themed brewers! This is an English brown ale done with Caramel, buscuity and nutty malt along with dates, molasses, nutmeg and vanilla. Each brewer made a version in their own brewery, so you can try them both in this mixed pack!($15.99 for a 4-pack of tall cans)

Boxcar Comforts by Hell's Basement brewing: The word "crushable" definitely comes to mind here. Light, straw coloured malt with a bit of sweetness, but overall light in the body. Bright fruity hop notes are more pronounced than your average blonde, and float atop a very tasty malt base. ($16.49 for a 6-pack of cans)

Polly's Pale by Hell's Basement: A very well balanced pale ale with a hazy and sturdy malt base with slight caramel notes. Nice fruity hop notes com across all over along with a moderate to heavy bitterness and sappy, sticky hop finish. ($16.49 for a 6-pack of cans)

All Hops for a Basement IPA by Hell's Basement: Slightly bigger and boozier than Polly's Pale. It's moderately sweet malt with nice caramel and bready notes. A prominent citrusy bite with plenty of pine notes throughout. ($16.49 for a 6-pack of cans)



So Happens it's Tuesday by The Bruery: This is a slightly lighter version of The Bruery's iconic Black Tuesday. Though still at 14.7% ABV, this is nothing to underestimate. Rich chocolate, nuts and loads of dried fruit seem to put this style closer to a cross between an imperial porter and a Belgian quad (though without Belgian yeast).($33.69 for a 750mL bottle)

Gypsy Funk by 8-Wired: This is a fairly intense sour beer that was aged in barrels for 2 years and then heavily dry hopped with New Zealand hops. Big citric...

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Whisky Advent Day 25 - Scotch Malt Whisky Society

Posted on October 25, 2024



I hope you've all enjoyed our journey of whisky discovery over these past 25 days and I sincerely hope you've enjoyed the selection. The Kensington Wine Market Whisky Advent Calendar is an opportunity for us to introduce participants and recipients to new tastes and experiences. It is a medium for sharing our passion and enthusiasm for the World's finest whiskies. This is our 3rd year producing the Kensington Wine Market Whisky Advent Calendar, and it will not be our last!



While we will continue on with some details of today's whisky below, let me take this opportunity to thank you for taking this journey with us. And further, on behalf of everyone at Kensington Wine Market, we wish you all the best this Holiday Season. A very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Safe and Prosperous New Year!



This is the second year in a row that we have been privileged to include a Scotch Malt Whisky Society bottling as our Christmas Day offering in the KWM Whisky Advent Calendar. Last year we had an assortment of 6 different whiskies, this year the Society let us do something very special, the bottled a cask especially for our Calendar. 41.78: Poker Night Whisky, is an 11 year old Speyside single cask, cask strength, single malt Scotch whisky. The whisky was bottled at 60.4% from a first fill ex-Bourbon barrel. The Name Poker Night Whisky comes from the Society's tasting note. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society selects casks for bottling at its venues in Edinburgh, at Tasting Pannels which meet  several times a week. These tasting panels approve or reject casks for bottling and  compose the tasting notes.



The Scotch Malt Whisky Society is an Independent Bottler, but also the world’s largest whisky club. With around 30,000 members around the world and branches in 18 different countries the Society selects and bottles more than 400 casks a year exclusively for its members. You have to be a member to purchase SMWS bottles, but there are many member benefits including an award winning quarterly whisky magazine ‘Unfiltered’, monthly bottling lists ‘Outturns’, as well as access to members rooms around the world including London, Edinburgh, Tokyo and others. In Calgary we hold monthly tastings featuring the new releases, six to seven new whiskies every month. There are also two partner bars in Calgary, The Brasserie Kenington and One18 Empire where you can enjoy Society whiskies, and where members get a discount. There are also SMWS Canada branches in Victoria, Vancouver and Edmonton.

The distillery of origin for Scotch Malt Whisky Society whiskies is a loosely guarded secret. The Society assigns each whisky a two digit code in addition to the whisky's name, which is drawn fr...

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Whisky Advent Day 24 - G&M Macphail's Collection Glen Scotia 1991

Posted on October 25, 2024



Our Whisky Advent Day 24 bottling from 2016 is a bit of a mystery. Distilled in 1991, we have no idea how old it is, and a cursory glance of the internet seems to indicate that no one knows. This is one of just two bottles in the 2016 Whisky Advent Calendar not available for sale. Bottled at 43%, We can only speculate on the oak type.



Glen Scotia is a curiosity, one of the least loved and for a long time one of the most neglected distilleries in Scotland, somehow despite itself, produced some stunning single malt whisky. The distillery lives in the shadow of its much better known neighbour in Campbeltown, Springbank. They were founded around the same time, 1828 in the case of Springbank and 1832 for Glen Scotia. In the late 19th Century Campbeltown was the "Whisky Capital of the World" with nearly 34 active distilleries. By 1934 only Springbank and Glen Scotia remained to struggle on. While Springbank, the oldest family owned distillery in Scotland attained a cult status which survives to this day, Glen Scotia  was just the preserve of Independent bottlers, and changed hands numerous times. Until very recently Glen Scotia was one of the most rundown distilleries in Scotland.

[caption id="attachment_4862" align="aligncenter" width="440" caption="Courtesy: https://whic.de/media/wysiwyg/Wissen/Glen-Scotia-panorama.jpg"][/caption]

About Glen Scotia (Courtesy Gordon MacPhail): "Glen Scotia distillery kept a very stable existence throughout the last century; it belonged to the original licensees until 1895. Then that point forward, however, it changed hands twice, before falling silent, as did many of its neighbours, in the 1920's. For a while Glen Scotia belonged to the owners of Scapa distillery in Orkney, right at the opposite end of the country. The buildings, including the malt barns and the barley lofts, are Victorian whilst the stillhouse is thought to be original. Glen Scotia maintained cooperage function and there has always been a cooper on the distillery payroll. The distillery has a resident ghost, that of a previous owner, Duncan MacCallum, who drowned himself in Campbeltown Loch in 1930 after losing a fortune in a crooked business deal."



About MacPhail's Collection (Courtesy Gordon MacPhail): "'The MacPhail's Collection' is a small and exclusive range of fine single malt scotch whiskies from distilleries throughout Scotland."



G&M MacPhail's Collection Glen Scotia 1991- 43% - Unknown Oak Type - Andrew's Tasting Note: "Nose: creamy, cultured French butter, fresh picked peaches and apple crumble; dried tropical fruits (they are there, but shy), gentle leather and some soft decadent spice; old and dusty, a touch antique-y! Palate: very soft, much more spice than exp...

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2016 KWM Whisky Calendar Day 23 - Glendronach Peated

Posted on December 11, 2022



Our Day 23 whisky is the first ever peated offering of Glendronach single malt, and a new core range release for the distillery. Billy Walker and his team at BenRiach Distillery Co. have made hay with their peated expressions of BenRiach. It was a logical extension to make a peated version of Glendronach too. It isn't old, BenRiach Distillery Co. only bought the Glendronach distillery in 2008, so this whisky isn't likely to be older than 6 or 7 years. But don't let that get in your way. Other peated malts like Kilchoman have shown well at as young as 3 years. It all comes down to the quality of the spirit Bottled at 46% without colouring or chill-filtering. The whisky porduced from peated malt, was matured in Ex-Bourbon before finishing in Oloroso and PX sherry. In some ways it is a style, more true to what the distillery would have first produced in 1826, than that which they produce today!



A big change at Glendronach and the BenRiach Distillery Co. occurred earlier this year, when Brown Forman, owners of Jack Daniels and Woodford Reserve, made a play for the BenRiach Distillery Co. In a deal worth £285 million BenRiach Distillery Co., the plucky independent whisky firm who owned BenRiach, Glendronach and Glenglassaugh distilleries, was acquired by Brown Forman. For the time-being Brown Forman has left the Scottish team in charge of the distillery and its operations. The hope is that it will be business as usual for three of the most interesting distilleries in Scotland. It is my sincere hope that the Canadian distribution will remain in the hands of Authentic Wine & Spirits, who've done a marvelous job with the brands.



Glendronach on It's Heritage and Traditions: "As was the case in 1826, The GlenDronach Distillery patiently matures its single malt whisky in superior quality sherry casks. Our distilling methods may be old-fashioned, but we prefer to look on them as handcrafted techniques created through nearly 200 years of tradition. From the germination of the barley to the flow of the purest middle cuts of distilled spirit, every step in the GlenDronach journey is taken with meticulous care and immaculate timing. Our malt mill, glistening copper mash tun and traditional wooden washbacks form part of a vigorous but carefully attended process. Our elegant copper pot stills distil and re-distil the richest spirit which is then filled into the finest casks and left patiently maturing in our warehouses. Nearly 70% of the flavour in whisky is derived from the cask it has been matured in. Wood’s important, which is why we adopt a ‘no compromise’ approach when choosing our world renowned sherry casks to enrich our whisky. Over the years of extended maturation, these carefully seasoned casks help create the unique richly sherried style that GlenDronach is famous for."
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