KWM 2023 Whisky Calendar Blog Day 4 - G&M Distillery Label Glentauchers 2007
Posted on December 18, 2024
by EvanDay 4 is upon us in our trek through the KWM 2023 Whisky Calendar. Say hello to the G&M Distillery Label Glentauchers 2007!
This is the third whisky from an independent bottler we have featured in the first four days of the 2023 KWM Whisky Calendar, and this one comes from a great yet underrated distillery and from what is possibly the best Indie Bottler of them All.
G&M stands for Gordon & MacPhail; a company without which the indie bottling scene would be very different than it is today.
Gordon & MacPhail started as a grocery store in Elgin, back in 1895, founded by James Gordon and John Alexander MacPhail. The first generation of the Urquhart Family – which owns G&M – John Urquhart started as an apprentice to the two founding partners.
Over John’s lifetime, he helped push G&M firmly into the Scotch Whisky scene by sourcing whisky from many Speyside and Scottish distilleries which was then matured and bottled by G&M. His legacy with G&M is still seen to this day, with some of the whisky laid down during time is still being bottled, such as the G&M 80 Year Old Glenlivet, which was chosen from a parcel of 15 First Fill Sherry Butts filled at the Glenlivet distillery in 1940.
George Urquhart, or “Mr. George”, started working at G&M in 1933. George is responsible for the creation of the venerable Connoisseurs Choice range of single malt Scotch releases in 1968. This and other G&M Single Malt releases helped solidify G&M’s place in Scotch Whisky, and more than that helped push the concept of Single Malt Scotch in the eyes of the public.
There is more to the G&M story that takes us from Mr. George to now, and maybe we will get to some of it if we happen to have another G&M whisky in this year’s calendar. What are the odds of that happening? Hmmm…
The G&M bottling we are tasting today comes from Glentauchers Distillery, and is part of Gordon & MacPhail’s Distillery Labels series. This range showcases what sets G&M apart from many other independent bottlers. Gordon & MacPhail has been purchasing new make spirit from many different distilleries in Scotland and filling it into their own casks for a large portion of the company’s history. In G&M’s own words:
“The history of this range heralds back to our very beginnings - to the days when distillery spirit was produced primarily to be used in blends. Because of the strong working relationships we had with distillery owners, we would bottle and sell the spirit they created as single malt on the condition that we used their 'house' label with the caption "bottled by Gordon & MacPhail".
These relationships have culminated in today's 'Distillery Labels' - a showcase of ...
Kensington Wine Market's 2023 Whisky Calendar UBER EDITION Blog Day 3 - Whisky Sponge Glen Garioch 1988 - 33 Year
Posted on December 3, 2023
by EvanOnto Day Three for our 2023 KWM Whisky Calendar UBER Edition. We started back on day one with a 25-year-old. Day two gave us a 28-year-old. And now, today, we have a 33 year old! Say hello to the Whisky Sponge Glen Garioch 1988!
What is a Whisky Sponge? Great question, and a bit of a complicated one. One on hand, the Whisky Sponge is the man/myth/legend/pseudonym/alter ego of a gentleman named Angus MacRaild. Angus somewhat anonymously wrote a blog called Whisky Sponge that poked fun at the whisky industry as a whole. His satire-driven columns came from a place of love and sometimes frustration, and provided hot takes on the ridiculousness of silly marketing, special releases and the giant egos that can sometimes tarnish the adoration whisky fans have for their favourite distilleries, people, and brands.
The blog has run for more than a decade at this point. It wasn’t always known that Angus was behind the blog posts, but it is now, and he is the Whisky Sponge. But the Whisky Sponge is also the name of a series of bottlings that he selects and labels through Decedent Drinks Company. This 1998 Glen Garioch is one of his selections.
This 1988 represents an intriguing time for the Glen Garioch Distillery, and harkens back to a different time in its history. The reason for this is Glen Garioch, at that time, had its own floor maltings on site. The Distillery stopped using its own floor maltings back for the last time in 1996, though the use of them was very limited in the early 1990s as well. This malt is a trip back in time to the style of whisky Glen Garioch used to make until the floor maltings were left unused for two decades: a fruity, lightly peated spirit.
On a side note: Glen Garioch has recently been undergoing a revamp that hearkens back to its old-school style. The floor maltings have been reinstalled and are back in use as of 2021, accounting for about 25% of the distillery’s malted barley needs. No word on whether they will be doing any lightly peated runs again or not, but the work that Beam Suntory has done to recreate some of Glen Garioch’s old character is interesting and thumbs its nose at cost-effectiveness and production efficiency.
This is a good thing in my opinion: great Single Malt Scotch is usually made with a combination of hands-on hard work, patience, and nods to the past. I am not saying that whisky always needs to be made as inefficiently as possible, but when you look at the love Springbank gets, there might be something to that…
It is a pleasant surprise to see Glen Garioch getting some love from Beam Suntory. The distillery is one of the oldest in Scotland, having been founded way back in 1797, though it has had a few multi-year production hiatuses over the past half-century. I have often called it the red-headed step-child of the company’s Scottish Distil...
Kensington Wine Market's 2023 Whisky Calendar UBER EDITION Day 2 - Brave New Spirits Old Rhosdhu 28-Year-Old
Posted on December 4, 2023
by EvanDay Number Two is here, so let's see what the 2023 KWM Whisky Calendar UBER Edition has in store! Today’s UBER drample is the Brave New Spirits Old Rhosdhu 28-Year-Old!
Brave New Spirits. Ever heard of this Independent Bottler? I must admit, they are brand new to me. They are a recent addition to both our shelves and the Alberta market. So what are they all about?
This indie label is headquartered in Glasgow. It is young, having been established in 2020. Like we have seen from other independent bottlers over the past few decades, Brave New Spirits also has aspirations beyond being an independent bottler. They are currently in the planning stages for a distillery. Where, you ask? Why, in the hub and hotbed of Scotland’s whisky industry@ Well, it would be the hub if we were having this conversation 120 years ago. The Witchburn Distillery is in planning to be built at the former RAF Machrihanish Airbase in Campbeltown.
There are a handful of distilleries currently in planning for the Campbeltown region, which in the late 1800s/early 1900s (read: before World War I and the USA prohibition) was indeed overflowing with distilleries. Currently, there are three distilleries in operation in the region, but who knows what we will be looking at one or two decades from now? Perhaps Campbeltown is in revival mode.
Back to the whisky for today: This Rhosdhu was bottled as part of Brave New Spirit’s Cask Noir Editions series, where each bottle is given a name inspired by the pulp novels and film noir of yesteryear. Here is what Brave New Spirits says about the lineup:
“Starting life in some of Scotland’s finest studios (aka “distilleries”) each release takes inspiration from classic movies and novels from a bygone era. From thrilling and adventurous to dark, romantic and mysterious, these whiskies embark on a journey of discovery, into an exceptional world of exotic flavours and interesting & unusual casks.
Each production boasts a cast of characters carefully chosen, and perfect in their role. Each and every release is selected by an experienced panel, and the producer’s philosophy is quite simple: Taste is the key to the enhusiast's heart. Our aim is to become renowned for high quality, delicious and interesting releases. We care about provenance & age, but the selection for each release is driven foremost by flavour.”
The whisky we are tasting today is the most wacky and varied distillery in Scotland: Loch Lomond Distillery. Loch Lomond distills a plethora of different styles of whisky and has bottled them under well over a dozen different names since it started production back in 1965. One of the names it has used for its whisky is Old Rhosdhu. This whisky’s style is about as quirky as the distillery it comes from. Whisky cla...
Kensington Wine Market's 2023 Whisky Calendar UBER EDITION Day 1 - SMWS 42.73 – QUIET CONFIDENCE
Posted on December 4, 2023
by EvanWelcome to Door Number One of our very limited 2023 Kensington Wine Market Whisky Calendar: UBER Edition! This marks the first step on our 25 day/dram long journey through what we hope you will agree is some fantastic whisky. Creating the KWM Whisky Calendar each year is a labour of love (and stress, and blood/sweat/tears/etc) that only a few companies are masochistic enough to undertake.
… Wait – I feel like I said pretty much the same thing for our other whisky calendar… I did, didn’t I? Well, If you purchased the UBER Whisky Calendar, you already know the spiel, but you are also likely going through these upcoming days and weeks in a two-fisted fashion, with drams in both hands. Kudos to you on that, and apologies in advance for having to read my typing for 50 blog posts instead of a mere 25! Feel free to mute me as we go along through these missives by tuning out the typing and instead focusing on the pretty pictures along the way.
If you already opened up Door Number One on the main KWM 2023 Whisky Calendar, you are already aware of the Daftmill 15-Year-Old Cask Strength that we showcased there. But, what is the focus to Day One in the 2023 UBER Calendar? Today’s UBER drample is from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. The name of the bottle is SMWS 42.73 – QUIET CONFIDENCE, AND THE REASON I AM NOW TYPING IN ALL CAPS IS BECAUSE I AM SUPER EXCITED THAT WE ARE ABOUT TO TASTE A 25-YEAR-OLD LEDAIG!
That’s right, we are starting the UBER Calendar off with a young whisky, only just distilled back in 1995. Ledaig is not the name of a distillery currently, but it once was the name of Tobermory Distillery until the name change happened in 1979. Ledaig is currently the name used for Tobermory Distillery’s peated whisky releases, and that is what this sample from SMWS 42.73 is.
But wait… If you look at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s own flavour profile classification for this bottle, they say it is “Sweet, fruity & mellow”. That sure doesn’t sound like a peated whisky to me. What gives?
Sweet, fruity & mellow Ledaig, they say… Well, there could be a reason for that. Maybe this all has to do with time. Two-plus decades in the cask can change a whisky quite a bit. It can make a light whisky big, bold and over-the-top sherried in style given the right (or wrong cask), It can make A big, meaty and savoury whisky go tropical, fruity and funky just like your Uncle Dennis; who spent his career as a big, burley fireman, but now that he is retired you only see in flip flops and floral print button-up shirts. Just give it time 20+ years in a refill cask. Don’t believe me? I have an example of it here. Not of your Uncle Dennis, but a whisky that has softened with age.
Perhaps Uncle Dennis is an even more perfect exam...
KWM 2023 Whisky Calendar Blog Day 3 - Berry's The Perspective 21-Year-Old Blend
Posted on December 8, 2023
by EvanToday's whisky in the 2023 KWM Whisky Calendar is Berry's The Perspective 21-Year-Old Blend. But what does that all mean?
Perspective. Such a great and important word, that. It is the thing that seems to be lacking most in the inflexible, sound-byte-driven news and social media world we live in. So much of what we should be thinking and feeling is veritably screamed into our ears and shoved down our throats with the intent of making us meekly comply, or worse, become one with the shouting mass itself. Ideas and concepts and points of view are not something we are given time to ponder and develop. Instead, they are swung at us like the bluntest of instruments at a terminal velocity, used to inflict and provoke immediate and precise reactions in everything we do and towards everyone we meet.
Sorry. I am not quite sure where I was going with that. Maybe it is best to take a deep breath, pull back a little, and focus on the little bottle in front of us instead of trying to suss out the Big Picture. What is Perspective, and while we are at it; what does Berry have to do with it?
Berry’s – in this case – refers to Berry Bros. & Rudd, which is the oldest Wine Merchant in the world. The company was founded 325 years ago, back in 1698, at the address of 3 St. James Street in London, UK. The family-owned company first started in the coffee business by a woman referred to as The Widow Bourne. Her first name has since been lost to history. The focus on coffee diversified over time to include cocoa, tea, spices and exotic goods.
The company entered the wine game in the 1700s and that has been its focus ever since. It was the first wine merchant to launch a website, which happened back in 1994. Over its history, Berry’s has offered and managed private bottlings of whisky for its many clients and customers, but in 2002 it started publicly selling its Berry’s Own Selection single malt releases to the public, becoming an independent bottler.
Berry Bros. & Rudd also created the Cutty Sark blend, owned the Glenrothes brand (but not the actual distillery) for a time, and currently has a minority stake in Cotswolds Single Malt Whisky, but those are stories for another time.
The Berry’s Perspective series was released in 2019. The 21-year-old we are tasting today is actually the youngest in the lineup, as 25-year-old, 35, and 40-year-old versions were released as well. Each of these Blended Scotch Whisky releases features the black and white photography of Lindsay Robertson. The creation of each blend in the Perspective series was undertaken by Master Blender and Senior Spirits Manager Doug McIvor, who has been with Berry Bros. & Rudd since 2001.
The 21-year-old was a batch release of 6300 bottles at 43% ABV. Nothing is stated about what whisky is in the blend. The p...
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