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KWM Whisky Advent Day 25 - The Grand Finale

Posted on October 25, 2024

Welcome to KWM Whisky Advent Day 25 â€“ The Scotch Malt Whisky Society

We are switching up gears in more ways than one for the last day of KWM Whisky Advent 2015. Not only are you getting a bonus whisky this year on top of the 24 50mls, but it is also a 100ml bottle... think of it as a little extra Christmas Cheer for the big day today! There is also one other crucial difference, not everyone has the same whisky today. The Kensington Wine Marketed has been partnered with the Scotch Malt Whisky Society for more than 4 years, as their first Canadian retailer and outpost. They have been an important and growing part of our whisky experience and we wanted to find a way to incorporate SMWS whiskies into our calendar this year. The trick is that the Society doesn't bottle 50mls, and the 100mls they produced are for the new member kits. But there was a two fold opportunity here.

This was an opportunity firstly, because not every casks yields the same number of bottles, the Society has small quantities of these 100ml bottles left over from the different batches of New Members Kits they produce. There were not enough leftover bottles of any individual single cask for all 384 KWM Whisky Advent Calendar drinkers to enjoy the same bottle. Knowing that we opted to go for a range of different whiskies, which is an appropriate way of looking at the Society. Because they only bottle single casks, and no two casks regardless of age, distillery or cask type are ever the same they literally never bottle the same whisky twice. Variety is as they say the spice of life. The second opportunity here related to the bottle size. Because it wasn't a 50ml it wouldn't fit into our existing calendar, but if we modified the calendar we could add it as a bonus 25th bottle for Christmas Day.

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 eight 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.

We were able to acquire six different SMWS whiskies for the 2015 ...

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KWM Whisky Advent Day 24 - Glenfarclas 25 Year

Posted on October 25, 2024

Welcome to KWM Whisky Advent Day 24 â€“ Glenfarclas 25 Year

It is Christmas Eve, the last night of Advent, and the second last whisky in our 2015 Calendar. Whether you are enjoying the malt and a quiet night at home, sharing it with friends and family or saving it for a special occasion, I hope you'll agree we are closing on a high note. The Glenfarclas 25 Year has been one of my favourite whiskies for over a decade. Over that time I've seen it evolve and change slightly from batch to batch, but it has never disappointed. It has to change by nature of the fact that whisky is matured in oak casks and no two are perfectly alike. The Glenfarclas 25 Year was one of a range of eight 25 year old whiskies my whiskies club tasted and compared at out Christmas party this year. I recalled that in past years the Glenfarclas 25 was more of a sherry bomb, big, rich and spicy. The more recent bottlings, while still showing lots of old sherried character, are more subtle and if anything a little more layered and complex. That more nuanced style is in my wheelhouse these days... change need not always be feared.

We sampled another Glenfarclas in the 2015 Whisky Advent Calendar, the Glenfarclas 21 Year on Day 12, so we I'll try not to rehash anything already said concerning Scotland's second oldest family owned distillery. The Grant family who owns the Glenfarclas Distillery is in their 5th and 6th generations, with father John and son George currently running the distillery. It is a curious fact that each of the six members of the Grant family to own Glenfarclas have all be named either John or George, beginning with John Grant in 1865. The distillery was licensed in 1836, but there is some evidence that it may date back well into the 1700s.

At a couple of points this past month I've mentioned the Pattison Whisky Crash, which devastated the Scotch whisky industry at the turn of the 20th Century. The Grant Family had partnered with Pattison Elder & Co., as had many other firms, and they were nearly brought under. Forced to sell almost all the casks in their warehouse just to keep the distillery it took the family 15 years to rebuild its position. A new path was charted, the family would never rely on outside investors ever again, and it has not. Like another family owned whisky business, Gordon & MacPhail, the Grants had a foresight regarding mature whiskies that most other Scottish distilleries did not. In 2007 they launched the Glenfarclas Family Casks an initial offering of single cask stretching from 1994 all the way back to 1952. No other distillery in Scotland has such an unbroken depth of vintage whiskies. Never needing to worry about investors looking for dividends in lean years, the family business is able to play the long game. The Glenfarclas F...

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KWM Whisky Advent Day 23 - Kavalan Sherry Oak 54%

Posted on October 25, 2024

Welcome to KWM Whisky Advent Day 23 - Kavalan Sherry Oak 54%

Kavalan has been a rising star globally as well as Â in our store for 3-4 years now. Even though the distillery and its whiskies are fairly new, they have the feel of an established brand in our shop! We touched on Kavalan on Whisky Advent Day 5 with the Kavalan Bourbon Oak 54%. Like tonight's whisky, the Kavalan Sherry Oak 54%, these 50mls are bottled to be an approximation of what people can expect when they buy one of Kavalan's Solist whiskies. Because the Solists are single cask there will always be a little variation from cask to cask. It is also kind of a nuisance to bottle 50mls (I have a little experience in this field), let alone single cask 50mls, so Kavalan does a batch bottling of each of the Solists. There isn't as much to say about Kavalan as some older Scottish distilleries, because it is a relatively new producer. So I hope you'll excuse me going off on a tangent tonight, because there is another story that just won't die and I'm really enjoying my wee bottle of Kavalan...

By now I'm sure you are aware of the hoopla surrounding the Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye's selection as World Whisky of the Year by a single whisky writer who's name need not be mentioned. I will admit that I do think it is a fine expression of Crown Royal (not the best CR I've had) and certainly worthy of trying, especially for $42. It is also nice to see Crown Royal bottling Canadian whiskies with more than just a dash of rye in them. Spoiler alert! Most Canadian whiskies are made mostly from corn, and under Canadian law you need not have any rye grain in the whisky at all and you can still call it a Rye Whisky. Long story short, if you missed my comments the Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye, while I think it is good, I don't feel it is anywhere near World Whisky of the Year.

Why have I dredged all of this back up again? I'm glad you asked, because there was another World Whisky of the Year proclaimed in 2015, this one by a panel of industry experts, rather than one man. It was the Kavalan Solist Vinho (SOLD OUT), a sister bottling to tonight's whisky, Whisky Magazine's World Whisky of the Year 2015. It too caught many by surprise, but perhaps did not generate anywhere near as much soundbite worthy buzz for the Press to recycle as the contentious selection of Crown Royal. This is largely because selection of the Kavalan Solist Vinho, while an exceptional incident, was a more well reasoned selection and one accepted by World's whisky diaspora. Even before the Vinho's award, I tried to get some for my Advent Calendar, but to no avail... fingers crossed for next year. In the meantime I hope you'll enjoy the Kavalan Sherry Oak 54%, an approximation of the Kavalan Solist Sherry, and that it warms ...

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KWM Whisky Advent Day 22 - Balblair 1990

Posted on October 25, 2024

Welcome to KWM Whisky Advent Day 22 â€“ Balblair 1990

The Balblair 1990 is the 2nd whisky we've seen from this distillery in this year's calendar. You have to go all the way back to KWM Whisky Advent Day 1 to find the first, Balblair 2003. Truth be told, the 2003 was a backup, one of 3 whiskies held in reserve in the event something went wrong with one of the 25 others. Two of the whiskies which were supposed to be included arrived 2 months late, a mix-up with the shipping firm. The third was never shipped, despite the best efforts of a third party, even though we were assured right up until the 11th hour that it was coming... The biggest challenges with this project are timing and logistics, and that's why we made sure to have a couple in reserve!

I hope you'll agree it has all worked out for the best and I hope you've enjoyed the journey we've been on together these last 22 days. It hasn't always been easy for me to carve out an hour or two to reflect on each day's whisky, but it has been a pleasure. Each day I've had the chance to revisit a whisky I haven't sampled for a while. It has forced me to consider it again and reflect on what makes it interesting and unique. Balblair for example is one of the oldest distilleries still producing in Scotland, and yet it is very likely that many of you were not familiar with it prior to sampling one of the whiskies in the calendar. I think that's what I've found most enjoyable about sitting down and writing about each day's whisky. It is the sharing of the whisky gospel and my passion for good malt that I find most rewarding. I know we still have 3 more days to go, but rest assured the wheel is spinning thinking about next year!

I've only been to Balblair Distillery twice over the years. That may seem like a lot but I've been to the whisky motherland about as many times as I have fingers and toes. Even for me the distillery is often an afterthought, a twinge of guilt while driving past on my way to the Orkneys, Glenmorangie or the one of the other distilleries on the Sutherland and Caithness coast. Balblair is a very picturesque distillery, along Â the stunning Dornoch Firth, and its whiskies are wonderful. It is a reminder that we need to stray from the beaten path and enjoy the journey. There are over 50 distilleries in Scotland with visitors centers, the most well known and traveled don't always offer the best tours!

Balblair 1990 2nd Release (2014) - 46% - 24 Year - 21 Years American & 3 Years in European Oak - Andrew's Tasting Note: "Nose: a damp bag of jujubes, Oh Henry chocolate bar, orange marzipan and rose hips; leathers, spices and sugars with some toasted oak; Palate: big, fruity and spicy, very leathery with earthy toasted oak; very nutty with bold sherry tones atop some creamy vanilla...

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KWM 2015 Whisky Calendar Day 21 - Kilchoman 2010 KWM Cask 440

Posted on December 8, 2022

Welcome to KWM Whisky Advent Day 21: Kilchoman 2010 KWM Cask 440

Tonight's is the second of two Kilchoman's in theÂ 2015 KWM Whisky Advent Calendar, I wrote about the Kilchoman Loch Gorm 2015 on the Day 11. Both the Loch Gorm 2015 and tonight's whisky were filled into bottle specifically for the Kensington Wine Marker Whisky Advent Calendar, but tonight's is extra special. It is a miniature bottle of the 4th Kilchoman cask bottled by Kensington Wine Marker, the same one currently selling in our store. It may be just 5 years old, but it is another cracker. So how did we get the distillery to bottle 50mls? I'm glad you asked. I was over on Islay for Feis Isle, the Islay Festival this past May. The 2015 Islay Festival was one not to miss, because in addition to marking the 200th Anniversaries of Laphroaig and Ardbeg, it also celebrated the 10th Anniversary for the Kilchoman Distillery.

There were special tastings and events all over Islay for a little over 10 days. Each day was given to a single distillery on Islay and Jura and people thronged the distilleries for tastings, parties and one of whiskies. One of the most memorable event was a special and very exclusive Kilchoman warehouse tasting held in the distillery's newest warehouse. We filed into the warehouse, built in the hills above Loch Indaal a few miles north of Bruichladdich, while the wind and rain lashed the roof in violent bursts. It was a very memorable tasting, consisting of a range of barrel samples, but more crucially it opened the door for two opportunities. While speaking with Anthony Wills, the founder and managing director of Kilchoman it became clear that our latest KWM Cask was sitting in the bottling hall about to be bottled. Firstly, I had the opportunity to draw and fill a sample bottle from the cask by my own hand, a rare treat. And secondly, it opened a conversation with Anthony and Kilchoman about bottling 50mls of our cask for the 2015 KWM Whisky Advent Calendar. To my surprise they were they were very interested, and even offered to bottle some Loch Gorm for us too!

In addition to the events on Islay, Kilchoman's marked its 10th Anniversary with a special bottling limited to just 3000 bottles. WeÂ had a small quantity in store for a short time this fall, sadly only a very small number of bottles found their way to Canada (and they are all gone!) The distillery also bottled its first and only 10 year old this fall. It's production was also very limited, to just 1 bottle. The first ever bottle of Kilchoman 10 Year was filled specifically to be auctioned off for charity, and it set the bar high, raising Â£7,000.00. The distillery also auctioned its first ever bottle of single malt for charity, a release also limited to just one bottle. That 3 year old sold for Â£5,400.00 in 2009.

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