KWM 2015 Whisky Advent Day 20 - G&M Connoisseurs Choice Inchgower 2000
Posted on December 15, 2024
Welcome to KWM Whisky Advent Day 20 - G&M Connoisseurs Choice Inchgower 2000We talked a fair bit about Gordon & MacPhail during KWM Whisky Advent on the blog: Day 4 we sampled a Ledaig 1999, on Day 10 a 1996 Auchroisk and just a few days ago on Day 18 a 2003 Caol Ila. We won't retrace our steps here tonight so we will instead speak of Gordon & MacPhail's distillery, Benromach. As long as they have been in the whisky business the Urquhart family wanted to own a distillery, it wasn't until 1992 that they finally got the chance. Construction started in 1898 with the distillery's first production in 1900. Located in the town of Forres (under which name it occasionally operated) west of Elgin didn't stay open for long. The distillery operated intermittently throughout the 20th century closing the doors firmly and almost permanently in 1983.
When Gordon & MacPhail purchased the distillery in 1992 they acquired the buildings and all of UDV (Diageo's) remaining stock. The distillery itself was in a poorly state and it took them six years to rebuild and kit it out. They could have done it sooner, but the Urquhart family doesn't rush into anything, it was going to be done right. Gordon & MacPhail recognized that it would be impossible to completely recreate the old Benromach style, so they settled on a creating a traditional lightly peated Speyside whisky. If you wound the clocks back 60, 70, 80 or more years you would find that all Speyside whiskies would have had some degree of peating. In 2004 they released the first whisky distilled and bottled under the Urquhart family's stewardship, Benromach Traditional. This year they reached a milestone, bottling Benromach 15 Year, distilled and bottled by Gordon & MacPhail. Benromach has become a worthy compliment and asset to the family firm which owns it.
But we aren't talking about Benromach distillery tonight, we are talking about Inchgower, a distillery you have very likely never heard of before, so lets shift gears. The distillery was built in 1871 near Buckie in Banffshire, its owners were looking to replace the Tochineal Distillery.  The distillery went bankrupt several times between 1900 and 1936 when the town council of Buckie bought the distillery for £1,600. They did quite well off their investment, selling it for £3,000 in 1938. Had they just had the foresight to hang on to it for another decade they could have sold it for many times that.  The buyer in 1938 was Arthur Bell & Sons, a firm that would eventually become a part of UDV and the Diageo. Today its whisky is almost never seen bottled as a single malt, it is almost exclusively used in blends. Independent bottlings of Inchgower, like this Gordon & MacPhail botlting are very rare, but then Gordon & MacPhail seems to have ...
KWM Whisky Advent Day 19 - Springbank 15 Year
Posted on October 25, 2024
Welcome to KWM Whisky Advent Day 19 Springbank 15 YearWe've fallen a day behind on KWM Whisky Advent 2015, and I am eager to get us all caught right back up. As they say, it is better late than never, so let's get to it!
December 19th's whisky is from one of my favourite distilleries, Scotland's most traditional, and oldest family owned distillery, Springbank. Today Springbank is the only distillery in Scotland to do 100% of the whisky making process for all of its whiskies on site, from malting to bottling. The distillery operates in a cycle that used to be dictated by law, malting and distilling at separate times, usually in three month intervals. Consequently when you go to Springbank you aren't likely to see the distillery both malting and distilling at the same time, though you will get to see the whole process from barley to bottle; its greatest charm. This is a practice that was once mandated by law, and which has been abandoned by all distilleries, save one. It is a part of the tradition that Springbank proudly caries on today.
There are other curiosities at Springbank too, like the series of three pot stills I referred to in the post on Day 13, and the strange practice of partial distillation they do with their core Springbank malt. In addition to being lightly peated, the spirit is partially triple distilled and then the two parts blended back together before filling into casks.  And that is far from the only strange practice at this distillery, my favourite surrounds the fermentation. Most distilleries strive to max out their fermentation, converting as many of the sugars as possible into alcohol. They will even switch suppliers of malt if they feel they aren't getting a good enough yield per ton of barley. Springbank intentionally stops its fermentation at 5%, achieving little more than half their full yield, and when you ask them why, you get the kind of answer that would make an accountant cringe and whisky lover swoon, "because this is how it has always been done." Stepping into the Springbank Distillery is like stepping back in time, it is easy to see why its owner and employees want to keep it just so!
Springbank 15 Year - 46% - Andrew's Tasting Note: "Nose: so fruity, melons, apricots, bananas, almost overwhelmingly so with a diced fruit bowl effect; lingering underneath some Demerara sugars, leather and a trace of maritime notes, peat and spices; Palate: rich, fruity, round and leathery, the delicate fruits from the fruit bowl found on the nose are still there complimented by assorted dried dark fruits; there is a creamy buttery base with crisp spices, leather and tobacco developing; salted caramel and smoke emerge later on the palate; Finish: caramel, fruits and spices fade leaving earthy peat, leather and tobacco on the finish; Comments: the Springbank 15 morphs a little in style from time to...
KWM Whisky Advent Day 18 – Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseurs Choice Caol Ila
Posted on October 25, 2024
Welcome to KWM Whisky Advent Day 18 – Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseur's Choice Caol Ila 2003This is our third Gordon & MacPhail independent bottling in the 2015 KWM Whisky Advent Calendar, and there may be one more... The great thing about a century old independent bottler like Gordon & MacPhail (there aren't many others!), is that they have such a deep and diverse stock of whiskies in their possession. Most independent bottlers are relatively new to the game and bottle whatever they can put their hands on. The casks in Gordon & MacPhail's warehouses are the envy of the entire industry. They source their own oak and then have it filled. Now in its, 4th generation, the family owned business has released the three oldest whiskies ever bottled: G&M Generations Mortlach 70 Year, G&M Generations Glenlivet 70 Year and G&M Generation Mortlach 75 Year. No other company in Scotland has whiskies as old as Gordon & MacPhail. Even more crucial is their attention to detail and quality.
Caol Ila is Islay's largest distillery, for all intents and purposes it is a whisky factory. Like Talisker, and a large proportion of Scotland's distilleries, barley is trucked in, spirit is produced and then trucked away to be filled into casks and matured at vast central warehouses in central Scotland. Having just crushed any trace of romanticism surrounding  this distillery and its whisky, I should point out it does have two saving graces: the consistently good whiskies it produces, and the unrivaled view from its still room. The name Caol Ila translates to the Sound of Islay, and is the 1 mile wide body of water separating the islands of Islay and Jura. Caol Ila is situated on the north-east coast of Islay in a sheltered cleft in the rock. It's still room has the best view of any in Scotland, looking across the Sound of Islay at the Paps (mountains of Jura) of Jura.
G&M Connoisseurs Choice Caol Ila 2003 - 46% - 12 Year - First Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrels - Andrew's Tasting Note: "Nose: bacon grease, pancakes with butter, Aunt Jemima, honey, vanilla, melons and cream; white fruits and banana cream pie; there is a hint of the maritime elements to come with clean smoke and pan seared scallops; Palate: very buttery, pan seared scallops in butter, more bacon grease, more bananas, white fruits and melons, pancakes thick with butter and more Aunt Jemima's syrup; the smoke and briny oily peat build with chewy malt; Finish: oily, coating and still buttery; thick with peat, fruits and honey; Comments: sublime for just 12 years of age, this is a stupendously good malt!" - $99.99
Order G&M Connoisseurs Choice Caol Ila $99.99
Stay tuned for Day 19 of KWM Whisky Advent Tomorrow
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KWM Whisky Advent Day 17 - Tomatin 14 Year Port Wood Finish
Posted on October 25, 2024
Welcome to KWM Whisky Advent Day 17 – Tomatin 14 Year Port Wood FinishThe Tomatin distillery sits high in the Highlands of Scotland in the town of the same name. This is no coincidence, the distillery owns the town, and the distillery manager is it's Mayor! Tomatin is located south of Inverness on a site that was a stopping point for cattle drovers from the north taking their herds to markets in the south. Local lore has it that whisky has been made on the site since the 1400s, with cattlemen stopping to fill their flasks before continuing their arduous journey. Curiously, the distillery's name translates to "hill of the juniper bush" which may be a clue to the site's felonius past. Juniper wood was a popular fuel source with illicit distillers as it gives off no smoke!
The distillery was built in 1897 in a seemingly isolated spot 1000ft above sea level on the edge of the Monadhliath Mountains. But Tomatin also sits along the rail line connecting Perth with Inverness, and its founders decided to open the Tomatin Spey District Distillery to capitalize on the Victorian Whisky Boom. As I eluded to last night, the timing was poor with the Pattison Whisky Crash bringing the entire Scotch Whisky industry to its knees. Tomatin closed in 1906 with its owners filing for bankruptcy. But where there is crisis there is often opportunity and new owners brought the distillery back on stream just a few years later and it plodded along until 1956 when the stirrings of new whisky boom prompted the owners to double its capacity.
In 1974 the distillery saw even bigger changes, its production was increased 6 fold further as the demand for Blended Scotch Whisky surged globally. It now had 12 wash and 11 spirit stills, and a capacity of at least 12 million liters, bigger than any current distillery (although that is set to change). The distillery was one of the industry's most important at the time, and one of the few to bottle their own make as a single malt. But the plans were again overly ambitious, as a producer of bulk malt whisky, the industry's collapse in the 1980s forced the distillery into liquidation in just a few years. A classic case of the bigger they are, they harder they fall.
Tomatin's largest market was Japan, and this put Japan's largest drinks producer Takara Shuzo Ltd. into a tight spot. They banded together with another firm and bought the distillery in 1986, making it the first Japanese owned Scottish distillery. Although Tomatin was still integral to blends like The Antiquarry, which Takara Shuzo also acquired, the focus began to shift to single malts. This change in tact picked up an enormous amount of steam over the last decade. Five years ago Tomatin was unheard of in Canada, it is now an established and trending brand. The distillery has a deep core range including unpeated and pea...
KWM Whisky Advent Day 16 - BenRiach Curiositas 10 Year
Posted on October 25, 2024
Welcome to KWM Whisky Advent Day 16 – BenRiach Curiositas 16 YearIn your humble KWM Whisky Advent guide's opinion, BenRiach has been one of the most consistently good whisky producers over the last decade. It was bought from Pernod Ricard by the new independent BenRiach Distillery Co. formed for the aquisition of the distillery in 2004. The distillery had been languishing under Pernod's ownership for the previous 20 years after the industry downturn in the early 1980s. The distillery had been mothballed in 2002 as it was surplus to Pernod's needs, but there was potential there. So Billy Walker, a Scotch whisky industry veteran, backed by a group of investors, made a play for the distillery. It was a bold move, the industry was still in the early days of a new upturn in demand. But when the keys were turned over and they had a look in the warehouses, they knew they had struck pay-dirt. BenRiach had been used as a utility distillery, producing peated malts when required and maturing whiskies in a wide variety of casks. They even found triple distilled whiskies, the world was their oyster.
The BenRiach Distillery was built by John Duff in 1898, adjacent to his existing Longmorn Distillery. The two distilleries were built to operate somewhat in unison, sharing warehouses and even a small rail line with a locomotive for moving casks. At various points in BenRiach's history the distillery was referred to as Longmorn No. 2, and this is fortunate, because only two years after opening BenRiach closed its doors for the next 63. Two flamboyant brother's from Leith had built and Enron like house of cards, inflating the industry's bubble until it spectacularly burst in what is known as the Pattison Whisky Crash. BenRiach would have been lost were it not for the facilities it shared with Longmorn, including its malting floor.
In 1965 the Scotch whisky industry's fortunes were again turning. 12 new distilleries were opened in the decade that followed and many closed ones like BenRiach were refurbished and brought back into production. While the buildings aesthetics and exteriors were maintained, BenRiach was completely rebuilt by its new owner, Glenlivet Distiller's Ltd. In 1972 peated whisky was produced at the distillery for the first time, to supply demand for the Chivas Regal brand. In the 1970s no one foresaw the future popularity of and demand for BenRiach as a single malt, let alone a peated single malt. But it is our great fortune that the whisky was produced, because the new owners we open to any kind of style.
The distillery has thrived under the watchful eye of Billy Walker and his team. The distillery has a core range consisting of both peated and unpeated single malts, the majority bottled at 46% with natural colouring and without chillfilter...
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