KWM Whisky Advent 2015 Day 15 - Old Pulteney 12 Year
Posted on October 25, 2024
Welcome to KWM Whisky Advent Day 15 – Old Pulteney 12 YearOld Pulteney is one of only 2 distilleries in Scotland named after a person, the other being Glen Grant in Rothes. The Old Pulteney distillery was built in Pultneytown, a purpose built herring fishing port commissioned by Sir William Pulteney who was the governor of the Royal Fisheries Society in the late 1700s. Built on the south side of Wick, the town was posthumously named for him in 1805. It would remain a separate town until 1902 when it was merged with the Royal Burgh of Wick. The town was built to be populated by the Scots evicted from their lands during the Highland Clearances and forced to take up fishing and other maritime careers. Pulteneytown became one of the major players in the herring boom of the 19th Century, by some accounts the 'Herring Capital of Europe' and swarming with people, naturally it had a thirst for whisky and needed a distillery.
Old Pulteney was built in 1826, less than a decade after the passage of the small stills act which made it much easier to obtain a license and go legit. Alcoholism was rife for a spell in Pulteneytown during the herring boom. Figures from the period show that for time every man woman and child in the town was consuming a half liter of whisky a day, some presumably more than others. Drinking eventually became such a problem that the town had to enact prohibition, leaving the distillery to operate in a dry town, much as the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg Tennessee does to this day.
Until recently with the opening of Wolfburn Distillery in Thurso, Old Pulteney could lay claim to being Scotland's northernmost mainland distillery. The distillery is almost hidden in the purposefully laid out streets of the Pulteneytown area of Wick in much the same buildings as it was in 1826. It is one of the hardest distilleries in Scotland to find and nearly impossible to take a satisfying picture of. One of the distillery's curiosities is its flat topped still wash still, something that is extremely uncommon in the industry. I've heard three different explanations for its origin:
Version 1: That is flat topped so as to encourage spirit reflux to produce a lighter spirit. Which is unlikely as it shortens the height of the still and therefor counteracting its ability to lighten.
Version 2: Originally there was a top driven rumager (a device which stirs the sediment at the bottom to keep it from burning and adhering to the bottom). This also seems unlikely as it would be exposed to an enormous amount of torque.
Version 3: That they miss-measured the amount of space available for the still and had to shave some of it off. The distillery insists this is not the case.
Whatever the truth, the ...
KWM Whisky Advent 2015 Day 14 – Teeling Single Malt
Posted on October 25, 2024
Welcome to KWM Whisky Advent Day 14 – Teeling Single MaltThe Teeling Family has been in the whiskey business since 1782 when Walter Teeling setup a small distillery on Dublin's Marrowbone Lane, in the Liberties area. At the time there were 37 distilleries in the city of Dublin alone. At the end of the 1800s Irish Whiskey was the most desired spirit in the world, but the 20th Century would not be kind to the industry. Irish whiskey's prominence was already in decline when World War I, the Irish War of Independence and subsequent Irish Civil War consecutively brought it to its knees. The straw that broke the camel's back was American Prohibition, which closed off Ireland's last major market and sealed its fate.
Dublin's last distillery closed its doors in 1976, part of an industry-wide consolidation which saw the Emerald Isle left with but two distilleries, Bushmills in Northern Ireland and the giant new Midleton Distillery in the Republic. Even to this day most Irish whiskies hail from the New Midleton Distillery in Cork. But this has begun to change, in recent years distilleries have been popping up all over Ireland. It all began with John Teeling in 1987 when he converted a closed government potato ethanol plant into a whisky distillery. The Cooley Distillery made quite a name for itself in the two and a half decades it operated independently, until selling to Beam Global (now Beam Suntory) in 2011 for USD $95 million. In addition to a huge pile of cash, John Teeling and his sons walked away from the sale with impressive stocks of matured whiskey, the are the basis of the Teeling Whiskey brand which includes award winning single malts, single grain and blended Irish whiskies.
The sale of Cooley Distillery and the success of the Teeling brand has afforded the family the opportunity to bring the it's distilling heritage back to Dublin's, Liberties area. The Teeling Distillery, Dublin's only active distillery is the first one to be built in the city in 125 years. The Irish whiskey industry's fortunes are changing, where as in 1987 there were just 3 distilleries including the new Cooley distillery, there are now more than a dozen active distilleries in Ireland and more planned. It will be many years before the whiskies from Teeling's new distillery reach maturity, in the meantime lets hope they keep releasing excellent stocks from their old one. Especially single malts like this one which consist of stocks distilled as far back as 1991 and finished in 5 different wine casks (Sherry, Port, Madeira, White Burgundy, Cabernet Sauvignon. Like all the other whiskies in the range, the Teeling single malt is non-chillfiltered and bottled at 46%.
Teeling Single Malt - 46% - Unchillfiltered - Andrew's Tasting Note: "Nose: clotted cream of fresh baked scones and vanilla icing sugars...
KWM Whisky Advent 2015 Day 13 - Springbank Hazelburn 12 Year
Posted on October 25, 2024
Welcome to KWM Whisky Advent Day 13 – Springbank Hazelburn 12 YearHazelburn is the name Springbank Distillery gives to their unpeated triple distilled expression. It is a tribute to the Hazelburn Distillery which opperated in Campbeltown for a hundred years between 1825 and 1925. Campbeltown had at one point in the late 1800s over 30 active distilleries and was the self appointed whisky capital of the world. It is said, that for a few decades in the late 1800s Campbeltown was one of the wealthiest places per capita in the United Kingdom. These fortunes would not last forever, with all but three of the distilleries having vanished forever. One of the remaining, Glengyle, which bottles single malt under the name Kilkerran, also closed in 1925 and only reopened in 2000, in part to settle a score! The legacy of Campbeltown's prosperous late 1800s is still visible all over the town in the form of old distillery buildings and stone mansions that once belonged to whisky barons.
Springbank is Scotland's most traditional distillery, almost stubbornly so, and the oldest family owned distillery in Scotland. The distillery operates today much as it did 100 years ago with almost no automation. Springbank is the only distillery in Scotland to malt 100% of its own barley, and even continues to abide by a law rescinded more than half a century ago that prohibited distilleries from malting and distilling at the same time. The distillery is also one of the few to bottle on site. The town of Campbeltown is very important to the owner Mr. Hedley Wright, and he in turn feels duty bound to give back. Although the distillery produces but 1/50th the volume of distilleries like Glenfiddich, it employs more people, and is the largest employer in the town of 5,000. When he leaves this world Mr. Wright intends for the distillery to pass into the hands of three trusts which will ensure the distillery and all of its jobs remain in the town.
As hinted above, Springbank produces 3 distinct styles of single malt whisky. The regular Springbank is 2 1/2 times distilled (a very unusual practice of fractional distillation) and lightly peated. In 1973 Springbank started producing a heavily peated whisky, to be more of an Islay style single malt. The whisky was named Longrow after another closed distillery and is double distilled like the vast majority of Scottish malts. Hazelburn was first produced in 1997, and is an unpeated triple distilled single malt. Frank McHardy, the recently retired distillery manager worked for a spell in Ireland where triple distillation is more common, on return to Campbeltown he started producing this triple distilled whisky. It is a natural fit for the distillery which with Auchenstoshan is one of only two in Scotland with three pot stills.
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KWM Whisky Advent Day 12 – Glenfarclas 21 Year
Posted on October 25, 2024
Welcome to KWM Whisky Advent Day 12 - Glenfarclas 21 YearIt has been a busy week, in case you haven't heard, and while I wish I could have found the time today to wax eloquently about the Glenfarclas Distillery, one of my favourites, for today I will have to plagiarize from the distillery. I'd like for there to be something for you to read about the origin of this great malt, and my fiance's Christmas party is beckoning... I need to be a good lad and make trax. I don't think my friend Georgefarclas (AKA George Grant) will mind... and I hope you don't either!
[caption id="attachment_3608" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Photo Courtesy of Glenfarclas"][/caption]
From the Distillery About the Family: "Since 1865 Glenfarclas has been owned and managed by just one family, the Grants of Glenfarclas. On the 8th of June 1865 John Grant acquired the tenancy for the Rechlerich Farm and as part of the transaction purchased the Glenfarclas Distillery for £511.19S.0d. To this day Glenfarclas is one of only a few distilleries in Scotland to remain family owned and managed. Now in the hands of the fifth and sixth generation of the family, the Grants remain committed to the vision of creating the best quality Single Highland Malt Scotch Whisky, in the traditional Speyside style."
[caption id="attachment_3609" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Photo Courtesy of Glenfarclas"][/caption]
From the Distillery About the Whisky: "Glenfarclas is renowned for producing Single Highland Malt Scotch Whisky in the traditional Speyside style, with a heavy Sherry influence. We produce a wide range of expressions from the mouthwatering freshness of the 10 Years Old, to the indulgent 30 Years Old. One of the delights of Glenfarclas is exploring the subtle differences between the different expressions. Please click on the bottle of your choice to read Tasting Notes by George S Grant, Brand Ambassador and Sixth Generation."
[caption id="attachment_3610" align="aligncenter" width="346" caption="Photo courtesy of me... ;) "][/caption]
Glenfarclas 21 Year - 43% - Andrew's Tasting Note: "Nose: buttery, fruity and elegant all at once; I used to think that it was like a warm blueberry pie right out of the oven, but it is more like butterscotch pudding or sticky toffee pudding drowning in cream; some soft leather, spices and dark fruits--truly a lot going on; Palate: rich, fruity and spicy; still very buttery, and while I can still taste blueberries it is more like wholewheat blueberry pancakes with maple syrup and a side of thick sliced b...
KWM 2015 Whisky Calendar Day 11 - Kilchoman Loch Gorm 2015
Posted on December 8, 2022
Welcome to KWM Whisky Advent Day 10!
The Isle of Islay is the home to some of the most iconic distilleries in Scotland: Bowmore, Ardbeg, Lagavulin and Laphroaig. It is a Mecca for whisky lovers the world over, and when Anthony Wills had a dream to open his own distillery Islay was the only place to do it. He didn't want to build a large modern distillery when the barley is trucked in and the spirit trucked away. The industry has changed a lot over the last century, and some of the charm and tradition has been lost along the way. With Kilchoman (pronounced Kil-ho-man) Anthony wanted to build a farm distillery, returning Islay's whisky industry to its roots.
Kilchoman not only malts some of its barley on site, but it grows it in the fields surrounding the distillery. The distillery is founded at Rockside Farm on the Western side of Islay. For a few short years it was the westernmost distillery in Scotland. A even smaller distillery on the Isle of Lewis bares this honour today. Rockside farm is located a mile inland from the beautiful white sands of Machir Bay, and beyond that lies thousands of miles of open ocean until you hit the east coast of Canada. For most of the 10 years it has now been producing whisky there was a bit of an uneasy relationship between Kilchoman and the farm, that came to an end this year when the distillery literally bought the farm.
In addition to producing the whisky on site, Kilchoman is also one of the few distilleries in Scotland to bottle on site. Would it disappoint you to learn that some of the best know whisky brands in Scotland are reduced to bottling strength with de-ionized city tap water? Both Kilchoman and Bruichladdich Distillery on Islay bottle their whiskies with the same water they use to produce them.
For Whisky Advent Day 11 we selected the Kilchoman Loch Gorm, a heavily sherried expression of Kilchoman. The whisky is named for the "famously peaty" and therefore dark loch (lake) just to the north of the distillery. We owe a debt of thanks to the distillery for bottling 50mls of Loch Gorm just for our Advent Calendar. If you like this whisky, we have both 50ml and 700ml bottles available!
Kilchoman Loch Gorm 2015 - 46% - Matured in Ex-Sherry Casks - Andrew's Tasting Note: "Nose: licorice and espresso beans, a touch of vanilla, soft leather, sea salt and buttery peat oils; grassy malt, crisp citrus and dried dark fruits; Palate: immediately medicinal and spicy, grassy malt, sea salt and Dutch licorice; more espresso bean, loads of rough leather, dark earthy peat and more dark fruits; Finish: the citrus and creamy tones come out in the finish while the spices, smoke and sea salt linger long; Comment: this is a big, rich and juicy Islay malt; hard to believe it is just 5 years of age. - $117.99 per 700ml - $14.99 per 50ml<...
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