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Kensington Wine Market's 2023 Whisky Calendar UBER EDITION Day 16 - Whisky Trail Carsebridge 1973

Posted on December 16, 2023

by Evan

Today we will be tasting a Single Grain Scotch Whisky – and a well-aged one at that – with the Whisky Trail Silhouette Carsebridge 1973 - 48 Year Old!

Carsebridge Distillery opened way back in 1799, and in its early years, it actually made Single Malt Scotch. It was converted to a Grain Distillery with the installation of two Coffey stills in 1852 and never looked back.

Carsebridge, like quite a few other distilleries, ended up closing in 1983. Here is a list of other distilleries that turned off the lights for the last time that year. A few of these have been mention already in my 2023 KWM Whisky Calendar and UBER Whisky Calendar blog posts:


Banff
Benromach (Purchased by Gordon & MacPhail in 1993 and reopened in 1998)
Carsebridge
Brora (recently refurbished and revived by Diageo)
Dallas Dhu
Glen Albyn
Glen Mhor
Glenlochy
Glenugie
Knockdhu (Purchased by Inverhouse Distillers in 1988 and reopened in 1989)
North Port
Port Ellen (recently rebuilt and revived by Diageo)
St Magdalene/Linlithgow


All of these distilleries closed as a result of both a weaker economy and the whisky loch – as it was termed – that resulted from overproduction and slower sales. I have a sneaking suspicion that Margaret Thatcher is somehow also to blame for all of these closures. I never trusted that woman.

Of the distilleries I mentioned, 11 of them were owned by a company that was called DCL. DCL was an abbreviation for the Distillers Company Limited. DCL was created by the amalgamation of John Walker and Son with Buchanan-Dewar in 1925. Three years after the glut of closures in 1983, DCL would be acquired by Guinness in 1986. A few more mergers and name changes take us to today, where the company is now known as Diageo.

Back to those 1983 distillery closures: a few of those distilleries were eventually revived, but most were closed and eventually demolished, or had their buildings converted to other uses. Carsebridge is one of those. By the turn of the century, most of the buildings on the former distillery site had been demolished. There was a cooperage that remained in use, but that too no longer exists as it was closed in 2011. The old Carsebridge Distillery site is now a business park, which resides in the Lowlands in a town called Alloa, just north of the River Forth.

So, shall we taste some history?

Whisky Trail Silhouette Carsebridge 1973 - 48 Year Old

From Elixir Distillers Whisy Trail - Silhouette range, this 1973 vintage Caresbridge Single Grain was bottled after 48 years in an ex-Sherry Butt at 56.3%. Exclusive to KWM!

Evan’s Tasting Note

Nose: Creaky old oak staves, linseed oil, a touch of turpentine, plus baked ...

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KWM 2023 Whisky Calendar Blog Day 16 - The Maligne Range Tekarra

Posted on February 28, 2025

by Evan



This whisky hasn’t actually been bottled yet. Well, that is not entirely true, since you have a small bottle of it in front of you. However – official, full-sized bottles of this whisky have not yet been released. What we are tasting today is a little bit of a preview. This whisky is called Tekarra, and it is named after a mountain which is part of the Maligne Mountain Range – on the Northwest end of it - in Jasper National Park. Mount Tekarra itself has an elevation of 2,694 Metres, or 8.839 feet, and is usually visible from the town of Jasper. Runoff from snow and rain on Mount Tekarra flows into Tekarra Creek and the Maligne River, which both in turn feed into the Athabasca River.

Mount Tekarra is named after the First Nations guide who accompanied and aided explorer James Hector of the Palliser Expedition, which explored between Lake Superior and the Rocky Mountains from 1857 to 1860. James Hector also named a river and a lake near the mountain after Tekarra.



Photo by Sang Trinh CC BY 2.0, Link

Beyond the Tekarra whisky that we are previewing today, other planned Western Canadian Whisky releases in the works will be named after the mountains in the Maligne Range as well. These include limited special editions or casks under the Excelsior series – with the first release planned being a Kensington Wine Market cask that was filled back in 2016. Core expressions beyond this are also in the works.

To promote the Tekarra and future The Maligne Range bottles, a whisky Experience Centre will be launched in Jasper in the spring of 2024. It was started by the founders of Last Best Brewing and Distilling, which is located in Calgary, Alberta. Master Distiller Bryce Parsons leads the whisky program.

The distillery at Last Best is small, but mighty, and has been used for quite a bit of spirit experimentation since its inception by Bryce Parsons and his cohorts. Bryce spent a year creating and releasing a different small batch gin every week back in 2018. Before then, and since, whisky distillation and creation have also been a major goal. Bryce also created a whisky called The Beast, which was a whisky distilled using malt that was exposed to smoke in the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire. One bottle of The Beast sold for $10,000 Canadian at auction, and all proceeds from the limited release of 50 bottles were donated to Fort McMurray Firefighters Charities Association, which distributes money to other local organizations.

Back to the Tekarra. The whisky we are tasting today is a preview, with the full bottle release planned for mid-January 2024. It is made up of two components.

The first component whisky was distilled at Last Best from malted barley, then matured in a combination of ex-Bourbon barrels and New American Oak barrels with a level 3 Char made at The Barrel Mill C...

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Kensington Wine Market's 2023 Whisky Calendar UBER EDITION Day 15 - MacNair`s Lum Reek 21 Year Old

Posted on December 15, 2023

by Evan

If you haven’t seen or heard of this bottle before, I am sure you have a few pressing questions.


What the heck is a Lum Reek?
Who the heck is MacNair?
Why are those three words being used together to sell a Blended Malt Scotch?


 

Story time!

There once was a guy named Harvey MacNair. Harvey was a businessman from Glasgow who had a knack for blending whisky. In 1857, he founded a company named (wait for it...) Harvey MacNair and Company.  He is known for promoting the natural idea of whisky being released at its natural colour, instead of adding colouring to make it look older than it was. Harvey was the creator of the original Lum Reek, apparently inspired by drinking whisky in a room with a blocked chimney (called a 'lum').

The room was filled with smoke, and supposedly instead of expiring from carbon monoxide poisoning, Harvey MacNair was inspired to give a blend the name Lum Reek and create said blend with a peaty style. The name comes from the Scottish phrase "Lang may yer lum reek", which translates to "long may your chimney smoke". This is essentially a Hogmanay/New Year’s greeting and a toast to someone's health. Hopefully, that person's lum is not as blocked as Harvey's was.

The MacNair Whisky company was purchased by Hiram Walker in 1933, which itself was acquired by Allied Lyons PLC in 1987. in 2005, THAT company was purchased by Pernod Ricard. In the summer of 2016, Pernod Ricard sold the Glenallachie distillery and the Blended Scotch brands White Heather and MacNair's to a consortium led by Billy Walker. The MacNair’s brand was relaunched with the Lum Reek Blended Scotch shortly thereafter.

Billy Walker loves to fleece Pernod Ricard of their underappreciated distilleries and whisky stock. Before purchasing Glenallachie Distillery and adding a capital to the middle of the name, to make it GlenAllachie Distillery, he had done the same with BenRiach in 2004 and GlenDronach in 2008. But I digress…



We have featured a MacNair’s Blended Malt in our KWM Whisky Calendar previously. That was back in 2019 with the MacNair’s Lum Reek 12-Year-Old. The MacNair’s Lum Reek brand has been given a label makeover since then, but the whisky style has remained pretty much the same. The brand has become part of the expanded MacNai's Boutique House of Spirits, which is expanding with the release of rum expressions from Panama and Jamaica, though those have not hit Canada yet.

Shall we give this 21-year-old Blended Malt Scotch a taste?

MacNair's Lum Reek 21 Year – 48%

This 21-year-old Blended Malt is composed of Islay, and Speyside whiskies (including GlenAllachie) aged in first fill ex-Bourbon, ex-Red Wine and ...

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KWM 2023 Whisky Calendar Blog Day 15 - Elements of Islay Cl14

Posted on December 19, 2023

by Evan

Our journey through independent bottlings from Diageo-owned distilleries continues, this time with a bottling of Caol Ila from Elixir Distillers. Today’s dram is the Elements of Islay CI14.

Islay’s Caol Ila Distillery has been around since 1846 and is about a 5-minute drive from the ferry landing at Port Askaig. The Ardnahoe and Bunnahabhain Distilleries are their nearest neighbours. Caol Ila is the largest producer of Single Malt Scotch on Islay by a good margin, and it has to be.  It is a distillery that is sought after by blenders and independent bottlers alike and with good reason. More than 85% of Caol Ila's production is destined for blends, and one of the main factors for this is that it is the heart of Johnnie Walker Black Label and the more recent Johnnie Walker Double Black.



While Caol Ila may be prolific in production versus other Islay distilleries, and there are usually more independent bottlings of Caol Ila as well – this is a very good thing. Caol Ila is one of the most consistently good whiskies available. It is a highly sought-after malt for indie bottlers and for blending alike because of this. Caol Ila takes well to just any cask you throw it in, and the quality of the whisky is high at any age. Young Coal Ila in an ex-Bourbon cask? Delicious – salty and citric with a bucket of fresh oysters and a lime margarita. Caol Ila in its teenage years matured sherry? Yes please – bring on the barbecue notes! Older Caol Ila from an old refill hogshead? Amazing stuff – likely showing plenty of tropical fruit and soft, coastal peat.

This specific bottling of Caol Ila is part of the Elements of Islay Series from Elixir Distillers. As the name suggests, this series features bottlings of whisky from Islay distilleries exclusively. Each of the Islay distilleries bottled is given an abbreviation as if it were an element on the periodic table. CI is Caol Ila, Bn is Bunnahabhain, Lp is Laphroaig, etc. This bottle is the CI14, meaning it is the 14th batch of Caol Ila bottled in the Elements of Islay series.

This multi-vintage batch of Caol Ila from the Elements of Islay was matured in an American oak hogshead as well as Oloroso Sherry Butts. It has been bottled at 50.1%. The full breakdown is thus:


1x 2015 American Oak Hogshead
2x 2012 ex-Oloroso Sherry butts
1x 2013 ex-Oloroso Sherry butt


Let’s give it a taste!

Elements of Islay Cl14 - 50.1%

Evan’s Tasting Note

Nose: Full of barbecue and berry jam. Strawberry and raspberry notes along with a smoky ocean breeze, grilled seafood, malty grains, and a squeeze of fresh lime.

Palate: Plenty of charred oak along with more coastal notes and that dash of citrus again. Oh Henry chocolate bars, apple slices, cranberry juice, can...

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Kensington Wine Market's 2023 Whisky Calendar UBER EDITION Day 14 - SMOS Clynelish 26 Year

Posted on December 14, 2023

by Evan.

As far as I can tell, this might be the only Clynelish Single Malt Scotch that has made its way into a KWM Whisky Calendar so far. This is a little bit frustrating for me, because it means I cannot liberally copy and paste content from a prior blog post I have written. Instead, I have to write this from scratch!

Enough about my woes, though. I am sure tasting this whisky after I write the post will soothe all of the so-hard-done-by feelings I am having now. I have heard great things about this bottle from others, so let's get this Clynelish write-up done and move on to the dram!

I have written bits and pieces of content regarding Clynelish in the past, but indirectly, as most of that content had to do with Compass Box. That is a good place to start talking about Clynelish, though, because blenders LOVE this whisky.

Remember the talk about Glen Grant No. 2 – I mean Caperdonich Distillery – back on Day Seven of the UBER Calendar? Well, the Clynelish we will taste today is essentially from Clynelish No. 2. In this version of the distillery story, It is Clynelish No. 1 that gets the axe. This story has more of a happy ending though, because Clynelish No. 1 has just risen from the ashes. Or maybe we should call it Clynelish No. 3? We will decide that later.

Way back in 1819, a distillery named Clynelish was founded by the first Duke of Sutherland. The distillery remained in operation for more than a century, with the usual changes in ownership and such. In 1931, the distillery was mothballed and went silent for nearly three decades. Production did not resume until 1960.

This is where it gets interesting. Like with Glen Grant No 1. And No. 2, a SECOND Clynelish distillery was built right next door in 1967. However, one year later in August of 1968, it was Clynelish No. 1 that got the axe and was shut down. That first, original Clynelish distillery was reopened a year later, but under a different name and using peated malt. The new name for Clynelish Distillery No 1.: Brora.

Brora Distillery only remained in production until 1983, when it closed for good, or nearly for good. Since the closure, Brora has become one of the most highly sought-after and mythic of all closed distilleries, with plenty of Brora whisky enthusiasts needing increasingly deep pockets to chase more and more expensive releases of its whisky. Only Port Ellen – a closed Islay distillery – could match Brora for being so highly regarded and loved after it was already gone.

Brora Distillery officially reopened on May 21st, 2021, after being closed for more than 38 years. The original distillery has been rebuilt, and the old stills were refurbished thanks to heavy investment by owner Diageo. Port Ellen should be officially reopening soon as well…

Anyhow, Clynelish No. 2 is the official and only Clynelish Distille...

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