Kensington Wine Market -

Blog

Singles Awareness Day

Posted on February 13, 2021

by Tracy

February 15th Is Singles Awareness Day!
Yes, that’s really a thing. Ugh. As if Valentine’s Day wasn’t enough to draw attention to our loneliness, now there’s another “holiday” to remind us of our non-coupleness.

For those of us who are romantically challenged, choosing the right wine is an important part of a single person’s life. It’s okay… I’m here to help you. Unfortunately, I can’t help you pick the right date – you’re on your own for that – but I can ease your mind when it comes to pairing wines for the right mood, occasion or maybe even the right person. Now go put on your party dress and let’s celebrate! Okay okay. Don’t. Go put on your pj's, grab a bottle of wine and let’s watch reruns of The Golden Girls (thanks, Amazon Prime).

It’s Your Party. Go Ahead, Cry if You Want To
Let’s face it. Breakups are never easy, no matter what the situation is or who made the decision. Breaking up is hard to do. Neil Sedaka even wrote a catchy little ditty about it (thanks, Mom). It’s very important to make sure you’re ready for anything as you pick up the pieces and move forward. If I was you (and, well… I am) I would grab a box of tissues, throw on The Notebook, and make some sweet & salty kettle corn popcorn. Now open a magnum of Champagne. My recommendation: Champagne Dumangin Cuvée 17. Unlike you and your last partner, these two belong together.

Think Outside the Box
When it comes to both dating and wine, it’s easy to stick with what you know. Some of you even go back again and again to whatever feels familiar, long after you’ve walked away. You really shouldn’t do that in your dating life, and you sure as h–e–double-hockey-sticks better not do that with wine! There are literally THOUSANDS of options out there for you to try and they are all pleading with you to get out of your comfort zone and take a chance on something new. We tend to go back to the same handful of wines when we browse the shelves while rejecting other fabulous recommendations. Maybe the label isn’t your style. Maybe you’ve never heard of that grape. Maybe it’s from a country you’ve never been to. Try it anyway! You just might fall in love with an unusual – and perfect – addition to your collection. I highly recommend a bold Italian that will make your mouth water. Here’s one: Titolo Aglianico del Vulture 2015.

Time to Celebrate Your Single Status
Picture this: you’re having a party with the people closest to you. Your bestie, your sister, the weird dude who lives in the basement, the clerk at your local liquor store… whoever it is, I’m not gonna judge you. You’re all gathered and the party theme is “Congratulations, you didn’t marry the wrong person!” What’s the best wine for this happy occasion, you ask? Bubbles! There’s always an occasion for good bubbly. Celebrate being single...

Continue Reading →

Scotch Malt Whisky Society of Canada January 2021 Outturn

Posted on October 13, 2021

by Evan

If you are reading this, then give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back. Even better - give yourself a round of applause! Hug your loved ones. Kiss your dog or cat if you are an animal lover. Somehow, you managed to survive the absolute horror show that was 2020. That does call for some rejoicing. How best to celebrate what will hopefully be a happier (or at least more stable) spin around the sun for us all? By tasting through the first Scotch Malt Whisky Society Canada Chapter's first Outturn of the year, of course! I have seven dram samples in front of me, so I had better get cracking!

A4.1 - The SMWS Canada has chosen to ring in the new year by starting with a dram from their spirits range. Dubbed ELEGANT AND INVITING, this is an Armagnac. I have been a fan of what I have seen for Armagnac from the SMWS so far - any chance you get to try a brandy at cask strength has to be a good thing, right? On the nose, I find this has plenty of wood notes and cherry sauce, along with dashes of cinnamon, orange peel, fruit leather and Christmas cake. The palate is remarkably big and chewy upon first sip - especially for a first dram - before it settles into syrupy sweet notes of dutch liquorice, boozy fruit cake, roasted hazelnuts and walnuts, Grand Marnier and cloves. This is a decadent dram for a number one!

85.64 is next on the docket. This is a specially chosen bottle that the SMWS Canada has to donate the proceeds from. The cause they will championing for newly launched Giving Spirit campaign will change with a new bottle launch each quarter. The proceeds from BAKED BANANAS AND BURNT BACON will be donated to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada. I am guessing many of you have already purchased a bottle given the good gesture and cause this supports, but I should give my notes on it anyway, right? The nose offers up toast with marmalade, wine gums, crisp malt, rich vanilla and a nice soft floral note underneath. The palate shows white pepper, chamomile tea with honey, lemon bonbons, plus a waxy and slightly drying finish. This is a tasty dram from Glen Elgin that leaves one feeling warm inside from both the whisky and the supported cause.

93.138 - My heart is all aflutter just with the excitement of having a Glen Scotia in this Outturn. I have really enjoyed the 93s we have seen over the last year or two from the SMWS, so SUSPEND YOUR DISBELIEF has some lofty standards to live up to in my mind. For the nose: Cotton Candy. Seriously. McCormicks Marshmallow Strawberries, confectioner's sugar, lemon-infused olive oil, dryer sheets, assorted jelly beans, cream soda, and so much more sweet delights. I think I developed a few cavities just nosing this one. Hopefully, my teeth don't just give up and fall out now, but on the palate, I get watermelon jolly ranchers, a touch of dry oak, saltwater taffy, and more of all of those confections and candy that you loved as a ki...

Continue Reading →

Merry Christmas! KWM 2020 Whisky Calendar Day 25: SMWS

Posted on December 16, 2024

by Evan

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

We made it, guys! It was hard work, but somehow we have gone through 24 drams in 24 days, and now we get to celebrate by tasting a 25th! Crack open the longer and larger door on top of your 2020 KWM Whisky Calendar and pull out that special, extra-large 100ml bottle: Today we have a gift from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society of Canada: this is SMWS

My reasons for writing these posts for each day are numerous, and they are all selfish. Here are the main ones:

I enjoy writing, and I especially enjoy foisting my silly ideas and opinions on others. It makes me feel important.
I especially enjoy the feedback I get from those that read what I say. I am a fragile snowflake and thrive on the accolades and opinions shared with me. It makes me feel loved.
If Andrew was doing these posts, I would end up editing them and likely having to write quite a few of them anyhow given the constraints on his time. Why not cut out the middle man?

Sure, those reasons are part tongue in cheek, but there is a ring of truth to all three. Here is the main reason. It is still selfish though, so don't go thinking that part wasn't one hundred percent truth:

I get to discover and learn about these whiskies along with everybody else.

Yeah, I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable when it comes to the subject of whisky. I should be - it is a big part of my job. But I don't know everything. I am a whisky enthusiast first and foremost, and I am always looking to learn more.

These blog posts allow me to do a bit of research and learn myself. Like you, I might retain a fact or two after I write these posts, and hopefully, that will give me more anecdotes and ideas to use when helping you or somebody else selects their next bottle. Hell, it even helps me pick my next bottle, all while getting to taste another whisky and read a little bit more about the distillery behind it.

I am thankful for all of this, and I am especially thankful that anybody would put up with my words as we tasted our way through the 2020 KWM Whisky Calendar. Thank you very much for joining me in this 25-dram undertaking!

Before I get even sappier, let's launch into talking about today's special whisky. Open the door at the top of your 2020 KWM Whisky Calendar and reveal The Scotch Malt Whisky Society 72.92 - A WONDERFUL WELCOME!

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society is the world's largest whisky club, and also an independent bottler. As a club, it has close to 30,000 members all over the world, and branches in close to 20 different countries. It bottles as broad a range of single cask, single malt Scotch whiskies as any other firm - if not more - and it doesn't stop there. It has also bottled Japanese whisk...

Continue Reading →

KWM 2020 Whisky Calendar Day 24 - Loch Lomond 12 Year Old

Posted on November 7, 2021

by Evan

The End Is Nigh! - on the 2020 KWM Whisky Calendar. When we pull out this bottle we will have opened all twenty-four panels on the front of the Whisky Calendar box, and we will only have the special bottle up top to open tomorrow. What do we have to look forward to today, so close to the holiest of days when we crack into that secret and special SMWS bottle? For Day twenty-four we have the Loch Lomond 12-Year-Old!

The Loch Lomond 12 Year comes to us from Loch Lomond Distillery. Founded in 1965, Loch Lomond is a bizarre operation that is capable of making multiple different styles of spirit all under one roof. The distillery is capable of producing Single Malt, Single Grain, and Blended Whisky entirely at one site. It can and does do this, and it also makes Single Malt in and a wide variety of styles, including both peated and unpeated types.

There are a total of thirteen stills within the Loch Lomond Distillery, however, they are definitely not all the same. Included in this number are your typical swan-neck style pot stills: the type you see at most Scottish distilleries that make single malt whisky. Beyond that though, things get weird. There are also three pairs of straight-neck pot stills, which are sometimes called Lomond stills. One of these pairs has a water cooling system installed on the top of the still that the heated vapour hits before going through the narrowing neck/pipe for collection. This results in much more reflux and leads to a lighter, softer, fruitier spirit being produced.

Last but not least, there is a six-story Coffey/column still that is actually split in two to accommodate the three-story building it resides in. This still is used to distill malted barley, but due to SWA regulations, it is still classified as a Single Grain spirit. The whisky made with this still is used in their blends, but you can occasionally find it bottled as Rhosdhu by indie bottlers.

With this unusual combination, Loch Lomond Distillery is capable of producing its own blended whisky entirely on-site, without having to source whisky from other distilleries. It is one of the very few (possibly only) active distilleries in Scotland and even the world to be able to do this.

Loch Lomond as a brand currently has three product lines for the different styles the distillery is capable of producing. Inchmurrin is the unpeated, lighter and fruity side of Single Malt Scotch. Inchmoan represents the more meaty, heavily peated end of the spectrum. Loch Lomond itself covers the space in between, focusing on a moderately peated style that still showcases plenty of fruity notes.There are other names that have been used on bottles in the past or on indie bottles as well - such as Croftengea which is another of Loch Lomond's peated styles.

Just to make things even mor...

Continue Reading →

KWM 2020 Whisky Calendar Day 23: Ardmore Legacy

Posted on November 7, 2021

by Evan

Day 23 brings us something a little bit different: this is a peated malt from the Highlands. Today's mini bottle is the Ardmore Legacy.

Ardmore distillery was founded in 1898 and was purpose-built to provide whisky for Blending, as pretty much all distilleries were at the time. However with Ardmore that hasn't changed much - even today just about all of Ardmore's production is still being used for blending, trading stock, or selling.

Only a small portion of Ardmore Single Malt Scotch lands in official bottles released by Ardmore and its parent company Beam Suntory, and the only official bottle that makes its way to Alberta the Legacy that we will be trying. Ardmore does also release three other bottlings, but one of them is duty-free only and the remaining two have yet to make their way to Canada.

Beam Suntory seems to treat Ardmore as the red-headed stepchild in its Scotch Whisky portfolio. When it comes to profile and releases, Bowmore and Laphroaig get plenty of attention, being the Islay darlings that they are. Auchentoshan in the Lowlands gets similar treatment. Even Glen Garioch gets more releases, and that is saying something!

Maybe they are reluctant to give Ardmore any love publicity or release-wise because they don't want to take away stock from its use in the Teacher's Highland Cream Blended Scotch. Or perhaps they don't want to focus on Ardmore and lose focus on another one of their peated brands such as Laphroaig, Bowmore or Connemara.

Or perhaps Beam Suntory is just happy to have Ardmore be a workhorse distillery that steadily produces whisky out of the limelight, just as they seem to be with Alberta which seems to be similar to the treatment Alberta Distillers has been given for much of the past decade or more.

At least they do mention Ardmore under Scotch though.

But I digress. Though there is a lack of official bottlings of Ardmore available, you can find indie bottlings of it quite regularly - the Scotch Malt Whisky Society has especially been a fan of it over the past few years. This is probably because Ardmore offers peated whisky at non-Islay prices. The 100 ml bottle that capped off our 2019 version of the KWM Whisky Calendar included an Ardmore titled 'BIG ON BACON'. That bottle sold out a long while ago sadly.

One of the reasons Ardmore is the heart of Teacher's Highland Cream and also sought after by independent bottlers is that just about all of the whisky produced at the distillery is moderately peated. I have only tasted one unpeated Ardmore that I can recall. There is also a lighter peated style that the distillery makes which is sometimes dubbed Ardlair. I suspect some of the Ardmore I have tasted have been this style, which tends to amp up the sweet, creamy and ashy notes of the whisky.

S...

Continue Reading →

Newer Posts →

← Older Posts