Day 14 of the 2019 KWM Whisky Calendar - Ardbeg An Oa
Posted on January 22, 2025
by EvanFriday the 13th is over and now we are onto Saturday. Only 10 days 'til Christmas... Eve. If you open door number 14 on your KWM Whisky Calendar, you will see we are heading from France to Islay with today's mini - the Ardbeg An Oa.
What to say about Ardbeg? I love all Islay whisky and I do enjoy Ardbeg as well, but I am possibly underwhelming in my relative pragmatism for the distillery. Compared to the childlike enthusiasm for it that Andrew exhibits or the downright religious fervour Curt expresses for Ardbeg, I may come across as a wet blanket.
Of the three of us, I am the least qualified to extol the virtues of this distillery. Don't get me wrong - I do enjoy Ardbeg and its bottlings - especially its core range of the 10-Year-Old, Uigeadail and Corryvrecken. I just don't get as hyped up for the special releases. To hear Curt talk about them, you would think that special releases from this distillery were on the same level as a Ledaig or Loch Lomond. Preposterous, I say.
Now, excuse me while I remove my tongue from my cheek. There we go!
Ardbeg was founded in 1815. It is located on the coast of Islay, makes heavily peated Single Malt Scotch and is within walking distance of Lagavulin Distillery.
Forgive me for being trite. What can I say about Ardbeg that has not already been said? If you need more information on the distillery, check out the 2020 edition of the Malt Whisky Yearbook. Or just come into the shop and talk to Curt - just a few minutes ago I heard him recite the entire history of Ardbeg. Parts were in Seussian rhyming couplets, others were downright biblical in verse. It was a powerful moment. Here is part of his oration that I was able to remember and quickly write down:
"...Duncan MacDougall begat John MacDougall, who in turn begat Alexander MacDougall, who died and bequeathed the distillery to sisters Margaret and Flora MacDougall. There, the MacDougall Clan's reign over Ardbeg ended with the passing of the sisters, and was taken up by Colin Hay..."
As I said earlier, Ardbeg has four bottlings in their core range. Beyond that, they typically create one or two special releases each year. One of these is their Ardbeg Day bottling, which typically focuses on a different cask finish. For 2019, we had Ardbeg Drum, with which Ardbeg whisky was finished in ex-rum casks. We also saw very small amounts of the Ardbeg Traigh Bhan, which is a limited release 19 Year Old that the distillery plans to do a small run of each year.
For me though, the best of Ardbeg is that core range. Ardbeg 10 Year Old is possibly the best regular release 10-Year-Old from any distillery on the island. Ardbeg Uigeadail amps up the ABV and sees ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry casks married together to create a robust and flavourful whisky. Corryvrecken was the third in the main line to be released, ...
Day 13 of the 2019 KWM Whisky Advent Calendar - Armorik Double Maturation
Posted on April 21, 2022
by EvanLucky day number thirteen is here on the KWM Whisky Calendar. What is behind today's door? Another whisky, and another country. Don your black turtlenecks and get ready to battle over the national pension plan, because this time we are heading to France with the Armorik Single Malt!
Armorik Whisky is made by Warenghem Distillery of Brittany. Brittany is a region in Northwestern France. The region is a peninsula, surrounded by saltwater on three sides in the form of The Bay of Biscay, The Celtic Sea, and The English Channel.
Though it is part of France, Brittany counts itself as one of the six Celtic Nations as defined by the Celtic League. The other five nations are Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and the Isle of Man. Culturally, Brittany has such strong Celtic ties due to the migration of many large groups of Bretons between 450 and 600 AD. Much of this migration was a method to escape the Anglo-Saxon invasion of England. The Breton language is still spoken by a small minority of people in the Brittany region to this day.
The Warenghem distillery was founded in 1900 but did not start by making whisky. In the late 1960s, the distillery was moved from its original location in the centre of Lannion to the outskirts of the city. Original whisky production began in the 1970s and releases of this 1/4 malt and 3/4 grain blend called WB - or Whisky Breton - started in 1987. It was the first whisky produced in the region.
Single malt production did not start until later. Armorik is the name of Warenghem Distillery's Single Malt Whisky and it was released for the first time in 1988. It was the first-ever French Single Malt whisky to hit the market. Warenghem Distillery calls its single malt whisky Armorik, and its production emulates the Scottish style using small pot stills and double distillation.
Armorik bottles multiple Single Malt Whisky releases, though not everything they produce is available in Canada. Both the Armorik Classic Single Malt and the Armorik Sherry Edition can be ordered currently, along with the full-sized version of what we will be tasting today: The Armorik Double Maturation. Shall see what it is all about?
Armorik Double Maturation Single Malt
From Warenghem Distillery in Brittany, France. This Single Malt Armorik is aged for seven years total. The first portion ageing takes place in new casks made from French Oak from the area of Brittany designed specifically for Warenghem Distillery itself. For the second period of ageing, the whisky is transferred to ex-Oloroso Sherry Casks. The final product is bottled at 46% ABV non-chill filtered.
Evan's Tasting Note
Nose: Spicy oak, like taking a chisel or hand plane to a cedar plank, lemongrass, apple cider, mulling spices, pear slices, cinnamon hearts, vanilla, chamomile tea, hay, and malt...
Day 12 of the 2019 KWM Whisky Calendar - Compass Box Spice Tree
Posted on December 1, 2024
by EvanWhat is this? Our THIRD Blended Malt from a different producer in this year's calendar? It is almost as if we are trying to showcase how good this style of Scotch can be...
We make no secret of the fact that we at Kensington Wine Market are huge fans of Compass Box and their whisky. One of my personal favourite whisky experiences happened back in 2017, at Angel's Envy Distillery in Louisville, Kentucky. Keep reading, I swear this story doesn't have anything else to do with Bourbon...
Anyhow. Andrew and I are standing around, waiting for the distillery tour that we were booked in for to start. Andrew was in his typical Andrew standing at rest position - back straight, head tilted down, eyes on the cell phone in his hands - when none other then John Glaser walked right by us. The fact that were were in a Whiskey distillery notwithstanding, it seemed to be a strange place to run into the Master Blender and man behind Compass Box, so I did a double take. I tapped Andrew on the shoulder to get his attention, pointed at the man and said "hey, isn't that John Glaser"? Andrew confirmed it was, we went over to chat with him and made plans to meet up for dinner later. It ended up being one hell of a day, and gave me my first opportunity to chat with the man himself.
John Glaser is a wonderfully approachable man, just like the whisky his company creates.
The Compass Box Spice Tree is a Blended Malt Scotch, famous for once running afoul with the SWA - or Scotch Whisky Association. The SWA is a lobbying arm of the Scotch Whisky Industry as a whole, which enjoys telling companies what they can and cannot do in making whisky.
When the John Glaser introduced the original Compass Box Spice tree to the market 2005, he was using an innovative method to get the spice notes into the whisky he blended for it. This involved actually mounting toasted french oak staves into the centre of oak casks. The SWA, having too much time on its hands and possibly needing to justify the fees that it's member Scotch Whisky companies paid to belong to it, decided this had never been done in the history of Scotch Whisky and was therefore bad.
Compass Box was told by the SWA that it could no longer sell bottles of Scotch Whisky made in this fashion, essentially due to the process not being old fashioned. John Glaser was forced to find another way to create the style of whisky he was looking for, and came up with using new cask ends made from the toasted French Oak to create the same effect.
As an aside, in the time since this all went down Maker's Mark Distillery of Kentucky introduced a Bourbon that was made in a similar fashion: by mounting toasted French Oak staves within a barrel. Quite the innovative idea eh? I can't believe some sort of American Whiskey association hasn't tried to shut them down...
...
Day 11 of the 2019 KWM Whisky Calendar - Eau Claire Single Malt Whisky - Release 2
Posted on December 1, 2021
by EvanShifting gears and geographical location once more, door number eleven brings us a lot closer to home (if your home also happens to be Calgary or thereabouts). Today, our Whisky Calendar giveth to us Release 2 of Eau Claire Distillery's Single Malt Whisky!
Time flies. Eau Claire Distillery in the Turner Valley is now three years in on the whisky game. This year saw two whisky releases from them. Though we are tasting mini/50ml bottles of the Eau Claire Single Malt Whisky Release 2 that was behind door number eleven, the full-sized bottles of Release 3 were just made available on November 21st. The other whisky release from Eau Claire for this year was their Ploughman's Rye Whisky. That was there first Rye Whisky release, and boy, was it good stuff. if you can still track down a bottle, I would suggest doing so.
Let's go back a few years. Eau Claire Distillery was originally founded in 2014 by David Farran. It resides in the town of Turner Valley with is about an hour's drive southwest of Calgary. The Distillery was installed in what was once Turner Valley's movie theatre and Dance Hall, a building that was originally built 1929.
Eau Claire always planned to make whisky - more than that - they wanted to make whisky using grain from local fields when possible, even going old school and horse harvesting when they could. In order to do this the distillery of course needed income, and to enable this they have been making Vodka, Gin, and other spirits, and now even their own tonic water. This is party of the template for opening a distillery, and Eau Claire was the first craft distillery to do it in Alberta though many others have followed since.
The very good news for Eau Claire is that all of their products have been well-received, not just their whisky. Their story and operation gets people to make the trek to the distillery itself as well, or at the very least to go see their booth at the Calgary Farmer's Market, which is also good for income.
So far, the future seems bright for the Eau Claire Distillery, so lets pour a glass of their Single Malt Whisky and offer them a toast before jumping into the glass ourselves!
Eau Claire Single Malt Whisky Batch 002
The full sized bottles of this release are sold out, but Eau Claire was kind enough to bottle some of Release 2 in 50ml form exclusively for KWM and our Calendar. Release 2 was aged in a combination of ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry casks before being bottled at 43% ABV. Un-chillfiltered and with no colouring added. The whisky in this batch is between three and four years of age.
Evan's Tasting Note
Nose: More wood is prominent than I recall noticing in the inaugural release. Cocoa powder, nugat, toasted hazelnuts, and cloves along with underlying fruit notes of bananas, lemons, and fresh peach slices.
Day 10 of the 2019 KWM Whisky Calendar - Edradour 10 Year
Posted on December 1, 2024
by EvanDay ten is here, and opening the calendar door brings us a whisky from what for a long time was dubbed the smallest distillery in Scotland: the Edradour 10-Year-Old.
I have talked about it before, but Edradour as a distillery and brand does an amazing job of taking people that have gone to the distillery for a tour and turning them into brand ambassadors by the end of their visit. After I visited Edradour for the first time in October, I was able to see how this happens.
Edradour distillery is located in Perthshire, and is one of the more picturesque distilleries around - not just because of the buildings and their history and the whisky they make, but also due to the landscape it all resides on. The Edradour Burn is a stream/river that flows through the distillery property, which itself resides on a gently sloping hill. This view is especially impressive in the morning, with the fog not yet having dissipated entirely.
When you take in the entire scene, it is incredibly picturesque, on par for me view-wise with visiting Maker's Mark Distillery in Kentucky. One big difference between the two though, is that Maker's Mark goes through pains to show you how authentic and quaint and different from the rest it is. This is nice, but it is kind of like a person bragging about how humble they are. It is fun if they get the irony of it all and are intentionally saying it as a joke, but not if they are being earnest to the point of hypocrisy.
[caption id="attachment_9415" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="The picturesque Edradour Distillery - with another group starting on the tour to eventually become evangelized like the rest."][/caption]
Edradour doesn't seem to brag or boast much. It just is what it is: a small distillery (well, technically two distilleries now I suppose..) owned by Signatory, which itself a small(ish) independent bottler. Both located in the beautiful scenery of Perthshire in the Highlands. That is what makes nearly every visiter become an ambassador for the brand.
This specific bottle from Edradour that we will be tasting has special significance to me. Fifteen or so years ago, my Grandmother went on a trip to England. Since she knew I enjoyed Scotch, she bought this same mini bottle of the same Edradour 10 Year Old back to Calgary for me. I enjoyed the look of the mini bottle and its quaint little tube.
My Grandmother passed away about four years ago. She was old and her health was slowly failing, but the end was still rather abrupt. The look of the Edradour 10-year-old hasn't changed much in the 15 years since she gave me that mini bottle, in full-size or small scale form. Seeing the mini again after a decade and a half brings back a lot of good memories of her and how good she was to myself and her other grand-kids.
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