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KWM Advent 2018 Day 8 – Kilkerran Visitor Center Bottling

Posted on November 12, 2023

by Andrew

So today’s whisky is really cool… it is the visitor center bottling from Glengyle Distillery, aka Kilkerran, in Campbeltown. The good folks at J. & A. Mitchell & Co, aka Springbank, Glengyle and Cadenhead, in Campbeltown, were keen to take part in this year’s KWM Whisky Advent Calendar, and this is what they came up with. We didn’t get full-sized bottles, you have to go to the distillery for those, but we do have a surplus of 50mls, and we couldn’t be more pleased. The whisky is only available at the distillery, and KWM!

Glengyle is an interesting distillery. It was founded in 1872 by William Mitchell during a major boom in distilling in Scotland. Mitchell’s Glengyle Distillery was opened in Campbeltown by William Mitchell, one of Archibald Mitchell, the founder of Springbank Distillery’s sons. William and his brother John ran the Springbank Distillery in partnership. The family had a farming background, which was quite common at the time, with many distilleries starting out as farms converting some of their surplus production to whisky. The spent grains from making beer and or whisky were then and still are a popular animal feed. William's other brothers and sister ran another Campbeltown Distillery, Rieclachan.

When William and his brother John had a falling out, allegedly over sheep, William left Springbank and opened Glengyle. Campbeltown was then as it is now a small town, and less than 100 meters separated the two distilleries. The last decades of the 20th century were a boom time for Scotch whisky, and there was nowhere in Scotland where this was felt more strongly than Campbeltown. At the end of the 18th Century, there were no fewer than 31 illicit stills operating in the area. When Alfred Barnard, the great Victorian whisky writer came calling in 1885 the town had 21 operating distilleries. At the height of the boom, Campbeltown was said to have more than 30 distilleries, a number only eclipsed by the volume of churches. This was not because the people of Campbeltown were especially prosperous, but rather a means of keeping the temperance movement at bay.

Boom turned to bust in the first years of the 20th Century. Many of Campbeltown’s distilleries closed. Glengyle was sold to West Highland Distillers in 1919, and then again in 1924 for just £300. The distillery closed altogether in 1925, and it stocks put up for auction on April 8th the same year. The buildings remained rather miraculously intact for the following 79 years. During this time the building was used as a shooting range, a depot and offices for an agricultural firm and eventually a cooperative. Several attempts were made to revive the distillery both before and after World War 2, but none of them came to fruition. That was until 20...

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SMWS Canada December 2018 Outturn

Posted on October 25, 2024

It probably goes without saying that things move at a frenetic pace this time of year at Kensington Wine Market. As a retail store, we have plenty of people coming in our doors to complete some festive holiday shopping. Beyond that, you can look at this blog and see a new post each day through Christmas Proper going up for our very own, made in-house 2018 Whisky Advent Calendar. If that isn't enough, add in the general KWM Chaos(TM) and the periodic social media-related directives whims of our Fearless Leader. The planet itself even possibly conspires against us, seemingly spinning faster near the end of the year - never leaving enough minutes in the day to get everything done.

Even with all of this going on, we still find time for the monthly Scotch Malt Whisky Society of Canada Outturn tastings - and for good reason. With all of the encroaching cacophony at least one of us needs to taste their way through seven new cask strength, single barrel offerings.

Call it my own way of searching for zen in these times of more severe entropy; aspiring to find it in green bottle form. If other people attend and manage to put up with my eccentric ramblings and taste along then all the better. My ego also demands satisfaction!

All that said (or perhaps better left unsaid), if you are reading this you probably aren't here for me - you want the details on those wonderful bottles in the lineup. Here is what were are looking at for December 2018:


Speyside, of course, is represented. However, it only makes an appearance in three of the seven bottles, which is somewhat low considering how many distilleries reside in the region. All three of the Speysiders are owned by one company. Unsurprisingly I feel each of them are far better than anything official put out by that company. Hello Corby/Pernod-Ricard!

One of these Speysiders is rarely seen in any form beyond blends: Distillery number 108. This is, in fact, the first time an SMWS 108 has made its way to Canada.

The Highland Island region is represented on two bottles, including a premium SMWS bottle from Distillery 31 - that bottle is one of the oiliest whiskies I can recall ever tasting. It is quite a treat!

It is the first time in a long time (years even!) we have seen SMWS Canada bottles from numbers 72, 31, and 26. The 26 is a delicious treat showing typical waxy fruit notes but also including an abnormal amount of saltiness...

The Islay bottle is amazing and likely won't make it to the shelves before selling out. It may only be nine years old, but this 10 is amazing, drinking well beyond its age in my opinion. I do have a love for that distillery though...


 



When the dust settled, we were looking back at a fun Outturn that allowed...

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KWM Advent 2018 Day 7 - Arran 10 Year

Posted on November 29, 2024

by Andrew

 

Image courtesy of @frombarreltobottle


It would probably surprise many to know that Arran whisky outsells the World’s THREE bestselling single malts, Glenfiddich, Glenlivet and Macallan, in our shop… combined!!! There are good reasons for this. Firstly, Arran offers amazing value. Whether it is this 10 year old ($60), the 14 Year ($80) or the 18 year ($120), Arran offers almost unrivalled value when it comes to their single malts, and not by cutting corners. We love the fact that they bottle at 46%, which as we all know is the new 40 after all. The reason the whiskies are so good comes down to a slow, careful distillation and the use of only the finest oak barrels.

It is hard to believe that the Arran distillery is now 23 years young. I still remember the early years, well before they launched their first official 10-year-old when the whisky was all no-age-statement offerings. They did some interesting things back then including single cask, cask strength whiskies finished in all kinds of oak from Lepanto Brandy and Rum to Trebiano D’Abruzzo, Champagne and Calvados casks. That last one got them a rap on the knuckles from the thugs at the Scotch Whisky Association. That particular bully of a Big brother is always watching…




[caption id="attachment_7488" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Isle of Arran Distillery"][/caption]

Nearly 24 years on Arran, is going from strength to strength. Just this week they announced a new edition to their core range, the Arran 21 Year. It goes without saying that we can’t wait to try it and neither can our customers. But there were tough times along the way. There were many times in the early years that the firm nearly went under from cash flow woes, a common concern in the opening of any new distillery. But the hard work, blood, sweat and tears have all paid off.

The owners of Arran are also doubling down on their production on the island they named their first distillery for. A year after doubling the capacity at Arran, in the scenic town of Lochranza on the north of the Isle of Arran, Isle of Arran Distillers began construction of a new distillery at Lagg, at the South end of the island. After over a year of construction and a number of unforeseen delays, the Lagg Distillery is nearly complete, and set to open late this year or early next. The plan as we understand it is to focus on peated whisky at the new distillery once it is up and running.

One other notable thing about Arran, we have bottle more single casks of Arran than any other distillery. I’ve lost count of the actual number, but the two we have in stock now, the Arran 1996 KWM Cask 559 21 Year, and Arran 1...

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KWM Advent 2018 Day 6 - Shelter Point Single Malt KWM Cask

Posted on November 12, 2023

by Andrew




 

Image courtesy of @frombarreltobottle


Shelter Point is not the first craft distillery in Canada to focus on whisky, that honour surely belongs to Cape Breton’s Glenora Distillery. Nor is it the first to produce a Scottish style single malt. There again, Glenora has them beat by more than 20 years with their Glen Breton Single Malt.

But there is something unique about Shelter Point, a similarity to the early Scottish distillers that is unique in the booming craft spirits industry in Canada. Shelter Point is first and foremost a farm. At the moment the berry sales to jam makers like Smuckers are really what's paying the bills. The farm also grows barley, and what better way to add value to your product than make something more valuable from it. Founder Patrick Evans describes himself as a “farmpreneur”, and I can’t think of a better way not only describing Patrick but Shelter Point itself.




[caption id="attachment_7470" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Shelter Point Distillery"][/caption]

Patrick Evans’ is a third-generation farmer whose family has been farming in the Comox Valley of British Columbia since the turn of the 20th Century. He is now joined in the business by at least one of his three daughters and his son in law Jacob. Patrick purchased the land that is now Shelter Point Farm and Distillery in 2005. Situated along the coast of Vancouver Island where the Oyster River meets the sea, it was formerly a University of British Columbia research farm with a large dairy barn. That dairy barn now serves as warehousing and barley storage.

[caption id="attachment_7471" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Shelter Point Distillery"][/caption]

Construction on the distillery began in 2009, with the first spirit running in 2011. As with many other new and small-scale distilleries, white spirits provided some cash flow until the first whiskies were ready for sale. The first single malt, a 5-year-old, was released late in 2016. It was a big hit. The distillery has released a half dozen other expressions since then including a number of single casks, which takes us to today’s KWM Advent bottle.

This is the first of two Canadian single malts in the 2018 edition of the Kensington Wine Market Whisky Advent Calendar. We’ll leave it to your imagination to guess what the other is… This is also the second year in a row in which we have had a Shelter Point Single Malt in our calendar, but this year's version is extra special. This time around we are showcasing our first Kensington Wine Market...

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KWM Advent 2018 Day 5 - Cadenhead Tomintoul-Glenlivet 12 Year

Posted on November 12, 2023

by Andrew

 

Today’s dram comes from the Speyside distillery of Tomintoul. It is a 12-year-old bottling, distilled in 2006 and matured in Bourbon Barrels. The whisky was bottled by independent bottler WM Cadenhead for their French importer Dugas, at 55.5%. Dugas didn’t take the entirety of the bottling, so the stock was made available for our Advent Calendar.

 

 

About WM Cadenhead Part II: If you’ll refer back to Day 2, we left of the Cadenhead tale with the death of George Duncan. William Cadenhead assumed control of the firm, renamed it after himself and married Duncan’s widow. William Cadenhead was a well-liked man, but his renown had next to nothing to do with his business acumen or success as a vintner or distillery agent. His real talents lay in poetry, which made him something of a minor celebrity in the Aberdeen area.

 
 

[caption id="attachment_7456" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="William Cadenhead"][/caption]

Cadenhead’s output of poetry was prodigious, but whisky seldom featured in his works, though there was one notable reference to it in his poem Kittybrewster: “‘Her dram was good, but O, her ale!” Cadenhead was a fixture of the Aberdeen business community and society. In 1886 he spoke at the first dinner of the Aberdeen wine and spirits trade, against the temperance movement which was gaining momentum in Scotland:

‘their maligners blamed them for all the evils in the world, and he believed that if they could change the text of Scripture, they would make it read that Adam was tempted with a glass of beer. […] Their opponents would not believe them, but they knew that their motto was: “Let your moderation be known unto men.”’

Cadenhead lead a long and successful life and was friends with William Carnegie, father of Andrew Carnegie. He passed away in his 86th year, ancient for a Scot at the time, which would have been notable, were he not outlived by all five of his siblings, one of whom lived to be 97. On his death in 1904 his nephew and partner, Robert Duthie took the helm of the distillery. And this is where we will leave this installment on WM Cadenhead, to be continued in Part III.

[caption id="attachment_7457" align="aligncenter" width="396" caption="Cadenhead and Carnegie"][/caption]

As for today’s distillery, Tomintoul, the distillery opened in 1965 near the village of Tomintoul in Scotland’s Cairngorm Mountains. Tomintoul is the highest village in the Highland...

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