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1257 Kensington Road NW
1 (403) 283-8000 / [email protected]
$174.99 $157.49
Our second KWM cask from That Boutique-y Whisky Company has arrived! This undisclosed Speyside Single Malt was possibly saved from being blended into Chivas Royal Salute. It is 24 years old. 220 bottles were filled at a strength of 47.8% ABV.
Will you Glen-Love-it? We do, and we bet you will too!
Our first Boutique-y KWM bottle was from an undisclosed Highland Distillery that we know for certain is Clynelish, but which Speyside distillery could this 24 Year Old Single Cask be from?
With this Speysider, we don't know with 100% certainty, but That Boutique-y Whisky Company has done what they do best -beyond bottling great whisky that is - and offered up a few hints. Here is the first one:
"There are 46 Speyside distilleries so are you feeling lucky? Punk? Oops wrong movie reference
Seriously though, we really can’t tell you where this comes from, or indeed give you too many clues…
But don’t let that stop you from discovering this spectacular Speysider - we bet you’ll glen-love-it!"
Just in case that sounds like a red herring, here is the second hint:
"Our label is a riff on ‘2001 A Space Odyssey’ where a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins - a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer H.A.L. 9000.
Our spacecraft is this very modern (with the joint largest capacity) secret Speyside distillery, that can be run by just two men, and a computer."
Based on that, it has to be Glenlivet or Glenfiddich, right? And Glenfiddich single malt is never independently bottled as far as we can tell - only casks of Blended Malt that have been teaspooned with Balvenie or Kininvie are sold or traded off... Hmm...
Andrew's Tasting Note
Nose: creamy, waxy, and honeyed with floral top notes; French butter, creamed honey, marshmallow, and lemon oil; the fruits are predominantly in the citrus and stone fruit realm, but they are on the verge of going tropical; white chocolate, clotted cream, and chantilly cream.
Palate: so buttery, fruity, and soft; this is right up in my wheelhouse, old, oxidized, and only gently kissed by the oak; more white chocolate, marshmallow, and chantilly cream; baked apple, poached pears, honeydew melon, and dried apricot, with a little hint of kiwi peeking out; honey butter along with more of the French sort, from cows grazing in high alpine meadows; fresh virgin olive oil (Catalan), soaked up with white bread dipped in kosher salt.
Finish: long, warming, fruity, and floral with tingling decadent spice.
Comment: at the time we selected the cask I remember thinking it was a decent buy; good, mature whisky, at a very fair price; it is way better than I remembered, and frankly a steal; light, fresh, fruity, and oily, with just enough sweetness and spice; crushable & complex.
Evan's Tasting Note:
Nose: Apples, pears, and peaches - all sliced and mixed together with a dollop of whipped cream on top, along with vanilla-driven oak, well-weathered two-by-fours, waxy wine gums, angel food cake and a hint of dunnage.
Palate: More apples and pears, pineapple juice, sunflower seeds, Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme candy bar, tapioca pudding, and a touch of creamy mushroom soup with saltine crackers crushed and mixed in.
Finish: Creamy, sweet and smooth with lingering notes of apple and pear slices and drying wood spice.
Comment: In a world full of younger whiskies screaming attention by clothing themselves in sherry cask influence and/or heavy smoke and peat, this is a breath of fresh air. It is just a comfortably naked and very well-put-together Speyside whisky with a good amount of maturity and a reasonable price despite it.
That Boutique-y Whisky Company (TBWC) is part of the Atom Group, which also owns the UK retailer Master of Malt and a number of other subsidiaries. They are a dynamic and innovative firm, who by example invented the Whisky Advent Calendar concept. Established in 2012, TBWC is famous for its playful and colourful labels, which often feature prominent whisky industry figures, tell a story, and or elude to an inside joke. The labels are typically laced with hidden elements and "Easter Eggs."
TBWC bottles whiskies from around the world, though the bulk of their offerings are of Scottish origin. Most of their offerings are small-batch releases, Blended Malts, and Blends. Their "Head of Whisky" is Canadian Sam Simmons.
We are big fans of not only their whimsical labels but also the consistently high standard of liquid they bottle.
Browse all in-stock products from That Boutique-y Whisky Company.
$175.992
It is finally here... we have been teasing and talking about this whisky for months, and it was worth the wait. We are thrilled to introduce you to our first ever KWM exlcusive single cask from That Boutique-y Whisky Company. Although the bottle doesn't explicitly tell you which "Highland" distillery the whisky is from, there are clues on the label... 578 bottles have been filled exclusively for Kensington Wine Market at 51%. But we have nothing holding us back from telling you that Boutique-y Highland #2 is Clynelish... That's right, this is 20 year old Clynelish!
Andrew's Note on the Whisky & Label
Could that be a cat in the clouds, a Wild Highland Cat perhaps? Is it not strange to see a waxy candle-powered balloon? Incidentally, it is lifting the KWM whisky team aloft. And what of the monument? If we told you it was a controversial monument near the town of Golspie dedicated to the infamous Duke of Sutherland, would that give you all the information you need to know? What Highland Distillery has a Wild Highland Cat as its symbol, a waxy profile, and an infamous Duke as its founder?
This label is a cheeky take on a shared memory, with embellishments, embedded details, and Easter eggs, in the tradition of the best Boutique-y Whisky Company Labels. More importantly, it tells a story, which is personally important to my family. My mother was born into the Clann Gunn in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. Her ancestors roamed swaths of what is now Caithness and Sutherland in northern Scotland. That is until they were compelled to leave Scotland in the late 18th century, cruelly and rudely displaced to make way for sheep during the early days of the Highland Clearances.
On the label there is a ship at sea, heading to Canada presumably, as hinted at by the flags (the Canadian flag as it is today was only introduced in 1965). On the flat coastal plain at the base of the mountains sheep can be seen grazing. In front of the monument stand a pair of Canadians stand in hockey jerseys. Sam Simmons, Head of Whisky at Atom Brands, and a native Torontonian, stands closest to the monument in what appears to be a hockey jersey. Further back, a native Calgarian, yours truly can be seen waving a white hat, an iconic symbol of "Cowtown", whilst sporting a local hockey team jersey of his own. In the balloon Keith, Evan, Shawn & Curt can be seen waving at Andrew & Sam below. Speaking of those two, what are they doing atop Ben Bhraggie? Funny story that.
When TBWC offered us this cask of Highland Malt, they asked us what we wanted on the label, and I had a cheeky idea. In 2006 I made my first trip to Scotland, and on that trip, I hiked up Ben Bhraggie, a small mountain (really a foothill by Canadian standards) to see the monument of the infamous Duke. Someone had spraypainted the word "Monster" in neon green at the base. When I was sure no one was looking I dropped trow and relieved myself on it. I sent Sam an email of this tale, my connection to the area and my idea for the label. I was sure it was just a little too edgy...
Minutes later my phone was ringing... it was 3 AM in the UK, but Sam wanted to make sure I had seen his reply. He too had hiked Ben Bhraggie in 2005, and he had also paid his own respects to the infamous Duke of Sutherland...
One last little nugget, Keith, who is a personal trainer and headed to Beijing as a Team Canada Skeleton coach, felt his arm didn't look appropriately burly, in an early draft of the label. So we had the artist, Emily Chappell, 'bugs bunny' his arm... In case it isn't already apparent, nothing is sacred (especially when it comes to The Duke of Sutherland and Keith's pipes)!
And the rest as they say is history. On the back of every bottle, That Boutique-y Whisky Company includes the following text: "We are passionate about great whisky, we don't take ourselves too seriously and we LOVE a good story." No wonder these chaps are such a great fit to work with!
$1189.99
This bottle was featured on Day 23 of our 2023 KWM UBER Whisky Calendar. You can read the post on it here.
Once again our friends at Gordon & MacPhail have outdone themselves by offering us the opportunity to bottle this gorgeous cask. At 33 years of age, this 1988 vintage Bladnoch is the oldest KWM exclusive cask we have had the privilege of bottling since our Berry's 40-Year Blend more than 5 years ago. Filled into a Refill Sherry Hogshead on August 17, 1988, there were only 53 bottles left in the cask when it was bottled on the 21st of July, 2022 at 54.1%. A sister cask to this whisky, filled on the same day, is currently scoring 89.43pts on Whiskybase. I expect ours is even better!
This is another one of those KWM casks, where prior to sampling the whisky, Andrew said there was no way we were going to buy a full cask at that price. But the whisky is stunning, and when it was sampled by the KWM whisky team we knew we had to have it. It didn't hurt that the cask had only 53 bottles of liquid left in it at the time of bottling... those are some greedy angels!
$127.492
Gordon & Macphail continues to tee up amazing single casks for us. This 16 year old Glentauchers is from a Refill ex-Bourbon Barrel, bottled at 58.8%.
$134.991
Our 9th KWM exclusive bottling from Glenfarclas is a bottling of Glenfarclas 15 Year, at 56%. That abv is not cask strength, and nor is it random. As this is our first-ever door crasher bottling, we chose to bottle it at 56%, because the breaking occurred at 4:56 AM. There are also just 456 bottles... coincidence? Actually yes, that last one was a coincidence, we asked for roughly 450 bottles, and there are about 456!
