Glenwyvis Gin

What is it?

This gin was created to support the Glenwyvis distillery.  It is made in Shetland with some of the botanicals coming from Ross-shire including Hawthorne berries, Juniper, coriander, angelica root, cinnamon stick, orange and lemon peel, almond powder and orris root giving it a smooth taste.

Tasting Notes

Nose:  Intense crushed juniper berries.  Crushed citrus – lime.  Hints of lavender.  Very fresh and clean.

Taste:  Soft and floral.  Light.  Delicate.  A touch of mint.  Palate cleansing.

Conclusion

Still fresh and cleansing with tonic.  A good aperitif gin.  An antidote to the over botanicalled gins which are almost a meal in themselves.

 

To learn more visit The Whisky Shop Dufftown.

GlenWyvis Gin

El:Gin

What is it?

This gin is made in the heart of malt whisky country, Speyside.  You cannot argue with the statement that this gin is hand crafted.  The still is a traditional copper in the Al-Ambiq style.  Juniper is in there but does not dominate the profile.  The botanicals include locally grown fruits and Scottish oats.  A gin version of cranachan.

Tasting Notes

Nose:  Sweet with a hint of liquorice, parma violets, green apple peel and dried corriander.

Taste: Very floral with berry fruits, juniper, lavender and the chalky love heart taste.

Finish: Dried lavendar and corriander.

Conclusion

This is very drinkable neat as it is so well rounded.  The berry fruits make it a great tool for cocktails as well.  As a perfect serve gin and tonic?  Danger!  Danger! There is a reason why this gin comes with a cork rather than a screw cap.  Open a bottle for a couple of drinks with friends and you can just throw the cork away.  The bottle will not go back into the drinks cupboard.  It will go straight to recycling as you will have finished it.  Way way way to drinkable.

 

To learn more visit The Whisky Shop Dufftown.

El-Gin

 

Dufftown “The Malt Whisky Capital of the World”

It seems a good idea for my first travel to article to be about where I live.

Dufftown is the beating heart of the malt whisky industry.  The Dufftown distilleries produce something like 40 million litres of pure alcohol per year.  Over 10% of the industries capacity is in our town. That’s the same amount of alcohol as in over 140 million bottles of whisky.  That’s over 87,500 bottles per Dufftownite each year. We also have our own free angels’ share from the casks maturing here which is something like 14,000 free bottles of whisky a day being released in to the air around our very happy town. Whisky is literally in our blood.  If that is not a reason to come to Dufftown then what it?  All set in breath taking countryside.  Hills and valleys.  Sheep and Highland Cattle.  Plus some of the best whisky tours on Speyside at Balvenie and Glenfiddich.  You have to come!

Balvenie Distillery

Balvenie Maltingss

 

Breathing in all that angelic air is probably why each year we come up with so many different events from the norm for The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival.  Whether it’s finding the best malt to go with a bacon a roll or an in-depth tasting on the influence of different woods on the maturation of whisky we have it all.  We try and make whisky fun and informative for everyone.

The Last Drop @ The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival

Some other whisky retailers have told me my shop is in the middle of nowhere but all that The Malt Whisky Capital of the World has to offer is only an hour from the airports in Aberdeen and Inverness.  You may not get so many people as Edinburgh say, which may be a good thing, but what you do get is whisky people in the centre of whisky country.  Those other shops don’t get a still man from Glenrothes popping in to buy some beer, the head of distilling for Chivas Brothers dropping by in for a chat, Diageo’s key production guy for Speyside wanting your opinion on flanged stills or the visitor center manager for Glenfarclas dropping of some stock for you.  These are all local people.  You can meet them in my shop, in our restaurants, in our pubs or even our Coop.

Center of nowhere or the center of malt whisky?  Come to Dufftown and you decide.

Dufftown Clock Tower - The Center of the Center of The Middle Nowhere

Benriach Cask Strength Batch 1

What is it?

The formula focuses on 3 of BenRiiach’s favourite types of wood: ex-Bourbon casks; Virgin American Oak and ex-Oloroso sherry casks.

The biggest contribution comes from 1st fill ex-Bourbon Barrels although they are still less than half of the make-up.  Then there is an even split of BenRiach finished in Virgin American Oak Hogsheads and BenRiach finished in ex-Oloroso Sherry Butts.  The age is top secret.

The distillery described the whisky as classic honey, vanilla, soft oak from the ex-Bourbon, some very robust oak, big vanilla, strawberry shortbread and American cream soda from the virgin oak, and then the heavy fruits, dark chocolate and lots of body and depth from the ex-Oloroso sherry butts.

Tasting Notes

Nose:  Green bananas, mango and pineapple.  Peppery cherry flavoured boiled sweets.  Marzipan.  Freshly baked sponge cake.  Warm beech wood.  Earthy.

Taste: Creamy.  Mouth coating. Warm grapefruit with hot crème anglaise.  Cinnamon and star anise.  Spicy wood notes – circular saw cutting through the wood which is getting hot.  Then spiced warm orange liqueur.

Conclusion

A really nice whisky.  It is very much BenRiach and quite feisty.

To learn more visit The Whisky Shop Dufftown.

Benriach Cask Strength Batch 1

Glen Garioch Virgin Oak

What it is

Brand new American Oak casks.  Made from inner heartwood of 100 year old oak trees frown in the North American mountains, each barrel has been heavily charred inside to activate the woods vanilla and oak spices in readiness for the maturing spirit.

Tasting Notes

Nose:  Soft berries and cocoa dust followed by baked peach cobbler.  Orange boiled sweets and sweet runny honey.  Some perfumed notes: heather, lavender and violets.

Taste:  More orange sweet and peach cobbler becoming blood oranges covered in vanilla custard.  Much more spicy than the nose with cinnamon and star anise.  Fresh pine needles.

Finish:  Slightly wax with warming spice.

Conclusion

We really liked this whisky and it probably can claim to be the best of the current batch of Virgin Oak casks but it is pricey.

For more information go to The Whisky Shop Dufftown.

Glen Garioch Virgin Oak Small Batch

Longmorns Distillers Choice

What it is

Matured in 3 different types of cask: First fill American Oak barrels (sweet caramel notes), ex-Sherry (warm spices), traditional American oak [not sure what that means, dechar/rechar or 3rd fill may be – Ed].

Tasting Notes

Nose:  Sweet vanilla toffee.  Light raisin notes – Garibaldi biscuits & fig biscuits. Sweet – warm muscovado sugar.  Background of cherries and rose Turkish delight.

Taste:  Medium sweet.  Warm vanilla & pineapple cube sweets.  Hints of spice – cardamom, pickled ginger and chili powder.  Dunked malt biscuits.

Finish:  Spices linger, waxy and a little pickle.  Finally, a waft of fresh mint.

Conclusion

We liked here.  A really nice dram.  But it will be a big shock to Longmorn 16 lovers.

For more information see The Whisky Shop Dufftown.

Longmorn The Distiller's Choice

Indigo Definitley Go

if you have read my piece on my dietary issues you might understand how excited I was to discover a dairy and gluten free restaurant.  Indigo is situated in One Aldwych which is swanky hotel on, well, Aldwych obviously.  The restaurant decide to go gluten and dairy free as so many people were coming in with these dietary requirements. Thank you.

The lobby bar is very posh and relaxing at the same time.  The decor reflects the establishments passion to hang things upside down which adds a touch of fun.  We did feel that we were the only there that were not having a business meeting.

Off in to the restaurant which is a mezzanine style set up.  Very comfortable and not to cramped.  Now for the food.  It was amazing.  There was no sense of anything being missed flavour wise due to the missing dairy.

I started with Organic Rhug Estate Pork with Crackling, Granny Smiths and truffle mayonnaise.  This was nothing like I expected.  It was a much more refined and refreshing dish than I imagined and much better for it.  The flavours and textures combined wonderfully.  It was very refreshing a perfect starter.  Rather predictably for me I followed this with Organic Rhug Estate Lamb Rump with Samphire, smoked aubergine, capers and anchovy.  This was a very hearty dish and packed pull of favour.  The capers and anchovy worked well.  They were noticeable but not over powering.

My partner for the evening is vegetarian.  Yes, we really are the worst duo to serve. She took the option of creating her own salad which was great as she is vegetarian who does not like many vegetables.  The salad was packed with flavour and the house dressing was very tasty.  A big thumbs up.  To follow she had Hand Rolled Potato Gnocchi with new season asparagus and peas.  This was perfectly acceptable but while being very tasty the Gnocchi was a little dry.  The combination of flavours again worked very well.

We were pretty full by this point but our waiter who was incredibly friendly persuaded us to try Valrhona Chocolate Mousse, cherry sorbet and pistachio meringue as in his words, “it is the best in England”.  He is almost certainly right.  It was amazing.

The service was just right and very personal and the wine was great.

Obviously this was not a cheap meal but it was very much worth it for anyone’s diet in our opinion.  For me to sit down in a restaurant and not have to worry was a joy after a very difficult four months.

Our meals out before and after this were to two high end chain restaurants, one backed by a Michelin Starred chef could not have been more different.  Both had given assurances that they could handle my condition before we visited but at one I was left with one choice on the menu (no options could be tailored only coming as described on the menu) and at the other I had two choices and differing opinions between two servers on whether the sauce on one of those dishes was dairy free or not after I had started to eat it.  I was ill after both visits.

 

 

Glen Scotia Distillery

I recently went on a tour of Glen Scotia Distillery which has had a big revamp and it shows.  The distillery itself is quite compact which makes it easy to follow the process so makes this tour ideal for beginners and their are plenty of quirks for the certified anoraks like me.

Glen Scotia

While a lot of money has been spent on the premises you will not see a computer screen or digital read-out.  This is a hands-on manual distillery which now makes 500,000 litres of pure alcohol per year.

The technical stuff:

  • Two types of whisky are made: unpeated and lightly peated.
  • The barley is Concerto.
  • The malting is done in Aberdeenshire
  • The used peat for the lightly peated version is also from Aberdeen.
  • The mill is one of the few non Porteus

Mill

  • The mash tun is cast iron and out of a different era.

Mash TunRakes

  • Condensors – 9 x shell and tube (3 outside)

Condensors

  • The Cut – The heads are 78% to 71% with the heart at 71% to 63% and tail 63% to 1%.
  • Wash Still – 1 x Plain (7500 litres)
  • Spirit Still – 1 x Plain (8400 litres)

IMG_4297Inside the StillStillStill

  • All new make is filled in ex-Bourbon casks and some of that is finished in ex-PX casks for around 6 months.

With now 3 distilleries in Campebltown to visit it is now well worth the long and beautiful drive.

Glenlivet Nadurra Peated Whisky Cask Finish

What it is

This Glenlivet Nadurra is finished in heavily peated whisky casks and bottled at cask strength. The peated casks impact on the mature whisky with gentle aromatic smoky notes and there still remains the more tropical side of Glenlivet.

Tasting Notes

Nose:  Sweet and sparky.  Fish pie with smoked haddock.  BBQ’ed fruit.  Wet malt almost soggy paper with an ashy note.  Then there is light brittle toffee.  Jasmine.

Taste:  Creamy.  Chilli spice and white pepper.  A punch of peat, hot embers, and then toffee comes through.  Then fruit cocktail after a BBQ.

Finish:  Paper ash lingers.

Conclusion

It is a talking point whisky and may even be a cross over whisky for people who are fearful of peat.  It’s OK easy drinking peaty whisky.

For more information see The Whisky Shop Dufftown.

Glenlivet Nadurra Peated Cask

Benromach Organic 2010

What it is

Distilled 2010 bottled 2015.  Every step of its making is certified Organic too. Still the only one of its kind. The new spirit goes to rest in virgin American oak casks.  First distillery to produce a fully certified organic whisky by the soil association.  The whisky is unpeated.  Bottled usually between 5-7 years old.  The casks have come from an organic certified forest in Missouri.  Produce around 100 casks a year (3 weeks production in January usually!).  Currently experimenting with organic spirit in refill organic wood to try and see if we can prolong the ageing process a bit…

The barley comes from a farm at Mulben, and the farmer is the distillery manager’s bother in law!

Tasting Notes

Nose:  Sweet toffee malt. Sweet wet wood and kumquats Caramac bars with a hint of mint (mint pearl sweets) and cinnamon.

Taste:  Medium sweet.  Orange toffee.  Chilli chocolate spice.  Baked apples with nutmeg and baked oranges.  Wood spices.  That virgin oak prickle.  Develops with time and becomes more floral – orange blossom.

Conclusion

This is a great whisky and has great character.  In the last 10 years this is the whisky that has inflated least in price of all other whiskies that we can find.  It is not the whisky that 10 years ago that people used to think was matured in whisky casks but it is still well worth drinking.

For more information see The Whisky Shop Dufftown.

Benromach Organic 2010