Anyone who’s been drinking whisky for a few years now will no doubt have noticed “change”. Brands have changed their packaging and labels. Distilleries have changed their core-range or introduced new expressions into their line-up. Prices have changed. Distillery Managers and Brand Ambassadors have changed. According to some, whisky itself has changed! Another key area that has changed (and will continually evolve and change) is whisky’s marketing. In particular, each whisky brand’s image can change. And few brands can match the change in persona that has overcome Highland Park.
Tag: Single Malt
The Top Six things to do in Speyside
[Updated April 2024] Yes, of all the things to do in Speyside, the most obvious is to visit the distilleries and drink whisky. But there’s so much more on offer if you look beyond the distilleries…
Ardnamurchan – The western jewel of Scotland
(Or everything you wanted to know about Ardnamurchan but were afraid to ask!)
In this digital age of whisky websites and social media activity, there are very few secrets left in the whisky industry. Once upon a time, a new distillery would suddenly appear and no one knew much about it except for what might have been published in a subsequent book. Today, by the time a new distillery’s first release is bottled, it seems we’ve all followed the journey of the distillery breaking ground; building the stillhouse; installing the stills; starting production; and filling the casks. We’ve done the virtual tour of the distillery before the Visitor Centre has even opened its doors!
One of the primary reasons for this is simply because most of us will never get to make the journey to the distillery, and thus we live and drink vicariously through what we read and view online. Consider, also, that not all distilleries are blessed by geography: Auchentoshan and Glenkinchie, for example, are an easy bus ride from the big city centres of Glasgow and Edinburgh respectively, but things are trickier for the more remote distilleries that sit well off the tourist trail or are located on the fringes of Scotland’s reaches.
Ardnamurchan is one such distillery. If you’re looking to start up a new distillery, your choice of location is fairly critical. In addition to the most obvious requirement (i.e. a good water source), other considerations will be existing infrastructure, convenient access, shared resources, a ready-made tourist trail for visitors, and ease of transport for both the delivery of materials and the departure of spirit and filled casks. So – with all these essentials being key to a successful distillery venture – why would you choose to locate your distillery in one of the most far flung, remote, and inaccessible parts of Scotland? In the case of Ardnamurchan, the answer is pretty simple: Because they can.
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The dark side of whisky samples and bottle splits
You might think that sharing whisky samples or organising a bottle split between friends is a harmless undertaking. Arguably so. But there is another side to the equation…
Last week I walked into a fancy steakhouse – a restaurant that’s run by one of Australia’s leading and most well-known restauranteurs and celebrity chefs. I was shown to my table and handed the menu. Wow…it showcased an amazing selection of gourmet choices, although with price tags to make most of us squirm. There was one particular steak that stood out – it was a particular cut of wagyu that sounded out of this world. As was its price tag! I’d love to have treated myself to it, but it was more than what my budget could justify. Besides, there were much cheaper steaks that also looked pretty tempting, and I couldn’t order two meals now, could I? I resigned myself to the fact that I’d probably have to order one of the cheaper, more regular cuts.
As I pondered this situation, a waiter brought the main course out to the couple who were sitting at the table next to me. I couldn’t help but notice that the man had ordered the very wagyu steak I was lusting for. 20 minutes later, as they settled into their meal, I leaned across and said, “Excuse me – I was just wondering if you’d mind cutting off a piece of your steak and giving it to me so that I can try it?”
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It’s nonsense, isn’t it? You’d never have the temerity to do such a thing or to make such an undignified request. So why does this very situation play out in the whisky world? We wouldn’t do it with food at a restaurant (yes, for the record, the above story was a fictional allegory), yet plenty of people are quite happy to make similar requests when it comes to whisky. It’s the dark side of whisky samples.
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Ardnamurchan 2016/AD
It’s hardly shiny or earth-shattering news to write that new distilleries are popping up all over Scotland. In fact, such a statement is unlikely to pique any interest amongst the more learned whisky enthusiasts. However, what does become interesting is when you start to look at the geography of these new distilleries. Many are now re-populating the Lowlands, such as the Glasgow Distillery, or the wee-explosion of distilleries in Fife (e.g. Kingsbarns, Daftmill, etc). Others are adding to the spectrum of Speyside, such as Ballindalloch or Dalmunach.
When starting a new distillery in these current times, the owners will be looking for some key necessities when deciding upon the site of their distillery. In addition to the most obvious requirement (i.e. a good water source), other considerations will be existing infrastructure, convenient access, shared resources, a ready-made tourist trail for visitors, and ease of transport for both the delivery of raw materials and the departure of spirit and filled casks. So – with all these essentials being key to a successful distillery start-up, why would you choose to locate your distillery in one of the most far flung, remote, and inaccessible parts of Scotland? In the case of Ardnamurchan, the answer is pretty simple: Because they can.
Ardbeg Kelpie Committee Release & Ardbeg Untamed
For the review and tasting notes of the Ardbeg Kelpie Committee Edition, scroll further down.
With multi-tasking all the rage these days, this piece combines two distinct happenings involving Ardbeg. The second of these relates to Kelpie, this year’s new release to coincide with Ardbeg Day. But before we try and conquer that wee beastie, have you heard of Ardbeg Untamed?
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Glenmorangie Bacalta
At the start of every year, we all sit down with our calendar and enter all of our annual events and occasions: The public holidays. Your partner’s birthday. Your dentist appointment. Your wedding anniversary. The release of the next Glenmorangie Private Edition bottling. The excitement this year revolves around Bacalta.
Glenmorangie’s Private Edition range is a special once-off release that comes out each year to showcase a new variation of the Glenmorangie flavour profile. Through the use of different casks or wood regimes during maturation, or by using different varieties of barley (or different peating levels), the usual Glenmorangie DNA is given a tweak and a nudge to explore new and – without fail – delicious flavour territories. Some within Glenmorangie (including Dr Bill Lumsden himself) have hinted or suggested that the Private Edition range showcases experimentation but, to my palate, the results are consistently too successful and too good to be mere experiments. No, this is a product line that knows what it’s doing. And for those who are curious, in terms of volume, the Private Edition range makes up less than 1% of Glenmorangie’s total annual production, so it is genuinely a very limited product.
Visiting the distilleries of Tasmania
Are you a fan of Tasmanian whisky? Thinking of visiting Tasmania for a whisky trip, or organising your own Tasmanian whisky tour? Read on…
Bringing balance to the foreshots
A joint essay & publication by Matthew Fergusson-Stewart of Whisky Molecules, and Whisky & Wisdom.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, your two correspondents were co-hosting a tasting event together and explaining the distillation process to the audience, going into detail about the fractioning – better known as the foreshots, middle cut, and feints. We explained that the foreshots was heavy in methanols and other undesirable elements, which everyone was happy to accept. We also explained how the foreshots and feints are never wasted, but are mixed back in with the next batch of low wines, and the process continues repeatedly. Everyone was happy to accept that, too. Well, almost everyone. One chap sitting near the front objected: “If the foreshots keep being recycled and mixed back in, won’t you get a continually increasing build-up of methanol in the spirit?” Ummmm……
It’s a vexing question that’s since been posed to us both many times. What do they do with the methanol and where does it go?
Ardbeg Twenty One
Ardbeg. That wonderful Islay distillery with a cult following so devoted, over 120,000 fans from over 130 countries have pledged their allegiance to ensure the distillery never closes its doors again. Again? Yes, Ardbeg has quite a tale to tell…
Ardbeg has a weight, a brand, a persona, that is bigger than itself. It has a reputation for huge, bold, peaty whiskies, and its name travels so far and with such reverence that you could be forgiven for thinking it’s the biggest distillery on Islay. In truth, it’s actually the second smallest! With just one pair of stills churning away, its potential annual production capacity is just a trickle over 1.1 million litres.