More Distillers Edition’s

As the line-up of Classic Malts continue to increase, so does Diageo’s wood finish series. The latest member of the Classic Malts group to be finished in a special type of cask is Deeside’s Royal Lochnagar.

Ardbeg Blasda – pictures

Last night a unofficial launch tasting of Ardbeg Blasda was held at the Dr Jekylls Pub in Oslo, Norway. Unfortunately I was nowhere close to this location at the time of the tasting, so no Blasda for me – yet.

But I have been most fortunate as to nick a couple of pictures and some tasting notes from the forumpages of the Norwegian Malt Whisky Society. Regards to the user ioeverga who posted the following pictures and notes:

Colour: White wine, same as Ardbeg TEN

Nose (22): Some peat, starting off oily, nuts, sweet, jasmin. Liquorice steps forward with the adding of water (one drop). Some grassy/herbal notes come out in the end after heating the glass with my hands, also a powerful aroma of green apples. Most definately Ardbeg, but not quite as expected.

Palate (23): Much more concentrated then what would be expected at 40%! There’s peat, sweetness, liquorice and oily at first. Aples, cocao and herbs after a while.

Finish (23): Peat and herbs/grass, dry. Medium to long. The flavour goes towards cocao (corresponding to the peat in VY, SY and AT).

Balance (24): Taste = Smell. there’s a return trip both in smell and taste. It’s a bit lighter on the nose than on the palate, but all in all it’s a very nicely balanced Ardbeg that delivers aroma and flavour in a very nice way.

Conclusion (92): This is good Ardbeg, lightly peated or not, Ardbeg it is!

UPDATE 1: Another user (Lars Helge) has given it 7 out of 10 points.

Btw. Ardbeg Blasda is scheduled for international release on 28th September.

UPDATE 2: Changed the date to 28th September (from 8th), as the original information (from the Norwegian importer) contained a minor typo.

UPDATE 3: Official picture of the Blasda (Copyright (c) 2008 Ardbeg/Glenmorangie Plc):

Norwegian News: September

The Norwegian state monopoly, Vinmonopolet, releases new items every second month. The month of September brings with it a total 16 different whiskies, 15 single malts and one bourbon. All items are released in the Order-assortment (can be ordered in any store or on the web). Prices of the news range from 399 NOK (£40.37) to 10.000 NOK (£1011.74). Start of sale is on Saturday 6th. September, consumers can not order any of the following items before this date. Note that prices given in Pound Sterling (£) are calculated using the today’s (28th Aug) rates of exchange (£1=9,84 NOK).

Breaking News: Glendronach sold to BenRiach

Chivas Brothers Press Release:

Chivas Brothers, the Scotch whisky and premium gin business of Pernod Ricard, the world’s co-leader in wine and spirits, has today announced the sale of the Glendronach distillery to The Benriach Distillery Company Ltd.

Christian Porta, Chairman and Chief Executive of Chivas Brothers, comments: “We are pleased to be selling this distillery to The Benriach Distillery Company Ltd, who will be able to give it the attention and commitment it deserves. We currently have 13 operational malt distilleries, including the recently re-opened Braeval distillery and we have also started significant expansion plans for The Glenlivet Distillery, which is one of the top 15 priority brands of Pernod Ricard. Therefore, our focus is to continue to develop and improve these distilleries.”

Bruichladdich 2001 Vintage for Jon Bertelsen

Jon Bertelsen is the name of the importer of Bruichladdich whiskies in Norway, and due to some rigid use of rules (and no brains) Norway ended up with a very speical bottling of Bruichladdich that nobody else is getting.

Glenmorangie Signet

When the Glenmorangie range was revamped the new logo, The Glenmorangie Signet (below left), was a very promient feature on the bottle and boxes. It is also the basis for the caleidoscopic design on the webpage. The logo is derived from the bottom panel (below right) of a Pictish stone found in Hilton of Cadboll, near Tain (where Glenmorangie is produced). The stone itself is today at the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, while a copy has been erected on the original site – more on the stone at Wikipedia.

Ardbeg Blasda and even Mór, part II

Just an update mainly for my Norwegian readers.

Ardbeg Blasda will be lauched in Norway on Saturday 6th September. The price will be 599,90 NOK (£59). The Norwegian importer (Moet Hennessy Norge) is very excited about this bottling, and says it’s absolutely fab.

Ardbeg TEN (new) will hit the shelves as soon as the old bottles start running out. With normal sales in the coming weeks this should be towards the end of September.

Ardbeg TEN (4.5l), or the Arbdeg Mór II, is actually just a 4.5 litre bottling of the normal Ardbeg TEN. The number of bottles will at start be limited to each market, bue the bottles will not be numbered. This is will be a part of the Ardbeg line-up, so no need for hoarder to line up for a quick profit. It will be bottled at the normal Ardbeg strength of 46% abv. The release in Norway will again be on Saturday 6th September, and the price will be 3999 NOK (£395 – compared to the 4999 NOK (£494) pricte-tag on the original Ardbeg Mór. This is a 120 NOK (£12) premium on top of the price compared to the normal TEN-bottle.

Ardbeg Renessaince has been available for the on-trade market in Norway for about a month now, but will be released, also, on Saturday 6th September for regular consumers. Approx. 660 NOK (£65) is the price one must be willing to pay to get ones hand on a bottle here in Norway.

An empty bottle – that’s £320 please!

New distilleries pop up all over the world, such is the attraction of whisky these days. The main problem for new distillers is of course cash flow – how to make money while one waits until the spirit matures into whisky.

Many lean on sales of casks, futures, early editions (at the stroke of 3 years) and the like – the main issue is to find a new approach to the matter. And a quaint idea is coming from a new Danish distiller (yep, the Danes are also in on the whisky-game).

Distillery of the month: Tomintoul

I’ve thought of making a thing about Distillery of the Month (DotM), and with a new (for us) distillery making it’s way onto the Norwegian market, this is as good a time as any. First distillery out of the blocks is the Speyside distillery Tomintoul.

A Spanish Grouse

The Trust-owned Edrington Group (through Maxxium Global Travel Retail) and the german family-owned Travel Retail-operator Gebr. Heinemann has put out a new exclusive for Airports – The Famous Grouse Spanish Oak.

The whisky starts life as a standard Famous Grouse, but is exposed in a greater degree to fresh ex-sherry casks, giving it a sweeter and richer flavour. It’s bottled in 50cl glass bottles. So if you like the Famous Grouse, this’ll be a nice experience.

It will only be available at airport stores run by Gebr. Heinemann for a RRP of €16 (the price in Norway is 129 NOK). Heinemann have stores at the following airports: Ankara, Antalya, Bergen, Berlin-Tegel, Berlin-Schoenefeld, Bourgas, Bratislava, Bucharest, Budapest, Cape Town, Dalaman, Dortmund, Dresden, Duesseldorf, Durban, Erfurt, Frankfurt, Frankfurt-Hahn, Graz, Hamburg, Hannover, Istanbul, Izmir, Johannesburg, Koeln, Copenhagen, Kristiansand, Leipzig/Halle, Linz, Ljubljana, Maribor, Moscow Domodedovo, Oslo Gardermoen, Podgorica, Portoroz, Saarbruecken, Salzburg, Stavanger, Tallinn, Tirana, Tivat, Tripoli, Trondheim, Varna, Vilnius, Vienna and Warsaw.

Tasting note:

• Appearance: Deep russet, clear and bright
• Aroma: Ripe strawberries, orange peel, prunes and fruit cake
• Palate: Sweet, black cherries, humbugs and dark chocolate
• Aftertaste: Long, rich and sweet