Arran goes 20

Arran distillery is the latest distillery in bottling 20cl-bottles. A marvelous idea for those of us who with to sample as much as possible without having to buy a whole bottle everytime (this is quite important for us who live in town without a proper whisky bar) – I belive the tecnical term here is “ticker”.

One of the premier sources of 20cl-bottlings have been Douglas Laing with their Advanced Samples range, in addition to Diageo, Wm. Grant & Sons and a few others.

The first round of expressions, and let there be many more, is of two cask finishes: Madeira and St Emillion. They are available from Loch Fyne Whiskies at £14 a bottle (50% abv.).

Whisky in a tube

The number one French retailer of whisky, Le Maison du Whisky, has come up with a new type of whisky miniatures – Whisky In Tube.

What they seem to have done is to crack open regular bottles and used them to fill these tubes. The selection available is not what you’d normally find in the mini-departement. Of those currently on sale you can find Monkey Shoulder, Peatbull (LMdW special), Nikka Pure Malt (trilogy), Oak Cross, Penderyn peated, Bernheim Bourbon, several Arran wood finishes, Isle of Jura and several Edradour SFTC-versions.

Prices range from €4.50 to €7.50 per tube, and they have also put together several gift-packages. With a regular 5cl-mini ranging from £2 (€2.50) to £7 (€8.80) in the UK these are a tad bit more expensive, since it’s 20% less in the tube – but a great deal since it’s whiskies unavailable in other that the regular size bottles.

As far as I’ve been able to pick up from their website (my knowledge of French is extremely close to non-existent) the procedure of “bottling” the tubes also removes the air, and the cap is hermetically sealed.

The 4cl-size is chosen since it’s the “ideal dose for a degustation of spirits” (thank you Google Translate).

The apperance of smaller size bottlings than the regular 70cl gets my whole hearted support. Hopefully these tubes will be found elsewhere than just in France.