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“Because you can't buy happiness... but you can buy whisky and that's pretty much the same thing”

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Tio Pepe: Bottled Andalucia's sun

By Miguel in Tasting , Featured , Gonzalez Byass

It is an interesting experience if you have never been in a bodega before but it is very expensive and too “professional”: It lacks of the heart and touch that surely made this bodega so worldwide acclaimed.

Tio Pepe Sol de  Andalucia

In the South of Andalucia, at Jerez de la Frontera, is located bodegas Gonzalez Byass. This bodega is world-famous for its renowned Tio Pepe Fino wine. The bodega is at calle Manuel Maria Gonzalez. Very near the historical city center.

Gonzalez Byass bodega is open for visits all the year with five visits per day, except Sundays when there are only two.
First thing to do when you arrive is getting a ticket, it is an expensive tour, the cheapest one cost around 11EUR and grants you a tasting of Tio Pepe Fino and Croft Pale Cream.

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WhiskyLive Madrid 2011 Tastings

By Miguel in Tasting , News , Featured , Destilerias Liber , Laphroaig , DYC , The Macallan , Compass Box , Suntory , Yamazaki , Edradour , Talisker

WhiskyLive Madrid 2011 celebrated at May, 26 on Hotel Villamagna, has been a great whisky show against all the odds: Great whisky, pretty girls, good friend. Whatelse?!

Touching a bottle of Macallan 25 years old at Macallan Masterclass in WhiskyLive MadridFinally I got time to write down the tasting notes and here they are. I am quite happy of the result. The whisky show has been great and I tried lots of expressions that it is not easy to taste here in Spain.

During the evening at WhiskyLive Madrid, that I spent with Richard Barr of WhiskyIsrael, we tasted more than twenty whiskies so bear with me if last tasting notes are not accurate.
If you haven’t read yet about our visit to WhiskyLive do it now!. We had a great evening together.

So here are the tasting notes. I am still missing some of them that I wasn’t able to properly write while on the show.

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WhiskyLive Madrid 2011: A whisky show at Spain's heart

By Miguel in News , Featured , Destilerias Liber , Laphroaig , Lagavulin , DYC , Cardhu , St George , The Macallan , Compass Box , Glenfiddich , Highland Park , Bowmore , Suntory , Yamazaki , Redbreast , Edradour , Talisker

Taking place at the Madrid business center, at the Hotel Villamagna, this whisky fair, although small, has been really interesting with lots of surprises.

Hotel Villa Magna at Madrid

Before attending the show, I meet Richards Barr, a member of Whiskyisrael that was also attending the show and we went there together after having a tasty Spanish lunch.
Richard Barr and Miguel Angel Blanch after 25 drams of whisky at Whiskylive Madrid

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Mackmyra: Whisky from Sweden

By Miguel in Featured , Mackmyra

Mackmyra is the brainchild of Magnus Dandanell. It was created by him and a group of friends in 1998.

Macmyra distillery
They took Scotch whisky as their inspiration but decided to create a spirit that really showed the Sweddish heritage.
So they began building their own stills and through a process of trial and error they got a spirit that satisfied them. They tried more than 150 different recipes to get the whisky they wanted, with variations in barley sorts, smoke fuel, yeast brands, length of the fermentation and, of course, adjustments of the still shape.

The investment has been around €3M and now they have more than 2000 shareholders.

In early 2002 the development process was completed and so they bought the still from Forsyth’s of Rothes in Speyside, sweddish stainless stilll washbanks and a german mash tun. All the equipment in the pilot distillery was done in scale.

They release their first whisky in 2006 with its Mackmyra Preludium 01.

An innovation from Mackmyra is Mackmyra Reserve, which consists in maturing the whisky in 30 litres casks that speed up the maturation of the spirit due to the increased wood contact.

My collection of Mackmyra



Amrut: the nectar of India

By Miguel in Featured , Amrut

Himalaya’s best keep secret is at last here: Amrut whisky, a real nectar of Gods

Amrut is as old as the history of independent India. Founded in 1948 by Shri Jaddale N. Radhakrisna under the name of Amrut Laboratories.

All started as a small liquor blending plant and a bottling unit. Amrut foray into market with a dark rum, Amrut XXX and Silver Cup Brandy and catering to Indian armed forces.

In 1970 the company began manufacturing grape brandy from famous Bangalore blue grape, “Bejois”.
And then with the experience in brandy and the help of scottish experts they began distilling whisky in 1980.

Actually Amrut has a redistillation plant to produce grain neutral spirit and two bottling plants in Karnataka and Kerala. Its portfolio includes dozens of products like:

  • Amrut Single Malt Whisky
  • Maq Scotch Whisky
  • Maqintosh Whisky
  • Prestige Blended Whisky
  • Club House Whisky
  • Bejois Napoleon Brandy

My collection of Amrut bottles



Bruichladdich: The Resurrection

By Miguel in Featured , Bruichladdich

From a mothballed distillery to a jewel in less than ten years. Know a bit more about Bruichladdich history

Bruichladdich Distillery
Bruichladdich was founded in 1881 by the brother Robert William and John Gourlay Harvey near the shore of Loch Indaal, near the town of Port Charlotte. When it was founded the distillery was an example of the state-of-art and most of the equipment is still used unchanged.

The distillery was built from stone since its foundation as it was built on the purpouse of distilling whisky.

The distillery changed owners and was out of use from 1929 to 1937.
In 1938 it was sold to Hatim Attari, Joheph W. Hobbs and Alexander W. Tolmie. In 1952 sold again to Ross & Coulter Ltd, who sold to A.B. Grant in 1960.
In 1968 Invergordon Distillers acquired Bruichladdich and doubled the number of stills, before selling it to Whyte and Mackay in 1975.

The distillery closed again in 1994 but was purchased by Murray McDavid on December 19, 2000 and completly renovated by a team of enginiers. Jim McEwan, who has previously worked at Bowmore distiller, was hired as Production director. Most of the distillery is still operated without computers.

They managed to get production again in May 2001. And started inmediately selling whisky from the old maturing stocks.

Bruichladdich Stills
Bruichladdich traditionally produces a low peated spirit, to which the new owners added a heavily peated malt called Port Charlotte and an even more peated malt called Octomore, named after a silent distillery of the area.

The distillery uses one mashtun and six washbacks. The still is composed of two wash stills and two spirit stills, around 23000 litres each of them together, all heated by steam.

It is the only Islay’s distillery that uses on-site bottling.

In 2006 Bruichladdich new owners introduced the first whisky matured and bottled under their management: Port Charlotte PC5.

Some Bruichladdichs from my collection



The Macallan: Masters of Sherry

By Miguel in Featured , The Macallan

Macallan, one of the most luxury single malts, had a humble origins but hard work and an obsession with wood have made it one of the best whiskies in the world acclaimed by connoisseurs and aficionados.

The foundation of Macallan

Macallan DistilleriesFounded by Alexander Reid, Macallan took out its license in 1824. One of the first Speyside distillery to do that as most of the distilling was done in a clandestine way. The Easter Elchies house, where the Macallan distillery was originally located, dates of early 1700

When Alexander passed out the distillery passed through a couple of hands until in 1868 James Stuart, a corn merchant in Rothes and owner of Mills of Rothes.

Rebuilding in stone

James bought the distillery from the Earl of Seafield in 1886, rebuilt it on stone, as before was done in wood, and sold it to Roderick Kemp in 1892.
Roderick was the owner of Talisker up to 1892 when he fell out with his partner. So Roderick tried to buy Glenfiddich, Cardow and Mortlach without luck before he acquired Elchies distillery. One of his first jobs was to rename the distillery to Macallan-Glenlivet and improve a lot the quality of the new make.

Macallan distillery stills

On his death in 1909, ownership passed into a family trust for Kemp’s descendants who managed the distillery until the present owner, Edrington Group, bought it in 1996. A new still house was built in 1954 with two mash, three spirit stills with shell-and-tube condensers. In 1965 more stills were added doubling production. Stills were increased to 18 in 1974 and again increased to 21 in 1975. The second still house was closed in 1990 but has been recommissioned and resumed operations in September of 2008.

The blenders and the birth of single malt

In 1970, Macallan produced more than one million litres per year but 93% of its production went into blends. Just five years later there was a cut of blenders’ orders. This encouraged Macallan to mature it stock for bottling as a single malt.
Macallan casks at the distillery warehouse

Konichiwa: Suntory takeover

In 1996, Highland distilleries combined its shareholders with Suntory to mount an hostile takeover of the company.

Obsession: perfect wood casks

Macallan and the wood is a story of an obsession. Macallan only matured it whiskies in european oak casks that have contained oloroso sherry. They even bought a bodega in Jerez -Gonzalez Byass- to have a good stock of butts and hogsheads. Unfortunately the price of the casks has been increasing as most bodegas at Jerez now uses american oak as it is cheaper. That is the main reason behind Macallan Fine Oak range that uses a triple cask combination of european sherry casks, american sherry casks and oak casks.

Macallan use malt that is mainly from Simpson’s of Berwick-upon-Tweed and it produces is around 8 million litres per year.

Some Macallans from my collection



Master of Malt: Selling whisky with passion since 1985

By Miguel in Featured , Master of Malt

From the people who created Drinks by the dram: Whisky tastings democracy

Master of Malt banner

Humble beginnings as a retail whisky shop

As they say in the website “Master of Malt has a proud heritage of over 25 years in whisky retail. From humble beginnings in our retail shop in Royal Tunbridge Wells, we have painstakingly compiled our vast catalogue of fine single malt scotch whiskies over a quarter of a century to provide one of the most expansive ranges of fine and rare malts to be found anywhere in the world, and if we haven’t got it – the chances are we can find it for you.

One of the best whisky shop websites

Our army of web monkeys have been working tirelessly for many months to create this shiny new website so we hope you find it as much of a joy to use as we did creating it; we would love to hear your thoughts on the new design as well as any ideas you might have for improvements or new features so please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

I use to buy a lot of whisky online. So I use several webs and Master of Malt is by far the best and fastest.

One of the best things about Master of Malt is, apart of their prices, their great website and their drink by the dram section.

Master of Malt Drinks by the dram

Drink by the dram

The Drink by the dram is a way of getting samples from many whiskies, many of them ranging up to thousands of pounds for a fraction of their prices.
Each sample is 3cl and stored in a cool, red wax sealed bottle. They are continually getting new samples, and they from time to time stock old out of stock samples.

Thanks to Master of Malt Drink by the dram I can run my site, as in Spain there is no such whisky-culture to taste new drinks and opening a full bottle just for tasting is so expensive.

Independent bottler

Apart of the drinks by the dram, did you get an idea of how much I like it?!, Master of Malt has a real good and unique selection of single casks chosen by them and a range of regional style scotchs. They had a Arran 14 years Single Cask, that I wasn’t fast enough to get a bottle, that was awesome and I am very proud of their 26 years old Bowmore.


Prices and delivery

Master of Malt claims to have the best offers on drinks on the net and most of the times it is true. They usually have bottles from £2 to £3 less expensive than other web sites.
Their delivery is also rather economic, with a flat rate of £15 for a 5 days delivery to Spain, which is rather good. They deliver whisky worldwide if you are interested.

URL: http://masterofmalt.com


Kilchoman: Latest Islay Whisky Distillery

By Miguel in Featured , Kilchoman

True artisan hand made farm whisky. Like whisky used to be done.

Kilchoman established in 2005, is a farm distillery and the first to be built on Islay for 124 years. Kilchoman gives everyone the opportunity to see all that is best in the grass-roots traditions of malt whisky distilling – from barley to bottle.

The distillery

Kilchoman Distillery
Kilchoman is one of the smallest distilleries in Scotland with an annual production of 100,000 litres of alcohol. It is one of only six distilleries to carry out traditional floor maltings, but the key difference at Kilchoman is that the barley is grown on the farm at the distillery, whereas other distilleries purchase barley from around the country or even from other countries, as it is not a requisite that scotch whisky to be done with scotch barley.

John Mac Lellan, the Manager

John Mac Lellan, General Manager, has over 21 years experience working in the distilling industry and prior to joining Kilchoman he worked for almost 21 years at Bunnahabhain Distillery. He started at Bunnahabhain as a mashman in 1989 and became distillery brewer in 1993 before taking over as distillery manager in 1997.

The barley

Kilchoman 2006 Casks
100 tonnes of malting barley is grown and malted at the distillery. This represents 30% of Kilchoman annual production. The balance of malt is purchased from the Port Ellen Maltings on the island.
The two malts are kept separate through the production process and when mature they will release two expressions of Kilchoman Single Malt.

The Malting

Kilchoman is one of only six distilleries in Scotland (three of these are on Islay – Bowmore and Laphroaig are the others) that still malts its barley on its own floor at the distillery.The majority of distilleries purchase their malt requirements from a commercial maltings.

The Ageing

80% of Kilchoman annual production is filled into a combination of fresh bourbon barrels from Buffalo Trace Distillery, Kentucky and refill casks and 20% into fresh oloroso sherry butts.

Some Kilchomans from my collection



Jack Daniel's: Through 10 feet of sugar maple charcoal

By Miguel in Featured , Jack Daniel

One of the best Tennessee whiskey, and in fact there only two more. Its distinctive process is to filter the whiskey through charcoal to make it more mellow

The founder

jack daniels distilleryAccording to the Jack Daniel’s website, founder Jasper Newton “Jack” Daniel was born in September 1846.
He might have become a licensed distiller at the age of 20, as the distillery claims a founding date of 1866. Daniel was one of thirteen children to Calaway Daniel and his mother Lucinda Cook. Jack Daniel’s grandfather, Joseph “Job” Daniel emigrated from Wales as did his Scottish wife to the United States. He was of Welsh, Scottish, English, and Scots-Irish descent.

Jack Daniel never married and did not have any children. However, he took his favorite nephew, Lem Motlow, under his wing. Lem was very skilled with numbers, and was soon doing all of the distillery’s bookkeeping. In 1907, due to failing health, Jack Daniel gave the distillery to Motlow, who then bequeathed the distillery to his children, Robert, Reagor, Dan, Conner, and Mary, upon his death in 1947.

The Prohibition

Tennessee passed a state-wide prohibition law in 1910, preventing the legal distillation of Jack Daniel’s in the state, and as a result Lem Motlow moved the distillery to St Louis, Missouri and Birmingham, Alabama, though none of the production from these locations was ever sold due to quality problems.

The introduction of prohibition in 1920 (until 1933) through the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution stopped production in St Louis; production in Alabama having been stopped earlier by that state’s prohibition laws. All production then ceased.

Even the Twenty-first Amendment enactment in 1933 repealing federal prohibition did not allow production in Lynchburg to restart, as the Tennessee state prohibition laws were still in effect. Motlow, as a Tennessee state senator, helped repeal these laws, allowing production to restart in 1938. The five year gap between national repeal and Tennessee repeal was commemorated in 2008 with a gift pack of two bottles, one for the 75th anniversary of the end of prohibition and a second commemorating the 70th anniversary of the reopening of the distillery.

The U.S. government banned the manufacture of whiskey during World War II and a little beyond, from 1942 to 1946. Motlow resumed production of Jack Daniel’s only in 1947 after good quality corn was again available.

Facts

Jack Daniels White Oak BarrelWhen the company was later incorporated, it was incorporated as “Jack Daniel Distillery, Lem Motlow, Prop., Inc.” This has allowed the company to continue to include Lem Motlow, who died in 1947, in its marketing, since mentioning him in the advertising is technically just citing the full corporate name. Likewise, the advertisements continue to say that Lynchburg has only 361 people, though the 2000 census reports 5,740. This is allowable because the entire label was trademarked in the early 1960s when this figure was the actual population cited by the Census Bureau; changing the label would require applying for a new trademark or forfeiting trademark protection. However, the census population includes all of Moore County, as the county and city governments are consolidated.

Moore County, where the Jack Daniel’s distillery is located, is one of the state’s many dry counties. Therefore, while it is legal to distill the product within the county, it is illegal to purchase it there. However, a state law has provided one exception: a distillery may sell one commemorative product, regardless of county statutes. Jack Daniel’s now sells Gentleman Jack and Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel at the distillery’s White Rabbit Bottle Shop.

Tennessee whiskey is filtered through sugar maple charcoal in large wooden vats prior to aging, unlike the process used to make Kentucky bourbon.
Tennessee whiskey is not bourbon whiskey, as defined by Title 27 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Chapter 1, Part 5, Section 5.22. However Tennessee whiskey is defined as a bourbon under terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Bottles from my collection