Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Dailuaine

This is one of Diageo's more unknown distilleries. Diageo is the the biggest distillery company in Scotland with around 30 malt whisky disitilleries and some it's the most famous brands are Johnnie Walker, Bell's, Lagavulin, Guinness, Bushmills, Smirnoff, Dickel, Baileys, and I can go on and on naming world brands. Big company for sure

Dailuaine is not a target for the owners as a single malt brand as such. A somewhat rare bottling, the 16yo Flora and Fauna bottling is the only bottling available (almost). It is a very nice whisky, influenced heavily, if not exclusively by ex-sherry casks. If you want to explore Dailuaine further you have to search for independent bottlings

It's one of the few distilleries I never visited, I would for sure like to go and have a look one day!

Ben Rinnes

Dailuaine is on the very bottom slopes of the Ben Rinnes, the dominant, mountain (some would say hill) of Speyside. This mountain is 841m high and on it slopes it gives water to at least a handful of distilleries of which Dailuaine is one. It is located just a few hundred meters from the river Spey. The view from the top of Ben Rinnes is pure splendour with a kaleidoscope of most of Speyside. Climbing the summit is one of the pilgrimages a devoted malt whisky fan have to do :-), it is strongly recommended and can be done in 3-4 hours

1. Dailuaine 27yo 53.6% whiskybroker.co.uk
Refill sherry hogshead
Distilled 2/11-1983 Bottled 15/7-2011

Nose : honey and wood, laid back and rustic on the wood spices with candylike sweetness

Palate: Some bitterness, think dark chocolate bitterness and licorice - overpowering the sweet impression I picked up from the nosing. Behind all this is a 

Long and dominated by a slight bitter sweetness

Rating 83/100

Comment : You have to be able to accept the bitterness, but it's actual kinda well balanced into the 

2. Dailuaine 34yo 1973 Old Malt Cask 50%
Nose: Fruity, citrusy-briny, oaky-spiced

Palate. fruity, with some slight malty flavours,  hint of oak and prickly alcoholic spices

Finish: nice with a sweet touch that rounds this whisky down your throat and into your body leaving a little smile

Rating 87/100

Very nice whisky that will convince you more and more of its qualities as you sit and enjoy it








Quiz 5: The very long malt whisky quiz

Warning : This is a long malt whisky quiz with 100 questions. Make sure you have a dram ready and plenty of time.

http://www.quibblo.com/quiz/hr3Wxey/Quiz-5-The-very-long-malt-whisky-quiz

Maltstock. A whiskyfestival with a live whiskyquiz


(This giant quiz doesn't seem to work in its embedded form so use the link above)




Monday, September 17, 2012

Quiz 4: Islay

This time we go to Islay, a famous scottish whisky Island with 8 working distilleries.


Quizzes by Quibblo.com


Move the mouse pointer over the question to see the full question!

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Quiz 3: Whisky Quiz #3

Quiz 3 is the hardest quiz so far


Quizzes by Quibblo.com




Move the mouse pointer over the question to see the full question!

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Quiz 2: The Malt Whisky Quiz


Move the mouse pointer over the question to see the full question!

All Quizzes here: http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.dk/2010/04/i-made-series-of-whisky-trivia-quizzes.html

Quiz 1: The Easy Malt Whisky Quiz


I wasn't satisfied with the old interface I used for my whisky trivia quizzes and will move them over to this new interface (quibblo.com). I will update them and add them here one by one as soon as I get them done.
Please enjoy responsible.



Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Move the mouse pointer over the question to see the full question!

All Quizzes here: http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.dk/2010/04/i-made-series-of-whisky-trivia-quizzes.html

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Dalwhinnie is a Speysider!!

Now what is Speyside ??

It's a whiskyregion. In Scotland. Some people don't like whiskyregions for various reasons, and those "some people" sometimes includes me. But that's not what I want to discuss in this post. 

Some companies market their whiskies based on whisky regions. Diageo's Classic malts is a good example of this. A few years back they had the regions of Speyside, Islay, Islands, Highland, Lowland and also West Highland if I remember correctly. For a lot of us this was our first encounter with whisky regions. Or maybe it was Tesco's line of whiskies labeled with similar regions. 

But these "regions" are made up by the companies that is trying to sell whisky to us. Nothing wrong with that. But Diageo is such a big company with so much whisky and so many distilleries that what they do and say is sometimes believed to be how things are. But no. Their regions is just something they made up to help market their whisky. Nothing wrong with that, and it's not like it doesn't make any sense what they do.

But what is this thing called Speyside? Maybe it's the whisky distilleries that are situated on the banks of the river Spey? No. It's not that simple.

Maybe it's the distilleries that lies in the watershed of the river Spey? This would include the rivers, streams, burns and glens running into Spey. Like Livet and Fiddich to mention a couple of wellknowns.

No, it's not like that either. Far too simple...

A lot of distilleries that are Speysiders are on the banks of Lossie, Findhorn and Isla. Confusing?. And Isla runs into Deveron which has distilleries on it's bank that are NOT Speysiders

Confused? I was! I am too focused on rivers. Speyside has nothing to do with rivers.

I headed over to SWA's website. SWA is Scottish Whisky Association. They must know what is where in Scotland. They say this:

The current UK legislation relating specifically to Scotch Whisky is The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009. The Regulations govern the production, labelling, and presentation of Scotch Whisky.

So I continued over to the The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009. You might have heard about them before. They are the ones that wants us to drink blended malt.

The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 Chapter 10 says :

**************************************

Locality and region geographical indications...

(5) The protected localities are—
(a)“Campbeltown”, comprising the South Kintyre ward of the Argyll and Bute Council as that ward is constituted in the Argyll and Bute (Electoral Arrangements) Order 2006(1); and
(b)“Islay”, comprising the Isle of Islay in Argyll.
(6) The protected regions are—
(a)“Highland”, comprising that part of Scotland that is north of the line dividing the Highland region from the Lowland region;
(b)“Lowland”, comprising that part of Scotland that is south of the line dividing the Highland region from the Lowland region; and
(c)“Speyside”, comprising—
(i)the wards of Buckie, Elgin City North, Elgin City South, Fochabers Lhanbryde, Forres, Heldon and Laich, Keith and Cullen and Speyside Glenlivet of the Moray Council as those wards are constituted in the Moray (Electoral Arrangements) Order 2006(2); and
(ii)the Badenoch and Strathspey ward of the Highland Council as that ward is constituted in the Highland (Electoral Arrangements) Order 2006(3).




**************************************

Now this is the protected regions and localities. This basically just means that a distillery has to be on Islay to label itself as "Islay Whisky". And that a distillery has to be in Speyside to label itself as "Speyside Single Malt Whisky". And it also defines these regions and localities. Later in chapter 10 the division line between Lowland and Highland is exactly defined as well. 

The region "Islands" is not mentioned. Any Scotch whisky could label themself as "Island Whisky" if they want to. All of Scotland is on an island in case you forgot :-)

And here the region Speyside is exactly defined as Moray and the "Badenoch and Strathspey" ward in the Highlands

End of story. This is Speyside. When it comes to whisky. All of Speyside is located within the Highland protected region, so it's totally legal for a Speyside distillery to label themself as Highland. Macallan does it. Legal yes, but confusing. It's hard to be more Speyside geographically than Macallan

End of story. No more confusion. 


I wanted to know which distilleries were actually located in the Badenoch and Strathspey ward.

Tormore. check
Balmenach. check
Speyside. check (Some one with a sense of humor decided to name his distillery "Speyside". Label it as Highland Malt, and then locate it far away from anything else considered Speyside whiskyregion. You have to be a Scott to have that kind of humor)

That's it. Wait. There's one more. 

Dalwhinnie. check. Dalwhinnie is a Speysider. End of story. It's located far up the mountains, far to the south, almost in Perth. It's a shorter distance to Perth than to Elgin from Dalwhinnie. Many consider Elgin the capital of Speyside. I could agree with that. People in Dufftown might not, but  it's also a shorter distance to Perth than to Dufftown from Dalwhinnie. Elgin is on the river Lossie by the way :-)

Dalwhinnie is a Speysider. I see. Interesting. It's in the watershed of Speyside as the river Truim runs north into the river Spey

Badenoch and Strathspey


Here's a few other borderliners :

Tomatin is not, nor is Glenglassaugh. Nor Glendronach. Neither Ardmore

Inchgower is a Speysider. So is AnCnoc. (Knockdhu)

Knockdhu considers and labels themselfs as Highland. Which is not wrong. But as the distillery is located in the Keith and Cullen ward in Moray, it's a Speysider!

All this geography can be very hard to grasp. To help us, SWA made this map:


It shows the regions and localities. You shouldn't be confused anymore now. Until You locate Tomatin on their map that is:-)

Dalwhinnie

Speyside has around 50 working distilleries. Also quite a few mothballed, demolished and silent distilleries, which whiskies are still available out there. This makes Speyside the main whisky producing region of the world!!. It's a rather small area located between Inverness and Aberdeen in the northern part of Scotland

..between Inverness, Perth, and Aberdeen. sorry..



Sunday, September 9, 2012

New Distilleries ?

At any time there is always a range of distilleries being planned. Some of these happens, other do not.

Projects like Blackwood Distillery on Shetland and Ladybank in Fife are planned distilleries that didn't happen. Arran, Abhainn Dearg, Glengyle, Kilchoman and Daftmill are new distilleries that did happen as well as Ailsa Bay and Roseisle from Grant's and Diageo.

I am very entusiastic about these new distilleries. They are usually very well presented on their websites. But with the current economic climate and the projects that hasn't happened, I am never sure before we see the first drops running in the spirit safe.



Since 2005. No whisky released yet


Here's a shortlist of what the current status seems to be here in autumn 2012

Annandale:
Looks like a sure thing. The equipment is planned to be installed in September 2012
http://www.annandaledistillery.co.uk/
Will it happen : Yes

A few others are also in the planning. It will exciting to see if they happen

The Ardnamurchan Distillery
Adelphi, an independent bottler, has received planning permission for a new distillery in Ardnamurchan
http://www.adelphidistillery.com/
Will it happen : Plans and projects are new

Wolfburn:
Distillery on the north coast on Scotland.
http://wolfburn.com/
Will it happen : Plans and projects are new

Kingsbarn:
http://www.kingsbarnsdistillery.com/
Has been stuck in the planning stages for a few years now
Will it happen : Maybe

Lakes Distillery:
A planned distillery in the Lakes District in Cumbria.
http://www.lakesdistillery.com/
It's been semiquiet lately. Plenty of twitter activity, most tweets not related to the project though
Will it happen : Maybe

Falkirk Distillery:
http://falkirkdistillery.com/
It has been very quiet about this distillery for a couple of years.
Will it happen : I don't think so

Huntly Distillery
A project by the independent bottler Duncan Taylor. They have the buildings and also hired a distillery manager. Not much seem to have happened for a couple of years and the supposed-to-be manager has left.
Will it happen : I don't think so

I've only considered  the scottish planned distilleries and one in Cumbria. All over the rest of the world new distilleries are getting on the map. Especially in Ireland there seem to be a lot going on these days

Check out my maps of confirmed producing distilleries

http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.dk/2010/04/google-maps-of-all-whiskydistilleries.html

It's an ongoing work-in-progress updating those maps :-)




Saturday, September 8, 2012

Whisky Tasting with Le Coq

Post in danish about a whiskytasting I am cohosting at Le Coq restaurant in Århus

Le Coq har igennem september hver torsdag temadage med diverse spiritus som emner. 


Torsdag d. 20 september er der Whisk(e)y på programmet 

Start Klokken 1730 

Troels Buus, der står for både Le Coq og Den Rustikke i Århus, og undertegnede, vil denne aften promovere whisk(e)y med flasker fra tre verdensdele. 

Programmet er som følger: 
Mortlach 19yo Cadenhead 57.6% (Skotsk) 
Tomatin 34yo Liquid Sun 51.2% (Skotsk) 
Longmorn 20yo 55.7% (Skotsk) 
Amrut Fusion 50% (Indien) 
Ardbeg Still Young 56.2% (Skotsk) 
W. L. Weller 12yo 90 proof (Bourbon) 
Old Charter 12yo 90 proof (Bourbon) 
Jim Beam Rye 40% (Rye) 

Pris 250,- inkl 1 fadøl 

Efterfølgende kan der VED FORUDBESTILLING nydes følgende menu Smile 

Stegt unghane med Risotto, vilde svampe og Islay whisky 

The Virginia Gentleman Bourbon Chokolade mousse 

Menu : Pris 200,- 

Le Coq's hjemmeside: http://www.cafe-lecoq.dk/ 

Adresse : 
Le Coq 
Graven 14 
8000 Aarhus C 


Med Venlig Hilsen 
Steffen Bräuner (Macdeffe/Danish Whisky Blog) 
Tilmelding : ardbeg1975(snabel-a)hotmail.com eller PM

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Stauning "Second Opinion"


Stauning Rye Second opinion 48%
Distilled 2009/2010 Bottled 2011



Nose: A powerful sweet rye with clear, but a fresh, youthness. The rye spices reminds me of a wet resinous morning in a pine forest

Palate: Again powerful rye. Loads of butterscotch.  A dry toasted woodyness and a light alcoholic burn. This is a bit of an infight of components I find good and not so good. I really like the butterscotch and the rye flavour of this whisky, but the toasted wood and the light alcoholic burn is not my favourite. I reckon some, if not many, will like the woodyness while most will also struggle with alcohol. This is just more or less archetype young whisky and anyone enjoying unaged spirits at higher ABV's will know of this.

Finish: Shortish to medium. But  luckily with the rye and butterscotch dominating. As typical with very young whiskies the sensation sits at the front of your mouth.

Rating 82 

The best released danish whisky I have tasted so far and this isnt really whisky as its not 3 years old. Still young and fighting, but its a clear improvement from their first release.

This is a vatting of 1 200 liter cask and 12 50l casks, all new wood. Small casks usually speeds some woodiness into a whisky

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Unique Whisky

Warning : sunday hangover rant coming up :-)

The word unique is one of the often used words when trying to sell whisky

So often, that when I see it used, I know almost instantly that I won't buy the product

I have started to grow a dislike for the word. It's getting overused. It's a plain fact that every single cask of whisky in Scotland and whiskey in Kentucky is unique. And so are every vatting of these casks. So (almost) every bottle of whisky out there isn't more unique than the single cow beef steak you had for dinner last night.



It's not just whisky, it's used all over the spirit world. Here's a description of a vodka I came across today:

"The Swedish vodka lures drinkers with its unique taste, transparent color and modern bottle design. "

To me it tastes more or less as any other vodka (and don't get me started on it's colour, it's exactly the same as any other vodka)

But I am not that naive that anything will stop marketing to describe their products as unique. Or rare. Or limited.

I just wished these descriptors were used when they are really true. Like a bottle of Brora from 1972, a single cask Glenury Royal or a bourbon from Pennsylvania.