Recently there was a press trip to various Inver House Distillers Ltd distilleries, and being the kind folk that they are they had noticed I was on holiday in Inverness for the week and so invited me up for the day to join in the fun at Old Pulteney distillery, lucky me!
I didn’t have to be asked twice, I immediately hired a car and when the day came enjoyed the 2hr+ trip up north along the coast… as with most driving in Scotland the time flew by because the scenery is so amazing.
So today is Scottish Independence Referendum day, or should I call it Break Up The Union day? We’ll see. I originally wrote a post on Facebook last night whilst not posting a blog post here, but now that the day is here I think I will re-post what I said. It’s my opinion, everyone has one and everyone’s entitled to one, and not everyone will agree…
[For 9(!) reviews of Somerset Cider Brandy’s range, please see below…]
At the time of posting this story I had previously visited 42 distilleries around the UK… but most obviously I had missed visiting the distillery that’s based in my own backyard, The Somerset Distillery / Somerset Cider Brandy Company Limited not far from Yeovil in Somerset. It was more than time to put that right, and I’m really pleased to say that my 43rd visit was finally sorted recently; I was driving home and passing close to the distillery, so it would have been rude not to pop in really wouldn’t it?!
My drambassador’s trip to Glen GariochNow, where do I start? I’m no article writer and my brain isn’t what it once was… So I reckon we’ll just walk through my packed couple of days and randomly jump from one bit to another, how does that sound? Good, I’m glad you agree. You’ll probably get bored reading mind you, but give it a go eh?
Glen Garioch’s new (as yet nameless) expressionUpdate: I’m really pleased to announce that my post has been chosen as a winning review of this dram, and as such I get to go and visit the distillery, excellent stuff, lucky me!
Let’s start by saying I’m a Glen Garioch Drambassador! What’s that? It was a facebook competition run by them to chose various fans / bloggers to receive their new mystery dram and a set of clues, and to be the first people to try it and write about it… and that’s what leads us here! I am one of those chosen few… and sure enough in the post I soon received the following lovely box of goodies…
I’m kind of supposed to be on a diet… one of those diets that never really quite get going, but you have every good intention of starting tomorrow. With that in mind friends and family eased off buying me anything much in the way of any Easter eggs this year, which made me really quite upset, damn them!
However, (yippee) Bowmore came to the rescue! Bless them and their chocolaty Easter eggy general good chappishness. (FYI mostly not actual chaps, I’m being gender neutral here).
So, it’s with excitement I opened the following just before Easter hit…
This article is part four of the Malt Whisky and Place series. Please refer to parts one, two and three if you haven’t yet read them yet.
The last speaker for the evening was Georgie Crawford, manager at Lagavulin Distillery. The dram here was a Lagavulin 16 for us all.
From past experience in places such as the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) Georgie starts to talk about whiskies and their regionality; customers like to know what region their whisky comes from so that they could know what style to expect, be they Lowland, Highland, Speyside, Islay, etc. Continue reading
This article is part three of the Malt Whisky and Place series. Please refer to parts one and two if you haven’t yet read them yet.
Next to speak was Jim McEwan from Bruichladdich (and previously Bowmore amongst others), this time with a dram of Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2006 for us all. Bruichladdich is well known for strongly being identified with ‘place’, and Jim quickly points out on a map where the island of Islay is located and where the distillery is on the island, showing that if you go west from Islay you come to Newfoundland, meaning that most days you get the wind and the salty rain coming from the west coast.
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This article is part two of the Malt Whisky and Place series. Please refer to part one if you haven’t yet read it yet.
First up to speak was Dr Nicholas Morgan, along with our first dram of the night, Lagavulin new make spirit. Thanks to Ernst J. Scheiner from Gateway to Distilleries for the picture of new make running from the stills at Lagavulin. The sample was principally for us to get our noses in gear (to get our organoleptic senses started, or so we were told) and it came with a big health warning that we may not want to drink it (who’s he kidding?!) as it’s new spirit that comes directly from the stills. It was only around a month old and not matured in any way in wood, and came in at a hefty 68.5%. For me a fantastic deliverance back to the Lagavulin Distillery where I first tried this as part of a warehouse tour in 2012. It’s wonderfully fruity and powerful.
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The whiskies produced on the Hebridean island of Islay are world renowned. But what makes these whiskies unique? Are they manifestations of the physical attributes of the island – the climate, the water, the barley, and the peat – or are they instead the consequence of centuries of craft and human artifice in the form of the malting, brewing, and distilling processes? Continue reading
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