The Single Cask X Spirits Castle

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Tony owns HNWS, which is a Taiwan Independent Bottler and Spirits Castle distributes them in Singapore. This tasting at the Single cask concluded Tony’s second whisky tasting in Singapore! Click here to see the whisky dinner Tony was at just the day before! He finished with a bang by doing a crossover event with our friends from The Single Cask! 

Glenrothes 13yo 2005 HNWS

Nose: I was greeted with hazelnut and dark chocolate, followed by cinnamon, roasted nuts, brioche and dried fruit notes. With water, there were notes or boiler peaches, mocha coffee notes and more distinct dark chocolate notes.

Palate: Cinnamon arrival followed by notes of hazelnut, brioche, nutty marzipan, dark chocolate and grapefruit rind. With water, the texture was softer, and its favours are a lot more accessible.

Finish: Dark chocolate, brioche, hazelnut, lemon zest and a savoury note reminiscent of Olosoro. With water, the dark chocolate note lasts longer.

 

Glenshiel (Glenrothes) 7yo 2011 TSC

Nose: Vegetal note, cinnamon, figs, hazelnut, cocoa butter, floral notes, chocolate, cranberries. With water, notes of liquorice and cardamom spice.

Palate: Arrival had notes of almonds, toffee, roasted coffee beans, roasted hazelnuts. With water, there were notes of raisins figs, marzipan, peaches and black pepper.

Finish: The finish left a strong impression, with notes of cinnamon, hazelnut, and brioche. With water, there are stronger notes of roast coffee.

 

Round 1 – Glenrothes:

The Glenshiel, though 6 years younger than the HNWS bottling, had a 6-month finishing period in a wee 50L cask. In such a small cask, the speed of maturation would be a lot faster in 6 months. Therefore, The Single Cask had a dram that had a stronger oak maturation, while the HNWS had less oak maturation. If you prefer the cask-driven experience, then you would enjoy The Single Cask dram. Alternatively, if you prefer a dram that has is more spirit-driven, the HNWS dram will suit you. In my personal opinion, the winner is the former.

ISlay 29yo 1989 HNWS

Nose: soft medicinal notes and coastal brine aromas arrival. Notes of heather, musk, vanilla, mild smoke and honey were also present. With water, this Laphroaig becomes sweeter, with notes of vanilla sponge cake, with notes of musk, leather, earth and notes of damp bonfire ash the morning after.

Palate: A soft smoky arrival followed by medicinal TCP notes, sweet oak, and soft peaches. With water, there were notes of leather, musk and coastal brine

Finish: The finish was a sweet honey vanilla finish along with earthy and medicinal notes. With water, the earthy, smoky and vegetal Lapsang Souchong tea notes become more evident in the finish.

 

Islay Malt 10yo 2008 TSC

Nose: Lime zest, blueberry, lemon zest, peat smoke, vanilla, mochi sweetness. With water, there were hints of raisins and floral notes.

Palate: Notes of grapefruit, peat smoke, mineral, coastal notes. With water, the dram became sweet with notes of vanilla, brioche, and floral notes.

Finish: Peat smoke, coastal notes, mineral notes, earthy notes. With water, there was an exciting bubblegum note.

 

Round 2 – Islay:

This Islay battle could be one of age or preference. Do you like a vibrant, lively Islay peat or would you like a soft and gentle note of smoke? Do you prefer Caol Ila or Laphroaig? In my humble opinion, I have a liking towards the older Laphroaig.

Bonus Round: Kilchoman 

Nose: Iodine, smoke, earth, mineral brine note, dried fruits, chalk limestone. With water, cinnamon, smoke, earthy

Palate: mineral smoke, earth, cinnamon, chocolate, dried fruits. With water, the taste was sweeter.

Finish: dried fruits, cinnamon, chocolate, peat smoke. With water, there were notes of cinnamon, dry smoke and raisin finish.

Tomatin Distillery – An Under-appreciated Dram

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Tomatin Distillery and its Houses. Photo Credit: tomatin.com/history

The Scottish Highland is home to many whisky distilleries today. If one takes time to read up on the history of Scottish highlands, one would easily understand why. Some of the most remote areas in the highlands were perfect locations for illicit stills, and today, these locations still bring benefits to the modern distilleries.

Location of Tomatin Distillery

Tomatin (the village) is a 25 minutes drive south from Inverness. The proximity to a town, however, does not means that it is easily accessible. It is over 1000 feet above sea-level on the eastern part of the Monadhliath Mountains. Nonetheless, the distillery is near a market, has access to a rail line and soft, highland waters from the Alt na Frith.

History of Tomatin

 

Delving into the grey area between OBs and IBs

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Ngl, ralfy’s video post inspired me to start question the definition between Official Bottlings (OBs) and Independent Bottlings (IBs).

But first, let’s take a few steps back to look at the conventional and older definition of Independent Bottlers. Independent Bottlers are a kind of third-party, a group other than distillery and consumer, and they buy from the distillery and sell to the consumer. Most independent bottlers fit that definition. I use this simpler definition to explain to newcomers to whisky as that held true until recently.

Not so third-party Independent Bottlers

With whisky rising to prominence, Independent Bottlers became more important. While many distilleries focusing on their unique house-style in their OBs, seasoned whisky drinkers now look for an alternative voice – IBs. The more established Independent Bottling companies like Signatory Vintage, Gordon & Macphail, Cadenhead and countless others grabbed this opportunity hard. Some of these IB companies bought over distilleries, like how Signatory owns Edradour, or G&M revived Benromach. The previous model shown now does not apply. Moreover, the owners of Springbank owns Cadenhead as well.

The Grey Area

Cadenhead Springbank, SV Edradour, Distillery Reserve Strathisla,

The definitions

Ownership

A bottling done by an independent company who owns or is owned by the distillery is an Official Bottling.

This definition comes from Ralfy. Furthermore, Ralfy comments that IB leads to OB sales

House Styles and Logos

OBs stick to a certain house style (overseen by their master bender or distiller) and they only have the distillery brand without the addition of a logo from the independent bottler.

House style? Official distillery bottlings with Single Casks, Glen Scotia, springbank, glenmorangie signet

Logo? Debatable. Mortlach flora and funa is just as much OB as. Their stuff now

Spirit of Independence

3) Independent Bottlings are bottled by Independent Bottlers who are not dependent on the distillery Billy Abbot’s article https://blog.thewhiskyexchange.com/2016/09/20-independent-bottlers-whisky/

Pernod Ricard Single Malt Bottlings

Ballantine’s 15yo is the other way around. To gain traction on workhorse distilleries.

Different definitions
Dependent independent
Non-binary approach: OB need house style branding

House style? Official distillery bottlings with Single Casks, Glen Scotia, springbank, glenmorangie signet

Logo? Debatable. Mortlach flora and funa is just as much OB as. Their stuff now

Thompson brothers
But Irish whiskey??

https://whiskyauctioneer.com/lot/121875/redbreast-2001-all-sherry-single-cask-18829-master-malt-exclusive

A Gin Distillery in Kintyre!

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Location, products

99kw hydro-electric scheme

local spring water

tree planting

Two up and coming distilleries in Campbeltown!

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SouthStar Spirits?

A technical look at Macallan

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Momentum, Concerto Optic? why still use concerto and optic and not move to sisha or diablo or laureate

What separates Momentum from other standard barley varieties? Barley variety between the summer and winter?

What is the expected spirit yeat from momentum compared to other barley varieties?

Peated Barley

Chill filtration process: temperature? duration? 1-micron filter?

HEN, Process Control, Environmental concerns, Sherry seasoning, warehouse, supply chain of casks, QC of casks


Macallan Distillery

Barley variety:

Exclusive right to use momentum barley that is grown in farms in speyside.
Most of the barley used in production now is diablo, as they offer a better yield, and consistency for their core range.
Sherry seasoning minimum 12 months, David Baird, 2 years someone else
Warehouse

Casks of Macallan are aged in racked and dunnage warehouses, but they are never palletised.
Supply chain of casks
What bodegas do you work with? Different bodegas for a different style of cask?
QC of casks, whisky maker smell the cask, not just complain with supply chain but find out why, troubleshoot together
Coopers arent paid by casks, but given a target and paid a salary, no rush with working on speed, no issue with rejects for high-risk high issue caskss
Edington database system checks on each and every cask with a number from Jerez and that number can be used to track what spirit (macallan or Glenrothes) goes into it
Edringron cask tracking, lifecycle tracking bar code. Empty cask stock management, internal cask management, and location of cask
Addiewell cooperage
4 cooperages and 3 bodegas
Wood traceability to be integrated for the internal Edrington system, easier to promote supply circularity
To help control illegal logging

In-depth understanding of oak bar
Q robor more frequent in Galicia west spain. Q robor and q petraea is often hybridised
Q robor more frequent in central sw france,
Q Petraea more frequent in central and north eastern france
Ensuring that the felljng of trees is insignificant conpared to the growth rate
Challenges with the supplychain: brexit, politics, port strikes, covid
Specification/QC of sherry wine differs depending on awo or eo wood

Glen ORD loh!

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Glen Ord over at the Muir of Ord, one of the Singleton trio of single malts

tour

G

-maltings (talisker)

-“contamination”

-Glen Ord’s female distillery manager, and the new one

-size Glen Ord has a large capacity of a whooping 11.5 Million Litres Pure Alcohol per Annum (MLPA) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-19985317

-fermentation

-https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsty-dagnan-166a84a2/?originalSubdomain=uk

Stewart Christine

a

Malting tour upcoming