Innholdsfortegnelse for Aug/Sep 2018 i Whisky Magazine

I am not often star struck. I think years of working on newspapers, interviewing politicians and celebrities sorted me out on that front. However every now and then you are in the presence of a true legend, someone whose career has left an indelible mark on the world. This happened on a recent trip to Glasgow. It’s always lovely to be back in the city, my alma mater. I was in town for a few things but the highlight was playing at the Old Fruitmarket with the Whisky Band. If you haven’t come across or seen the band it is a collection of people who all work in the industry who come together to play music. Over the years we have forged quite a bond of camaraderie and support, playing…

About a decade ago, I had the immense privilege of having dinner with renowned chef Thomas Keller and a few of his friends. I was a cub lifestyle reporter and we ate at a Chinese restaurant in the Boston’s Chinatown where the décor was, to be euphemistic, well worn and the service a bit slapdash. As the men munched on chicken feet and scallion pancakes, they reflected on the state of the restaurant industry. Rather, they lamented. Nobody wants to be a line cook any more. Garde-manger? Yeah, right. These kids straight out of culinary school want to go straight to being head chef. They want to do sous vide and dehydrate everything before they know how make a pie crust. I relay this story because this is precisely what…

In Britain, the 1860s was a decade of economic boom, and distillers of malt whisky saw production rise to almost five million gallons (22.7 million litres) in 1868. Grain spirit output was altogether more volatile, standing at 5.2 million gallons (23.6 million litres) in 1868, having been in excess of eight million gallons (36.3 million litres) just three years earlier. However, the momentum was with blended Scotch, which was really still in its infancy during 1868. Some five years earlier, the destructive phylloxera louse had been identified in France’s Rhone Valley vineyards, and the fortunes of blended Scotch would be aided significantly by the subsequent shortage of brandy, caused by the voracious spread of the phylloxera disease, which killed vines by attacking their leaves and roots. The Spirits Act of…

In 2014, Diageo made headlines when it ‘swapped out’ its Bushmills Irish Whiskey brand with Casa Cuervo in order to take full control of the Don Julio tequila brand. In reality, the deal with a bit more complicated than that (there were other distribution and production contracts at stake) but the message seemed clear: the world’s biggest spirits company was pulling out of Irish whiskey. To many observers, this seemed like a strange move as, though tequila was undoubtedly a promising growth category, the Irish whiskey scene was in the early stages of what appeared to be a lucrative renaissance and one that could be tied in to the wider expansion of the premium brown spirits category. Drinks pundits watched with incredulity. Surely this couldn’t be the end? Then, in…

As we hurtle towards getting this magazine you are reading to print, a couple of really interesting auctions are due to take place. First up, a bottle of three-years-old single malt whisky is set to break the record for the most expensive English whisky sold at auction, an historic moment no doubt. The press release claims this will ‘confirm the country’s young industry as an authentic new world challenger to the established distilleries North of the border’. While I am fairly sure the Scotch industry need not worry, it certainly will be an interesting barometer to see how much interest there is in the nascent English whisky industry; which has been growing quietly during the last few years. The Lakes Distillery is to auction 99 of its first bottles of…

I want to write about whisky professionally and love and be loved. How does one break into such a small circle?” There it was. My angst captured in a single tweet, sent by someone entirely unknown to me. Several prominent whisky writers commented self-mockingly, but I bet that secretly they were thinking the same things I was. “Vows of poverty,” said one wag, followed by another more cynical, “Max out two credit cards on whisky, take pictures, write tasting notes, contact your local newspaper to get that sweet $75 story then hope a publisher sees it. Then, you can quit your law practice.” The would-be professional whisky writer replied, “So basically a typical weekend but I get $75? “I’m in.” Turns out, the tweeter whose words so crystalised my disquiet…

It was a chilly Saturday afternoon in Slane, about 30 miles (50 km) north of Dublin in the Boyne Valley of County Meathe. Alex Conyngham was showing me around his new distillery in the grounds of Slane Castle, the grand property where he grew up. It’s been in his family since 1703. The distillery is located largely in a building that surrounds a courtyard and once served as stables and working space for blacksmiths and other tradesmen. In a small room designed to showcase the barrels and maturation process of Slane Whiskey, he revealed a colossal sherry cask and invited me to take a whiff of the contents inside. It was enchanting, its intensely raisin-y smells made me think of drinking saffron wine on a moonlit terrace in Seville. “Grandpa…

The Manhattan Project that secretly developed the atomic bomb in the early 1940s was preceded by another ambitious Manhattan project half a century earlier. Ground zero was the Manhattan distillery in Peoria, Illinois. Despite arson, sabotage and espionage attempts, it was a government regulation that was responsible for scuttling this radical advancement. The Manhattan project began as the collaboration between two men. The distilling baron, Joseph Greenhut and the Japanese scientist, Dr. Jokichi Takamine. Joseph Greenhut was president of the Distillers and Cattle Feeders Company, known as the Whiskey Trust. By 1891, the Trust was manufacturing more than 85 per cent of the US alcoholic spirits through eighty-six distilleries. The Trust aggressively used pricing to control the marketplace and news of Takamine’s revolutionary ‘Japanese process’ would give the Trust another…

Since 1999 Bourbon production in Kentucky has risen 250 per cent, according to the Kentucky Distillers Association, and more than $1.1 billion in capital projects had been completed or announced as of 2017. Since that report was generated Suntory has announced a $904 million investment in its Bourbon brands in the next five years, Stoli has announced a $150 million Kentucky Owl Distillery and park complex in Bardstown, Buffalo Trace is on track to spend $1.2 billion during the next 10 years, and Louisville’s Frazier History Museum has partnered with the Kentucky Bourbon Trail to construct a visitor’s centre for tourists seeking an official starting point for their journeys along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. The industry is responding to Bourbon obsession Perhaps one of the most interesting phenomena we’ve seen…

In the previous two issues, we discussed the importance of storing cigars in adequate conditions while travelling, utilising, for instance, an air-tight and insulated travel case such as those produced by Xikar, and the list of defects to watch out for before accepting new cigars into your collection. In this issue, we move on to topic of home storage. Readers of this column will undoubtedly have seen the impressive walk-in humidors installed in cigar shops and likely, for a moment at least, wished to have something like it installed in their own home. However, in lieu of such an indulgence, what are the other options available to the majority of cigar aficionados? Starting with the largest of home-storage options, we begin with freestanding cabinets and trolleys. The former is certainly…

Taster biographies Rob Allanson Rob is Editor of Whisky Magazine and formally held the position as a global brand ambassador for William Grant & Sons', whisky portfolio. His experience in the industry, which has seen him explore whiskies from around the world, has given him a keen and well-versed palate. Sam Coyne Sam is a writer for Whisky Magazine, and editor of TheDrinksReport.com, although still only on the early steps of his journey in the spirit. A literature graduate, Sam enjoys looking at the stories behind today's whisky brands. THE PROCESS All samples are blind tasted, with ABV and style the only information disclosed. Samples are tasted individually over a two week period. Tasters are provided tasting and scoring guidelines for consistency. The top scorer is awarded Scores of…