Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2021 i Whisky Magazine

Over the past few weeks I’ve conducted, on average, two remote video interviews per day with whisky brand representatives. From Teeling to Tobermory, Tennessee to Taiwan and spanning brand ambassadors, distillery managers, blenders, founders, and visitor centre chiefs; all have graciously taken the time to sit in the whisky ‘hot seat’, answer my questions and share their stories in order to record season one of Whisky Live TV. This new on-demand web series was launched in tandem with Whisky Live At Home, a delivered-to-your-door whisky tasting experience that saw a (frankly massive) box of whisky goodies delivered to UK ticket holders’ doors. The event was itself a response to the times we live in. Unable to host a ‘live’ Whisky Live event in London in 2020, for obvious reasons, the…

I first met Amy Dubin about two years ago when John Glaser, the London-based Compass Box founder, head whiskymaker and all-around rabble-rouser, was in New York City for a few days. Amy is a tea curator and importer who founded and owns Jaman Tea, an Indian brand. She also runs tea service out of Garfunkel’s, a retro-sassy cocktail bar just upstairs from a trendy burger joint on the Lower East Side. John was in town for a whisky festival, if memory serves, and he gathered some friends to meet with him at Garfunkel’s for a tasting event, the likes of which I’ve never experienced before. And I’ve been to a lot of tasting events in my time. He and Amy paired together whisky and tea. It was incredible. It got…

“Give Jameson Irish Whiskey. It tastes like Scotch without smoke”- advert copy, Sports Illustrated 1975 You’d be forgiven if you thought that smokiness and Irish whiskey didn’t go together. After all, for the best part of 60 years that’s what we’ve been told. Brands like Jameson, Bushmills and Paddy have presented themselves as the smooth alternative to Scotch for generations – but was that always the case, and why are a few mavericks attempting to light the turf, inflaming a debate about what Irish whiskey is, and isn’t? Peat. It’s not for everyone, but, let’s face it, most whisky drinkers are raised on the idea that there’s a natural progression towards the smoky stuff. Rightly or wrongly, it’s a rite of passage. Not in Ireland, where for years peated whiskey…

It’s a quest for distillers and blenders which they refer to as wood management, wood policy or cask selection. But the meaning is the same, sourcing the finest casks on a consistent basis. One option is ordering directly from distilleries and wineries. Another is commissioning a cooperage to produce and season casks according to a distiller’s specification. Toneleria del Sur based in Montilla-Moriles in southern Spain offers distillers an extensive range of cask types under the Casknolia brand name (launched in 2014). This includes Casknolia Virgin (unused American and European oak casks), Casknolia Historic (pre-used American oak casks), and Casknolia Legacy which is an ‘a la carte’ service giving distillers exactly what they want. “I tell my clients what all the options are, the choice of oak types and char…

Taster biographies Rob Allanson Rob is editor-at-large 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. Christopher Coates A member of the team since 2013 and a keen whisky drinker long before that, Christopher was recently appointed as editor of Whisky Magazine. Beyond this, he is head of content and marketing for this title’s parent company and is also chair of judges for the World Whiskies Awards and the Independent Bottlers Challenge. THE PROCESS All samples are blind tasted, with ABV and style the only information disclosed. Samples are tasted individually over a two week period.…

With restrictions still making it challenging to hold live events, some of our Whisky Live organisers have begun to look at alternative options and Whisky Live London is leading the way with its new offering for the UK: Whisky Live At Home. This new experience will see ‘Full Dram Experience’ ticket holders receiving 29 x 30ml samples; copies of Whisky Magazine, Gin Magazine, American Whiskey Magazine, and our Scotch Whisky annual review; a Glencairn copita tasting glass; a can of Larkfire, wild water for whisky; and a pack of Stockan’s oatcakes to cleanse the palate between drams. All of this was conveniently delivered to ticket holders’ doors in time for the festive season. Not content to only provide the drams, the team also launched Season One of Whisky Live TV,…

Scotland’s malt whisky regions have a somewhat convoluted history. In recent decades, regions became a shorthand to geographically aggregate distilleries and whisky styles into homogeneous flavour clusters. When Alfred Barnard made his clockwork trip around Scotland visiting 122 distilleries in the mid-1880s, only two Scotch regions existed: Lowlands and Highlands. This was a legacy from the 1784 Wash Act, a geographic boundary determined by tax, licenses and manufacturing specifications. Barnard’s order of distilleries was influenced by urban centres and his modes of transport – the spreading rail network through the rural mainland, and steamboats connecting the western and northern islands. Freight trains also had a significant impact on the costs and type of fuel used for malting. As cheap, cleaner coal penetrated deeper in Scotland by rail, peat receded. Whence…

There’s a mounted fish hanging above the door inside master distiller Chris Fletcher’s office at Jack Daniel’s Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee. It’s a muskie that was caught in Tennessee sometime in the mid-1960s and it’s about four feet long. It’s the same fish that’s pictured, hook in nose, in an advert for Jack Daniel’s whiskey that sits framed on a shelf near the door. In the ad, a man with soft features and an ecstatic grin holds it up to the camera. “Nobody fishes any better than our head stiller,” the text reads. “According to our friends, nobody makes whiskey any better either.” Fletcher can see both of them from his desk, a handsome, well-worn piece of furniture that once belonged to the man in the ad, whose name is…

GOLD MEDAL SILVER MEDAL BRONZE MEDAL American 12 Years Old & Under Artful Dodger Heaven Hill 59.3% Polished wood and wine aromas, with blueberries, sticky toffee pudding and chocolate profiteroles. On the palate, robust oak yields to malt, milk chocolate, prunes and a lot of tannins, with a tingle of pink pepper. A very hot finish that relaxes with water. 13-20 Years Old Malts of Scotland Heaven Hill MoS19033 55.2% Grain 21 Years Old & Over Malts of Scotland Ayreshire MoS20005 49.8 Coconut slice on the nose, with orange bitterness, tropical pineapple and crunchy caramel. Intense notes develop on the palate, charred lemons, creamy and sweet layers of bittersweet caramel, and blackcurrant jam that sits at the back of the sip. The Single Cask Girvan 60.8% Duncan Taylor Scotch Whisky…

Being confined to my home territory has given me the chance to learn new things. I recently reconnected with a former professor of mine from university on LinkedIn, and in the course of catching up I mentioned I’ve become somewhat of an expert on Kosher whiskey. He asked me to speak to his congregation about it and the Jewish history of the distilling industry, with a Kosher cocktail demonstration. To say I am an expert in Kosher whiskey does not mean I am an expert on Kosher laws in general, but rather that I understand the production of whiskey on a level where I can understand when a whiskey might cease being Kosher. Generally speaking, American whiskeys, particularly Bourbon, should always be able to be Kosher-certified, but as the practices…

War, what is it good for? Selling whisky it seems. Not so en vogue now, but there was a time when the military and good old martial imagery was sent guns blazing, to sell brown liquid. I spent a good while in the archive with a dram of old Scotch, humming ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’, to bring you a look back at how things used to be. You still see the occasional Highlander, in full military regalia, gracing a bottle of whisky, connecting it unintentionally to a forgotten era where war and whisky went hand-in-hand. This totem is a signifier of a different age, but a crucial one I think. A time when whisky stood for something beyond the spirit alone, a zeitgeist when all those around you…

Live fast, die young. That would have been an appropriate epitaph for the man who’d earn his rightful place alongside Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Born on 29 August, 1920 in Kansas City, Charlie Parker didn’t show a specific talent for music and his parents didn’t encourage him to play an instrument. At the age of 11 he picked up an alto saxophone and taught himself to play. At 14 he joined the school band, not very successfully, and was laughed off the stage. A year later he left school and decided to become a professional musician. Playing in a jam session with Count Basie’s band, he lost the key and was humiliated again. As a reaction Charlie would practise for many hours a day, until he could play in…

There is something lovely about this time of the year in the United Kingdom. Why is this lovely, I hear you ask? Well, it’s because you can get a decent fire going, wood or coal depending on your preference, and settle in for a long smoke and a whisky, preferably with friends. Although at the time of writing this England (and I do mean England and not the rest of the United Kingdom) is facing another month or so of lockdown, so having friends over might be a little difficult for now. No matter though; always wanted to tackle one of those great Russian novels? War and Peace beckons. The change in the northern hemisphere doesn’t mean that your drink choice need be austere – there are still some spirits…