Scotch Whisky / Bourbon Whiskey thread

DST

DST

Well-Known Member
Singlemalt said:
Very nice photo composition, kudos
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Thanks bru.

I am interested to find out if this is anything like the 18yr old Glenlivet. The lady at the tasting booth said that a lot of the Whisky houses are no longer doing aged bottles, but simply bringing them to the market when ready!!?? I found that a bit wierd.
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Edit, I didn't taste it as it was too early and I was flying with my 2 young boys. When I get a taste I find it hard to stop:)
 
Singlemalt

Singlemalt

Well-Known Member
DST said:
Thanks bru.

I am interested to find out if this is anything like the 18yr old Glenlivet. The lady at the tasting booth said that a lot of the Whisky houses are no longer doing aged bottles, but simply bringing them to the market when ready!!?? I found that a bit wierd.
View attachment 4119240

Edit, I didn't taste it as it was too early and I was flying with my 2 young boys. When I get a taste I find it hard to stop:)
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I'll try to find the article from a year ago; the jist is that premium singlemalts have caught on and a shortage has developed that caught the distillers by surprise. So what many are doing is blending various ages, in essence decreasing the available varieties while maintaining sufficient stock to sell. There are rigid rules for singlemalt scotches to be marketed, I believe minimum 6 yrs before it can be sold. Anyway the article said that it will be at least 6-8 yrs before they have sufficient stockpiled to go back to all the various varieties (within one company) we've been accustomed to.
 
DST

DST

Well-Known Member
Singlemalt said:
I'll try to find the article from a year ago; the jist is that premium singlemalts have caught on and a shortage has developed that caught the distillers by surprise. So what many are doing is blending various ages, in essence decreasing the available varieties while maintaining sufficient stock to sell. There are rigid rules for singlemalt scotches to be marketed, I believe minimum 6 yrs before it can be sold. Anyway the article said that it will be at least 6-8 yrs before they have sufficient stockpiled to go back to all the various varieties (within one company) we've been accustomed to.
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Interested in reading that for sure.
That's what I said to the lady, "so basically they are running out".
 
DST

DST

Well-Known Member
Singlemalt said:
@DST
https://scotchwhisky.com/magazine/in-depth/8939/the-truth-about-the-scotch-whisky-shortage/

http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/04/luxury/global-single-malt-scotch-whisky-drought/index.html

https://www.mensjournal.com/food-drink/the-coming-single-malt-scotch-drought-20160201/
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Just finished the first article. Very interesting reading. This made me smile :)

"Ultimately, with around 20m casks of Scotch currently maturing in warehouses across Scotland, there is very slim chance of the world running out of whisky any time soon."
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
Singlemalt said:
I'll try to find the article from a year ago; the jist is that premium singlemalts have caught on and a shortage has developed that caught the distillers by surprise. So what many are doing is blending various ages, in essence decreasing the available varieties while maintaining sufficient stock to sell. There are rigid rules for singlemalt scotches to be marketed, I believe minimum 6 yrs before it can be sold. Anyway the article said that it will be at least 6-8 yrs before they have sufficient stockpiled to go back to all the various varieties (within one company) we've been accustomed to.
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Same thing happened with Bourbons. They removed the age statements from many of them.
http://www.breakingbourbon.com/age-statements-a-catch-22.html
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member



“Thanks Be to God!”
​
Turns out being the Pope has some serious, very earthly, benefits. In the case of Pope Francis, he recently scored some pretty choice whiskey. Or as His Holiness called it, “very good bourbon.”

Last week, Father Jim Sichko, who serves as one of America’s Papal Missionaries of Mercy, was lucky enough to have a private audience with Pope Francis at The Vatican, and the preacher based out of the Dioceses of Lexington, Kentucky, choose not to come empty-handed. As Sichko posted on Twitter, he brought along a gift from “My Ole Kentucky Home”—a bottle of 23-year-old Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon.

Somewhat incredibly, Sichko said that Pope Francis immediately understood what was going down. “He knew I was from Kentucky,” the father said according to the Lexington Herald Leader, “so when I handed it to him, he immediately said ‘bourbon’ and I said yes, and then he said ‘very good bourbon.’” As if you bring the Pope any other kind?

The Pappy exchange was able to happen because Sichko asked a friend to get him something “special.” That friend knows Julian Van Winkle personally, so after Sichko passed the bottle to the Pope, he texted Van Winkle photos—to which Julian gave probably the most Van Winkle response you could imagine: “Grazie, Father Jim, very cool…. Well, we sure don’t need the publicity (not enough product) but this is awesome!!”

Meanwhile, it wasn’t just his Holiness who landed some lauded Kentucky bourbon. As Sichko showed in another tweet, he actually brought a stash of at least ten bottles with him to hand out at The Vatican. “All the PAPPYS, 4 ROSES and WOODFORD RESERVE made it to give to Pope Francis and his security detail!” he said of the bottles, which he was worried wouldn’t make it through airport security. “Thanks Be to God!” That’s a sentiment any traveler can understand, Catholic or not.

MIKE POMRANZ April 17, 2018, Food and Wine
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
I dropped out of the bidding early ;)



"Two extremely rare bottles of The Macallan 1926 have today {April 2018} set the world record for the most expensive Whisky bottles ever sold after they changed hands for US$1.2m.

The pair are labeled with original artworks by renowned artists Sir Peter Blake and Valerio Adami. The bottles were sold by Le Clos, the Dubai-Airport based luxury spirits retailer, to an international businessman for his private collection. Each bottle was sold for US$600,000.

These two bottles are two of the most unique bottles of Whisky ever produced. The Whisky itself is The Macallan 1926, which was distilled in 1926 then aged 60 years in sherry-seasoned oak barrels before being bottled and released in 1986. Of the 40 bottles produced, just 12 were given to British artist Sir Peter Blake, famed for co-creating the Beatles’ album cover for Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and 12 were given to the Italian artist Valerio Adami, (released in 1993) one of the most acclaimed pop artists of the 21st century. Each artist created a bespoke label for the bottles, making them highly sought after by art-lovers and Whisky collectors alike. The rare bottles are presented in cabinets, or tantaluses, and are based on the ‘brass and glass’ distillery spirit safe designs.

Each bottle originally retailed at £20k, and the last known individual bottle sold in 2007 at Christie’s for US$75,000"
https://www.oldliquorsmagazine.com/whisky-sale-world-record-broken/
 
DST

DST

Well-Known Member
BarnBuster said:
IKR? I think twice when I spend over $20 $40 for a bottle of bourbon. Since you missed your chance at this DST, Bonham's has another auction with a couple of more bottles coming up.
https://www.bonhams.com/press_release/25904/
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I'll be sure to be representin lol. One of the articles @Singlemalt posted mentions the increase in investors in Single Malts. Shame these wonderful nectars will never be drunk.
 
DST

DST

Well-Known Member
Going back to my last statement about collectors. This is the most collectable bottle of whisky i have ever owned....and its dam near finished (maybe 1 dram left). I just couldn't help myself. I have had it 11 years now...not sure what I am saving the last dram for. Bottled a year after i was born.
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Anyway. Back to reality. This is what I am drinking the night.
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Every place has different terms for it. In Scotland we call it a Hauf and a hauf(in English...a half and a half. Half pint of beer and a 1/4 gill of nectar.
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Slainte mhath.
DST
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member


This bourbon just won a big spirits contest and whiskey geeks aren't happy​
BY JANET PATTON
jpatton1@herald-leader.com
May 11, 2018 01:46 PM

Henry McKenna, a relatively untouted mid-priced bourbon, recently won Best Bourbon at the 2018 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Made by Heaven Hill Distillery, Henry McKenna Single Barrel won Best Bourbon and Best Single Barrel Bourbon. And another Heaven Hill bourbon, Elijah Craig Small Batch, won Best Small Batch Bourbon.

Is there anything special about this bourbon?

Yes and no, said Bernie Lubbers, brand ambassador for Heaven Hill.

"The recipe is the traditional bourbon recipe, the same as Evan Williams, so if you think Henry McKenna is the best bourbon in the world, as these judges did, Evan Williams is the same whiskey just five years younger. So give that one a try," Lubbers said. And the same recipe as the Elijah Craig as well.

"So yes it's special but it’s available every day," Lubbers said.

What makes a whiskey suddenly stand out like that?

While the judges who picked it were working "blind," Lubbers said bourbon lovers often are blinded by their search for "gold dust" on the top shelf. "And the way I put it is they step on bricks of gold to grab the gold dust," Lubbers said.

Henry McKenna is one of those gold bricks, he said. It's a single-barrel, bottled-in-bond bourbon aged 10 years, making it a very unusual whiskey.

"There are probably up to 3,000 American whiskeys on the market today and only 20 bottled-in-bonds," he said. And no other aged as long, he said. The bottled-in-bond designation means the bourbon was made by one distillery in one season, aged at least four years under government bond and bottled at 100 proof. It's seen as an endorsement of quality and distiller's skill.

"Most of our whiskeys are overlooked, and that’s OK," Lubbers said of Heaven Hill. "We know we make great whiskey and the people who love great whiskey know we make great whiskey."

Now the world knows about Henry McKenna and not everybody's happy about that.

Spirits writer Fred Minnick, who was one of the judges, blogged about it, revealing that Henry McKenna won. He posted a message on Facebook apologizing after receiving photos of empty liquor store shelves where the bourbon used to be.

"Less than 24 hours after my @sfwspiritscomp blog post, in which I detail the #bourbon winner, I am receiving pics and texts like this. Empty rows of Henry McKenna, a longtime whiskey geek pour for its bang-for-buck quality. It stands as the world's best bourbon at a major competition and it's only $30. And the shelves are clearing. I'm sorry. In my and the other judge's defense, we are asked to judge the glasses to the best of our ability and I stand by this pick.... I also hate myself for it, because it was my house bourbon (along with Old Fox 1920). Buy it while you can. #whiskey #whisky," Minnick wrote.
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
Is Wheated Whiskey The Next Big Thing In Bourbon?​
Forbes Lifestyles
MAY 18, 2018 Brad Japhe , CONTRIBUTOR

By definition, bourbon is an American whiskey formed from at least 51% corn. That other 49%, however, is entirely up for grabs. Traditionally, it's some combination of barley and rye. But then there's wheat. Sweet, sweet, wheat. To suggest that the classic cereal grain has been passed over by most major distillers is technically correct. Except that it conveniently ignores the fact that the most coveted bourbon ever (Pappy Van Winkle) and one of the most ubiquitous (Maker's Mark) both fall under the category. So, clearly there's a market for 'wheated whiskey.' The question is, how big will it grow?

Smooth Ambler Spirits out of West Virginia has its answer in the form of Big Level -- a wheated bourbon aged for no less than 5 years. The brand's newest release is noteworthy for several reasons: for one, it marks one of the first examples of this sort of spirit produced outside of Kentucky. It's also the first major offering to proudly advertise itself as a 'wheated bourbon' right on the label. That's not to say that other bottles are somehow ashamed of the designation, just that never before has a distiller trusted the consumers to understand the value of such a term. By contrast, Larceny and Rebel Yell are both popular wheated bourbons, but their existence as such is known only to the curious connoisseur.

Typically supplanting rye in the mash bill (ingredient list), wheat results in a softer, often sweeter whiskey, largely in line with the generalized American palate. Big Level is guilty of these stereotypes -- it's an easy-sipping spirit with honey, toffee, and candied nuts coming off the finish. 100 proof and 100% distilled, aged, and bottled in West Virginia, Smooth Ambler is laying down 3,000 barrels of the liquid annually, in its warehouses along the Appalachian mountains. Since 2009, the brand has built a reputation on sourcing and blending award-winning American whiskey. That their first homegrown offering would be of the wheated variety is a testament to how prominent this subcategory has become.

Prior to this decade's Pappy craze, the overwhelming majority of bourbon drinkers were blissfully unaware of wheat's impact upon the liquids they loved. Bottles of W.L. Weller, for example, collected dust on liquor shelves across the land. But it was a whiskey aged of the same wheated distillate responsible for Pappy Van Winkle, maturing in the exact same warehouses. Once word spread of this shared ancestry, the general population suddenly discovered newfound appreciation for the Weller family of whiskies. Prices doubled, then tripled; supply became scarce.

Stubbornly, many consumers remain ignorant of Pappy Van Winkle's sub-categorization. Or they just don't care. They know that it costs a lot, and it's nearly impossible to find. Damn all the rest. But if you pursue bourbon more for flavor than as status symbol, you owe it to yourself to explore Big Level. Hitting shelves at $54.99 a bottle, it's worth a shot -- a couple dozen of them, in fact.

(100 proof, I'd drink it ;))

 
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