Inbox - March 9, 2012

Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our email inbox. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece that we receive. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday.

Within Inbox we write a few lines detailing each press release/piece of news/PR event that we have received and provide links, where possible, for you to find out further information.

Bushmills - Live music festival announced
The famous distillery from the town of Bushmills in Northern Ireland has announced a new music festival, which will be the first to ever be held in an Irish distillery.  The two day Bushmills Live festival will take place at the Old Bushmills distillery on Wednesday 20 and Thursday 21 June.  The line up of bands is yet to be announced.  The festival will be a 'money cannot buy' experience, as tickets will not be going on general sale.  Instead, fans will get the chance to win tickets via a competition on the Bushmills Facebook page.  Naturally, there will be plenty of Bushmills whiskey to accompany the music!

Compass Box & Albannach bar event
Unless you are a hermit or have been living in a cave, you cannot have helped but notice that yesterday (8 March) was International Women's Day. Our good friends at the Compass Box whisky company joined forces with the Albannach whisky bar for a special charity event at Albannach's Trafalgar Square venue.

The Whisky & Women Unite whisky and cocktail event was held on the evening of 8 March.  The bar staff of the Albannach had created a special cocktail for the evening using Compass Box whiskies, which were priced at £6.  In addition, £2 from each cocktail sold was donated to The Girl Effect - a charity for teenage girls in poverty. Compass Box were hosted bespoke whisky tastings of their range, while the Albannach team held a silent auction for the same charity.  Compass Box also marked the day by hosting similar events in New York, San Francisco and Beijing.

Glengoyne - Competition
The distillery and whisky brand from the southern Highlands have announce a competition for all the budding crime writers amongst us. The Glengoyne Short Story Writing Competition is open to all amateur writers aged 18 years or over.

It involves writing a short story of less than 3000 words.  The winning entry will be featured at this years Bloody Scotland festival - an international crime writing festival held in Stirling in September.  The theme is 'worth the wait', referring to the amount of time spent waiting for the Glengoyne whisky to mature.  The winners will receive a crystal decanter filled with rare 35 year old Glengoyne single malt, which is worth £2000.  The closing date for entries is 29 June 2012 and to submit you entry, please visit www.bloodyscotland.com. Further information can also be found on Glengoyne's website.

The Whisky Round Table
The latest edition of The Whisky Round Table is now out. The WRT is a group of whisky bloggers from around the world, of which we are part. Each month one of the 12 bloggers plays host and asks a whisky related question to which the others reply with their views.

This month's meeting is hosted by Chris and Lucas, who write the excellent Edinburgh Whisky Blog.  They asked for everyone's thoughts on the ever increasing number of new make spirit/white dog style releases and their impact. This month is also significant as it is the first to feature a number of the new members of the Round Table.  Some familiar names have left the group but the calibre of the new recruits is high.  To read the full question on Edinburgh Whisky Blog, and the replies of our fellow Round Tablers - click here.

Inbox > March 18, 2011

Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR type material that has found its way in to our email inbox. Sadly, we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece that we receive, so Inbox has been born! It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday. Within Inbox we will write a few lines detailing each press release/piece of news/PR event that we have received and provide links, where possible, for you to find out further information if you want to. There is plenty to get through this week, so grab a dram and enjoy ...
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Albannach > Women only event
The Albannach bar, located on London’s Trafalgar Square, is holding their first ever women only whisky tasting event on Tuesday 29 March. It is part of a series of events at the venue to celebrate Women’s History Month. The women only whisky tasting will be hosted by guest speaker Gillian McDonald the Head Distiller at Penderyn, the Welsh whisky distillery in the Brecon Beacons. Tickets are still available at £35 a head and can be booked by going to www.albannach.co.uk.

Arran > The ‘Westie’ is released
The Isle of Arran Distillers have announced the third edition to their award winning Icons of Arran series of limited edition single malts – the Westie. This follows on from the Peacock and Rowan Tree releases. The Westie is inspired by Master Distiller James MacTaggart’s dog – a west Highland terrier (or ‘westie’) named Ruaraidh, who is a popular character around the Arran distillery. This limited edition contains 6,000 bottles and is constructed from just 22 specially selected ex-sherry casks, hand picked by MacTaggart. These casks were distilled and laid down to mature in 1998. The Westie is bottled at 46% ABV and should cost around £40 – it is available from specialist whisky retailers or www.arranwhisky.com.

Bushmills > Make It 2 Bushmills competition
Bushmills, the famous Irish whiskey distillery, have launched a new competition yesterday on St. Patrick’s Day. Make It 2 Bushmills is easy to enter and can be done so via their Facebook page. The prize is a two week crash course in whiskey making at the Bushmills distillery on the north County Antrim coast, close to the famous Giant’s Causeway. This includes tutoring by Master Distiller Colum Egan, £5,000 spending money, staying in a plush penthouse apartment overlooking the sea and creating your own unique version of Bushmills whiskey. Colum will then take Bushmills back to the winner’s home country and hold a large party, featuring the unveiling of their unique bottling of Bushmills. The short film below explains more ... Good luck!

Glencairn > Wins another award
The last month or so has seen a number of major whisky awards and our email inbox has been bombarded with press releases and news reporting on the award winning whiskies or distilleries. We chose not to report about these, as the results are widely available and it would be too time consuming to give each winner the attention it deserves. However, one such press release did catch our attention – Glencairn, the innovative whisky glassware manufacturer and primary supplier to the Scottish whisky industry, has won the prestigious Industry Leader of the Year as awarded by top American whisky magazine Malt Advocate.

The company, owned by the Davidson family has already won numerous awards – founder Raymond Davidson said, “To be named Industry Leader of the Year in an environment dominated by international whisky and blending companies is a tremendous accolade. Our Glencairn Whisky Glass has been a huge success as a product, with sales of over one million glasses a year worldwide. The company has grown through a truly innovative approach to the market that has led us to the forefront of premium packaging for some of the world’s rarest and most expensive whiskies.”

VisitScotland > New advert
This is nothing to do with whisky really, but we received notification about the new advert campaign for VisitScotland – the country’s tourism operator. Entitled ‘Surprise Yourself’, the advert shows different locations and scenes from around Scotland and offers ideas for alternative activities for visits or holidays. We think that it is well shot, shows some lovely scenes and just thought that we would share it with you. You can also read more information and watch other clips about each location in the advert by visiting the ‘Surprise Yourself’ page on www.visitscotland.com. Enjoy!

News > Penderyn launch Welsh Whisky Wednesdays

We are delighted to announce that Penderyn, the only Welsh single malt whisky, are today launching a new initiative - Welsh Whisky Wednesday. The aim of this new initiative is to raise awareness of Penderyn whisky and get more people to sample it, especially those who may not previously tried it or considered trying it. Each wednesday the Welsh distillery will be placing sampling bottles of Penderyn behind some of London's best bars and these venues will change each week. The venues will be announced each wednesday morning and the first two venues are the iconic whisky bar Albannach on Trafalgar Square and the Mint Leaf Lounge in The City.

So, how does it work? Firstly, you have to be over 18 years of age but otherwise it sounds easy! The sample of Penderyn is free to every consumer who comes to one of the venues between 5-7pm and mentions 'Welsh Whisky Wednesday' to the bar staff. They will then give you a complimentary dram of Aur Cymru ('Welsh Gold' in English) Penderyn whisky. This is limited to one dram per person. You don't need to book ahead, pay or buy anything else, join or sign up for a club - just turn up and ask for your free Penderyn dram!

As mentioned, Penderyn will be announcing the new promotional venues for Welsh Whisky Wednesday each wednesday morning. You can find these out via Penderyn's Facebook page or @PenderynWhisky on Twitter. For further information on the Penderyn distillery, go to their website www.welsh-whisky.co.uk or check out our distillery visit review and notes. Enjoy!

Great places to drink whisky ... Albannach, London

On Wednesday 30th September, we were lucky enough to be invited to the launch night of the newly refurbished Albannach restuarant and whisky bar in London. Albannach (pronounced al-ban-nack) translates as 'Scotsman' from the Gaelic language and the bar is located right on London's famous Trafalgar Square. It was originally opened in early 2005 and was a pioneer for delivering contemporary Scottish cuisine and an extensive whisky collection to a wider public in the capital. Albannach has won many awards and much acclaim for the quality of its food, spirits and service.

Now, Albannach has been refreshed and given a contemporary feel that sympathetically brings the 19th century bank building in which it is housed up to date. They boast an extremely well stocked bar (over 130 whiskies and numerous other spirits), a whisky sommelier to help choose the correct dram to go with your meal and meeting rooms/ conference facilities. At the event, we were able to sample Albannach's own range of whiskies. They have been selected especially for them with help from the Glasgow based independent bottling company Duncan Taylor & Co. Below are our basic tasting notes with some additional facts supplied by the informative Michelangelo from the Albannach bar.

Albannach Blended 10 years old
This blended scotch is bottled at 40% ABV and will cost you £6.50 for a dram at the bar. The colour is golden with a light, fresh aromatic nose - there is vanilla, green fruit (think of pears and apples), toffee and a hint of grassiness (imagine dried grasses). The palate is sweet with a slight citrusy zing (think of lemon zest) added to the elements from the nose. It feels creamy and has a decent length of finish. This is a very enjoyable and easy drinking dram that is better than we expected of a 'house blend'. Very pleasant and easy drinking but would be great with a mixer or in a cocktail.

Albannach Speyside 14 years old
The Speyside distillery in question is Mortlach and it has been matured in American oak bourbon casks. We were interested to try this as bourbon cask matured Mortlach is rare, as the distillery is well known for its use of sherry casks. This is bottled at 46% ABV and will cost £7.50 for a dram. The colour is a straw-like gold and the nose is full of vanilla, coconut and warm spices (think of ginger and nutmeg). On the palate this is clean yet creamy and sweet. The vanilla, coconut and spice is there again as are some cereal grains and caramel. The balance is very good and the finish was surprisingly long, sweet and spicy (this spice was a bit more woody this time, like cinnamon). An excellent and interesting dram.

Albannach Islay 10 years old
The single malt used for this is from the famous Islay distillery of Bowmore. It is bottled at 46% ABV and a dram will cost £7.50 at the bar. The colour is a golden amber and the nose is rich and promising. There is some evidence of dried fruit (think of raisins and sultanas), caramel and earthy peat aromas (think of damp moss especially). On the palate, there is initial sweetness (that dried fruit again joined by some cereal grains and vanilla) and this turns smoky (imagine peaty earth) and slightly bitter (think of something like dark chocolate). It is rich yet feels refreshing and well balanced. The finish is long with a nice level of sweetness and a smokiness that is more bitter and reminiscent of an ashy bonfire than before. Excellent stuff - the whole range of the three whiskies are superb and worth trying if you are ever near Trafalgar Square.

We also had the opportunity to try a whisky cocktail that the bar team at Albannach had created. It is named 'Mosquito' and is a whisky based version of the famous Mojito cocktail. The 'Mosquito' contains a dram of Chival Regal 12 years old, fresh mint leaves, a dash of bitters, creme de peche (a peach liqueur), sugar syrup and peach juice, all poured over freshly crushed ice. This was very drinkable, with the sweetness balanced by the bitters and mint. This cocktail is definitely worth a try.

Albannach offers something different - quality food, an extensive whisky and drinks list ranging from £6 to £750 (Laphroaig 40 years old!) for a dram, knowledgeable staff, good service and pleasant surroundings in which to enjoy them all. It is a must for whisky fans to visit when in London and we had a great evening there. Their website is www.albannach.co.uk.