Review | Glenfiddich Perpetual Collection Vat 01

The Perpetual Collection is a series of whiskies created by the famous Speyside distillery of Glenfiddich. The series is exclusive to the travel retail market and are therefore only available in selected airports worldwide. The final whiskies are taken from huge marrying solera vats at the distillery. These have never been emptied, hence the 'perpetual' tag, and are said to contain some very old whisky. 

Allotment Dram - The Singleton of Dufftown 12 Years Old

For those of you that follow us on Instagram (if you're not, why not? - click the tab at the top of the right hand column), you will know that we regularly post pictures of our 'allotment dram' - the whisky we are enjoying whenever we visit our allotment in North London to do some work or gardening. In these strange times, we have decided to bring this to life and record a brief tasting of each one, along with an update on the allotment's progress.

Join Matt as he visits the allotment on an overcast and muggy Spring day and chats about what he has been doing, then samples The Singleton of Dufftown 12 years old - a classic single malt from the 'whisky capital of Speyside'. Apologies for the quality of sound at times, but we hope you still enjoy it.

#allotmentdram

Review - Mortlach 12 years old, 16 years old & 20 years old

The Speyside distillery of Mortlach has announced a revamp of its core range, which introduces three new expressions to replace the previous three bottlings. The new whiskies are the 12 years old 'Wee Witchie', the 16 years old 'Distiller's Dram' and the 20 years old 'Cowie's Blue Seal'. All three are designed to show the bold and audacious nature of the distillery, which is nicknamed 'The Beast of Dufftown', with the bottle size reverting to 70cl from the previous 50cl.

Review - Kininvie 23 years old (Batch 3)

This whisky is the latest release from the little known Speyside single malt distillery of Kininvie (pronounced kin-inn-vee).  The first whisky using the Kininvie name was released in 2013 and this batch will arrive in selected markets in limited numbers shortly.  This 23 years old expression sits alongside a 17 years old bottling, which is exclusive for the travel retail sector.  Kininvie whisky has quickly gained a cult following due to its rarity and we were intrigued to try the Batch 3 at a recent event, as we had never sampled anything from the distillery before.

Our Top 10 whiskies of 2014

This year has been another productive year for the whisky industry. Many companies are developing and releasing more products than ever to meet or drive consumer demand, as the category continues to grow in both sales and consumption across the globe. It is impossible to sample every new release, but we have been lucky to try some of them through this blog. A huge thank you to all of the brands and PR agencies that continue to send us samples, support us and invite us to events.

New releases - Mortlach 18 years old & 25 years old

The new range of single malts from the Speyside distillery of Mortlach is one of the most anticipated whisky releases for a long time. Mortlach is highly regarded amongst whisky drinkers and previous bottlings have attained cult status. Now it is time for the whisky and brand to evolve and introduce new consumers to its delights and qualities. The new range is formed of four single malts - the Rare Old and Special Strength, plus 18 and 25 years old expressions. In this post, we will be concentrating on the two oldest whiskies in the range.  To read our review and thoughts about the Rare Old and Special Strength - click here.

New releases - Mortlach 'Rare Old' & 'Special Strength'

The new range of single malts from the Speyside distillery of Mortlach is one of the most anticipated whisky releases for a long time.  Mortlach is highly regarded amongst whisky drinkers and previous bottlings have attained cult status.  Now it is time for the whisky and brand to evolve and introduce new consumers to its delights and qualities.  The new range is formed of four single malts - the Rare Old and Special Strength, plus 18 years old and 25 years old expressions.  In this post, we will be concentrating on the first two whiskies in the range ...

New releases - Singleton of Dufftown 'Sunray' & 'Tailfire'

The Sunray and Tailfire are two new expressions that will be joining the Singleton of Dufftown range.  The names draw inspiration from the brand's logo of a leaping salmon - sunray and tailfire are types of artificial fly used in salmon fishing.  Both new single malts will sit alongside the 12, 15 and 18 years old whiskies that currently make up the core range and have just been released in selected European markets of Belgium, Denmark, France, Holland, Switzerland and the UK.  Sunray has also been released in Germany, with Tailfire following in the Summer.

Inbox Special - Diageo Special Releases 2013

Around this time each year, there is always a ripple of anticipation around the whisky industry as people wait to see what Diageo, Scotland's largest producer of single malt whisky, are to release in their annual Special Releases programme.

 This programme is designed to showcase some of the most exceptional single malt stock from within their portfolio of 28 working distilleries, plus remaining stocks from those which have been closed. Some of these stocks have dwindled to almost critical levels. Now the waiting is over for this year, as they have announced the line up and details for the Special Releases 2013.  They will be available from late October.

This year's selection of whiskies (pictured, above) are bottled at the natural cask strength, are non chill filtered and all are limited edition. The collection again places well known flagship distilleries, such as Cardhu, Lagavulin and Talisker, alongside very rare stock from the iconic closed distilleries of Brora and Port Ellen. The details are below ...

Distillery visit - Balvenie

The Balvenie distillery is located in the famous Scottish whisky town of Dufftown in the heart of the Speyside region. It is still owned by the original founders, William Grant & Sons, and was built in 1892 to help their other overworked distillery at Glenfiddich, which is next door. It was named after the nearby Balvenie Castle, which was built in the 13th century.  Balvenie has grown to be one of the largest and most well known distilleries in Scotland. It is also one that we have always wanted to visit, as it was a Balvenie (the Doublewood 12 years old) whisky that was one of the first products to get us interested in whisky.

Balvenie is almost unique in distillery terms - it has its own floor maltings (the room used for the germination of the barley), a cooperage where they construct casks and they even grow some of the barley used for production on land very close to the distillery. The modern whisky industry sees the majority of these processes being completed by external companies. This uniqueness and heritage helps Balvenie sell 1.5 million bottles of whisky across the world, putting it well inside the top 10 for total sales of single malt.

To get a tour at Balvenie, you have to book in advance.  The tours operate at 10am and 2pm each day for Monday-Thursday, and at 10am only on Fridays.  There are no tours at weekends.  It costs £25 per person and includes a detailed tour around the distillery and cooperage, plus a tasting of the Balvenie single malt range at the end.  It also offers the unique opportunity to fill your own bottle of Balvenie straight from the cask for an additional fee.  For more information and to book - visit www.thebalvenie.com.

On our recent visit to Dufftown we were lucky enough to be shown around Balvenie by Jamie Milne, the UK brand ambassador for its sister single malt of Glenfiddich.  A huge thanks to Jamie for that.  To get to Balvenie, you have to walk through the huge Glenfiddich distillery complex and this is where we began.  Across the road from here is where some of the barley for Balvenie is grown (pictured, left).  It is still early in the year and the young green shoots are just poking through the soil.

After a 10 minute walk that flirted with the sights and sounds of Glenfiddich and took us under the disused railway line that separates the two distilleries, we end up on the approach to Balvenie. It was a bracing walk, thanks to a biting cold wind, and it was threatening to snow (in May!?).  The distillery looked good, combining original stonework on some buildings with a slightly gentrified pink paint job on others.  Smoke was drifting out of the triangular pagoda.

The first stop was to see the malting facilities.  From memory, this is the first distillery that we have visited that have this in full operation.  The malting barn (on the left of the above picture) has two floors.  Upstairs is where the barley is stored and prepared for malting.  It was cool and dimly lit - the barley is steeped in water in one of two huge tanks for a couple of days, before the water is drained and the barley is transported by a chute downstairs.

The ground floor is where the barley is laid out to germinate.  The damp barley is laid out across the floor to a depth of about eight inches.  This then starts to germinate, which turns the starch in to the sugar which is essential for creating alcohol.  The barley has to be turned regularly to prevent a build up of heat and to stop the growing roots and shoots from becoming entangled.  There are very few distilleries in Scotland with floor maltings in full operation and Balvenie's produces around 30 tonnes of malt per week - this is about 10% of what the distillery requires, with the rest coming from commercial malt suppliers.

After a few days, the germination needs to be stopped as the barley will then start to use the sugars created to begin full growth.  This process is completed in the traditional way at Balvenie by drying it in a kiln. Again, we had never seen a kiln in action at a distillery.  Each batch of malted barley is loaded in to the pyramid shaped pagoda above the kiln, and then the kiln is lit.  The smoke permeates through the grain and dries it out, therefore stopping the germination.  Interestingly at Balvenie they begin the process by burning peat for around five hours, before switching to coal for the remaining 40 hours or so.  The resulting smoke was what we had seen on our approach to the distillery.

Our next stop was the mashing room.  This contained two huge mash tuns - these are the steel vessels where warm water is added to the milled malted barley and the soluble sugars in the barley are extracted.  The final liquid is called wort. It turned out that only one of these mash tuns was used for the production of Balvenie whisky, with the other being used for Balvenie's sister distillery of Kininvie (more on Kininvie later ...).  Both can hold nearly 11 tonnes of malted barley at a time and have a capacity to run up to 28 mashes a week.

We moved quickly on to the adjoining room which housed a number of wooden washbacks (nine from memory ...).  These are the massive tanks where the wort has yeast added to it, and subsequently the fermentation takes place to turn the soluble sugars in to the required alcohol.  The resulting liquid is now called wash and has a rough alcoholic strength of about 7-8% ABV.  Balvenie also uses some stainless steel washbacks which are housed in another room, but we did not get to see these.  We were also briefly shown a neighbouring room next door which housed some of the wooden washbacks used for the production of wash for Kininvie.

Next was the still room, well one of them anyway.  Balvenie has two - there are a total of five wash stills (where the first distillation takes place) and six spirit stills (where the second distillation that produces the final spirit takes place).  Between them they produce around 5.5 million litres of spirit in a year.  The stills seemed tall, large and imposing, even from the raised level that we viewed them from.  Sadly, then it is time to head out from the lovely heat of the still room back out to the freezing, bracing Scottish weather.

Jamie decided to show us the cooperage, which is another of Balvenie's traditional features.  Historically, most distilleries would have had a cooperage to make their casks but now very few do.  In fact Balvenie are the only distillery to still have their own coppersmith tending to the stills as well, and he has been doing that job for over 50 years!  The cooperage was closed, which was a shame as it was something else that we had never seen in full operation before. However, we spent some time dodging the icy snowflakes and wandering around amongst the thousands of different sized casks that were waiting to be either reconditioned by the coopers or filled with new make spirit.

The cooperage is tucked away at the far end of William Grant's facility.  It is only when you are walking to it from Balvenie that you begin to understand the sheer enormity of the place.  There is a staggering total of nearly 50 warehouses on the site, which house whisky produced at Balvenie, Glenfiddich and Kininvie.  There are three types of warehouse - traditional dunnage (stone walls, low roof, earth floors), racked (casks are stacked on racks) and palletised (casks are stacked from floor to ceiling on pallets).  All of the warehouses, plus the trees and any other static objects (including the fire hydrants!) are covered in a black coating.  This is caused by tiny organisms which feed on the alcohol vapours that are released as the whisky matures in its cask.

As we head back, we catch a glimpse of the mysterious distillery that is Kininvie.  Not much is known about it and the single malt produced there is rarely released in its own right.  Kininvie (pictured, below) was built in 1990 and produces large quantities of single malt (nearly five million litres per year) that are used heavily in the Grant's range of blends and William Grant's popular Monkey Shoulder.  As mentioned earlier, the mash tun and fermentation washbacks are housed within the Balvenie buildings but are maintained and operated separately.  Kininvie's still house is functional rather than attractive, being made out of corrugated metal, and is home to three wash stills and six spirit stills.

The regular tour of Balvenie is completed with a whisky tasting of the Balvenie range, but ours is sadly cut short by having to rush off to another engagement.  It is easy to look at the £25 price tag for the Balvenie tour and think that it is expensive, but what this distillery offers you is worth it.  As mentioned, the distillery is almost unique and gives you the chance to see parts of the production process that can rarely be seen elsewhere - barley growing, plus a full working malting barn and cooperage. In addition to all of this, the Balvenie single malt range is excellent and the tour experience backs up the 'traditional feel' that the brand promotes.

Dufftown - The whisky capital of Speyside

The Clock Tower, Dufftown

We recently visited the Spirit of Speyside festival, which is an event that celebrates whisky from the famous region at the beginning of May each year. We stayed in Dufftown, a town widely regarded as the whisky capital of the Speyside region. The reason being is that it is home to six working distilleries and a number of others that are now closed. Only the whisky island of Islay, well known and loved for the smoky style of whisky and home to eight distilleries, can rival Dufftown in the ‘Whisky Capital of Scotland’ stakes.

Here, we take a brief tour of the town and look at its history and the history of its whisky distilleries ...

Dufftown in a nutshell

Dufftown, and the area surrounding it, has been a site of human settlement for over 2,000 years. The earliest clues are a series of Pictish stones located in the Fiddich glen that are still able to be visited today, including an impressive six foot high stone cross. In 566AD, the Mortlach church was built by a group of Christians and this too is still standing today. It is one of the oldest remaining Christian settlements in Scotland and is located between the Dufftown and Mortlach distilleries. Another building of historical importance is Balvenie Castle, which was built in the 13th century by the Earl of Buchan. It has had famous visitors such as King Edward I and Mary Queen of Scots.

Balvenie Castle and Glenfiddich distillery

Dufftown as we know it today was founded in 1817 by James Duff, who was the 4th Earl of Fife. It was built to home those returning to the area from the Napoleonic Wars. The most recognisable building of this era is the clock tower, which was completed in 1839. It was originally built to be the town jail but today is the tourist information office. Interestingly, the clock itself was not part of the original building, but came from a similar building in the town of Banff. Over time, numerous whisky companies began to populate the town and build distilleries. This was due to the abundant water supply in the Fiddich glen and surrounding hills. As a result, Dufftown now raises more capital per head of population than any other place in the UK.

The distilleries

Balvenie

The Balvenie single malts are among some of the best selling in the world. The distillery was built in 1892 by William Grant, who was the owner of the neighbouring Glenfiddich distillery. The first spirit flowed from the stills in May 1893. Balvenie is almost unique in that all stages of the whisky making process still take place there. This includes even growing some of their own barley on nearby land and being one of only a few distilleries left in Scotland to practice their own floor malting – this is where the barley is laid out on a floor and turned regularly while germination takes place. It has a current annual capacity of 5.6 million litres and remains under the ownership of William Grant & Sons. The first Balvenie single malt hit the market in 1973 and the brand has gone from strength to strength since.

Dufftown

The Dufftown distillery was founded in 1895 by a group of four gentlemen – Peter MacKenzie, Charles MacPherson, Richard Stackpole and John Symon. The site was formerly a mill - this was converted and the first spirit flowed off their stills in November 1896. Dufftown is currently owned by multi national drinks company Diageo, who took control in 1997, and is their second largest distillery behind the recently opened monster at Roseisle. The annual capacity in 5.8 million litres and most of the whisky produced goes in to Diageo’s range of blends, especially Bell’s. A couple of single malts are available – the increasingly popular Singleton of Dufftown 12 years old and a travel retail exclusive 15 years old version.

Glendullan

The Glendullan distillery was founded in 1897 by William Williams & Sons. It was the last of the original seven distilleries from the 1800s to be opened and sits right down in the Fiddich glen, next to the River Fiddich. It is currently owned by Diageo and has an annual capacity of 3.3 million litres. The whisky is produced in a large still house, which was built in the 1972 and stands next to the old distillery. This old part of the distillery is now used for warehousing and training by Diageo. Single malts releases from Glendullan are scarce – the only one at present is a US exclusive Singleton of Glendullan 12 years old - and as a result the distillery is little known to a wider audience. Most of the whisky goes in to Diageo blends.

Glenfiddich

The iconic distillery of Glenfiddich is the most famous and largest of Dufftown's distilleries.  It is the biggest selling single malt whisky brand in the world and is the largest single malt distillery in Scotland with a current annual production capacity of 12 million litres.  Glenfiddich was founded in 1886 by William Grant and was constructed with the help of his nine children.  It remains owned by William Grant & Sons today and is one of the last remaining family owned distilleries in Scotland.  The pioneering range of whiskies is extensive and can be found in most countries around the world. It was the first single malt brand to ever be sold in the travel retail sector and also the first distillery to ever open a visitors centre in 1969.

Kininvie

The Kininvie distillery was built in 1990 by William Grant & Sons as the ‘little’ sister to Balvenie and Glenfiddich. It is located within the same property as its two more famous siblings and has an annual capacity of 4.8 million litres. The still house is the only true part of the distillery, as the mashing and fermentation takes place within Balvenie. Kininvie was built solely to produce whisky for the popular Grant’s range of blends, and more recently has been used in their Monkey Shoulder brand. Single malt releases from Kininvie are almost non-existent and when they do appear, they are named as Hazelwood. To date only a couple of very limited editions of Hazelwood have been released – one in 2006 and another in 2008.

Mortlach

Mortlach was the first whisky distillery to be established in Dufftown. It was founded in 1823 by James Findlater, shortly after the Customs & Excise Act was passed by the UK Government. The distillery sits in a hollow beneath the town, close to the River Fiddich and the ancient Mortlach church. It is also Dufftown’s smallest distillery in terms of annual production – 2.9 million litres. Mortlach is currently owned by Diageo and is used prominently in the popular Johnnie Walker range of blended whiskies - it has been used since 1923 when John Walker & Sons purchased the distillery. Only one single malt is currently available – the fabled 16 years old – and even this is sporadic, due to the Johnnie Walker blending contracts.

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There are three other distilleries that can still be seen in some form or another in Dufftown – Convalmore, Parkmore and Pittyvaich. These distilleries are no longer in operation but have all contributed to the whisky history of the town.

Convalmore is located at the northern point of Dufftown and the buildings are now owned by William Grant & Sons, forming part of their massive site that includes Balvenie, Glenfiddich and Kininvie. It was founded in 1894 and closed in 1985, making whiskies from Convalmore now extremely rare.

Parkmore

Parkmore was opened in 1894 and closed in 1931 due to a contaminated water supply. The distillery’s equipment was removed shortly after, but the buildings and warehouses remain to this day. They are in amazingly good condition and are currently owned and being used by Diageo for maturation and storage.

Pittyvaich (pronounced pitty-vek) was built in 1974 and had a short-lived production life. It closed in 1993 and its buildings demolished in 2002. All that remains is a rather unattractive square patch of dirt where the distillery once stood and the very occasional single malt release.

Distillery visit - Glenfiddich

On our recent trip to the Spirit of Speyside Festival, we paid a visit to the home of one of our favourite single malt whiskies - Glenfiddich.  We were booked in on the distillery's premium tour - The Pioneers Tour.  This promised to give us an in-depth distillery tour, while offering us the opportunity to bottle our own whisky in one of their warehouses.  All of this before sampling an array of their single malts in a tutored tasting as the finale.

Glenfiddich is the most recognisable single malt brand and distillery in the world. It is the biggest selling Scotch single malt whisky across 180 countries worldwide. The distillery is located on the outskirts of the town of Dufftown in the Speyside region of Scotland.  Dufftown is the whisky capital of Speyside and is home to six distilleries that are currently in operation - Balvenie, Dufftown, Glendullan, Glenfiddich, Kininvie and Mortlach.  Three others are now silent - Convalmore, Parkmore and Pittyvaich.

The name of Glenfiddich translates as 'valley of the deer' from Gaelic and is pronounced glen-fiddick. It is Scotland's largest single malt distillery and remains one of the few remaining family owned distilleries. Glenfiddich was constructed by William Grant and his nine children in 1886 using materials from the surrounding landscape and the first spirit flowed from the stills on Christmas Day 1887. It remains owned by William Grant & Sons to this day.

The Pioneers Tour began in the entrance to the visitors centre, under the William Grant's family tree (pictured, left).  It was the first distillery visitor centre in Scotland opening in 1969 and has grown to cater for 77,000 visitors in 2011.  We were greeted by Bert Macor, Senior Guide at Glenfiddich, who led us through to a film theatre.  Here we watched a short but emotive video about the history of the Glenfiddich distillery and the historical involvement of the Grant family in its construction and operation.

Bert then carried on the introduction by filling in some of the historical gaps that were not covered in the film, followed by hitting us with some of the staggering statistics of this huge distillery.  For example, at Glenfiddich they use around 90 tonnes of malted barley each day - this results in 12 million litres of spirit being produced and put in to casks each year.

The tour moved inside the distillery into the mash room.  This is where the malted barley grist is mixed with warm water so as to dissolve the soluble sugars needed for fermentation.  This process takes place in two of the biggest mash tuns that we have seen on any distillery visit to date.  These copper-domed tuns dwarf us and can hold 11,000 tonnes of mash each.  Between them they complete four mashes a day adding up to 56 a week in total.  They also have a viewing window in the side and we witnessed a new batch of water being added to the mash and slowly stirred.

Moving upstairs, we entered the series of rooms where the fermentation takes place.  It is here that we begin to fully see the physically large scale of Glenfiddich - there are 24 tanks, called washbacks, each of which hold 50,000 litres of liquid.  The wort comes from the mash tun, has yeast added and is then left to ferment for 72 hours.  Here the sugars in the wort are converted to alcohol and this new liquid is called wash.  Each washback is made of wood from Douglas fir trees.

Our next stop is one of the two still houses.  This is home to five large wash stills, where the first distillation takes place, and 10 smaller spirit stills, which complete the second part of distillation process.  The second still house is equipped with five wash stills and eight spirit stills.  The place has a real sense of awe about it, especially when you start to comprehend the 12 million litres of spirit that is annually produced, and the noise from directly fired stills is immense.  When standing next to the spirit stills (seen in the foreground of the photo) what is surprising is how small they are - you could almost reach up and touch the lyne arm, if you wanted to.  Well, if it wasn't boiling hot ...

Bert then led us across the courtyard, down a narrow path and over a bridge.  Our destination was to be Warehouse No.8 - one of the old dunnage-style warehouses on the site and home to the famous Solera Vat, which is used in the maturation of the award winning 15 year old expression of Glenfiddich.  In total, there are 44 warehouses which are used for maturing whiskies from Glenfiddich, Balvenie and Kinivie.  There is a staggering 120 million litres of spirit maturing in these warehouses.

After a quick look around the warehouse and an explanation from Bert about the impressively large Solera Vat (it holds 37,000 litres of whisky and is never completely emptied, which gives consistency to the 15 years old expression), we move on to the main event - the opportunity to bottle our own 20cl from one of four casks selected by Glenfiddich's Malt Master Brian Kinsman (pictured, left).  You will only get the chance to do this on The Pioneers Tour - Brian has selected two ex-bourbon casks, one first-fill and one second-fill, and two ex-sherry casks, one first-fill and one second-fill.

After a quick sniff of each cask, we all chose the one we wanted to bottle. Using the traditional dog and funnel we then get to pull our own measure of whisky and fill our own bottles.  This is a great experience to take part in and felt special and unique, especially when standing in such peaceful surroundings. Karen chose the first-fill sherry cask from 1995 and Matt chose the first-fill bourbon cask from 1991 - this proved even more special, as it turned out to be the first bottle drawn from this new cask.

The grand finale of The Pioneers Tour took place in the luxurious VIP Suite surrounded by photos of the Grant family.  Firstly, we hand wrote the labels for our 20cl bottles and entered our details in the cask ledger book.  This ceremony is followed by a tutored whisky tasting with Bert, who after allowing us a sniff and sip of Glenfiddich's new make spirit, took us through the 12 years old, 14 years old Rich Oak, 15 years old, 18 years old, 21 years old Gran Reserva and 30 years old expressions.

The Pioneers Tour left us with plenty of memories to reflect on.  Firstly, how could three and a half hours go so quickly? Secondly and most importantly, is the sense of tradition at the distillery.  We had wrongly imagined that Glenfiddich was going to be a huge industrial factory - this is not the case and you see this at every point of the tour.  Yes, it is huge but everything feels traditional and is simply replicated to a scale that meets their vast needs, be it the mash tuns, washbacks, stills or warehouses.  Every employee that we spoke to seemed to proudly enjoy working there and felt that they had a direct link to the Grant family in some way.  Long may that feeling continue.

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As we were going around Glenfiddich, we took a few clips of video so that we could bring you some of the sights and sounds of the distillery.   We hope that you enjoy our video - don't worry it's not three and a half hours long, just four minutes ...



Tour details  - The Pioneers Tour
Entry - £75 per person/ Tour duration - 3 hours 30 mins/ No. of drams - 7 + 20cl single cask bottle to take home/ No. of people on our tour - 6/ Further details - http://www.glenfiddich.com/

Glenfiddich also runs two alternative distillery tours - the Classic Tour and the Explorers Tour.  The Classic Tour is free of charge and takes in a tour around the distillery, finishing with a tasting of three expressions from the Glenfiddich single malt range.  This runs about every 20-30 minutes.

The Explorers Tour costs £10 per head and covers the distillery in more depth, taking in the famous Solera Warehouse No.8 and finishing with a tasting of four whiskies in the William Grant's VIP Suite.  Booking is essential for the Explorers and Pioneers tours - email glenfiddichbookings@wgrant.com or phone 01340-820373.

Have just tried ... Singleton of Dufftown

The Dufftown distillery is located in the town of Dufftown (unsurprisingly!), in the heart of Speyside. The town has the largest concerntration of distilleries in Scotland, with seven officially within it's borders (Dufftown, Glenfiddich, Balvenie, Kininvie, Mortlach and Glendullan plus Pittyvaich, which has closed). The distillery is owned by drinks giant Diageo and is their largest, with a capacity of four million litres per year. Hardly any of this amount is released as single malt, as a massive 98% goes towards Diageo's range of blended whiskies. Bell's, which is the UK's second best selling whisky, takes away the lion's share of this. Diageo release only two single malts from the distillery - a 15 years old that forms part of their 'flora & fauna' range and this 12 years old that is named 'the Singleton'. Independent bottlings are extremely rare. 'the Singleton' is one of the brands currently being heavily promoted by Diageo and as a result, it is becoming available in more retailers.

The nose is rich with vanilla and a woodiness (think of sawdust). There is also an interesting yeasty note (imagine fresh dough) and something nutty (almonds, I think). It is fairly rich on the palate with that nuttiness and vanilla appearing again. These are joined by some dried fruits (think of raisins and sultanas) and the yeasty quality from the nose has become more biscuit like (this may sound weird but it reminded me of digestive biscuits). The finish is quite short and refreshing. This is a decent, solid whisky that is good but quite basic and one dimensional. It has a good balance and would be an excellent choice to introduce someone to whisky. This should cost between £30-35 a bottle.