Claire Urquhart, great-granddaughter of the whisky's creator, John Urquhart, holds a £10,000 decanter of the malt. Picture: Jane Barlow

IT HAS been more than 70 years in the making and was laid down in a small Scottish distillery the year before the outbreak of the Second World War.

But yesterday, amidst the splendour of Edinburgh Castle, the contents of that single cask saw the light of day for the first time at the launch of the world’s oldest bottled single malt whisky.

The extremely rare Mortlach 70 Years Old Speyside Single Malt Whisky released by Gordon & MacPhail under its “Generations” brand was piped into the Castle escorted by guards from The Highlanders (4th Battalion).

The Spanish oak hogshead cask – formerly for bodega sherry – which was on display at the castle yesterday yielded 54 full-size and 162 small decanters bottled at cask strength.

However, collectors will need to dig deep – a 70cl decanter will sell for £10,000, while the 20cl version costs £2,500.

Whisky Galore has two 200ml bottles of this rare malt on their way to New Zealand – contact Michael at Whisky Galore for more details.

Read the full article here at The Scotsman

During the tour, I have spent 12 days with Charles MacLean and although this is my third trip with him, this has by far been the most comprehensive.

Apart from having the most incredible nose and being able to put his finger (or nose!) on exactly the essence of a dram – for example, “Old Fashioned Humbugs” described one to a tee – he has also got the most incredible depth of knowledge on the history, the people, the background and dates to distillery changes both in style/architecture/ownership and management – it astounds me just how much he knows.

Although Charles could be seen as being over the top in some ways, he is a humble and often self depreciating man, who seems to know someone and has friends in every place we went to. He never gets sick of Scotch as a subject and always looking to that next wee bit of knowledge.

On the tour, New Zealand and its people impressed him a great deal, “an eminently sophisticated and well mannered people” he remarked, as well as enjoying every aspect of the landscape. The passion New Zealanders have for whisky always amazes visitors from Scotland, and Charles’ has been no exception.

So what did I learn? Well, the first thing is that I still have a lot to learn! Second, I learned that someone like Charles still never ceases to be amazed when he hits on a fantastic dram, even after 29 years he still finds and delights in surprises like in a friendly dram of a Glendronach 1993 Vintage or a dram at someone’s home of an old bottling (2001) of Port Ellen Provenance (which was a delight) which got him waxing lyrical as only Charles can!

This is someone who loves every single aspect of Scotch, from its home and his Scotland, to the dram and people around the world who consume it – in his words “The most wonderful of industries with the most wonderful of people” – that is Scotch as MacLean see’s it, and although he almost wore me out (again), we do hope that he will return.

If you attended any of the tastings and would like to let us know what you thought or you have any photos you would like to share, please do get in touch, we would appreciate it.

Thank you again.

Slainte Mhath! – Michael Fraser Milne

Why not look at our new Australian webstore at: www.whiskygalore.com.au

Since arriving in Canterbury NZ in 1993 we have been importing whiskies, the finest range possible, and since 2003 selling from our Whisky Galore retail shop and website.

Over this time we have had hundreds if not thousands of requests from the Australian Whisky Enthusiasts to “do something” in Australia and indeed have sent many a “red cross parcel” across the ditch with essential whisky supplies.

Well here we are www.whiskygalore.com.au is a reality and for us a very important step into the bigger scarier whisky world in Australia a web based service both for the public and trade.

This “leap” for Whisky Galore has not come lightly and we are determined as we have in New Zealand to purvey not only fine whiskies but a range you will not have seen before in many cases and also “something for everyone” provided of course you enjoy a dram!

Over the coming months we will tweak and increase the range we offer and are of course looking for immediate feedback on what you want and think, sign up for our e-newsletter, to keep informed.

Please, DO TELL EVERYBODY you know who has an interest in whisky, we are here to service the whisky enthusiast throughout Australia and are very excited at the prospect of doing so.

Yours in the very best of Spirits,

As aye,

Michael Fraser Milne

In amongst the new Adelphi, Signatory, Duncan Taylor and Douglas Laing bottlings, we are glad to see the return of Berry Brother’s and Rudd to our shelves.

For a full list of our new whiskies in PDF format, please click on the following link: WG Independants – April 2010

The cost of a bottle of Glenmorangie 10 year old purchased on the 19^th of March 1994 was $69.70. Using the Consumers Price Index, Robin concluded that a ‘modern’ Glenmorangie “Original” (the replacement for the old 10 year old) would have to sell in March 2010 for $100.45 – the real surprise here is that the Glenmorangie “Original” actually retails in March 2010 for just $80!

A lot seems to be said about whisky in the ‘old days’, some think it was better, others say it was cheaper, but the more we look into it, the more we realise that we are in fact in what can be considered a golden age of whisky. Availability and diversity of single malt whisky has never been greater: a far bigger range of 10-15 year old standard bottlings, exclusive single-cask offerings from both distilleries and independant bottlers and various and quite differing expressions (peated, un-peated, cask finishes) coming from one distillery (Benriach is a good example of this).

At the end of the day, with so many different whiskies on available at prices which we feel offer great value for money (industry wide, not just at our shop), we can’t help but look back even 15 years ago with a great deal of satisfaction and delight at just how far the single malt whisky world has come.

Slainte,
The Whisky Galore Team.

Distillery waste will be converted into gas to help make Islay self-sufficient in green energy.

Energy from whisky? Lovers of the amber spirit may think it sounds like the environment movement’s worst-ever idea but the Scottish island of Islay is pioneering a system that uses whisky to create green energy.

A Scottish distillery is to launch a pioneering scheme to turn waste sludge from whisky production into green energy.

The Bruichladdich distillery on Islay is to build an anaerobic digester next month to convert thousands of tons of yeasty waste into methane gas, which will be burned to make electricity.

Seven other distilleries on the island — Ardbeg, Laphroaig, Lagavulin, Bowmore, Caol Ila, Bunnahabhain and Kilchoman — are understood to be considering similar schemes.

If the project proves a success, much of the island’s electricity could be generated by its distilleries. There may even be gas left over for methane-powered vehicles.

“We are going to install two anaerobic digesters on our site. In theory, it could meet all our power needs,” said Mark Reynier, the owner of Bruichladdich.

Tons of waste from the distilleries are pumped into the sea each week via a pipeline to the Sound of Islay. Anaerobic digesters, in which bacteria break down the organic waste to produce methane, would use up the waste and cut the distillers’ carbon footprint by supplying up to 80% of the energy needed for whisky production Bruichladdich spends £20,000 a year on disposing of its waste.

“The digesters will cost about £300,000 in capital outlay, so it should take just three to five years to recoup the cost,” said Reynier.

The system at the Bruichladdich distillery will be built by Biowayste, a Northamptonshire firm that has set up five such plants, including one at Muntons, a brewing company in Suffolk, and at Orchard House Foods in Northamptonshire.

“The whisky distillers are increasingly aware of their environmental impact, so if we can prove our systems at Bruichladdich, I hope we will get the other seven distilleries interested, too,” said Barry Howard, Biowayste’s chairman.

Article by Jonathan Leake from The Sunday Times

The contest took place in a hostelry north of Edinburgh and when the results were announced author and whisky connoisseur Charles MacLean exclaimed, “Oh my God, is this an April Fools?”

“It’s tropical fruits. Tropical fruit jam,” said Charles MacLean, who headed the jury panel.

The scores tallied up with Taiwan’s Kavalan receiving 27.5 points out of a possible 40, with the next place (Langs, a three-year-old Scottish premium blend) scoring only 22 points. The other competitors were Scotland’s King Robert (20 points), England’s St George (15.5 points), and Scotland’s Bruchladdich X4+3 (only 4.5 points out of the possible 40).

Kavalan comes from Taiwan’s first distillery, which was built by a firm from Banffshire, and uses Scottish malt in its production.

Now there’s big hopes for this Taiwanese young malt after the surprise Scottish win.

Executives at beverage maker King Car Food Industrial Co., which began to distill whisky just five years ago, were thrilled when their fruity-tasting Kavalan won a blind taste test in Leith, Scotland last month against three Scottish whiskies and one from England.

The results delighted executives at King.

The company’s distilleries are sited on a 32-hectare palm-rimmed compound in Ilan, 32 kilometres southeast of Taipei.

As a food manufacturer, when King Car decided to make whisky, the company was met with scepticism.

To keep its fine quality, King Car saves only 10 percent of the distilled malt – the so-called heart cut, as compared to many makers who keep 15 percent of the heart and leave out the foreshots and feints, technician Andy Chang explains.

Ilan’s average temperature of 30 degrees Celsius is much warmer than the 15 degrees of the Scottish highlands, which is believed to be ideal for whisky production.

The whisky maker has to convince consumers that its young malt is just as good as older whiskies produced in colder climate.

To do this, it makes the case that hotter weather shortens the maturation process.

King Car also has a number of natural advantages that could help it in the marketplace.

One is its distillery’s proximity to a large underground water reservoir that gathers water from clean springs from the nearby mountain ranges.

And then there is the question of experience: how do you compete with a tradition dating back hundreds of years?

King Car’s answer was to hire a British whisky consultant and send officials to Scotland to learn the elaborate distilling process.

They also bought equipment from renowned coppersmith and fabricator Forsyths in Rothes, Scotland.

Still, manager Ma acknowledges that the Scottish whisky making tradition cannot be learned overnight.

Using imported wood and yeast adds to production costs.

A bottle of Kavalan now sells for 2,100 New Taiwan dollars (US$65).

Taiwan, with a population of 23 million, consumed some 7 billion New Taiwan dollars (US$220 million) of whisky in 2008, according to government figures.

Most came from Scotland, with a smaller percentage from Japan.

The chief consultant of the whisky school in Taipei, Steven Lin, says the important thing for making good whisky is not trying to compete with Scottish whisky.

He hopes that in the future more Taiwanese companies will produce good quality whisky with unique Taiwanese flavours.

King Car began marketing Kavalan in Taiwan last year, but officials declined to reveal sales volumes.

The company says it can turn out 9 million bottles a year but is now running at 60 percent of capacity.

It says it hopes that growing acceptance for Kavalan both at home and abroad will allow it to raise that to 100 percent within five years.

The discoveries were made during the current short Antarctic summer.

The objects were found while removing ice from under Shackleton’s hut at Cape Royds for the first time since it was built in 1908.

The finds are made up of several items including:

• a woolen undershirt labeled Bertram Armytage, an Australian member of Shackleton’s British Antarctic Expedition 1907-09
• rubber and felt boots still lined with straw to insulate the team’s feet
• an intact dog harness
• several crates of matches,
• and three pristine crates labelled MacKinlay’s whisky and two crates of brandy.

“It was a magical feeling literally discovering history, touching things that had remained untouched for almost a hundred years” said British-based James Blake the youngest member of the conservation team working at the site who spent many days under the hut in sub zero temperatures recovering the objects.

British firm Carpenter Oak and Woodland oversaw the carpentry work and director Charley Brentnall, onsite for the last six weeks, was delighted with the new finds. “It was an unexpected bonus to the planned programme of hut conservation. As with so much of the huts’ project, the perfectly preserved mundane everyday things like boxes of matches and bottles of whisky really bring alive the ordeal of these great men,” said Mr Brentnall.
The majority of the unique artifacts have all been transported to New Zealand’s Antarctic research facility, Scott Base, where an international team of conservators led by Briton Chris Calnan from The National Trust has just arrived to spend the long Antarctic winter conserving the Shackleton hut collection.

The work is part of a project to conserve the endangered Antarctic legacy of Scott and Shackleton’s expeditions for future generations for which £3,000,000 is urgently needed to save Captain Scott’s last expedition base.

The three crates of Scotch whisky and two crates of brandy left beneath the floorboards of a hut by the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton in 1909, at the end of a failed expedition to the South Pole, were unearthed by a team from the Antarctic Heritage Trust.

Al Fastier, who led the team, said the discovery of the brandy was a surprise, according to a news release posted online by the trust. The team had expected to find just two crates of whisky buried under the hut. The trust reported that that ice had cracked some of the crates and formed inside, “which will make the job of extracting the contents very delicate.”

Richard Paterson, a master blender for Whyte & Mackay, which supplied the Shackleton expedition with 25 crates of MacKinlay’s “Rare and Old” whisky, described the unearthing of the bottles as “a gift from the heavens for whisky lovers,” since the recipe for that blend has been lost. “If the contents can be confirmed, safely extracted and analyzed, the original blend may be able to be replicated.”

Mr. Paterson addressed the question of what the whisky might taste like in a post on his blog when the plan to dig it up was first announced, last year:

[W]hiskies back then — a harder age — were all quite heavy and peaty as that was the style. And depending on the storage conditions, it may still have that heaviness. For example, it may taste the same as it did back then if the cork has stayed in the bottle and kept it airtight.

But if the whisky is on its side, the cork may have been eroded by the whisky or air may have got in some other way — especially if the corks have been contracting and expanding with the temperature changes over the years and seasons.

Bruce MacMillan with Stewart Laing

This is Bruce MacMillan from Sydney with Stewart Laing of Douglas Laing and Co. in the Whsky Galore shop.

Bruce is a real fan and has now come down for two DramFests and gets his whisky sent over. Also Bruce is a member of “The Whisky Guild” and we are proud to have him as one of us.

Keep up the good work Bruce, one of our Ambassadors from Australia!

James Cowan

Born in 1975 in Dundee, Scotland, James moved in his early childhood to the prolific whisky region of Speyside. Although too young at the time to understand what whisky and distilling was all about, this was to prove the beginning of a great journey into the world of Scotch.

James progressed through schooling in the remote highland region of Skye and Lochalsh, before moving South to Edinburgh to finish his higher education at Napier University.

James graduated in 1996 with a BA (Hons) Hospitality, and throughout his university days he developed an increasing interest in both wines and spirits. This spurred him on to study for his Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET) exams of which he progressed to Advance Level. At the same time, throughout his time at university James was fortunate enough to work at a well respected whisky retailer in the heart of Edinburgh. This not only gave him a broader knowledge base on all matters relating to Scotch Whisky but it also fuelled his ongoing passion relating to the product. Upon graduation James was eager to put all the theory he had learnt into practice and he spent half a year working for the world leading wine company BRL Hardy in South Australia.

It was his long standing passion for whisky that brought him back to his homeland and he quickly immersed himself in a role working for a small independent whisky company. It was Tullibardine Distillery who approached James for a newly established role at their plant. Not more than one year after joining Tullibardine, James was to be head hunted by BenRiach Distillery to take up his current role as Regional Sales Director for the Asia Pacific Region.

He is relishing the prospect to develop the company’s image and profile throughout the Asia/Pacific Region and is very much looking forward to his  New Zealand visit.