There are many areas of Scotland with concentrations of distilleries but of all of them there are none to compare with the lovely remote island of Islay. Of the other island sources Orkney has a mere two, Skye, Mull and Arran only one each, yet Islay has an astonishing seven - all of them highly regarded, all of them very different and yet still distinctively Islay. They tend to attract extreme reactions, some people finding the strong phenolic tastes of the southern ones too much for them. However those that acquire the taste tend to be adherents for life, indeed for the committed Islay drinker there is little else worth bothering with.
In alphabetical order (so as not to anticipate our tastings) they are:
Ardbeg
Bowmore
Bruichladdich
Bunnahabhain
Caol Ila
Lagavulin
Laphroaigh
And if that isn’t enough then just a short ferry hop across the sound is the Isle of Jura distillery, while you can still obtain Port Ellen, although sadly this Islay distillery was dismantled some years ago and the remaining stocks are rising in price rather quickly.
In the next few weeks we’ll be offering tasting notes on all of these well loved drams. Indeed we’ve looked at one of the versions of Bruichladdich already. If you’re new to the delights of Islay then we hope you’ll be encouraged to experiment. I (Bill) am even hoping to convert Mike from his Strathspey favourites!
While checking through my email yesterday I noticed a great little competition from Bowmore. Ok so its not quite so small. By signing up online you will be entered into a competition to win one of only 827 bottles of Islay whisky valued at £2,000.
Each of these bottles comes from a cask, that was set down, on the 5th of November 1964 and comes hand numbered and in a special presentation case. The competition is part of a larger campaign by Bowmore to launch a website called “The Bowmore Way” - which by the sounds of it is going to have forums, videos and more competitions. I don’t see a blog mentioned here but I’m sure they’ll have one so we can all keep up to date with the goings on up at the Bowmore Distillery.
To enter the competition to win this whisky - I’m assuming its a damn good bottle of spirit as it costs £2,000 a bottle - visit Bowmore Distillery website.
As we enter 2008 I thought it was about time that we said a bit about 2008 and said thank you to all the people who’ve helped make this site a success.
2008 - More tastings in more locations
In 2007 we’ve conducted a couple of tastings - trying to develop our scoring system has been our main concern. As none of us as ‘professional whisky tasters‘ we’ve been trying to develop a score card that we can put online so that everyone can add their views using the same criteria. At these tastings we’ve had close to one hundred people giving their views on how they taste whisky and what they use to determine a ‘great whisky‘ and how they determine a ‘poor whisky‘. This has been a harder task than we first envisaged. But we hope to have this done by the end of March.
Also in 2008 we’re hoping to arrange a public tasting - it may be a very limited public tasting of about 20 people and we’re currently finalising details as we speak. It is hoped to have something arranged in Edinburgh after the Festival is finished - as it’ll be less busy and Edinburgh always regains its sense of self at this time.
Thanks for 2007
A big thanks should go to Spider Writing and Amimono Design. Each of these companies have helped with hosting, design, installation and some other bits and pieces to do with the site.
A big round of applause goes to all at Glenmorangie. They helped arrange whisky for one of our small tastings at the tail end of last year - review coming soon. The whisky they sent us has also became one of the corner stones when developing our scoring system. They sent us a Christmas present too which was great.
So all the best to all of you in 2008.
Slainte
Since its purchase and reopening in 2001 the Bruichladdich distillery has been showing a healthy imagination in its marketing and a variety in the types of whisky it releases. I remember in early 2004, while touring with a theatre company in Germany, being impressed by the market penetration they had achieved in even quite small German towns, noting a few large and professional displays in wine and spirit shops.
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Just as a good whisky matures over the years so do our taste buds. My first experiences of single malts were at the age of 18, and thinking back to the types that I enjoyed then they were vastly different to those that I now favour. Back then I appreciated smoothness; the soft, sometimes almost honeyed flavours of the Speyside malts, Glenfiddich, Glenmorangie, and with Glenlivet the undoubted king. In many ways this reflected my tastes in food, which were only just branching out from a fairly bland British culinary upbringing. Just as I appreciated a good steak over a modest stew, I could recognise the quality of rich smooth malts over the rougher blends.
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Bill Marshall on November 21st 2007 in Glenfarclas, Cardhu, Caol Ila, Whisky Regions, Islay, Speyside, Glenlivet, Bruichladdich, Whisky Distilleries, Malt Whisky, Glenmorangie, Talisker, Highland Park, Whisky
On Saturday this week I took a stroll into Edinburgh - it was its customary grey colour and I spent most of the day outflanked by people who were either delusional, unfunny or both. Its currently the fringe in Edinburgh and every one who ever held beliefs that they were funny seems to take this week out of the asylum to foist their mis-held belief on the world. That said I did see a Radio 4 production of Loose Ends - Arthur Smith was funny ,hungover yet funny. After that I lunched at a quaint Chinese restaurant which was a nice change from the grey outlook. Got soaked to the skin and called the day a wash out. Continue Reading »
I’m gonna start this week with my thoughts on the Glenmorangie Port Wood Whisky.
This whisky has been matured in two distinct phases :
- Whisky is matured at first in Oak Casks from America
- The matured whisky is then finished in Port Wood ‘Pipes’
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Welcome to my new blog - Discover Whisky. I’m new to this whole blogging thing so please bear with me over the coming weeks, months and years. I hope to write a couple of times a week to give you my thoughts and ideas on Whisky.
Please note when I talk about whisky I means whisky not whiskey, thats Irish and I really only drink malt Scottish Whisky, though sometimes blends are great aswell.
If you have any thoughts I’d be delighted to hear from you in the comments section etc.
Ok thats all from now and I hope you enjoy your time with Discover Whisky.
