maandag 31 maart 2014

Tasting the Glenlivet Guardians Chapter - Limited Edition

With Iggy Pop's "The Passenger" blasting through the speakers we are opening the sky-blue box containing one bottle of The Glenlivet - Guardians Chapter- bottling. It is a limited edition, number of bottles stays unclosed. Maybe better, because other brands call an edition of 22,000 limited..
The label gives no age statement, alcohol is 48.7% and it's non chill filtered. So far so good. We can't help to keep looking at the bottle (nice thick bottom) and the blue colour. Bottle says: "Please open me".
We cannot resist.

Pouring...
Nice full colour. Although not stated on the label (you need to have an edition for the German or Danish market to be sure), we think this is natural colour.
Now, Glenlivet is a huge distillery with a capacity of more than 10 million litres of pure alcohol a year. It is owned by Pernod Ricard, a French company with 19,000 people working on numerous of brands worldwide. You can imagine these people have their things well organised. It's nice to see that they have a keen eye for a niche product like this Guardians Chapters edition. They could sell bottles of vodka much easier. It is a fine example (to other global players in all kinds of markets) how you can still attract loyal followers. The introduction of the Nadurra (cask strength, no big market product, admittedly one of our favs) can be seen is in the same perspective. We would very much like to speak to the person within Pernod who is responsible for this. We would like to say to keep up the good work. And we can even say this in French. ("Bien fait, continuez s'il'vous plaĆ®t!")
Stock price of Pernod is up at € 84,50. That's slightly more than the price you pay for this bottle. We'd prefer the bottle.
By the way: If the stock price falls, you will lose money. If the bottle loses value, you can always drink it: a genuine whiskytip.

That's a fine moment to move one to the tasting notes.
Tasting notes
  • Color: deep yellow gold
  • Nose: complex, milk chocolate, dried fruits (plum, apricot), orange peel, sherry notes, a little bit of honey, soft oaky tones, freshly baked bread (don't ask)
  • Taste: chocolate, spicy-peppery, honey, mandarine, some straight corn bourbon there, rhubarb (cooked with sugar), mashed and cooked apples with cinnamon (moms recipee)
  • Finish: the case of barely corn (rub a drop on the back of your hand and smell it), medium long dry.
Conclusion: A very nice dram indeed. Complex, fruity, warm. This is made of barley, yeast and water and you can taste it. We don't give figures but we surely can advice you: go and try it out yourself.

© Whiskytips 2014

Sources:

dinsdag 11 maart 2014

Visiting Deanston Distillery

Arriving at Deanston's, lying beside the river Teith, on a typical Scottish day (rainy all the way, sunny after parking) is already a nice experience.
The distillery building is what you call atypical. Large part of the building was formerly used as a weavery/cotton mill, now mainly used to store casks. Some other parts were added to the building. Nothing that will startle you Frank Lloyd Wright fans, but the comic style fonts announcing that Deanston Distillery is located there made us happy enough.
Deanston turned into a distillery in 1965, which makes it a relatively young distillery, even with it's almost 50 years of age.
Apart from the usual mashing and still house, there a lot more to see in this distillery, for example the hydrogenerated power supply, which makes Deanston unique in Scotland.
They also do their own malt grinding. Finally you get a look around in one of the warehouses.

<-Deanston Hydro Electric Station



We made a video that gives you an impression of what to expect. We liked the part where they switched on the mash tun just for us.






 Festival 2013 edition







But seriously, this is a hands-on distillery, with a nice history, a little bit different than the others and comfortably close to Glasgow, Edinburgh and South Queensferry.
Deanston is part of Burn Stewart Distillers (that also has Bunnahabhain and Tobermory in the portfolio). In 2013 South African based drinks company Distell bought Burn Stewart.

At the distillery shop you can buy the core range of the Virgin Oak and the 12 year old. Especially the latter is real good value for (malt) money. That's our whiskytip and we'll do a proper tasting review another time.
You can also spend some more money and buy for example the Spanish Oak version, something really special, but you have to be quick as this is a limited edition.
Or fill your own bottle, which is a great souvenir.

You can enjoy a great lunch at the Coffee Bothy right next to the shop.

All in all we can certainly recommend a visit to this distillery. If you have already been there, share your thoughts on this page or on our Facebookpage.

Deanston Distillery
Doune, Perthshire, FK16 6AG, Scotland
http://www.deanstonmalt.com/

References:
Malt Whisky Yearbook 2014 - Ingvar Ronde
Malt Whisky, The Complete Guide - Charles MacLean

Thanks to the people of Deanston's for giving us permission to film and ask silly questions
Also thanks to Eve, Elaine and Land Rover
->Special thanks to Ronald Zwartepoorte of Whiskypassion.

©Whiskytips 2014

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maandag 3 maart 2014

Bourbon, Blues and BBQ, May 29th 2014 Den Ham, Netherlands

On Thursday 29th of May 2014 you can enjoy a special event, powered by Four Roses, in the Dutch village of Den Ham, close to the German border.
The event is titled: Bourbon, Blues and BBQ.
The bourbon will be presented by Dutch whiskeywriter Hans Offringa.
Local band 'Nuts' will take care of the blues, with a presentation of their new album.
The venue, where the events takes place, called 'De Zandstuve' takes care of the BBQ, with some delicious local meat.
Ticket's are €12,50 at the door.

See you in Den Ham!