Whisky of the Month

The  ‘bestofwhisky’ May Whisky of the month is “Glenmorangie”

You can choose any of the swatches below the site title to see different Glenmorangie themed backgrounds

Enjoy, and Cheers

Regards,

Angus

Popularity: 11% [?]

Whisky trade chokes as tycoon targets youth with ‘alcopops’

HE IS the outspoken whisky tycoon who has ruffled more than a few feathers since snapping up one of Scotland’s biggest firms last year.

Now Vijay Mallya has set himself on a collision course with traditionalists by calling for the industry to experiment with flavours to make Scotch more attractive to young people.

Purists are likely to be spluttering into their drams when they hear how the head of the United Spirits group, which now owns Whyte & Mackay, wants to see natural additives added to Scotch to help it compete with other spirits, such as vodka.

Full Story

Popularity: 11% [?]

Japanese whiskies take world titles

…from Business.scotsman.com

TWO Japanese whiskies have been voted the best in the world.

Yoichi has become the first variety produced outside Scotland to win the single malt award in an international competition run by trade paper Whisky Magazine, it was revealed yesterday.

The whisky, distilled near the city of Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido, beat dozens of other varieties, including last year’s winner, Talisker 18 years old, produced on the Isle of Skye.

Suntory Hibiki, the brand advertised by the washed-up actor played by Bill Murray in the film Lost in Translation, scooped the award for the world’s best blended whisky.

Rob Allanson, the editor of Whisky Magazine, said: “Hopefully this will make people sit up and realise that the Japanese are producing some phenomenal stuff. While they don’t have a particularly strong toehold in the UK, they are making great gains which the British market should take note of.”

Popularity: 11% [?]

Whisky exports hit £90 a second

…from Business.Scotsman.com

ALREADY Scotland’s number one export, Scotch whisky cemented its advantage over its imitators yesterday, with new trade figures which show that overseas sales of the spirit reached record highs last year, earning the UK £90 a second.

The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) said that both the value and the volume of exports reached historic highs in 2007.

The SWA said shipments of the spirit increased by 14 per cent to a record of £2.8 billion.

Read On

Popularity: 12% [?]

American Distilling Institute

…from thespiritworld.net

Last week saw the fifth annual gathering of the American Distilling Institute convene at the historic Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. As the trade association for the burgeoning small-scale craft distilling industry, the Institute chose an appropriate location for this year’s theme: whiskey. But the sense of history came not just from the architecture of the grand hotel and its magnificent bar. The buzz among the membership was not merely from the ample opportunities for product tasting. The buzz was the excitement of creating something new. The historic sense was of that in the making.

As whisky critic Jim Murray put it, “I can tell this conference is going to change the way things happen. There is a fascination…. You are the new frontier.”

read on

Popularity: 22% [?]

Whisky - by a nose

…from the scotsman.com

Wet peat, burnt caramel, cut grass – these are ways in which the complex flavours of our national spirit are described by those in the know, but how do we novices learn to distinguish them? A canny new invention by an aroma scientist has got the industry sniffing with interest, says FIONA MACGREGOR

The secret, fittingly enough, lies in a bottle. Or 24 bottles to be precise (and there are more on the way) – little glass vials each containing the natural aromatic essences which can be found, in various combinations, in different malts.

Dodds, a bearded Dubliner with a life-long obsession with smells, has used his expertise – he trained as both a perfumer and biochemist – to capture the scent molecules in everything from carnations to peat.

As a result, he hopes whisky enthusiasts will no longer need to guess whether the smells they detect rising from their dram are the same ones described in a book about malts. All they need to do is dip an “aroma strip” into one of the kit’s little brown jars and they’ll know exactly what is meant when a Scotch is described as peaty, buttery or with a hint of caramel.

“Whisky aroma connoisseurs and experts are made, not born,” insists Dodds.

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Popularity: 29% [?]

Fed Court of Canada: Scotch Whisky Assoc. Vs Glenora

from Freerepublic.com

…Glenora Distillery on Cape Breton Island, a Gaelic community with deep roots in Scotland, can no longer use the word “Glen” in its whisky’s name because it misleads consumers into thinking they are drinking Scotch, according to a ruling released yesterday by the Federal Court of Canada.

The ruling in the long-running trademark dispute, launched by Scotland’s Scotch industry, accepts that while imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, when it comes to marketing of national identity as a brand in itself, some words are already taken.

When Glen Breton sells itself in Canada, it is misleading consumers on where it was made because of the prefix Glen, said Justice Sean Harrington. It is a decision the distillery’s head finds preposterous.

“We are in a glen, located in Glenville, next to the community of Glenora Falls and our distillery is called Glenora. There are 42 place names on Cape Breton Island that have the word Glen in its name,” said Lauchie MacLean, president of Glenora. “To us it seems pretty cut and dried.”

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additional read from the CBC

Popularity: 39% [?]

Whisky of the Month

The  ‘bestofwhisky’ April Whisky of the month is “Highland Park”

You can choose any of the swatches below the site title to see different Highland Park themed backgrounds

Enjoy, and Cheers

Regards,

Angus

Popularity: 39% [?]