March 2012 Archives » Measure of Whisky Measure of Whisky

Review: Talisker 57° North

I love getting to try new stuff, especially if it’s not easy to find here in BC. This Talisker falls into that category – usually this bottling is only available in duty-free stores in airports or at a few UK specialty shops. A friend of mine was traveling back from England last week, and generously offered up the meager duty-free allowance you’re given in Canada to my constant quest for new whisky. I asked him to grab the 57° North if he could find it which he was good enough to do. So thanks, Simon!

Talisker is famously the only distillery on the Isle of Skye, up in the north-west of Scotland. Built in 1830, it suffered a devastating fire in 1960 and had to be rebuilt. This isn’t an uncommon occurrence with distilleries; in fact while on a tour around Aberlour it was mentioned that most originally built in the 19th century have suffered fires. The milling process is especially dangerous as it results in a fine haze of suspended particles that is actually explosive. No flash photography of an operating mill if you visit a distillery, please!

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Best Budget Bets for Beginners

Too Many Bottles!

Ever feel that there’s just too much whisky out there? A common question that is seen frequently around the internet, and that I’ve been asked myself, is “Well, I’ve tried a <Glenfiddich/Glenlivet> 12 year old and quite liked it; what on earth do I try next?” In this article I’ll attempt to answer that. Typically the questioner is looking for good quality but also good value too; after all, it’s often an expensive risk buying a bottle of whisky that you haven’t tried. Keeping the cost down is always worthwhile!

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Review: Coopers Choice Knockdhu 1998

As part of Hopscotch last year, I was lucky enough to attend a “Scotch and Chocolate” tasting at the amazing Legacy Liquor Store. One of the selections was this Coopers Choice bottling of a Knockdhu 10-year from 1998 (which was paired with a Madagascan dark chocolate if you’re interested!). It stood out immediately as a very different experience to the other whiskies at the tasting, and I bought one of the few bottles available immediately afterwards. So what was it that made it so memorable?

Before we get into that, let’s take a look at the origins of this delicate and delicious spirit. Knockdhu is not one of the major single-malt distilleries and you could be forgiven for being unfamiliar with it. Located in Aberdeenshire in the tiny village of Knock, the distillery was built in 1893 and and began production in 1894. Knockdhu was producing spirit for almost a hundred years before closing in 1983 during a widespread slump in the Scotch whisky industry. Happily, it was bought some time later by Inver House Distillers and re-opened in 1989. These days it produces single malts under the name “anCnoc”, as the name “Knockdhu” was considered too close to Knockando, another distillery not too far away.

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Supercharge Your Whisky Experience!

If you want to quickly increase your level of whisky experience, there’s one sure way – join a club!

A few years ago at my last place of work, I was invited to join a Scotch club. The club worked like this: every Friday, one nominated member brought a new unopened bottle of Scotch, and all the members had a pour or two. If the bottle wasn’t dead it went into the club stockpile, and after the main feature members could dip into the old bottles. The only rule for the weekly bottle was that it had to be a single malt that we hadn’t had before, although we did occasionally branch out into blends and other kinds of liquor (the keyword here being “occasionally”).

If you can get a good number of people interested, this can be a really good way to try a lot of whisky – we had around 20 members at our peak so that meant you were only buying two bottles per year or so, but you were trying 50 different single malts for the price of your two bottles.

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Victoria Whisky Festival, Part 4: Grand Tasting and Wrap-up

So all that’s left is the aptly-named Grand Tasting, the centerpiece of the festival weekend held on the Saturday evening. Unlike the Vancouver whisky and beer show Hopscotch, you pay a larger upfront fee but all the drinks are free after that. It’s wise to pace yourself, take advantage of the free food and water, and do a lap of the halls first to decide what you can’t live without. Remember the normal golden rules of whisky tasting too – don’t ruin your palate by diving straight into a cask-strength Ardbeg early on in the night, for instance!

Another good tip is to listen closely in any masterclass you attend, as you might hear about some of the special under-the-table offerings. An alternative way to hear about them is to strike up conversations with any exhibitors you recognize around the hotel before the tasting. Failing that, lurk about your target distillery table until someone more clued-in than yourself gets his special dram, hold your glass out and hope for the best!

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Victoria Whisky Festival, Part 3: Springbank

After the amazing suprise of the Gordon & Macphail masterclass, there was barely time to draw breath (and send gloating tweets to my whisky-loving friends) before heading off to the next one, the storied Campbeltown distillery Springbank.

Campbeltown, of course, used to be one of the whisky capitals of Scotland until the vast majority of its distilleries were gradually shuttered. Only three remain today – Glengyle, Glen Scotia, and Springbank.

I haven’t really explored Springbank’s range very much, so I was looking forward to this session. It turned out to be very educational, not only in the sense of their whisky but also in getting a feeling for how the company is run. Ranald Watson, the charismatic “professional alcoholic” and marketing exec for Springbank did a great job of putting us all in that remote and historic distilling town for an hour or so.

A nice lineup from Springbank, with some great new expressions

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Victoria Whisky Festival 2012, Part 2: Gordon & MacPhail

Saturday started out nice and early with the Gordon & MacPhail masterclass at 11.15am. Yeah, “AM” as in, in the morning. It feels pretty hardcore to me to be drinking at that time of day, but as they say “it’s 5pm somewhere” so why not! And as it turned out, it was WELL worth it.

The session was hosted by G&M’s Joint Managing Director Michael Urquhart who I was happy to find out is very engaging and funny. I was a little worried after the somewhat stilted performance in the Glenlivet 70-year-old introduction video but I forgive him for that, it’s a corporate video after all and they’re supposed to be dull! (Just teasing, Michael.)

An impressive array of whiskies. Keep an eye on #6...

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