Keepers of the Quaich

Earlier this month, I attended a scotch tasting with Brother Lakeview and Brother Ville….well, I didn’t really attend for long but before leaving placed an order for a relatively new offering from Signatory—an 18 year old Bruichladdich, vintage 1989.

I got the chance to open the bottle tonight, and was somewhat surprised by the scotch.   The nose is floral and perfumy then followed by a whiff of alcohol pad.   The palate is sweet and oaky with a warm finish.   The sweetness is more of a citrus fruit than chocolate or caramel.   I found it easy to drink although for an 18 year old, it doesn’t seem to have a lot of complexity in the palate.    It definitely does not follow the typical Islay characteristics.

But, while searching for other tasting notes for this release, I came across this blog:  www.scotchchix.com

Check it out sometime if you’re looking for a female’s perspective on some of our favorite scotches.

This story caught my eye and is news-worthy for our KOTQ page.

Apparently a British explorer in the early 1900s, Sir Ernest Shackleton, had a crate of McKinlay & Co whisky on hand during his 1909 expedition in the Antarctica. The expedition was abandonded at some point, and the explorer left behind his stock.

Whyte & MacKay, who currently owns McKinlay & Co, has commissioned New Zealand’s Antarctic Heritage Trust to use special drills to retrieve these 100+ year-old bottles. The intent is not so much to drink the spirit, but rather to determine if reproduction of the storied whisky is worthwhile.

Here’s a link to the original story

I was actually surprised to find little information about Signatory available on the Internet. While I know that they are an independent bottler, I could find little ‘official’ history about Signatory. However, the following are some details that I was able to pull together, and I think we should consider speaking with the Signatory rep, Ed Kohl, possibly for future tastings.

Signatory was founded in 1988, and originally wasn’t a fully independent bottler. By April 1992, they had received the approval to bottle casks they owned, and now along with Wm. Cadenhead and Gordon & McPhail, are supposedly the only fully independent bottlers of scotch whisky.

By being able to bottle their own product, they keep greater control over what is output. Whatever they choose not to bottle is given (sold, I presume) back to the blends. They also tend to bottle single casks, and consequently, they get to claim that their bottlings capture more of the unique flavor of each cask. While the bottling process is semi-automated, each bottle is hand-numbered and hand-labeled, containing cask details such as date of distillation and date of bottling. Consequently, their labeling practice gives a bit of exclusivity to their offerings.

Additionally, there is only light filtration to enusre 86 proof malts that maintain their natural flavors. In fact, Signatory had recently released un-chilfiltered bottlings in the past few years.

It’s important to note that a common practice for Signatory is to get their older casks through batering. Signatory will buy casks from distillers, and occasionally, master blenders find themselves short in casks for their blend. They call Signatory, and arrange a barter for some rarer whiskies. They also will buy parcels (25-50 casks) and choose the best for independent bottling, and later sell the rest back to blenders.

Incidentally, Signatory originally was supposed to carry signatures of famous people on their labels…hence the name “Signatory”. But, by the time their first cask was purchased and bottled, they had sold all their product before they obtained the signature.

Signatory has also purchased ownership of the Edradour distillery, and has run the operation since July 2002. From what I recall when talking with Ed Kohl at Whiskyfest, Edradour is kept fairly separate from Signatory’s independent bottling business.

Brothers,
I’d write to call attention to a small distillery located in a couple of hours north of Stockholm Sweden. I realize that Stockholm is not in Scotland, and so you may question the significance of my posting to our blog. But, I think what this distillery has attempted is worthy of your attention as it may create some exciting opportunities for Scotch whisky, too.

Mackmyra started distilling in 1999, and they claim to be the most northerly distillery in the world. The distillery is the only whisky distillery in Sweden, and they draw their materials from the raw materials in Sweden creating a unique whisky offering.

The distillery determined that they wanted to provide the consumer a choice of how they would like to enjoy the single malt whisky from Mackmyra. Mackmyra essentially came up with two recipes—one called Elegant, the other called Smoke, and the spirit is to be aged in a choice of 3 different barrels (ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, or new Swedish oak barrels) producing six different varieties. To produce Smoke, the distillery uses juniper brush for spice on a bog-moss peat while Elegant is their original recipe born to be balanced and to pull it’s flavors more from the cask.

What really makes Mackmyra unique in the whisky industry right now is that they require you to buy an entire cask, and you can manage when the cask actually gets bottled. Yearly, the distillery will provide the owner of the cask with tasting samples, and once the whisky reaches 3 years in age, the owner of the cask can choose to bottle or let the spirt age longer.

These casks are much smaller than a normal cask (perhaps a quarter-cask like Laphroaig uses?) and because of the smaller cask, the whisky will mature more quickly because of the greater contact the spirit has with the wood cask. Mackmyra will also allow you to bottle partial casks and leave the remainder for one more bottling, but the trick is that each bottling must be for at least 12 bottles. Interestingly, shipping of the bottles was ‘on arrangement at time of bottling’, and no more details provided (beware–perhaps a headache to ship to the US?). The bottles will carry personalized labels, too.

The cost of a personal cask ranges from $1,263 (Elegant bourbon) to $3,575 (Smoke Swedish Oak). No small investment, and I don’t believe that includes shipping.

Reading about Mackmyra is intriguing, but I’m skeptical considering personal experiences that some of us have had with the Macallan scheme. Yet, the difference here is that this form of whisky marketing is being driven by the distillery itself, and therefore may be better managed.

I think one drawback though is that Mackmyra will never be able to establish a consistent taste profile. Think Macallan 12, think Laphroaig 10…you know what you’re getting. Mackmyra, the personal whisky, will never have a recognized taste profile, and that could be detrimental to the longevity of the brand. That seems to be ok with the distillery as they personalize all labels.

Please check it out for yourself at www.mackmyra.com

Have we determined who will be hosting 2006, 1st Qtr meeting yet? Any dates work best? March is quickly coming upon us. If we are unable to set the date this week, I suggest we cancel the 1Q06 meeting and get back on track with an early 2Q06 meeting.

I regret that I will not be able to attend the Feb 25th 4Q make-up meeting due to long-standing plans for that date. Maybe the host, Brother Lakeview, will be so kind as to invite me over for a private tasting some other time.

Anyone get the gift of single malt over the holidays? I must have been bad because all I got was a cold. Well, my holidays weren’t really that bad. Hopefully everyone had a restful few weeks and found some time to enjoy your favorite scotch. Laphroaig 10 was the honored guest at my house.

Cheers!
Brother Bluff

While browsing the aisle of wine at Marshall Field’s, I came across six bottles of Old Pulteney 12 year. All liquor was priced 10% off, so I ended up getting one bottle for about $20 after tax.

How funny–it won’t be long before I’ll be shopping for socks and picking up my favorite scotch all in one trip.

Seriously, though, I won’t count on finding any real finds there in the future. I think the total offering of single malts at the Hawthorne Mall Marshall Field’s was Old Pulteney, Glenlivet 12, and maybe a bottle of Macallan 12. The Old Pulteney was next to the Effen Vodka. It was an odd offering for Marshall Fields, but perhaps the price point was within what they think they could move in that small marketplace boutique.

Ledaig now comes in a port wood and sherry finish, retail approx $30 each. I was unable to find an age expression on either. I was unable to find out much more on the web about this release. The Burn Stewart Distillery home page hasn’t been updated in a while with fresh news.

For discussion at our 3rd Quarter 2005 meeting, I am providing some detail about the significance of the Scotch Whisky Association.

The SWA is essentially a trade organization. It’s the main organization that represents the interests of the scotch whisky industry as a whole in Great Britain and overseas. The SWA is comprised of members that represent the industry: distillers, blenders, brokers, brand owners, etc. Overall, the SWA believes it’s current membership represents 95% of the scotch whisky market. The organization is the primary voice for the interests of the scotch whisky industry.

The existence of the SWA has dated back to 1917, but the association didn’t incorporate until 1960. With incorporation, the organization raised its standing to carry out legal proceedings, especially overseas. With the strengthening of its relationship with the rest of Europe, it has been able to influence legislation which has helped to, among other things, 1) keep the identify of scotch whisky intact by covering standards for labeling, marketing, and packaging, 2) review production issues relating to safety, environment, and 3) represent the industry in the tax treatment of scotch whisky.

The SWA has 12-16 members, elected annually by the members, and then the Council further establishes committees to help advise the Council on the different aspects of its work. The main office is in Edinburgh and a second office is in London.

In short, the SWA’s principal functions, as quoted from their website at http://www.scotch-whisky.org.uk, are:
· To promote Scotch Whisky as a quality product made of natural ingredients.
· To protect the image and integrity of Scotch Whisky throughout the world.
· To represent the industry’s interests to the British Government and to overseas governments.
· To fight tax discrimination and trade barriers against Scotch Whisky.

I haven’t been to Sam’s lately (although they are building a Sam’s in Highland Park in an old Dominick’s building now–just dangerously too close for me), but I did find that you can obtain Laphroaig Quarter Cask bottles from Binnys for a cool $47. Laphroaig has even dedicated a section of their website to the spirit:

http://www.laphroaig.com/qc/index.htm