John Glaser, the founder of Compass Box Whisky, is considered a brilliant "enfant terrible" in whisky circles. He has gained many loyal fans with his award-winning and revolutionary whisky blends, while he has also created the occasional scandal in Scotland's whisky industry. Spice Tree is his latest product, dating back to 2005.

Glaser intended to give this whisky a finish unlike any that had ever existed before. He replaced some of the staves in the Bourbon casks traditionally used for aging Scotch whisky with heavily toasted French oak staves. In these casks, Spice Tree acquired the intense spicy aroma, which is reflected in its name.

However, the new method of finishing was not well received by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), the trade association of the Scottish Whisky industry. Confronted with the threat of legal action, Glaser was forced to cease production of Spice Tree. But he refused to accept defeat and set about researching the statutes, eventually finding a loophole that he proceeded to exploit.

Instead of replacing the staves, he carried out the procedure with the cask head instead. After aging the various malt whiskies (primarily from the Clynelish Distillery) in first fill and refill Bourbon casks, these whiskies are then blended in casks with heads made of heavily-toasted French oak. After a period of two years in these modified casks the whiskies are then bottled. And lo and behold! The SWA let it through.

With his second run of Spice Tree, John Glaser has won yet another battle in his 'holy war'.

[more ...]

The name Bunnahabhain is Gaelic and means 'mouth of the river' referring to River Margadale in the north of the Isle of Islay. This river is the water source that is an essential component in the production of Bunnahabhain whisky. Master distiller Ian McMillan recently presented his new baby: Toiteach.

The distillery was founded in 1881 by James Ford, James Greenlees and William Robertson. After generations of ups and downs, with intermittent closures, the distillery was finally purchased by Burn Stewart Distillers in 2003. Since then it has once again been turning out very successful whiskies, though of a type untypical for the Isle of Islay.

Bunnahabhain does not heavily peat the malted barley for its various whiskies, in contrast to other Islay producers such as Laphroaig, Lagavulin or Ardbeg. The distillery is obviously swimming against the current with its production methods. With Toiteach it wanted to pay tribute to the popularity of heavily peated whiskies.

Toiteach (Gaelic for 'smoky') is a whisky with an average age of ten to eleven years which is bottled unfiltered at a strength of 46% vol. In contrast to all the other Bunnahabhain whiskies, it is heavily peated and thus represents a respectful nod to the unique style of the Islay whiskies. Its intense smoky aroma is certain to find an increasing number of fans.

 

Ratings

"A very elegant peat aroma whose discreet presence lingers like a silver thread on the horizon. However, whiskies of equal quality in a more friendly price category are no rarity."
Gonçalo de Sousa Monteiro (Admirals Bar, Berlin)

 

[more ...]

Scotch whisky makers Compass Box are filling optimism in bottles. In times of recession, the new and limited vatted malt Optimism is meant to restimulate feelings of hope, as John Glaser, founder of Compass Box says: "The more that people are optimistic about the future, the faster we will pull ourselves out of this depressed economic state. This is our small effort to try to help the world economy."

American ex-pat John Glaser started the Compass Box Whisky Company from the kitchen of his west London home in 2000, after leaving his job as marketing director for Johnnie Walker in London. His new and innovative approach on blended Scotch whisky won him high aclaim in the industry.

Optimism will be launched exclusively at the Whisky Live Show in London, "arguably the city hit hardest by the global financial meltdown", as the press release states. It will be limited to 170 bottles and actually bottled on location "in the spirit of recessionary cost cutting measures". Compass Box describes the vatted malt Scotch whisky to be of rich, sweet and peaty character. It'll be bottled at 44 percent and available for £40 per bottle.

Link: www.compassboxwhisky.com

[Edit: We've been asked by the German distributor to remove the spot, as "the campaign has run out". In a German whisky forum it had been criticized as "sexist" and "misleading". Putting up your video on Youtube usually means, you're aiming for viral spread. Not in this case...]

The first German Whisky Conference (Whisky Konferenz) took place in Hannover yesterday. It was organized by Clemens Dillmann, owner of software house HBB and whisky.de, the biggest German online community for all things whisky related.

In its inaugural year about 40 visitors attended the conference. Around 70% of these were whisky retailers. The other attendants were members of the spirits industry and a small fraction represented the bar business.

Sponsors of the event were Dewar, Highland Park and Kilbeggan. Naturally the speakers of some of the slots were John Cashman (Cooley Distillery) and Hendrik Schatz (Borco), Michael Unkel (Maxxium Germany) and Adam Dittrich (Bacardi Germany). Headliner was renowned Ian Baxton of World Whisky Conference. Here's an overview of the seminars (German only):

www.whiskykonferenz.de/programm.htm

Clemens had asked me to talk about whisky in bars. In my speech I did a raw sketch of how whisky categories (Irish, Blended Scotch, Single Malt, Bourbon, Rye), are used in German bars. As the scribbling of a lot of people in the audience showed, this was new to many.

[more ...]

The Islay based distillery Laphroaig invites to join a global online whisky tasting on Wednesday, the 18th of June at 9 pm. The 45-minute long tasting of five selected Laphroaig qualities will be streamed live via web cam. Tasting language will be English.

Distillery manager John Campbell, master blender Robert Hicks and whisky author Martine Nouet will share their impressions and ratings of Laphroaig 10 Years Old, Laphroaig Quarter Cask, Laphroaig Quarter Cask Triple Wood, Laphroaig Cairdeas and Laphroaig Cairdeas 30 Years with the world.

Everyone everywhere is invited to take part in the tasting. The internet audience will have the chance to email questions and discuss the topics they´re interested in with the whisky experts.

 

 

Date: Wednesday, June 18th, 9 pm
Link: www.laphroaig.com

 

Illustration: Borco-Marken-Import