New Arrivals:
- Cooper's Choice Caol Ila 1981
- Cooper's Choice Clynelish 1988
- Cooper's Choice Glen Mhor 1982
- Cooper's Choice Knockdhu 1998
- Cooper's Choice Littlemill 1985
- Cooper's Choice Lochside 1967
- Old Pulteney 17yr.
Our Whiskey
Having been a market leader in Single malts for the past 15 years has taught us something: There is no substitute for selection when it comes to Single Malt Whiskey. This simple statement has led us on an exhaustive search to try and source at least one version of every single distillery, either open or closed, in Scotland. We are the Single Malt Specialists when it comes to sourcing rare malts such as Allt a'Bhainne, Dallas Dhu, Convalmore, and Tomatin. If you can't find it anywhere else, odds are we'll have it.
Fall Whiskey Season is Over!
Honestly, I had hoped to write this article in December, rather than int he first week of January, but things got a bit crazy there around Christmastime, so the website updates got pushed back. Not the end of the world. Having some time to reflect on the whiskey-year that was, here are my thoughts:
- You people REALLY love the barley. This was a HUGE growth year for our specialty beer sales, and frankly, with the hype surrounding some of our new wine releases (Mr. Blacks, for example) and the amount of time and energy we were having to spend on the beer side, I was expecting a softer year for our scotch sales. How wrong I was. Thanks everyone!
- Speaking of the love, that love apparently extends to the heavy peat, as we actually had our best year ever for Islay whiskeys, which edged out even the Highland and Speyside categories to be our top-selling category for the first time ever!
- Attendance this year was up, which is nice. If we couldn't draw a crowd with free Single Malt, I'd start to worry. At the same time, I would like to thank the agents who came to the plate big-time this year, we really couldn't have done this without you.
- Finally I remain convinced that the Single Malt Whiskey market here in Lethbridge is a massive anomaly. Realistically, we should sell about one third to half of what we actually sell in a given year. The fact that we can actually have the selection we do, and be succesful with that big an inventory, says that this is a truly special part of the world for Scotch Whiskey fans.
Slainge.
The Scotch Tasting Schedule 2011 is Released!
Download it HERE (Link fixed - September 16th)
Tastings start September 23rd!
My Fave Five: 5 Distilleries I Couldn't Live Without.
Recently I was challenged by a few of the folks in our Scotch Tastings crew to pick 5 distilleries I couldn't live without. I rattled off 5 distilleries without too much trouble, but the question got me thinking. Glenfiddich gets a hard time from Single Malt aficionados, for being a bit of a sell-out, being too bland at yuoung ages etc. but where would we be without it? Glenfiddich was THE first Single Malt that was actively marketed in North America, and the first non-blened "Brand Name" to exist. Without the William Grant Company taking a huge risk my investing heavily in Glenfiddich as a Single Malt, the Single Malt Whiskey world as we know it simply would not exist. Or Glenmorangie, who were the first to actively market a range of different "wood expression", a full decade before it came into vogue. The same can be said with Bruichladdich, whose success in the early 2000s pushed other distilleries to take a hard look at thier own practices, and improve their barrel selection process, or skip chill-filtration, or caramel addition. To see special, limited editions released every year to keep their faithful fans intrigued. None of this would be possible without Bruichladdich. Perhaps the most permanent mark (or scar, depending on your viewpoint) was left by Diageo, through their closure of so many wonderful distilleries in the 1980s. This list isn't about their global importance, or their particular history, this is about the most important part of whiskey drinking: The pure, hedonistic joy of it!
1. Clynelish/Brora:
Yes, I'm naming two different whiskies as my favorite distillery, but it's my article, so I'll do what I want. The reason for the two different whiskies here is diue to the fact that Clynelish, which has been in production since 1819, has had two different distillery buildings during that time. The old stillhouse, which produced Clyneslish from 1819 until 1968, did an entirely servicable job, and very occasionally, examples of Clynelish from the original stills can still be found. In 1967, a new Clyneslish Distillery was opened next to the old one, and for a short period the two distilleries operated side-by-side. The original Clyneslish was shuttered in 1968, and from then on, Clynelish proper has only ben produced by the new stillhouse. The story isn't over for the old distillery however, citing an increase in the price for Islay malts for use in blending, the Clynelish was run as Brora Distillery, producing a heavily peated version of Clynelish from 1969, antil 1973. It is this whiskey we now know as "True" Brora. The distillery continued to be used in stops and starts over the next decade, until it was finally closed for good in 1983. Some of the whiskey produced in this era was heavily peated, and labelled Brora, some was produced to be identical to Clynelish, either way, very little whiskey was produced in this last decade.
Clynelish proper is a very pretty North-coastal malt, that at it's best takes all of the best bits of Glenmorangie, and blends in the cashew/almond/honey notes of a top-class Balvenie or Tullibardine. Few whiskeys can comparably blend the malt, peat, nuttiness, grassiness, sea spray, citrus, stonefruits, and gorgeous sweetness of a good Clynelish. My favorite version to date was an 11 year old version from Murray McDavid at 46%, finished in a Condrieu cask. Perfection. Other great editions are the Douglas Laing Platinum Collection 23yr Rum Finish, and the original Muray McDavid Mission Series #1. Really, th only Clynelish I don't like is the Diageo "flora and fauna" series bottling, which is a stripped-out, dumbed down version of a sublime dram.
Brora, on the other hand is an impossible to find whiskey, that even if you manage to track it down it'll demand a few hundred dollars to make it your own. However, in a manner unlike any other whiskey, the delicate complexity of Clynelish rises above the huge peat character, and plays off it as well, giving you apricots as well as sausages, lemons, and iodine, almonds, and chestnuts. Sublime, rare, and expensive, and wholly worthy of inclusion on my list.
2. Ardbeg:
Some things shouldn't be messed with, and distilleries have such fantastic bottlings of their own that independent bottlings are almost unneccesary. Those of you who know me well, know that normally I'd scoff at such a statement and point to innumerable examples (including my beloved Clynelish) where the distillery does such a cock-and-bull job of quality control during bottling that frankly the distilleries should lose the rights to bottle ANY of their own whiskies, and that the Independent bottlers could do a better job in their sleep. But, if you said it about Ardbeg, I'd agree with you, wholeheartedly. Ardbeg is a distillery that really "gets it", they don't do a million special editions like Bruichladdich, they do a handful. They don't chill filter anything, and caramel cannot be found even NEAR the bottling line. (Actually, you'll find lots of it in the building next door: Lagavulin) They do a lightly peated version, a heavily peated version, and a small number of different editions at their standard peating level, everything they do is both quite brilliant, and immediately identifiable as Ardbeg.
There are a great many really wonderful distilleries on Islay, Bowmore is lovely, but they ruined Bowmore 15yr, when they scrapped the excellent Mariner for the bloody Darkest, so they're off. I'm not a Caol Ila man, and I've had too few versions of Laphroaig to really include it here. The opposite could be said of Bruichladdich, where I've almost had too many expressions, which is part of the problem. For every really brilliant expression I've had of Bruichladdich (16yr. Bourbon, Resurrection, Blacker Still, 125th Anniversary) there have been some real stinkers (Rocks Edition 1, DNA, Links Carnoustie), and so they fall further down on the list, to 5th. Kilchoman's too new, Bunnahabhain has too few editions, just as Lagavulin has, and we're back to Ardbeg.
Ardbeg combines a soft, almost Tobermory-esque suggestion of cucumbers, celery, and limes, almost a hnt of cabbage, with an intense herbal rasp, and only then does the peat begin to kick in. The peat starts herbal, and builds off the pillow-soft base notes, reaching skyward, and bringing with it cresote, and hung venison, and iodine, and lemon, and seaweed. At any age, at any strength, in virtually any finish, Ardbeg is just about perfect.
3. Littlemill:
The oldest, and best of the Lowland distilleries, Littlemill could trace it's roots back into the 1750s, before being closed for good in 1992. Lowland whiskies, unfortunately, are something that future generations of Single Malt drinkers are going to view as a "lost style", as the whiskeys that defined the region (Littlemill, Rosebank, Linlithgow) are all closed. What's left are either a very light, and simple malt from Glenkinchie, or the triple-distilled Auchentoshan, which is very much a love-it-or-hate-it whiskey, due to it being triple-distilled. Speaking of triple-distilled whiskies, it's a myth that all, or even most Lowland whiskies are "supposed to be" triple-distilled. Apart from Auchentoshan, virtually all of the Lowland distilleries had abandoned triple distillation by the 1930s, as the triple distilled whiskies were thought to be too spirity, and were roundly felt to be inferior to the more traditional double-distilled whiskeys. They had originally been produced for export to the English market, and the triple-distillation was introduced, along with very low peat levels, to appeal to the English palate, who throught that traditional Scotch whiskey was too sharp, and too coarse, and too smoky (bunch of whiners). How Glenkinchie manages to have less character than Auchentoshan (or Jamesons Irish Whiskey, for that matter) despite being distilled only twice, is a question for the ages.
At it's best, Littlemill is the most gloriously feminine of the Single Malts. Bursting with pears, floral notes, and cinnamon, with subtle juniper, fresh herbs, newly mown hay, and a creaminess that no other whiskey can match, Littlemill is a whiskey that is at the same time gentle enough to be a "gateway" or "beginners" scotch, yet can be one of the most complex and challenging whiskeys to pin down, even for those of us with rather jaded palates. While there are no distillery bottlings available, Independent bottlings have been numerous, and fantastic examples have been had in the last 2 years from Murray McDavid and Cooper's Choice, among others. THE finest of the Lowland whiskies, it's a shame that Littlemill has really only been "discovered", much like Rosebank, after it's closure.
4. Glenlivet:
I expect that I'll be hearing a bit of static for choosing this one, but hear me out. Glenfiddich and Glenlivet are the two most succesful, and easily recognizable, and largest single malt distilleries in the world. Both have been major players on the Scotch whiskey scene since legal distilling was first permitted in 1832. They are also the first two distilleries to really try pushing Single Malt into the export market, and thus creating Single Malt Scotch as we know it today. Now you could say that I could have chosen Glenfiddich as my #4 whiskey here instead, and of course you would be wrong, because Glenfiddich cannot possiblty match Glenlivet in terms of elegance or depth of flavour. Glenlivet on the other hand, in every age, and from both the distillery bottlings and independent, is one of the very prettiest whiskies going:
At it's lightest, Glenlivet is green apples, celery, fresh clean stones, delicate honey notes, with a soft and suprisingly flinty peat note, with hints of marjoram and parsley. Bigger, fuller examples show more honey, in a fresh-from -the-comb kind of way, with surprising floral notes, and a really rich and herbal peat character that takes the unawares by surprise. Glenlivet is a whiskey that tends to hold up to age very well, and has enough flavour to really stand up to extended or heavy oak aging without losing it's way, which is something that I feel too few whiskies have the capacity to do. I've had Glenlivets at 21 and 37, and my first thought is generally that it tastes younger than that, which is invariably a good thing. So for defining Single Malt as we know it, making a SURPRISINGLY solid whiskey, even at young ages on such a large scale, and for making whiskey as older ages and higher prices that still merit mention among the world's elite? Yeah, that's why this makes my Top 5.
5. Bruichladdich
My fifth pick gave me the most difficulty here. I would love to have picked Port Ellen, or Tomatin, or Tullibardine, or Lagavulin, or Allt a'Bhainne, or Linkwood, Mortlach, Laphroaig.... the list goes on. So why Bruichladdich here? I suppose because every time I tried to write this article, I found myself having to justify Bruichladdich's omission, and each time I really couldn't justify leaving it out. Finally I gave up on trying to exclude it, because frankly I can't. As much as Glenlivet and Glenfiddich defined the Single Malt industry the 1830s through the year 2000, the incredible changes that we have seen since the year 2000 were spearheaded by Bruichladdich/Murray McDavid. The massive movement against chill filtration and caramel addition, the increase to 46% from 40% alcohol, the MASSIVE investment that so many distilleries have made in superior barrel quality, most notably at Glenmorangie, the new 'vogue' of doing Special Editions and Limited Editions, single Chateau wine finishes, all of these were introduced by Independent bottlers, like Gordon & MacPhail and Murray McDavid. Bruichladdich showed that a distillery could do these things, and they showed, perhaps more importantly, that a distillery could wildly succesful and profitable while doing these things. The Single Mart Whiskey world as it is, would not, and COULD NOT exist without the innovations that Bruichladdich made in the early 2000s. For that reason (and the fact that they make some bloody tasty whiskeys), I simply cannot leave Bruichladdich off this list.
Bruichladdich is a tough whiskey to nail down a flavour profile for, because there are several different versions of Bruichladdich. I mean that in three senses; First, Bruichladdich does a range of whiskies: their standard Bruichladdich, a more lightly peated Organic version, an unpeated quadruple-distilled version, a more heavily peated version, called Port Charlotte (my favorite of all of them), and an insanely heavily peated version called Octomore. In the second sense, up until very recently, Bruichladdich didn't have a "house" or Signature style. They recently launched Bruichladdich Classic to counter this, but generally speaking, there was no touchstone for Bruichladdich, like Bowmore's 12yr. or the Lagavulin 16yr, or the Ardgbeg 10yr. This makes it tough to really say that Bruichladdich should taste a particular way. The final problem is that Bruichladdich Distllery has been in and out of production, and through so many different owners/head distillers (until the new, stable ownership of the 2000s) since the 1970s, that there tend to be wide variances between different years of Bruichladdich, as each owner put their own "stamp" on the whiskey. All that said, with enough tasting (and you should be able to find at least 3 or 4 DOZEN examples with even a small amount of looking around), a house style still manages to emerge.
The "core" Bruichladdich whiskey is soft, and quite lightly peated for an Islay, or if you like, moderately peated for a Single Malt in general. Notes of honey, oatmeal, cinnamon, licorice, and lemon are quite common, as well as a creamy-sweet center of the malt itself. You get a very classic "barley sugar" character from Bruichladdich as well, which offsets the peat notes very well. The peat itself is neither the hung-meat and woodsmoke of Bowmore, nor the intense herbal notes of an Ardbeg or a Laphroaig; instead the peat is quite vegetal, with a very profound minerality running through it as welll. Think tea and celery, with a generous shot of pure peat smoke, and an herbal rasp that rather reminds you of German hops. An extremely well-balanced whiskey, and very much on the world's tongue just now.