All Hail The Rise Of The Artisan...

Over the last six months, we've tried some simply stupendous whiskies from right across the globe, leading us to the assumption that making the brown stuff is probably more popular than ever.  
From Scotland to Switzerland, everyone, it seems, is getting in on the act.

Recently, I wrote a column in Whisky Magazine about the rise and rise of America's craft distillation movement with much enthusiasm about how the lack of a draconian rulebook was helping to create some incredibly innovative spirits - to all intents and purposes, 'whiskies' in their native environment, but under our own relatively (closed-minded) set of regulations in the UK, almost certainly not.

Balcones,  a Texan distillery seemingly run on elastic bands and invention, recently changed a lot of perceptions about 'craft' distillation and how it has clearly outgrown the patronising 'hobbyist' tag when their distiller, the great Chip Tate, came over for Whisky Live a few months ago.  Without a doubt, his small stall at the event was as busy, if not busier than a few noticeable heavyweight Scottish distillers and his incredible concoction, Rumble (technically not even a whisky, due to its lack of a cereal) was the star of the show in many minds.

Tuthilltown have also ripped up the rule book and made a whisky from the pages, especially when it comes to their unconventional maturation methods, which you can read about here.

Closer to home, Adnams have been steadily moving the benchmark forward in terms of an innovative take on new distilled spirits over in Norfolk, without the slightest bit of interest in what the SWA thinks. And with the news that our good friend Darren Rook is gearing up to undertake London's first whisky distillery in over 100 years, the climate for change feels warmer, brighter and less inclement than ever before.

Of course, all this is happening outside the UK or below the border and I kind of feel sorry for anyone wanting to set up a new whisky distillery in Scotland these days.  Even the smallest craft operation is likely to have someone with a clipboard and a red pen breathing down their neck in no time at all, should they dare utter the 'W' word, or, even more shockingly, try using something other than malted barley in their mash tun.  Yes, the world needs Scotch (now more so than ever, especially in the emerging global markets) but it is also woefully short on innovation, which, like it or not SWA, is an attractive proposition for the next generation of whisky drinkers -  given the rival lure of rum and white spirits.

So I thought it was about time we drew attention to a bit of bedtime reading for the would-be (or frustrated) distiller.

First up comes possibly the best new whisky book in the last ten years. A bold statement, but each page is positively dripping with possibility, inspiration and flavour.  


Alt Whiskeys - Alternative Whiskeys And Techniques For The Adventurous Distiller is a labour of love, eloquently written by Corsair distillery owner Darek Bell.   For those of you who aren't familiar with Corsair, it was founded in 2007 in Bowling Green, Kentucky, with an additional distillery site opened recently in Tennessee.  The copper still which Darek has lovingly maintained is now 100 years old and looks like something you'd expect to see in an over-sized science lab.

When Darek and his business partner Andrew Webber aren't distilling their more conventional whiskies, (like the one below) their minds are clearly wandering through an imaginary field of bizarre crops, working out whether they can make a whisk(e)y from the harvest.    Hopped whiskies, ale-inspired recipes, buckwheat, black rice, blue maize, einkorn, quinoa, spelt - even...cannabis. Corsair have tinkered, furtled and fiddled with so many different ideas, they surely haven't got room to mature anything 'ordinary' in their warehouses.  With a whole chapter dedicated to the use of different smoke (from hickory and grapevines to cherrywood and pimento) Darek demonstrates that there is life outside the conventional, tried-and-tested 'holy trinity' of ingredients.  In short, he's the modern day Galileo to the Catholic Church of established whisky making and we can't recommend 'Alt Whiskies' more highly.
Click here to buy this amazing book and you too can endlessly wind up distillery managers with amazing facts next time you take a distillery tour.

Like Reservoir Dogs, Corsair are
coming to cut off the ears (of corn) from the establishment

Here's one of Corsair's more conventional recipes, for which the distillery have won a few gongs over the past 18 months.

Corsair - 100% Rye Whiskey - 46%

Nose: An initial spiciness, (think anise, cloves and woody cinnamon) followed by crushed black pepper, some meaty notes, roasted nuts and pipe tobacco.  Given time, notes of fresh vanilla start to emerge and with a dash of water, a salty, buttery note begins to develop.

Palate: A big hit of white pepper, followed up swiftly by more woody spice, (cinnamon and clove) 

a deft touch of vanilla, some dried fruit sweetness (figs and prunes) and more aromatic pipe tobacco. 

Finish: Very spicy, with dried ginger, white pepper and a little lingering vanilla round out the diminishing flavours on the drying palate. 

Overall: Big, bold and spicy.  This is a monster of a rye. It is youthful, but has a full-bodied character kicking you firmly in the nuts from the get go.  It would nail the first Manhattan cocktail of the night, that's for sure. 

On the subject of top whisky books, a certain Mr Ian Buxton has got round to updating his highly successful tome 101 Whiskies To Try Before You Die, giving it a wider 'world whisky' scope (although he shamefully missed the one above... ;-p )  The new edition is full of interesting drams to try from Austria to Wales and is well worth a look.

In fact -  it just so happens that we have one to give away...

If you fancy getting your hands on a copy, it's very easy.  Send us your thoughts about 'One Thing You'd Really Like To Try Before You Die' and the funniest, most entertaining entry will win a copy.  Extra points for rudeness, skullduggery and downright shamelessness!

Email your entries to 101whiskies@caskstrength.net - Competition closes midnight 7th July. 

New Malt Whisky Yearbook 2012

Exciting news folks, the new Malt Whisky Yearbook 2012 is released on the 1st October and this time round, i'm pleased to mention that I was asked to contribute a chapter to this excellent tome.

This year's edition is the biggest ever, running at 300 pages and features chapters from Charlie Maclean, Ian Buxton and our good friend Colin Dunn. It also features a brand new section on Japanese whiskies from Chris Bunting, the creator of great Japan-based blog Nonjatta.

If you fancy grabbing one, visit www.maltwhiskyyearbook.com for more details...

Shameless plug over...

Slainte!

Neil x

Islay day 8 - If you’re gonna knead the dough, you’ve gotta bake the bread...

Friday during the Feis Ile always seems like the calm before the storm of the weekend. By that we mean Bunnahabhain hold their open day in the surroundings of the north east coastline, before the madness of Ardbeg’s Saturday event at the final fling event in Port Ellen’s Ramsay Hall. The weather had turned a little colder, but by now, we were a pair of city softies carved out of wood by the unrelenting high winds and rain, which had lashed Islay for pretty much the entire trip.

In recent years (when the weather was better) Bunnahabhain have laid on a Highland games themed event with Caber tossing, welly wanging and horseshoe throwing. But this year was a much simpler affair and main attraction was the stupendous locally caught scallops, flash fried in butter and a generous measure of Bunnahabhain 12yo. Our pal Ian Buxton was also around and delivered a fine masterclass tasting, afterwards signing copies of his bestselling book, ‘101 Whiskies To Try Before You Die’. We start to compile a list of drams to make our own 1,000,001 Drams To Try Before You Expire’ tome, but realise we’d need to have started early- from birth until our 80^th birthday, we’d need to sample 34 whiskies daily, not counting leap years.

Bunna’s special release this year was a 14yo, which had spent its final 3 years finishing in a Cognac cask (a first for the distillery) to give it an even more concentrated sweet, floral complexity. In addition to the festival, the release celebrates the 130^th anniversary of the distillery and was limited to 472 bottles.

Bunnahabhain – Feis Ile Special - 14yo – Cognac finish – 472 bottles – 59.6%

Nose: Lovely sweetened coffee and toffee notes, with vintage polished oak furniture, light cinnamon, hot cross buns and melted butter.

Palate: A very rich oily mouthfeel, with brandy marinated blood oranges, mandarins warming spices (cinnamon and a hint of clove) and a very sweet note, which balances well against the citrus flavours. With a dash of water, oak smoked ham, coupled with some dry red wine notes.

Finish: Hints of soft brown sugar linger on the palate, with traces of spice and zestiness.

Overall: Although quite different to the regular release 12yo, this bottling shows how the spirit is robust enough to take on the fruity notes of the Cognac cask and remain true to the distillery’s character. Hopefully we’ll see further experiments with Cognac in future bottlings.

Being the main home to blended whisky Black Bottle, the brand was out in force for the day, but instead of just offering regular tastings, their team had taken the opportunity to have some real fun and bought in a couple of ‘Slush Puppy’ machines to give the blend a completely different vibe, you can see our reaction in the video below!

On our way back to the south of the Island, we stopped in to see Gordon at the Islay Woollen Mill, which was now fortunately repaired after the 100mph winds. Ridley got measured up for a bolt of Lagavulin tweed, enough to make a 3 –piece suit.

If you haven’t already visited the mill, it’s well worth a nose around- not only does it have one of the oldest looms in Scotland to look at, but Gordon is a wealth of knowledge on tweeds and tartans, having designed pieces for numerous feature films including Braveheart and The Spiderwick Chronicles. They’ll even sell you a length of Bruichladdich tweed, should you be crazy enough to have a turquoise suit made up!

In our next instalment, we ride a attempt to ride a bull, try to perfect a few Flamenco steps and enjoy the best of Ardbeg’s brand new and vintage releases.

Last Minute Whisky Pressies

With less than a week to go, only a crazy person would leave buying their christmas presents till the 11th hour. And yet, as every Christmas that goes by, I always find myself in exactly the same position, thinking that everything will be ok, once I venture onto the streets of Central London for a few hours of 'gifting'. I sort of pulled it off this year, but then the weather turned and I had to beat a hasty retreat before I was marooned with all the all the other crazy people, their faces covered with that familiar, mildly panicked look that only number of last minute rash purchases can cure.

Fortunately, for the whisky fan in your life, we've got a few suggestions whilst there's still time to get the visa card out.

We featured a number of books recently on the blog, 101 Whiskies To Try Before You Die, The World Atlas Of Whisky, and now, on a similar tip comes The World's Best Whiskies, by Dominic Roskrow. With 750 whiskies around the globe to fill up its 300 pages, as well as useful sections on food matching, classic cocktails and tips on nosing and tasting whisky, Dominic has excelled in bringing whisky to life and this is an excellent read, post Christmas day, with dram of something firmly in hand. Whereas, it might be too late to order them online with all this snow, Messrs. Waterstone's should be able to help!!

On the dram front- both Master Of Malt and The Whisky Exchange have some decent, and interesting gift ideas, that you can probably still lay your hands on if you get your skates on!

This Islay tasting kit features a few cracking drams that the discerning peat lover will undoubtedly be delighted to open on Christmas morning, lunchtime, or for that special evening dram, to make the nauseating Dr Who special fly past.

Similarly, TWE have a great offer on The Glenrothes 1985 at the moment. Perfect for shutting up Uncle Monty's inane jokes during the Bond double bill you've been waiting for.

On a non-whisky related tip- for the gentleman in your life with a penchant for fine grooming, A trip to Ted's Grooming Room will brighten up their lives and leave them looking super sharp and ready for 2011.

Reading Roundup

Fresh from our recent trip to Roseisle and Europe (more of this over the coming weeks) we have a couple of interesting new tomes that have come to our attention and clearly deserve some of yours too!

First up is another gem from our friend and whisky writer extraordinaire, Ian Buxton, author of several beautiful books, which we reviewed on caskstrength recently.

Ian's latest endeavours have been to practically catalogue the un-catalogue-able; the 101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die. An ominous prospect at best and a nightmare at worst. How on earth does one decide what would make the shortlist and what to leave out?? On one slightly drunken evening, we started to compile our list of Desert Island Drams, but ended up arguing over which Glenrothes should replace a certain Laphroaig... and so on..and so on...

What Ian has done is to take the simple approach and cut through the layers of marketing hype and flannel, which surround so many whiskies today. He includes bottlings from all over the world, including Scotland, Japan, America, as well as crackers from Sweden, India and Ireland. It is a detailed, yet superbly laid out, easy to understand guidebook to the huge range of flavour and aromas in whisky, which can be a turn off for those not really knowing where to start.

We found ourselves making a little check list of everything we'd tried, but were left positively salivating at the prospect of trying all the others we'd yet to discover.

In short, this book would make an excellent stocking filler for any whisky lover, especially those who are beginning their perilous (yet boozy) journey on the lengthy path to whisky Valhalla. May the drams be with you....always.

Ian has kindly given Caskstrength readers an opportunity to buy copies of '101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die' at the exclusive price of £10.99 (RRP £12.99), which includes free postage and packing (UK Only) Contact:
mailorder@bookpoint.co.uk and quote CASKSTRENGTH... it's as simple as that.

Next up and another of big, thick slice of world whisky information, from a man who needs little introduction; Mr Dave Broom, owner of fine tweeds, facial hair and, more importantly, a spectacular wealth of knowledge on the finest whiskies known to humanity...and beyond.

Dave has already penned many classics in the world of dark spirits, including tomes on Rum, as well as numerous guides on whisky, including his latest- The World Atlas Of WHISKY...and it's an absolute monster!!

This beautifully put together book is a complete guide to whisky distillation across the globe and includes fascinating insights into over 200 distilleries, as well as 300 different expressions of whisky. Quite how he has found the time to pack as much research into this book is beyond us, but he succeeds and triumphantly moves whisky writing forward to another level, with a wealth of information coming across like a conversation with an old friend. It is worth the RRP of £30, just for his insightful views on Japanese and American whiskies.

To sum up then...absolutely essential reading for those who know their whiskies, but want to become immersed in the spirit even further.

COMPETITION TIME!!

We have ONE copy of Dave Broom's amazing 'World Atlas of WHISKY' to give away to our readers. To enter, please answer the following (simple) question!

How many distilleries are currently in operation on the island of Islay?:

A: 5

B: 7

C: 8

No cheating by using wikipedia either... ;-)

email us at: info@caskstrength.net with your name, age and correct answer and we'll randomly draw one lucky winner from the pot. Competition closes at midnight on the 1st November 2010. Good Luck!

**Dave will also be doing an insightful talk and whisky tasting to promote the release of the book at the Hotel Du Vin in Brighton on the 3rd November. For tickets (£6) contact City Books in Hove on: 01273 725306**

Read All About It

Whisky books are becoming a pretty common sight when you head to your local retailer (assuming they haven't all been closed down and turned into a bloody Starbucks...)

We've long since been big supporters of Ingvar Ronde's superbly researched 'Malt Whisky Yearbook' and if any of you are looking for a detailed account of every working distillery, then look no further. In fact, there are so many good publications out there, it goes to show that there's life in the old bedside read yet.



Recently there's been a trend towards the rediscovery of long since deleted tomes and historical texts. The brilliant, but tricky to find 'Whisky Distilleries of The United Kingdom' by Alfred Barnard has just been reprinted and is in our view, essential reading for those wanting to learn more about distillery characteristics at the turn of the century.

So it was a huge pleasure to recently receive two very interesting tomes by whisky author Ian Buxton. Ian is one of the founders of Classic Expressions, a publisher specialising in the re-introduction of long, lost distillation books, beautifully reprinted using premium quality paper and binding. To simply handle one really gives you the impression that you are delving into a very special text indeed and their two latest releases are no exception.

Ian has clearly been a busy man over the last year or so. 'Glenglassaugh- A Distillery Reborn' offers what he describes as a 'semi-detached' explanation of the distillery's history, closure and subsequent rebirth back in early 2008. The most striking aspect of the book (save for its wonderful presentation) is the sheer amount of research which has clearly gone into the project. From the initial photograph showing a warehouse in desperate need of repair, you are drawn into the magical journey of discovery, which the new owners must have experienced when taking on such a mammoth task to breathe life into the sleeping Highland giant. There are accounts from former distillery managers of the early 1970's as well as a huge amount of historical imagery and Ian does a tremendous job of making the resurrection of Glenglassaugh a wholly enjoyable read, rather than merely a collection of prosaic facts. Anyone interested in this brand new (old) distillery would be advised to grab a copy of Ian's book, uncork a bottle of their fabulous 26 yo (or 40 yo, if you're flush enough...) and settle back for an evening of pure whisky indulgence.

UK RRP £19.99 ISBN 978-1-906476-13-7
Published by Neil Wilson Publishing (Angel's Share)

Next up is a very special book indeed. We're pretty clear on Caskstrength about our love for Highland Park and when Ian mentioned he had been working with the distillery on a historical project we were very intrigued to find out more. The result is a superb recreation of 'Highland Park'- A Good Foundation'- essentially a brief account of the distillery from 1924, which Ian has applied his meticulous reprinting genius to. In short, it looks, feels and reads superbly. From the hand block-stamped facsimile of an original promotional booklet cover on the back, to the perfect blemish-free black and white photos of the distillery from the early 20th century, every page positively reeks of Orkney and a golden age in Highland Park's rich history. It is reassuring to read that many of the distillation practices pioneered nearly 90 years ago are still cherished by the current custodians of the distillery and highlights just how important it is to protect the legacies of our best loved whiskies. The book is currently unavailable commercially, but we're sure plans are afoot to give this the exposure it deserves. Watch this space.