The Scotch Blog

This is pretty cool...

As much crap as I give to Johnnie Walker Blue, here's a cool idea from them...

Beginning November 15th in the center atrium of the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle (ed. - in New York City), consumers will be able to have their unopened bottles of Johnnie Walker Blue Label whisky engraved for the holidays free of charge. The Johnnie Walker Blue Label engraving kiosk, will engrave personal inscriptions on unopened bottles of Johnnie Walker Blue Label.  The inscriptions can be engraved in multiple languages, including English, French Spanish, Korean and Chinese.

So, go buy your bottle of Johnnie Blue; have it engraved; and give it to your boss - you'll make partner in no time.

Apparently, they will only engrave 750 ml or 1.75L bottles - you cheap bastards who bought the 200ml bottles at duty free are out of luck on this one.

WHERE:
Time Warner Center – Center Atrium
Columbus Circle at 59th Street

WHEN:
November 15 – January 4
Monday – Saturday 10 am – 9 pm
Sunday 11am – 8pm

New Logo

Some time ago I asked the designers out there to consider helping me create a new logo for The Scotch Blog.

While a number of designers offered up some ideas, I decided to go with Jonathan Seeds. We've worked together over the past few months to come up with a logo which reflects The Scotch Blog.
Jonathan has been very patient with me, and you see the results of his work in the new header.

The new quote comes from Euan Mitchell of Isle of Arran - I like this quote - and think it sums up The Scotch Blog quite nicely. While we still believe in "Straight News, Blunt Comment, No B.S." it was simply time for a change.

Join me in thanking Jonathan. I still owe him payment (in whisky, of course) for his great work.

Whisky Fest Revisited/Apology

I've gotten a lot of great feedback - both agreeing and disagreeing with me on aspects of my recent post about the actions of certain individuals in New York - both in private email and in the comments section.

Based on the comments, one thing I now realize is that I inadvertently came across as negative about the show itself.

Let me make this absolutely clear - I did NOT mean to besmirch Whisky Fest. I was attempting to point out the deplorable actions of a specific group of people. These people are completely unassociated with the show and simply bought tickets.

I think Whisky Fest is an absolutely fantastic show and I intend to attend the show again and again. Not only the New York and Chicago shows, but the upcoming San Francisco show as well.

In my desire to reprimand the behavior of a small percentage of attendees, I unintentionally denigrated the show itself. For that I apologize. This was NOT my intention, but regardless, I focused on the poor behavior and NOT on the positive experiences afforded by the show. This should not have been the purpose of a post titled "WFNY2006".

Whisky Fest New York was, in aggregate, a very positive experience. Indeed, there were many improvements and enhancements compared to previous Whisky Fests, which I neglected to mention. The broader selection of whiskies available, the broad swath of whisky dignitaries, the variety of seminars, the "experience rooms", and not least, the several thousands of dollars raised for charity.

As a result, I'm going to do something I don't do and edit the original post. The team at Malt Advocate deserve that.

Malt Whisky Yearbook Arrives!

GOOD NEWS.

The Malt Whisky Yearbook just arrived at our offices.

If you were one of the people who pre-ordered, they will be sent out tomorrow.

Want one and didn't pre-order? You can still place an order (Just in time for the Holiday Season)...

The list price for the MWY is £12.95 (Approximately US $24.62) and if you order from the MWY site, you'll pay an additional £3.95 shipping to the US or Canada (US $7.50) for a total cost of $32.13.

NOT HERE! Your cost (which includes shipping & handling in the United States) is a flat $27.50.

Order through DoceonPress

Visit the Malt Whisky Yearbook site

WFNY2006

I love the concept of the "whisky week". A whisky week offers a number of (often free) opportunities to enjoy Scotch, leading up to, and often following, the actual "big event" - and New York's whisky week is coming along nicely. Park Avenue Liquor always takes advantage of the personalities in town by hosting free tastings, and Brandy Library, my favorite New York whisky lounge, is following suit.

And this all happens because the Malt Advocate Whisky Fest is in town.

For me, the show kicked off on Saturday night with a trip to meet some high school friends at the Brandy Library - we were there to kick off our annual "reunion". On Sunday afternoon I attended a Jazz Whisky Brunch at the home of Malt Maniac Peter Silver which was being filmed and should appearing on a future episode of Single Malt TV.

Sunday night saw some great dinners at Park East Grill and St.Andrew's.

At Park East Grill, Michael Urquhart, of Gordon and MacPhail, served Benromach Traditional, a Rosebank 15, a Scapa 12, a Glen Grant 21, a Strathisla 25, and a Highland Park 30 - along with a great meal. They were all delicious, but I loved the Scapa. The Glen Grant was a treat as well, as the standard bottlings are usually quite young (5 yo) - and I'll put that Gordon & MacPhail bottling of Highland Park 30 up against the distillery bottling.

Men Behaving Badly

The following post concerns my observations of sub-par behavior at a recent whisky event. These comments are meant to point out the behavior of a few reprehensible individuals and not cast a pall on an otherwise excellent show.

Men behaving badly

I was appalled at the behavior of some of the attendees during the speaker sessions. These people were less interested in learning form the invited speakers and more interested in being rude and obnoxious.

Here are but a few examples of what I witnessed during the Glenrothes talk led by Ronnie Cox and Martine Nouet:

More damned foreigners buy distilleries

The Scotsman reports that Thailand-based InterBev has bought Inver House. Negotiations probably took place whilst everyone had their eyes on Whyte & Mackay and the Mallya soap-opera.
Pulteney, Balblair, Knockdhu, Speyburn, Balmenach are the distilleries under the aegis of Inverhouse, but they also have gin, vodka, and liqueur brands as well

I have a story or two in the works on some of InverHouse's products - which are sadly unappreciated. Hopefully, InterBev will infuse some more money into InverHouse, so that gems like Old Pulteney get into the hands of more people.

The full Scotsman story below...

Ballechin Act (repost)

I was wandering the floor at Whisky Live Paris when I saw Sukhinder Singh sitting behind the Edradour booth. I joined him when he thrust a glass into my hands and said those fateful words every whisky lover yearns to hear: "Try this".

While I was tasting, Andrew Symington, the Head guy at Edradour 7 Signatiry came over to chat.

Andrew Symington: How old do you think that is?

Kevin Erskine: <take a taste> Very Peaty - I would say it's a little young. <taste again> I'll say six.

AS: Three years and 5 months

KE: What was it aged in? It's got an interesting sweetness.

AS: First fill Burgundy casks.

KE: Exclusively?

Hey! Can you spell?

Better yet, can you write?

I'm looking for contributing writers to submit stories for The Scotch Blog.

But we are not looking for any old dreg...

A. It has to be interesting
B. It has to be pertinent
C. It has to be at least at a 5th grade reading level (hopefully a little better than that)
D. It has to be "post-worthy" (Who decides what is "post-worthy"? Me.)
E. It has to fit in with the spirit of the Scotch Blog (i.e., no non-sensical rants (that's my job)

We don't do reviews of whisky here (unless it is a part of a larger story) so keep your tasting notes to yourself. Nobody cares that you detect plums and body liniment).

We do opinion; event reviews; travelogues, news, and news commentary, etc. - but it has to be interesting to an audience from around the world. Remember our mantra - blunt comment & straight news.

No, we don't pay - I don't make any money doing this, why should you?

But you will get credit, and all the glory that goes with writing free on line articles. (That is to say - not much).

And a dose of reality:

• Just because you submit something, doesn't mean it will get posted. We have standards.
• You'll probably be edited, and/or will be given suggestions for improvement, which if ignored, means, your story won't appear here.

Bottling of Blends outside of Scotland

Last Monday we asked Glen Barclay, Director of Legal Affairs for the Scotch Whisky Association about the legality of bottling Single Malt Scotch outside of Scotland - this led to a discussion about bottling Scotch blends outside of Scotland.

David Williamson, Director of Public Affairs, responds:

Hi Kevin,

Many thanks for your recent question asking why Scotch Whisky can be bottled outside Scotland.

As you are aware, there has never been a requirement in the legal definition of Scotch Whisky for it to be bottled only in Scotland. As Scotch Whisky has grown in popularity around the world over the last century, we have therefore seen Scotch Whisky, principally Blended Scotch Whisky, shipped for local bottling in certain export markets.