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Issue 34   |  Buy this issue   |  Other issues
Whisky Magazine Issue 34

Whisky Magazine Issue 34

Published on 5/10/2003

Whisky Tastings

The Balvenie 1972 Vintage Cask

The ultimate dessert dram. Beautifully composed......

The Whisky Shop Brora 30 Years Old

For the collector......

Bunnahabhain 1963

The Islay origins become more obvious the more mature B.....

Glen Garioch 12 Years Old, National Trust for Scotland bottling

Approachable and enjoyable, but a little mild-mannered .....

Glenfiddich 1973 Vintage Reserve

Luxurious and sweet, but background is gently dry. Deft.....

Hakushu 1982 Sherry Cask

I would love this whisky if it had a little less wood. .....

Hakushu 1984 White Oak Cask

Its edgy assertiveness might bother aesthetes but I war.....

Hakushu 1988 Bourbon Cask

Lean, limber and characteristically smoky. A clear sens.....

Hakushu 30th Anniversary Bottling

A beautifully composed whisky. No aggression, but a gre.....

Springbank 25 Years Old, Frank McHardy Bottling

Springbank can sound like a fruit salad, but the whisky.....

Yamazaki 80th Anniversary Bottling

A lovely, elegant, delicately malty Yamazaki......

Contents

p5

The Miller's Tale

Last Thursday I met two men who had bought distilleries in the last month: Michael Beamish and Leonard Russell. For me they represent the joyful polarity of the whisky industry. Michael was on time a...

By Marcin Miller in the section The Miller's Tale

p11

The Buddha of Bourbon

Michael Jackson has a vision, and learns why the Japanese sit on the floor to eat dinner

Through the windows of the cab, the neons of Tokyo flashingly light Jimmy Russell’s face. I keep expecting him to say; “I couldda been a contender,” but why would he? Jimmy Russell is a champ. He ha...

By Michael Jackson in the section Musings with Michael Jackson

p12

Tomorrow's World

Innovation in the world of whisky? It’s all over the place, argues Dave Broom

There I was, reclining in my whisky chair squirting a dram into my tumbler filled with ‘Whisky Rocks’, musing on what a remarkably innovative industry this has become. An entire subset of firms has sp...

By Dave Broom in the section A dram with Dave Broom

p20

Putting money where your mouth is

Keep advertising and advertising will keep you”, famously quipped whisky baron Tommy Dewar. He was renowned for advertising firsts and for the lavish promotional budgets that built the Dewar’s brands ...

By Ian Buxton in the section Whisky Production

p24

The last show in town (Springbank)

Campbeltown was once a thriving centre for whisky production. Now little remains. Is Springbank worth the journey? Our mystery visitor made the lengthy trek to find out

It took a long time to get to Campbeltown and, when I arrived, the profusion of palm trees in this delightfully Victorian town convinced me that I had been magically transported from Scotland to the C...

By Mystery Visitor in the section Mystery Visitor

p28

Kentucky Roses (Four Roses)

Four Roses has thrived since it was bought by Japanese brewer Kirin. Stuart MacLean Ramsay found out why

You never know what’s round the corner on the back roads of Kentucky. Three years back I was meandering alongside the Salt River by Lawrenceburg, searching for Julian Van Winkle’s over-worked bottlin...

By Stuart MacLean Ramsay in the section Distillery Focus

p32

Chills and thrills (Yoichi)

Dave Broomtries to discover the secret of Nikka by visiting its North Japanese Yoichi distillery

There’s a difference to the light. Clear, sharp. The sky is blue but it is a chill blue. The trees on the roadside hills are thin-trunked, their ranches making fine tracings on the sky. The ground se...

By Dave Broom in the section Distillery Focus

p37

On the fashion trail

The Lonsdale in London recently hosted a Whisky Magazine cocktail challenge. Dominic Roskrow spoke to general manager Henry Besant.

If you’re of the view that whisky doesn’t have a place in the most stylish and fashionable city centre bars, you ought to have a word with Henry Besant. It’s fair to say that Henry has been around a ...

By Dominic Roskrow in the section Whisky Spotlight

p40

Protective Shields (Robin Shields)

Robin Shields isn’t from Islay. He’s not Scottish. And he doesn’t have a distillery background. But as Martine Nouet finds out, he’s up for the challenge of protecting the reputation of Laphroaig

Robin Shields, Laphroaig’s new distillery manager faces more than a challenge: He’s taking over from living legend Iain Henderson, discovering a brand-new job after 25 years in the brewing industry, a...

By Martine Nouet in the section Whisky Profile

p44

Lead on Macduff

Speyside’s most eastern distillery is something of an enigma, but it’s not without
influence. Ian Buxton paid it a visit

The towns of Macduff and Banff are located in the North-East of Scotland, on either side of the banks of the River Deveron, reputedly a “first-class, second-class salmon river”. Both are ancient settl...

By Ian Buxton in the section Distillery Focus

p48

The strange case of the Bothy Still

Gavin D Smith looks at how Diageo’s forerunners flirted with the idea of launching a ‘boutique’ distillery based on an illegal operation – and how it ended up on the shelf

Today we take distillery visitor centres for granted. They have become part of Scotland’s tourist infrastructure, with ‘whisky tourism’ estimated to generate around £17m per year, and more than 40 dis...

By Gavin D. Smith in the section Whisky History

p51

Keeping up appearances

Whisky is a central part of the main character in Graham Greene’s The Human Factor says Jefferson Chase

Think Graham Greene and whisky, and the title that automatically pops to mind is The Power and the Glory. But The Human Factor, Greene’s 1978 tale of an inter-racial couple caught between the fronts i...

By Jefferson Chase in the section Whisky Literature

p52

How the hot toddy took flight

Irish Coffee is known and loved across the world, but how did this happen? Peter Mulryan shows how it first took off

For a brief period during the 1940s there flowered the most glamorous form of transport that we are ever likely to see. In the days before budget airlines, or even decent runways, flying boats, the h...

By Peter Mulryan in the section Whisky Trends

p52

How the hot toddy took flight

Irish Coffee is known and loved across the world, but how did this happen? Peter Mulryan shows how it first took off

For a brief period during the 1940s there flowered the most glamorous form of transport that we are ever likely to see. In the days before budget airlines, or even decent runways, flying boats, the h...

By Peter Mulryan in the section Whisky Trends

p61

A fishy tale

In the latest in an occasional series of matching whisky with food, Dave Broom compares and contrasts some sushi-whisky combinations

Scene I An almighty shout had stopped us in our tracks. None of the diners seemed at all fazed by the entire staff of the restaurant stopping work to bellow at a group of people walking through the do...

By Dave Broom in the section Whisky and Food

p64

Lets do the char char

The cask plays a major role in the flavour of whisky. Ian Wisnieski takes a closer look
at how they end up sitting in a warehouse for years

Contributing up to 70 per cent of a malt’s flavour, the cask is a vital factor, but in the course of its life-time a cask offers varying maturation influences and has, of course, already led an active...

By Ian Wisniewski in the section Whisky Production

p74

Haydock gets sexed up

Is the great John Haydockrattled? It would seem so. Here he goes on the defensive and answers his critics

Readers of Whisky Magazine will by now be only too sadly aware of the war of words and media misinformation that has broken out surrounding the latest edition of the definitive malt whisky biography –...

By John Haydock in the section An acidic finish

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