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Issue 37   |  Buy this issue   |  Other issues
Whisky Magazine Issue 37

Whisky Magazine Issue 37

Published on 23/2/2004

Whisky Tastings

Isle of Arran Calvados Finish

Was the Calvados cask notably generous, or is Scotch wh.....

The Arran Malt Cognac finish

I have observed few happy marriages between whisky and .....

Murray McDavid Mission II Caperdonich 1968

Good structure, but spoiled by bitterness and woodiness.....

Murray McDavid Mission II Glen Grant 1969

This delicate malt in unusually full flavour......

Murray McDavid Mission II Glenlossie 1975

A rare chance to taste Glenlossie but, again, the wood .....

Ardbeg 6 Years Old, Committee Bottling

I like young Islays, but this hyperactive whisky is jus.....

Glen Grant 5 Years Old

Hadn't tasted the 5 Years Old for a while. Cleaner, dri.....

Glen Moray Classic

I had not realised Glen Moray could be so sensuous......

Gordon & MacPhail Old Pulteney 8 Years Old

Tastes like Manzanilla to me. I don't speak for anyone .....

MacLeods 8 Years Old Highland Single Malt

Bold flavours. "Take me as I am, " it seems to say. I w.....

MacPhail's Collection Highland Park 8 Years Old

Only 8 Years Old, but a seasoned sea-salt. A return to .....

Celtic Heartlands Highland Park 1967

The more heavily-sherried expressions of Highland Park .....

Connoisseur's Choice Ardbeg 1974

Less boisterous than The Young One. The calm of maturit.....

Evan Williams Single Barrel Bourbon, 1994

Another great vintage from Heaven Hill......

Jon, Mark and Robbo's The Rich Spicy One

The best of the three. A hint of The Macallan? .....

Jon, Mark and Robbo's The Smoky Peaty One

Good as far as it goes, but pulls its punches......

Dun Bheagan 8 Years Old Islay Single Malt

A promising middleweight. Could be a contender in two o.....

Ledaig 7 Years Old

That wasn't breakfast toast after all. It was melba toa.....

Provenance Isle of Arran 8 Years Old, Unchillfiltered

Uncomplicated but delicious......

Scotch Malt Whisky Society Bunnahabhain, 10.56

I admired its feistiness, but I might be more comfortab.....

Van Winkle Family Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon, 18 Years Old

The wisdom of the ages is locked in there somewhere, bu.....

Contents

p5

The Miller’s Tale

Oddly enough, unlike the 1,000 or so visitors, I did not get the opportunity to taste much at Whisky Live in Tokyo (see review pages 16-17). However, those precious few whiskies I did manage to sample were fascinating.

Oddly enough, unlike the 1,000 or so visitors, I did not get the opportunity to taste much at Whisky Live in Tokyo (see review pages 16-17). However, those precious few whiskies I did manage to sample...

By Marcin Miller in the section From the Editor

p11

Haggis challenged

Michael Jackson hunts for duck soup - of a sort

Over Sylvester, I had hoped finally to taste Czernina. It was not to be. Next year in Lvov? We are all looking for Lvov, and we all begin a new year with fresh hopes. I have travelled to Warsaw and Cr...

By Michael Jackson in the section Musings with Michael Jackson

p12

Two sides of the emotional coin

Dave Broom on good times and bad times with whisky

Mixed emotions on the way to Tokyo this year. I’d just heard of Elliot Smith’s suicide and one of the lines in his song Miss Misery: “I’ll fake it through the day with some help from Johnnie Walker Re...

By Dave Broom in the section A dram with Dave Broom

p16

Finding Nemo

The fifth Whisky Live in Japan not only attracted a sell-out crowd, but it was a major success too. Marcin Miller reports

Whisky Live in Japan attracted more than 1,000 visitors as it celebrated its fifth year – and a host of other anniversaries. The event opened with a welcome speech from the British Ambassador, Sir St...

By Marcin Miller in the section Whisky Live

p18

London hosts whisky heroes

Come to the United Kingdom’s premier whisky tasting event and take the opportunity to enjoy a masterclass or two. This selection of tutored tastings gives you access to rare – sometimes unique - expressions and an unsurpassed wealth of knowledge from blenders, distillers and independent bottlers.

Friday 12.30 to 1.30pm Masterclass: Frank McHardy Join Frank McHardy, distillery managerat Springbank as he introduces Glengyle. Frank has worked in the industry for 40 years and in his masterclass...

By Dominic Roskrow in the section Whisky Live

p20

Vote for your whisky favourites

Icons of whisky is the new name for our annual awards. And this year we’re introducing the radical step of letting you do the voting 2004

It’s make your mind up time – and we’re calling on Whisky Magazine readers to cast their votes in our first fully-inclusive awards event. Our editorial panel has drawn up shortlists for each category...

By Dominic Roskrow in the section Icons of Whisky

p22

Tokyo calling

New Hollywood blockbuster Lost In Translation gives whisky a status that it has rarely enjoyed in film before. Dominic Roskrow reports

It’s being hailed as fledgling director Sofia Coppola’s coming of age. Critics have favourably described it as Tokyo’s answer to Brief Encounter. There are whisperings that actor Bill Murray’s role wi...

By Dominic Roskrow in the section Whisky Trends

p26

The wonderful world of world of whisky

Dominic Roskrow takes a lighter look at the whisky industry

Discovering whisky: A tale of three islands I’m one of those people who thinks in lists and, as the end of the year arrives, inevitably I spend every free second I have compiling ‘best of’ charts for...

By Dominic Roskrow in the section World of whisky

p28

You've never had it so good?

Is whisky produced today as good as it used to be? Richard Jones hosts this months’ philosophical debate

Ultimately, it all boils down to a question mark. One of the liveliest and most contentious debates in the world of Scotch whisky divided by the Riddler’s favourite grammatical symbol. On the surface...

By Richard Jones in the section Whisky Trends

p32

If it moves, logo it...

As whisky becomes fashionable, the battle is on for our money. Alex Meadreports on the sponsorship market

Sponsorship. It’s one of those words that can mean a lot of different things to different people. To some it brings up images of an offspring pleading for sponsor money because they’re doing a car wa...

By Alex Mead in the section Whisky Trends

p40

Fear and Loathing in Bankfoot

We’re not sure what happened to our Mystery Visitor over Christmas but it seems he has finally lost the plot. And ended up at the Scottish Liqueur Centre of all places

We were somewhere around Perth on the edge of the Highlands when the mood began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel the need for a Bramble Liqueur; maybe you should drive…” And sud...

By Dominic Roskrow in the section Mystery Visitor

p42

A single malt for the purists (Balvenie)

Once just William Grant’s ‘other’ Dufftown distillery, Balvenie is starting to build a big reputation for itself. Ian Buxton went to pay homage

Dufftown is a kind of Valhalla for distilleries. In this land of castles and stills, long-silent ghosts, such as Convalmore and Pittyvaich, haunt its streets, while the force is still strong at Duffto...

By Ian Buxton in the section Distillery Focus

p46

Welcome to the Bourbon Bunker?

So you thought there were only a handful of bourbons? American correspondent
Charles K. Cowdery tracks down some collectors who have hundreds

What do you consider a well-stocked drinks cabinet? For some people, two or three bottles will do. For others, 10 or 20 are plenty. For John and Linda Lipman of Cincinnati, Ohio, 400 different bottles...

By Charles K. Cowdery in the section American Whiskey

p53

Carver’s L.A. gories....

Jefferson Chase trawls through another downbeat bar. This time courtesy of Raymond Carver

When director Robert Altman adapted several of Raymond Carver’s short stories for the silver screen in 1993, he called his film Short Cuts. A better title would have been Drinking Stories. Born in Cl...

By Jefferson Chase in the section Whisky Literature

p54

Back in the USSR

In the second part of his feature on Russian whisky, Erkin Touzmohamedovlooks at the period from Kruschev to the modern day

You can really try to hook the story of whisky to Soviet/Russian political history – and it makes some sense: Nikita Kruschev, the most dramatic politician in contemporary history of this country to t...

By Erkin Touzmahamedov in the section Russian Whisky

p64

It's all going down the tubes

Ian Wisniewski compares the merits of worms against those of shell and tube condensers

If only I’d been taught chemistry on the basis of how malt whisky is distilled, I wouldn’t have spent so many years ignoring the teacher. Always an arts swot and never a scientist, I’ve got a lot of h...

By Ian Wisniewski in the section Whisky Production

p74

Wow - what happened?

The last three months of 2003 were as lively as it ever gets in the sedate world of whisky.
Dominic Roskrowlooks at how whisky seemed to get everywhere for a while

I bet there are loads of people who enjoyed seeing Diageo turn green last month. And what a strange end to 2003! After nine months of living in a bubble the whisky world started doing a good impressio...

By Dominic Roskrow in the section The Last Word

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