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Whisky Magazine Issue 5

Whisky Magazine Issue 5

Published on 4/8/1999

Whisky Tastings

Highland Park 12 Years Old

A beautifully balance classic islander......

Isle of Jura 10 Years Old

A lovely aperitif......

Tobermory

A surprising degree of continuity from the earlier vatt.....

Talisker 10 Years Old

Always a classic, though I still miss the 8 Years Old......

Wild Turkey 8 Years Old, 101

Yes it is big and wild, but far more sophisticated than.....

Talisker 1986, The Distiller's Edition

Not for Talisker purists, but a highly distinctive inte.....

Rare Malts Glen Ord 1974, 23 Years Old

Far paler and less sherried than the main version from .....

Rare Malts Glenury Royal 28 Years Old

An elegant middleweight after the oak-fisted heavyweigh.....

Rare Malts North Port 19 Years Old

Some malts are deservedly rare, but full marks to Unite.....

Highland Park 18 Years Old

If I smoked I would have a cigar with this one......

Highland Park 25 Years Old

Have this one with dessert......

Murray McDavid Highland Park 1979

Very good indeed as a lightish, delicate, interpretatio.....

Old Malt Cask Highland Park 10 Years Old

Utterly delicious, but the sherry masks the peat and sa.....

Highland Park 1977 Bicentenary Vintage Reserve

After that voluptuous dinner......

Blackadder Old Man Of Hoy Single Orcadian Scotch Malt Whisky

Weak in the middle. Lacks roundness......

Scapa 12 Years Old

Scapa can seem a delicate whisky, but it is full of fla.....

Gordon & MacPhail Scapa 1987

A complex, delicate, well-balanced vintage......

Isle of Arran 4 Years Old

A lovely whisky for one so young. What will it be like .....

Rare Malts Port Ellen 20 Years Old

Bring on the caeser salad......

Scotch Malt Whisky Society 9 Years Old, Brimstone & Treacle

.....

Contents

p5

From the Editor

It is always instructive to place matters in their historial perspective, and this is as true for whisky as for other matters. The whisky trade has always been good at reinventing or forgetting its ...

By Charles MacLean in the section From the Editor

p7

Obsession

Whisky is for sniffing, drinking and dabbing your ears, Michael Jackson explains, Calvin Klein would understand.

We had discussed the oak in the casks, which dated from before World War One, and considered the infuence of their position in the warehouse. Now we were sampling the contents. My enthusiastic host, A...

By Michael Jackson in the section The Gospel According to Michael Jackson

p8

An illusion of quality

Even Jim Murray can be fooled into thinking a whisky is better than it is

There is a lot to be said about drinking whisky in situ. Whisky is a romantic subject; and what can be more engaging than drinking the water of life at the very place where it is conceived? But it i...

By Jim Murray in the section The Gospel According to Jim Murray

p10

Trainspotting (Palace on Wheels)

India's luxury train the Palace on Wheels, has a bar that's open all day, every day, and whiskies that bill themselves as 'Horsepower for real men.' Kevin Pilley had a ticket to ride.

Arthur sucked on his pipe. We both watched the smoke circle over the bar top and rise up towards the mirrored ceiling. ‘We have two things in common, you and I,’ he said after a meditative silence. I ...

By Kevin Pilley in the section Great whisky bars

p24

The several lives of Tobermory

Tobermory distillery has made whisky for only14 of the last 69 years- and its incarnatuons have included a blend and a vatted malt. Tom Bruce-Gardyne mulls over it.

At times it feels just like the west of Ireland. If you visit in the spring, the vivid greens, lush pasture and dank, moss-covered walls of Mull seem straight out of Donegal. The climate is equally fi...

By Tom Bruce-Gardyne in the section The inside track

p32

The gentle art of mixing

Jonathon Goodall investigates whisky cocktails and finds a way of using up these unwanted dregs of single malt.

It was the alchemic quest for the elixir of youth that started it – perhaps. Either that or the necessity of disguising the flavour of crude forms of alcohol. Either way, the history of the creation o...

By Jonathon Goodall in the section Whisky Cocktails

p35

Is this a tortilla chip I see before me?

Brian Hennigan reports groundbreaking research into one of the vital questions of life.

Finding the right person to share the rest of your life with can be incredibly difficult, especially if you’re married. For whisky the issue of partnership is no less trying. This is not the old ‘wate...

By Brian Hennigan in the section Whisky and Food

p36

The elements of style part 3

Part three maturation In the third and final part of his series on what influences the flavour of malt whisky, Professor Alan Ruthrford turns his attention to the ageing process.

In Parts One and Two of this series I attempted to describe the nuances of malt whisky character that arise from the raw materials (Part One) and from the distilling process (Part Two) respectively. T...

By Alan Rutherford in the section Whisky Masterclass

p40

The go between

Angela Muir MW goes in search of those most elusive of creatures, whisky brokers, and finds them constantly slipping fron her grasp

What an elusive breed whisky brokers are. Nobody ever quite admits to being one: ‘Oh, no, I’m not really a broker,’ goes the refrain. ‘Brokers are a dying breed.’ ‘You want to find out about them?’ ...

By Angela Muir in the section Collecting Whisky

p44

Fast fish

We sent chef Christian Delteil some whisky, and he invented some recipes for us. That took all of 20 minutes. Coooking them, says Margaret Rand, toook only slightly longer

The kitchen at Bank smelled like a maltings. And why? Because tucked in among the little dishes of chopped chillies, sliced leeks, mashed celeriac and prepared scallops was a bowl of ground malted bar...

By Margaret Rand in the section Whisky and Food

p52

The start of a habit

Does Ardbeg go best with a Bolivar? And what might happen if youbegan a corona gigantes before dinner? Chris Orr provides a whisky lovers' guide to a good smoke

It must be a pretty depressing time for your average movie mogul or bank president. Despite the fact that business in general appears to be doing well the world over (give or take the odd country), th...

By Chris Orr in the section Whisky and Cigars

p56

The refashioning of history

Charles Maclean examines the curious story of Clan Campbell and its acquired pedigree

It appears that S. Campbell & Sons, the predecessors of Campbell Distillers, the owners of Clan Campbell, were not actually Campbells at all. Samuel Campbell’s original name was Samuel Rosenbloom, and...

By Charles MacLean in the section Whisky Hero

p60

Men behaving well (Jack and Wallace Milroy)

Joanna Simon meets Jack and Wallace Milroy, single malt whisky pioneers, and finds them refusing ot live up to their reputations

I have seen the Milroy brothers as few others have. Now before you get excited, remember that Whisky Magazine is not one of those mags confined to newsagents’ top shelves. All I mean is that I have se...

By Joanna Simon in the section Whisky Profile

p64

Killing two birds with one stone.

How do you support rugby and introduce two million Chinese to the prase Famous Grouse' at the same time? Richard Bath explains.

Whisky and rugby are not the most natural of bedfellows, you might think. But you would be wrong. Or at least, if you were right, Highland Distillers has been wasting a vast amount of the marketing bu...

By Richard Bath in the section Whisky and Sport

p66

Sugar and spice and all things nice

In the final part of his nosing course, Charles Maclean suggests that classifying malts by region has little meaning classification by flavour is more useful: but how on earth do you do it?

Traditionally, malt whiskies have been classified by region: first Highland/Lowland, then Highland/Lowland/Islay/Campbeltown/Speyside, then a proliferation of sub-divisions of Highland and Speyside. T...

By Charles MacLean in the section Whisky Tasting

p82

Glenweevil an everyday story of distilling folk 5

The story so far: Kevin accidentally stole a lorryload of Glenweenvil, and had to hide it at the distillery. The stolen whisky was passed off by Ruth as a newly-discovered stash of pre-war Glenweevil. After suitable doctoring withother malots it was sold as Glenweevil Limited Releaese. Kevin was subsequently arrested by Sergeant Maclean, and his release has been engineered by Ruth. Now read on...

Andrew here. Young Kevin slouched into my office this morning. I observed that there was no need for him to knock, but I fear the comment was wasted on him. ‘You’re pleased to be out, I daresay,’ I s...

By Andrew Mcvie in the section The Last Word

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