Contents
p5
Onwards and upwards,says Dominic Roskrow,as Whisky Magazine gets a new look
There’s always a temptation when you hit a milestone to sit back and participate in some indulgent back-slapping. But it says much about the healthy state of the world of whisky that I have to say tha...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
From the Editor
p11
Michael Jackson on the importance of standing your round
Afirst impression, or a sole encounter, can linger indelibly. The only time I met Ted Heath (the recently departed former British prime minister) was at a conference on marketing. There was an informa...
By Michael Jackson in the section
Musings with Michael Jackson
p12
Dave Broom on the demise and eventual death of Allied Domecq
So, farewell Allied-Domecq.
You were the No.2 drinks firm in the world.
But no-one knew what brands you had.
Someone said to me you didn’t either.
So you didn’t fare as well as you could have.
[with a...
By Dave Broom in the section
A dram with Dave Broom
p14
The best letter in each issue wins a bottle of Berry’s Blue Hanger 25 year old. Always impeccably turned out, just like the gentleman it is named after, Berry’s Blue Hanger offers soft citrus aromas intermingled with leather, custard and pears, leading to an elegant butterscotch and rich orange peel palate with a dry smoky finale. One to ponder.
Become Ambasassadors.
All of us reading this magazine like to enjoy a good dram or two. Some have a near fanatical relationship and some just like the taste.
I remember my first whisky but thankfull...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Letters to the Editor
p15
South Africa’s internationally aligned whisky festivals, the First National Bank Whisky Live Festivals, take place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from October 26-28 and in Johannesbu...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Whisky Events
p16
How good are the independent bottling companies? We decided to find out in our biggest ever tasting – more than 175 entrants in 24 categories,judged by nine judges over seven weeks. Dominic Roskrow reports
Every two years Whisky Magazine holds its Best of the Best competition, when the best 40 whiskies from the previous two years are tasted by about 100 judges in Tokyo, Dublin,Kentucky,Glasgow and Londo...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Whisky Awards
p20
Fifty quotes from 50 issues of Whisky Magazine
Issue 1 - Michael Jackson
“What we need, and should be filling into casks this very minute, is a really robust product for the consumer who is drinking Lagavulin today and wants to graduate to somethi...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Whisky Magazine
p26
To celebrate our 50th issue we asked a selection of people for their best whisky drinking occasion. Here are the best 50 of them
1. My bar manager and I visited Glenfiddich and got the chance to dip into the mixing vat of their new Solero Reserve. It was stunningly gorgeous. A chance to try something before it had been filtered...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Whisky Magazine
p33
Innovation in whisky is alive and well in the historic market town of Leek,Staffordshire. Richard Jones reports
For someone who has managed to create one of the country’s most innovative and interesting whisky ranges, it’s perhaps surprising that the parting words of the previous owner still occasionally haunt ...
By Richard Jones in the section
Whisky Spotlight
p34
Ian Buxton goes among old friends and visits Aberfeldy
They say confession is good for the soul: so here goes... I know the folk at Dewar’s pretty well. From time to time I do consulting work for them, and (back in the last millennium) I was heavily invol...
By Ian Buxton in the section
Distillery Focus
p38
Prague is known for great beer.But what about whisky? Jefferson Chase went in hunt of the perfect Czech whisky retailer
Despite living for years near the border between Western and Eastern Europe, I’d never been to Prague. The disinclination to battle millions of tourists – many seduced by discount airfares and the pro...
By Jefferson Chase in the section
Whisky Travel
p42
The Mystery Visitor slips into Blair Athol and discovers that a week is a long time in whisky.
It’s tiring work, this mystery visiting. No sooner do you compile one of these fearless and hard-hitting reports than the management go and change things and all your work is out of date.
To make it ...
By Mystery Visitor in the section
Mystery Visitor
p44
Glasgow restaurant Arisaig is fast becoming a whisky venue of some note.Ian Buxton visited it
What do you get if you blend a lawyer and a graduate in International Relations? Well, a stylish, trend-setting contemporary Scottish bar restaurant with a rapidly growing reputation seems to be the a...
By Ian Buxton in the section
Whisky and Music
p47
This issue Jefferson Chase looks at Michael Chabon's comic inspired novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s… a couple of Jewish guys. That’s one way to describe Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize winner novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, from ...
By Jefferson Chase in the section
Whisky Literature
p48
A threat to the future of Scotch?
In my youth – a couple of centuries ago it seems – I remember snow lying around my home in Perth for weeks on end. I remember sledging every year and often daily in the 1950s and early 1960s. I don’t ...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Whisky Trends
p52
Leon Schoyan’s whisky find was every diver’s dream. Jim Leggett reports on how Prohibition era Scotch found its way back home
Dazzling sun shafts pierced the gloom where, 20 feet below the surface of the Detroit River, diver Leon Sehoyan groped his way towards a pile of grimy gunwales. Pursuing his summer weekend hobby of se...
By Jim Leggett in the section
Whisky History
p55
Joe Bates with the latest from travel retail
Store Focus.
Copenhagen Kastrup.
If only every duty-free shop could look like Swiss travel retailer The Nuance Group’s new flagship store at Copenhagen airport.
At a spacious 2,700sq m this light, ...
By Joe Bates in the section
Travel retail
p56
To paraphase an old music expression, it’s climbing the drinks chart with a Bulleit.Charles Cowdery on the latest bourbon success
Tom Bulleit – ex-Marine, ex-tax lawyer, current whiskey pitchman – is on the crest of a wave, paddling as fast as he can, hoping he can ride it to fame and prosperity.
It has been a lifelong dream of...
By Charles K. Cowdery in the section
American Whiskey
p59
It's all a question of balance. Ian Wisniewski explains how a good Sour can put a smile on your face
As a style of cocktail the Sour applies the same treatment to various spirits, with the first sip revealing how appropriately it's named. Lemon juice provides the sourness, and the challenge lies in a...
By Ian Wisniewski in the section
Whisky Cocktails
p72
Why is it that the reverence for single malts can turn into disappointment, or disdain,when single malts are mixed together? Is this based on knowing what blending can achieve,or just unenlightened prejudice?
Let’s start our evaluation of the category with a typical definition, that the resulting complexity exceeds the individual components of a vatted malt (I use this term in this article because it is no...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Whisky Production
