Contents
p5
Rob reflects on the events of the last couple of months
Well I had so much to share in this column this time round. The time between my ramblings has been pretty packed.
The summer has been peppered with firsts, not just me but for my daughter as well – h...
By Rob Allanson in the section
From the Editor
p7
The whisky world has paid tribute to one of its biggest supporters – Michael Jackson–long time Whisky Magazinecontributor,author,journalist and towering authority on whisky and beer. Here is a selection from the forum and received directly by the Editor
The first memory of Michael? On the (then new) Channel 4. AYorkshireman presenting a series on beer?! It was captivating, not just because of the subject matter, but of how he avoided the pretentiousn...
By Rob Allanson in the section
Musings with Michael Jackson
p11
In his final column before his death,Michael looks back at his time in India and the rise of a nation of whisky drinkers
Loyal to his saffron shorts, our globe-trotting columnist issues a challenge to the Boy from Bangalore. My onetime sparring partner Vijay Mallya. How better to toast half a century of independent Indi...
By Michael Jackson in the section
Musings with Michael Jackson
p12
Dave lets us in on part of his tasting regime
His voice is slightly awry. Strong, yet fragile, it possesses a flawed purity, giving it a welcome honesty. It allows the words to come across more as timeless narratives, nakedly emotional, binding m...
By Dave Broom in the section
A dram with Dave Broom
p14
In order to toast their sell out Beat The Drum event held at Loch Ness recently, Scottish super group Runrig got together with award-winning whisky merchant Duncan Taylor of Huntly to create a special...
By Rob Allanson in the section
whisky news
p14
New York bids again
Liquor connoisseurs will soon be able to bid on rare distilled spirits from around the globe at auctions in New York, legalized recently by Governor Eliot Spitzer, according to th...
By Rob Allanson in the section
Whiskky News
p14
Highland Park is investing morethan £550,000 to replace the two pagoda roofs at its Grade B listed distillery in Kirkwall, Orkney.
A well-known sight synonymous with Scotch whisky distilleries, altho...
By Rob Allanson in the section
Whiskky News
p15
Kichoman, Islay’s Farm Distillery, is offering individuals the opportunity to secure bottles from the very first release of Kilchoman 5 year old Single Malt.
To find out more about this unique opport...
By Rob Allanson in the section
Whiskky News
p15
Buffalo Trace Distillery has another round experimental whiskies ready for release. Two more barrels have been selected and bottled from among the 1,500 experiments currently aging.
Buffalo Trace Dis...
By Rob Allanson in the section
Whiskky News
p15
Glenmorangie has unveiled its new image and liquid marking the biggest change in the brand’s history to date.
The new comtemporary identity includes the introduction of bespoke bottle shapes, new lab...
By Rob Allanson in the section
Whiskky News
p17
Andrew Derbidge pulls up a seat at a very prestigious Ardbeg meal
Imagine you’re an Ardbeg fan. Imagine you’d spent years wanting to taste all the rare, highly collectible vintage bottlings but their scarcity and cost put them beyond your reach. Now imagine there wa...
By Rob Allanson in the section
Whisky Spotlight
p18
The world of whisky may well still be dominated by the big five traditional producers,but they’re no longer having
it all their own way.Dominic Roskrow looks at the new wave of world whisky
It was a telling moment. We were at the launch of a new expression of a single malt whisky and we were being addressed by a very proud and very Scottish whisky maker.
No-one makes whisky like the Sco...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
World whisky
p22
Pulteney takes some getting to but there’s plenty to fall in love with if you make the effort. Dominic Roskrow reports
Welcome to the Badlands. The wild North. So far North in fact that you to get here you have to out-Highland the Highlands, passing along a breath-taking route with mountainous beauty to your left, coa...
By Rob Allanson in the section
Distillery Focus
p25
In the two-part investigation Dave Broom examines the potential effects of global warming on the scotch whisky industry. Part 1 looks at the potential scenario for whisky production by the end of the century
The world is heating up. Carbon levels in the atmosphere are now higher than at any time in the last 650,000 years.
The 20th century was the warmest in the last millennium and the 1990s was the warm...
By Dave Broom in the section
Whisky concerns
p31
John Rose fields more of your questions
Q. Hello, I have recently acquired a bottle of Old Guns Finest Scotch Whisky by Low Robertson & Co. Ltd.
Leith, Scotland.
Details on the label are: 100% Scotch Whiskies - Importado Dalla Societa Premi...
By John Rose in the section
Whisky Questions
p32
Canada’s whisky industry is a pale imitation of what it once was. But if you’re thinking of visiting its distilleries be prepared for a lot of travel – its few remaining distilleries are spread right ...
By Rob Allanson in the section
Regional Focus
p35
In the latest of our series Gavin D Smithlooks at the history behind Convalmore
Some Scottish whisky-producing regions such as the Lowlands and Campbeltown have been decimated over the years, but the malt-making heartland of Speyside has escaped comparatively unscathed. This has ...
By Gavin D. Smith in the section
Lost distilleries
p37
Rob Allanson talks to Fraser Dunlop,head of liquor,tobacco,food and tax free items for World Duty Free
The airport retail environment is becoming increasingly different from a shopping centre,except of course for the captivity and excitability of its audience.Hence,Fraser Dunlop’s appointment at the en...
By Rob Allanson in the section
Whisky conversations
p38
Ian Buxton looking at the rising phenomena of distilling spirit from the comfort of your armchair,shed or garage.
Personally, I blame Bonnie Prince Charlie.
The least he could have done, if he couldn’t have remained a Continental playboy, was to have won his battle for the British throne. That way, we might neve...
By Ian Buxton in the section
Distillery at home
p42
Seafood and whisky have often been tipped as near perfect partners, but at Jura Lodge this love match is intensified. Rob Allanson takes two planes, a bus and ferry to find out more.
Now it has had an internal make over courtesy of chic French designer Bambi Sloan into an exclusive luxury retreat for true whisky aficionados, Jura Lodge, which sits next to the eponymous distillery,...
By Rob Allanson in the section
Whisky and Food
p44
Can the shape and quality of the glass really make a difference to the enjoyment of whisky? And will whisky
follow the example of the wine industry with increasing numbers of glasses designed to complement different
styles of dram? Richard Jones reports.
If you accosted a number of random strangers in the street and asked them to describe a whisky glass the chances are, after making sure you weren’t after their mobile phone, that they would come up wi...
By Richard Jones in the section
Whisky issues
p47
Jefferson Chasedelves into a novel set in Northern Ireland at the height of the Second World War
Maurice Leitch has been called the “grim reaper of Northern Irish fiction,” but he’s a BBC correspondent and a novelist, not a man in a black hood with a scythe.
Leitch has been training his fictiona...
By Jefferson Chase in the section
Whisky Literature
p48
Gavin D Smithlooks at the comeback of a Speyside classic
Optimism abounds in the world of Scotch whisky right now. The apparently endless potential of markets such as China and India is causing analysts to predict a future shortage of spirit and consequent ...
By Gavin D. Smith in the section
Whisky Spotlight
p52
By launching a wood finish bourbon Kentucky’s Labrot & Graham is merely honouring a long tradition of innovation at the distillery. Our man reports
Does whisky have to evolve, change even, to secure a future? The debate is common to all three of the great traditional whisky markets in Scotland, Ireland and America. And it’s one that is regularly ...
By Rob Allanson in the section
American whiskey
p55
Joes Bates looks at the new Scandinavian store
Only a few years ago many airport duty-free shops were dingy, cramped and invariably slotted into awkward and hard-to-navigate locations. Today’s stores, however, are often spacious, brightly lit and ...
By Joe Bates in the section
Travel retail
p56
Ian Wisniewski looks at how companies are developing new barley varieties
The usual question when discussing barley is whether individual varieties can influence the character of the new make spirit, and opinions on this subject vary.
But there are also other ways in which...
By Ian Wisniewski in the section
Whisky production
p59
Whisky and sailing goes well together,as Rob Allanson found out when he took to the high seas with the Bunnahabhain crew
I didn’t really have to be press ganged on to the boat, this big, white, lovely looking thing moored at Rhu on the Firth of Clyde.
Who would not jump at the opportunity to watch the World Centennial ...
By Rob Allanson in the section
Whisky Spotlight
p74
In the latest in our series looking at whisky terminology,Dominic Roskrow considers the letters k and l
and in particular The Lincoln County Process
When is a bourbon not a bourbon?
When it’s a Tennessee whiskey.
And depending who you’re talking to and where you’re doing the talking, the likes of Jack Daniel and George Dickel are either barred f...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Understanding whisky
