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History In A Bottle Day 10: Twin Arran 1996 KWM Casks

Posted on December 10, 2022

This post is Bonus Content. It has information on one of the KWM Cask bottles that are featured on the back of our 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar box. You can find the blog post for the mini bottle for Day Ten of our Whisky Calendar here.

by Andrew

Oops… No, we haven’t bottled an 81-year-old Arran single cask, and neither has anyone else… the distillery only opened in 1995! Unfortunately, we were so pleased with the calendar design, that none of us caught the fact that one image was backwards until after the boxes had been printed. It wouldn’t truly have been on brand for KWM if every single detail was perfect now, would it!?

We have bottled more single casks of Arran than we have whisky from any other distillery. And there are a couple of good reasons why. Firstly, like us, they are a small independent producer, so you could say we are peas in a pod. Secondly, the quality of Arran has until recently, not been fully appreciated by the market, we used to think of them as our own private distillery for a while because we almost had them to ourselves in Alberta. The third reason is opportunity, Arran understood what we were looking for, and always sent us good casks. The biggest challenge was often limiting ourselves just to one.

We have bottled 14 asks of Arran to date, not including a couple we shared with a club or two over the years, and our 15th is on the way! Six of these casks were from 1996, the distillery’s first full year of production. In addition to 17, 19, 21 and 22-year-old casks, we were also lucky enough to be able to slap our logo on a pair of 18-year-old and a pair of 20-year-old casks too… We were spoiled, but as I’ve said a few times in these posts, they were different times. Our 18-year-olds were sister casks, filled on the same day in December of 1996, into sherry hogsheads, and bottled on the same day in September of 2015. The crazy thing is, despite being the same age, and filled into what one can only presume was the same parcel of sherry seasoned cask, they were in effect quite different from each other. Cask 2003 was richer and more classically old-school sherry whisky in style, whereas cask 2017 was lighter, brighter and spicier. My theory is that the first was a European oak sherry cask, and the latter an American oak sherry cask… But we don’t know for sure!

Arran 1996 KWM Cask 2017

One of two Arran casks exclusively bottled for KWM, both 18-year-olds distilled in 1996. They were filled into cask and bottled on the same day, selected by and bottled exclusively for our shop. At the time of bottling, these casks were the two oldest bottlings ever from the distillery, which was only established in 1995. There are just 87 bottles filled at 53.2%, as we split the cask with a client. Matured in a Sherry Hogshead, th...

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KWM 2022 Whisky Calendar Day 9: Boulder Peated Single Malt Whiskey

Posted on December 9, 2022

BONUS CONTENT: Read Andrew's write-up on our oldest Glenglassuagh KWM Cask!

by Evan

After taking a foray Single Grain Scotch yesterday, it might be a good idea to go with something safe. Maybe a peated single malt just to get back onto familiar ground. That is exactly what we are going today when we open up Door Number Nine and taste this traditional Single Malt... Whiskey? From Colorado?!?

Okay, maybe this isn’t a Scotch, but fear not: A Scottish lad named Alastair is involved in the making of Boulder Peated Single Malt Whiskey. That makes it traditional, right?

Boulder Spirits is the brand name used by Vapor Distillery of Boulder, Colorado. Vapor Distillery was founded in 2007 when it started operations under the name Roundhouse Spirits. It was the first legal distillery to open in Boulder County.

The American Single Malt Whiskey category is young when compared to the more well-known Whiskey styles produced in the USA. As of my writing this, there are no official regulations for American Single Malt Whiskey and how it can be produced. There is currently a draft of a standard for the category, which was released in July 2022. This is what the draft currently proposes for the definition of American Single Malt Whisky:

“American Single Malt Whiskey is whisky distilled entirely at one United States distillery, mashed, distilled, and matured in the United States of America, distilled to a proof not exceeding 160° proof from fermented mash of 100% malted barley, stored in oak containers not exceeding 700 liters, and bottled at not less than 80° proof.”

Most American Single Malt Whiskey I have tasted are given a similar treatment to other styles of American Whiskey when it comes to maturation. Heavily Charred Virgin Oak casks seem to be the typical aging vessels, similar to what is used for maturing Bourbon and Rye Whiskey. Maybe this will change over time since it doesn’t seem to be part of the regulation debate. A minimum age requirement doesn’t seem to be in the discussion either.

What does this Peated American Single Malt Whiskey taste like? I have tried a few others in the past, such as McCarthy’s from Oregon and Westland’s Peated Single Malt from Seattle. I am excited to see how this one stacks up to others.

Boulder Peated Single Malt - 46%

Full-size bottles are available here

Made from 100% peated Scottish Malt, this American whiskey was matured in virgin American Oak barrels with a number 3 char.

Evan’s Tasting Note

Nose: Chocolate and dry smoke – very s'more-like upfront. Roasted pumpkin seeds, Rooibos tea, toasted dark rye bread, drying tobacco leaf, brownies, French roast coffee, and apple crumble.

Palate: Chili flakes...

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History In A Bottle Day 9: Glenglassaugh 1972 KWM Sherry Cask 39 Yr

Posted on December 9, 2022

This post is Bonus Content. It has information on one of the KWM Cask bottles that are featured on the back of our 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar box. You can find the blog post for the mini bottle for Day Nine of our Whisky Calendar here.

by Andrew

In 2006 Stuart Nickerson, a former Distillery Manager from William Grant & Sons, purchased the Glenglassaugh Distillery at the head of a consortium. What is so unusual about the purchase, is that the distillery had been closed for close to 20 years, and they were only able to acquire about 400 casks as a part of the purchase. Their first core range consisted of 21, 30, and 40-year-old whiskies, because they didn’t have anything younger. And the funniest part about those declared age statements is that the whiskies were all at least a couple of years older than the declared age statements. A marketing company had talked them into setting the ages where they did, rather than putting less typical age numbers on the bottles.

We were fortunate to have the opportunity to bottle one of the 400 pre-closure casks of Glenglassaugh in 2012. We selected a 39-year-old Sherry Finished single malt, originally laid down in 1972. Fruity and tropical, the whisky was well regarded, it is still rocking a 92.4 point score on Whiskybase, but at $700, it was a hard-ish sell for the time. This was less than a year behind our stunning GlenDronach 1972, and almost double the price. I managed to tuck one aside at the time but have long wished I had kept two.

Glenglassaugh 1972 KWM Sherry Cask 39 Yr

Andrew Ferguson

Owner

Kensington Wine Market
...

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KWM 2022 Whisky Calendar Day 8: Boutique-y Cameronbridge - Batch 3 - 27 Year

Posted on December 8, 2022

BONUS CONTENT: Read Andrew's write-up on our oldest-ever GlenDronach KWM Cask here!

by Evan

We have two days of young whisky in a row now. Shall we dive into something a little older for a change? Crack open Door Number Eight on your 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar to reveal a 27-Year-Old Single Grain Scotch Whisky from Cameronbridge Distillery, bottled by That Boutique-y Whisky Company!

Calgary, Alberta seems to be a market dominated by Single Malt Scotch. I may be embellishing a little. Also, I am likely suffering from a cognitive bias based on working at a place that built part of its reputation with that category... What was my point again? Oh, right. If most of what you purchase and imbibe when it comes to Scotch Whisky is of the Single Malt style, you may be surprised to find out that Blended Scotch Whisky far outsells Single Malt Scotch Whisky globally. In fact, for every nine bottles of Blended Scotch sold in the world, only one bottle of Single Malt is sold.

Another illustration of this sales-wise: According to the 2023 edition of the Malt Whisky Yearbook, the is currently Glenlivet. The brand sold the equivalent of about 18 million bottles last year. Pretty impressive. Do you recall the mention in Day Three’s blog post of how many bottles of Johnnie Walker, the king of Blended Scotch, sells per year? Only about 230 million or so. Give or take.

Want to know why so many more bottles of Blended Scotch sell compared to Single Malt Scotch? Here is the secret:

The biggest effect on the bottle price beyond the age of the whisky used comes down to the style of whisky used: Single Malt Scotch is inefficient to make. It is an old-school, relatively labour and time-intensive production to make it. That is part of its charm and also part of what makes it so flavourful: It takes lots of time and lots of workers and lots of money to make a traditional-as-possible Single Malt Whisky. From steeping, drying, and hand turning the barley on a malting floor to extended, four day or more fermentation times, to long and painfully slow spirit runs with plenty of copper contact in the stills – and even then, you only collect a fraction of the output liquid to put into cask. Don’t even get me started on how long you need to age the damn spirit afterwards.

With Blended Scotch, however, you can cheat. Sure, you typically want and need Single Malt Scotch to make a Blended Scotch, but you don’t need to use a completely mature, old and dignified Single Malt for it. You can use more of the youthful and brash Single Malt Scotch to make up a bulk of the flavour and style of your whisky, with only top notes added by a small amount of the older stuff. You can also use bulk grain whisky to soften that brashness and youth (and soften the blow to your bottom line as a whisky producer) and stretch out and sweeten the fla...

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History In A Bottle Day 8: Glendronach 1972 KWM Cask 711 39 Year

Posted on December 8, 2022

This post is Bonus Content. It has information on one of the KWM Cask bottles that are featured on the back of our 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar box. You can find the blog post for the mini bottle for Day Eight of our Whisky Calendar here.

by Andrew

Like a parent forced to choose their favourite child, I am not sure I could say for certain which of our 145 KWM exclusive casks and counting is my favourite. But backed into a corner, and forced to make Sophie’s choice, I’d likely pick our 39-year-old GlenDronach. The whisky is the 4th oldest cask we’ve ever had the privilege of bottling for KWM, and it came about almost by chance.

The year was 2011, and I had a group of whisky collectors with me on a tour of the Speyside region. One of the highlights of the tour was going to be a warehouse tasting at GlenDronach. We spent well over an hour sampling our way through the warehouse with the distillery manager Alan McConnochie. Even if nothing more came from the experience, this was going to be one of the highlights of the whole trip… but something serendipitous happened!

In the old times, employees would often steal drams of whisky from casks with a bit of sealed copper tubbing which hung discretely down one of their pant legs. These were known as ‘dogs’, and the practice of stealing a like whisky from a cask was known as ‘walking the dog.’ I can clearly remember asking Alan near the end of our time in the warehouse: “if you were the sort of person to walk the dog… which cask would you most want to pull a dram from?” Without hesitation, he walked us over to a 1972 GlenDronach, cask 711.

The colour was something else, but it was the moment the vapours from the spirit hit my nose that I knew I was in trouble… The lady and gents on this trip were all serious whisky collectors, and they were going to want me to buy the cask. Hell, I wanted to buy the cask, but this was a full Oloroso Sherry Butt full of 39-year-old whisky, and it wasn’t going to be cheap. It also wasn’t my money on the line. What would my boss say?

That night over dinner, after some phone calls and a little bit of math, I made a proposal. If the 9 customers travelling with me collectively committed to purchasing 50 bottles, I would have half the cask, or at least 300 bottles of it, bottled for KWM. The rest as they say is history, the bottles came in, they didn’t last long, and the only thing left was a twinge of regret on my part for not purchasing all 500 of them!

Glendronach 1972 KWM Cask 711 39 Year

Andrew's Tasting Note

Nose: browned and bruised fruit, melons: cantaloupe and honeydew; brown sugar, Highland toffee, cinnamon butter and tropical fruits; the deepness of the sherry notes and the magnitu...

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