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KWM 2022 Whisky Calendar Day 7: Milk & Honey Elements Red Wine Cask

Posted on December 17, 2022

BONUS CONTENT: Read Andrew's write-up on one of our Evan Williams Single Cask Bourbon KWM selections here!

by Evan

Welcome to Day Seven of our 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar! We are continuing our exploration of newer distilleries in this outing, but we are heading out of Scotland for the first time since Day Three. This time, we are off to Israel to try out whisky from Milk & Honey Distillery!

You heard right: Israel. Based in the city of Tel Aviv, the Milk & Honey Distillery is the first whisky distillery to operate in the country. The distillery started operations in 2014.

Like many young distilleries, Milk & Honey pushed to create an accessible whisky style that would be smooth and rich even in youth. To achieve this, the company partnered with the late Dr. Jim Swan. Swan helped many younger distilleries around the world get their feet under them before he passed away in 2017. Distilleries that he consulted with include Amrut in India, Kilchoman on Islay, Kavalan in Taiwan, Cotswolds in England, and even Lindores Abbey Distillery, which we tasted back on Day 2.

The good doctor did a tremendous amount of work in shaping the new whisky world as it is today. One of Dr. Jim Swan’s contributions to the modern whisky world is the use of STR casks for whisky aging. You may remember that term came up just yesterday, with the Kingsbarn’s Dream to Dram, as well as on Day Two with the Lindores Abbey Single Malt. STR stands for Shaved, Toasted, and Re-charred. This means the cask that once held wine has its staves shaved down slightly (up to about 0.5 cm), to expose the woodgrain that has not been over-steeped in the wine previously held in the casks. After that, the newly shaved down interior or the cask is toasted by heating it up to a temperature which breaks down hemicellulose and lignins in the oak into sweeter wood sugars and other palatable compounds that can interact with maturing whisky.

The last step is the re-charring process, which exposes the interior of the cask to open flame. This caramelizes the wood sugars and burns into the oak slightly. At the end of this process, the interior of the cask looks like a heavily burnt piece of wood. Because it is. The staves are left with a cracked, charcoal texture full of peaks and valleys. The process has increased the surface area available to interact directly with the whisky, and the charred interior both imparts aroma and flavour but also filters off-notes from the young spirit. The result is a whisky that shows a sweet, robust, and approachable style at a young age.

Unsurprisingly given its location, all of Milk & Honey’s releases to date have been certified Kosher, a trend that is likely to continue far into the future. Even this release, which was finished in casks that once held Red Wine casks is Kosher....

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History In A Bottle Day 7: Evan Williams Single Barrel 2002 KWM Cask

Posted on December 7, 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 Seven of our Whisky Calendar here.

by Andrew

We’ve bottled at least one, but possibly two different Evan Williams KWM Single Barrels over the years. I can’t be 100% sure of this, but my recollection is there were two. The whiskey would have been chosen from a selection of 4-6 similar casks, and when bottled the empty barrel was sent to KWM to be put on display. In the dry Alberta climate, we were usually lucky to get 6 months out of one of these casks before the hoops started to slink and the staves pulled apart. It would be a few more years until we started working with local breweries and distilleries to give these barrels a second life.

At the time we sold the whiskey for about $50, which is a phenomenal price for a 10-year-old single-barrel bourbon in this day and age. Even then it was a hot commodity, hence the reason why I am so confident we bottled two… They would have been the 2nd and 3rd KWM Single Barrel American whiskies bottled by KWM, but far from the last. Over the years we bottled a couple of whiskies each from Wyoming, Elijah Craig and Jefferson’s (including an Ocean Aged at Sea). We also bottled a Bernheim and currently have single barrels from Woodford and Kentucky Spirits in the shop. What’s next? Time will tell!

Evan Williams Single Barrel 2002 KWM Cask

Andrew's Tasting Note

Nose: soft and rich, vanilla extract, raisins, freshly churned butter and soft oils.

Palate: soft, a lightly spicy, some sweet vanilla and more gentle oils; cocoa, round earthy notes and charred oak show later.

Finish: long, soft and clean.

Andrew Ferguson

Owner

Kensington Wine Market
...

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KWM 2022 Whisky Calendar Day 6: Kingsbarns Dream To Dram

Posted on December 7, 2022

BONUS CONTENT: Read Andrew's write-up on our PORT ELLEN KWM Cask here! Yes, there was a time when we had our own single cask of Port Ellen. Can you believe it?!?

by Evan

Day 6 is upon us. We have hopefully gotten the Big Peat off our breath from last night's dram. What's up for today? We are headed for a new distillery for me and perhaps you as well, with this single malt from Kingsbarns Distillery.

Like Lindores Abby, which we saw and tasted back on Day Two, Kingsbarns Distillery is relatively young and resides in the Lowlands of Scotland. It is specifically on the east coast of mainland Scotland; about a 20-minute drive south and east of St Andrews. Eden Mill is Kingsbarns closest distillery neighbour and resides within St Andrews itself. This area is rife with younger distilleries, as Daftmill Distillery is a 45-minute drive from Kingsbarns to the west. Lindores Abby, whose whisky we explored on Day 2, is also less than an hour's drive away to the west.

The Distillery is built on the site of an old farmstead which dates back to around 1800. The distillery is owned by Wemyss Development, which is one of the oldest registered companies in the UK, having been founded in the 15th century. Kingsbarns is part of the Wemyss Malts arm of the company, which was started more recently in 2005 by William Wemyss.

Though parent company Wemyss has its hands in agriculture both in the UK and abroad in Australia and Kenya, and even a winery in Languedoc, France, Kingsbarns is Wemyss’ first Scotch Whisky Distillery and marks its expansion beyond independent bottlings and into direct whisky production. Kingsbarns opened in 2014.

Trying new whisky from a new distillery is one of the more exciting parts of the job for me. This is my first foray into the whisky of Kingsbarns – I have no real idea what to expect. Care to find out with me?

The Kingsbarns Dream to Dram Single Malt Whisky, which we will be tasting today, is one of the distillery’s first two official bottlings to hit shelves. Dream to Dram was matured in a combination ex-Bourbon and ex-Red Wine STR (Shaved, Toasted, and Re-charred) Barriques. It is bottled at 46% ABV with natural colour and non-chill filtered.

Kingsbarns Dream to Dram

Also available in full-sized bottles

Evan’s Tasting Note

Nose: Clean and approachable with plenty of orchard fruit notes, a touch of mint/menthol, shredded coconut, freshly cut lumber, angel food cake, and chamomile tea.

Palate: Warming, but light at 46% with notes of ripe peach and pear slices, shortbread cookies, unsalted cashews, honeydew melon, whipped cream, and a bit of gingery heat.

Finish: Light and easy with the cashew and fruit notes softly fading.

Comment: This light and fruity style screams Lowla...

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History In A Bottle Day 6: OMC KWM Port Ellen 25 Year

Posted on December 7, 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 Six of our Whisky Calendar here.

by Andrew

Old Malt Cask KWM Port Ellen 25 Year

The one and only ever Port Ellen bottled by KWM has extra special meaning to me, which goes deeper than most of our other exclusive casks. The bottling of a cask of Port Ellen was arranged ahead of time with just the final selection. This was before Fred and Stewart split their inheritance and set out on their own with Douglas Laing and Hunter Laing respectively. I was guiding my first group whisky tour to Scotland, and unbeknownst to my participants, the first thing we were going to do upon gathering in Scotland was pick a cask of Port Ellen to be bottled for KWM.

We did this at Douglas Laing’s old Georgian offices in Glasgow, not far from the town center. On the third floor, they had a library, with an incredible archive of single-cask samples. If you want to try Glenury Royal from 1972… no problem. Brora from 1977… what cask type? Rosebank from the early 1990s… you’ll have to be more specific! Before my guests and I were let loose on the archives, we had a few Port Ellen samples to review. One of them was dynamite and would become our one and only KWM-exclusive Port Ellen cask. There was supposed to be a second cask, but then the Hunters and the Laings started their blood feud and that was the end of that!

Oh, and did I mention the price… it was $250+gst… bet you wished you were one of our customers way back then…

Old Malt Cask KWM Port Ellen 25 Year

Andrew's Tasting Note

"The first sip has some heat, but it's clean and rolls out into earthy green notes, then sweet honey and finally salty smoke. The second sip is classic Port Ellen, all the taste buds in my mouth are alight with sweet, smoky, earthy, fresh and fruity notes. Towards the back of the palate, the smoky-briny take over and lead the charge with some dark chocolate-peat close behind. The third sip is creamier, with buttery-briny-peat; very lovely!"

Andrew Ferguson

Owner

Kensington Wine Market
...

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History In A Bottle Day 5: A Tale of Two Springbank KWM Casks

Posted on December 5, 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 Five of our Whisky Calendar here.

by Andrew

The archive photo on the box shows our first KWM exclusive single cask of Springbank, distilled in 1996 and filled into a Manzanilla Sherry Cask, #258. But in this environment where Springbank has become the new Pappy Van Winkle, would it surprise you to learn that we actually bottled two Springbanks back in the day?

The first Springbank cask was selected by a handful of customers and I while on a tour of Islay and the West Coast of Scotland in 2008. It was selected from a range of 5 to 6 different Springbanks, each matured in a different type of Sherry cask. The whisky was a hit, and sold out quickly, so a second cask was selected. The second was an Oloroso Sherry Butt bottled after 13 years. It was only after this Springbank arrived at Kensington Wine Market that one of the customers who selected the first cask with me noticed that our new cask was the second favourite the first time around… It’s cask number 1996 #269.

It was a different time. Even though Springbank had a loyal following, it was small, and both casks were Sherry Butts holding more than 600 bottles. The market for hoarding and flipping bottles was 5-8 years in the future. So these whiskies took some time to sell, but this was no hardship. We have always loved romancing the Springbank Distillery, it’s people and its whisky.

Barely more than a year after the bottling of our second Springbank cask, the distillery paused the sale of single casks to retailers. They resumed bottling market casks about 3-4 years ago, but the demand for them now is through the roof. I hope a day will come in the not-too-distant future when KWM will once again have the privilege of bottling another Springbank cask. But if that day never comes, at least we got to put our name on the two we did!

Springbank 1996 KWM Manzanilla Cask 258 – 56.4% - This is the one pictured on the 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar box for Day 5.

This was the first of two 1996 vintage Springbank sherry casks selected by and bottled exclusively for KWM was matured 12 years in a Manzanilla Sherry cask (#258), bottled at 56.4%.

Andrew's Tasting Note

Nose: rich and spicy, brown sugar and cedar wood notes give way to fig bars and young Christmas cake.

Palate: sweet and spicy with firm tannins, this is an after dinner whisky, or at least in need of a juicy steak; toffee cake and dark chocolate notes dominate the palate with fig-like fruits.

Finish: mouth-coating and rich, the finish is long, smooth and full of rich dried fruits.

Springbank KW...

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