The Whisky Exchange BLOG

Okay, so it’s been a while getting these down – apologies if anyone was waiting (joke). 

Right, firstly I need to apologise to Rob and Dave from Whisky Mag for something I said in the last blog. 

For the record, I am happy to clarify that my speculation about Whisky Mag relying on Diageo sponsorship was totally inaccurate as they haven’t advertised in the magazine for years.  In addition, I would like to make clear that there was never any intention by me to imply that Dave Broom had deliberately given Diageo (or anyone else) favourable editorial coverage.  Hopefully you all know already how much I respect Dave and that I would never question his integrity, but if you don’t, you do now.  I also sincerely hope that none of you took anything that I wrote as attacking either Dave or Rob personally, it was not what I meant at all. I have edited the post to clarify that.

On with the rest of the predictions and hopefully I won’t get myself into more hot water.  Please be aware that the below are just my opinions and speculation, they are not gospel and they certainly do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Whisky Exchange.  As before, if you’re cross or if I’m just plain wrong like last time, I would ask that any factual errors or complaints are reported to me either in the comments or by email (tim[at]thewhiskyexchange.com)  – I will be happy to discuss / fix them as necessary.

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Okay, so the London transport network is f@cked, there’s more snow due this afternoon and I live too far away from work to risk trying to get in and find myself stuck in Park Royal when I try to get home – nearly three hours it took me yesterday.

I’ve also managed to get myself temporarily barred from remotely accessing my work computer by getting my password wrong too many times (because I’m a total numpty). So in fact the only thing I can work at from home today is Wordpress.

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Right, a quick disclaimer first: I’m stuck at home with a rotten cold (that won’t go away, curse it) and a slightly light head after our triumph at last night’s International Spirits Challenge awards bash – where we picked up Best Spirits Retailer (Huzzah!).  The trophy is very cool – it’s a massive Glencairn.

Check it out - ISC champs!!

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I’m delighted to have a preview bottle of the general release of Ardbeg Corryvreckan sitting on my desk, so I thought I’d dip in and share my thoughts in what has turned out to be the first blog post for a few weeks (due to me busting a gut on a separate project, about which more in the very near future). 

Actually, I’ve had this bottle for over a week, but it’s been embargoed so I had to keep it under my hat.  It wasn’t easy, let me tell you – for one thing, hats don’t suit me.  Also, I have a very small head.

Ardbeg Corryvreckan - not ideal under headgear

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This just arrived from the ‘Couldn’t-Make-It-Up’ department.  I assumed it was a joke, but there is in fact a website as well, so if it is a joke it’s been pretty thoroughly done:

“We would like to offer Your company a news products, ALCOHOL-FREE WHISKY “Black Zero” & ALCOHOL-FREE VODKA “Blue Zero”, 0.0 per cent ABV. This is a completely news products which is produced using only natural materials; it is matured and bottled taking into regard the strictest quality requirements.

[Editor's Note:  readers of a nervous disposition should look away now]

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A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited to a Laphroaig tasting held at Albannach (a posh whisky bar in Trafalgar Square in London).  I’m not often invited to this sort of event as I’m not very important in the grand scheme of things and very few people know who I am - the majority of the tastings I go to are our own events organised by TWE Vinopolis – so this was a real treat.

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Apologies for the long delay between posts – we were so busy this Christmas that even though we had taken on several extra staff,  I was still relieved of my normal duties and spent most of the last six weeks of the year running around in our warehouse and showroom picking orders for dispatch.  I hope you all had a great festive period and wish you all the best for 2009.

Anyway, now that the horrible first week back at work is out of the way and most of the Christmas backlog is sorted, I can get back to a bit of blogging.  One of my New Year’s resolutions is that I’m going to try and get something up on here at least once a week.  It won’t necessarily be a big long post, maybe just a bit of news to stimulate discussion, but it should keep the blog ticking over.

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In the comments section of our last post on Octomore, drJarv (who I’m assuming is on the design team for Octomore as he hasn’t denied it yet!) asked for our thoughts on the coated opaque bottle that they’ve gone for with Octomore (Bruichladdich fans will remember that both Blacker Still and Redder Still were similarly adorned with this coating). 

Poster bgulien immediately responded with a fair point that these coatings make it difficult to see how much whisky you have left.  I decided to throw my tuppence-worth in and started to write a quick comment – but it kind of turned into a bit of a rant and opened up a bit of a can of worms, so I thought I’d do it as a new post and throw the floor open for discussion.  Here goes:

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