The Whisky Exchange BLOG

Okay, so last night I was lucky enough to attend the press tasting of this year’s special Release from Diageo, the details of all of which are in my last post.  It was a fairly merry affair, although I wasn’t socialising much – firstly because on paper we only had an hour and a half to sample nine cask-strength malts, and secondly because I’m pisspoor at networking – as a card-carrying whisky nerd I can be quite nervous around new folk and whisky ’slebs, and I’m also very poor at feigning interest if I get stuck with someone really boring, which I find particularly excruciating.  Not that I encountered any boring people at last night’s tasting, I hasten to add – on the contrary, everyone that I did speak to was great.

Now, I like to think of my readers as intelligent types, with a healthy mix of up-to-date bespectacled middle-aged intellectuals perusing their laptops from the comfort of a big leather armchair in their libraries, alongside the thrusting, iconoclastic young whisky troubadours taking everything as it comes and making up their own minds on lots of important stuff. 

How I like to think of you all, reading Kerouac with a cup of java

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Just received the following stuff on the Diageo Special Releases for this year, so thought I’d better share.  I’m going to a tasting of these tomorrow night, so will post my own impressions later in the week.

The full line-up has already been revealed on various sites, so I won’t publish much of the bumf -  just the official tasting notes and photos for starters. 

Benrinnes

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Day 10:  A Kick In The Ballochs…

Aftermath: Hannibal before his Calmac fry-up

Bang on 7am and our alarm clock blasts into action, as welcoming a sound as a prize festival bottling smashing on a stone floor and the accompanying ‘yelp’ of despair.   Last night was our ‘big night out’ and boy, we were all paying for it this morning.  As the memories started returning to our hazy heads, it became apparent that both Murdoch and Hannibal had found temporary ‘accommodation’ on, respectively, the bathroom floor and the green of the local golf course.

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Shame about the weather

The 6.30 wake up call resonated through our ears like plates being dropped in a restaurant; initial shock followed by reluctant applause.  But you get on with enjoying your lot and pay your bill at the end.  And a reasonable bill it seemed as we made our way up the A83 to Kennacraig for the 9.45 ferry to Port Ellen.

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This just into my inbox:

“To celebrate this year’s Islay Festival of Malt & Music on 23-30 May, Diageo is once again making available two special Festival editions of its Islay Single Malt Scotch Whiskies. These very limited editions will be available only to personal shoppers, with a limit of one bottle per person.

Lagavulin (Click to enlarge)

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Yes, the wait is over and this year’s Diageo Special Releases are finally here.  You’ll probably need to get in quick if you want one of the Port Ellen Eighth Releases and the Brora 25yo will be very popular too.  Many thanks to everyone taking part in the poll, it looks like the Lagavulin 12yo will be as popular as ever – although we couldn’t help noticing that it’s exactly the same strength as last year, something that also happened with the 2nd and 3rd releases. 

Is this coincidence, or are Diageo just making up mega-batches of this and drip-feeding it out?  We don’t know, but it’d certainly be a good tasting if anyone wants to find out.

PS: I know, I said I’d get my tasting notes for the Blasda up on Tuesday.  So much for my good intentions.  We’ve had a bit of a crazy week here, with lots of work going into our new trade pricelist and a large number of new releases arriving in the warehouse in anticipation of the Christmas rush.  I will endeavour to do my report on the wonderful Ardbeg tasting at Vinopolis from home over the weekend.  In the meantime you can laugh at the photos and sigh at my captions here.  Have a good weekend and join me for more madness next week.

Well, a day late, here’s the new post - for which delay, my apologies: it’s going crazy here.  Honestly, as soon as the weather turns people start buying whisky to keep them warm.  Either that or it’s the very, very organised people buying their C*r*s*m*s pressies early to get it out of the way. 

But anyway, mustn’t grumble, it keeps me busy.  On with the show – here’s the official photos and tasting notes for the forthcoming Diageo Special Releases, due to arrive imminently at TWE Towers.  I was going to include the press release, but it’s somewhat long-winded and, dare I say it, a tad self-satisfied, so I’ll skip it for now. 

There’s a lot of info here, so to make it a bit easier to digest, I’m going to break it up into two parts.  More tomorrow.  All that follows below is from the Diageo marketing dept and does not necessarily reflect the views of myself or TWE (as we haven’t tried them yet!).  I’ve been lucky enough to get an invite to the launch of these in a few weeks time, so will report back in full after that.

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