The Whisky Exchange BLOG

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Continuing our trilogy of blog posts on noteworthy whisky press releases, let’s have a bit about the new Gold Bowmore:

In contrast to Whyte & Mackay’s media-savvy pi$$-taking audaciousness, as discussed in my previous post and here, this press release is rather more of the preachy, hype-driven old school of whisky PR, where every new release is the most massively earth-shattering whisky ever released (until the next one):

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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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In the interests of full disclosure, and to give any conspiracy theorists out there more grist for their mills, I will begin this blog by revealing that I and several other lucky whisky-lovers will be going to watch a cricket match on Monday as the guest of Richard Paterson and Whyte & Mackay -  Lucky me!  However, the below review has been in the works for the last fortnight and has not been influenced in any way by W&M’s largesse - I promise.

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Well well, what’s this? 

How exciting! Kilchoman 3yo

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The Malty-Millionaires….

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Day Seven

“Can I throw my apple-core in the sea?”

Joel and Neil got overly excited considering that they're English

Ahhh! A rare lie-in for the bloggers with just an 11am start to our day. Bliss! Today was another day of tastings and we were very much focused on Laphroaig, kicking off with an “Old vs New” tasting, which lined up the now discontinued 15 Year Old vs. the new 18 Year Old and the Old Cask Strength 10 Year Old vs the new Cask Strength 10 Year Old, Batch 001 (Feb 2009).

Presented by Simon Brooking, Brand Ambassador for Laphroaig for North America and Vicky Stephens, the Visitor Centre Manager, this tasting was a great way to compare the out-going product with the newer replacements.

Old vs. New Laphroaig

Especially nice is the Cask Strength 10 Year Old (Batch 001). Apparently, according to new laws, when bottling a cask strength vatting, distilleries must now publish a batch number and a year of bottling. This “first edition”, they said, would sell out extra fast as a result. They also said that there’d be 6000 cases, though, so probably no need to panic just yet.

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Tim's belly trying to escape out the bottom of his shirt

Jeepers, these tastings just keep getting earlier and earlier!  The alarm goes off at 7.30 and we’re blearily making tea and filling bowls of sugar puffs before leaving at 8.45 to our first tasting at Bowmore.
Last year’s festival bottling wasn’t our favourite by a long way so we were hoping for something a little bit more exciting this year.  The tasting was a run through the distillery’s differing styles of whisky and use of cask- 3 different types of maturation examples; Bourbon, Sherry and Limousin oak, used predominantly for Bordeaux. 

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The weather had improved incredibly after Saturday’s wash out, so onwards to the Bruichladdich open day. Speaking to Jim McEwan the night before, the last 8 years of festivals have remained sunny for the distillery’s open day, so all fingers were crossed that the 9th would be shining on us too. The courtyard was heaving as we arrived at midday and after some food in the malt barn, (slices of Islay AND Jura pork!) we sampled 3 of the distilleries ‘First Growth’ bottlings- all essentially 16 yo Bruichladdich’s, finished in first growth wine casks:

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Islay Day One

We found this in Neil's wardrobe...

Day 1- Well, this is it. Over 6 months of planning and many excited emails, the 22nd of May has arrived – our first day on the trek towards Islay and 2009’s Feis Ile.  This year’s reports are a collaborative effort between Caskstrength.net and The Whisky Exchange Blog, and will be published on both sites, so apologies to those of you who subscribe to both of our RSS feeds! No rivalry here. Our collective goal is to bring you interesting, irreverent and informative information on all things whisky!

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