BenRiach Maltings reopen

Word came through this week that BenRiach's maltings have reopened.

Billy Walker, the company's MD, said: “From a commercial point of view, it makes no sense because the costs of producing malted barley are significantly more.  The reason we’re doing it is because we had everything in place and in fantastic condition.  Bolting the maltings onto BenRiach is a beautiful join-up.”

It brings to eight the number of distillers who malt at least a portion of their own barley.

Today, I have a meeting of Delph Pond Forum and can advise them that the group, of which I am the treasurer, has been successful in its bid for funding from The Co-operative's Community Fund.  The Forum is attempting to raise funds for interpretation boards around the pond giving visitors to the area and schoolchildren (as the park has been used by local schools as an outdoor classroom in the past couple of years) information about the area's flora and fauna.  We are gradually having the locals accept some responsibility for the area and to understand the importance of protecting the area's biodiversity.

Cutty Sark again at Lochgreen House

Tuesday night was again down in deepest Ayrshire, at Lochgreen House in Troon educating a group of Greek bartenders about blended whisky for Cutty Sark.  Our normal line up has been North British 5 yo, J&B, Cutty Sark, Dewar's White Label, Ballantine's & Johnnie Walker Red Label.  The guys and gals at Cutty see these as being what they call their "competitive set".
We've been doing these events for their overseas distributors and customers for about 18 months now.  Initially, I thought that they were being very brave, putting their juice up clinically against the opposition, but Cutty ALWAYS shows well.  The liquid is of fantastic quality.
The Greeks, from W.S. Karoulias, Cutty's distributors in Athens, wanted the competitive set changed, because they see the competition differently in Greece.  Thus, the line up this week was N.B. 5yo, Cutty, Dewar's, Grant's, Haig and J.W. Red.
Again, Cutty showed up wonderfully.  It is a long time since I last tasted either Grant's or Haig.  The Grant's showed well, but the Haig's flavour was flat, old-fashioned and exceedingly disappointing.
The group was quite knowledgeable, had a good command of English - sometimes one of the group has had to translate my words into Russian, Turkish or Portuguese and that adds to the length of the night.
We have dinner and then jump into a bus which takes us to Alloway, where we wander around the old churchyard and down to the Brig o' Doon where we drink Tam O' Shanter, Cutty Sark 25 yo.
It's a tough life...
Last night was a meeting of the Co-operative Area Committee in Stirling.  A relatively easy meeting, we dispensed £5,697.84 from the Community Fund to deserving organisations, but there were applications totalling over £11,000, so we had to disappoint some groups.
Today I found some tasting notes which had become buried in the paperwork on my desk.  I really must tidy it more regularly.  I will get them up onto the website within the next couple of days - I hope!

A Warning about Whisky Auctions

Luc Timmermans (one of the Malt Maniacs) bought some lots at the McTear's auction held on 7th December. Luc was unable to attend the auction himself, but bid online. His comments are detailed below.

At their 7 December 2011 Whiskysales a few interesting lots pulled my attention and I decided to buy them. I was able to buy many interesting lots amongst which were LOTS number 695, 751 and 864. Here the details of the LOTS as described on the McTear's website including their respective pictures.

The description is clear, the photo's crystal clear. Nothing wrong right ? As you can clearly see, nothing wrong besides a little low filling level of one bottle. But the picture clearly showed the bottles are in a very good condition and very well sealed and the description is clear.

But here the real pictures of 3 bottles taken by my good friend who went to McTears to collect the lots.......

Yes, they are OPEN !! Yes they are OPEN !!

A few bottles were simply opened ?? Either by the auction house and or the previous owner. But this without any mention on the website and in the corresponding LOT description. At first I was very positive for the outcome....McTear's is a well reputated auction house, is it not ? They would of course settle this, no ?

So very big was my surprise to get this mail from Mr. Stephen McGinty - the auction house Whisky expert :

__________________________________________________

"Dear Mr Timmermans,

I refer to the above and to your recent e-mail and I can confirm that I have reviewed the information provided.

Following my enquiries I can confirm that all bottles are entered into the auction on the basis of “sold as seen”. As such all bottles where the seal has been broken we will be unable to offer any refund for. We would be happy to enter the bottles into a future auction on your behalf. Let me know your thoughts on this.

Yours sincerely

Lisa Mitchell (on behalf of Stephen)

__________________________________________________

How sad is this ??

So, be warned. The auction business gets by this by the legal term caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. This is not the first time I have encountered such an issue and McTear's are not the only auction house to operate in this manner, many fake/faulty bottles of whisky/wine/cognac/etc. pass through the major auction houses on an almost daily basis.

I agree that the auction house staff should NOT allow such bottles to be entered into an auction. Watch out and examine carefully anything you are considering bidding on.

Famous Grouse 100 Best Pubs

In 2010, my publican buddy, Jim Robertson of The Kempock Bar in Gourock, was included in The Famous Grouse's 100 Best Pubs in Britain. The brand had created a Grouse statue with logos for each of the top 30 pubs - and The Kempock was amongst these 30. Jim had never seen the statue so, as he was at Gleneagles today, I suggested that we go to view said statue.
I headed north to The Glen through snow; there were three smashes northbound at Blackford this morning and there was a 45 minute hold up and queues back to Greenloaning, so I turned off on the Crieff road at Greenloaning and cut over a snow-covered, very slippery and windy back road down to The Glen. Picked him up and drove his Land Rover Discovery in 4 wheel drive through the snow to Crieff; slithered a wee bit on a couple of corners, but no problem. Saw no fewer than 3 snow ploughs out on the road.
The statue sits at Glenturret distillery, or as they like to call it nowadays, The Famous Grouse Experience, in the foyer outside the shop. See the pics. The Kempock's log is the jukebox and the musical notes on its upper right chest

Fairtrade Clackmannanshire + Ben Nevis

Through my membership of the Co-operative's local Area Committee, I have been pushed into being the leader of the Fairtade Steering Group which aims to achieve Fairtrade Zone status for Clackmannanshire. Our first event, an African Kitchen cookery demonstration, will be held within Baxter's Restaurant in Alloa tomorrow evening. We have already had good coverage in both the local newspapers, Alloa Advertiser and The Wee County News. Did an interview with Central FM this morning which should be broadcast this evening. The event is already a sell out with a large waiting list for spaces.
Next target, the schools, some of which have already been contacted and the churches who, curiously, don't seem particularly connected with Fairtrade.
Ben Nevis distillery has launched McDonald's Celebrated Traditional Ben Nevis with a replica of an old label. This is an attempt to replicate the style of whisky which was bottled by the company in 1882. An almost impossible task as, at the time, the company also owned the nearby Nevis distillery and, historically, this label contained both Nevis and Ben Nevis whiskies. Nevis ceased production around 1908 and its whisky has long faded into memory. This bottling is limited to only 700 bottles.
See my tasting note amongst what I am tasting now: http://www.johnlamond.com/page12.html