Whisky Xperience 20 October, de Meern, the Netherlands

Whisky Xperience is a series of whiskytastings throughout the country, powered by one of the largest drinks retailers in the Netherlands, Mitra.
Two things are good about these local tastings: they provide an excellent opportunity for the starting whisky connoisseur to explore new varieties and, very important in Holland, you can get there on your bicycle...



For the more experienced whiskydrinker there's a masterclass to enlarge the whisky knowledge.
Some new bottlings can also be tasted like the Bruichladdich Scottish Barley. We tried it and it's got the typical warm, malty Bruichladdich style with that hint of mint.



Allthough we thought upfront that this would be a quite straightforward pour-and-drink event it proved to be much more, as you can see in the videoreport we made.
Whisky-related clothes, Scottish food and beverages (Irn-Bru), books and our friends from Whiskyetc magazine were there.
So we left the Xperience with a great pair of Highland Park cufflings and a 1000 page book by Dominic Roskrow (1001 whiskies you must try before you die).


All in all a well spent afternoon and we sure will be there next time.

Whisky and Rum at Sea, IJmuiden, Netherlands, 19th October 2013

When you take the ferry from Newcastle, England across the North Sea to the Netherlands, you disembark in IJmuiden.
IJmuiden is a small harbour city, on the westside of Amsterdam.
It's (Dutch) fame derives from the big steel factory, now owned bij Tata. The steel factory can be seen from far away.
IJmuiden also has a yearly Whisky and Rum festival, located directly near the sea.
The festival is organised by 'Slijterij en Wijnhuis Zeewijck'.

Here you can watch the videoreport we made.


A few facts make this festival different to other festivals.
First there's the strong accent on rum. During this festival the Dutch Rum Awards are presented.

Secondly the festival has a few distinguished guests, namely the Cuban Ambassador to the Kingdom of the
Netherlands Ms. Zelmys María Domínguez Cortina, the Mayor of Velsen (the municipality that includes IJmuiden)mr Franc Weerwind who is accompanied by the deputy mayor Arjen Verkaik.
Great thing is that they stayed at the festival after the official part and took time the visit several stalls and brands


(Brand toolkit of The Macallan)

During this festival you can taste different kind of rum and whisky, but there a nice variety of food as well. Dutch law sadly prohibits the sale of alcohol in bottles but fortunately you can spend your money on other stuff. For example you will find the people of Verspuy Interieur, who sell some nice whisky related gadgets, like the whiskychair (as seen in the video).
There's whisky writer Hans Offringa with his wife Becky, with his wide range of books, that he is happy to sign for you. Or a nice (cuban) cigar you can smoke on the adjacent terrace.



The festival takes place on the top floor of the Holiday in. So after the afternoon session you can take a long walk on the beach and if you visit the evening session you can take the elevator straight to your room.

Check out the website for next year's edition of the festival (11th October), it's worth a visit.

©Whiskytips 2013

Potstill Festival Amersfoort, the Netherlands 4-6 October 2013

For the 11th time in a row, Dutch whisky drinks company Van Wees organised the Potstill Festival in Amersfoort, right in the heart of the Netherlands.
Just last June we celebrated the 50th anniversary of mr Han van Wees in the whisky business. You can read our blog about that event here.
Whiskytips was @ the Potstill do make a video report, as we did on two previous occasions.

Nice element in this festival is the combination of Scotch whisky, whisk(e)y from other countries, bourbon, rye and other distillates, like armagnac, calavados and jenever.
First year we went, we only concentrated on nosing and tasting whisky, which is basically a shame, because you're missing out on a lot of other nice flavours and experiences.

This year's edition also had a special limited festival bottling, a 10 YO Glenfarclas, that will become a collectable in the near future for sure. And if not, it's a great dram, we tried it.

Another nice aspect of the festival is the Treasure room. For €20 extra you get the chance to taste rare, often independent bottlings, that are long gone in most cases. What to think about a Rosebank of Macduff 1969? A good deal we think.

Meanwhile moviemaker Gwen Jansen was filming for her upcoming documentary "Nederland Whiskyland", that covers all aspects of the whisky scene in the Netherlands, with its festivals, clubs, restaurants, shops etc. It is a crowfunded documentary and everyone can particpate in this unique film. Just check www.nederlandwhiskyland.nl. (It's in Dutch, but Google will help)

Whiskywriter Robin Brilleman was there to sign his book. In the Netherlands law prohibits the sale of alcohol during events like these (how we envie our more liberal neighbour countries), but you can sell books, so luckily there was some money to be spent.

The Potstill Festival has good connections to some of the brands (not surprisingly also imported by Van Wees), which gives room to new introductions or at least the news about it.
This way we could learn that Arran will be releasing a limited Milennium Cask Bottling and Benromach will do another Sassicaia Finish soon. We can't wait!
Right after the afternoon session people rushed to the retail store of Van Wees in Amersfoort to get a bottle of whisky they just tasted.
A short impression can be found here.

Our winner of the festival was the Balmenach 1988 24 YO, cask 2794 bottled by Signatory at cask strength.
The bottle should retail for around €85-€90.
Our happiness was even greater when we found out that Van Wees have bottled a second cask of Balmenach, cask 2795 (also cask strength), for roughly the same price, in their own range, the Ultimate.
The warm flavours just keep popping up and you're used to winter time straight away.

Concluding remarks: great festival, lots of different drinks to be tasted, gives the opportunity to look beyond your whiskyfrontiers and sharpen yer tastebuds, not too big and commercial; let's hope it will stay that way. See you at the 12th edition next year and look out for the Wallace tartan.


©Whiskytips 2013

Tasting Kilkerran Sherry Wood 46%

While The Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys is playing through the speakers we are tasting a new release by Glengyle Distillery.
This is the first release to be (specifically) matured in sherry wood, at the same time a bourbon matured version was released.
Glengyle is a distillery in Campeltown, originally built in 1872. Already in 1925 Glengyle was closed for a period of 75 years. After being acquired by the owner of Springbank in 2000, the distillery restarted production in 2004.

In 2007 a first limited 3 year old was released, subtitled "Work In Progress". Meanwhile, apart from the Sherry and Bourbon Woods, four Works In Progress have been released so far.

Another noticeable thing to mention is that Glengyle uses the stills, spirit safe and spirit receivers of the now closed Ben Wyvis distillery (ever tasted Ben Wyvis? We salute you!). This alone is a good reason to buy a bottle of Kilkerran..
By the way, the whisky is not named after the distillery because Glengyle was already in use for a blended malt by Loch Lomond.
Of course this whisky is non chill filtered and has natural colour.
Add a drop of water, swirl gently and enhance your nosing and tasting experience. The water is from Crosshill Loch. They also try to use as much local barley as possible. The malting is done at the neighbouring distillery of Springbank.


Whiskytips tasting notes:
Coulour: Orange gold
Nose: Nutmeg, gingerspices, walnut, orange peels, chocolate
Taste: Sweet (even some dark sugar when water is added), hazelnut chocolate, honey, slightly bitter (wine tannines?), gingerwine, grapefruit
Finish: Tannines again, taste still develops, medium dry and now some (charred) wood appears.

Concluding remarks
Allthough this Kilkerran release is also called Work In Progress and the whisky has the young, quite fierce character, at the same time there's already a wonderful nose and oily feeling to this malt. This makes it an very interesting experience, to see how Kilkerran will develop over the years into the optimal flavoursetting, while keeping in mind the very capable people of Springbank are involved.

www.kilkerransinglemalt.com/

©Whiskytips 2013

Sources:
Whiskypedia- Charles MacLean
Malt Whisky Yearbook 2013 - Ingvar Ronde

Tasting Benromach 12 YO Portwood Finish

The Benromach distillery in located in the northern of Forres, just off the A96 in Speyside, Scotland.
Benromach was founded back in 1898 by Duncan MacCallum and F.W. Brickman.
The distillery has an on and off history of production (as many other distilleries by the way). The own floor maltings stopped in 1968 and in 1983 the distillery was closed and dismantled.
Fortunately independent bottlers Gordon and MacPhail (one off the largest, if not the largest in Scotland) saw this as an opportunity for a constant supply of their own malt whisky not far from their head office in Elgin. They decided to buy Benromach in 1993 from United Distillers (Diageo). After this, other independent bottlers followed them by buying (Signatory) or building a distillery (Adelphi).
All new equipment was installed (except for the spirit safe that came from Millburn distillery) and the refurbished distillery was officially opened in 1995 by Prince Charles.
The first bottling from the new production was released in 2004.
Story goes that after going back into production, United Distillers gave Benromach a box of new-make samples from before closure and the spirit character turned out to be quite identical. Only the water was the same.

Although Benromach doesn’t do its own floor maltings anymore, it’s still a handcrafted whisky, being produced by only two men. The measuring of the volume of the casks after filling for example is done with the old gross and tare system (Weighing the casks before filling) instead of using automatic gauges.
The yearly capacity of Benromach is 500,000 litres of alcohol per year, but in 2012 less than 150,000 litres were produced, making Benromach the smallest working distillery in Speyside. The distillery also has a visitor centre awarded four stars by the Scottish Tourist Board.
The good news is that more and more people worldwide are picking up this small batch malt whisky (most of the production is marketed as single malt), so Gordon and MacPhail decided to double production and an extra employee will be added to the current staff.

After this introduction we finally come the tasting notes of this Benromach Port Wood Finish expression.
Benromach has done more Port Wood Finishes, this one is distilled in 2000 and bottled in 2012. It was finished for a period of 8 (!) year in Port Casks. Now this raises the question what is the definition of a finish. Maybe the Scottish Whisky Association could step in.
The whisky is bottled at 45% ABV strength. Just 1460 bottles were released in this batch.

Tasting notes
Nose: soft sweet wine notes (the port is there allright), dried plum, pineapple/coconut (tropical), ashy, smoky
Taste: wine, sweet (with added water even sugarlike), plums again, red fruit jam, smoke, tannins, clove
Finish: wite pepper, medium dry, slightly bitter, warming

Concluding remarks: Benromach fans as we are, we tend to be a bit biased, but this is definitely one of the better port wood finished whiskies. Some port wood finishes simply to have too much of the port character and this one goes very well with the smoky/ashy tones that characterizes Benromach so much. Be quick to get a bottle though, since there are only 1460 (-1..) around.



Sources:
Whiskypedia - Charles MacLean
The smart guide to single malt scotch whisky - Elizabeth Riley Bell
Malt whisky yearbook 2013 - Ingvar Ronde

©Whiskytips 2013

Celebrating 50 years Han van Wees in the world of whisky

Today over 100 whiskylovers gathered in Amersfoort to celebrate the 50th anniversary of mr Han van Wees in the spirit and whisky-business.
Amersfoort is a city in the heart of the Netherlands and home to the family run business of Van Wees which was founded in 1921.
Van Wees opened up the Dutch market for good quality whisky. A very nice story is the one about a ship with blended whisky, that had sunk in Dutch waters. Van Wees bought the whisky and it proved to be A-quality scotch, intended for the South American market. Since the Dutch had to deal with lesser quality (A- quality went to dollar countries in those days), these bottles sold like hotcakes. However, the importer and producer were not happy with this lot being on the market and bought it back from Van Wees, who made a profitable deal.

Van Wees was also the first company to import Glenfarclas, Springbank and Macallan. They also have very good ties with Gordon and MacPhail, one if not the largest independent bottler in Scotland.
Apart from this, Van Wees releases its own brand of independent bottlings, the Utimate Collection. Most of these bottlings are single cask, for a very good price.
The afternoon was divided in two parts.
The first part kicked off with a nice calvados. Meanwhile mr Van Wees lectured the audience, not only on the history of Van Wees but also on the spirits, that were tasted blindly. So we learned that calvados is not only made from apple, but also from pear.
Some more great spirits from France followed, with an 1972 Armagnac Domaine Boingneres as our personal favourite.
The line up was closed by a 21 YO Whyte and Mackays blended Scotch, which was simply marvellous and a good bridge to the things to come.

Mr Van Wees is never afraid to say the things as he sees them so he wholeheartedly shared his opinion on whisky blends. For him A-quality blends from the sixties are better than most single malts these days.
After lunch we proceeded bravely first with a 1963 Glen Grant bottled by Gordon and Macphail. Now, there is one thing when drinking whisky of such provenance: it gets hard to appreciate a lot of other stuff that’s around, your taste gets somewhat spoiled..
In our case we got spoiled even more, since the second one was a Tamdhu 1962.
Mr Van Wees picked these bottlings because he is convinced that coal fired distilleries, as most of them were in these days, make better whisky than the present steam fired boilers.
So we moved one to another jewel from the sixties, the Strathisla 1964, again a Gordon and Macphail bottling.
Fourth sample was a Glen Avon 1961 apparently produced by Glen Farclas.
After savouring this magnificent dram we tasted the Glen Elgin 1968. Last one was (we thought) a sherried 32 YO Tobermory, a whisky with it’s own definite character.
Then came the surprise malt… a 16 YO Port Ellen, by the Ultimate, one of their own bottlings. Almost impossible to find these days, and if so, only for big money.

This treat was definitely a worthy closure of this memorable day.
We can only hope that the stories mr Van Wees has told and probably many more will be put to paper someday. We did hear that plans are made to make a documentary on the whiskyworld, with mr Van Wees and the Van Wees company with a prominent role in it.
We will keep you posted!

©Whiskytips 2013

New Ardbeg Embassy in Rijswijk, the Netherlands, 27th April 2013

On Saturday 27th April 2013 a new Ardbeg Embassy was appointed in the Netherlands to Whiskyspecialist Van der Boog.
For this occasion owner Stefan van der Boog had invited customers to a genuine Ardbeg BBQ.

As you can see in the videoreport the peat fires were burning and some fine Ardbegs were tasted, including rare gems as the Rollercoaster, the Gallileo and the Alligator, provided for by Moet Hennessy.
Around 50 people enjoyed nice food and fine drams. The guests were also able to win some (Ardbeg) prices, like cufflings, hipflasks and mini-bottles. All in all a successful event.

The shop of Stefan van der Boog is located in Rijswijk on the Prinses Irenelaan 359, close to The Hague in the Netherlands.

The place is lterally packed with whisky, single malts as well as blends, from all over the world. Van der Boog also releases his own bottlings, Boogieman.

Bottles are sold through the webshop, www.passievoorwhisky.nl, but not all bottles available in the shop are sold in the webshop. Stefan also buys and sells whiskycollections, so when you're in the neighbourhood, be sure to pop in.

Wijn-en Whiskyspecialist Van der Boog
Prinses Irenelaan 359
2285 GA Rijswijk, the Netherlands
www.passievoorwhisky.nl

©Whiskytips 2013