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3rd Party Tasting Notes
Nose: Oak aged white wine.
Palate: Big fruity floral at first but gets watery in the mid-palate.
Finish: Recovers in the finish with a tad o' spiciness as the alcohol evaporates, finishes clean.
Comment: Simple and enjoyable like most Rosebanks, just wish 22 years in the cask would bring about a little more complexity.
Rating: B-
Palate: Big fruity floral at first but gets watery in the mid-palate.
Finish: Recovers in the finish with a tad o' spiciness as the alcohol evaporates, finishes clean.
Comment: Simple and enjoyable like most Rosebanks, just wish 22 years in the cask would bring about a little more complexity.
Rating: B-
Chris, LA Whiskey Society
Comment: Grassy, lightly sweet, with mild spice. Nothing to rave about, yet enjoyable.
Rating: B
Rating: B
Adam, LA Whiskey Society
The Brand: Old Malt Cask
| Silent since: False |
| Address: |
Old Malt Cask is a brand of whiskies bottled and distributed by Douglas Laing & Co. Old Malt Cask bottlings are often single cask bottlings of rare old malts including from distilleries now silent.
from The Intarwebs
The Bottler: Douglas Laing & Co
| Established: 1948 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: Douglas House, 18 Lynedoch Crescent, Glasgow, G3 6EQ, Scotland |
| → website |
They are proud Scots - and the Scottish attitudes of honesty, courtesy and friendliness is amply demonstrated as they go about their business at home and abroad boosting their business and customer satisfaction.
This guarded and cherished stock - sold by allocation - and was previously reserved for their blended whiskies - like the King of Scots, seen here.
But the brothers, once they"ve stopped looking longingly at their pride and joy, will cheerfully dig out a bottle from the corner of a warehouse and happily sell it to discerning customers with accompanying explanatory booklets and carefully-worded tasting notes penned by self-styled, in-house wordsmith, Fred with Stewart checking his spelling.
A key feature is their vast stock of different Malts built up over the last 50 years and it"s been a pleasing perk, benefit and privilege for the current directors to nose and taste some of the finest quality samples.
Fred and Stewart, astute as their father was ground-breaking, got their heads together at one tasting session and boldly declared: "Some of these malts are too good to blend." And so it was in 1998, before they headed off to celebrate the new Millennium, that their much sought-after OLD MALT CASK selection was rolled out.
And, in truth, they"ve not let their Dad down over the past 25 years in charge. Indeed, they"ve grafted to uphold the traditions of the family - apart from the sheep stealing and cattle rustling.
They have successfully expanded their markets so that their highly-rated ranges now regularly features blends up to 25 years old, using the original blend specifications handed down to them - and written out so they wouldn"t forget them.
Glasgow-based Douglas Laing & Co are independent bottlers and blenders headed by brothers, Fred and Stewart Laing, who proved the value of nepotism when they succeeded their father, Fred Douglas who founded the company in 1948.
Today the company has contented clients in the Far East, Europe, the USA, Russia, South Africa and Australasia and, increasingly, in the UK where London giants, Harrod"s, Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges as well as premium independent Whisky specialists like The Whisky Shop Group and Vintage House are on the customer manifest.
The brothers" passports are rarely in their desk drawers as they carry out extensive tastings throughout the year all over the world, always dressed appropriately in the kilt, not the same one, of course.
from DouglasLaingWhisky.com
The Distillery: Rosebank
| Established: 1790 |
| Silent since: 1993 |
| Address: Camelon Rd, Falkirk, FK1, UK |
The traditional Lowland method of triple-distillation was used at Rosebank distillery - as opposed to the double distillation method that is used almost everywhere in Scotland. As long as the distillery was merely mothballed it could have been started up with the same configuration. However, almost every source claims that Rosebank was sold for good in 2002 and that the distillery buildings would be converted to apartments, offices and a restaurant. With that in mind, reports in early 2009 that the distillery equipments was stolen seem to be mostly PR to keep the name in people"s minds.
In the new Millenium
After DCL took over SMD, Rosebank distillery enjoyed a prosperous period that lasted for more than half a century. The only significant change to the equipment in that period was the replacement of the old maltings with a new installation in 1968. Rosebank was acquired by United Distillers in 1986. They were part of the Guiness Group at the time. Rosebank was closed in May 1993 and sold to the British Waterways Board in 2002 for redevelopment.
UD (United Distillers) merged with IDV (International Distillers and Vintners, part of Grand Metropolitan Group) in 1998 to form UDV; United Distillers and Vintners. These days whisky industry giant Diageo (proprietors of +/- 30 whisky distilleries) owns UDV.
The current Rosebank buildings were constructed in 1840 by James Rankine. The maltings were not built at the same time as the distillery itself; to cut costs James decided to use the maltings of the nearby "Camelon" distillery. Within five years Rosebank was expanded and in 1861 James Rankine bought the aforementioned Camelon distillery along the Forth-Clyde canal. Four years later James" son R. W. Rankine replaced the distillery buildings of Camelon with a new maltings, which was used by Rosebank.
In 1914 Rosebank was one of the distilleries to found Scottish Malt Distillers (SMD). The other distilleries that were involved were Glenkinchie (active), Saint Magdalene (1798-1983), Clydesdale (1825-1919) and Grange (1773-1927). So, that means that two of these founding distilleries were closed within a just few years after the SMD organisation was founded. In the year that the Clydesdale distillery was closed down (1919), Scottish Malt Distillers ceased to exist as an independent organisation as well; it became part of Distillers Company Limited (DCL).
The history of Rosebank starts in the late 18th century. Some claims state that the distillery was founded as early as 1773, but more conservative sources date an earlier (illegal) version of the Rosebank distillery somewhere in the 1790"s. Many details of these early days are fuzzy, but apparently two Stark brothers were involved. In the early 19th century James Robertson operated a distillery by the name of Rosebank; this may or may not have been the same distillery as that of the Stark brothers.
2007 - A 25yo OB from 1981 is released by Diageo as part of the "Special Releases" range. 2009 - An odd piece of "news" starts circulating in the whisky media about the "final" demise of the Rosebank distillery due to the theft of some copper distillery equipment by some of the more criminal elements of Scottish society. As far as I know, the distillery buildings were sold for redevelopment in 2002, so that"s a bit odd...
Trivia:
- In the beginning of 2009 some reports emerged in the media that most of the copper equipment at the silent Rosebank distillery had been stolen, making it highly improbable that the distillery would ever resume production. That"s a little odd, because the distillery buildings had been sold for redevelopment in 2002. I would imagine that a) Diageo would have already cannibalised the copper equipment before selling the distillery in 2002, and b) if the distillery site was obtained in 2002, at least SOME building work would have been done by now.
- I"m not entirely sure if they used a different name for Rosebank beforehand, but in 1894 the name was officially changed to Rosebank Distillery Ltd.
from Malt Maniacs
The Owner: Diageo
| Established: 1997 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: 8 Henrietta Place, London, W1G ONB, UK |
| → website |
Diageo also distributes Unicum, its lighter-bodied variant Zwack and Jose Cuervo tequila products in North America. However, Cuervo operates as a separate company in Mexico and is not owned by Diageo. Similarly Grand Marnier is distributed by Diageo in many markets, including exclusively in Canada, and a deal was reached in 2009 to significantly expand this partnership in Europe.
Furthermore, Diageo owns the Gleneagles Hotel.
Diageo was formed in 1997 from the merger of Guinness plc and Grand Metropolitan plc. The creation was driven by the two executives Anthony Greener and Philip Yea at Guinness plus George Bull and John McGrath of Grand Metropolitan. The product portfolios of Guinness and Grand Met were largely complementary with little overlap.
Diageo is the world"s biggest whisky producer with 28 malt distilleries and two grain distilleries.The company operates the Scotch whisky distilleries of Auchroisk, Benrinnes, Blair Athol (situated at Pitlochry), Caol Ila, Cardhu, Knockando, Glen Elgin, Clynelish, Cragganmore, Dalwhinnie, Glenkinchie, Glen Ord, Lagavulin, Oban, Royal Lochnagar, Strathmill, Talisker, Teaninich, Mannochmore, Mortlach and Glenlossie, which are sold not only under their own name but used to make the various blended scotch whiskies sold by the company, and owns the stock of many closed distilleries such as Port Ellen, Rosebank, Brora, Convalmore, Glen Albyn, North Brechin, Banff, and Linlithgow. The company have opened a new malt distillery adjacent to their maltings at Roseisle (1st new make spirit produced Spring 2009). This will be one of the largest malt distilleries in Scotland. The new building contains 14 traditional copper pot stills. An expansion programme is also underway at its Cameron Bridge Grain Distillery in Fife that will make it the largest grain distillery in Scotland. Diageo also owns the Port Dundas Grain Distillery in Glasgow, and jointly operates the North British Grain Distillery in Gorgie, Edinburgh, with The Edrington Group.
Diageo plc (LSE: DGE, NYSE: DEO) is the largest multinational beer, wine and spirits company in the world. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and has American Depositary Receipts listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The word Diageo was formed from the Latin dia (day) and the Greek geo (World), symbolising the use of the company"s brands every day, everywhere. Its head office is located in the City of Westminster in London. It is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Trivia:
- In December 2003, Diageo provoked controversy over its decision to change its Cardhu brand Scotch whisky from a single malt to a vatted malt (also known as a pure malt) whilst retaining the original name and bottle style. Diageo took this action because it did not have sufficient reserves to meet demand in the Spanish market, where Cardhu had been successful. After a meeting of producers, Diageo agreed to make changes.
- In 2006, the Cardhu brand quietly changed back to being a single malt.
- In July 2009, Diageo announced that, after nearly 200 years of association with the town of Kilmarnock, they would be closing the Johnnie Walker blending and bottling plant as part of restructuring to the business. This would make 700 workers unemployed and caused outrage from press, local people and politicians. A campaign against this decision was launched by the local SNP MSP Willie Coffey and Labour MP Des Browne. A petition was drawn up against the Diageo plans, which also involves the closure of the historic Port Dundas Grain Distillery in Glasgow.
- In February 2009 it was reported in the Guardian that the company had restructured itself so as to avoid paying tax in the U.K., despite much of its profits being generated in the U.K.
- Diageo is engaged in a tax scheme in the United States of America, commonly referred to as the "Rum Bailout", which will guarantee it USD$3 billion in revenues and profits.
- The National Puerto Rican Coalitionplans to run a series of ads in New York City and Puerto Rico urging a boycott of Diageo-owned alcoholic drinks to protest the giant British-owned corporation"s controversial production move of its Captain Morgan rum from Puerto Rico to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
from Wikipedia