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Release Notes
Glenfiddich Snow Phoenix commemorates a moment of drama in the long history of The Glenfiddich Distillery. snow phoenix It all began in December 2009 when it started to snow - it kept snowing for several months. After weeks of record low temperatures and alternate freezing and thawing there were four feet of densely compacted snow on the distillery roofs.
On the evening of Thursday 7th January, in the most remote part of the snow covered distillery, some of our warehouse roofs collapsed, ripped open by the sheer weight of snow, leaving maturing oak casks of Glenfiddich exposed to the winter sky. It was as if some of the distillery angels had finished their 'share' and had come back looking for more.
In all 4 roofs collapsed and several more were badly damaged. The distillery engineers calculated that there were 400 kilograms of snow on every square metre of warehouse roof - the equivalent of a herd of elephants standing on top of each warehouse. The Glenfiddich Distillery team immediately swung into action - working around the clock to clear snow from the distillery and neighbouring warehouses to make everything safe. Enduring temperatures as low as -19°C (-2°F) they could only work for a few hours in the bitter cold before having to go indoors to thaw out.
Before the rebuilding of the warehouses could start, all the casks of maturing Glenfiddich had to be moved to other secure places where they could continue their maturation undisturbed.
I came to see the warehouses for myself and standing amongst the wreckage decided to create a special Glenfiddich whisky to mark this moment in the distillery's history and recognise the fantastic and difficult work carried out by the distillery team.
To create this whisky I selected the finest casks from the snow damaged warehouses - marrying together different ages of mature Glenfiddich - some very old. Some of these casks had previously held Oloroso sherry and others were traditional whisky casks made of American oak. Each one was specially chosen to make a unique contribution to the taste and aroma of the final whisky.
We have called it Snow Phoenix - a great Glenfiddich Single Malt born of chance and adversity. It is a limited edition, one of a kind and will only be bottled in 2010.
Brian Kinsman, Glenfiddich
3rd Party Tasting Notes
N: Creamy vanilla aromas mingle with vibrant notes of apple and pear - the whole complimented by the scent of fresh blossom.
T: This is Glenfiddich in the wild - apples roasted in the embers of a campfire, sweetened with heather honey and accompanied by a piece of chocolate, rich and complex with a whiff of burned sugar, coffee and woodsmoke.
F: An exceptionally long finish - austere sherry notes mellow into a satisfying sweetness.
T: This is Glenfiddich in the wild - apples roasted in the embers of a campfire, sweetened with heather honey and accompanied by a piece of chocolate, rich and complex with a whiff of burned sugar, coffee and woodsmoke.
F: An exceptionally long finish - austere sherry notes mellow into a satisfying sweetness.
Glenfiddich
Nose : Apples pears is butter. Malt and honey some vanilla. A cookers delight.
Palate: Oak , malt honey and some spice. Again quite buttery. Nuts and sugar as well as baked apples.
Finish : malty nutty. Baked apples.
Bottom line: I am not a huge Glenfiddich fan, and i had high expectations from this bottle, as i heard it was good from more than one person... At first tasting i was a bit disappointed with it, but on second tasting, it appealed to me more, and i really began to enjoy it. It's not a standard Glenfiddich, and it's well made. However, the price is a bit steep (even though there are some older casks inside - up to 30 years). The packaging is interesting, and surly would look good on your shelf, that's for sure. It's very good, yet not great.
Palate: Oak , malt honey and some spice. Again quite buttery. Nuts and sugar as well as baked apples.
Finish : malty nutty. Baked apples.
Bottom line: I am not a huge Glenfiddich fan, and i had high expectations from this bottle, as i heard it was good from more than one person... At first tasting i was a bit disappointed with it, but on second tasting, it appealed to me more, and i really began to enjoy it. It's not a standard Glenfiddich, and it's well made. However, the price is a bit steep (even though there are some older casks inside - up to 30 years). The packaging is interesting, and surly would look good on your shelf, that's for sure. It's very good, yet not great.
Connosr.com
The nose is sweet and fruity, like fruit flavored hard candy. The palate follows suit. It comes on strong like strawberry candy, which yields to traditional Glenfiddich maltiness. The fruit turns cherry like in the finish with a bit of sherry influence.
Drinkable but overly sweet.
Rating: B-
Drinkable but overly sweet.
Rating: B-
Sku, LA Whisky Society
I'm a pretty big fan of Glenfiddich 12. It's no revelatory malt, but I always enjoy it. Snow Phoenix tastes like the 12 bumped up in intensity, basically, so I dig it even more. Fruity (apples, pears), malty, honey-vanilla 'Fiddich at cask strength, with some added depth that probably comes from the higher sherry barrel content.
Rating: B
Rating: B
Adam, LA Whisky Society
The Distillery: Glenfiddich
| Established: 1886 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: Dufftown, Banffshire, UK |
| → website |
Fortunately, the "90"s seem to have been a particularly difficult decade for Glenfiddich. Bottlings from the 1960"s and 1970"s that I"ve tried were much better than the generic stuff they bottled in the 1990"s. During the early noughties of the 21st century they"ve released more batches and bottlings that have convinced me that they have found the way up again. Well, they had to - for a long time Glenfiddich was the logical next step for people "upgrading" from blends, but these days there"s some serious competition in malts.
The famous Glenfiddich distillery isn"t just the birthplace of the widest known "brand" of single malt whisky. With an annual production capacity of 10,000,000 litres they are "the giant" of the industry. The second largest distillery measured by volume is Tomatin with (in 2006) some 7,000,000 litres per year.
As pictures show, the "still room" at the Glenfiddich distillery lacks the charm of those at some other distilleries, but the new buildings don"t lie about the basic function: a whisky factory.
The contrast with the Kilbeggan distillery in Ireland is striking, but admittedly that"s actually more of a "show pony" distillery for Cooley.
In 1960 Glenfiddich released their single malt as an official bottling for the first time (and probably the first distillery to actually do so). This turned out to be a massive succes; in 1964 they sold around 4,000 cases but just a decade later (1974) the sales had already grown to some 120,000 cases and Glenfiddich became a "brand".
By 1980 Glenfiddich had no less than 29 stills which didn"t operate in "pairs" like at many other distilleries. At the time Glenfiddich ran 11 wash stills and 18 spirit stills, both gas and coal fired. If my data is correct they have reduced the number of stills significantly since then. Around 2000 they ran 5 wash stills and eight spirit stills.
The distillery is located in the busling town of Dufftown in the heart of Banffshire. Other distilleries in the area are Balvenie (also owned by William Grant & Sons), Convalmore, Dufftown, Glendullan, Kininvie (the third distillery owned by W. Grant), Mortlach and Pittyvaich. Wow... that town runs on whisky!
Glenfiddich was founded in 1886-1887 by the company / family that still owns it; William Grant & Sons. When they first started production at Glenfiddich they didn"t use purpose built material; the old stills from Cardow distillery were considered good enough at the time.
The approach of William Grant & Sons has always been sensible and business-like. The distillery was still being built when Alfred Barnard published his book "Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom" in 1887. Within a century, Glenfiddich had managed to overtake more than a hundred competitors. They are Scotland"s #1 malt whisky producer, distantly followed by Glen Grant, Glenlivet and Macallan,
One of the main reasons for their success is arguably their world famous triangular bottle. It"s also used for their "Grant"s" blend and was first introduced in 1957 to distinguish the brand from other whiskies on the shelves of liquorists. Well, you can"t argue with results. That being said, when I tried my first Glenfiddich in the 1980"s it thought it was a good whisky - but that was because I was used to drinking affordable blends like Teacher"s. It took a Lagavulin for me to go mad about malt whisky in the early 1990"s. In those days Glenfiddich was still marketed as a "pure malt" and they paled in comparison...
In the new Millenium
2002 - Glenfiddich launches a number of noticeable new bottlings; including the 12yo "Caoran Reserve" (a vaguely peaty version) and the 21yo "Gran Reserva" (finished in Cuban rum casks). Because the 21yo had been influenced by the traces of Cuban rum, the American Customs Gestapo stopped these bottles at the border. Who said fascism is dead?
2005 - Glenfiddich invests almost 2 million GBP in a new visitor centre. Their first visitor centre was opened in 1969, and at the time it was also the very first distillery visitor centre in Scotland.
Trivia:
- Apparently, Glenfiddich was the first distillery in Scotland to open a reception centre for the public.
- At the time, they were also the only malt distillery with its own bottling plant, but by the time I write this I know of at least one other distillery that has its own bottling plant as well: Bruichladdich on Islay.
- Glenfiddich was also the first malt distillery to adopt the practice of "continuous mashing".
from MaltManiacs.org
The Owner: William Grant & Sons
| Established: 1886 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: Phoenix Crescent Strathclyde Business Park, Bellshill, Lanarkshire, ML4 3AN, UK |
| → website |
William Grant & Sons Ltd. is an independent, family-owned Scottish company which distills Scotch whisky and other selected categories of spirits. It was founded in 1886 by William Grant, and is now run by the descendants of the founder. It is the largest of the handful of Scotch whisky distillers remaining in family ownership. "William Grant & Sons" is often abbreviated to "W. Grant & Sons" or just "Grant"s", after their leading blended whisky of the same name.
William Grant & Sons pioneered single malt Scotch whisky as until Glenfiddich, only blended brands were common In 1997 the Grant entered into a joint venture with the Robertson family (The Edrington Group) creating a new company, Highland Distillers.
The company"s leading single malt Scotch brand is Glenfiddich, the best-selling brand in the worldwide single malt Scotch market (700,000 cases/year and 17.37% market share). This is more than the sales of the next two single malts combined. Their leading blended Scotch brand is Grant"s, the 4th best-selling brand in the worldwide blended Scotch market and the Scotch market as a whole (4 million cases/year). Grant"s is also the 4th best-selling brand in the domestic United Kingdom Scotch market (420,000 cases/year and 14.6% market share).
William Grant was born in Dufftown in 1839. The young Grant worked at Mortlach Distillery and dreamed of one day running his own distillery. He worked hard and saved and in 1886 Grant and his 9 children laid the first stone of the Glenfiddich Distillery. It was Christmas day 1887 when the first spirit ran from the stills.
In 1892 William Grant & Sons bought a second neighbouring Distillery called Balvenie. In 1898 the two distilleries started blending their whiskies and Grant"s Whisky was "born".
The company is the 3rd largest producer of Scotch whisky (10.4% market share) after Diageo (34.4%), and Pernod Ricard. The company"s central headquarters are in Strathclyde Business Park, North Lanarkshire. Sales and marketing headquarters are in Richmond, London. The company is a member of the Scotch Whisky Association.
The master blender of Grant"s is David Stewart, who has been in his post for 47 years, the longest serving master blender with one distiller in the industry.
Core brands include: Glenfiddich, Grant"s, Balvenie, Hendrick"s Gun, Sailor Jerry Rum. Other brands include: Reyka Iclandic Vodka, Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum, Old Vatted Demerara Rum, Wood"s 100 Old Navy Rum, Vat 19 Rum, Gibson"s Finest, Clan MacGregor Blended Whisky, Monkey Shoulder Triple Malt Whisky, Taboo, Milagro Tequila, Solerno. The company also produces a number of rare whiskies such as Girvan First Batch (from 1964 casks) and Ladyburn (silent distillery closed in 1975) as well private vintage bottlings. Via Highland Distillers the company has a stake in the following brands: The Famous Grouse, The Macallan, Highland Park, Black Bottle and Gloag"s Dry Gin. The company has also co-developed Virgin Vodka with Richard Branson"s Virgin Group
The company owns several distilleries including Glenfiddich, Balvenie, Girvan Grain Distillery, Convalmore (only the bonded warehouse), Kininvie and Ailsa Bay Distillery.
Trivia:
- allegedly the first company to market Scotch whisky abroad (this claim is very contentious - there are several, particularly Glen Grant and Glenmorangie, which would dispute it)
- revolutionized bottle design in the 1950s, creating a triangular bottle
- was the first to open up its distillery to visitors
- introduced the solera concept to Glenfiddich to create Glenfiddich Solera Reserve
from Wikipedia