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Release Notes
One of 198 bottles filled from an ex-bourbon refill cask with whisky distilled on 25th of June 1990.
Yours Truly
3rd Party Tasting Notes
Varnish and pine in the Big Top. A balancing act between grapefruit and sultana cake with star anise. Tastes teeter with orange chocolate liqueur and blackcurrant cordial. Sticky toffee pudding poised with menthol. The finale, damson syrup, stage exit, balsa wood.
SNWS
The Bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
| Established: 1983 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: Scotland |
| → website |
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS), founded in Edinburgh in 1983, is a membership organisation which bottles and sells single cask, single malt whisky. It purchases individual casks from more than 125 malt whisky distilleries in Scotland and throughout the world, bottles them and retails directly to its members. It also runs three private members’ rooms in the UK and in several international locations.
The origins of the Society lie in Phillip “Pip” Hills’ travels around the Scottish Highlands in the late 1970s, during which he sampled several whiskies drawn straight from the cask.
Hills was so affected by what he tasted that, in 1978, he persuaded several acquaintances to share in the cost of a cask from the Glenfarclas distillery. Over time, the group of friends expanded to become a small syndicate and more casks were purchased, bottled and distributed to subscribing members.
Coinciding with the decision to open membership to the wider public in 1983, the Society purchased its first property, The Vaults, in Leith; a building, whose vaulted wine cellars reputedly stretch back to the 12th century.
The Society created a set of members’ rooms there.
In 1996, the Society launched a share scheme for its members, the proceeds from which were invested in the purchase of a London venue.
2004 saw the Society purchase a second venue in Edinburgh – a Georgian townhouse on Queen Street. In the same year, the Society was acquired by Glenmorangie PLC.
To mark the 25th anniversary of its foundation, the Society redesigned its bottles, to include more information and a full tasting note on the front of the bottle.
The origins of the Society lie in Phillip “Pip” Hills’ travels around the Scottish Highlands in the late 1970s, during which he sampled several whiskies drawn straight from the cask.
Hills was so affected by what he tasted that, in 1978, he persuaded several acquaintances to share in the cost of a cask from the Glenfarclas distillery. Over time, the group of friends expanded to become a small syndicate and more casks were purchased, bottled and distributed to subscribing members.
Coinciding with the decision to open membership to the wider public in 1983, the Society purchased its first property, The Vaults, in Leith; a building, whose vaulted wine cellars reputedly stretch back to the 12th century.
The Society created a set of members’ rooms there.
In 1996, the Society launched a share scheme for its members, the proceeds from which were invested in the purchase of a London venue.
2004 saw the Society purchase a second venue in Edinburgh – a Georgian townhouse on Queen Street. In the same year, the Society was acquired by Glenmorangie PLC.
To mark the 25th anniversary of its foundation, the Society redesigned its bottles, to include more information and a full tasting note on the front of the bottle.
from Wikipedia
The Distillery: Auchroisk
| Established: 1974 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: Mulben, Keith, Banffshire AB55 6XS, Scotland, UK |
In The New Millenium
Auchroisk is one of the youngest distilleries in Scotland. It was founded in 1974 and their first single malt whisky was bottled and sold at a barely legal age in the UK in 1978. That sort of makes it the Arran of it"s day, I guess. Official bottlings have been marketed under the name "The Singleton" since 1986, probably because they considered Auchroisk to be too much of a tongue twister for the average 2nd millennium (non-Scottish) punter.
I"ve noticed one odd thing about the official bottlings, though. "Drink up quickly" is the motto here. Somehow all the corks seem to shrink and dry out very quickly after the bottle has been opened - so they often break or crumble.
Needless to say, that doesn"t go for the various independent bottlings. They were produced on different bottling lines.
Test-distillations with the water from the well at Glen Spey distillery were succesfull so they went ahead with construction. Auchroisk was built for the purpose of producing malt whisky for blending. Even though the bulk of the malt whisky produced at the distillery is still used for the J&B blends (over 90% of it, I"ve been told) Auchroisk was widely available as a single malt during the 1990"s. Its visibility as a brand has decreased in recent years - perhaps due to the fact that Diageo now uses the old "Singleton" name for three different single malts that are marketed in three different markets; the Glendullan 12yo for the USA, the Dufftown 12yo for Europe and the Glen Ord 12yo for Asia.
That move may not go down too well in Japan - apparently, the Singleton of Auchroisk was very popular there. And why shouldn"t it be? I"ve tried far worse whiskies in my search for the perfect single malt whisky. In fact, based on my experiences so far I"d have to say that bottlings of Auchroisk single malt whisky tend to outclass the product of neighbouring distilleries like (maybe) Glentauchers and (definitely) Strathmill.
They apparently expected the average 3d millennium client to be sophisticated enough to be able to order an Auchroisk without embarrassing himself too much; they"ve switched to the name "Auchroisk" again in the early noughties. Meanwhile, Diageo now uses the "singleton" name for three different malts in three different international markets; Dufftown (Europe), Glendullan (USA) and Glen Ord (Asia).
Isn"t Gaelic a wonderfully compact language? According to the label, "Auchroisk" stands for "shallow ford across the red stream". The distillery was the fourth to be built by the company Justerini & Brooks. At the time IDV/J&B also owned Glen Spey, Knockando and Strathmill. They only purchased the property after Dorie"s Well was discovered there. This discovery was made completely by accident, it seems.
The phrase "Singleton" has been used in the distant past to earmark exceptional whiskies from a specific distillery, vintage and cask. The Auchroisks that were bottled under the "Singleton" name were not single cask bottlings, but in the beginning all of them had a vintage printed on the label. Later expressions with an age statement became available as well; I"ve had 10yo and 12yo expressions on my shelves in the 1990"s.
The "Singleton" name has since been abandoned completely. The closest things to a proper official bottling are a 10yo "Flora & Fauna" bottling and a 28yo whisky from 1974 in the "Rare Malts" range. Sometimes independent bottlings like the 26yo bottling from Signatory Vintage are released - but those are relatively rare. Based on my experiences so far, most are not really worth the trouble of tracking down a bottle, but even the most modest distillery can have a few magical casks stacked away somewhere.
2001 After more than a decade, the name Singleton is abandoned in favour of the name "Auchroisk".
2009 It seems Diageo is using the malt whisky from the Auchroisk distillery exclusively in blends these days (or at least primarily); I haven"t seen an official bottling for almost a decade.
Trivia:
- Auchroisk"s futuristic architecture (well, futuristic for a distillery anyway) has won several awards. Most other distilleries (with some exceptions like Arran, Allt A Bhainne and Deanston) were built in the 18th or 19th century and it often shows...
- Auchroisk uses a rather unique system to prevent their washbacks from overflowing. Instead of large rotating "spoons" that are present at most other distilleries they use a chemical compound that is automatically released once the foam on the wash reaches a certain level.
- The old steam machine that decorates the offices of Auchroisk used to operate the Strathmill distillery.
from Malt Madness
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