From Scotland

John Glaser, Compass Box

Dr. Bill Lumsden, Glenmorangie & Ardbeg

Jim McEwan, Bruichladdich

Richard Paterson, Dalmore, etc.

Matthew Crow, Johnnie Walker

From Ireland

Barry Crockett, Midleton Distillery

Colum Egan, Bushmills

“To be determined”, Cooley Distillery

From the U.S.

Truman Cox, A. Smith Bowman

Parker Beam, Heaven Hill

Chris Morris, Brown-Forman

Harlan Wheatley, Buffalo Trace

David Perkins, High West

In addition, we will have our main Whisky Advocate writers and whisky reviewers on hand, moderating the seminars:

Whisky Advocate writers

Dave Broom

Lew Bryson

Jonny McCormick

Dominic Roskrow

Gavin Smith

We’re still lining up the whiskies for the event, but I can assure you that there will be some very special whiskies poured (e.g. Glenmorangie 1963 Vintage and Brora 30 year old!), and several whiskeys that will make their U.S. debut (e.g. Midleton Barry Crockett Legacy, and Barry himself will taste us on it).

We hope to have the complete agenda finalized by the end of March. Stay tuned.

I’d like to follow up our annual awards posts with some perspective. The awards are, of course, just a guide–a tool for you to use on your whisky journey. The same goes for our Buying Guide.

I’ve written about this in the past, but there’s many times I have opened a bottle of whisky over the years and didn’t think it was great. Good maybe, but not great. Perhaps it was a bit too young, or too woody, or too sherried. Often I “tweaked” it, by blending it with another whiskey (usually from the same distillery) to make it the way I want it to taste.

For example, I recently tasted an older single cask bottling of Glengoyne which was aged in an ex-bourbon barrel. It was bit woody, so I blended some younger sherried Glengoyne whisky with it (which I thought was a bit too sherried) and the new blend tastes great. (I aquired both bottles over a period of time without being able to taste them first.) I basically took two “mid-80s” whiskies (for me, that is) and made a 90+ blend out of it. And I’m sure there are plenty of people who would have been quite content with those whiskies just the way they were bottled.

The point I’m trying to make is this: what you think about a given whisky is what matters most. Try as many whiskies as you can and buy the ones you like. Use our reviews and ratings as tools along the path. But remember, it’s your path.

P.S. I’ll be taking some vacation but plan to post again here when I return the week after next. In the meantime, happy dramming!

Douglas Campbell, Tomatin Distillery

Our Lifetime Achievement awards go to people who have distinguished themselves in the industry over long years of service. In the case of Douglas Campbell of the Tomatin distillery, though…it goes a bit beyond that, in a generational sense. Campbell’s family has lived near Tomatin since 1894; his grandfather moved there to work on the Tomatin viaduct (completed in 1897, the same year as the distillery). His grandmother worked as a housekeeper at Tomatin house, and his father worked at the distillery as a cooper.

It’s no surprise then, that Douglas started work at Tomatin in April of 1961 at the age of fifteen. His first job was as a clerk, and he moved through almost every area in the distillery — the maltings, filling store, mash house, still house, cooperage — before being appointed head brewer in 1988, then distillery manager in 1990. He was appointed master distiller in 2009, and now, after 50 years with the company, man and boy, works as a brand ambassador.

Those who know Douglas Campbell describe him as a quiet, unassuming man who does not like being in the limelight. Our apologies for making such a fuss, Douglas, but dedication such as yours should not go unnoticed.  

Dave Scheurich, Woodford Reserve

Dave Scheurich started in the whiskey industry in 1969, with Seagram. After a solid beginning there, he moved in and out of the industry, always in production and packaging (including a stint as director of bottling for Wild Turkey), before joining Brown-Forman in 1989 as facilities manager for their corporate headquarters.

But what we really know Dave for is the project he got in 1994: the restoration of the Labrot & Graham distillery, which would become Woodford Reserve. He managed the $10 million renovation of the historic distillery, including the installation of the three copper pot stills. The enthusiasm and attention to detail he displayed in the renovation project led to his position as plant manager once the distillery started operations.

Dave took over Woodford in true old-school style: he moved into a house on the distillery property with his wife Della (who also worked for Brown-Forman as a Woodford Reserve bottler, tour guide, and brand ambassador). Until his retirement in 2011, he managed day-to-day operations: distilling, warehousing, bottling, and shipping.

He has since started a consulting business — clearly a man who can’t sit still — which is good news for those of us who enjoy his good company and habitual grin. Congratulations, Dave, and best of luck.

It may well be that whiskey lovers were not surprised to see the continued resurgence of Irish whiskey in 2011. But the major shock was that it was Irish Distillers who picked up the baton and ran with it most convincingly.

Cooley had another great year, of course, and three world class contenders from Ireland in one year is normally headline-making form. But somewhat strangely, the company’s many excellent releases in recent years have never centered around Ireland’s most emblematic whiskey style — pot still. That’s where Midleton seized the initiative.

Although Irish Distillers seemed content to build its fortress around Jameson, it kept the Irish pot still whiskey flame a-flicker, with two wonderful expressions of Redbreast of its own, and the fresh and fruity Green Spot, produced for Dublin wine and spirits merchants Mitchell & Sons. The perceived lack of genuine support for the pot still whiskeys antagonized and frustrated diehard supporters more than delighted them.

So its decision to release not just one new pot still whiskey in 2011 but three provided the year’s biggest ‘wow’ moment. What’s more, all three were excellent, were significantly different from each other, and were to Irish whiskey what a cluster firework is to a night sky — bursting out in exciting new directions and bringing new colors to the canvas.

Powers John’s Lane and Midleton Barry Crockett Legacy — the former a rough and ready oloroso sherry cask heavyweight; the latter a pricier, more refined whiskey matured in ex-bourbon and virgin American oak casks — were bottled at 46%, two sides of the pot still coin. If the buzzer had sounded at that point, the fans would have gone home happy…but Midleton put the game into overtime with a cask strength version of Redbreast 12 year old, keeping the best for last. It wasn’t just the best release of the three, either; it was the best Irish release of the year, and, quite possibly, of any other year, too.

The coup de grâce came with a new pot still-heavy premium Jameson under the name Black Barrel; a creamy, oily, but recognizably Jameson whiskey. Astounding stuff — and game, set, and match to Midleton. —Dominic Roskrow

Join us tomorrow for the final 18th Annual Whisky Advocate Award announcement: the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Some distillers consciously set out to create trends and develop profiles, while others follow. A few more, however, really don’t give a damn about such things, and no one gives less of a damn than Springbank. Working on the ‘build it and they will come’ principle (as in God to Noah and the movie Field of Dreams), Springbank has developed a reputation for studiously avoiding trends and simply making excellent single malt whisky just the way it wants to.

The adjective ‘iconic’ is all too often lazily used as shorthand for something the writer cannot be bothered to pin down more specifically, but Springbank really does deserve the sobriquet, having almost single-handedly carried the torch for Campbeltown single malts and the whisky-producing region’s rich heritage through good times and lean; mostly lean.

Springbank remains one of the last family-owned distilleries in Scotland, and the distillery itself is superbly idiosyncratic, continuing to malt its own barley on traditional malting floors and to bottle on site. Three distinct types of spirit are produced, namely Springbank (distilled two and a half times), Longrow (heavily-peated and distilled twice), and Hazelburn (unpeated and triple distilled). The wash still is unique in being heated both by internal steam coils and direct-fired by oil.

It is an open secret that Springbank does not possess significant amounts of old stock, but 2012 is expected to see a very limited release of 21 year old, feted as a classic when previously bottled. For now, however, we have the second edition of the 18 year old version to savor. First released in 2009, with an additional bottling the following year, this expression has a high percentage of sherry wood-matured spirit in the mix, and it epitomizes the quirky, individualistic, robust, traditional Campbeltown single malt at its very finest. —Gavin Smith  (Photo by Jeff Harris)

Join us tomorrow when we reveal Whisky Advocate’s Distillery of the Year award recipient.

Today, Aberfeldy is a Highland distillery that actually boasts a higher profile than the single malt it produces, thanks in part to the popular ‘Dewar’s World of Whisky’ visitor center based there. Aberfeldy distillery was built by the burgeoning Perth-based family business of John Dewar & Sons in the late 1890s, and like so many Victorian distilleries, it was constructed beside a railway line to facilitate transport.

By the time of Aberfeldy’s establishment, blended Scotch whisky was taking the world by storm, and the new distillery was intended solely to provide malt whisky for the company’s increasingly popular blends. After passing through other hands, including Diageo’s, it was one of four distilleries acquired with the John Dewar & Sons name by Bacardi in 1999.

Inevitably, the vast bulk of all Aberfeldy single malt produced at the Perthshire distillery remains destined for the blending vats to help Dewar’s maintain its number one blended Scotch whisky position in the U.S. Nonetheless, Bacardi is keen to make more of this neglected gem of a single malt, and sales of the Aberfeldy brand have increased by 400 percent in seven years to some 25,000 cases per year, with the principal offerings being 12 and 21 years of age.

Single cask Aberfeldy bottlings are very few and far between, and this 2011 release is right up there with the best. After initial hogshead maturation, the whisky ultimately underwent a period of finishing in an ex-sherry cask prior to bottling. Here’s hoping 2012 brings more Aberfeldy bottlings of equal excellence. —Gavin Smith

Whisky Advocate’s Lowland – Campbeltown Single Malt of the Year Award will be announced tomorrow.

There were any number of contenders for this: Kilchoman’s 100% Islay, the latest Special Release Port Ellen, Lagavulin’s stellar single cask Jazz Festival release, but the winner shaded it because it has something extra: symbolism.

In the decade that has passed since Bruichladdich’s reopening, the distilling team has had to contend with a hole in stocks — the result of the distillery’s closure — and the quality of the wood filled by its previous owner. They also had to make noise in order to ensure that the warm and fuzzy feeling generated by Bruichladdich’s re-emergence was maintained.

The way they answered these issues was by releasing a multiplicity of bottlings, often finished in different casks. While Bruichladdich was never far from the headlines, fans of the distillery and its people (and I count myself as one) began to wonder where Bruichladdich was underneath this plethora of different flavors and marketing bullshit. I wanted a marker. I wanted a bottling that said, “This is what we are, everything else is a variation on this theme.”

The 10 year old does just that. It is uncluttered by finishing and marketing; it is Bruichladdich, pure, clean, simple, identifiable. It says, “One chapter has finished, now the work starts;” it says, like Alice’s transforming liquid, “DRINK ME!” and that, let us not forget, is what whisky is all about. —Dave Broom

Tomorrow’s Whisky Advocate Award announcement will be the Highland Single Malt of the Year.

Okay, this is long gone, and is now either an investment or another whisky fueling the speculative bubble, but rarity isn’t the reason I’ve chosen it as my top Speyside release. Neither is it because of fealty to the Royal Family. Rather this, for me, was a whisky that countered the sniping which has been targeted at Macallan for a number of years: that it was too expensive, that it was pursuing the luxury market to the detriment of quality, that it wasn’t as good as it used to be.

This bottling showed that Macallan continues to do what it has always done best: use high-quality sherry wood to produce a single malt with resonant depth of flavor — and intent. Great Macallan is one of those drams whose presence forces you to pay attention to the slow unfolding of flavors in its depths. This bottling had that quality, and in doing so it eloquently answered its critics. —Dave Broom

Join us tomorrow for the announcement of Whisky Advocate’s Islay Single Malt of the Year Award.

It would be fair to say that £100,000 is a lot of money for anything, particularly so for a bottle of whisky, yet Johnnie Walker Diamond Jubilee justifies its stratospheric price tag. Why? Because all the profits from the 60 decanters which have been made of this ultra-rare blend are going to charity.

The concept was initiated by Richard Watling, ex-Diageo director and now chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust [QEST] which provides grants to British craftspeople and in doing so, keeps many highly specialized trades alive. He approached David Gates, who holds the Royal Warrant for Johnnie Walker at Diageo, to see whether the firm would create a blend to commemorate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

The result is a blend not just of whiskies – all distilled in 1952, the year Queen Elizabeth acceded to the throne – but of a host of different crafts. The crystal diamond-shaped decanter is from Baccarat, its silver collar and stopper has been hand-crafted by Hamilton & Inches in Edinburgh and it resides inside a cabinet which has been made with wood from two of the Queen’s estates: oak from Sandringham and pine from Balmoral. There are two hand-etched Cumbrian crystal glasses and the presentation is completed with a white leather hand-bound book personalized by the Queen’s calligrapher (and former QEST scholar), Sally Mangum.

But what of the liquid? I was invited to Royal Lochnagar, next door to Balmoral, to watch the decanters being filled, have a chat with master blender Jim Beveridge and his assistant Matthew Crow, and, more importantly, taste the liquid.

“The brief was a blank sheet,” says Beveridge prior to the tasting. “but there had to be some connection with 60 years, so we looked to see what whiskies we had from 1952. Not surprisingly, there were only a handful and we even rejected some, as they were too woody.”

After vatting the components together, the blend was rested in two small marrying casks, made by Diageo’s apprentice coopers under the watchful guidance of master cooper David Taylor.  The oak – Quercus Petraea for the geeks among you – came from Sandringham.

“That marrying made a big difference,” says Beveridge, “because it allowed the key component to do its work.” That key element? “Old grain,” he explained. “It softened those crusty old malts and allowed new flavors to sing out. The surprise for me is the freshness, the softness. Old whiskies can be one dimensional, but this has layers.”

He raises the glass and takes a sip. “Aye,” he smiles, “that’s all right.”

93   Diamond Jubilee by John Walker & Sons, 42.5%, £100,000

The bright gold hue is maybe a shock for those who equate age with darkness. The surprises continue as a first sniff immediately reveals amazing freshness. Fruits lead the way, starting with quince, slowly evolving into mango, blueberry, and an almost jammy blackberry note. At the same time, spices begin to build, particularly when the surface is broken with a drop of water; exotic spices at that: Javanese long pepper, cardamom, then vanilla pod notes develop. Complex in other words. In the mouth you can see how that grain is smoothing all the elements, giving an unctuous feel, calmly revealing the blend’s secrets. There’s just sufficient oakiness to give structure, and while there’s smoke, it’s far in the distance. Its different facets weave around each other: velvet texture, the refreshing bitter perfume of spices, pools of soft fruits as it flows down the throat. It is a triumph of the blender’s art.  — Dave Broom

Two outstanding contenders battled it out for this award this year: The Mackinlays ‘Shackleton’ whisky and The Compass Box Great King Street blend. Both tasted great, both took the category into new territory, and both showed what can be achieved through clever and thoughtful blending.

The Mackinlays ‘Shackleton’ whisky is a blended malt whisky — a mix of malt whiskies with no grain — and recreated the whisky found in the Antarctic camp abandoned by Ernest Shackleton. It was well packaged, was relatively well priced, and tasted great.

But the Mackinlays is all about history and the past. Compass Box Great King Street, a sweet citrusy and vanilla-doused blend, is all about the future. John Glaser and team don’t make bad whiskies, but often they have been esoteric, small batch, and all but unavailable to many of us. This blend is different, and is an attempt by Compass Box to introduce quality blends to a new generation. It had a relatively modest price point and brought the artisan skills of Compass Box to a new audience. It’s that rarity: a blend that drinks well on its own but tastes great when mixed. More than that, it’s perfectly placed to bring blends back into vogue. Anyone for a highball?  —Dominic Roskrow

Tomorrow, the Speyside Single Malt of the Year will be announced.

It’s been a great year for whiskies from less traditional whisky territories, both in terms of new distilleries coming on line, and for distilleries bottling quality spirit for the first time. Choosing one winner has been a challenge, and honorable mentions should go to Glann ar Mor in France, Mackmyra in Sweden, Kavalan in Taiwan, and St. George’s in England for each releasing more than one outstanding whisky this year, and to Lark for continuing to produce stunning and impressively different single malt whisky.

But the award goes to Amrut for its second batch of Two Continents.  In fact, Amrut released four whiskies that could have lifted the crown, but two were very small scale and were all but gone before they were released. This one, which was first released a couple of years back to widespread acclaim, reappears in a slightly different format, and is even better than the original.  It’s an absolute peach of a malt and combines spirit made with Indian malt matured in Scotland with Scottish malt matured in India. The innovative approach to whisky making across the portfolio, the diversity of flavors, and in this case, the rich, complex, unique, and exciting oral explosion would impress anyone. Honorable mentions, too, for Amrut Portonova and Amrut Fusion, which would feature in any New World top ten for 2011. That’s some achievement for the distillery. Can’t wait to see what they come up with next. —Dominic Roskrow

Whisky Advocate’s Blended/Blended Malt Whisky of the Year will be announced here, tomorrow.

It has been a quiet year on the Japanese front. Stocks at the larger distillers are under pressure, the result of short-term production twelve to eighteen years ago, and while this is being managed capably by producers, it also means that they aren’t exactly embarking on a program of multiple new expressions. With Mars only just reopened, Gotemba extremely quiet, and Karuizawa silent, there was one distillery that rose above all of this. It’s Japan’s newest, and the smallest.

2011 was the year when Chichibu came of age. Owner Ichiro Akuto built the distillery after the enforced closure and demolition of his family’s previous plant, Hanyu, and did so in the same town where his ancestors started making sake 500 years ago.

He and his young team are crafting a new presence, or rather, by exploring all parameters of whisky making, are allowing a new being to come into existence. Three styles are made, light, heavy, and peated, and there are plans to malt on-site (using local barley and peat) and build a cooperage.

This first official release of whisky (rather than maturing new make) is of the quicker-maturing light style and shows typical Japanese clarity along with genuinely ‘Eastern’ aromas of citrus and fragrant spices, and a soft, unctuous feel. It shows enormous promise and demonstrates that there is hope for smaller distillers in Japan. Important in so many ways. —Dave Broom

Be sure to visit here tomorrow. We’ll be announcing our New World Whisky of the Year Award.

In a normal year, any one of the six Irish whiskeys released in 2011 could have staked a claim as Irish whiskey of the year. But 2011 wasn’t normal, not least because in a normal year it’s not likely there would have been six releases in total, let alone six potential award-winning contenders. Unsurprisingly, given the last decade or so, Cooley was never far from the headlines, and the company bookended the year with Kilbeggan 18 year old and Greenore 18 year old at the beginning of it, and Connemara Bog Oak toward the end.

But it was the stunning triple whammy of single pot still whiskeys from Irish Distillers in between that provided the greatest surprise in a generation for the Irish whiskey category. All three were wonderful, but it was the last of them, the cask strength version of the much-loved 12 year old Redbreast, that carried off the honors.

A rich, bittersweet plummy, red berry, oaky-spiced delight, the increased strength gives an already great whiskey a richer, fuller, fruitier dimension, and makes an already complex whiskey…even more complex. For me that makes it not just the best Irish whiskey of this year, but of any. An utter joy. —Dominic Roskrow

The recipient of Whisky Advocate’s Japanese Whisky of the Year will be announced here, tomorrow.

Some folks always suspect that food or drink exporters keep the best stuff for themselves. I’ve heard it about cheese, beer, fruit…but when I’ve looked into it, the export markets are indeed getting “the good stuff.” Why not? You’d want to send the best to get the highest price, given that shipping costs are the same for great or mediocre products.

But after enjoying this bottle of Wiser’s Very Old (also sold as Wiser’s 18 Year Old), I’m starting to think that the Canadians really are keeping the good stuff up north. There are small amounts for sale in the U.S. (though that’s slowly increasing), but almost all of it stays home.

That’s a hardship for us non-Canadians, because this is a very nice whisky. After years of thinking of Canadian whisky simply as fuel for highballs and sweet Manhattans we’re looking for something else, something that can stand on its own and intrigue us, or something that could make a more robustly Canadian cocktail, and this Wiser’s would very much fit the bill. You can really taste rye and oak, without a lot of gloppy sweetness, and there’s a finish to reward sipping contemplation.

We’ve seen innovation in this category from John Hall’s Forty Creek whiskies, and rare elegance from limited bottlings like Canadian Club 30 Year Old. Wiser’s Very Old delivers classic Canadian smoothness with a rich extra helping of well-integrated flavor and complexity. Keep it coming, Canada; we’re ready for more.—Lew Bryson

Tomorrow’s announcement will be the Irish Whiskey of theYear.

If there is one thing Heaven Hill has proven on numerous occasions, it’s that they know how to cherry-pick great whiskeys for their single barrel bottlings. They’ve been doing it for seventeen years now with their vintage-dated Evan Williams Single Barrel releases, many of which we’ve rated very highly. They also proved they can do it with rye whiskey, when they released their 25 year old single barrel Rittenhouse rye a couple years back (which we rated a 96).

In 2011, they did it again with a new bourbon. This time, it was a single cask, 20 year old Elijah Craig bottling, released to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. Since it is a single barrel bottling, very few bottles were made available to the public, and they were only sold at Heaven Hill’s Bourbon Heritage Center in Bardstown, Ky. However, those of you who read the Whisky Advocate blog (whiskyadvocateblog.com) on a regular basis had a chance to procure a bottle of this special whiskey when we published our review of it back in early November.

What makes this whisky so great? It’s seamless, richly textured, and impeccably balanced. It’s complex too, with nutty toffee, pecan pie, apricot, berried jam, and nougat, peppered with cinnamon, mint, cocoa, and tobacco. It’s warming, with polished leather and dried spice on the finish.

This is an outstanding whiskey from a distilling company that continues to prove that they know how to make a wide range of excellent products, from great value whiskeys all the way to some of the finest whiskeys America has to offer. —John Hansell

Join us tomorrow for the Canadian Whisky of the Year announcement.