MALT OF THE MONTH
As round as a neep come todlen hame
Scotland has dedicated the whole merry month of May to its national drink, the barley bree, and if you’ve been assiduous, perhaps it’s time, in the poet Allan Ramsay’s words, to come todlen hame as round as a neep.
This month alone saw World Whisky Day, the Spirit of Spey Festival, the Stirling Whisky Festival, and, nearer by, and the Islay Festival of Music and Malt, Fèis Ìsle.
We’ve a bit of a breather before the Edinburgh Whisky Festival on June 16 and then another sesh in the winter at Dramathon in Speyside, the Theatre of Drams in Bowmore Hall, and finally the Glasgow Whisky Festival, at which your correspondent has disgraced himself only once.
We had more reasons to be cheerful this month, when, on South Uist, plans were unveiled for a new, unnamed £10 million community-owned distillery at Lochboisdale, planned by Stòras Uibhist, the community company that runs the estate of South Uist, Eriskay and Benbecula.
An important part of the project will be the story of the SS Politician, which sank nearby off Eriskay in February 1941 with a cargo including 264,000 bottles of Scotch whisky, spawning a ‘salvage’ effort by the islanders retold in the book and films of Whisky Galore!
Earlier, Bonhams auction house in Hong Kong set a new world record for the most expensive whisky,
selling two of the rarest vintage Macallan bottles - The Macallan Peter Blake 1926 60 Year Old, which fetched £751,703, and The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 60 Year Old, which smashed that price at £814,081.
The Macallan also unveiled its new £140 million distillery, described as a ‘space age Hobbit house’ on its Easter Elchies estate, including a bar stocking 952 bottles for whisky connoisseurs to try.
Meanwhile in Leith, the name John Crabbie is moving beyond green ginger wine and ginger beers back into Scotch whisky, with the construction of a new £7 million distillery on Graham Street, close to the original premises at Yardheads, due to open in 2019.
On Islay, Bruichladdich distillery relaunched its heavily-peated Port Charlotte single malt whisky with a range of new expressions: Port Charlotte 10, Islay Barley 2011, MRC:01, and MC:01. Port Charlotte single malt is named after the nearby silent distillery of Port Charlotte, which ceased operation in 1929.
The Port Charlotte 10, bottled at 50 per cent abv. using only Scottish barley, has been matured in first-fill American oak, refill American oak and refill French wine casks. It will be available for around £50 for a 70cl bottle, and is described as having smoky sweet notes of ‘coconut, vanilla custard, lemon honey, smoke oysters and sun baked salty sand’.
The Islay Barley 2011, available for around £60 per 70cl bottle, is a new vintage produced from barley grown on three Islay farms – Dunlossit, Sunderland and Kilchiaran. Bottled at 50 per cent abv, the whisky has been matured in mostly first-fill American oak with some whisky aged in refill Syrah and Merlot wine casks.