Events that we enjoyed together
We have been invited to the launch of the ninth Glenmorangie Private Edition, hosted in Vienna by the local branch of Moët Hennessy. Some of the expressions in the past (see complete list) were truly memorable (Artein, Ealanta, Companta), so we were glad we could taste the whisky before opening our own bottle.
Introduced in a short video by its creator Dr Lumsden and Brendan McCarron (who oversees maturation), this year's bottling has spent it's whole life in barrels after rye whisky! The age was not disclosed, but as rye can be a very rough drink, our guess is it could not spend that much time in the cask. The whisky is very spicy, which makes it quite different from Glenmorangie's core range and from other botlles on the market.
Another interesting maturation experiment, we like it due to its unique spiciness.
   BTW, two bits of information: Bill Lumsden confirmed there would be Private Edition 10 produced (not his usual "Watch the space!") And the local team quipped that the 1990 Vintage will get a sibling: 1989. And it should allegedly not be as expensive as Pride ;-)
Private Tasting - Lag 25
June 28, 2017 We were pleased to have a chance to participate at a private tasting session in the beautiful of the Whisky & Kilt bar in Prague, owned by the incredible whisky showman Vaclav Rout (we bet he has same ancestors as Richard Paterson). The star of the evening was the Lagavulin 25yo, which proved to be a fantastic expression from this legendary distillery. However, in the last moment, two more newcomers have been thrown into the ring! The Longrow 13yo Red Malbec was as good as it's Red predecessors. And the OBA was absolutely stunning - we just hope Mr. Hannett will produce more of this liquid, not just the orange 1500 litres.
Note: The only sore point of Lagavulin 25yo is the price. When Diageo announced it, we assumed it will be priced in line with its younger siblings: The 8yo expression costs some 60€. The 16yo is priced at 50€. And a simple arithmetical extrapolation indicated that the 25yo should cost around 40€ :-) You know the reality is very different ...
  
 
After the discontinuation of Whiskymesse in Vienna (that should have taken place on March 25-26, 2017), we could not miss a festival in the nearby city of Bratislava, that is growing into a very strong event for whisky enthusiasts.
Three masterclasses and a nice round through the venue - we will remember this year as a very successful one!
First time ever, Finest Spirits fair well known from Munich, also opened in Vienna! For us it was a first opportunity to see how visible is whisky among other spirits. All in all, half of the stands offered whisky, the other half other spirits like rum, vodka or gin.
We participated at one masterclass, Bruichladdich. On offer was a cross-section if the current offering with two Bruichladdich expressions, two PCs, two Octomores and the icing on the cake - Black Art (4.1). Fantastic whiskies by any measure!
We also took a chance and organized a «50OF5» DoG (Discussion over a Glass) with Melanie Stanger of Springbank Distillery. This time, we recorded it and you can listen to it here.
(Note: The interview is non-chill-filtered and non-coloured. During the editing, a bottle of Hazelburn 8yo was stylishly finished :-)
... and a few photos:
      Scotch Whisky Week in Vienna           
  Whisky Life Prague 2016
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3000 visitors (in two days) made the venue a bit overfilled and hot. Yet, Mario sticks to his bi-annual rhythm, and the 8th Whiskymesse is scheduled for spring 2017!
Anyway, here are some of the favourite ones from the day:
- Glenfarclas 1965 sample
- Tomatin Cask 16365, 1990/2015 (sold at distillery only)
- Glenglassaugh 30yo; 38yo (totally different creatures!)
- Caol Ila Potstill Edition (Cask 301537)
- Tamdhu Batch Strength (we want to see more from Tamdhu !!)
- Mortlach 18yo by Duncan Taylor (for those who love Mortlach and don't like Diageo's pricing policy)
- Arran 18yo (agains a different personality conteasted to 16 and 17yo!)
- Black Snake Venom by Blackadder (different versions)
- Glenmorangie Túsail
Own Editions and Independents
Nov-14, 2014 - Potstill HerbstVerkostung, Vienna
Another half-yearly affair by Dr. Prinz and his Potstill team. This time focused on Postill's own bottlings and many independents. Also present were representatives from Moët Hennessy having the "usual suspects" from their Ardbeg and Glenmorangie stables (no, you do not need to envy us - no Supernova, no Kildalton, no Taghta!)
We managed to go thru most of the samples, and here are our favourites of the evening:
- Ben Nevis 1996 52.8%, Potstill Edition, Single Cask, bottled by Carn Mor
- Bowmore 2000 57.3%, Single Cask by Dewar Rattray
- Longrow Red 11yo 58%
Glenfarclas Evening Nov-13, 2014
The night before this event, the almost-regular family-like get-together with Ian McWilliam from Glenfarclas took place in Vienna, too. As usually, he skips the core range and goes for the special bottlings, mostly from The Family Casks series. Ian:"The popularity of the yearly vintages' range is growing tremendously and - after the Summer-2014 batch, we have to come unexpectedly with the Autumn-2014 Release to fill the gaps!"
Out of the eight samples, four were from the upcoming Release, and we favoured the 1991 Vintage (that was brought to us after the major tasting session)!
Note: The oldest sample was The Family Cask from 1958 and we found the older expressions great on nose and palate, but extremely quickly finished; we had had this experience with the 'standard' 40yo already. For the money, you somehow hope for a longer fun time!
Dark (Highland) Park
Oct-3, 2014 – Golf Open – Year VII, Svachova Lhotka, by Men of Tyn(e)
Unlike previous year, the weather was very welcoming to the golf players this time. Our club took a whole flight at the tournament organized by Men of Tyn(e), and one of us made it even to the box. Apparently good preparation during the whole year at various whisky events improves golf skills dramatically!
Pleasant evening started with Men of Tyn(e)'s favourite distilleries (Clynelish, GlenDronach, Glenrothes, HP, Macallan, Strathisla). And later we continued with vertical tasting of Highland Park, including the new Dark Origin expression that looked like Martin Svoboda's own (see the picture!)
Our favourites this time:
- Highland Park 15yo
- Macallan Sienna
Jim Murray's Show and Kilchoman Clan
Sep-26+27, 2014 - Whisky Live Prague (2nd Year)
We met many friends and had a lot of fun! We enjoyed the presence of almost all of our members, and also many associated ones.
The whole event had three major components for us: The event itself, where we could try some new liquid; the Kilchoman section; and presence of Jim Murray!
On Friday, we had a chance to have a good chat with Jim and bring him 16 years back though his own book with dedication from October 1998, when we was the first whisky writer to publish about Czech whisky. Of course, we could not miss his knockout competition tasting on Saturday either. Finally, Jim agreed to change his favourite football club colours for our red!
The day after, Jim was a guest in a popular local Talk show "Na plovarne". You can see the original (=English) version of the interview in the TV's Media Library.
We were also very excited to see George Wills. We met his dad, owner of the Kilchoman distillery, in San Francisco in 2012, and his brothers Peter and James a week earlier in Vienna at their Land Rover European Tour. With him, we completed the encounter with the Clan of Wills!
Most importantly, we were proud participants of the Club Scene, and ensured support by a classy group of our guests! Through the hands of George Wills and Dr. Mario Prinz, the Keeper of the Quaich from Austria, we have offered to the fellow participants a bottle of our Kilchoman «50OF5» whisky. We also used our Indian connection and allowed all the present to taste the world's most sold whisky, McDowell's No.1. And, thanks to our associated member Svaťa Buchlovský, we added a bottle of Nadurra Oloroso into the pack, Glenlivet's new expression freshly available from travel retail.
With all that, we apparently succeeded to make the next step in promoting the ever closer whisky cooperation between Vienna and Prague, too, which should benefit not only next year's Whisky Live Prague, but also the Whiskymesse in Vienna in March.
As usually, here are our favourites from the event:
- Highland Park by Men of Tyn(e)
- Glenlivet Nadurra Oloroso
- Ardbeg 10
Whisky Land Rover
Sep-18, 2014 - Kilchoman European Tour, Vienna stop
Due to our emotional link to Kilchoman, we happily took part at the Vienna stop of the European tour carried out during whole September by the distillery owner's sons, James and Peter Wills.
We could not drive the LandRover unfortunately (we came too late for that), yet we could taste some new babies: a special cask-strength Machir Bay 2014 Tour bottling (see photo); first Port expression; and Potstill's new single cask bottling (5yo with PX finish).
While James and Peter carried on with their tour, their older brother George came to Whisky Live in Prague a few days later (see above).
For statisticians, 1518 bottles of the Tour expression were produced.
Our favourites:
- Kilchoman Potstill Edition 2014
- Kilchoman European Tour Edition
Best Bar in the World
Apr-25-26, 2014 – 3. Whisky Festival, Malá Morávka
At last we succeeded to come over to the
end of the world (or at least the end of Moravia) to take part at Petr Křenek's whisky
weekend. And it was worth that, as we had had never ever seen such a whisky bar before! ANothin short of amazing!!! You just regret that the capacity of your body and senses is so limited!
We received so many new inputs and ideas that we completely forgot to vote our most favourite drams of the two evenings.
However, we also took part in the official
Quiz. Svaťa Buchlovský tried to convince us that – according to the newest
research – the oldest distillery in Scotland is Glen Garioch. However, we did
not get swayed by the radioactive-carbon research yielding results with
accuracy bracket of 200 years, stuck to the proven Glenturret (including its famous cat Towser and The Famous Grouse Experience) and that helped us win the competition. Unfortunately,
no prize this time ;-)
In 2015, we will for sure be back again!
The Club is Born
Mar-21, 2014 – Potstill – Frühjahr-Verkostung, Vienna
Guest: Martin Svoboda
This half-yearly tasting session was marked by the focus on Independent bottlers.
Our favourites:
- Glen Spey 1986 27yo 52.5% - Dewar Rattray
- Glen Garioch – 1993 46% - Coopers Choice
- Bruichladdich 1992 57% - Dewar Rattray
After the event, our aging group of
dilletantes was elevated by Martin to a Club status. He
outlined his plan to set up a Club Scene at the upcoming Whisky Live Prague in
September, and honoured us with an invitation to present ourselves (or rather
our whisky) as a Club. A few beers later, we accepted.
Black Art, Octomore, HP 25 and Independents
Nov-15, 2013 – Pot Still – Herbst-Verkostung, Vienna
Guest: Petr Křenek
Another well-attended half-yearly tasting organized by Dr. Prinz and his team.
Our favourites:
- Highland Park 25yo
- Caperdonich 1992 46.3% – Pot Still Edition
- Bunnahabhain 21yo 49.5% – The Maltman
- Octomore 6.1
After the official session, Petr produced a freshly acquired Tullamore Dew Phoenix – it would have made it to the list, too.
Golf in the Rain, Whisky in the Dry, Book into the Shelf
Oct-11, 2013 – Golf Open – Year VI, Svachova Lhotka, by Men of Tyn(e)
“There's
no bad
weather for golf, there's only improperly dressed player!”
This has
been a leading theme of the bravest of our members, Tomáš, who adventurously took part in the competition! Fact is that our golf
level is not that good, and we only could enviously watch others to snap the aged prizes from Orkney islands!
However, we
got lucky in the evening tasting competition. After the organizers had decided
to eliminate the professional in disguise P.K. from the amateur competition, we
got lucky in a final shoot-out and could celebrate the first (and very visible) tome into our Club library –
Sváťa Buchlovský’s Whiskybraní with personal dedication!
Our favourites of the evening:
- Macallan Sienna
- BenRiach – Whisky Festival CZ bottling
First Get-Together in Vienna
Apr-13, 2013 – 6. Whiskymesse, Vienna
Guests: 12.Men.of.Tyn(e), Men of Moravia, M.Lopko
After having encountered a few individual visitors from Czech republic at previous Whiskymesse events (one way or another, we have participated at all of the since the very inception in 2003).
This time, we decided to invite all the participants from Czech republic to a short get-together during the afternoon – you can see the result on the photo (courtesy MoT).
Our favourite: Tomatin 1984
Associate
member of our Club I.H. was so impressed by the whisky – well, he makes no
secret that Tomatin is his favourite distillery after all – and took home the
beautiful decanter, albeit empty ;-)
50 ppm – Where It All Started
Sep-8, 2012 – Celebration «50OF5»
Five
members from a group that studied cybernetics at the Technical University
Prague in 1980s decided to organize a joint celebration. Out of many crazy
ideas, some stuck. And one of them gave the birth to our Club: We decided to
get a special edition of Scotch single malt whisky just for us!
Secret weapons – X4 and Supernova
Mar-28, 2009 – 4. Whiskymesse Wien
One way or another, we had chance to take part at all the Whiskymesse fairs organized every two years by Dr. Mario Prinz since 2003.
Fact is, most fun ever we had in 2009. It started with the Glenmorangie masterclass led by Annabel Meikle, and it was right after the complete revamp of the whole range after the acquisition by LVHM. Having obtained the secret password from Annabel, we moved to the Ardbeg booth and requested a sample of not-introduced-yet, under-the-table Supernova - those were the times when Bill Lumdsen and Jim McEwan competed who can squeeze more peat into a whisky.
We continued with animated discussion with Robin Tucek, owner of Blackadder, who insisted on explaining to us where his parents come from. That followed by the BenRiach masterclass with James Cowan – due to overfilled room, we had a strategic role of distributing the samples to the individual participants. Well equipped, we made a short break to watch an important volleyball match in the nearby sports hall. Then we came back to have a chat with Barbara McEwan and her team at the Bruichladdich stand, having tasted the early Black Art, first quadruple-distilled spirit-to-become-whisky X4 and left with a bottle of multi-vintage Peat to round off the entertaining evening.
Gospel from Top of the Table
Apr-14, 2007 – 3. Whiskymesse Vienna in 2007
The third Whiskymesse in Vienna had the privilege to welcome Jim McEwan, the image of the freewheeling Bruichladdich distillery. Jim delivered one of his famous masterclasses, including the ever popular Whisky Gospel orated from the top of his presentation table!
We also had the luck to participate at the Caol Ila masterclass, led by Kay Fleming, who soon after became the distillery manager of Glenkinchie. Here, our eyes opened about Caol Ila!
And the whole evening was crowned by a win of one of our associated members at the Chivas Roulette – the price of the evening being Chivas Regal 12yo!