These whiskies were also part of the tasting that was held on twitter on Thursday May 16th. Ian Logan and Steve Rush from The Whisky Wire were also there to lead our nose and tongues. Leading us through the exotics and palmtrees, while dreaming and relaxing in a hammock … a lovely summer feeling! Just missed the butler called James ..

The Glenlivet 12 yr

• Color: Lovely Gold
• Nose: Nose, Exotic, Papaya a scent of palmtrees, stones, sultana’s
• Taste: lovely, smooth, young, pineapples, peachy, bit tingling on the tongue
• Finish: A lovely medium and soft finish with vanilla

The Glenlivet 15 yr

• Color: Lively Gold
• Nose: Gingerbread cookies, soft, leaving a trail of mangoes, spicy cinnamon, herbs
• Taste: Lovely trail of spices and exotic chocolate, banana
• Finish: Medium, tingling and peppery notes

The Glenlivet 18 yr

• Color: Sweet Bright Gold
• Nose: Dried fruit, a fruitsalade with a lot of pears.. and a couple of apples, ginger
• Taste: Ginger, hints of smoke, orange, toffee, spicy, orange dessert
• Finish: Long with some ginger and a very light hint of smoke. Combined with some small pieces of orange and toffee hints

I love The Glenlivet, but It was a fantastic experience to be part of something lovely as this. A range next to each other,  with a surprising ending with the new launch of The Glenlivet Alpha. This evening I spoiled my nose, my tongue has been challenged and enjoyed The Glenlivet treat for a long time.

The Glen Garioch Distillery, very charming and old-fashioned, has a fantastic competition. All you have to do is answer one question to have a chance in winning a two day trip to Scotland’s Northeast, all inclusive. This trip is planned on the 19th & 20th June. Not unimportant and just thrilling to know …. this trip is for 1 person only. That’s exciting!

The competition winner will take part in a private tasting session with the lovely Master Blender, Rachel Barrie, and venture out into the Scottish wild to experience local Rare Finds including salmon fishing and panning for gold!

Interested in meeting Rachel Barrie and curious? If that’s a yes, I suggest you to go to the Facebook page of Glen Garioch and enter this fantastic competition, it only takes a few seconds: https://www.facebook.com/glengarioch (Note: It’s open for entries until monday the 3^rd of June).

Inverness – 22/05/13 – Tomatin Distillery today announced that it has received a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence award.

The accolade, which honours hospitality excellence, is given only to establishments that consistently achieve outstanding traveller reviews on TripAdvisor, and is extended to qualifying businesses worldwide. Only the top‐ performing 10 per cent of businesses listed on TripAdvisor receive this prestigious award.

To qualify for a Certificate of Excellence, businesses must maintain an overall rating of four or higher, out of a possible five, as reviewed by travellers on TripAdvisor, and must have been listed on TripAdvisor for at least 12 months. Additional criteria include the volume of reviews received within the last 12 months.

“We are very pleased to receive a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence,” said Graham Eunson, Distillery General Manager. “We strive to offer our customers a memorable experience, and following our recent upgrade to a Four Star Visitor Attraction by Visit Scotland, this accolade is evidence that our hard work is translating into positive reviews on TripAdvisor.”

“TripAdvisor is delighted to celebrate the success of businesses around the globe, from Sydney to Chicago, Sao Paulo to Rome, which are consistently offering TripAdvisor travellers a great customer experience,” said Alison Copus, Vice President of Marketing for TripAdvisor for Business.

“The Certificate of Excellence award provides top performing establishments around the world the recognition they deserve, based on feedback from those who matter most – their customers.”

The Roving Whisky Awards Judging 2013 was held at the Forsyth’s Coppersmiths in Rothes. There was a warm welcome with some Black Pudding and Haggis. Oh I missed Haggis, don’t tell, but had a couple of portions ..

Again a room with a lot of tables, with al lot of people and a lot  of glasses.

• 12 yr and under : Strathisla 12yr (F) & Aberlour a’bunadh
• 13 – 20 yr : Glenfiddich Distillery Edition 15yr 51.5% & Balvenie Doublewood 17yr (F)
• 21 + : The Glenlivet 21yr &The Glenlivet XXV (F)

(The F stands for my personal Favorite)

A nice range of whiskies. And it was up to us to make the top 3! It wasn’t easy, but I did it, we did it.

After the nosing, tasting and judging we got a tour around the area of Forsyth’s Coppersmiths. There was a lot to see, the huge stills got my attention. Just fantastic to see where the copper stills and much of the equipment used in the production of Malt Whisky are being manufactured, in a not working stage. At least they weren’t hot …

The rest of the story about the Roving Whisky Awards Judging 2013, will be online soon … when the winners are announced at the Knockando Distillery.

Time to eat and moving on to the next event,  Whisky For Dafties, with Alan Anderson, the whisky comedian at the Social Club in Rothes.

The Mortlach Distillery is right around the corner of the Festival Hub in Dufftown and is the 1st of 7 distilleries built in the area of Dufftown. The Mortlach name comes from the ancient Gaelic away. The name means “bowl shaped valley”.

I’ve got the luxury to be brought by car. This distillery is specially opened for the visitors of this festival, I consider myself very lucky to be one of the visitors, it’s a privilege.

Again, a very intimate group was joining the tour around the distillery.  It’s just fantastic to hear that it was used as a church, and later as a brewery .. and grew to what it is now.

Fantastic to know is that Mortlach has a most unusual distilling process. A process which produces an uniquely partially triple-distilled spirit.The tour guide has a fantastic way of telling the story behind Mortlach.

The 3 wash stills and the 3 spirit stills are all unique and different in their kind. If you have a close look, you’ll see that all of these fantastic shaped stills have unusual sizes. The tour guide told us, that they started with second hand stills, and that these shapes didn’t changed during these years.
After the fantastic tour .. inside, we went outside into the rain. There were some huge watertanks, 4 of them. In the summer it’s difficult to add water in the tanks. That’s why the water source of Mortlach comes mostly from the Conval Hills.

In the wintertime when it’s cold and when there is a chance of ice. They let the water move, so ice doesn’t got a chance to be developed in these tanks.

It’s time for some nosing and tasting. There were 5 lovely glasses waiting for us. The Newmake, Cask 4550, Cask 977, Cask 2356 and the Mortlach Festival Malt. All very different. I’ve been critic and will review these soon.

The Mortlach Festival Malt, was very very nice, that’s all I’ll tell you now.
I’d love to tell you more .. but looking at the mystery of this distillery, when you’ve got the chance and it’s open for visitors, go and experience yourself!

Looking at the time, it’s time for the Roving Whisky Awards Judging 2013 in Rothes …

• Color: Beautiful bright gold color
• Nose: Exotic aroma’s, citrus, passionfruit, hints of coconut
• Taste: Exotic, citrus, getting nutmeg, wood, orange, freshness
• Finish: A delicious warm slide behind the tongue, there seems to be no end. A very tasty and fruity slide..

Feeling the moothness in my mouth, my tongue .. wow .. it blows me away … soft, warm, exciting. The Glenlivet Alpha is one that has definitely the nomnomfactor!

I’ll sleep just wonderfull with a soft and warm whiskyslide down my throat after drinking this wonderful whisky …

From the Hub you could see the Whisky Shop perfectly. Mary and I looked at the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival guide together to make the plans for the day. First stop was a tour at The Macallan Distillery. The bus was leaving just in front of the hub. The driver and I started chatting and before I knew …. I was at the Distillery. There were still houses on site for employees, impressed.

With 3 other whisky enthusiasts, we went inside.  The entrance looks al very modern, but once inside it looked just like a small museum. A lot of art on the walls and a large glass droplet, where special water slides downwards, like a small waterfall.

This Distillery has a lot of surprises, like a pillar with an image of a scissor… Standing for the Finest Cut. Or what about the huge transparent tube system, with built in test tubes to see and smell the spirit. The distillation of their whisky was explained in great detail, step by step.

After an interesting sightseeing tour, we went back in time …..

A huge cross-section of a tree trunk, was hanging on the wall at the entrance of a exhibition. It was very lovely, with singing birds on the background.  The tour guide was telling us about the historic relationship with Spain, and that the huge tree trunk on the wall came from Galicia.

After a fantastic historic film about the Cooperage, there was the hall of the fragrances. Again the glass droplets, but this time with different kind of fragrances. Think about, fresh fruit, chocolate, appel, citrus, floral, vanilla … hmm lovely.

At the end of this precious tour it was time for a small tasting. 5 lovely filled glasses were waiting to be nosed and taste. The tour guide worked through the whiskies using an interesting presentation. We had te pleasure, to nose and enjoy the Spirit (2 days old), 12yr, 18yr, 21yr and the 25yr Macallan.

I’m not telling you everything. The only way to experience all of this is by going to The Macallan and enjoy all this beauty the Distillery has to offer …. Don’t tell anyone, but I found it hard to leave this location. A wonderful place to wander, especially the back in time part and the singing birds. I’m lucky that I’ve got a small bottle of Macallan whisky and a jar of country honey with Macallan single malt scotch whisky as a souvenir …

Second stop: The Ultimate Mortlach Experience – Tour 48

The dress code for this evening was Smart with a ‘Touch of Tartan’. Lucky for me I had a Tartan looking skirt with me! However I felt a little bit underdressed when I saw others on the bus, that was taking us to the dinner. But that feeling flew away, when we arrived at the distillery.  300 Other guests are joining the dinner this night.

There were a lot of tables, all very beautifully decorated. I was sitting with 7 other people at table number 17, the Tamdhu Table. On this table were inter alia, Ollly Smith, a Couple from Belfast, and 4 other lovely people. I had a great time. I’ve seen a lot of familiar faces, people who I’ve met on Facebook and Twitter. Seeing Miss Whisky in real now, and seeing her glowing and smiling,  while she was awarded in honour of International Whisky Ambassador of the Year 2013. I’m so proud of her and the others who received a price of course.

While enjoying and sniffing the atmosphere, the dinner was just fabulous. Everyone enjoyed every moment of the dinner. Every course, another whisky. 3 Fantastic golden liquids were dramming through the parade, the Strathisla 12 yr, Aberlour a’bunadh and The Glenlivet Cellar Collection 1969.  Wish you were there to witness the enjoyment of my nose, tongue and belly that was getting bigger and happier…

And there was the moment of the evening, Whiskies for Auction. Under the leadership of Bonham’s Edinburgh Auction House, 14 fantastic bottles of whisky were being auctioned. These whiskies were donated by several wonderful distilleries. At the end of this exciting auction with many nodding heads and waving hands, they’ve raised almost £ 4,000 for charity.

The combination of several people from various countries with different fields, the music and of obviously the whisky, this night could last forever. But there are more events to visit these days, this night ended very well and left some fantastic memories ……

I was surprised to receive a lovely sample of this special release from Glenfarclas. Did you know, that Glenfarclas means “valley of the green grass”? Just found out after some research. What’s also very interesting, is that they were one of the first distilleries who opened a visitor centre in the year 1973 …

Let’s nose and taste some interesting whisky….

• Color: Dark gold
• Nose: Notes of sherry, lovely spices, Reminded me of an old fashion Candy store with the toffee hints, and traces of antique wax
• Taste: lovely, sherry, soft, a bit oily on the tongue, a touche of toffee and spiciness. The feeling of the candy store pops up again
• Finish: A lovely medium and warm finish

This is one fantastic and surprising whisky.  I feel very lucky that I’ve got a chance to try this whisky. Thank you!

De Old Bushmills Distillery heeft aangekondigd dat het de deuren open zal gooien om gastheer te spelen voor headline acts van wereldklasse en opkomende indie-talenten tijdens ‘Bushmills Live’ – een uniek tweedaags festival op 19 en 20 juni 2013 – waar met de hand gemaakte Ierse whiskey en muziek worden gevierd.

De internationaal toegejuichte indie-folk band, Of Monsters and Men is de hoofdact van het tweedaagse festival tussen de ketels, vaten en magazijnen van de oudedistilleerderij. De IJslandse vijfpersoonsband heeft momenteel een enorm wereldwijd succes na het winnen van de 2013 European Border Breakers Award*, een bekroning voor de beste nieuwe Europese muzikale acts.

Wereldwijd zijn slechts 500 kaartjes beschikbaar voor Bushmills Live, waar zowel iconen als opkomende kunstenaars het podium delen voor een serie van intiemeoptredens in de eeuwenoude gebouwen van de historische Old Bushmills Distillery, waar de kunst van het distilleren van generatie op generatie is geperfectioneerd.De ‘niet voor geld te koop’ kaartjes zullen niet in de verkoop worden gebracht. Nederlandse muziek- en whiskeyfans kunnen daarentegen de kans om het festival bij te wonen winnen door mee te doen aan de loting op de Tourism Ireland Nederland website ierland.nl/bushmills.  Inschrijving voor de loting is mogelijk vanaf deze week tot en met de sluiting op 17 mei om 12.00 uur.

Bushmills Live wordt gehouden op de adembenemende Causeway Coastal route van Noord-Ierland, die als een van de meest spectaculaire rijroutes ter wereld wordt beschouwd. Tussen Belfast en het eindpunt in Derry~Londonderry liggen 130 mijl, of 200 kilometer, aan landschapsschoon. Afgezien van de Bushmills Distillerykunt u via de route de Giants Causeway, een UNESCO werelderfgoed, de ruïnes van Dunluce Castle en de steden Belfast en Derry~Londonderry leren kennen.

www.ierland.nl
www.ireland.com/nl-nl/campaign/normal-campaign/2013/04/bushmills-competition
www.bushmills.com/BMBushmillsLive.html
http://media.ireland.com/index.php?p=n&mr=9&id=2130

Bron: Tourism Ireland