13TH FEBRUARY 2008, HELD AT OUR USUAL VENUE - THE CANALSIDE RESTAURANT HERE IN SKIPTON.

Over the past few years we have enjoyed and extended our range considerably from the lesser known Speyside distillery BenRiach. So much so, that we wanted to highlight the delights and introduce it to more of our tasting novices and enthusiasts alike. We were delighted when Alistair agreed to travelling south - always a bit of a trauma to a Scotsman, to come and host the evening for us.

BenRiach do produce, quite a vast range from un-peated to peated malts and various wood finishes plus older expressions - quite unusual for a Speyside distillery, so we left the tasting choice to Alistair.....we didn't know where to begin.....or more of a problem where it would end!

We started the evening with the un-peated core range, the 12 year old, 16 year old and the 20 year old. All quite different in the own rights but ever pleasing. Slides were shown throughout the evening with distillery shots inside and out, encompassing the everyday trials and tribulations of running a distillery. The evening progressed and we moved on to the fourth malt,  the award winning 15 year old Madeira cask finish.  A confirmation from Jim Murrays Whisky Bible 2008 of a 95 out of 100 score and the comment of 'a recent, truly great Speysider'.

Then came the peat.... We sampled the 10 year old 'Curiositas' the 12 year old 'Arumaticus Fumosus' and then finished with the 21 year old 'Authenticus'.....blaming his father for the school-boy Latin being used.

The room was  filled to capacity and could have filled twice over with everyone scrambling to get a taste of a 'truly great Speysider'

Many thanks to Alistair for hosting the evening and as ever, to Canalside for the delicious food. 

Plans are still afoot for the next.

Held at the Canalside Restaurant, November 8th 2007.

The evening was billed as 'A masterclass in Wood finishes' and we set out to achieve just that. 50+ enthusiasts.....becoming ever more 'regulars' gathered to savour the delights of the evening.

We started with Glenfiddich 12 year old Special Reserve a light, floral starting point followed swiftly with a dollop of Islay peat from the 12 year old Caoran. Already the delights of different cask finishing and maturation could be tasted and we'd only tried two.
Next we tasted the 15 year old Solera Reserve with an explanation of the 'Solera' maturation process quite unique to Glenfiddich. With  the 21 year old Gran Reserva finishing off our insight into the wonders of Glenfiddich. 

A quick 'comfort break' was taken and then we all settled back down to the next part of the show. Ian continued with his introduction into Balvenie and where better to continue the tasting than with the 12 year old 'Doublewood'.
A bottle which I'm sure can be found in any whisky drinkers cabinet. 
We followed this with the 15 year old Single Barrel and to the top of the bill, the 21 year old Port Wood finish.  The tasting confirmed why Balvenie remains a firm favourite with our customers and why, year in year out, it remains in our 'Top Ten' sales figures.

Our tasting evenings have now become quite famous and a 'mystery malt' at the end of the evening has become an institution. The comments and after-sales did prove that Glenfiddich can, and do produce some cracking bottles not just in terms of value but also quality with their Toasted Oak 12 year old rounding off the evening. A big surprise to many.

Julian gave a vote of thanks to Ian Murray for the fantastic evening and taking us through the masterclass before supper was served....always a warm welcome at the end of the evening to soak up some of the spirit.

We look forward to our next event.

Over 50 guests arrived at the Canalside Restaurant in Skipton to enjoy another tasting evening with 8  glasses of whisky sat on the table in front of them it was sure to be enjoyable.

We started the evening with a new, younger expression of the ever popular blend from the distillery -  Campbeltown Loch now being bottled at 15 year old. (Available to buy from the shop £25.95) 
Triple distilled Hazelburn followed and then to Springbank 10 year old. Peter talked alot about the history of Campbeltown and the whole process which goes into lovingly making Springbank from the men working their shovels on the malting floor to the hand labelling of the bottles at the end of the process. The full distillation process was explained but I'm sure the '2½' times process for Springbank still confused some.

The evening continued with Springbank 15 year old and then from the 'Wood Expressions Range' last years offering  Marsala finish.  Obviously with a vast number of Springbank fans in the room we had to show a 'star' of the show. What better way then showing something that has not even been bottled, the new Springbank 16 year old rum wood expression which is due to be bottled in September.  And with the reaction from the room it's going to be a good one.  To round of the evening we finished with the last in the Campbeltown trilogy  - Longrow 10 year old.

Questions and answers were posed and then a light supper was served. Another enjoyable evening was had by all and names are already on the list for the next one.

Many thanks to Peter for hosting the evening and the Canalside Restaurant for the venue.

AN EVENING WITH JIM MURRAY
‘The Whisky Bible’ man himself

held at the Rendevous Hotel in Skipton on Tuesday 28th November 2006

Almost 50 friends, whisky enthusiasts and novices alike gathered to taste 14 (initially 12) whiskies blind. Julian welcomed everyone and introduced Jim Murray as people sat in anticipation, with an array of whiskies covered in front of them. The first question Jim asked was "who adds water to their whisky?" With almost half the room admitting to the 
'deadly sin', conversion was sure to follow!

The Welsh Penderyn, An Cnoc and Tullibardine were the forerunners of the evening, followed by one of many 'red herrings'. One particular red herring had the room confused. The consensus was it was at least 12 year old, perhaps a Speyside and very tasty. It was in fact an Indian whisky, Amrut Cask Strength, the logic behind tasting blind now being very apparent With such a good response you will now see it sitting on our shop shelf at £29.95. We progressed to a couple of Bourbons and reached the conclusion that George T Stagg should carry this health warning on the bottle - 'lip numbing will occur when drinking this whisky'. After a short comfort break we moved on to blended whiskies, which 
included Black Bottle and Six Isles. Almost 4 hours later, with many a tale told by Jim, we finished the night off with an Ardbeg 10 y.o.  -  it would have been rude not to. 
It rounded the night off perfectly.

The evening concluded with votes being cast for the favourite whiskies of thenight.Ardbeg 10 y.o. reigned supreme showing all the 'peat freaks' were present, Laproaig ¼ cask was a close second and in 3rd place was Amrut Cask Strength.

The first question of the night - "who adds water to their whisky?"  - was posed again. The room had been converted and the water table in Skipton will remain at a higher level for many years to come.

Slàinte Jim


Many thanks to everyone who attended and made this event a great success.

Julian & Katie

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