The Malt Whisky Thread

[bsnub]

Yellow label available in Oz for $ 70 AUD....... 4 roses single barrel a tad more expensive at $600 AUD.

WOW!! That is some mark up! Here where I am in the US it is $20 for the yellow label and $50 for the single barrel and we have high liquor tax in my state. That is crazy.

[Looper]

World's most expensive dram of Scotch was a fake

A dram of vintage Scotch bought by a Chinese millionaire in a Swiss hotel bar for £7,600 was a fake, laboratory tests have concluded.

Analysts from Scotland were called in by the Waldhaus Am See hotel in St Moritz after experts questioned the authenticity of the 2cl shot.



It had been poured from an unopened bottle labelled as an 1878 Macallan single malt.

It is believed to be the largest sum ever paid for a poured dram of Scotch.

But analysis found that it was almost certainly not distilled before 1970.

The hotel said it had accepted the findings and reimbursed the customer in full.

Zhang Wei, 36, from Beijing - one of China's highest-earning online writers - had paid just under 10,000 Swiss francs (£7,600, $10,050) for the single shot while visiting the hotel's Devil's Place whisky bar in July.

But suspicions about the spirit's provenance surfaced soon after the purchase, when whisky industry experts spotted discrepancies in the bottle's cork and label from newspaper articles.
Image copyright Sandro Bernasconi
Image caption Mr Zhang was photographed with hotel manager Sandro Bernasconi after buying the dram

That prompted the Waldhaus to send a sample to Dunfermline-based specialists Rare Whisky 101 (RW101) for analysis.

Carbon dating tests were then carried out by researchers from the University of Oxford, which suggested a 95% probability that the spirit was created between 1970 and 1972.

Further lab tests by Fife-based alcohol analysts Tatlock and Thomson indicated that it was probably a blended Scotch, comprising 60% malt and 40% grain - ruling it out as a single malt.

RW101 said the tests had shown that the bottle was "almost worthless as a collector's item".

Had the bottle been genuine, it would have carried a bar-value of about 300,000 Swiss francs (£227,000).
Image copyright Sandro Bernasconi
Image caption The dram was poured from an unopened bottle that purported to be an 1878 Macallan

Mr Zhang, who writes martial arts fantasy novels under the pen name Tang Jia San Shao, earned the equivalent of about $16.8m in 2015, according to China Daily.

He bought the dram while on holiday with his grandmother at the Swiss hotel, which stocks 2,500 different whiskies.

Waldhaus manager Sandro Bernasconi told BBC Scotland that the hotel had no idea the bottle was a fake.

He said: "My father bought the bottle of Macallan 25 years ago, when he was manager of this hotel, and it had not been opened.

"When Mr Zhang asked if he could try some, we told him it wasn't for sale. When he said he really wanted to try it, I called my father who told me we could wait another 20 years for a customer like that so we should sell it.

"Mr Zhang and I then opened the bottle together and drank some of it."
Image copyright Weibo
Image caption Mr Zhang wrote about his experience with the "1878" Macallan a few days after his visit to the Waldhaus hotel

A few days after tasting the whisky, Mr Zhang posted a message on the Chinese micro-blogging platform Weibo about his experience.

He wrote in Mandarin: "When I came across a fine spirit from over 100 years ago, there wasn't much struggle inside.

"My grandma who accompanied me on this trip was only 82, yet the alcohol was 139 years old - same age as my grandma's grandma.

"To answer you all, it had a good taste. It's not just the taste, but also history."
Image copyright Hotel Waldhaus Am See
Image caption The dram was bought from the Devil's Place whisky bar in St Moritz

Mr Bernasconi broke the bad news to Mr Zhang when he flew out to China to reimburse him recently.

He added: "When I showed him the results, he was not angry - he thanked me very much for the hotel's honesty and said his experience in Switzerland had been good.

"When it comes to selling our customers some of the world's rarest and oldest whiskies, we felt it was our duty to ensure that our stock is 100% authentic and the real deal.

"That's why we called in RW101.

"The result has been a big shock to the system, and we are delighted to have repaid our customer in full as a gesture of goodwill."

RW101 co-founder David Robertson said: "The Waldhaus team did exactly the right thing by trying to authenticate this whisky.

"We would implore that others in the market do what they can to identify any rogue bottles.

"The more intelligence we can provide, the greater the chance we have to defeat the fakers and fraudsters who seek to dupe the unsuspecting rare whisky consumer."

World's most expensive dram of Scotch was a fake - BBC News


This chinky coont should not get a refund after all the fake goods they sell us!

I fancy one of these poof glasses though for drinking my Lagavulin.

[Stumpy]

Perhaps but one can not call themselves a whiskey aficionado without at least once sampling the magic that is Pappy.

Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon is top sipping spirit so is anything from Buffalo Trace. Before I left the states I found a Micro distiller called Koval. I am pissed. I bought 2 bottles, tasted 1st one and now Left with one. Extremely good.

Have had the pleasure of four roses.

Good stuff

Others to enjoy are a bourbon called "Angels Envy" from the distiller Lincoln Hendersen and a single malt Scotch called Mortlach Rare Old.I'd love to get my hands on a bottle of Bainbridge Battle point. Heard it is incredibly smooth

[bsnub]

Bainbridge Battle point

This is local to me and has been on my list. I can get it at my local store. Maybe I will grab one for this weekends football games.

Angels Envy

Never had this one but I have heard of it. Very highly regarded.

[Hugh Cow]

WOW!! That is some mark up! Here where I am in the US it is $20 for the yellow label and $50 for the single barrel and we have high liquor tax in my state. That is crazy.

The import tax on Spirits in Australia is $82.76 AUD per litre of alcohol exceeding 10%. E.G. a one litre bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey at 45%ABV means the tax is 1 litre by (45% -10%) so 35% of $82.76 = $28.97AUD Tax. Average retail price of Jack in Australia $45 AUD whichthen has a further 10% GST (retail sales tax).
(I think this is correct as the excise taxes in Oz are complicated).

[bsnub]

^ WOW! That is outrageous. Is there any good Aussie Whiskey?

[Looper]

^I think a Tasmanian single malt won top honours at some annual international Malt Whisky competition a little while back.

[Hugh Cow]

I think there is about 10 Australian distilleries around the country. Most if not all have only been around since 1992. I believe some are quite good quality. Outside of the very occasional Irish whisky, I only drink american whiskey so I cannot give you much information. Maybe a thread on American whiskey would be quite interesting as many brands are unavailable in Oz and they have some great history and stories with them.
I have heard that the Mckenna whiskey sold in Australia is actually made at the four roses distillery rather than at Bardstown where Its made for the American market. Some cross fertilisation with the heavenly Hill distillery which I think also owns Evan Williams Distillery in Louisville.
I believe the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchberg Tenn is in a "dry" county and cannot actually be purchased there.
Sorry all this talk has made me thirsty. I'm off to Dan Murphys to select a nice bottle of Bourbon.

[bsnub]

I only drink american whiskey

In OZ it appears that is a very expensive habit.

Maybe a thread on American whiskey would be quite interesting as many brands are unavailable in Oz and they have some great history and stories with them.

This is true and maybe you should start one. Or we could keep hijacking this one. Personally it is all Whiskey to me. Most of the high browing comes from the Scotch drinkers though.

I believe the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchberg Tenn is in a "dry" county and cannot actually be purchased there.

That is true and those people in the midwest and south are very religious and tend to like tRUMP they are very different from those of us on the coasts.

I'm off to Dan Murphys to select a nice bottle of Bourbon.

Enjoy mate.

[Hugh Cow]

Drinking a good bourbon and liking Trump would be akin to drinking 17 year old Eagle Rare with a piss chaser.

[Looper]

Got a bottle of Talisker Storm at the weekend.

Sorry, first photo got the wrong focus-point.





I was led to believe, from some reviews on the net, that Talisker was a smoky whisky and that the Storm bottling was smokier than usual but I cannot say that there is much of a smoky aroma to this stuff. Certainly not compared to super-charged satanic Smokehead.

It is still very delishly rich and textured but not really a smoke-blower.

I will maybe try the Talisker 10 year old next time.

[cyrille]

I got through a fair bit of it on Skye a few years ago and also visited the distillery.

I've read it described as generally peaty/smoky too, but I didn't find it so either.

[Looper]

Can you make a 10-year-old whisky in weeks? Chemistry says yes

Over the past few years the whisky-drinking world has been introduced to several new products that claim to produce high-quality liquor in just a fraction of the time usually required to age single malt spirits.

Instead of maturing the whisky for a decade or more in oak barrels, some distillers say they can replicate the quality and taste in a matter of weeks.



As global whisky consumption continues to rise, could these new ageing techniques be the answer to protecting supply? Or are the claims too good to be true?

And even if the taste measures up, does that still necessarily make it the same as a fine aged malt?

Recent innovators in this field include Lost Spirits, whose prize-winning rums and single malts use a patented combination of light and heat to speed up the ageing process.

Cleveland Whiskey creates whiskies and bourbons in high-pressure stainless steel tanks that mix the spirit with new wood combinations, creating unique flavours in days.

Highspire Whiskey uses wine barrels and adds oak wood chips to get a product aged in just four months.

Tuthilltown Spirits, a distillery based in New York, blasts music through stereo speakers to get their barrels vibrating!

Australia's homegrown example is Deviant Distillery based in Tasmania, which claims to have created a single malt spirit that has the "chemical composition and flavour identical to a 10-year-old whisky".

Before we test the validity of such a claim, we should review how brown liquors are made.
The basic chemistry of making spirits

Whiskies come in different variants (scotch, bourbon, rye, and so on) but are all essentially produced with just three simple ingredients: water, grain and yeast.

The most commonly used grains are barley, wheat, rye or corn.

Some spirits are subject to regulations, such as Scotch whisky which must be produced from malted barley, or bourbon which must be made from at least 51 per cent corn.

The first step is to germinate the grain in water.

This releases enzymes that break down starches in the grain into sugars. This process is stopped by drying, and the "malt" (the germinated grain) is collected, before the sugars are redissolved in water.

Yeast is then added to convert the sugars to alcohol. By the end of this stage, the brew contains about 8 per cent alcohol.

Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.
Video: For Peat's Sake: The curious secret ingredient behind a winning whisky (Landline)

The next step is distillation, where the different alcohols are separated, and the fraction that contains ethanol is collected.

This process is usually repeated until this fraction contains upwards of 70 per cent ethanol, some water, and a rich tapestry of chemicals that have been collected along the way.

Next, the distillate is transferred into charred oak barrels for ageing, where flavours such as vanilla, coconut and butterscotch are extracted into the whisky.

During warm weather, increased pressure causes alcohol to move through the charred wooden pores, absorbing chemicals in the wood and filtering out impurities.

When the temperature cools, the spirit moves in the reverse direction, and as this process repeats over time the liquor is slowly filtered through the barrel.
Would you try the fast liquor, or are you happy with your traditionally aged malt? Join the comments.

Speeding up the chemistry

You might think that speeding up the ageing process is simply a case of extracting the flavours more quickly from the oak barrels, but the chemistry is more complex than that.

Chemical reactions create new molecules, many of which are credited with the properties of the longest aged whiskies.

But at the end of the day it is all just chemistry, and this brave new generation of innovators is using science to try and speed up the process.

Innovative ageing vessels, coupled with clever manipulations of light and temperature, have been found to achieve authentic results in quick time.
Whisky barrels in Tasmania.
Photo: Whisky is traditionally aged in barrels, a process that takes years. (ABC News)

One of the most innovative approaches currently getting some attention is through ultrasound.

The underlying phenomenon driving these reactions is called acoustic cavitation — the formation, growth and collapse of microscopic bubbles under the influence of a sound field.

Blasting spirits with ultrasound has been shown to speed up the ageing process of spirits and accelerate the formation of certain esters that give spirits their distinctive tastes.

Many of the spirits that have been aged in this way cannot be sold with the names of familiar spirits, as they did not undergo the regulated minimum ageing process.

For example, Deviant Distillery is not allowed to call its product whisky because it has not been aged for two years.
But how do they taste?

So the chemistry of fast liquor is effectively sound, but how does it taste?

Research at the Food Safety and Measurement Facility at the University of California, Davis, has mapped the "chemical fingerprint" of 60 American whiskies.

This study identified between 30 and 50 specific compounds that are responsible for differentiating the taste of one drop from another.

In the case of Lost Spirits, they have published forensic data showing a favourable comparison to a 33-year-old sample.

More to the point, their Reactor Aged Islay Whisky recently won the coveted "Liquid Gold" standard.

Chemicals such as isopropanol react with fatty acids to form ester molecules, which impart many of the classic whisky flavours.

By using ultrasonic waves or other ways of inputting energy, these ester-forming reactions can potentially yield unique flavours that are different from those of conventionally aged spirits.

So should we give these fast liquors a go? After all, are they not just alcohol and water with a handful of trace flavour molecules?

Provided we can strike the special balance between dreamy romantic whiskies while hastening the ageing process, these technologies might just help us rethink and reinvent a whole new spectrum of flavours and experiences.

Can you make a 10-year-old whisky in weeks? Chemistry says yes - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

[stroller]

Yes, adding wood chips creates flavour very fast, but in my (very limited) experience doesn't change the raw 'metallic' flavour of a young spirit, also lacks the complexity one gets with aging.

The ultrasonic sounds interesting, I shall give it a go.

[Looper]

^Now that there seems to be a way to make 'fake' 10-year-old single malt we may see the Chinese enter the market for the first time!

[stroller]

For a "smokehead", just buy some vodka and add:

[buriramboy]

Just go buy a bottle of GLENFARCLAS you'll never look back and plus you know you'll be contributing to my retirement. Best single malt ever distilled.

[Dillinger]

Sounds like it would be right up Loopers street

.Tasting Note by The Chaps at Master of Malt
Nose: Apple, orange, less sherry than the 15yo. Peppermint again?!

Palate: Incredibly smooth. Barley-rich, just a textbook smoothness and rounded character that leaves you gasping for another sip…

Finish: Long, barley-rich, awesomely smooth, very little oak influence.

Overall: Very, very pleasant. Could teach Roger Moore a thing or two about smoothness

[Looper]

For a "smokehead", just buy some vodka and add:

Would that actually work stroll or is that a joke?

As you know I am not above a bit of doctoring of my dram!

I think that kind of tampering should probably be reserved for a blend though.

[klong toey]

I watched this episode of Booze Traveller lastnight.

Most Expensive Scotch Whisky | Travel Channel

[Stumpy]

In this day and age Bourbon, Scotch, whiskey and Tequila have become complex and the aging in various barrels completely changes the taste and especially the Nose. I like all I mentioned above and have bottles from 8 to 25 years. There is a huge difference in all aspects based on age and Barrel. But to know that you have to have tasted many across the spectrum. I will say that I have had some really good 12 year that were better or at least equivalent to a 25.

I have become more interested in Anejo's and how the various distillers are rolling the Agave and barrels used. Herradura has a Reposada aged 3 years in a cognac cask. Quite delish to sip and a nose to match.

[Stumpy]

Anyone taste the Jefferson Reserve bourbon? Outstanding for the value.

I recently tried adding an Ice cube to a glass of Bourbon. Quite honestly it ruined it.

[stroller]

Would that actually work stroll or is that a joke?

As you know I am not above a bit of doctoring of my dram!

I think that kind of tampering should probably be reserved for a blend though.

I haven't tried it.
There used to be a smokey ricewhiskey available at the Mai Sai duty free, which I suspected of being made by adding flavour, but i don't know. Worth a go just out of curiousity.

[Luigi]

Just go buy a bottle of GLENFARCLAS you'll never look back

Do they sell that in Tops?


Might pick up a single-malt tomorrow for Friday lunch, selection allowing.

[stroller]

The ultrasonic sounds interesting, I shall give it a go.

Test in progress:
Sample bottle at 60 C for 1 hour.



Tastes no different.
Shall 'fry' it for an hour every day.