Both tastings include whisky from my own collection, and both have the theme “Independent Spirit.” I’ll only be using whisky from independent bottlers. 

The Monk’s Cafe tasting is sold out, but sometimes people cancel at the last minute. If you want to go, call them the day of the event. 

Here are the details: 

Tuesday, March 2, 2010  
Monks Café | Philadelphia, PA
Single Malt Scotch tasting
215-545-7005  

For my Monk’s Cafe tasting, we’ll be tasting eight single malts from eight different distilleries and from eight different independent bottlers. The list is below. The independent bottler is in parenthesis. Most are cask strength and all but two are over 20 years old. 

Inverleven, 1991, (Gordon & MacPhail)
Bladnoch, 16 years old, cask strength, (John McDougall’s Selection)
Glenrothes, 35 years old!, cask strength (Lonach)
Imperial, 1979, cask strength, (Mackillop’s Choice)
Glenlivet, 1973, cask strength, (Scott’s Selection)
Bruichladdich, 1986, cask strength, (Blackadder)
Bunnahabhain, 1978, cask strength, (Signatory)
Caol Ila, 1984, (Lombard “Jewels of Scotland”) 

Monday, March 22, 2010
“DBA” Bar | New York, NY
Single Malt Scotch tasting
212-475-5097

I still haven’t selected my whiskies for this event yet.

Hopefully, I’ll see you at one of these events (or perhaps at one of our three WhiskyFests this year).

Share your great finds with us so we can benefit too. (Retailers: please, no self-promoting.) What did you find, how much was it, and where did you get it?

I found out from Luxist.com that Harrods is selling what’s called the Macallan Linley Whisky Case. (Click on the picture for a larger view.) To quote Harrods:

The Macallan is one of the world’s most awarded and admired Single Malts. This peerless reputation has been built on the commitment of The Macallan’s craftsmen.

Macallan commissioned renowned craftsman Viscount Linley to produce this exquisite whisky cabinet. Unique in every way, this is the only one in existence, was produced solely for Harrods and contains six bottles of vintage Macallan malt whisky from 1937, 1940, 1948, 1955, 1966 and 1970.

It is handcrafted from English Burr Oak and also includes six bespoke Linley crystal tumblers as well as a cigar humidor. This is pure luxury. Antique dealers will be dying to get their hands on this in the future making this the perfect investment.

You can find the link to the Harrods site  here, if you want to buy it for me form my birthday and lay it away until June. I promise to share the whisky with you. I’ll even buy the cigars.

Excluding whisk(e)y for the moment, what have you used and enjoyed that can you recommend for the whisk(e)y enthusiast this holiday season?

Of course, the first item on everyone’s list should be a gift subscription to Malt Advocate, especially since I am offering a “two years for the price of one” deal here until the end of the year. But what else can you recommend?

I am offering a “two years of Malt Advocate for the price of one” to any new subscriber. (It also makes a great gift!). Many of you have already taken us up on this offer. It’s good through December. Just follow the link above to my original post for more information.

Malt Advocate really is a great whisky magazine. And now you have a chance to get it for a great price too!  Slainte!

Whiskynotes is something to tide you over between issues of Malt Advocate. It contains:

A summary of my most recent blog postings (with links) in case you haven’t visited WDJK lately.

A summary of the most recent national and international whisky news items, with links to the source.

My most recent whisky reviews and ratings.

Hot new whisky books and other whisky-related items in our Marketplace.

Whisky recipes.

A listing of upcoming whisky tastings and events.

And much more!

Best of all, it’s free! All you have to do is give us your email address  by clicking on the link here. And, of course, if you ever decide that you don’t want to receive it anymore, just send us an email and we’ll take you off the list.

I realize that many of you have never had the opportunity to read a copy of Malt Advocate magazine, which I founded nearly 18 years ago. Or, perhaps, you read a copy many years ago, when the magazine was still evolving.

If you like WDJK, then you’ll love Malt Advocate magazine. I might be a little biased here, but I think Malt Advocate is the finest whisky magazine on the market. We have the best writers in the business, covering all of the world’s finest whiskies.

Maybe some of you who are already subscribers can add your thoughts about the magazine below in the comment section.

You can also peruse a digital version of our most recent issue here, which we posted up on our website.

For those of you who aren’t subscribing yet, I am going to offer you this very special deal. If you subscribe for one year, I’m going to throw in a second year–free! This offer is for any new subscriber, regardless of where you live. I’m doing this because I am confident that, after reading Malt Advocate for two years, you’ll renew your subscription. For those of you who are already subscribers (and thank you for that, by the way), you can still take advantage of this offer by telling your friends about it or by buying them a gift subscription.

I’ll keep this offer open until December 31, 2009. Here are links to the subscription pages with the special “two for one” deal.

U.S. Residents ($18)
Canadian Residents ($24)
All other countries ($40)

I hope this offer provides enough incentive for you to begin enjoying Malt Advocate for years to come. And if you have any questions, please post them up and I’ll try to answer them.

I know it’s possible that some of you haven’t seen Malt Advocate before. Well, we’re  kind of proud of it. In fact, we think it’s the best whisky magazine out there. (It’s also the oldest–we are in our 19th year!)

Okay, so maybe we’re a little biased. We’ll let you decided for yourself. Here’s the link to our website.

Just click on the “free preview” banner. You’ll be able to page through a portion of the magazine without having do to anything. It will then prompt you for your email address. This will do two things:

1. Allow you to see the rest of the magazine
2. Send you an email alerting you when the next online issue is posted up, so you can look at that one too! How’s that for being generous?

Have a look. Enjoy! (Oh, and if you like what you see, you might even want to subscribe to the paper version…)

I’m not limiting this to Scotch whisky. Please post up information about any distillery selling their whisky by the cask, regardless of where they are. And if you can provide a link to their website that mentions the offer, all the better.  Distilleries can chime in here too. Let’s share the information with everyone.

Thanks!

Small Cask Purchase Opportunity
We have recently started filling Octave casks with our new spirit and are selling these for private consumption to either private individuals or groups of friends. The Octaves contain around 50 litres of Spirit and are anticipated to mature quickly with bottling anticipated after around 5 to 7 years. The price per cask is affordable for an individual or as a purchase by a whisky club with the opportunity to personalise the cask by having your own inscription on one end of it and also be personalising the bottles at a future date.

To find out more about this opportunity then the best starting point is to read my original blog on the subject and the comments at the end of the blog, http://blog.glenglassaugh.com/?p=76 it is also worth reading the two question and answer blogs http://blog.glenglassaugh.com/?p=80 and http://blog.glenglassaugh.com/?p=82 

If you have any questions, just email me direct (stuart.nickerson@glenglassaugh.com) and I will do my best to answer them.

Kind Regards

Stuart Nickerson
Managing Director
Glenglassaugh Distillery Company Limited