Over the past two years, Highland Park has released three special bottlings to commemorate the dramatic Nordic history of the Orkney Islands, where the distillery is situated: Earl Magnus, Saint Magnus and Earl Hakon.

The current bottling, which is exclusive to Duty Free, commemorates Leif Eriksson the Norse warrior and navigator who is credited with being the first European to set foot on the American Continent in 1003 - nearly five hundred years before Columbus.

This month Charles reviews the Glenrothes Vintage 1991.

This month Charles Maclean reviews Glenmorangie 'Extremely Rare' 18 Year Old
Living Legacy.

This month Charles Maclean reviews Glenlivet Master Distiller's Reserve, a Single Speyside Malt which is a worldwide travel retail exclusive.

Glenmorangie has long led the way in pioneering ‘wood finishing’ – maturing the spirit in American oak ex-Bourbon casks, then re-racking for the final years of maturation into casks which have previously contained other spirits or wines.

This month Charles Maclean reviews Glenfiddich 19 year old - Age of Discovery, a new Travel Retail exclusive which is released shortly after the much sought after Glenfiddich Snow Phoenix.





Tasting Note:
Deep amber in colour, with an initial aroma reminiscent of fruit and nut chocolate, with a mossy note behind. The fruits are both fresh (pears) and caramelised – figs, angelica, sultanas; light fruitcake, gently infused with Madeira (scarcely apparent), with a warm pastry note behind. With a drop of water the nose opens and gains Speyside characteristics (pear drops), and a light meaty note, like roast pork. It has a pleasant smooth texture, and a light body; sweet overall, fresh, spicy and drying in the finish. With water the sweetness is reduced somewhat, but it remains fresh and spicy (stem ginger? Black pepper?), leaving an aftertaste of almonds in the medium length finish.


Occasion: At teatime, with Madeira cake

Comment: A rich and complex expression of the world's favourite malt!

The Malt that started it all!

A gentle nose, with scents of violets and fresh fruits (melon, white grapes, fresh pears) - some sweety malty notes to start, but these disappear. Even fresher with water. a soft mouthfeel and a crisp taste - sweet and slightly acidic, with a trace of milk chocolate in the aftertaste.

A supremely 'accessible' malt - light and easy to drink, simple in structure, friendly and unchallenging. A perfect introduction to malt whisky.

In the latest of his monthly instalments, Charles Maclean gives his thoughts on the Malt of the Month: Glenfiddich Snow Phoenix.

Full gold with amber lights; good legs and a voluptuous texture. A deep fruity bouquet, reminiscent of pears in syrup or fruit salad juicy - with planed wood and light toast behind. A fresh and lively taste at full strength, with a lightly sweet start, considerable citric acidity and traces of coconut; warming, with a medium-length finish, leaving the mouth tingling.

Last winter was hard on Speyside. During the first week of January, in particular, it snowed hard, then froze, then snowed again for days and days. Nobody had seen anything like it in living memory. Cattle-sheds and steadings collapsed under the weight of snow and ice; the flat roof of Tesco's Elgin branch was feared for; half the schools in Morayshire were closed.

But the worst effects of the weather were seen by the whisky industry. The roofs of twenty of Chivas Brothers maturation warehouses at Mulben caved in, burying, it was reported, more than a hundred million gallons of malt whisky. Diageo lost a store at Cragganmore, and suffered light damage elsewhere. Macallan was battered but unbowed. And at Glenfiddich Distillery, Dufftown, where all the whisky is matured on site, the Aberdeen Press & Journal reported that the roofs of three huge warehouses had collapsed, and that Moray Council had alerted R.A.F. Kinloss, which was prepared to offer temporary warehousing in aircraft hangers.

Glenfiddich Malt Master, Brian Kinsman, commented: Standing amongst the wreckage and casks exposed to the night sky at -19°C, as we worked round the clock to clear the snow, I was thinking about how the casks, some of which were very old, contained some beautiful whisky and it occurred to me that they would create a fantastic non-aged single malt. A limited edition bottling from the whiskies in the damaged warehouses would be an appropriate way of celebrating the pioneering spirit of the distillery team at this moment in Glenfiddich's history.

A photographer was shooting the scene and rather fittingly, when we looked at the pictures, the light shining through the warehouse roofs looked like a phoenix rising above us. I suppose this was the moment of conception of Glenfiddich Snow Phoenix.

As it says on the neck label: "Glenfiddich single malt Scotch whisky born of chance and adversity". Indeed. The bottle does not bear an age statement, but the casks going into it range from 13 to 30 years old, and include American oak ex-Bourbon barrels and European oak ex-sherry butts, I am told. It is bottled at a natural strength of 47.6% Vol and has not been chill-filtered, which enhances its flavour and texture. It is a limited edition malt (albeit in an edition of 60,000 bottles), and cannot be repeated. As Brian Kinsman says: “It is the most spontaneous whisky we have ever produced We usually spend years meticulously planning everything Yet it is of the same meticulous standard we achieve for all our whiskies.

Shifting snow around the clock gave the Glenfiddich team a deep admiration for those who work in extreme conditions. The company has therefore dedicated Snow Phoenix to the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team (CMRT), which battles harsh environments to save lives in the heart of Speyside every winter, and has made a special contribution to their funds.

This month Charles MacLean celebrates the arrival of The Cardhu 12 Year Old to the World of Whiskies.

A gentle nose, with scents of violets and fresh fruits (melon, white grapes, fresh pears) - some sweety malty notes to start, but these disappear. Even fresher with water. a soft mouthfeel and a crisp taste - sweet and slightly acidic, with a trace of milk chocolate in the aftertaste.

A supremely 'accessible' malt - light and easy to drink, simple in structure, friendly and unchallenging. A perfect introduction to malt whisky.

Cardhu pronounced ˜Cardoo", and for a long time Anglicised as ˜Cardow: is probably most famous as the heart of the Johnnie Walker blends, although it is so popular (particularly in Spain) that I wonder how much makes its way into them.  

The distillery's colourful history goes back many decades before 1893, however, when Walkers bought it. 

It is situated on high ground above the River Spey  a remote spot on the edge of moorland until modern times. John Cumming took the tenancy of a farm here in 1811, and soon turned his hand to illicit whisky making and was convicted three times in 1816 alone for this, although sympathetic magistrates let him off lightly. 

It is said that his wife, Helen, was an expert distiller. There is a charming story about her being visited late one winter night by a small creature, shivering with cold, while she was distilling. Asked where she came from, the creature replied; Seean Mannoch (i.e. ˜the Fairy Hillock of Mannoch"). Helen gave her a dram of new whisky in a wooden bowl, and after the fairy had drained it she threw the bowl in the fire, saying: Brew, wifie, brew, for you and yours will never want. 

And so it came to be. John went legal in 1824, and by the early 1830s was being assisted by his son Lewis. The distillery was tiny, but this did not bother Lewis, who believed in the quality of spirit to be had from small stills. However, the fame of his whisky travelled south; by the mid-1840s he was making 200,000 litres a year [today's output is over ten times this], and most of it was being sold in Edinburgh.

Just as his father was helped by his mother, so Lewis was assisted by his wife, Elizabeth, who took over the farm and distillery on Lewis death in 1872. She was a remarkable woman, and soon became a legend in the whisky trade. By now demand for Cardow far exceeded supply. First she persuaded her landlord to grant her a charter (or perpetual lease) of a site not far away, then, in 1883/84 she built a new a larger distillery, using the same source of water and peats. She sold her old stills to William Grant, who would soon build Glenfiddich Distillery. The annual output was now three times that of Old Cardow. 

The late 1880s and 1890s are know as the years of the Whisky Boom. Blended Scotch was king and demand for it was insatiable. In order to maintain their supplies, blending houses bought or built distilleries all over Scotland – although Speyside was the style they favoured most: sweet and elegant, it was often described as having finesse.

Elizabeth Cumming received several offers to buy, but resisted them until John Walker & Sons, already one of the leading blending firms, approached her in 1893. She agreed to sell on condition that her son, John, who had been managing the distillery for his mother for some time, was made a director of Walkers, with a minimum salary of £200 a year and £5,000 worth of shares in the company. He built himself an attractive mansion outside Aberlour village on the other side of the River Spey The Dowans , now a good hotel. His son, Ronald, would in time become chairman of Walker's and (now Sir Ronald Cumming) of the mighty Distillers Company Limited (DCL), which Walker's joined in 1925.

Cardhu/Cardow is ranked Top Class by blenders. As a result, only a tiny amount was bottled as a single malt until 1981 when, under pressure from Sir Ronnie, the DCL packaged it in the distinctive bottle it has today and began to support it with advertising. This was the first time the company promoted any of its whiskies as a single malt. Its fortunes lay with blended Scotch household names like Dewar's, Haig, White Horse, Black & White, Buchanan's and Usher's, were all part of its stable as well as Johnnie Walker and the directors saw no reason to change this.

At the same time, Cardhu Distillery became the showcase for visitors  not the general public, but VIPs and journalists, by invitation. This was a dramatic change in policy for the DCL, which at that time was so secretive that even its distillery managers were not encouraged to talk to one another! Times were changing, and the Age of Malt was dawning.