August 2007
The Thirteenth Edition of "A Whiff of Peat Smoke...." , Why ? because i can !
As Summer rolls on at least they should have enough water for Distilling !
The 2007 Whisky Fringe
Well another great Whisky Fringe has come and gone .
Started off with lunch and a couple of drams at The Vaults, crossed Glen Albyn off my list of tasted distilleries and had the Glenmorangie Whisky With.... Festival bottling , nice but not as good as the previous 2 society Glenmos.
Another great Whisky fringe in spectacular surroundings , the Mansfield Traquair is superb . Lots of good whisky , had the new Auld Reekie , Lonach Glenrothes from Mark at the DTC Table , Bunnahabhain 25yo , Farclas 30yo , new Glenmo 10yo , New Glenmo Sauterne Finish , Glenmo Margaux finish amongst others and yes a rum before anyone says anything (Arthur made me.....). As well as meeting up with Livvy , Francis and Keith , also met John Ward and Leither from the Bladnoch Forum for the first time . Also got to have a natter with old friends Stephen , David, Martin , Annabel and of Course Mr Joynson behind the tables and catch up with the gossip . I must say this event just keeps getting better and better , Cheers Keir and Arthur for another great event that is pretty much perfect in everyway , to next year !
Daftmill Newsletter
I've just received a copy of the first Daftmill Newsletter from our good friend Francis , very informative it is too , very professional for a small family run concern .
If you would like to be on the mailing list for this and future copies contact Francis at infoatdaftmill.com (substitute @ for at !)
Water , Water.....
As we're going through what i can remember as one of the wettest summers , well at least since 1998 ! We got extremely wet that year camping in Scotland , first time in a tent with a moat..... So wet that we gave up camping after that year . I wonder how long it will be before it's announced it's the wrong type of water for distilling , well not for distilling but for collecting to store for distilling ? I reading somewhere recently that Islay is infact a giant peat sponge , it gathers the rain over the winter then releases it slowly over the rest of the year but it didn't collect enough this year due to a dry period .
Though i suppose if there's a water shortage it'll takes the spotlight off the oil shortage !
Another related water shortage is the lack of mains water on Islay basically if your building a new dwelling on certain parts of the Isle you've got little or no chance of being connected to the mains by the utility company . This is one of the main reasons why the proposed re-developement of that well known eyesore the Islay Hotel in Port Ellen hasn't happened . If your into the green ways , like rainwater harvesting , apparently you've got a better chance ......
Kevins a top Blog !
Nice to see that Kevin Erskines The Scotch Blog was voted the best Whisky Blog on the internet by that well known Whisky Magazine the eh.... Whisky Magazine ! He deserves it , he does a good job , mixing news with interesting articles . At least he just doesn't harvest news like some ....... Keep up the good work Kev , look forward to our next meeting .
Get Rid of UK Duty Petition
One of the major gripes about being a Whisky Drinker in the UK is the amount of duty we have to cough up . There has been an online petition started up to Abolish the duty , it may not happen but at least it will let the Government know we're not happy about it ! So if you reside in the UK click the link below and sign it ! (closing date 9th August 2007) Last month to sign it !!!!
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Whisky/
