Abbey's Twitter Tweet Tasting!

Whisky: Abbey Whisky's Ben Nevis 16 Year Old Rare Casks 3rd Release

Distillery/Brand:
Ben Nevis

Bottling:

Ben Nevis 16 Year Old The Rare Casks Abbey Whisky

Region:
Speyside

ABV:
55%

Colour:

Old Gold

A Quick Note:  This Post will actually be two whisky reviews.  From the latest releases from Independent bottler Abbey Whisky.

Review:
A little over a month ago I was contacted by the owner of Abbey Whisky who asked me if I'd like to try a couple new whiskies that he'd just bottled and better yet would I like to try them in a tweet tasting.

I'd heard of tweet tastings before, tastings where whisky geeks from all over the world get together at one agreed upon time and try whiskies live on twitter, comparing notes on the spot with what do you think, what distillery, what age, everything.

To say that I was surprised and honored would be a massive understatement.  I would be thrilled to take part in such a tasting.  However when I was informed of what time the tasting would be my heart sank just a little.  Around 3am local Aussie time.  In the middle of the week.

Oh well who the hell needs sleep!?

About a week before the twitter tasting the whisky samples arrived, which partially surprised me considering the Aussie Postal Service.  Inside the box were 4 different whisky samples.  Abbey Whisky's Rare Casks 1: Caperdonich 17 yr old (a favorite!)Abbey Whisky's Rare Casks 2: Bunnahabhain 23 yr old, Abbey Whisky's Rare Casks 3: Ben Nevis 16 yr old (a new one!) and a mystery dram!

Excellent!  A whisky that I love, a whisky that I enjoy and 2 new whiskies!  I've got to be honest I am a huge fan of Abbey Whisky's bottlings, having owned quite a few and sampled even more, I knew I was in for a treat.

Eventually the night of the tasting came along, wound up being a perfect day as everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, but I had Abbey's tasting to look forward in the wee hours of the morning.

I crashed at 9pm, having set an alarm for 2:30am, time enough for me to shower and wake up in time for the tasting....and ding! It's 145am and I'm awake.  Oh well as with so many things, it's easy come, easy go with sleep.  I hop into the shower to wake up and am at my desk in time for the tasting.  I log into Twitter, excited even though I'm tired.

Wow, there are some very well known people in this tasting, brand ambassadors, famous whisky writers, I've heard of everyone of them.  And I;m involved in this?!  Holy cow I'm going to learn heaps! 

We start with the Caperdonich 17 yr old which is a personal favorite, however while enjoyed by all of the other tasters, you can tell it's not a favorite for many of them.  We then move onto the Bunnahabhain 23 yr old which is an instant favorite for most of the other tasters, but is just enjoyable for me.

It's awesome to say the least being in this tasting, watching and typing in tasting notes live, sometimes seeing someone throw out an observation and other people pick it up.  Even cooler is that I seem to be keeping up ok.  I normally will take an hour or 90 minutes to review a whisky from start to finish.  Here our time schedule is about 30 minutes per whisky.  You can take longer if you want, but generally speaking everyone has moved on to the next whisky after 35 or so minutes.

We then move onto the Ben Nevis 16 yr old.  it's obviously a sherry cask aged whisky by the deep dark color.  It's a distillery that I've never tried before, but drove near it while my wife and I were in Scotland.  It's named after the biggest mountain in Scotland, and I'm so excited to experience a brand new distillery.

I pour half of my sample bottle into a fresh glencairn as how been my routine for this tasting, fighting the yawns and the grins.  I refresh my palate and start nosing the glass.

Definitely big sherry notes here, there's a faint burnt match/rubbery aroma from some sulfur, but it isn't unpleasant at all, in fact it's growing on me.  Spices, cinnamon, nutmeg, some chocolate, subtle smoke, tobacco, in fact cigar tobacco.  It's a bold nose and at one point I request that a bottle be set aside for me off the nose alone.  I'm loving it!

After about 10 to 15 minutes nosing the whisky it's time to taste,  some of the tasters are adding a drop or two of water after having tried the whisky neat, but I'm not, as is usual for me and my cask strength whiskies!

The Ben Nevis is clinging to the glass, quite oily, and when I take a sip it blows me away.  This is a whisky that drinks above it's weight.  It's big and bold!  Huge spices, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, nutty and chocolate, dark fruits, sultanas and raisins, leathery, delicious!

The finish is massive, long, huge in fact, again punching above it's weight with the sherry and chocolate just lingering.

This is an awesome whisky, huge and breathtaking, and bloody affordable at around $100ish AUS.  However if you're picking up a bottle you'll need to move quick as there's only 96 bottles in this outturn and at least one is coming home with me!

Abbey Whisky Rare Cask 3 Release: Ben Nevis 16 Year Old
Nose:        23/25
Taste:        23/25 
Finish:       22/25
Balance:     22/25

Overall:      90/100

Whisky: GlenDronach 1993 20 year old Abbey Whisky bottling

Distillery/Brand:
GlenDronach

Bottling:

GlenDronach 1993 20 Year Old AW

Region:
Speyside

ABV:
59.1%

Colour:

Oloroso

Review:
After enjoying the lovely Ben Nevis 16 year old, Rare Casks 3rd Release, we were moving onto the mystery dram for the night.  It was a deep dark, almost black color. 

At this point in the tasting it's now about 415am or so for me, I've had about 4 hours of sleep and have just tasted half drams of 3 cask strength whiskies.

I'm having a massive amount of fun, really wishing that my wife was up and joining us, but she works even longer hours then I do and there's no way in the world she'll be able to get by on 4 hours sleep. 

But this tasting is brilliant, possibly one of the best tastings I've ever taken part in.  Roughly 3 dozen different whisky geeks, from all walks of life, enjoying the exact same whisky at the exact same time, all over the world.

And the night was going to end with a bang.  Up comes the mystery dram and the first thing everyone is commenting about is the color.  This deep, dark sexy color. 

People all over the world are nosing this whisky and there are exclamations of joy and surprise with wild guesses abounding!

It's a Glenfarclas, no it's a Macallan, no it's Aberlour, no it's an ancient grain whisky, it's young, it's ancient!

I'm right in there with them, guessing first a Glenfarclas and then I hesitate.

The nose is familiar, very familiar.  It's not a distillery that I've had much of, but there is a tingling in the back of my head.

Throughout this Abbey Whisky just calmly says "no" to all the guesses.  Heck we don't even know the ABV on the whisky, the only thing we know is that it's a sherry cask by the color.

Let's start with the nose shall we?

Typical sherry nose, but it's darn near perfect, none of the sulfur notes that you oftentimes will pick up from sherry buttes, no burnt matches or rubber or anything along those lines.

Just lots and lots of dark fruits, cherries, sultanas, plums, spices, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, it is just lovely plain and simple.

The nose is reminding me of something, something important. 

Everyone's tasting notes are flying across the screen, along with minor discussions on age and distillery of this mystery dram.

Tasting time, maybe that will give me the final clue.

Dark chocolate, coffee, leather, sultanas, figs, cherries, cinnamon, lots of nuts, almonds.  Reminds me of an older Glenfarclas, but that's not it.

The finish is long, intense, perfectly balanced with the sherry notes hanging on forever.

Where have I tasted something like this!?

THAT'S IT!

It's got to be a GlenDronach!  The very last time I had a GlenDronach was while in Scotland while overlooking the Talisker distillery on the Isle of Skye, Roy our guide had given me an as unyet released cask strength GlenDronach, bottled by Cadenheads.

Just as I announce this happily and with heaps of pleasure, in my twitter feed appears the information that it is indeed a GlenDronach!

I was right!  Not that I could prove it as pretty much those tweets appeared at the same time, but I feel an enormous sense of pride.  I can tell most of the Aussie distilleries apart by nose, but I hate to say it, with the Scottish distilleries I sometimes struggle and feel a little bit like an idiot.

Huzzah for not being an idiot!

Let's jump back to the whisky details really quick as it's now been revealed what distillery this mystery dram is from.

It's a 20 year old GlenDronach, from 1993, cask 33, bottled at a cask strength of 59.1% with 592 bottles coming out of an Oloroso sherry butte, it was bottled exclusively for Abbey Whisky.

The bottles are currently selling for 90 pounds, including VAT which translates roughly into $140 AUS which is bloody good value in my mind.  I will be picking up a couple bottles of this one for drinking pleasure along with the Ben Nevis 16 year old.  However unlike my Caperdonich 17 year old (Rare Casks 1) these are all for semi immediate consumption.

Back to the tweet tasting!  As mentioned in the Ben Nevis review to say that it was an honor to be invited along, to sit with so many very experienced whisky bloggers and reviewers and even more to have my thoughts carry weight.  So many of these bloggers have THOUSANDS of twitter followers, I have 35 followers, and I picked up 9 through the twitter tasting.  To be allowed to express my thoughts about this whisky, these whiskies, in a serious medium, was just amazing.  Out tasting wound up trending #3 in the entire UK by the time we finished.  Literally thousands upon thousands of people, in fact possibly tens of thousands, wound up reading our words.  How cool is that?!

First off thank you Abbey Whisky and The Whisky Wire in including me in this tasting, secondly if you enjoy a really good sherry cask whisky I do believe you'll love Abbey Whisky's GlenDronach!

Nose:        24/25
Taste:        24/25
Finish:       22/25
Balance:     22/25
 
Overall:      92/100

Something Awesome This Way Comes 2!


Whisky: Master of Malt Clynelish Batch 2 Boutiquey Whisky Company

Distillery/Bottler: 
Master of Malt

Bottling: 
Clyenish Batch 2

Region: 
Highland

ABV: 
50.6%

Color: 
Pale Gold

Review: 
I work for a craft beer importer here in Perth Australia, I've worked here for almost 2 years now.  During that entire time I would talk whisky again and again and for the longest time there was no interest in us importing, distributing or even selling whisky.  We wouldn't be able to do enough in sells to justify it, our 9 litres of alcohol minimum purchase that is government required would ensure that we couldn't sell spirits.

Obstacle after obstacle stood in the way and I had resigned myself to the fact that we would never sell whisky.  I contented myself by making whisky suggestions to our retail sister store, some of which were heeded and some of which were ignored.

And then came Whisky Live and my wife's and my trip to Scotland.  I started being invited to whisky events around Australia and when my wife and I went to Scotland almost every distillery and bottler that we visited did something special for us.

When I got back, things had changed.  The bosses were interested in whisky.  We had a new manager for our sister shop and the bosses informed me that I was in charge of the whisky selections of both shops.  It didn't matter what I chose as long as it sold.

I started with what I term "shadow imports."  Whiskies that would come into the country in very small numbers, independent bottlers, etc.  Nothing that the big chain stores would carry, nothing that they'd be able to sell and the whisky took off in a way that I couldn't believe.

We were selling a dozen or more whiskies each week, no sooner then I'd place an order and most of it would be sold out, even before it arrived.  It was mindblowing.

I kept bringing up the possibility of importing whiskies into the country for sell, but there was no interest, none at all.

Fair enough.

At one point I was informed that if I wanted whiskies from any countries that we currently brought beer in from that it wouldn't be a problem, so late one Saturday afternoon I made a decision.  I wanted whisky from a very specific bottler, for both my store and my sister store.

I chose Master of Malt Boutiquey Company whiskies, 500ml bottles of cask strength small batch whiskies, mainly single malts, with an awesome comic book label on the bottle, usually showing scenes from each of the distillery's history, but sometimes just awesome labels.

That's what I wanted.

I emailed the bosses a list of the whiskies that I wanted, asking what it would run us to bring them in for our shop.  And when I got into work on Tuesday I got a massive surprise.

The bosses were thrilled, these whiskies looked dead sexy, reasonable price points, did I think we'd be able to sell these whiskies to other bars and shops?

Yep!

I came up with a list of bottle shops, restaurants and bars where I thought it'd take off.  We made an order, and then that order doubled and was then doubled again.  The order has been placed and in a few months some new whiskies, never before seen for sale in Australia start coming in.

This sample is from Master of Malt which was sent to me months ago, in fact a few weeks before my wife and I visited Scotland.  And now with awesome toys on the way it's time to give it a crack!

This is Clynelish, which is the sister distillery to the legendary dead Brora, with a release of 319 bottles.  The label features three cats, a mother cat, a black cat who is Brota and a ginger tom, Clynelish, asking about eating cheeseburgers.  The mother cat is asking Clyenish why it can't be more like Brora who is very disdainful of his younger brother's labels.

God I love these labels!

The whisky pours a pale pale gold which is screaming bourbon barrels to me and is a slightly higher abv then the Highland Park that I recently tried, coming in at 50.6% ABV.

Let's tuck into the whisky shall we!?

The nose is so very fruity, melon, apricots, pears, peaches, honey oozes off the whisky in waves, hay, spices, coriander with some citrus, reminding me of a Belgian Wit beer, ginger, salt and the faintest wisp of smoke.

Very enjoyable nose, loving all the fruit and spices!

Time for a taste though, time for me to see if the body lives up to that nose!

Oh wow, I'm really digging this, oily, actually surprisingly oily.  Lots of spices, cinnamon, nutmeg, heaps of toasted oak, my wife says it tastes like sucking on a piece of bark, I disagree, but hey different strokes for different folks, white peppers, lots of lemon zest and salt (is this a margarita?!), sultanas, dark chocolate, coriander, hints of pear in the background.

WHOA!  I am definitely loving this whisky, there is a long finish with big oak, pears, apples, faint smoke, and caramel.

I really enjoyed this whisky and even though I haven't had a lot of experience with Clyenish what I have had, makes me want to go out and explore it more.  I personally suspect that this is a rather young whisky (which as those who know me know I do tend to really enjoy young whiskies with their vibrancy and omph). While being quite a bit more complex then the Highland Park, it's still not such a huge whisky that a beginner would be intimidated by trying it.

As mentioned earlier the abv is higher then the Highland Park batch 1, but is still not at a high enough level where I would think people would be reaching right for the water.  However after these two Boutiquey whiskies that I've tried, both neat, I've decided that I need to go out and purchase some more samples and see how well they play with water with new flavors stepping out and such.  I think for Christmas I need to ask my wife for samples of all the boutiquey's because I'm really enjoying them at this time!

Nose:        24/25
Taste:        23/25
Finish:       21/25
Balance:     21/25

Overall:     89/100

Something Awesome This Way Comes 1


Whisky: Master of Malt Highland Park Batch 1 Boutiquey Whisky Company

Distillery/Bottler: 
Master of Malt

Bottling: 
Highland Park Batch 1

Region: 
Island

ABV: 
44.7%

Color: 
Pale Gold

Review:
I work for a craft beer importer here in Perth Australia, I've worked here for almost 2 years now.  During that entire time I would talk whisky again and again and for the longest time there was no interest in us importing, distributing or even selling whisky.  We wouldn't be able to do enough in sells to justify it, our 9 litres of alcohol minimum purchase that is government required would ensure that we couldn't sell spirits.

Obstacle after obstacle stood in the way and I had resigned myself to the fact that we would never sell whisky.  I contented myself by making whisky suggestions to our retail sister store, some of which were heeded and some of which were ignored.

And then came Whisky Live and my wife's and my trip to Scotland.  I started being invited to whisky events around Australia and when my wife and I went to Scotland almost every distillery and bottler that we visited did something special for us.

When I got back, things had changed.  The bosses were interested in whisky.  We had a new manager for our sister shop and the bosses informed me that I was in charge of the whisky selections of both shops.  It didn't matter what I chose as long as it sold.

I started with what I term "shadow imports."  Whiskies that would come into the country in very small numbers, independent bottlers, etc.  Nothing that the big chain stores would carry, nothing that they'd be able to sell and the whisky took off in a way that I couldn't believe.

We were selling a dozen or more whiskies each week, no sooner then I'd place an order and most of it would be sold out, even before it arrived.  It was mindblowing.

I kept bringing up the possibility of importing whiskies into the country for sell, but there was no interest, none at all.

Fair enough.

At one point I was informed that if I wanted any countries that we currently brought beer in from that it wouldn't be a problem, so late one Saturday afternoon I made a decision.  I wanted whisky from a very specific bottler, for both my store and my sister store.

I chose Master of Malt Boutiquey Company whiskies, 500ml bottles of cask strength small batch whiskies, mainly single malts, with an awesome comic book label on the bottle, usually showing scenes from each of the distillery's history, but sometimes just awesome labels.

That's what I wanted.

I emailed the bosses a list of the whiskies that I wanted, asking what it would run us to bring them in for our shop.  And when I got into work on Tuesday I got a massive surprise.

The bosses were thrilled, these whiskies looked dead sexy, reasonable price points, did I think we'd be able to sell these whiskies to other bars and shops?

Yep!

I came up with a list of bottle shops, restaurants and bars where I thought it'd take off.  We made an order that doubled and then doubled again.  The order has been placed and in a few months some new whiskies, never before seen for sale in Australia start coming in.

This sample is from Master of Malt which was sent to me months ago, in fact a few weeks before my wife and I visited Scotland.  And now with awesome toys on the way it's time to give it a crack!

Highland Park Boutiquey Whisky Company batch 1, 44.7% abv.  241 bottles in this release.

I'm sitting down for dinner with my wife, I've just poured it into a gift from another whisky company, a cut crystal glencairn, bloody well love the heft on this bad boy!

Pale color so I suspect it's mainly bourbon casks in this release.  The Boutiquey Whisky Company is completely NAS or No Age Statement and when I asked them months and months ago regarding this I was informed that the Macallan I was looking at had about 5-10% 5 year old Macallan with the rest of the spirit being 30+ years old, which explained the price.  If they'd gone with an age statement the bottle would have read 5 years old and who's going to pay a hefty chunk for 5 year old Macallan?

Also due to the blending of single malts this is not single cask releases, however from everything I can see they are bottled at cask strength.

Let's give this little guy a spin shall we?

The nose is both savory, spicy and sweet.  I'm picking up mushrooms, a bit of burnt meat, salt, big oranges, vanilla, caramel, sweet smoke, heather, honey, fruit, peaches.

Very enjoyable nose and a nose that requires that you spend some time with the whisky.

Time for a taste now!

White peppers, cloves, light peat, soft smoke, quite nutty, honey, citrus and apricots, big oak, bitter dark chocolate, vanilla.

Enjoyable, a good session dram, not incredibly complex, but very enjoyable.

A long oaky finish with soft smoke completes the whisky.

As I said before this to me is going to be a great session whisky.  If you want to sit there and play around with water and seeing what the nose and body will do you can, but if you'd just like to sit down and have a few drams after work and not think about life, you'll be able to as well.

Tomorrow will be the Clynelish batch 2!

Nose:      23/25
Taste:      22/25
Finish:     21/25
Balance:   20/25

Overall:    86/100

An Interview With Frank McHardy, 
Ex Master Distiller for Springbank Distillery

Recently I was able to sit down for lunch with Frank McHardy, Springbanks ex head master distiller.  It was an exciting experience to say the very least, meeting one of the legends of the whisky world, and over lunch Frank was kind enough to agree to an interview with myself.  Here is that interview.

SquidgyAsh: Let's start with a little information about you, You've been in the whisky industry for over 45 years, getting your start in 1965? at Invergordon, correct?

Frank McHardy: Good Morning Squidgyash. First of all you should appreciate that I retired from full time employment at Springbank Distillery on July 31 st this year . I continue to do " special " tours on the distillery's behalf and will also do the Springbank Whisky School during May / July 2014 . I also have my own company , Craigowan Distillers Ltd , and have set myself up as a " Consultant " within the world of Whisky/ Whiskey .I can advise on all matters regarding the production of the product and the design of new distilleries . I also carry out tastings on demand . I started work at Invergordon Distillery in March 1963 and was fortunate to be involved with Invergordon , Tamnavulin, Bruichladdich , Bushmills and of course Springbank .

SquidgyAsh: What were some of your highlights or greatest moments in your career?

Frank McHardy: I would say that the highlight of my career was to oversee the reopening of Glengyle Distillery in Campbeltown . I was responsible for the sourcing of all the equipment and the design of the layout of Glengyle Distillery . From the purchase of the building to the distillery producing Spirit took from 2000 - 2004 . Glengyle Distillery produces Kilkerran Whisky and the first of the distillation from 2004 will of course be 10 years old in early 2014 . Good excuse for a celebration.
 
SquidgyAsh: What made you get into the whisky industry?
    
Frank McHardy: I initially got into the Whisky industry because I need employment . One I moved to Tamnavulinn Distillery in 1966 I quickly realised that this was the career for me .

SquidgyAsh: At our lunch you were talking to me about the different methods in which Springbank distillery produces their whiskies, with the Hazelburn being a triple distilled non peated whisky, Springbank a 2.5x distilled partially peated whisky and Longrow being a double distilled heavily peated whisky. You're explaination on how the Springbank was distilled was extremely enlightening, would you be so kind as to explain it once more, this time for my readers?
    
Frank McHardy: Springbank is often described as being 2.5 distillation spirit and the way it works is as follows . We have three stills , one wash still and two Low wines / Spirit stills . The wash still produces Low Wines and they are stored in the Low wines receiver . Low wines are distilled in Low wines still no 1 and the total of this distillation is collected as feints in the Feints receiver . When enough Low wines and Feints are produced a mixture containing 80 % of Feints and 20 % Low wines are pumped to Low wines still No 2 . The middle cut of this distillation , average strength 71 % alcohol is retained as Spirit , The heads and the tails are returned to the Feints receiver . The process is known as 2.5 distillation .

SquidgyAsh: Springbank is a distillery that does things a little differently from everyone else in Scotland, controlling the entire process from malting the barley to bottling the whiskies, I've heard that the family that owns the distillery feels it's their obligation to help provide jobs in Campbeltown. Can you confirm or deny this for me?
    
Frank McHardy: Part of the reason that we carry out all of the processes from malting through to bottling is that we can control everthing in house . We also feel a responsibility to the people of Campbeltown and do take pride in providing employment in the area .
    
SquidgyAsh: With Springbank whiskies I've heard that almost all of the whisky is actually bottled as single malts as opposed to going into blended whiskies, is this correct? And if so why does Springbank bottle so much whisky as a single malt, unlike the majority of the other Scottish distilleries where the majority of their stock goes into blended whisky?
    
Frank McHardy: Pretty well 98 % of the single malt that is produced at Springbank Distillery is bottled as such . If you think about it there are so many blends out there with many being produced quite cheaply which we could never compete with. Springbank prefer to market their single malt as such and have a big following due to the fact that we carry out all processes on site .
    
SquidgyAsh: The whisky industry has changed radically in the last 40 or so years, moving from an industry where high quality sherry casks were plentiful, stills were fired with coal, and age statements were king, what do you see changing over the next few decades as more and more of the industry becomes driven by American bourbon casks, indirect firing of the stills and the rise of NAS whiskies. Do you think these changes will be for the better, the worse, or just different?
    
Frank McHardy: I think that we will continue to see the rise in popularity of Single Malt and especially that produced at some of the smaller and independent distillery companies . Casks , of course are all important , and I firmly believe that 60 % of the flavour in a single malt will come from the cask . There are still plenty of good Bourbon casks available and , while sherry is not such a popular drink , there are good casks being laid down in Spain and put through the Solera system especially for use in Whisky maturation .
    
SquidgyAsh: Most of the whisky affaciados that I know love Longrow the most of the Springbank line up, but I've heard that only 100 casks of Longrow are distilled each year, do you see an increase in that output in the future or no? If not is there any specific reason why the output of Longrow is so low?
    
Frank McHardy: All Springbank , Longrow and Hazelburn production each year is geared to satisfy future case sales and will continue to do so.
    
SquidgyAsh: Right now in Scotland and all over the world in fact, whisky is booming more then ever, however the last big whisky boom was in the 1960's to mid 1970's before the big whisky bust which saw the closure of many beloved distilleries such as Port Ellen, Brora, Banff, and St Magdalene, do you see a similar whisky bust in the future?
    
Frank McHardy: All distilleries produce to satisfy perceived case sales in future years otherwise you would have either shortages or " lakes " of products in future years.  I think that companies have learned their lessons as far as the " boom and bust " years and as I previously said tailor production to a fixed plan
    
SquidgyAsh: Do you have any particular favorites in the Springbank line up? Either a specific bottling or even a specific line?
    
Frank McHardy: I have had quite a few favourite Springbank bottlings over the years but I think that the current 18 year old is quite stunning . So malty , sweet , full bodied and rich that it a stand out to me .
    
SquidgyAsh: Springbank has been playing with lots of delicious different wood finishes such as Longrow Gaja Barolo, Springbank Calvados, etc, are there any new upcoming releases that my readers and myself, should keep an eye out for? Any words of advice for anyone of my readers looking to get into the whisky world, either as a drinker, collector, or someone in the industry?
    
Frank McHardy: The best thing to do as far as looking out for new releases is concerned is to keep an eye on Springbank web site which will give details . Finally I stress again that I am retired and Gavin McLachlan is the new Distillery Manager .
    
SquidgyAsh: Thank you very much for your time Frank, it's greatly appreciated and I look forward to catching up with you when my wife and I head back to Scotland in 2015!