Tag Archives: Singleton

The Whisky Shop Dufftown @ The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival 2016

This entry was posted in Blog, Whisky Tastings and Events News and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on by .

Now that the festival dust has well and truly settled it is time to recap the results of our various competitions.

 

The Whisky Shop Dufftown Challenge for Independent Bottlers: Speyside

The Whisky Shop Dufftown threw down the gauntlet and challenged the independent bottlers to find the best Speyside Single Malt.  Our guests at The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival 2016 voted for their favourite in blind tastings. The winner was Old Malt Cask Speyside 1993 21 Years Old from Hunter Laing.

First Place:

  • Old Malt Cask Speyside 1993 21 Years Old (£86.95)

Second Place:

  • Adelphi Glenrothes 1991 25 Years Old (£189.00)

Old Malt Cask Speyside 1993 21 Years OldAdelphi Glenrothes 1991 25 Years Old

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Whisky Shop Dufftown Challenge for Independent Bottlers:  Rest of Whisky

The Whisky Shop Dufftown threw down the gauntlet and challenged the independent bottlers to find the best whisk(e)y not from Speyside - it could be any whisk(e)y just not a single malt whisky from Speyside.  Our guests at The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival 2016 voted for their favourite in blind tastings. The winner was Adelphi Bunnahabhain 2005 11 Years Old.  We should also mention the Old Perth Sherry which coming in second place and at that price is amazing!

First Place:

  • Adelphi Bunnahabhain 2005 11 Years Old (£75.95)

Second Place:

  • Old Perth Sherry cask from Morrison & MacKay (£29.95)

Adelphi Bunnahabhain 2005 11 Years Old

Old Perth Sherry Cask Blend

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each year, Mike as Chairman of the awards, has a look at the whiskies that did not win to see if there is another one that did really well with the public but also shows value for money considering how highly it was placed.  If he sees one then he will award it The Chairmans Award for a Cracking Dram.  This year he has decided there is a deserving dram and that is the Old Perth Sherry which to beat off competition from much older more expensive whisky to come second place in the Rest of Whisky category makes it worth £29.95 of any ones money.

 

The Best Tasting Note

 As part of the Challenge for Independent Bottlers we ask our guests taking part in the judging to write tasting notes for the whiskies as well as picking their favourites.  At the end of the festival we pick the best tasting notes and the winner receives a bottle of their favourite whisky from the competition.

This year it was won by Ruth Ball and she wins a bottle of Old Malt Cask Speyside 21 Years Old.

  

What is the Best Single Malt to go with a Bacon Roll?

According to the Guests of The Whisky Shop Dufftown during The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival 2016 it is Arran Lochranza which has won at 3 festivals in a row now.  Could this be the ultimate companion to a bacon roll?  Please note that the bacon was unsmoked.  There was no sauce.  This is science!

WSD Image Bacon 01

 

 

 

 

 

First Place:

  • Arran Lochranza (£33.50)

Second Place:

  • Glenrothes Vintage Cask (£40.95)

 Glenrothes Vintage ReserveArran Lochranza Reserve


What is the Best Single Malt to go with Haggis?

According to the Guests of The Whisky Shop Dufftown during The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival 2016 it is Glen Scotia 15 Years Old which has retained its title from the last festival.  Please note that neeps and tatties where involved but the voting on the pairing was done just with the haggis!

Haggis, neeps and tatties

Haggis, neeps and tatties

First Place:

  • Glen Scotia 15 Years Old (£50.95)

Second Place:

  • Singleton of Dufftown Spey Cascade (£38.95)

Glen Scotia 15Singleton Spey Cascade_edited-1

 

Next Festivals

The first Spirit of Speyside: Distilled festival will be in Elgin from 9 to 11 September.  We will be running the retail shop at the event an we will also have a few drams for you to try. The aims is to get all the Speyside distillers under one roof with our Speyside beer and gins.  It's going to be great.

The Whisky Shop Dufftown Autumn Festival run's from 22 to 26 September this year.  We hope to launch the programme on 1 July with tickets on sale from 8th on our website.  We will have masterclasses and distillery tours as usual.

On 12 of November we are off to Osby in Sweden for an all day tasting with Whiskygastronomerna.  Tickets are available from them right now.

The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival in 2017 will be from 27 April to 1 May.

On the 8th and 9th September 2017 we will be making our return to Maltstock as they can't do with out us apparently.  Tickets will be available from them later in the year. Not sure when as they are very relaxed about these things,

The Whisky Shop Dufftown Autumn Festival - The Best Malt for Haggis

This entry was posted in Blog, Whisky Tastings and Events News and tagged , , , , , , on by .

At this year's Whisky Shop Dufftown Autumn Festival we have been continuing our search for the best single malt to go with Haggis.  Neepies and Tatties were also provided as these are expected but it is the Haggis we are focusing,

The champion from The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival 2014, Aberlour 15 Select Cask went up against three new challengers: Singelton Tailfire, Glendronach 18 Port and An Cnoc Flaughter.

For the first time ever we have had a dead heat, both Glendronach 18 Tawny Port and Aberlour 15 Select Cask where clear outright winners.  These 2 whiskies will go in to the next competition at The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival 2015.

Glendronach 18 Port

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aberlour 15 Select Cask Reserve

The Whisky Shop Dufftown Autumn Festival - The Best Malt with a Bacon Roll

This entry was posted in Blog, Whisky Tastings and Events News and tagged , , , , , , on by .

At this year's Whisky Shop Dufftown Autumn Festival we have been continuing our search for the best single malt to have with a bacon roll.  Guests to the festival could come along to a special food and whisky tasting and try 4 different single malts with a bacon roll.  No sauce!  This is science.  One of the 4 was the current champion from previous festivals (both The Whisky Shop Duffown Autumn Festival and The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival), Benriach 20.  This whisky was up against 3 new challengers: Singleton Sunray, Mortlach Rare Old and Glenfiddich Malt Masters Edition.

The new winner is Singleton of Dufftown Sunray and this will go through as the best Single Malt to have with a bacon roll to face new challengers at The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival 2015.

Singleton Sunray

 

The Whisky Shop Dufftown Food and Whisky Pairings

This entry was posted in Blog, Whisky Tastings and Events News and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on by .

Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival 2012 Blog 2

During the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival this year we ran a cafe & bar at the venue for our tastings.  Not only did this serve much needed sustenance to festival guests but also helped us continue our experiments with food and whisky pairings.  We looked at bacon rolls with 4 whiskies and Haggis with a different 4 whiskies.  Guests were treated to the way the whisky and food combinations change the flavours of both, emphasising some flavours in the food and the whisky and also creating new ones!


We were delighted by the number of people who chose to take part and the fabulously positive response to our whisky and food tastings. Some guests had not done this kind of thing before and where blown away by the whisky and food experience.

Bacon

Brave breakfast festival guests were asked to sample a bacon roll with 4 different whiskies and faced with the challenge of choosing their favourite.  The whiskies chosen by Mike Lord were all distillery bottlings: Cragganmore 12, Glen Elgin 12, Singleton of Dufftown 12 and Benromach 10.  The bacon was unsmoked and guests were asked not add sauce – this is serious stuff.  The clear winner was Cragganmore 12.  This was a treat for those that tried the tasting and a great way to start the festival day.

Bacon Roll and a Dram

Cragganmore 12 Years Old

Haggis

During the lunch time period we switched our attention to Haggis, Neeps and Tatties.  (For those of you wondering neeps are swedes and tatties are potatoes.)  The focus was on pairing the Haggis with Clynelish 14 (as suggested by the Classic Malts website), An Cnoc 12, Aberlour 16 and Benriach 10.  Whisky and Haggis is a particularly good combination with the spices in the Haggis working well with the whiskies.  Again there was a clear favourite – Aberlour 16.

Aberlour 16 Years Old

Haggis, neeps and tatties

It’s Down to You

With each whisky and food combination there was not one pairing that some people did not vote for as their favourite.  This shows again that there are no hard and fast rules with whisky and the only way to find your favourite is to try it for yourself.

Special Thanks

We would like to thank the Dufftown Lodge and their wives and friends for running the cafe and serving spectacular food during the festival.  Particular thanks go to Yvonne Smart whose help, cooking and good humour were the backbone of the cafe operation.

Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival 2012

The Autumn Speyside Festival

For anyone coming to the Autumn Speyside Festival and wishing to attend our events at The WSD Autumn Festival 2012 then it is more than likely than tickets for our events will only be available from our website.  There will be no change for the Spirit of Speyside Festival 2013.