Tasted #483: Glenlossie 10yo bottled for Hong Kong Whisky Festival 2020 (Single Malts of Scotland)

With whisky festivals being cancelled (or moving online) the world over due to COVID-19, and a particular dearth of Feis Ile bottles this year (notable exception: The Scotch Malt Whisky Society), it's nice to see some festival-only bottlings still being released, even without their corresponding festival.

One such bottling is this 10yo Glenlossie, bottled for the 2020 Hong Kong Whisky Festival (currently postponed to 11th Oct), which is available to purchase now. Distilled on 2nd July 2009, and bottled on 9th Jan 2020 from a Bourbon hoggie, there are 120 bottles and all are, naturally, non-chill filtered and with natural colour.

Bottled by Elixir Distillers under their "Single Malts of Scotland" range, the bottle carries pedigree, but Glenlossie isn't exactly a blue-chip distillery, and 10yo isn't exactly "well aged" in Scotch whisky terms....so some might wonder just how good could a bottle like this be?

Very, very good, it seems.

Glenlossie 10yo bottled for Hong Kong Whisky Festival 2020 (SMoS) (59.2% ABV, 10yo, 1 of 120 bottles, Speyside Scotland, $988HKD)

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Colour: Bright gold.

Nose: Coconut, but not the "huge whack of fresh young oak" variety, more of a subtle, fruity tropical variety. Then there's pot pourri, marmalade, and some very creamy vanilla pie. After time comes some grapefruit and oranges, and a subtle underlying note of old books. You don't expect a nose this complex on a 10yo Scotch, ordinarily.

Palate: Creamy and slightly tropical, with hints of mango, lemon and subtle passionfruit, underscored by vanilla cream and baked pineapple tarts.

Finish: Long, tropical and coconutty, with a waxy texture keeping things going long after the liquid is gone.

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale): 92/100. Truly, this is an excellent dram and one whose flavour and complexity I would peg at closer to 15-18yo than 10yo. At under $1,000HKD, look past the label and just buy one. I did.

Cheers,
Martin.

Hong Kong Whisky Festival 2017 review

After the success of 2016's inaugural Hong Kong Whisky Festival, InterContinental Grand Stanford held their festival again this year, delivering an even bigger and better festival with even more masterclasses.

Held again over one day, the event brought together big brands and indies alike, and made the most of the (expansive) hotel space, taking over two floors, several function rooms and even a suite!

Arriving an hour or so after opening, I took a walk around to see what was what. The first thing that struck me was, even that early, it was already busy. The second thing that struck me was just how many, varied stands there were. Bars, shops, independent bottlers, major distilleries, major distributors, local distributors, were all well-represented, as were "world whiskies" from all over the globe. In fact, the festival brochure had an excellent article on "New World" whisky (although I might be a little biased, given I wrote it...)

The festival shop saw a big improvement on the prior year, with a lot more space and even more bottles available (including some long gone Indies like this Eiling Lim 27yo Irish).

As is always the case with these festivals, you end up chatting to and sharing a dram with all the wonderful people working there, and before you know it, 3 hours have passed. I'd barely gotten around to half the booths when my first masterclass came up - an Asta Morris class with founder Bert Bruyneel.

Sidenote: As evidence of the quality and quantity of masterclasses on offer throughout the day, I had to decide between this and an Adelphi masterclass, both on at the same time. The good people of Malt Maniacs & Friends suggested I go for the Asta Morris class, and I'm glad I did.

Held in conjunction with Whiskies and More (Asta Morris' HK distributor) and The Fine Spirits Society, the class saw us tasting 6 spirits blind. We knew what the spirits were (amongst them were an 14yo Ardmore, an aged gin, a 13yo Bowmore, a 5yo Chichibu, a 27yo Bunnahabhain and a 32yo 1979 Benriach - a cask which was saved by Bert from blending into Chivas), but not the order, which made for much fun and debate.

I'd heard a bit about this Bert "character" and it was all true. His class was exactly what I look for in a masterclass - great whiskies (tick), educational (tick), full of stories (tick), but most of all, FUN (tick tick). The hour flew by and by the end of it, we all felt like we'd had a heap of fun, enjoying a few casual drams, making new friends and listening to some hilarious stories. 

I guess what I'm saying is, if you get a chance to attend one of Bert's classes, take it!

After Bert's class, it was straight over to another function room for a Hunter Laing masterclass, with Andrew Laing, to explore "Where the flavours come from" with a variety of whiskies of different ages, provenance and cask types. Included in the lineup was a 19yo Longmorn, 8yo Craigellachie (showing some great natural colour due to its aging in a quarter cask), a 6yo Caol Ila and an 8yo Talisker.

After the two classes, it was time for a bit more of a walk around, a few more drams, and a delicious cocktail from Eddie Nara, to prepare myself for...

...a barrel making demonstration, in which I was to construct a whisky barrel with none other than The Balvenie's Head Cooper Ian Macdonald - a man who has been in the business for almost 50 years! Luckily, I'd managed to grab a few tips by watching Mr Nara do the same a few hours earlier.

After managing to bungle my way through making the barrel, I have to say - hats off to people who do this day-in, day-out for a living. It's not easy (even less so after a few drams), but it was a fun and rewarding experience (thanks to Ian for the expert tutoring and assistance)!

By this point, the show was wrapping up, but there was still one masterclass left to attend - this time focusing on some fairly rare (and expensive) blends.

Those blends of course, being four Johnnie Walker "Private Collection" releases, from 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014.

A 7pm timeslot after a long whisky festival is always going to see a few people worse for wear, but our host Stephen Notman (aka Mr Whisky China) pushed through, talking us through the history of blending and how the Private Collection series "rips up the philosophy of consistency in blending". He wasn't wrong - here were four very different (but all very enjoyable drams).

All were great, but the 2017's waxy apple nose and tropical and vanilla palate won me over as my favourite. A bit of Clynelish in there perhaps?

Between these festivals, the excellent Tiffany's New York Bar, and the many other whisky events/promotions throughout the year, InterContinental Grand Stanford have firmly established themselves as a Hong Kong whisky powerhouse over the past few years, and we have no doubt their upcoming World Whisky Day 2017 celebrations will only help cement that (unfortunately we won't be in HK to enjoy it...)

Cheers,
Martin.

TimeforWhisky.com attended HKWF17 as a guest of InterContinental Grand Stanford.

Whisky Live Singapore 2016 review

We've attended a few Whisky Live events over the years - Tokyo, London and Sydney twice, but had never attended the Singaporean event, despite having heard good things. When a bit of good fortune put me in Singapore for a conference in the days following Whisky Live, it was a no-brainer to arrive a bit earlier and spend a day at the show.

After an absolute debacle trying to buy a ticket (without going into too much detail, there was no eTicket / mTicket option, and no option to pick up the tickets at the venue - although the organisers arranged the latter for me after my tickets never arrived at the hotel), I turned up to Capella Hotel on Singapore's Sentosa Island, ready for a day of whisky.

I'd opted for a 1 day VIP ticket ($173SGD), which gave access to the "VIP Tasting Room" as well as the main floor. I've attended a lot of whisky shows over the past 5 or so years, and whilst I still really enjoy them (probably the social aspect more than the whisky these days!), the whiskies on offer at most shows can be a bit "same same". Sure, sometimes (often) there's something special under the table, and don't get me wrong, the people at these shows absolutely make them worth attending, but sometimes you're just looking for something a bit more unusual/unique on the whisky front - something beyond the usual 12/15/18/NAS lineup. 

...and that's where the VIP Tasting Room came in. Singapore's Whisky Live is run by La Maison du Whisky, and as anyone who's come across LmdW knows, they bottle and sell a lot of very special whisky, rum, cognac etc......and a huge number of them were on offer in the VIP Tasting Room. From 43 year old Speysiders to single cask Kavalans, to limited edition Blantons to a whole lot of tasty Indies, to 30yo OB Speysiders and...well I'll let the photos do the talking...

  

Certainly not your average whisky show drams, and generous pours were being served (all included in the ticket price). The room never felt busy, and there was always a friendly face or two to chat to.

Next door though was something even more special - the "Collectors' Room", housing much, much rarer whisky that LmdW had managed to get their hands on - from rare single cask Japanese whiskies (Yamazakis, Karuizawas) to old, old bottles of Laphroaig, Bowmore, Macallan and others. Whilst prices weren't "cheap" (especially not for those who have visited Japanese whisky bars with similar collections), they were for the most part reasonable, considering the rarity of the whiskies.

1 token was $10SGD.

Dave Broom was also floating around (having just presented a masterclass on two 1965 Karuizawas!) and being the top bloke he is, was more than happy for a chat and a dram.

By this time I'd been at the show for about 2 hours and hadn't yet ventured onto the main floor. When I finally did, I got there just in time for a "Dram Full Yum Seng", led by Glenfiddich's Regional Asia Pacific Brand Ambassador Matthew, and a few of his Brand Ambassador colleagues from Pernod Ricard and Edrington.

Not quite sure what to expect from my first 'Yum Seng", it basically involved yelling "Dram Full" for as long as we possibly could, and then shooting the whiskies on offer (Glenfiddich 21yo, Macallan Rare Cask, amongst others). Not quite the "pacing myself" I'd planned, but a huge amount of fun, and a great welcome to the main floor. There's a video of it here.

The main floor had the usual complement of brands - with Macallan, Glenfiddich, Balvenie, Aberlour, Glenrothes, Glenlivet and others representing Scotch, and Kavalan, Paul John, Teeling and others representing "world whiskies". There were of course a few special pours available if you asked nicely (some I can talk about, some I can't!) and a few fun experiences, like Glenfiddich's virtual reality tour (actually quite good!), Monkey Shoulder cocktails, Arberlour/Glenlivet music pairing, and Balvenie's free customised whisky tasting journals.

There were also a few indies on tasting from Singapore and Seoul's B28 bar:

..and a good selection of masterclasses, priced quite cheaply in most cases (except for the Karuizawa 1965 masterclass which was almost $600SGD/ticket).

When all the whisky became a bit much and the palate fatigue started to set in, there was a large F&B area outside, and VIP ticket holders were entitled to two servings of food and a cocktail from each of the pop up bars (host by some of the world's best cocktail bars - Bar Trench, 28 Hong Kong Street, Gibson and Jigger & Pony to name a few). A refreshing break (as were the Monkey 47 gin laybacks on offer)!

As the sun started to set (had it really been 6 hours already!?) I headed back to the VIP Tasting Room to try a few more drams (including some fascinating rums) and enjoy whisky banter well into the night with whisky friends old and new.

So, overall impressions of Whisky Live Singapore?

• Fantastic range of whiskies
• Brilliant collector's room
• Good value tickets (when you consider the food, cocktails, and all the VIP drams)
• Great venue layout (great space and really well utilised - it never felt too busy)
• Great personalities.

My only complaints would be the ticketing process (which I understand is a limitation of the ticketing company more than LmdW / Whisky Live), and the fact that I had to leave all the samples I'd brought at the front counter, which made it a pain to do the sample swaps I'd arranged beforehand (this might've been a "responsible service of alcohol" type situation, but whisky sample swaps are pretty common at shows like this, and I've never had an issue at shows anywhere else in the world).

On the whole though, an absolutely brilliant event, and one I'd definitely return for (only next time, I'll buy a 2 day ticket).

Cheers,

Martin.