Please note the change of day from Tuesday to Wednesday. This is due to change of premises. Apologies to anyone who has planned their holidays to be in Dufftown on Tuesday for this event.
There is a nosing and tasting evening at the Commercial Hotel Hall in Dufftown every Wednesday at 20.00 throughout the summer. Our special programme of whisky tastings is varied in both content and the different whiskies that can be sampled.
If you are passing through Dufftown in the summer, make sure you stay over on Wednesday night! For further information, or to book places please contact René Ramon on +44 (0)1340 820507, email dufftown@dufftown.co.uk or at The Whisky Museum in Conval Street.
The Programme for 2012 will be available later.
Programme for 2011
| 29th June |
Glenfiddich Distillery |
| 6th July |
Glen Rothes Distillery |
| 13th July |
Tomatin Distillery |
| 20th July |
Angus Dundee Distillers |
| 27th July |
Inverhouse Distillers |
| 3rd August |
Glenfarclas Distillery |
| 10th August |
Diageo Distillers |
| 17th August |
BenRiach Distillery |
| 24th August |
Adelphi Distillery |
| 31st August |
The Balvenie Distillery |
| 7th September |
Chivas Bros. Distillers |
| 14th September |
Gordon & MacPhail |
Price GBP10 per person includes a nosing glass for you to keep and a chance to win a bottle of malt whisky in the nosing competition.
Please note: Whisky nosing & tasting sessions
are open to over 18s only.
A selection of malts
ready
for sampling
2011 Nosing & Tasting Evenings
Glenfiddich Distillery
The first nosing & tasting evening of the season was Glenfiddich when Bert Macor, Senior Tour Guide, gave an audience of 23 visitors from all over the world a very enjoyable evening nosing and tasting a range of William Grants whiskies. The audience were given drams of Glenfiddich 12yo, 15yo 18yo Rich Oak, 21yo Gran Rerserva and 19yo Madeira Cask Finish. The lucky winner of the nosing competition, Hubert Pender from Germany is seen here being presented with a bottle of Glenfiddich Rich Oak by Bert Macor.
Glen Rothes Distillery
The 2nd N&T evening was promoted by The Glenrothes Distillery in Rothes. Director Ronnie Cox supplied 4 superb malts for the occasion. The malts were Select Reserve, GR 1991, 1994 & 1998. In addition Mike Drury, from The Whisky Castle in Tomintoul, donated a Blackadder Glenrothes at 54%. Steve Oliver, committee member of Dufftown 2000 Ltd, welcomed another great audience who enjoyed a wonderful presentation by Steve of the great malts. The blind nosing competition was won by Axel Hjort from Sweden, who "nosed" all 5 malts correctly and whose birthday it was too. A surprised but delighted Axel is shown above being presented with a bottle of Select Reserve by Steve Oliver.
Tomatin Distillery
Our third nosing was sponsored by Tomatin Distillery and presented by Sales Director Stephen Bremner. It was another great nosing and tasting evening, giving overseas visitors a broad spectrum of the Tomatin range of single malts which were enjoyed by all. Stephen brought with him the 12yo, 15yo, 21yo, 30yo & Decades a blend of malts from 5 decades dedicated to Douglas Campbell, Master Distiller. The competition winner this week was Christian Heiling from Germany, seen here being given a bottle of Tomatin 18yo by Stephen.
Tomintoul Distillery
Our Nosing & Tasting Evening on 20th July was sponsored by Angus Dundee Distillers. Tom Gerrie, Master Brewer and Andrew Simms, Production Manager at Tomintoul Distillery gave the 36 capacity audience a taste of what they call "the Gentle Dram". They brought along Tomintoul 12yo Oloroso, 14yo, the magical 16yo and a new 21yo. In addition we sampled Old Ballantruan, the 50% peated malt. The winner of the nosing competition, after a "nose-off" was Sabine Rosenberg from Germany here being given a bottle of 16yo Tomintoul by Tom and Andrew.
Inverhouse Distillers
Gordon Bruce, manager at Knockdhu distillery entertained the full capacity audience with a great selection of Inverhouse Distillers malt whiskies. The single malts from Speyburn, Old Pulteney, Balblair and AnCnoc were greatly enjoyed by visitors mostly from Sweden, Norway & Germany. The lucky winner of the nosing competition who received a bottle of An Cnoc 16yo was Inge-Mats Nilsson from Sweden, seen here being congratulated by Gordon.
|
Glenfarclas Distillery
The presenter of the sixth Nosing & Tasting of 2011 was Kate Wright, Sales Manager at Glenfarclas. She gave the audience an interesting talk about the history of the distillery and the Grant family, also mentioning that Glenfarclas is celebrating it's 175th anniversary this year. She then went on to present a selection of Glenfarclas's single malts ~ 10yo, 15yo, 21yo and 105 which all present enjoyed very much. In addition Kate brought along samples maturing in Bourbon Oak & Spanish Oak. The nosing competition afterwards was won by Lars Nonnemann from Germany who received a bottle of 12yo.
Diageo Distillers
Lagavulin Manager, Miss Georgie Crawford came all the way from Islay to present to a capacity crowd, the best of Lagavulin and Caol Ila Single Malts. She brought along Caol Ila 12yo, Lagavulin 16yo, Caol Ila 12yo Unpeated, Lagavulin 12yo Limited Release, Caol Ila Distillers Edition and Lagavulin Distillers Edition. Wow, what a peaty evening !! Jonas Wiomer from Switzerland won the nosing competition and was with a bottle of Limited Edition Lagavulin. The whole audience applauded Georgie and Diageo for a great evening of entertainment.
BenRiach Distillery
Sorry no picture available.
BenRiach Distillery Manager Stewart Buchanan gave an informative talk about his company's history and future plans of the distillery. He then went on to guide us through the great selection he had brought along that evening, which included 2 malts from the Core Range; Curiositas 10yo peated and the 20yo non-peated. In addition we nosed & tasted 12yo BenRiach Sherry Wood CS, Rioja Finished CS and Virgin Oak Cask. Superb Single Barrel drams !
The winners of the nosing competition was husband & wife Josh Bond and Celeste Grewe from the USA. They were given a V.I.P. tour of the distillery the following day where they received a bottle of 20yo BenRiach from Stewart.
Adelphi Distillery
On Wednesday 24th August we had another wonderful evening which was enjoyed by a good crowd as Gordon introduced Antonia Bruce, European Sales Manager from Adelphi Distillers. She gave an informative talk about her company. Antonia explained where they got their barrels from and why they supply them at cask strength to the public. She then went on to guide us through the selection she had brought along that evening which included
a 13yo Bunahabhainn 1997 at 57.2%,
13yo Highland Park 1997 at 58.0%,
26yo Tamdhu 1984 at 48.8%, 20yo GlenRothes
1990 at 58.6% and
a 13yo Breath of the Isles 1995 at a massive 60.0% vol. A bottle of 46% Liddesdale was won by Hans De Nutte from Belgium in the nosing competition. Hans is seen here receiving the bottle from Antonia.
The Balvenie Distillery
The last nosing & tasting in August was promoted by Balvenie Distillery. The Brand Ambassador, David Mair gave a talk about the William Grant Family and the uniqueness of Balvenie for having a barley malting on-site. David brought along Balvenie DoubleWood 12yo, Balvenie Signature 12yo, Balvenie Single Barrel 15yo, Balvenie Peated Cask 17yo and a special 14yo Balvenie from a Sherry Butt in Warehouse No24
The visitors enjoyed the drams very much and the nosing competition afterwards. David presented 3 20cl bottlings from Warehouse 24 to the winner David White from Scotland.
Chivas Bros. Distillers
The second last Nosing & Tasting evening of the year was had when Julian Holder from Aberlour distillery delighted the audience with a range of Chivas Bros. Ltd. single malt whiskies. He brought with him a Strathisla 12yo, Aberlour 16yo, Glenlivet Nadurra, and "hard to find" Allied bottlings from Glentauchers and Imperial distilleries. Boa Andersson, tour guide at Aberlour helped Julian explained the nose and taste sensations of the drams to the audience. After a "double nose-off" the winner of the nosing competition was C. Bartelink from the Netherlands who is seen here being presented with his prize by Julian and Boa.
Gordon & MacPhail
The final Nosing & Tasting for the season was presented by Mike Patterson of Gordon & MacPhai. Mike brought along Benromach Traditional, 10yo, Organic, Origins Port Pipe and Peat Smoke. The audiance enjoyed the selection very much and the nosing competition was won by Walter Claes from Belgium seen here above being given a bottle of Benromach 10yo by Mike.
Again Dufftown 2000 Ltd. would like to say a big thank you to all the Distilleries and Independent Bottlers for their support in sponsoring the Nosings & Tastings during the summer months. A big thanks also to their staff for giving up their time and supplying samples of their malts to give visitors to the Whisky Capital such great evening's of entertainment.
Reports of past nosings and a gallery of winners may be found on the menu to the left. All photographs are courtesy of René Ramon. If you would like a larger copy of any of these emailed to you please request it here. |
