New Queen of the Moorlands Bottlings with the Islay Festival of Malt and Music 2010 on the Horizon

Dates for the diary:

Tuesday 13th April - Single Malt Whisky Tasting

The Wine Shop, Leek. A chance to taste through the range of The Queen of the Moorlands Single Malt Whiskies. Please contact us ASAP to reserve your place. 01538 382 408. Please see below for more info.

Saturday 22nd May to 29th May - Islay Festival of Malt and Music 2010

Once again we will be holding whisky tastings to showcase our Queen of the Moorlands Single Malt Whiskies, including our very own Islay Festival Bottling 2010. Please contact us ASAP to reserve places on these events or to pre-order bottles. More info below.....

Saturday 22nd May 2010 is an important date in the diary at The Wine Shop in Leek, because that is the first day of Feis Ile, the Islay Festival of Malt and Music. It is hard to believe that in 11 or so weeks time, we'll be on Islay in much warmer weather, and if the last three years are anything to go by, glorious sunsets at 11.30pm. I cannot begin to describe how beautiful Islay is at that time of year, and I for one, cannot wait to be there.

We shall be holding a series of whisky tastings during the festival. Venue, dates and ticket prices are to be confirmed but usually they take place in Bowmore. We'll post details nearer the time but if you would like to express interest in attending, please contact me ASAP to reserve a place.

Usually, we taste through 4 or 5 whiskies in each session and typically, there will be around 50 guests in attendance at each event. Each whisky will be from our very own, award winning Queen of the Moorlands Rare Cask range of Single Cask Single Malt Whiskies and it is a chance for the consumer or collector to taste and secure a bottle or two of these incredibly rare delights. Guests also get a chance to meet up with the people who select our whiskies from cask samples, our panel of lucky customers who form our whisky committee.

With all this in mind we've only got a few weeks to finalise our latest Queen of the Moorlands Rare Cask Single Malt whiskies, and samples have started to arrive. All of our Rare Cask whiskies are selected and approved by our whisky committee, a dedicated band of hardcore whisky enthusiasts.

This Friday, 26th February, some of the committee members are meeting up and we are going to taste some whiskies, some of them will hopefully become our new bottlings. I'll be posting the results and tasting notes here. If you see a dram you fancy, please don't hesitate to contact me as, although the whiskies are still in cask, the popularity of our bottlings means that they will pre-sell quite quickly. As always, anybody on Islay wishing to reserve a bottle or two should contact me ASAP and I will save the stock for you and deliver to you between Friday 21st May and Saturday 5th June.

The Whiskies that we will be sampling this week are as follows:

Bowmore (Islay) 1999 if bottled will retail at £49.99

Laphroaig (Islay) 1996 if bottled will retail at £59.99

Bunnahabhain (Islay) 1997 if bottled will retail at £59.99

All of our Rare Cask whiskies are bottled at natural cask strength with no chill-filtration and no colouring. Each bottle is hand labelled and individually numbered and presented in it's own gift tube. There are usually a maximum of around 200 bottles per edition making them highly collectable

We are hoping that we will be able to bottle at least a couple from the list above but we are also looking for one very special dram to become our bottling specifically for the Islay Festival of Malt and Music. This will be our third Festival bottling, the previous being our Rare Cask Port Ellen 1982 (2008 Festival) and Rare Cask Laphroaig 1996 (2009 Festival). As far as we are aware, we remain the only Independent Bottler to bottle a whisky especially for the Feis.

For enthusiasts closer to The Wine Shop in Leek, we'll be holding a whisky tasting on Tuesday 13th April, and this will be the first time that the new whiskies will be on show. Tickets for this event will be on sale at just £10 per head, please contact us ASAP if you would like to reserve tickets. There are only 20 places at this event as we will be holding at in shop.

If you would like any information about our whisky tasting events, new bottlings or how to join our whisky committee please don't hesitate to get in touch.

We hope to see you at Feis Ile 2010!

Slainte

David

01538 382 408

email: david@rarecask.com

PS On the angling front, I will be joined by Stoke - on - Trent's 'vital spark', none other than Glen Pointon from Oshbonk and we'll be fishing Lochs Gorm, Skerrols, Ballygrant and Finlaggan. There's never a dull moment with Glen as anyone who has had the pleasure if meeting him will declare, so I should have plenty to blog about in June!

The Upper Severn, Angling Heaven

Our local rivers were out of sorts this weekend, well, most of them anyway. Glen and I did think of going up to Dovedale or Milldale but we knew that, these being the most likely to be producing fish, there would be a fair few other anglers about, and there are only so many pools holding Grayling there to got at.

And so we mulled it over...over and over, Dovedale or Milldale or somewhere new? Would it be too far to go? Would there be too many other anglers there? What would the river be like? Would the conditions be good? Would it be worth the 2 hour journey at each end of the day?

Within two minutes, and two casts of reaching the Upper Severn, near Caersws in Powys, that last question was answered when I landed my first Grayling, and a cracking fish it was too.

Glen had picked me up at around 6.30am, we stopped for Bacon and Sausage baps on the way, and by 9am, we'd purchased our day tickets from the Spar shop in Caersws, tackled up and were ready to make our first casts. It was a little daunting at first, wondering where to start on this large river. Glen had been given one or two tips by the Bailiff and he'd told us a likely spot to get one or two fish under our belts to give us a little confidence for the rest of the day.

On arriving at the first pool, we instantly started to spot fish, the water being crystal clear. We soon found that these visible fish would not be playing ball, as they paid no attention to our nymphs whatsoever, and so we moved a little further downstream.

Glen started to take fish on his point fly, a JT Flashback, on a 3 fly Czech Nymph rig. I was also taking fish on the JT Flashback but on a duo rig. Both methods fished well. Glen and I both had fish to 1lb 8oz and by the end of the day, we'd managed about 35 fish between us.

We really enjoyed fishing the Upper Severn and will definitely be returning to this beautiful spot. It's certainly up there with the best rivers that I have ever fished. The water was gin clear, the wading was relatively easy, the river bed being largely free from bolders, branches, roots and other obstacles. Best of all, the fishing was ace, even the small Grayling of about 3/4 lb put up a huge fight, which was great sport on our light tackle.


We may be taking the 7 seater Wine Shop van next time so anyone who fancies joining us, leave me a comment.


David

(Technique) + (Confidence) = (Fish) @ Milldale

I've been an angler since I was a little lad. I've tried ledgering for Chub and Tench, trotting a float for Roach and Dace, and smoking a pack of 20 L&B whilst stillwater float fishing for shy, bank hugging carp in the late summer evenings. All of this I've enjoyed, once that is, I have grown my confidence sufficiently in each technique that I start to catch one or two fish.

I started Fly Fishing about 18 months ago, purely because I was in the Hebrides working quite a bit, and if I wanted to fish with my mates, it would have to be with a fly rod, some Peter Ross, Butcher, and one or two wee Katie MacLarens.

I asked other fishermen, which rod to buy. I would only need one because I wouldn't be fishing that often, I explained, and any more than that would be ridiculous, I'm not like all those other fishermen, I said, no, I'm a one rod man me.

Well where will you be fishing with it, they said, what techniques will you be using, will it be lochs or stillwaters, big rivers, small rivers, deep rivers, shallow rivers, streams, dry fly, wet fly, teams of up to 5 wet fly, duo, New Zealand, Old Uncle Tom Cobleigh and All?

Yes, I said. Old Uncle Tom Cobleigh and All. And so, it was to be, one rod to suit all waters and conditions, one 9Ft 6" 7Wt Orvis that would have to cope with everything from huge Salmon on Jura to tiny wee troots from the Dove...oh how Pointon mocked the "Pike Rod" and how it didn't bend even the tiniest of a fraction when I had a fish momentarily on before the lack of give made it prang off.

But I'd get my revenge. The moment I saw Glen's Hardy 7Ft 3Wt Demon, I mocked him for it's 'weak handshake', ridiculously soft action, and pathetic length. It didn't matter to me that he was catching 3 fish to every 1 of mine.

And so, apparently, having said all that, I appear to have become a bit of a 'Tackle Tart'. Last year, I bought a Streamflex 6Ft 6" 3wt and it changed my fishing completely. I started to catch fish. Then something else happened, Fly Forum's Fishcake showed me the 'duo' technique, and I started to catch more fish.

There's a bit of a chain reaction here because, if you start to get to grips with a technique, you grow confident. If you're comfortable with your rod, so to speak, you grow more confidence. If you start to catch fish, you grow even more confident and so on. You can be casting to a peice of water that is absolutely chocka with fish, but if you're not confident with your technique, tangling in trees, swearing, getting blood pressure, swearing some more, you're not going to catch many fish, and I found out the hard way at the beginning of last season.

Pointon is the perfect example of this. Yesterday, he fished at Milldale and he caught 24 Grayling having decided to use the Czech Nymphing technique that he has become super confident with. I too am a great fan of Czech Nymphing at this time of year and, like Glen, was lucky enough to get some great tuition from John Tyzack whilst fishing the Teviot a couple of weeks ago.

But today, I was determined to fish with a short rod, because at Milldale in particular, I find I can fish more water, avoid tangles, spend more time in the water, and therefore, I catch more fish.

I met Brian at The Yew Tree Inn at 10.30am and he'd join me as a guest on the Dove. It was a beautiful morning but pretty chilly. I thought it looked great for the fishing.


I managed a few small fish from the first few pools and we made our way slowly down towards Ilam Rock. The fishing was tougher down that end and I looked forward to trying my luck in a couple of pools on the way back.

Yesterday, Glen had quite a few fish from his newly named "Deliverance" Pool. Don't ask. He'd told me the exact run where he was taking them and had painstakingly described every detail about the pool over the phone so that I understood where he meant. I had a few casts. Nothing. I had a few more casts. Nothing. So I started to cast an inch or two further towards midstream each time and eventually, when the Klinkhammer and Pheasant Tail Nymph had landed near enough dead on midstream, there was a flash of silver and the Klink had gone.

Fish on.

Tyzack had shown me how to land a Grayling when we were on the Teviot, so again, I was confident and I was always going to land that fish, no matter what.

I cast again. The same spot. A silver flash and a quickly disappearing pink Klink and another Grayling was on.

I cast again. The same spot. Another silver flash and another disappearing pink Klink.

Another great day's fishing and it was great to have a catch up with Brian. I'd caught 7 lovely Grayling, all quite small, but great fun on light tackle.

So I've gone over to the dark side. I've joined "Pointon's Light Brigade", I'm armed to the teeth with short rods and boxes upon boxes of dry flys of all manner of shape size and description, ready for the nearing Trout season and I tell you what...this angler cannot wait.

Oh. The battle cry of Pointon's Light Brigade......"Dry Fly Only".

David

Deadly Duo Does for the Dovedale Ladies

Only 7 weeks to go boys....until the 2010 Trout season and this angler cannot wait. Armed to the teeth with a new range of fly rods to suit all waters and conditions, I'm itching to be back on the dry fly, and judging by yesterday's fishing, I won't have to wait too long.

Fellow blogger, Matt Carr and I met at the bridge at Ellastone at 9.30am, intending to spend a few hours there. I was a little blurry eyed after a late night, having hosted a whisky tasting in Coventry the night before. I was looking to pleasure fish. We got into the fast water at the top of the DRAC stretch, but it was to high for me, and although we were getting the odd take, I asked Matt if he wouldn't mind if we headed off to Dovedale. He didn't, so we did.

Conditions at Dovedale were as I had expected them to be, so rarely does it disappoint. I'd say about 1/2 foot up and carrying a slight milky tinge. Pretty good conditions.

I noticed that there were more fish moving about than there has been in the last few weeks and the dippers were hard at work, leaping from overhanging branches and returning a few seconds later with their prey.

I started to catch fish in the slow pool up above what I call "Island Pool", above the pool with the smaller Island pool, "Wee Island Pool", above "Nursery Pool". I'm pretty sure LADFFA lads will know what the hell I'm talking about..but still, I feel a map coming on, anyone with suggestions of pool or particular stretch names, please supply by leaving a comment.

I'd decided to fish using the duo setup a la Fly Forums Mr Fishcake, surely the Jedi of that practice, and sure enough, in combination with my trusty, and quickly becoming favourite, Streamflex 6ft 6" 3wt, I was taking fish, and a few nice ones at that. My only disappointment was that I hooked into a lunker of a Grayling above Ilam Rock, saw the fish, but dropped it, missing the chance of an amazing end to a good days fishing. I also had a trout slashing at my indicator fly....maybe another sign that the season is not far away!

We had fished all the way up to Ilam Rock but fishing was harder up in the mid sections of the LADFFA stretch, but that said, It was good to catch up with Matt and a pleasure to be strolling along in these beautiful surroundings.

David

Chase Distillery Vodka and Gin

The rivers are up, no fishing to be done, and its about time we were reporting a fab new drink or two....Léonie steps in to talk about some fab new drinks from a new distillery in...wait for it
...England!!!


The Wine Shop Leek is now a stockist of the new Williams Chase Gin, produced just down the road in Herefordshire. We originally heard of the distillery when it began to produce the first English Potato Vodka back in 2008, after having already made a success with Tyrrells Potato Chips.

Chase was inspired for this change in direction when he discovered a small distillery producing vodka from potatoes in the USA in 2004 but it was not until April Fool's Day 2008 that the first batch was finally distilled.


With a handcrafted copper batch pot still, a bespoke copper 70 foot tall rectifying column and traditional potato varieties of Lady Claire and Lady Rosetta, absolutely minuscule amounts are made. Although it takes only three weeks to get from potato to vodka, it takes a staggering 16 tonnes of potatoes to produce just 1000 litres (that's about 250 spuds a bottle).

Oz Clarke and James May visited the distillery to taste the vodka, in their 'Drink to Britain' TV Show last year and indeed it has received much favourable press for its soft, creamy, velvety style.

Now, their Williams Elegant Crisp Gin has been released and what a gin it is. On tasting it the minute it arrived on Thursday morning, we immediately ordered stock, and booked them to come and hold a tasting in our marquee at Leek Show later this year.

What makes it unique is that, along with the usual botanicals of Juniper, Coriander, Angelica, Liquorice, Orris, Orange and Lemon Peel, Hops and Elderflower...is fresh Bramley apples!

All I know is it has the most sensuous aromas, gorgeous mouthfeel and the taste stays with you forever...


Check out the lovely website at www.chasedistillery.co.uk then pop into the shop to taste it for yourself.

Williams Elegant Crisp Gin 70cl £32.99
Chase Vodka 70cl £32.99

Chin chin

Léonie

Tyzack, Teviot and Tweed: A Good Combination for Lunking Grayling

5.45am Friday 15th January. Peering from the condensated bedroom window, I eventually see a pair of lights shining down the lane and I know that the time has come. Pointon and I are about to embark on our first angling expedition of 2010.

The weather websites had promised various conditions ahead of us, everything from still, bright, sunny days, to full on, 4omph winds and drifting, freezing snow. We'd been in touch with our guide, none other than England Rivers Champion Mr John Tyzack, and between us we decided to go for it, pack plenty of warm clothing, plenty of tackle and plenty of beer tokens. Lets face it, we thought, with Tyzack's talent, and TV's rising star Pointon as part of our team, we were sure to land some lunkers and have a laugh along the way....we weren't to be disappointed.

So Glen and I headed up the M6, and stopped for a 10 part breakfast in a small cafe in Tebay. What would the conditions be like, we thought, how would we cope with the icebergs, the slippery banks, the freezing weather, the driving sleet and snow? Who would catch, would we catch, would Woody down too much scotch and have to bow out on the Saturday morning session?


We would rendez-vous with Tyzack and his friends, Andy and Rich just outside Langholm. It was obvious we were all keen on getting tackled up and into the river as soon as possible, all knowing that, whilst we had at least two full day's fishing ahead of us, we had a lot of big water to cover.

We made our way North to Denholm where we purchased our Hawick rivers day tickets which would allow us to fish the Teviot. John had explained to us that the fish would be hard to find given the size of the river, but when we did find them, they could be of record breaking size.

Arriving at the car park, we donned our waders, neoprene for me today, fearing the cold, and went to have a look over the bridge at the large, and powerful river below. Pointon immediately became rather animated, jumping up and down in a broad potteries accent, expletives pouring out of his face, occasionally interjected with the odd, "Salmon", "massive", and "fag". We'd seen a large fish downstream of the bridge, and above it we'd seen a huge Salmon flashing on it's side with another large male fish just upstream from it and we presumed that these would be spawning. They were huge fish and it gave us that feeling electric feeling that every take could be a connection with a monster fish. We were clearly about to enter a watery world much different than our comparatively smaller streams of the Dove, Wye and Churnet.

Upstream from the bridge, Tyzack and I got into the river. I was quite nervous at first given the power of the river but John was building my confidence, making sure that I was well within my comfort zone at all times. I'd borrowed a 10ft 4wt Streamflex and JT showed me how to rig up for a 3 fly, Czech nymphing set up and the principles of how to fish it and I quickly started to become comfortable with it. He's an excellent tutor with amazing attention to detail, frequently offering correcting advice and observing every aspect of your technique, without making you feel nervous or under pressure. John had a take early on and landed a Grayling of about a pound, about ten minutes later, I hooked into a similar sized fish and faster, shallower water.

We were a little surprised to be finding fish in faster water and we worked our way upstream and fished a new swim. Things were quite tough and takes were few and far between especially given the surprisingly good conditions of the river, running a few inches up and very clear.

A few minutes later there came a shout and JT was into a good sized fish from shallow, fast, water. Glen and I congratulated as he landed this superb 2lb Scottish Lady. "Come on Woody, let's get you a fish son", said John, and he explained where he'd seen the take, on the far bank on a sharp bend on this large, Scottish river.

I'd made 2 or 3 passes with my flys and I'd got that electric feeling that any second now, my indicator line would dive under water and I would be into the fight of my life time...and with that, all I could see was ivory Grey's Platinum and she was on. Shy at first but then the fish had realised that all was not as it should be, and it was lunging head down for the gravel.

John walked to the bank and put down his rod and waded back through the water to guide me through landing this lovely fish. "That's a good fish Woody!", he shouted as he got nearer to me, giving me more and more encouragement all the while , he new it was crucial for all of us that I landed this fish to grow my confidence and to beef up the team spirit. He grabbed my arm so that all I needed to think about was landing that fish, worrying about wading and playing at the same time would decrease my chances of landing this beautiful lunking Lady.

"Well done Woooooddddyyyyyyyy!!! You ****!" Shouted you know who, and I was chuffed to bits. Pointon got his video camera out and made me wear one of those Scottish hats with red hair attached and set me up good and proper, much to the amusement of the rest of the team over beers later on that evening in the bar.

Glen's weighing net came in handy and we soon discovered that the fish was 2lb 2oz, a personal best for me.

We fished the same swim for a little while longer but it began to look like JT had found a pair of fish in that swim and we'd landed both of them so it was time to move on.

Andy had taken 6 or 8 further upstream and Rich had managed a couple but we all agreed that it was tough so we decided to jump in the cars and to move on to another stretch of the Teviot.


It was getting late but we had time to try out a few more swims, and we fanned out along a large stretch. There were many places that you'd put money on striking into fish but it was just not happening and I started to wonder whether, as JT had told us, that snow melt and road salt may be affecting the fishing. However, even though conditions were hard, the combination of JT's excellent guiding and the amazing surroundings made it all worth while.

We called it a day at about 4.30pm, made our way back to the digs in Kelso and headed for the pub. We had a right good natter, a few games of killer, and it wasn't long before the ale started to have the desired affect on Pointon and his legendary social etiquette started to kick in. He was rubbered and had us all in fits of laughter with his reminiscences of incidents involving everything from a meeting with Spongebob Squarepants, an instruction to pass wind, how to rewire a brothel and I don't think any of the group, myself included, will ever, ever forget Glen's description of his new passion of playing the trombone, please email him for more details.

That night was sleepless for a number of reasons. Snoring, farting in a Potteries accent, farting in a Manc accent, Pointon snoring, Pointon talking in his sleep about Tyzack's style of fishing, Pointon snoring, Pointon's alarm clock at 4.30am, Pointon Snoring, Tyzack beating pointon with pillows trying to stop him snoring, and Pointon snoring.

Yesterday the big thaw happened and we headed home, every river in the Borders of Scotland being near enough over the bank and unfishable, but we'd had a great time, some lovely lunking Scottish Grayling and a really good laugh along the way.

Please don't laugh too much at the video of me that Pointon will inevitably post on his blog.

David

Wintery Conditions at Dovedale

Had a walk up Dovedale with the dog this morning. When I arrived at the car park, mine was the only car there. I couldn't get my coat and gloves on fast enough because it was so cold and if I had brought my rod with me, I'm afraid I would have given it a miss.

As I got further up towards Ilam Rock though, the sun was getting into the valley, and fishing would have been much more comfortable.



















The river is running a couple of centimetres up and very clear. I saw the odd fish move but most were hiding away.





























































As I neared the end of my walk, I saw a really dodgy looking angler and thought I'd better steer clear of him. As I walked back towards the car, I could hear him shouting obscenities at me, in a very broad, potteries accent.

David

"Youth...Ellastone'ull be swayt.....brother!"

"Youth, gert thee sen back on the river fur them Graylin, Ellastone'ull be swayt....brother!", came the potteries accent down the telephone as I explained my shock of having to leave Islay behind, to Glenathan T. Pointon (formerly of Haddon).

And so, at 9am this morning, I poured my "sen" into my thermals and chucked a couple of rods into the back of the car, an optimistic 6ft 3wt and a more realistic 8ft 4wt, and made my way down to the Dove at good old Ellastone on the DRAC section....a lovely stretch of river, packed with fish.

On arrival, I jumped out of the car and hurried to have a look at the conditions from the bridge, and Glen was right, it was sweet. Levels were up a little and running fairly clear.

I set up with a duo rig, a balloon caddis on the dropper and a Pheasant Tail on the point and made my way up towards the fast section having decided not to wade up the middle given that there was an extra half foot on the levels and didn't fancy a deep wade through freezing water.

I was casting for about an hour and I was having no luck at all and so, convinced that I wasn't going to hook into a fish this morning, I made my way up the bank to head back to the car.

I was surprised to see a "Glen Pointon" van speeding down the lane, and I waved, as if I needed to attract his attention, momentarily thinking that he must be just passing through and that it must just be a coincidence that he had just crossed the bridge over one of his favourite stretches of river in the world.

I decided to head back to the river with Glen to see if he had any better luck than I did. I got back into the river and fished the calmer water closer to the bank. I was hitting the bottom regularly but all of a sudden, my indicator fly dropped swiftly away and I was into a fish. The fish wasn't giving much of a fight and I presumed that it would be a small Grayling. When I got it to the surface, the Grayling had a red band all the way down it's middle and it was massive, I reckon it must have been well over 2lb and closer to 2.5lb. I'd hooked into a (out of season) Rainbow that must have been near enough under my feet and in water that I had waded through on more than one occassion.

As soon as Pointon had set up (which was after about 3/4 of an hour, his gear in such a state!), he started to catch Grayling from the slacks in midstream, his best fish being about 1 3/4 lb.

I managed one Grayling, but the nymphing method employed by Glen was certainly the method of the day.



Slainte

David