John Mac Lellan Joins Kilchoman Distillery Team

Great news...we've just been told that John MacLellan, Distillery Manager at Bunnahabhain for the last 12 years, is leaving to step into the new General Manager position at Islay's newest distillery, Kilchoman.

John takes up the exciting position on the 3rd of May and Leonie and I wish him all the best for the future.

Well done John! Keep an eye on our cask of Kilchoman!

Click here for the Kilchoman Distillery website.

Slainte

David and Leonie

New Queen of the Moorlands Bottlings Chosen for Islay Festival of Malt and Music 2010

Last Friday night I met up with Gordon Richards, Jane Jervis and Adrian Shufflebotham to nose, taste and to ultimately select the next whiskies to be part of our Queen of the Moorlands range of Rare Cask whiskies....and what a treat it turned out to be.

We were to taste 4 whisky samples and select whiskies to be bottled in time for the forthcoming Islay Festival of Malt and Music and for the tastings that we do there. One of the whiskies would also go on to be our Queen of the Moorlands bottling especially for the Festival. As far as we know, we are the only independent bottler to bottle a whisky especially for the Feis Ile.

We decided that we would be bottling 3 out of the 4 whiskies that we tasted. All will be bottled at natural cask strength, without any colouring or chill filtering. They will be bottled straight from the cask as always. These whiskies are bottled from one single cask and are therefore extremely limited in number. There will be around 200 to 300 bottles of each whisky, and when it has gone, the flavour unique to each individual cask will never be repeated. Each bottle will be hand labelled and individually numbered.

One of the three whiskies was chosen as our Islay Festival Bottling 2010, and this was to be the Bunnahabhain 1997 heavily peated from a sherry hogshead...wonderful stuff!

Queen of the Moorlands Rare Cask New Bottlings 2010 Tasting Notes

1. Queen of the Moorlands Rare Cask Bowmore 1999 10 years old

Nose: Sweet, light and heathery at first with slowly building peat

Palate: Again sweet but incredibly smokey with a very oily mouthfeel

Finish: Smooth, medicinal, peaty and very long

Max 200 bottles available. £49.99 per bottle

2. Queen of the Moorlands Rare Cask Laphroaig 1996 13 years old

Nose: Light peat smoke followed by red fruit and spice

Palate: Very sweet, phenolic, bonfires, oily mouthfeel

Finish: Huge peat smoke aftertaste that lasts forever

Max 200 bottles available. £59.99 per bottle

3. Queen of the Moorlands Rare Cask Bunnahabhain 1997 12 years old Islay Festival Bottling 2010

Nose: Classy and rich with raisins, smoke and the seashore

Palate: Smooth with vanilla, olorosso sherry notes, fruit and nut chocolate, raisins and hints of the sea, oh and lots and lots of peat smoke

Finish: Rich and clean, the sweetness and peat smoke lingers for an age

Max 300 bottles available. £59.99 per bottle

All of these whiskies are still in cask at the moment, awaiting to be bottled shortly, but if you would like to reserve stock, please don't hesitate to contact us to secure a bottle or two of these fine drams. The Bunnahabhain in particular will sell very quickly.

We don't ship overseas but if you live on Islay or if you are visiting the island during the festival, we can take payment and arrange to deliver to you between the 22nd May and June 5th.

Don't forget we'll be holding our whisky tastings during the festival week where Adrian, Jane and I will be happy to talk you through the new whiskies.

Slainte

David

Hard Day on The Severn Produces Pointon's PB

It had been 3 weeks since my last fishing outing, 3 weeks since one of my best fish producing sessions since I decided to take up fly fishing a couple of years ago. I was looking forward to getting out and Glen and I had arranged to meet up with John Tyzack and Roger Bryant for a return visit to the fantastic Upper Severn....and what a day of contrasts it would turn out to be.



I'd set my alarm for 6am with the responsibility of providing Mr Pointon with his alarm call. On the 5th call, I'd managed to awake him from his slumber and by 6.40am, he'd picked me up and the van was pointing towards Wales, well, sort of once Glen had negotiated a dubious detour around Stoke. After a huge breakfast (as ever) we arrived at the bridge pool on the river where we'd fared so well on our previous visit, the colour of the water being the first obvious difference, it was green.

There were no fish to be seen, and after a fruitless half hour, we decided to make our way upstream, having been given a little more info by local anglers as to where we might find a lunker lady or two.

The fishing was incredibly hard but Glen managed to find a good fish in some fast, shallow water.


This lovely Grayling of 2lb 4oz gave our well spoken angler friend a right scrap, and we shouted encouragement and abuse at him as he tried to land it. All of us green with envy at his success...Roger and I steadily closing in on him, desperate to poach his swim.

Within minutes though Glen had found the big Grayling's partner, and so he landed another, slightly smaller but beautiful fish of just under the 2lb mark.

Both John and Roger landed a few, smaller fish between them, but all agreed that the fishing was incredibly tough, especially me, given the fact that I was coming to terms with the fact that it was looking incredibly likely that today, I'd be on a dreaded blank.

Tyzack, determined as ever, skillfully endeavoured to reach the parts that other anglers cannot reach with fantastic technique, exploring rarely fished swims that must have held fish, but still, there were very few takes.


We spoke to a few of the local anglers about the tough conditions and the common theme seemed to be that freezing cold water had been released from Llyn Clywedog Reservoir, further upstream, and this had killed the fishing, the previous days angling also proving to be relatively tough.

We'd walked miles and taken very few fish, but it was great to be out with the lads and encouraging to see the first tell tale signs of spring being just around the corner, you could smell it in the air.

As ever, Pointon provided the laughter, reeling off, new, unrepeatable stories that had us all in tears. The fishing had tested us to the limit and we were even reduced to having a stone skimming competition, Pointon clearly embarrassed by the skill shown by myself and Tyzack, both of us producing skims of 10 bounces or more to his pathetic 2 or 3 bounces.

But...he caught a couple of lovely lunkers, and I blanked.

Well done Pointon....you ****

David

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