Chivas ‘The Blend’ Experience

Have you ever tried your hand at blending? Think you’ve got what it takes to come up with a delicious whisky?   Would you like to be a Master Blender for a day? The Blend by Chivas is giving you that very opportunity!

Chivas ‘The Blend’ Experience is a fantastic event to not just learn a bit about Scotch whisky and the story behind one of Scotland’s most famous blends, but to also have a crack at blending and putting together your own blended Scotch. Best of all, you get to take home a 200ml bottle of your own creation at the end of the session!

Chivas ‘The Blend’ Experience is coming to four cities across Australia over the next five months and whisky drinkers are able to sign up and register for their own session. Full details on this a little lower below but, first of all, what’s involved?

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Johnnie Walker Blue Label – Ghost and Rare “Brora”

Johnnie Walker continues to extend their portfolio and bring interest to the category of blended Scotch whisky with a number of new and/or limited edition releases.  The “Blue Label” brand has many incarnations and variations these days since it was first expanded with the King George V release several years ago now.

The latest Blue Label release comes with all the usual fanfare and back-story, but this one will deservedly and legitimately grab your attention.  For, whilst many rare blends tease you with vague or enigmatic tales of especially “rare” or “old” whiskies making up the blend (but never telling you what they are), Blue Label’s first “Ghost and Rare” release proudly shows its hand and tells you its secrets.  And any whisky that declares Brora as a key ingredient is going to draw the interest of whiskyphiles.

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Johnnie Walker 18yo – the old is new

If you’ve read enough pieces, opinions, wisdom – and certainly reviews – on Whisky & Wisdom, you’ll have noticed a subconscious, underlying nostalgic tone occasionally.   When you’ve been enjoying whisky for over twenty years and observed the very significant changes and growth that has occurred in the industry in that time (even in just the last ten years), it’s hard to look at and comment on current whisky affairs without inadvertently glancing backwards to how things once were.

Such observances even pervade one’s thinking when it comes to Johnnie Walker.   Once upon a time, the Johnnie Walker stable was a pretty simple and well-defined house.   Just four simple colours:  Red, Black, Gold, and Blue.   (Yes, there was the occasional sighting of something different (e.g. Swing), and let’s not forget the rumours of the elusive Grey Label that did the rounds back in the mid-2000’s.)

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Now & Then: Comparing old bottlings with today’s counterparts

Now and then.  Ah, the joys of nostalgia.

If there’s a topic guaranteed to start an argument around the table, it’s when sports enthusiasts try to pick or assert that a particular sporting team from one era was superior to the team from another era.  For example, is the Hawthorn team from the 1980’s better than the Hawthorn team from 2013-2015?  Was Don Bradman’s 1948 “Invincibles” side a better cricket team than the all-conquering Steve Waugh side of 1999-2001? If the two teams were to compete against one another, who would win?

Sadly (or happily?) in the case of such arguments, it is all speculation and conjecture.  For, quite simply, we will never know.  And how do you compare teams across different eras when rules were different, playing conditions differed, and the level of athleticism and professionalism was different.  The discussion is nothing more than hypothetical amusement.

Increasingly of late, similar discussions and assertions are translating across into whisky circles.  For example, a commonly-seen thread in many online whisky groups or forums is the assertion that the whiskies of today are not as good as what they were 20 years ago.  Or that whiskies have changed over the years.

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Are you a whisky snob?

Are you a whisky snob?  More critically, have you ever accused someone of being a whisky snob?  If you’re in either camp – particularly the latter – you need to read on…

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Whisky’s key ingredient

How do you make good whisky? In fact, what are the ingredients of whisky?  If you answered barley, water, and yeast, then you were correct.  And yet, there’s so much more…

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Label 5 – Gold Heritage

As someone who is firmly entrenched (and ensconced) in the world of malt, I don’t concern myself too readily or seriously with blended whisky.  But don’t misread that last sentence.  By the same token, I make a fairly concerted effort to ensure I don’t fall into the trap of being a malt snob, or dismissing blends without giving them due regard.   There are some tremendous blended whiskies out there, and it would be both arrogant and folly to write off an entire category of whisky, simply because one’s tastebuds have developed beyond the likes of Vat 69 or 100 Pipers.  So, when the good folks at La Martiniquaise in France offered to send me a bottle of their newly released Label 5 “Gold Heritage”, I felt obliged to give it a fair hearing…

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Whisky cocktails – are we doing the flavour a favour?

Have you ever tried a whisky cocktail?  I’m referring to something a bit more exotic than a Rusty Nail or a Manhattan.  The former – simply equal parts of whisky and Drambuie together – and the latter, a concoction of rye whiskey, vermouth, and bitters, are both time-honoured classics, but it would be wrong to compare them with the more complex, complicated, and dare I say, fashionable whisky cocktails doing the rounds in today’s bars.

Whisk(e)y cocktails currently carry the buzz in the industry at present, and it’s been the case now for at least the last four to five years.  Cocktails are seen as the introduction or stepping stone into whisky drinking.  “Don’t like whisky?  Here, have a sip of this colourful Highland Fling!”  The marketing guys have been working furiously in recent years to shed the industry’s image of whisky being an older man’s drink, and so the bar and cocktail scene is where they’re targeting their message to attract a younger and more gender-balanced demographic to the category.

I concede there is a logic to it.  We are in the latter (ending?) phase of the cult of the celebrity chef, and not everyone is hanging off every word and activity that the Gordon Ramsays and Marco Pierre Whites of the world get up to.  In their place – at least in certain circles – we are seeing the rise of the celebrity cocktail expert.  Or, to use the preferred parlance:  The Mixologist.

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An afternoon with Colin Scott (Master Blender for Chivas Bros)

It’s not every day you get the chance to meet with and listen to a Master Blender, so when the good folks at Pernod Ricard Australia hosted an afternoon with Colin Scott recently, I was happy to accept their kind invitation.

I’ve actually spent a bit of time with some other Master Blenders: Richard Patterson of Whyte & Mackay; Tom Smith of Johnnie Walker; Robert Hicks of Teachers/Laphroaig/ Ardmore/Glendronach; Iain McCallum of Morrison Bowmore; Brian Kinsman of William Grant & Sons; and then other whisky creators like Jim McEwan (Bowmore/Bruichladdich) and Bill Lumsden (Glenmorangie/Ardbeg).   I’ve also had a few decent attempts at blending myself, having undertaken some formal blending sessions both in Scotland and here in Australia.  (And whilst my “attempts” have been decent, my results have been very indecent!)

What I’ve learned from these people and experiences is that (a) blending is incredibly difficult, and (b) the people who do it commit to a lifetime of learning and application. Colin Scott is no different.

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