As Twitter followers will know, last night I attended a whisky tasting given by the fabulous folks at Independent Spirit in Bath. Chris Scullion is enormously knowledgeable about whisky and always worth listening to. Last night’s tasting focused on things that were new in stock, so it was a bit of a mixed bag.

There are a couple of things I want to mention from last night. The first is the question of non-proprietary bottlings. Normally whisky distilleries are incredibly protective of their brands. Nevertheless, casks of malt whisky do sometimes find their way onto the market. Mostly these are sold with made-up names, though the disguise is often tissue-thin. Once in a while, however, the independent bottler will do a really good job and the distillery will allow the use of their name. The final whisky in last night’s tasting was a 7-year-old Talisker from Douglas Laing which does bear the distillery name. Very nice it was too.

One of the malts in the tasting was a Tullibardine. That’s not a well-known distillery, but it is notable for two reasons. Firstly the bottles carry a date of 1488. That’s the year in which King James IV of Scotland stopped by to purchase beer for his coronation. Making whisky is a much more recent activity at the site, but the distillery still proudly trumpets its royal connection.

Tullibardine, however, is no longer Scottish owned. The current owners are a French family who are primarily in the wine business. Their name is Picard, and we all know what that will mean some time in the far future. For now, however, it just means that they have access to some very interesting barrels in which to mature the whisky. The malt that we had last night was the Tullibardine 225, which is matured in Sauternes casks. That gives it a very different, and very fruity, flavor. They also do the Tullibardine 228 which is matured in Burgundy casks. Personally I prefer the 225, but they are both very interesting.

My thanks again to Chris for a fabulous evening. If you do happen to be in Bath, do pop into the shop and say hello.

Last night I took myself into Bath for a very special event – the launch of a new whisky. My pals at Independent Spirit have been wanting to have their own bottling for some time, and finally it has happened, complete with fabulous artwork from the amazing Jennie Gyllblad.

Now the boys aren’t actually distilling this stuff. They are just bottling it. That might seem a bit of a cheat, but it isn’t. Explaining why requires delving into whisky arcana.

All distilleries tend to have a certain amount of excess production. They know roughly how much of the single malt they can sell, and they will get orders from blenders for more. But you don’t want to be short, so you always make more than you need and have some left over.

This excess whisky is sold to people called “independent bottlers”, and my pals have just joined those ranks. Now you may wonder what the point is. Isn’t the single malt just the single malt? Won’t an independent bottler’s product be just the same as the malt? Well no. To start, it may be that not all of the whisky is matured in the same type of barrels. The distillery may chose only to sell certain casks as their own single malt, and sell on the output of other casks. There is the question of how long the cask has been left to mature before being bottled. Also, the independent bottler has the choice of what strength to bottle at.

Commercial malt whisky is generally sold at around 40%-43% alcohol by volume. That will have been watered down. You will see some whiskies sold at higher strengths. The highest levels you will find are so-called “cask strength”, which means it is not watered down at all before bottling.

The Independent Spirit whisky is 56.2%. That’s a bit eye-popping. It also has a lovely, peppery flavor which makes it seem ever more fiery. Chris Scullion, the whisky expert in the shop team, explained the decision to bottle at cask strength as follows: you can always add water, but you can’t take it away. The taste of a whisky can vary dramatically as water is added. By bottling at cask strength, Chris gives you the option to add as much or as little water as you want before drinking it.

Jennie with Matt Hoskins, who did the graphic design on the label

The whisky in the bottle is from Fettercairn, a small distillery in Aberdeenshire. It is fairly light and fruity. Chris said it reminds him of Dalwhinnie, a judgement I very much agree with. At cask strength is is most definitely the stuff of fire breathing, hence Jennie’s art. It is a limited edition with only 50 bottles available. I have one on order. I might be persuaded to bring it to Finncon with me.

The event took place in the Igloo bar which is in the basement of the Abbey Hotel (hence no live tweeting as we were underground). It is a lovely venue. Tim the barman treated us to a couple of whisky-based cocktails. The first was a whiskey sour, which proves that there is a purpose in the world for bourbon after all. It should have egg white in it, though I suspect that most bars will omit that just in case. The other was a Godfather, which is just whisky and amaretto. You can make this with a blend. Jennie and I, being amaretto addicts, loved it.

The Igloo bar, with Chris standing to the left