Okay, so this was taken a couple of weeks after the jar was filled…

Every good bartender (and home cocktail enthusiast) knows that a cocktail is only as good as its ingredients, and one ingredient that is indispensable in the preparation of a plethora of whisky cocktails is the Maraschino cherry.

Traditionally, Maraschino cherries are prepared by preserving small, light coloured cherries in a brine solution, dyeing them red, and then dousing them in Maraschino Liqueur. This technique, whilst effective, is also time consuming, and impossible to undertake unless the cherries are in season and fresh.

Commercially available ‘cocktail cherries’ (note the conspicuous absence of the word ‘Maraschino’) for sale in supermarkets and on the interweb tend to be of inferior quality, containing no Maraschino Liqueur at all, using cheaper sugar syrup, and artificial flavourings to achieve a poor approximation of the real thing. More...

Further to our prophetic post last week about Old Whisky, the release has been announced earlier today of the new Mortlach 70 Year Old - the oldest bottled Single Malt Whisky in the world. At a full 70 years old, this is one in the eye for Dalmore, whose recent super-high-end releases have never quite hit this magical age marker.

Bottled by Gordon and Macphail, an award-winning malt whisky specialist from Elgin – this super-luxury whisky has been produced and bottled in exceptionally small quantity from a Spanish Ex-Bodega Sherry Hogshead which was laid down in 1938. Click here to read more...

The presentation of whiskies of this age and calibre is paramount, and this release certainly does not disappoint. Presented in a crystal and Sterling Silver decanter, all housed in a hand-made box made from Brazilian Rosewood.

Whilst we’ve not (yet) tasted this world first of a dram, we can include below tasting notes from Charles Maclean..

Available now, and an absolute snip at only £9999!

Mortlach 70 Year Old

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Yet more amazing samples of Japanese Whisky have turned up with us from the lovely folks at No 1 Drinks Company, so to whet your appetite – we’ve done a few tasting notes…

Both Whiskies are from the closed Distillery, Hanyu, Located in southern Japan. Both will be available in late spring… Subscribe to our twitter feed, and we’ll let you know exactly when they come in…

Hanyu Cask# 9305 Number One Drinks Company 53.4%

Bottled by Number One Drinks Company

1990-2009

Nose: Very full and fruity, peaches, calvados, hint of bourbon too, that tangy fruity top note you get in bourbon.

Palate: Fruity, Sweet and sour, quite meaty, some mushrooms, tangy,

Finish: Becomes Drying, refreshers sweets.

Overall: Very good – meaty, but not over the top.

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There is an absolutely huge kerfuffle going on in the mainstream press at the moment about the hot new release of the first English whisky in over 100 years from St George’s distillery in Norfolk…

We visited the distillery in September and met with Managing Director Andrew Nelstrop. We’ve got a few juicy exclusives, photos and insights to share with you lucky, lucky people.

The Distillery and visitors centre. The still room is behind the large window facing the front on the first floor.

We’ll start by saying first and foremost that we absolutely adored the spirits we tasted – the complexity and depth of flavour found in the samples we tried with Andrew were stunning, and the dedication to excellence displayed at every step of the distillation and maturation processes were truly a delight to see.  These guys are doing it properly.

The distillery is located in a picturesque village just outside Norwich, and on pulling up to the entrance, we thought we were looking at a rather nice country home rather than a working distillery.  It would doubtless have been incredibly easy (not to mention cheap) More...

So then – Jim Murray’s 2010 World Whisky of the Year – the Sazerac Rye (fall 2008 edition) has been replaced by the all-new new fall 2009 edition, and it’s an absolute belter.

As far as we know, at the time of writing this post, we’re the only retailer in the UK to be offering this for sale – and there are only limited quantities available.

The delivery arrived at 09:30, and before the pallet was even off the lorry, a bottle had been snaffled, opened, and was in the process of being tasted. Here are the results:

Sazerac Rye 18 Year Old Fall 2009 Edition 45%

Nose: Huge and powerful sweet rye on the initial nosing gives way to cinnamon toasted brioche, leather, and more than a hint of maraschino cherry. A really huge hit of oak follows, somewhat vinous with it - we were reminded of a barrique aged chardonnay. There’s something slightly medicinal lurking somewhere - a hint of iodine perhaps? It’s definitely not out of place amongst the other huge aromas given off by this whiskey though. A slight suggestion of coconut right at the tail end.

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It's a bit like Christmas at MoM towers today, albeit with fewer board-games and no crap jokes (well, maybe just a few). A very exciting package has turned up from the smashing folks at the 'Number one drinks company'. It's their newest selection of cask bottlings, and some sneak previews of the very exciting new malts from Chichibu.

All of these bottlings are currently on a cargo ship from Japan, and should be available in the next two months, keep watching - we'll get them up as soon as they're in.

So - enough with the pre-amble and onto the malts. First up, we've got 3 single cask bottlings from (the now closed) Hanyu and the sublime Karuizawa distilleries:

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Movember bottlings on the bar at the Whisky Picnic in Edinburgh.

The more observant of you will have noticed that for the past 27 days, a blooming great moustache has adorned the front page of our website, and the Master of Malt logo has also sported a rather dashing pair of lip-weasels. The reason for this isn’t temporary insanity – we’re simply showing our support for the month-long men’s health charity event – Movember.

Every November (November, Moustache, Movember – geddit?) men all across the country grow their ‘taches from scratch, and join in with events to raise funds for The Prostate Cancer Charity. It’s a sobering thought that prostate cancer accounts for a full quarter of all incidences of cancer in men in the UK, and raising awareness of this condition is something that we’re glad to be a part of.

The Master of Malt team has shown its support in 2009 by growing (mainly very inadequate) moustaches, and launching a special edition ‘Whisky 4 Movember’ bottling. All the profits generated by this bottling are being donated directly to Movember.

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