Vicomte 8 Year
A decade or two ago, it might have seemed the very picture of strangeness to have the rise of French whiskies we’re seeing even though the country has long been a large consumer of scotch. The distillery itself is old but the company who owns it is based out of Florida, Venturi Brands. Unlike many current whisky companies, Vicomte and Venturi seem cloaked behind non-functioning websites and precious little information about the whisky beyond what is listed on the label. Though the Vicomte 8 Year was only released in 2015, so it remains to be seen whether it can break into the markets it desires. It is aged entirely in ex-Cognac barrels and the barley is from the Poitou-Charentes region.
Whisky Cities – Minneapolis/St. Paul
For a couple of years now, the folks at World Whisky Day have been featuring different cities across the globe as “Whisky Capitals” in their weekly newsletter. Many of these are not what you might normally expect as hotbeds of whisky. Finally, we decided to submit our own location to them and it was featured in their Whisky Wednesday newsletter from April 2018. Understandably, the editors trimmed for effective length, but below is the full text of how the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul, have become an unexpected must-see for whisky fans. And rest assured, we know there were many places we missed!
Glenrothes Vintage 1998
The Glenrothes has a way of categorizing their scotch that is markedly different than most other distilleries. Rather than bearing a standard age statement or name in lieu of one, the Glenrothes labels their offerings by the year in which the barrels were first laid down. The bottle details tell you when the scotch was bottled, letting you do your own math to figure out the age. The Vintage 1998 is from their Core Vintage line, though there are Reserve, Special Release, and Classic lines too.