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.
Ballechin 10 Year
Ballechin is a heavily peated scotch from Edradour, differentiated by brand much in the same way Springbank and Bruichladdich do with their peated offerings. It first appeared in 2003 and has seen a few limited releases before this 10 year old appeared on the market. The Ballechin 10 year takes its name from a nearby Perthshire farm distillery that closed in 1927. According to the 19th century travel writer Alfred Barnard, that distillery made a peated malt. This whisky is peated to at least 50ppm.