A Christmas Miracle: Two Single-Barrel Scotch Bottlings Selected By Chambers St. Wines
11/25/16 -
They’re here. Just in time for the holidays, we welcome two Chambers Street exclusives in the form of single-barrel Speyside single malts. This area in the northeast of Scotland around the River Moray is home to the most distilleries of any whisky-producing region in the country, and also produces some of my favorite drams. I’m not the only one who shares this sentiment (the two best-selling single malts in the world are from Speyside), and we are proud to have selected two barrels from the highly-regarded Duncan Taylor Octave range of whiskies.
Duncan Taylor began as a cask broker and trading company in 1938. Over the years, they developed strong ties with the distillers whom they worked with and began bringing their own barrels to the distilleries to be filled with new make spirit. The result of this was a large warehouse filled with an awesome collection of single malts, many of which are not regularly available in today’s markets. The Octave series denotes whiskies that have been aged in 600L cask before finishing in “octave” casks, or casks that are 1/8th the size of regular whisky barrels. The company had always been experimenting with finishing whisky in smaller quarter and octave casks built from used sherry butts and Bourbon barrels, but did not commit to releasing these casks as unique, single-barrel offerings until the mid-2000s. All of them are bottled un-chillfiltered without added colorant, with many of them at full cask strength for a pure, unadulterated, and delicious whisky.
The two barrels that we have chosen highlight the two main flavor profiles of Speyside: the light, grassy profile which carries the slightest wisp of peat from the lesser-known Aultmore distillery in Keith, and the richer, sweeter style that is the hallmark of the historic Glen Moray distillery in Elgin. And if you can’t decide between the two, don’t worry - you don’t have to! For a limited time, purchase the Chambers St. Holiday Scotch two-pack and receive a 10% discount. Don’t miss this chance to taste two rare Speyside whiskies at their purest. What could be a better gift for yourself or a whisky-loving friend this holiday season? Slàinte! Tim Gagnon
