Yes, the whisky did look a bit cloudy to me compared to others which look very clear and bright. I remember nearly 20 years ago when I was doing a certificate in winemaking, we were discussing the use of cork and how the quality of cork available was decreasing as all the good cork trees were being used up. This was resulting in lesser quality cork being harvested and more cork tainted wines. We were questioning whether corks would need to be replaced by something else in the future and if so, by what. At the time we were discussing screw tops as an alternative, but people weren't sure because of the whole thing about opening a wine (or whisky) by popping the cork which would be lost by using a screw top. Now, synthetic corks may be a good alternative as long as they don't leach chemicals into the whisky or wine. Cheers!
Excellent info Simonne. And I feel like this may explain my recent experiences. Two options I'd like to see become common in Scotch are the moulded plastic screw tops that the Japanese have been using for a while and the synthetic corks used for velier rum and Botanist gin. Both seem incredibly reliable and effective. As you say though, what will happen to these new materials after several years? What about 100 years? I don't know and because it's unknown territory I'm a little concerned that perhaps nobody does... Cheers 🥃
My last bottle of Ardbeg Uigedail the cork snapped about 3/4 the way up, leaving barely anything left under the cap part to seal the bottle back up. Annoyingly it was a fairly disappointing bottling as well so not one I’ve reached for a lot. Managed to find a cork from another bottle that was a bit too wide so doesn’t fit flush to the top of the neck, but makes a good seal and does the job.
Another one was the Wire Works small batch, which didn’t snap, thankfully, but had formed to the glass and was a bit of a pain to get out, leaving a thin layer of cork residue permanently bonded to the inside of the neck.
Visited the distillery a couple of times on the free tour days. The whisky is OK but it's not competitively priced. Was looking at buying one of the single casks or 14 year old but you can get such better value like an 18 year old from a different distillery or a really good indi bottling.
Tough one. All English distilleries are very small scale compared to most Scottish, Irish and American distilleries. Not all costs scale though so English distilleries are almost forced to go for quality over volume. And that's a tough sell when your whisky isn't that old yet (EWC as the oldest English Distillery are moving out of that phase right now IMHO). I tried the 14yo refill single cask CS when I was there last time. I wasn't that impressed, especially for the price which is higher than other red range releases. My favourite EWC releases are often their shertied releases. Both small batch and red range. As well as their peated small batch and red range. IMHO some of their sherried releases are at least as good as the best from the likes of Glenallachie.
It's very tough to balance cost, quality and accessibility in an entry level whisky I think. Especially for EWC which is essentially a micro distillery that only does small batch. I was really disappointed when they released these two a few years ago because until then they'd never gone below 46%. After witnessing a lot of non whisky drinkers choke on 46% whisky on tours though, I'm starting to see why they want something like this. I enjoy both of them though. I think the Original is a pleasant fruity little malt and the Smoky is a nice little Lagavulin light. For those who really care about whisky there are always better options across the rest of the range though. Hopefully these didn't put you off EWC completely. Cheers 🥃
Yes, the whisky did look a bit cloudy to me compared to others which look very clear and bright. I remember nearly 20 years ago when I was doing a certificate in winemaking, we were discussing the use of cork and how the quality of cork available was decreasing as all the good cork trees were being used up. This was resulting in lesser quality cork being harvested and more cork tainted wines. We were questioning whether corks would need to be replaced by something else in the future and if so, by what. At the time we were discussing screw tops as an alternative, but people weren't sure because of the whole thing about opening a wine (or whisky) by popping the cork which would be lost by using a screw top. Now, synthetic corks may be a good alternative as long as they don't leach chemicals into the whisky or wine. Cheers!
Excellent info Simonne. And I feel like this may explain my recent experiences.
Two options I'd like to see become common in Scotch are the moulded plastic screw tops that the Japanese have been using for a while and the synthetic corks used for velier rum and Botanist gin. Both seem incredibly reliable and effective.
As you say though, what will happen to these new materials after several years? What about 100 years? I don't know and because it's unknown territory I'm a little concerned that perhaps nobody does...
Cheers 🥃
Yes it is a youthful and basic dram but like you said it is well made and certainly tasty. A good, non challenging breakfast whisky. Cheers Shane!
My last bottle of Ardbeg Uigedail the cork snapped about 3/4 the way up, leaving barely anything left under the cap part to seal the bottle back up. Annoyingly it was a fairly disappointing bottling as well so not one I’ve reached for a lot. Managed to find a cork from another bottle that was a bit too wide so doesn’t fit flush to the top of the neck, but makes a good seal and does the job.
Another one was the Wire Works small batch, which didn’t snap, thankfully, but had formed to the glass and was a bit of a pain to get out, leaving a thin layer of cork residue permanently bonded to the inside of the neck.
Perhaps not just my bad luck then! I'd love to know why it's happened a lot lately.
Very odd. I've only had corks fuse to the glass on very old bottles. Which your Wire Works obviously wasn't. Thanks for sharing.
Visited the distillery a couple of times on the free tour days. The whisky is OK but it's not competitively priced. Was looking at buying one of the single casks or 14 year old but you can get such better value like an 18 year old from a different distillery or a really good indi bottling.
Tough one. All English distilleries are very small scale compared to most Scottish, Irish and American distilleries. Not all costs scale though so English distilleries are almost forced to go for quality over volume. And that's a tough sell when your whisky isn't that old yet (EWC as the oldest English Distillery are moving out of that phase right now IMHO).
I tried the 14yo refill single cask CS when I was there last time. I wasn't that impressed, especially for the price which is higher than other red range releases. My favourite EWC releases are often their shertied releases. Both small batch and red range. As well as their peated small batch and red range. IMHO some of their sherried releases are at least as good as the best from the likes of Glenallachie.
I bought both of these bottles last year on offer for a very good price. Honestly, I was very underwhelmed by both of them. Cheers
It's very tough to balance cost, quality and accessibility in an entry level whisky I think. Especially for EWC which is essentially a micro distillery that only does small batch. I was really disappointed when they released these two a few years ago because until then they'd never gone below 46%. After witnessing a lot of non whisky drinkers choke on 46% whisky on tours though, I'm starting to see why they want something like this.
I enjoy both of them though. I think the Original is a pleasant fruity little malt and the Smoky is a nice little Lagavulin light. For those who really care about whisky there are always better options across the rest of the range though. Hopefully these didn't put you off EWC completely. Cheers 🥃
🥃😀😀👍