With warmer days ahead, we’re driven to nuanced single malt whiskies that are bright and graceful. For this quarter, the Single Malt Club is featuring an oft-overlooked Highland distillery, Teaninich. A workhorse distillery for the major global company, Diageo, it is not overlooked for lack of trying. Teaninich’s main output is making younger whisky for Diageo brands like Johnnie Walker. It is not common to find a Teaninich this old. This 11 year old scotch, aged in ex-bourbon barrels, is made at only one of two Scottish distilleries to use a mash filter rather than a traditional mash tun, or lauter tun, allowing it to process very finely milled malt. This is a lighter, cleaner spirit with fewer cereal grain notes. This scotch is yet another great example of how an independent bottler can present a rarity as interesting as it is unique.
Sláinte
Will Popko
Spirits Buyer
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Teaninich 2013 11 Year Single Malt Scotch |
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Region: Alness, Scotland |
Teaninich, which translates to “house of the monks”, shares the town of Alness with another distillery - The Dalmore Distillery. The Teaninich Distillery was built in 1817 by Napoleonic war hero ‘Blind’ Captain Hugh Munro. After he and his brother John Munro managed the distillery for its first 50 years, the next century-plus it changed hands a couple times until DCL (Distillers Company Limited, later The Distillers Company) purchased it before WWII. In the 1970’s, DCL built a second distillery on the site with 6 stills calling it ‘A Side’. In the ‘80’s the original Teaninich, B Side, was mothballed - the original stills decommissioned and demolished leaving only the historic receiver house. Guinness acquired The Distillers Company in the late 1980’s and in 1997 Guinness merged with Grand Metropolitan to form Diageo. Production increased as Teaninich became the go-to distillery for a major portion of the conglomerate's output. In 2013 Diageo announced plans that expanded the distillery, adding a new still house with six pairs of stills pushing Teaninich into big-production territory. This is a distillery that matters more than one might think. It is not a flashy distillery, but a historic and technically important production house. ImpEx Beverages is the American importer of many unique spirits and is distributed by JVS Beverages here in California. Sam Filmus, president and managing director of both companies, has worked to bring unique one-off bottlings from an array of other products imported by ImpEx. This Teaninich release is specific to only ImpEx and only available in the United States. |
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Cask Type: Ex-Bourbon |
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ABV: 56.8% |
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Price: $129.99/700mL |
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Tasting Notes: Nose: tart green apple and fresh cut herbs Palate: white pepper, subdued pear and honeycomb, creamy malted barley Finish: lasting citrus and soft spices |
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