Glenmorangie 19 Year Old breaks tradition

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Dr. Bill Lumsden is at it again. The director of whiskey creation for the Scottish distiller on Tuesday announced the launch of Glenmorangie Ealanta, the latest addition to its "Private Edition" range.

Ealanta -- Scots Gaelic for "skilled and ingenious" -- is a 19 Years Old Glenmorangie, matured in virgin American white oak casks from the Mark Twain National Forest in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri. (Go here for a visit Lumsden and I paid to that area several years ago as I followed the "wood trail" for whiskey again.)

"It's no secret in our industry that it's the wood that makes the whisky," Lumsden said, "and for many years my team and I have been carrying out detailed research in this area."

Glenmorangie typically employs used whiskey barrels to age its whiskies, so the use of new white oak casks is a different approach.

"The interaction of our elegant spirit from our very tall stills directly with this virgin wood makes for many intriguing flavors," Lumsden said. "Using virgin oak casks that have been heavily toasted adds huge mouth-filling, buttery, creamy, vanilla flavors -- somewhat like a creme brulee topped with almond and marzipan. This makes for a lovely rounded and complex expression of Glenmorangie. New wood also imparts a purity of flavor that I think many Glenmorangie aficionados will find an interesting divergence from our previous Private Edition releases."

Glenmorangie Ealanta is bottled at a strength of 46% alcohol by volume (92 proof) and is non chill-filtered. It will be available in limited quantities in the U.S. market. The distiller did release a suggested retail price. However, it is priced at 99.95 Euros, which converts to $132 in U.S. currency.

New PA licensing scheme would open the field

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• From The Associated Press

HARRISBURG, PA -- Gov. Tom Corbett is expected to call for auctioning off wine and liquor store licenses and opening beer sales to a broad array of retailers including supermarkets and convenience stores, according to information from people briefed by the governor's office Tuesday.

The plan would dramatically liberalize the sale of alcoholic beverages in Pennsylvania and throw out Prohibition-era limitations that have thus far withstood the efforts of three straight Republican governors.

Corbett's office said the Republican governor will announce his plan Wednesday afternoon in a Pittsburgh state office building. His spokesman, Kevin Harley, declined to comment on the details ahead of the governor's announcement, but he said it would be a "bold" plan.

"He believes Pennsylvanians should have choice and convenience in purchasing beer, wine and liquor, the same convenience that is afforded to residents of 48 other states," Harley said.

According to information from people briefed by the governor's office, the plan involves shutting down the more than 600 state-owned wine and liquor stores as a prelude to auctioning 1,200 wine and liquor store licenses. The information was provided by people on condition of anonymity because they did not want to be named providing details before the governor announces them.

Owners of supermarkets, drugstores, restaurants and big-box stores would be able to buy separate licenses to sell beer and wine. Convenience store owners would be eligible to sell beer while the state's approximately 1,200 licensed beer distributorships would be able to bid for licenses to sell wine and liquor.

Harley said a bill reflecting Corbett's plan will be introduced in the near future.

Wendell W. Young IV, the president of the union that represents about 3,000 unionized state store clerks, said Tuesday that privatization of wine and liquor sales would diminish consumer choice and state tax revenue while raising liquor consumption rates and the crime and health problems that follow.

"Why would we want to be like the 48 other states when we're already so much better than them?" Young questioned.

Malacca gin making a brief return

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Gin lovers who may be nostalgic for a special product from the '90s will be glad to hear Tanqueray is bringing back its Malacca gin.

Malacca was introduced in 1997, but ceased production in 2001. That was to the disappointment of some leading cocktail experts, who liked the fact the lower-alcohol product was softer and with fewer juniper nuances than the popular London Dry style and, thus, was more versatile in mixed drinks.

The return of Malacca in February is for "a limited run" will carry a suggested retail price of $33 for the 750ml bottle.

By way of explanation "limited run," the company has created just 16,000 cases for the U.S. UK and Western Europe markets.

A. Smith Bowman master distiller dies

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Truman Cox

FREDERICKSBURG, VA -- Truman Cox, master distiller at the A. Smith Bowman Distillery, died Saturday after a short illness.
His death was announced by Sazerac, the company for which he worked since he joined it in 2004 as lead chemist at its Buffalo Trace Distillery. He became master distiller at  A. Smith Bowman in 2001.
"Truman’s passion for our industry was evident to everyone who knew him and he left a notable and positive mark on our company in the time he was with us," the company said in a statement.    
"Truman will be sadly missed by his many friends at Sazerac and in the industry.  Please keep Truman, his wife Susan, and daughter Emmy in your thoughts and prayers. Funeral arrangements have yet to be determined."

Maker's Mark cuts proof, not price

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Maker's Mark, the premium bourbon with the iconic red wax seal, has reduced the alcohol level of its product from 45% to 42% -- i.e., from 90 proof to 84 proof.

That notification comes in a letter from Rob Samuels, chief operating officer, who says the decision was made because "demand for our bourbon is exceeding our ability to make it, which means we're running very low on supply."

Samuels, who succeeded his father, Bill, as COO in 2011, said the brand's growth over the last 18-24 months has been "significantly greater than we had ever experienced as a brand." He said sales of Maker's to consumers grew about 18% last year.

Bill Samuels said Monday on the company's website that he and his son never considered raising the price of the bourbon even in the face of greater demand.

"We don't want to price Maker's Mark out of reach," he wrote.

What about dropping the price now that the alcohol level has been lowered?

"The value of Maker's Mark isn't set by alcohol volume," Bill Samuels wrote.

Maker's Mark, which is distilled in Loretto, KY, made no mention of changes in its Maker's 46, a more expensive 94-proof offshoot of the main brand that is aged longer inside barrels containing seared French oak staves after the aging in new charred American white oak barrels as required by law to be a true bourbon.

Apple's iPhone 4S: Siri's Buzz

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    Like every other Apple product before it, the iPhone 4S has been highly anticipated. But this time, the buzz is about Siri, the phone’s “personal assistant”. Siri is a feature that allows you to ask it or tell it to do virtually anything, and will answer immediately. It understands most natural languages. While it is not new technology and is available in Google’s Android phones, Apple has completely mastered it.The amazing feature can do tasks as simple as playing the song you ask, setting an alarm for the time you specify, or making an internet search, to a task as advanced as making a reservation at a restaurant. Siri can obviously be perfected and will continue to evolve, but after buying the rights to the software Apple made it feel as if it’s the only product like this, and more importantly, the one you can’t live without.

For further reading: http://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2011/10/17/apples-siri-the-culmination-of-steve-jobs-legacy/

Glad's New Green Trash Bags

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      Glad Products Company has a new green trash bag. Beginning Monday, October 24^th, the tall kitchen drawstring trash bags with be made with less plastic. Not only will it cost the same as previous kinds, but also Glad will reduce their use of plastic by 6.5 million pounds a year. This equals 140 million bags, a huge amount that definitely requires a huge marketing campaign. Glad is spending between $30 and 40 million to create a buzz and demand for the eco-friendly trash bags. But Glad is being smart; instead of showing an obnoxious save the planet, overly exaggerated environmentally beneficial commercial, Glad is adopting a simple and clever plan. The ads, also to begin on Monday, use lines such as “strength with less plastic” and “stronger with less plastic waste”. The campaign will even boast the millions of pounds of plastic it will save by explaining it’s enough “to cover all of Manhattan” or “to fill over 200 garbage trucks”. Some ads will show the product’s environmental benefit with a small single green leaf, versus an entire forest.       Even with a culture where consumers pay so much attention to social issues and greener products, Glad wants to advertise the whole products benefits, with its eco-friendly aspects an added perk.  Glad’s new product sales will most likely soar above their original trash bags. The new trash bag will clearly succeed with prices the same as ones with no environmental benefit, especially considering eco-friendly products are usually more expensive.
For further reading: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/business/media/glad-cuts-the-hyperbole-for-its-new-green-trash-bag.html?_r=1&src=recg