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Ballantine Introduces 2011 Championship Blend

Australian professional golfer Marcus Fraser, the winner of the 2010 Ballantine's Championship, has collaborated with Ballantine's Master Blender Sandy Hyslop to create the 2011 Championship Blend. The Scotch contains whiskies aged for at least 38 years. Only 10 bottles are being produced and as reigning Ballantine's Championship winner, Fraser will receive one of the them. One bottle will also be reserved for the 2011 champion and another will be auctioned for charitable causes during the 2011 tournament, which will take place at Seoul's Blackstone Golf Club Icheon next April.

"It is very impressive seeing Ballantine's Master Blender Sandy Hyslop in his element," said Fraser, "with his enthusiasm, experience and knowledge of all the different flavours and how they can be used together to come up with a final product." Hyslop guided Fraser through the delicate blending process and describes the resulting product as being "extremely fruity, with lots of soft fruit flavours, allied with some lovely, creamy background flavours, and when you taste it the whisky's finish just seems to last forever. Marcus obviously has a bit of a sweet tooth, as some of the flavours he has chosen have given the Championship Blend a beautifully sweet top dressing."

The Ballantine's Championship began in 2008 as an event co-sanctioned by the European and Asian Tours. It is Asia's fourth biggest golf tournament and the largest annual golf event in South Korea.

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Ballantine's Christmas Reserve

by Noah Joseph (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits

Hunting a gift for a whisky lover never presents the challenge it does for any other recipient, and the holiday season makes for a great time to bring your friends and family a bottle of the good stuff. Ballantine's, however, is taking it a step further with its new Christmas Reserve.

The special blend packs yuletide aromas such as sweet wood, dried fruit and cinnamon, and comes in a special bottle and white box with a snowflake motif. Ballantine's Christmas Reserve hits European markets this month, and is slated to become a seasonal offering for years to come.

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Rare Whisky Galore Bottle Up For Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits, Auctions

There's something very appealing about a bottle that's been through a voyage. Whether it's the recent champagne bottles unearthed from the ocean floor or Shackleton's ice-sunk bottles, somehow the journey from here to there makes them that much more appealing. That's why a bottle from the famous "Whisky Galore" shipwreck should do well when it heads to auction on August 18 at the Bonhams Edinburgh whisky sale.

The bottle of Ballantine's is said to have been recovered from the wreck of SS Politician in the 1950s or 1960s. The ship was wrecked in a storm off the Outer Hebrides, near the island of Eriskay, in 1941. The cargo included 264,000 bottles of whisky. Local islanders, drink-starved by war-time rationing, eagerly retrieved an estimated 24,000 bottles from the Politician's hull. Sadly, local customs officers eventually destroyed the hull to stop the looting. In 1947, Compton Mackenzie dramatized the event in a novel titled "Whisky Galore" and the book was later turned into a movie. The Belfast Telegraph reports that in 1987, eight bottles were retrieved from the wreck, which still lies submerged off the coast of Eriskay, and sold for £4,000. After more extensive salvage efforts in 1989, only 24 more bottles were recovered.

The whisky in this bottle is at the low shoulder and has the remains of a driven cork with a wax seal applied by Bonhams. It is unlabeled but embossed on the base with the Ballantine's name. The auction lot is accompanied by history of the salvage of the bottle and some black and white images of the hull of the wreck and the diver with this bottle. Martin Green, the whisky specialist at Bonhams, Edinburgh said that the bottles don't come on the market often but that the whisky is still quite drinkable. The bottle is estimated at between £1,200 and £1,800.

Tags: ballantines, bonhams, whisky, whisky galore

Ballantine Championship Blend Whisky

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits, Sports

Plenty of golfers have a wine brand but not many get their own whisky. Golfer Graeme McDowell, the winner of the inaugural Ballantine's Championship golf tournament last year has had the honor of being the first golfer to participate in the Ballantine's blending process. He worked with Sandy Hyslop, Ballantine's fifth Master Blender to create the 2009 Ballantine's Championship Blend. The unique blend includes two very old grain whiskies from Strathclyde and Dumbarton and although the label says that the blend is a 35-year-old scotch it contains older whiskies. There are just 15 bottles of the blend: one bottle will go to the winner of this year's Ballantine's Championship, one will be presented to Graeme McDowell and one will be auctioned at the tournament's Opening Ceremony. The 2009 Ballantine's Championship takes place in at the Pinx Golf Club in Jeju, South Korea later this month.

[via The Moodie Report]

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