Frequently
Asked Questions
|
ORDERING
ON LFW.CO.UK
Is
shopping online safe?
Shopping at LFW.CO.UK is safe.
We use a secure server for all transactions - please ensure that whilst
ordering the padlock in your browser shows as locked and that
the address of our site starts with https://
You should also see our secure certificate from Thawte in the
left hand side navigation pane.
All orders are checked by us manually and any errors are corrected.
Credit cards are not charged until the order is ready to be shipped.
If you have any concerns about safety please call us on 01499
302219
How
long will delivery take?
Subject to availability, we aim to ship all orders same day, Monday-Friday,
when received upto 3pm.
If an item you have ordered is unavailable we will let you know as
soon as possible.
NEW CUSTOMERS PLEASE NOTE:
If you have not ordered mail order with us previously, we will email
you for some extra information.
Only when we have received a satisfactory reply will we process your
order.
Once shipped UK deliveries normally take from 1-4 days, Monday-Friday
only.
Overseas deliveries generally take 3-10 days but please allow upto
28 days.
Can
you deliver tomorrow in the UK?
Yes - but
there are limitations:
All next day deliveries must be place by phone on 01499 302219
BEFORE 12 noon.
Who
makes the delivery?
We use ParcelForce for our deliveries.
Small items may be sent in the regular mail.
Overseas orders are sent by ParcelForce/Royal Mail and delivered by
their local agent.
Do
you deliver on Saturdays?
All our UK whisky deliveries take place Monday-Friday only.
Smaller items which go through regular mail may be delivered on a
Saturday.
Can
you deliver on a specific day?
Due to our remote location our courier cannot guarantee delivery on
a specific day.
If you need delivery by a certain date please let us know and we will
do our best.
Can
you deliver to a different address?
Yes. We can deliver to a work address if you prefer or to a third
party if it is a gift.
Look out for a tick box as you start to check out.
What happens if no-one is in to accept the delivery?
The courier should put a card through your letterbox saying they have
attempted delivery and provide a contact number to arrange re-delivery.
After 2 failed delivery attempts, packages are returned to us, which
incurrs a double charge, we reserve the right to charge the buyer
this fee and any re-shipping fee.
If you let us know with your order, we can ask the courier to leave
your parcel with a neighbour or in a safe part of your property.
This is offered with the understanding that any parcels so left are
at your own risk.
Do
you ship Internationally?
We ship daily worldwide.
The countries we ship to regularly are all in our shopping cart system.
If your country is not listed please contact
us and we will let you know if we can deliver.
How
much is shipping?
Please
see our shipping pages for current prices.
Can
I add a message to my order?
Yes. You can add a message whilst checking out or by contacting
us, we will include a greeting card without charge.
Can
you gift wrap?
Unfortunately we are unable to gift wrap as we have to ensure
all bottles are securley wrapped for transportation.
Can
I return my purchase?
Yes.
If the product is faulty or not as ordered then it can be returned
to us at our cost.
If you change
your mind and no longer require the item you may return it to us within
8 days of receipt for a refund of the cost of the goods only (you
are liable and responsible for the postage and packing to you and
back to us).
Please note that all returns must be notified to us in advance.
Do
you have any bottles not listed on LFW.CO.UK?
Yes. All our regular stock is listed but we have some discontinued,
collectable bottles that are only for sale through our retail shop
in Inveraray.
If there is a particular whisky that you are looking for please contact
us and we will let you know.
Can
I buy a cask of whisky?
Not from us - we only sell bottles!
A few distilleries offer casks for sale to individuals so please contact
your favourite to see if they have a current offer.
We believe Arran, Bladnoch,
Bruichladdich, Glengoyne,
The Macallan, and Tullibardine
currently offer cask sales.
Will
you buy my whisky collection?
We generally only sell new bottles of whisky and do not normally
purchase collections or odd bottles.
I
have an old bottle - how much is it worth?
Feel
free to contact us and we will give you our honest opinion.
Values obviously fluctuate and so any price we state should be treated
as a guide only and not difinitive.
Many auctioneers and other merchants regularly ask us to value whisky
and whiskey for them.
Can
I tour your distillery?
No. We are a whisky shop not a whisky distillery!
Our closest distilleries are Oban, Auchentoshan, Glengoyne, Springbank,
Isle of Jura and of course the Islay distilleries.
Please feel free to visit our whisky shop - we have a dram waiting
for you.
Can
you do a whisky tasting for a group?
We do not offer tutored whisky tastings but we always have plenty
of tasting stock in the shop so that we can find the perfect whisky
for you.
What
is your most expensive whisky?
A Campbeltown 1919 at £14000 - one of 24 bottles and 22
of them have been sold.
WHISKY
QUESTIONS
What
is whisky?
Literally the alcohol spirit produced by distilling fermented
cereals. Whisky is produced in many countries, historically those
with climates more suited to growing cereals rather than grape-into-wine
production.
Scotch Whisky is the world’s most popular spirit and by law must
be (amongst other things) made and matured in an oak barrel for not
less than three years in Scotland, otherwise it cannot be called Scotch.
It must also be bottled at 40% alcohol or more in order to retain
flavour—see the note about how to drink.
How
is whisky made?
Easy—mix some processed grain with water, add yeast and let
it ferment in the same way that beer is produced.
Boil up your beer and collect the steam which will be mostly alcohol.
Voilà, whisky!
Throw this away as it is probably poisonous, you will go blind, your
hair will fall out—and it’s illegal.
Scotch whisky must contain barley and Malt Whisky must be made exclusively
from water, malted barley, yeast and nothing else.
Maturation (which is the biggest contributor to flavour) must be in
oak, traditionally former sherry or bourbon casks.
What
is the difference between a single malt and a double malt?
A single malt is the product of one malt whisky distillery and
that one distillery only; it is produced by a complex and cumbersome
batch process that makes accountants really squirm.
There is no such thing as a double malt unless you are with your rich
father-in-law at the bar (technically termed ‘a large one’).
Single malts attract great acclaim; they are no longer Scotland’s
biggest secret.
Their intensity and complexity of flavours, previously thought to
be a handicap to wider sales, are now being sought throughout the
world.
Single Malt whisky is one of four types of Scotch.
The most common is blended whisky, a mix of many different
malt and grain whiskies prepared by a blender using his sense of smell
and years of experience. 95% of all bottled whisky sold is blended
whisky and it is appreciated the world over for its satisfying subtlety
and complexity.
Grain whisky is an accountant’s kind of product; industrially
produced in an efficient, continuous process from a variety of cereals
sourced from around the world—but always including a measure
of malted barley (for bio-chemical reasons).
This spirit is not fully distilled; a degree of impurity is required
to add character—by law.
Occasionally you may come across a bottle of single grain whisky (which
will taste light and slightly oily) but its use is mainly as a carrier
for malts in blends.
The fourth category of whisky is a vatted or pure malt
which is a blend of several malts but no grain.
Malt bottles lacking the word ‘single’ may well be vatted;
other clues are ‘Pure Malt’ or ‘100% malt’.
Some are very good, for example Famous Grouse Vintage Malt, our Bottling
of the Year for 2001.
A single malt is a happy accident of science, nature and circumstance.
Blended and vatted whiskies are one man’s opinion of what he
thinks you think a good whisky should taste like.
Many members of the industry claim to appreciate blended Scotch the
most.
Why
don’t you stock a certain brand I had once?
Whisky brands tend to fade away faster than get created as the
industry changes from hundreds of brand owners to just a few.
As big companies expand by the acquisition of small, they find that
they have two brands on the same shop shelf at the same price so one
has to go.
Some brands are only available overseas because they are better established
there than in the UK.
How
many Scotch Whiskies are there?
2,234. Actually nobody knows! It could be five times that and
there is no way of counting them.
Consider the number of small brands (like our own Loch Fyne), supermarket
brands, specific market (duty-free) brands which come and go and the
task is impossible and pointless.
Loch Fyne Whiskies has a most comprehensive range of UK available
malts with examples from about 120 distilleries.
There are currently about 80 open and working; others are either mothballed,
closed or demolished.
There have been about 750 distilleries licensed since Ferintosh in
1689.
How
am I supposed to drink my malt whisky?
How you like! Although it does seem a shame to mix a £25
malt with a sweet, fizzy mixer.
Addition of water (anything from a drop to 50:50, depends on the bottling)
often reveals more character.
The main compounds responsible for flavour (congeners) in whisky are
very soluble in alcohol but less so in water.
At bottling strength 40% or above, these congeners remain locked in
the solution (hence the minimum 40%alc. bottling law, agreed by wise
men to preserve quality).
When water is added, the congeners become less soluble and are released
as vapours into the atmosphere.
So experiment with each new bottling.
Bear in mind you have four senses of taste and these are on your tongue,
not in the back of your throat.
Plus you have some 30 or more senses of smell—so use the schnoz.
Ice in malts is a no-no; you put ice on bruises and in blended Scotch
in hot climates.
Part of the fun of malt whisky is the testing and breaking of these
rules!
Try ice! or mixing two different malts together.
'Sometimes I drink my whisky neat, sometimes I take my tie off
and leave my shirt out' Tommy Cooper
How
do I know which malts I will like?
Most single malts will have the region of origin on the label
(either Lowland, Highland, Speyside or Islay) and these give a clue
to the character of the contents—but there are many exceptions
to the rule.
The Lowlands are the most gentle; mild, almost wine-like.
The Highlands can be further divided; those from the south are akin
to the Lowlands, those from the north are fuller flavoured.
Speyside is a category of its own within the Highlands. These whiskies
are complex and half of Scotland’s distilleries are found here.
The most fully flavoured whisky is produced on the island of Islay
(pronounced eye-la).
Islay whiskies are unguided missiles in the wrong hands—you will
either love them or wonder what the attraction is in smelling hospitals.
How
come they taste so different?
Malted (germinated) barley has to be dried before milling and
fermentation and traditionally this has been done over an open fire.
In Scotland a variety of fuels is found locally including peat (decomposing
heather) and coal.
The amount of peat that is used to dry the barley has a big influence
(on Islay it is the only source of fuel).
Other influences are the style of apparatus employed in the production,
particularly the still and how that still is operated by the stillman.
The final major influence is the type of cask or barrel employed to
mature the spirit; it could be one of many categories from a brand
new barrel to a well-used second-hand ex-sherry or bourbon cask.
A recent development in malt whiskies is the production of ‘finishes’
where the whisky has had some of its maturation in a cask that has
previously held a wine or port for example.
This creates a huge potential for further variety.
What
are ‘Cask Strength’ Whiskies?
Whisky matures in the barrel at about 65%.
Typically, prior to bottling it is diluted to 40-43% so as to incur
the least alcohol duty (originally a wartime measure).
Cask strength whiskies are at natural, barrel strength which provides
more impact and concentration of flavour.
These whiskies should be diluted in the glass after exploratory sips
otherwise anaesthesia will numb the pleasure.
Because of the variety of casks employed in the industry, each single-cask
bottling will have the character of the barrel variety as well as
that of the distillery so there is great variation.
What’s
this about ‘chill-filtering’?
Untreated, whisky at 40% alcohol will cloud at low temperatures.
In the mid-1960s, the Scotch Whisky industry introduced a policy of
chill-filtering their whiskies to improve clarity and brightness.
This prevented quality rejection in (cold) warehouses or clouding
when ice is added in the glass.
The process is done by reducing the temperature to as low as minus
8-10°C (typically in malts at plus 2-5°C) then filtering to
remove the oils that emulsify at such low temperatures and so eliminating
clouding.
The process also removes many of the elements of flavour (congeners)
from the whisky and now, after the lead set by Pip Hills and the Scotch
Malt Whisky Society, many independent bottlings and some official
bottlings (e.g. the new Bruichladdichs or Ardbeg 10yo) are increasingly
not chill-filtered, a trend that we applaud. Such bottlings should
be at over 46%alc as this helps keep the congeners in solution and
clear.
For reasons of ‘purity’ there is currently a move away from
the use of spirit-caramel colouring in single malts.
This is employed to standardise colour in the bottle, (some whiskies
can be quite pale,) but in most cases caramel has little effect on
flavour.
Why
are some whiskies so expensive?
The first thing to check is the age of the whisky.
If it is say 21 years old (the time spent in the cask—once bottled
it does not ‘age’) it will be dearer because of the additional
storage required.
Also whisky evaporates in the barrel by about 2% each year so after
21 years only two thirds remain.
The other thing to look out for is the degree of alcohol strength
as duty is applied according to percentage alcohol.
Most whiskies are bottled at 40% alcohol by volume (abv), some at
43% or 46%—15% stronger and so dearer than the 40%.
We stock many whiskies with strengths of up to 65% so these are the
equivalent of over a bottle and a half!
Finally there is a collector’s market for whisky—that explains
the more extreme prices!
Does a whisky improve with age after bottling?
No. Unlike wine, spirits are fixed once in the bottle and there is
no benefit in keeping it.
You should open and enjoy it as soon as possible!
How
long can I keep the whisky in the bottle?
Unopened, a bottle should stay as good as when bottled assuming
the seal is in good condition.
Keep the bottle away from direct sunlight, heat or variations in condition.
Once opened, oxidation will act on the whisky with a noticeable effect
in between one and three years.
The balance of characters may change, not always for the worse, but
eventually a whisky may become ‘flat’—another good
reason for enjoying your dram without delay.
Saving the last inch of a very special malt is usually disappointing
when finally poured, so enjoy it now!
How
much tax is on a bottle of whisky?
In the UK whisky is taxed twice: excise duty on the amount of alcohol
in the whisky and VAT on the cost price (including the excise duty!).
On a standard size and strength bottle (70cl and 40%abv) with a retail
price of £10 there is £5.48 excise duty plus £1.49
VAT totalling £6.97 (70% of the retail price). On the same bottle
with a retail price of £30 there is still £5.48 excise
duty but £4.47 VAT giving a total of £9.95 (33% of the
retail price).
Got
a question not answered here?
Please contact us.
|
Loch
Fyne Whiskies
Inveraray
Argyll
PA32 8UD
Scotland
|
 |
Telephone
+44 (0)1499 302 219
Facsimile
+44 (0)1499 302 238
|
