Propo'88 & Kick Back || Cosmic Trippin' (10th Anniversary Edition) Full Album

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Why Single Malt Whisky Is So Expensive || So Expensive

Single Malt whisky is one of the most revered spirits in the world. It is exclusively made from barley, which is quite a cheap product. A bottle of The Macallan 1926 60-year-old recently sold for $1,512,000 in auction, marking the largest single sale ever for a bottle. Over the past 50 years, single malts have become increasingly popular. Scottish single malt exports grew by 14.2% in 2017 to reach nearly $1.5 billion.

Glenfiddich distillery in Scotland is the world's largest exporter of single malt. Started in Dufftown in 1886, it ships 1.2 million 9-liter cases each year.

Making single malt is a difficult and lengthy process. Barley is ground down and added to spring water. Heated to 64°C, it turns to sugar, dissolving into a fine sweet, tangy liquid called wort. The wort is drained, cooled, and passed into wash-backs. This is heated and condensed in copper wash stills for its first distillation, and a second time in spirit stills. This spirit trickles into the spirit safe, ready for maturation, and then is batched in casks with spring water. Casks spend years in the warehouse, maturing into a single malt.

An aged 30-year maturation can have 30% to 40% of the alcohol evaporated in the barrel, or over 1% each year of the whisky’s life. This is because of "Angel's Share" — the natural evaporation of the liquid into the atmosphere over time. So older whiskies are expensive not because they’re old, but because they are rare.

Fashion, and the collector's market, also have something to do with the rise in popularity. Christie's Director of Wine Tim Tiptree oversaw the sale in 2018 of The Macallan 1926 60-Year-Old, which sold for $1,512,000 to a private buyer. According to Tim, the collector's market will continue to grow.

India, China, and Japan, are now main players in the single malt market. Particularly successful is the Yamazaki distillery in Osaka prefecture. Rare whiskies from their collection of single malts now sell for thousands of dollars.

We tried a 12 year-old single malt worth $36, and the 50 year-old bottle worth $30,000.

 

The Story of: Gerhard Richter || (1932-Today)

Gerhard Richter was born in 1932 in Dresden, and currently resides and works in Cologne. The German artist is best known for his meticulously rendered photo paintings, in contrast to his bold abstract paintings using a large squeegee instead of a paintbrush.

Richter is arguably the most famous painter today, and is one of the most important contemporary artists in general. He shifts from a photographic realism with a blurred effect, to pure abstraction, as no other artist has ever done before. His oeuvre is the result of an ongoing examination of painting as a medium an sich.

With shows at the most renowned institutions across the globe, encompassing major retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, up to Tate Modern in London, Richter’s impressive career spanning across over half a century has been a certainty in today’s art world.

But how did a boy from Dresden become one of the greatest artists in the world to wield a paintbrush? Welcome to the complete biography and disquisition of his oeuvre, a digital retrospective, and (written) film.

Welcome to the story of Gerhard Richter.

 

E. Lundquist || Multiple Images (Full Album)

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The Untold Truth of Vans Shoes || Short Film

Everyone's heard of Vans shoes.

These days everyone wears them... moms, dads, uncles, teachers, skaters.

Vans is up there with footwear giants like Nike, Converse, and adidas - in terms of popularity and relevance.

But one thing most people don't know is... Vans almost failed multiple times.

Yes, FAILED. Once in the 80's and again in the early 2000's.

So how'd they save themselves to become the billion dollar company we know today?

 

On Running || Nicola's Spirit

It’s rare in sport to go out on top, to make the final chapter of a sporting career worthy of all the chapters that preceded it. 

But, Nicola Spirig has made a habit of doing the seemingly impossible.

On June 5th 2022 she set out to add one last epic achievement to her resume: Become the first woman in history to complete a full-distance triathlon in under 8 hours. 

A lot has changed over the course of her twenty-year career but one thing has remained unchanged and unbreakable Nicola’s spirit.

On Running - Nicola's Spirit from Andrew Telling on Vimeo.

 

Psalm Trees & Moose Dawa || Dreams From The Shore (Full Album)

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