WHISKY NEWSLETTER – OCTOBER 2010 (apologies for the delay in publication)
Dear Whisky Customers
Welcome to what will almost definitely be the last newsletter in this format as the new fully ecommerce website is pretty much ready to launch, that’s assuming it I finish this newsletter before then!
So what in store in this newsletter? Well we have a big Murry McDavid tasting, with the usual array of stunning and not so stunning drams. Tastings of Pendryn, Ardbeg and a couple of new releases from Arran. Some new releases from Raymond Armstrong and the usual round up of stuff.
But first my musings on the 2010 Independent Bottlers Challenge………………….
2010 INDEPENDENT BOTTLERS CHALLENGE
So to the Independent Bottlers Challenge 2010. You may remember how I lamented the coverage in the whisky magazine of last years event, so I emailed my concerns to Rob Allanson, the editor and lo and behold the format of this years competition has I believe greatly improved. Now according to him, they were reviewing the whole layout anyway, so I imagine that I can’t take all the credit for the improvement!
This year the magazine asked all the judges to write a short 50 word tasting note on each of the whiskies, which was actually quite difficult. Not the writing but the sticking to the word count! But I submitted my scores and notes and waited to see how it would turn out. I was quite excited to finally see my tasting notes reproduced in the magazine, and hastily turned to that page when the magazine duly arrived. My euphoria I’m afraid was rather short lived as I noticed that they had used the wrong tasting notes for three of the whiskies! Argh!!
Instead of using the note for the Berry Bros Coal Ila 2000, which won the gold in the 12 years and under category, they had used the note from the Duncan Taylor NC2 Laphroaig 12 year old, which I only gave a 4.6 out of 10! I mean if anyone has bought that malt and read my note they would wonder what planet I was on. Next they managed to use the note for the SMWS 53.141 Chinese food in an old-fashioned hotel 20 year old as the tasting note for the Berry Brothers Caol Ila 1979, and finally used the tasting note of the Berry Brothers Caol Ila 1979 to describe the Ian Macleod Bunnahabhain 30 year old.
To say I was mortified is an understatement. In my hour of triumph, this achievement has been debased! Oh, ok, I’m probably being a bit dramatic here but I think you would be disappointed too. And to top it all no one from the ,magazine has said sorry, even though I pointed this fact out to them. I suppose I shouldn’t be too critical, otherwise they may not decide to publish my Speyside article in the next edition!
Anyway, griping over, and on to the competition itself. There was the usual mixed bag of the good, the bad and the downright ugly. Yes Wemyss Vintage Malts, you have managed once again to surpass yourself with the usual dreadful bottling, and no I’m not being uber critical, because it would seem that every time I taste one of their bottling’s, it’s frankly rubbish. However Berry Brothers definitely deserved the award for top Islay bottler with a haul of two gold, and a silver.
So how did my scoring match up to the final scores, well as there was just myself and Jim Anderson, of the Anderson in Fortrose, they were pretty close as you will see. There were a couple of exceptions, until we scored the 19 years and over category. All I can say is that Jim must be a lover of horribly sulphured sherry casks, because that Bunnahabhain was pretty terrible. I had saved that sample until last as it was the only sherry casked bottling in that category, and as I attest to in my tasting notes it was a lovely way to end! Both the Port Ellen, although not being the most complex of Port Ellen’s I have tasted (in fact I thought it was Caol Ila!) and the SMWS Chinese food, etc, trounced it. So he must have given it an almost perfect 10?
Below you will find the correct tasting notes!
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THE OFFICIAL RESULTS
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MY RESULTS
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My Score
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My Score
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12 YEARS OLD & UNDER
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GOLD
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GOLD
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Caol Ila 2000 (9 year old) 58.9% – Berry Bros
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7.6
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Laphroaig 1998 (11 year old) 61.6% Cask 80044
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7.9
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SILVER
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SILVER
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Laphroaig 1998 (11 year old) 61.6% Cask 80044
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7.9
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Caol Ila 2000 (9 year old) 58.9% – Berry Bros
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7.6
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BRONZE
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BRONZE
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S M W S 127.1 Harbourside Barbecue 8 year old 66.5%
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6.8
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Laphroaig 11 year old 46% – Cadenheads
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7.6
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13 – 18 YEARS OLD
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GOLD
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GOLD
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Bowmore 1994 (15 year old) 56.3% – Berry Bros
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8.7
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Bowmore 1994 (15 year old) 56.3% – Berry Bros
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8.7
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SILVER
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SILVER
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Bowmore 13 year old 58.8% – James MacArthur
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7.2
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Caol Ila 18 year old 50% – Douglas Laing Provenance
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8.0
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BRONZE
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BRONZE
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NC2 Laphraoig 1997 (13 year old 46%) – Duncan Taylor
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7.0
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Bowmore 13 year old 58.8% – James MacArthur
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7.2
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19 YEARS OLD & OVER
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GOLD
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GOLD
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Caol Ila 1980 (29 year old) 55.1% Single Malts Direct.com
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9.1
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Caol Ila 1980 (29 year old) 55.1% Single Malts Direct.com
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9.1
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SILVER
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SILVER
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Caol Ila 1979 (30 year old) 53.1% – Berry Bros
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7.0
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Port Ellen 1982 (27 year old) 43% – Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseurs Choice
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8.4
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BRONZE
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BRONZE
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Bunnahabhain (30 year old) 45.5% – Ian Macleod Distillers
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5.0
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Scotch Malt Whisky Society 53.141 Chinese food in an old-fashioned hotel 20 year old 52%
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8.0
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TASTING NOTES
Caol Ila 2000 (9 year old) 58.9% – Berry Bros
Nose: An immense nose full of seaweed, cod-liver oil, medicinal peat and creamy oak with some late iodine and tar (Laphroaig?) Water dims the intensity but it is still pleasantly oily and peaty with some added herbal notes. (3.6).
Palate: Full and intense if a touch on the simple side. Some medicinal peat and a lot of alcohol. Water sweetens it and brings out a smidge of fruit. (2.5)
Finish: Neat the alcohol masks but there are some pleasant coffee wood spice moment. Water lengthens and sweetens (in a touch confected way) and brings out some late peat smoke. (1.5)
Conclusion: An excellent nose, but an average palate. The best so far (after tasting 5 samples).
Laphroaig 1998 (11 year old) 61.6% Cask 80044 – Dewar Rattray
Nose: An intense, youthful and costal nose of seaweed, fish, tarry peat and bog myrtle with a lovely balance of creamy oak notes. Water softens and makes it a tad soapy. (3.0)
Palate: Is as intense and tarry as the nose with no shortage of alcohol (which is not surprising!) and again well balanced by the oak. With water it has become less intense and rounder. (2.9)
Finish: Lovely, clean and pure peat finish which veritably coats the mouth in the stuff! (2.0)
Conclusion: Superbly balanced young Islay – Just don’t add water!
Scotch Malt Whisky Society 127.1 Harbourside Barbecue 8 year old 66.5%
Nose: An intense, fishy and coastal nose with sweet peat, prickly alcohol, hints of coffee and juicy orange fruit. There is some bog myrtle beneath. Water emphasises the oils, the camphor/ eucalyptus and maybe boosts the peat aromas a tad. (3.0)
Palate: The palate is oily and alcoholic but with water becomes a touch sweeter and fuller with some gentle earthy-peat showing. (2.1)
Finish: Good length with an oily-peat finish but with water it becomes a bit too confected – sugar sprinkled peat with added marc notes! (1.6).
Conclusion: Pleasant but I could have done with out the confected character.
Laphroaig 11 year old 46% – Cadenheads
Nose: A fresh, slightly winey sauvignon blanc-esque nose. Very coastal and showing a good maturity along with some structured oak beneath. Good complexity with hints of bog myrtle peat and smoke. (3.5)
Palate: Gentle and winey but with a lovely freshness and a piquant coastal middle. Good depth of sweet fruit and a touch of peat. (2.7)
Finish: Good length with a soupcon of peat. (1.4)
Conclusion: Very pleasant, showing a greater degree of maturity than I would have expected.
Bowmore 1994 (15 year old) 56.3% – Berry Bros
Nose: A gorgeous nose. Deep and fruity, Exuding mature honey, malted barley, gentle peat and hints of coastal phenolics. Lovely maturity. With water the fruit really shines – honeydew melon and apricot. (3.7)
Palate: A mouth watering palate of honeyed fruit, malt and gentle peat. Water softens the alcohol but doesn’t detract from the bags of Islay character on show! (3.0)
Finish: Long and coastaly. Invigorating. (2.0)
Conclusion: Superb, mature Islay!
Bowmore 13 year old 58.8% – James MacArthur
Nose: Big, fruity and phenolic, with lots of sweet fruit, a touch gristy with hints of longrow-esque peat, earth, rubber and marc (which gets stronger over time). Water emphasises the chlorine and salt making the fruit more gentle and subservient in nature. (3.0)
Palate: Dry and sooty on the palate, slightly peppery with hints of earthy peat, fruit and brine. With water it becomes altoghter less interesting. A touch sweeter and indistinct. (2.5)
Finish: Good length with marc and sooty notes and a lingering peat finish. (1.7)
Conclusion: Quiet pleasant neat but becomes a touch vague with water, could have done with more maturation time
NC2 Laphraoig 1997 (13 year old 46%) – Duncan Taylor
Nose: A deeply phenolic and briny nose with a lovely depth of orange fruit, bog mrytle and vegetal peat. Lovely fresh edge (3.0)
Palate: Sweet and juicy. Gentle with some wood spices yet only a hint of peat. Less coastal than the nose would suggest. (3.0)
Finish: Good length, a touch hot with some late peat smoke. Long, leafy after taste.
Conclusion: A good, gently peated Islay
Caol Ila 18 year old 50% – Douglais Laing Provenance
Nose: Superb nose of brine, wet wool, earthy medicinal peat. Lovely intensity with some wood notes, a touch of orange marmalade in the background. Very manly and pungently manurey! With water it becomes gloriously fruity (apricot, Satsuma) and the peat retreats into the background. (3.5)
Palate: Soft and gentle on the palate. Mildly peated with light coastal fruit. The piquant alcohol gives it a mouth tingling freshness. Water makes it a tad watery but emphasises the lovely fruit. (3.0)
Finish: Great length with soot, wet tar and rubber notes. (1.5)
Conclusion: Superb neat.
Caol Ila 1980 (29 year old) 55.1% Single Malts Direct.com
Nose: Stunning nose of earthy-peat, tar, creosote along with hints of botanicals, fresh spearmint and bog myrtle. Wonderfully honeyed – Fabulously mature. It’s getting quiet sawdusty now but it is shot through with that delicious honey, vanilla and toffee. Yes this is a damn fine nose! With water it becomes fresher, more oily and less honeyed (3.8)
Palate: Gentle and earthy with hints of peat, walnuts, coffee, supporting oak and alcohol. Mouth filling and mature. Water gives it a touch of sweetness and emphasises the herbalness that was evident on the nose. (3.5)
Finish: Herbal, sooty and neat alcoholic. With water it is just mellow and sooty! (1.8)
Conclusion: A wonderfully mature dram. Harmonious, thought provoking and complex.
Caol Ila 1979 (30 year old) 53.1% – Berry Bros
Nose: A lovely depth of briny, salt encrusted apricot and fleshy white fruit aromas. Hints of coffee, marmalade and late vanilla oak. With time the oak becomes very buttery and crème caramel like, it also develops an herbal/ menthol nuance. Water makes the aromas softer and oilier, although overall they seem crisper with that Caol Ila-esque garden fruit character. (3.0)
Palate: The palate is nowhere near as complex. There is some mellow soot and brine and with water a slight cardboard note appears, which ruins the sweet fruit and sugar sprinkled Longrow-esque earthy peat. (2.5)
Finish: Good length with a very herbal finish (Nettle/ Cannabis leaf?). With water it’s vague and sugary. (1.5)
Conclusion: Great legs, shame about the face! (i.e. Great nose, shame about the palate!)
Bunnahabhain (30 year old) 45.5% – Ian Macleod Distillers
Nose: A huge, leafy, slightly sulphured sherry nose which becomes a bit sickly with water. All cask and no trousers! (1.8)
Palate: Again all cask, liquid toffee, liquorice, burnt caramel and very vegetal with water. (1.4)
Finish: Actually a good length (if you forget the sulphur) with plenty of Armagnac-esque dried fruits. With water however it becomes a sugar coated veg finish (1.8)
Conclusion: Not nice! What a way to finish!
Port Ellen 1982 (27 year old) 43% – Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseurs Choice
Nose: A delicate, slightly spirity nose of garden fresh white fruits, grass and hints of medicinal peat. Over time it becomes more coastal as gentle orange fruit wafts in. (3.2)
Palate: Soft and fruity with sugar dusted citrus fruit, integrated vanilla oak and gentle coastal-peat notes. A bit less complex that the nose, but that’s just being picky! (3.2)
Finish: Lovely sooty finish, again sugar coated. (2.0)
Conclusion: A beautiful old Caol Ila?
Scotch Malt Whisky Society 53.141 Chinese food in an old-fashioned hotel 20 year old 52%
Nose: A mellow, joyful combination of oak, mature honey, juicy citrus, a touch of peat, wood spices and salinty. Over time it becomes exceedingly honeyed, and the spices are to die for! With water it becomes very citrusy, full of grassy lime fruit along with some tropical apricot, pineapple and mango. (3.5)
Palate: Initially fresh and grassy followed by loads of sweet fruit, honey and a touch of peat. The alcohol keeps the honey in check and stops it overwhelming the palate. Water emphasises the oak as well as the grassy, leafy notes and subdues the rampaging honey. (3.0)
Finish: Long and honeyed (surprise!) (1.5)
Conclusion: Lovely malt, more Spey than Islay!
THE BIG MURRAY MCDAVID TASTING
I guess Andrew Gray, the UK slaes director for Bruichladdich and Murray McDavid probably gets a bit nervous when he knows that I’ve got a load of samples of theirs to review! However I approached the task, as always in a diligent and fair manner, although starting with a Tobermory I was probably hoping for too much! Mind one of these days I’ll find a decent bottling. Next up Jura, and although not a member of the Axis of Evil, I find it a most perplexing malt. More often than not it just doesn’t excite me and I’m afraid that this port finished bottling definitely doesn’t. I have certainly not tasted a Jura that I can remember having the wow factor, at best it’s ok and at worst innocuous.
Arran however is a different matter. I love the distillery 10 year old and although over the years they have released no end of finished botlings, they have finally trimmed it down to a core range of Satuernes, Amarone and Port finishes but more on those later. When I first tasted this particular Murray McDavid way back in March this year I was less than impressed, but just like this years Tullibardine tasting, upon a re-tasting I have changed my mind. I have said it a few times before, but when you get sent samples, one has no idea how long the bottle has been open for or how many trips around the country in the boot of a sales rep’s car it has done!
And finally a Bladnoch finished in Amarone. Well I think this is just asking for trouble. I mean there is no way on earth that old Bladnoch is going to stand up to that treatment, and well I was right. Maybe the current spirit that Raymond is distilling would have the body to do so but not this.
Tobermory 1994 (15 year old) 46%
Bourbon
A hard, industrial nose with plenty of spirity marc notes and a strange perfumed note that really sit well with the industrial character. Some distant oak.
The palate opens with musty, boiled sweets and marc like rose petal notes. Slightly butyric and candied, with a very intense baby sick middle, which frankly isn’t very appealing. It finishes with a slightly violet tinged perfumed note along with hints of edible crystalised flower petals.
Isle of Jura 1992 (16 year old) 46%
Bourbon/ Port
The nose is fairly light on the port, so the earthy, cereal character of the spirit comes through with added hints of fern and bracken. The port finish adds a perfumed red fruit top note. Over time it becomes sweeter and more perfumed. Quite soft and feminine.
The palate comes as a bit of a shock after the pleasant nose! It’s surprisingly hard and cardboardy. It feels like its falling apart in the mouth. Slightly butyric with hints of red fruit along with an industrial marc laced middle and a hot spirity finish. Oh dear!
Arran 1996 (12 year old) 46% £39.95
Bourbon/ Chateau Margaux
Now I first reviewed this whisky back in March and I wasn’t too keen. I can only presume that the sample I received this time was a better quality one than the March one. I guess that this opens an interesting debate about the sending of samples. We all know that whisky tends to degrade once the bottle is open and that degradation becomes more pronounced a) over time and b) as the air to liquid balance shifts. So it is always possible that a sample one receives can come from a bottle that’s spent months in the boot of a sales reps car and may not be a true representation of what it once was, but as that is all I have to go on it is possible to change ones mind when re-tasting. Tullibardine springs to mind. So what I’m trying to say that this is really not a bad bottling.
The nose opens with crisp, brittle honey and spicy, winey red fruits. Quite malty with a developing cinnamon stick and gingerbread note. A very pleasant nose with the American oak adding hints of butter toffee and finally a herbal-nettle nuance.
The palate opens with the spicy cinnamon and ginger followed by the red wine notes. Underneath that one can sense the weight of honeyed cereal fruit and botanicals. Lovely complexity as the wine cask kicks in with pomegranate and blueberry. Finally the American oak pops up with hints of buttered toffee and finishes with a dry, salty finish. All in all a really good combination!
Bladnoch 1992 (16 year old) 46%
Bourbon/ Amarone
A thick and unyielding nose. Hints of straw and earth try to poke their way through the sweet finishing cask. However such a delicate whisky like this doesn’t have the necessary stuffing to balance out such a heavyweight finish and thus it is practically all cask – dried winey fruit, tobacco, nettles, coffee and a touch of marzipan.
The palate is much the same as the nose; the Amarone finish holds sway with no shortage of sweet dried fruit, cranberry, coffee, chicory, spice and wood tannins. I’ll give it its dues the spirit tries hard to balance but really is on a hiding to nothing but only manages to add some spirity marc botanicals. Quite a dry, tannic finish with a slight butyric note that one often finds with Amarone finishes.
THE MISSION SERIES
One could be cynical and say that whilst the quality of the Mission range has stayed high, the core range has suffered. I keep saying it but way back in the year when Murray McDavid burst onto the scene, dogs nads and bright orange boxes, the percentage of stunning bottlings, – remember the Leapfrog and the Springbank Cuvee far outweighed the poor ones. Maybe it’s all down to money these days, and one does get the feeling that the better casks are saved for the gold tins.
With the exception of the Linlithgow, they are stunning. The Highland Park is on a par with some of the great 1989’s they bottled way back and as for the Bunnah, venerable and old but with the fino finish giving it verve and edginess. Many may be horrified to see a great, old Port Ellen finished in a wine cask, but I can tell you it works. In fact of all the white wine finishes the guys have done over the years Yquem just seems to work really well, it adds a not too obtrusive sweetness and a subtle wineyness. Yes it’s expensive but unlike the Signatory bottling I review back in newsletter 43, it is definitely worth it!
Highland Park 1989 (18 year old) 52.6% £60.95
Bourbon/ Grenache Blanc
A distinctly brine laden nose of honeyed apricot fruit, mature straw, fishy-peat, iodine and menthol. The Grenache Blanc cask adds a slight background sweetness but it is pretty much all clean, briny spirit here.
The palate displays more of the finishing cask with a caramel coating to the honeyed fruit followed by gentle briny and building sooty-peat. Lovely complexity with hints of cod liver oil, heather and a candied sweetness (from the finishing cask). There is plenty of sooty-peat to offset the sweetness from the cask and pushes said sweetness to the edge. After tasting a number of mediocre bottlings of Highland Park from Murray McDavid over the years, this is extremely good.
A drop of water brings out a stunning liquid orange/ tangerine/mandarin note. Still sugar coated with the peat and brine now subservient to the fruit. The palate is softer with more emphasis now on the candied character, however I don’t think it becomes to OTT. Hints of parma violets and refreshers can now be detected. Personally I would take this neat.
Bunnahabhain 1976 (31 year old) 48.1% £114.95
Bourbon/ Fino Sherry
A very interesting nose. A huge blast of herbal honey with hints of light coffee, fish oil, hessian, burnt toffee, nuts and coastal sweets. With time the American oak muscles through to add a buttery nuance. A beautiful, mature spirit with it’s innate coastal character and the Fino Sherry cask giving it some edgy verve.
The plate opens with a sprinkling of soot followed by some gentle, sweet honey and mature fruit, dusty oak, brine and fish oils. The mid palate is distinctly maritime, flecked with some gorgeous spices. Extremely long with green nuts, hessian, mature honey, light peat and earth, finally ending with a definite lip smacking candied finale! Superb!
Port Ellen 1982 (27 year old) 48.6% £222.95
Bourbon/ Yquem
The nose opens with an avalanche of sweet honeyed fruit, iodine, seaweedy-peat and coastal notes. Quite bold for a Port Ellen with the finishing cask adding a sweet/ candied edge. Oily and briny with hints of bog myrtle, tobacco and menthol. Fresh and lively yet gentle and mature, an excellent bottling of Port Ellen which gets sweeter over time, but the coastal character balances that out well.
Soft and coastaly on the palate, with a bucket full of sweet fruit and wood spices/ tannins. Dusty peat smoke and ash drifts in along with hints of fish oils. It opens into a lovely, tart, coastal middle with the finishing cask coming through only on the finish adding a light honeyed sweetness. Vey long coastal finish.
A drop of water brings out some lovely orange fruit, whilst on the palate it has become sweeter and extremely oily now with just a touch of parma violets and a gorgeous ashy finish, which is almost endless. A superb Port Ellen!
Linlithgow 1982 (25 year old) 51.4%
Bourbon/ Cognac
An earthy, musty oak dominated nose. It’s an odd nose which is sometimes candied sweet and sometimes oily with sawdust, herbs and a cognac dried fruit rancio. Even given the mustiness I’m not sure this really works.
The plate is soft with plenty of dried fruit and cognac notes, again it all feels a bit odd. Like the nose it is very woody with hints of barky liquorice, earth and more dried fruit. I think there is some spirit underneath all that. It’s quite long and pretty much all oak, which is not surprising given that it’s a light lowland, finishing with a rather candied after taste.
With water the nose become slightly oilier and a lot more candied. However as the water strips away a lot of the oak it now shows up the spirit. And that spirit is old and creaking. Pretty flat, candied and homogonous. Definitely not worth £80.
THE CELTIC HEARTLANDS SERIES
Now I don’t often get to taste the Celtic Heartlands bottlings and I have to say a big thank you to Murray McDavid for sending me samples. It goes without saying that three of the bottlings in the latest release are stunning, the exception being the Caol Ila. I remember back in 2003 when I was up at Bruichladdich tasting a stunning old Bunnah which appeared in the first release, and hats off to them but they obviously have a stock pile of stunning casks of old Bunnah! The 1976 is real class but the 1968 is even better! Words cannot describe the beauty and elegance of it……….. Well they can, otherwise it would have made for a pretty poor tasting note! But I think you get my meaning.
The Glenlivet, was again sublime and had reached the zenith of tropical fruit heaven that some of Speys can reach, the finishing Yqeum casks is barely noticeable amongst all that fruitiness. However the same cannot be said for the Caol Ila. It just didn’t work out as you will see from my notes.
Glenlivet 1977 (33 year old) 47.8% £151.95
Bourbon/ Yquem
A huge, rich, tropical nose of banana, apricot, tangerine, kumquat and kiwi. Sublimely balanced with hints of sawdusty vanilla oak and a background of toffee sweetness. One could sniff this all day, it really is a stunning old dram, dripping in natural honey and with just a mere hint of the finishing cask.
The palate mirrors the nose. It is resplendent in its mature tropical fruit and sawdusty oak. The piquant-ish alcohol nips and cleans as the mouth watering fruit and toffee sweetness moves in. Exceedingly long and generous with the tropical fruit returning with a lovely honey/ malty glaze, or maybe it never left!?! Oooh the finish goes on and on and on!! A simply stunning old Glenlivet, which is worth every penny
Bunnahabhain 1976 (33 year old) 46.7% £150.95
Fino/Yquem
A beautiful, elegant nose of leafy light sherry and herbal nuances. There is definitely no shortage of honey, toffee and gorgeously mature spices and coffee. Some old smoke and tobacco leaf drifts in as does a slight violet note. We’re not finished yet!! More mature honey and American oak appears all balanced by a lively coastal edge. The complexity here is frightening and if it wasn’t for the coastal note you would swear that this was an old Spey. Lavishly fruity and hugely honeyed, although the coastal notes retrain it but it is still a honey monster!!
Soft, gentle and mature. The flavours caress the palate. Like the nose it is frighteningly complex with coffee laced honey, coffee coated banana, and old decomposing herbal bog myrtle and coriander leaf. The alcohol sweeps the palate clean before it continues with more honey, toffee, coffee, oak and costal nuances. It’s big, bold and really does seem like an old Spey. Some gorgeous lazy light peat smoke drifts in and the oak returns on the finish, drying it out a touch, but the honey hangs in there and the finish is pure coffee-spice. And what a finish. Amazingly long even if the oak tries its best to dry it out, finally leaving a faintly briny after taste. Pure class!
Bunnahabhain 1968 (41 year old) 40.7% £203.95
Re-Fill Sherry
A deep, honeyed and gentle nose of reserved, mature leafy sherry with additional herbal notes and marzipan. Beautifully mature with notes of coffee, rich dark fruits all liberally sprinkled with muscovado sugar along with a slight coastal note at the edges. Sumptuous, fleshy, pure poetry in a glass! Given time hints of sandalwood, clove and bracing citrus notes appear. A simply stunning nose!
The palate is velvety soft, the flavours glide supremely across the palate – mature honey, baked apples, soft spices – cinnamon, clove, sandalwood mingle with gentle coffee/ toffee and understated ‘old Glen Grant-esque’ mature sherry. The faint coastal note at the edges provides a balance and a nod in the direction of its birth place. Quite malty on the middle with the muscovado sugar beautifully balancing out the bitterness from the oak. Majestic, deep, sublime – Oooh the honey is gorgeous!! Yes it’s expensive, but it is a definite must buy!
Caol Ila 1980 (30 year old) 50.8%
Bourbon/ Amarone
The nose open with the wine finish upfront and personal, showing plenty of dried fruit, herbs, bog myrtle, iodine and that often fount butyric note. The combination of the astringent herbalness and the wine finish have resulted in an unyielding clash, making the nose somewhat plasticine like in character, and although not exactly unpleasant it’s not exactly setting my pulse racing! I think what I’m trying to get across is that it is not enough of a wild car crash/ bloody hell what’s that, like the Longrow Amarone finish.
The palate is soft and quite winey with the sweet, dried fruit emerging first. The alcohol is pretty intrusive and mouth watering. The sweet, butyric note is pushed to the edges and the almost youthful bog myrtle and garden fruit notes of the sprit sit comfortably on the mid palate. It has a good length thought with late notes of chocolate, coffee, old American oak and tobacco, but to be honest it doesn’t really flow, it’s awkward and disjointed. I wonder if the addition of water will pull it together.
A drop of water negates a lot the oak and emphasises the winey dried fruit and although you get more of the richness of the spirit, it’s distinctive Islay character is now a bit muted by the now more obvious wine notes.
On the palate it has become a touch watery, again the spicy dried fruit has been emphaisied, and like the nose one can ‘feel’ the rich spirit somewhere beneath. The finish is a bit abrupt, but I think that has more to do with its coastal astringency, but there is a touch of oak bittering too. I’ll give it its dues; it does linger well with the coffee, chocolate and old wood notes hanging in there.
In conclusion it doesn’t have the wow factor of the other three bottlings in the series.
PENDERYN TASTING
Last month Robert the Penderyn rep paid us a visit and conducted an in store tasting, which was more successful than Swansea City’s attempts to beat Nottingham Forest the following day!
I have always been a fan of the standard Madeira finish, but my biggest grip is that as a vatting of various aged spirits, it has a tendency to always pretty much taste the same. One can argue that is the whole point, but I would like to see some progression in the spirit, and would love to see what the spirit is like at 10 years of age (the distillery began distilling in 2000). I spoke to Stephen Davies, the managing director a couple of years ago and was told that there were no plans for an ‘age statement bottling’ although there might be a 2000 vintage bottling, when the time was right.
I was really impressed with the ‘peated’. I had not tasted it since November 2007 and it was actually showing a reasonable degree of progression. There was definitely less of the youthful marc-like notes and more development in the citrus character. I would guess that the September 2007 bottling would have been a vatting of spirits around the 5 years of age mark, so this 2010 bottling must have a greater degree of older spirits vatted in, thus making it appear around 8 years old.
On another note I was surprised to find out that it is not actually made from peated barley, but it is standard spirit matured in ex-Islay casks. It would be interesting to know how different it would be if made from peated barley.
Penderyn Madeira Finish 46% £35.95
Sept 2010 Bottling
A lovely expressive nose. Still quite youthful with perfumed marc-like notes followed by candied orange peel, crystallised dried fruit and raisins. The finishing casks adds notes of toffee, and there is even a hint, albeit quite distant peat. Over time it becomes richer and sweeter.
The palate is intense and youthful-ish with plenty of robust dried fruit, yet still displaying some scented marc notes like the nose. There is less Madeira cask influence than in some previous bottlings, yet it comes through on the finish adding richness and hints of toffee. Lovely length with a spicy rose petal finish.
Penderyn Peated 46% £38.95
May 2010 Bottling
A delicate nose of citrus and apple along with a pleasant cereal sweetness. It is showing some definite signs of maturing with only just the briefest marc-like note. There is a lovely sweetness to the gentle peat and the supporting American oak sits in the background adding structure.
The palate opens with plenty of coal dust and sweet peat (more than the nose would suggest). It has a lovely purity of citrus and apple flavours and like the nose appears to be maturing well. Soft and gentle with just a hint of marc. Good length with some spice notes joining the peat smoke at the end.
Penderyn Sherrywood 46% £36.95
December 2009 Bottling
The spirit here is a lot more youthful with plenty of floral marc-like notes and botanicals. The finish is quite light (lighter than the last time I tasted it) and I would assume that this bottling has only been finished for 3 or 4 month. However it still adds some pleasant candied almond notes and hints of white liquorice.
Soft and fruity with the candied almond sherry notes up first, but the spirit holds it’s own against the Oloroso. Faintly peaty with the spirit showing a tad more maturity than the nose would suggest. Lovely length with some light botanical spirit notes coming through on the finish
30 YEARS PLUS (IS OLD ALWAYS BETTER?)
Two questions I’m often asked are. Is older better and are the rare bottlings it worth it? The answer of course is not always! As this little tasting will attest to. I have said time and time again that far too many whisky shops purchase independent bottlings without tasting them first. I know that it is not always possible to get a sample of these very old whiskies because of the financial implications of opening them, but I would have thought that any whisky retailer that cares about his or hers reputation would be wary. There are too many tired and old whiskies floating around, the Signatory Glenglassaugh, Dun Bheagan Glen Scotia and Douglas Lang Port Ellen are just three out of many examples with a ridiculous price tag attached.
Now I’m not saying that some independent bottling companies are deliberately trying to rip off the consumer, but if they really believe that every old whisky they release is top quality they are either deluded or lying. So am I taking the moral high ground here in refusing to stock old whiskies blindly? Well I feel that it’s my reputation for being able to tell a good whisky from a bad whisky that is on the line, and it maybe for egotistical reasons but I don’t want customers to think that I don’t know what I’m talking about. I also want customers to experience great old whisky and have value for money, and I want them to become repeat customers.
Now I’m not blowing my own trumpet here but why do you think I’m asked back to be a judge on the Independent Bottlers Challenge each year? I think it’s because I am a hard but fair taster, and I don’t mind putting my neck on the block so to speak. Oh and whilst we are talking about competitions, I mentioned to Rob, the whisky magazines editor how I was amazed at how forgiving the judges of the World Whisky Awards were in awarding the sulphurous Yoichi 20 year top spot, to which he replied that maybe it was about time that I was on the judging panel. So we’ll see.
Anyway I digress. Ladyburn and Kinclaith. Two highly collectable and rarely seen malts, with price tags to match and I’ve always wanted to taste them to see what all the fuss was about. Kinclaith has been described by Davin de Kergommeaux on maltmadness.com as “An ugly, short-lived, city-based, Lowland distillery with no official bottlings and only a handful of independents that stretch from barely drinkable to quite spectacular”. Well all I can say is that this Signatory bottling falls into the former category rather than the latter.
Ladyburn on the other hand wasn’t a distillery at all, but a set of pot stills within William Grant’s Girvan grain distillery. These stills were in operation from 1966 to 1976 and it has often been said that this obscure Lowlander was actually quite charming, maybe when it was younger that is!
Glenglassaugh 1976 (32 year old) 44.4% – Signatory bottling
Bourbon Hogshead 2383
Old, dusty and musty nose, with a perfumed thread grimly hanging on in there by its finger tips! It takes awhile but eventually some sugar coated orange can be detected along with some very mature honey, but I think we can safely say that rigour mortis has well and truly set in!
The palate is slightly better with soft, mature, delicate honey and some herbal notes; however the dusty, musty note hangs over it like the reapers scythe! And it ultimately shuffles off its mortal coil with a cardboardy finish. At £85 a bottle you would definitely feel like you’d been had if you bought this. Maybe if it had been bottled 10 years ago it might have just about been worth it, but not now!
Rare Ayrshire (Ladyburn) 1975 (34 year old) 46.9% – Signatory bottling
Cask 562
The first sniff confirms that this was not a grade A spirit. Aromas of wet wool, lanolin, turpentine and some greasy orange fruit, old, damp straw and old wood.
The palate is geriatric and watery with lanolin and some grass. As if to prove me wrong it suddenly brings forth some almost fresh rose petal and Turkish delight, but the alcohol soon takes care of that and the musty old wood bitters out the finish.
It would appear that from tasting it that the spirit has kept reasonably well but the wood hasn’t. So if you are going to fork out the best part of £133 for this bottle just put it in your collection and don’t bother drinking it!
Glen Scotia 1977 (32 year old) 56% – Dun Bheagan (Ian MacLeod) bottling
Bourbon Hogshead 1691
Initially there doesn’t seem to be much to the nose. It’s quite fresh, given its age and slightly fruity. Yet… give it some time, some swirling and hard sniffing………. And lo…….. It’s fishy!!! A sort of combination of alcohol, kippers, fish roe and entrails! Followed by hints of sweet malt, dried fruit, coastal notes and finally some cardboard.
On the palate it is pretty much old oak and alcohol. The spirit has really tired and that cardboard note is definitely prevalent. Some late fishy and menthol notes try to salvage the situation.
A drop of water makes little difference to the nose, possibly emphasising the coastal character, whereas on the palate it really disappoints. It just lacks flavour or direction. Imagine candy coated fish with hints of spirity marc bolstered by some good oak. And that is about it.
I’d be amazed if anyone in their right mind would want to part with £144 for this poor excuse of a Glen Scotia. In fact for £20 less you can have the awesome 33 year old from Dewar Rattray!
Kinclaith 1969 (35 year old) 53.3% – Signatory bottling
Cask 301444
A high toned nose of sherry infused dried fruits with hints of perfumed orange, Turkish delight, butter and a fair amount of vanilla oak. The alcohol provides quite a nose prickle, and apart from some lurking honey, there is not much in the way of distillery character.
Soft, with subtle notes of spicy sherry wood followed by some distillery character – rose petals and Turkish delight. It finished a bit hot with just like the nose. Its maturity is obvious and the spirit is still alive but it feels like it has been given the Dr Frankenstein treatment.
With water some dried, old grass appears and the wood impact is lessened. On the palate much the same happens, although the spirit is beginning to creak loudly now and the alcohol is far too dominant now. With a price tag close to £650 this will really only be bought by collectors.
I wonder if this was originally aged in a sherry butt before being re-racked into an ex-bourbon cask, as there is far too much ‘youthful’ American oak vanillins for the cask to have been an American sherry cask, and besides back in the late 1960’s I doubt very much that there was widespread use of American sherry casks.
Port Ellen 1979 (30 year old) 52.1% – Laing Old & Rare Platinum bottling
Single cask – 190 bottles
A nose of toffee’d butterscotch and tarry peat, parma violets and intense alcohol. With time it becomes quite sawdusty with a sickly-ish barley sweetness.
Dry, dusty and extremely alcoholic on the palate. Plenty of peat smoke which settles in the roof of the mouth. It’s all a bit simple, and although it has a long length there is a distinct lack of development.
Water mutes the nose somewhat and makes it a touch more astringent. On the palate it is fuller and oilier now. Less peat but more candied. It’s marginally better with water, well, at least it tries to show some structure and character now!……. £250???…….Pass!
TWO NEW ARRAN’S
The distillery have decided to trim their range of wine cask finishes down to a core range of thee. A Sauternes, a Port and an Amarone finish, all bottled at 50%. I was fortunate to be able to taste samples of two of them, and I can report one hit and one miss!
The Arran Amarone Cask Finish 50% £39.95
The nose is fairly light on the finish with it adding a herbal, winey plum and cherry note. Slightly butyric as Amarone finishes have a tendency to be, but it is not overpowering or unpleasant. Underpinning all this is the classic Arran honeyed, cereal, malt. A lovely nose with a good depth and hints of earthy-peat.
The palate is dry, soft and full of gently spiced dried fruit, plums, coffee and wood tannins followed by herbal currants and the honeyed malt and vanilla oak. Like the nose it is not too heavy on the finish and it flows well. Palate cleansing alcohol leads the way into a mouth coating coffee-vanilla finish with a late flourish of peat smoke.
With water more of the Arran character comes out as does some delightful orange fruit and buttery American oak. The palate, like the nose displays more American oak (toffee and butter) with the winey notes only coming through at the end. The finish is a touch dusty and tannic now, so I would opt to take this neat.
The Arran Port Cask Finish 50%
A dusty, earthy and musty nose of edgy, herbal red fruits. Heavier than the Amarone cask on the finish and to be honest the distillery character is quite swamped. It becomes more perfumed over time but I’m afraid that there is no escaping the pervasive mustiness!
The palate is much the same as the nose and one would have though it had been finished in a musty old Cabernet Saunvignon cask not a Port pipe! The honeyed malt fights back on the middle but it’s fighting a loosing battle. The piquant alcohol only clears the way for another round of fusty, musty old bung cloth and mouldy cork. It’s just like a decaying wine. Sorry but this one is a dud!
ARDBEG TASTING
Oh yes, supernova time!! I was definitely looking forward to tasting the two ‘official’ releases. But in order to put them in some sort of perspective. They were tasted against the very modestly peated Blasda and the only old vintage that I could get my hands on the 1978. I have a feeling that some people don’t ‘get’ the Blasda bottling, as you will see from the comment in my tasting note, and although I wouldn’t refer to it as a ‘stellar’ bottling it is interesting to get a handle on what lies beneath all the peat.
Now the 1978, according to Mr ‘Ardbeg’ Murray isn’t the best of their vintage dated bottling, and he is right when he says that it is “An Ardbeg on the edge of loosing it because of the encroaching oak”. It’s this encroaching oak which makes it seem somewhat flat. But as I say in my tasting note it seems more real and less manufactured like the current Ardbeg ‘vattings or multi-vintages, whatever you want to call them’. Oh and as there was a bottle of the Lord of the Isle to hand, well we just had to!!!
The two supernova bottlings are completely different animals and I loved both of them for different reasons. The 2009 would appear to be built around a core of old spirit a la the 1978 and Blasda fruitness, thus as the younger spirit is left to rampage on this mature spirit sits underneath anchoring all the madness and keeps going until the very end after the ‘young ‘un’ has shot its bolt, so to speak. The 2010 bottling on the other hand is neatly summed up as a supercharged ‘very young’. I think Jim Murray sums this bottling up rather well as “There are supernovas and there are supernovas. Some have been going on a bit and have formed shape and indescribable beauty with the aid of time; others are just starting off and though full of unquantifiable energy and wonder have a distance to travel………..this is very much in the later category”.
On the subject of the Whisky Bible, the 2011 edition is now out, priced at £12.99, and as always is an excellent read.
Ardbeg Blasda 40%
Peated to 8 ppm
A lovely fruity – apple, apricot, banana and slightly tropical fruit nose with some coastal iodine and menthol. Quite subtle with an exquisite layering of barley, fruit, toffee and smoke.
Soft, fruity and maybe a tad simple. Yes there is a hint of coastalness, and it has a lovely purity with a sharp barley note and a very light peat note, but there is almost no finish to speak of. I assume that if it had been bottled at 46% then the finish would have been all alcohol.
It’s interesting to see Ardbeg minus the peat, and the quality of the spirit is very good, but awe inspiring it certainly isn’t (much like the unpeated Caol Ila!). In fact one online reviewer went as far as saying it should have been renamed Ardbeg Blanda!
Ardbeg 1978 (21 year old) 43%
A mature, briny nose of menthol, bog myrtle, gentle peat and candied fish. Lovely intensity with hints of edgy orange fruit and wet/ loamy earth along with hints of bung cloth.
Quite a sweet, earthy entry with gentle peat, toffee, cocoa, coffee, parma violets, bog myrtle and menthol. Gently nipping alcohol and a long salty finish. It’s a pleasant old Ardbeg, if maybe a tad on the flat side.
Although in saying that it seems a lot more real and ‘of its place’ than say the more ‘designed’ newer releases such as the Supernova.
Ardbeg Lord of the Isles 25 year old 46%
A big, butch and beefy Ardbeg! It reeks of mature honey, citrus fruit, distant coastal bonfires, bog myrtle and fish. Plenty of peat abounds in this weighty and intense nose.
Quite dry on the palate with a touch of menthol and bog myrtle, followed by forceful juicy fruit and parma violets. Gentle peat rolls on by as does hints of kippers and tart, tangy orange citrus fruit. The palate is magnificent and continues to develop with hints of iodine, leather and tobacco smoke in the finish and a tcp/ sticking plasters after taste.
Even though this bottle has been open quite a long time it has a damn sight more life in it than the 1978! The only problem is that if you want one now you will have to find the best part of £380 for it! Whether it is worth it is of course open to debate!
Ardbeg Supernova 2009 Release 58.9%
A youthful, intense, briny nose. Yet underpinning all that youthful exuberance is a mature spirit core. Windswept and herbal with lumps of pure, concentrated peat…… and more peat…….. and some more for good measure. However this is not a one trick pony, the gorgeous tropical fruit (as seen in the blasda) lurks beneath the wild peat. Incredibly deep and multi-layered with a late earthy/ coffee note.
The palate is a bit more linear than the nose would suggest, although that doesn’t mean less complex. There is no shortage of peat and alcohol with some sweet barley beneath. Extremely long and concentrated with a pure peat briquette finish. This is pure, modern ‘vatted’ Ardbeg; kicking off with a youthful intensity but underpinned by the older spirits which in turn sustains the length.
Water makes the nose a shade one-dimensional, but it does that one dimension so well! On the palate it has become sweeter and the classic parma violet note has put in an appearance. More of a sooty finish now.
Ardbeg Supernova SN2010 60.1%
A more youthful nose than the 2009 release, although I have to say that it is has a greater degree of complexity. It is more oiler and coastally astringent with fresh ‘off the still’ notes. Not as heavily peated as the 2009 release, but the peat is drier in character, more crumblier and flakier! The aromas come in waves of delicious complexity and over time hints of iodine and bog myrtle appear.
Whoa! Passionate, extreme, astringent and alcoholic!………. The dry, dusty peat sticks to the inside of the mouth, and it reminds me of a supercharged ‘very young’. Great structure and very long with a bitter chocolate and pure coffee bean finish.
With water the nose becomes more herbal and seems even younger if that’s possible. Whilst on the palate it has become sweeter, even the peat has a silky, sweet shine to it. Again there is still plenty of peat but maybe it has become a tad watery and unfocussed (picky!). There doesn’t quite seem to be as much, if any older spirits underpinning this release, which makes this comparative tasting really interesting.
NEW RAYMOND ARMSTRONG BOTTLINGS
Benrinnes 1984 (25 year old) 51%
Sherry Butt 2273
A high toned botanical nose of cider apples and marc. Slightly lactic and sickly sweet with some extremely ancient wood lurking in the background.
The palate is better than the nose with some old fruit, straw, botanicals and intrusive alcohol. The mid palate is a touch on the sickly side and the finish is hard and minerally. Frankly this one is hard going!
With water it shows that the spirit is too old and beginning to die. It’s pretty sugar water like and has become quite cardboardy.
Linkwood 1984 (26 year old) 50.1%
Bourbon Hogshead 54
It takes awhile for this venerable malt to get going. A gentle depth of dusty mature honey followed by some old wood spices and parma violet notes. The honey is beautifully layered and over time it becomes more floral.
The palate is quite woody with plenty of tannins, which together with the alcohol dry the mouth out somewhat. I get the impression that there is some honeyed tropical fruit to come out and the finish is livened up with plenty of spice.
With water the nose is oilier but gorgeously fruity and more expressive with some light Satsuma, straw, earth and citrus fruits. Still delicate with some brittle honey and malt now apparent. The palate has now opened up a treat and the suspected tropical guava, honeydew melon has appeared along with a touch of tangerine. Lovely maturity, the spirit is holding up really well, as Linkwood often does, and again the finish is long and full of dusty spices.
Mannochmore 1982 (28 year old) 50.8%
Bourbon Hogshead 2852
A lovely nose with a veritable bucketful of juicy fruit and honeyed barley along with plenty of supporting vanilla oak and spices. Over time it develops a touch of white fruit and a floral top note. Very luscious!
A big, expressive palate. Voluptuously honeyed with plenty of gentle, earthy spice. Piquant alcohol cleans the middle and allows the spices to run riot on the finish. An exceptional whisky!
With water the nose is even more luscious and juicy. Now displaying masses of semi-tropical fruit all coated with the most gorgeous pure honey imaginable. The palate is lighter and softer, now showing some fleshy banana fruit and botanical notes now the alcohol has been tamed. Still it is wonderfully honeyed, and there is even a slight peat note and finishing with an oak flourish.
Caol Ila 1984 (25 year old) 52.4%
Bourbon Hogshead 5390
A tarry, creosote laden nose of phenolic, slightly briny peat. Intense and quite heavily peated. Yet beneath all of this there lies some gorgeous, mature orange fruit and earthy, manuery spices.
The palate is pure peat and alcohol! Forceful and slightly fishy, with some distillery character (garden fruits) attempting to push its way through the morass of peat and mouth watering alcohol. It seems a lot younger than 25 years old. Superb length with an iodine and sooty, coal dust finish and a tarry after taste.
With water the nose is lighter, with more distillery character now prevalent. Not as coastal now but still with plenty of peat. The palate is oilier, with some herbal honey and now showing its age. Mature and gentle with a delightful sugar coating to the peat, and a sweet, violety finish. The after taste is still pure coal tar though!
A PAIR OF BRORA’S
I refer you to my early comments about old and rare bottling’s being worth it! Enough said!
Brora 30 year old (2005 release) 56.3%
Limited release of 3000 bottles
A distinctly butyric nose. When the sickness has passed it shows a mature spirit with a deft honeyed maltiness. Plenty of manure-peat, coffee, tar and an astringent edge provided by the alcohol.
A touch cardboardy to begin with, yet a bucketful of medicinal peat sort of compensates. It’s sadly a bit one-dimensional, just peat and wood with a spicy, almost violety finish. I was expecting so much more!
Maybe some water will do the trick? Well……… it’s less sickly now but still quite astringent and although the alcohol has been tamed it just leaves wood tannins on the palate. Almost £450 for this, you must be having a laugh!
Brora 1981 (28 year old) 57.4% – Douglas Laing Old & Rare Platinum bottling
Single sherry cask No93 – 93 bottles
Sulphured to hell and back!!!!!!! Peering or sniffing through the fog there is maybe some chocolate orange and peat, but the sulphur is making my eyes water!
Dry, alcoholic and sulphured! There is so much alcohol and baby sick notes it is giving me heartburn! This is a really unpleasant experience and for a full bottle they want £360 for it!!! Somebody needs to be strung up by their nads I think!
GENERAL ROUND UP
Aberlour 16 year old 43% £51.95
A lovely, soft and clean nose with gentle, ever so slightly leafy sherry fruit. Some creamy vanilla, barley and grassy distillery characteristics just about poke their heads through and wonderfully balance out the sherry. With time the depth of malty rich fruit become apparent.
The palate is soft and slightly sweet, although in a non-confected way. Robust yet gentle and very polished. Like the nose it is a magnificent balance of American and sherry oak which never becomes over blown and allows the honey barley and grassy hints to come through. The layering of this malt is superb and I would guess that it is a vatting rather than a finish.
Ben Nevis 1997 (11 year old) 46% – Carn Mor bottling
Bourbon Hogshead 252
The nose is a touch on the high toned side, but displays plenty of bready/ doughy distillery character along with hints of honey and grass. The palate is quite sweet, with some body and a pleasant pure honey sweetness along with hints of grass, malt and dough. It’s a bit on the short side with a granity hard finish and an almost sherbet fizz finish.
Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey 47%
Distilled from a mash of malted barley in a combination of pot and column stills.
Small batch bottling, with each batch consisting of 10 to 20 barrels.
Batch No35.
It’s a Canadian on steroids! A huge hit of oak – sweet toffee/ caramel and banana. Over time it becomes quite perfumed and the column still proportion gives it a slight botanical/ grassy note.
The palate is not as sweet as the nose suggests. Again it has a bit a perfumed Canadian feel with plenty of sweet, herbal honey, vanilla oak – banana, toffee. It does have some grip on the middle with an almost lager/ hoppy finish and finally the column still grassy/ botanical emerging at the end before the caramel returns.
It’s interesting, but if I’m going to part with £60+ I want a lot more complexity.
Ichiro’s Five of clubs 1991 (18 year old) 57.4%
Distilled at the Hanyu Distillery, finished in Japanese Mizunara Oak Hogshead.
Limited release of 372 bottles.
A rich, pungent nose of malty dried fruit, figs and sultanas followed by an explosion of oak vanillins. Almost Bourbon-esque but without the earthiness.
The palate begins well enough with the malty dried fruits that were found on the nose, but then the wood really bitters out the middle and you are picking splinters out of your tongue. The wood flavours are intriguing however with a cedary, camphor character coming through on the finish. I wondered at the time if there was some Japanese wood at play here. (It later turns out I was right!)
With water the wood runs rampant on the nose. It has an almost Oloroso richness now along with a slight damp/ mushroomy note. On the palate it has become sweeter, but a lot less complex and a tad watery. It seems as if the water strips away most of the wood complexity and leaves a slightly jaded and butyric spirit behind. With a price tag of around £130, I was definitely disappointed.
Nikka Miyagikyo 1990 (19 year old) 61%
Cask 36385
An immense alcoholic nose of dried orange peel, banana, fragrant sawn wood, with some Oloroso lurking in the background, adding liquorice and dark chocolate aromas. For all it’s alcoholic bluster it is quite well balanced with a grassy/ botanical note.
The palate is quite sweet and alcoholic with plenty of dried raisins, sultanas, Seville orange peel and honey. The alcohol and wood tannins mask the middle and bitters out the finish, leaving a dark chocolate and liquorice after taste.
Water emphasises the Oloroso cask, and it has become a lot less complex aroma wise, and maybe a tad more sugary. However it really opens up the palate. There is still a lot of oak, but it is not so intrusive and you can almost taste the charring. The fruit has a lovely, not too sweet sheen, and hang on where did that smoke come from? There was no indication of that on the nose, or on the palate neat!! Oooh a lovely coal scuttle licking finish and a dry spice (cinnamon, clove, star anise) after taste.
Talk about a game of two halves saint!!!
Rittenhouse Rye 25 year old 50%
Cask No16
A stunning nose, loaded with sweet grains, candy floss and plenty of that bitter rye bite. Deep and luscious with plenty of oak, nutty/ oily-vanilla, sweet toffee, sandalwood and oak smoke. Superb!
The palate opens with a wave of dried fruit, walnuts and grain. This is followed by mouth puckering alcohol with hints of liquorice, bitter chocolate and toffee. The oak wades in towards the end with a mountainous amount of vanillins. Yet in saying that the balance is in no way compromised. It’s stunning, it languidly flows from beginning to end. A fabulous way to end the evening.
With water the nose becomes more fragrant with hints of pecan tart, drizzled with rich, coffee essence. Likewise the palate becomes more fragrant too, with a lovely violet twist to the fruit. Now this is definitely worth the £190 price tag!
Redbreast 15 year old 46% £85.95
An elegant and high toned nose of floral spirit. I’ll be a bit picky and say that there’s a brief soapy note but it soon disappears under the American and European sherry oak. Lovely layering of fruit, dark chocolate, crumbly spices, grilled nuts, brittle/hard barley along with an almost rye grain note.
The palate is luscious, bold and mouth filling. First up comes the brittle barley followed by the rye like grains, buzzy spices and hints of treacle, coffee and sherry wood! A sublime mid-palate as the American vanillins and alcohol take a grip, gently finishing with a flourish of slightly perfumed, floral spirit.
A superb, pure Pot Still whiskey!
Right that’s about it for now I hope you enjoyed the read
Regards
Chris Goodrum
http://www.gauntley-wine.co.uk/
