Whisky Intelligence has reproduced (with permission) The Gauntleys Whisky Newsletter for October 2006; a look back in time. The author, Chris Goodrum, has some excellent insights into the whiskies being commented on which makes for excellent reading on a Sunday. Enjoy!
Dear Whisky Customers
I have a packed newsletter for you this month, so without any more ado here we go!
BRUICHLADDICH PRICES
I now have the prices for the new bottlings from Bruichladdich which I reviewed in the last newsletter. We now have some stock of all of them with the exception of the Port Charlotte should be available towards the end of the month.
Bruichladdich 7 year old Waves 46% £26.95
Bruichladdich 12 year old 46% £30.95
Bruichladdich Links 14 year old Royal Liverpool Hoylake 46% £37.95
Port Charlotte 5 year old PC5 Evolution 67% £53.95
GLENMORANGIE TASTING
I had a visit from the Glenmorangie sales rep recently, mainly to introduce the new 15 year old Sauternes finish malt. I have to admit it has been several years since I have tasted the wood finishes and to honest I wasn’t particularly impressed, the exception being the Burgundy wood finish which is rather good. So with tasting glass in hand we began with their blend called Baille Nicol Jarvie, which I was told is the only blend not only to contain Glenmorangie, but the only one to have a 60% malt content, and for a blended whisky it was rather pleasant. My tasting note follows in the later ‘Blends Tasting’ section.
So onto the malts, next up the 15 year old, and shock horror I actually liked it. Very polished and very drinkable, certainly an easy drinking session malt. Next was the Madiera finish, and although it wasn’t as heavily casked influence as I remember it was distinctly so-so on the nose with an initial burst of sulphur. On the palate it was quite oily and waxy, not all together pleasant with a bit of an evanescent character. Onto the Port finish and this has definitely got better. Delicate cask influence, with a nice depth and quite a nice spicy complexity.
Finally the Sauternes finish. Apparently this has spent four and a half years maturing in Sauternes casks and according to the advertising blurb has a remarkable botrytis character to it. Well if it has I certainly couldn’t find it. The nose was ruined by sulphur, although after it dissipated it showed a nice depth of honied, syrupy fruit and malt on the nose. On the palate it is quite luscious with liquid honey fruits, vanilla, madiera cake, coffee, mature fruit with a tangy citrus edge. But oh dear! I am amazed that the powers that be at Glenmorangie have released this. I know that there are a lot of fans of Glenmorangie who will probably over look this fault, but I’m afraid that I can’t and especially with a price tag of around £50!
Glenmorangie 15 year old 43% £39.95
A lovely clean, polished, soft nose with honied orange fruit, coffee, a touch of pepper and spice along with a floral note reminiscent of orange blossom. The palate replicates the nose with a touch of natural caramel and a nice intensity of flavour on the middle. Good depth with a palate cleansing dry finish and a touch of menthol on the finish.
Glenmorangie 12 year old Port Wood Finish 43% £33.95
Quite a floral nose, delicate and subtly spicy with the ‘morangie fruit lying beneath. A nice depth with a touch of herbs and coffee. Smooth and creamy on the palate with the delicate spice and red fruit balanced by the rich, honied ?morangie fruit. Good depth and a lovely spicy finish.
INDEPENDANTS BOTTLERS’ CHALLENGE
Love or loath the Whisky Magazine, and many of you do?. Both!.
My own personal opinion (which is not tainted by the fact that we still haven’t received any recognition from them? No, I’m not bitter, honest!) is that although they try to appear to be independent and ‘give it to you straight’ however they are not going to be contentious and risk upsetting their corporate sponsors. However it is the only magazine of its type and frankly I feel that they should be supported, especially now that they are recognising that life doesn’t begin and end with distilleries own bottlings.
Anyway in their latest issue they have published the results of their second independent bottlers’ challenge and many congratulations should go to Duncan Taylor who scooped the Highland, Lowland and Vatted/Blended Malt awards, Gordon & MacPhail who took the Islands (non Islay) award, and to Dewar Rattray who were awarded the Speyside Bottler of the year. So congratulations to them all, and we are proud to be stockists of theirs. I have become a big fan of Dewar Rattray over the last year, and it isn’t just down to the fact that they send me samples without me asking for them!
BLENDS TASTING
I have often been left samples of various blended whiskies by sales reps and have never got round to tasting them, primarily because we have no more space on the shelves in order to stock them, so they have sat in my whisky cupboard at home. So being gripped by a spirit of adventure I cracked them open the other day and the results were as follows.
Pigs Nose
Very spirity nose, ‘off the still’, young and cerealy with a touch of fruit, acetate and earth. The palate has a vague fruitiness, a touch honied but spoilt by its acetate flavours and ‘off the still’ rawness. To sum up, it’s not very nice!
Sheep Dip
Quite rich, with sherried fruit. However the nose is marred by its spirity, nail polish remover notes. The palate is rather unassuming, with some slightly sherried fruit and coffee, but oh look there’s the nail polish remover again!
Cu Dhub The Black Whisky
This is essentially heavily caramelised whisky marketed by the Speyside distillery as an alternative to the long gone Loch Dhu.
Sweet and syrupy nose, totally dominated by the caramel, burnt toffee and acetone! The palate isn’t much better (surprise!), sweet and syrupy, a vapid middle, loads of burnt toffee, real black liquorice and a touch of spice. Why would anyone want to drink this?
Baille Nicol Jarvie
A nice, crisp and clean nose. Quite fruity with touches of iodine, smoke and peat. Quite creamy beneath with a floral note, a touch of grain and peper. On the palate it is smooth, slightly honied, tangy with a late touch of smoke. Quite drinkable actually!
NEW BOTTLING FROM COMPASS BOX
Compass box has released a new innovative vatted malt whisky called ‘Oak Cross’. It uses only Highland malt whiskies which have been matured in first fill bourbon oak, with a proportion matured in casks specifically made for them. These casks are made from American oak staves and French oak heads, which means it will probably fall foul of the SWA ruling on what is traditional, but as yet no pronouncement has been made. The idea of these customs casks is marry the flavours that these woods impart. Is it a success? ? I should say so!
Compass Box ‘Oak Cross’ 43% £TBC
Quite a winey nose, reminiscent of Chardonnay/ Sauvignon Blanc. Aromatic with soft American oak, a touch of apricot and orange fruit with a rounded, delicately soft, spicy note along with a slight granity edge and a whiff of smoke. Soft and rounded on the palate, smooth, fruity and delicately spiced. Slightly winey with a lovely malty sweetness which builds on the middle. Lovely length with a granity note, hints of dried fruit and a dry finish.
NEW BOTTLINGS FROM RAYMOND ARMSTRONG
As you will know Raymond Armstrong of Bladnoch occasionally bottles the odd cask or two, and he certainly knows a good cask when he see’s one. We are proud to be one of the few places where you can get hold of his stunning whiskies. I reviewed the absolutely stunning cask strength 12 year old Craggenmore back in February, and surprise, surprise it has now all sold out, however there are some bottles of the 40% bottling available, although not quite as good as the cask strength bottling it is still rather good. I believe that the cask strength must rate as one of my favourite malts of the year? Hang on that’s an idea, maybe I’ll do a list of my top 10 for the year around Christmas/ New Year, time permitting of course!
Craggenmore 12 year old 40% £35.95
Clean, grassy and citrus with lovely clean vanilla oak, cereal, hay, orange fruit and a touch of strawberry. Stunning palate, slightly sweet with cereal, apricot, banana and delicate, sweet spices. Slightly oily with a tropical fruit middle along with the gloriously clean vanilla oak. Very long with the sweetness building on the palate. Glorious length and finish.
Tamdhu 15 year old 61.7% £46.95
A stunning nose. Rich, oily and fruity, full of re-fill sherry aromas, intensly spiced orange fruits, a touch of vanilla and loads of sweet orange candy. Luxurious and velvety, dripping with honied malt and cereal. Soft and smooth on the palate, rich and oily with spicy orange fruit. Awesome depth and complexity, the spice really builds amid the lovely delicate sherry fruits. This is stunning. A drop of water softens the nose and brings out an earthy/ perfumed note. It makes the palate sing, smoothing and again bringing out an earthy note. Water really brings it all together, pushing the spice to the background and bringing out a slight menthol note.
Caol Ila 15 year old 58.8% £46.95
A PURE Islay nose! Salty with medicinal peat, carbolic soap, coal dust, earth, tar, iodine and vegetation. Underneath lurks some glorious, slightly sweet apricot and orange fruit. Very, very smoky on the palate and I mean smoky ? pure coal scuttle! Followed by the medicinal peat which gently builds to a tangy, briny, fruity finish with the ever present smoke lingering. A drop of water brings out the sweet fruit on the nose and emphasises it to the max, (something that is often lacking in Caol Ila) at the expense of the rampant smoke. On the palate it again brings out the sweet fruit but doesn?t mute the smoke. A truly superb Caol Ila with a lovely balance with water and damn smoky. I love it!
NEW BOTTLINGS FROM DEWAR RATTRAY
As I said earlier, I have grown very partial to their single cask bottling’s and as my good friends at Dewar Rattray have sent me some samples of their new bottlings it would be very amiss of me not to taste them and tell you all about them. So what did they send? An interesting 16 year old Craigellachie, a disappointing 25 year old Caperdonich which was rather straightforward and just not particularly exciting, a superb 29 year old Glenglassaugh, a 31 year old Strathmill which I was really looking forward to tasting as they had bottled a 15year old last year which was very good and a luscious 30 year old Tomintoul.
Craigellachie 16 year old 57.7% £43.95
Interesting nose, opens with coffee/tobacco leaf on a wet morning, followed by clean apricot fruit and creamy vanilla builds nicely becoming a touch creamy with a wood smoke nuance. Quite sweet on the palate, rounded and nicely fruity with vanilla oak and gentle spices. Over time it develops a sort of slightly leafy/woody middle. Tangy length with custard cream after taste ? Good crispness/freshness throughout.
Glenglassaugh 29 year old 53% £78.95
A wonderfully crisp, fresh and granity nose of clean, oily fruit, vanilla, earth and a lowland-esque grassy citrus note. More weighty on the palate. Uite oily with delicate orange fruit followed by a big hit of dry spices. Lovely length with coffee and demerara sugar along with juicy and sweet fruit. Lovely length. No need for any water.
Strathmill 31 year old 49.3% £86.95
A gloriously dense, heavy aromas of orange oils? Wow you can really smell the viscosity. This is sumptuous with an infinite depth of creamy vanilla laced fruit. On the palate it is obviously heavy and oily with sweet, sensuous orange fruit and big wood. Time has melded the components wonderfully ? It might not be the most complex of flavours, but the depth is stunning. Do not add water, it kills its density and gives it a gin like botanical note.
Tomintoul 30 year old 41.5% £84.95
Lovely, dense, rich and oily aromas of menthol/mint infused earthy, foresty, loamy, undergrowthy fruit, along with smoke, a touch of mature peat, luscious fruit and vanilla. Stunning complexity. Again dense and oily on the palate. It opens with the earthy, loamy, mature fruit and mature peat flavours. Some lovely wood spices drift in and it finishes with the menthol note. Extremely oily, lingering and mouth-coatingly rich. Stunning.
HAZELBURN 2nd EDITION v’s 1st EDITON
The second bottling of the 8 year old Hazelburn is now in the shop, and amazingly there are a few bottles left! So why should you buy this one I hear you ask, it’s obviously the same as the first bottling ? Well having tasted them against each other I can tell you that they are very different. The second edition being matured in American oak offers a fabulous insight into the style and quality of this unique spirit as the first edition was obviously sherry matured and shows how the cask has offset the innate youthfulness of the spirit.
Hazelburn 8 year old ?2 nd Edition? 46% £33.95
A very youthful nose with initially plenty of ‘off the still’ cereal and salt along with some apricot fruit, light coffee and smooth orange marmalade. Give this a few minutes in the glass and it becomes exuberantly fruity. Dry on the palate, again initially quite cerealy, obvious new make notes and a very intense tangy, salty middle with plenty of delicate apricot fruit and a slight hint of marmalade and citrus sweetness. The quality of the spirit is superb, currently rather straightforward and obviously need some time and some further wood influence. Personally I think it is an interesting experience to taste the pure spirit unencumbered by cask and peat, etc.
Hazelburn 8 year old 1 st Edition £46%
As this has long since sold out this tasting note is purely to show the difference. Just looking at the colour tells you that this has been matured in Sherry casks and it is obvious on the nose, displaying a greater intensity of rich, honied, earthy fruit, full of orange/tangerine with hints of chocolate, peat and coffee. Again fuller on the palate with the rich, sherry fruit and salinity dominating the proceedings. A touch of peat drifts in on the middle and finishes with the salt and smoke llingering.
BOOK REVIEW
I was recently sent a copy of Brian Townsend’s book ‘Scotch Missed” Scotland’s Lost Distilleries by Brian Townsend. This is a fascinating and well researched book. It’s amazing to think that the popularity of whisky has had some peaks and troughs in the past. At the moment it seems that its popularity shows no sign of waning, especially with new markets in Asia and Russia showing explanation growth potential. But of course this has not been the case, and this book highlights some of the darker moments of the industry which led to a number of closures, for example the 1909 duty price, the first world war, the 1920 depression and prohibition, the second world war and more recently the 1980’s downturn.
Another interesting point to note is that it was not only the small rural distilleries that the axe has fallen on, but a number of larger ones too. For example the huge grain distilleries of Caledonian (Edinburgh), Carsebridge (Alloa) and Cambus (Clackmannashire) are now all silent, as are some of the larger malt distilleries of Hazelburn, whose output was a hefty 250,000 gallons of spirit a year, along with St Magdalen (Linlithgow) (225,000 gallons per year) and Banff (Inverboydie) (200,000 gallons per year).
My only quibble with this book is that it was written six years ago, and that is a long time in the whisky industry and as such some of the information needs updating, for example the purchase of Glengyle distillery by Springbank, the revival of the Stronachie name by Dewar Rattray, and the continuing success of the new Speyside distillery. These very minor quibbles aside this is a very entertaining read, and copies can be ordered from ourselves for £8.99 plus postage and packaging.
A GENERAL ROUND UP OF TASTINGS
An Cnoc 12 year old 40% £25.95
Massively malty, slightly grainy with loads of rich, creamy orange fruit, a slight perfumed note. Superb complexity with a touch of smoke, earthy manure and pepper. On the palate it as multi-layered, opening with the delicious malt and followed by softly, juicy, slightly sweet fruit ? reminds me of a good Irish. Good wood and good spirit combine nicely, tails of rather quickly but leaves a lovely soft spicy after taste.
Laphroig 15 year old 43% £42.95
Rich and fruity aromas, quite heavy and oily with mature peat smoke, iodine, and kippers. Lovely complexity, phenolic and slaty with a hint of bog myrtle and rubber wellies! On the palate it is rich and fruity, again with mature peat smoke, iodine, kippers and rubber. Lovely depth, with a soft intensity. Oodles of coastal fruit on the middle and a long lingering finish with hints of bog myrtle.
Benromch Organic 43% £28.95
Yes I know I mentioned this whisky in the last newsletter, but to honest I hadn’t tasted it then and just used the distillery tasting notes (shame on me!) . But now I have tasted it and it is rather good!
Big, deep and rich aromas of luscious honied fruits, followed by tons of fresh oak and vanillins. Very, very weighty just like a good Bourbon with a late spice note drifting in. On the palate it is softer and more whisky like with the malty, honied fruit flavours leading the way, followed the vanillins. Very weighty with a lovely tangy spiciness to the fruit. The wood masks the innate youth of the spirit and makes this a very enjoyable dram. Lovely length with a softly tangy youthful finish.
John McDougall’s Tamdhu 1994 (11 year old) 61.3% £35.95
Young and intensely oily on the nose. Youthful, perfumed fruit with a cereal background. It displays what can only be described as ‘terroir’ essence of earth and granity hard malt! It’s young, delicate and maybe a bit evanescent but utterly charming. On the palate it is light, estery and oily, again youthful with cereal and light spices. Good length with a whistle clean finish. A touch of water smoothes and softens brining out the orange fruit but not detracting from its granity hardness.
John McDougall’s Caol Ila 1979 (27 year old) 58.9% £127.95
A very oily nose. Opening with menthol, bog myrtle, garden plants, undergrowth, manure, hemp, old compost heaps of peat followed by gloriously rich orange fruit, pure, liquid honied orange nectar and spices. This is superb with a lovely depth along with a touch of smoke and a coastal note. Soft and smooth on the palate. All the flavopurs have mellowed into a morass of rich, mature fruit, peat smoke, iodine, menthol, hemp, earth, mature rushes and pointed leafy plants (green reeds?) and a touch of salinity. Finally do not under any circumstance add any water to this trust me!
Benromach 1980 58.6% £73.95
An intense, oily nose of honied orange fruit, a touch of peat and earth. There is a lovely freshness to the aromas with loads of refill-sherry notes and citrus. Lovely oarange fruit on the palate, buckets of clean honey, malt and mouth coating spices along with a touch of coffee. It needs a drop of water to fully appreciate this malt. It brings out a fresh perfumed note and a touch of vanilla and spices on the nose. On the palate it emphasises the oils, smooths and brings out the glorious fruit. Sweet and sappy with loads of wood spices on the finish. It certainly doesn?t seem like it is 24 years old!
Gordon & MacPhail Ledaig 1990 (16 year old) NOT STOCKING
A heavy and woody nose of peaty cardboard and stale coffee, a touch of sulphur, damp earth, orange fruit, salinity and vegetal (cabbage) notes. The palate is soft slightly oily with lots of wood, dried fruit and salt. Ok length with loads of wood spices and coffee. It?s amazing how hit and miss bottlings of Ledaig can be, this is most definitely a miss!
Glengoyne 1990 Single Cask (16 year old) 58.7 NOT STOCKING
A rich nose of vegetal sherry cask, earth, stewed fruits, late vanilla and farmyards. Dry and rich on the palate, again dominated by the vegetal sherry cask and alcohol. Tangy middle with a late marzipan/almond note. Several minutes later some rich sherry spices and coffee arrive. All the complexity is in the finish. A drop of water dosen’t help matters, it changes nothing! Far too vegetal, no whisky, all sherry cask.
Allied Distillers Last Bottling of Imperial 15 year old NOT STOCKING
Now this is a better sherry cask! Not much from the spirit, but a nice amount of orange fruit and coffee notes. Fairly non descript on the palate, again it is all sherry cask, a good cask at that, with a late coffee/bitter chocolate note.
That’s it for now, comments and orders to the usual place.
Sincerely
Chris Goodrum
http://www.gauntley-wine.co.uk/
