Danish Whisky Blog

Tormore 1994/2007, Gordon & MacPhail, 59.9%

2012-02-06T19:06:00.004+01:00

Tormore is another of the very low profile distilleries. Only a couple of official bottlings are around, and the whisky is not highly sought after amongst the independent
bottlers, but still, some bottlings do occur and with my (lacking) knowledge of this distillery’s products in mind, I think it’s time to try one:

Tormore, 15.09.1994/17.05.2007, Gordon&MacPhail’s Cask Strength Collection, casks 8350+8352, 1stfill sherry butts, 59.9%

Nose:
starts on lemon grass followed by buttery notes and burnt hay. There’s a
certain spicy toffeeness coating the whole thing which makes it kind of
fulfilling. Resin, sweet candy, liquorice and coffee comes in and add
complexity to what is becoming quite a lovely and characterfull nose for such a
young whisky. After a few minutes the butter steps forward and gives a creamy
feeling. There is also a sharp and fresh nature to this dram like a room that
has just been cleaned with Ajax – I mean this positively. If the palate is in
the same league, we’re in for a treat. Let’s see..

Taste:
burnt sugar, sherry and rather a lot of wood. Wood soaked in good sherry that
is. The wood isn’t overpowering but present all the way from when the first
drops hit the tastebuds to the long and drying finish. A special combination of
freshly cut grass and black coffee. Not as complex as the nose but very
lovable. Strong, yet elegant. Punchy, yet sensitive. Immensely interesting
whisky from well selected casks. A pleasant surprise!

Rating: 89

Those damn collectors, BRIC and feckin ebay

2012-01-02T12:23:00.000+01:00

Whisky is getting more expensive, and NOONE is happy about it. Except the few thousands that lives of selling the stuff of course. So what are the reasons for this pricejump. Well I don't really know but I have some thoughts why it could be so and some are very obvious

1. More people drink quality whisky. This isn't just the BRIC countries, Brasil, Russia, India and China, entering the premium market. As money has started rolling in in these countries, a lot of people, as these countries has HUGE populations are getting more money in their hands. And they buying cheap local booze and replace it with more expensive "premium" spirits (for some reason a bottle of spirit is more expensive than a bottle of booze)
Well, this has mainly affected the blend market. Johnnie Walker is extremely popular in asia. The price of better blends hasn't really gone up where I live so if I want a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black I have no reason to complain.

But a lot more is drinking quality single malt whisky in the traditional markets, and with single malts being such a relative small part of whisky the business, a rise of consumers in this field is something that can be felt.

2. Some whiskies ARE getting rare. Quite a lot of distilleries were closed in the early eighties, Port Ellen, Brora being the most famous but also Dallas Dhu, Coleburn, Convalmore, Banff, Glen Albyn and St. Magdalene. Rosebank, Imperial, Caperdonich are later closures. According to Malt Whisky Yearbook, there is approximately 28 closed distilleries with bottles on the market. Most of these will not reopen. And their whiskies are getting rare. Some of them very rare. And some are very good and very popular. This will of course cause a price jump. Demand and availability. Add to this distilleries with large gaps in production years, resulting in big holes in stock. Ardbeg and Springbank just to name a couple.

3. Price as a marketing tool. Like it or not, whiskies are brands, just like Heineken, Nike and Levi's. And there's a bit of a dogfight being the "finest" distillery out there. It seems like they all want a "THE" in front of the distillery name and a 10000£ 50yo in a bullet proof display cabin in the visitor centre. Our whisky is the most expensive and that by all logic means its also the best..

4. We are fashion muppets. Like it or not, whiskies are brands, just like Heineken, Nike and Levi's. And consumers are slaves to fashion trends, and so are whisky consumers. Popular Names, Fancy Boxes and Crystal Bottles sells just as well as the actual quality of the whisky. I've seen people looking on a designed bottle package with the same adoration in their eyes as when they look on their newborn child. And when Highland Park release their overpriced King Cucumber the 4th special release the internet is drowning with fans moaning they can't get hold of a bottle (those feeckin ebayers bought them all). Shut the fuck up, it takes 5 minutes internet research to find a brilliant bottle from some lesser known distillery, or one of those weird german independant bottler with home made labels, that is a lot better whisky, cheaper, but unfortunately doesn't come with any bragging rights.

But in the end I have a painful suspicion that the main reason for whisky getting more expensive is

5. Drinkers, like me, hoarding. I buy a lot more than I can drink. I got "a few" bottles in my stock (IT*S NOT A COLLECTION). I have continuesly bought more than I can drink. So have more or less everybody I know in the world of whisky. The amount of bottles stocked up on the shelves of whisky drinkers outnumbers the numbers of bottles that collectors have in their collections. Tenfold. I bet you!
Off course the limit between drinkers and collectors is blurred, but I tell you something. The next whiskycrash will come the day us drinkers decide to drink what we have in our cabinet and stop buying!

Me and a whisky collection. Not mine though!

That said, I don't like ebayers making profit of releases from last week. It's just bad whisky karma !. But hey, we live in a capitalist society and they only take advantage of the fashion slaves, don't they ?

Every Year I make a new year resolution not to buy more whisky bottles and drink less. I did so this new year. It didn't go very well, I allready ordered three bottles. But now it's over. No more purchases!!

Until I get one more whiskycupboard, I am out of space

Happy New Year. May your drams in 2012 be as good as the ones I had in 2011 :-)

Mortlach - hit or miss?

2012-01-01T20:47:00.002+01:00

Mortlach is a distillery that has caught my eye with some excellent bottles in the past and also caught my eye with some, well, not so excellent bottles. I know several whisky enthusiasts who have Mortlach among their top distilleries, but for me so far it's been either hit or miss. It's been a while since I had a Mortlach - time to put that right with one of the most popular releases from the Flora & Fauna series, the 16 year old Mortlach, which I actually never tried before. I bought this bottle in 2010 at Blair Athol Distillery and at the time they had plenty. Those days are surely over... For good measure let's oppose it to another youngish Mortlach, a 1991 from Gordon & MacPhail.

Mortlach, 1991/2004, Gordon&MacPhail, 10th Anniversary bottling for Danish wine shop Vinens Verden, Slotsgade, cask 7863, refill sherry, 43%

Ok, the colour suggests that it is indeed a sherry cask. Unfortunately caramel has probably been added so nothing to read from that and besides, what does colour tell us about the quality of a whisky? You're right, absolutely nothing!

Nose: boiled fruits, lemonade and figs. Then comes some dark notes of sweet cherries. Add to that orange peel and apple pie and you have an entertaining albeit not spectacular nose.

Taste: Again boiled fruits, also dried fruits and some citrus. Not really complex and fades a bit fast but hey, it's well made and has no flaws.

Rating: 81

Mortlach 16yo, Flora & Fauna, 43%

Nose: starts on candied apples and apple juice, peach and walnuts. Orange notes of dried oranges, delicious fruits at full speed forward. Very confident and lively. After a few minutes coffee and sugar join the party. Let's see how this one tastes.

Taste: first some sherry followed by dark coffee and a little unexpected peat! Dried fruits, orange chocolate and prunes. Gets drier in the medium length finish that ends in dark chocolate, flint and bonfire smoke.

Surely a fine dram which I' sure would have hit a couple of extra marks had it been bottled at, let's say, 50 %.

Rating: 87

Concluding comments: These two Mortlachs are not in amongst the best I've tasted from this distillery, nor are they in the hat with the not so good Mortlachs that have come my way. Let us say that they are in the group of the interesting and entertaining Mortlachs which is not bad.

Lars

World Whiskies - Happy New Year

2011-12-31T12:11:00.000+01:00

As the new year is rolling in over the globe over the next 24 hours lets have a look at whisky from around the globe

Whisky is a popular dram. Distilleries are popping up all over the world, Personally I have always regarded Scotland, USA, Ireland and Japan for the classic 4 whisky countries which have a long tradition of making whisky of all kinds. Many would argue that Canada belongs to this list, and I don't really have an opinion if it does or not, I simply lack experience in canadian whiskies

But the world is coming. Amrut from India has already made it to the stars of whisky

World whiskies doesn't have the same reputation as whisky from the countries mentioned above, and there's a couple of reasons for that.

Some world distilleries simply make crap whisky and/or

Some distilleries bottle whisky that's too young

But that's not something particular for world whiskies. I could say the same about some whiskies from Scotland. But let's leave the bad ones.

This blog post is my personal recommendations of whiskies from around the world worth having a look at. The list isn't complete as I haven't tasted everything out there.

Let's start in America!

McCarthy's Oregon single malt whiskey

Single malt whiskey from Portland in Oregon, made at Clear Creek Distillery
This is a peated malt made on Holstein still's one a one-run distillation (with a twist)
Read more here : http://www.clearcreekdistillery.com/whiskey.html
A delicious peaty dram, well worth a look

Charbay

Charbay is a winery and multidistillery in the hills between Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley just north of San Francisco in California. Marko Karakasevic is a somewhat excentric distiller who decided if he had to dsitll beer, it has to be the best beers, so Charbay whiskeys is made from bottle ready IPA's, stouts and the likes. This isn't the cheapest whiskeys on the market and its not easy to find either as the releases has been few over the years

Moving over to Europe now :

France:

Glann ar Mor

Still

A Bretagne distillery in France keeps the celtic connection up, and with a double distillation, live flame heated, onion shaped pot stills, worm tubs and wooden wash backs this is as traditional as it can be.

Lars reviewed the peated version, Kornog here:
http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/kornog-glann-ar-mor-distillery-france.html

Distillery home page here : www.glannarmor.com

Czech Republic:

Hammerhead

A Czech distillery in Pradlo decided to make some whisky in 1989, right before the velvet revolution. The casks were forgotten in the mild turmoil that created the czech republic and the whisky was "rediscovered" in 2010 and bottled as a 21yo. The new owners , The Stock Spirit Group, were really surprised by the quality of this spirit, and it has been availbale for bargain prices in duty frees

Taiwan:

Kavalan

Kavalan is a Taiwanese whisky, the distillery was started in 2006. Several expressions has been released, Kavalan, Concertmaster (port finish), Solist (single casks of various types) and King Car (un-chill filtered, 46%). The whisky is sold mainly on the chinese markets and is really hard to get in Europe (and the US)

Last, I believe that Australia is an up and coming whisky producing country, but I simply haven't tasted anything under proper circumstances recently, but I did try Lark whisky at Glasgow Whisky Festival and it's for sure something to keep an eye on as well

Canada : Look out for Forty Creek whisky from the Kittling Ridge Distillery

Beer hunter, Whisky chaser. A book review by Peter

2011-12-30T20:47:00.000+01:00

First Blog by Peter
Hi this is my first take on a review on this page.
Before starting the review I had better introduce myself
I am an anorak (just as the other guys reviewing on this page. My specialty/interest is whisky books and Rosebank whisky (feel free to send me samples to review ;-) )
I have chosen to start with a review on the late great Michael Jackson's memorial book, Beer hunter, Whisky chaser.

Beer Hunter Whisky Chaser
Not a book by Michael Jackson, nor is it about the man (well not a lot anyway). But a book written as a tribute to him. (And as a money maker for the Parkinson Disease Society, UK). For that alone it gets a few stars extra!
Now I am both a whisky fan and a beer fan, so this book should be great for me! It is, but only in whisky terms. Apparently I'm not used to read a lot about beer, other than recipes for making it, so I'm a bit lost reading those parts of the book.
Because of that, the whisky parts will have to Carry the price. Luckily it does. Charles MacLean's analysis of the renaissance of malt whisky is the star of the book in my view. And the rest is not bad either.

For diversity the book gets an 85
For the whisky, it gets an 85 as well
For the charity, it gets a 92
Total 87

RIP
Michael Jackson

PS, if you want to see why you should buy this book and support The Parkinson Disease Society, then just check this YouTube clip and see the last interview with MJ. That ought to convince you if you have not all ready bought a copy.

Peter

Last drams of 2011 part 5

2011-12-30T10:53:00.001+01:00

Old Grand Dad 100 proof bottled in bond 1982

To me, the bourbon terms sometimes seems odd. Bottled in bond means a vintage whiskey and straight means the whiskey is minimum 4 years old :-)

(read more exact definition here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottled_in_bond)

The Old Grand Dad is today a Beam brand, and uses a special high rye mash bill different from the other Beam whiskies. The whisky is named after Basil Hayden, the original distiller Raymond Haydens grand-dad. The name is also known from Beam's Basil Hayden's bouron which also uses the same mash bill.

Nose : Shoe polish, rye, liqeur

Palate : Wow, pure rye heaven. It's very smooth and hasn't got a lot of wood. Is this OBE ? (old bottle effect). I do find slight similarities to this and AH Hirsch 16, and the AH Hirsch 16 did spend around 1½ decade in stainless steel tanks. One thing is sure, I am glad I have been stocking up on bourbons bottled last century. I get more from this. Mint, licorise, floor varnish, rye, vanilla, but this is also one of the least woody and smoothest bourbons I have tried

Finish : medium-long

Rating 91

Thanks to Mike Ly for the sample

Last drams of 2011 part 4

2011-12-29T22:02:00.001+01:00

Karuizawa 1967 cask 6426, 58.4%
The Whisky Exchange 10y online anniversary, bottled 24/8-2009

The colour and looks of this whisky reminds me of balsamico.

Nose :

Boiled in fruit, leather, and a bit of the inside of a pair of wellingtons.

Palate

Extremely oily on the verge of being gritty without being it at all. Dried fruits, Ris a lamande cherry sauce, a long finish. A drop of water brings up wood notes , and a little sweetness, a sweetness you would have thought would have been there from the start, but this is actually a surprisingly non-sweet sherried whisky. Very unlike any other whisky I have a tasted, an exceptional good dram, the leather taste is dominating, and leather is usually something I pick up in Lagavulin and old Ardbegs. No noticeable peat or smoke in this Karuizawa

Rating 91

Last drams of 2011 part 3

2011-12-29T19:50:00.001+01:00

Tamnavulin 40yo Single Malts of Scotland 40.4%

Nose : apple-shoe polish. A very delightful nose, not that intensive, but one of those whisky you can keeo going on nosing. This is like a girl in a summer dress.

Palate : This is a very fragile dram. A composite of apples with some spicy wood parts, which gives away the old age of this malt. Its very moorish, but also so delicate and fragile that it will have trouble following any other dram.

Finish : medium with a some bitterness

Tamnavulin is a Speyside distillery located up the hills behind the Glenlivet distillery also on the Glenlivet estate. The distillery is owned by Whyte and Mackay and reopened in 2007 after have being mothballed for 12 years.

Rating 86

Tamnavulin anno 2007

The old mill used to host a visitor centre

Last drams of 2011 part 2

2011-12-28T22:05:00.000+01:00

Laphroaig Quarter Cask 48%

Quarter Cask is a No Age Statement Laphroaig. It is regular Laphroaig that has received a finish on quarter casks. Quarter Cask , having a quart the size of a normal cask, hence the name, has a larger surface to volume ratio. This results in larger wood impact to the spirit, well some would call this a slightly speeded up maturation

Nose : sweet, peaty and floral.

Palate : Again quite sweet, with some floral notes and a background of peat

Finish : Long and peaty

This is a dram for peat lovers. The peat is dominating, but its a very delicate and drinkable whisky, despite its young age and relative high ABV. Recently I found a lot of the Laphroaigs distillery bottlings sligtly floral, opposed to independent Laphroaigs. It's all a matter of taste but personally I prefer the independent bottlings of Laphroag out there, with the 10yo cask strength being on the same level

It's no where floral on the same level or same kind as many associate with Bowmore, especially Bowmore from a few years back!

Rating 83

Last drams of 2011 part 1

2011-12-28T12:02:00.000+01:00

Caperdonich 1972 Hart Brothers 30yo 50.1%

The nose is warm, meaty and a bit confined.

The palate is rough, bitter, musty and dusty, without any sweetness. Not an atypical Caperdonich thou.

The finish is long with a nice bitter-vanilla

Rating 84

A couple of very different whiskeys from Kentucky

2011-12-27T11:13:00.000+01:00

1. Rittenhouse Rye 25yo 50%
Barrel no. 6

Rittenhouse is a label by Heaven Hill. The old Heaven Hill distillery burned down in the 90's and a few years later Heaven Hill acquired the modern Bernheim Plant from Diageo (who had closed a range of distilleries in the 90's and moved all their production here, before moving away from the production side of american whiskeys). This rye is most likely distilled at the old Heaven Hill distillery.

I think that rye whiskey can age a lot easier than bourbon. It seems the spirit is a lot more robust for wood influence. It could be the fact that the rye spirit itself is a lot more flavourful than corn spirit?. This barrel no. 6 Rittenhouse 25yo has retained a surprising amount of the rye flavour after so many years in the barrel. The nose is very similar to a much younger rye, without the spirit burn. I usually find older ryes more woody, but not as woody as older bourbons. The nose puts me into a scenery of walking through a forest of fresh pine woods in the summer. Very aromatic and spicy, and you just want to get your nose as close as possible to the spirit to inhale these nice aromas. Opposied to scottish single malts, I don't really mind that bourbons and ryes are watered down. They are far more intense and flavourful. This is well represented at 50% and will still be too intense for some, if not most. The palate has got the same rye spices, with a lot of delicate toffee-caramel flavours and the wood is coming in the finish. Seems more intensive than the other Rittenhouse 25yo's I tried. A very delicious dram, and it benefits a lot from a few drops of water - and I don't add water to whisky very often

Rating 86

2. Kirkland 7yo Straight Bourbon 51.5%
Batch B-5183

Corn Juice. Sweet and woody. Nothing spectacular, it can be drunk neat, with ice or in a cocktail. At 20$ish a liter this is quite a good deal. A lot of dominant flavours, wood, toffee and slightly bitter on the finish. Lasting impression is a lot of toffee and very drinkable- For a lower priced bourbon that easy matches and beats a lot of the more known brands

Rating 80

Danish Whisky Blog awards 2011

2011-12-20T18:08:00.001+01:00

2012 are getting closer. It's time to look back on one of the best whisky years for me personally. I happened to revisit about everything I did in 2010: A couple of US trips with some superb dramming included, Spirit of Speyside, Limburg, Glasgow Whiskyfestival, Juul's at the Beer and Jazz Festival here in Aarhus and a number of fantastic private get togethers.

I also managed to visit Islay and Jura, Campbelltown and a trio of very interesting american distilleries, Las Vegas, Charbay and High West

The best way to drink whisky, is to drink it with friends.In the post before this I pointed out the numerous gatherings we have had this year, which had a fantastic range of bottlings http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/caperdonich-72.html

If I have to mention one specific it must be my co-writer, Lars, who invited all his whiskyfriend over and shared his Coleburns bottles. 14 different bottlings, from an old 1968 12yo dumpy Cadenhead to a 36yo 1970 Signatory. I was surprised of the quality of this sadly closed and very forgotten distillery..

Distillery of the Year

Lagavulin

Lagavulin from the seaside

Lagavulin's have a standard range well chosen. Very well chosen in my opinion. They have a 16yo OB and the PX finished Distillery's Edition. Beside that they have a 12yo cask strength, a distillery only bottling, the occasional 25yo/30yo bottling and a few smaller releases now and again. The 12yo Cask Strength is a personal favourite of mine. Nothing unnecessary, but a well varied selection. But the main reason for choosing Lagavulin is the experience you have (or can have) when coming there as a visitor.

Iain "Pinkie" MacArthur

Scotland attracts a lot of whiskytourists and most distilleries do offer guided tours these days. Some distilleries even offer extended tours, verticals, manager tours or connaisseurs tour. Very often these tends to be very (too) expensive. One of the best, if not the best is the Lagavulin warehouse tour, which is reasonable priced. It's a wee vertical tasting of some cask samples lead by the very entertaining Iain "Pinkie" MacArthur. Just the experience itself and the whiskies, which you don't really have a chance to taste otherwise, makes you want to come back to Islay. I think other distilleries should follow this good example. I find this a lot more fun than those distilleris that offers extended tours with three whiskies from their standard range which you probably finished a few bottles of yourself allready at home. Give you visitors, who might have travelled from far away, something they will remember. Like Lagavulin does

I would have linked to Lagavulin's webpage but I don't like the unwelcoming and annoying agecheck they meet you with :-)

Independendt Bottler of the Year

The Whisky Exchange

Not just in 2011, but the last couple of years I have really adored a lot of wonderful bottlings from the different labels of The Whisky Exchange.

The Whisky Exchange has a series of ranges that I all find worth an award in themselves. Elements of Islay is a series of 50cl bottles, which now includes 8 of 9 Islay distilleries (I can't recall a Bowmore!). This is very high quality young Islay whiskies, bottled in batches, with older, but still No Age Statement (NAS) single cask Port Ellens as the more expensive variety. My favourites so far has been Pe2, Lg1 adn Ar2

Port Askaig is a range of Islays : the brand has so far released a NAS, 17, 19, 25 and 30 year olds. The whisky is probably Caol Ila, with the recent 30yo being one of the best Islay releases I tasted from 2011 and the bottling that turned this award toward TWE!

The standard range of Single Malts of Scotland is also worth mentioning, the magnificient 35yo Glenallachie pictured above being one example. Other series, like the 10 years online anniversary bottlings (2010) and the Whisky Show Bottlings are always worth mentioning, and don't forget the few releases you also find under "The Whisky Exchange" label itself. I just wish I tasted them all :-)

Whisky Bottling of the Year

Port Charlotte 9yo

I had a lot of good whisky in 2011, it may have been the best year for me. Quite a lot of the stuff I am so privileged to taste are older bottlings - and I want to thank all my good whisky friends - you know who you are! - who have shared their good whisky with me and their other friends

For this award, I want to focus on my favourite 2011 releases.

And the price goes to a private bottling from a cask bottled by Jørn, a very good whisky friend of mine, who simply seems to have a very lucky hand with the cask projects he gets involved in. (or skilled?)

It's a fantastic Port Charlotte, very sherried and very peaty, harmonic and powerful, sweet and peaty, and by far the best Port Charlotte I have tasted.

I had a short review of this bottling in July :

http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/port-charlotte-9yo-634.html

Tasting of the year

Jolly Toper's Ben Nevis tasting

Hosted by Mark Davidson from the Cadenhead Shop in Edinburgh. Well, Ben Nevis has never been my favourite distillery, and I have to admit, I didn't like a couple of the Ben Nevis's served at this tasting, but the fact that Mark choses to share a true rarity like the Ben Nevis single grain (and a dumpy Cadenhead from the 60's) at his tasting (it is very reasonable priced) just makes me wants to move to Edinburgh so I can participate in more things like this

So much "exciting" whisky sits on the shelf of collectors, but I do believe that whisky has to be shared. I am very grateful I got the chance to taste this bottling. The fact that Mark decided to share this bottle at one of his tastings is fantastic, and the fact that it could have been sold for a considerable amount instead is worth celebrating. Mark reckon's that only two casks of Ben Nevis Single Grain has ever been knowingly bottled. And by the way, the grain was very good!.

Here's a link to his tastings : http://www.jollytopertastings.co.uk/whisky-tasting-dates/ - if you are a regular you will be dragged around Scotland and the world for a great variation of whiskies, and often whisky that is very hard to get by, or you never heard of before, is included :-)

I wish everybody reading this a fantastic 2012 dramming year

Steffen

PS Last year's awards can be found here:

http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/danish-whisky-blog-awards-2010.html

Caperdonich 72

2011-12-13T17:22:00.001+01:00

There's quite a few similar minded whisky friends around where I live. We often meet up for a dramming party, and everybody brings a couple of bottles and what else they want to present. Often with a theme. At other times someone invites guests over for a themed tasting and present what they have gathered. We done Port Ellen, Islay, Old Whisky, non-scottish, Brora, Glenlivet, Lossieside, Ardbeg, Coleburn, Edradour, Amrut, several Caperdonichs, Glenburgie and many others

Some artifacts I smuggled from my travels. Piece of Caperdonich in front

Most recent event was yet another Caperdonich day and here is what we managed to gather :

Caperdonich 1968-69
Duncan Taylor Rarest of the Rare 41yr 40,3% 10.69/2.11 cask 3250
Connoisseurs Choice 40yr 46% 1969/2009
Murray McDavid Mission 37yr 46,2% 1969 sherry/madeirafinish btl. 188/500
Connoisseurs Choice 36yr 46% 3.68/8.04 refill sherry casks

Caperdonich 1996-98
Signatory 12yr 43% 16.5.96/13.8.08 Hogshead Cask 82229, btl. 48/371
Cadenhead’s Authentic Collection 12yr 52,6% 96/03.09 317 btls.
Single Malts of Scotland 10yr 58,5% 4.5.98/1.10.08 heavily peated 251 btls.
Single Malts of Scotland 12yr 57% 4.5.98/27.5.10 cask 8712 heavily peated 242 btls.

Caperdonich November 1972
Duncan Taylor Rarest of the Rare 38yr 53,6%, 11.72/2.11 cask 7460, btl. 9/160
Duncan Taylor Rare Auld 37yr 56,50% 11.72/3.10 cask 7414 147 btls.
Duncan Taylor Rare Auld 36yr 51,2% 11.72/9.09 CS SC btl. 96/283
Duncan Taylor Rare Auld 34yr 55,6% 11.72/04.07 btl. 25/198

Caperdonich 1972-80
Gordon & MacPhail Reserve 36y 57.0% 14.3.72/26.8.08 cask 1975 1st fill sherry butt 430 btls.
Old Malt Cask 34yr 41,5% 12.73/5.08 cask DL4296
Chieftain’s 28yr 46% 01.74/02.02 cask 389/391 hogshead 636 btls.
Cadenhead's Chairman's Stock 27yr 56,8% 1980/6.08 hogshead 264 btls.

After Dinner drinks :

North of Scotland Dream Drams grain 37yr 38,3% 2 casks 128 btls.
North British Duncan Taylor 30yr 54,7% 08.78 – 04.09 Cask Q247 btl. 19/122
Springbank 21yr 46% bottled 1998 sherrycasks
Convalmore 1975 Enjoy Whisky (Germany) 46,9% 15.10.75/14.11.06 cask 2570 268 btls.
Tullibardine OB, 45,9% 1973/5.05 cask 2518 hogshead 239 fl.
Banff DMWA/Falster 34yr 44,1% 1975/2009 Creative Whisky cask 09/06001
Bunnahabhain DMWA/Falster 31yr 47,3% 1976/2008
Royal Lochnagar Norse Cask 29yr 50,4% Jan 1977/okt 2006 refill hogshead 140 btls.
Royal Lochnagar Old and Rare Platinum 34yr 57,2% 1971/2005 474 btls.
Port Ellen Douglas Laing Old Malt Cask 25yr 50% 12.79/07.05 sherry finish 425 btls.

Here's what I contributed :

1. Caperdonich 1972 34yo Duncan Taylor 55.6% cask 7435
34yo distilled November 1972, bottled April 2007

yet another DT Caperdonich 72

The nose is very fresh with a hint of citrus. You immediately know you are nosing old delicate whisky from an ex-bourbon cask

Palate is an unexpected explosion of flavours not expected from the delicate nose. Typical dry musty Caperdonich flavour, with a spicy-woody touch, tiny hint of licorice and some toffee

Finish : Medium

A very typical Caperdonich. Reminds me of Amrut

Rating 88

2. Caperdonich 1972 Gordon and MacPhail cask 1975 57.0%

Distilled 14/3 1972, bottled 26/8 2008. 1st Fill Sherry Butt

A sherried Caperdonich

Wow. A powersherried Caperdonich!!. But the distillery character can't be disguised by the sherry which gives this whisky a really nice and unusual balance of the malt and the sherry. Again a "typical" Caperdonich with the odd musty-spicyness.

Its not very sweet, but got plenty of notes of dried fruits. Prunes, licorise and Caperdonich

Finish : long and very fruity

Rating 90

My first blog - Douglas Laing

2011-12-04T18:46:00.012+01:00

Hi everyone.
My name is Thomas, and I have been invited to put out some of my thoughts about whisky. I have never written any blog, or about whisky before, so I am really looking foreward to try this.

My interest in whisky started about 15 years ago where I was introduced to single malt. I guess I did what everybody else did in the beginning, which basically was to buy any single malt I could find in supermarkets, and on every vacation I went on. I can remember buying a bottle of Port Ellen in Paris some fourteen years ago, did'nt know what it was, and I did absolutely not like it at all :-)

After having tried a substantial amount of distillery bottlings, mostly 10 to 15 years old, something happened that changed my perspective on whisky. My friend Steffen, yup - he who has started this blog - invited me on a trip to Scotland. That was in spring 2005. I was so exited, and the first distillery I visited was Isle of Arran. After that there was no way back. I lost my heart in Scotland.

In the years after I have visited Scotland many times, and I still keep coming back. To me that place is heaven. It is not all about whisky, but the friendlyness of the scottish people, and not to mention the scenaries...

So - what is it with me, the whisky and Scotland in particular? Well, this may sound weird to some, and perfectly normal to others, but an Ardbeg is not "just" an Ardbeg to me. When I pour my dram and takes in that first sniff - I am standing at the distillery. My mind is wandering, and I can visualize the bay, the trees in the wind, and the whole atmosphere on that distillery. To me single malt is taking all the essence of that particular place, and putting it in to the glass in front of me.

Anyway, enough about me for now. Tonight I have chosen to write about two whiskies, both bottled by Douglas Laing. One of them is an Old Malt Cask, and the other is from their Platinum Series called Old & Rare.

This gives me a chance to tell a small story that took place during a Douglas Laing tasting earlier this year. It seems that OMC is bottled at 50.0% because the people at DL finds this the "optimum drinking strength"? One of the last expressions we tasted came from their Platinum series, and here we were told that "since these were their best casks, they were bottled at cask strength"?? I tried - quietly - to ask the natural question: "If these are the best casks, why were they not bottled at 50.0%"? Of course the big crowd sitting at a table from wemyss, duncan taylor, cadenheads and so on, started to go: "uuuhhhh", and it became so noisy, so it was hard to hear the answer :-D

I should say that I always enjoy the DL tastings, our host there is a great guy, and I do like many of the OMC, despite the fact that I do prefer cask strength whiskies.

Tasting notes:

1. Glen Grant, 32 years old, Butt DL ref 5034, distilled 12/1976, bottled 3/2009, 50.0%

Nose: Burnt sugar, a distinct "warehouse smell", a bit of wood and ginger
And then there is a certain scent, maybe it is iron? but I always finds it in Caperdonich, but maybe it is just my imagination.

Palate: Slightly woody, lots of christmas cake, raisins, spicy

Finish: Medium long, prickling on the tounge. If you like big sherried whiskies, you are going to love this one.

Rating: 87

2. Royal Lochnagar 33 years old, distilled 1973, bottled 2006, 57,2%

Nose: Cinnamon, citrus, a little peatfire in the background

Palate: Oily, vanilla and honey, more of the cinnnamon and peatfire, big fat chewy whisky

Finish: Medium long, with some pepper and a little peat.
It occures to me that it could have been my tasting notes for an older Talisker, and it is not far from that! In a blind tasting I would definately have guessed Talisker.

Rating 87

Amrut Portonova

2011-11-30T23:36:00.001+01:00

1. Amrut Portonova 62.1%

Steffen's review

I got no official recipe of this whisky at the time of writing this review, but I understand it's another sandwiched whisky similar to the Intermediate Sherry Matured

As the name suggest this involves port pipes

Nose : Wood, rhubarb and tropical fruits

Palate : Quite woody, licorise, tropical fruits, a kaleidoscope of tastes

Finish : Very long and very complex. I really enjoy it. It has the earmark of old whisky, which is a fantastic accomplishment when you know that Amrut whisky is around 5 years old give or take a few days

Rating 92

This is a very delicious and complex whisky, where the different flavours plays around and around and around. A masterpiece. The ABV is high but the whisky is very welcoming. This could appeal more to bourbon fans

Lars' review

Nose: Inviting exotic tones with a very sweet port influence. The casks really come out to shine with warm glowing vanilla. Vanilla sugar, vanilla ice cream and all the while accompanied by creamy, macadamia nuts.

Taste: Very sweet with port nuances and oak vanilla combined in a charming, young style. There is an elegance of perfumed pine wood to this stylish dram and I imagine myself sitting in the garden on a warm summer night listening to locusts in the tall grass and catching the scent of blossoming flowers in the night air. A thick and oily whisky made to enjoy.

Rating 86

Cleaning out my samples - part 5 of 5

2011-11-13T12:30:00.001+01:00

1. Balblair 2001 46%

Balblair Stills

Since Balblair revitalised it's bottling style a couple of years ago, we have seen the distillery releasing a series of vintage bottlings. Of the youngest expressions we have seen 3 10yo's (or approximately 10yo). The 1997, the 2000 and now the 2001. This coincides with the distillery opening a new visitor centre.

This 2001 46% is upped in ABV from 43%, and is unchillfiltered. And I doubt there is added caramel, as it doesn't taste like that and the colour is delicious bright

In style this is faithful to the 97 and 00 vintages. It has got a bit more oomph and texture than the 00. The whisky is malty, nutty, vanilla and very fresh with a little sweetness on the finish. This would appeal to both geeky cask strength drinkers and those who have a more "normal" approach to whisky. It's not going to to revolutinise your whisky world but when whisky is represented like this it's a bit like drinking fresh beer opposed to canned/bottled beer , if anyone knows what I mean by that

Rating 84

Recently I served some blind samples on a vacation to the US.

http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/4-blinds-for-california.html

Here are my views on two of them

2. Amrut 100. 57.1%

This is a special bottling by Amrut. 100 proof, 100cl's and it has been partly matured on 100l european virgin oak casks. The whisky was released with 100 bottled for five locations, of which one was Denmark-

I understand why this would easily come across people as being sherry matured as the european virgin oak casks have a huge influence on the palate of this whisky.

The Amrut 100 is quite peaty. Medicinal, spiced wood and an unusual complexity for a whisky this peaty. Very often wood inluenced complexity comes with aging a whisky, but aging a whisky also diminishes the peat content. So here you got the cask influence and the high peatyness combined.

Some Amrut's can be overpowering at Cask Strength but its not the case here. This even ends up with a sweet delicious. This is in league with the intermediate sherry cask Amrut

Rating 88

3. Pe1 58.7%

A NAS Port Ellen, you don't see a lot of those around :-)

From the very fine series Elements of Islay from Whisky Exchange

Licorise. Peat. You don't really get the age of this whisky as it it very potent and intense. The finish is delicious long with a nice soft peatiness dominating. A bit of buttery kinda the scotch way notes underlying as well

Rating 85

PS I tried the Pe2 at the Jazz and Beer Festival a few weeks ago, and I liked that A LOT more

Dalmore 17 yo Duncan Taylor

2011-11-12T06:41:00.005+01:00

Dalmore, 17 yo 06.1990/10.2007, Duncan Taylor's Rare Auld, sherry cask 7325, bt. 396/662, 55.5%

Nose: Creme brulée, irish coffee, delicate sherry nuts. Sweet strawberry notes and dark chocolate, exotic, mexican spirit - like dewdrops on a blade of grass. Caramel, yeast and freshly baked bread. Raisins and brown sugar.

Taste: Creamy, caramel candy, grass, strong alcohol. Juicy sherry with a rather fine, dry finish, where the cask comes out to play. A pretty good Dalmore.

Rating: 86

Lars

4 blinds for California

2011-10-22T15:38:00.001+02:00

Recently I went on a holiday in south-western USA, mainly California, Utah and Las Vegas.

Apart from visiting family and friends of my parents, some fantastic National Parks in Utah (recommended), I also managed to get some time with whisky friends. I have always liked to serve blind samples to people. At this trip I had made 4 samples. Only hint was that they were from different distilleries, and all had peat and was from sherry casks. One wasn't from sherry casks thou, but it taste like that. More about that later

The crash-test-dummies were fellow PLOWED members and a couple of their friends.

Blind tasters were Mikey, Ganga, FX, Xray, Marty, Hyperfuji, Andy, Tim (Ardbegproject) and Jake

One of the nights, while the others were going through the 4 blinds, FX poured me a blind. I really liked it. Unadultered sherry, extremely peated and with some age. I guessed it to be Laphroaig 20+yo, but it showed out to be the legendary Brorageddon, one of the earliest PLOWED bottlings. Nice treat. I knew I had this before, but couldn't recall it tasting like this. But then again, I probably wasn't in an analytical corner the first time around. Which I actually seldom is. Most of the time (95% or so) I drink whisky just to enjoy it without being overly analytical, rating it seriously or writing feeble tasting notes.

Now to the four secret drams. They were served in table discussion fashion, and I tried to note as many things down as possible. A total of three sessions in various locations in California.

First one up was Amrut 100, 57.1%.

Peated Amrut, 100 british proof, 100cl, 100 bottles. Gives the name. Matured in ex-bourbon then transfered into 100liters virgin oak barrels. Thanks to Ashok and MACY for the sample, it has now travelled the world :-). This is the one whisky that has not been on a sherry cask, but could they tell ?

Comments :

Very Peaty, Fruity, Sherried. High ABV (Mikey)

Peated Speyside, Refill Sherry, Irish ?, Peaches, Burnt Peat, Pinenotes, Stonefruits (Ganga)

Jura Prophecy, Japanese, Old Jura, Chocolate, Peat, but not heavy, Chocolate (Marty)

Sulphur, Iodine, Bitter Red Apple Peels, Sticky finish, not a lot of sherry (Hyperfuji)

Golden Delicious Apple, Chili Pepper, Lemon (Andy)

Oranges, Peppermint, Amrut? (Tim)

Anis, Toffee (Jake)

Whisky no. 2 was Caol Ila 1996 Gordon and macphail Cask Strength, 59.0%, cask 16070-16072, bottled 2007

Comments:

Butterscotch, vanilla, young cask strength, Bowmore (Mikey)

Syrup, Candycorn (Jake)

Butterscotch, Bitter Licorise (Ganga)

Coconut (Marty)

Butterscotch, Saw dust, citrus, fino sherry (Hyperfuji)

Nutmeg, Iodine, Charred Wood (Andy)

29.83 Kissing a Balrog's Bum(Laphroaig) 20yo 52.3% bottled by SMWS, Refill Butt

Before I purchased this was reported to me as being terrible sulphured. Personally I can't find any, and I am very sensitive to sulphur, well, I look at it as an off-note. Maybe more when it express itselfs as rotten eggs sulphur, opposed to rubber-latex on a mild level. I was looking forward to see to what extent the others would pick up sulphur here. The name gives a hint, but these guys didn't know the name

Black Tea, Nice, Sweet, Cherried (Hyperfuji)

Rubber Cement, Bitter Greens (Andy)

Impressed, Slight rubbery the way I like it (Marty)

Saltwater, Cocoa powder (Jake)

Raisins (Tim)

Soapiness, Hot, Young (Xray)

Apple, Sweet peat, Laphroaig like, freshly cut grass, medicinal peaty (Mikey)

The 4. whisky was PE1 by TWE, 58.7%

Kind of perfumy, 80's Bowmore (Mikey)

Grains Hay, Red Licorise (Tim)

Sulfur (Jake)

Creamy, Caramelly (Xray)

I really like this, Sweet, candied, cherry, graphite (Hyperfuji)

http://www.lawhiskeysociety.com/whiskey-profile/1635/Port-Ellen-Pe1-Elements-of-Islay (Andy)

I recommend LA whisky society http://www.lawhiskeysociety.com a great source of whisky reviews from a group of whisky entusiast that I regard high

So what were the favourites ?

Mikey and Xray : Amrut 100

Hyperfuji, Andy and Tim : Pe1

Jake, FX and Marty : Kissing a Balrog's Bum

Ganga : Caol Ila 1996

Next Blogpost : I will take on Amrut 100 and Pe1

Thanks to everybody to be being willing to participate and going public. I know of whisky "experts" who never would do things like this :-)

Highland Park vertical

2011-10-10T00:50:00.002+02:00

Highland Park was one of my early favourites when starting out on my malt journey. Time to see how a large part of the standard range comes out here in 2011.

Highland Park 12 yo, 40%

Nose: citrus and toffee caramel - golden toffee. Crisp biscuits and some fruit. All good.

Taste: Sparkles in the mouth. A little peat coated in honey sweetness nicely balanced with flowers. In the finish a little smoke appears. A great 12 year old whisky!

This baby is mainly from european oak and it seems to me that the profile has changed over the years. Still a cracker though.

Rating: 87

Highland Park 15 yo, 40%

Nose: Fruits like kiwi and melon. Fresh, light and kind. Citrus fruits and bonfire smoke.

Taste: Malty freshness, citrus and meadow flowers. The finish is dry. Not my HP favourite.

Rating: 84

Highland Park 18 yo, 43%

Nose: Flowers and honey, great mouthfeel. Sweet and full of joy. Salted almonds. A sherry harmoy that lights up this humble taster.

Taste: Beautiful honey, heather, flowers that caress. Like the perfect dream you don't wanna wake up from. Fruity notes flicker by and ends in a dry finish.

This whisky is combined of 40-50 casks. It has always been a favourite of mine and will continue to be so.

Rating: 90

Highland Park 21 yo, 47.5%

This 21 yo is from american oak that has held sherry. According to a HP representative it should contain whisky more than 40 years of age and in style is aiming to be close to the old Bicentenary.

Nose: delicious. Crispy nuts and golden cornfields united. 'Burnt' candy, fresh made coffee. Really fantastic.

Taste: simply beautiful. A juicy complexity with vanilla and wood from the cask in just the right amounts. A synergetic whisky.

Rating: 91

Highland Park 25 yo, 48.1%

Nose: the 50% 1st fill sherry european oak comes forward. The sensation is of deep sherry, boiled fruits accompanied by tangerines, nuts and pine.

Taste: what a whisky! The balance is out of this world. Sherry, fruits, nuts, raisins and pine wood. This 25 yo is better than I remember. Has it improved over the years or is it just me?

Rating: 92

Highland Park 30 yo, 48.1%

Nose: Nutty chocolate, brittle, diesel-sherry. Almost beyond words.

Taste: Harmonic and complex for sure but it's actually hard to pin down specific notes after the stunning 25 yo. There is a sweetness but it's also a bit thin, again compared to it's smaller sibling. Perhaps it's the fact that more refill casks have been used here.. It's like a mountain climber well on his way dreaming of the summit but when he gets close the weather changes and he has to return down. A fine dram that deserves to be enjoyed on its own.

Rating: 90

Concluding comments: Highland Park has more than stood the test over time and is still a favourite of mine. The quality is high and the style really suits my palate. For me, the 12 yo seems to be the one which has changed the most over the years. The 25 yo especially is a fantastic whisky and I look forward to trying the Viking range in the not so distant future.

Lars

Amrut Two Continents Second Edition

2011-09-29T12:44:00.001+02:00

1. Amrut Two Continents Second Edition 50%

Steffen's review

Nose : Belgian beer, vanilla and exotic fruits

Palate : malty and nutty, very chewy with a lot of texture, a lot of spicy vanilla

Finish : Medium-long with some wood spicyness hitting me late

Rating 85

Comment : This is quite different than the first Two Continents. There's a lot more of India than Europe in this. I would describe this as vanilla infused Amrut!

Further Comment. Retasting a couple of weeks after initial review, this is just of of those whiskies that improves from being open.

Lars' review

Nose: Cereal, hay, warm spirit. In the background almonds and different nuts try to play their part. Exotic fruits – cocktail berries and unripe litchis. After a while some clean toffee arrives.

Taste: Nuts, chili and pears with a touch of ginger in the finish. A good, uncomplicated, young and straightforward whisky.

Rating 80

Whisky Agency

2011-09-12T17:00:00.002+02:00

Whisky Agency is a german independent bottler associated with the organisers of The Limburg Whisky Fair, one of the best whisky weekends out there.

1. Tomatin 34yo 1976 51.2% Liquid Sun
Bottled 2011. Matured in a sherry butt. 272 bottles

Nose : Sweet sherry wine, with a bit of wood

Palate : Very fruity sherried, and quite woody. Plums, vanilla

Finish: Medium-long and woody

Rating 85

Comment : I can't help wondering how much sherry they forgot in the cask before filling it with newmake. This fruityness is very sweet and fresh, and much more plums than dried fruits a lá raisins. This is a sherry monster, and if you like sherry and sherried whisky, you will like this. I think it's a bit too much. But behind all the pieces of fruits floating down the glass instead of legs, there is some depths to explore. Give it time and it develops in the glass!

2. Ardmore 19yo 1992 49.9% Liquid Sun
Bottled in 2011. Matured in a bourbon barrel. Heavily peated. 202 bottles.

Nose : ash and fruits. This is a very fruity

Palate : A nixe mix of spice, peat and fruits (sweet apples and pears) and dry ash

Finish : Medium-long and the peat lingers

Rating 88

Comment : When you aim for a bottle of Ardmore this is exactly what you hope to get. A nice mix of peat and a fruity whisky typical for speyside. And a peated whisky benefits a lot from when you can taste the age kicking in

3. Laphroaig 13yo 1998 53.3% Liquid Library
Sample

Nose: Classic Laproaig how it should be. Clean and simple. Peat, vanilla, and a bit of citrus and apples

Palate: A clear follow up to the nose. Very peaty, but you expect that. Dry and the fruit is just detectable

Finish Short-medium

Rating 86

A very sherried whisky for the ultra sherry fans, a very peaty whisky for the peatheads, and a nice peated speysider, which is also for the peatheads...

DMWA, Danish Malt Whisky Academy is the danish importer of these bottlings.

Highland Park 12 and Lagavulin DE 1980

2011-09-05T16:52:00.001+02:00

1. Highland Park 12yo (L0671F L11) 40%

Nose : Very delicate. A pleasant mix of fruit, light peat and flowers

Palate : Moss, flowers and peat with a dominant floral background. Is it heather ?

Finish : Medium-long with a little bitterness

Rating 84

Comment : This batch is tad more floral than I remember and maybe a bit over the top. The batch variation of this standard OB is greater than you think. Nice level of peat. My mum likes it

2. Lagavulin Distillers Edition 1980 43%

Nose: Very sweet with underlying spicy peatyness

Palate: Woody, sweet and peaty

Finish: Sweet and long

Rating 84

Comment : The sweetness affected by the PX cask is huge. This whisky is for people who likes very sweet sherried whiskies

Final Comment. Two very drinkable whiskies. Sweet and welcoming. I was gonna describe them as very female whiskies until I remembered quite a few woman doesn't like peaty whiskies :-)

Cheap whisky in Denmark

2011-09-04T17:25:00.001+02:00

This sunday the local coops had whisky on offers unspoken of in Denmark

These 3 Diageo annual releases at 349,- danish kroners, just slightly more than the average 12yo OB standard bottlings, so all the whiskyentusiasts were queueing up. So how are these whiskies from 3 distilleries that's very hard to find whisky from?

1. Pittyvaich 20yo 57.5% distilled 1989

Pittyvaich

Pittyvaich was a very shortlived distillery. It was located in Dufftown, just above Dufftown the distillery and only operated from 1975 to 1993

Nose: fresh cabbage style vegetables and cocoa

Palate: Cocoa beans, musty and vegetables again.

Finish medium-long with some vanilla, honey and banana kicking in.

Rating 78

Comments : reminds me of Scapa and somehow how I remember the few Pittyvaich's I tried before. Not floral or fruity in any particular way. This whisky will benefit from the bottle being open, this even tastes better doing the second round today.

2. Auchroisk 20yo 58.1%

"Matured in american and european oak casks"

Auchroisk

Auchroisk is a nice distillery build in a gothic-like style

Nose: Vanilla and pear dessert

Palate: Apple, vanilla, dessert

Finish: Shortish with faint vanilla-elderflowers (!)

A light and enjoyable dram, but somehow anonymous. I think this will benefit from being opened a bit. Mind you, I am reviewing these 3 on the day of purchase.

Rating 82

3. Benrinnes 23yo 58.8%

"Matured in sherry wood"

Buddha and Benrinnes

Nose : One of those noses that gives you associations of being in a warehouse! Heavily sherried and lightly sulphured

Palate : A light bodied whisky fighting the heavy sherry influence. An archtype sherried whisky, nutty and malty and plenty of standard sherrycasked whisky notes of dried fruits. No licorise

Finish: Medium

Rating 84

Comment: Again I have this feeling this will benefit when being opened. The sulphur will probably go away or diminish. I really like the warehouse feeling of this whisky

Final comments.

A world release of approx 6000 bottles each, these three never caught a lot of frenzy until locally here, when they suddenly came out heavily discounted at around 41-42£ a bottle which is a bargain compared to the 120-175£ these retail for in UK. 750-850 bottles each selling in DK which is a substantial percentage of the total bottle amount when you take the size of our country into perspective.

These bottling doesn't hold the usual standard of the Diageo annual releases. Maybe there's a reason Pittyvaich is closed and we don't see the other two distilleries bottled usually. I had some good Benrinnes before, but it has never been a distillery that gives me high expectations. I actually dislike the Benrinnes Flora Fauna bottling. And from the Pittyvaichs and Auchroisks I tasted before I didn't have any expectations at all, with the FF's being very anonymous bottlings. Pittyvaichs are usually slightly better and Auchroisk too hard to find. Maybe these distilleries isn't better or maybe Diageo should just hire me to select casks :-)

The discount is justified, I consider Auchroisk and Benrinnes bargains still. Should have been priced in the 60-70£ range originally, mind you, they are not even single casks but bottled in the same numbers as Icons of Arran is.

PS I will post about the development of these bottling in a month or two..

Cleaning out my samples - part 4 of 5

2011-08-28T11:31:00.001+02:00

1. An Cnoc 16yo 46%

Knockdhu distillery

An Cnoc is produced at Knochdhu distillery. Inver House has this label so this whisky isn't confused with Knockando, a speyside distillery owned by Diageo

I have to admit I have a soft spot for An Cnoc. They make simple classic whisky without any tempering, somewhat a trademark of other Inver House distilleries as well!. I also had a very nice event there during Spirit of Speyside 2010, a very releaxed and informal tour and tasting with the manager, his daughters and staff of the distillery. One of those days that justifies doing your 100 something distillery visit :-)

Apart from the 12yo, An Cnoc is bottled at 46% and unchillfiltered..something I appreciate.

Nose : classic whisky, lightly spiced and slightly on the sweet side

Palate : A nice mix of maltiness, citrus, sweetness and a tiny bit of vanilla

Finish : medium

Rating 84

Comment : An Cnoc is one of the secret gems of Speyside! or Highland if you prefer to locate it there :-)

2. Glencadam 25yo OB 1983-2008 46%

Vatting facility at Glencadam

Vatting tanks

Glencadam warehouse

Glencadam is (another) underrated overlooked distillery. It's located in Brechin on Scotlands east coast, and a lot of their produce is going to a range of various young supermarket blends. If you haven't tried whisky from their standard range, a 10yo and 15yo you missed something!

Nose : Heavy sherry, leather

Palate : Sweet sherry, slight burnt sugars, dried - but not that dried - fruits, sligth rubber (not sulphur but latex), licorise, but the classic whisky characteristics do emerge from below the sherry. Some maltiness and vanilla can be detected.

Finish : Medium-long and in the end I get grapefruits off all things!

Comment : A heavily sherried whisky with underlaying layers revealing characterics of a whisky there isn't totally disguised by the very influental sherry cask

Rating 88

Thanks to Lukas and Jørn for the samples

Ardbeg Glenrothes 9 yo

2011-08-26T16:39:00.001+02:00

A couple of years ago Douglas Laing released some young, vatted malts with whisky from two distilleries, one cask from each. Let's taste one of these bottlings.

Ardbeg & Glenrothes Double Barrel, 9 yo, Douglas Laing, 46%

Nose: Flint stones and salt come rushing out followed by fruity notes and tar. This is young and spirity. We're not talking a lot of nuancens here but it does hold your nostrils in a firm grip. After a few minutes a sweet rubbery note appears which is frankly a bit too much for this humble taster.

Taste: Pears and tar rumble their way round the mouth. Other fruits try to mix in but have to do with a background seat as the young alcohol dominates. The finish is peaty with asphalt and liquorice.

I must say I prefer a young Ardbeg on it's own or a Glenrothes ditto to this release which is by no means bad whisky. It's just not very entertaining.

Rating: 79

Two Coleburn's and lesser known malts

2011-08-10T17:56:00.001+02:00

Some years ago I tasted a couple of malts from Coleburn distillery and found them surprisingly good. When reading through various whisky books, the remarks and reviews of Coleburn at the time were not exactly sky high. Since then I have found it interesting to find and taste great drams from some of the lesser known distilleries. Distilleries that you don't hear about very often or sometimes in a not so positive manner. As my little experience with Coleburn had been good, I decided to start here by buying some of the (rather few) Coleburn's that were out there to find.

Earlier this year I held a Coleburn tasting with 14 different expressions from this Speyside distillery which closed in 1985. I didn't quite know what to expect and was a bit nervous having invited a good bunch of whisky friends over. Would Coleburn make it or break it. It could go either way.

As it turned out, everyone participating in the event were positively surprised by the quality of the Coleburn bottlings. Most of the 14 bottlings were cask strength and the age ranged from 14 to 36. I must confess that now I really have a soft spot for this distillery and can honestly say I think it is one of the overlooked malts of the whisky world. Personally I scored the 14 whiskies between 84-92 points with five reaching the magical 90 or above.

Retasting a couple should be fun. Here we go:

Coleburn, 21 yo 1979/10.2000, Rare Malts, bottle 0024, 59.4%

Nose: Fresh and strong mixture of several vegetables including broccoli and horse radish. To that we can add grass and ammonium chloride. Oak juice.. Ahem, perhaps I should try squeezing a tree next time I'm in the forest to see if some of this comes out.. Moving on, in the end some candyfloss comes forward. The sensation in the mouth is extract like.

Taste: Lovely vegetables again. The oak juice here turns a bit more bitter but the profile is crystal clear. Grass and evening dew with no-nonsense shots of chili, ammonium chloride and horse radish. To me this is as authentic as it gets. Oldfashioned indeed and I'm very happy with that!

Rating: 90

Coleburn, 26 yo 1983/2009, The Whisky Agency, bourbon hogshead, 120 bottles, 49.5%

Nose: Beautiful rose flowers and sweet champagne avenúes. Perfume and garden fruits. Mixed candy galore. A loving embrace from someone you love.

Taste: Blossoming rose bushes, a summer field ready for harvest. Sweet mirabelles and plums. And something slightly spicy and rotten which I like! This Coleburn seems to have it all when speaking of softness and character. Only a little bit lack of oomph prevents me from scoring it as high as the words suggest. I could drink this every day...

Rating: 90

Concluding comment: If you're into oldfashioned, authentic malt whisky and have a sweet and fruity tooth (we're not talking much sherry influence here), try one of the Coleburn's around while they're still here.

Recent bottlings - Arran Westie and Deanston 12yo

2011-08-07T09:39:00.001+02:00

1. Arran Westie 46%

This is the third icons of Arran bottling, following the 1996 Peacock (one of my favourite whiskies) and 1997 Rowan Tree. Drawn from 22 ex-sherry hogsheads, and named after the distillery manager James McTagger's dog Ruaraidh

Nose: Heatherhoney

Palate : Heatherhoney, butterscotch, a creamy slight bitter nuttyness, sweet

Finish : Medium and sweet

Rating 83

Comments: These icons of Arran's are very affordable good whisky

2. Deanston 12yo 46.3%

Nose : Vanilla

Palate: Spicy, nutty, tastes a lot older than 12yo. The woodspices sticks on your backpalate and gives this a woody spicy finish as if this was a far older whisky. Very intense in its flavours.

Finish: Medium-long

Comments: This is surprisingly good for a 12yo standard bottling. My favourite of the new Burn Stewarts. I hope they can keep up this quality. Did they put something in this mini ? :-). Wow

Rating 87

Cleaning out my samples - part 3 of 5

2011-08-06T08:38:00.001+02:00

1. Hart Brothers 17yo Talisker 46%

Distilled 1993

Nose: sherry, slight wellington rubber, that actually smells good :-)

Palate: Sweet, peppery, peaty and prickly in a very nice combination. This will be exactly what a sherry fan picking up a Talisker would expect. This is really sweet! But the way the peat and the pepper emerges behinds the sweetness is absolutely delicious

Finish : medium

Comment: If you buy a sherried Talisker this is exactly what you hope for! More sweet than you'd expect thou. But if you can take the sweetness this will delight you!!

Rating 87

2. Caol Ila 15yo Bladnoch Forum 58.8%

This is one of the early Bladnoch Forum bottlings. Thank you Jesper for the sample.

Nose:

Palate: very creamy and a big body. Vanilla, butterscotch and peat. Very peaty actually.

Finish : long, with a wood-spicy touch that prickles your palate for a long time

Comment : I really like this whisky. Big and Bold is not usually the words associated to a whisky from an ex-bourbon cask this age!!

Rating 90

Amrut Herald

2011-08-02T17:34:00.002+02:00

Amrut Herald

Cask 2857, 60.8%
231 bottles

Matured 4 years in India then 18 months in Helgoland
Alcohol strength dropped from 64.8% to 60.8% while maturing in Helgoland

Amrut Still (Photo by Ras Mazunga)

Steffen's review :

This one is strong stuff. Needs water. And I almost never add water to my whiskies.

Nose: It's like Old Pulteney on steroids. Initially the nose has a slight vinegar edge, then a spicy woodyness appears.

Palate: Same pattern happens to the palate. The wood and spice makes this appear as the oldest tasting Amrut I have tried. Like a 30+ year old scotch, but the ABV gives it all away. Opposed to the Two Continents this has got a lot more "Amrut" in it. Tropical fruit, cocoa and a creamy nuttiness.

Finish : "Old whisky"-tannines, medium-long.

Comments: This is a bit like Stagg. Best consumed dropwise. A pour will last forever...the perfect long-drink. The ABV can be overwhelming. The whisky really benefits a lot from a little air or the bottle being open for a wee bit. Well this is a sample, but it improved from being opened a week! An enjoyable dram!

A good whisky, not for the fainthearted thou. One of the very few whisky I feels need a drop of water by default

Rating 83

Lars' review :

Nose: strong spirit, toffee, milk chocolate and dessert cookies. Friendly and inviting despite the 60.8% that tingles round my nose. Green nuts and sweets with touches of pineapple and pears in the background. After a while it gets a bit rum like.

Taste: sweet and warm. Rather complex. Milk, nuts and toffee chocolate. Warm milk for the adult child who can’t sleep . Thick and oily. Nips the jaws. In the finish dry oak and more toffee appears.

With water the fruit comes out to play. A bowl of mixed fruits in the warm sun. This is one of the few whiskies where I could want to add drops of water. A fine dram.

Rating: 87

(Note: review written without having seen Steffen’s or anyone else’s opinion on this whisky which is what I prefer to do)

*******

Steffen's final comment

This might be a weird way to make a review with two different rating systems. The way my odd rating system is defined..(look to the right edge), I would say our ratings match quite close. Please don't take ratings too serious, its just a number to express how much we like a whisky

There will be 4 casks bottled of the Amrut Herald for different markets.

Dramming reviewed another cask here :

http://www.dramming.com/2011/07/21/amrut-herald/

Gordon at Spirit of India reviewed the same cask as lars and me here

http://amrut-spiritofindia.net/2011/07/18/so-is-the-herald-a-triumph/ and he likes it a lot

High West Bourye and Pappy van Winkle 15

2011-07-31T10:51:00.002+02:00

High West is a new distillery in Park City, Utah.

So far they have released "only" unaged stuff, their silver oat, silver barley and vodka.

But they also bottled a range of ryes and bourbons, sourced at different distilelleries

This is the third High West I review, the other two can be found here :

http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/3-ryes-and-bourbon.html

1. High West Bourye 46%

This is a blend of bourbon and rye whiskey. As far as I know this is a blend of 10yo four roses (their 20% rye mashbill), 12yo LDI (95% rye and 5% barley) and 16yo Barton (53% rye, 37% corn and 10% barley)

Nose : Treesap, spice, sweet wood, delicious rye, one of those whiskies you just want to keep on nosing

Palate : Sweetness, quite woody, but bourbon and ryes do appear woody to me as I started out as a single malt drinker. There's a reallly good balance between the wood, vanilla and spicy rye. 95% ryes can be somehow synthetic and one-sided, but the flavours are really well blendend together here

Finish : medium-long

Rating 90

Comment's : This whiskey isn't a traditional blend, but being vatted together of casks from three different distilleries it actually is. American and scottish blends are used to describe different kind of products.

But this IS blended together really good. My favourite High West so far!

2. Pappy van Winkle 15yo 53.5%

Nose: Wood, solvent, vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom

Palate: Intensen: Very woody, creamy vanilla, tobacco, liqorise

Finish : medium-long

Comment : This is a wheated bourbon. If you like woody tastes this is for you

Rating 85

Sherry and more sherry

2011-07-29T17:36:00.001+02:00

This morning I decided to give myself a couple of heavily sherried whiskies, to counterbalance last weekends peat. This post will be about a couple of shop bottlings.

1. 35yo Glenallachie 46.9%, The Single Malts of Scotland

This is a label of The Whisky Exchange

Matured in sherry butts, 685 bottles

Glenallachie

Glenallachie is one of the unknown Chivas distilleries in Speyside, just founded in 1967-1968. Very hard to find

Nose: Sweet, some spice, very fresh, little cumin but most of all sweet-sherried fruit juice

Palate: Again sweet, very fresh and very sherried. In the sweet woody fruitjuicy sense, I get no dried fruits like raisins

Finish: short medium, but this gives away the age with a very delicious woody-spicy afterburn

Comment : A very nice bottling!

Rating 91

2. Balmenach 32yo Flying Pigs 55.7%

Bottled by Juul's wine and spirit, Copenhagen

Distilled 29th July 1977, bottled 3rd September 2009

Now this is a cask from Gordon and MacPhail :

But the danish importer, Juul's bottled in under their FLYING label and stuck this nice label on the side:

Nose: Dried Fruits, wood

Palate: Whisky with a good part of dried fruits, very heavy liqorice. Intense and very flavourful. Very nice to drink dropwise to expereince the intense flavours explode in your mouth

Finish : Medium

Comment: A heavily sherried dark sherry. Very clean and simple in its expression. Liquid liqorice

Nice with two good unadultered sherried whiskies

This specific bottle was also reviewed by LA Whiskey Society, as usual I am behind on my own bottles

http://www.lawhiskeysociety.com/whiskey-profile/1436/Balmenach-Flying-Pigs

Rating 88

Cleaning out my samples - part 2 of 5

2011-07-25T07:29:00.001+02:00

Japanese whiskies can be somewhat difficult to relate to distillery wise. Some of their distilleries have a set of different stills and produce different styles, so it takes an in-depth research to really get acknowledged

1. Karuizawa 12yo 40%

Karuizawa has more or less been closed since 2001, but has reached legendary status in Europe due to a series of excellent casks being bottled by Number One drinks

Nose: Powerful sherry, cherry, sweet wood, tropical fruits

Palate: Roasted nuts, almonds

Finish: Short and nutty

Rating 81

Comment: Powerful on the attack but thin and a little bitter on the finish. ABV ?

2. Inverleven 26yo 53.7% DTC
Duncan Taylor rarest of the Rare
12.1979-11.2006, cask 5662 193 bottles

Nose: Sweet marcipane, slight nutty and solvents

Palate: Weird nutty flavours with being that good nor unpleasant. Some sweetness and a bit rough

Finish : Medium

Rating 81

Maybe there's a reason Inverleven hasn't become cult!

Cleaning out my samples - part 1 of 5

2011-07-24T06:36:00.006+02:00

This summer I want to clean out my samples.

This is maninly from swops, there's a few miniatures purchases and 1 or 2 gifts.

I'll aim for 5 parts and see if I can get some room in my cupboard for future swops and maybe get some nice drams in on the way

1. Hankey Bannister 12yo

Nose: Gentle citrus mixed with apples and pears

Palate: A lot more tasteful than I expected. Am I prejudiced against 40% whisky, against 12yo's and against blends? I have to admit this got more bite and flavour than expected, and if given blind I wouldn't have guessed it to be a blend, but rather one of the non-sherried Flora and Faunas. It's better than those thou, but same style. Ends with a slight bitterness

Finish : Medium

Comment : Very enjoyable and it's what you expected, just better.

Value for money +++

Rating 83

2. Octomore Futures 2002
Distilled 16.10.2002, bottled April 2008 46%
80.5 ppm

My sample flyer

Nose : Peat, babypuke. The babyvomit dissappears fast and gets overwhelmed by a dominant citrus

Wow this wakes up my senses, I am in my living room and outside there's a balcony..Four apartments down the building there's a guy on his balcony, one floor below smoking a cigarette, and I can detect the smoke clearly.

Palate: No babypuke. Peat, vanilla and citrus. Being a peathead for a decade or two I am getting more and more immune to peat so I actually note the other flavours more. But don't get me wrong, this IS peaty. And intense. And the peat do climb up from the glass and hit me.

Finish : Long, slightly acidic and bitter

Comments:

Going back to the nose I can detect the babypuke for a few seconds.

This is very young and somewhat suffers from that.

At 80.5ppm this could be described as a lightly peated Octomore :-)

Comment : after a dramming sessions of 15-20 drams where your tastebuds are getting numb I bet this will be the best whisky ever!

Rating 80

Double Single

2011-07-17T19:19:00.001+02:00

Double Single by Compass Box 53.3%

This was my whisky of the year 2010,

http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/danish-whisky-blog-awards-2010.html

and here is a wee formal review. Not being the most prolific blogger I try to catch up a bit this summer!

Nose : Bubblegum Jenka style. Once I get used to the unusually nose I can really dig into it

Palate : The nose travels over into a dry spicy touch which is kind of a rollercoaster experience tastewise. Very much a bourboncask whisky, with woodspiced vanilla topped up with candy

Finish : Medium-long and spicy/sweet

This is an unusual whisky, and as a prolific whisky DRINKER, I really like when daring bottlings like these are released. It's something unlike everything else I tasted. This says something about a company like Compass Box, who likes to thread paths noone else is going and at the same time make great whiskies. This will not be everybody's cup of Gevalia

Rating 87

I just love bottlings like these

5 Peated Whiskies

2011-07-16T19:39:00.001+02:00

Well, time for a flight again, it has been a long time. I had a look through my open bottles and found 11 I haven't blogreviewed before, and as there were 5 peated amongst, I decided to have a go at them.

I love the smell of peat in the morning.

The Agenda

Being a long time peated whisky drinker, I have found that I sometimes, or very easy get immune to peat, so if I say a whisky isn't too peaty, don't trust me! (necessarily)

1. The Hakushu Heavily Peated 48%

A Japanese distillery with a range of different stills. This makes them capable of producing different styles. Another expansion of possibilities is to use peated malt.

Nose : The peat isn't dominating, but it's present, fruity, like the fruitiness of apples and pears.

Palate : Very drinkable, easy going and delicious, also somewhat subtle in its expression, making me think of older Islay's more than the younger smack-in-your-face ones. The peat emerges into a spicy vanilla lemony finish, which is very delicate.

Finish : Short/medium with the sugarly lemon being dominant

Comment : I wouldn't have named it Heavily Peated, it's much too delicate for that description. This is a NAS whisky, but if i'ts young it seems like the hotter climate of Japan has matured it very well. I am glad I chose this as the first whisky of the day, it would most likely not benefit from following other whiskies, peated or not.

Rating 85

2. Bruichladdich Mòine Mhòr 3D 2nd Edition 50%

This is a vatting of different styles and ages of whisky distilled at Bruichladdich supposedly from three different decades and three different peating levels

Nose : Some peat, and some solvent like immaturity is just present if you look hard enough

Palate : Feels warm in the mouth, with a lot of wood, spice and lemon under the peat.

Finish : Medium

Comment : This has got some punch, not due to the peat alone but also from the youthness of the whisky, or some of the whisky in the vat. This is really well vatted together and an enjoyable dram

Rating 83

3. Lagavulin "Available only at the distillery" bottled 2010 52.5%

Nose : Sweet, spicy, fruity, dark fruits

Palate : Great full bodied mouthfeel and texture. The sweet PX mixes real well with the peat, but the sherry influence is a lot lot less than in the DE Lagavulins. Peat and vanilla in the end

Finish : Long and very spicy

Comment : This has got some leftover casks for the 91 DE batch in it. PX finished. Bottling Lagavulin at full strength is a very clever idea!

Rating 88

Finally a couple of Ardbegs bottled in 2010

4. Ardbeg 1994 Cadenhead 16yo 55.6%

Nose : A lot of imminent immaturity on the nose, acid like. Not the best nose

Palate : lemon, peat, classic Ardbeg'ish, but the cask didn't have the strongest influence, seems younger than 16- After the nose that did put me off the nice peat-lemon combo is welcoming. The acidity is still here

Finish : Medium

Rating 78

5. Ardbeg 1994 Cadenhead 16yo 57.0%

Quite similar to the above

Nose: Slight acidic as well, but less than the above

Palate : More wood, texture and body, lemon again and a hotter immideate finish

Finish : Medium-long with a hint of coconut

Rating 80

Comment : Mark from Cadenheads told me to get the Laphroaigs instead as he thought they were better. But I wasn't going to Laphroaigeddon. I should learn to listen to advice from wise people

Kornog, Glann ar Mor Distillery, France

2011-07-11T23:14:00.001+02:00

Thanks to Steffen for inviting me on board. The wonderful and neverending world of whisky is a great place to share experiences and point of views and, first and foremost, enjoy a dram with new and old friends. Please take my reviews and ratings with a pinch of salt - they're just one man's personal opinion :-)

Now, let's get to it. Summer has arrived and Tour de France is underway. Recently the riders went through Brittany. Let us see what this area has to offer when it comes to whisky. Kornog is the peated version from Glann ar Mor Distillery, located on the northern coast of Brittany.

Kornog, Glann ar Mor Distillery, France, 46%:

Nose: Young and silky. Wine gums, grass and exotic fruits. Quite interesting and good.

Taste: Grass and exotic fruits such as mango and pineapple. Grape also comes out to dance. Although this one should be around 35 ppm the peat is at first delicate, then makes some twists and turns and remains in the warming finish. I like it!

This whisky is like a flat stage in Tour de France. Not too demanding but with interesting turns along the way including a nice finish for the sprinters.

Rating: 83

Port Charlotte 9yo 63.4%

2011-07-09T09:13:00.002+02:00

Port Charlotte 9yo 63.4%

Specially bottled for whisky friends Denmark
Fresh Sherry Hoghshead cask no. 895

Photo nicked from WI

This bottle was recently reviewed on Whisky Israel http://bit.ly/rpvvjK

We are a little slow from the danish side, well heck, Gal even reviewed one of my own bottles around a year before I did. I am just not that prolific

Well here we go.

Nose : Peat, dried fruit and sherry in a licorised combo. The peat is actually quite dominant!

Palate : Power, peat and licorise. Sherry casked whisky often comes out as either dried fruit or licorise to me. This is definetely licorise to me, with a little bit of fruit. I really like the palate of this. 2nd best peat/sherry combo I have tasted, Reminds a lot of cough mixture in a positive way!

Finish : medium

Rating 93

Remark : Another great cask from Jørn. I am glad to be part of his next cask project! A Glengoyne sherry cask

Springbank 12yo OB /2010

2011-07-06T17:32:00.003+02:00

Springbank 12 yo OB /2010, 54.6%

Nose: Creamy and sweet. Whipped cream and a hint of smoke. Grass and some mojito (?). Also some ginger and chili in there.

Taste: Oily and sweet with vanilla and oak as the dominant forces - in a positive way that is. A powerful yet elegant whisky. Smiling Springbank all the way :-)

Rating: 89

Lars Knudsen

2011-07-06T17:31:00.000+02:00

Lars Knudsen Joins Danish Whisky Blog

Me and Lars Knudsen in Limburg 2010, we had a few yes :-)

Please enjoy Lars' reviews, I personally like them a lot. Our taste in whisky is as different and similar as everyone else! Lars likes to use the 100 scale so there you go. Firs review up and coming soon!

Steffen

All our ratings

2011-07-05T05:27:00.104+02:00

Thomas :

Glen Grant 32yo 1976 OMC 50.0% 87
Royal Lochnagar 33yo 1973 Douglas Laing Platinum 57.2% 87

Lars :

Highland Park 25yo 48.1% 92
Highland Park 21yo 47.5% 91
Coleburn 21yo 1979/10.2000 Rare Malts, 59.4% 90
Coleburn 26yo 1983/2009, The Whisky Agency 49.5% 90
Highland Park 18yo 40% 90
Highland Park 30yo 48.1% 90
Springbank 12 yo OB /2010, 54.6% 89
Tormore 1994 Gordon and MacPhail Cask Strength 59.9% b. 2007 89
Amrut Herald 87
Mortlach FF 43%
Highland Park 12yo, 40% 87
Highland Park 15yo, 40% 87
Amrut Portonova 86
Dalmore 17yo 1990, Duncan Taylor, 55.5% 86
Kornog, Glann ar Mor Distillery, France, 46% 83
Mortlach 1991 Gordon and MacPhail for Vinens Verden 81
Amrut Two Continents 2nd Edition 50% 80
Ardbeg & Glenrothes Double Barrel, 9yo, Douglas Laing, 46% 79

Steffen :

Mortlach 50yo Juuls Anniversary Bottling 41.7% Gordon and MacPhail 95
Benriach 1984 24yo 49.2% Pedro Ximenez sherry finish cask 1048 94
Port Charlotte 9yo 63.4% 93
Amrut Portonova 92
Karuizawa 1967 TWE cask 6426 58.4% 91
Glenallachie 35yo 46.9%, The Single Malts of Scotland 91
Springbank 37yo Chieftains 46% 91
Old Grand-Dad Bib 1982 100 proof 91
Glenglassaugh TWE 1978 31yo 44.6% 91
Amrut Fusion 50% 91
Rosebank 1989 12yo bottled by Signatory 43% 91
Caperdonich 1972 cask 1975 Gordon and MacPhail 57.0% 90
Springbank OB Private Bottling Barrel 261 10yo 59.9% 1999 90
High West Bourye 46% 90
Port Ellen 1979 28yo 53.6% Norse Cask 90
Rechlerich 1964 40yo 53.5% Norse Cask 90
Clynelish 1995 12yo 57.3% Norse Cask 90
Bunnahabhain 31yo Falster 2008 47.3% 90
Caperdonich 25yo 1980 cask 7339 AD Rattray 53.1% 90
Caol Ila 15yo Bladnoch Forum 58.8% 90
I. W. Harper 15yo 40% 90
Balmenach 1984 21yo 57.8% cask 3056 90
Bunnahabhain 1979 Flying no. 6 Pirate 46.3% 89
Bitter Truth Rye 24yo 69.2% 89
AH Hirsch Reserve 16yo 1974 45.8% 89
Bladnoch 8y 55% 89
Brora - Old Malt Cask cask 2294 50% 23yo Nov. 1982 89
Amrut Intermediate Sherry Matured 89
Bunnahabhain 36yo Duncan Taylor 40.7% 89
Balblair 20yo 53.7% Bladnoch Forum Bottling 89
Glen Elgin 1984 25yo bottled by The Nectar of the Daily Drams 43.8% 89
Lagavulin "Available only at the distillery" bottled 2010 52.5% 88
Amrut 100 57.1% 88
Balmenach 32yo Flying Pigs 55.7% 88
Glencadam 25yo 46% 1983 88
Caperdonich 27yo Cadenheads 1980 56.8% 88
Caperdonich 1972 cask 7435 Duncan Taylor 55.6% 34yo 88
Glen Grant 1965 40yo 52.5% Norse Cask 88
Royal Lochnagar 1977 29yo 50.4% Norse Cask 88

Ardmore 19yo 1992 49.9% Liquid Sun 88
Deanston 12yo 46.3% 87
Talisker 17yo 46% Hart Brothers 87

Benromach Organic 43% 87
High West 16yo Rocky Mountain Rye 46% Batch 2 87
Double Single by Compass Box 53.3% 87
Laphroaig 13yo 1998 53.3% Liquid Library 86

Glenglassaugh Murray Mcdavid 1965 40yo 47,8% 86
Tamnavulin 40yo SMoS 40.4% 86
Glenglassaugh Signatory 1976 32yo 44,4% 86
Glenglassaugh Dewar Rattray 1986 21yo 53,4% 86
Rittenhouse 25yo Barrel 6 50% 86

High West Rendezvous Rye 46%. Batch 48 86

Glenkinchie 1975 33yo bottled by A.D. Rattray 60.7% 86
Bunnahabhain 33yo Royal Mile Whiskies 45.5% 86

Talisker 53.9% Distillery only 2009 86

Old Pulteney WK499 86

Amrut Double Barrel 86
Amrut Kadhambam 85
Ardbeg Rollercoaster 57.3 (L9 344) 85
Pe1 58.7% 85
Imperial 1997 13yo 56.4% Whisky Galore 85
Talisker 175th Anniversary 45.8% 85
Bunnahabhain 36yo Duncan Taylor 40.2% 85
Glenburgie Chivas Cask Strength edition 15yo 1992-2007 GB 15001 58.8% 85
Glenburgie 25yo 53.5% cask 9804 Bladnoch Forum 85
Glenburgie 26yo 53.6% cask 9803 Bladnoch Forum 85
Caperdonich 23yo Cadenhead 1980 58% 85
Tomatin 34yo 1976 51.2% Liquid Sun 85
Port Askaig Cask Strength 57.1% 85
Port Askaig 17yo 45.8% 85
Port Askaig 25yo 45.8% 85

The Hakushu Heavily Peated 48% 85
Amrut Two Continents 2nd Edition 50% 85

Glen Elgin 25yo 41.8% Bladnoch Forum Bottling 85

Arran 4yo matured in Israel 85
Caol Ila 1996 Gordon and Macphail Cask Strength, 59.0% 85

Amrut Peated CS 62.8% 85
Glenglassaugh 21yo OB 46% Batch 1 85
Ardbeg 17yo L0 85
Ardbeg 10yo L0 85
Pappy van Winkle 15yo 53.5% 85

Ardbeg SuperNova 2010 60.1% (L10 070) 85
Benriach 23yo 49.7% Bladnoch Forum Bottling 85
Glen Elgin 25yo 42.5% Bladnoch Forum Bottling 85

29.83 Kissing a Balrog's Bum (Laphroiag) 20yo 52.3% bottled by SMWS Refill Butt 85
Balblair 2001 46% 84
Caperdonich 1972 30yo Hart Bros 50.1% 84
Benrinnes 23yo 58.8% 2009 84
An Cnoc 16yo 46% 84
Bladnoch 19yo 55% 84
Caol Ila Falster 2007 52.7% 84
George Dickel, Special Barrel Reserve 10yo 43% 84
Old Charter Proprietor's Reserve 13yo 45% 84
Very Special Old Fitzgerald 12yo 45% 84
Old Pulteney 21yo 46% 84
Glen Ord 28 years old, bottled in 2003 58.3% 84

Lagavulin DE 1980 43% 84
Highland Park 12yo (L0671F L11) 40% 84
Arran Westie 46% 83
Laphroaig Quarter Cask 48% 83
Glenlivet 33yo Falster 2010 51.2% 83
Amrut Herald 83
Mortlach 1991 17yo bottled by Adelphi 57.0% 83
Strathmill 1974 31yo bottled by Mackillop's Choice 43.3% 83
Hankey Bannister 12yo 83
Bruichladdich Mòine Mhòr 3D 2nd Edition 50% 83
Old Pulteney 17yo 46% 83
SMWS 59.37 Teaninich Nov 83-Jun 08, 55.8% 24yo 83
Glen Flagler Pure Malt 40% 83
Auchroisk 20yo 58.1% 2009 82
Glen Garioch 1990-2009 54.6% Batch no 34 82
WhistlePig Rye 10yo 50% 82
Buffalo Trace 45% 82
Amrut Two Continents 46% 82
Glen Keith Càrn Mòr 1990 19yo cask 13676 82
Glen Keith 33yo 1971 Lorne MacKillop D and M Aficionados Club 43% 82
Old Potrero 62.2% 81
Inverleven 26yo 53.7% DTC 81
Karuizawa 12yo 40% 81
Dailuaine 26yo 53.1% cask 4215 Bladnoch Forum 81
Suntory Pure Malt Whisky "Yamazaki" 12yo 43% 80
Ardbeg 1994 Cadenhead 16yo 57.0% 80
Octomore Futures 2002 80
Centennial W.L. Weller 10yo 50% 80
Glenburgie-Glenlivet 11yo Cadenheads 59.8% 80
Kirkland 7yo batch B-5183 51.5% 80
Old Pulteney 12yo 40% 80
SMWS 2.61 16yo 1988 59.0% (Glenlivet) 80
Bowmore Tempest 80
Pittyvaich 20yo 57.5% 2009 78
Ardbeg 1994 Cadenhead 16yo 55.6% 78
Braunstein 11.1, 46% 72
Old Pulteney 1982 58.2% 71
Stauning Rye / first impression 70
Bruichladdich : Port Charlotte Cuairt Beatha PC6 61.6% 65
Whesskey, Hessicher Single Malt Whisky aus Rauchmalz 44% 63
Braunstein 10.2 46% 63
Mekong Whisky 55

Clynelish 12 yo Norse Cask

2011-07-04T18:46:00.002+02:00

Clynelish 12yo Norse Cask 1995 57.3%

Clynelish

Nose : Sweet dried fruit, spices, plum juice

Palate : Somewhat dry spicy edge to the sherry sweetness

Finish : long with a very spicy touch emerging after 10-15 seconds then vanilla. Great

Rating 90

Comment : Another nice pure heavily sherried whisky, with no sulphur flaws, and with an extended complexity making this just more than sherry but also Clynelish

Rating whisky, tasting notes and a Glen Garioch 1990

2011-07-03T10:15:00.002+02:00

It's not easy to write tasting notes, and I am not very good at it

Apart from putting words on what you taste this is also about consistency. I am not very good at either. I might like a whisky one day and not the next. Really bad whisky and really good whisky tends to be consistent thou :-)

Good major sources on the internet for whisky ratings is Whiskyfun, Whiskynotes and Dramming to name just 3.

I like whiskyfun for the fact it's easy to backtrack older ratings. I do like marking whiskies, as I am more interested if a whisky is good or not than actual tasting notes, thou both can be interesting.

I started of this site using the predominant 100 scale which I didn't feel comfortable with as, then moved onto the (0)1-5 scale, which I honestly don't feel to comfortable with either. It takes a bit to calibrate the scale so I have decided to go ½-points and will back edit the few ratings I allready done. It's easier to calibrate a scale to the whiskies you have tasted when the amount of logged whiskies is larger

Anyway, this is not to be taken too serious anyway, todays dram is

September 2011 : I have decided to go back to the 100 scale, just to confuse myself even more....

Glen Garioch 1990 -2009 54.6% Batch no 34

A mix of sherry and bourbon casked whiskies

Nose : A little milk acidity, dried fruits and peat

Palate : Strong and intense, the ABV isn't hidden so the impact is great. Sweet, peat and a little fruit and quite some wood

Finish : Medium-long and the sherry part do show

Comment : This is a whisky for the more expereinced drinker as the ABV comes through clear. It's nice with a whisky that's not drowned in water sometimes

Rating 82

Peat mania

2011-07-01T12:46:00.001+02:00

This week (yesterday) Bruichladdich had this press release

http://www.laddieblog.com/laddieblog/Blog/Entries/2011/6/30_(Even_More)_Octomore.html

With a bachelor in chemistry and being a whiskygeek I always find info releases like this very interesting. The fact that the phenol components is specified is something I would like to see and compare from a range of malts actually, but that's not the point of this blog post

I am pretty sure that the thing that everybody will remember and pay most attention to in Bruichladdich's press release, is the number 309ppm. Phenol content is measured im ppm. Parts per million. This is a scale used to describe very low content of a given substance

Peaty whiskies always had it's own cult followers, often named peatophiles or peatjunkies. The more peaty a whisky is - the better. Traditionally the level of peatyness in a whisky was/is said to be highest in Ardbeg.
50-55ppm.

If you look around the internet or in whiskybooks, the peat levels of the traditional islay's might vary slightly, but as a general rule it was Ardbeg at no. 1 spot, with Laphroaig second at 40-45ppm and Caol Ila and Lagavulin third with 35ppm

The fact that peating barley isn't an accurate proces influences these numbers. Getting malt from Port Ellen maltings should give the distilleries a consistent product. Part of the malt Laphroaig uses are from their own fllor maltings and kilns, which is a harder component to control

Around 9-10 years ago Bruichladdich started the peat race introducing a batch of Octomore at 80ppm, later values in high 100's and this week the above mentioned 309ppm!!

An amateur digging peat on Islay

Ardbeg has (slightly thou) joined this race with their Supernova whiskies peated at 100ppm.

Now all this ppm mania has caused some discussion amongst whisky entusiasts over the years and a few points has to be noted.

Different measurement methods will give different ppm values. This has caused some arguments about values being comparable. This set aside, another fact that's quite important is that the ppm value is given for the phenol content of the barley.

Mr. Tattie Head, a regular whisky forum contributor pointed out :

And I will say once again that ppm's for malt are irrelevant. I'm not going to eat the malt.

As soon as the barley is milled, brewed and distilled things have changed. It's a fact that most of the phenols are in the husks of the barley and that the distilling proces do affect the final phenol content

In the new destillates, Laphroaig actually have the highest phenol content at 25ppm closely followed by Ardbeg at 23-24ppm, Lagavulin at 16-18ppm and Caol Ila at 13-14ppm - according to Jefford's Peat, Smoke and Spirit

It doesnt stop here. When a malt whisky is maturing the phenol's are somehow broken down. Older whisky has a lower ppm content than younger whisky given the same start point

So the ppm value of a whisky really doesnt describe the "peatyness" of a whisky. The taste expereince might not correspond to the numbers given.

Another fact that has to be concerned is that different types of phenols has different flavours. So two malts with same ppm will taste different. The source of the peat itself is important and the kilning proces as well. In the world of whisky this is mainly noted in the fact that Islay peat flavours the whisky different than Speyside peat or Orkney peat will do. Even peat from different parts of Islay affects the barley with different flavours.

So how "peaty" a whisky tastes is something, and the ppm value given on the label is something different. There's a lot of additional factors as I just described. Age, cask, distillation and origin of peat namely.

So tassting the end product is the only way to tell how peaty a whisky really is!

But why this fascination with ppm values ?.

I am sure everybody remember's the first time they tasted a heavily peated malt whisky. With horror, fascination or total subjugation!

This first-time peat shock surprise is something that's hard to repeat. With time and experience you get used to the taste of peated whisky. I even sometimes have the feeling I am immune to peat. I yearn for the peat shock experiences of my early whisky years. It just doesn't happen like that anymore.. (and I haven't even mentioned that some products have changed to a more light version over the years, thats another story)

I have to admit that neither the Octomores I have tasted nor the Ardbeg Supernovas has given me the same peat shock expereince as the first time I tasted a Laphroaig 10yo 15-20 years ago

The only thing that has come close was when I had a dram of Edradour Ballechin Burgundy finished a couple of years ago. This is described as 55ppm, so number-wise it can't compete with the Octomores or the Supernovas.

I do find that peat needs something to work against. Tasting contrasts do work for me. Peat in a heavily sherried whisky might be disguised, but if you catch the contrast, the same whisky can give you quite a decent peat shock expereince

So it's also a lot about what happens in your head as well as what's in the glass..

Höhler und Braunstein

2011-06-02T10:20:00.004+02:00

Right after the Limburg whisky fair, I convinced two of my friends Tim Puett and Leonard Bacha to go on yet another distillery visit and we went looking for Brennerei Höhler, just a few kilometers south of Limburg.

Here they are at the wee still

The distillery wasn't open at the time we finally located it, but we managed to get a wee look around by using sign language to a lady guarding the place.

To accompany this mornings german whisky I have two similar young editions from the danish distillery Braunstein

1. Braunstein 10.2 46%, 875 bottles

3yo exbourbon casks married with a ex sherry oloroso cask

Nose : yeasty bread (not unplesant), sligtly vinegar or wine, and a slight hint of peat

Palate : Very malty, sligthly acidic, with some wood influence

Finish : medium

Not the worst 3yo whisky I have tried but in the end the weird acidity isn't my cup of tea

Rating 63

2. Braunstein 11.1, 46%

3yo ex-sherry casks

Nose : Sherrywood, cinnamon, very warm and pleasant

Palate : Very spicy, the light spirit seems to have some problems coping with the heavy sherry influence, making this slightly incoherent. Some acidity again.

Finish : short-medium, and the youth of the whisky shines through

One of the better 3yo whiskies I have tasted, the active casks have done a good job

Rating 72 (1½/5)

In general I think Braunstein lacks the texture of scottish malts, could be due to the stills they use, the product is more similar to likes of St. George in Alameda, California.

3. Whesskey, Hessicher Single Malt Whisky aus Rauchmalz 44%

Nose : Youth, Malt

Palate : Very fruitbrandy like, some spicyness, doesn't taste a lot like whisky. Some sour, acidic not very pleasant notes

Finish : shortish

Rating 63 (1/5)

Not as good as the Braunstein 11.1, but better than 10.2, It seems a bit more balanced on the texture, feels like a bit more heavy spirit

I still need to taste a worthy malt (barley) whisky made from these fruit brandy stills types. I do think that other grains can give better results (like Anchor)

All of these three very young whiskies where acceptable taking their age into consideration, but stuff like this is not the reason I drink whisky

Braunstein cost around 795 Dkr for a 50cl bottle (approx 93£) and I paid 12€ for a 20cl bottle of the Whesskey (10£)

PS It is possible to make good young whisky, recently I have tried stuff from Glann ar Mor (Kornog), Kavalan, Kilchoman and Daftmill that was in a totally different league.

I wish these were bottled at cask strength

2011-05-30T22:18:00.000+02:00

There's a couple of areas in the whiskybusiness I sometimes think I could easily live without :-)

One is the huge array of local whisky distributors and agents, which for a small country like Denmark is quite an expensive link in the trade from distillery to me as consumer. Nothing to do about thou, but logically this link will be cheaper in places where larger areas and/or population groups can be covered.

Another creature is the master blender. Personally I prefer cask strength whisky, preferably single casks. I don't really like others than me adding water to my whisky and I don't like caramel coloring. Somehow somewhere someone has decided that producing whisky for the masses requires blending, water and e150 and they are probably right!. I don't think the ability to make great blends and vattings means you are also great in choosing single casks!

But sometimes they do give me whisky the way I like it. last post I mentioned Chivas Cast Strength bottlings. Another range of bottlings worth looking for are Diageo's annual releases. They tend to be expensive, but sometimes there's affordable gems amongst, like the 16yo Glen Elgin.

Some distilleries are kind to offer bottlings both at watered down ABV and cask strength, like Laphroaig 10yo, and I reckon most reading this will agree with me that the cask strength versions are far superior!

Amrut has one of the best standard ranges in industry. Peated and unpeated. Both at cask strength and 46%, and the Fusion on top of this

Amrut at Limburg

Ardbeg has a similar nice mix of 46% and cask strength whiskies in their standard range

Glenlivet doesnt have much, but they do have Nadurra

Quite often, when I taste wateres down whisky I can't help thinking, that I REALLY would like to taste this as cask strength.

Glenfiddich doesnt do much in the higher ABV ranges. It could be really nice if their 18yo was available at full strength. I also wouldnt mind to have Highland Park available at full strength. Lagavulin 16yo at full strength, we all know how good the 12yo is. I also wouldnt mind some sherried Macallans available at fulls strength. The 10yo cask strength was fantastic, but also hard to find. It is about to be discontinued unfortunately, if it isn't allready

An abundance of water at Glenfiddich

Any whiskies you would like to see at full strength ?

PS the last couple of years, quite a few whiskies has gone slightly up-strength, thank you for that, I talked a bit about it here :

http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/distilleries-i-avoided-cause-i-though.html

Some thoughts and reflections after 3 weeks of whisky

2011-05-29T12:28:00.001+02:00

Recently I had the pleasure of spending 3 weeks in the company of a lot of good whisky and a lot of whiskyfriends. The holiday consisted of Spirit of Speyside Whiskyfestival, a short week on Islay/Jura, a couple of days in Campbelltown and the Limburg Whiskyfair, with short stops in Tarbert, Edinburgh and Glasgow

Here's a few random thoughts I made from this trip

I participated at a whiskyquiz at Strathisla, and had the pleasure of tasting the Chivas Cask Strength Edition range, and I think that's really how whisky should be bottled. Cask Strength. Smaller bottles. Good price. Excellent whisky. Shame it's hard to get outside distilleries, but I've seen bottles of these for sale at TWE

I think it's a shame more and more distilleries won't sell whisky to independent bottlers and brokers. One of the main attractions of being a fan of single malt whisky is the DIVERSITY of bottlings, loose that and you will loose the fans, not overnight, but slowly. It might seem a clever idea now, but I really don't think this policy will benefit scotch whisky in the long run.

I can't help think of this:

Branch Cutting Accident - Watch more Funny Videos

I wish Laphroaig sold more to IB's. I have a slight problem with their current distillery style which I think have changed to a slightly more floral/perfumic style (Bowmore wanna-bees?). There's nothing wrong with Laphroaig, as I really love it from independent bottlers, but something seem to go wrong for me when they blend casks together

Ardbeg

Ardbeg restarted with full production in the late nineties, and everything affordable they have been bottling the last few years has been from their "own" production (Glenmorangie/LVMH). Most of this has been young, younger or very young. As a fan of older Ardbegs you can't help wondering if the new stuff will reach the same level as before when it reaches ages of 20-30 years. Time will tell, but having tasted a few samples of approx 10-12yo single casks, I reckon they will get there. The leathery taste note I associate with old Ardbegs (and also in a few Lagavulins) was present for me. Just a hint thou..now we can only wait and see

On Islay, Caol Ila will be shut the next many months for an upgrade. The mashtun will be replaced and a couple of new washbacks will be installed, as well as up to date computerisation. To fullfill their needs for peated make, Diageo has hired Bunnahabhain to produce 35ppm malt for the rest of 2011. You can always wonder if a lot of peated 2011 Bunnahabhain will be availbale in the future or not. It probably depends a lot on Johnnie Walker sales :-)

Limburg was as usual an abundance of whiskies from a range of small german independent bottlers. A distillery thast doesn't normally raise my eyebrows, Littlemill had a few nice casks out. Other distilleries worth looking after were Bunnahabhain, Glen Grant, Inchgower, Tomatin, Coleburn and Longmorn

I always thought Glen Scotia had a slight metallic taste to it, after seeing their washbacks I know why :-)

Glen Scotia

Just kidding, reliable sources has told me the taste of GS is due to other causes..but a photo like the above always makes you wonder :-)

Distilleries do have very different politics regarding cameras and mobile phones. The general rule is that the bigger the company is the less is allowed. I am pretty sure that one reason that Diageo these days have VERY harsh, silly and unreasonable safety rules regarding visitors, cameras and mobile phones is that some guest simply couldn't respect rules when they weren't as hard. If you're told not to take photos in the stillroom, and still do it, the consequence will be that the next group wont be allowed to bring cameras at all into the distilleries. It's probably the same reason why we aren't allowed to bring mobile phones, as telling people to turn them off wasn't respected

I've been on several tours where the guides had a hard struggle with a visitor or two who just doesn't seem to care with the guidelines. Guest should remember a few things. You are GUESTS, and other people would like to see these places as well! No matter how little you agree with the rules or not

I think the general quality of the experience of visiting a distillery has raised a lot over the last decades. The quality of the guides and the possibility of adding small vertical tastings to your tour is a nice thing. When guest travels from all over the world to see a distillery it's nice to bring back a memory of having tried something special

It can be a bit of jigsaw puzzle to plan a whiskytour with a larger group, especially when Spirit of Speyside is involved with a lot of events to choose between

Sometimes distilleries, don't answer their emails. This is annoying. The solution is easy. Grab the phone. But I really suggest not to put email adresses up on webpages if you don't have the resources to answer them

On Islay its a shame that some distilleries have set times for connaisseurs tour, cask visits, special verticals etc. that coincide. I wish it were less stressfull to plan events and make choices :-)

My friends left some dregs at my house

2011-04-19T09:03:00.002+02:00

I got nice friends

They left some dregs at my place, so here's 4 short easter reviews

A couple of old miniatures

1. Mortlach 50yo Juuls Anniversary Bottling 41.7% Gordon and MacPhail

Nose : fresh spicy sweet fruit mango and citrus

Palate : Classical old Gordon and MacPhail. Pine wood, more mango and citrus, absolutely wonderful. Whisky like this is what makes life's worth living. I do enjoy these flavours that is only pressent in very old whiskies. GandM

Finish : Long and delicious with a hint of vanilla custard hitting at later stages

Note : This whisky REALLY benefits from being a morning dram. My fresh palate combined with the great subtleties of this dram makes this an outstanding moment

Rating 95

2. Springbank 37yo Chieftains 46%

Nose : VERY NICE :-), I am still a bit hyped from the Mortlach!. I reckon this is again from a ex-bourbon cask, probably the 2nd fill. Faint hints of citrus on a background of sweet wood spices

Palate : malt, spice, wood, quite powerfull, followed by an impact of those spicy wood notes I only get from old whiskies and I really like that

The finish is medium

Rating 91

3. SMWS 59.37 Teaninich Nov 83-Jun 08, 55.8% 24yo

"For lazy lotus eaters"

Nose: A typical whisky nose with a hint of sweet glue and honey

Palate : Delicious intense concentrated honey. I am allergic to honey but like it so glad to have this notes in whisky. I don't get any lotus.

Finish : medium

Rating 83

4. Glen Keith Càrn Mòr 1990 19yo cask 13676

The lightness of this whisky is really clarified following the other 3. Huge stills or lowlander in style. This a gentle apeterif style whisky. This is more like an Armagnac than a whisky. The style is apples and pears. Lovely

Rating 82

Whiskypranks and blind tastings

2011-04-18T08:58:00.008+02:00

The label of a whisky bottle has an influence on how I and other whiskyfans appreciate a whisky

No doubt about it. If people tells me otherwise I don't believe them :-)

One good example is how Ashok from Amrut presented/introduced his range to Denmark. He said that if he just served Amrut to others, they would automatically think it couldn't be very good as it comes from India

Instead he chose to battle 4 of his whiskies against 4 from Scotland. Blind. Quite an educating experience. It showed out I had Amrut as clear winner in 3 of the battles. The 4th was a draw.

The 4 sets were :

Amrut 46% versus Glenlivet 12
Amrut Fusion versus Highland Park 12
Amrut Cask Strength versus Glenfarclas 105 (my draw)
Amrut Peated 46% versus Bowmore Legend

Surprisingly my most clear winner was Fusion against a whisky that quite often is declared the best in the world. There you go. In the room of 33 tasters, Amrut won the all catagories except the one I had as a draw which was lost by 1 vote. I thought the 105 and the cask strength Amrut was very alike and Ashok said he had trouble telling which one he thought was the Amrut of those two :-)

Well this was my most educating experience. The most impressive I have seen was done by the Ardbeg expert, fellow PLOWED member and Malt Maniac Tim Puett, the man behind www.ardbegproject.com !

We selected 4 Ardbeg 10's and wrote down the bottle codes (batch numbers!) Here is the set :

L1 045 - L5 290 - L7 143 - L7 325

We had all the codes written down and Tim nailed them all....impressive (I didn't guess anything..)

I often make some pranks with whiskies. One of the better ones was pouring a cheap blend into an empty bottle of a standard scottish single malt and then serve it.

Once I went into my kitchen, melted some sugar and divided a bottle in two. Then I coloured one of the parts. After a testing session I send round these 2 blind samples and the reactions and guesses were very different. After the truth was revealed some of the guests tried to distuingish between the two blindfolded and they said they couldn't really tell the difference..

This told me that the colour of a whisky affects how it's received with a huge impact

Last year I was on a holiday on Crete. Local customs is that you get served a Raki after a dinner. This is like a cheap Grappa. One day we visited an olive oil farm http://www.paraschakis.gr/index_en.html

Old Raki Still

They had a Raki which I found a lot more pleasant than the usually stuff I was served before during the holiday. I bought a wee bottle. Last week I served some of this blind at a whisky tasting as first go. People thought it was whisky newmake!

Oh, I gotta show you the view from that olive oil farm :

Paps of Crete!

After the Raki I served the Mekong Whisky. This is never received positive, but I noted that when I served this blind the negativeness was less!

I observed the same pattern when a very very good whisky is served blind. The positiveness is much higher when accompanied by a label.

Todays review

1. Mekong Whisky

The nose is sligthly chemical , a bit like a weak solvent, not really unplesant, but no way whisky like..well rumours said this is made on 95% molasses and 5% rice with added spices, so this is really not a whisky. I have a hard time reading the label so the details is up to you to read yourself. The taste is like a very mild bitter, highly diluted becherovka comes into mind. A weak woody finish with a not-very-nice sweet touch. Nothing exciting about this, but I wouldn't describe it as flawed either. Greatest thing about this is the short finish.

It will not get a very high rating thou

Rating 55

Caperdonich

2011-04-16T13:06:00.003+02:00

Caperdonich

First time I read about Caperdonich was in Jim Murray's Complete Book of Whisky

It started it's early existence as Glen Grant no. 2, the newmake being pumped across the street to Glen Grant, 1897-1902

Jim Murray writes :

"...But from day one it was known that the whisky was not living up to expectations, and with the advent of the whisky crash, a perfect excuse was found to close it just four years later..."

The distillery was reopened in 1965 as Caperdonich (SWA naming rules now prohibited Glen Grant no. 2)

Jim Murray writes

"..different name, same old inferior whisky. The outside of the distillery is unattractive, yet I have enjoyed spending a cold winter's evening sitting in the stillhouse there. Stills, mashtuns, washbacks - everything is in close proximity and it feels good. The malt, though, even samples I have tasted from sherry casks, are as featureless as the distillery's exterior. It is a dram that Seagram has never once felt inclined to bottle and that is a wise choice. It is not so much a bad whisky as a boring one. Its vague pine aroma and sweet maltiness are fine for the anonymity of a blend but, because of a near non-existent finish, it remains an under-achieving dissapointment beside its brilliant older brother."

and

"CAPERDONICH - Impossible to find and one worth missing"

Here's a photo a friend took in 2009 when we did a tour of all the Rothes distilleries, Caperdonich just from the outside unfortunately

Caperdonich

The distillery operated from 1965-2002 and was then mothballed.

Well, it didn't look like a distillery where you would go around bottle hunting...if you could find any bottles that is. The describtion is as this could be the worst distillery of Scotland

Trust me..it's not. It's closer to being the best hidden gem of Scotland

Fist time I got the feeling there was something worthy about Caperdonich was after buying an SMWS bottling. At SMWS the distillery name is hidden behind a number code, and if you want to you can drink without knowing, which might be an advantage. I usually purchased what I like without knowing (harder these days as I learned quite a few of the code numbers)

It was a brilliant, and the bottle is long gone but it put the distillery on my mind. It was still hard to find Caperdonichs out there. Then Mark Watt from Duncan Taylor started going on about Caperdonich, how good it was and that it was his favourite distillery - So I picked up some bottles from them, and started hunting it in bars and tastings, fairs and events. Especially the 72's were brilliant whiskies. I also picked up or tried 1980 bottlings from Cadenhead and AD Rattray and some "young" 12-14 year old bottlings from Cadenhead, a recent peated 12yo from Berry Bros and Chivas Brothers also have released the only "OB" in their Cask Strength Editions series. I have also experienced some really great bottlings from Gordon and MacPhail

In general I find this to be a malt of high quality, with the 72's and the 80's being in the top of the class of whiskies of the world. I think even Jim Murray has changed his mind if you read his latest whisky bible ratings :-)

Sadly Caperdonich was demolished in 2010, Mark Watt posted this photo on his blog :

Mark Watt standing on the remains

Read his blog entry here : http://bit.ly/gIlPEg

Well, its sadly closed. But the distillery doesn't have a marketing department, no fancy crystal decanters and no exclusive releases. This is where to get quality for money, no 1000£ bottles available yet for the collectors

2 Caperdonich's

1. Caperdonich 23yo Cadenhead 1980 58%

A delightful light spicy nose, the palate has a mustyness, which always reminds me of a warehouse floor

The spicyness is a bit like dark bitter chocolate, which is trying to hide a fruityness but doesn't quite succeed

The finish is short-medium but is there!

Rating 85

2. Caperdonich 25yo 1980 cask 7339 AD Rattray 53.1%

A very fresh and light expression of Caperdonich, which reminds me more of the 72's. The nose is a very light version of the Cadenhead above, just a lot more subtle with hints of vanillawood and gentle citrus fruits. The palate is a mouthwatering follow up, still subtle in it's expression. The finish is longer, and after about 5 seconds the palate explodes with vanilla wood being dominant

Rating 90

Most cask strength Caperdonich I had with an ABV above 50 has benefit a lot from being open

Stauning Rye First Impression versus a couple of other ryes

2011-03-31T18:24:00.002+02:00

Last week Stauning Distillery in Denmark released their first bottling, a rye and as a rye fan I had to stock up :-)

It's distilled in 2009 and 2010 and the rye has been matured on 50 liter and 200 liter casks

The mash bill is malted rye, malted barley and unmalted rye. For some odd reason Stauning won't tell me about the exact mash bill, but they are thinking about it :-)

I think they should. Anyone following the american micro distilling scene know that origin, recipe and cask history is what the whisky fans are interested in these days. With a huge extend in bottlings available, mashbills and innovative experiments I feel it's important for us consumers to know what we are drinking. It's nice to be able to pinpoint your taste for further purchases. Maybe you DON*T like high rye mashbills but really like low rye mashbills, but it's better to know that than just "I like this whiskey and I don't like that whiskey". Good enough if you always got the same bottle on your shelf, but who has that?. I don't for sure :-)

Rant over

1. Stauning Rye / first impression

Distilled 2009/2010 Bottled 2011 52.5%

850 bottles

Nose : Vodka, or something similar to other unaged distillates like grappa, raki or vodka, with a faint spicy woodiness

Palate : Gin-like, the rye spicyness often makes people associate it to gins, so this is not uncommon, especially with young ryes, where the rye and not the wood is dominating.

Finish : Very good, looong and powerful. The finish is surprisingly fantastic, considering the nose (unaged spirits) and palate (young rye). The true rye flavour emerges... creamy oily rye flavours with a slight woodyness. The finish is really enjoyable and more-ish

Water : A bit of water doesnt harm this rye, it can in fact take quite a bit of it. It actually removes some of the impressions saying this is a very young whiskey, and highlights the qualities of the finish, with vanilla tones coming out more clear

Rating 70 - The finish is well worth an 80 score thou

EDITED summer 2011 aftera few retastings

Yes, a hard one to rate as the very long and delicious finish really makes a huge difference to a whiskey where I initially thought "This clearly needs a couple of more years"

I am really looking forward to Stauning Rye when older, this first impression isn't putting me off at all!

Read more about Stauning here, their first malt whisky isn't ready yet http://www.stauningwhisky.dk/

PS : Danish whisky distilleries usually comes out at horrible and very silly prices, especially first editions. I still think this should have been slightly cheaper than 495 Dkr for 50cl but it's actually nice to see something bottled at a somehow fair price. I know it's not cheap to start up a distillery, but if you insist on bottling very young whisky at the prices of single casks 70's Ardbegs I think you more interested in money than bottling quality whisky. This is the first product from Stauning.

It's wellknown that scottish whisky needs 3 years in cask by law, but there's no law regarding whisky in Denmark. Rye is an american style of whiskey and there's no minimum age requirements for ryes in America, but a "straight rye" must have been in a cask for at least 2 years. I am still thinking about why the term "straight" is used :-)

2. Old Potrero 62.2%

2yo single malt whiskey made from 100% malted rye

Bottling date 20/4 - 2001, barreled 9/12 -1988 bottle 422/4005

Old Potrero is from San Francisco and is made by the Anchor Distilling Co. Anchor is a lot more known for their Brewing Co. making excellent craft beers

Old Potrero is more clearcut in it's rye expression. It doesn't show the same extent of youthness in the whiskey, but this is probably twice the age and has been matured in a warmer climate, which does speed up the maturation. Last time I checked the weather is considerable better in the Bay area than at the west coast of Denmark. The finish is no way near the finish of the Stauning. In this whiskey its the finish that reveals this is a young whiskey!

Rating 81

3. WhistlePig Rye 10yo 50%

WhistlePig (Canadian word for Groundhogs) is a canadian rye bottled by an american company. It's supposed to be distilled at Alberta Distillery in Calgary known for Alberta Premium. Hiram Walker also prodcues a 100% rye (malted) so thats a 2nd guess

100% ryes are made as flavouring agents for blends in Canada

This is bottled as straight rye, so being canadian this whiskey must obey all the straight rye regulation which are american. This means more than just mashbill, also alcohol strength of distillate and wood policy has to follow the same rules as applys to bourbons

(read about that here : http://bit.ly/gIgQMX )

This is a very good example of how rye whiskey taste. It's delicious but somehow onedimensional. If you like this dimension..great for you. I do, as it's the rye dimension, and I am a rye fan.

We are back to longer finish with a bit of fudge butterscotch in it, the years in new wood is showing its face. It's remarkable less effected than bourbons at similar ages. Canadian enviroment when maturing or is the rye opposed to corn ? I don't know

Rating 82

If Stauning are considering going 100% rye or 100% malted rye I would say they should also consider whiskey/whisky with a lower rye mash bill. My favourite "younger" rye products have been Bourbons with a high rye content like IW Harper and "blends" from High West like Rendezvous Rye and BouRye. Don't forget that a Rye has to be just 51% rye to be a Rye according to the American rules. As well as a bourbon has to be at least 51% corn. It's the last 49% that's the art :-) and it seems like I prefer a rye a content of 30-50%

A couple of bottlings from Falster

2011-03-15T19:36:00.003+01:00

Two months ago, when I did a wee Bunnahabhain vertical I was very delighted with the Falster Bunnahabhain

I actual have a couple of other Falster bottlings, no need not to have a little sip of those as well

Both are bottled via DMWA and Creative as well

These whiskies are bottled at the annual Wild Whisky Weekend which is hosted at Hotel Falster. Falster is a southern danish island, which has the southernmost point of Denmark. Hotel Falster is also partly owned by the famous danish whisky entusiast Hans-Henrik Hansen.

1. Glenlivet 33yo Falster 2010 51.2%
Bottled by Creative (David Stirk)
Distilled 1976

Metal label

This malt appears as quite woody, so I added a wee bit of water which made wonders. I don't normally add water to my whiskies, but if I feel the whisky is somewhat restrained or onesided (as this one were), I do

Now I suddenly have a whisky where there's something to write about!

Nose : Fruit, Vanilla, Wood
Palate : Spicy, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, wood and brandy
Finish : Powerful and medium length

This is a fine whisky, but it doesn't live up to the magnificient Bunnahabhain. I always had trouble with older Glenlivet's which somehow dissapointed me. Nothing wrong with them, but when you get into the $$$$$ whiskies you start to expect something- Gimme a Nadurra please :-)

Rating 83

2. Caol Ila Falster 2007 52.7%
Bottled by Creative (David Stirk)
Distilled 1984

Caol Ila

Nose : Some slight milk acidity which reminds me of younger islays. then the typical of old Caol Ila robust sweetness-spicyness appears, peat of-course, but I am getting immune to that :-)

Palate : Typical Caol Ila. Round, sweet, full bodied, heavy, spicy, citrus and vanilla

Finish : Medium strength but long

Rating 84

This is another good Caol Ila. Caol Ila is almost always a sure hit, and this is no exception. As Mark Watt says "I never had a bad Caol Ila", and I do agree on that statement.

Bourbons from the past

2011-02-19T07:33:00.004+01:00

Bourbon's

Very confusing for us entusiast that entered the whisky world via single malts. Opposed to malt whisky bourbon whiskey is recipe based as well as distillery based.
Chuck Cowdery made a very good guest blog on John Hansell's website about the american definitions of whiskey of which I will quote

For a product to be labeled “bourbon whiskey” it has to meet tighter requirements. The mash must be at least 51% corn, the distillation proof has to be less than 160° proof (80% ABV), the barrel entry proof has to be less than 125° proof (62.5% ABV), and the oak containers have to be new and charred, but there is still no minimum age specified.

and

That brings us to “straight bourbon whiskey,” which has to comply with all of the above plus spend at least two years in wood. Why the word “straight” was chosen to mean “aged in wood for at least two years” I cannot explain.

The majority of distilleries making bourbon on a large scale is located in Kentucky. The fact that bourbon is recipe and brand based sometimes has the effect that it's not obvious where a particular bourbon is produced, I guess that some bourbons might even be vattings from several distilleries? (Jim Beam's are!). Some distillery based brands do exist thou, I can mention Four Roses, Buffalo Trace, Jack Daniels, Woodford Reserve, Makers Mark, Wild Turkey. Some brands aren't obviously connected to a distillery, I can mention Sazerac, George T Stagg, Pappy van Winkle, and some brands have changed distillery of origin, some even more than once.

Everybody acquainted with scottish single malts know Diageo and their series : Classic malts of Scotland

When Diageo were still United Distillers they were also (trying to) operate in USA. They acquired a range of distilleries and companies, mainly Schenley which had George T Stagg (distillery) and Bernheim amongst others. United Distillers also acquainted Stitzel-Weller, Glenmore and others.

They kept some brand names, and sold of others (Sazerac to name one), after a few years they closed all their distilleries and continued with the new Bernheim only, which were eventually sold to Heaven Hill, which ended Diageo's adventure as distiller in Kentucky. But not as a company selling bourbon. They kept some brand names and do now source their casks from other companies

In the 90's they releases their bourbon pendant to the classic malts, The Bourbon Heritage Collection

This miniature set is a gift from S´tan, thanks a lot

Writing about bourbons is harder than writing about single malts for me. I am not a very experienced bourbon drinker. It's mainly about toffee and wood for me. But I have to say I enjoyed these drams,

1. George Dickel, Special Barrel Reserve 10yo 43%

Tennessee Bourbon ?

George Dickel uses Tennessee Whiskey is label, but I guess they could label their whiskey bourbon if they wanted to..they just don't.

Loads of sweet toffee, the wood impact is gentle. Easy drinkable. Toffee is the dominating flavour. The spirit is gentle and this is the most smooth, toffee custard caramel american whiskey I ever had. Yum Yum

Rating 84

2. Very Special Old Fitzgerald 12yo 45%

Stitzel-Weller ?

Woody like an old scotch, very drinkable, slight toffee in the finish where the wood gentles. Wood is the dominating flavour, with strong toffee. Juice

Rating 84

3. Centennial W.L. Weller 10yo 50%

Stitzel-Weller

Nose is a bit solvent like. Dominating flavour is floor coatings. But still a lot of toffee. Is this the higher ABV coming through ?

Rating 80

The WL Weller and Old Fitzgerald should be bourbons with wheat as secondary grains, now on to a couple with rye as secondary grain

4 I. W. Harper 15yo 40%

DSP-1, whatever that is

Aaaah, what a wonderful nose. This have some rye in the recipe and the result is a more spicy bourbon. Bourbons with a rye component becomes me very well. Rye is to bourbons what peat is to scotch, wise men have said. The nose is rye-spicy, and the spicyness follows over on the palate. This is like a very very good old grain. Where do you get stuff like this today S'tan ?..and did I say the nose was terrific ?

Rating 90

5. Old Charter Proprietor's Reserve 13yo 45%

Old Charter Distillery

The rye in this is slightly less dominent and it doesn't come through as delicate as in the I W Harper. The wood is more dominant and I also get some dark liqourice

Rating 84

All 5 of this had the similarity that I felt I was drinking juice and not hard liquor. They were just so sipping friendly. I really liked them. Rye versus wheat is spice versus toffee for me. I like them both, but to me rye is the new black. I must be a peathead :-)

As I understand it on S'tan, the 4 Kentucky Bourbons were all made in distilleries that doesn't exist any more. George Dickel is still running

And these bottlings where around 30$ for full sizes...

Charbay Winery and Distillery

2011-02-12T14:21:00.000+01:00

In January 2010 I had the pleasure to taste Charbay-II (thanks Adam) and I got aware of a winery on the hills between Sonoma and Napa Valley in the wine country just north of San Francisco, California.

Charbay is NOT on the main road

After a somewhat longish ride on small hilly roads, in dense forest, I finally found Charbay. It quickly realisedt that Charbay had it's distilling facilities in Ukiah, a bit north of the winery, but the old stills were displayed outside

A still, a boiler and a condenser

The stills will look familiar to those who are acquainted with Cognac. Alembic style!. Now, for a person who has seen quite a lot of scottish distilleries, the unusual about Charbay is not how the whisky is distilled, or the look of the stills. To see traditional potstills outside Scotland is actual a somewhat rare sight, but this is still quite similar to setups seen Scotland, which is the motherland of whisky, if not yours, it's mine. This doesn't mean good whisk(e)y can't be produced outside Scotland or on different still designs and setups.

Charbay is a good example. I had the honour of meeting Charbay's Marko Karakasevic. Charbay was founded by his father, who began distilling in California in 1983 and is 12th generation from a family of European distillers. Marko is 13th generation. Having a winery, and a distillery making wine and fruit based spirits, Marko turned to whiskey, as he was also a fan of the great new wave of american microbrew. He thought..why not turn these great ale and beers into whisky. Now this is quite unusual. The beer used is bottle-ready beer from a Northern Californian microbrewery. Marko uses several kind of beers and ales. Pilsner, IPA's and Stouts.

The Charbay I tasted in 2010 was release II

Charbay II at Ardbeggeddon 11

Charbay II is made from a pilsner, matured for approx. 6 years in casks, then 3 additional years in stainless steel tanks. Now I don't have any particular tasting notes for this whiskey, I tried it during a social event, amongst a "few" other drams, so my approach was not being scientific :-)

I remember liking it though, liking it so much I spend a few hours searching out this winery !

Aging a whiskey on stainless steel tanks is also unusual. Well maybe aging isn't the correct term to use, but I could have said marrying or mellowing.

If you think nothing happens outside a barrel go google Old Bottle Effect or those Eau-de-vie's (or was it grappas?) that has been "matured" in glass (or was it also stainless steel). Anyway.

Marko want's the character of the beer/ale used to be a dominating factor of the final whiskey or spirit. He uses french oak that has previous held Chardonnay. He wants the oak to mellow and age the spirit, but not influence it to a greater extend, like bourbons.

It's hard to find Charbay II outside californian specialist shops.

Marko and a wee still used to make brandy for fortified wines

I also had the honour of trying a wee sample of a couple of Marko's next projects. An IPA based whiskey, still maturing. This was a just one year old. The initial nose had the expected "youthness" to some degree, but the palate really surprised. What a pleasant explosion of flavours. Using the most expensive wash in the industry pays off it seems. I quickly noted down liquorice, tea, wood and roasted barley as the dominant tasting notes. I remember Marko looking at me like I was a bit weird when I mentioned tea, but I can calm him with the fact that it's not the first time I had that look :-), I often find things others wonder where the *censored* I got that from

A selection of Charbay's products

Visiting Charbay and talking to Marko was a very exciting experience. Marko has decided to do things his own way, and very different than others. So far his whiskey's has been produced only in very very small quantities. It is high quality, well matured whiskey. There's a lot of American microdistilleries coming up these years. I've tasted quite a lot of products I felt weren't really bottle ready, together with Anchor's Old Potrero Hotalings Whiskey 14yo, Charbay are the only superb products I have tried. The rest I would rate promising, but I have far from tasted everything :-)

Oh, afterwards I drived around Napa Valley. I tried a few wines I liked, something that usually happens once in 5 years. I should have brought a designated driver...

Las Vegas Distillery

2011-02-08T22:12:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I happened to be in Las Vegas with a group of whiskyfriends, and we took the opportunity to visit Las Vegas Distillery

I had been aware of them for a year or so, as they had a website and plans to start a distillery. Recently I also followed them on facebook so I was quite aware the distillery was just about to start distilling.

It's not easy to start a distillery in a state that has no tradition for distilling, and no regulations for it either, but George Racz is about to have done it. George Racz is Hungarian, born in Rumania and has been living in USA less than 10 years. When he and his wife decided they wanted to take a big chance and open a distillery they took the bold decision to open one in Vegas. A city and state with no distilling tradition. It may be very smart to open a distillery in Las Vegas. A world famous city with many tourists should give quite a few chances of interested customers passing by. And it's not like the city lack bars either :-). Probably the best gamble done in Vegas!

We arrived friday noon and George was there to greet us

George Racz talking about his copper angels, the name he has given to his stills

A combo still. Left potstill will be used to double destill whiskey

The stills had just been installed when we visited. Next step was water distilling, and the first spirit to be produced will be vodka. Apart from vodka, other ready spirits like gin will also be produced. The main "problem" for new whiskey distilleries is that it can take a long time for the whiskey to mature, so producing ready spirits can be necesary to have some income...but vodka and gins can be very nice spirits to drink, especially if you don't like whiskey :-)

Barrels

George told us that he intend to experiment a lot to find out what works out. Bourbons, Ryes, Malt Whiskeys and much more. Even a 7 grain whisky was in the plans (rye, corn, wheat, rice, oat, barley and one more I forgot about!)

Adding to this he will use several sizes of casks. George will experiment a bit with a variety of whiskeys and cask sizes, so I expect a lot of different styles to be produced, let's see how much will get bottled :-)

He plan to have as much as possible grown "locally"...in a farm in northern Nevada. More info about this and a lot of other things on the distillery website, which is a very informative website. I like informative websites. Too many, especially american whiskey websites are sometimes too much myth and too little info.

http://www.lasvegasdistillery.com/

Not a Porteus, nor Boby :-)

We all thought that George was very pleasant company so we invited him over for a dram!. His good humour and entusiams will put a smile on your face :-)

"I am starting to love my job" George said

You can follow Las Vegas Distillery on facebook. I find it exciting to follow the daily do's of an upstarting distillery from the other side of the globe!

I am also excited to follow the distillery in the years to come. I am sure I will get around Las Vegas again and will for sure go around Las Vegas Distillery everytime. It is located in Henderson, in the eastern part of Las Vegas, half the way out to the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. I really hope the Nevada laws will make it possible for Las Vegas Distillery to open a shop on the premises and allow guests a wee tasting. It will make a lot of difference for us travelling whisky tourists :-)

And if you're there on a saturday they might be having a bottling party!

My good luck and best wishes to George and the Las Vegas Distillery

I hope he makes some rye whiskey in one of his quartercasks, should be bottle ready quite fast (on the relative scale of time to mature whisky)

Old Pulteney

2011-01-17T00:30:00.002+01:00

This week we will see an unofficial release of the follow-up to Old Pulteney WK499. On thursday 20th January there will be a collective twitter tasting, so if you're interested I am sure it will be worth searching on #WK209 and #OldPulteney this thursday. I am not participating myself, but I am sure those that do will have a lot of interesting things to say :-)

Right before xmas, Lukasz of the Edinburgh Whisky Blog (http://www.edinburghwhiskyblog.com/) sent me some samples, Old Pulteney 17yo and 21yo. As I understand it he is doing some online marketing for Inver House and being a twitter contact of him can be beneficial, as you can see on thursday :-)

Together with a few of my own Old Pulteneys, I will do a little distillery vertical.

Old Pulteney is the northernmost distillery on mainland Brittain. It is located far up north in Wick, in an coastal area with very little trees and lots of weather :-). The distillery is located in the outskirt of the southern part of the city, and coming down the street to it, the distillery looks like a part of the buildings facing the street. No pagodas or anything is revealing the distillery. There's a wee visitor center and a tasting room, where you can bottle your own Old Pulteney. I bottled one in 2005 and another in 2007 and both were around 15yo ex-bourbon casks. They were excellent whiskies and are of course long gone....both among the best bottle-your-own whisky I ever had, and I had some over the years.

1. Old Pulteney 12yo 40%

Miniature

This is somewhat a different 12yo OB than what you otherwise find on the market. I mainly find this dry and minty, with nuts and oranges emerging and then more mint. It's very minty actual, and that's something I like. The finish is short and in generel this is quite moreish and I really enjoyed. Should have been bottled at a higher ABV, but I always say that :-). Above average in the 40% OB catagory, I think its the mint!

Rating 80

2. Old Pulteney 17yo 46%

A natural upgrade of the 12yo. The biggest difference is the finish which is longer, and there's a slight char or ashy touch to the nose. The palate got a spicy touch, and the mint is not as powerful. It's a nice good dram which nearly reach a 3 on my rating scale

Rating 83

3. Old Pulteney 21yo 46%

Oh, a huge change to a more nutty and spicy character. For sure the wood influence is getting more powerful. The finish is more intense but shorter again. There's a natural development for the age of these three OB's. Another lovely dram

Rating 84

4. Old Pulteney WK499

This is back to style of the 12yo, but the cask strength REALLY benefits this Old Pulteney. It's a very sharp and briny whisky, and as salty is often mentioned as the Old Pulteney character I finally get it here, or see what others mean when they describe Old Pulteney as "salty". A very enjoyable dram, and you wont get better value for money whisky out there. I've seen 2 liters for 50£ in Edinburgh Airport !!. Excellent

Rating 86

5. Old Pulteney 1982 58.2%
This could be bottled in 2002 as the bottlecode starts with L2...

It's a miniature and the writing on the label is just too small and too hard to read

read it yourself..I can't

Oh, this is quite different. And similar at the same time. Sweet. Mint, slight sulphur, could be something I imagine. The initial sweetness weirdly turns into a very very dry whisky fast. This isn't really working for me, is it a refill sherry cask ?. Does Old Pulteney work with ex-sherry casks. It sure does with ex-bourbon. Lets see how WK209 is received on thursday, its supposed to be from ex-sherry casks - It got something to live up to for sure.

This one I don't like. The sulphur bits.... I am going back to WK499 now

Rating 71

Bunnahabhain - is it malty ?

2011-01-15T19:19:00.004+01:00

The start of 2011 hasn't been optimal from a whisky drinking perspective for me. Flu, colds, coughs, soaring head and sleepy days. Time to catch up, and I thought going through a few dregs of Bunnahabhains that has been restless on my shelves for quite a bit might be good for me. This is the first day of 3 weeks of holiday, which will include quite a bit of travel and a lot of whisky so also a reason to celebrate :-)

Bunnahabhain is one of the lesser known Islays, if saying "lesser known" for an Islay makes any sense at all. I have always felt that Bunnahabhain is one of the better known secret gems out there.

Bunnahabhain with a pap in the background

The location of Bunnahabhain (and Caol Ila) is one of the most beatiful spots on the planet earth. Next to the Sound of Islay, with the Paps of Jura breathtaking looking down on you from the other side.

Bunnahabhain and the Paps of Jura

The distillery has received a little more attention from the owners the last couple of years, with the standard 12yo being upgraded to 46.3% and nonchillfiltered, but also a few special bottlings getting out to us. Bunnahabhain is, unlike most other Islay's, an unpeated malt whisky. But they did a few peated batch runs, earliest one is the Moine variation from 1997. Apart from the peated malts we have also recently seen a Bunnahabhain that has been matured on fresh oak,the Bunnahabhain Darach Ur.
In 2004 the distillery released a 1968 single cask, the legendary Old Acquiantance, one of my all time favourite whiskies, since then a few older OB's has been released, together with an extension of the range with a 18yo and 25yo and so on.
Various independent bottlers has released quite a lot of Bunnahabhains over the years. So there's actually an opportunity for quite a big background catalogue if you get around these. And it's usually a very good malt in my opinion.
I often find Bunnahabhains very very malty, and this is a little scientific research to see if this a common distillery profile tasting note!

Bunnahabhain Tour in 2001

I will go through 5 bottlings of Bunnahabhains, and try to rate their maltiness on a 0-5 scale, with 5 being very malty, 3 quite malty, and 1 sligtly more malty than an average malt. I don't find malt whiskies malty in general. I can say I would rate almost all malts a 0 on this scale. I am meaning malty in a beer/ale kind of sense.

1. Bunnahabhain 1979 Flying no. 6 Pirate 46.3%

cask 11885 (Barrel). Distilled 31/10-1979, bottled 8/9-2008

Bottled by Juul's Vinhandel, Copenhagen, 1 of 199 bottles

Juul's series of PING and Flying has become world famous legends here in Denmark :-), and this Bunnahabhain is one og my favourite Flying's

This is a light Bunna, with a lot of spice, mint and a wee bit of citrus and with quite some maltiness.

Maltiness 4/5

Rating 89

2. Bunnahabhain 33yo Royal Mile Whiskies 45.5%

cask 6249, 1 of 201 bottles

33yo Bunna from RMW

This is a bottling from Royal Mile Whiskies, and Edinburgh specialist whiskyshop.

This is not as light as the Pirate. First thing I note is a slight sulphur on the nose. The body is heavier, some spice, and still a bit of sulphur on the palate, but probably so little that quite a few wouldn't notice

Maltiness 1/4

Rating 86

2. Bunnahabhain 31yo Falster 2008 47.3%

Bottled by Creative (David Stirk)

Distilled 1976

This Bunnahabhain is bottled for the danish whiskyfestival Wild Whisky Weekend by DMWA

This is a very delicious Bunnahabhain, with a slight maltiness, spicy again, sweeter than the others. The best so far. The finish is longer and really delicious. I think the sweetness completes this malt. It's not a sweet malt, but the sweetness is noticable compared to the other malts.

Magnificient dram and I do agree on The Whisky Exchanges review here : http://blog.thewhiskyexchange.com/2009/06/islay-festival-day-8-kilchoman-and-bunnahabhain/ and you can find a more articulate set of tasting notes in there as well :-)

Maltiness 1/4

Rating 90

4. Bunnahabhain 36yo Duncan Taylor 40.2%

03/1967 - 03/2003

cask 3325

A lot of the first Duncan Taylor bottlings were near going understrength, so there were quite busy bottling a lot of old whiskies before they went under 40% ABV. I don't think the world will ever see that amount of "cheap" old whisky on the market..oh the good old days :-)

The maltiness in this whisky is a bit different, it seems somewhat milder, as does almost everything is this whisky. The wood influence seems a lot less. There's a bit of fruit candy in this, and not particular spicy

Maltiness 2/5

Rating 85

5. Bunnahabhain 36yo Duncan Taylor 40.7%

1967 - 2004

A Duncan Taylor miniature

This is a malty Bunna, with a shot of citrus in, quite a big shot and a very delicious combo. Some sweetness and a medium finish, with a bit of spicyness as well

Maltiness 3/5

Rating 89

Verdict ?

Yes, I find the common note in Bunnahabhain to be a very malty malt, think of a low hoppped brown ale. There's quite a variation in the maltiness, but it's always there to some extent

2010 - whiskies of the year as named by various bloggers, writers and whiskyentusiasts

2011-01-02T14:55:00.004+01:00

When December approaches, many websites, blogs, books and whiskyentusiasts name their whisky of the year, and some even have multiple awards, lists so long they can fill up the average whiskycupboards three times. Others do shopping guides and reccomendations. What's your favourite whisky of 2010 ?

Here's a little overview of what I could find, please tune in if you heard about more.

One of the earliest set of awards that emerges each year is the Whiskybible, but I think that its connected with it being a book (printed) award, and that the book is out around October, if I remember correctly

1. Jim Murray's whiskybible named Ballantines 17, which is i blend. The choice made quite a few people wonder, more people shrugging their shoulders or giggling and a lot of people confused. Jim Murray's choices always stir an argument, here's the full list from John Hansell's blog (Malt Advocate)
http://www.whatdoesjohnknow.com/2009/10/05/jim-murrays-world-whisky-awards-for-2010/

Personally I had great fun reading the discussion of his choice of irish whiskey of the year on the irish whiskey forum : http://forum.irishwhiskeysociety.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=899

2. Whisky Magazine has a series of award sets, they probably manage to beat Jim Murray in number of catagories :-)

http://www.whiskymag.com/awards/ there's quite a few sublinks to follow to get around all the catagories!

If you didn't manage to find it I can reveal that Ardbeg Corryvreckan was named scotch single malt of the year.

3. Scottish Fields, a lifestyle magazine named a Miltonduff 1969 from Gordon and MacPhail (Indy bottling of the year), 25yo Ben Nevis (Distillery Bottling of the year) and Monkey Shoulder (Blend of the year)

read more about it here http://www.scottishfield.co.uk/statistic/w/

Scottish Fields awards are decided blindly with a large group of whiskymerchants (whiskyshops!) forwarding their favourites and then being judges themselves. Malt Maniacs is a group of whiskyentusiast who does a similar blind judging with a lot of whiskies entered voluntarily by distilleries, bottlers and merchants

4. Malt Maniacs rated Glendronach 38yo 1972/2010 (49.5%, OB, Sherry C#700, Taiwan) highest in 2010, here's the full list

http://www.maltmaniacs.org/2010-whisky-competition.html

5. Whiskywhiskywhisky.com, a forum of whiskyentusiast chose Bladnoch 20yo as their 2010 whisky of the year

http://www.whiskywhiskywhisky.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4212&p=55858

6. Spirit of Islay's Gordon Homer chose the new Bunnahabhain 46.3% as his favourite distillery bottling of the year (Islay) and a 29yo Caol Ila from John Milroy as his indy bottling of the year. His non-Islay whisky awards went to Amrut 100 from Bangalore in India and a 4yo 2005 Berry Bros Ledaig.

Full list here : http://www.spiritofislay.net/

7. Malt Advocate,... well I expect something out in a couple of months, but here's their list from February last year http://www.whatdoesjohnknow.com/2010/02/11/malt-advocate-magazines-top-ten-new-whiskies-for-2009/

8. Ralfy also had the new Bunnahabhain 12yo 46.3% as his whisky of 2010

9. Whiskynotes has a shortlist of his favourites here : http://www.whiskynotes.be/2011/whisky-news/happy-2011/ with a Longmorn 1972 from the Whisky Agency and a Glenfarclas 1968 from Thosop coming out on the top

10. Scotchhobbyist has a 2010 gift guide : http://scotchhobbyist.com/2010/12/01/a-whisky-gift-guide-2010/

11. Gavin Smith's whiskies of the year (and some of his pages visitors) : http://www.whisky-pages.com/whiskies-of-the-year-2010.shtml

12. Whiskyisrael set a budget Holiday Gift Guide : http://whiskyisrael.co.il/2010/12/13/2010-holiday-gift-guide-on-a-budget/

13. The Jewish Single Malt Whisky Society has 11 catagories with Suntory Hibiki 21yo as 2010's overall favourite: http://jewishsinglemaltwhiskysociety.com/?p=3184

14. The Scotch Odyssey looks back on 2010 with Mortlach 16yo FF as his favourite dram
http://scotchodysseyblog.com/2010/12/30/2010-the-scotch-odyssey-review/

15. Dramming and Whiskyemporium did a joint post and Dramming chose Karuizawa 1985/2009 cask 7017 http://www.dramming.com/2011/01/01/that-was-the-year-that-was/ and Whiskyemporium chose an Old Bothwell 1982 Port Ellen cask 2039 http://www.whisky-emporium.com/Blogs/2010-12-Dec/Blog.htm#LookBack2010

16. CanadianWhisky.org awarded a set of Canadian whiskies http://www.canadianwhisky.org/news-views/canadian-whisky-awards-2010.html

17. The Whiskywire selected his 12 drams of xmas http://www.thewhiskywire.com/2010/12/12-drams-of-christmas.html

18. Jason had a wee Holiday Scotch Whisky Suggestions : http://jason-scotchreviews.blogspot.com/2010/12/holiday-scotch-whisky-suggestions.html

19. WhiskyBoys has The Best of 2010 in 3 catagories :
http://www.whiskyboys.com/2010/11/24/the-best-of-2010-blended-whiskies/
http://www.whiskyboys.com/2010/11/25/the-best-of-2010-non-scotch-whiskies/
http://www.whiskyboys.com/2010/12/07/the-best-of-2010-single-malt-scotch-whiskies/

20. Whisky2.0 xmas shopping guide : http://whisky2dot0.com/2010/12/07/whisky2-0-holiday-gift-guide-2010-%E2%80%93-the-under-50-whiskey-list/

(I never really got the point of awards like IWSC and the likes if anyone wonders.)

End of the day these links just shows how diverse the whiskies and peoples taste in whiskies are, and as a consumer its hard to go wrong, there's just too much good stuff out there :-)

And now it's time to go find the good stuff of twenty-eleven!

Danish Whisky Blog awards 2010

2010-12-23T08:31:00.001+01:00

2011 is approaching fast, and quite a lot of people use this opportunity to look back on the year 2010.

I had an almost endless amount of good whisky and good whisky events taking place during this year. I have to say I enjoyed everything I participated in.

Highlight of the year was getting introduced into the PLOWED society at the annual Ardbeggeddon. Nothing beats dramming with friends, and the company and whisky at the Ardbeggeddon is pure top shelf.

I also enjoy a very lively community of local whisky connoisseurs, with several gatherings throughout the year of the highest quality and a lot of spectacular whisk(e)ys from all around the world.

Festival wise I really enjoyed Spirit of Speyside, Limburg and Glasgow Whisky Festival together with a couple of mini fairs organised by local wineshops and Juul's!

I've decided to set up a few awards, this is my way to honour some things I really enjoyed and maybe I was surprised a bit by them

Distillery of the Year

Amrut

Amrut has put itself on the map in 2010 with a series of superb and innovative bottlings. I think it has come to a surprise to quite a few that a distillery producing world class whisky should emerge more or less from the unknown and then from India of all places as well.
Due to extra-ordinarely high evaporation the distillery has to work with other aspects than age, when creating new bottlings. Here's a photo of my Amruts, most of these were created in 2010!

Amrut TWE 10 year online anniversary bottling
Amrut Double Cask (a vatting of the two oldest casks at Amrut..7yo old whisky)
Amrut 100 (a peated 100 proof 1 liter bottling)
Amrut Cask Strength (the miniatures)
Amrut Fusion (made from a mix of indian unpeated malt and scottish peated malt)
Amrut Two Continents (matured in India, and then in Europe)
Amrut Intermediate Sherry (matured on first fill ex-bourbon casks, then ex-oloroso casks for 1 year, and then back to ex-bourbon)
Amrut Kadhambam (consecutively maturation in ex-rum, ex-sherry and ex-brandy casks, with the rum and brandy being Amruts own!)
Amrut Peated Cask Strength

Independendt Bottler of the Year

High West

A new distillery, which is located in Utah (of all places) has put itself on the map by bottling a series of ryes and bourbons of high quality. Especially the ryes has caught the public eye and several editions are available, some of them quite old. The ryes are said to be distilled at LDI, Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana, which is not the most known distillery, but I think they are very skilled in making rye whiskey ! It will be exciting to see if High West itself can produce whiskeys and ryes of the same quality!

High West Rendezvous Rye, a vatting of a 6yo 95% Rye and a 16yo 80% Rye. Superb

Whisky Bottling of the Year

Double Single by Compass Box

This is a blend of 18yo Glen Elgin (76%) and 21yo Port Dundas (24%) the latter being a grain whisky from the now closed distillery in Glasgow, while Glen Elgin is malt whiskey from a distillery located just south of Elgin in Speyside. It's bottled at cask strength 53.3% and was bottled to celebrate Compas Box' 10th anniversary

Double Single

Now this is a wonderful cask that every ex-bourbon casked single malt whisky fan should seriously consider!

Description : Very bubblegum/candy like with a heavy spicy touch. Vanilla and Malt. It's very oily and intense in its expression. The finish is long and warming

Tasting of the year

Duncan Taylor, Dufftown - Spirit of Speyside by Mark Watt

In the Memorial Hall in Dufftown, Spirit of Speyside hosts a series of very good whisky tastings during the festival. This year I found the Duncan Taylor tasting particular good. Mark Watt Bingo and 5-6 great whiskies, including two of the years favourites: a 1972 Caperdonich and a 1973 Glen Moray. Adding to that 12yo and 40yo Black Bull, 22yo Glen Grant and a 25yo Caol Ila, what a great afternoon

and by the way, the price is a pint if anyone responsible happens to catch me somewhere :-)

My favourite Whisky videos from Youtube

2010-12-04T08:44:00.001+01:00

I like these 4 videos from You Tube

Whisky is not for Everyone by Dr. Whisky

Ralfy made a lot of good vlog's, this is my favourite :

Ralfy reviewing Port Askaig 17yo

see more of his vlogs at http://www.ralfy.com/

I also like this one, it's Tim Puett (http://ardbegproject.com/) opening his Lord of the Isles

Chief Article pops a LOTI, starrring Tim, Tom and Mikey

And finally The Man Who Walked Around The World starring Robert Carlyle :

(it's also on http://www.johnniewalker.com)

My bang for the bucks whiskies

2010-11-27T17:19:00.002+01:00

If you have been into whisky for a bit and think you are well acquainted with the front row at your local supermarket and ready to venture into new territories, things can be a bit of a jungle. The amount of bottlings out there these days is high. Wonderfully high. There's more to the world of whisky than top brands like Glenfiddich, Highland Park, Glenlivet and Macallan.Nothing wrong with those I will say before going on.

Amongst bloggers and in forums it's always a reoccuring subject to name cheap whiskies, which is looked upon as great value for money. Who isn't interested in good deal ?

Here's MY list of a set of whiskies, which might not be the cheapest whiskies around, but I think you won't get better value for money than these. I don't think it's a coincidince that 9/10 of these are bottled at 46+ ABV, as my personal preference is for unchillfiltered, not watered down whiskies

Deanston 12yo, 46.3%
The new revatted, unchillfiltered version of Deanston, and what a comeback. Creamy, delicious single malt. Available for less than 30£

Deanston mini

Old Pulteney WK499
Available in selected airports World of Whiskies shops...Heathrow and Edinburgh from personal experience. I have seen this at 50£ for 2 1liter bottlings making this the best deal in whisky I have ever seen. It's a NAS Old Pulteney cask strength in a typical style of the distillery. Seaside vanilla and mint!

Balvenie 15yo Single Barrel 47.8%
Cask variation will of course be there, but these are typical delicious ex-bourbon vanilla whisky. Yum Yum. Not more than fortysomething quids usually

Tomatin 18yo 46%
Another solid comeback and a living proof that whisky at 46% just is better. One of my favourites at the whisky fringe 2009

Amrut Fusion 50%
First time I got this blind I guessed it as 20+ year old lightly peated speysider. Nuff said

Back label of Amrut, bottle almost gone

Glenburgie 10yo Gordon and MacPhail 40%
Sometimes seen at below 20£ on offer in UK, and below 300Dkr as standard price in Denmark, this is a delicious continous bottling from Gordon and MacPhails. It has got special touch that I often find in G and M sherry casked whiskies

Bladnoch Forum Bottlings
Apart from their own whisky, Raymond bottles a big selection of other distilleries. Bladnoch Forum bottlings is probably the greatest value for money whiskies around! Even includes Bladnoch whisky itself now and again.

Bladnoch Forum Bottling example : Cambus Grain

Lagavulin 12yo Cask Strength
Bottled at cask strength and 12yo this is one of my favourite Islays. 44£ in Edinburgh airport

Tweeddale blend 46%/ Black Bull 12yo
A pair of excellent delicious blends and delightful newcomers to the whiskymarket. And it's great to see a blend that's not watered down to 40%. Less than 30£

Aberlour A'bunadh
Legendary small batch NAS cask strength fullsherried whiskies. Beware, there can be some batch variations

And here is one that you might have missed.

Arran Peacock
This was out 1½ year ago and sold out most places. Still available at Juul's in Copenhagen. Voted whisky of the year 2009 by whiskywhiskywhisky.com. One of my favourite whiskies

Websites that asks for your birthday and country

2010-11-20T18:52:00.000+01:00

Here's something that annoys me.

Don't You just hate the fact, that it's quite common these days, that you have to enter details about your country of origin and your birthday details whenever you have to enter the website of a company making whisky or the website of a distillery?

I sincerely thinking this is treating the customers like they are idiots. I also believe that the companies doing this is enforced so to by their lawyers.

Typical welcome screen from a distillery

Now whats happening here?? Anyone above the age of 9 (and I am possible offending most kids age 5-8 right now!!) is able to enter some more or less random numbers that will make you appear 18+ or 21+ or whatever is needed, depending on what country you are from.

So the only effects this page has, is

1. It annoys the majority of us thats old enough to drink, as we have to spend time entering these details whenever we enter sites.

2. Anyone not supposed to enter, might get some satisfaction beating the "authorities" or a laugh how stupid this is. I doubt a lot of youngsters are interested in malt whisky anyway

So these filters won't stop anyone not at legal age to gain access to your website. I don't think it has stopped even one teenager from breaking into their parents spirit cabinet and drinking their brains out...

So instead of treating customers like they are idiots, I think these companies should start doing things that has an effect or is more meaningful.

Support responsible drinking by

- Small banners with drinkaware.co.uk or similar seems sensible to me.

- Spittoons at festivals.

- At distillery visits the driver should get a sample offered as alternative, or just a wee container they can pour the dram in and take with them for later.

One great thing I have seen is what Diageo do at the Spirit of Speyside whiskyfestival. They sponsor minibusses and taxivouchers. A festival like this has some problems of logistics, and these sponsorwhips actually makes it quite cheap to get around, even over longer distances, so personally it's something I really appreciate. This actually does make it possible to get to most events quite easy without a designated driver.

So put the money where it matters, treat people like grown ups, and stop annoying me with those stupid formulars