Two Highland Park oldies from Duncan Taylor

It’s always interesting to try very old whiskies and discover layers of nuances lying there dreaming after all those years in a cask. Some of my best tasting experiences have emerged from tasting old stuff but some of my biggest disappointments have also come from oldies. Time to try a couple of old Highland Park’s from Duncan Taylor.

Highland Park 37 yo 05.1966/09.2003, Duncan Taylor Peerless, cask 4642, 169 bottles, 41.3%

Nose: dusty and moist cellar where different kind of berries are stored. A hint of exotic fruit – coconut and pineapple – in a combination with sweat and used socks.

Taste: Sweet wood, soft pineapple and rhubarb. In the finish I get apple pie, bitter wood and black tea.

Rating: 85

Highland Park 40 yo 28.03.1968/11.11.2008, Duncan Taylor Peerless, cask 3465, 177 bottles, 40.1%

Nose: Exotic mixture of fruits jumps in your face. Then some dried flowers (violets?), mothballs and mint leaves followed by cigarette tobacco.

Taste: Flowers, bitter chocolate, autumn leaves in the forest. The fruit seems on it’s way but suddenly stops like a car at a red traffic light. Only some juicy wood remains.

Rating: 84

Some interesting notes along the way in these old HP’s but the lack of oomph is prominent. I wonder how these old timers would have tasted if they had been bottled when they were 20-25 years old..

Cleaning out my samples - part 2 of 5

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!

Caperdonich

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

Danish Whisky Blog awards 2010

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 :-)

Imperial - a hidden gem ?

Imperial is shut down. It never had a lot of attention when it was running. It has never been regarded anything special by whisky entusiast

Duncan Taylor changed this for me.

Duncan Taylor is an independent bottler located in Huntly http://www.duncantaylor.com/

They always wanted their own distillery and thought they were gonna purchase Imperial. The deal went off in the last minute. My theory is that Duncan Taylor was so sure of the deal that they had stocked up on Imperial casks.

Whatever is the truth, the fact is that Duncan Taylor has released quite a lot of Imperials the last few years. In the Duncan Taylor series, the Whisky Galore series, the NC2 series and also from their shop Single Malts Direct : the Whiskies of Scotland series.

I've been trying quite a few of these and most have been good, the rest excellent. The first eyeopener was when I tasted an 8 year old Imperial bottled under DT's Battlehill range, and since then I have been aware that here is something to look out for.

I would describe these Imperials as "simple" whiskies. Classic whiskies. Ex-bourbon casked whiskies. No wines, no peat, no small casks. Just plain good whisky at a young age. 

Imperial was mothballed by Allied Domecq in 1998 and when AD was acquired by Chivas in 2005 the deal with DT was mothballed together with the distillery.

1. Imperial 1997 13yo 56.4% Whisky Galore

Classic whisky nose, very ex-bourbon caskish :-), fresh and minty

Palate : Very minty, fullbodied and creamy, still very fresh

Finish : medium and very fresh, like a mint pastil

I like this. This is simple good whisky. It was correctly bottled at full strength. A nice dram. 

Rating 85

and thanks to Mark Watt of Duncan Taylor for introducing this gem to me :-) . Imperial is great value for money whisky, lets get some while no one else knows about it :-)