Danish Whisky Blog Awards 2015

This is my awards of 2015

2015 was a great whisky year for me. Many private gatherings, from Las Vegas, Netherlands, Limburg to Islay and Aarhus. Many of these has been while visiting other countries for Whiskyfestivals. This year I went to Limburg, Feis Ile and Maltstock. SMWS Casual Days at Highlanders whisky bar in Aarhus is now a regular event for me as well

My awards are very personal in that sense I can only award whisky I have tasted, and I can only award events I participated in.

As usual there is just 4 catagories, And just 4 awards. No medals to please everybody and not 100 awards for the same reason. Here we go:

Tasting of the year

Juuls wineshop in copenhagen hosted a fantastic Gordon and MacPhail tasting, which I was lucky to participate in while visiting Copenhagen

The tasting included several bottles of what I would describe as whisky from yesteryear. I don't see a lot of whiskies like the one served here being bottled anymore. The tasting list was

Glenlossie 1995 Connoisseurs Choice 46% Bottled 2013
Linkwood 25yo Distillery Label 43%
Mosstowie 1979 43% Bottled 2010
Longmorn 1973 Distillery Label 43% Bottled 2012
Mortlach 1971 Disrillery label 43% Bottled
Clynelish 1997 Connoisseurs Choice 46% Bottled 2013
Brora 1978 46% Bottled 2013
Caol Ila 2004 60.1% Bottled 2015

Brora was as good as you hope a Brora would be. The Linkwood 25 was also fantastic, but the supreme whisky of this tasting and the reason for the reward was the Longmorn 1973. Old style sherry, leather, a hint of medicinal and one of those whiskies that candidates for the best I ever tasted

Dereck Hancock from Gordon and MacPhail hosted the tasting. He is down to earth and presents his whiskies with the honesty they deserved

So this this was a genuine fantastic tasting with great whiskies.

Independent Bottler of the year

Canadian Whisky seems to be the theme here in 2015, but believe it or not, I decided this award last summer around July. So don't blame for ridin' a Justin Bieber Wave

Canadian whisky can be hard to find outside noth america. but we do have the occasional independent canadians here. A lot have been bottled by Cadenhead. But despite Cadenheads brilliancy, this awards goes to Whistlepig who doesn't just isn't one of the best independent bottlers of canadian whiskies, but their standard bottling is also one of the best canadian whiskies available. In my opinion.

Rumours are that Whistlepig will start their own distillery in Vermont. Or maybe allready have. This means that Whistlepig some day in the future might not be canadian whisky anymore

Distillery of the year

Laphroaig. 

So why Laphroaig ?. Normally I am not that excited by Laphroaig, it's just a distillery like most others. But at Feis Ile I thought their offereings clearly outshined anything I tasted from the other distilleries. These three bottlings particular

Laphroaig Cairdeas 2015
Laphroaig 15yo
Laphroaig 21yo

I thought they all three were like a timetravel back in time, back to when whisky was much better than today. The fact that a distillery releases awesome bottlings at affordable prices is also something I think is seldom seen these days.

So the Laphroaigs of 2015 outshined anything else coming out from Scotland

There was a couple of couple of distilleries I felt was getting up there and deserves an honoury mention, and that is Benromach and Arran, but that's another story

Here is my opinion of the Cairdeas 2015

Laphroaig Cairdeas 2015 51.5%
Should be around 12 years old according to Laphroaigs distillery manager John Campbell

Nose: Intense. Salt. Sweet Peat
Palate. Very salty. I normally don't find salt in whisky and some people says there is no salt in whisky. Citrus. Oily Harbour. Fish. Tar. Ropes. The main features is oily, peaty, salty and citrus

Rating 91/100

Whisky of the year

Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch 2015 release 54.3%

Four Roses, A distillery that just seems to do everything right
This is a blend of OBSK 16yo, OESK 5yo, OESK 14yo, OBSV 11yo

E stands for 20% rye recipe and B is the 35% rye recipes
K and V is yeast variety
K is the yeast described as: light spicyness, light caramel and full-bodied.
And V is light fruityness, light vanilla, caramel and creamy

Here is my notes

Nose: Sweet. Cakes. Mint. Spicy
Palate:  Toffee-caramel. Wood. Liquid Candy. Butterscotch
The finish is long, a sweet and has a bit of floor varnish woodyness

This is a very easy drinking bourbon

It's a warm, spicy, woody sweet dram that is very complex and it puts a big smile on my face. Unlike most scotch single malts I need a bigger pour to get the most from this dram. Maybe I should get myself some more bottles, as this won't last long

Rating 92/100

This whisky is simply my best buy in 2015. Fantastic

Kamuela Liquor Store - a trip to the Big Island

One of the fun thing when travelling in the US, is that you can stumble upon shop exclusives you had no idea existed.

A true shop exclusive is a single barrels that are selected by and sold only in the shop selecting it. Sometimes the shop is part of chain, like Binny's in Chicago or The Liquor Outlet in Las Vegas. This seems to be a lit more common in the US and for bourbons, but it's also seen with single malts and in Europe. When a shop like whiskybase, who has a strong online presence, have a shop exclusive like their recent Glendronach, it's often sold out within a day or so.

On a recent holiday trip to the Big Island, Hawaii, my mind was more set on tasting local beer than searching for whisky. Usually (always) when I travel I use the map function on ratebeer.com/places to look for interesting places to try some new beers. As brewpubs very often have food well above average they are an excellent choice for lunch stops. Especially for someone like me :-)

This day I tried to drive up the peaks of Hawai'i, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. As normal rental cars wasn't allowed above the visitor centre on Kea, I was returning early. I had allready planned to have lunch at the Big Island Brewhaus in Weimea, but being early I decided to look for a liquor store on my GPS-navigator and something called Kamuela Liquor Store showed up. Just a few hundred meters from the brewpub, so there was no reason not to drive by and have a look. The place was rather anonymous, and initially I simply just drove by the shed-a-like looking liquor store. As my navigator is about 5 years old I simply thought the place didn't exist anymore and turned the car around and drove back. On the way back I noticed the place, so I turned around again and managed to enter the right parking lot, which was actually just a pebbled space next to what I now knew was the liquor store. Not very impressive looking from the outside, I expected this to be just another small store with a couple of standard bottlings like Crown Royal, Glenlivet, Maker's Mark and Jack D. Inside the shop was more classy from what I expected from the outside. And bigger. It looked like a nice selection of wine (I wouldn't know). It for sure had a nice selection of beers (I do know) and also a fine selection of whisky. Nosing around for a couple of minutes I discovered this Shop Exclusive Four Roses

The bottle wes selected by the shopowners on a recent Kentucky trip.

 

59.5%

E means this is the 75% Corn, 20% Rye, 5% Barley mashbill and the K is the yeast type used for this whiskey (Four Roses uses 5 different yeast types, visit their website for more info)

The rye is very present on the nose, and blind I would have guessed this to be the 35% Rye mashbill. There is a nice delicate minty sweet nose on this and leaving the bourbon in the glass for some minutes evolves the nose into something really wonderful

The palate is quite powerful on the alcohol, and also quite woody compared to other Four Roses single barrels I have tried. The woodyness gives this whisky a dry feeling but it is also very oily and creamy. Still very minty At ll times, as the flavours roll from alcoholic, to woody then creamy and fianlly minty the experience is quite intense. Adding water didn't benefit for me as it made the whisky taste bitter, but at least the creamy finish improved

Score 87/100 

As I left Kamuela Liqour Store I learned that just two days later they would put up another single barrel, A 9yo Knob Creek 120 proof. I could probably have talked them into selling me one, and I did want one, but as I had to dump things from my suitcase just to fit in the Four Roses, I let it go .-(

Going back into Waimea I went to the Big Island Brewhaus. And that was another very pleasant surprise. The food was excellent, brewpub food with an Hawai'ian touch, the beers were very good as in awesome, super fresh beer which is actually quite rare to come by. Basically one of the best brewpubs I have ever been to

Big Island Brewhaus

The Overboard IPA was so fresh, so delicious

Two days later I rented a 4-wheel-drive with a couple of friends and went up to the top of Mauna Kea. 4200m and a newly opened  Four Roses

Danish Whisky Blog awards 2013

Distillery of the Year

Four Roses

Four Roses is one of the few distilleries that just do it right. An almost endless set of releases of single barrels and small batch bourbons in various price ranges. Apart from their standard yellow label bourbon, they have an ongoing set of cheap single barrels that is not much older than the barrels they use for the yellow label. They also have more expensive, but still very affordable single barrels, some of which have been in the barrel for longer than 15 years. Everything is not just single barrel, Four Roses have their "Small Batch" range, which, as the name implies, is a vatting of of barrels. The speciel edition of this, "Small Batch Limited Edition" has been named the favourite bourbon the last couple of years by several of my bourbon entusiast friends. An eyeopenener for me in 2013 was visiting the danish bourbon/cocktail bar Salon 39 in Copenhagen, which makes a fantastic Old Fashioned based on Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon

Here is my review of one of their cheap single barrels:

Four Roses Single Barrel 50%
Warehouse QN, Barrel 36-3T

Nose: Fantastic balanced bourbon nose, where the sweet corn and rye parts are very well integrated, with a lot of spice, archetype bourbon floor varnish lacqeur,

Palate : Very creamy, vanilla, rye and spicy all at once. Great oomph factor and a bit of wood, quite intense on the wood and rye and the creamyness is profound. The youth of this is showing with a faint alcohol burn

Finish : medium and creamy

A somewhat simple, but very delicious bourbon

Rating 85/100

Unfortunately the european releases don't have the recipe information as the US releases have. My guess for this would be OBSV. When you look at the price for these single barrels, it's one of the best bargains in the big world of great whisk(e)y.

Independent Bottler of the Year

Cadenhead

Cadenhead has totally revamped their line up here in 2013. The line up is turning toward small batch bottlings of single malts and a series that is called "Creations", which is blends, small batch blands that is. The small batch bottlings is actually very small batches of 2-4 casks. So far I have tasted several really great malts Caperdonich 1977, Highland Park 1988, Glenlivet 1970, Tomatin 1978 and a great Creations 20yo consisting of of 4 casks (Mortlach 1992 butt,  Bruichladdich 1993, Cameronbridge 1989 and Invergordon 1991 hogsheads)

So far I have liked everything in this range a lot, apart from a Clynelish that was too sulphury for me. If the new Master Blender of Cadenhead, Mark Watt, can keep up this quality I think we are all in for a lot of good treats in future

Caperdonich

Caperdonich 35yo 50.2%
Cadenhead Small Batch

Nose : heavy sherry, musty and earthy
Palate : Sweet, sherried, raisins, faint medicinal, quite robust and earthy
Finish: Long, and here the oak spicyness hits with a touch of vanilla

Rating 90/100

It's a very lively whisky, very intense and powerful

Bottling of the Year

SMWS 35.71

Like a hug from your mum 47.7%

40yo Distilled 11th October 1971

To be honest this was actually bottled late in 2012, but came to my attention in the summer of 2013 and was one of the 2 best whiskies I had in 2013, the other being Martin Mills which was botled in 1999. SMWS is right now sitting on a range of splendid casks of their distillery # 35, and this is just one of three 35's I purchased in 2013. If you are looking for a whisky and haven't really decided, try one of the SMWS 35's!. Expect a review early in 2014 of 35.71 

Tasting of the Year

Diageo Tasting with Donald Colville, Spirit of Speyside

There is various ways to set up a tasting at a whisky festival, where you know that most of the people have tasted a lot of whisky. I think Donald Colville nailed it here and brought us guests a nice tastings. It was a perfect mix of what Diageo has bottled, past, present and also in the future

The setup was

Inchgower 1976 Rare Malts Selection 27yo 55.6%
Talisker Port Ruighe 45.8%
Caol Ila Feis Ile 2012 60.40%
Cragganmore 21yo 56%
Mortlach SoS Festival Bottling 48%
Talisker Storm 45.8%

A good mix of brand new releases and rare bottlings is what makes coming to Scotland and doing festivals worth it.

5 distilleries worth visiting you might not have thought of

Visiting Distilleries...

It's a hobby of mine. I've been around 130 or so and all the visits have been fun. That's how it is with hobbies. Others say, have you seen one then you have seen them all. Obviously I don't agree :-)

Some distilleries are known for their nice visitor centres, others for great tours or fantastic scenery. When people recommend distilleries to visit it is very often the same names that pop up. And I don't disagree.

But here is five distilleries that I found particular interesting and they are not mentionend that often compared to others. So if you have seen a lot or a few distilleries, here is 5 that might have something to offer.


1. Four Roses Warehouses

Four Roses warehouses and Four Roses distillery are located 50 miles apart. The distillery offer two different tours, the warehouse tour needs an appointment first

It's called the Warehouse and Bottling facility. Four Roses Warehouses are unusual for Kentucky as they are single story warehouses. Opposed to the "standard" multi story warehouses. There is around 20 warehouses and a bottling facility on the site. You get inside one or two of the warehouses and then you get to the bottling facility where barrels are emptied, vatted and then bottled. The day we visitied they were doing single barrels. It's a great operation to watch and first hand see the barrels dumped.

Getting ready to empty this

2. Indian Creek Distillery

Indian Creek distillery is a revival of a distillery that has been silent since 1920. It was a smaller farm distillery that was forced to close when prohibition hit in 1920. The distillery was founded by Elias Staley around 1826 and run for almost a century until 1920 (with a break or two). Now 6th generation on the Staley farm, Melissa and Joe Duer has reinstalled the old original stills in the original setup and has started producing whiskey again. Using original recipe involving rye, barley, corn and hops and hickory wood for maturation (or partly) this distillery is probably so traditional that modern understanding and rules of whiskey has surpassed them in the century that has passed. It's a very nice place to visit and the Duer's has done a great job resurrecting this distillery, and visiting is a bit like going back in history.

http://www.staleymillfarmanddistillery.com/distillery.htm

Staley farm stills

3. Deanston

If you have visited distilleries in Scotland and want to see a distillery that is a bit different than the rest I recommend Deanston near Doune Castle. It's an old cotton mill that after 180 years was transformed into a distillery in the 60's. It is beautifully located on the bank of the river Teith. The whole distillery is located inside one building which is somewhat unusual as warehouses are normally set aside the rest of the distillery. The place has an interesting story and it's one of my favourite tours. After the tours there is a chance to taste the great whisky from the distillery. The destillery is powered by it's own water turbines, that produces enough power to also supply the nearby village with power (or used to). The giant turbines is an unusual sight for a whisky tourists. When "The Danish Drinking Team" group of 8, visited Scotland and around 10-12 distilleries in May this year, Deanston that was most popular amongst the bottle shoppers amongst us!

Deanston Still Room

4. Tomatin

An interesting distillery to visit in the scottish Highland. It used to be biggest distillery in Scotland, but the production has been scaled down to around 50% of what it once was. It used to run two mashtuns, and now the redundant mashtun has become a visitor attraction in itself. The distillery itself is a small village, quite isolated up in the Highlands between Inverness and Speyside, just on the A9. When entering through the narrow tunnel under the railway, you are met by giant warehouses reminding me of  Kentucky, if it wasn't for the heather highland surroundings. The place also have a visitor centre and bottle your own facility

Climb inside a mashtun at Tomatin

4. Yoichi

I covered my recent visit to Yoichi in another blog post here. This is exactly how it should be to visit a distillery. Everything was in japanese though, but maybe I should have learned that before I went :-)

Tasting Bar Yoichi Distillery

Next list will be: 7 of my favourite whiskybooks

Four Roses

Four Roses is a bourbon distillery located in Kentucky

And it is a distillery to keep an eye on. It didn't really have the best reputation, but after Kirin took ownership from Seagram in 2002 they have slowly but steadily developed this brand from something that didn't mean much to any entusiast, to one of the worlds top quality bourbon

Four Roses Warehouses

There's a few things that distinguish Four Roses from other bourbon distilleries. One is their warehouse facilities. The traditional multi story warehouses across the road is actually owned by Wild Turkey. Four Roses did acquire a piece of land 50 miles west of the distillery and their warehouses are one story only. which is unusual for Kentucky bourbons.

The other difference is yeast/mash bill combos of Four Roses

Four Roses has two mashbill

 E mashbill 75% corn, 20% rye and 5% barley
 B mashbill 60% corn, 35% rye and 5% barley

I would describe these mashbills as medium rye and high rye compared to other bourbon mashbills


Combined with 5 different yeasts V, K, O, Q and F this essentially gives Four Roses 10 different bourbon styles to play around with

Four Roses Single Cask bottling

Beside the regular standard Four Roses there is now a range of single casks and small batch bottlings and also the limited single cask and limited small batch. Everybody reading this will probably know that every single cask is as limited as the next, but the Four Roses limited range is older whiskey than their "regular" and more prolific output of single casks.

Four Roses distillery itself is build in a beautiful spanish hacienda style:

Four Roses distillery

Visiting Four Roses is actually two separate tours, you have to book at the warehouse facility separately. If you ever get the chance I can recommend them both highly, especially the warehouse tour which is very interesting well guided tour.

Today's dram is a 16yo single barrel OBSV, barrel #4 selected for the Four Roses visitor centre. 

O designates Four Roses Distillery, B the high rye mashbill, S is Straight Whiskey Distillation, and V is the yeast type The 5 yeasts origin from the 5 distilleries Seagram (Four Roses former owner) used to own in Kentucky, but today all Four Roses has the 1st letter O and third letter S as standard

Bottled at 54.7%

Nose: Very Fruity for a bourbon, and later a little minty rye notes

Palate : Butterscotch, leathery, oranges, a little more relaxed on the fruit which is dominating the nose. The finish has the typical sharp minty feature I often get in ryes and high rye bourbons and the vanilla/butterscotch kicks in as the finale. The bourbon is vibrant in its expression and has a lot of hidden layers so its an exciting experience to dram. It develops very well with some time in the glass and slowly opens up a small kaleidoscope of flavours as it initial seems a little bit closed. This is clearly something I would like a bottle of. You get rewarded a lot if you spend some time with the whiskey. 

Rating 89/100

Thanks to Sku for the sample

You can find his review here

3 cheap common bourbons and Jack D

Out working again, and I thought I better get something meaningful out of the evening, so I went to a local (very local..) pub and asked for a dram of their 3 bourbons, just for a scientific comparison.

Well, Jack Daniels isn't technically a bourbon, but Four Roses and Jim Beam are

When I got back to my hotel, I had the last of my Buffalo Trace miniature, to complete this evenings vertical

Jim Beam vertical !

Here a short review

1. Jack Daniels

Burnt wood, liqourice, wood bitterness, bananas!

2. Jim Beam

Seemed fruitier and lighter than the Jack D. Less wood influence

3. Four Roses

Seemed more delicate than the first two. Vanilla, creamy, minty, spicy tree

4. Buffalo Trace

On par with the Four Roses, more spicy woody, citrus

I am pretty sure that having #1 and #2 first made #3 and #4 appear better. As I reviewed #4 last weeknd and last blogpost I had that as comparison as well. Today its actual pretty good. A proof that order of consumation has some importance

It's also clear, that when you drink 4 whiskeys, relatively alike, the subtle differences will be more clear to determinate. I didnt pick up the banana in the Jack D until I retried it after sipping the Jim Beam. But then it was powerful

Four Roses is made from from 2 recipes and 5 yeasts, a total of 10 different types.

Check out http://www.maltstock.com for a serious vertical of Four Roses

These four are the cheapest products from the makers of these 4 whiskeys. They All make other products that will appeal more to us whisky entusiast. These 4 are most often drunk with ice or used in cocktails, but I actually enjoyed dramming the Four Roses and the Buffalo Trace

George T Stagg from Buffalo Trace

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