Littlemill

Steve Rush, author of the blog The Whisky Wire , often runs social media events about whisky. This is usually taking place on twitter with twitter tastings. A lot of interesting and unusual whiskies are being presented at these tastings. I wish I had the opportunity to participate more, but I don't like to sign up for events I don't know if I am able to attend or not. You are provided with whisky to taste and commentate on, so I think there is a bit of responsibility to participate if you do sign up. I have participated once or twice over the years, not much. It's always fun, and also very confusing when twitter goes bonanza with tasting notes and comments rolls in from quite a big group of whisky entusiasts.

I signed up for this Littlemill event. This is not a pure twitter event, but a Flash Blog event. I think it means a group of bloggers (and maybe also non bloggers) all are going to add their opinion about this one whisky. On the internet. On the same day.

Photo from Loch Lomond Group website

This is an OB Littlemill. The price is very high. Around 2000£. Very expensive and this is how it goes with closed distilleries. When there is few casks left, the price rockets. There has been plenty of various Littlemill's to pick up at a fraction of this price the last many years, but if you miss the train, you miss the train.

Today Littlemill is "owned" by Loch Lomond Group. There is no distillery to be owned actually. The distilllery went silent in 1994 and burned in 2004. Loch Lomond group owns some casks and the right to bottle them as official bottlings.

You can read a bit about Littlemill on Loch Lomond Group's website: 

Littlemill was a Lowland distillery. If you want to know where it was located you can check out this google map I made. Just look a bit northwest of Glasgow, just a little further out than Auchentoshan on the way up to Loch Lomond along the A82

This new 25yo Littemill comes with a nice little pamphlet. I like that pamphlet. It has a bit of info, that the SWA rules say you can't put on the bottle. It is a good reading for the geeks amongst the whiskyentusiasts. Actually it's a good read for everybody. It more or less got the full provenance of this whisky specified. Let me quote:

"Our two master blenders John Petersen and Michael Henry have dipped and nosed the remaining casks of 1989 and 1990 in our warehouse. 

 From these they have selected 10 which they believed best represent the quality and style of whisky from the Littlemill distillery. 

 These 10 casks have been married together to deliver this exceptional 25 year old lowland single malt whisky. 

 The 1989 liquid went into the cask on 17th December 1989 at 68.5 degrees and the 1990 was casked between 1st & 4th April 1990 at between 68.6 and 68.7 degrees. 

 The liquid was originally laid down in a mixture of the finest American and European Oak casks and for this 1st bottling it has been married together and has experienced a period of finishing in 1st. fill European Olorose Sherry casks."

Before I go on with opinion of this whisky, I will say that I am not the worlds biggest Littlemill fan. It's usually a very herbal whisky, so herbal it is unique. A lot of whisky claims to be unique (I hate that word), but Littlemill actually is. Both in a good and in a bad way. Depends if you like it I say :-). But sometimes Littlemill is just too herbal for me

Littlemill 25yo 2015 50.4%

Nose: The nose is quite archetypical for something that has been finished in a sherry cask. The nose is also quite delicate but still with adequate punch

Palate: The texture is a bit oily/rubbery, but behind this there is what I would describe as a typical light lowland style whisky. This is more lowland than Littlemill, if you can follow me! There is a tiny hint of the typical Littlemill herbal thing, but I wonder if I would have picked this up blind

Finish: A bit on the short side. The age suddenly emerges with woodyness, and I get  hint of gin! It all falls into a nice sweet nutty ending

This whisky benefits spending some time in the glass

One of the better Littlemill I have tasted. It's a bit more anonymous and delicate than most other I have tasted. By that I mean smoother and less herbal. It's an OK whisky but I never felt the urge to pour some more

Score 84

Thanks to Loch Lomond group and Steve Rush for the sample

Now when we are at it. A very good friend of mine is a Littlemill collector. His name is Menno, you might have heard of him or his whiskyshop and website whiskybase

He told me himself he has the worlds biggest collection of Littlemill. He also said that was because he was the only one collecting Littlemill. But that's not true. He told me himself that there is another Littlemill collector in Belgium. When I was at Feis Ile he was on the island for just one day, but he took the time to come visit us in our cottage (which was a church) and gave me a sample, a really big sample of 20cl Littlemill. I can't remember if he said it was the best Littlemill ever bottled or one of the best Littlemill ever bottled. Menno is a true Littlemill fan. He says when he thinks a Littlemill is good and he says when he thinks a Littlemill is bad. He is not a fanboi that just thinks everything from Littlemill is fantastic. He scored the 25yo a big 91 by the way. I will add his notes HERE when I get a link to it. But anyway, he gave me a big sample of this:

Photo from Whiskybase

Littlemill 1989 24yo Whisky Doris 51.7%

So how is this compared to the OB?

This whisky is actually quite similar to the OB, but without the sherry part. So it's not that oily, and doesn't have the slight rubber texture. It got a little bit more burn, as the edges haven't been shaved off. It got a lot more of the nuttyness

It is delicate, mature and fruity. I have come across some whiskies that has gone all the way to some bubblegum fruityness and this whisky is like it's about to go down the same lane,

Nose: Ex bourbon. A nice and delicate 

Palate: Not much exciting goes on, initially quite ordinary, but then things starts to happen

Finish: Medium-long and very nice. No matter if a finish is described as short, medium or long, some tastes always linger for long and the long finish on this, albeit not very powerfull is very nice. I have to say I really love the finish of this whisky. This is where this whisky emerge as a little fruit explosion. A mix of banana, mango and pear, but not particular sweet

This whisky also benefits from some time in the glass

Score 89

Thanks to Menno for the SAMPLE

While the latter might be the best Littlemill I have ever tasted, both whiskies in this post are among the best Littlemills I have ever tasted. It is no secret that I prefer ex-bourbon whisky to ex-sherry and my verdict on these two drams is not a surprise for most people who knows me

I will add links to other flash bloggers below as soon as I get them

Friends of Single Malts (in german) 

Whisky with Friends (in dutch)

Whisky Girl (8.5/10)

Whisky Wednesday (video, 8.5/10)

Braw Spirit

Whisky Discovery

Edgylassie (instagram)

Somerset Whisky Blog

Alasdair Day (R&B Distillers)

La Cave de Cobalt (in french)

WhiskyCorner

Andrews Share

Great Drams

Whisky Rover

Whisky Apocalypse

The Amateur Drammer

The Whisky Wire

Le Blog Wallon sur le Single Malt (in french, 89/100)

Whiskybase

WhiskyLoving

WhiskyWorship (4/5)

Malt Fascination 

Whiskyfun

12 whiskybase whiskies in 4 hours

Long time whiskyfriend Ras Mazunga, and fellow PLOWED member likes to send me samples from his whiskybase.com shops own independent bottling label ARCHIVEs, some of which has been sitting on my shelf for some time now. I better do something about it. Normally I would only review 1 or 2 whisky at a time, but today I will do 12!!. A lot of puritans will shake their head on this, but this is in fact a great mirror of how I often drink whisky with friends, where we sit down and go through 20-30 drams and just have fun, and do some light comparisons between the drams

Ras filling our bourbon cask at Las Vegas Distillery

So this is a set of fast reviews where I will spread thoughts about these malts and compare them to each other.

1. Tomintoul 1969 42.4% 42yo
Sweet, fruity, candy, winegums, fruit drops gently replaced by a delicate sweet spicyness when the first nips are taken. This is exactly how you hope an old Tomintoul will taste. Rating 90

2. Glen Grant 1975 46.6% 36yo
Sweet, spicy, also candy again, which for is typical old Glen Grant. Similar in style to the Tomintoul, but more dry and oily, with a lot more spicy wood with a medicinal finish. Rating 88


3. Dailuaine 1983 47.3%  28yo
Very Oily, heavy in texture, classic malt whisky. Grassy oiliness oozes in the nose, and I find it remarkable how the oilyness hits you allready at the nose. Just a hint of woodspice. The remarkably oilyness continues for long in the finish Rating 86

4. Longmorn 1992 48.5%  19yo
After the Daluiane this is back to a more normal texture. Mint is the first thing that hits me, not intense, but more on the light side, still nice oilyness and this has a slight meaty texture as well. Rating 87

5. Imperial 1995 51.7%  16yo
Great Classic Imperial. Mint. Vanilla. This is sooo imprinted with these bourbon characteristics that I could describe this as a bourbon without the heavy wood and the sweet corn. What's left ?. Mint and vanilla. Simple. Great. Delicious. Rating 90


PS Many great Imperials "flooding" the market at the moment from bottlers like Gordon and MacPhail, OMC and Duncan Taylor. This is another one to mark up this relative unknown and unfortunately closed distillery.I'm a big fan of this relaxed simple vanila/mint/bourbon style

6. Glenrothes 1988 53.4% 23yo
Never been the biggest fan of Glenrothes. The 1991 OB was a big pleasuree to me though, and this reminds me of that. This actually tastes a bit like a mix of the Dailuaine and the Imperial!. Fullbodied, not a lot of vanilla and mint, but it's there. Rating 88


Allright, feeling slight intoxicated by now, brewed some coffee (Ethiopean beans off course), to clean my palate between drams. Still 6 drams to go


7. Littlemill 1988 49.3% 23yo
This is the 2nd Archives Littlemill and I really loved the first one, which was an unusual and weird malt malt whisky, but hey, isn't that the Littlemill in a nutshell ?
It's reviewed here : http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.dk/2012/03/whiskybase-part-ii-of-iii.html
This is the first "tainted" dram in the session. I wouldn't expect otherwise from Littlemill, which is almost always on the weird side in the world of whisky. Tainted is a hard word, cause there is nothing wrong with this dram, just a slight rubberness, but its my favourite kind of rubberness, it's the women in tight wet latex again. This is smooth velvet latex sherry cask and quite nice. Not very herbal opposed to the first bottling, more mainstream, but still the light fingerprint of Littlemill. Quite smooth and delicious actually. Rating 87


8. Glen Garioch 1990 54.0% 21yo
I always considered Glen Garioch recent bottlings to be somewhat on the rough side, and this is also a bit rougher compared to the 7 first drams, but not as much as expected. The first thing that hits me is the peat. Is Glen Garioch a peated malt or not?, it depends on the period it was distilled in. Around 1990 they for sure used considerable amounts of peat, at least enough for me to pick it up :-)
This Glen Garioch got quite a lot of peat (relatively) but is still very delicate highland whisky. Rather dry, medium woodspicy Rating 88


If you are looking for serious whiskyblogging I would stop reading now


9. Highland Park 2000 50.9% 11yo 
According to the whiskybase website this is 11½ years old. I thought only kids younger than 6 counted their age in ½ years :-)
I didn't describe colours of the drams before, so far most of the drams have been whiskycoloured. This one is far lighter in colour than any of the other drams. Highland Park is said to be heathery and this is exactly what I can taste from this dram right now. After 8 drams my palate is not in the best shape, but I reckon what I pickup is mainly differences from what else I had. HP is also supposed to be peaty, but being a peathead for many years I often find myself immune to peaty flacours, especially after a series of drams. The heather is here. The colour would suggest an immature whisky but is not so. It's rather delicate flowers and probably a good way to experience the true distillery character of Highland Park, not masked by Sherry casks. Well, some would say that sherry casks is part of the HP distillery character so maybe not..:-). First time in this session I feel the spirit of the whisky coming through (ethanol). This is very different to what HP offers itself via their OB's
Rating 83


10. Isle of Jura 1988 51.3% 24yo
What can be more scary than Isle of Jura ?. The OB line tends to scare away most whiskyentusiast, while at the same time being quite popular with people that are not every day whisky drinkers. I have similar views as the mainstream whisky entusiast on Isle of Jura, but I have to admit that some of their special releases have been very nice as well as a few independents. Lets see how this fare...
Some sour notes in the notes which I don't like, but my nose quite fast get used to it and a lot of fruityness emerges. But everytime I lift the glass back to my nose I get this (baby)puke. The palate is better, but still this offnote I dont really like in Jura. Cabbage ? Yuk. This will only appeal to Jura Fans. Admitted, there's a lot of good things going on in this malt, but a delicious sticky toffee pudding is never gonna taste good with sour parmesan cheese in top. Rating 70


I am getting pished now. I for surely how hope the last two whiskies are better


11. Ledaig 2004 61.9% 7yo
The youngster in this seesion. Ledaig often gives me same troubles as Jura. There's just this offnote I never liked (I usually refer to it as the tobermory-note, as this is where I experienced it first many years ago.)
This has got it just a little bit on the nose, but not much. The palate is a fullbodied malt whit great oily texture, but still with a sour ledaig youthness that I am no particular fan of. Well, if you drink a young whisky, expect it to taste like a young whisky. But do young whiskies have to taste sour. No. Rating 79


My hopes are now left on Laphroaig


12. Laphroaig 1998 54.2% 13½yo
After 10 and 11 this is pure whisky heaven :-). A well balanced peaty whisky. Not as floral as I find younger OB Laphroaigs, and this is exactly why IB Laphroaigs is my favourite to OB these years when it comes to 15 years or younger. This is a nice peaty Laphroaig, and if you are a peathead looking for great alternatives to OB islay releases this will not dissapoint you. Rating 87

Final comments :

Archives is an excellent independet bottler which easily matches OB's when it comes to Tomintoul, Laphroaig, Glenrothes and Glen Garioch and gives a good alternative when it comes to Highland Park. If you don't like Ledaig and Jura, Archives wont change your mind. For the more unknown distilleries expect top class whiskies

Whiskybase part II of III

1. Littlemill Archives 1989 48.3%
Bottled 2011, 22yo, refill sherry hogshead
Whiskybase link : http://whiskybase.com/whiskies.php?merkid=92&whiskyid=25065

Nose : VERY herbal, makes me wonder if this has been infused with herbs :-)

Palate : Licorise, burnt sugar, hint of latex, and faint hint of mint emerges on the finish

Finish: Long

This is a powerful tasting whisky. And very unusual. It's very herbal and the sherry impact is powerful. Big and bold, but its in both sherry and flavour. The distillery profile and the cask is battling, but there is no clear winner.

Rating 90

2. Strathmill Archives 1974 44.5%
Bottled 2011, 37yo
Whiskybase link: http://whiskybase.com/whiskies.php?merkid=120&whiskyid=25064

Nose : Delicate fruit. Apples with a layer of sweet lemon-orange

Palate : Orange liqueur, spicy, did I say oranges, this is like sugar marinated orange slices, finished with a spicy minty layer. Medium intensity

Finish : Medium and minty

Rating 89

Nice dram, that has a nice oomph, despite the lowish ABV