Danish Whisky Blog awards 2011

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

Port Charlotte 9yo 63.4%

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

A flight of 5 peated malts

1. Ardbeg SuperNova 2010 60.1% (L10 070)
 Anoraks can discuss peat ppm values forever, something that started around when Bruichladdich decided to got all-inn with peat in barleys and produced Octomore (80ppm) and later Octomore with even more peat. Some claims that there is a theoretical limit below these values for peat content.
 Here's a few things about ppm, peat and whisky :
ppm stands for parts per million and is measure to describe small contents of whatever... When it comes to peat its the phenol contents, as phenols gives malt whisky its peated/smoky taste.
 ppm values given are for the content in the barley. The ppm value actually diminish in distillation, so even though Ardbeg uses the most peated barley for their standard produce, the newmake of Laphroaig has a higher ppm value than the ppm value for Ardbeg new make. Phenols must be breaking down when a whisky mature, as the ppm value goes down as whisky mature in the cask as well. This is no exact science and sometimes you get old whisky that are surprisingly peaty
The ppm value for this Ardbeg supernova is given on the bottle as 100ppm, opposed to the standard 50-60ppm for Ardbeg. I am not sure how much difference this will give in the newmake, but the fact that this is younger than the Ardbeg 10 will add to the relative peat difference as will the fact that this is cask strength
Now back to the whisky : The first thing I note is that this doesnt actually seem to be that peaty. I don't get the chok-effect that Ballechin gave me (heavily peated Edradour)
This doesn't have the sweetness I got in SN2009, I find it a lot more one-dimensional (actually described as a deeper, earthier character on the bottle compared to SN2009, In which I agree)
My comments : Dry, peaty, newmake - I prefer the SN2009
Rating 85


2. Ardbeg Rollercoaster 57.3 (L9 344)
I've been a member of the Ardbeg committee since around it started (I think I got number 389). In the early days I had pleasure of acquiring almost all of their releases, but the bottlings out the last years hasn't been the same (everything was much better in the good ole' days). Legends like the 23yo-ish sherry casked Ardbegs, Kildalton, 21yo, early 70's single casks etc. are now in my collection of empty ardbeg bottles. Recent bottlings has also been a heavy lift in prices unfortunately. Guess we shoulkd't have told everybody how good Ardbeg is 10 years ago ?.
The Rollercoaster is a bottling to celebrate the 10th year anniversary of the Ardbeg Committee. Its a vatting of casks distilled every year from 1997 to 2006, making this a 3yo technically. Young Islays has become a catagory of its own the last decade. It's very popular, the world is full of peatjunkies. So offcourse every distillery and every IB is having something in this catagory.
Ardbeg probably had the most, but this is more to the fact they only distilled regularely since 1997 so their main stock has been young whisky
This is one of the best young Islays I had, far better than any of the AVY, VYA, Still Young, Almost There etc., seems like they kept their best casks!
My comments : citrus, peat, complex (I need that T-shirt), the different cask vintages in here works together like a rollercoaster
Rating 85



Note : SN2010 is 80£, Rollercoaster 50£. These are high prices, a lot of people refuses to pay 50£ for a "3yo", but I think the whisky got the quality to justify this is bit. I find it lot better than the SN so in the Ardbeg catagory it's good quality for money!

3. Bruichladdich : Port Charlotte Cuairt Beatha PC6 61.6%
Finished in Madeira Casks
First impression is that this is a slight sourness, which lessens as you take the first sips. Still very detectable in the nose unfortunately. This seems quite fierce, and I do admit I often have problems with finishes. This is no exception. I don't find that the peat and the madeira works together here.
Rating 65


4. Brora - Old Malt Cask cask 2294 50% 23yo Nov. 1982
First I'd like to point out that if you look for peated in a Brora, go for something distilled in the early-mid 70's. But the lack of peat in this won't let me take it of todays vertical. This is from a sherry cask, but it isn't overpowering. But the nose and palate doesn't lie. It's woody in the good sweet way I often see, and absolute adore, in old Brora's and Clynelish', is it the mix of this and peat that make 70's Brora's outstanding ?. The nose is a delightful sweet spicy mix with a big flowery/honey touch. The palate is sweet, prickly, and sherry-woody
My comments : sweet, sherry, prickly, flowers, spicy
Rating 89



5. Glen Keith 33yo old 1971 Lorne MacKillop D&M Aficionados' Club 43%
Glen Keith is the neighbour of Strathisla in Keith, and has been silent since 1999, functioning today as filling store and technical center. This is a sample of an american bottling I got from plowed-exile Rodger Howard. 
This is surprising me with its peat!, not something you expect from a Glen Keith. I also find citrus in this one. A lot, this is probably one of the most citrus-lemon whiskies I had. Which is good, cause I like that. It reminds me Ardbegs the same age and vintage. The intensity is high so I suspect not much or no water at all has been added to reach the 43 ABV. This is pure joy to me
Rating 89


Edit summer 2011: I am pretty sure the sample bottle was contaminated as when I tasted this directly from the bottle there was no peatyness AT ALL, fact is that I tasted something else and I don't know what and I wonder if Rodger does :-)


Real Rating 82