Some thoughts and reflections after 3 weeks of whisky

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

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

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

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

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 73  - 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

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

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...