Peat mania

This week (yesterday) Bruichladdich had this press release

http://www.laddieblog.com/laddieblog/Blog/Entries/2011/6/30_(Even_More)_Octomore.html

With a bachelor in chemistry and being a whiskygeek I always find info releases like this very interesting. The fact that the phenol components is specified is something I would like to see and compare from a range of malts actually, but that's not the point of this blog post

I am pretty sure that the thing that everybody will remember and pay most attention to in Bruichladdich's press release, is the number 309ppm. Phenol content is measured im ppm. Parts per million. This is a scale used to describe very low content of a given substance

Peaty whiskies always had it's own cult followers, often named peatophiles or peatjunkies. The more peaty a whisky is  - the better. Traditionally the level of peatyness in a whisky was/is said to be highest in Ardbeg.
50-55ppm.

If you look around the internet or in whiskybooks, the peat levels of the traditional islay's might vary slightly, but as a general rule it was Ardbeg at no. 1 spot, with Laphroaig second at 40-45ppm and Caol Ila and Lagavulin third with 35ppm

The fact that peating barley isn't an accurate proces influences these numbers. Getting malt from Port Ellen maltings should give the distilleries a consistent product. Part of the malt Laphroaig uses are from their own fllor maltings and kilns, which is a harder component to control

Around 9-10 years ago Bruichladdich started the peat race introducing a batch of Octomore at 80ppm, later values in high 100's and this week the above mentioned 309ppm!!

An amateur digging peat on Islay

Ardbeg has (slightly thou) joined this race with their Supernova whiskies peated at 100ppm.

Now all this ppm mania has caused some discussion amongst whisky entusiasts over the years and a few points has to be noted. 

Different measurement methods will give different ppm values. This has caused some arguments about values being comparable. This set aside, another fact that's quite important is that the ppm value is given for the phenol content of the barley. 

Mr. Tattie Head, a regular whisky forum contributor pointed out :

And I will say once again that ppm's for malt are irrelevant. I'm not going to eat the malt.

As soon as the barley is milled, brewed and distilled things have changed. It's a fact that most of the phenols are in the husks of the barley and that the distilling proces do affect the final phenol content

In the new destillates, Laphroaig actually have the highest phenol content at 25ppm closely followed by  Ardbeg at 23-24ppm, Lagavulin at 16-18ppm and Caol Ila at 13-14ppm - according to Jefford's Peat, Smoke and Spirit

It doesnt stop here. When a malt whisky is maturing the phenol's are somehow broken down. Older whisky has a lower ppm content than younger whisky given the same start point

So the ppm value of a whisky really doesnt describe the "peatyness" of a whisky. The taste expereince might not correspond to the numbers given.

Another fact that has to be concerned is that different types of phenols has different flavours. So two malts with same ppm will taste different. The source of the peat itself is important and the kilning proces as well. In the world of whisky this is mainly noted in the fact that Islay peat flavours the whisky different than Speyside peat or Orkney peat will do. Even peat from different parts of Islay affects the barley with different flavours.

So how "peaty" a whisky tastes is something, and the ppm value given on the label is something different. There's a lot of additional factors as I just described. Age, cask, distillation and origin of peat namely.

So tassting the end product is the only way to tell how peaty a whisky really is!

But why this fascination with ppm values ?.

I am sure everybody remember's the first time they tasted a heavily peated malt whisky. With horror, fascination or total subjugation!

This first-time peat shock surprise is something that's hard to repeat. With time and experience you get used to  the taste of peated whisky. I even sometimes have the feeling I am immune to peat. I yearn for the peat shock experiences of my early whisky years. It just doesn't happen like that anymore.. (and I haven't even mentioned that some products have changed to a more light version over the years, thats another story)

I have to admit that neither the Octomores I have tasted nor the Ardbeg Supernovas has given me the same peat shock expereince as the first time I tasted a Laphroaig 10yo 15-20 years ago

The only thing that has come close was when I had a dram of Edradour Ballechin Burgundy finished a couple of years ago. This is described as 55ppm, so number-wise it can't compete with the Octomores or the Supernovas.

I do find that peat needs something to work against. Tasting contrasts do work for me. Peat in a heavily sherried whisky might be disguised, but if you catch the contrast, the same whisky can give you quite a decent peat shock expereince

So it's also a lot about what happens in your head as well as what's in the glass..

Höhler und Braunstein

Right after the Limburg whisky fair, I convinced two of my friends Tim Puett and Leonard Bacha to go on yet another distillery visit and we went looking for Brennerei Höhler, just a few kilometers south of Limburg.

Here they are at the wee still

The distillery wasn't open at the time we finally located it, but we managed to get a wee look around by using sign language to a lady guarding the place.

To accompany this mornings german whisky I have two similar young editions from the danish distillery Braunstein

1. Braunstein 10.2 46%, 875 bottles

3yo exbourbon casks married with a ex sherry oloroso cask

Nose : yeasty bread (not unplesant), sligtly vinegar or wine, and a slight hint of peat

Palate : Very malty, sligthly acidic, with some wood influence

Finish : medium

Not the worst 3yo whisky I have tried but in the end the weird acidity isn't my cup of tea

Rating 63

2. Braunstein 11.1,  46%

3yo ex-sherry casks

Nose : Sherrywood, cinnamon, very warm and pleasant

Palate : Very spicy, the light spirit seems to have some problems coping with the heavy sherry influence, making this slightly incoherent. Some acidity again.

Finish : short-medium, and the youth of the whisky shines through

One of the better 3yo whiskies I have tasted, the active casks have done a good job

Rating 75 

In general I think Braunstein lacks the texture of scottish malts, could be due to the stills they use, the product is more similar to likes of St. George in Alameda, California.

3. Whesskey, Hessicher Single Malt Whisky aus Rauchmalz 44%

Nose : Youth, Malt

Palate : Very fruitbrandy like, some spicyness, doesn't taste a lot like whisky. Some sour, acidic not very pleasant notes

Finish : shortish

Rating 63

Not as good as the Braunstein 11.1, but better than 10.2, It seems a bit more balanced on the texture, feels like a bit more heavy spirit

I still need to taste a worthy malt (barley) whisky made from these fruit brandy stills types. I do think that other grains can give better results (like Anchor)

All of these three very young whiskies where acceptable taking their age into consideration, but stuff like this is not the reason I drink whisky

Braunstein cost around 795 Dkr for a 50cl bottle (approx 93£) and I paid 12€ for a 20cl bottle of the Whesskey (10£)

PS It is possible to make good young whisky, recently I have tried stuff from Glann ar Mor (Kornog), Kavalan, Kilchoman and Daftmill that was in a totally different league.

I wish these were bottled at cask strength

There's a couple of areas in the whiskybusiness I sometimes think I could easily live without :-)

One is the huge array of local whisky distributors and agents, which for a small country like Denmark is quite an expensive link in the trade from distillery to me as consumer. Nothing to do about thou, but logically this link will be cheaper in places where larger areas and/or population groups can be covered.

Another creature is the master blender. Personally I prefer cask strength whisky, preferably single casks. I don't really like others than me adding water to my whisky and I don't like caramel coloring. Somehow somewhere someone has decided that producing whisky for the masses requires blending, water and e150 and they are probably right!. I don't think the ability to make great blends and vattings means you are also great in choosing single casks!

But sometimes they do give me whisky the way I like it. last post I mentioned Chivas Cast Strength bottlings. Another range of bottlings worth looking for are Diageo's annual releases. They tend to be expensive, but sometimes there's affordable gems amongst, like the 16yo Glen Elgin.

Some distilleries are kind to offer bottlings both at watered down ABV and cask strength, like Laphroaig 10yo, and I reckon most reading this will agree with me that the cask strength versions are far superior!

Amrut has one of the best standard ranges in industry. Peated and unpeated. Both at cask strength and 46%, and the Fusion on top of this

Amrut at Limburg

Ardbeg has a similar nice mix of 46% and cask strength whiskies in their standard range

Glenlivet doesnt have much, but they do have Nadurra

Quite often, when I taste  wateres down whisky I can't help thinking, that I REALLY would like to taste this as cask strength.

Glenfiddich doesnt do much in the higher ABV ranges. It could be really nice if their 18yo was available at full strength. I also wouldnt mind to have Highland Park available at full strength. Lagavulin 16yo at full strength, we all know how good the 12yo is. I also wouldnt mind some sherried Macallans available at fulls strength. The 10yo cask strength was fantastic, but also hard to find. It is about to be discontinued unfortunately, if it isn't allready

An abundance of water at Glenfiddich

Any whiskies you would like to see at full strength ?

PS the last couple of years, quite a few whiskies has gone slightly up-strength, thank you for that, I talked a bit about it here :

http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/distilleries-i-avoided-cause-i-though.html

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