4. December Highland Park 18yo

Yesterdays 12yo was 40%, todays 18yo is 43%, does the 3% ABV really make a difference

It's very likely to!

This is pure speculating, but if I take this qualified example: The cask strength Highland Park 12yo was 55% before watered down and the 18yo was 52% before being watered down. This is totally made up by me, but I reckon it's a very realisitic example. In reality the ABV could have been different, similar and (unlikely though) higher for the 18yo.

But with these examples (I will spare you for the math): For every liter of whisky in the bottles approx. 27cl is added water for the 12yo and approx. 17cl is added water for the 18yo. Quite a lot, actually, in both examples, but also a remarkable difference.

One thumb rule is that alcoholpercentage goes down in the cask as the whisky matures (true for Scotland). Older whisky is weaker than younger whisky. Older watered down 40% whisky have less water added than a younger watered down 40% whisky!

Here is my opinion of the whisky

4. Highland Park 18yo 43%

The flavour profile of this is not far from yesterdays dram. But what you get is a more oily experience. Logical, as there should be less added water. As there is less water added, the concentration of "flavour molecules" is higher, The sherry is slightly more dominant. I pick up minty flavours as well. I get around the same amount of peatyness as in the 12yo. Again a well balanced sherry peaty whisky, and not as sweet as the 12yo- A great dram

Rating 89

Peatin' malt in 2007 at Highland Park

Off course its not just the ABV and added water that matters. Extra 6 years in cask and a different selection of cask types is also part of what makes this whisky what it is

3. December Highland Park 12yo

For the next few days I am going to Orkney, starting with a trio of OB's

3. Highland Park 12yo 40%

The nose is very sweet to the floral perfumy side. The palate is more in the same line kicking in with maltiness. Highland park is the Coca Cola of Malt Whiskies. Everybody likes it and many can't live without it. It's a very accesable malt, sweet and delicate, with a hint of peat - Highland Park mix very peated malt from their own floor maltings with "imported" malt, to get a lightly peated malt.

The light peat and the use of a high proportion of sherry casks results in a flavour intense entry malt, that has a lot more to offer than most other 12yo standard distillery bottlings.

The more I nose this the more I notice how sweet this is compared to other malts. The peat hits me on the palate, with a lot of woody spices incoming and a long finish for a product of this kind. I did experience quite a lot of batch differences of HP 12 and this one is surely one of the nicer versions I have tried. It's part of a 3-set 20cl bottlings that I stumbled upon on my mothers whiskyshelf... :-)

In a nutshell I find this very sweet but balanced as well in the participating flavours, with a very nice high intensity that is not usually expected from a 40% 12yo OB. The finish is intriguing with a lot of prickly wood spices lingering on your palate

Rating 88/100

2. December - Auchentoshan 18yo

Macdeffe's advent calendar 2012 - Auchentoshan triple distilling

2. Auchentoshan 18yo 43%

18yo OB

Auchentoshan is triple distilled. First the wash is distilled in the first still : The wash still is taking the ABV from around 8% up to around 20% - This is called low wines

Secondly this low wines is distilled in the intermediate still. A small cut is done, around 10% at the start called the foreshot is returned back and mixed with incoming low wines. So the intermediate still is distilling a mix of mainly low wines from the first still and a bit of foreshot of previous destillations.This results in an intermediate spirit (intermediate feints as they call it) with an average strength of 55%

Third, we have the spirit still. In this is distilled a mix of intermediate feints and what is cut away from previous distillations. Foreshots and feints from the third still is returned to the feints receiver where feints from the 2nd still and foreshots and feints from the third still is mixed. The ratio is 55:45

This results is a very light high alcohol spirit around 80-82%. which is reduced to 63.5% before entering the casks. Compare this to the approximately 70% that is produced when double distilling at other distilleries!

The 18yo is matured in ex-bourbon casks. It's a light and friendly spirit with quite some wood influence, where the wood dominates citrus and vanilla flavours. There's a surprisingly amount of fruityness, think pineapples mixed with apple, pears, oranges and sugar

This is a very delicious whisky and a perfect morning dram, when your palate is fresh and finetuned. I wouldn't serve it as number 35 in one of our regular sit downs :-). Aperitif

Rating 86

Macdeffe's Advent Calendar

Since before 2004 I have done my own whisky advent calendar. It's basically a dram a day in December up to christmas. The only difference about December than the rest of the year is that I will TRY to blog about it

It can be quite consuming to blog everyday, time that will interfere and interupt your drinking and enjoying of whisky.

This blog has been quiet for almost two months. It's not that I didn't drink whisky for two months. Quite the opposite. You can say I have been too busy drinking whisky to blog about it. A fantastic visit to UK with Penderyn and Glasgow Whisky Festival was the holiday highlights. OK here I kick into December with a series of short short short reviews. And maybe some longer comments and rants

1. December

The morning after Glasgow Whisky Festival, MacSorley's, Islay Inn and the Park Bar I managed to wake and knock the front door of Auchentoshan just before their opening. A sunday morning quietness was ideal for a whisky distillery tour, the triple stills are always a nice sight

They have an old Glen Garioch Still outside

Todays dram is

Auchentoshan "exclusively hand bottled" cask 11030

Distilled 28/06-1996, bottled 11/11-2012 56% 

I was there on the 18th, someone kindly handbottled the 20cl bottle the week before for me :-)

I think it should be compulsary for distilleries to have something special, like a special single cask when you visit their distillery. This cask is bottled as the custommers empties it, so various bottlings are likely to have different bottling days. I really think that distilleries with a stock lige Morrison Bowmore should price their DIY bottlings lower. At least try to make the price level tourist friendly instead of scaring us away

This is a great example of a malt from an ex-bourbon cask. The nose is close and somewhat simple, but delicious. A sweet malty vanilla nose¨. A fullbodied creamy palate continues along the same paths, with vanilla and custardy notes. Sticky toffee pudding without the sticky parts 

Rating 86/100

Is this fraud, cheating or lying ?

Just some of my random thoughts here. Maybe I am speculating and fantasizing too much, but I can't help myself think and speculate :-)

A new independent bottler "sources" some casks from Whyte and Mackay

an old Fettercairn, Dalmore, Carsebridge and North British under the Sirius label.

After about a year these bottles pop up for sale at the Whiskyshop (UK) and the prices are quite high. The grains go for 5-10 the price of similar bottlings and the malts are in true Dalmore sense released at fantasy prices. My first thought was that this was just a shadowbottler for Dalmore/Whyte and Mackay, but you never know?

At around the same time the man behind these bottlings, Mahesh Patel, is announced as purchasing a full set of the Dalmore Constallation, which is a rather large range of some older cask finished Dalmores of which the cheapest is a 20yo port finished at 2000£ and the most expensive is a 20000£ 1964 finished in a sherry metusalem cask.

(no typo's....)

Recently the Whiskyshop named Isle of Jura Superstition Whisky of the year. Isle of Jura and Dalmore are both Whyte and Mackay products.

To me this is like selling a Toyota at the price of a Ferrari and a Ferrari at the price of an Airbus, while naming a McDonalds Quarterpounder Food of the year.

I also see an unfortunate threesome. If connections like these were involving international politics there would be SCANDAL headlines hitting the newspapers..

The purpose of all this is not to sell these superexpensive malts. They only have one function. Their function is to create attention. Their function is to create a brand. A brand that is connected with luxury. If a bottle of old Dalmore is priced at 20000£ it will lead the uneducated consumer to believe that the regular normal priced Dalmores are superior products.

Similar things has been done by many other branded whiskies. But I have never seen a threesome of backrubbing like this. As a consumer you have to beware. If a shop name a specific bottling as Whisky of the year, you would expect it to be something special, wouldn't you ?

Well, it's a free world. There's plenty of malts out there and plenty of shops. I just choose to shop with people I consider honest in their pricing and honest in their recommendations

Sometimes I wish whiskyconsumers, were as much consumers as they are fans. If I look at the marketing in the business I sometimes can't help to think we are the easiest prey on the planet Earth.

I often see people lie down flat on their stomach drooling about some random packaging, that couldn't be given away for free, if it was sitting on the shelves in IKEA by itself.

PS I didn't even mention the Dalmore Zenith, which is another link between the whiskyshop and Whyte and Mackay

Whisky online part II of II - Smooth Ambler

This spring I got approached by Smooth Ambler Spirits when I randomly published on twitter I was driving around Kentucky visiting distilleries. They invited me to come visit. Smooth Ambler Spirits is one of these many new small distilleries shooting up all the world, particular in the USA. They are often named craft distilleries, a term I don't really like as I don't necessarily consider bigger, well established distilleries as non-craft distillers :-)

John Foster and Smooth Ambler stills

I really like Smooth Ambler Spirits. 

The days we had in Kentucky were extremely hot. The neighbouring states were more or less flattened by an unusual summer storm, putting areas in West Virginia, Ohio and Virginia out of Power. It was very very VERY nice that John emailed med in the morning before we drove from Lexington, Kentucky, that we better fill the car with gas as his area was powerless and they had no idea when it would come back.

John told me, that one of the reasons it's nice to live in West Virginia, is that they are not normally exposed to harsh weathers and storms. Hills, forests and small mountains usually do the job of calming down winds and weather. Not this time.

When we approached east West Virginia we saw what happened

Many fallen trees around Smooth Ambler.

There were no power around Smooth Ambler. It was very hot, above 40C. A gas station with a generator had a line of cars waiting half a mile down the road and then as far as my eyes could see down a side road. If John hadn't advised us to fill the car up with gas, we would have been stuck. Thanks!

Lexington, Virginia

Out of power also means no air condition. No fridges, no lights, no distilling, no nothing. There was kind of a ghost town feeling around the distillery that day. And very very hot.

 On this hot sunday, we were greeted by John, and had a small walk around the distillery and than sat down in their bar and had a little presentation of their products. We also managed to find a little sample of Mortlach for John, the last drops of travel goodies :-)

John lines up Smooth Ambler products

So what do a new distillery do ?. They won't have a 10year old ready until some years, 10 years to be precise. There's a few things to be done to generate income. Smooth Ambler do most of these

A. Make some white spirits like gin and vodka. These more or less comes straight of the still and straigth into the bottle and can be sold  right away. Smooth Ambler bottle a vodka and a gin. I really like their gin by the way.

B. Bottle some young whisky. This can be dangerous. People are used to drink older, well matured whisky and might not like whisky aged for just months or a couple of years. Look at the appendix below for more on this subject

Smooth Ambler Spirits do this and they also have a bottle aged gin!

So how are they doing

1. Smooth Ambler Yearling 46%

Aged for 1year and 10 months

Nose : Bourbon light. It got the bourbon characterisitc, with wood, quite a lot of vanilla, but also floral touch. Also a hint of north european vegetables, mainly fresh boiled potatoes-

Palate : A little rough, but not much. Very creamy and vanillaed, with a slightly somewhat bitter wood finish. A hint of a floral perfumedness. But in the end the creaminess, the vanilla and the youthful spirit stands out as the dominating flavours.

Rating 82/100

This is actually surprisingly good. It is what it is. A very young bottling of whiskey. But also very drinkable. This is a wheated bourbon, so there is not a heavy rye flavour for the young spirit to hide behind. The decision to make a wheated bourbon seems to be a brilliant decisison, as I reckon the quality of this bourbon is also a good balance between the wood and the soft creaminess of a wheater.

If a new distillery present their young whisky at overpriced inflated prices as special unique products (I've seen this happen in Denmark and Europe) I loose respect for the producer. This can be hard for them to regain :-)

If a new distillery is a little more humble about their products and has a more realistic view of their own products, I, as a consumer, will also have some confidence they know what they are doing. Smooth Ambler are aiming to make older bourbons.  It was pretty clear from my talks with John that these guys know what they want to make. Their ware house is full of normal sized barrels. Smooth Ambler is a distillery that wants to make whisky tomorrow, not just today.

Yearling and Old Scout

C. A third way to promote your brand and earn some cash is to bottle sourced whisky. High West gained fame by bottling sourced whisky, mainly ryes. Sourced predominantly from LDI

Smooth Ambler Spirits has also sourced barrels from LDI, but mainly, if not all bourbons.

Cask end at SAS. Looks like Four Roses to me :-)

Smooth Ambler doesn't use the term "sourced", but use "scouted" whiskey and they bottle it under the Smooth Ambler Old Scout Label

2. Smooth Ambler Old Scout 6yo 49.5%

Nose : Floor varnish

Palate. Woody, Liqorice. There is definetely a rye component here. This has got some of the same components as those total black sherry whiskies. This is a well balanced whisky. It means the major flavour components are balanced out and none of them heavily dominantes the other. It's the licorise wood, rye spice and creamy sweetness. It is more woody and less sweet relative to other bourbons. And my guess is that it is a high rye mash bill of some kind. 

This is a hardcore bourbon. The flavours are intense. Anyone who thinks Jack Daniels is rock'n'roll haven't tasted the real stuff

Rating 86/100

3. Samples

I am very thankful for the gifts I received from Smooth Ambler. Especially three cask samples of sourced bourbons aged 12, 19 and 21 years old. All three labeled "Very Old Scout" together with specific cask data. I was told that these casks will be somehow vatted together. So far I have seen labels of a 11yo and a 14yo when googling the internet. My favourite of the three is the 12yo, the two older ones are quite woody. I get the best results when I add a little of the older ones into the 12yo. It's always fun to do your own homevattings and not that hard if you got components with basic flavours. Smooth Ambler has done the same with their 14yo which has 15, 17 and 19yo whisky in it as well

Appendix

One of my favourite bloggers got into trouble with a new distillery recently:

http://recenteats.blogspot.dk/2012/09/hell-hath-no-fury-craft-distiller.html 

All I can say, is that at least Sku tasted the whiskey before mildly critisizing it. I think Leviathan should have read Sku's blog before ciritizing Sku :-)

Forty Creek Copper Pot Reserve 43%

Forty Creek Distillery in Ontario has recently released a new bottling, the Copper Pot Reserve. I visited the distillery in June 2012 and had a great tour which was set up with the help of Johanne from The Perfect Whisky Match, a leading Canadian Whisky Blog

She was very kind to send me a sample from this bottle:

Copper Pot Reserve

You can read Johanne's very good blog post about this bottling here:

Copper Pot Reserve on The Perfect Whisky Match

Here are my own short thoughts about this very nice whisky:

Forty Creek Copper Pot Reserve 43%

Nose : Grainy, sweet and slightly youthful.

Palate : Fullbodied, sherried. creamy, the flavours are really bold from what you would expect from the somewhat laidback nose.. Very sweet-fruity on the palate, cherries, lychees, peach on a back of wood and spices

Finish : Medium

The 3% higher ABV brings out a little more creamyness of the Forty Creek Whisky

Rating 86/100, 

A very delicious and  drinkable Canadian Whisky. This will for sure appeal to fans of ex-sherry casked whisky.

I can't help compare this to malt whisky, which this whisky is much closer to in style than bourbon. The main difference is the grainy flavours with some clearly different components, a bit of rye spice particular, and then the creamy vanillaed texture with gives a solid base for the fruity sherried whisky.

I had a short post about my visit to Forty Creek here