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...

Charbay Winery and Distillery

In January 2010 I had the pleasure to taste Charbay-II (thanks Adam) and I got aware of a winery on the hills between Sonoma and Napa Valley in the wine country just north of San Francisco, California.

Charbay is NOT on the main road

After a somewhat longish ride on small hilly roads, in dense forest, I finally found Charbay. It quickly realisedt that Charbay had it's distilling facilities in Ukiah, a bit north of the winery, but the old stills were displayed outside

A still, a boiler and a condenser

The stills will look familiar to those who are acquainted with Cognac. Alembic style!. Now, for a person who has seen quite a lot of scottish distilleries, the unusual about Charbay is not how the whisky is distilled, or the look of the stills. To see traditional potstills outside Scotland is actual a somewhat rare sight, but this is still quite similar to setups seen Scotland, which is the motherland of whisky, if not yours, it's mine. This doesn't mean good whisk(e)y can't be produced outside Scotland or on different still designs and setups.

Charbay is a good example. I had the honour of meeting Charbay's Marko Karakasevic. Charbay was founded by his father, who began distilling in California in 1983 and is 12th generation from a family of European distillers. Marko is 13th generation. Having a winery, and a distillery making wine and fruit based spirits, Marko turned to whiskey, as he was also a fan of the great new wave of american microbrew. He thought..why not turn these great ale and beers into whisky. Now this is quite unusual. The beer used is bottle-ready beer from a Northern Californian microbrewery. Marko uses several kind of beers and ales. Pilsner, IPA's and Stouts.

The Charbay I tasted in 2010 was release II

Charbay II at Ardbeggeddon 11

Charbay II is made from a pilsner, matured for approx. 6 years in casks, then 3 additional years in stainless steel tanks. Now I don't have any particular tasting notes for this whiskey, I tried it during a social event, amongst a "few" other drams, so my approach was not being scientific :-)

I remember liking it though, liking it so much I spend a few hours searching out this winery !

Aging a whiskey on stainless steel tanks is also unusual. Well maybe aging isn't the correct term to use, but I could have said marrying or mellowing. 

If you think nothing happens outside a barrel go google Old Bottle Effect or those Eau-de-vie's (or was it grappas?) that has been "matured" in glass (or was it also stainless steel). Anyway.

Marko want's the character of the beer/ale used to be a dominating factor of the final whiskey or spirit. He uses french oak that has previous held Chardonnay. He wants the oak to mellow and age the spirit, but not influence it to a greater extend, like bourbons.

It's hard to find Charbay II outside californian specialist shops. 

Marko and a wee still used to make brandy for fortified wines

I also had the honour of trying a wee sample of a couple of Marko's next projects. An IPA based whiskey, still maturing. This was a just one year old. The initial nose had the expected "youthness" to some degree, but the palate really surprised. What a pleasant explosion of flavours. Using the most expensive wash in the industry pays off it seems. I quickly noted down liquorice, tea, wood and roasted barley as the dominant tasting notes. I remember Marko looking at me like I was a bit weird when I mentioned tea, but I can calm him with the fact that it's not the first time I had that look :-), I often find things others wonder where the *censored* I got that from

A selection of Charbay's products

Visiting Charbay and talking to Marko was a very exciting experience. Marko has decided to do things his own way, and very different than others. So far his whiskey's has been produced only in very very small quantities. It is high quality, well matured whiskey. There's a lot of American microdistilleries coming up these years. I've tasted quite a lot of products I felt weren't really bottle ready, together with Anchor's Old Potrero Hotalings Whiskey 14yo, Charbay are the only superb products I have tried. The rest I would rate promising, but I have far from tasted everything :-)

Oh, afterwards I drived around Napa Valley. I tried a few wines I liked, something that usually happens once in 5 years. I should have brought a designated driver...

Las Vegas Distillery

A couple of weeks ago I happened to be in Las Vegas with a group of whiskyfriends, and we took the opportunity to visit Las Vegas Distillery

I had been aware of them for a year or so, as they had a website and plans to start a distillery. Recently I also followed them on facebook so I was quite aware the distillery was just about to start distilling.

It's not easy to start a distillery in a state that has no tradition for distilling, and no regulations for it either, but George Racz is about to have done it. George Racz is Hungarian, born in Rumania and has been living in USA less than 10 years. When he and his wife decided they wanted to take a big chance and open a distillery they took the bold decision to open one in Vegas. A city and state with no distilling tradition. It may be very smart to open a distillery in Las Vegas. A world famous city with many tourists should give quite a few chances of interested customers passing by. And it's not like the city lack bars either :-). Probably the best gamble done in Vegas!

We arrived friday noon and George was there to greet us

George Racz talking about his copper angels, the name he has given to his stills

A combo still. Left potstill will be used to double destill whiskey

The stills had just been installed when we visited. Next step was water distilling, and the first spirit to be produced will be vodka. Apart from vodka, other ready spirits like gin will also be produced. The main "problem" for new whiskey distilleries is that it can take a long time for the whiskey to mature, so producing ready spirits can be necesary to have some income...but vodka and gins can be very nice spirits to drink, especially if you don't like whiskey :-)

Barrels

George told us that he intend to experiment a lot to find out what works out. Bourbons, Ryes, Malt Whiskeys and much more. Even a 7 grain whisky was in the plans (rye, corn, wheat, rice, oat, barley and one more I forgot about!)

Adding to this he will use several sizes of casks. George will experiment a bit with a variety of whiskeys and cask sizes, so I expect a lot of different styles to be produced, let's see how much will get bottled :-)

He plan to have as much as possible grown "locally"...in a farm in northern Nevada. More info about this and a lot of other things on the distillery website, which is a very informative website. I like informative websites. Too many, especially american whiskey websites are sometimes too much myth and too little info.

http://www.lasvegasdistillery.com/

Not a Porteus, nor Boby :-)

We all thought that George was very pleasant company so we invited him over for a dram!. His good humour and entusiams will put a smile on your face :-)

"I am starting to love my job" George said

You can follow Las Vegas Distillery on facebook. I find it exciting to follow the daily do's of an upstarting distillery from the other side of the globe!

I am also excited to follow the distillery in the years to come. I am sure I will get around Las Vegas again and will for sure go around Las Vegas Distillery everytime. It is located in Henderson, in the eastern part of Las Vegas, half the way out to the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. I really hope the Nevada laws will make it possible for Las Vegas Distillery to open a shop on the premises and allow guests a wee tasting. It will make a lot of difference for us travelling whisky tourists :-)

And if you're there on a saturday they might be having a bottling party!

My good luck and best wishes to George and the Las Vegas Distillery

I hope he makes some rye whiskey in one of his quartercasks, should be bottle ready quite fast (on the relative scale of time to mature whisky)

Old Pulteney

This week we will see an unofficial release of the follow-up to Old Pulteney WK499. On thursday 20th January there will be a collective twitter tasting, so if you're interested I am sure it will be worth searching on #WK209 and #OldPulteney this thursday. I am not participating myself, but I am sure those that do will have a lot of interesting things to say :-)

Right before xmas, Lukasz of the Edinburgh Whisky Blog (http://www.edinburghwhiskyblog.com/) sent me some samples, Old Pulteney 17yo and 21yo. As I understand it he is doing some online marketing for Inver House and being a twitter contact of him can be beneficial, as you can see on thursday :-)

Together with a few of my own Old Pulteneys, I will do a little distillery vertical.

Old Pulteney is the northernmost distillery on mainland Brittain. It is located far up north in Wick, in an coastal area with very little trees and lots of weather :-). The distillery is located in the outskirt of the southern part of the city, and coming down the street to it, the distillery looks like a part of the buildings facing the street. No pagodas or anything is revealing the distillery. There's a wee visitor center and a tasting room, where you can bottle your own Old Pulteney. I bottled one in 2005 and another in 2007 and both were around 15yo ex-bourbon casks. They were excellent whiskies and are of course long gone....both among the best bottle-your-own whisky I ever had, and I had some over the years.

1. Old Pulteney 12yo 40%


Miniature

This is somewhat a different 12yo OB than what you otherwise find on the market. I mainly find this dry and minty, with nuts and oranges emerging and then more mint. It's very minty actual, and that's something I like. The finish is short and in generel this is quite moreish and I really enjoyed. Should have been bottled at a higher ABV, but I always say that :-). Above average in the 40% OB catagory, I think its the mint!

Rating 82

2. Old Pulteney 17yo 46%

A natural upgrade of the 12yo. The biggest difference is the finish which is longer, and there's a slight char or ashy touch to the nose. The palate got a spicy touch, and the mint is not as powerful. It's a nice good dram which reaches well about 80 on my rating scale

Rating 83

3. Old Pulteney 21yo 46%

Oh, a huge change to a more nutty and spicy character. For sure the wood influence is getting more powerful. The finish is more intense but shorter again. There's a natural development for the age of these three OB's. Another lovely dram

Rating 84

4. Old Pulteney WK499

This is back to style of the 12yo, but the cask strength REALLY benefits this Old Pulteney. It's a very sharp and briny whisky, and as salty is often mentioned as the Old Pulteney character I finally get it here, or see what others mean when they describe Old Pulteney as "salty". A very enjoyable dram, and you wont get better value for money whisky out there. I've seen 2 liters for 50£ in Edinburgh Airport !!. Excellent

Rating 86

5. Old Pulteney 1982 58.2%
This could be bottled in 2002 as the bottlecode starts with L2...

It's a miniature and the writing on the label is just too small and too hard to read

read it yourself..I can't

Oh, this is quite different. And similar at the same time. Sweet. Mint, slight sulphur, could be something I imagine. The initial sweetness weirdly turns into a very very dry whisky fast. This isn't really working for me, is it a refill sherry cask ?. Does Old Pulteney work with ex-sherry casks. It sure does with ex-bourbon. Lets see how WK209 is received on thursday, its supposed to be from ex-sherry casks - It got something to live up to for sure.

This one I don't like. The sulphur bits.... I am going back to WK499 now

Rating 71

Bunnahabhain - is it malty ?

The start of 2011 hasn't been optimal from a whisky drinking perspective for me. Flu, colds, coughs, soaring head and sleepy days. Time to catch up, and I thought going through a few dregs of Bunnahabhains that has been restless on my shelves for quite a bit might be good for me. This is the first day of 3 weeks of holiday, which will include quite a bit of travel and a lot of whisky so also a reason to celebrate :-)

Bunnahabhain is one of the lesser known Islays, if saying "lesser known" for an Islay makes any sense at all. I have always felt that Bunnahabhain is one of the better known secret gems out there.

Bunnahabhain with a pap in the background

The location of Bunnahabhain (and Caol Ila) is one of the most beatiful spots on the planet earth. Next to the Sound of Islay, with the Paps of Jura breathtaking looking down on you from the other side.

 Bunnahabhain and the Paps of Jura

 The distillery has received a little more attention from the owners the last couple of years, with the standard 12yo being upgraded to 46.3% and nonchillfiltered, but also a few special bottlings getting out to us. Bunnahabhain is, unlike most other Islay's, an unpeated malt whisky. But they did a few peated batch runs, earliest one is the Moine variation from 1997. Apart from the peated malts we have also recently seen a Bunnahabhain that has been matured on fresh oak,the Bunnahabhain Darach Ur.
In 2004 the distillery released a 1968 single cask, the legendary Old Acquiantance, one of my all time favourite whiskies, since then a few older OB's has been released, together with an extension of the range with a 18yo and 25yo and so on.
Various independent bottlers has released quite a lot of Bunnahabhains over the years. So there's actually an opportunity for quite a big background catalogue if you get around these. And it's usually a very good malt in my opinion.
 I often find Bunnahabhains very very malty, and this is a little scientific research to see if this a common distillery profile tasting note!

Bunnahabhain Tour in 2001

I will go through 5 bottlings of Bunnahabhains, and try to rate their maltiness on a 0-5 scale, with 5 being very malty, 3 quite malty, and 1 sligtly more malty than an average malt. I don't find malt whiskies malty in general. I can say I would rate almost all malts a 0 on this scale. I am meaning malty in a beer/ale kind of sense.

1. Bunnahabhain 1979 Flying no. 6 Pirate 46.3%

cask 11885 (Barrel). Distilled 31/10-1979, bottled 8/9-2008

Bottled by Juul's Vinhandel, Copenhagen, 1 of 199 bottles

Juul's series of PING and Flying has become world famous legends here in Denmark :-), and this Bunnahabhain is one og my favourite Flying's

This is a light Bunna, with a lot of spice, mint and a wee bit of citrus and with quite some maltiness. 

Maltiness 4/5

Rating 89

2. Bunnahabhain 33yo Royal Mile Whiskies 45.5%

cask 6249, 1 of 201 bottles

33yo Bunna from RMW

This is a bottling from Royal Mile Whiskies, and Edinburgh specialist whiskyshop.

This is not as light as the Pirate. First thing I note is a slight sulphur on the nose. The body is heavier, some spice, and still a bit of sulphur on the palate, but probably so little that quite a few wouldn't notice

Maltiness 1/4 

Rating 86

2. Bunnahabhain 31yo Falster 2008 47.3%

Bottled by Creative (David Stirk)

Distilled 1976

This Bunnahabhain is bottled for the danish whiskyfestival Wild Whisky Weekend by DMWA

This is a very delicious Bunnahabhain, with a slight maltiness, spicy again, sweeter than the others. The best so far. The finish is longer and really delicious. I think the sweetness completes this malt. It's not a sweet malt, but the sweetness is noticable compared to the other malts. 

Magnificient dram and I do agree on The Whisky Exchanges review here : http://blog.thewhiskyexchange.com/2009/06/islay-festival-day-8-kilchoman-and-bunnahabhain/ and you can find a more articulate set of tasting notes in there as well :-)

Maltiness 1/4

Rating 90

4. Bunnahabhain 36yo Duncan Taylor 40.2%

03/1967 - 03/2003

cask 3325

A lot of the first Duncan Taylor bottlings were near going understrength, so there were quite busy bottling a lot of old whiskies before they went under 40% ABV. I don't think the world will ever see that amount of "cheap" old whisky on the market..oh the good old days :-)

The maltiness in this whisky is a bit different, it seems somewhat milder, as does almost everything is this whisky. The wood influence seems a lot less. There's a bit of fruit candy in this, and not particular spicy

Maltiness 2/5

Rating 85

5. Bunnahabhain 36yo Duncan Taylor 40.7%

1967 - 2004

A Duncan Taylor miniature

This is a malty Bunna, with a shot of citrus in, quite a big shot and a very delicious combo. Some sweetness and a medium finish, with a bit of spicyness as well

Maltiness 3/5

Rating 89

Verdict ?

Yes, I find the common note in Bunnahabhain to be a very malty malt, think of a low hoppped brown ale. There's quite a variation in the maltiness, but it's always there to some extent

2010 - whiskies of the year as named by various bloggers, writers and whiskyentusiasts

When  December approaches, many websites, blogs, books and whiskyentusiasts name their whisky of the year, and some even have multiple awards, lists so long they can fill up the average whiskycupboards three times. Others do shopping guides and reccomendations. What's your favourite whisky of 2010 ?

Here's a little overview of what I could find, please tune in if you heard about more.

One of the earliest set of awards that emerges each year is the Whiskybible, but I think that its connected with it being a book (printed) award, and that the book is out around October, if I remember correctly

1. Jim Murray's whiskybible named Ballantines 17, which is i blend. The choice made quite a few people wonder, more people shrugging their shoulders or giggling and a lot of people confused. Jim Murray's choices always stir an argument, here's the full list from John Hansell's blog (Malt Advocate)
http://www.whatdoesjohnknow.com/2009/10/05/jim-murrays-world-whisky-awards-for-2010/

Personally I had great fun reading the discussion of his choice of irish whiskey of the year on the irish whiskey forum : http://forum.irishwhiskeysociety.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=899

2. Whisky Magazine has a series of award sets, they probably manage to beat Jim Murray in number of catagories :-)

http://www.whiskymag.com/awards/ there's quite a few sublinks to follow to get around all the catagories!

If you didn't manage to find it I can reveal that Ardbeg Corryvreckan was named scotch single malt of the year.

3. Scottish Fields, a lifestyle magazine named a Miltonduff 1969 from Gordon and MacPhail (Indy bottling of the year), 25yo Ben Nevis (Distillery Bottling of the year) and Monkey Shoulder (Blend of the year)

read more about it here http://www.scottishfield.co.uk/statistic/w/

Scottish Fields awards are decided blindly with a large group of whiskymerchants (whiskyshops!) forwarding their favourites and then being judges themselves. Malt Maniacs is a group of whiskyentusiast who does a similar blind judging with a lot of whiskies entered voluntarily by distilleries, bottlers and merchants

4. Malt Maniacs rated Glendronach 38yo 1972/2010 (49.5%, OB, Sherry C#700, Taiwan) highest in 2010, here's the full list


http://www.maltmaniacs.org/2010-whisky-competition.html


5. Whiskywhiskywhisky.com, a forum of whiskyentusiast chose Bladnoch 20yo as their 2010 whisky of the year


http://www.whiskywhiskywhisky.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4212&p=55858

6. Spirit of Islay's Gordon Homer chose the new Bunnahabhain 46.3% as his favourite distillery bottling of the year (Islay) and a 29yo Caol Ila from John Milroy as his indy bottling of the year. His non-Islay whisky awards went to Amrut 100 from Bangalore in India and a 4yo 2005 Berry Bros Ledaig.

Full list here : http://www.spiritofislay.net/

7. Malt Advocate,... well I expect something out in a couple of months, but here's their list from February last year http://www.whatdoesjohnknow.com/2010/02/11/malt-advocate-magazines-top-ten-new-whiskies-for-2009/

8. Ralfy also had the new Bunnahabhain 12yo 46.3% as his whisky of 2010



9. Whiskynotes has a shortlist of his favourites here : http://www.whiskynotes.be/2011/whisky-news/happy-2011/ with a Longmorn 1972 from the Whisky Agency and a Glenfarclas 1968 from Thosop coming out on the top

10. Scotchhobbyist has a 2010 gift guide : http://scotchhobbyist.com/2010/12/01/a-whisky-gift-guide-2010/

11.  Gavin Smith's whiskies of the year (and some of his pages visitors) : http://www.whisky-pages.com/whiskies-of-the-year-2010.shtml

12. Whiskyisrael set a budget Holiday Gift Guide : http://whiskyisrael.co.il/2010/12/13/2010-holiday-gift-guide-on-a-budget/

13. The Jewish Single Malt Whisky Society has 11 catagories with Suntory Hibiki 21yo as 2010's overall favourite: http://jewishsinglemaltwhiskysociety.com/?p=3184

14. The Scotch Odyssey looks back on 2010 with Mortlach 16yo FF as his favourite dram
http://scotchodysseyblog.com/2010/12/30/2010-the-scotch-odyssey-review/

15. Dramming and Whiskyemporium did a joint post and Dramming chose Karuizawa 1985/2009 cask 7017 http://www.dramming.com/2011/01/01/that-was-the-year-that-was/ and Whiskyemporium chose an Old Bothwell 1982 Port Ellen cask 2039 http://www.whisky-emporium.com/Blogs/2010-12-Dec/Blog.htm#LookBack2010

16. CanadianWhisky.org awarded a set of Canadian whiskies http://www.canadianwhisky.org/news-views/canadian-whisky-awards-2010.html

17. The Whiskywire selected his 12 drams of xmas http://www.thewhiskywire.com/2010/12/12-drams-of-christmas.html

18. Jason had a wee Holiday Scotch Whisky Suggestions : http://jason-scotchreviews.blogspot.com/2010/12/holiday-scotch-whisky-suggestions.html

19. WhiskyBoys has The Best of 2010 in 3 catagories :
http://www.whiskyboys.com/2010/11/24/the-best-of-2010-blended-whiskies/
http://www.whiskyboys.com/2010/11/25/the-best-of-2010-non-scotch-whiskies/
http://www.whiskyboys.com/2010/12/07/the-best-of-2010-single-malt-scotch-whiskies/

20. Whisky2.0 xmas shopping guide : http://whisky2dot0.com/2010/12/07/whisky2-0-holiday-gift-guide-2010-%E2%80%93-the-under-50-whiskey-list/

(I never really got the point of awards like IWSC and the likes if anyone wonders.)

End of the day these links just shows how diverse the whiskies and peoples taste in whiskies are, and as a consumer its hard to go wrong, there's just too much good stuff out there :-)

And now it's time to go find the good stuff of twenty-eleven!

Danish Whisky Blog awards 2010

2011 is approaching fast, and quite a lot of people use this opportunity to look back on the year 2010.

I had an almost endless amount of good whisky and good whisky events taking place during this year. I have to say I enjoyed everything I participated in.

Highlight of the year was getting introduced into the PLOWED society at the annual Ardbeggeddon. Nothing beats dramming with friends, and the company and whisky at the Ardbeggeddon is pure top shelf.

I also enjoy a very lively community of local whisky connoisseurs, with several gatherings throughout the year of the highest quality and a lot of spectacular whisk(e)ys from all around the world.

Festival wise I really enjoyed Spirit of Speyside, Limburg and Glasgow Whisky Festival together with a couple of mini fairs organised by local wineshops and Juul's!

I've decided to set up a few awards, this is my way to honour some things I really enjoyed and maybe I was surprised a bit by them

Distillery of the Year


Amrut

Amrut has put itself on the map in 2010 with a series of superb and innovative bottlings. I think it has come to a surprise to quite a few that a distillery producing world class whisky should emerge more or less from the unknown and then from India of all places as well.
Due to extra-ordinarely high evaporation the distillery has to work with other aspects than age, when creating new bottlings. Here's a photo of my Amruts, most of these were created in 2010!

Amrut TWE 10 year online anniversary bottling
Amrut Double Cask (a vatting of the two oldest casks at Amrut..7yo old whisky)
Amrut 100 (a peated 100 proof 1 liter bottling)
Amrut Cask Strength (the miniatures)
Amrut Fusion (made from a mix of indian unpeated malt and scottish peated malt)
Amrut Two Continents (matured in India, and then in Europe)
Amrut Intermediate Sherry (matured on first fill ex-bourbon casks, then ex-oloroso casks for 1 year, and then back to ex-bourbon)
Amrut Kadhambam (consecutively maturation in ex-rum, ex-sherry and ex-brandy casks, with the rum and brandy being Amruts own!)
Amrut Peated Cask Strength



Independendt Bottler of the Year


High West


A new distillery, which is located in Utah (of all places) has put itself on the map by bottling a series of ryes and bourbons of high quality. Especially the ryes has caught the public eye and several editions are available, some of them quite old. The ryes are said to be distilled at LDI, Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana, which is not the most known distillery, but I think they are very skilled in making rye whiskey ! It will be exciting to see if High West itself can produce whiskeys and ryes of the same quality!

High West Rendezvous Rye, a vatting of a 6yo 95% Rye and a 16yo 80% Rye. Superb

Whisky Bottling of the Year


Double Single by Compass Box


This is a blend of 18yo Glen Elgin (76%) and 21yo Port Dundas (24%) the latter being a grain whisky from the now closed distillery in Glasgow, while Glen Elgin is malt whiskey from a distillery located just south of Elgin in Speyside. It's bottled at cask strength 53.3% and was bottled to celebrate Compas Box' 10th anniversary

Double Single

Now this is a wonderful cask that every ex-bourbon casked single malt whisky fan should seriously consider!

Description : Very bubblegum/candy like with a heavy spicy touch. Vanilla and Malt. It's very oily and intense in its expression. The finish is long and warming

  

Tasting of the year


Duncan Taylor, Dufftown - Spirit of Speyside by Mark Watt

In the Memorial Hall in Dufftown, Spirit of Speyside hosts a series of very good whisky tastings during the festival. This year I found the Duncan Taylor tasting particular good. Mark Watt Bingo and 5-6 great whiskies, including two of the years favourites: a 1972 Caperdonich and a 1973 Glen Moray. Adding to that 12yo and 40yo Black Bull, 22yo Glen Grant and a 25yo Caol Ila, what a great afternoon

and by the way, the price is a pint if anyone responsible happens to catch me somewhere :-)