Chita for the Whiskyshop Osaka

Japanese Grain

Chita Grain Whisky bottled for the Whiskyshop Osaka 48%

This is probably as grain as grain whisky can be, and that is probably good. It's a light dram, the spirit flavours through dominantly with a heavy layer of fudge/caramel. Quite one-dimensional, light and easy to drink

Grain Whisky is usually peaking at relatively high age, as the wood needed to make this type of spirit into great whisky needs to be low on intensity as the grain spirit is rather fragile and no way near as robust as other whisky spirits. Leave a grain on an almost dead cask for 50 years and wonders start to happen.

Put grain on a more active cask you could get something like this. I doubt this is more than 8-10 years old, the spirit base is shining through quite clearly, but the wood has affected an intense vanilla-caramel-butterscotch flavour.

This reminds me of Canadian Whisky if anything

Rating 83/100

Danish Whisky Blog awards 2013

Distillery of the Year

Four Roses

Four Roses is one of the few distilleries that just do it right. An almost endless set of releases of single barrels and small batch bourbons in various price ranges. Apart from their standard yellow label bourbon, they have an ongoing set of cheap single barrels that is not much older than the barrels they use for the yellow label. They also have more expensive, but still very affordable single barrels, some of which have been in the barrel for longer than 15 years. Everything is not just single barrel, Four Roses have their "Small Batch" range, which, as the name implies, is a vatting of of barrels. The speciel edition of this, "Small Batch Limited Edition" has been named the favourite bourbon the last couple of years by several of my bourbon entusiast friends. An eyeopenener for me in 2013 was visiting the danish bourbon/cocktail bar Salon 39 in Copenhagen, which makes a fantastic Old Fashioned based on Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon

Here is my review of one of their cheap single barrels:

Four Roses Single Barrel 50%
Warehouse QN, Barrel 36-3T

Nose: Fantastic balanced bourbon nose, where the sweet corn and rye parts are very well integrated, with a lot of spice, archetype bourbon floor varnish lacqeur,

Palate : Very creamy, vanilla, rye and spicy all at once. Great oomph factor and a bit of wood, quite intense on the wood and rye and the creamyness is profound. The youth of this is showing with a faint alcohol burn

Finish : medium and creamy

A somewhat simple, but very delicious bourbon

Rating 85/100

Unfortunately the european releases don't have the recipe information as the US releases have. My guess for this would be OBSV. When you look at the price for these single barrels, it's one of the best bargains in the big world of great whisk(e)y.

Independent Bottler of the Year

Cadenhead

Cadenhead has totally revamped their line up here in 2013. The line up is turning toward small batch bottlings of single malts and a series that is called "Creations", which is blends, small batch blands that is. The small batch bottlings is actually very small batches of 2-4 casks. So far I have tasted several really great malts Caperdonich 1977, Highland Park 1988, Glenlivet 1970, Tomatin 1978 and a great Creations 20yo consisting of of 4 casks (Mortlach 1992 butt,  Bruichladdich 1993, Cameronbridge 1989 and Invergordon 1991 hogsheads)

So far I have liked everything in this range a lot, apart from a Clynelish that was too sulphury for me. If the new Master Blender of Cadenhead, Mark Watt, can keep up this quality I think we are all in for a lot of good treats in future

Caperdonich

Caperdonich 35yo 50.2%
Cadenhead Small Batch

Nose : heavy sherry, musty and earthy
Palate : Sweet, sherried, raisins, faint medicinal, quite robust and earthy
Finish: Long, and here the oak spicyness hits with a touch of vanilla

Rating 90/100

It's a very lively whisky, very intense and powerful

Bottling of the Year

SMWS 35.71

Like a hug from your mum 47.7%

40yo Distilled 11th October 1971

To be honest this was actually bottled late in 2012, but came to my attention in the summer of 2013 and was one of the 2 best whiskies I had in 2013, the other being Martin Mills which was botled in 1999. SMWS is right now sitting on a range of splendid casks of their distillery # 35, and this is just one of three 35's I purchased in 2013. If you are looking for a whisky and haven't really decided, try one of the SMWS 35's!. Expect a review early in 2014 of 35.71 

Tasting of the Year

Diageo Tasting with Donald Colville, Spirit of Speyside

There is various ways to set up a tasting at a whisky festival, where you know that most of the people have tasted a lot of whisky. I think Donald Colville nailed it here and brought us guests a nice tastings. It was a perfect mix of what Diageo has bottled, past, present and also in the future

The setup was

Inchgower 1976 Rare Malts Selection 27yo 55.6%
Talisker Port Ruighe 45.8%
Caol Ila Feis Ile 2012 60.40%
Cragganmore 21yo 56%
Mortlach SoS Festival Bottling 48%
Talisker Storm 45.8%

A good mix of brand new releases and rare bottlings is what makes coming to Scotland and doing festivals worth it.

Glendronach 2002 selected by Whiskybase

Glendronach and Benriach are one (two!) of the few distilleries that do it right, and that is supplying customers with a range of affordable single cask bottlings. As single casks are rather limited when it comes to bottle numbers, a lot of these bottlings are exclusive for particular countries, regions, whiskyshops, whiskyclubs etc.

Today I have the pleasure of drinking a Glendronach bottled by the online whisky-community whiskybase.com to celebrate that whiskybase version 3 is up and coming in January. It will hold a lot of new features and functionalities, some of which I particular look forward to. Especially since I suggested one of them :-). I simply wish for a functionality similar to "places" on ratebeer.com. I hope I will get a helpful tool in locating good whiskybars around the world!

Glendronach 2002 57.2% 11yo by whiskybase.com

Oloroso Sherry Butt#2751 701 bottles

Distilled 30/5-2002, bottled December 2013

Nose: Clean, fruity, dusty and dried fruits

Palate: Dried fruits, raisins particular, a little hot on the alcohol, sweet and clean sherry, with a hint of creamy vanilla in the background, almonds.

Finish: medium, with a nice spicy touch that lingers

Rating 88/100

Comment: Nice with some clean unadulted sherry whisky which haven't been tainted by sulphur, something that Glendronach also occasionally suffers from. Luckily there is plenty to choose from, and this is one to choose. This is just what I want from an 11yo ex-oloroso sherried whisky.

#DavinTT2 scavenger hunt questions 1-20

Promoting canadian whisky and his excellent book, which I recommended HERE recently, Davin De Kergommeaux (@DavindeK) together with Johanne McInnis (@Whiskylassie) and host Graham MacKenney (@grahammackenney) has setup 4 twitter events every sunday here in December, where participants discuss the book and taste some canadian whisky blind. Here in Denmark canadian whisky has absolutely close to zero attention, which is a shame and I wish some of the top bottlings would be available for us.

I am very pleased to participate in this as it gives a chance to taste some whisky not otherwise available for me, and to taste a whisky catagory that I have next to nothing experience with.Until now that is.

Of the three first blind tastings, I have been very impressed with Wiser's Red Letter, a whisky that unfortunately is not available in Denmark. I rated it around 89-90p tasting it blind. Quite high in rye, creamy, minty, shaved pencils, citrus and spicy with a nice creamy coconut finish!!

 I am looking forward to tonights canadian dram

During the first two twitter events, December 1 and 8, the first 20 questions were revealed:

1 What is the primary grain distilled at each of Alberta's three distilleries?

2 What is the oldest whisky bottled in Canada in the past decade?

3 True or false: Late 18th Century canadian whiskies were blended.

4 In what year did Thomas Molson first distilled his whisky?

5 Where was Henry Corby born?

6 In what year did the Government of Canada introduce the practice of bottling in bond?

7 True or False: The practice of using the “sour mash” process is unique to the United States and never used in making Canadian Whisky.

8 What process essentially lead to the development of Canadian Club’s “secret recipe?”

9 According to the Montreal Gazette, what was the largest distillery in the world in the early 1860’s?

10 True or False: Despite being known as one of Canada’s best-known distillers, Hiram Walker lived the majority of his life in the United States.

11 What three major whisky companies distil their whisky at Hiram Walker Distillery in Windsor?

12 What three ingredients are used to make whisky?

13 Which fully aged Canadian whisky is as colourless as vodka?

14 Which Canadian Distiller became a member of Parliament in 1878.

15 What distillery is built on the banks of the MacLellan's Brook?

16 What is the largest distillery operating in Canada today?

17 On what page of Davin's book will you find Mark Gillespie's name listed?

18 Although J.P. Wiser’s name is on the company, who can be credited with much of Wiser’s financial success?

19 At the time that this book was written, how many distilleries were producing Canadian Whisky?

20 Which Scottish Distillery was Glenora distillery closely associated with?

Now these questions are very hard if you don't allready have the book, the price is well worth it!

CANADIANA BASKET contains:   15, YES 15! – 60ml samples of Canadian Whiskies.  You’ll find:

1.       Alberta Premium 30 year old (rare)

2.       Bush Pilot (very rare and discontinued)

3.       Canadian Club 15 (rare and discontinued)

4.       Collingwood 21 year old, 100% rye whisky (BRAND NEW)

5.       Forty Creek John’s Private Cask (rare and discontinued)

6.       Gibson’s 18 from the 1980’s (very rare)

7.       Highwood 90 5 year old (BRAND NEW)

8.       Highwood 90 20 year old (BRAND NEW)

9.       Masterson’s 100% Barley (BRAND NEW)

10.   Masterson’s 100% Wheat (BRAND NEW)

11.   Stalk & Barrel Single Malt, Cask 5 (USA release only)

12.   Wiser’s Legacy

 and a few more that the organisers are leaving as surprises at this time!

The last five questions can be found on the following 5 whiskyblogs

WhiskyIsrael

Whiskycorner

Whisky Discovery

WhiskyPlus

Bozzy

All Scavenger Hunt answers to be sumbitted no later than December 28th 2013 to whiskylassie@gmail.com

Winner contacted and announced on December 29th.

Davin De kergommeaux has a website specifically covering canadian whisky : http://www.canadianwhisky.org/

Johanne McInnis has a blog that covers whisky in general http://whiskylassie.blogspot.ca/

I do like whiskytrivia quizzes myself, and if you look to the column to the right of this blog You can see a link to quite a few quizzes I have created.

A couple of whiskies I REALLY would like to taste

1. The ex-rye cask versus the ex-bourbon cask

I've been asking around about this, but noone has yet to come out with a sensible answer

I reckon most distilleries doesn't really distuinguish between if an ex-american whiskey barrel held bourbon or rye, or distuingish between barrels that held bourbon with or without rye. High rye bourbons are more similar to low rye ryes than no-rye bourbons in my opinion.

You can see bottles of whisky from all kind of casks: sherry, red wine, white wine, port, marsala, tokaji, muscat, name it, if something has been on wood, they will use it for whisky at some point. Even herings.
  But you don't really see anyone mentioning the type of american bourbon or rye that was in a barrel before malt whisky went in.

Maybe it doesn't really matter, who knows? I don't.

There is a few examples of whisky where the provenance of the bourbon barrel is mentioned. One is the Glenglassaugh Ex-Tennessee. Could be Dickel or Jack Daniels. Almost same mashbill by the way. Mackmyra is known to use exclusively JD barrels. The danish distillery Stauning has an ex-rye finish malt whisky out. It's finished on casks that was used to mature Stauning rye. End of the day, attention to this matter is not very huge.

So here is what I really would like to taste:

Imagine a distillery making three batches of casks. One is whisky matured on ex-bourbon - Wheated bourbon that is. The other is whisky matured on ex-rye casks. Normal rye whiskey. Most ryes have a rye content not much larger than 51%. The third batch of barrels should be matured on some of the extreme rye barrels out thee. I am specifically thinking of the LDI 95/5 rye-barley ryes.

After at least 10 years each variant is vatted with casks matured in the same type to filter out single cask variations. A vertical of these three whiskies. Just to satisfy my curiosity That is something I would really like to taste. I don't think any distilleries has done anything like that, but who knows, a lot is happening behind closed doors.

2. Japanese Bourbon

No, this is not an april's fool

Bourbon has to be made in USA, otherwise it's not allowed to be labeled as bourbon. It's a protected name.

But Fuji-Gotemba in Japan is actually producing bourbon. It's used as a flavour part of their blends. I would really like to taste a proper aged version of this. Fuji-Gotemba is owned by Kirin. Their other distillery is Four Roses, one of the leading producers of bourbon today.

Fuji-Gotemba

Dalmorisation

Warning - this post is boring and selfcelebrating

I invented a word last month. Unknowingly. It was on a whiskyforum discussion about a recent release of whiskies that got a price hike relative to the year before.

I decided to google the word, just to check it, I might have spelled it wrong - it does happen for me.

NO HITS

I invented a word!. Wohoo. A word that actual have a sensible use - at least for me :-)

So what does Dalmorisation mean? What did I mean by using that word ?

It is inspired by the distillery Dalmore. Nothing wrong with Dalmore whisky. In my opinion it's a rather average scottish distillery, but as scottish distilleries tends to make good whisky on average, that's not really bad.

But something goes wrong with Dalmore from cask to bottle to the shop. You can, and I can, argue about the whisky they put in the bottles. Whether we like it or not. It's an opinion of taste.

There's a few things to be noted about Dalmore. It's a premium whisky. It's even named "The Dalmore". But we all know that premium means expensive, but does it also mean superior?. It should, but maybe it doesn't.

The hype and premiumisation about Dalmore is not created by entusiast and fans praising the product. Trust me, Dalmore is more or less a non existent distillery in the mind of the whisky entusiast. I can't ever recall anyone organising a Dalmore vertical. And I've been around for a while, and I've been to quite a lot of tastings. It must have happened somewhere and sometime for sure, but I am pretty sure we can all agree it happens nearly next to never. It's not in top 100 of distilleries on whiskybase where it has a D rating. Not many have rated more whiskies than Serge on Whiskyfun and he has Dalmore on the 6th tier with 74 distilleries or so above it.

Dalmore's premiumisation is solely created and driven by a marketing department. Unlike other destilleries that has created stardom based on stellar released, often bottled in the past.

The term Dalmorisation is related to the saying "Lipstick on a pig"

What are they doing ?. In my opinion they are pricing whisky at a lot higher level that is justified from the quality of the whisky. It's not really that uncommon, quite a few others are doing the same. Dalmore just seem to be better at it and doing it on a larger scale than most others. Sometimes I won't buy a whisky for sale at 150£ because I think it really should be around 90£. But here we are talking about whisky at 600£ that I think should be around 90£.

And Dalmore did this before everyone else. The problem is, that this tendence is spreading. I bet it works. It makes the brand appear exclusive and will boost the sales of lesser and cheaper products. It's also an attention catcher.

Attention catchers works very well here in the days of the internet. Try to compare the noise an expensive, overpacked product creates compared to a cheap bargain. The difference is substantial.

Facebook, twitter, blogs, forums. Some days, in whisky circles, everybody just talk about the same things, and these things are very well controlled by the companies making whisky. People are sheeps. Yes we are

I really think the best way to deal with overpriced and overpackaged whiskies is to ignore them as a blogger, forumist, on facebook and on twitter, but it's hard. I try, but nobody's perfect. And now I did this piece, totally against my principles.

Am I annoyed by Dalmore. NO and YES. No, because I would probably not have bought their whiskies whatever they were priced. YES, because this Dalmorisation is spreading like the plague and when pricehikes happen to bottles I want it's annoying!

I would be happy to say that whisky cost exactly what us consumers are willing to pay, but when it comes to marketing this falls apart. What distillery makes the best whisky? The one which has a 40yo at 250£ that noone talks about or the one that have a 40yo at 4000£ that everyone talks about. You and me knows better, but does everybody else in the world ?

If you google Dalmorisation today there will be hits! The first two hits created were my usage on a forum. This post should create more hits :-). I almost feel like when I google myself :-)

PS Worst case of Dalmorisation I have ever seen is the Sirius grains which I ranted about here.

Two superb bourbons

1. Parkers Heritage Collection 10yo wheated 63.9%

Annual special releases from Heaven Hill, this is a 10yo barrel strength version of their wheated bourbon, which is normally bottled under the Old Fitzgerald label.

Nose: Strong, solvent, dusty, warehouse. If you know the woody-sweet spirity smell you can experience in a warehouse you know what I mean.. This is just like standing next to a barrel.

Palate: Cream-Caramel, wood, soft vanilla, more wood. Again I get this feeling of being just next to barrel, which is not the worst association. I picture myself in a dark quiet rickhouse when drinking this

Finish : Long

An extreme bourbon, but also soft and friendly. It's the trademark of a wheater, which is a bourbon that has wheat as secondary grain, not rye which is more common. The wood is powerful, but it's not overpowering. It is well chosen barrels by Heaven Hill and this is a major move up from their regular wheated bottlings.

Rating 91/100

Now why doesn't HH bottle more stuff like this?. Rumours goes that stock has been sold to Buffalo Trace so they can keep up with supply for the van Winkle range. Maybe this is the reason ?

Thanks to Sku for the sample

2. Elijah Craig 12yo 134.2 proof

This is the barrel strength versions of Elijag Craig 12yo

As such I don't find a lot of commons between the regular and the barrel strength. The nose is dark licorise and spicy. This is one of those noses that has an anastetic effect on your mind.. I just want to dig deeper into it and almost try to drink this through my nose, Very nice. Normally the ethanol will refrain you from nosing a whisk(e)y to close to the liquid, but for this I just can't get near enough.

It's very spicy, with some sweet cinnamon like notes coming through.

Drinking this is powerful stuff. Now I can feel the ABV coming through. The whiskey is dark, powerful and oily, almost like engine oil in colour and texture. In fact this is so hot I need to add some water. This is one of the most oily whiskies I ever had. It is also so powerful in flavour I have to drink it drop by drop. If I had a bottle of this (I wish) it would last for years.

It's more intense than woody, it got licorise with a sweet edge. The finish is medium-long

Rating 89/100

Thanks to Michael for the sample