Tastes
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Glenrothes 11 year 2007 "Ralfy.com" (North Star Spirits)
Single Malt — Speyside, Scotland
Reviewed February 24, 2020 (edited October 5, 2022)North Star Spirits tasting event, Sydney, February 21, 2020, Whisky #4 Nose: A bold oloroso sherry, leather and orange marmalade mélange with a little dash of ginger and cocoa. There’s a sweaty quality about it (in a good way) and some oily nuttiness. A typical Glenrothes nose marred only by a faint soapy note. It’s also a little spirity to start with but nothing that spoils the performance. With water some lighter cereal aromas show up. Palate: The arrival is bright and an intriguing mix of silken and sparkling textures. Very unexpected. Dark fruits and firm malty notes emerge from this as it develops and changes to a richer palate. There is sweetness but it’s a dark, earthy sweetness showcasing the sort of hefty malt that is almost like treacle and reminiscent of peanut brittle. There is also a flinty note. Finish: Medium. Semi-sweet sherry and dark malt fading into a slightly spicy aftertaste that borders on semi-sour. This whisky was released in collaboration with North Star Spirits to celebrate 10 years of whisky vlogs by Ralfy Mitchell, and a proportion of the profit goes to charity. This isn't a light floral, fruity, sweet or peaty dram. It's all about the aromas and flavours of malt in its many forms and what that creates in combination with a good ex-oloroso cask. It’s an old-school style of whisky (slightly reminiscent of Glenfarclas 15) that is untouched by special finishing and I can see why Ralfy gave the go-ahead for his name to be put on the label. It’s a solid down-to-earth dram. However, as good as it is, it’s not faultless or fantastic – well, not to my palate anyway. It thought it lacked nuance when neat and adding water improved it considerably. On the nose, water brought out more interesting and varied characteristics including a little spicy pepper and some fresh biscuit notes. The palate became softer as the initial flinty note changed to a more earthy/mineral quality and there was a little more dark fruit sweetness. Ralfy is known for liking his dram watered and I can see him praising such treatment in this case. Only 618 bottles world-wide, and the allocations were sparse in some locations. You might still find a bottle but unfortunately I suspect many will end up being permanent denizens of auction sites. What a pity. “Good” : 83/100 (3.5 stars)160.0 AUD per Bottle -
Sirius 31 year 1988 (North Star Spirits)
Blended Malt — Highlands , Scotland
Reviewed February 22, 2020 (edited May 14, 2021)North Star Spirits tasting event, Sydney, February 21, 2020, Whisky #3 Nose: Dense, cohesive, integrated sherry and leather with a waxy, citrus zest note - orange, mandarin, and red grapefruit. Old libraries and sports-car leather upholstery. Beeswax candles and a hint of sandalwood shavings. Coconut oil, vanilla and a pinch of cloves spice also shows through. Monumental. Palate: A complete bazaar of mellow baking spices simmered in sherry and citrus syrup. Dark fruits but not overly sweet - the fruity flavours are mellowed and suave. The texture is rich and creamy. An excellent palate. Finish: Long. Extended sherry/sweet malt/citrus and leather flavours fade slowly into the aftertaste. Sumptuous and magnificent with the type of integration that only comes to whisky with age. The profile is an impenetrable wall to start with and this expression demands extensive time before you can begin to explore it properly. We tasted it about 45 minutes into the evening when it had been resting for an hour and it was still tight. Towards the end of the event when it had been opened for almost two hours it had evolved astonishingly, and was still opening. You could nurse a dram of this all night. North Star have released several expressions of blended malt under the name "Vega" but these have all originated from the Speyside area. This new "Sirius" line is exclusively a blending of old highland whiskies. There was general agreement at the tasting that this almost certainly contains Clynelish, and a liberal dose at that. The event co-ordinator suggested that it might be a teaspooned Clynelish but I'm not so sure. I think there is a percentage of something else at work, but I couldn't guess what. Really excellent whisky, and if it is in fact virtually a 31 year old Clynelish exclusively matured in first fill bourbon then even at the asking price of AUS$250 it represents phenomenal value. Highly recommended, if you can find it - 3,582 bottles world wide. "Excellent" : 88/100 (4.5 stars)250.0 AUD per Bottle -
North Star Campbeltown 5 year 2014
Blended Malt — Campbeltown , Scotland
Reviewed February 22, 2020 (edited December 27, 2021)North Star Spirits tasting event, Sydney, February 21, 2020, Whisky #2 Nose: Fragrant leather. Apricots, peaches and golden syrup. Honeysuckle flowers and rosewater in the distance and a waft of minerality. The tiniest hint of tarry smoke. Palate: Sweet spices on the arrival. Brisk and juicy with very sweet malt and sugar-encrusted dried fruits coming to the front in the development. Lots of syrupy fruit jam. The texture is thick and unctious and as it opens the palate gains toffee and caramel notes. Finish: Medium/long. Sweetly sherried malt with a leathery aftertaste. Warming. North Star obtained a quantity of spirit from some Campbeltown distilleries a few years back which was married and has been released as two single-cask blended malt bottlings, of which this is the second. The distilleries are not identified, but as there are effectively only two companies in operation in Campbeltown you can make a pretty accurate guess. The first bottling was released in 2018 as part of North Star's series 005 and it gained some notoriety at the time for proudly bearing a 4 year old age statement. It was a 57% expression matured exclusively in refill bourbon and frankly it was very spirity, grassy and young. It was a whisky-nerd's dram and pretty tough work, and It was a brave move to release it at 4 years old. Following focus-group response, Iain Croucher (the owner of North Star) did the most sensible thing possible and re-casked the remaining stock in what I'm sure was a very wet first-fill PX sherry cask. After a year of this finishing the resulting whisky is totally different to the 4 year old. The series 009 release is very pleasant, sweet, easy to approach and highly fragrant with an enormously over-the-top PX influence. It's so sherried it's almost a caricature, but at the same time it's not really a sherry-bomb, being saved by the fact that the underlying spirit is so feisty and bright that it balances the fortified wine finish. It may not sound that great from my description, but it is in fact delicious - in a sort of mad scientist way. The only real fault I could find is that over time the nose becomes very toffee-like and the palate becomes almost monotonously sweet. As for what this is, obviously it must be Glen Scotia and Springbank/Glengyle, but there is a catch. Springbank sells spirit to no-one anymore (except Cadenhead, which they own), and neither do they sell Kilkerran to IBs. The whisky also simply does not smell or taste like anything Springbank. The obvious explanation is that this is a teaspooned Glen Scotia, which seems to be the prevailing wisdom. Whatever it is I loved it and sprinted to the shop counter to buy a bottle after the tasting. The AUS$125 price was a tasting event special and I thought it was fair. The regular price is AUS$165, and at that point the value for money is debatable for what is, after all, a sort of drooling sweet-jam monster of a whisky (but it's great fun). "Good (just)" : 83/100 (3.5 stars)125.0 AUD per Bottle -
Auchroisk 13 year 2006 (North Star Spirits)
Single Malt — Speyside, Scotland
Reviewed February 22, 2020 (edited August 10, 2020)North Star Spirits tasting event, Sydney, February 21, 2020, Whisky #1 Nose: Sweetly fruity and floral, but not intensely so. A gentle aroma of red apple, apricot, rockmelon, red berries, vanilla and musk. There is a mildly oily quality to the nose like tanned leather and it also has an earthy note. As the dram rests and opens there is a tiny hint of menthol in the background and a mild hint of sherry, but it's well restrained. It is a little spirity, but not unpleasantly so - maybe zesty is a better description. Palate: A sweet and almost effervescent arrival with a crisp, fresh cereal quality mellowed by a slight buttery note. As it develops the sherry cask becomes a little more obvious with some dried fruits emerging along with sweet malt. The texture is lively but rich. Finish: Medium. Sweet malty and fruit notes that fade out into a gentle aftertaste. For oloroso cask maturation this is surprisingly like an ex-bourbon cask, and I'd believe you if you said it was bourbon for 12 years with a moderate sherry finish. The fortified wine is well in the background providing a subtle framework and it's not at all a sherry bomb. Excellent - just how I like it! The nose is fragrant and full and the palate is polite and very welcoming. There is something about this expression reminiscent of Bruichladdich Classic Laddie - it has that same fragrant/floral red-wine cask character. The nose is a touch spirity but a tiny dash of water (just a few drops) dispels this completely. As I came back to this dram throughout the night it became progressively less impressive, but that was only because it was being compared to some stunning old whisky. Taken on its own merits it's a really enjoyable teenage Authroisk that displays all the best aspects of this workhorse Diageo malt that you don't get in the OB Flora & Fauna bottling. This is a cracking good single cask release and it's reasonably priced. I bought a bottle on the night. "Good" : 83/100 (3.5 stars)145.0 AUD per Bottle -
Jim Beam Bonded Number 12 Formula
Bourbon — Kentucky , USA
Reviewed February 18, 2020 (edited July 25, 2022)Nose: Oak, honey, vanilla, caramel sauce, popcorn, cherries. A very fresh and well constructed nose. It's sweet, approachable and honest. Palate: A sweet and mild arrival with brown sugar and soft rye spice. Seed-cake and fennel seed, peanut brittle, a hint of sweet licorice, vanilla, mint, sweet corn and a little tobacco. There's a slightly candyish nature to the palate, but it's not sickly. Finish: Short. Sweet and woody caramel flavours. This is an odd one, and I’ve not been able to find out much about it. Jim Beam Bonded has been around for a while and has gone through a lot of label changes and bottle shapes, but the profile has remained fairly stable. It’s always had a hefty, tannic and raw edge with peppery notes. However, this “Bonded Number 12 Formula” is nothing at all like that. It has a soft and honeyed presentation – still with good weight, but it’s much easier. If anything, it is more similar to the Signature Cask 12 year old, however in this case the whisky is not 12 years old – Number 12 Formula is just a marketing name and it does not have the class of the Signature Craft. This may have been an Australian-only release, I don’t know. I picked up a few bottles a couple of years back and just finished the last of them. Unfortunately it seems to be no longer available. It was briefly replaced by the standard modern label Jim Beam Bonded, but that is now also unavailable here. I suspect it was withdrawn because being a bonded whiskey it had to be exported at 50%, and that was too expensive to import given Australia's ridiculously high excise rates. It's a real shame because this was a good mid-shelf bourbon that was enjoyable neat as a sipping whisky and also made a great mixer. If you see a bottle anywhere don't hesitate to grab it. “Above Average" : 80/100 (3 stars)57.0 AUD per Bottle -
Bakery Hill Classic Single Malt
Single Malt — Australia
Reviewed February 18, 2020 (edited May 8, 2023)Bakery Hill tasting event, Sydney, 18 February 2020, Whisky #1 Nose: Bright, gristy cereal, fresh yeasty white bread, lightly fruity and floral, a touch of honey. Intensely spirit driven with barely a trace of cask. Fresh and crisp – almost brittle. Palate: Firm, bright arrival that again focuses squarely on a clean cereal profile. Very crisp with some malty notes but I thought there was little development apart from considerable heat that arises in mid-palate and obscures things a little. The texture is on the oily side of neutral. Like the nose, the palate is spirit-driven. Finish: Medium/short. Light, dry semi-sweet flavours that trail out into a sweet cereal aftertaste. I’ve only tasted one Bakery Hill prior to this (the Sovereign Smoke which I enjoyed a lot and rated at 4 stars here) so I’d expected a little more from this core-range whisky. It’s certainly a very clean and direct spirit but also rather simple. My immediate thought on tasting it was “so what’s all the fuss about?” and I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was somehow missing. Adding a dash of water initially improved things by expanding the profile and adding a little sweetness (as it so often does) but over time a feinty wet-cardboard character emerged. I thought this whisky was just on the better side of average, but not by much. At the asking price (US$110 for a 500ml bottle!) I really didn’t think this represents good value. “Average” : 79/100 (2.75 stars)160.0 AUD per Bottle -
Benriach 2009 10yo cask #1647 Batch 16 Madeira cask
Single Malt — Speyside, Scotland
Reviewed February 9, 2020 (edited February 19, 2020)Nose: Strongly smoky, of the highland type. Not medicinal or coastal - more bonfire. Some winey notes in the background, but primarily smoky. Water changes the nose slightly, bringing out plastic aromas. Palate: Smoke on the arrival, rich and blanketing. Red berries and some faint jammy notes in the development. Again, adding water unleashes a lot of plastic notes and after a while the palate veers towards sourness. Take this one neat. Finish: Medium. Sweet and smoky with a little bitterness in the aftertaste, particularly when watered. An interesting smoky dram, but not one of great stature. The nose is very forceful when neat and certainly not constrained by the 59% abv. Water mellows it but at a cost. The palate is not of the same standard as the nose, and pretty average, really. BenRiach releases these cask strength, single cask expressions regularly. There were 24 in this Batch 16 release, with 12 only available in Europe, and 12 in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. I don't believe there was any U.S. allocation. These batches always strike me more as interesting detours than anything else. Something to be enjoyed at tastings rather than purchased for pleasure, although that said I'm sure there are dedicated BenRiach collectors who eagerly await these releases and snap up the whole set. Many thanks to @Soba45 for sending me some samples of the latest batch, but this is the only one I'll be reviewing here. The nose is good, but the palate only average. I'm splitting the difference and scoring it at 3.25. "Above Average" : 82/100 (3.25 stars) -
Auchentoshan 21 Year
Single Malt — Lowlands, Scotland
Reviewed February 1, 2020 (edited August 11, 2020)Nose: Lightly resinous wood, cedar, some vanilla, a chocolate note. Malty and grainy and more satisfying than any other Auchentoshan I've nosed. There's a fresh white bread / madeira cake / panettone note along with bergamot and ginger. Pleasant and fresh rather than mature. Palate: The palate does not hold up to the promise of the nose. It's similarly fresh but the arrival is a simple combination of young cereal flavours, green grass and mild herbs that tastes very young. Had I tasted this blind I would never have guessed that it was 21 years old. There are agreeable malty notes but no complexity and like every Auchentoshan I've tasted the wood influence seems intrusive. It's simultaneously juvenile and confused. The texture is OK, a little oily and silken. Finish: Short. Ginger cake, pine resin and some grassy notes. I have to confess that I'm not at all fond of Auchentoshan whisky. There is a particular note in their new-make spirit that reminds me of pine-tree sap and I find it permeates every aspect of all their expressions. When this is combined with cask influence the resinous note is amplified, and the more varied and complex the casking the worse it becomes for me. I'm sure that this is not a common perception as many folks enjoy this distillery's offerings. It's probably some obscure association I have with a particular ester that triggers my resin-phobia. However once again I'm confounded by Auchentoshan. The nose is very pleasant, hardly commanding but time has muted the resin note considerably. However on the palate it's just a young and forgettable malt. There is nothing at all actively bad about it, but there is nothing that I could find that was worthy of high praise either. Tasted from a 30ml sample, thanks to @Soba45 for the tasting sample. It's not a whisky I would ever have bought as an experiment, particularly at what seems an unusually high price. "Average" : 79/100 (2.75 stars)300.0 AUD per Bottle -
Del Maguey Arroqueño Mezcal
Mezcal Joven — Oaxaca, Mexico
Reviewed January 22, 2020 (edited December 3, 2021)Nose: Warm, full, inviting, malty (!?!). Lord, is this really mezcal? There are flashes of Ardbeg in this!!! Deep herbal tones and a rich melange of fruit and smoke. This is, without exception, the best nose I've ever encountered on a mezcal. Smoked asparagus of the highest order, fragrant vegetal aromas, elusive citrus notes and fleeting sooty smoke. It is ... divine. Palate: Warm, rich, rounded, complex, minty, slightly astringent, herbal, asparagus and finally sweet. That's just the arrival - and it's monumental. The palate develops sweet melon and fruity notes, but it's like fruit salad in rose-petal and frankincense infused syrup. This is not common fresh fruit. Chocolate and very subtle smoke notes appear as well. The texture is - absent - in the best way. You hardly notice you have liquid in your mouth. Finish: Short. Suave, sweet and genteel with not a single off note. A blissful and entirely satisfying finale. Stunning. This is quite simply the best mezcal I've tasted, bar none. It is the benchmark against which all mezcal should be judged. The official tasting notes here are a bit ... odd ... but I can't disagree with the score. My profound thanks to @PBMichiganWolverine via way of @Soba45 for the rare opportunity to taste this. I am envious of your prices and availability in the US. We had no allocation here, and even if we had it would have been three times the price. "Outstanding" : 90/100 (5 stars) -
Smith's Angaston Whisky 20 Year (1997 Vintage)
Single Malt — Angaston, South Australia , Australia
Reviewed January 20, 2020 (edited January 24, 2020)Australian Single Malt Whisky Tasting (Part 2), The Oak Barrel, Sydney 17 January 2020, Whisky #7 Nose: Deep sherry, warm baking spices, ginger biscuits, orange oil, cocoa. Palate: A warm, rich Christmas cake arrival with a hint of spice and oak. Fortified wine, brandy and cherry liqueur become apparent as it develops, together with an amplification of the dark cake flavours into treacle tart, fruit mince pies and stewed pears in port. Balancing this huge palate are some bright spice tones and bittersweet fruit notes (grapefruit and kiwifruit). The texture is creamy, full and dense. Finish: Medium. Fortified wine and honey trail off into a sweet malty aftertaste. This was the last dram of the two-night tasting of Australian single malts and it was a great finale. Unlike the 18 year old Smith’s Angaston that we tasted at the end of the first night [see separate review] this whisky had good balance. The distillery that produced it was acquired by Yalumba (a massive Australian wine producer) in 1970 but it was immediately mothballed as they had no interest in whisky production. However the still was later recommissioned and ran for three years from 1997-2000 to produce a few experimental hogsheads. This expression was one of 264 bottles produced from cask No.970331 in 2019, which had been filled from one of the last spirit runs in 1997. The bottling was dedicated to Peter John Wall, the late production manager at the distillery, who was responsible for the brief recommissioning of the still and the experimental runs. “Very Good” : 85/100 (4 stars)
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