Tastes

Had a tasting pack of three Jura expressions a few nights ago. Superstition is a very lightly peated, if peated at all, variant on the core Jura single malt. According to most sources, 13% of it is heavily peated, which is not much from a flavor standpoint. As a result, it is the sweetest and most Highland in style of the three Juras that I tried. For some reason I've been pulling this note from a lot of scotches recently, but Superstition's nose struck me as almost pure apple, with some molasses or syrup ladled on top. On the palate, exotic fruits and sticky toffee amp up the richness. The peat manifests itself as some earthy, mossy notes in the background, but there's no smoke, like a damp driftwood that won't ignite. That might be the rearguard of that small proportion of peated malt. The texture is full and thick given the moderate ABV. For what it's worth, this scotch doesn't betray the typical flaws of youth, like a short, bitter finish or an aldehyde scent, so I'm intrigued by the lack of age statement on it. It doesn't feel significantly younger than the 10-year old Origin. The fruity but rich finish almost seems lightly sherried to me, although I'm not sure to what extent this dram (or what proportion of this dram) is sherry-finished or sherry-aged. The strange thing about this single malt is that I've looked at some reviews online and it seems like everyone gets a completely different experience from it, with some sites even describing it as heavily peated in flavor and others rattling off notes that I did not notice at all (while not mentioning that almost overpowering apple cider scent). I wonder if Jura has changed the composition over the years or if they just have spotty quality control.

This review is for an OESK recipe private selection from Hi-Times Wine Cellar, aged 10 years and 1 month, and bottled at 59.1% ABV. Four Roses Private Selections have to be some of the best values in the bourbon world -- $70 for a barrel-proof, 10-year bourbon is hard to find in today's market. Complexity and chocolate are the standout characteristics for me from this bottling. There's a lot going on in its boozy power punch of a nose. The strongest aromas are cedar wood, chocolate fudge, and vanilla. That chocolate fudge is really the star of the show as I go in for a few more whiffs. I love bourbons and scotches that have pronounced chocolate notes, and this bourbon delivers with a very sweet, rich mélange. This is a French dessert bar whipped into liquid form. There is also an oily or gassy edge to the nose, almost verging on the smell of a grill right after igniting it with lighter fluid. The first time you sip this, that classic honeyed bourbon flavor will whet the palate for future forays. Further sips reward the taste buds with Aztec chocolate filled with chilis or crushed red pepper -- this is a spicy and hot bourbon! Unlike Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, which is an oak monster, Four Roses has comparatively mild woodiness, although there is a respectably firm backbone of woody flavors. I also don't detect as much fruitiness as I got in standard Four Roses Single Barrel, which features the distillery's OBSV recipe. This bourbon is heavy on the rye spice in spite of the fact that it's the lower-rye mash bill, perhaps because the K yeast supposedly highlights spice notes. The warm finish concludes with notes of cherry, rye spice, vanilla, and oak after the initial sweetness fades. Those notes of cherry and vanilla did not show up on the palate for me, so they added another layer to this bourbon. It's a surprisingly fruity and mildly drying finish, and it concludes with a ghostlike reminder of that pronounced chocolate note. Delicious.

Auchroisk appears on its own in the wild occasionally as part of Diageo’s annual limited releases, usually as a 20-year-plus aged single malt, and independent bottlers like Signatory often also release casks of Auchroisk. The distillery’s primary official bottling is this 10-year old expression, which is not exactly a common sight at any whiskey bar. My overall impression of this scotch is that it has the core flavors one would expect of a lightly sherried Highland whiskey: vanilla, honey and apple, some cherry, baking spices, oak, and cereal. It’s better than Glenmorangie because it has a well-balanced finish with no bitterness. Often, I find that the distilleries that aren’t known as single malts are used in blends for a reason, but I’m surprised Diageo doesn’t do more with this one.

Connemara stacks up well against its cousins in Islay and does its home country credit. Connemara's peat flavors are reminiscent of a blend of Port Charlotte and Laphroaig: slightly fishy, seaweed-like, vegetal peat, with a good dose of minerality to boot. Those flavors dominate the nose and palate, although there's also some mild malt sweetness at its core. The finish is unique — my best analogy would be to play dough or rubber, which sounds strange, but is actually not unpleasant. This is an unabashed, unapologetic peated whiskey, and I very much enjoyed it.

GlenDronach 12 may be my favorite entry-level sherried scotch. GlenDronach is not as well-known or widely distributed in the U.S. as Macallan, which I think is a shame. The distillery almost exclusively makes sherried scotches, and are masters of the art, although they do branch out for a few unusual expressions, like the excellent GlenDronach Peated. GlenDronach 12 is the distillery's introductory expression. Its aromas include ample amounts of vanilla and dates, so it has a Mediterranean dessert feel. On the palate, I get those classic sherried flavors of dates, figs, olives, and a bit of sulfurous smoke, but it's a hair too thin to be ideal. Warm, toasty oak and tobacco are the defining features of the lengthy finish. I'd stack this up against Macallan 12 any day. At $60 or so, it's also fairly priced.

Grain whiskies get a bad rap in the scotch whisky world, but that's why an accomplished blender like Compass Box set themselves the challenge of debunking that perception. This is a bravura performance from John Glaser, Compass Box's mastermind. I just criticized Compass Box yesterday for having some mediocre blends, but this is not one of them. Hedonism is a bit one-note, but the note is spectacular and clear, and Glaser deserves credit for purifying it to this point. Hedonism tastes exactly like vanilla, more than any other whisky I've ever tried. It is like a vanilla-heavy bourbon, if you then stripped out the toffee or caramel notes. It is like hearing a perfect, pure note from a well-tuned piano or violin. It's beautiful to behold. The finish reveals some aged oak lurking in the profile, but that vanilla is the absolute star here, and it's virtually a one-man show. It's a credit to Compass Box that the one note not only keeps my attention, but captivates it.

Royal Lochnagar's most famous expression actually isn't its single malt. It's a large part of Johnnie Walker Blue Label, to which it lends its sweet and floral Highland base. The distillery itself has a cool backstory, which the name reveals in part. In the 1840s, the distillery owner invited his neighbors -- Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, who owned a nearby castle -- to sample his wares. The royal family enjoyed the whisky so much that they gave it a rare royal warrant, an honor accorded to only a few distilleries to my knowledge. I believe that Royal Brackla is the only other one that has Royal in the name. Laphroaig, which is Prince Charles's favorite, has a warrant from him, although I'm not sure if that's technically a royal warrant, as he isn't king (certainly the distillery hasn't named itself Royal Laphroaig, which would be hilarious). Anyways, Royal Lochnagar 12 is mostly found in the UK, not in the States, and I'd describe it as an unexceptional Highland single malt. The most unique note that I can remember is a papaya-like flavor on the palate, which gave it a refreshing tropical character.

Japanese whiskey, Japanese whiskey. Well, I've pretty much expressed my view on the topic: great whiskies, but overhyped and overpriced in the current market. Hakushu and Yamazaki are two of Suntory's single malt distilleries, and of the two, there's a divide among fans about which is better. Hakushu lightly peats their whiskey, so one would expect that it's my favorite. Surprisingly, not so! Hakushu has a swirl of fruit flavors, plums, peaches, and other stone fruits, with the counterpoint being a cedar wood and slight smoke (particularly in the finish) from the peated component. It's nice, but a little generic. I had a bottle of Hakushu 12 several years ago, and it had a more distinctive and unique character, which is lost in this new, no-age-statement expression.

Compass Box is the hottest blended whisky producer of the moment, but I'm not entirely sure that its basic expressions are consistently better than the usual big players like Johnnie Walker. Since Compass Box isn't as well-known to the general population, however, it inevitably gets a little boost from enthusiasts looking to show that they know more than regular joes (the whiskey world version of the, "You haven't heard of them?" line from music hipsters). I love some Compass Box expressions, but Peat Monster is only . . . OK. The nose is full of an herbal, corky, wet-wood style of peat. The palate, in contrast, is light and sweet. The finish is a smoky, classic peated finish. Before looking it up, I would have guessed that this was a blend of young Caol Ila, Ardbeg, and Port Charlotte. For what it's worth, Compass Box has disclosed that it contains an Islay south shore malt, a peated malt, a peated malt from the Isle of Mull, and a smoky Speyside malt. Based on that, I'd guess Ardbeg, Caol Ila, Ledaig (the only peated Mull malt), and Benromach. I'm not sure that the blend of those single malts complement each other, they feel like they're getting in each other's way, if that makes any sense. At $55-60, it's not badly priced, but at that price I'd just get Ardbeg 10, Caol Ila 12, Ledaig 10, or Benromach 10, and be happier for it. If I wanted a smoky blend, I'd probably opt for the slightly more boring but easier drinking Johnnie Walker Double Black Label, which also has a lot of Caol Ila in it, and save myself some money to boot. PS - Looking at other reviews on this site, including Scotching Hard, I see I was wrong even in my second round of guesses. Surprised there’s that much Laphroaig in here, I’d think I would recognize my favorite distillery if it made up the plurality of the blend!

This scotch is billed as Bowmore 15 The Darkest, and it does possess a rich, mahogany color. But there’s color added, so what does that name even mean? I suspect “Most Artificial Colorant Added” did not score highly in the marketing focus groups. All jokes aside, this scotch has a cool and striking note: chocolate covered pretzel. It noticed it immediately on the nose and on the palate, it’s that sensation when you crack open a pretzel (yeasty, dry, salty). Other than that, I get musk, corn oil, plenty of peat, mildly sweet malt, and cherry candy. The finish is not smoky but rather expresses its sherry finish in the form of some berry or tart fruit and some chewy, woody tannins. At around $75-80, I’d peg this as the best value and best whisky in Bowmore’s main lineup.