Tastes

Another trip to NYC this past week, and this time I had one open night without business dinners or other obligations.  Free time in Manhattan for me usually involves a lot of walking and exploring.    I've spent very little time exploring NYC's liquor stores (although Astor Wines and Liquors is a notable exception; I make a point of stopping in when I'm in the East Village), so I scoped out a handful of stores in the Chelsea/Grammercy area. One of the better stops was Bottlerocket Wines and Spirits, which had a nice selection of whiskeys of all types, including local represetatives such as Van Brunt Stillhouse and Kings County Distillery. I had yet to try anything from Van Brunt, although I have an unopened bottle of Van Brunt Bourbon I picked up in Brooklyn earlier this year.  Bottlerocket had a nice assortment of Van Brunt, including Campfire, which I hadn't previously heard of.  But "Campfire" sounded great on a cold night (even without its namesake from High West coming to mind), so I snapped up a 375 ml bottle. Subsequent research revealed the Campfire consists of of Van Brunt’s Peated Bourbon (60% corn, 20% wheat, 20% peated malt), Smoked Corn Whiskey (80% corn, 20% wheat aged in ex-boubon barrels), and Smoked Wheat Whiskey.  (All of which, save the smoked corn,  appear to be distillery-only offerings. Hopefully that will change).   The nose has smoke, oak, and corn, as well as a note of tequila lime, which made for a very unique profile overall.  The palate spotlights corn, smoke, and cherry.  It's quite tannic, but the palate overall is well balanced between the tannic notes and the bourbon flavors, and it's not at all dry.  The smoke is interesting - it pervades the palate without being sharp, and has a bit of a vegetal quality to it.  While the blend includes a bit of peated malt, the peat is not distinguishable. Overall, I found the Campfire to be very nice - complex, balanced, and unique. This is apparently a one time 2018 release, and I wish I had grabbed a second 375ml bottle.  But I still have the bourbon to crack open, and I hope to see more great offerings from Van Brundt in the future

Another night in NYC, another whiskey bar.  This time, The Whiskey Ward, on the lower east side.  The Whiskey Ward is a casual place with a neighborhood bar vibe, albeit one with 400+ whiskeys. It was a quiet Sunday night, and the wife and I took seats at the bar.  The whiskeys are listed on chalkboards suspended from the ceiling, as well as in a three ring binder at the bar.  The bottles are lined up on asymetrical shelves behind the bar in a highly random fashion.  Chatting with the bartender, I learned that the owner frequently buys new whiskeys, adds more shelving as needed, and fills the shelves in no particular order.  The disorder is apparently compounded by bottles being returned to different locations after each pour. I found some charm in the chaos, and since it was a quiet night, the bartender took her time hunting for my selections.  In several cases she determined that the bottle must have been finished, although it's entirely possible that it was there but neither one of us was seeing it. After a couple of misses, I selected the Longrow Red 11 Cabernet Sauvignon Finish.  The bartender gave me a pour and left the bottle.  While I was giving it a few minutes to sit, I noticed that it wasn't actually the Red 11 Cab Finish, but the Red 11 Port Finish.  At that point, the Port seemed just fine.   The nose and palate did not surprise - there's dark berries, peat smoke, and a little bit of char.  It has what I think of as the Campbeltown density, and an oily and rich texture.  Overall, very nice. The one surprise was a bit more of a mellow, rounded off profile than I expected.  The answer, as I now see from the prior reviews, may be in the age of the bottle.  This was apparently a 2015 or 2016 release, so it has possibly been sitting open on the shelf for several years.  As best I can tell, a few years and some air has not been unkind.  While I'd still like to try the cab finish, I have no regrets trying the port instead.

After sampling two rum finished whiskeys on a recent visit to the Copper and Oak in NYC, I decided to shift gears for my third and final dram, selecting the Kilchoman Port Cask Matured. I've read the previous reviews here, many rather middling.  Nevertheless, Kilchoman combined with port summoned me like the Sirens' song.  While I didn't find myself dashed on the proverbial rocks, I quickly understood the ambivalence.   Dram by dram, I've become a big fan of this distillery.  Kilchoman whiskies are robust and bold, but like a great blues guitar solo, there's plenty of space between the notes.  It makes for a lovely drinking experience.  That space is not present with the Port Cask Matured.  The palate comes across as distinct and competing bombs of sweetness and smoke that bleed all over each other.  Nuance and complexity suffer accordingly. I wouldn't say this is a bad whisky.  But unlike  the Kilchomans I love, it doesn't present as an exceptionally well crafted dram.

During my recent visit to Copper and Oak in NYC, I started the night with the rum finished Blood Oath Pact 5.  The wife was at my side, sampling rums.  I decided to keep the rum theme alive by selecting the Glenfiddich 21 Reserva Rum Cask for my second pour.  Rum is my second favorite spirit, so rum finished whiskies usually pique my interest.  Unfortunately, I too often find that rum finishes don't add a lot - perhaps some general sweetness, but not much else in terms of additional notes, depth, or complexity.   Not so with this Glenfiddich.  Short of blending in copious amounts of actual rum, I'm not sure the rum notes could have been any more prominent - tropical fruit and brown sugar most notably.    Not to be outdone, the underlying whisky is also quite bold, with a typical Glenfiddich profile, but more dry and somewhat bitter on the finish.  It veered towards unappealing.  But the biggest shortfall is a lack of integration between the malt whisky and the rum notes.  It comes across as a forced marriage.   This is a complex whiskey that has inspired a very wide range of opinions in the reviews here.  Despite my initial misgivings, I'd be interested in trying it on multiple occasions to see if my reaction varied.  But due to the price, that's not going to happen.  At well over $100, it's far outside of my "this could possibly get better" range. I feel like this whiskey should be a part of Glenfiddich's Experimental Series, even if it's an experiment that didn't quite work (I do usually like Glenfiddich's experimental efforts; the Fire & Cane and XX are both winners).  With a price tag aligned to the rest of the Experimental Series ($40-70), I'd be a lot more forgiving.

I just returned from a long weekend in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  The Lower East Side is home to several of the city's best whiskey bars, and my first stop was Copper & Oak.   Copper & Oak is a tiny space, with room for no more than a dozen people at a time.  It provides a space for patrons to sit and thoughtfully enjoy their spirits - mostly whiskey, but rum and mezcal as well. My latest whiskey obsession is American blends, so I started with the Blood Oath Pact 5, which would be the first Blood Oath I've tried. Pact 5 is a mix of a wheated bourbon with two high rye bourbons, one of which is finished in rum casks.  It has some sweet elements from the rum finished rye bourbon and the wheated whiskey. But overall, I found it to be heavily dominated by rye. While I've enjoyed a few high-rye bourbons, they're not usually among my favorites.   Those who don't love rye should not expect the wheated bourbon addition and rum finish to be entirely transformative - this is still a high-rye bourbon at its core.  For rye aficianados, however, I suspect the wheat and rum will likely feature much more prominently   I was glad I had the opportunity to sample the Pact 5.  It's an unusual creation, and at $100-150 a bottle, it's not something I'd buy casually (unlike the $26 bottle of Pike Creek that I recently purchased).   The whiskeys used in the Pact 5 came across as well aged, and I found it to be an easy sipper.  While not entirely a match for my palate, I'm sufficiently impressed and will keep an eye on future Blood Oath releases.

A lovely craft effort from Portland Oregon. Thanks @PBMichiganWolverine for the sample!  As mentioned in his review, if you like a whiskey that's sweet with a nice vanilla note, you'll like this Burnside.  And personally, I do like a sweet, vanilla whiskey. But sweet vanilla alone is hardly memorable.  Fortunately, this whiskey brings some distinction in the form of a slight oak dryness similar to the wood note I often find in Speyside whiskys.  This is only the second garryana-aged whiskey I've tasted, with the first being Westland Garryana.  With the Westland, I found the garryana wood note to be too sharp.  With the Burnside, the unique garryana taste is more mild, and is a strong complement to the whiskey.  This is not a complex dram, and it's not full of classic bourbon notes outside of the vanilla.  In fact, tasted blind, I might have pegged it as a wheat whiskey.  But ultimately, it's very pleasant, easy drinking and enjoyable.  

After some hectic business travel to start the week I arrived home on Wednesday evening in the mood for a relaxing dram, so I pulled out my tray of samples. Edradour Ballechin Port Finish.  A nice port finished Highland.  While it sounded lovely, a relaxing dram this is not.  Sometimes it pays to do a little research before pouring. This whisky is PEATED.   To put it in perspective: Laphroaig 10 and Arbeg 10 are peated.  This whisky is PEATED.  But here's the wonderful thing - as strong as the peat is, it's a beautiful, barbeque, meaty, campfire peat smoke. There's not a touch of ash or bitterness to be found. Moving beyond the peat...Quite simply, balance is not the intent here.  The peat is dialed so high that everything else is pushed into the background.  The port finish does supply a nice touch of berry sweetness, but I found it difficult to identify more specific notes.  In fact, had I been tasting this blind, I would have done no better than concluding it had been finished in wine barrels.  Regardless, it's an exciting whisky, and can be comfortably consumed neat.  I tried adding a bit of water to see if the port notes would become more prominent, but despite toning down the peat - just slightly- the overall profile was unchanged.   The following night, I decided to break out a sample of the only other port-finished peated whisky I had on hand for comparison - Laphroaig Cairdeas 2013.   I found the peat in the Edradour to be both stronger and more enjoyable, with the Laphroaig trending more towards ash.  That's not to say the Edradour is a better overall whisky; the Laphroaig is complex, balanced, and plays in a different league.  But I would not have expected a Laphroaig to take second place in a peat contest with a Highlands upstart. Thank you @PBMichiganWolverine for the awesome sample!  The Edradour Ballechin Port Wood is a unique whisky experience, and one that would likely have stayed completely under my radar.

My experience tasting the Aberlour 16 was akin to putting my ear to a wall and attempting to listen to music being played in the next room at a very modest volume.   Do critics at Rolling Stone or Pitchfork review albums experienced through one ear stuck to a wall?  No, they do not.  I'll use that as an excuse to be somewhat brief here.  There are some very mild but not unpleasant notes of malt and fruit.  But overall, I found the dram to be so muted that the primary characteristics were a thinness, a lack of depth, and nothing that remotely captured my interest.   This was my first Aberlour, but I'm not yet deterred.  I have a sample of Casg Annamh on order that I suspect will prove to be more of a heavy hitter.  If not, the A'Bunadh will be next.

My sister is a periodic whiskey drinker who prefers a smooth dram with minimal alcohol burn.  I went to her house this past weekend for dinner and an evening by the fire pit, so I brought along a bottle of Green Spot, which I knew she had not tried.  The Green Spot became the first of a trio we sampled, along with two of her selections - Aberlour 16 and Jameson 18. I'm long overdue reviewing the Green Spot.  Among the three, it was my clear favorite.  On the nose, it's pear, apple, vanilla and cream.   The palate is very fruity - more pear and green apple, along with some citrus.  There's also more vanilla and caramel.  The finish is mild, with just a touch of grapefruit.  Beautiful is the first word that comes to mind.  It's a rich and full whisky, sweet and fruity without being excessively so, and very well balanced.   I had one significant takeaway from tasting these three whiskeys in succession - ABV matters, but it's not everything.  While the ethanol is somewhat muted at 40% ABV, the Green Spot bursts with flavor.  More than the Jameson, and far more than the Aberlour, despite both clocking in at 43%. Overall, I'd say the Green Spot is a great whiskey for both novices and enthusiasts. My sister and I both give it the seal of approval.

I found a barrel pick of Virginia Distillery Company's Rum Cask Finish at small (but very solid) Redstone Liquors in Andover MA.  I decided to go for it despite not finding a single review available online. Like the other editions of VDC's Virginia-Highland series this is a mix of a malt whisky produced by VDC in Virginia with malt whisky from the Highlands of Scotland.  It's bottled at 46% ABV. The nose, while not particularly strong, has cereal notes, a bit of citrus and lemon, and an overall sweetness that makes me think of confectioners sugar.   The palate starts somewhat watery (surprising for 46% ABV) before a mix of vegetal and grassy notes, some citrus, and wood spices take over.  The finish is long, with grapefruit, oak, and a slow build of ethenol.   The rum barrel finish comes through in the sweetness on the nose, but largely disappears on the palate.  Unfortunately, what's left is a Highland-style malt that's not among the better ones I've tried.  Ultimately, it's somewhat dry and not particularly sweet, which is not what I desire in  a rum cask finished whisky.   I love the fact that VDC is flying the American malt whisky flag, so I really wanted to like this dram (also, because I spent 60 bucks on it).  But if you're looking for a rum finished single malt, I'd recommend the Balvenie Carribean Cask above the VDC.   If you're generally curious about VDC, I'd recommend trying their port cask finished whisky instead.