Tastes

Here’s another sample from the team effort: (Royal) Lochnagar 12 Year. This is a highland distillery that was awarded a royal warrant from the U.K. royal family that made them the official distillery for the royals for a term of 5 years. I’m not exactly sure who decides this determination, how often it happens, what it brings the distillery/royal family/regular Brit citizens or what the big deal is. It’s a British thing, us ‘Muricans just don’t understand. This one is bottled at the minimum standard of 40% ABV, is light copper in color, appears quite oily but it doesn’t make many legs in the glass. The nose is very fruity, almost artificially so, with oranges and some blackberry jam. There’s an underlying note of tea leaves as well- which doesn’t sit well with me. I was forced to drink so much tea as a kid (no sodas) that I actually can’t stand even the smell of tea as an adult. The palate was again very fruity- orange slices, pears with lots of honey sweetness. There was a nice vanilla creme candies flavor that arrived mid-sip. The lack of barrel notes made this a seriously fruity and overly sweet dram, though. It needs some oak or heat to balance it. Sadly, it’s just not there. The finish is medium in length, turning somewhat dry and leaving those darn tea leaf notes on the tongue. Or perhaps, this was just stuck in my head- I don’t know lol. It was this final statement that turned this pour negative for me. It’s all because of my dislike of tea, though. Overall, I think this would be a decent beginner’s dram for those looking to ease into scotch. The lack of heat and oak will make an experienced drinker probably think less of this one. Me? Well, I can’t handle the tea leaf aspect. I have to rate this one pretty low because of that fact. Thanks to my friend @PBMichiganWolverine for providing this one, but it’s just not for me. I hate to give it a crashing score, so I’ll just rate it middle of the road and move on.

I wandered into my semi-local whisky bar yesterday after riding around Richmond (VA) looking for the last few bottles of Classic Cut that are sitting on shelves around town. I mentioned that to the bar owner and he convinced me to buy a pour of Classic Cut with a side car of the original Cask Strength- to compare the two. For $22, I couldn’t refuse. I love the new Classic Cut, but this bottle of Cask Strength (from 2013, at 59% ABV) is on an entirely different plane. The depth in color transfer over to the palate- you can tell this bottle has some serious age to it, despite being NAS. The raisin, prunes and plums add serious sweetness to keep that higher alcohol in check- even better than Classic Cut does. It’s incredibly complex, too. It’s like taking the Rare Cask and upping it to 60%. There’s a restrained burn on the finish but the crazy flavors return once the heat subsided and hang around until you chase them away. I quickly did a rare bottle search and found a few bottles of this online, but the retailers were asking over $500 for it. That’s crazy high, especially for a NAS, but damn this is a crazy good bottle. If you can find a friendly bartender- grab a pour and if you have the means- buy a bottle and find out for yourself. This one is Macallan at its finest. 4.5 stars.

Here’s another sample from the group of friends that have joined me in trying to claim a pour from every active distillery in Scotland. This sample is from a not very well known distillery: Tormore. It’s an independent bottling from Berry Bros & Rudd, out of the U.K. and it’s a well-aged example, at 21 years old. This one is cask strength at 54%. I believe my friend Jason paid around $120 for this bottle. Let’s see if it was worth it... In the tasting glass it’s a beautiful, shimmering gold. There’s lots of super thin, runny legs that leave behind really tiny, watery beads after you roll it around the Glencairn. The nose opens with a very mature smelling oak: it’s weathered and worn. Some nice florals appear before the sweetness sinks in. I’m getting faint, Gala apple slices and a nice hit of pineapple. It bounces around between tropical and sherry sweet constantly. It’s very inviting. On the tongue, sherry sweetness and a bit of acidity open the proceedings. Luscious melons, like cantaloupe and honeydew, coat the tongue and linger on with honeysuckle florals. After a bit of a “chew” the ABV takes over and causes a much hotter back end that wasn’t detectable early on. At 54%, I cant say I was surprised but since it didn’t hit until later on it did put a blemish on what was a very good experience to this point. The finish is pretty hot and dry, but thankfully a lot of the fruity melon notes linger on and on long enough for me to consider it quite a lengthy ending. Pluses here. Overall, it’s a very good dram. I think the use of a higher quality barrel would’ve led to a near-perfect score. It’s well aged and from a very obscure distillery. The biggest box it checks is that this bottling makes me want to look for other official bottles from Tormore to try. Thanks again, @Telex. A solid 4 star dram. Cheers, my friends.

I’m trying to get back on our distillery sample group track again- I’ve been a bit distracted by lots of work, and overtime, along with buying a bunch of new bottles I don’t really have the time or money for. I believe I have a whisky spending problem. Anyway, I’m finally trying to get dialed back in to sampling. Up next, Speyside distillery: Glenallachie. This particular bottle is from Duncan Taylor’s Battlehill independent group. It’s a 7 year old example that’s bottled at a cask strength of 55% ABV. I don’t believe this one has added color and I think it’s non-chill filtered, as well. Inside the Glencairn glass it’s a deep, mellow gold and it looks quite oily. The nose started out with some overbearing notes like ex-bourbon cask: spicy, black pepper and charred oak. After some time and once it settled, the true maturation in sherry casks show up: sweet berries, dark raisin with a little bit of lemon zest. It’s still a bit of a mess because the notes all seem to be rotating through the glass and not connected. One minute it’s this, the next it’s something else. No harmony. The palate is predominantly youthful- spicy oak barrel and overly bitter. It’s oily, though, and that leads to the negative aspects sticking around too long. The mid palate turns toward toffee and roasted nuts, but it’s a bit late to the party and I’m really ready for this to end. The finish is short-to-medium and remains bitter until it leaves some orange marmalade and toffee hanging behind. Shrug. Overall, this one is too “all over the place” for me. The oily youthfulness causes flavors that you’d usually want to be masked to just stay put. That’s the biggest downfall here IMO. If this one just kind of did it’s thing and moved on I could overlook some of the faults, maybe blame it mostly on the spirit’s age, whatever. Thanks to @Generously_Paul for sending this one so we could take another step towards our goal, but this one falls short. 2.5 stars since I’m feeling a little generous. Cheers.

I picked up a bottle of this as I was looking for a “filler” bottle for an online order back before the Christmas holiday. Seeing that it was the Christmas Edition, I figured what the heck? This blend has been around for quite some time and they always release a special, cask strength edition each holiday season. This batch came in at a whopping 54.1% and contained malts from Ardbeg, Bowmore, Caol Ila and (surprise, surprise) Port Ellen. Yup, “ghosted” Port Ellen. I know this is going to be good. The moment I poured this into the Glencairn the room was filled with delicious BBQ’d meat and burnt hickory. There’s no need to wait out anything when it comes to this one. The nose is just a blazing campfire of peat, smoke and brisket. That has to be a huge percentage of Ardbeg providing this blast furnace of smoky goodness. The palate is incredibly luscious, while still providing some charred oak and hints of vanilla sweetness. This is all about the peat and seaside air, though. Make no mistake about it. The high ABV doesn’t hinder or harm the mouthfeel at all- it just works so well and you don’t need to cool the spirit a bit. The finish is long, meaty and just astonishing. Smoke lingers on until you take another sip and reignite the fires. This is an amazing blend. I think I prefer it over CBW’s Peat Monster. It lacks a lot of depth, but when you want that BBQ goodness- this is its wheelhouse. 4.5 stars, easily. The $62 price tag makes it a fantastic deal. I’m definitely going to add another bottle to any order that I need a spot filled. Buy with confidence. Cheers.

It’s time for a newer NAS release from Islay distillery, Bunnahabhain. Eirigh Na Greine (pronounced aa ree na gray nyuh) is a non-US, limited release that contains undisclosed age Bunnahabhain spirit that was finished in ex-French red wine casks. The name translates to “Morning Sky” and it was inspired by the head distiller’s arrival to work each morning as he stopped to watch the sun rise over Islay. It’s bottled at 46.3% ABV, is bronze/red in color and creates oily and skinny legs in the taster. It’s natural color/NCF’d and cost about $90 to have imported from the U.K. The nose was incredibly weak, even after 20-25 minutes and me having to put my nose so far down into the glass that I practically inhaled the actual spirit itself. Faint notes of dried red fruits and berries, toasted almonds and butterscotch are there it’s just hard to get them to reveal themselves. This isn’t a great start. The palate starts with a bang, though. A nice initial sherry explosion followed by a parade of orchard fruits: ripe cherries, green grapes and oranges. It’s nice and creamy until mid sip when the younger malt presence appears and turns a bit salty and dry. It was fun while it lasted, at least. This is the biggest weakness of NAS whisky- you just don’t get a rounded and calmed spirit without the aging. The finish is all fruity and nutty spice cake. It’s pretty warm as well. Long and drying. It’s not bad, I just wish it left more of an oily mouthfeel instead of a dry one. Overall, it’s a decent NAS from Bunnahabhain. I recently bought 4 different NAS bottles from them and this one is a solid start. If they all deliver like this one I’ll be happy with my purchases. On a side note, this bottle had a very loose fitting cork and I think I’m going to end up decanting it, otherwise it may oxidize a bit too quick. Then again, that may help the harshness, who knows? 3.75 stars. Cheers.

I saw this bottle on the bottom shelf at my local liquor store and thought to myself that, while I’m not a huge Auchentoshan fan, this one has quite a high level of eye-rolling marketing going on. So for $44 I thought, why not? It will at least mix well. Let’s start with the marketing: it’s got shiny copper stickers on the box and bottle proclaiming is an annual (there’s more to come), limited release (collectible) and that this is the first release (#1’s are really collectible). Yesssssss! The eye roll part is that Auchentoshan rounded up the 12 best bartender’s from around the world, had them collaborate on this blend AND DECLARE THEM AS THE NEW MALT ORDER!! (It’s actually on the label). Holy hell, so now if the apocalypse comes I need to find one of these cats so I can get a fitting End of the World cocktail. Let’s evaluate this whisky before we crown them as saviors, shall we? Well, first of all, it’s bottled at 47% ABV. That’s quite hefty and I’d say that the group probably decided a higher ABV was needed for when they were slinging this stuff into flaming cocktails, dumping it across 4 inch ice cubes or planting that cliched umbrella into the highball glass. It’s light copper in color and makes some nice runny legs if you give it a twirl. Here’s where things get interesting... The nose is flat out incredible! It’s kind of sweet with honey-dipped apple and apricot notes, but then a crazy floral and spice note appears that’s really similar to Four Roses bourbon. The high ABV really punches up those notes to a higher level. The smell is mesmerizing. Well done. The palate gives away the majority of the youthful whisky at play here, though. There’s some nice sharp ginger and lemon zest that liven things up very well. The harshness is still present even into the finish, but I can see where this would hold up really well in a mixed drink. It’s a bit of a chore to handle it neat, however. Water may be your friend here. The finish is long with pepper and oak spices ruling the day. The mouthfeel is vibrant and not very mouth coating, but that’s okay I think. Overall, the cheesiness of the whole NMO thing and the Bestest, Annual, Limited Blah Blah is a bit overplayed, but what counts inside the bottle, is there. I even saw that Auchentoshan has brought the group back for round 2, so they must be happy with the finished product and sales. If they keep the pricing around $40-45 I would definitely buy it, and I certainly recommend this batch, as well. Buy a bottle and sling some crazy cocktails of your own- before the real apocalypse arrives. 4.25 stars. Cheers, my friends.