Tastes
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Glenfiddich Age of Discovery Bourbon Cask 19 Year
Single Malt — Speyside, Scotland
Reviewed November 7, 2017 (edited December 8, 2018)It’s been a rainy, chilly few days here in central Virginia so it’s the perfect setting for settling down in front of the TV with some whisky. Time to break out a few more samples from my friends in the Scottish Distillery Group and putting in “the work”. First up tonight is this somewhat rare, expensive and well-aged offering from Glenfiddich: 19 Year Old Age of Discovery (Bourbon Cask). This one was supplied by my friend Pranay. She’s a shiny, new penny copper in the glass and smells of fresh cut oak as soon as the liquid began flowing from the sample bottle. It also formed some oily, quick legs when I spin it. The nose is all bourbon: cinnamon and peppery oak spices with a weird, musty smell settling in as I let it breathe well past 15-20 minutes. It wasn’t off-putting, so to speak, it was just odd. It didn’t transfer over into the initial sip so “no harm, no foul” I guess. The palate just delivered more bourbon cask, cinnamon, cut oak and the slightest bit of sweetness. It didn’t hang around long so I didn’t really get a chance to try harder to detect anything specific. The finish was medium length, warm-turning-spicy, but dry. More excellent oak notes hung around on the tongue and it ended up being a nice contrast from the super fruity, sweet scotch I paired this one with. Many thanks to Pranay for supplying this one, as it’s been on my radar for awhile and I just have a hard time plopping down $175+ for a ‘Fiddich. Yeah, I’m THAT snob you’ve read about... 4 stars. What’s next? -
Tomatin 18 Year Oloroso Sherry Casks
Single Malt — Highlands, Scotland
Reviewed November 5, 2017 (edited August 4, 2019)I was rather excited to see this bottle sitting on shelves here in Virginia recently. I’ve grown quite fond of Tomatin over the last year or so. The 12 year, 14 year port finished, 12 year French Oak and the stellar Cu Bocan all delivered the goods they advertised while also being great deals. So, yeah, to say I was excited to see the 18 year old locally for a very reasonable $80 is an understatement. It’s a beautiful caramel in color, comes in at a nice 46% and brags about Oloroso Sherry Casks on the label. Non-chill filtered and no colorant added. Check. All signs point to another big BIG winner. On the nose, heavy toffee and caramel candies start the show, sherry notes mingle with a hint of smoke just before yielding to the oak. Smelling good. The palate is where things fall apart: the mouthfeel is thin, almost watery. There’s vanilla and honey, even a bit of milk chocolate, but it turns abrasive and dry way too quickly. The abrasive feel, heat and overwhelming dryness really turn everything on it’s heels and catches you by surprise. The finish is long, peppery and dry. It had a wonderful oily look to it sitting in the glass but then, like David Copperfield, it’s pulled out from under your nose and disappears. In the end, I’m still a Tomatin fanboy. For $45 you can’t beat Cu Bocan and I’ve got a cask strength, single barrel 12 year to put through it’s paces, but this one falls short. Being the most expensive of all the bottles I listed above also hurts this one. It’s serviceable, but not really recommended. 3.5 stars. Cheers, my friends. -
anCnoc Flaughter
Single Malt — Highlands, Scotland
Reviewed November 4, 2017 (edited September 11, 2019)As our third round of samples begin to wind down, I saved my third supplied sample for last in hopes it would be the best of the three I offered up. Flaughter is distilled by highland region distillery, anCnoc. It is the second in their peated series, following Rutter, and preceding the recently announced PeatHeart. This one is rated at around 15ppm and is a healthy 46% ABV. It’s NCF’d and has no color added. The nose is pretty weird. The first thing that popped into mind was Diacetyl. It is a condition usually associated with wild and sour craft beer. It is basically a failure of the yeast to completely consume the bacteria, introduced during fermentation to produce the intended sourness, and leads to an unwanted, rancid butter flavor to the beer. That is what popped (lol, pun) into my head at first whiff. The butter smell from an unpopped bag of microwave popcorn. This smell, mixing with the damp fireplace smoke, had my nose reeling and not knowing what the heck to expect on the palate. Well, the first sip revealed lots of peat smoke and a harsh bit of what I’d describe as grilled lemon slices. Like if you were grilling fish with lemon on the top and it slipped off and down onto the hot coals. It also seems apparent that the source whisky here is relatively young and anCnoc decided not to blend in some with a bit of age on it to mellow the younger spirit. It all leads to a lingering, harsh finish. Speaking of finish, some peaty earthiness seeps through along with some wet-blanket-thrown-across-a-smoldering-fire smoke. It’s a bit too harsh and a briny, sea salt flavor dries onto the tongue and lingers until you wash it away. Overall, with all of its faults I think it could’ve been saved and turned into a solid dram had they just used some older malt to calm the entire whisky. A little bit of mellow would’ve went a long way here. As it is, it’s tough to give this one a good score. I’d like to give this some time and come back to it much later, but like Sweet Brown said “Ain’t nobody got time for dat!” (Google Sweet Brown if you aren’t familiar). She’s an American treasure. 3 stars. Cheers. -
I decided to put a little work in tonight on the scotch tour: anCnoc Flaughter, Glenkinchie 12 and this Aultmore 18 year old. This one was supplied by my friend Paul for our scotch whisky tag team. Aultmore was once owned by the same gentleman that owns the Benrinnes distillery, but it’s now owned by Dewars & Sons. The strange pronunciation of Aultmore (an-tAllt-mor) is Gaelic for “strong burn”, which is appropriate for this whisky. It’s brutish, harsh and very bourbon-like. This one comes in at a robust 46% ABV and is a sparkling gold in the Glencairn. The initial nosing was almost all cereals, honey and lightly charred oak. The palate stayed along the lines of most American bourbons, too: Vanilla, apples and honey. There was also a light, biscuit flavor there before the finish rolled in and just took over. The finish is where this one fails: it’s incredibly bitter and harsh. It’s mind-blowingly difficult to grasp how this one didn’t mature more gracefully in those 18 long years. I’d like to place blame on cask quality, but then after reading a bit into Aultmore’s history and current purpose (experimental distillery for Dewars, I believe)- I came to the realization that maybe this is what they were aiming for. As it is, it’s hard to recommend this as a single malt. Perhaps it is suited more for blends, although I’m not sure what good characteristics it adds to blended whisky because I don’t even want to think of what this stuff tastes like at cask strength. Thanks to Paul for the sample and for eating the high cost on this one (above $100). I guess we should keep on moving....2.5 stars. Cheers, fellas.
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Glenkinchie 12 Year
Single Malt — Lowlands, Scotland
Reviewed November 1, 2017 (edited March 21, 2018)I decided to put a little work in tonight on the scotch tour by banging out 3 samples in somewhat rapid succession: anCnoc Flaughter, Aultmore 18 and this Glenkinchie 12 year old. Paul seems to be running away with this round of samples and I gotta catch up. The Glenkinchie is a lowland distillery located just outside of Scotland’s capital city of Edinburgh. This 12 year old single malt has recently just replaced the 10 year in their core offering group. It’s golden yellow in color and comes in at 43% ABV. I believe there’s no coloring added and it’s also NCF’d. The nose is kinda bourbon-esque: barley, honey, vanilla and fresh cut oak are the dominant odors, with just a hint of roasted almonds coming through as well. The flavor on the tongue doesn’t veer too far from the nose, while maybe adding some stone fruit notes, with even more oak. The finish is welcoming, though, with some cereal notes and warm chocolate rounding it out. This Glenkinchie and the above mentioned Aultmore are quite similar and play well together, with the unexpected harshness of the Aultmore keeping its score down even though it has 6 more years in the cask. Neither whisky are gold star examples for their regions, but this 12 year old gets a bump simply because of price point (which I believe is around $45-50). A big thanks and a hearty welcome to Telex for supplying this malt. Welcome to the team. 3.5 stars. Cheers. -
This NAS whisky from Ardbeg was released in honor of this year’s Feis Isle festival in Islay, Scotland. It’s named after a mythical, shape-shifting water beast that circles the island and terrorizes the locals. The whisky was released in two variations: the regular release and a special committee version that is cask strength. I had the good fortune to be able to try both of these side-by-side thanks to a friend in NJ and as an extra in our distillery trade group. This review is for the regular release that comes in at a robust 46% ABV. As with most Ardbeg’s, it has no color added and is NCF’d. It is primarily made from a special collection of virgin oak casks from a region off the coast of the Black Sea and another undisclosed batch of Ardbeg stock. It’s a beautiful, glimmering yellow gold and creates some watery, slow forming legs when you spin it. All the typical Ardbeg brine, creosote and campfire notes are initially present, as well. The nose opens smoky with a nice balance of sweet, Gala apples and a hint of lemon zest. Slightly sub-tropical fruits are here, too. Brine and seaweed add some bite. The opening notes on the tongue reveal earthy and salty peat, more traditional smoke and some intense, bittersweet chocolate. It’s very inviting. The finish is long and drying with the peppery heat from the oak. An additional bit of salinity and seaweed remains behind here, too. Great stuff. Overall, it’s another amazing NAS dram from Ardbeg. It lacks the super complexity of Oog-a-dal and the CorryV, but damn I’d love to turn this one into a staple in my home. The price is a bit higher than the core stuff, mostly due to the whole Feis Isle money grab...errr festival special release. It is worth the extra dough. It’s another magical dram from Ardbeg. Seek it out and enjoy everything it has to offer. You won’t be disappointed. 4.75 stars. Cheers, my friends.
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Glenfarclas 12 Year
Single Malt — Highlands, Scotland
Reviewed October 27, 2017 (edited November 8, 2019)I was able to give this one a go thanks to our distillery group. I’ve previously tried the 10, 21 and 25 year old- none of which really impressed me much. Especially the 10 year because it seemed a lot more harsh than I expected, but then again it is pretty young by scotch standards. There isn’t a whole lot of complexity to any Glenfarclas I’ve tried and this 12 year doesn’t buck that trend. It was pretty sweet with typical sherry notes with hints of toffee and oak rounding things out. It does come off as pretty smooth when compared to the 10 and the finish is just warming enough to make it mostly enjoyable. I don’t believe I’d seek out any more bottles from these guys, but I’m glad I was able to try this one because it somewhat redeemed itself IMO. Thanks to Scott for supplying this one. It’s a solid 3.25-3.5 stars. Cheers. -
Highland Park 25 Year
Single Malt — Orkney, Scotland
Reviewed October 24, 2017 (edited August 7, 2018)So, I bought this bottle over 6 months ago with the intent of not opening it and hoping it would turn into a bit of an investment at some point. My dad visited me in late summer and after an evening of heavier than usual sipping he grabbed this bottle from the bar and tried to get me to open it. I convinced him that it would’ve been wasted in our inebriated state and returned it to the bar. Fast forward to earlier this month, I took the bottle with me when I went to visit my dad in hopes we could find a reason to get into it. He flat out declined and we went off to play a round of golf. Well, low and behold, I was able to bear witness to my 68 year-old father getting his first ever Hole In One. So, obviously, this bottle had to be opened in celebration. Congrats again, Dad! I have since poured this one four times over the last 3 weeks and I feel like I’m ready to get my thoughts down on it. So, here we go... This Highland Park 25 Year Old malt comes in at a slightly raised ABV (45.7%) and is an oily, golden yellow in the tasting glass. The legs were slow forming and thin and each spin let off a bit more of the amazing aroma. Granted, I had to let this one sit over 30 minutes to get it to open up properly. But, open up it did! This has an amazing nose on it. It starts with a big, bittersweet chocolate note. The heavy sherry influence is always present but the highlight was the toffee covered dark berries. Fresh picked raspberries and blackberries greet the well-trained and refined nose and there’s a nice hint of rich, dried tobacco. It is truly mesmerizing and the highlight of this dram. It’s an all day sniffer if there ever was one. The palate delivers heavily with sweet sherry, caramel and honey and that satisfying roasted cocoa again. The initial mouthfeel is rich. I didn’t get much of anything that resembled peated malt, but the whole sip was very warming, albeit drying at the same time. I expected the lower ABV to lead more towards an oily overall feel, but it didn’t materialize. It actually dried quite quickly. More so than I would’ve preferred. The finish is also pretty sweet, turning this whole thing into a true dessert dram. A flash of peppery oak fades into a somewhat mellow and short final blast. Those first-fill Oloroso casks do a bit of an overpowering job on the complexity here, IMO, but the chocolate and sherry do linger on until you rinse it away or go in for seconds. My overall impression is that I don’t think it beats out what I remember best about the 18 year old- and that’s disappointing considering the lofty price point here ($525). It’s still a wonderful whisky and showcases the best of Highland Park, but I really would’ve liked a layer of peat and perhaps a slightly higher ABV to really seal the deal. I believe older bottlings were above 50% and I think that would’ve really benefited this one, too. If just to offer up a bit of a punch to counter the sweetness. If the 18 is a 99/100 then this one falls a bit short at a 92-93, I think. It’s still close to a 5 star dram just because of the rarity and the pedigree, but if you’re looking for bang for your buck I think I’d stick with the 18 for now. I’m still going to be sorry when this bottle is gone, but I doubt I’d replace it or even go for the 30 year. The 18 year old at $130 is a freaking steal. Let’s hope HP doesn’t do away with that one for the foreseeable future. Cheers, my friends. PS- Thanks for sticking with this lengthy review. Give yourself a gold star if you made it here. -
Highland Park 18 Year
Single Malt — Islands, Scotland
Reviewed October 24, 2017 (edited January 18, 2020)DISCLAIMER: The following review was written over a year ago (Aug 2016) when I first got my hands on HP 18. I didn’t write as thorough of reviews like I try to do these days. I wanted to import this to Distiller so I’d have some tasting notes to compare to the HP 25 that I’m currently enjoying. I hope you still enjoy this one... Well, I've read a bunch of glowing reviews of this HP offering and they all say it's so close to perfection. Hell, Distiller gives it a 99/100 rating. So, going in I expected to have my mind blown. First of all I will say it is hands down the best single malt from HP that I've had the pleasure of tasting. The nose is sweet fruits and honey with a subtle hint of peat smoke and when it hits your tongue it is velvety smooth. It's a joy to just gently swish it back and forth across the tongue and let the toffee and apple adsorb into your taste buds. The finish has one of the best balances between sweet heat and peat smoke (without being overpowered from either) that I've had without spending 4 figures on a bottle. With prices still somewhere north of $120 it's not exactly on the cheap side, but it will hold its own with the aforementioned $1k bottles I've been lucky to try. I mean it's practically a bargain vs those big ticket bottles. If you see it on the shelf at your local watering hole and you can get a dram for around $20-30 I'd give it a swirl. It'll put a big smile on your face for sure. Highly recommended. Cheers, my friends. -
Tomintoul Peaty Tang
Single Malt — Speyside, Scotland
Reviewed October 19, 2017 (edited June 18, 2018)I finally took some time yesterday morning to sit down with this one and give it a proper go (I’ve been working nights the last 2 weeks due to a safety inspection at my work- I don’t make it a habit of waking up and getting tipsy. In case you were wondering, lol). This bottle was offered up as a sample for our tour group by Ryan, via me. Tomintoul advertises themselves as the gentle dram. This peated version is something they do a couple times a year to fill out their portfolio, I think. I get the whole gentle dram when it comes to sherried or even ex-bourbon Speyside style malts. A gentle peat whisky seems out of place, IMO. Just like this bottle... The nose is quite heavily peated and smoked. If there are some gentle fruit notes intended they were overpowered by the peat smoke for sure. It smells a tad sweet, but not overly so. The palate is also wrecked by the smoke- it’s heavy. There’s also a metallic flavor that just doesn’t meld well with anything. I wouldn’t call it harsh- just weird. The finish is medium length, a bit peppery with another over abundance of smoke. My first thought was that this was a mediocre whisky with artificial smoke added for effect. I know it wasn’t made this way, it’s just the impression I got. Overall, I wouldn’t buy another bottle of this and I really don’t want to finish what I have. It’s not offensive and worthy of a drain pour- I just don’t have much desire to drink any more of it. 2.25 stars.
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