Tastes

Is there anything more humbling for a whisky know-it-all than a blind tasting? From the six finalists for the Whisky Exchange’s pick of 2020, I ranked in second place a blind sample of a dram I have previously poured down the drain, albeit in an earlier incarnation. And one of my favorite whiskies came only fourth. In my defense, my ratings were otherwise pretty consistent with my previous ones and my top pick was the crowd’s overall favorite, the Port Charlotte 10. It’s easy to understand why. To be eligible for The Whisky Exchange Whisky of the Year award, a whisky must not exceed £65 or 48% ABV and can’t be a limited release. Port Charlotte 10 is one of the best whiskies to tick those boxes and I’m very glad that this award will encourage more people to taste it. Tasted blind, I ranked it 4.25, a notch above my previous tasting. My blind notes list bacon bits and a hint of lemon powder on the nose, brisket and salted almonds in the mouth and a long chewy finish. That’s pretty consistent with my previous notes, so the latest batch is clearly at least as good if not better than two years ago. For the record, here’s how I ranked and rated the other finalists versus my last unblind taste. I’ll post individual notes as there’s much for me to unpack here. 2-Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban 14 Year Old Port Finish: 4.0 vs 2.0 for 12-year version. Clearly those extra two years have made a huge difference! 3-Nikka Coffey Malt: 3.75 v 4.0 4-Kilkerran 12: 3.5 v 4.5. Can I blame batch variation? 5-Johnnie Walker Green: 3.25. Not previously rated. 5-Lagavulin 16: 3.25 vs 4.0, though that was six years ago and I wouldn’t rate it that high now. This was a fun tasting even though I got the samples too late to vote for my favorite and I’ll definitely make a point of doing this again next year.

My least favorite of the five core-range Arrans I tried. I got bananas on the nose, which I would normally associate with a rum cask rather than a sherry one. The taste is sweet and sour, like nectarines, and the finish is tangy. Almost too sweet for my palate.

I typically prefer my whiskies at 46% but the Arrans I tried at that ABV tasted a little muted and inferior to the cask-strength versions I sampled. For that reason, this release finished in small quarter casks and bottled at 56.2% offers the best value in the range. Knock it back to 50% to find its sweet spot and stretch your value even further. Unlike the age statement Arrans, it’s the palate that impresses more than the nose. The light aroma of honey and spice doesn’t prepare you for the massive spice explosion of the first sip: those quarter casks were clearly very active. Add a touch of water to get a better balance and bring out lovely caramel flavors speckled with salt and spice. The finish is long, with red pepper flakes and sticky toffee pudding topping. I’m not normally a fan of quarter casks, but they work very well to amplify the gentle Arran distillate. My second favorite of the five I tried, beaten only by a cask-strength 25-year-old that you can’t buy.

Arran only started production in 1995 so this new release comprises its very first casks. The sample I tasted (labelled a mystery dram in the tasting pack for the Virtual Whisky Festival’s Arran session) was a cask strength 51.2% but the retail version is 46%. Both sherry and bourbon casks were used in its maturation. The nose is caramel syrup, brown sugar and poached pear. In the mouth, it’s chewy, with flavors of dark chocolate, a hint of pear and a faint cherry note. The medium-length finish tastes of chocolate powder. This is a delicious dram that rewards contemplation and confidently displays the best of Arran’s flavor profile, but I fear it will lose a little of its impact when diluted to its retail strength.

An amped-up version of the 10, with aromas of green apples, chocolate powder, crumbled dried shiitake mushrooms and the topping of a sticky toffee pudding. The palate is gentle and leans towards milk chocolate. The finish is ginger spice and the partly dissolved brown sugar at the bottom of your tea cup. A step up from its younger sibling but still a little muted on the palate to warrant a space in my drinks cabinet.

Arran isn’t a distillery I know well but after recently sampling some excellent casks matured by PM Spirits, and buying a bottle of one of them, I was looking forward to working my way through a tasting pack and video from October’s Virtual Whisky Show. There’s an orchard fruit note running through all these whiskies, with various degrees of milk chocolate and spice overlayed depending on the age and proportion of sherry casks. It’s a gentle dram that ranges from good to great. Starting with the 10, I find toasted oats, peanuts and green apples on the nose. There’s milky coffee, caramel and cinnamon in the mouth and a short gentle spice on the finish. The nose is the best thing about this - the flavors on the palate feel a little weak - but overall a respectable baseline for the range.

I wasn’t crazy about the first batch of this (I traded my mostly full bottle) and skipped the second but the newest batch is much improved. Burning hay and sweet toasted coconut combine on the nose in a way that’s distinct from the Islay profile. It’s thick, oily and sweet in the mouth, with a hint of peach, and finishes long and ashy. Kilkerran labels this Peat in Progress as it waits for its peated spirit to reach its full maturity and it’s definitely heading in the right direction.

The Kilkerran 12 quickly became one of my favorite single malts when it was released so I was eager to try the new 16-year-old edition. It’s a permanent addition to the range but the blend of casks will change each year. For the debut release, there’s a small amount of Madeira casks in the mix, an intriguing choice. My sample was part of a Kilkerran tasting pack released for the virtual Whisky Show in October but which I cracked open only last night for another quarantine session. The nose at first reminds me more of a Springbank Local Barley than the Kilkerran 12, with notes of grass and barley. There’s lemon too, which harks more to its younger sibling. More strikingly, a rich apricot aroma develops over time. Flavor wise, it’s creamy and malty, with a spritz of orange rind oil and a touch of oak spice. The finish leans towards sweet tea and a gentle oak spice. This is very different from the 12 and it’s clearly due in part to the Madeira casks. The tasting pack included a single Madeira cask distilled in 2014, and the apricot aroma is very apparent. I much preferred the single cask to the 16, in part due to the oily texture of its higher ABV and a musky grape note. But overall the triumph of the 12 proves hard to beat, relegating the 16 to the status of Difficult Second Album. In time I might love it, but for now I'll stick to the smash-hit debut.

Blender Rachel Barrie throws Marsala casks into the mix for this new addition to the Benriach range, alongside bourbon and sherry barrels. Marsala casks typically add a sweet note to whisky, and that’s very much the case here. There’s more of a menthol peat on the nose than a smokey one. The taste brings to mind stewed pears dusted with cinnamon and drizzled with simple syrup, while the finish is sugar and spice. Overall, it was a bit sweet for my liking, so add at least a quarter point to my score if your preferences lean that way. As with the Original 10 and the Smokey 10, I prefer the unpeated 12 to this, despite being very much a peat lover. You have to reach for the 21-year-old if you want a great peated Benriach.

The combination of sherry, bourbon and port casks on The Twelve sounds very promising and it doesn’t disappoint. The nose is poached pears and baked apple. In the mouth it’s unusually oily for a 46% whisky, with flavors of spicy pecan pie and stewed fruit. The finish is long on oak spice and butterscotch. My favorite of the four youngest members of the revamped Benriach range.