Tastes

A heavily sherried dram with notes of black tea and dark maple syrup. A little water coaxes out a kick of red pepper that lingers into a very spicy finish. Sherry and spice ... it tastes like Christmas. Note: This was one of five mystery samples that @PBMichiganWolverine sent me with little information other than a list of five countries to match them to. Happy to say I aced the geography quiz.

Tried this last year at their tiny distillery and again today at a New York Rye Week event. It’s a very decent rye that hits all the right notes and none of the wrong ones. As good as any of the ryes in the increasingly crowded New York State distillery scene and better than many.

A tasty young rye with a slightly sweet finish. A good gateway for people new to the spirit, as evidenced by the warm reception it was getting from curious vegetable shoppers stopping at the New York Rye Week stall at Union Square Greenmarket today. (That’s curious people, not people shopping for curious vegetables, though there’s no shortage of them at this market.)

This Kilkerran is a 10-year-old that was part of the penultimate pair of releases in the years leading up to the debut of the distillery's permanent 12-year bottling. The nose has typical sherry notes of raisins, brown sugar and orange rind. In the mouth, it's a little one-dimensionally sherry-flavored at first but opens up after a while to reveal more distinct hints of orange, carrot cake and sweet tea. The finish is generously long and tangy. It's a very tasty whisky once it's had some time to relax, but it's more about the wood than the spirit and doesn't appear to share any obvious DNA with the 12-year.

This was a sample of an independently bottled Bunnahabhain available at Astor Wines & Spirits in New York. It has a light lemony nose with a hint of moss. Those flavors carry into the palate before they are overwhelmed by a powerful dose of peppery spice. (Bunnas of this age are unpeated, so that zest must be coming from the cask.) There's a hint of chocolate on the finish. Perfectly quaffable, but the balance between the wood and the spirit isn't ideal.

This sample from @PBMichiganWolverine has a delightfully complex nose that keeps revealing new dimensions: chestnuts (reminiscent of Few Malt Whisky, of all things), cream, cocoa, cinnamon, cloves, a rye-like hint of mint, polished wood. The palate is rich in sherry notes, moist chocolate cake, bittersweet dark chocolate. The finish is long. Delicious.

One more whisky worth calling out from Saturday’s Whisky Show in London was this new limited release from Bunnahabhain. It wasn’t on the pour list but I managed to negotiate a discrete sample from a bottle hidden under the counter. It was matured entirely in Bordeux wine casks for almost 10 years. Dark chocolate, cassis sauce, dark maple syrup, candied cherries — it’s one of those luscious dessert drams. Recommended if you can find it.

Another great Flaming Heart. Tasted at the Whisky Show London 2018.

Superb complexity, harmonious blending of the sherried components. One of the standouts of the Whisky Show London 2018, despite the competition.

The new Old Pulteneys are great. I may have preferred the 18 to the 25. Tasted at The Whisky Show London.