Tastes

As @PBMichiganWolverine noted, this was the top discovery of the otherwise disappointing Whisky Live show in New Jersey. Thanks to the generosity of the brand rep, I was able to spend some time with a sample at home to see if it tasted as good as it did at the show. And it did, for the most part. The nose is unlike any other rye I’ve tried. It’s orange oil and cloves, though if you persist there’s a hint of grassiness that speaks to its roots. In the mouth, the dominant flavor is a most unexpected creamy chocolate that persists into a finish of chocolate milk. A drop of water brings out more of the grassy aromas on the nose, while the palate turns more milky. My only reservation is that the strength of the alcohol numbed my lips slightly, which I found a little distracting. That’s not something I’ve experienced before with higher strength whiskies, so I don’t if it was something peculiar about the spirit or just a random weird reaction on my part. That aside, this is a unique and exciting whisky at a very affordable price. As much as I love rye, my experience has been that one distiller’s product tastes broadly similar to another’s, with the notable exception of the funky Lock Stock and Barrel 15. Balcones hints at a more diverse future for this category.

I sampled this at Heathrow last week and was very impressed. Rich, flavorful and different enough from the 12 to justify its existence. Almost broke my resolve to hold off buying bottles for a while.

Cadenhead is better known for its single cask bottlings than the blends it occasionally produces, but the whiskies it releases in the Creation range are worth checking out for their often generous age statements and noteworthy components. This 26-year-old malt blend was one of two 20cl “cask end” bottles I picked up at their London store last month and comprises whiskies from Aultmore, Braeval, Bruichladdich, Glen Grant, Glenlivet, Strathisla and Tamdhu. The whiskies were “vatted” in a single hogshead cask in 2006 and bottled in 2017, so they were at least 15 years old when they came together. The resulting outrun of about 288 bottles was named “Light Creamy Vanilla,” but it’s hard to understand why. The nose is warm pecan pie, peanut skins and rich, dry sherry notes. Water brings out a hint of lemons. In the mouth it’s syrupy, with flavors of nuts, dark brown sugar and poached pears. The finish is long, nutty and rich. It’s delicious and great value at 70 pounds a bottle, especially when you consider the price Compass Box would charge for a similar recipe, and I might well mark it up to five stars with further tastings. One footnote: I was so puzzled by the mismatch between the “Light Creamy Vanilla” label and the flavors I picked up that I emailed the Cadenhead store to enquire if they might have labeled the bottle incorrectly, given that they are written by hand in the shop. Not so, replied the store manager, noting that it was a rather rich batch and had reminded him also of a sherry cask. So don’t read too much into these Creations names. Someone at the warehouse might just be mixing up their tasting notes with their Starbucks order.

Black tea with honey. Impressed that they serve this on United.

More subdued than the committee release, naturally, but delicious nonetheless. The lower ABV version of the annual special often disappoints - not so this year.

The elder of the two Nikkas that I recently acquired has a sweetly perfumed nose with a hint of baked apple. The palate is black tea with a dash of honey. The finish is long, dry and peppery, culminating in a drop of simple syrup. It’s a notch above the 17 but not quite in Hibiki territory.

There’s an immediate hit of sherry on the nose, followed by warm bread. The mouth is rich and smooth with a tingling undercurrent of peat and a spicy, caramel finish.

To follow up on the previous night’s Oloroso cask Bunnahabhain, I plucked this whisky courtesy of @PBMichiganWolverine from my overflowing sample stash. It’s a very different dram, with a more subtle nose. There are sherry flavors, to be sure, but they’re entwined with smoke and a coastal note. There’s a slightly funky cheese aroma, too, which I always enjoy. A teaspoon of water coaxes out more smoke. The palate is lemons, peat and black tea, with a surprising Unami note at the end, an echo of the cheese aroma perhaps. The finish is long and dry. This is a much more balanced whisky than the Feis Ile Oloroso cask. The aftertaste isn’t as spectacular, but it’s more consistent from start to finish and showcases the spirit as much as the cask. Another Bunna stunner.