Discover Whisky

Continuing the tasting notes we come to the third (not counting the bonus one) of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s offerings.

Bottling 35.32

34 years old, 55.1%, 183 bottles

Colour

Light

Nose

Pear drops, liquorice, someone mentioned spangles - a real blast from the past. I immediately started to feel that this one would not match my preferences.

Initial taste

Complicated and confusing rather than complex, my impressions were of a fiery, coarse nature. On this one I found the society’s tasting notes completely at odds with what I was getting from the whisky. Pear drops again, a sourness, flavours of allspice (which is a spice I don’t like), and a type of bitter citrus rind that I couldn’t pin down.

Later taste

Water improves it (not something I often say) but it’s still a very back of the throat taste that I found quite unpleasant.

Finish

More of that pear drops lingered rather  too long

Conclusion

After about three tastes I gave up on this one as it was not to my taste at all. While there are malts that I am not keen on I honestly have never disliked one as much as this. I suspect it was probably at the lower end of most of my fellow taster’s preferences too, although one of them rated it her favourite of the night. It takes all sorts - you couldn’t pay me to drink this one!

It was a relief to move on to the fourth.

Bottling 28.22

19 years old, 57.8%, 631 bottles

Colour

Very pale

Nose

Spirity, wood, and a curious scent that eventually reminded me of ham and pea soup,

Initial Taste

Front of the tongue, warm, rich,  nutmeg, dark. The flavour improves with time, with hint of charred steak and bitter orange. Quite drying though. Once again I found the supplied notes a little different to my own impressions with none of the Thai curry they mentioned or apples. Though it was interesting that someone had mentioned that pea soup that I got in the nosing.

Later Taste

Water produces a very palatable taste with lemonish notes and gets rid of that dryness. I wouldn’t go quite as far as the chocolate limes one of the original tasting panel had mentioned but it was certainly quite sweet.

Finish

Not the longest but very satisfying.

Conclusion

If drinking it neat I can imagine an Ardbeg drinker quite enjoying it, although it comes from a very different area, but if you don’t like a dryish palate then you’ll probably want to use a little water at which point it opens out into a sweeter character altogether.

On to our last of the evening and it was a really interesting choice, not at all what we were expecting from knowing the name, an Islay generally associated with maritime imagery.

Bottling 10.70

11 years old, 55.7%, 283 bottles

Colour

Very pale

Nose

A flashback to a childhood smell of swimming pool towels, lanolin, and after discussion with Mike we settled on a hint of potassium permanganate.

Taste

Middle of the tongue, rising up the gums. A strong pungent taste which, while not the normal taste for this distillery, was identifiably that complex signature that Islay drinkers love and others seldom come to terms with.

Later Taste

More of the traditional saltiness that this malt is usually associated appears with a little water, but it holds up very well and I can agree with the notes mention of leather and heather.

Finish

Substantial

Conclusion

You’ll either love it or hate it. If you like Islay then I’d definitely recommend giving it a try.

Our thanks again to the Society for their hospitality and another interesting selection.

In midweek I had the great pleasure of attending a tasting given by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society for invited whisky bloggers at their lovely premises in Queen Street in Edinburgh. While I had visited their original home in Leith on previous occasions this was my first sight of the interior of their New Town rooms and I have to admit to being impressed on all levels. For this event we were directed to the top floor of the building to a well-appointed boardroom with superb views over Queen St Gardens and further to the Firth of Forth. Perfect timing as it was a suberb evening of soft sunshine highlighting the pink blossom which has been such a feature of this Spring. One of those nights when it’s good to be alive.

The purpose of the tasting was to sample the latest release of the Society’s bottlings which will be available this week, and it was gratifying to be invited to such company, particularly given the recent hiatus in our postings caused by upheavals in business and personal life for both Mike and me. The five malts concerned will each be accorded individual tasting posts here in the near future - all were very interesting and quite different from each other, and reflected the efforts of the Society’s tasting panel to provide quality for their members. I had a small disaster in that my Palm Pilot decided to ditch the tasting notes I made during the evening due to a battery problem - next time I’ll use old technology and write them down (if I can work out how to read my own writing!). Fortunately the Society provided a selection of their own panel members’ notes so I should be able to reconstruct mine before the memory fades too much.

The tasting group were warmly welcomed by the delightfully enthusiastic Jenny and Stephanie and the tasting was led by Olaf, who described how he had originally become the first overseas member and subsequently become more involved in the activities after moving over here, as well as later regaling us with stories of some of his many distillery visits. My thanks to all of them for an excellent night.

It was fascinating to hear the other bloggers talk about their own recent tastings and to discover how differently we all viewed the diverse tastes that we were presented with. It’s all too easy to concentrate on your own preferences and ignore some of the vast diversity of flavours available in our favourite drink and I’ll certainly be on the lookout for some of the whiskies mentioned during the evening.

Unfortunately Mike wasn’t able to attend, being on a business trip to London - he missed a fine selection of whiskies and a very convivial evening which I hope may be repeated in the future. I’m off to try writing up those tasting notes.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had been exposed to a mature Laphroaig at way too tender an age when my taste buds were incapable of appreciating it. Since then I’ve only rarely gone back to this revered Islay malt and never in a suitable environment where I could observe it in peace and quiet. Would it still be the rich complex malt that I dimly remembered and which scares many single malt drinkers away to smoother locations?

Laphroaig - 10 years old, 40%

Colour

Mid amber

Nose

Not as strong as I’d expected, slightly medicinal, a touch of iodine.

Taste

Initial taste impression
Rich, warm, peppery, dry-ish (though not as much as the Ardbeg).

Later impressions
Peat, not so much smoke, walnut. Not as complex as I’d expected nor as balanced as the Caol Ila.

First after-taste is long but not particularly distinctive. Later on a warmth at the back of the mouth is evident along with a taste reminiscent of chillies.

After a little water
The addition of even a small amount of water does nothing for this Laphroaig. There seems little in the way of aromatics released and it just tastes like weaker whisky.

Conclusion

To be honest I’m a little disappointed - I was expecting more of a challenge from this famous brand. It’s certainly not bad, indeed far better than many mainland drams (as long as you keep it well away from water!), but not in the class of the Caol Ila or the Ardbeg. Maybe I just got a poor sample - I’ll try ordering one next time I’m in a bar and see if there is any noticeable difference. However on the basis of this tasting I have the feeling that it needs to be stronger or older in order to fully blossom, so I’ll be interested to try one of the “specials” in later tastings.

Due to the joys of our local council I’ve been without a web connection for about ten days at home - someone cut a cable and being with Virgin Media that causes us some problems. Duly we’re a little behind in terms of posting schedule. So just to let everyone know we’ll have everything back up to date in about two weeks.

My review of the Ancnoc will be going up on Sunday and the Glenmorangie ‘Qunita Ruban’ on Thursday.Sorry for any confusion from all of us at Discover Whisky.

On a cheerier note I’d like to say a big thanks to Ralph Warth - not only did he blog roll us over at The Whisky Investor, I’m getting better with this online lingo, but he also joined our wee whisky network. I’ve had a wee read of his blog and it’s looking good - some of it’s in German so I may have to work up to reading these dictionary in hand.

Everyone is welcome over at the Scotch Whisky Network. We are trying to set up a group on Facebook also so keep ‘em peeled for when this goes live.

This week there have been a few things going on about whisky - I’m glad to say. Below are some of the highlights from our point of view.

Australian Court Case over Naming of Whisky

Down under the court has been deciding in the case between ‘Glenn Oaks’ and the Scottish Whisky Association (SWA). The SWA petitioned the court that the use of the word ‘Glenn’ in the name of this Australian Whisky was alluding to the Whisky being from Scotland as is used in brands such as Glenfiddich, Glenmorangie and Glenlivet.

The court ruled in favour of the SWA - full discussion can be found here (you need to scroll down a bit to get to this ruling).

The Wild Scotsman

Fantastic name for a site about Whisky- the Wild Scotsman. Until this week I’d never heard about it. Steadily over lunch this week I’ve been having a wee wander round the site and I’ve picked out a few of my favourite pieces:

• The Night Before Xmas - Retold
• A review of a distillery in Sweden

Whisky Blog Post of the Week

Dr Whisky is again doing reviews of whiskies at an alarming rate of knots! It’s probably just jealousy on my part more than anything :p The Dr Whisky review of the Benromach Organic Whisky has made me want to go out and buy some of this for a friend’s birthday - seems right up his street.

Slainte

Yesterday I got a nice email from Mark Reyner over at Bruichladdich. I’d been trying to use their website contact system for a while to get in contact but had been stopped due to the system of ‘pop up’ windows that are generated when you select who you want to contact. My web development conmpany got the email for me.

Anyway part of the email I received was about the Bruichladdich Blog - I didn’t even know that they had one. It can be found at http://web.mac.com/realmalt/Site/Blog/Blog.html. They have an RSS feed here too which makes it really easy to get updates to your inbox.

Slainte