Carsebridge

Duncan & Taylor, 31 year old, distilled 1979, 55.7%

Colour

Pale

Nose

Strong but nothing immediately identifiable. Later a scent of coffee was noticeable but I suspect the high strength was holding back the other aromatics.

Initial Taste

Warm, spicey, rich, again there was that hint of coffee. Gingery notes appeared. The taste was mostly front of the tongue. As the whisky warmed up it started to remind me of ginger nut biscuits dunked in cappuccino – no, I’ve never done that either but if I had this is what it would taste like

Later Taste

A hint of pear schapps and the taste broadens to the sides of the tongue.

Finish

A medium length finish which retains the spiciness.

Conclusion

A pleasantly warming dram for a damp day. My only negatives were that the nose seemed lacking in character compared to the taste and the spiciness, though very pleasant, eventually seemed a little one-dimensional. If I’d had a larger sample I’d have tried water with it to see what that did to the nose, but I’d split the tasting over two sessions as I’d been puzzled by it to begin with so there wasn’t really enough to try that.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by this; it was far more complex than you’d expect from a single grain. I’d enjoy a dram of it occasionally but would probably move on to something else for the second one.

The reason for my desire to try it is connected to the post I made a couple of months ago -

Seeing Whisky from a different age – where Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart described in his book his family connections to the Balmenach distillery and his great love for its taste. Now as anyone who has followed my posts will know I should probably have tried it 30 years ago when my tastes where more attuned to the smoother Speyside malts, but in those days it was rare to come across large collections of single malts of any kinds and for a long time Balmenach was either mothballed or its production went for blending, so it was a rare find.

Balmenach

Duncan & Taylor, 10 Year Old, 46%

Colour

Very light lemon-yellow

Nose

Curiously little of note to begin with, but then I’m used to strong west coast beginnings. Spirity but without being harsh. Later there’s a suggestion of apples.

Taste

Initial Taste
Very light, honey, lemon. Front of the tongue.

Later taste
Some light toffee notes, maybe a hint of smoked tea. Normally there would be a list of flavour impressions here but the word that kept coming to me while drinking this was “purity”.

Finish

Short though certainly not unpleasant and pretty much in keeping with the rest of the taste.

I didn’t try water with this as I suspect it would have swamped it.

Conclusion

Probably the lightest single malt I can remember tasting. Definitely not one for the people who like massively complex tastes, peat, smoke or saltiness; but strangely enough, although the above is a good description of my own normal tastes, I rather liked this. I could imagine drinking it with light and subtle food such as fish cooked in the Swiss style, as an alternative to wine. It struck me as a Speyside version of the sort of ideas that they have at Bruichladdich.

That said I think I’d like to try it after a few more years maturing and maybe a touch stronger to see how the flavours develop. But if I’m ever up Speyside way I’ll keep an eye out for more examples of their output.

Glengoyne is a Highland distillery, but only just, situated is a beautiful spot about 5 miles south-east of Loch Lomond. It has the unique distinction of sitting right on the Highland Line – which runs between the distillery and the warehouse so the spirit is produced in the Highlands but matured in the Lowlands.

Owners Ian Macleod Distillers have an innovative approach to promoting its whiskies; for instance they combined with Visit Scotland and Michelin chef Andrew Fairlie to produce a Winter Food and Drink Guide, have helped promote both salmon and venison , and were unfortunate when the recent severe weather forced them to cancel a Christmas Food and Drink Festival. They’ve also been award winners – taking a gold award at the Scottish Field Whisky Challenge for the third year in a row.

Their production methods are quite unusual too, they reckon to be the slowest distillers – believing that it results in a smoother spirit – and they use barley which has been air-dried rather than the more usual peat smoke drying method. Coupled with that they are also doing interesting things in their maturing and bottling – one being the limited yearly bottling from a single cask allowing comparison of the way the whisky is maturing.

First tasting notes

The following are my first impressions of the three samples I received, I hope to follow them up later if Mike and I have time to get together for another tasting or if I can get my dad up here to try them.

English Merchants Choice

13 Years Old, 54.6%, distilled June 1997, Sherry Hogshead

Colour

Dark Sherry

Nose

Lots of Molasses, dark treacle, burnt toffee. Quite spirity to begin with but it fades quickly.

First Taste

There a strange effect with the sweetness. Initially it’s not-quite-bitter and then it becomes sweet with lots of black treacle coming through, and then it becomes bitter again. There’s a strong undercurrent of sherry but it’s all overlaid with a slightly burnt taste. There’s a suggestion of what I think is dates, which gives a slightly xmas cake effect. The tastes are mainly in the front and front-middle of the tongue.

Finish

The initial finish begins to fade quite quickly but then seems to reach a plateau which hangs around for quite a while.

21 Year Old

43%, no further details

Colour

Medium-dark, wit a touch of old gold

Nose

Immediately weaker on the nose as you would expect. Subtle, Muscovado sugar, and initial hint of something like marzipan but that doesn’t last.

First taste

Very much front of the tongue and compared to the nose is much stronger. There’s a feeling of chilli going on. It gets gradually sweeter but there’s always a kick in the end, right at the front of the tongue. Later there’s a slight pepperiness that goes further back on the tongue. Fairly dry, with almost a suggestion of country earth coming over. Relatively lightweight for a 21 year old, certainly compared to the 13 year old, and I’m a little surprised that it doesn’t have more body to it.

Later Taste

Later on there’s a slightly medicinal taste appears which is in some ways similar to the west island malts but because it’s devoid of the saltiness which characterises many of them it comes across in a quite different way. If asked to guess I would probably say that it’s from a second refill sherry cask, though there’s nothing to say and it may well not be the case. That’s partly from the colour and partly from the background taste – nothing like as strong as some of the more obviously sherried whiskies but definitely there in the background.

Postscript

A few days later I tried this one on its own, as I wondered if it had suffered from being sandwiched between its two stronger cousins. This time it seemed to have more character and I liked it more than I had the first time.

Single Cask

23 Years Old, 53.6%, distilled April 1986, European Oak Sherry Butt

Colour

Medium Gold

Nose and first taste

We’re immediately back in more complex territory and the extra strength is obvious. Much more my kind of whisky. However rather curiously the nose is relatively light and there’s nothing particularly distinctive to latch onto and name as a flavour, but the first taste is completely opposite to that – there’s an immediately complex hit that seems to fill the whole mouth. Very warm strong taste, dark chocolate, and the same sort of black treacle taste that we had in the first whisky but not as sweet this time. It might sound odd since there’s no real peat in it but this reminds me in some ways of the peaty Perthshire whiskies such as Blair Athol.

Later taste

A touch more sweetness comes through but the bitter chocolate with the slight chilli kick that I noticed in one of the other two is still there. There is sherry in the background but it’s nothing like as strong as the English Merchants Choice.

Overall Conclusions

Quite an enlightening tasting for me since this is entirely different to the sort of whiskies I usually drink. It’s a bit like the malt equivalent of drinking port or sherry when you’re used to dry white wine. Of the three I think I marginally preferred the English Merchant’s Choice, though the Single Cask might get the vote after a longer tasting. However I have a suspicion that I would need more time with this type before being able to really get a handle of the various tastes the Glengoynes contain as my palate is simply not used to them in this sort of context. I liked them much more then I expected I was going to after the initial sips, and I’d be interested to try more of them and explore this taste complex in greater depth. After all if you enjoy the outdoors it doesn’t have to be standing on the beaches of Islay or the cliffs of Skye with the wind in your face all the time – the gentler shores of Loch Lomond can be pretty good too!

The particular whisky has now sold out but the SMWS have replaced it with another from the same distillery.

The offer is only valid until the end of January so if you want to take advantage of it you’d better get in now!

The first app which grabbed my attention was Whisky iOdic – which is a periodic chart of whiskies. It looks great and is fun – espescially when your in a bar which lacks your favourite malts and has a large range as you can look for whiskies that share the same types of profile (I’ve found it useful about 80% of the time and found one of two weirdnesses but TBH that was when drinking non-standard casks which I should’ve expected).

Whisky iOdic Screen Grab

Also when you click onto one of the whisky codes you get a short description of the distillery and the taste profile of the whisky.

Description for Talisker Distillery from Whisky iOdic App

So all in all a nice little time waster of an application for all you whisky lovers out there. It doesn’t tell you anything you don’t know already but hey for £1.79 (which won’t buy you a decent dram these days) is a nice distraction. To purchase the app visit the page on itunes or visit the Whisky iOdic website.

Sir Robert was a character from a very different world from our own – a well respected author,  a career diplomat who was the first UK envoy to the then-new Bolshevik Russia in 1917, a secret agent who amongst other things was accused of a plot to kill Lenin and imprisoned in the Kremlin, and a natural adventurer. His autobiographical Memoirs of a British Agent was a worldwide hit as both book and film in the 1930′s.

His mother’s family were MacGregors and had close connections to the Balmenach distillery, and it’s clear from reading Scotch that he regarded Speyside in general, and in particular Glenlivet and his beloved Balmenach as the pinnacle of single malt creation. He scarcely mentions Islay and quotes a top-ten that has Talisker at number 10. However this was 1951 and the whisky world, as well as the Scottish and UK society and economy, was very different from anything we know now. The chances are that whisky tasted somewhat different then – single malts were seldom available and nearly all production went for blending. Britain was bankrupt and most whisky went overseas to earn foreign currency, while domestic consumption was both restricted by rationing and taxed to a level never previously seen.

It’s fascinating to read his attitudes as he surveys the history of whisky from a staunchly Scottish perspective, indeed a Highlander’s perspective where whisky is seen as the people’s birthright and an essential component of their culture and way of life. He rails against English taxation and restriction and looks towards a revival of Scottish independence if the vital spirit was removed from the common people.

Doubtless he would have been surprised but delighted at the modern revival of single malts. But he might have been appalled at the level of taxation that has continued to be imposed on it. He’d have expected the continuing success of the drink internationally but probably astonished at the quality that the Japanese have achieved as he firmly believed that the conditions in Scotland were uniquely suited to its creation.

While his writing style is of a type that modern eyes may find idiosyncratic, the book is a fascinating insight into an almost forgotten time and attitudes to whisky that link to a long bygone age as well as a good history of the creation and development of the industry. If you can get hold of a copy then I recommend it as winter reading while we’re all snowed in – and a glass of Balmenach might not be a bad accompaniment!

As I indicated at the end of the last post we had a pleasant surprise towards the end of the SMWS tasting – an extra three drams to consider and a generous offer to pass on to our readers. The three malts were a Speyside from Glen Moray, a Northern Highland from Glen Ord, and an Island from Arran, and we were invited to choose one of them to go with a membership offer unique to our respective blogs.

I chose the Arran, code 121.39, referred to by the Society as “Easy Drinking Dream” a 14 year old of 54.9% strength. We didn’t do a proper full tasting of the three, more an assessment of their relative merits, but I can give you some indication of its style.

A chestnut colour, it had a a nose containing what seems to be the signature of the Arran distillery, a treacle and toffee aroma which was repeated in the taste. In contrast there is also a medicinal flavour containing eucalyptus and blackcurrant along with citrus notes. It’s a very pleasant example of a distillery that’s producing some increasingly interesting output. And a free bottle is available to anyone who joins the Scotch Malt Whisky Society via this blog.

Just follow this exclusive link and then follow the Join Now link you’ll find there, select the type of membership you’d like and enter the code FREEWHISKY1 at the checkout. You’ll be credited with your free bottle. Merry Xmas!

We were back at Queen St and as usual Olaf did the honours with an interesting selection, which by coincidence started with the same distillery as last time.

1. 7.60 Longmorn

24 years old, 52.3%

Unusually this would turn out to be the only whisky in the evening’s selection over 10 years old.

The SMWS panel likened this one to a 1930s Cabaret and mentioned scents of cheap perfume, lipstick, and greasepaint, with additional tastes such as leather and pomegranates.

Colour

Pale yellow

Nose

Melon and paint thinners was pretty much all I got to begin with. Maybe because this was the first of the night or maybe I just haven’t led a decadent enough life and didn’t recognise the smell of fag packets and lipstick! Yeah, honest guv.

Taste

Hot, front of the tongue, spicy ginger, tangerine, dry. There’s certainly a lot going on in this dram and I warmed to it the more I drank.

With water.

Hint of marzipan – not normally a taste I like but here it worked. Lighter, more fragrant.

Conclusion

A complex and satisfying winter dram. Quite different to the Longmorn of the last tasting but once again some unexpected flavours and there’s certainly some interesting stuff coming from this distillery. At £69.40 a bottle this is well worth considering and should keep the December chills at bay.

2. 121.38 Arran

7 years old, 61.6%

The SMWS panel named this Sumptuous and Stunning, and found a wide variety of dried fruits, toffee and caramelised meats. Our panel were quite surprised to find that such a dark spirit was from one of our youngest island distilleries.

Colour

Deep tawney – despite only being from a 2nd fill sherry cask.

Nose

Treacle, dates, prunes/tagine. Surprisingly there was little in the way of heavy sherry overtones which might have been expected from the colour.

Taste

Black treacle, dark  chocolate, perfect for Xmas or for Moroccan food. Again visually this screams sherry – but the taste isn’t that much sherry at all, it’s more a rich caramel influenced treacle and dark toffee flavour with a Christmas cake combination of figs and prunes and other exotic fruits.

With Water

Water takes the astringent edge off it and makes it smoother, and given the high starting strength it can take it without losing too much character.

Conclusion

When I saw the colour I didn’t expect to like this much. but I did. Another case of not judging a book by its cover. For such a young whisky its developed a surprisingly complex flavour and I’ll look forward to sampling more of this distillery’s products. I’ve developed a taste for Moroccan food and would love to try this with it. At £39.20 for  a bottle this has to be something of a bargain.

3. 128.1 Penderin (Wales), port finish

6 years old, 55.6%

Colour

Dark brown

Taste

Wine gums, strawberry syrup, blueberries, blood orange.

With water

A slight woodiness appears. Medium finish, one panellist said chunky.

Conclusion

The general feeling in the panel was that this was quite intriguing but that it just wasn’t whisky. The SMWS panel mentioned such diverse flavours and smells as Calpol syrup, bubblegum, red currants and cranberries. My feeling was that it would be interesting to cook with, or in trifle, but for a single malt drinker it just wasn’t ‘right’. At £49.50 I wouldn’t consider it unless those flavours sound right up your street.

It’s become something of a tradition at these tastings to have three Speysides or Highlands and then two Islays. We’d already departed from that with the Arran and Welsh offerings but now we returned to almost normal. However we stayed with young expressions and a distillery that hasn’t actually been completed yet – the output available so far being from the Bruichladdich stills.

4. 127.5  Port Charlotte

7 years, 66.8%

Colour

Light straw

Nose and Taste

Hospitals, beach fires, a very stripped down taste and not much depth. Maybe it’s just immature. It feels like kneeling on the ground and sniffing the earth on Islay. There’s lots of peat but the other flavours don’t feel strong enough yet to compete with it and round out the taste.

The later taste with food was still very powerful despite water.

Conclusion

The SMWS panel mentioned seafood quite a bit but I wasn’t really getting that much, although I could imagine it being drunk with seafood. I wanted to like this but I really feel it needs to spend more time in the barrels to build up a bit more character. Some of Bruichladdich’s formidable range of output can be a little too subtle for its own good and although they are usually clean and crisp I wonder if they sometimes take the wine and food analogy a little too far. I’d be interested to taste this after another five years but I wouldn’t buy it now despite the good price of £43.70.

5. 33.96 Ardbeg

10 years old, 56.9%, Refilled sherry butt.

Nose

Very subtle, peat certainly, but loads of other things.

Taste

Surprisingly soft, and really hard to describe because the flavours are so well integrated.
Warm finish but quite short/medium. The SMWS panel seemed to also have trouble identifying the individual tastes as their usual wide range of suggestions was notably sparse on this one – smoked almonds were mentioned, as was salted toffee and chocolate.

Conclusion

Despite not being able to adequately describe this, those of us on the panel with a taste for Islays found it to be excellent. Olaf actually reckoned it was the best he’d tasted – even better than the wonderful Caol Ila we’d had a couple of tastings ago. I wouldn’t go quite that far but it was definitely a top-notch dram which I’d love to explore further and well worth the £57.30 price tag. Definitely the pick of the night.

Olaf was as always the perfect host, the only deviation in this case being that, since he was heading to Switzerland early the next day to host more tastings, he couldn’t stay and chat with us in the downstairs bar as he usually does.

There was however an extra bonus in store for us, and for you dear readers. But I’ll leave details of that for my next posting which will appear here shortly.

Very sadly the Vaults lost their very popular manager recently. Douglas McFarlane died while taking part in the Edinburgh Marathon, and so this tasting was dedicated to him.

While Olaf normally tries to choose a wide spread of malts from a geographical perspective, on this occasion we had 3 Speysides and 2 Islays, but the range of tastes was a wide as ever.

Longmorn

Cask No: 7.58, 19 year old, 51.4%

Colour

Pale Gold

Nose

This made quite an impression – it had a sharp almost effervescent character. Almost reminded me of an alcoholic version of Cremola Foam, and explained the society’s tasting panel comments of sherbet and ginger beer.

Initial Taste

More unexpected contrasts here. It was warm and rich, yet at the same time light and subtle. Yes that probably is a contradiction but that’s the complexity of malt whisky for you.

Later Taste

Second sip and we started to find fruits – mango and orange, with just a hint of tea-tree and some rich flower essences. Yet there was also a base of black treacle. If you were to come up with those flavours you’d never believe they would blend well together but the combination works a treat.

Finish

Medium length and sweet.

With water

I don’t advise adding water to this. It kills the nose and the subtlety is greatly diminished.

Conclusion

A subtle and intriguing whisky which I’d be happy to explore further.

Inchgower

Cask No: 18.30, 24 year old, 45.5%

Nose

Very strong and distinctive. Joss sticks, salt, must, and what one of the Whisky Boys identified as Cedarwood.

Initial Taste

Honey on the front of the tongue – the panel had suggested Sauternes, which I would agree with, and Montilla Sherry, which I haven’t tasted. Seafood tastes began to come through.

Later Taste

Having initially liked this I was a little disappointed to find that the tastes seemed to blend together and it lost the interesting competition of flavours.

Finish

Long and rich but becoming a little monotone as the tasting progressed.

With water

A more citrusy flavour was opened out with a very little water. A hint of lemongrass and ginger which agreed with the panel, though I didn’t detect any of the marijuana leaf that was also mentioned, honest officer.

Conclusion

Initially I was quite taken with this but it lost me later on as the flavours lost their individuality. However some of my fellow tasters rated it very highly so if the flavours mentioned here are attractive to you then it’s worth giving it a try.

Daluaine

Cask No: 41.45, 25 year old, 56.1%

Colour

Darkish gold with a hint of red

Nose

This whisky provoked tales of rubbing the spirit on the hands and nosing it that way, and indeed Olaf did this on the night. My more conventional method brought a sense of rich tobacco and cigars.

Initial Taste

Initially it tasted dry with an ash aftertaste. Not dissimilar to a standard Ardbeg but based more on tobacco rather than wood.

Later Taste

As it developed it became sweeter and more syrupy, which was quiet unexpected, but it still retained a feeling of an old gentleman’s club. Think oak panelled rooms with old retainers bringing fudge and chocolate on a silver platter.

Finish

Medium-long, with the tastes matching those already mentioned.

With water

I’m never a great fan of water and it didn’t add much to this dram

Conclusion

I liked this, but curiously the memory of it seems better than the feeling on the night. Had I had it on its own then I’d probably have been quite happy but I suspect it suffered from the two that followed it.

Interlude

At this point we had a new development in the shape of a supper of Chicken and thick-cut chips. Very welcome indeed and most generous of the society to lay this on. I did wonder slightly if that would affect the tasting but the two malts to follow were quite strong enough to overcome any such concerns.

Caol Ila

Cask No: 53.141, 20 year old, 52%

After the last tasting in February in which the Caol Ila was a brilliant standout which I could have stayed with forever I was looking forward to seeing what else they could come up with.

Nose

Not as strong as most Caol Ila’s, more subtle

Initial Taste

Slightly sweeter than usual and not as smoky. Bright was the word that Lucas of the Edinburgh Whisky Blog used and that works for me too.

Later Taste

It’s very subtle. Hints of heather and oriental cooking flavours such as the pak choi that was mentioned in the panel’s notes

Finish

Satisfying, as Caol Ila always is, but perhaps not quite as long as usual.

With water

Just a touch, since I’d have preferred if it had started slightly stronger than the 52%. Opened out a little with more smoke and hints of lime and mint.

Conclusion

After the previous bottling (which sold out very quickly) it was maybe inevitable that this one would suffer a little by the comparison, but it was nevertheless very good, and I’d like to try an evening of it alone to see how it stands up to longer analysis. Lucas voted this his favourite and we both wondered at the price comparison with the new Caol Ila 25 year old (twice the price and only 43% strength) which he mentioned on his blog recently. I’ll have to search the bars for that as I can’t afford a full bottle.

Ardbeg

Cask No: 33.88, 10 year old, 56.5%

Colour

Light blond

Nose

Classic Islay, slightly medicinal with lemon drops, mint, salt and wood.

Initial Taste

Mightily impressive. Surprisingly the taste was substantially different from the nose. Suggestions of Benedictine and TCP. Not as dry as some Ardbegs. It was only at this point that it sunk in that this was a 10 year old.

Later Taste

It seems to get stronger and more complex the further into it you get. Not sure where the panel’s “telegraph poles in swimming pools” came from – clearly the panel lead wild lives! – but that sense of country smells with tar and wood preservative and fresh west-coast air is very much there.

Finish

Long and gratifying.

With water

If your tastes are anything like mine you won’t want to know, so I didn’t try it.

Conclusion

For me this Ardbeg was the top malt of the evening, and for a dedicated Caol Ila fan that’s saying something. Wonderfully complex for a 10 year old you could find new flavours with every sip. We were served the usual cheese board and some chocolate truffles at the end of the tasting and they both went well with this so it stands up to competing tastes very well. What I found really surprising was that this was the cheapest of the evening’s selection, but even had it been the most expensive I would recommend any Islay fan to seek this one out.

Overall Thoughts

An intriguing selection by Olaf – quite diverse considering their geographical locations. More subtlety compared to the previous round which was perhaps more grandly impressive. Previous rounds have often had two or three which I liked a lot and one or two which were less to my tastes. This time all of them were very interesting and at least four of them would be more than welcome at my table, and strangely enough that one, the Inchgower, was voted a favourite by a couple of my fellow bloggers. Of the three Speysides the Longmorn was my preference and I could happily spend an evening or two with that. The two Islays however were simply delicious, with the Ardbeg winning out this time with an outstanding expression. I suspect this is another that will sell out quickly so get there in a hurry. If you miss out then the Caol Ila won’t disappoint unless you’re lucky enough to already have a bottle of the February release, and fans will probably want it anyway.

Thanks again Olaf, an excellent evening.

Black Bull 12 year old blended whisky (50% ABV)

I got this whisky in a little miniature bottle from the guys up at Duncan Taylor and Co when I signed up to their mailing list. Which I thought was really nice of them and as soon as I’ve finished typing this up I’ll email them my thanks. Sorry for the digression and I’ll get back to the tasting before everyone loses the head with me.The Black Bull 12 year is a 50/50 mix between  malt and grain whisky and bottled at 50% ABV. And it has the colour of what most people think of as a whisky colour – a strong umbery orange colour which has the romance of whisky with a vestige of the past and what we all saw our grand parents drinking in the seventies – it looks like a lovely retro whisky, if there is such a thing!

On the first smell the alcohol dominates but makes way quickly to a Toblerone overtones (chocolate and vanilla rich whisky scents always make me think of Toblerone  – again seventies Christmases I guess). Its big on smell, and the scent lingers longer in the nose than I would normally expect which is hugely pleasant.Initial tastes of honey with a slight fruity note – reminds me of elderflower wine but as I’ve not had elderflower wine in over twelve years I could be off the mark, and the whisky coats the tongue in the way that a bourbon does with a thickness and strength I hadn’t expected. The thickness of the whisky and the creaminess continues into the finish which had a hint of tamarind or something equally oriental.

With a little water the whisky nose developed a slight smokey character the water seemed to destroy the flavour but really heightened the vanillans and weakend the finish. All in all one of the best blended whiskies I’ve had in a long time. Worth a little punt this Christmas if you have people coming round – likely to appeal to staunch whisky snobs and seasonal drinkers in the same still.

This is the perfect Hogmany family whisky – not enough to offend anyone and not enough to reach the heights of a great malt. In essence a perfect social whisky – and its the memories that whisky creates in many of us which is why we love one whisky over another although at 50% the memories may be slightly fuzzy.

If you fancy a bottle for this Hogmany have a look at the Black Bull stockists on their website or Google product search.