Oh Clynelish! Ever since trying the Distillery Only Clynelish bottling, I’m always on the lookout for new Clynelish! Luckily SMWS have been pumping out quite a few recently. This particular bottling was spruced up and presented with the release of their whisky ice creams. That’s right! SMWS made ice cream using single cask whiskies. They were as delicious as they sound. They also promoted this bottling quite a bit at this years Whisky Solstice. As a result, the bottles sold out quickly. But lucky for us and strangely enough they seemed to have found more bottles of this. So as of today they are selling this again on their website. Not sure how long they will last. I’ve been watching the page and the bottles remaining count seems to be dropping fairly quickly. Well anyway, it just so happens that we got a sample of this and it seemed like a good day to review it.
Monthly Archives: September 2015
News: Ardbeg Supernova 2015 (Final Release)
Update! If you want to see our tasting notes click here.
Well the time has come for the final release of Ardbeg Supernova. The Supernova is advertised as the peatiest of whiskies. There is some debate over this however due to the Octomore expressions from Bruichladdich, some of which claim to have peat levels higher than 200ppm. However, being all whisky geeky I’d like to say that measuring peat levels is a tricky thing. Most distilleries measure the peat levels of the malted barley instead of the final spirit.So how much of the peat makes it through to the actual whisky is contested and highly variable.
There are also different methods of measuring peat in malt which can return very different results. So really it’s hard to say which is peatiest without taking the whiskies to a lab and running them through a barrage of tests. But all that aside, does it really matter? There are some who say that humans cannot differentiate peat levels beyond a certain ppm and that the doubling of ppm’s does not equate to a doubling of peaty experience on the palette. It is also well known that as whisky ages it loses peat concentration. Whisky Science has a good article on this.
Royal Lochnagar 12 Year Old
Royal Lochnagar is one of three distilleries allowed to use “Royal” in their name. The other two are Glenury Royal (closed) and Royal Brackla. The story goes that Queen Victoria visited Balmoral castle and the neighboring Lochnagar distillery in 1848. She was so impressed with the “new” distillery built in (1845) that she granted it a royal warrant, hence the Royal in Royal Lochnagar. See Malt Madness for more info.
Royal Lochnagar is one of the “Classic Malts” of Diageo and you can take a tour there for free if you sign up to their “Friends of the Classic Malts” scheme. There aren’t too many (currently available) official expressions from Royal Lochnagar, but there are a few independent bottlings kicking around.
Distillery: Royal Lochnagar
Age: 12 years old
ABV: 43%
Price: ~£35 (£34.07 from Master of Malt)
Longrow Red Shiraz Cask (2nd Edition) 11 Year Old
Before the Longrow Red Pinot Noir and before the much loved Longrow Red Port, came the Longrow Red Shiraz. It is however not the first in the Longrow line up, that would be the Longrow Red Cabernet Sauvignon. For a full list of the Longrow Red series see our Longrow Red Pinot Noir post.
In case you are unfamiliar with the Longrow Red series or with Longrow in general, Longrow is a range of expressions that is distilled at the Springbank distillery. However, unlike the usual Springbank spirit, Longrow is heavily peated and distilled twice (“Springbank spirit” is distilled 2.5 times). The Longrow Red series contains expressions that were matured partially or fully in red wine casks. Hence the “Red” in Longrow Red.
Glenlivet XXV 25 Year Old
With that uber fancy packing and the Glenlivet name, you can bet that this expression is going to cost you. I first tried this expression at the Whisky Stramash 2014 in Edinburgh. I have to admit that I tried it out of pure curiosity and with a bit of skepticism but I was pleasantly surprised along with my friend from the Whiskyphiles. I managed to acquire some more samples so that AliceInWhiskyland and I could have a proper review.
Distillery: Glenlivet
Age: 25
Cask: Olorosso Sherry Finish
ABV: 43%
Price: £198.49 from Master of Malt
Taketsuru 17 Years Old Pure Malt
This particular expression (and line of expressions) is named after Masataka Taketsuru who is widely regarded as the father of Japanese whisky. He also happens to be the founder of Nikka and he built both the Yoichi and Miyagikyo distilleries from which this spirit is derived. The Taketsuru line up includes the new NAS, 12, 17, and 21 years old. There are rumours that the Taketsuru 12 will be discontinued which would be shame. If you’ll notice in the picture at the top, the packaging consists of a lovely origami inspired card paper box. On the right side is a portrait and small description of Masataka Taketsuru and on the left side is a portrait and small description of Rita Taketsuru (Jessie Roberta Cowan). I really like these design touches and I wish all whisky packaging could be so well thought out. Unfortunately the US versions do not come with the box.
Anyway, onto the reviews!
Type: Blended Malt
Distilleries: Yoichi and Miyagikyo
Age: 17 Years Old
ABV: 43%
Price: ~£95 (£94.95 from Master of Malt)
Aberlour 16 Year Old (Double Cask Matured)
We tried the Aberlour 16 at the distillery. You can see a bit of the tasting room in the photo at the top. Pretty classy eh? According to the website the 16 was matured in first fill ex-bourbon casks and sherry butts. I am not sure about the wording though so I do not know if they used first fill sherry as well. I am guessing no. Correct me if I’m wrong! It seems to have collected quite a few awards:
2012 WWA (Best Speyside 12 to 20 years)
2012 IWSC Gold (Scotch whisky)
2013 IWSC Silver Outstanding (Scotch Single Malt – Speyside)
2013 SFWSC Gold (Single Malt Scotch – 13 to 19 Yrs)
2014 IWSC Silver Outstanding (Scotch Single Malt – Speyside).
Well let’s see how we like it…
Distillery: Aberlour
Age: 16 Years Old
ABV: 40%
Cask Type: First Fill Ex-Bourbon and Sherry (Not sure if this is first fill sherry as well)
Price: ~£45 (£43.90 from Master of Malt)
Adventures in Whisky Land 