Monthly Archives: April 2016

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April 21, 2016

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Scottish Whiskies, Whisky Reviews

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Macallan 12 Year Old Sherry Oak (UK VS USA Version)

Macallan_12yo

This is an interesting one which seems to be at the heart of the controversy over the newish 1824 NAS whisky range. For many years the Macallan 12 year old has been a much cherished core expression from Macallan. It was the flagship whisky which introduced many to the joys of Macallan and to Scotch whisky in general. In 2012/2013 the 1824 series of no age statement Macallan’s was released starting with the Gold and prices for the Macallan 12 started going up. In the UK the 12 was thought to be discontinued but actually they have just reduced the amount available so that it’s harder to find and usually priced over 50 quid. However, the US seems to still have a steady supply of the 12 at very reasonable prices.

We tried the UK version of the Macallan 12 at a WOLS tasting and the USA version from a bottle I bought in the US and I was surprised to find that they were quite different. The first difference is the ABV. The US version comes in at 43% and the UK version is at 40%. With US bottlings having a volume of 750ml compared to the UK 700ml and the higher ABV you are getting a good deal more undiluted whisky in the US version. Couple that with the much more affordable US price tag and the whole deal seems quite unfair for the British. I really don’t understand why the ABV’s are different for the two markets but this is an important detail to look out for. Many people assume that an expression will have the same  ABV wherever they buy it but this could not be further from the truth. One retail trick I have seen is that some travel retail exclusive whiskies will be more diluted than their non-duty free counterparts.

The second difference I found between the two versions is that the US version seemed to be more flavourful. It had richer aromas and a stronger character. This could have something to do with the ABV but it’s clear that they are from different batches and perhaps they are blended slightly differently for the two markets. Anyway, we should probably get on to the tasting notes now. We included tasting notes for bother versions.

Distillery: Macallan Distillery

Age: 12 Years Old

Cask: Sherry Casks

ABV: 40% in Europe or 43% in the USA

Price: £62.86 at the Master of Malt or $49.99 at K&L Wines

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April 19, 2016

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Macallan 18 Year Old Sherry Oak

Macallan_18yo

 

Lo and behold! The Macallan 18. Something of a quintessential luxury whisky that has had a high profile since… ok well I don’t really know since when. It’s been around  awhile. It seems like the core range sherry oak Macallan 12 and 18 have been fixtures in the whisky industry long enough to influence the movies at least. Of course Macallan made an appearance in Skyfall in the memorable “shoot the whisky not the girl” scene. Obvious references to Macallan have been made in the TV show Lost with the 60 year old MacCutcheon. Note the design of the bottle. The MacCutcheon makes another appearance in the TV show Fringe. So it’s apparent that Macallan has made it’s mark and I suppose it’s likely that the 18 had a bit of influence among Hollywood types. All speculation of course.

Anyway, somewhat unfortunately the 18 has seen a recent increase in price after the introduction of the 1824 NAS range. It went from about £90 in 2012 to £180 in 2015. So from a fairly expensive whisky to an essentially non-drinkable whisky, which is a shame. I’m pretty sure the regular connoisseurs of the stuff were wealthy folks a couple years ago so I wonder if they noticed the price hike or simply kept on ordering it. We were lucky to try it at a recent WOLS tasting that was run by Matt Byerly. The tasting was completely blind and included the 12 and 18 along with the Amber and Sienna. We were all given ballots to rank the whiskies and the top two were the 18 and the Sienna. So perhaps the Sienna is the new 18? Well not quite but you’ll have to judge for yourself. AliceInWhiskyland and I both prefered the 18.

Distillery: Macallan Distillery

Age: 18 Years Old

Cask: Sherry Cask

ABV: 43%

Price: £185.00 at Berry Bros and Rudd

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April 18, 2016

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Macallan Sienna

Macallan_Sienna

 

The Macallan Sienna is part of the NAS whisky range from Macallan known as the 1824 series. The series was first released in Europe to take the place of Macallan’s well known and loved age statement whiskies such as the 12 and 18 year old sherry cask. While the 12 and 18 are still being produced their availability in Europe has diminished and their prices dramatically increased. The Sienna is the third to lowest priced whisky in the range which consists of the core expressions Gold, Amber, Sienna, and Ruby with increasing prices in that order. Supposedly, this range was introduced due to their inability to keep up with demands for their age statement whiskies given their current stocks.

If you want to know a little bit more about the range see the post about the Macallan Amber.

I tried this expression at a Water of life Society tasting run by Matt Byerly in which we compared 2 expressions from the 1824 series and 2 aged expression. We also tried a Gordon and MacPhail Speymalt 9 year old for comparison. The tasting was blind and we were handed pieces of paper to rank the whiskies. And the results? Well it seemed like the Sienna and the Macallan 18 were tied for first. So I suppose that says something about this expression. I preferred the 18 but the Sienna was number 2.

Distillery: Macallan Distillery

Age: No Age Statement

Cask: Sherry Casks

ABV: 43%

Price: £62.87 at the Master of Malt
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April 17, 2016

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Macallan Amber

Macallan_Amber

 

The Macallan Amber is part of the NAS whisky range from Macallan known as the 1824 series. The series was first released in Europe to take the place of Macallan’s well known and loved age statement whiskies such as the 12 and 18 year old sherry cask. While the 12 and 18 are still being produced their availability in Europe has diminished and their prices dramatically increased. The Amber is the second to lowest priced whisky in the range which consists of the core expressions Gold, Amber, Sienna, and Ruby with increasing prices in that order. Supposedly, this range was introduced due to their inability to keep up with demands for their age statement whiskies given their current stocks.

The concept of the range is somewhat confusing. The idea is that age should not be an indicator of quality (which is a valid point) but then that colour is now a good indicator? Since the range is comprised of 100% sherry casks the pitch is that the darker the colour the more “mature” the whisky. They do not use caramel colouring to achieve this. But the whole concept is pretty odd. Usually master blenders bring together casks to create the flavour profile of a particular expression. So now they have to match the flavour and the colour? It just doesn’t feel right. I am interested to see how this will play out in the long term, many batches from now. However, given that most whisky drinkers do not notice differences between batches, I suppose this won’t really cause issues.

 

Distillery: Macallan Distillery

Age: No Age Statement

Cask: Sherry Casks

ABV: 40%

Price: £44.99 at Master of Malt

 

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April 8, 2016

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Bowmore Hand Filled Editions

Bowmore_hand_batch_all

I recently became quite fascinated with distillery hand filled bottlings and in particular those from Bowmore. I was not able to find a single source which contained information about all the editions/batches/iterations of the Bowmore hand filled bottlings so I decided to make one myself.

This list/archive does not contain tasting notes as I have not yet tried any of them (hoping to!) but I have added links to tastings notes from other sites.

The best sources of information seemed to come from whisky auction sites so I have added links to auction pages for info sourcing. Apparently online whisky auctions serve as a sort of whisky information archive!

If you have anymore information on the bottlings please let me know and I can add it to this post.

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April 6, 2016

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SMWS 35.139 (Glen Moray) Punchy Spice Explosion

SMWS_35.139_GlenMoray

It seems the Scotch Malt Whisky Society has a collection of Glen Moray’s in unusual casks. At least this is judging from their recent releases of Glen Moray. I’m not sure if this was of their own design or if they were already filled in these casks before they purchased them. Seeing as how Glen Moray seem to be on the more experimental side of distilling, I would not be surprised if they had put together an assortment of odd casks and sold some to SMWS. Either way I appreciate it! I only wonder if Glen Moray will be releasing similarly interesting expressions in the future.

Here we have a 20 year old Glen Moray matured in a first fill toasted hogshead. This is notable for at least 2 reasons. First is that a first fill cask typically has a shorter maturation period because they impart more flavours faster. So the whisky is usually deemed ready at a younger age. Thus older first fill cask bottlings are somewhat rare. Second is that the cask was toasted a second time. Usually the casks will be toasted before being used to age bourbon. The Scottish distilleries will usually put their spirit directly into the ex-bourbon casks without too much fuddling around with the cask except for maybe resizing it into a hogshead (bigger than a barrel). However, in this instance it appears that they have toasted it again right before putting in the Scottish spirit. How does this affect maturation? Well I guess you just have to read the tasting notes to find out.

Distillery: Glen Moray

Age: 20 Years Old

Cask: 1st Fill Hogshead Toasted Oak

ABV: 57.9%

Price: £76.60 for members, £153.20 for non-members from SMWS
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April 5, 2016

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Glenfarclas 12 Year Old

Glenfarclas_12yo

Ahh Glenfarclas! Quite the revered speyside whisky and one of the last family owned distilleries. If you have ever heard of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, this is where it all started for them. The very first SMWS cask was a Glenfarclas. The distilleries reputation has recently been built upon their popular Glenfarclas 105 expression and their exceedingly old releases in the core range and in the Family Cask range. Unlike other distilleries which were managed by corporations, Glenfarclas has had the wise guidance of their owners, the Grant family, who were smart enough to keep producing whisky during the whisky recession. As a result have healthier stocks of aged whisky than most of their competitors. Hence the very old core expressions.

The 12 year old is a sherried style whisky and priced well considering all the rising prices in the whisky industry lately. Also nice to see that Glenfarclas is not moving toward the NAS trend like some other distilleries.

Distillery: Glenfarclas Distillery

Age: 12 Years Old

Cask: Ex-Sherry

ABV: 43%

Price: £36.79 at the Master of Malt
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April 4, 2016

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Oban Little Bay

Oban_Little_Bay

The Oban Distillery sits quaintly by the sea in Oban bay with high cliffs behind it upon which an old romanesque ruin stands. It is really quite a unique and picturesque setting for a distillery and well worth a visit if you are in the area. In terms of its reputation as a distillery it seems to me to be somewhat similar in standing as Dalwhinnie. Like Dalwhinnie, Oban basically has had only one globally available expression (the Oban 14 year old), it receives a healthy number of visitors due to tourist traffic in the area, and it’s a Diageo classic malt. While Oban seems to be fairly popular as a single malt, it strikes me as a bit of an enigma in the whisky industry. With basically only one expression available on the market, it seems to have picked up sales but not necessarily a following. Who exactly buys Oban? I’m not sure. Not that it’s not worth buying but it doesn’t seem to inspire the same kind of cult following as other distilleries and yet sales seem good. So who knows. Oh and by the way you can get an Oban 18 year old in the US which is relatively unknown. Will try to review at some later point in time.

Anyway, it was exciting to see a new expression when the Oban Little Bay came out in 2015 (first as travel retail then into standard markets). But the excitement was mixed with hesitation. It was another non-age statement whisky released onto the market as part of the NAS trend. However, that’s a whole other story entirely. What’s interesting about Oban Little Bay is that they used refill casks with new cask ends fitted. It’s nice to see a bit of experimentation and it reminds me a bit of Compass Box and their methods for getting around the whole controversy of the original Spice Tree being aged in casks which had extra staves thrown inside. In fact it almost seems like a bit of whisky rebuttal from Diageo to Compass Box (their relationship is complicated). Well enough of the gossip, let’s get on to the whisky!

Distillery: Oban Distillery

Age: No Age Statement

Cask: Ex-Bourbon and Ex-Sherry and refill casks with new ends

ABV: 43%

Price: £53.45 at Master of Malt

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