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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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March 24, 2016

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Benromach 35 Year Old

Benromach_35yo

The whisky gods have been kind to us! When I first heard about the Benromach 35 release I was ecstatic! When I first saw the price tag I was not so enthused… I have a bit of a catch-them-all attitude with Benromach and at just over 400 quid the 35 does not seem to be for mere mortals. I truly didn’t think I would be able to try it but lo and behold, we were selected for the #Benromach35 Whisky Wire tweet tasting! So this little gem showed up at our door.

Before we begin the tasting notes we should go through the expansive back story behind this whisky. Before they released the 35 this year, they discontinued the 30 year old. If you ever got the chance to try the 30 year old count yourself lucky. It’s a cracking whisky and was a great deal a few years ago. I was sad to see it go but I suspected they had something else up their sleeves. The reason why the 30 and 35 year are so special is because they are actually from a closed distillery. “Benromach is not a closed distillery!” you might say. Well you are right and wrong in that respect. While the distillery was established in 1898 and the site is still producing whisky, the original style stills are no longer there. In 1983 the distillery was mothballed and it was only opened again after Gordon & MacPhail bought it in 1993 from United Distillers. However, by that time very little of the original distillery was left. The stills were gone. So G&M pretty much built a new distillery there. The newer stills were smaller and almost all of the production equipment was installed in a single room so that production could be managed by a small crew. For some pictures and tour information see here.

Not only was all the equipment replaced, but the style was also changed. G&M wanted to recreate the old Speyside character. This meant having a peatier whisky than what is generally produced today in the Speyside region. You might find this odd but remember that G&M have been operating since 1895 and they have have been managed by the Urquhart family since 1915. So they have seen a lot of whisky history and are perhaps in the best position to embark on this endeavor. What this means though, is that any Benromach bottling older than 15 years old is most likely from the “old distillery” and will have a distinctly different flavour profile. Also since G&M are independent bottlers it is unlikely that you will see other bottlers releasing Benromach whisky and according to their reps it is unlikely that G&M will release their own “independent” bottling. So the only Benromach whisky you are going to see on the market will be official bottlings. Hence the rarity of the 35 year old.

It also stands out in that it was matured in first fill sherry casks. Typically first fill casks impart a lot of flavour on the spirit so that maturation is typically shorter to prevent over-aging the whisky. However, it seems to be a recent trend to release these super old first fill sherry casks and quite frankly it’s exciting!

Distillery: Benromach Distillery

Age: 35 Years Old

Cask: First fill sherry casks

ABV: 43%

Price: £419.95 at Master of Malt

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March 23, 2016

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Benromach 15 Year Old

Benromach_15yo

Well well well, this is a much anticipated release for us. Benromach is at the top of our list for distilleries. It was the whisky that really got us into whisky. We first fell in love with the original Benromach 10 year old. If you haven’t heard of Benromach, that’s probably because it is only starting to make its way around the world. Bought and rebuilt by Gordon and MacPhail in the 90’s, Benromach was running on a two man team for several years. Understandably their production was limited, but the quality of the spirit has gained followers and they are expanding. So you should see more Benromach on the shelves of your local whisky shops.

We got to try this little gem at the #Benromach35 tweet tasting hosted by The Whisky Wire. Hence the unconventional picture at the top. Like the 10 year old the 15 has been matured in both first fill ex-Bourbon and sherry casks with a heavier emphasis on the sherry casks. This is pretty extraordinary because maturing in only first fill casks is quite an expensive move and first fill casks impart more flavour to whisky so that maturations are typically shorter. You won’t find many official core bottlings from exclusively first fill casks that are this old. And if you do, you can expect to pay a premium.

One of the special things about Benromach is that it represents a sort of experiment for Gordon & MacPhail who are trying to bring back the old Speyside style of whisky. Although many of us think of Speyside whiskies as smooth and unpeated, this was not true back in the day when pretty much all distilleries peated their whiskies to some degree simply because of the cheapness of peat as a fuel source. Thus you’ll notice that the 15 year old and 10 year old both have a peaty bite. Well enough of this banter, on to the tasting notes!

Distillery: Benromach Distillery

Age: 15 Years Old

Cask: Ex-bourbon and Sherry first fill casks

ABV: 43%

Price: £49.84

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February 22, 2016

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Bruichladdich Octomore 7.1 Scottish Barley

Bruichladdich_Octomore_7.1

Like software versioning, we are now on the 7th editions of Bruichladdich’s Octomore. Usually they have about 3 sub-editions with the 2nd sub-edition being a wine cask matured Octomore (easily spotted by the red font on the bottle). It seems they keep turning up the heat on these as the 7.1 is a hefty 208 ppm. Quite an incease from the 6.1 that had 167 ppm.

In case you are unfamiliar with phenol levels, it is a way of measuring how peaty whisky is. There is a huge caveat to this in that the measurement is usually made on the malted barley. Basically they take a sample of the malted barley and measure the concentration of phenols (one major component of peat flavour). However, peat levels diminish with every step of the whisky making process and it’s hard to say how much will be lost in each step. So how much of the initial peatiness makes it into the final whisky is a big question. Anyway, that’s just a tidbit of whisky science for you.

You may be wondering why a 5 year old whisky is selling for about £100. Well there are many factors to this. For starters, you typically get less spirit yield with peated barley. And the more peated the barley the less the yields, typically. This has to do with the growth of yeast during the brewing stage. Apparently it gets a little too peaty for those little guys. Another added cost is the use of Scottish barley. A lot of Scottish whiskies actually use barley sourced from all over. Scotland doesn’t have the best growing weather, so it costs more to use Scottish barley. And perhaps the final reason I suspect this dram is so expensive is that it’s bottled at cask strength. No dilution here. And with a young strong whisky like this, dilution goes a long way to saving some bucks. Well that’s my breakdown of the cost. Basically if you love peaty whiskies, you will most certainly have to try this.

On a somewhat related side note, the Octomore range is named after the farm nearby the distillery. They often source their barley from that farm for their local productions.

Distillery: Bruichladdich Distillery

Age: NAS but says 5 years on website

Cask: American Ex-Bourbon Casks

ABV: 59.5%

Phenol: 208 ppm

Price: £99.74

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February 6, 2016

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Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye

CrownRoyal_NorthernHarvestRye

If you have some interest in whisky and happen to read the news every once in a while then you’ve probably heard of the Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye. It has been crowned the world’s best whiskey (note that the spelling whisky is typically used for Scottish and Japanese whiskies while the spelling whiskey is used for Irish, American, and Canadian) in 2015 by Jim Murray. If you’ve never heard the name, then as brief introduction Jim Murray is a self styled Robert Parker of the whisky world. He writes an annually updated book known as the Whisky Bible in which he rates whiskies. Last year’s “Best World Whisky” was the Yamazaki Sherry Cask 2013 Edition. This proclamation generated a lot of interest in Japanese whisky to the point where bottles were flying off the shelves and prices soared. Even in the homeland of the spirit, speculators were wiping out stock (For more info see the Japanese Whisky Review blog).

In a similar fashion this year’s announcement has resulted in stocks in the UK being swept up pretty quickly. I believe there are still quite a few bottles left in the US though.

Now a bit about Crown Royal. Crown Royal whisky made its debut in 1939 when King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth visited Canada. It was released in honour of their trip by Samuel Bronfman, owner of Seagram, who became a whiskey magnate by taking advantage of the Prohibition in the United States. Some very interesting stuff there that may be expanded upon in a future post! Since then it has become the most recognizable Canadian whiskey in the world.

This particular expression however, is not their typical stuff. Being 90% rye, this is essentially the rye whiskey of their current range. Rye whiskey tends to have quite a distinctive character as compared the standard mix of corn, barley, and other grains which usually comprise North American mash bills (the stuff they use to make the whiskey). Well enough talk, let’s taste!

Distillery: Crown Royal Distillery in Gimli, Manitoba, Canada.

Age: No Age Statement

Mash: 90% Rye

ABV: 45%

Price: $25 at CVS in the US

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February 4, 2016

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Dalmore 15 Year Old

Dalmore_15

 

If you’ve been to a duty free shop, I am willing to bet you’ve seen a bottle of Dalmore. The grandiose stag on their label always seems to stick out at the shop. Fantastic branding! The Dalmore distillery is in the highlands a bit north of Inverness but I feel like a lot of people think it is a Speyside whisky. Technically it is not. It’s owned by Whyte and Mackay and often championed by their master blender Richard Pattinson. The common expressions that you will see around are the 12, 15, 18, and Cigar Malt. I seem to see these in most shops. Well let’s get to the whisky!

Distillery: Dalmore Distillery

Age: 15 Years Old

Cask: Matusalem, apostoles and amoroso sherry casks

ABV: 40%

Price: £51.37

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