Tag Archives: Peated

Caol Ila 15, 2007 (Signatory)

Posted on by


Caol Ila week began on Monday with a nice 7 yo bourbon barrel whisky bottled by Single Cask Nation. It continued on Tuesday with a very good 10 yo single refill sherry butt.  Here now to close out the week is the oldest of the trio: a 15 yo from Signatory that received a two year “finish” in a first-fill oloroso butt. Two years seems more like double maturation territory. It’s not clear, of course, if this was a product of re-racking multiple casks into the first-fill butt or if the cask/s re-racked were all sherry casks to begin with. It’s a brave new world of single cask whisky we live in—or to be exact, have lived in for some time. Alright, let’s get to it.

Caol Ila 15, 2007 (53.7%; Signatory; finished in first-fill oloroso butt 204; from a bottle split)

Nose: Raisiny sherry with not much sign of smoke or peat at first sniff. On the second sniff, there’s the smoke: dry woodsmoke with a lot of salt around the edges. Mild phenols emerge as it sits; the woodsmoke and the raisins merge and move in the direction of pipe tobacco. More of the pipe tobacco with water. Continue reading →

Caol Ila 10, 2007 (G&M for Binny’s)

Posted on by


Caol Ila week began yesterday with a 7 yo bottled by Single Cask Nation from bourbon barrels. The second Caol Ila of the week is slightly older at 10 years old and was bottled by G&M from a single refill sherry butt for Binny’s in Chicago. I’ve had a number of excellent sherried Caol Ilas of this general age from G&M—see, for example, this one. Then again, I’ve also had some that were less excellent—see, for example, this one. Let’s see where this one falls.

Caol Ila 10, 2007 (59%; G&M for Binny’s; refill sherry butt 311989; from a bottle split)

Nose: Ah, very nice notes of sweet pipe tobacco off the top with ashier smoke coming up from below. On the second sniff there’s some orange peel and some biscuity malt, even as the ashy smoke expands. With time there’s a hint of apricot as well and also a bit of savoury gunpowder. With a big squirt of water there’s a fair bit of butterscotch and then more of the savoury gunpowder. Continue reading →

Caol Ila 7, 2015 (Single Cask Nation)

Posted on by


Last week’s series of reviews of wine-bothered, peaty whiskies ended with a 16 yo Caol Ila with a moscatel finish. Let’s make this week all about Caol Ila, beginning with a much younger release put together from refill bourbon barrels—no wine in sight.

Caol Ila 7, 2015 (57.1%; Single Cask Nation; refill bourbon barrels; from a bottle split)

Nose: Bright carbolic peat mixed with lemon and brine. Sweeter on the second sniff with cereals and a bit of vanilla. The brine expands with each sniff and there’s a mild “green” vegetal note as well—green bell pepper. After a while there’s a nice balance of carbolic peat, acid and sweeter notes. With a few drops of water it’s sweeter still and the peat moves from carbolic to a little more phenolic/inky. More salt too now. Continue reading →

Caol Ila 16, 2006 (Infrequent Flyers)

Posted on by


This week of reviews of wine-bothered peated whiskies got off to a rather rocky start on Monday with a 10 yo Ballechin from a marsala cask. Things looked up significantly with Wednesday’s Kilchoman for Spec’s which had received a madeira cask finish. That one was three years younger but balanced the peat and the sweeter wine notes well. Here to close out the week is a Caol Ila that is almost as old as the other two put together. This is also a finish, this time in moscatel casks. If I recall correctly, the Caol Ila Distillers Edition—is that still a regular thing?—is also a moscatel finish; but I’m not sure what connection that might have to a 16 yo moscatel finished whisky released by an indie bottler: perhaps something left over from a Feis Ile or Distillery Exclusive experiment? If you have any ideas, please write in below. The bottler in question is the Alistair Walker Whisky Company, who put out all their releases under the Infrequent Flyers label. While the company is relatively new, Alistair Walker has been around in the whisky world for a while. He’s the son of Billy Walker, ex of Benriach/Glendronach, now at Glenallachie. Indeed, he was the source of the information on Glendronach’s “single cask” practices that led to this post, early in the blog’s career. Of course, none of that has anything to do with this whisky but I got a bit of a kick out of it when I found out. Continue reading →

Kilchoman 7, 2011, Madeira Finish (for Spec’s)

Posted on by


Next up in wine-bothered peated whisky week is a young Kilchoman. This is a madeira finish that was bottled for Spec’s in Texas and released in 2019. (The cask number is 763/2012 but this was distilled in 2011.) I don’t know that I’ve ever had a madeira finished Kilchoman—though I have enjoyed madeira finishes/double maturations from other distilleries (Springbank most prominently). Let’s hope this one is better than Monday’s Ballechin.

Kilchoman 7, 2011, Madeira Finish (56.8%; for Spec’s; from a bottle split)

Nose: Sweet peat off the top (pipe tobacco) and quite a bit of ash; a slight vegetal note as well (bell pepper). On the next few sniffs the sweet notes include charred pork; some dried orange peel behind as well. With time the peat backs off and quite a bit of vanilla emerges. A squirt of water and there’s a big hit of cream and coffee cake; a little bit of apricot as well under all that. Continue reading →

Ballechin 10, 2010, Marsala Cask

Posted on by


Let’s keep the Edradour train going a little bit longer. This week will be a week of wine-bothered peated whiskies but we’ll begin with a Ballechin—which, as you know, is the name of the peated variant of Edradour. A slightly dangerous start to the week: I really did not like the first Edradour last week and that was from a marsala cask; well, this Ballechin is also from a marsala cask. Let’s hope for the best.

Ballechin 10, 2010, Marsala Cask (59.1%; from a bottle split)

Nose: Sweet, slightly rubbery peat off the top. The rubber is in the vein of gaskets on old medicine bottles. The peat gets more vegetal/organic on the second sniff: a damp, mossy log behind which some small furry creature is rotting. As it sits a fair bit of ash comes through the smells of  damp rot and there’s some fruit behind it too (orange peel, a bit of plum); some charred meat as well. With more time the peat wallop softens a bit; the salt is more palpable here too now. Mellower still with a squirt of water; still a lot of smoke but the organic/vegetal notes are gone; the salt and the citrus come to the fore too now. Continue reading →

Benromach 9, 2011 (for Binny’s)

Posted on by


This week of Benromach reviews has gone quite well so far. It got off to a good start on Monday with Batch 1 of the Benromach Cask Strength. And things improved further with Wednesday’s review of an 11 yo bourbon hogshead bottled for Binny’s (the Cask Strength was also 11 years old). The last whisky of the week is the youngest at 9 years old. It was also bottled for Binny’s and is from a first-fill sherry hogshead. Hopefully, it won’t break the hot streak. Let’s see.

Benromach 9, 2011 (60.6%; first-fill sherry hogshead 719 for Binny’s; from a bottle split)

Nose: Leads with nutty, slightly salty notes with a bit of butterscotch running under them. The high strength is damping things down, of course, but this is not as peaty off the top as the bourbon cask. On subsequent sniffs the peat is more apparent: slightly rubbery with hot stones/tarmac and some milky cocoa. With more time some fruit begins to poke through as well: plum, orange peel, a bit of apricot; after more airing, there’s a fair bit of lime as well. With a few drops of water the fruit come all the way to the front, the apricot leading the way; the salt turns to rock salt. Continue reading →

Benromach 11, 2010 (For Binny’s)

Posted on by


Benromach week continues. On Monday, I reviewed the first batch of the current Benromach Cask Strength, an 11 yo put together from bourbon and sherry casks. I thought it was quite good but well short of great. Today, I have for you a review of another official 11 yo. This is a single bourbon barrel, distilled in 2010 and bottled for Binny’s in Chicago. There was a time when Binny’s shipped all over the US, and they played a major part in the years that my whisky mania was approaching its peak. Now it’s been several years since the Binny’s supply got choked off for people residing elsewhere; I now barely buy any whisky from anywhere; and its been a while since my relationship with whisky collecting/amassing passed the manic stage. Now I am slowly drinking down what I amassed just short of a decade ago and not mourning too much the missed opportunities to try releases not available in Minnesotsa. Will this cask of Benromach make me melancholy? Let’s see. Continue reading →

Benromach 11, 2007, Cask Strength Batch 1

Posted on by


Last week’s theme was peated whiskies from Islay’s south shore. The week got off to a good start with a young Laphroaig and picked up with the 2017 release of the Lagavulin 16 and then had a disappointing end with the 2020 release of the Ardbeg Uigeadail. We’ll stick with peated whiskies this week but move off of Islay and go all the way up to the Speyside, to Benromach.

Benromach is a rare Speyside distillery that is known for its peated malt, which is made not as a one-off, as at some other distilleries, but as the norm. I’ve reviewed a few recent Benromach releases in the last couple of years and have generally liked them all a fair bit. This includes Batch 04 of the Benromach Cask Strength, which was an 11 yo distilled in 2009 and put together from a large number of bourbon and sherry casks. Batch 1 was also 11 years old and also put together from bourbon and sherry casks, though I’m not sure how many went into the vatting. Unlike subsequent batches, this was released in the US. Will this sample make me regret not paying attention at the time? Let’s see. Continue reading →

Ardbeg Uigeadail, 2020 Release

Posted on by


Let’s close Islay week with another classic, this one from the third of the South Shore distilleries: Ardbeg. I’ve previously reviewed three releases of the once-beloved Uigeadail: the 2007 and the 2011 and 2014 releases (the latter two side-by-side in a blind tasting). As with the Lagavulin 16, there’s been a narrative of decline for the Uigeadail for a while. And it’s true that the rich sherry character of the early releases faded after a while. That said, back in 2015 I quite liked the 2014 release, and liked it more than the 2011. But that was almost a decade ago. This 2020 release will bring us more or less to the present day and might help me decide whether to give in to the voice that has been telling me for some months now that I should really take a flyer on the current Uigeadail and Corryvreckan releases. So far it’s been losing to the more rational voice that reminds me that I still have unopened bottles of both from the early 2010s and should get to those first. But if this one is very good I may have to thumb my nose at rationality yet again. Continue reading →

Lagavulin 16, 2017 Release

Posted on by


This week of reviews of whiskies from distilleries on Islay’s south shore began on Monday with a young Laphroaig. Let’s go a mile or so down the road for the second, to Lagavulin. This is the 2017 release of the 16 yo. I’ve previously reviewed the 2012, 2013 and 2014 releases. I’ve since lost touch with this classic release, which really seems like a shame. Back in the mid-2010s there was already a bit of a narrative of decline around the Lagavulin 16, but I liked the 2014 release a lot. Will I like the 2017 release as much? Will it make me want to open the bottle of the 2018 release that my spreadsheet tells me is somewhere on my shelves? Let’s see.

Lagavulin 16, 2017 Release (43%; from a bottle split)

Nose: A characteristic mix of phenolic peat and organic notes (rotting leaves, damp wood). On the second sniff there’s salt, some sweet orange peel and a bit of woodsmoke. The woodsmoke expands with each sniff. With time the sweeter notes move in the direction of vanilla and cream, and there’s some milky coffee in the distance too now. A couple of drops of water soften it further, emphasizing the creamy note (smoked cream?). Continue reading →

Laphroaig 9, 2013 (Single Malts of Scotland)

Posted on by


The Highland Park 28, 1980 that I ended last week’s series of reviews of late 2000s Mackillop’s Choice releases was quite peaty but not phenolic. This week will be pretty peaty and phenolic. All the whiskies this week will be peated Islay releases. And what’s more they’ll be from the three distilleries from Islay’s south shore: Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg. I’ll take them in that order, which is also the order in which you’d encounter the distilleries if you set out from Port Ellen on the A846. A young Laphroaig will kick things off. This was bottled by the Whisky Exchange’s spin-off company, Elixir Distillers for their Single Malts of Scotland label (which they inherited from the parent company). I believe this was an exclusive for the US market. It’s from a single bourbon hogshead. Generally with young Laphroaig, ex-bourbon casks are a good bet; and as Single Malts of Scotland has historically been a pretty reliable label, I am hopeful. Let’s hope this doesn’t make me regret giving hope a chance. Continue reading →

Highland Park 28, 1980 (Mackillop’s Choice)

Posted on by


A week of reviews of late 2000s releases by Mackillop’s Choice comes to a close today. You will recall that these are all older whiskies and distilled in successive decades. Monday’s review was of a Tomintoul 41, 1966. Wednesday’s review was of a Glenlivet 30, 1977. Today’s review is of the youngest in the set, a Highland Park 28, 1980. Will it scale the heights of that Tomintoul? Well, if it’s as good as the Glenlivet I’ll be happy enough.

Highland Park 28, 1980 (43%; Mackillop’s Choice; from a bottle split)

Nose: That prickly, lightly smoky, heathery Highland Park thing off the top. Earthier on the second sniff, even as some creme brulee emerges on top: the peat is more vegetal now and there’s some shoe polish and some greased metal. Continues in this vein. With a drop of water there’s more of the creme brulee. Continue reading →

Bowmore 17, 2004 (SMWS 3.339)

Posted on by


Let’s bring this series of reviews of Bowmore 17, 2004s bottled by the SMWS to a close. The three whiskies reviewed this week were from consecutively numbered casks, all filled on the same day in 2004 and matured in second-fill hogsheads. On Monday, I reviewed cask 3.337; on Wednesday, I reviewed cask 3.338. I liked both very much indeed; and liked 3.338 a bit more than 3.337. If you’re good at math like me, you’ll eventually figure out that today’s review is of cask 3.339. And you might also expect that I will like it a bit more than 3.338. But that’s now how whisky reviewing math works, fool! The SMWS’ tasting panel named this one “So wonderfully close, yet so wonderfully far”. This is, as far as I can make out, a reference to the whisky having conjured up visions of the Caribbean for them. I’ll be happy enough if it’s close enough to cask 3.331—which I reviewed last month, and which I liked the most so far of all these SMWS Bowmore 17, 2004s. Okay, let’s get to it. Continue reading →

Bowmore 17, 2004 (SMWS 3.338)

Posted on by


Here is the second of three reviews this week os Bowmore 17, 2004s distilled on the same day, matured in second-fill hogsheads and bottled by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. On Monday I reviewed cask 3.337; here now is cask 3.338. The Society’s panel dubbed it “Smoky ‘spice of the angels'”; spice of the angels is a fancy name for fennel pollen. I would have preferred “Smoky fruit of the tropics” but maybe I’ll get it anyway. Let’s see.

Bowmore 17, 2004 (57.6%; SMWS 3.338; second-fill hogshead; from a bottle split)

Nose: The smoke in this one is more ashy than mineral. There’s also more fruity and custardy notes here from the get-go: peach, a bit of passionfruit, blueberry. More fruit than smoke with time. Three drops of water bring out more of the custardy/creamy sweetness. Continue reading →

Bowmore 17, 2004 (SMWS 3.337)

Posted on by


Back in the end of March I reviewed a Bowmore 17, 2004 bottled by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. It was full of everything that is typical of the best of modern-era bourbon cask Bowmore: coastal notes, mineral peat, lots of fruit (acidic, sweet, tropical). Not surprisingly, I really liked it. I noted at the time that the SMWS had released a fair number of casks of Bowmore 17, 2004, all of which were distilled on the same day and, like the one I reviewed in March, matured in second-fill bourbon hogsheads. I also noted at the end of that review that I had samples from three more casks in that sequence. This week I’ll be posting reviews of that trio.

First up is cask 3.337 (my previous review was of cask 3.331). With unusual restraint, the Society’s tasting panel gave it the relatively sober name of “Pure Timelessness”. Let’s see if it lives up to the expectations set by 3.331. Continue reading →

Laphroaig 15, 1998 (Signatory for The Whisky Exchange)

Posted on by


This week of reviews of sherry cask Laphroaigs began with the 2022 release of the official 10 yo Sherry Oak. That one is a sherry finish. It continued on Wednesday with a 13 yo refill sherry cask, distilled in 1998 and bottled in 2011 by A.D. Rattray. We’ll end the week now with another refill sherry butt filled with spirit distilled in 1998. This is a 15 yo bottled by Signatory for The Whisky Exchange in London. There were quite a few of these casks filled in 1998 bottled around that time. This is from cask 700393. I’ve actually previously reviewed cask 700394. That one was another 13 yo and was released by Van Wees in 2011. My understanding is that a lot of Van Wees’ casks came from Signatory in those days and so it’s not a surprise that the numbers are adjacent. Anyway, I really liked that 13 yo—and, for that matter, I quite liked cask 700348 as well, which was also bottled by Van Wees. Will another two years of aging make this 15 yo even better than those two? If only things worked that way. Anyway, I opened this bottle earlier this week and so I know that it’s certainly not a disappointment. At 60.8% abv and almost 10 years in the bottle, however, that first pour was a bit tight. And so these notes are being taken from the third pour. Continue reading →