Back when I became a deranged whisky person, there was a store in Burnsville, MN that had a pretty interesting collection of malts at quite fair prices: Blue Max. Well, they’re still around, but under new ownership for a while now and the old magic—to say nothing of the old stock and the old pricing—is long gone. I took chances on a number of independent releases there more than a decade and a half ago, whiskies about which very little information was available. Among them were several releases from the old Cadenhead’s Authentic Collection series in dark green bottles (including this Ardmore that I just adore). I don’t actually recall purchasing this young Tamdhu (Tamdhu-Glenlivet on the label) and it’s sat hidden in a corner of my whisky hoard for a long time now. I found it while looking for a non-peated bourbon cask whisky to round out my current lineup of open bottles (I like to have a spectrum of profiles on hand). I was a bit nervous while opening it. It was bottled in 1999 and there’s always a good chance a cork will come apart after 26 years. Thankfully, that did not happen. I’m also happy to say that I quite liked the first few pours from the bottle. It’s been open now for a few days and here therefore are my notes. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Speyside
Caperdonich 36, 1972 (Lonach)
Back in the early days of the blog—back when I had more energy and was known for being a thorn in the side of not food writers but the whisky industry and its many amateur apologists and spokespersons—one of the pet mythologies of the whisky enthusiast community that I often took issue with was the belief in magic vintages at particular distilleries. Indeed, one of my earliest reviews featured Caperdonich, which is one of the distilleries around which a lot of the magic vintage talk used to center (do people still go on about this kind of thing?). 1972 was the year about which people were most apt to wax rhapsodic. I never tired of pointing out—as I did in that first Caperdonich review—that what was almost certainly happening was that for entirely random reasons more casks of 1972 Caperdonich had survived to be bottled in the 2000s than of other years in the 1970s. I guess I just did it again. Anyway, I have for you today another Caperdonich 1972. This one was also bottled by Duncan Taylor—who bottled so many of those fruity Caperdonichs that made the dead distillery’s reputation—but not for one of their premier lines. The Lonach releases typically featured low bottling strengths and were not single casks. Quite likely these were vattings that had been used to rescue casks that had fallen below the minimum required strength of 40%. Many of these whiskies were very good anyway. Let’s see what this one is like. Continue reading
Longmorn 15
So far this month I’ve reviewed whiskies released in 2021 (this Highland Park), 2017 (this Caol Ila) and 2009 (this Talisker). Here now is an even more untimely review: of the Longmorn 15. This release was discontinued in 2006, being replaced the following year by the just about whelming Longmorn 16. The 16 yo added three more percentage points in abv but you would have had a hard time finding people then who preferred it to the 15 yo. But we took what we got. Back then there was barely any official Longmorn on the market, as most of it went—and still does—into the group’s blends, particularly Chivas Regal. Your best bet beyond the 15 yo, and then the 16 yo, were the occasional limited 500 ml releases in the Cask Strength Edition series from Chivas that used to be available at the group’s distilleries and a few retailers. Now there are three official releases: an 18 yo, a 22 yo, and a 30 yo. I haven’t tried any of them and couldn’t tell you when they were introduced. I have an idea though that they probably cost a lot more than the 15 yo or even the 16 yo ever did. The 15 yo, in case you’re wondering, went for about $50 back in the day (hell, the 16 yo cost me $70 in 2012). Anyway, this bottle remained unopened for about two decades. No longer. Let’s see what it’s like. Continue reading
Strathisla 30 (Gordon & MacPhail)
Here to kick off the month in whisky reviews is a rather old and rather good Strathisla. This 30 year old was one of those licensed bottlings by Gordon & MacPhail but I can’t get a fix on year of release. Whiskybase does not have a listing for this 750 ml bottle at 43% abv. We can cautiously assume it was released at the same time as the 700 ml bottle at 40% but there’s no release date on the listing for that bottle either. My spreadsheet tells me I acquired it in 2013 from Binny’s in Chicago but I am pretty sure it was released in the previous decade. If I’m right about that, this is distillate from the 1970s, possibly even the early-mid 1970s. That’s generally a good thing when it comes single malty whisky from Scotland and especially when it’s older Speyside whiskies bottled by Gordon & MacPhail. Anyway, if you know more about the release year etc. please do write in below. In the meantime, here are my notes taken from the fourth pour from my bottle (which I am very sorry to be separated from here in Delhi). Continue reading
Aberlour 20, 1990 (Single Malts of Scotland)
Last week I reviewed a 19 yo Lagavulin released in 2015. This week I have for you a review of a 20 yo Aberlour released in 2011. This was bottled by Single Malts of Scotland, which was then just one of the Whisky Exchange’s labels. Some years later they spun their independent bottling concern off as a separate concern, Elixir Distillers. But back in December 2011 when I purchased this, all of that was some distance in the future. And you’ll know 2011 was a lot more than 13 years ago when I tell you that this 20 yo single cask whisky at cask strength from a well-known distillery cost all of $77. Well, I’ve finally got around to opening the bottle. As always, I have no idea why I waited so long, especially as I rather enjoy bourbon cask Aberlour—see here, here and here for a few reviews. Most official releases from the distillery involve sherry maturation; in fact, I can’t remember trying an official bourbon cask release that was not a hand-filled distillery exclusive. Alas, when I was at the distillery in 2018—when I did one of their tours with a friend—they did not have any casks available for hand-filling, leave alone any bourbon casks. Anyway, let’s get to this one now. Continue reading
Glenlivet 16 “Nadurra”, Batch 0606A
I was going to say that it’s been a long time since I reviewed a Glenlivet but it turns out I reviewed two of them just last year: a 15 yo Binny’s exclusive from Signatory and a 30 yo from Mackillop’s Choice. It has been a while since I reviewed an official Glenlivet, however. The last one was an oloroso edition of the Glenlivet Nadurra. I found very little to like about that one. I hope to set things in balance today with this review of a bourbon cask Nadurra, which was, of course, the original incarnation of the series, well before the distillery decided to fuck up a very good thing. 16 years old, first-fill bourbon cask, pretty good value: that’s what the name Nadurra used to stand for when I got interested in single malt whisky. This one isn’t just from that era, it might be the first of the cask strength bourbon cask Nadurras. It was bottled in 2006, which means it is comprised of whisky distilled in 1990 or earlier. My spreadsheet is for some reason missing information on when I acquired this bottle or from where or at what price. What I can tell you though is that I opened it a few days ago and found it to be right in line with Nadurra as I prefer to remember it. Here now are my very timely notes on this whisky released 18 years ago. Continue reading
Benriach 26, 1987 (Exclusive Casks)
Last week’s booze review was of a sample sent to me a long time ago by Michael K. of Diving with Pearls. That was of a bourbon released in the 1980s. Here now is a review of another sample sent to me a long time ago by Michael. This one is a single malt whisky distilled in the 1980s. This is a 26 yo Benriach, distilled in 1987 and bottled in 2014 or so by Exclusive Malts/The Creative Whisky Co.. I apologize if I am killing them off prematurely but I don’t think they’re still a going concern. Back in the day they were a middle of the road indie bottler who sought to project a more premium feel via branding and design. I don’t think they ever quite pulled that off very successfully but they did bottle some decent whiskies. And the proprietor, David Stirk, was an energetic participant in whisky forums and so forth. I was reminded of this when I went to Michael’s own review of this whisky in search of cask info. I realized then both that there is no specific cask info for this release and also that I had participated in a conversation in the comments on that review alongside one David Stirk and some likely sock puppets. I’ll leave it to you to go check those shenanigans out for yourself if you’re so interested. For now let’s get to this whisky. Continue reading
Glenallachie 10 CS, Batch 5
You may have noticed that I failed to post the promised Seoul restaurant report this past weekend (I’d actually said I might post two) and that I also failed to post my usual Monday booze review yesterday. What can I say, it was a hectic week, capped by travel on Sunday—we are currently in Southern California—and I just did not have time to either resize photos for a restaurant report or take tasting notes for a whisky review. Accordingly, this week’s booze review is being posted on a Tuesday and the usual Tuesday Twin Cities restaurant report will be posted tomorrow. And even though my track record with actually following through is so poor at this point, I am going to once again say that I will try to post one or maybe even two food reports from our time in Korea by the end of the week—I have a total of five of those left to do, I think. I also still have two reports yet to come from my trip to New Jersey/New York in mid-May; and by the time Thursday rolls around I will have already begun to add to the waiting list with meals from this current Southern California sojourn. I will at least refrain from making promises of reports to come from those fronts this week. Continue reading
Longmorn 30 (Gordon & MacPhail)
After last week’s rum—a Foursquare 12 bottled for Total Wine—let’s get back to whisky and back to opening long-held bottles in my stash. This week’s newly opened bottle is an older Longmorn bottled by Gordon & MacPhail. As you may know/remember, in 2011, G&M bottled a quintet of old Longmorns for van Wees. I’ve reviewed all of them (the 1964, the 1966, the 1968, the 1969 and the1972). Those were all very good, most were excellent, one was probably the best whisky I’ve ever had. In addition to being vintage releases, those were also all single sherry casks and all bottled at cask strength. Today’s Longmorn is also sherry-matured but a little younger than all of those, being “only” 30 years old. More importantly, it’s not a vintage release or a single cask or at a very high strength. Indeed, it was bottled at the bare minimum legal strength of 40% abv and was doubtless a vatting of several casks. It was released sometime in the late 2000s, maybe in 2009. I have a feeling that G&M had a lot of outstanding casks of 1970s Longmorn in their warehouse and that while some made it out as single casks, many others may have been vatted and diluted—or perhaps vatted with casks that had slipped below 40% to rescue them for bottling—and released with very little fanfare. I certainly purchased it with very little fanfare in 2013 (for all of $136 from Binny’s). It’s hard to imagine either a 40% vatted release of a 30 yo sherry cask malt today or one that would not cost several times as much. Anyway, I opened this bottle a couple of days ago. The first pour felt a little underpowered at first but then it came along really nicely. Let’s see what it’s like now. Continue reading
Royal Brackla 22, 1994 (G&M for Binny’s)
Let’s close out highlands distilleries week with another pick for Binny’s in Chicago. Unlike Wednesday’s Teaninich, this one was bottled by Gordon & MacPhail and while it’s also from a hogshead, it’s from a refill sherry hogshead. The distillery is another that I’ve not reviewed very many malts from: Brackla, or as they style themselves, Royal Brackla. After this review I will have reviewed only two more Bracklas than I have malts distilled by Ardnarmurchan (see Monday’s review). Well, I hope this one—which is older than both the two previous combined—will be quite a lot better than either: this has not been a great week so far on the blog for highland malts. The portents are good. The last Brackla I reviewed was also a Gordon & MacPhail pick for Binny’s and I liked it a lot—I reviewed that one four and a half years ago. And I also quite liked the first one I reviewed—that was almost 11 years ago, only a few weeks after I started this blog. Where does the time go? Anyway, let’s see what this one is like. Continue reading
Glenlossie 9, 2008 (Signatory for Binny’s)
Here to close out the month in booze reviews is another Speyside malt, and another bottled from a hogshead by Signatory for Binny’s in Chicago (see here for Monday’s Mortlach). Let’s get right to it.
Glenlossie 9, 2008 (59.2%; Signatory for Binny’s; hogshead 10520; from a bottle split)
Nose: A lovely fresh mix of honey, lemon, cereals, toasted oak and a bit of freshly cut grass. On the second sniff the lemon is joined by tart-sweet apple and some pineapple. As it sits, there’s sweeter fruit (peach). , A few drops of water and the peach expands, picking up some Korean pear.
Palate: Comes in as indicated by the nose but in a brighter, more acidic avatar. Hot but approachable at full strength; oily texture. The fruit gets sweeter here too with time. Continues in this tasty vein. Okay, let’s see what water does for it. It pushes the acid back a bit and emphasizes the sweeter fruit and the oak. Continue reading
Mortlach 11, 2009 (Signatory for Binny’s)
After weeks of reviews of Islay whiskies, rums and mezcals, let’s close out the month with a couple of Speyside malts. First up, a young bourbon cask Mortlach bottled by Signatory for Binny’s in Chicago. Mortlach in its official incarnation is known for sherry cask-matured whisky and that’s also the guise in which it usually shows up from indies as well. And so I’m always happy to try bourbon cask versions. Let’s get right to this one.
Mortlach 11, 2009 (55.1%; Signatory for Binny’s; hogshead 306532; from a bottle split)
Nose: Honey, toasted cereals, lemon, toasted oak, dried leaves. On the second and third sniff the toasted cereal moves towards heavily charred toast and the lemon moves towards lime. As it sits the lime gets muskier—more in Makrut lime territory now. With time there’s some sweeter fruit (blueberries). A couple of drops of water pull out some pastry crust and push the citrus back. Continue reading
Mortlach, Special Release 2023
Diageo Special Release 2023 week remains in the Speyside today as we go over the halfway mark. Today I have the Mortlach. (See here for the Talisker, here for the Lagavulin, here for the Roseisle, and here for the Glendullan.) Like the Talisker, the Mortlach does not bear an age statement. Like all of the others, it does have a silly name. That silly name is “The Katana’s Edge”. This is apparently because this whisky is comprises partly of spirit matured in ex-Japanese whisky casks; mostly, though, it gives the impression that Diageo’s Head of Silly Concepts may be 14 years old. Oh yes, there were also pinot noir casks involved, but the French didn’t get a shout-out in the name. Maybe next year they’ll put out “The Guillotine’s Edge”. Anyway, you may have got the sense that I have been dubious about the specialness of all the Special Release whiskies I’ve reviewed so far. The fact is the Special Release stopped being that a few years ago. That’s when Diageo launched the so-called Prima & Ultima series and moved all the heavy hitter whiskies to it—your Port Ellens and Broras and other whiskies with large age statements on the label—this year’s release had a 26 yo Clynelish, a 25 yo Lagavulin, a 26 yo Oban, and even a 46 yo Talisker, among others, to go with the 45 yo Brora and the 43 yo Port Ellen (£15,000 each, thanks for asking). The Special Release is now more like The Consolation Prize. On that cheery note, let’s check in on this Mortlach. Continue reading
Glendullan 14, Special Release 2023
Here is the fourth of my reviews of the 2023 Special Release from Diageo. I’ve previously reviewed the Talisker, which bears the name “The Wild Explorador”; the Lagavulin, which bears the name “The Ink of Legends”; and the Roseisle, which bears the name “The Origami Kite”. Here now is a Glendullan that is older than all three of those; I believe this one’s special name is “The Macramé Turtle”. Strange are the ways of Diageo. So strange, in fact, that this Glendullan was finished in French Oak casks that had previously held chardonnay. Will that be enough to make Glendullan special? Let’s see.
Glendullan 14, Special Release 2023 (55%; Chardonnay de Bourgogne French Oak Finish; from a bottle split)
Nose: A very nice opening with honey, lemon, peach and cream; just a bit of toasted oak in the background and on the second sniff, some grass. As it sits there’s some overripe pear in there as well. A few drops of water push the oak back and make the fruit a little muskier still. Continue reading
Roseisle 12, Special Release 2023
I closed out November with reviews of two of the whiskies in Diageo’s Special Release slate for 2023 (the Talisker and the Lagavulin). Over the next two weeks I will post my reviews of the rest. The third is a release that does in fact count as a special release. Not on account of its age but because it is the first release from the distillery. Roseisle was officially opened in 2010 in the Speyside. It was built by Diageo to produce a high volume of malt for its blends. Larger than Diageo’s classic distilleries, with 14 stills and a production capacity of 10 million liters per annum, this was nobody’s idea of a romantic operation. Still, it’s exciting to drink the first release of any distillery, especially when that first release is not new make or just over 3 years old. I think I remember reading that they were set up to produce all kinds of malts for different blending needs. As to whether that’s proven true in practice, I don’t know but I do know that I have no idea what to expect of this malt. The packaging mysteriously says the spirit is from “first-fill bourbon & refill casks”. That’s different from “first-fill and refill bourbon casks”. Does that imply that the refill casks had previously held other contents? I can no more answer that question than tell you why the hell they gave this the name, “The Origami Kite”. But I can tell you what I think of it. Continue reading
Glenallachie 10 CS, Batch 6
Let’s close out non-island distillery sherry cask week with another whisky from a Speyside distillery. After an 11 yo Craigellachie, here is a 10 yo Glenallachie. This is Batch 6 of their 10 CS release—I’m not sure what number it’s up to now. I rather liked both Batch 2 and Batch 3 and am hopeful that this will be good as well. Like those batches this one—a large release at 39,000 bottles—has been put together from a hodge-podge of cask types: PX and oloroso puncheons, rioja barriques, virgin oak casks of one kind or the other. That’s a lot. What does it add up to? Let’s see.
Glenallachie 10 CS, Batch 6 (57.8%; from a bottle split)
Nose: A quite nutty, slightly beany arrival. On the second sniff there’s some orange peel and some sharper notes (yeast? chalk?); some palpable oak too behind it all. More of the orange peel with time but there’s also a touch of bitter oak extract. Water pushes the bitter notes back a bit and pulls out some cherry. Continue reading
Craigellachie 11, 2011 (Single Malts of Scotland)
This week of reviews of sherry cask whiskies from non-Island distilleries got off to a promising start with a young whisky from the new’ish English distillery, Bimber. For the second review of the week, we are back in Scotland, up in the Speyside, at Craigellachie. Craigellachie—like Mortlach—produce an atypical Speyside spirit. Both distilleries are among the few that still use wormtubs to condense their spirit; as a result both produce a heavy, meaty/savoury spirit. Sherry cask maturation can emphasize those qualities, and in the case of Craigellachie in particular, can bring out an organic, farmy note. Such was the case, for example, with a 15 yo bottled for K&L a couple of years ago. It’s a non-cookie cutter profile for sure. This particular cask, a single sherry butt, was bottled by the Single Malts of Scotland in 2022. That label is now operated by Elixir Distillers, which was spun off from the Whisky Exchange a few years ago; because I am old and resistant to change, I still think of it as a Whisky Exchange label. Get off my lawn. Continue reading