Category Archives: Whisky Reviews & Tasting Notes

Glenisla 1977 (Signatory) Review

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Glenisla 1977 (Signatory)019 (2)

50.7% abv

Score:  90/100

 

Don’t go hunting through your whisky books and favorite online blogs for details about the Glenisla distillery.  It doesn’t exist.  Glenisla was a peated malt produced for a small window of time in the 1970s at the Glen Keith distillery in Speyside.

To date, the only versions of this malt I’ve heard tell of are from Signatory.

Much as you’d expect, after 32 years in wood, most of the peat has been knocked off.  The influence of time and decent oak has been kind here.  And rather gentle.  Though this is no showstopper of a dram, there is something about it I find rather endearing.

A mate of mine finds a rather ‘off’ industrial note to it, but it certainly isn’t a prevalent one to me.  Quirky, yes.  Off, no.  Irrespective…the charm in the depth of peach and spice are more than enought to please this palate.

Finally…if I had only two words to describe this whisky?  Peach putty.

Nose:  Playdough/plasticene.  Peach.  Lots and lots of peach.  Dried apricot.  A pouchful of fresh tobacco (here are the earthier, more organic peat notes too…though restrained).  Spiced yeasty dough.  Scottish shortbread and orange.

Palate:  Smoke and peat finally make a half-hearted attempt at putting in a proper showing.  Peaches.  An almost ‘sweaty’ note.

* An interesting note on the peating method can be found at the Malt Madness site.

Thanks to my mate, Vikash, for the chance at this one.  Love ya, brother.

 

– Reviewed by:  Curt

– Photo:  Curt

BenRiach 12 y.o. Review

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BenRiach 12 y.o.076

43% abv

Score:  86.5/100

 

Wow.  I love how fun and vibrant this is.  Soooooo very much potential here.  Kinda makes me think of a shining young actress, stuck in indie films, but with the potential to be the next hollywood starlet if only discovered.  This one performs miles beyond others in its age bracket.  Nose especially.

Perhaps the sweet purple fruits on display here are a little foreshadowing as to just how incredible the BenRiach fruit melange is as it ages into its 30s or so.  By the time most of us are entering our quarter-life to third-life crisis, this whisky is just beginning to peek.

Truly a young winner from BenRiach.

Nose:  Purple.  Grapes and florals.  Juicy as fuck.  So fruity.  Vanilla cake…with icing.  Candy.  White chocolate.  How ’bout some Welch’s grape juice?  Peach and lilac.

Palate:  Sweet…sweet…sweet.  Oak up front, but pleasant and not overstated.  Fruits start to dry a little as it works its way around the mouth.  Hits a bit of a pepper note at the back.  Dries the corners of the mouth.

This malt at 20-30 years…can’t even imagine the fruit array you’d see.  Hopefully more of this run is still lying in repose in some dark ol’ warehouse.

 

– Reviewed by:  Curt

– Photo:  Curt

Macallan Part 1… From The Sherry Oak Expressions

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themacallanlogo

Many days back (yes…I am occasionally that slow getting these pieces posted) a good mate of mine arranged a very…errr…sprawling Macallan tasting for me.  So sprawling in fact, that by dram number eleventy-three my nostrils were closing, I was seeing two of everything and all my s‘s had turned into sh‘s.  Of course, you gotta wonder what good your tasting notes are by the time you reach this point of hyper-sobriety, so in the spirit of maintaining some sort of integrity here, I insisted on revisiting a few of these that we tasted later in the evening.

As I began typing up my tasting notes I realized that the feature had grown to such obviously unwieldy proportions that I would have to split it into pieces, and showcase the malts in a more logical fashion.  This also allowed me to visit a couple extra for the sake of inclusion.

Part one will focus on the Sherry Oak range.  Part two, the Fine Oak series.  Part three, a few of the Macallan one-offs and oddballs.  (And to honest…I am debating a Part four…we’ll see).  I’ll preface each with my tasting notes for The Macallan New Make spirit simply as a point of reference to highlight the journey from birth to bottle.

In this first segment…some of the malts that helped define The Macallan reputation.  (Or more accurately, I’ll tackle the contemporary descendants of the whiskies that made The Macallan a legend.)  Sherry has long been the distillery’s hallmark, so let’s start there…

 

Macallan New Make

Notes:  63% abv.  Crystal clear.

Nose:  Slight nuttiness.  Malty.  Fresh bitter fruit.  Rubbery acetone.  Metallic note somewhere in there.  Oh yeah…and some cereals.

Palate:  Fire water.  With a bit o’ citrus.  Estery.  Please put this waxy young thing into the rock tumbler (ahem…a fine sherry bucket) and knock those edges off.

Thoughts:  Unrecognizable as a Macallan really.  Shows you what the distillery’s wood policy really means.  Cool as hell to see this as a new make.

Bottle Shots 2 021

Macallan 12 Sherry Oak (Recent Edition)

Notes:  40% abv.

Nose:  Mild mik chocolate.  Nutmeg and almond.  Orange.  Pinecone (NOT pine).  Touch of maltiness (hard to catch until moving the glass away).  Lightly floral.  Fudge.  A little ‘toastier’ than earlier editions.  Dark caramel.  Obviously the sherry is large and in charge at this age.

Palate:  Oaky delivery.  Rich in dark red fruits and the faintest tendril of smoke.  Some deep strong chocolate too.

Thoughts:  Charming enough, but not the giant that Macallan delivers in more aged incarnations.

 

Macallan 12 Sherry Oak (Older Edition)

Notes:  40% abv.

Nose:  Creamier than more recent editions.  Toffee.  Seems to be some malts older than 12 years in this one.  Fruits are more vibrant than in newer bottlings.  Warm cinnamon buns.

Palate:  Not quite up to the soft nose.  Bread dough.

Thoughts:  Substantially different from the latest incarnations, though I know not from whence this has come.  Packaging is different though.  I think there may be a few older casks vatted in here.  Smooth and drinkable.

 

Macallan 18 Sherry Oak

Notes:  43% abv.

Nose:  Rich and chewy sherry.  Soft and refined.  Mild nutmeg and cream.  Muted cherry.  Toffee.  Heather.  Warm leather.  European bread.  Mint.  Nearly faultless.

Palate:  Mildest of dried fruit and rumballs.  Caramel.  Warm melted chocolate and orange.  Oak.  Lasts none too long, but a beautiful top note and denouement.  Man…what exceptional balance.

Thoughts:  Wow…what harmony!  A very young 18…in a good way.  Nose here is bloody brilliant.

057

Macallan 18 Sherry Oak (1981)

Notes: 43% abv.

Nose:  Cinnamon and nutmeg.  Cherry, orange and citrus.  Tobacco.  Old cask notes that suggets there is whisky in here older than 18 years.  A touch of licorice and wax.  Borders on a touch of the trpoical.  Polish.

Palate:  Beautiful cherry and orange rind delivery.  Splashy and juicy arrival.  Wow.  Fruits and maturity.  Moves into lovely wood tones.

Thoughts:  Full sunrise to sunset development.  Lovely all the way through.  If only current exressions were this good.

 

Macallan 25 Sherry Oak

Notes:  43% abv.

Nose:  Rich, oiled leather.  Heavy…so heavy. Christmas cake.  Cinnamon (almost like buttery cinnamon spread). Orange.  Maraschino cherry.  Caramel fudge.  Dark chili chocolate.

Palate:  Oily and rubbery.  Dusty dried fruits.  Great maturity meets fun vibrancy.

Thoughts:  I expected a tannic drying finish, and couldn’t have been more wrong.  Great drink.  Exceptional, really.

064 (2)

Macallan 30 Sherry Oak

Notes:  43% abv.

Nose:  Waxy.  Sherry ebbs into tarry mature notes.  Leather.  Deep-running spices.  Dried apple.  Crushed walnut.

Palate:  Apple skins and winter spice.  Wax and tar.  Long and bitters out slightly…in a pleasant way.

Thoughts:  Sexy.  Brooding and deep.  This…this is what I imagine when I think of the storied reputation Macallan has built itself.  I could linger over this for hours before even sipping.  This is a dram to adore and worship.

 

Macallan Cask Strength

Notes:  59.3% abv.  Bottled for Canada.

Nose:  Heavy sherry and all that usually accompanies.  Demerara sweetness. Christmas pudding.  Fruit cake with heavy marzipan frosting.  Kirsch and dark chocolate.  Well-oiled baseball mitt.

Palate:  Enormous arrival.  Thick toffee.  Sherry wollop.  Fruit skins and mouthwatering juiciness.

Thoughts:  I love this.  The only thing comparable is an Aberlour a’bunadh, which is one of my favorites.  At this point it’s a toss up which I prefer more.

 

– Notes:  Curt

– Photos:  Curt

A.D. Rattray Bowmore 15 y.o. (Cask #2057) Review

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A.D. Rattray Bowmore 15 y.o. (Cask #2057)009

56.5% abv

Score:  90/100

 

Wow.  What a nifty little Bowmore.  No distillery on Islay can boast even close to as many faces as Bowmore.  A true shapeshifter if ever there was.  Nailing down the profile of this distillery is an exercise in understanding the history of its development through time.  The ‘fruit age’…the ‘floral age’…the more contemporary ‘smoky caramel bacon age’.  But every now and again we find a little anomaly like this.  A malt that defies its lineage.

Herein lies the beautiful dilemma of buying single cask independent bottlings.  Much like any game of chance, the purchase of these releases is a surprise each go-round.  But…with great risk comes great reward.  Here is a bottle where any outlay of cash is more than rewarded in sheer shimmering quality.

This 15 year old Bowmore is a sensory delight.  Not perfect, but absolutely surprising and beguiling.  It hits high note after high note and when the glass is dry…I can’t help but reach for another.

Sadly…this is a malt from days past.  If you happen to chance upon it in your travels…do scoop one.

Nose:  Smoke.  Iodine.  Farmyard.  Burnt tires.  Cola and toffee.  Raspberry puree.  Fruity fudge.  Lovely really.  The sort of whisky nose I crave.  Seems a little more mature than 15 years.

Palate:  Green apple.  Ash.  Touch of creamy chocolate.  Asphalt.  Cinnamon.  Apple Pie.  Smoke.  Cola.  Rather lush jammy notes.  Big juicy sherry.

 

– Reviewed by:  Curt

– Photo:  Curt

Longrow 18 y.o. (2011) Review

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Longrow 18 (2011)013

46% abv

Score:  92/100

 

A beautiful Longrow that falls right in my wheelhouse.  18 years (give or take) is pretty much the perfect time for seeing the true coming-of-age of mature peated whisky.  It is that place in time where the peat is fading from the forefront to become just another nuance.

When you can finally take the palate and nose blistering effects of fiery young peat (and generally Longrow is peated to a whopping 50-55 ppm) out of the equation, you can actually see the true character of the spirit and cask quality.  A magic time in a whisky’s life cycle.

This expression follows a couple years after the brilliant 2008 release of Longrow 18, and though I’ve had both, I have yet to try them tete-a-tete.  Having said that…there was absolutely no question as to quality in either case.  Love this distillery…love this expression.

Nose:  Fruits are peeking out again through the peat at this age…but tart and tight.  A bit of creamy meringue.  Distant pepper (likely a lot more prevalent in its youth, but mellowed by now).  Slight floral note.  Grassy meadow.  Some brilliant ‘old cask’ notes.  peat and smoke are only hinted at.  Not a heavy hitter by any means.

Palate:  Apple and orange marmalade.  A bit of sweet lemon (not tart at all).  Sweet barley and oak.  A really nicely integrated and rather complex spice palette (actually quite tough to dissect).  Now some smoke and deep oiliness.  Almost ethereally earthy.

 

– Reviewed by:  Curt

– Photo:  Curt

Longrow CV Review

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Longrow CV030

46% abv

Score:  88/100

 

At one time Campbeltown was considered the ‘whisky capital of the world’.  This little slice of Scottish heaven was home to more than 30 operational distilleries.  Throughout the twentieth century factors internal (slipping quality and overproduction, cask policy) and external (the depression, closing of the mines, prohibition) led to closure after closure, until finally only Glen Scotia and Springbank remained in production.

In 2004 the Mitchell family of Springbank purchased, and put into production, neighboring Glengyle distillery.  This step was instrumental in protecting Campbeltown’s status as a whisky distilling region, bringing the region’s sum total distilleries from 2 to 3.

So…while there is now a relative dearth of options when it comes to Campbeltown malts, Sprinbank are doing their damnedest to give we hungry consumers some options at the tills.  This family-run distillery is responsible for producing Hazelburn, Longrow and Springbank.

Here we have Longrow CV.  There are alternate schools of thought as to what the ‘CV’ actually stands for, but most reputable and authoritative voices suggest ‘curriculum vitae’ over ‘chairman’s vatting’.  Either way…stellar young malt from a distillery bent on adhering to the time-honored tradition of ‘DIY’ and ‘quality-first’.

Nose:  Wow.  Very old school style dram.  Meaty and malty.  Smoke and peat, of course.  Ashy.  Figs.  Caramel.  Leather.  Dark and lovely old dunnage warehouse notes.  Smells that bring to mind the aromes at the distillery itself.  Some far off echoes of the new spirit.

Palate:  Perfect correlation of nose and palate.  Smoky.  A bit of an iodine note.  Oily and heavy.  Hefty peat.  Spiced apple.  7-up (lemonade, for our overseas friends).  Some almost industrial notes.

A very classic, traditional style malt.  Brilliant entry level whisky.

 

– Reviewed by:  Curt

– Photo:  Curt

Dailuaine 1973 (Berry’s Own) Review

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Dailuaine 1973 (Berry’s Own)048

41.8% abv

Score:  93/100

 

One night night long ago (Burns Night, 2013, to be exact) a mate and I sat down to a rather extravagant line-up of ’60s, ’70s and early ’80s malts.  Though there were a few brilliant drams in this midst, none quite measured up to this ’73 Dailuaine.  It was pretty much love at first sniff ‘twixt this whisky and I.

Dailuaine is a Speyside distillery, the output of which rarely finds its way into single malt release.  Most of the spirit from this Diageo brand ends up in Johnnie Walker blends.

In a ridiculously odd nod to the fates…

The night I sat down to sample this one (and subsequently had it charm the pants off me) I immediately texted Andrew Ferguson at the Kensington Wine Market, who had shared this sample with me so many months prior, to see if there was any of this malt still available on the shelves and to ask him to put aside a bottle for me.  Sadly…just sold out.  That very night.  Coincidental, yes, but here’s where it gets really weird…

A few minutes later I got a text from another friend of mine, who just so happened to be in at KWM that very eve and grabbed the second-to-last bottle of this stuff off the shelf.  A gent there reached in behind him to scoop the very last bottle.  Sonuva…!

Lesson learned.  Be a little quicker on the take.  Should have tried this sample when it first came my way.  In the meantime…every few days I text this mate of mine and ask him if he’s ready to relinquish his hold on this bottle.  It will be mine.  Oh yes…it will be mine

Nose:  Sweet soft-skinned white fruit.  White chocolate.  Peach and cherry.  Vanilla ice cream.  Very mild cinnamon.  Toasted bread.  Some tropical fruit juice.  Comfortable, like gramma’s homemade baking.

Palate:  Grains, oak and soft rising cinnamon bun dough.  Peach and more fruit.  Bold vanilla bean.  Coffee note comes through on development.

 

– Reviewed by:  Curt

– Photo:  Curt

Octomore 2008 Cask Sample Review

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Octomore 2008 Cask Sample

?% abv

Score:  88/100

 

Here’s one just for fun.  Not bottled…not available…not really meaningful to many others.  However, this is my vanity project and I simply want to do it, so…

Twice now in the autumn month of September I’ve sipped Octomore from the cask in the warehouses of Bruichladdich.  The first time it was a clean, fiery and pristine dram.  Not to mention being an absolute thrill, as a fan of Octomore, to be able to taste straight from the cask.

The second was like a coal-burning train careening wildly down my throat, throwing off black billows of smoke and hellfire.

Yep.  In other words…both glorious.

This latter dram is the one I’m writing about now.  I believe this was an over-charred hoggy, but as to what may or may not have been inside the cask before its innards were lambasted by the might of Octomore…who knows?  What I can tell you is that this is a nearly unparalleled whisky.  I can’t think of anything even remotely similar.

Many thanks to Allan Logan at Bruichladdich for the opportunity to taste this (and many other casks), as well as his generosity in providing a healthy sample to bring home and write-up in relative peace.  Cheers, Allan.  Here’s to ya!

Nose:  Peat gets almost buried with other such broad stroke scents.  Char and campfire.  Borderline absurd notes of burnt rubber.  And normal rubber, for that matter.  Bitter dark chocolate (think high 90s, in terms of cacao content).  Caramel and burning grain.  Dark European breads and caramelized brown sugar.  Vinegar.  Farmy notes (like cowshit).

Palate:  Again…burnt rubber.  Someone said like ‘biting a pine tree’.  Personally I think it’s more like licking a bicycle tire.  Smoke.  Grilled lemon.

This one needs to open for a loooooooong, looooooooooooooooooooong time.

I will have to follow up the folk at Bruichladdich to see what happens to this cask.  (Pictured above).

 

– Reviewed by:  Curt

– Photo:  Curt

Port Charlotte PC8 Review

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Port Charlotte PC8

60.5% abv

Score:  89.5/100

 

Ar Duthchas.  Land Of Our Heritage.  The 4th release in Bruichladdich’s Port Charlotte ‘PC’ series.  Not the best of the bunch, but certainly a more than worthwhile addition to the range.

With this expression we’re back to the mix of bourbon and madeira casking we saw with PC6.  The result is similar, but there seems to be a little less of the playful nip of the earlier release, and a little more confident movement to the place where the fruits begin to fight back against the peat.

Nose:  What else? Peat and smoke.  Amplified clean cucumber and hints of dill.  Toffee.  Cola.  Citrus zest.  Hint of chocolate.  Vanilla ice cream.  Green and weedy.  Iodine and seaweed.  Wet rock.  Licorice.

Palate:  Fruitier delivery here than in early incarnations.  Slightly (and I mean ‘slightly’) easier smoke.  Sweeter and more caramel.  Lemon drops.  Oily and tarry.  The finish is smoky and woody and moves on into green apple skins.

Most balanced of the PCs up to this point, but I miss the jagged tors of the earlier releases.  A little more complex to be sure, but I personally lean to the more youthful bite.

 

– Reviewed by:  Curt

– Photo:  Curt

Port Charlotte PC7 Review

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Port Charlotte PC7

61% abv

Score:  90.5/100

 

Port Charlotte PC7.  Subtitled ‘Sin An Doigh Ileach’, Gaelic for “It’s the Islay way”.

The tins used to house the bottles on this release, much like those of PC6, pay tribute to some of the Ileach who helped take Bruichladdich through its early years.  Good, good stuff.  We like the downhome pride this distillery exudes in spades.

Being primarily bourbon and sherry cask matured makes this one a bit more seemingly aggressive than a couple of the others in the range which saw some Madeira influence.  The more ‘organic’ nature of this one works for me on some primeval level.  The very elemental nature of these peat monsters resonates.  This is a bottle of firewater though, make no mistake.  Expect it to take no prisoners.

Nose:  Sharp smoldering peat and smoke and ash.  Pungent woodiness.  Enormous caramel sweetness.  Freshly picked garden herbs.  Cola and citrus.  A bit of pepper.  Some coastal notes.

Palate:  Fires of hell.  Dense smoke.  Touch of dill.  Mouthcoating.  Everlasting, but what would you expect? At this ABV and this heavily peated, these flavors ain’t going anywhere.

 

– Reviewed by:  Curt

– Photo:  Curt