One third of October is already behind us. It means we’re closer to X-mas, the Whisky Exchange Show is behind us and a new a new Malt Whisky Yearbook was released. I got my signed copy of the 2016 edition (Thanks Micheal!) just in time to accompany me during the weekend.
This year, the book have a new layout, making it feels fresher but the content is mostly unchanged. Like every edition, the book is generally divided into four sections: Continue reading
Last years post on the Feis Ile 2014 bottles was a smash hit so it’s time for a repeat with a new post on the 2015 Islay Festival Feis Ile bottles!
Like last year, the festival will run from 23rd to 31st of May 2015 and with two prominent distilleries, Ardbeg and Laphroaig, celebrating their 200 year since (official) foundation year, its bound to be a very interesting and exciting festival.
This post will detail all the available information on the festival bottlings and I’ll update it each time more details will be revealed.
If you look for the full festival information, go to the Festival site at islayfestival.com and you can find the full Islay Festival Distillery Programmes 2015 here
In addition to the official bottlings by the distilleries, there’s a plethora of special Feis Ile bottlings by external organizations such as Douglas Laing, SMWS and the Islay House Hotel.
So here’s the list of Feis Ile 2015 bottlings and the available information:
Last month I participated in a blind tasting competition. Yeah, again. I know, I should see a shrink about this but I don’t have spare $$ for it as I spend the money on whisky. Besides, if I stop buying whisky in order to save the money for the shrink, The problem will naturally get dissolved and I won’t need it so why bother? 😉
Anyway, the competition was held here locally in Israel and contained 14 blind drams ranging from Glenlivet 12yo to Talisker 18yo with a few oddballs thrown in. Naturally I had many failures but too many revealed whiskies made me pull my hair, curse and scream “how did I miss that one?”
Photo Credit: Shai Gilboa
Here, take those short notes and try guessing the whisky:
Nose: Crisp, dry and sharp peat smoke, very clean. There’s noticeable sherry sweetness here, malty, Doesn’t smell like high ABV nor 40%
Palate: Strong harsh dry peat, sherry sweetness.
Finish: Long, peat and ashes, lingering sherry sweetness.
Age: Young as there’s strong malt notes.
ABV: It feels like 46%
My guess for this one was Kilchoman Loch Gorm (5yo, 46%) but of course I was wrong. (keep reading for true identity).
Blind competitions are hard. many times it’s not easy to detect the finish type (sherry and port are very similar), different whiskies can smell and taste the same or very similar. your smell and taste senses works different on any given day. And you know what? it’s even harder to detect the whisky if it’s not a single cask bottling. Yes, I do think it’s harder to detect batch produced whisky than single casks and it leads me to the worrying trends I saw from this tasting:
1. For many basic whiskies the distillery trademark notes are diminished – Too many distilleries trademark notes, those we tend to associate with whiskies from this distillery, for decades if not for longer, were missing.
For example, our bottle of Glenlivet 12? It didn’t have the expected green apples notes I was used to find in Glenlivet bottles. Remember the tasting notes above? No, it wasn’t Kilchoman – it was Laphroaig 10. It had very weak iodine and maritime notes. The Oban 10 wasn’t barely coastal and maritime. The Auchentoshan 12 didn’t have the smoothness I tend to associate with triple distillation and with heavier sherry influence, and there were more…
At first I thought it’s only my imagination, as for some of those whiskies, I last tasted them 2-3 years ago. But I then compared the notes I wrote for them with previous notes and remarks I had and other competitors remarks and it seems I wasn’t alone with this conclusion. I also checked past reviews from blogs I trust and it all led to the second and even more worrying trend:
2. There’s a batch quality degrade overtime – Folks, for too many basic expressions, the whisky we taste now differs from the same whisky of 2-3 years ago. The truth is that the distilleries can’t meet up the demand without sacrifices and we probably cannot trust the distilleries to really keep all batches up to the high standard.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s by design but I have no other explanation to the difference. Maybe not all casks going into the vatting now are top quality, Maybe for each batch they strive to make it as close as possible to the previous batch, but all those minor changes between batches accumulate and coupled with the rising demand and lack of resources, makes those entry level whiskies different from the batches of few years ago. There’s always a gradual change in whisky but in the last few years it’s been so a rapid change that the taste is now different and it takes just 2-3 years to notice it instead of 5-8 years.
What does the future holds for us? Probably no good news. As long as the demand is on the rise, the batch consistency and taste will keep changing (and for worse in my opinion) more rapidly than before. Does it means that quality is degrading? What should we do? I think it means you need to stock up bottles of whiskies you love now. The same whisky may be utterly different despite having the same label and distillery recipe. It’s a process I’ve already started working according to, trying to buy whisky I like now and not wait and buy it in the future. And I intend to keep doing so as long as I can as I don’t want to get so disappointed in the future. You should so too!
We’re deep into October and it means that a new Malt Whisky Yearbook was released. I got my copy of the 2015 edition last week (bought and signed at the TWE whisky show, Thanks Michael!) and I spent the last week going over it and enjoying it a lot.
Since it’s the first time I’m reviewing the MWY on the blog let me tell you what’s in it:
The first part contains different articles from various knowledgeable writers covering different aspects and fields on whisky. This year there are chapters on: Continue reading
Update (2/7/2014) – Most of the bottles can be found on auction sites, so no further updates with shop links. If you find a bottle available on a web shop, let me know and I’ll update the post.
Update (2/6/2014) – I’ll update the post in the coming few days (or weeks) with shopping links where available. Be warned there are good chances it will be expensive. Also, I’m sure most of the bottles will show up in the next auctions round so you may want to try your luck there too.
The 2014 Islay Festival Feis Ile is almost upon us. It will run from 23rd to 31st of May 2014 and unfortunately I won’t be there 😦
As a whisky geek I’m very interested in the special Festival bottlings and created this post to centralize all available information on them. I’ll update this post once more details on the bottlings will be revealed.
If you look for the full festival information, go to the Festival site at islayfestival.com and you can find the full Islay Festival Distillery Programmes 2014 here
Here’s the list of Feis Ile 2014 bottlings:
Lagavulin – Open day Saturday 24th May 2014Drawn from casks filled in January 1995. Matured in European Oak Sherry Butts, the liquid was personally selected by Lagavulin warehouseman Iain McArthur.
Bruichladdich – Open day on Sunday 25th May 2014Quadruple distilled and matured for seven years in Oloroso sherry butts.
Caol Ila – Open day on Monday 26th May 2014It’s a 12 year old whisky, distilled in 2002 and bottled in 2014 from Refill American Oak Hogsheads. Will go on sale at 10am on Monday 26th May 2014. (From @IslayStudios Twitter feed. Thanks Billy for pointing me at this!)
Laphroaig – Open day on Tuesday 27th May 2014Based on the text printed on the back label it’s a double matured Laphroaig from bourbon casks and Amontillado seasoned traditional hogsheads. (Amontillado sherry is darker than Fino but lighter than Oloroso)
1st fill American oak bourbon barrels. 700 bottles will go on sale at the Distillery Visitor Centre from 10am on Saturday 24th May. The remaining 300 bottles will go on sale on Wednesday 28th May.
1989 1st fill American bourbon barrel and a 1989 1st fill French oak wine barrique
In addition there are 2 more Fill your own bottle:
Bowmore Hand-Filled Red wine cask, £100, distilled 22 July 1998, 57,1%. (SOLD OUT)
Bowmore Hand-Filled 1st Fill Oloroso Sherry Cask, 49,4%, £95, distilled 1995, Cask No’1572.
Jura – Open day on Thursday 29th May 2014A concoction of seven finishes: Jupilles, Les Bertanges, Limousin, Troncais, Allier, Vosges and American White Oak, married in Sherry butts.
Kilchoman – Open day on Thursday 29th May 2014Matured for over 5 years in two fresh bourbon barrels and finished in a fino sherry butt for 3 months. (Picture found via Abbey Whisky Blog here). Will go on sale on Thursday 29th May.
Bunnahabhain – Open day on Friday 29th May 2014This is a 10-year-old single malt which was first matured in ex-American Bourbon casks for nine years before being finished for one year in a Marsala cask.
Westering Home – 53.4%, 301 bottles ,£250A 17-year-old single malt matured in a rich ex-Cognac cask and then finished in a Sauternes wine cask
Ardbeg – Open day on Saturday 31st May 2014Matured in American oak casks with specially toasted cask lids which were tailor-made for this whisky.
Buy here for 155,00 €
Earlier this week there was a post in a Whisky related Facebook group asking what’s the best way to preserve open whisky bottles.
Now, this is not the first time this question arise in this group, nor in other forums and groups – people tend to care for their whisky bottles and want to preserve the original whisky flavours and prevent (or vastly reduce) oxidation that spoils the whisky taste.
So I thought to summarizing the popular options in a post as public service announcement, but my friend Michael Bendavid is quick and did summarize it in a comment on the post.
I asked him for permissions to re-publish it here and he agreed, so thanks a lot Michael for summarizing it up and to Chris Miles, Torben Ernlund, Matt Spinozzi and Shai Gilboa for their input and answers to this question.
Whisky Gospel 