I encountered this bottle in a whisky night with friends at the bar who hosted us for the evening and the bar owner allowed us to sample it.
It’s an older bottling of Mortlach, bottled by Douglas Laing under their Provenance brand name. It was distilled in Autumn 1997,aged over 12 yo in a refill butt #6372 and bottled summer 2010
It’s a bit young Mortlach but I bet it still have the familiar distillery profile. Right?
Years ago, back in 2005, Glenlivet released their first Nàdurra whisky (Nàdurra being the Gaelic for ‘natural’), which was aged for 16 years in ex-bourbon casks and it immediately went on to being one smashing hit. No wonder as I’ve tasted it numerous times in the past (although I never reviewed it here) and I can tell you it’s a great whisky.
But now, Nàdurra is 9 years old and it’s time for a new baby in the family – The Glenlivet Nàdurra Oloroso, which was released in May.
The name says it all – it’s matured exclusively in first-fill Oloroso Sherry casks but unlike it’s older sibling, there’s no age statement on it (AKA NAS), which probably means it have some very young whisky in it.
Right now, it’s available through travel retail shops only (same way as the original Nadurra) and eventually a cask strength version will be available in normal stores.
The first batch is out and is coded OLO314 (Oloroso, bottled 03/14 I assume) and I got a sample to taste thanks to the work of 2 fellow citizens. Let’s see how this one stack up to the older sibling:
Time to revisit Kilchoman. Not long ago I reviewed their Travel Retail expression Coull Point which I considered as a good one if you love Kilchoman dearly and/or young peated Islay whisky (see here), but personally I found it a bit disappointing. So let’s shoot for a corrective experience and try another Kilchoman. This time it’s a 5 years old single cask, distilled 24.4.2008, aged in ex-bourbon cask and bottled on 29.4.2013
Indie Glenfarclas bottlings are rare, so rare that you will not find an IB bottling with Glenfarclas name on it
However, it’s not the entire truth – there are some indie Glenfarclas bottlings available, just not under the Glenfarclas name. Usually it will be using the “Ballindaloch” name (soon to be a real distillery) as Glenfarclas resides in the Ballindaloch area in Speyside, or in the case of SMWS bottlings, it will be using the distillery code 1 and SMWS will never tell us it’s a Glenfarclas (at least not officially).
Two weeks ago in a local event we managed to taste two indie Glenfarclas: SMWS 1.156 New York Cheesecake which is a 11 year old whisky from ex-bourbon cask and a TWE hand-fill from the cask TWE Ballindaloch 2001 vintage filled on 27.4.14 (12 year old).
During the tasting, a theory was brought up that those indie casks are available (even if rarely) only when the cask profile doesn’t fit the Glenfarclas style. Interesting theory, ah? Let’s dive into the tasting notes and check it.
Nose: Kicking, fresh and spirity with lots of fields and hey notes, vanilla, coconut and green fruits. Adding few drops of water reveals some lemony syrup, peels of citrus while turning it even more more spirity.
Palate: coconut, vanilla, bit of sweet lemonade, green apples. With water the lemon turns into pickled lemon and some oak is showing up.
Finish: lingering sweetness, lemon, coconut, some oak bittersweet. slightly bitter almonds, but less so with water.
Nose: Fruity and floral, elder flowers, vanilla, dried banana slices.
Palate: Oh my this is pretty much undrinkable neat as it’s too harsh and fierce so water must be added. After it was tamed with water it felt sweet, floral, bit of oak and some raisins.
Finish: Short medium, oak, and some lingering sweetness
Conclusion: Well, those were two totally different casks and they both completely deviates from the known and familiar Glenfarclas taste profile so it does fits the theory even if it’s not a 100% proof. Out of those two, I preferred the SMWS 1.156. Despite the fact it’s ex-bourbon cask it provided the better whisky experience.
Time to try another non-Scotch whisky, and this time it’s a whiskey. It’s time for another Irish whiskey review – The Yellow Spot 12 year old.
The Yellow Spot name origin is from an old technique used in the Mitchell & Son warehouse, where colored spots would be painted on the end of maturation cask during storage to identify the age of the casks and a yellow spot indicated 12 years old.
It’s the big brother of the Green Spot whiskey, while the Green Spot is 10 years old whiskey, Yellow Spot is 12 years old. and is matured for 12 years in three different oak cask types: American Bourbon barrels, then Spanish Sherry butts before finally being added to Spanish Malaga casks which should add more fruity notes.
I admit I never heard on Dun Bheagan before meeting this bottling and I thought to myself: “Oh well, must be some small and unknown independent bottler”, but searching the internet revealed this to be one of the brands under Ian MacLeod umbrella (owners of Tamdhu, Glengoyne) and a sister brand to Chieftain’s which I already encountered.
The search revealed Ian MacLeod has stocked many Clynelish casks releasing them over the years but this expression is a unique Clynelish. It’s a a vatting of two casks (No. 93451 and 93453) who were distilled April 1997, finished in Rum casks and bottled at Aug 2012.
How does the Clynelish character with the maritime and waxy notes fare after adding the Rum touch?
Clynelish Dun Bheagan 15 Years Rum Finish (48.3%, 813 bottles, € 71.5) Continue reading
What happens if you take the excellent Glengoyne whisky and turn up the intensity to maximum? Yup, We’re talking Glengoyne cask strength!
Right now there’s only two cask strength Glengoyne expressions: the NAS Cask strength and the distillery only The Teapot dram (which I’ll post a review later this week), but not long ago (in whisky time) there was another one – the 12 year old cask strength which profiles as the following:
I happened to taste it on a great whisky night last week and here are my notes:
As one who doesn’t live in the UK/Scotland, it’s no wonder I have a ongoing love affair with world whiskies. quite earlier in my single malt whisky road I purchased and tried couple of world whiskies from Japan, South Africa, Europe but somehow one important market eluded me – India, at least until now.
There are 2 known single malt whisky producers from India: Paul John and Amrut and I finally got to taste one of Amrut single cask expressions – a PX sherry cask distilled on June 2009 and was bottled August 2013. Yes, only 4years old one but it should not come as a surprise as Indian whisky isn’t aged for long due to the hot and humid climate there. Amrut rarely age their whisky over 4 years as the angel’s share is x5-x8 than the usual one in Scotland (their oldest expression is 8 years old)
So a 4 years old whisky from PX sherry single cask – is it a sherry bomb or not?
Is there such a thing as a boring distillery? Could it be that Scapa is one?When I finally got around to write my notes on yet another basic whisky which I sourly missed reviewing before, Scapa 16, this question popped up in my mind: Is Scapa a boring distillery?
Think about it for a minute: It’s a distillery with output of over 1,000,000 liters of alcohol. There’s only one official single malt bottling, the Scapa 16, while most of their production goes to blends (mostly Ballantines). There’s no fanfare about this distillery or the official bottling, so it does seems boring.
What do you think? And what about Scapa 16? Is it ‘boring’?
Nose: Vanilla, brine and salty toffee, some malt and oak notes are felt after few minutes in glass.
Palate: Salty and then wax polished oak. Dryness with bit sweet heather honey, vanilla and lemon and then some oak bitterness and spices.
Finish: Short medium length with lots of oak wood spices, vanilla, lingering mostly at the back of the mouth.
Conclusion: It’s not a bad one yet it’s not a whisky that will make you overly excited. So I’d say that it’s a rock solid basic whisky to drink during summer time or as a warm-up whisky when having a whisky night.
When I look back at what I already published on the blog, I have a big pang of guilt for all the drams I tried when I discovered the world of whisky. There were many basic drams I tried and never wrote down notes for them, so it’s a happy moment to try such one again and write proper notes when you have a bit more of experience.
Such one is the Auchentoshan 12. I tried it a few times in the past (once even when I visited the distillery) but never wrote notes for it so was happy to taste it again a while ago with proper glass and with time to write down the notes.
Auchentoshan 12 is the bread and butter of Auchentoshan distillery as it’s their basic age-statement expression and you can find almost everywhere.
Whisky Gospel 