Glen Garioch 23 Year Old 1991 Cadenhead Small Batch Review

Leave a reply

I was preoccupied with other things, so today we have a quick post with tasting notes of a bit weird (in a good way I promise you) Glen Garioch. It’s a 1991 distillate, bottled in 2015 as part of the Small Batch series of WM Cadenhead.

There were 444 bottles produced of this Glen Garioch and it was bottled at 54.4%.

Glen Garioch 23 Year Old Cadenhead Small Batch 54.4%, £81.79/€129,99)

glen-garioch-23-year-old-1991-small-batch-wm-cadenhead-whiskyNose: Spicy, very dusty as many other Glen Garioch whiskies, crisp ex-bourbon, honey, pickles (!) and after it opens up a bit, peat smoke which isn’t a big surprise being a pre-1995 distillate.

Palate: Sour, lots of peat smoke, honey, fruity sweet with pears on the front, pepper, a touch of ginger, oak dryness and as expected, dusty.

Finish: Medium length, lingering peat smoke , drying, traces of pickles vinegar, sweet honey, pepper. Dusty (doh!) Continue reading →

Glenmorangie Milsean Private Edition VII Review

Leave a reply

For seven year in a row with no end in sight, Glenmorangie presents us a new expression in the Private Edition series. 2016 brought us Glenmorangie Milsean (pronounced “mill-shun”) which means “Sweet Things” in Gaelic.

So it marks the returning to the previous theme of special cask finishes after the detour of Tùsail last year which focused on different barley. It was finished for 2.5 years in toasted ex-Portuguese red wine barriques (154 of those) and should bring out a candies shop feeling. If you want to learn more on this whisky, head up to the excellent and very detailed blog post at The Whisky Exchange.

Glenmorangie Milsean (Private Edition VII) (46%, £75.95/€89,00)

glenmorangie milseanNose: Ah, it’s very Glenmorangie at first with sweet honey, butterscotch, toffee, nutty with a dash of vanilla. Then come the sweet candied fruit, berries and tangerines, dry tannins and spice, sweet deep red hard candies (lollipops), bitter citrus peels. It’s tarty and jammy, even has a resemblance of roughness on the edge. Getting sweeter over time while maintaining the sweet candies feel.

Palate: Nutty butterscotch with bitterness turning to sweet and dry berries, candied fruit, spicy with lots of ginger along with some pepper and oak spices, earthy berries tart.

Finish: Short-Medium length sweet finish with spiciness (oak spices, ginger) and dryness.
Continue reading →

Cooper’s Choice Mortlach 1996 19 Year Old Review

Leave a reply

Haven’t tasted lately too many Mortlachs and it’s sad as most Mortlachs I tasted were very good and tasty (new official lineup notwithstanding), so it’s time for a new Mortlach review on the blog and today: a 1996 vintage Mortlach from a bottle share we did locally here. This bottle got me curious as I’m more used to ex-sherry Mortlachs, while this one was aged in an ex-bourbon cask.

It’s a 19 year old single cask Mortlach, bottled under the Cooper’s choice brand, a sibling to Finlaggan and Ileach brands from Vintage Malt Whisky Co. bottled at 53.5%, non chill filtered and not colored.

Cooper’s Choice Mortlach 1996 19 Year Old (53.5%, €135,70)

cooper's choice mortlach 1996 19 year oldNose: Not exactly a textbook Mortlach nose with a fresh nose and not much of the meaty stuff. Instead there is a leathery note and apricots, a restrained storm of oak wood spice, honey and vanilla pudding and freshly sawed evergreen woods with dust, With time: more apricots but of the jammy type, with lemon peels and a soft perfume edge. Continue reading →

Caol Ila 17 Unpeated Style (Special Releases 2015) Review

Leave a reply

It’s no news that Diageo release 2 affordable whiskies each year with their Special Releases annual series, The Lagavulin 12 and an unpeated release from Caol Ila.

The Lagavulin 12 2015 was already reviewed here (very favorable), so let’s check the other candidate this year: a 17 yo unpeated Caol Ila.

Interesting to see that it boast a jump of two years over last year’s release so it’s not coming from the same stock.

Caol Ila 17 Unpeated Style (Special Releases 2015) (55.9%, £89.95/€107/$144.99)

caol ila 17 unpeatedNose: Dusty, oh so dusty, much more dusty than the 15 yo, that I had to re-check the bottle for whisky turbidity. Vanilla and honey, traces of peat smoke (even here you can’t really escape it ah?), pears, peaches and golden apples. After a few more minutes in the glass, it gets less dusty (although it’s still there in big way), sweeter and fruitier. Continue reading →

Springbank 16 Year Old Local Barley Review

Leave a reply

Not all whisky releases were born equal as some of those releases are highly sought after for various reasons such as excellence, investment, collectability, distillery preference, etc. But setting price to such whiskies is a tricky job. Take the new Springbank Local Barley 16 YO as an example.

The Springbank Local Barley series has a great reputation, and Springbank has a large group of loyal followers and since the last LB bottling was in 2001, it’s understandable why it flew off the shelves in a matter of hours, even with quite a large batch size of 9000 bottles and a RRP of £95. But that price tag caught my eyes and invoked the musings in the next few paragraphs.

If you look at that price, isolating it from the hype parameters (distillery name, provenance, etc), you’d instantly think it’s too expensive. Come on, you wouldn’t pay that sum for a 16 year old ex-bourbon whisky from an anonymous distillery, right? I know I’d pay maybe £50 or £60 for such whisky but no more. But instead, we faced a price tag £35-£40 higher than what reasonably expected.

I’ve seen a couple of threads on the internet where people were trying to justify the pricing of the local barley release: Continue reading →

Ardbeg 21 Year Old – The Story of an Epic Marketing Faliure

1 Reply

The inevitable has happened and it seems finally that an aged Ardbeg release, at least according to the new label that popped up on the TTB site, will be on shelves later this year.

ardbeg 21 front

It’s been like forever since we saw a new age statement Ardbeg (especially if you exclude ardbog, aged 10yo but not it wasn’t mentioned on the label) and it makes me giddy with excitement and also fills me with dread from the expected price tag (which I bet will be around the £250-£300 mark).

If you put aside the excitement and the fact that most of us will not be able to afford a bottle and look deeper into this forthcoming release, a few interesting facts come up and one brow raising question should be ask. Continue reading →

Macallan Rare Cask 43% Review

1 Reply

A while ago I reviewed Macallan Rare Cask Black but it was not the first expression in the Rare Cask line up as before the Black there was the blank one 😉 (Or if you prefer, the one without an adjective). The Rare Cask whisky was released in the US late 2014 and it arrived to UK/Europe mid 2015.

In line with all their recent releases, this one is a NAS whisky and bottled at 43% so I assume it was chill filtered (the Rare Cask Black is bottled at 48% and non chill-filtered). So while the Rare Cask Black predecessor is lacking in terms of punch and whisky “purity”, maybe it’s more transparent regarding the content? After all, on the Rare Cask Black we only know there are less than 100 casks that has contributed (or can contribute) to it. So what do we know on the original Rare Cask? This is what The Macallan tells us:

Crafted to showcase complexity and depth, Rare Cask is drawn from the broadest spectrum of casks, 16 different types, ever identified by the Master Whisky Maker. Far less than 1% of those casks maturing at the distillery have been identified as fitting to bestow the Rare Cask name.  With rarity at its core, this is a whisky crafted from casks so rare they will never again be used in any Macallan whisky. Combining Spanish and American sherry seasoned oak casks, a high proportion of them first fill…

Allow me to be frank: This is collection of marketing bullshit! Where should I start in tearing all those nonsense statements?

  • 16 different types of casks? I’m trying to figure out what does it mean in terms of whisky impact – with so many cask types, I assume that for most cask types in this mix the impact on the whisky is negligible so why do we care? Is it done in for the sake of transparency? Why not just go ahead and fully list the types? Let’s have a small exercise and try listing the possible cask types in this mix: Gorda, Butt, Puncheon, Hogshead, ASB, QC and Octave, both American and European Oak and probably some exotic casks. But again, that’s all besides the point: The more the merrier? Does it really teach us anything important or relevant on the whisky itself?
  • “Far less than 1% of the casks in the distillery” – We have no idea what “far less” means here, the exact value could have been 0.99% or 0.5% and not necessary 0.01% as we’d like to imagine. And as Macallan produces 8 million liters of Alcohol a year, there are probably some few hundred thousands of casks in the warehouses so the limited range of casks may in fact not be so limited.
  • “casks so rare they will never again be used in any Macallan whisky” – Oh really? Just like most refill casks? And allow me to bet that the first fill barrels will be used another time…
  • Besides, what’s so rare in sherry seasons oak casks? Give us whisky only from proper sherry casks, now that will be rare!

OK, time to stop the rant as I’m getting too upset from this marketing mumbo jumbo and let’s check if this whisky is worthy of the “rare” title.

Macallan Rare Cask (43%, £190/$229.95/€279,99)

macallan rare cask 43%Nose: Ooh a very gentle and lovely Sherried nose, I usually don’t mention appearances but it got some rocking legs in the glass. Dried fruit, soaked raisins, cinnamon and nutmeg, hints of sour berries, blood oranges and after a few minutes also cereals and vanilla (must be some sherried American oak casks in those 16 types, right?) and 50% cacao chocolate. A very elegant nose. Continue reading →

Deanston 20 Year Old 55.3% Review

Leave a reply

Another Deanston whisky review but this time it’s a limited edition cask strength Oloroso sherry whisky. Until now the widely available official releases have been ex-bourbon based, with special editions (such as Deanston Spanish Oak, wine casks and BYO) available at the distillery only, so it’s a good sign that Deanston embraces the sherry route for wider availability – we even got a few bottles of this in Israeli stores!

Deanston 20 Year Old (55.3%, 8400 bottles, £100/€129,50)

deanston 20 year oldNose: The creamy note is apparent here, with sweet honey and butterscotch, but slowly the sherry influence sneaks onto the stage. There’s dried fruit, fresh berries and dates. It must have been some old sherry refill as the impact isn’t too strong after 20 years. Oh, there’s vanilla too so maybe some american oak too? Continue reading →

Deanston 18 Year Old 46.3% Review

Leave a reply

Burns Stewart Distillers were busy last year with many new releases, from the 18yo for Deanston and Ledaig up to the 42yo Ledaig. I have found out (via Michael) that BSD official importer in Israel managed to bring a few crates of those new releases so it’s a good excuse to review some of them.

The first one on the operation table is the Deanston 18 Year Old. It was aged in hogsheads and then finished in first fill ex-bourbon casks for extra sweetness. As usual with BSD, it was bottled at the customary ABV of 46.3%

Deanston 18 Year Old (46.3%, £61.95/€107.50)

deanston 18 yoNose: Cereals, porridge and butterscotch, sweet honey and creamy, light vanilla, hay and meadow, almost flowery (but not), hints of huge spice to come on palate with white pepper as a teaser, nutty/almonds, pears and peaches and sweet oak.

Palate: Creamy and spicy, white pepper, honey, cereals porridge, bread dough, hay and meadow, gentle oak wood spiciness, semi-dry yet maintain rich feeling

Finish: Medium length, gentle bitterness of oak with a touch of grapefruits, creamy sweet honey,

Thoughts: Surprisingly better than I expected as the sweetness from the first fill barrels finish is balanced elegantly with the oak bitterness. The bottle price in UK is very reasonable and would recommend one for that price but the price in Europe and in Israel (around 110 Euro) is too high. Too bad.

Islay Feis Ile Festival 2016 Bottles

3 Replies

feis-logo-newFeis Ile 2016 is not far off, so it’s time for the annual post (third year in a row!) of the Feis Ile Festival bottles.

This year, the festival will run from 21st to 28th May 2016 and Lagavulin will probably be the highlight of the festival due to the distillery’s 200th anniversary celebrations (following last year’s events at Laphroaig and Ardbeg), so it will probably be a very interesting and exciting festival (I keep saying that in the annual post, but it’s the truth!).

This post will detail all the available information on the festival bottles 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 2016 here

Just like last year, there’s a Feis Ile bottlings by Douglas Laing, Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS), Islay House and there’s even a special Finlaggan bottling.

22/5/2016 Update: Bruichladdich Feis 2016 bottling
21/5/2016 Update: Lagavulin, Caol Ila & Kilchoman Feis 2016 bottlings
20/5/2016 Update: Finlaggan Feis 2016 bottling & Bruichladdich general details
18/5/2016 Update: Islay House Feis bottling
18/5/2016 Update: Jura Tastival 2016 ABV & European price revealed
30/3/2016 Update: Bowmore Feis Ile bottes info and Douglas Laing Old Particular Bowmore 1999 Feis Ile 2016 Commemorative Bottling
23/3/2016 Update: Douglas Laing Big Peat’s Feis Ile 2016 Commemorative Bottling
15/3/2016 Update: Lagavulin single cask 1991 25yo to benefit Islay community
14/3/2016 Update: Laphroaig Cairdeas 2016 details and the two Bunnahabhain bottles.

So here’s the list of Feis Ile 2016 bottlings and the available information: 

Lagavulin – Open day on Saturday 21st May 2016

  • lagavulin 18 feis ile 2016Lagavulin 18 Year Old Feis Ile 2016 (49.5%, £125, 6000 bottles)

The Lagavulin Festival bottling comes from a blend of refill American Oak and ex Bodega European Oak casks. Bottled at cask strength, it will be a limited edition run of 6,000 bottles

  • Lagavulin 1991 25 Year Old

This charity cask content will probably show up later this year.

Bruichladdich – Open day on Sunday 22nd May 2016

  • bruichladdich phd135Bruichladdich Feis Ile 2016 15 yo (50%, £95)

Bruichladdiche Festival bottle (Feis 2016) is a vatting of bourbon casks, wine casks and ACE-ed in virgin oak for about a month. A 2001 Vintage (15 Years Old) and Malt was lightly peated at 10ppm.

  • bruichladdich chalice barleyBruichladdich Valinch 2006 Islay Dunlossit (Chalice Barley) (61%, £75)
  • Bruichladdich Valinch 2008 Islay Starchmill (Chalice Barley) (£75)

There will be three unique bottlings available to buy on the day. Adam Hannett has created a vatting from casks distilled back in 2001, the momentous year when Bruichladdich reopened after six silent years. He has also chosen two uber-provenance casks that were filled with spirit distilled from barley grown on single Islay farms, Starchmill and Dunlossit.

Caol Ila – Open day on Monday 23rd May 2016

  • caol ila 12 feis ile 2016Caol Ila 12 Year Old (5X.2%, £99, 1500 bottles)

The Caol Ila single cask bottling is also a blend of refill American Oak and ex Bodega European Oak casks. Bottled at cask strength, with a limited edition run of 1,500 bottles, this is a unique, more sherried expression than might be expected of a Caol Ila

Laphroaig – Open day on Tuesday 24th May 2016

  • Laphroaig Cairdeas 2016 (Madeira cask) – 51.6%

laphroaig cairdeas 2016 madeira casklaphroaig cairdeas 2016 madeira cask backThe Laphroaig Feis Ile 2016 offering is the Cairdeas 2016 which is ex-bourbon matured and then married/finished in Madeira seasoned hogsheads.

 

Bowmore – Open day on Wednesday 25th 2016

  • Bowmore Feis Ile 2016 (American Virgin Oak & Oloroso casks) 54.9%, 1500 bottles , £55

Our exclusive Feis Ile release this year is an extraordinary and curious marriage of 4 American Virgin Oak Barrels and a 1st fill Oloroso Sherry Butt re-racked and married together in the original oak, this is a whisky not to be missed! 1500 bottles will be available to buy exclusively from the distillery visitor centre from Saturday the 21st of May at 10am.

  • Bowmore 25 Year Old Feis Ile 2016 – 200 bottles,  £350

Our exclusive Vintage Feis Ile Edition is a breath-taking 25 year old Bowmore, which has been lovingly finished in French Oak Wine Casks for over 12 years. Only 200 bottles of this precious liquid will be available to buy, exclusively on Wednesday the 25th of May! Golden Tickets will be issued to the first 100 people queuing at the distillery, thereafter you will be able buy and collect your bottle from 10am from the “Taste” bistro (must be collected by 4.30pm)

  • Fill You Own – £100

This year’s “Bottle Your Own” for Feis Ile has been maturing since the 20th of January 1999 and is the first of our hand fills to be matured exclusively in Pedro Ximenez European Oak Our “vaults experience” will be available to buy and hand fill from 10am on Saturday the 21st of May (Maximum of 4 bottles per person – pre filled bottles will be available for multiple bottle buys to reduce congestion and waiting times)

Jura – Open day on Thursday 26th May 2016

  • jura tastival 2016Jura Tastival 2016 – triple sherry finish (51%, £84.95/€129)

Finished in Palomino Fino, Amoroso Oloroso and Apostoles Oloroso Sherry casks.

Kilchoman – Open day on Thursday 26th May 2016

  • Kilchoman 2007 Feis Ile 2016 (£90, sherry cask, 637 bottles)

This year we have chosen Oloroso sherry butt 429/2007, the oldest sherry cask we have released to date. Bottled at cask strength, there are just 637 bottles available from this single cask

The Feis Ile release is only available from the distillery and will go on sale at 10am next Thursday – one bottle per person at £90


Bunnahabhain – Open day on Friday 27th May 2016

As usual, Bunnahabhain Feis Ile 2016 line up contains two bottles:

  • bunna feis ile 2016Moine Pedro Ximenez 12-Year-Old – £95, 833 bottles, 54.6%

A peated (Moine is peat in Scots Gaelic) 2004 vintage that was aged in casks (unspecified but probably ex-bourbon) for nine years before being finished for three additional years in PX casks

  • Amontillado 16-Year-Old – £250, 250 bottles

the high end expression: Ten years spent in bourbon casks and six additional years in Amontillado casks.

Ardbeg – Open day on Saturday 28th May 2016

  • Ardbeg Dark Cove – 55%/46.5% (£95.99)

dark cove work in progress oct 2015ardbeg dark cove feis 2016Ardbeg Feis Ile 2016 offering is influenced by “dark sherry casks”, That probably means strong sherry notes influence on the whisky, but not necessary stronger than Uigeadail. The Feis Ile edition is bottled at 46.5% while the community version is 55% (which may not be available during Feis)ץ

Douglas Laing

  • douglas laing Big Peat Feis Ile BottlingBig Peat Feis Ile 2016 – 48%, 500 bottles

Just 500 bottles of the Feis Ile edition will be produced, each individually numbered. It will be sold on allocation to global distribution partners, as well as during the festival on Islay. 50 bottles are available to pre-order now from Douglas Laing.com, with a limited edition poster included, and signed by Fred Laing, for good measure.

 

  • Old Particular Bowmore (Feis Ile Limited Edition) 1999 DL11107 OLD0298Old Particular Bowmore 1999 Feis Ile 2016 – 48.3%, 246 bottles

246 bottles were charged from a single hogshead cask of Bowmore 16 Years Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky, which was distilled in September 1999 and bottled in March 2016. It is bottled at natural cask strength of 48.3%, without colouring or chill-filtration, and is said to be “classically Islay” in character, displaying bold maritime, smoky and leathery notes on the nose, palate and finish.

It will be sold on allocation to distributors in key markets globally.

Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS)

  • SMWS 127.44 cantina mexicana127.44 Cantina Mexicana, Port Charlotte 12 yo ex-sherry butt (SMWS Members: £120 Non SMWS Members: £240)

The nose was snout-grabbing – woody, like old sea chests or a dusty Mexican cantina floor (including leather boots and fag-ends), lots of liquorice; figs and oriental spices, then a beef stew with sherry and smoked paprika in it. The neat taste was simply huge – smoke, ash and burnt sticks; Moffat toffees, Liquorice Allsorts, balsamic pears and Amontillado sherry.

Islay House

  • islay house feis 2016Port Charlotte 2005 , 10 Years Old, Matured in Premium French Oak (£100)

 

Finlaggan

  • finlaggan feis 2016Finlaggan 10 Year Old Feis 2016 Edition (£50)