Arran whisky lovers – rejoice!
The Arran Banner weekly newspaper revealed this weekend (12 March 2016) that a new distillery site is set to be built in south Arran by Isle of Arran Distillers Ltd.
Been too busy in the last few weeks to work on new posts (except for the news items), but I hope to be back on track now and we’ll start with a 24 Year Old Longmorn bottled by Signatory.
This Longmorn was tasted in last month meeting of the MMI whisky club and as the theme was “Ex-bourbon whiskies from Speyside region”, this is indeed an ex-bourbon Longmorn as opposed to the sherried Longmorns I’m more familiar with. It’s a vatting of two casks, distilled on 15/06/1990 and bottled in July 2014 for 398 bottles at 55.6%
Nose: Surprisingly feels a bit thin at first despite the high ABV but it recovers and there’s a solid body there with heather honey, spice sharpness, deep dark fruit (comes with the age) and perfume whiffs. Not bad.
Palate: Rich. Spicy and sweet, honey, pears and peaches, white pepper, bitter flowers perfume.
Finish: Long finish with spiciness, oak wood, honey and weak traces of bitter perfume.
Thoughts: Some people in the event liked it, but I had issues with the biter flowery perfume here as it totally ruined the dram for me. It could be my own preference of whisky flavor or perhaps this bottle is not a good specimen of bourbon Longmorn. Anyway, in the meanwhile until I get to taste another bourbon Longmorn whisky, I’ll stick to sherried Longmorns.
Photo Credit: Whisky Magazine Hong Kong and Macau
01-June-2016 Update: The Macallan Double Cask 12 Year Old was launched late last week in Taiwan, so it’s NOT a USA exclus ive.
I was told that it’s now coming to Hong Kong, then US/North America and eventually it will be available in Europe as well! So European Macallan fans should rejoice as the age statement is coming your way too.
There are fundamental moments when a whole industry takes a turn, and if you look at the whisky industry, you can surly peg the Macallan 1824 series release as the first large (large? huge!) harbinger of the NAS trend that has been sweeping through the whisky industry in the last few years. I remember being in shock back then in September 2012 when Macallan announced the 1824 series. Seriously? Ditching the age statement core line up and instead bring a new line up that use colors to represent taste (and to some degree, age too)?
Well, it wasn’t a full line up replacement when the 1824 series was unleashed onto the world as some markets still retained the Fine Oak and Sherry Oak line ups. But even so, the flood gates were open since then and we’ve seen many NAS releases, from Macallan (the 1824 collection in Travel Retail market) and other major players in the industry such as other members in the Edrington group (Highland Park warriors series anyone?), Diageo, Grant’s and others. Some NAS releases were merely additions to existing line ups yet far too many were replacing existing age statement whiskies entirely or in different markets.
But guess what? After over 3 years, Macallan are ready to release a new whisky with an age statement on it!
Shocking, isn’t it? So the obvious questions are: Continue reading
It’s not like we need an excuse to publish a review but hey, it’s Thursday and the weekend is in sight so why not use this paltry excuse to review the recently released Benromach 35 Year Old?
35 years is a lot of time and it means that it was distilled under the previous ownership around 1980 (or a tad earlier earlier), just a few years before the distillery was mothballed in 1983.
Since Benromach was revived by G&M at 1998, it means that an equivalent aged expression under GM& ownership (with different production methods, yeasts and barley variants), sometime around 2034, will be totally different animal. So how is this historic Benromach?
Nose: First impression: Glorious! Fresh and gentle sherried nose and it’s an impressive feat to have whisky matured in 1st fill sherry casks for such a long time and keep the freshness and not get over-sherried or over-oaked. What else is showing up here? Sugared oranges peels, leather and tobacco at the far end, a memory of smoke, over-sized cinnamon bun rolls. After a few minutes some spice is rising up, chips of nutmeg, a dash of pepper and oak wood spices, getting waxy and rounder with extra fruitiness to balance the sherry impact. Continue reading
Glendonach is one of the rising stars in the hearts of whisky fans as it’s gaining a positive image, brand recognition and of course lot of admirers and whisky fans.
The core line up of sherried whiskies, along with the successful single casks batches were the reason for this success but Glendronach also dabble in other casks finishes, using casks with whisky that was distilled before the distillery was mothballed in 1996. The old sherry casks were used for the single cask releases and the premium releases (recherche and grandeur comes to mind), but what of the other casks? This is where the wood finish series play its role.
We’ve reviewed other members of the wood finish series (12 yo Sauternes, 15/18yo Port) and now it’s the 19 Year Old Madeira finish which was aged in European oak and then has been finished in Madeira hogsheads before bottled at 46% for total yield of 3,111 bottles.
Nose: Rich pastry and tart dough, very creamy, a bit nutty, cooked barley, underlying suppressed volcanic eruption of spices, ginger, pepper, a dash of pears and apricots, lots of green apples peels, It’s very green with added mild citrus and very tarty. Over time gets some flowers fragrance edge. Continue reading
The Elements of Islay are a range of whiskies from Speciality Drinks, a sister company to the known The Whisky Exchange shop, that represents different Islay distilleries. Each Islay distillery is represented with a symbol, a chemical element like code, like Lg for Lagavulin, Lp for Laphroaig and so on, and the whiskies are bottled either as single casks or as small batches (5-20 casks).
But now there’s a new addition, and it’s not representing any new Islay distillery, although I’m sure we’ll get to see Gartbreck and Ardnahoe in the future. This time it’s a blended malt (or vatted malt for old time’a sake) and it’s called “Peat” so the full name would be “Elements of Islay Peat” (or is it the other way around?)
It’s an interesting addition, as Speciality Drinks also has the Port Askaig range and there’s already a NAS peated Islay whisky in this series, the Port Askaig 100 Proof. Indeed, the Port Askaig is a single malt and this one is blended malt, but I bet there’s a huge chunk of that distillery in “Peat” as well.
Nose: Starts out with some whiffs of young spirit which turns into big malt note, huge pile of BBQ meat, surprisingly not a lot of vanilla, cereals porridge, lemon, smoke, feels very fresh & kicking. After a few minutes, there’s some heaviness to the nose and it gets oily while revealing at the same time coastal saltiness and grapefruits. Continue reading
After breaking out the news on the forthcoming Lagavulin 8 Year Old, I thought it would be fitting to follow up with a Lagavulin review, especially when I really wanted to drink some Lagavulin after the news broke out and the excitement that rose up following it. And what’s more fitting than reviewing another limited edition Lagavulin which is also a youngster (comparing to the 16 Year old), the Special Releases Lagavulin 12 yo 2015?
This is not the first appearance of Lagavulin 12 on Whisky Gospel, as the 2012 edition was thoroughly reviewed, twice in fact, with the conclusion it’s an awesome Lagavulin, so let’s put the 2015 edition to the test – does it keep up the tradition?
Nose: First impression: fruity peat. It’s sweet with less of the vanilla and honey (to lesser degree) and with larger focus on fruitiness, pears, apricots, yellow plums, green tree bark, cured meat, deep mellow and soft peat smoke. After a few minutes I’m even getting soursweet tropical fruit juice, tiger balm and menthol. Sweet and earthy, oily and rich, just yummy! Continue reading
Update 2: I have a review up and it’s damn good. read here.
Update: As the Embargo expired last night, more details regarding Lagavulin 8 Year Old are popping up: Indeed it will be bottled at 48% and it was matured primarily in ex-Bourbon casks. It will be available starting at the distillery in late March, European retailers in April and June in USA. Estimated price: £50/€60/$65.
In addition, No further special bottles were confirmed except for the annual Feis Ile, Jazz Festival and Special releases bottles, although they will increase bottles count for Feis Ile bottling this year… 😉
Although we’re only in February, a special event in London was held earlier this month to mark the start of the 200th anniversary celebrations of Lagavulin Distillery. From what was revealed on the internet, they had a taste of a new, special but non Feis Ile bottling which was told to be very good, but no further details were revealed till now due to embargo.
However, a new Lagavulin label was revealed on the American Federal TTB site – a 8 Year Old Lagavulin, presumably bottled at 48%:
Continue reading
The Glenlivet Rare Vintage series is one I’ve been keen to taste for years as they had so many old (and expensive) vintages in this series, with even some whiskies from the turn of the 20th century!
And finally I get to taste a vintage from the series, courtesy of G&M and their “The Wood Makes the Whisky” campaign. This time it’s a Glenlivet 1974 vintage which is a vatting of whisky from refill American & refill Sherry casks.
Nose: Relaxed, fresh, dried fruit with sultanas and figs, some eucalyptus, nutty, furniture varnish, getting fragrance & fruit sweetness, sherried by balanced by the american oak, in fact it mat be suggestive but there’s some vanilla note below the surface. What a lovely nose! Continue reading
Yesterday it was The Deveron 12 turn and today it’s the older brother turn, The Deveron 18 Year Old. I had the opportunity to taste an advanced sample of Deveron 18 during Whisky Live Tel-Aviv, directly from visiting Bacardi ambassador Lomond Campbell. Luckily I saved some of it for later and deeper tasting so it made sense to compare the sample to the final commercially released whisky.
Advanced sample on the left, final Deveron 18 on the right. Notice the color difference.
As can seen from the picture above there’s a slight color change with the final version boasting a darker shade of color. Of course we can suspect some e150a involvement or go for the reasonable explanation that the final whisky vatting recipe was different. But was it? If so, the smells and taste should be different. Let’s check them.
Nose: Creamy, soft yet has some dust and spicy background with pepper, a lot of apples and toffee.
Palate: Apples, vanilla pudding, honey, cream, toffee, hints of spices, oak wood, dry.
Finish: Short medium finish, pudding, apples, oak wood, smooth and dry.
Nose: Very creamy and soft (more than the 1996 sample), apples and toffee, the spiciness is muted comparing to the sample and no dustiness.
Palate: Creamy, green apples, hints of toffee, honey and towards the end some black pepper at the background.
Finish: Short-medium finish, cream, green apples peels, oak wood spices and black pepper sticking to the upper mouth.
Thoughts: Yeah, the final whisky is a bit different. Personally I preferred the indicative sample over the official result. The advanced sample is a bit more rogue and more alive while the final whisky feels more refined and a bit flatter. In fact I think it’s too refined and smooth, making it a bit boring in my book. If I have to choose, I’d take The Deveron 12 over the Deveron 18 Year Old.
(Official sample from Bacardi)
Whisky Gospel 