Whisky Review – Benromach 10 Year Old 100 Proof

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One of the great revelations of 2014 was discovering Benromach 10 year old. It was such a lovely surprise that It forced my hand to include it at the best whiskies of 2014 in my year review.

When G&M and Benromach announced they plan to release a 100 proof (57% vs the standard 40%) I was anticipating a cracker. I mean, come on, take a good whisky and turbo charge it – how bad can it be?

Benromach 10 Year Old 100 proof (57%, £36.67/€50)

benromach-10_100_proofNose: At first nosing it’s very different from the normal 10yo as the nose is very restrained. The high ABV is felt but the lovely plethora of notes that welcomed me with the std 10yo were hard to get here. it felt sherried but restrained, and after a while some chocolate, sweet dried fruits rise, but it stayed restrained so water were needed here. With water it opens up a bit revealing more light sherry and a bit of chocolate. The nose is not as balanced and is less sherried than the normal 10yo. Continue reading →

Glenmorangie Dornoch Review and Notes: What? Another boring limited edition? Shocking…

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Glenmorangie distillery have been on a roll this last year, releasing 2 new special and limited editions in addition to their yearly private collection release (last being the Companta reviewed here) : The Taghta (reviewed here) and Dornoch which is under the limelight today.

Glenmorangie Dornoch is a release in honor of Dornoch Firth, a vast and picturesque sea estuary. To raise awareness for the conservation of the Dornoch Firth, Glenmorangie has partnered with the Marine Conservation Society to preserve this precious waterway and a percentage of the revenues from this bottle will go toward the Marine Conservation Society to help sustain the estuary.

Glenmorangie Dornoch itself is a no-age-statement single malt Scotch comprised of liquid matured in American oak barrels and lightly peated whisky further matured in ex-Amontillado Sherry casks and is available exclusively in Travel Retail shops.

Glenmorangie Dornoch (43%, NAS, Travel Retail, £60)

Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Aultmore 25 Year Old

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Last and at the top of new Aultmore lineup is the Aultmore 25 Year Old. Although it’s at the top it is only temporary as there are plans for 31yo and 35yo expressions in the future.

But at the moment the 25yo is the crown jewel of the new Aultmore lineup so let’s check and see how good is it.

 

Aultmore 25 Year Old (46%, £296)

Aultmore_25YONose: Gentle and flowery honey, at first it’s herbal but soon leans toward flowery. There are vanilla and mild sweet cream, musk & layer of drying heather fields at autumn giving it some earthy side, a touch of dried old leather.It’s not sweet as the 21 yo as the earthy side tone it down. Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Aultmore 21 Year Old

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Continuing with the new Aultmore lineup and the next one up the ledger is the 21 Year old which is exclusive to Travel Retail (for one year). I’ve noticed there’s a serious gap here from 12 to 21 and it’s far cry from the Craigellachie line that boasts 13 and 17 year old expressions before going to Travel Retail exclusive of 19 year old. Why is that? I have no idea, but it could be attributed to lack of quality casks of this age range, spirit profile didn’t fit the plans or they simply plan on releasing a mid range one in the future.

Anyway, back to the liquid in the spotlight. It’s Travel Retail exclusive, you can find it in different airports. For example I was told by a friend it’s on the shelves in EDI shop for about £125. Yeah, pricey, but maybe it does warrant the price tag?

Aultmore 21 Year Old (46%, ~125)

Aultmore_21YONose: Deep and dark floral & honey smell with underground river of spice. further sniffs reveals red apples, large dash of toffee and fudge, and the sweetness slowly turns herbal. Got to say it’s not very complex but it’s lovely!  Continue reading →

Whisky Review – Aultmore 12 Year Old

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Aultmore is the 2nd new distillery released under the Last Great Malts lineup from Bacardi. After Craigellachie, here comes another, almost anonymous, Speyside distillery with totally new lineup ranging from 12yo to 25yo.

Aultmore

AULTMORE has been producing malt whisky since 1897, yet little is known about this obscure distillery. Often cloaked in thick fog and exuding an air of mystery, the sparsely populated land surrounding its site has always felt somewhat isolated. The distillery sits in the sweeping hills of Moray, just north of the town of Keith on the rolling road to Buckie.

 It was built by Alexander Edward, close to curious terrain called the Foggie Moss. This enigmatic area, well known for illicit distillation in days gone by, is home to Aultmore’s water source. Damp, atmospheric conditions prevail here and the water, filtered through the gorse and heather that abounds, is crucial to the whisky’s light, clear character.

I tasted a few Aultmores, mostly from The Scotch Malt Whisky Society and loved them, but most of their production used to go for blends as it provides a light, grassy and sweet speyside profile which blenders seems to like, so let’s see how the OB are performing and we’ll start with the entry level one, the Aultmore 12 Year old.

Aultmore 12 Year Old (46%, £41.95 / €40.85)

Aultmore_12YONose: Light, fresh, sweet honey from wild flowers, grassy, some almonds milk, delicate and fresh. A real nice nose. Continue reading →

Wolfburn Distillery whisky ‘preview’ – The forthcoming new kid on the block

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2015 is now fully here. The western world has returned to work, winter is upon us and now upon the arrival of weekend which we all need for recovery, I wanted to get back to the posting routine with something special. A preview of a new distillery: The Wolfburn Distillery.

Wolfburn logo

Last year was packed with news and announcements on new distilleries. Some started distilling at last (Kingsbarns Distillery, The Lakes Distillery and Ardnamurchan Distillery) or just plans were announced like Mark Reynier Waterfront Distillery in Ireland.

But some are ahead of the curve, like Wolfburn Distillery.

Located in Thurso at the top of the highlands region (only Orkney distilleries are farther north). Wolfburn distillery was brought to life because of the rising demand for whisky all over the world and because it’s located mere 300 meters from the old Wolfburn distillery which was active there in the 19th century (1821 to 1877) so drawing upon history and the ability to use the same water source (The Wolf Burn) made sense to the founders.

 

Rebuilding_Wolfburn1

Shane Fraser, formerly the manager of Glenfarclas, was brought to run the distillery, and after construction that took place in 2011 and 2012, and the equipment was installed in place, they started production in January 2013, so in exactly one year (or so) we’ll see Wolfburn’s inaugural release and it’s a great time to look upon the Wolfburn history and what’s waiting for us.  Continue reading →

Port Ellen 1983 Golden Cask (27yo) Review and Notes or why Port Ellen is an iconic distillery

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Last review was from a not-so-heralded distillery from Diageo portfolio, yet the Caol Ila 25 is a good and affordable dram. But today we go to the other side of the pendulum, going for a rare and expensive whisky from one of the two iconic distilleries in their portfolio: Port Ellen.

This one was a big surprise. Last summer I toured UK/Scotland and on the way north I passed through Tyndrum , the small village where The Green Welly Stop whisky shop resides. Ever heard of them? Awesome shop with solid web presence where you can buy them in a matter of few clicks. I’ve been chatting with Craig, the guy behind their web presence for a long time and was sorry to hear he wasn’t around that evening I passed through. Still, he prepared me a surprise goodies bag and this little Port Ellen bottle was in there. Oh how was I surprised!

I don’t need to tell you the story about Port Ellen distillery, right? Way too many articles, ink and pixels were devoted to that but sufficient to say that nobody could forecast the rise of Port Ellen to iconic status back in the 80s (post closure) or in the 90s and any Port Ellen bottle on the market is snapped up by drinkers and collectors although lately it must be more of the latter type as the prices are on a high rise and the latest official bottling of Port Ellen is on sell for 2,200 quid.

As you don’t get too many chances to try such rare and expensive whiskies nowadays, and the the liquid level was generous, I felt compelled to share this luscious whisky with others so this is exactly what I did and so three people enjoyed this lovely dram.

As one of the other benefactors is another whisky blogger, today we present you the readers a cross-blog review of this lovely dram! You can read Michael’s review at Malt and Oak blog and my notes right here and

Port Ellen 1983 Golden Cask (52.5%, 27 Year Old)

port ellen 1983 golden cask CM136Nose: oh boy, you just can’t hate that old, wet and dumpy peat on the nose. Especially when it comes with old Oloroso sherry. there’s some oak tannins here, raisins and a mix of sour and sweet plums. Overall its very gentle yet powerful and with old library dusty feeling which I could sniff for hours. Continue reading →

Caol Ila 25 Year old review and notes

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A new year has started and I hope you don’t have a hangover from last night festivities (at least not a bad one 🙂 ) so let’s welcome in the new year with a mini series of lovely high-end whiskies (you can call them posh if you want to), some are way expensive and some are still affordable – just like the one we review today: Caol Ila 25 Year Old.

It’s the revision that Caol Ila started bottling in 2010 at 43% while previous versions in 2004/5 were bottled at cask strength (if you got any of those, drop me an email!).

Caol Ila 25 (43%, £158/€187.5)

caol ila 25Nose: Hmm, I tend to forget how age diminish the peat impact and so the initial big fruity note caught me a bit off guard but then a gentle peat smoke joins in the background with pine, apples and sweet green melon. there may be even a bit of perfume here. with a few drops of water we also get honey. Continue reading →

Yamazaki Sherry Cask notes and review: Best whisky in the world? Really?

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Tomorrow is the last day of 2014 and it will be the day of the year summary post so today, we’ll take a look at one semi-controversial whisky: Yamazaki Sherry Cask.

jm2015_smallWhy is it controversial? Because a guy with a panama hat selected the latest revision (2013) as the best whisky in the world in his best seller “Whisky Bible 2015” book.

Now, Mr. Murray isn’t a newcomer to controversial selections as many eyebrows were also raised upon his selections in the last 2 years with Glenmorangie Ealanta and Thomas H Handy Sazerac 2011.

So, as a whisky geek, I was very curious to taste this whisky (of course ) and see what’s all the fuss is about. Thanks to a friend (Thanks again Manny!), I managed to taste it along with Michael (See his review on Malt and Oak blog).

But before I diving into the tasting notes allow me to say that I’m a firm believer that whisky tastes and opinions are subjective. Each one has different taste buds, different set of senses, different past experience and you just cannot take ones selection and adopt it to yourself and not expect some fissures and disagreements between his notes and ranking and your own.

Frankly, my theory is that this selection was consciously done to provoke the public and to raise a discussion in the whisky community and the Scottish distilleries, and of course, to sell more books.

Yamazaki Sherry Cask 2009 (48%, NAS)

yamazaki sherry cask 2009Nose: Fresh wood polish and color with vinegary sherry and sour berries. Then comes huge sweet concentrated plums and hints of pepper and exotic spices. Continue reading →