Here's the brief: 5 Scottish Single Malts representing different regional areas, different cask types (e.g. sherry v bourbon). Mainly aimed at the beginner but with a twist to keep a couple of old timers excited. In a pub that sells single malts (so no "classic malt series" thanks) £10 a ticket 25 people max.
Without repeating the night wholesale, and cutting a very long story short - what was explored were:
The Lowlands - represented by Bladnoch 20 (distillery bottling)
Speyside - represented by Aberlour 10 Sherry Cask Finish (French bottling)
Highlands - Clynelish 12 (Friends of Classic Malt) n.b. also representing a bit of a "coastal" vibe.
Islands - Highland Park (G&M Cask 1997) - Small Batch, Sherry Cask, Cask Strength.
Islay - Bowmore Tempest 10 YO Batch#3 - Small Batch, Bourbon Cask, Cask Strength.
So the idea being to compare and contrast a couple of Sherry dominanted casks - the Aberlour and the Highland Park - plus upfront bourbon casks - the Bowmore (1st fill bourbon). Plus Cask strength A.B.V.s (Bowmore and Highland Park). And generally to present 5 malts that try to represent the various geographical and taste profiles of Scotland whilst also being fairly "user-friendly" AND at the same time throwing a curve ball or two in for some people who may have drunk the more obvious malts or had drunk some of the malts that the bar had in stock (e.g. Aberlour 16). So that was the brief. Got it? Ok no bother.. on with the show.
Bladnoch 20
46%
On the nose it's chocolate chip cookie dough and vanilla ice cream. It's light, apples, a touch of spice, perhaps a faint whiff of smoke behind it, crunchy green apples coming back again. Apple and custard. A vibe of a lazy summer orchard, a hot summers day, and so maybe there is that distant smoke from a fire on the wind. But it's fleeting. There's flowers, heady flowers. A touch of 60s love psychedelica, but having said that this is 20 years old and so maybe 90s love beads, baggy and bowl haircuts are more probable!
The taste follows the nose. Apples again. Green and grassy. Melting quickly away. Lollypops. Apple pie and cinnamon spice. The finish is likewise. Smooth, short-ish but tasty. Balanced summer lightness all the way.
Aberlour 10
43%
This particular bottle is a French only release. Finished in Sherry Casks. It kicks off quite closed on the nose. Perhaps even diffident. Perhaps even defiant. Oddly, it feels French. There's an odd element of apples and perhaps Calvados. Different from the Bladnoch - it's not green crunchy summer apples but toffee-red pulped and stewed. There's a malt cereal note. There's a young alcohol and fresh paint note. The sherry cask brings the autumnal leaves in the boating lake. Other Aberlour's, like the 16, feel softer but this has a stricter, tighter feel.
On the palate it's youth and spice. It takes a small while to reach it, an existential shrug, a drying and then the canter of giddy spice. Exuberance and nervous folly. Still structured but around a loose framework. Still space to grow into bones. Finding it's flesh. Like a horse learning to walk. The finish also. Dries with more confidence than the delivery. Gangs on the back palate, making a show, asserting it's presence; it's influence insecure.
Is this the most perfect whisky to go with food? It's anomalies straightened out and synched in? I think so. Scotch but perfectly French.
Clynelish 12 (Friends of Classic Malt)
Ok so this is one for those who've done in the back bar a bit - it's a F.O.C.M bottling. The distillery bottling usually weighs in at the 14YO mark so this is a couple of years of youth young.
This is going to sound odd but on the nose it's grilled chicken breast, wet dog, the embers of a dying fire, that ozone smell of the beach, the inside of a tent at night. A slight hint of sea salt, oily engine oil, fatty deposits - coastal. The fats come back, building up like slightly off butter or a build up on a blocked cooker hood.
On the palate, that inside of a tent aroma is repeated. Not that summer sun hit, but that respite from the cold. There's a chill in the air and you're safely tucked up. It's drier and more mealy than the 14YO. Slightly more dirt. Less polite and a bit more turf, mud and oil. Salt and sweat. There is a tiny hint of fruit. Maybe a shimmy of toffee. Fleeting but more than trace.
The finish carries on what went before. Slight bitter edge. Bitter + oil + salt + bitter + oil. Gluey. Oil.
Underneath it all, there's fruit trying to elbow it's way out. Savoury apples. Bonfire toffee. Salt.
Highkand Park
G&M Cask 1997 (Casks 5825/5826/5827/5828 - 1st and Refill Sherry Hogsheads)
Dist. 17/11/97 Btl. 17/3/08
ABV 57.1%
On the nose it's warming sherry, Christmas cake, Battenburg and icing. Flowery and floral.
There's a touch of smoke - not really peaty. Something much warmer and rounded. Coming up towards the smell of treacle tart. Slightly overdone. Burnt treacle. As expected at this ABV it takes a while to open up but when it does those raisin and currant elements start to shine through. It's thick this nose. Dense. Turned chocolate cake mixture, cooked salami, chunky choc chip. There's a lot to go through and it's changing all the time. Occasional hints of swimming pool and then straight back in to a dry malt, dusty hay loft. Totally heady. So inviting.
Like the nose the flavour profile is several changes up and down. There's a load of various stages. This is a complex dram. More so than the distillery bottling or the last Signatory that we looked at. The Signatory Unchillfiltered was all smashed orange and engine oil, here those Sherry casks really take hold. There's lip tingling spice from the off, less sweet than the distillery bottles. Dry, then smooth, then metal, then savoury then nut, nut in a big, big way. Lingering spice on the finish. Toast. Burnt buttery toast at the end. A tang in the mouth.
Bowmore
Tempest Batch 3 10 YO
ABV 55.6%
Cheating a little as this was put on a Best of 2011 tasting I did back in January at another location. Yeah I reckon this is a proper bang-for-the-buck malt. It's nice to see Bowmore up the gear as well - I've always enjoyed their products but felt that somehow that the last couple of years have not been as good as I used to remember them (but maybe that's just me).
Clean and beautifully golden.
Smoke instantly on the nose but entwined with a lightness and a touch of sparkling orange. There's peat and there's sea, a lovely maritime number enveloped in some tidy fruit and a healthy chunk of chocolate. Like eating a chocolate orange next to a bonfire on the beach.
It's a full on ABV and can quite happily take a bit of water. Without water it's a full on steam roller chugging heavy on the palate and smashing it's way round like a naughty ox. It certainly opens up a bit more, with some water, making the smokiness a little bit more intense even. It's dry to start but the orange theme is reiterated later on. There's an intense rush of spice. Then that dry peat smoke lingers. Giving way to the salty sea.
We had one of the Bowmore Adelphi Bottles a while back and that was Autumn/Winter Islay. Well this is Spring/Summer Islay. It's got sunshine in it's step. Citrus fruit, a twist of lemon and the persistence of peat. It's got a lovely balance and fantastic layered depth. It's no wonder it made the Best of 2011 tasting.
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