Speyside Tasting

Speyside Tasting

The idea of this tasting was to compare proximity of distilleries and how distilleries really close together create different malts. This was to show how it's the distilling process that influences the malt created. You can't get much closer than Mannochmore and Glenlossie. Both Diageo. Both operational. And about 100 yards from each other. The second element was to show how casks can create different flavour profiles. So a from William Grant, a single cask from Balvennie and the 14 year old Rich Oak from Glenfiddich which uses both virgin Bourbon and virgin Sherry casks for a very short finish right at the end. Finally the classic Sherried Speysider and where else but Glenfarclas to show us the workings of the Sherry cask. Could have been Aberlour Abunadh - but we've done that one before.

Mannochmore 12 Flora and Fauna

Nose: Fresh, sweet, cereal, honey crunchy nut cornflakes. Slightly fizzy, estery and clean. Hints of those higher alcohols that faint nail varnish remover and pear drops. Tropical fruits. Starburst/Opal Fruit Lime. There's another strand - a slight brine, wet cardboard, wooden edge. A touch of balsa wood, hot burnt wood - like when you leave a wooden spoon on a hot pan - or that smell of hot wood you get in a sauna.
Taste: Dry, medium bodied. Sharp with a touch of bitterness. Citrus. Then more mouth-filling and light.
Finish: Medium.

Glenlossie 10 Flora and Fauna

Nose: Savoury with a more depth than the Manochmore. Fruit and nut with a mere, just traceable whiff of smoke way, way down in the back. There's a Jaffa cake vibe. Along with the clean element of Peppermint sweets, humbugs. Alongside that you've got some butterscotch, toffee and caramel kicking around. There's that savoury edge too, thick, gluey and viscous. With a weird hint of farmyard - almost silage.
Taste: Oily, big upfront spice. Touch of bitterness. Thick. Verges into cake mixture. Then a herbal touch, almost a Jagermeister herbiness (although not that pronounced obvo).
Finish: Medium in length as the oils take over and not as drying as the Mannochmore.

Balvennie 15 Single Cask

Great. Lost my notes for this one. Come back and have a read later, you never know might have managed to include some photographs of the bottles too. But don't hold your breath.


Glenfiddich14 Rich Oak

Nose: Initially sweet. Quite grassy and clean. Then there comes that rich oak! Hot wood. Both thick and point at the same time - like a big wedge. It goes off in two directions. Like different notes harmonising to make a chord - you can identify the separation of the elements and how they fit together - which is pretty cool. There's a bubble-gum spice - almost American rye like - which obviously comes from the Virgin Bourbon. Then there's that fruity element, with spice that nods to an Indian Restaurant.
Taste: Dry spice, then wood spice comes kicking in. It's light and almost like sadolin. Almost reminding of the way Japanese malts work out. It's got that temple thing about it. There's a lick of bittering spice which keeps it fresh and maybe a hint of corriander to follow that Inidan Restaurant riff.
Finish: Long and developed, slowly dissolving into a quaint tartness.

Glenfarclas 15

Nose: Sherry, dark chocolate, figgy cake. Thick. Dates. A touch of sulphur - slight but present as it dulls everything, hampering it from being as vibrant as I would expect.
Taste: Sweet, oily and mouth-filling. Warm with the Sherry oak influence. Then dry.
Finish: Bittering towards the end as it seems to gently fall apart. There seems to be a tang of sulphur that breaks it apart. I don't remember the 15 being as disjointed as this a few years back so I suspect it must be this particular batch. Put it down to a glitch. Only a couple of people picked up on it though, so most people were happy. The 10, although lighter, hangs together much better.

Irish Tasting

Okay.
Recently I ran a couple of Irish Whiskey tasting events. So what I've done here is to combine all of my the tasting notes into one super blog post. The events were both to the same brief but I tried to feature different whiskeys in both. To add another twist I also did an Irish Whiskey Tasting in the same venue a year ago (and so had to display completely different whiskies from the previous year).

Here's the brief:
For an Irish tasting I'm looking at covering the four separate styles made: single malt, single grain, blend and pot still. Combined with that I want to show the three main distilleries: Bushmills, Middleton and Cooley (I've got little chance of putting anything actually distilled at Kilbeggan unless I physically go there - just wanted to point that out) . So I've got five drinks in which to do that. And, as always, try and throw a couple of things in that people might not have had before, something that would be less likely to be seen in a bar that features over 100 different whiskies, and to get the whole lot in under £250.


And here's the ride:

Tasting One - Sheaf View April 2012

1. Bushmills 1608 400th Anniversary Edition (Blend - Bushmills)

2. Dun Leire 8 YO (Single Malt - Cooley) 

3. Greenore 18 YO (Single Grain - Cooley)

4. GreenSpot [New Presentation] (Pot Still - Middleton)

5. Redbreast 12YO Cask Strength (Pot Still - Middleton)

Tasting Two - Blake Hotel May 2012

1. Greenore 18YO (Single Grain - Cooley)

2. GreenSpot [New Presentation] (Pot Still - Middleton)

3. Jameson Select Reserve (Blend -- Middleton)
4. Bushmills 16 YO (Single Malt - Bushmills)
5. Connemara Turf Mor (Single Malt - Cooley)

Original Tasting - Blake Hotel May 2011
Greenore 8 Yo (Single Grain - Cooley)
Bushmills Black Bush (Blend - Bushmills)
Dun Leire 8 (Single Malt - Cooley)
GreenSpot [Old Presentation] (Single Pot Still - Middleton)
Tyrconnol Port Cask (Single Malt - Cooley)

A few clarifications - why the Dun Leire, well it was a fave from Jim Murray a couple of years back, also the Connemara I ordered failed to show (that was my "Irish do peat" card). Also it's a great bottle of booze and it went very well with the narrative of Cooley and how supermarket bottles helped the cash flow of the business and kept them on their feet and how now, with the sale to Beam Global in Decemeber 2011, the supermarket own brands that Cooley make will be disappearing from the shelves. It's also a pleasure to pop people's preconceptions too - that is, ask them if they like it and see the reaction when they're told it's a bought off the supermarket shelf.

Pretty much every bar has Bushmills blend, 10 Single Malt or Black Bush on the bar - the 1608 was a good deal from a leading whisky specialist at the time. 

Greenore 18. Well personally I love this stuff and it showed really well. Again there is a snobbery that people have about grain - about it being the cheap component in blends and so must be cheap itself. But  why the heck should the raw materials be discriminated in this way? It's all about the distillate, the cask and how it's aged.

Finally Middleton and Pot-Still. Well Pot-still is the DNA  of Irish whisky. It's unique to Ireland and so pretty much unique to Middleton (I've heard there may have been Pot-still experiments at Kilbeggan but there is no way I can know for sure). It's the combination of roughly 60% unmalted and 40% malted barley (historically for skimping on the tax that malted barley drew) that gives it it's uniqueness. I said in the show, taste un-malted barley - hard, starchy, fibrous, and then taste malted barley - that classic malt, sweet taste we know (remember Ovaltine surely!). Scotch may be all about single malt (malted barley) but Ireland is all about Pot Still.

Bushmills 1608 400th Anniversary Edition.

n - cereal, spice, paste, cocoa powder. mint, dry, dusty cereal after it opens up - a sharp, pointed attack. all trianglular at the the front

t - whoa that's nails. hard and unforgiving - like running into a concrete lamp post. the spice opens up quite quickly - like a airplane taking off and then banks it's way to a sharp bitter conclusion.

f - there's bitterness, but it's rock solid all the way. functional and direct.

this is not a soft dram - this is letting you know it's there. the barley and spice are intense. This bittle is made from Crystal Malt, which is slightly more expensive than Pale Malt and used in brewery to give a sweeter, toffee finish. there's nothing on the back palate it's all front loading all the way. the spice is sharp and unforgiving. it's like being told off, told to walk straight - fold your hands child you look like a peasant!!

Dun Leire 8 YO

n - sweet and dusty. broken orange. clean and homage. furniture polish, wax mr sheen. cheap cortina seats.
t - sweet, off kilter spice
bitter, burnt orange, burnt malt,
spice and tingle on lips and sides. nithing in centre of tounge.
clean, but one dimensional - it's a great riff just

finish is better, tangy spice, savoury fruity edge,

GreenOre 18 YO

Grain Whisky.
Beautiful depth. Enriching on the nose. It just keeps giving and giving. So much depth. You just want to drown in it. You can smell the years in the cask. They just slowly dissolve upon each sniff.  It continues on the palate. That beautiful pooling of grain, melting spice. Simply gorgeous. Like early Jill Scot or Erykha Badu. Confident, assured, soft, funk and groove.

GreenSpot

Ok, this is in the new fancy packaging. So I was expecting it to be the same whisky but with a moderrn look. Nah. As soon as I sniffed it, this is different. The old version was all menthol and Fox's Glacier Mints. Ultra smooth, crisp and clean. This one is a bit more noisy. There's a bigger spice presence. It's instantly spikeier and hotter. Maybe a touch of younger whiskies at play. But the easiness has gone and been replaced with something a little more modern. The difference between trousers and distressed jeans. Maybe this is a better whisky but it was not the whisky I was expecting.

Redbreast 12 Cask Strength.

Not any old Redbreast but a cask strength at 57.7%. This is the first time, I reckon, a pot still has been issued at cask strength. I know it's limited. But hopefully some will still be kicking around. 

The nose takes a minute to open up. Don't rush it. And then it becomes a garden of aromas. Layers of herbs, spices and sugars. Thick and viscous. So warm and inviting. A gentle waltz between sweet and savoury elements but everything complementary and gracefully in balance. Both masculine, in it's assured delivery and feminine in its pungency and a breathtaking array of heady bouquet. 

The delivery on the mouth is nothing short of huge. It's titanic! The spice is aggressively forward, especially at full strength. You can feel the weight of the cask roll over onto your tongue. It reminds me of bagels on Brick Lane in London smothered in mustard - the kick when you first bite in with your senses being beautifully assaulted - a slight pain but enveloping synapse pleasure. After it settles there's a slight burnt or charred note, a wee touch of natural caramel propping that up to create a bit of harmony - to keep it all in check. 

Even in the glass you can tell it's huge, the tears on the glass thick. The finish layers a little touch of woody bitterness, a slight tangy vibe at the edges of the tongue. Everso slightly fizzy. This whiskey is a beast. And perhaps one of the finest in the world. It's like Oblivion at Towers, in the queue the build up is intense, the complete fear as it sends you to the edge, and then the drop is nothing short of spectacular. Coming up for air. One of the most thrilling whisky rides this year - and a Jim Murray contender I'll wager.

Jamesons Select Reserve

Not expecting it to be that colour - had to check I hadn't tainted the glass. No it's deffo got a lovely orange hue to it. Unsurprising when you know that this particular version of Jameos is a blend of a fair whack of 12 year old Pot Still - 75% to be roughly exact and of that 75%, a quarter of it (that's 25%) has been matured in Sherry casks - which is a bit more than usual for a Jamesons release. Added to this is the rest of the blend (25%) is a special 5 year old grain whiskey that Middleton only cook up once a year over a few days. According to sources it's never been used or released before in a blend. What they do to it I do not know but I bet it involves a bit of knob tweeking and wash re-routing or something similar in the complexity of those giant Middleton stills. Anyway, is it any good? Well the South Africans reckon as it has been released over there in mid to late 2011 before hitting these shores in May (Which means when we did the tasting it was only a few weeks available).

Double anyway, it's soft and orangey on the nose and totally unlike Jameson. So I cracked open a standard bottle as a comparison (and smashed my nosing glass in the process which is why the photo shows the standard Jameson in a glass from Rum Fest - yes I could have put them both in a Glencairn but I couldn't be bothered - you can see the difference in colour though yeah? Good. Job done.)

Nose - Mealy, very soft, orange, gentle, luxourious. strawberry, chocolate banana (almost banana in a rum way), raisin, fudge. Toffee. Evaporated milk in those little tins. A nip of hot cake and custard.

Taste/Finish - oily, very oily. Skidding all over the mouth, a hunk of bitterness, but soft as well. The spice comes in very late indeed, you almost forget it should be there and it slowly makes it's presence known. Ambling in like the popular host at a party. There's a peppery catch to it which I find unusual - a bit like salt and pepper with a slight vegetal note at the back of the palate. Possibly like tempura battered salt and pepper bean curd with a slight chilli seasoning - or am I taking it too far here? It might make a food match if nothing else - especially working on the finish. Although a peanut satay may also be a winning food match move. 

It's a hotter product than the normal Jameson - there's more bit, a bit more swerve. Possibly a bit more machismo and at the same time wider and less one-direction than the standard blend. I can, maybe, see why this was intended for a hotter climate - the whiskey would certainly cut through with a mixer and make it's presence known.

Jameson

Nose - hard, keen spice, plateau power chord or circular riff - motorik even, alcohol making it's way present. 

Taste - oily and smooth, slight acidity, spice making a little shuffle apperance. still hard - like dancing in a straight jacket. You're not going to mess with Jameson - it's such a contender for all everything that it may as well be water. It's like a kitten, impossible not to love. The layering is so, so lovely. And subtle, the grain creating a little flashes of sweetness.

The finish is superb, it's still there, right at the end nagging you. C'mon we're not done yet. Perfectly drinkable with a straw out of the bottle, perhaps more-so than Jacky D. Overall, it's too drinkable a whiskey. I just noticed that whilst writing the introduction to this piece, and with both bottles equidistant from each other, that I unconsciously kept topping my glass up with the standard blend. Probably says it all right there.

Bushmills 16

This little baby is matured in the usual Bourbon/Sherry combo for 16 years before being finished in a Port pipe for a triple wood vibe. The deeper colour reflects the finish. Honestly, I'm not sure if the finish adds or detracts from the whiskey. The spice is tempered but that could do with age. It's comfortable, in a pipe and slippers way. Easy like a Sunday morning. Indeed this would probably be a great whiskey-in-bed. I reckon it would work really well a bit of bacon and touch of red sauce. (Note: I prefer bacon and brown but I'm not sure the whiskey would).

Vivid on the nose. Vivid. With a lot of depth and multiple layers. Big fruity kick. Melon. Figs and dates. A peek-a-boo hint of bitterness that darts in and shies out amongst the fruit salad. A subtle dose of wine. Stewed fruit. A banana. But it doesn't hang around. They kind of gang up, then scuttle away. There's a coconut. Coconut macaroon. Cakey. Dough mixture. Warm doughnut. Barley sugars.

The delivery is softer than I thought. The nose is all fruity and coy. It doesn't directly translate to the palate. There's not much spice present. It hints at being there but pretty much does a runner before it's cue. There's an odd bitter note that was hinted at in the nose but kind of rumbles in a luckluster way, neither offensive or sharp, surprisingly in balance and in check with the lack of spice. Oils pool. A certain sweetness. It's not as full bodied as expected. But in a good way. That bitterness is almost sardine like - oily fish. And bones. It finishes savoury and oil pooling. Smooth, like candy. 

Arran - Amarone Finish

Arran loves to finish their malts in various casks. I'm not sure if the public are getting a bit tired of all this yet but if they keep making it, we'll keep drinking it I suppose. Amarone is the big balls out Italian red - made particially by let the grapes shrivel after picking to remove water and thus concentrate the flavours. It' s a great wine - classic Itailian full bodied and generally not cheap. I've no idea how long they've let this rest in the cask but it's certainly leached out all the colour and there's a fair bit of sediment kicking around in the bottle too.

It's a bit of a two headed beast. Quite wire-like, thin and direct to start. On the nose a touch of astringency along with the sweet red wine from the cask. A bit stalky too. There's some malt in there as well, let's not forget. It's all zippy on the tongue; a bit of a ying-yang. Bounces around with interesting sweet-spice combo moves. It gets more intriguing as it develops and there's certainly a lot going on. And a little lick of salt right at the end just to add to the mix. Comparable to the Caol Ila Hermitage I had a while back in that it throws you a curve-ball, letting you decide what to do with it. Perhaps, due to the lightness of the base malt to begin with, it manages to pull off the wine cask finish more successfully than most by virtue of being slightly more integrated than others I've tried. An interesting experiment, it's a lot of fun, doesn't take itself too seriously and certainly worth an investigation and twenty minutes of your time. I've got a feeling that I'll probably be coming back to it a couple of times - I quite enjoyed the ride.

Caol Ila UnchillFiltered Signatory 2000

Standard Caol Ila and Islay. This is maturated for 11 years in two bourbon casks then vatted together to get around 600 bottles. Some of the time, like in the Connoisseur's Choice bottles from Gordon and MacPhail, you'll be seeing Caol Ila in refill Sherry casks. The Sherry wood seems to temper the peat slightly. Here, the Bourbon cask amplifies the smoke and peat reek. It's Caol Ila but revved up. The oils are there but the grassy notes are more subdued. The casks really clean out the spirit and make it very clinical and medicinal at the same time. It's got a killer instinct this one. A one directional force du jour. The nose is all smoke with salt and a touch of scorched wood. The taste kicks off initially sweet then the spice arrives later and then the smoke after that wafts quite forcibly through the whole lot. The finish is that smoke amplified, tar and bitter, almost sailing rope. The scorched wood, like aroma you get in a sauna is one of the over-riding themes.

Tyrconnel Port Cask

Tyroconnel - Port Cask Finish.

Nose - Depth and sweetness. A little liqourice allsorts style hit. You remember those blue ones covered with little dots? Well them. Still sweet but with savoury undercurrents. The mouth waters slightly. There's a lovely cereal depth, huge chunky malt presence. A tipple of chocolate. A leaning of a Cadbury Fruit and Nut. Pithy Orange. All the hallmarks of a classic Irish whisky.

Taste - Sweet, initially, With a lovely one-two touch off on the spice, integrating with the oak. Then the pooling of oils and the nod of a stalky bitterness. Creamy and a citrus sharpness.

There's not much to give the cask away. A touch of sweetness on the nose but nothing too much on the delivery to suggest an extended port finish. Maybe right at the very end when the spice has faded to a sweet ember does the touch of port play it's pipes.

Maybe this is both a good and bad thing. Maybe a little weary of over exposure for wood finishes. But maybe a little disappointed that doesn't live up to the expectations. However, is this a good whisky? Yes I say. Is it one I'm going to be remembering for years to come? Then probably not. Which is in itself a shame as with Jim Beam buying out Cooley it's unlikely that we ever will again.

Dead Arm 2005 - Shiraz

Like a few people I've met along the booze highway I started out my professional life as a wine advisor at Oddbins. I'd always had a love for exploring the world of drink and had been a customer at Oddbins for a number of years. I just loved the way the stores were quirky, the staff laid back and personal. It really demistified and democratized the whole wine selection process. Now there was a store where I could go in and the staff would go "Nah, don't buy that, spend a quid more and buy this." Where I could go in on a weekend, taste some obscure wine from Italy and be exciting, fascinated and envigorated. Working for Oddbins meant my interest went from a passing hobby into a full scale addiction. I wanted to know about the grapes, the soil, the producers. How a grape in a "New World" country fared against the same grape in an "Old World" county. I was in awe on how you could declare a grape, a country, a region and maye a price and vintage from the nose and palate. And so Oddbins set forth, codeified and solidified my love for all things drink.

Anyway, I was looking through my wine cellar the other day and realised I had a double bottle of D'Arenburg Dead Arm Shiraz from 2005. So I opened it up, let it breath and drank it over a couple of days. Maybe later on in the year may crack open the whole lot and check out each years efforts.

Dead Arm 2005

Deep, heady and pungent fruit. Emphasis on depth and heady. Black fruit. Ripe blackberries. Upfront nose. So inviting. Sweet vanilla suggestion with a tart edge. Just a smattering of black pepper - cracked.

Beautifully lilting. Waltzes with poise and grace. Developed blackberry then to a sharp hint and hit of tartness again. That bitter-sweet you get with freshly picked fruit. A touch of herbacious green. A slight leather touch.

After a while all the flavours intensify and combine. The balance becoming increasingly refined. The acidity bitterness mellows and the leather tannins warm and soften.