Category Archives: Port Ellen

Tasting five SMWS bottlings

Back in October, 2011, I had the pleasure of attending the Boston Single Malt and Scotch Whisky Extravaganza which is held by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society of America.

If you’re not a member of the SMWS(A) then the Extravaganza would be the only place you’d get to try their Single Cask, Cask Strength whiskies (they always 5 of their bottlings to sample from at these shows).  And while that’s all fine and dandy, not being a member means you are excluded from access to their 60 or so whiskies they release on a yearly basis (about 5 per month).

Being upfront, I am not an employee of the SMWS and do not receive any compensation to tout their goodness.  I’m just a proud, card carrying member of the society and have been wowwed enough times by the whiskies they release (and I buy) that I feel comfortable in saying that you should consider becoming a member.

Again, with being upfront, I will tell you that not all of their whiskies are winners.  I’ve have had a few bottlings, here and there, that were just not up my alley.  We all have different palates so it makes sense that I’m going to find one that the society loved and I just did not.

Last disclaimer – the whiskies being reviewed below were samples given to me by the SMWS – special thanks goes out to Gabby for the samples!

“Pass the Flapjacks” – 50.42 – 18yo – Refill ex-bourbon Hogshead – 56.9% – Bladnoch$130/bottle

On the nose –  A sweet, yet light nose.  Fresh honey crisp apples, cotton candy and cola barrels (those brown hard candies).  Unbaked sweet buns; heavy on the sweet unbaked doughy notes.  Not a super complex nose but very warming/inviting.  With water, those buns start to bake a bit but that apple sweetness goes away.  Milk chocolate fudge.

On the mouth – Very hot, alcoholic and sweet.  More apples and honey.  I think it needs water.  Celery and salt (but not celery salt – I’ve gotten this mix before from other whiskies).  Cinnamon and cinnamon red hot hearts (with that added sugar from the candy).  Water calms it down a bit and brings out more of the honeyed quality.

Finish – Medium in length, some slight drying and an apple sweetness comes through.

“Chutney on hot wood” – 71.33 – 20yo – Refill sherry butt – 57.4% – Glenburgie $140/bottle

On the nose –  I think the SMWS notes provided on the bottle (which I read afterwards) hit it on the head with the French onion soup note – beef stock, onions and sharp cheese all wrapped into one.  Cooked ginger and heavy sweet rum cakes.  Spiced & cooked nuts and dirty socks – reminds me (a bit) of the SMWS Macallan 24.111.  I think it’s the type of sherry cask (Amontillado perhaps?).

On the mouth – Very sweet and savory with combined notes of liver and onions and hoisin sauce.  This is an odd duck that shouldn’t work but does; and in a very cool way.  No water needed here.  The attack is welcome and the flavors are aggressive.  Nice drying effect toward the end.

Finish – Warming, savory and woody yet not overly so.  Long.

“Old Fashioned Tea Chests and Maple Candy” – 125.48 – 12yo – Dechar/rechar ex-bourbon hogshead – 52.1% – GlenmorangieAs of Dec 14, 2011, this is yet to be released.

On the nose –  Very very sweet.  Scents of ice wine and Halls cough drops – menthol and all.  Under ripe stone fruits.  Danish butter cookies (I love butter cookies!) and an old shalalee.  White berries (gooseberry mostly).  With time, the Glenmorangie character really comes through.  Like and intense and spicy Glenmorangie Original.

On the mouth – Woody (as expected with a dechar/rechar cask).  I’m getting notes that I’d usually associate with a sherried whisky like dried fruit and leather yet there’s also flavors I’d normally find in an ex-bourbon barrel like vanilla, pencil shavings and cinnamon.

Finish – Short finish.  Tannic and leathery.

“Alice in Wonderland whisky” – 27.90 – 10yo – Refill ex-bourbon Hogshead – 50.6% – Springbank$90/bottle

On the nose –  Smoldering beach fire with wet drift wood (think of thick salty smoke here).  Not unlike and ashtray.  Peppery as well.  Excuse me while I sneeze.  Hidden, way in the background is something sweet… Pixie stix?

On the mouth – Sweet and smokey and sooty and burnt and doused fires and burnt sugar on creme brule and motor oily with a side of brazil nuts.

Finish – Insanely long – imagine enjoying this at a construction site while a parking lot is being laid while you are eating bit-o-honeys.

“Desperate Dan whisky” – 127.9 – 9yo – Refill ex-bourbon Barrel – 56.9% – Port Charlotte$90/bottle

On the nose –  A bit of a shy nose but unmistakably peaty – not smokey, peaty.  Also, extremely medicinal and… sterile and things that should remain sterile like old folks homes and hospital beds.  Also some dried cardboard in here (perhaps more of the tails cut in the original spirit run?).  Dried pineapples.

On the mouth – Tropical fruits all around – pineapples, star fruits and ever a floral quality to it.  Spicy too.  Burnt microwave popcorn.  Did I mention that the mouthfeel was big, oily and lush?  Very nice.

Finish – Long and hot and drying.

In sum – This was a wild ride.  Five completely different whiskies from the same bottler.  While I’d not reach out for every bottle here, as one who loves to explore whisky, I could do this again and again.  In the end, was there a winner (other than me or you, should you try something like this)?  It’s got to be the 71.33 – Glenburgie.  I loved the mix of flavors, balance and complexity.

Happy dramming!!

Signatory Port Ellen 1982, Bourbon Cask #1202, 26 years old

Islay region – 54.1% – $339 | £? | €?

An out of the blue voicemal:

Marshall (this voicemail is completely paraphrased): “Hey Joshua, Marshall here, just checking to see if you might want a sample pour of some Port Ellen the LASC just got”

I was busy setting up a tradeshow booth so I sent a text:

Joshua: “As ‘The Dude’ would say: Does the Pope shit in the woods? Hell yes!”

The back and forth goes on from there but there are too many expletives and references to “Jewish English” that would make my reproducing of the entire transcript too risque for the JSMWS blog.  No shit.

Special thanks to Marshall and the LASC for the “bad-a$$ F&#$ing great pour” sent to me!

On the nose Lemon soap suds & sweaty canvas sneakers.

Bright smoke.  Burning, salty driftwood.

Chamomile tea and a bushel of hay on a very, very humid summer’s day.

After a while the bourbon influence is very noticeable with scents of cinnamon and vanilla even fresh corn.

After this, it gets a bit dank and dewy.

On the mouth The ABV is barely… wait a sec.  Wow, this is really…really heating up on me.

Oh crap!  This goes from oily, soft and sweet then onto being thin, hot and fiery in a matter of 6-7 seconds…

Let’s have another go at this:  Grassy, earthy, flinty, almost electric.

It starts off with freshly bitten plum then moves into pink lemonade.

This is evolving with every single sip.

Soapy, like on the nose and growing into sugary tart Sweetarts.

Honeyed teas and salted, baked lemons.

Finish Lasting and evolving, hot, spicy and lemony sweet.

In sum Nicely balanced.  I really dug the way the flavors exploded and evolved with every second.  A late summer’s night dram if you have a shit ton of cash to spare!  Very enjoyable.  For the $$ tag on this one, I can spend less on another whisky that can also be enjoyed on a late summer’s night.

Big Peat (or, what you’d get if you mixed Ardbeg, Bowmore, Caol Ila & Port Ellen in a really smart way)

A vatting of Islay region whiskies – 46%ABV – $80 – $100 | £30 | €35

Continuing my week of vatted/blended whiskies, I move onto “Big Peat”.

Not sure about what it’s like where you are but, it’s getting colder around here (Connecticut, USA).  Especially at night.  I’m seeing temps at 40 – 55deg fahrenheit (about 4.5 – 13deg celsius).  To me, based on my patent pending Mood-And-Season-O-Meter™, this means peat season!

I love a good smokey Islay malt in the fall & winter time (heck, I’ll take a heavy/smokey Campbeltown or a peated Highland malt too).  Mood will affect what you reach for in a whisky and season will affect your mood.  It’s the triple “S” effect.  No, not Shit, Shower & Shave.  Stupid, simple science.  Light & fruity whiskies (and wines) for the warmer months, heavy (and/or peaty for whiskies) and big for the cooler months.  Stupid, simple science.

I’ve been hearing a whole heck of a lot about the cost of this whisky accompanied with complaints of: “why so much for a… blend?”  Many folks see that this is, and is labeled as, a blended whisky so they wont break out their wallets for it because of the higher cost (especially in America).

Statements such as these make me break out my soap box so I can scream to the world “MORE THAN 90% OF SINGLE MALTS ARE BLENDS PEOPLE!!!”

Yes, it’s true.  That Glenfiddich 12, Highland Park 18 or Caol Ila 18 you love so much is a blend of many different barrels which could (and do) contain whiskies that are, 12, 15, 18, 25 years, etc… to create a flavor profile that the distilleries are comfortable labeling as their 12, 15 or 18 year old product.  Single Malt simply means that the whiskies were malted at the same single distillery.  The age statement tells you what the youngest whisky is that blend, I mean, single malt.

Update: In years past, if you mixed different malt whiskies from different distilleries it was OK to call it a “vatted malt”; if you mixed malt whisky with grain whisky it was then called a “blend”. Even though this is a vatting of four different single malt whiskies, the SWA has deemed that a mixture of whiskies from two or more distilleries (be it malt or grain) is now to be called a “blend”.  While I’m not sure I agree with this move, thems the breaks when it comes to labeling Scotch whisky!

OK, off of my soap box.  Let me review this fluid to see if  it’s worth its weight in whisky:

On the nose Well, there is big peat in here for sure!   A nice peat blast upon initial whiff.

Very briny and a blast of lemon zest.

Do I detect a bit of sherry influence here (mere hints of dried fruits)?

Well used canvas sneakers (rubber, canvas and salty perspiration).

A little flinty (maybe the Port Ellen rearing it’s head).

The smoke is a dirty one.

On the mouth It’s all about the mouthfeel here folks.

Lush, chewy and coating.  Yum!

Stewed root veggies.  Salty, salty, salty.

Less of a smoke attack on the mouth here.

Teas galore: Chamomile, Sencha, Black Oolong and Rooibos – it’s all there and a bit over steeped.

Finish Sweet carrots and singed tea leaves, all in the back of the mouth.

In sum Tough to tell which whisky is strongest here.  The Ardbegian lemons are out there for sure but so is the flintiness of Port Ellen and the mouth feel of many Bowmores I’ve have.  I’d be happy to enjoy this on a hot summer’s day.  Seriously.  It’s bright and refreshing (even with all of that peat smoke) like a nice Caol Ila.  Kudos to the people who made this blend.  Well done.  Take a bow (more)!  Impressive.

Port Ellen 1978 24yr 2nd Release

Islay region – 59.35%ABV – cask strength – 700ml bottle – $?? | £?? | €?? – I could not find this one available anywhere.  It was bottled in 2002 and limited to 12,000 bottles.  My guess is that it was in the £250 range (which is more like $450 to my fellow yanks out there).

I consider myself very fortunate to have met so many interesting and kind people in the wide world of twitter.  I could go on naming names but I wont.  I will say, with regards to this tasting, I need to thank one of my twitter friends: Keith from Whisky Emporium.  He and I did a sample trade and my sample was this lovely and rare Port Ellen expression.  Keith, thank you.  If you’ve not visited Whisky Emporium yet, please do.  There are lots of great tasting notes, glass suggestions for different malts, whisky & food pairings, whisky & chocolate pairings, etc…  He’s got a very robust & unique site.

With regards to Port Ellen, it’s really one of the few Islay distilleries that I basically know nothing about.  Rather than focus on the distillery, I will focus more on the whisky itself.  If you’d like some information on the Distillery, here is a link from The Whisky Exchange with more info.

I will say that this stuff was so unique (especially given the style of the whisky itself, as you will read below, and it being an Islay malt) that I do plan on finding out more about Port Ellen and the history of expressions.  And, if my funds take a huge turn for the better, I may even buy some of this stuff.  I can tell you that Port Ellen whiskies are rare and uber-expensive!!

Initial whiff Wow, this noses more like a Cambeltown – Grassy/flowery peat, fruity, definite hints of sea breeze.  Maybe a little bit of the smell of an electrical charge, metallic (not Metallica, though this stuff does rock) in a way.

On the mouth Nearly undrinkable without water.  Some like it hot and some sweat when the heat is on, I’m sweating here… I need a little water.  Ahhh, much better.  Back to the fruits (think citrus – oranges & kumquats), grassy again, malty, waxy mouth feel, lots of smoked seafood here (yes, this coming from a vegetarian (I used to eat fish)), tar (sans feathers) and very delicate peat.  It is 24 years old after all.  It seems the peat has lost much of it’s fight or, better yet, it’s compromised with the other elements.  Very complex and quite yummy!

Finish Long, the fruits stay but now the peat is a wee bit stronger.

In sum This stuff is worth it’s weight in gold.  It’s an Islay in Campbeltown’s clothing.  Of all the regions, I do love Campbeltown the most.  Extremely complex, lots of salt, fishy peat & yummy citrus.  Because of the lighter style (read: more delicate peat with the addition of salt & fruits) I would suggest this one in the spring or summer time when you just want to take it easy or feel refreshed.  Good luck finding some though!!