Category Archives: Moods/Seasons

A World of Discovery, Speyside Distillery

Old Malt Cask 20yo Speyside

 

OMC-Speyside-1Speyside region – 50% ABV – from a single Oloroso Sherry Butt, 150 bottles for the US.  Not sure who got the rest of the bottles from this butt… Maybe a UK/EU Bottling at 700ml?

This whisky reminds me of the theme song to Spielberg’s old cartoon (that I LOVED as a kid/teenager), Tiny Toons.

Here we have single cask of whisky matured in an Oloroso Sherry butt.  What would we usually expect from sherry wood?:  Notes of dried fruits, leather, chocolate, brown spices, cherry stones, cola syrup, etc…  Deep and dark, sometimes cloyingly sweet flavors.

But this cask is breaking all of the rules!

“So here’s Acme Acres,
It’s a whole wide world apart,
Our home sweet home,
It stands alone,
A cartoon work of art!
The scripts were rejected,
Expect the unexpected
On tiny toon adventures
It’s about to start!”

OMC-Speyside-2On the nose –  A wonderfully peppery nose that has hints of coastal grasses, medicinal throat lozenges, model glue and diaper cream.

A hint of peat perhaps – not smoky at all but an interesting waft of peat and vegetality.

OMC-Speyside-3Onion crisps (Funyuns™) malt grist and vinegar.  A touch of honey and citrus comes to the fore.

Not an every day sort of nose for me but I am really digging the components.  Well put together so far and above all, interesting.  Let us carry on, wayward son!

On the mouth –  Much more restrained and fruity than expected.

OMC-Speyside-4That coastal element comes out again (again with the grasses and now salty beach stones) and reminds me a bit of what I love about the Laddie Ten.

Loads of white pepper and a gooseberry sourness to boot.  More onion crisps and a hint of adobo spice.

OMC-Speyside-5Very malty, this one.  Like a malt beverage cut with 2% white cranberry juice.

Mouth feel is like flat soda.

Finish – The flavors dissipate pretty quickly but some zing remains on the tongue.

In sum – A very interesting whisky that would likely do well in a tasting of many different whiskies.  Not my favorite Speyside bottling but the nose get extra points for uniqueness.

It’s whiskies like this that get me excited when looking to explore deeper within a distillery to see what it can offer.  This helps to show why single casks are so unique and sometimes quite special.  Or, in this case, odd and a ton of fun.

Special thanks to the folks at ISW for the official sample!

An everyday dram, Glenglassaugh, Takin' It Easy

Glenglassaugh’s latest official bottling – “Evolution” which is matured in George Dickel Tennessee whisky barrels

 

Highland region – 57.2%ABV – £57 | $93

Crack that whip / Give the past the slip / Step on a crack / Break your momma’s back

When a problem comes along
You must whip it

Before the cream sits out too long
You must whip it

When something’s going wrong
You must whip it

Now whip it, Into shape, Shape it up, Get straight, Go forward, Move ahead, Try to detect it, It’s not too late, To whip it.  Whip it good.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Devo as much as the next guy.  In fact, I likely love Devo way more than the next guy and think their music is quite genius but man, these lyrics go on and on and I never got them (but love the ever living snot out of the song).

I’m such a Devo-geek that as soon as I heard what Glenglassaugh was calling their 2nd bottling, Evolution, I thought of Devo.  (Who, by the way, got their band name from the concept of De-evolution – “the idea that instead of continuing to evolve, mankind has actually begun to regress, as evidenced by the dysfunction and herd mentality of American society“.)

Whatevs – rock and roll!!

And now, perhaps my favorite version of The Rolling Stones “Satisfaction”:

Ok, enough with my love of the Devo, let’s get on with my new found love of the Evo(lution)!

Glenglassaugh-1On the nose –  Another “confident” whisky here.

To start, a great and somewhat forceful interplay between churned butter, oodles of butterscotch and fresh white grapefruit.

Heaps of white pepper and vanilla wrapped in saran wrap and all warmed up (yes, this is a warming nose).

Glenglassaugh-2Did I mention butterscotch?  Yes, I did.  Just above.  It’s well worth another mention though…

Barley cakes & oat cakes.  Light lemon notes and soft leather gloves.

Glenglassaugh-4On the mouth – Perhaps it should have been called “Explosion.”  This dram bursts with that now classic Next-Gen Glenglassaugh fruity character.

It is, however, tempered quite well with the very Tennessee oak characteristics of vanilla, honey and spice.

Light malt laden flavors now and back again with white pepper and a bit of that grapefruit I got on the nose.

Glenglassaugh-3Oh. So. Butterscotchy.

Medium oil-like texture with some citrus zing on the sides of the tongue.

Finish – Heavy wood spice, toasted oak, long and slightly bourbony.

In sum – I bought a bottle the day it hit the Glenglassaugh store.  I had to have it.  Glenglassaugh matured in George Dickel barrels?  No brainer.

I obviously wanted to do a formal review of the whisky but went through half the bottle before I took actual notes (mainly because I just wanted to enjoy the whisky without dissecting it).  Like George Dickel, this is great sippin’ whisky.  Perfect for sitting on your porch or deck and letting the hours pass by…

Normally I do not like to mix cigars with my malts but I imagine this would go quite well with a cigar.  Perhaps a mild bodied one.

To Glenglassaugh, this whisky is an evolution in their new story (and a great story it is!)  For you as the consumer, this whisky is all about a little you time.  Relaxing times.  At only 6,000 bottles, you may want to to grab a bottle fast!

You may be interested in Oli’s notes on dramming.com

 

All You Need Is Love, An everyday dram, Cragganmore, Takin' It Easy

21yo Old Malt Cask Cragganmore bottle for the Loch and K(e)y Society. A Juio’s exculsive.

 

The bottle shown is not the actual bottle but, close enough.
The bottle shown is not the actual bottle but, close enough. Click the picture to be brought to Julio’s site. Contact them for more info.

Speyside region – 52.2% ABV – $99 (for now) and sold exclusively through Julio’s in Westboro, MA.

Here we are again; reviewing a store exclusive single cask of whisky.

If you live in the Northeast of the US, chances are you’ve heard of or frequent Julio’s in Westboro, MA.

Store owner and Keeper of the Quaich, Ryan Maloney, is known for having perhaps the most whisky-centric stores in our neck of the woods.  He also has his own whisky society called the Loch and K(e)y Society and bottles whisk(e)y for them on a very regular basis.  Loch and K(e)y are the first and only group to ever have a cask of Balvenie bottled exclusively for them.  (I had a taste once and it was a yummy, yummy thing).

I visited Julio’s a couple of weeks ago to pick up a bottle of George T Stagg and Ryan was nice enough to give me a taste of today’s whisky.  This is a cask of Cragganmore that he personally chose to bottle.

I fell in love with it almost immediately and when he told me it was only $99, I had to get a bottle.  Hey, it was my birthday.  How could I not buy myself a bottle?

So today, I’m reviewing one of my birthday whiskies (happy birthday, again, to me):

On the nose –  A charming start with whiffs of *faint* smoke and lavender.

CRAGGANMORE-21-OLD-MALT-CASK-JULIOS-2Quite clean and bright with lightly spiced Bartlett pears.  Applewood and unscented candle wax.

Heavenly, and decidedly malty.

I have to say, this nose is really, really good.  Again, clean and fruity and very, very confident.

CRAGGANMORE-21-OLD-MALT-CASK-JULIOS-3On the mouth – Loads of malted barley and very chewy.

Lively and oily, honied and spiced.

Still quite fruity with touches of light citrus.

CRAGGANMORE-21-OLD-MALT-CASK-JULIOS-4Hints of salt but not brine and now some hints of Limon.

Getting back to what I said before, this is a very confident whisky.  Drying and slightly smokey toward the finish.

Finish – A spritz of citrus, a dash of spice and some malt.  It goes on for a good bit here.

In sum – The more I think about this one the more I agree with the thought in my head that this is not the most complex whisky in the world. (My apologies for the horrible, run-on-like, structure of the preceding sentence.)

However, it’s not simple at all.  It’s easily understood and hides very little from you.

This is in my top ten list as one of the finer whiskies I’ve had this year from a rock-solid-satisfying-whisky standpoint.  If there were ever a self-actualized whisky, it would be this one.

Breakfast Whisky, Caperdonich

Abbey Whisky’s own bottling of Caperdonich. A 17yo Good Morning single cask of whisky.

 

abbey-whisky-caperdonich-17-year-old-the-rare-casks-250Speyside region – 57.8% ABV – £59.50 – Bottled by Abbey Whisky and only 96 bottles!

Another one of those surprise samples that came across my desk, we have this here Caperdonich bottled by Abbey Whisky.

For a long time, it seemed that Abbey Whisky was *THE* online shop to go to for hard-to-find, rare and ultra-premium bottles of whisky.  I think they are still that source but Abbey has seemed to expand their offerings to include more off-the-shelf bottlings.

Expanding their presence even further Abbey has begun bottling their own whiskies.  This 17yo single cask of Caperdonich is one of those.

Abbey whisky is well worth your time and perusal.  What’s more is you’ll find their customer service to be among the best around.

Special thanks to MS from Abbey for the official sample.

With all of the Caperdonichs I’ve had, I can’t believe this is the first official review I’ve done of one of their whiskies…

On the nose — Upon initial sniffing, this seems like a hot lil’ bugger.  Stinging in the nostrils and quite peppery.

Give it a few minutes and things become a bit different.

abbey-whisky-caperdonich-17-year-old-the-rare-casks-2Loads of dried pineapples and green apple.

Maybe just a touch of cardboard and cigarette ash (minus any hint of smoke, if’n that makes sense to you.  It does to me so, there.).

abbey-whisky-caperdonich-17-year-old-the-rare-casks-3Seasoned oak and orange pekoe infused honey.

abbey-whisky-caperdonich-17-year-old-the-rare-casks-4On the mouth — Big ol’ m*ther f*cking pepper fight in the mouth.  Explosions of peppery and spiced oak, vanilla and unripened citrus fruits.

Give this some time (as with the nose) and you’re rewarded.

There are flavors behind the heat and the heat does, in fact, dissipate.

abbey-whisky-caperdonich-17-year-old-the-rare-casks-5The whisky gets creamy and I am reminded of vanilla bean ice cream.

Wood spiced vanilla and honey (and again, just a touch of ash without the smoke).

Finish — Lasting spice and vanilla, and I mean LASTING.

In sum — Take heed the words of the very smart Chinese Sage, Confucius.  Patience, good friends is a virtue.  Sure I could have used some water but I held off when I found the amazing evolution on the nose.  I wanted to let this one ride out in its most natural form, without the addition of water.  This is, without a doubt a Sunday morning dram.  Sit down with the newspaper (remember those?), get disgusted with the news, say “F” it all and just enjoy some fine whisky and a true pick-me-up.

Arran, Let's celebrate!, Takin' It Easy

Arran Premium Sherry Single Cask bottled for San Francisco’s “The Whisky Shop”

 

ARRAN-WHISKY-SHOP-0Islands region — 54.9% ABV – Single Cask # 96/1517 – $100, bottled for, and sold exclusively through, San Fransico’s “The Whisky Shop”

This sample was sort of an out of the blue one for me.  The good folks at ImpEx sent me the sample suggesting that I might be interested in reviewing it.

I knew that Arran had a line of “Premium” Sherry and Bourbon casks but this is the first I saw where they bottled one for a specific store.  This practice may be new, it may not be new.  Here we have it though, a single premium sherry cask for The Whisky Shop in San Francisco.

I’ve heard of The Whisky Shop but have never shopped there before.

ARRAN-WHISKY-SHOPLike Binny’s, Julio’s and a few others, The Whisky Shop has a reputation for being experts in all things whisk(e)y.

I am curious to taste this one, for sure.  Thanks to the good folks at ImpEx for sending me a sample!

Color – Muscato wine (I only mention the color as it seems light for a 16yo sherry single cask)

On the nose –  Obviously sherried but no *heavy* sherry notes, I wonder if this is a 2nd fill cask.  Either way, it’s smelling quite nice.

Let’s run down the list of scent, shall we?

ARRAN-WHISKY-SHOP1Candied bacon and the smell of the taste of iodized salt.  Cola with a side of Black pu’er tea.  I need to point out something I’m not getting, something I normally get with Arran malts: Apples.  No sign of that apple sweetness.

Fried dates; more gristle, less dates.

ARRAN-WHISKY-SHOP2Wait a second!!  Wait a *BIG* second!  Apple cider vinegar becomes very evident.  I am rewarded for my patience.

ARRAN-WHISKY-SHOP3On the mouth –  Fresh apples, bright fruits.  Very forward, sweet and bright.  This is almost like a high-octane dessert wine (ice wine).

Green grape skins and grape flesh (I know, a long-winded way of saying “grapes”).

Very fizzy along the tongue but a wonderful, even mouthfeel all around.

ARRAN-WHISKY-SHOP4Some coastal notes as well.  Really enjoyable.

Finish – Long and filled with that lovely apple cider vinegar I got on the nose.

In sum – In all honestly, to me, this is not something that those that like sherried whiskies would seek out (as a heavily sherried whisky).  However, this is one of the more delicious Arran’s I had (single cask or standard bottling).

Highly recommended, dear people.  This is a perfect after dinner drink.  Serve in place of dessert wine.  The perfect night cap!