Category Archives: Moods/Seasons

A World of Discovery, All You Need Is Love, Autumn, Nikka, Springtime

Nikka Yoichi 20yr 1988 Vintage

Japan – 55%ABV – 700ml bottle – $|£|€ ???

No matter where I look, this whisky is sold out.  And, I think I know why  (see my notes below) – here’s what the good folks over that The Whisky Exchange have to say about it:

“A follow up to the incredible Nikka 1987 vintage 20yo that won the World’s Best Single Malt at last year’s World Whiskies Awards, this 1988 is a full-strength mix of both light and heavily-peated whiskies from new oak, refill casks, bourbon barrel and sherry butts – sounds phenomenal.”

Phenomenal??  Hell yes.  A HUGE thanks to The Whisky Wall for the sample!

On the nose — Oh mercy, what an amazing nose!

Very strange notes of baklavah, pipe tobacco (being smoked), kim chee and sherry.

Deep dried fruit (like a fried compote filled with plums and apricots – actually, I’m reminded of a Charoset I had a couple of years back.).

Insanely easy to nose.

A tad spicy and (like many Japanese whiskies I’ve had) some sweet top notes that remind me of bourbon.

Green tea and dark chocolate with elegant peat smoke.

On the mouth — Like chewing on chocolate covered fresh tobacco leaves.

Both salty and smoky (like smoked capers).

Dried dates and papaya.  Floral potpourri.

Stewed fruits then a highlight on sweetly smoked lemons.

Finish — Lasting fruit – every dried fruit imaginable, lovely & lasting.

In sum –– Quite remarkable, really; nearing on ridiculous (or ludicrous) as to how good this whisky was.  The balance is remarkable and at 55%, with the nose/palate/finish combination it’s very drinkable.  Only 3500 bottles were made available and, you guessed it, not in the US.  Feck.

This is a very contemplative dram.  If you can get your hands on some of this, save it for some “YOU” time.  Sit back, enjoy the cool breeze (maybe throw a sweater on, light a fire) and think about “what it all means”.

Angry, Bruichladdich

Bruichladdich X4+3

Islay region – 63.5%ABV – 700ml bottle (not available through US stores) – £49 | €58

E=MC2 | a2 + b2 = c2 | ei∏ = -1 | Ax = b <—– what does it all mean?  Perhaps Bruichladdich’s X4+3 can help us solve problems such as these (or at least get us tipsy enough so as we just don’t give a rat tuckas about it…).

The Bruichladdich X4+3 is a damn interesting… whisky?  Hmmm, let’s see.

Ok, before I begin, please know that I am not one for the technicalities.  Actually, scratch that.  I LOVE geeking out on all of the technical ins-and-outs of…pretty much anything, but, ESPECIALLY whisky (oh yeah, and guitar effects pedals).  I just don’t like writing on these subjects.  Too many damn words.  I will, however, try to summarize some techy stuff for you and hope that I get it all right[ish].

Most whiskies (be they Scotch, American, Japanese, Welsh, Swedish, etc, etc…) are distilled twice, two and a half times or three times.  That’s just how it is folks.  Almost all Scotch whisky is distilled twice (The Campbeltown whisky “Springbank” is distilled 2.5 times and Hazelburn distills 3 times).  The Irish, for the most part distill 3 times and it’s a bit of a mixture here in the US.

The good folks over at Bruichladdich thought that they’d go and one-up everyone by quadruple distilling their spirit (unpeated spirit) then age it for 3 years in both ex-bourbon and French oak barrels.

So, 4x distilled, aged three years (X4+3… get it?  Good.).

On top of this, the spirit that goes into the barrels is corked at 90%ABV (feck!).  The average is in the 60’s (63.5 – 67% – average.  Though, some may say otherwise).

Is this the best example of “mine is bigger than yours” or what?

Truth be told, this process is nothing new and the Bruich’laddies are not trying to one-up anybody.  This process of quadruple distilling goes back hundreds of years but has not been mimicked until present date.  The earliest mention of it was back in 1695 by Martin Martin.  He explained the drinking of this type of spirit as such: “…The first taste affect all the members of the body.  Two spoonfuls of this last liquor is a sufficient dose; and if ANY man should exceed this, it would presently stop his breath and endanger his life.”

G-d, I’m getting thirsty!

So, is this or is this not whisky?  Re-cap: traditional whisky is 2-3 times distilled, poured into barrels at 63.5% ABV.  The X4+3 is quadruple distilled and poured into barrels at 90%ABV…

Eh, screw it.  Let’s just taste this stuff.

On the nose – Powerfully strong and filled with limes, grapefruit, strawberries and rocket fuel.

I’m actually getting some grape lollypops and cranberry juice here.

Not as chemically as I expected but powerfully spirited!  Candied fruits.

With water — Peppery (think scotch bonnet – sweet and feckin’ hot as $hit), gooseberries, toy model glue.

On the mouth – Bent plastic superheroes, He-man toys and Transformers (More Than Meets The Eye™).

**Loads** of poached pears with touch of cinnamon.

With water — All of the focus is on those poached pears.  Straight forward but now getting duo-dimensional as some malty notes reared their head(s).

I liked it more without water when I got those plasticy notes along-side the pear notes.

Great mouth feel with water.

Finish – The first three layers of skin in my mouth have been removed but, I’m cool with that.

In sum – This is one to bring out to parties to say, “Hey guys/gals… check this out!”.  It’s beats huffing glue, that’s for sure!

All joking aside, I would never reach for this.  However, the X4+3 is a damn interesting dram and one that may work quite well with the mixologists out there (what, with all the fruits and high alcohol content).  Also, kudos to Bruichladdich for doing something that has not been done for centuries, bottling it and marketing it.  That’s brass balls baby!

A World of Discovery, Ardbeg, Autumn, Cold Winter, Springtime

The Great Space [Ardbeg Roller] Coaster

Islay region – 57.3%ABV – 750ml bottle (70cl outside of the US) – £100 | $80-$115 | €120

G-d bless Federal Wine & Spirits out of Boston, MA!  If it were not for them, I’m not sure I would have had my bottle of Ardbeg’s Committee Release of their Rollercoaster.

Those poor folks.

They announced that they were going to be getting some bottles early and was taking some pre-orders for it but did not know how many people may be calling them.  Harassing them for a bottle of this fine whisky.  I, good readers, was one of these people but I did my very best to be as *unharassy* as possible.  They told me they had “X” amount of bottles and “XXX” amount of people looking for one.  To make matters worse, their number of bottles went from a couple of cases down to 18 so now they had the hard job of telling even more people that they could not help them.

Those poor folks.  I hate saying no to anybody.  I feel sorry for them having to say no, to, my guess, a couple hundred people.

Luckily for me I was one of the first 18 people to call so, I got a bottle.  It took them a while to get through it all (my guess, about 3-4 weeks) but they eventually did get their bottles out and made 18 people (including myself) extremely happy.

While I was waiting for my bottle I made an agreement with Gal of Whisky Israel that I would hold off on opening the bottle so’s we could do a live Twitter tasting.

Well, Gal had issues of his own that I’m sure he’ll post about but let’s just say that waiting another 3-4 weeks to open my bottle just sort of… happened.

People who know me know that I am a patient guy.  So, no worries here.  But shit, I wanted to taste this nectar more than the folks who waited in line to taste New Coke way back when.  Thankfully Ardbeg’s Rollerocaster is FAR better that that short-lived shite!

While I did get around to tasting seven Ardbeg whiskies back in May, I only recently had a chance to taste the stuff as a stand alone whisky.

Let’s ride the coaster, shall we?

On the nose – Part of me wishes that this is what oxygen smelled like all of the time.  However, if it did, then nosing this whisky would not be as special as it is.

A very, very sexy nose filled with mature-for-its-age-peat-smoke, a salt lick and olive oil.

Peel the smokiness away and I am now confronted with some strawberry jam and those delicious Ardbegian lemons – the salt carries through the entire nose-capade.

On the mouth – A great entry here filled with savory bacon bits, tarred ropes and chicory.

Oily, like real olive oil in my mouth here, salted pie crust, onslaught of smokey peat, strawberries return and the citrus fruits evolve into something a bit bigger – pomelo!

Charred wood, cherries and tobacco.

Finish – Medium long.  Lovely burny bubbles stay in my mouth for some time and then out of the blue some nice green tea notes.

In sum — Well worth the wait.

A fantastic dram that, although amazingly smokey, is so very fruity for me (Lemons, Pomelo, Strawberries, Cherries).

Also, the peat seemed less of a direct attack on my tongue that I could enjoy this one in the late spring (winter for sure) and the autumn time.

A cracker of a dram that I hope Ardbeg will bring in as a standard expression.

One of the things I love about whisky is that everyone can take something different from them.  Chicory to me may be chipotle to another.  This being said, check out Jason from Guid Scotch Drink’s notes on this beauty – a world a difference but I would still drink the stuff if I got what he wrote in his notes.

All You Need Is Love, Macallan, Takin' It Easy

The Macallan 18yr

Speyside region – 43%ABV – 750ml bottle in the US, 70cl in the UK and elsewhere – £70 | $90-$120 | €84

Wow to you oh whisky peeps, for a dram was bought by me to have (because the notes, they sounded so good).  Let him who hath understanding wreckon the number of the dram [that turned me on to The Macallan].  For it is a Scotch Malt Whisky Society of America number.  It’s number is twenty-four point one-one-one.  (sorry, my inner Iron Maiden fan could not help himself).

I am so very thankful to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society of America for helping to open my eyes once more to The Macallan – for that review, click here.

I received a sample of The Macallan 18yr early last week (special thanks to Igal!) and was not sure what to expect.

I’ve mentioned in the past that their standard 12yr didn’t do much for me (again, I’ve not had their 12yr expression in a bit more than 2 years) so I was not expecting much from their 18yr bottling.

After pouring the whisky into my Glencairn, here’s what I got:

On the nose – Plump dollops of sherry notes travel up my nose.  These notes are covered in chocolate and there is more than a hint of oak and vanilla.

Dried fruits are here — think prunes, dates and fig.  The more I smell it, the more I like it.  Leather & suede.  Big grapes appear in the final sniff.

On the mouth – The first thing I get here is sulphur but that is quickly pushed aside (thankfully) to reveal an incredibly smooth chocolate note.

Pipe tobacco and leather jackets.

Root veggies galore!  I’m even getting a hint of beets here – like whisky borscht (it’s slight but, I am getting it).

The smoothness of this whisky is really remarkable and, it’s nice and chewy too.

Finish – Medium length but there are some long lasting bitter notes to it that really offset everything I just smelled and tasted.  This, I think, is a good thing.

Yes, it’s a good thing.

In sum – This oozes of luxury and all things “comfort”.  This is something to break out for Shabbat (non-Jews, Shabbat is the Hebrew word for the Sabbath which many Jews, myself included, treat both as a holy day and a holiday – read here for more info) for sure!

A World of Discovery, Refreshed, St. Magdalene, Summertime

St. Magdalene 1982/2009 Dun Bheagan 50% Cask #2219

Lowlands region – 50%ABV – 700ml Bottle – Dun Bheagan Cask #2219 – 390 bottles – £150

I received a sample of this great lowland whisky (Thanks to dramming.com!!) quite a few months ago and held off on tasting it as I wanted to wait for the right moment.  It’s limited, for sure, but also this is whisky from a distillery that stopped producing in 1983 (I was 10 years old) so I wanted to make sure I was in tip top shape and able to taste this with out any hinderance and/or obstruction (colds, spicy dinner, etc…).

Other things of note to happen in 1983 are:

  • High ranking Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia (and was convicted).
  • The Tokyo Disneyland opens.
  • The Nintendo Entertainment System goes on sale in Japan.
  • Kiss officially appeared in public without makeup for the first time on MTV.
  • U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating a federal holiday on the third Monday of every January to honor American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Again, I turned 10 (man, look at that big Jew nose!).

Whisky notes are as follows:

On the nose – A fruit basket nose that Edible Arrangements only wishes they could match.

Big lemony citrus notes (imagine Ardbeg lemons without big peat).  Chocolate notes, workman’s gloves.

Sugar and vanilla smooths it out but there’s a great spicy backbone to it.

On the mouth – Strange entry.  Imagine all of the above mentioned flavors in a shoddy ziplock bag.

While I’m not referring to a plasticy note to the palate, I mean that the flavors seem somehow encapsulated within a baggie or bubble (which happens to be covered by a slight salty coating).

It get increasingly hot and a warm spiciness returns.

A touch of water brings out some very nice chewy toffee notes to it an pops that baggie or bubble and all of those flavors I got on the nose came pouring out.

Finish – Long, citrus zing, spice, nice.

In sum – The spice in this whisky runs all the way through, so even keeled.

Wonderful as an every night summer dram… if you’re Daddy Warbucks.

Not sure what to think of the initial palate entry but I’ve got a lot of respect for this whisky.

Glad I had a chance to taste it and wish I had more.