Tag Archives: Chewy

All You Need Is Love, Arran, Need To Bundle Up

Arran “Sleeping Warrior” limited bottling

Islands Region – Limited to 6,000 bottles – 54.9%ABV – $78 | £57

Day one of the Jewish Single Malt Whisky Society’s whisky tour will bring us to the Isle of Arran.  At only 15yrs, and as you might know, Arran is one of Scotland’s youngest distilleries.  Young as they are, the whiskies they’re releasing are top notch and they’re surely making a name for themselves.  A good, good name for themselves.

This whisky is limited and only 6,000 bottles were made available.  6,000 might sound like a lot of bottles but these releases really sell out quite fast.

According to Arran, “A donation from every bottle sold of The Sleeping Warrior will be made to The National Trust for Scotland to help maintain the footpaths on Goatfell, Arran’s highest peak, for the enjoyment of all.”

So, if you want to buy a new whisky and feel like you’re contributing to a good cause, this might be it.

On the nose –  Quite obvious, this is an Arran whisky as it’s got a good deal of salt and brine upfront.

Melting milk chocolate with something bitter in here as well (perhaps some bitter sweet dark cherries).

Walnuts and breakfast food gristle sitting in the edges on the frying pan.

Blood oranges and to top it off, malt and lots of it!

On the mouth – Tip-top mouthfeel!  Reminiscent of the mouthful I got on the 11yo, 15yr Arran Anniversary malt.

Warmed apple and caramel (or vice versa.  Either way, I’m reminded of a state fair caramel covered apple).

So. Very. Warming.

Nutty (let’s hope you don’t have any nut allergies!).

Oily, savory yet sweet.

Baked pears, cinnamon & nutmeg, salted caramels.  This is yummy.

Finish – Milky cafe latte that warms you from head to toe on a cold late autumn of early winter night.

In sum – Perfect for colder days when your loved ones aren’t around for you to snuggle up with.  Love the one you’re with – love this Arran!  I have to say, this is perhaps my 2nd favorite Arran after that 11yo, 15yr Anniversary Arran I mentioned earlier.

Special thanks goes out to Andy Hogan for the sample!

A World of Discovery, All You Need Is Love, An everyday dram, Arran, Autumn

The Arran “Westie” – Icons of Arran III

Islands Region – 46%ABV – £41 – Limited to 6,000 bottles – not available in US stores.

I’m more of a cat man, really.  There’s something about dogs that I just can’t get behind.

Is it the drooling?  The constant need for attention?  The messy clean-ups of poop and pee-pee?  Wait a sec, sounds more like I’m describing one of my girls when they were infants (and I sort of like them…).

I do like dogs, please don’t get me wrong.  Perhaps it’s more a love for cats and NOT for dogs.  A good cat will hop upon your lap and purr away whilst you do whatever; watch TV, sip on a malt, work on your computer.  S/he’ll also not give a crap if you and the family need to go on vacation for a few days.  Just put out some fresh water and food and make sure there’s some clean kitty litter and poof, you’re on your way.

I can not argue, however, with Mr. James MacTaggart for choosing his dog Ruaraidh (pronounced Roo-Ree) as one of the icons of Arran; especially if I’ll be meeting them both this August!

The man loves his dog.  I can respect that.  I love Arran whiskies.  It’s a win-win.

If it were me however, the name of my Icon would be dedicated to my now passed cat: Asswípé (pronounced ass-we-pay, folks!).  To the left is a mock up of what the packaging would look like.

If you don’t know how to pronounce his name, calling the whisky “The Asswípé” might be taken as just plain rude.  I think I’d call it “Meow Malt”

So, what is the Arran “Westie”?  It’s a marriage of 22 ex-oloroso sherry refill casks bottled at 46%ABV and like ALL Arran whiskies, non-chill filtered and with no caramel coloring.

On the nose – Immediately fruity with sour cherries and sugared mango.

Crushed walnuts, shell and all.

Back to the fruits: pineapple, tangerine and watermelon pith.

Very sweet nose.

This is a fun one to jam your schnoz in to.

Spongey and orangey angel food cake as well as some sort of waxy saltiness to it.

On the mouth – Great mouthwatering entry that’s both warming and puckeringly sweet.

The perfect mixture that is sharp cheddar and dried apricots.

Incredibly malty and full of vanilla and caramels.

I keep picturing in my head a bowl full of vanilla bean ice cream with melted caramel – perhaps even some banana.

Maybe it’s in my head but I totally want banana splits right now.

Finish – Malty, waxy medium length.

In sum – A great example of how good Arran can be, even when they veer a bit from their house style (or what I envision their house style to be).  A solid any day/any time whisky but might work nice as a woodsy morning malt – wake up, get out of the camping tent, smell the fresh mountain air and pour a dram with your camping pals.  Start your morning right.

A big thank you goes out to Andy H for the sample!

Blind Tastings, Springtime, Summertime, Takin' It Easy

A blind-ish tasting of some crazy mixed up old juice…

A funny thing happened on the way to “GlenHatton”…

“Wait, what’s GlenHatton?”

“GlenHatton” is a something I’ve been brewing for some time now.  I’ve been pouring my “Dregs”* into a single bottle, about 26 whiskies in all, and reached a point were it seemed to smell & taste… interesting.  So, being taught that “sharing is caring” I reached out to some people via the JSMWS Facebook page to see if they wanted to try it.  I received more responses than I could shake a stick at and could only dole out about 6 samples.  There will be a a series of “GlenHatton” posts in the very near future…  “Watch this space”

*(“Dregs” Noun.  Meaning in the Whisky World: The final bits of many whisky bottles or samples that where there simply was not enough left to drink as a dram, or barely more than a few drops.)

So, one of the lucky 6 recipients of my GlenHatton Dregs whisky asked if I were interesting in tasting an all-malt blend that he had been working on (Sssseeeeee??? sharing IS caring!!).  I, of course, said ‘hell yeah!’ and asked what was in the blend.  He could not tell me.  All he could say was that this was some OLD juice!  He did give some names and a range of dates: 60’s Balvenie, 30’s Mortlach, some old-ass LittleMill and a few others.  Again, the information was as limited as could be.  That’s cool.  I figured it’d be a fun experiment regardless…

Thanks to EM for the sample!

On the nose — Fruity and dusty at the same time.

A high sweet corn-like note is uncovered after the first sip and is off-set by a slight touch of smoke.

Light berry jam (think a mix of raspberry and strawberry) and a whiff of wood.

Jasmine tea (a lovely note).

Light sweet butter.  A touch of coconut and a bit of pineapple.

On the mouth — ***Incredibly thick*** and seemingly growing in volume  (perhaps my mouth is watering?).  Flat soda.

I’m guessed the ABV was pretty low, no more than 43% (EM corrected me, its just over 44%ABV).

Toasted cream pastries and warmed woody bits.

Spicy and spiced notes of fresh and juicy melon.

Mango, sticky rice and coconut milk (Thai mango sticky rice).

Finish — Fruity & tropical – filled with mango and persimmons.  Lasting fruitiness.

In sum — A cool mix of fruits, wood, smoke (however slight) and Asian-style goodness.  All-in-all a nicely balanced, enjoyable whisky.  Perhaps the best thing about this whisky was the mango sticky rice note (I am SO HUNGRY right now).

A World of Discovery, Compass Box, Need To Bundle Up

Compass Box – Spice Tree “The Second Coming”

Blended Malt whiskies from the Highlands – 46%ABV – $58 | £35 | €41

There a great story behind the Compass Box Spice Tree and why there needed to be a “Second Coming” of the blend.  You see, this whisky was, at one time, deemed illegal by the SWA due to some interesting and innovative casking practices for this whisky.

To release this new version, Compass Box had to make some tweaks to how the whisky was extra-matured.  Compass Box being Compass Box, the tweaks were made but quality was not adversely effected.  Compass Box explains their new, updated (and now legal) maturing process:

“Over the past three years we have developed a new maturation process which yields similar if not superior results to our previous method, and this new process is something the SWA can’t take any issue with.

As in the past, The Spice Tree is 100% malt whisky sourced from northern Highland distilleries, (notably and primarily malt whisky distilled at the Clynelish distillery). The primary maturation is in a mix of first-fill and refill American oak.

What is different is the secondary maturation. Rather than using inner stave inserts, as we did for the original Spice Tree, we rack the whisky into barrels with heavily toasted new French oak heads. We have created a method for getting a super heavy toast on the cask heads which imparts a flavour profile similar to the flat staves used for the original Spice Tree. We use oak with three different levels of toasting on the barrel heads, thus allowing us to blend the resultant whiskies to create additional layers of complexity. This secondary maturation lasts as long as two years.”

Sounds interesting, right??

On the nose — Inner tire tubes lead to orange zest and cloves.

Biscuits and blackberry bramble.

Some quick hints of dry sherry then an interesting blend of ginger beer and cream soda ride up my nose using the aforementioned inner tire tube.

Hint of soft yet dry red wine.

On the mouth — Big, waxy, chewy and insanely appetizing.

There’s a reason this is called the spice tree; you name it – ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg are all joining schwartzes here.

It’s as if those spices are being mixed in a cup of orange vanilla cream.

Cherry tarts.

As we get closer to the finish, there’s an oakiness that comes through.

Finish — Long and oaken with ever lasting hints of vanilla and cherry.

In sum — A lovely after dinner sipper that’s got a decent nose but shines like a diamond in the tasting of it.  An instant favorite for me but I could see this being almost too spiced and sweet for some people.  This is as ‘in-your-face’ as a bourbon yet NOTHING like a bourbon (it is Scotch malt whisky after all).  For bourbon drinkers, this could be a gateway whisky for you into the wide world of Scotch malt whisky.

While I found the Compass Box Hedonism to be my favorite blended whisky of 2010, I think I would have had made a different choice if I reviewed this one last year.

Special thanks goes out to Robin R for the sample!

There are a lot of good reviews out there for this whisky but I thought I’d bring your attention to this one from the Malt Impostor(s) – I love their reviews <jedi mind trick> and so do you </jedi mind trick>

A World of Discovery, All You Need Is Love, Cold Winter, Lagavulin, Let's celebrate!

Lagavulin 21yo – a stunningly magnificent Scotch Whisky!

Islay Region – 56.5%ABV – $895 (750ml) | £575 or €684 (700ml)

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday… To the JSMWS blog!

That’s right people, today is the one year anniversary of the Jewish Single Malt Whisky Society’s blog.  It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a year since the blog was started.

We celebrated the birth of the blog with an Islay malt – the Ardbeg Uigeadail.  Even though the newer version is slightly different than the one I reviewed, I still can not drink that whisky without thinking of the combination of seaweed, leather, blood and raisins.

Being that the blog was birthed on Islay peat, I thought it’d be a good idea to celebrate the anniversary with Islay peat.

Folks, what I’m about to share the details of has to be the finest whisky I’ve had to date.  Plain and simple.

On the nose — This is 56.5%ABV?!  Insanely soft on the nose.  Not quite sure where to start as this nose seems to be filled with a bazillion different scents…

Instant sweetness – dark brown sugar and black strap molasses.

Sweet cigars, smoked dates (is there such a thing?) and fresh sea air yet something a bit musty or dusty about it.

Warmed and sticky chocolate fudge – I can practically smell the fudge soften!

This is just plain brilliant!

Oysters on the half-shell as well dried and salted whitefish.

Driftwood, salty capers and warm salted carmel.

The nose is incredibly dense and rich and purely decedent.

On the mouth — Much more tannic/dry than expected.

Fantastic smokey attack accompanied by Mineola oranges and powered sugar candies.

The smoke attack turned into a “sweet blast” which then turned quite peppery.

Some more of the oyster notes I got on the nose but now it’s transformed into smoked oysters.

Sugared and dried figs as well as vanilla pods.

Dusty attic furniture, a very active humidor, dates mashed with demerara sugar, nutmeg and cloves.  Fresh potting soil.  The list could go on and on and on…

Finish — Long and nutty with traces of fried walnuts, green olives and a honeyed oakiness.

In sum — Do you have an extra $900 or so?  If so, buy a bottle STAT.  This is the ultimate in smoky celebratory whisky.  I had this one to celebrate the one year anniversary of the blog.  A well chosen dram for the occasion.

If I had a full bottle, I’d save the next dram for my oldest daughter’s Bat Mitzvah.  Yup, I’d wait 9 years to pour this again.  It’s worth the wait.

Unending thanks goes out to Stephen L, Marshall N, the LA Scotch Club and the Green Bay Packers.