Tag Archives: Effervescent

All You Need Is Love, Arran, Summertime

The Arran Malt 14yr

Islands region – 46%ABV – $70 | £38 | €45

I’m going to skip the preamble today.  As I type this, it’s Thanksgiving weekend and there’s a lot of family schtuff going on so I’m tired and my time is a bit short.

Anyway, the Arran 14yr is much more exciting than anything I have to tell you.

Here we go y’all:

On the nose — Big, big apples!  Wow!

Lemongrass.

Malty goodness.

Getting fruitier, this time a bit more tropical…mango and star fruit.

Caramel syrup.

A big fat fruity & juicy nose that makes me very happy!

On the mouth — Fizzy-fizzy goodness (however I was hoping for a slightly chewier mouthfeel).

More floral in taste as compared to the nose.

Interesting…  Malt, top notch belgian beer (Duvel, my favorite).

Youthful notes – I’d love to taste what the new make spirit is like, my guess is that it’s strong personality is showing through to the final product.

Cereal notes.

Apple peels.  Dried apples.

Turkish delights minus the nuts.

Rose water.

A nice saltiness here.

Finish — Lasting, still fizzy.  A briny & fruity finish.

In sum — Reminds me of a young Balblair with a set of balls (especially on the nose).  This is a very summery dram.  Bright and refreshing.

Kavalan, Springtime, Takin' It Easy

Kavalan Single Malt Whisky “Solist”, ex-bourbon, cask strength

Taiwan – 58.2%ABV – 200ml sample (thanks to Ian Chang of Kavalan for the sample)

This is the final day Gal of Whisky Israel and I will be sharing our thoughts on the Kavalan range.  While I’m not tasting these whiskies blindly, Gal and I will not be sharing our thoughts on these whiskies prior to our posting them.  Be sure to check out Gal’s notes on this whisky (a link to Gal’s review is listed below my notes).

Well, so far, for the Kavalan range, I’ve really enjoyed their King Car whisky.  The “Concertmaster” port finished whisky was good (if a little off balance) and the Sherry cask “Solist” was quite the delicious pick-me-up.

This final “Solist” is also a cask strength whisky.  Kavalan have an ex-bourbon cask strength (this one I’m reviewing today) and an ex-sherry (yesterday’s review).

I am a big fan of ex-bourbon cask whiskies and if they’re cask strength… bonus!

Let’s see what we get:

On the nose – Big bright bourbony nose filled with vanilla and coconut (almost like a Sno-ball.

Also rubbing alcohol and tropical fruits (think pineapples and even a little guanabana).

Fresh cream (and creamy smelling).

On the mouth – Creamy mouth feel – very nice.

Vanilla and honey.

Birch beer with some high effervescence – it’s all fizzy in my mouth.

Finish – Long, more fizziness, lemon drops and vanilla ice cream.

In sum – A straight forward, light and fruity whisky.  Very impressed with the mouth feel – creamier than I expected, but with some lasting fizz to it – right up my alley.

This is a big, young sweet treat.  Early spring in a warming sun is just right for her.

I truly had a lot of fun reviewing these whiskies (and doing so with Gal!).  I look forward to their being more widely available and feel the world is ready for more “world” whiskies.

Be sure to read Gal’s review here.

Compass Box

Compass Box Asyla

Blended Scotch whisky – 40%ABV – $35 | £24 | €29

Last week (and for a couple of days the week before) I focused on kosher certified whiskies.  This week I will begin a series of blended whiskies.  I will touch on Compass Box whiskies as well as a few Double Barrel expressions.  It’s going to be a week or more of crazy mix’em ups (pun intended) here on the JSMWS whisky blog.

So, Compass Box.  Who are they?  Is this a distillery?  No, Compass Box is not a distillery.  Compass Box is a brand of blended whiskies and is the brain child of John Glaser – master blender extraordinaire.

A couple of months ago The Jewish Single Malt Whisky Society hosted a whiskey tasting with Hudson American Whiskeys and something their owner said stuck with me after his seeing a bottle of Peat Monster on the host’s kitchen counter.  He picked up the bottle and said (with me paraphrasing here and him referring to said bottle and the blender of the fluid contained within): “what we at Hudson do is apply skill to making whiskey, what John does is pure art”.  That’s a compliment and a half!

So, let’s see if Ralph is right:

On the nose – A light and bright nose with a fight.

Oh, you’ve got a wee bit of spunk to yeh!

However, with a touch of time to breath you reveal to me hints of fresh butter and white corn.

Unripened fruits (think pear mostly).

A touch of nail polish.

Perhaps plastic shopping bags.

Lemon meringue.

A saltiness that I can’t shake.

On the mouth – Two words: Mouth Feel.

This is some thick, chewy-ass stuff!

Very soft like ‘almost-jello’ soft.

Slightly salty and a bit peppery now.

Hints of light biscuits, honeyed and delicious.

The grain influence is fairly obvious – adding a light, almost bourbony sweetness.

Finish – Nothing to complain about.

Some maltiness and medium-ish in length with a lasting fizziness toward the center back part of the tongue.

In sum – This is something to simply relax or, as my friend Steve of The Whisky Wire would say, Dramlax with.  Very light in style, very approachable and, actually, one to help lure in your non-whisky drinking friends into enjoying one of the finer things in life – whisk(e)y!!

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.

A World of Discovery, All You Need Is Love, Glenrothes, Springtime

Two Indy Glenrothes – Classic Cask and The Premium Barrel – both single cask expressions

My experience with the Glenrothes whiskies is fairly limited but I have to say, I am a huge fan of Ronnie Cox and the video series he leads on the Glenrothes website.  To check out the video series, Click here and, for each expression, click “Read More” and you’ll find video tasting notes for each whisky (don’t forget to come back!)

I recently received two samples of independent Glenrothes expressions and thought it would be a good idea to review them side by side.  Both are indy bottlings, both are single cask expressions, both are at a reduced ABV; 43% & 46%

The first of these whiskies was one of the strangest malts I’ve had in a while, the other was…pretty good.  Pretty damn good.  One thing I can say, after tasting these two… I want MORE Glenrothes!

Glenrothes 1990 18yr Single Cask – Classic Cask – Speyside region – 43% ABV – 750ml bottle (please note that the picture of the bottle shown is not the actual Glenrothes bottle.  Rather, it is a bottle from “The Classic Cask” collection)

On the nose – Odd nose here, house cleaners – very chemically, nail polish/acetone then toffee enters.

Kumquat citrus nose (but a tad restrained) and vanilla.

After a good while, great dried fruit notes (you have to wait for it a good 6-7 minutes though…).  Shaved chocolate.

On the mouth – Pine Sol, Murphy’s Wood Cleaner, mint/menthol notes, then enters some very soothing caramel notes and Smarties.

A great transformation but those chemical notes are a bit off-putting (and at the same time, those odd notes kept me coming back for more.  It’s like watching a train wreck… you can’t look away!).

Finish – Medium length.

In sum – I really don’t know what to make of it.  If I were to stumble upon my blog and read the notes I just listed above, I would say to myself:  “Self, don’t you ever, ever drink this stuff!”.  HOWEVER, I truly enjoyed this whisky and was sad to see my sample go.  Enjoy this whisky when you are cleaning the house – spring cleaning!

Glenrothes 1996 “The Premium Barrel” Single Cask – for info on Douglas Laing “Premium Barrel” Bottlings, click here – Speyside region – 43% ABV – 750ml bottle (please note that the picture of the bottle shown is not the actual Glenrothes bottle.  Rather, it is a bottle from “The Premium Barrel” collection)

On the nose – Clean and brisk nose with a load of lemons.

Pineapple and a good bit of chamomile tea (very nice!).

Light toffee notes, very faint peat smoke.

On the mouth — Strong effervescent mouth feel, thin mouth feel like cut oil.

Butter and toast (though, not together), fennel (not seeds, fennel).

Grassy, spent matches and electrical charges.  That faint peat smoke comes back.

Finish – Decent length.  About as long as it should be I suppose.

In sum – I really liked the Classic Cask more than this expression.  It’s “oddness” was a huge draw for me.

This one was nice, very nice, but I can picture myself going for “The Classic Cask” expression before “The Premium Barrel”.