Tag Archives: figs

Scotch Whisky Advent Calendar dram # 11 – Weymss Malts “Kumquat Cluster” Glenrothes Sherry Butt # 3343

 

Region – Speyside – ABV – 46%

Scotch Whisky Advent CalendarDram # 11 brings us a Weymss Malts whisky entitled “Kumquat Cluster” which is a 21yo Glenrothes single sherry butt, cask # 3343.

Based on the color, which is fairly light, I’d have to say this is a refill butt.

There is a joke in there somewhere. I’ll leave you to that.

The Glenrothes and I normally do not get along. The spirit character usually doesn’t sit with my palate but I know they have a great following.

Though, truth be told, I do wish their OB bottlings were at a higher ABV. They’re usually at 40% or 43%, chill filtered and with caramel color added. I think if they slowly moved to 46%, they’d do a great job bringing their followers to the world of non-chill filtered and no-caramel color added whiskies.  The grass is greener on this side, people.

Still, they put out a host of whiskies, various vintages, that people go head over heals for. They must be doing something right, right?

Back to the whisky at hand though. As an independently bottled cask of The Glenrothes, this, I would hope, offers something that the OB releases do not offer. At first glance, it’s 46% NCF and no caramel color is added. That’s a start. At 21 years of age, this will be the oldest Glenrothes I’ve had to date.

Let’s see what happens.

Scotch Whisky Advent CalendarOn the nose — Citrus laden melting caramel cubes.  Some attic wood and a hint of sour milk (in a good way, trust me on this one).  Pecan pie filling, young strawberries, Alpha-Bits cereal sans the marshmallows, a hint of Ovaltine.

The attic wood tells me this is a Glenrothes but everything else just falls into place so nicely.

Scotch Whisky Advent CalendarIn the mouth — Now I see where they got the Kumquat Cluster name. It’s like drinking fresh kumquat juice, skin and all.

A touch of pepper, lots of malt, hints of fresh and dried figs, date rolls (sans almond), mint tea, some Chinese Five Spice to boot!

Finish — Long, malty, citrusy, hints of pepper.

In sum — Cracking whisky. I was really dreading this one but, wow, I was impressed. This is a whisky I’d reach for on a daily basis. Quite nice indeed.

Octomore Feis Ile 2014 bottling will blow your mind!!

 

Region – Islay – 69.5% ABV – Price?? – a whole bunch of ££ but you can find this bottle for even more ££ on various auction websites.

OCTOMORE-FEIS-ILE-2014

While I’ve found myself in bonnie Scotland many a time now, I have yet to get my rear-end over there during the Feis Ile festival that happens every year at the end of May.  Imagine nine days devoted to the malts of Islay, on Islay and each distillery releasing a special bottling for the festival.

Sounds like a wee Bit o’Honey Heaven.  Thankfully, my good friend Matt L ventures out there every year and was kind enough to grab me a few festival bottles.

While I wanted a bottle from each distillery A) bottles are often limited to one per person and B) I don’t want to overload Matt with all of my requests and C) if I spend TOO much money, my wife will give me a “what for” that I’d never forget or recover from.

I had to be really choosey about which bottles to get so some investigation was in order.  I found out that Bruichladdich’s Feis Ile bottling just so happened to be an Octomore.  Once I found out this little detail, I knew I had to get one of those.  However, what I did not know was that this was a quadruple distilled Octomore.

Quad-distilling the spirit kicked the ABV up to insane heights!  After 7 years in first fill oloroso casks, the ABV ended up at 69.5%!  Sweet Fancy Moses!!  Now I was even more excited.  Word on the street was it was so powerful it could bring a tear to a man’s eye.  Matt asked me, “are you sure you want me to get you a bottle?”

How could one *not* want to taste this juice after hearing of the hurt it could inflict on those that dare drink it?!

IMG_4888Thanks to Matt’s good help and to the over-seas shipping gods, I am now the owner of some of those most powerful whisky ever produced on Islay.  Peated to 167ppm, quadruple distilled, matured for 7 years in oloroso sherry casks and bottled at 69.5% ABV… let’s see how this young lady is (and if I survive her).

On the nose Well hello yourself, little lady!  She’s both embracingly sweet and warmingly peat in the same lil’ sniff.

6a00d8341c571453ef0133eef5da66970b-320wiShe is a bag of pork rinds in hand with plastic bag to boot.

A host of cut lemons and ground green peppercorns over a plate of fresh shaved fennel, you are young miss!  “Pour some sugar agave on me and wrap me up in chilies” (to the tune of that crap ass Def Lepard song).

this-spinal-tap-movie-quotes-54419“Your body fits me like a fig skin tuxedo, I want to sink you with my pink torpedo” (to the tune of one of the best Spinal Tap songs ever).

You’re a really wild one.  I’m’a taste you now. (plus, I’m done referring to you as a person.  It’s sort of perverse sounding and I think I my have lost some readers along the way).

dune2On the mouth Ash trays and all things drying (alcohol, salt, hot air, dry-dry sherry, drier than Oloroso dry sherry, Desert Planet, Arrakis).

Must take another sip.  Now that my mouth has a chance to realize what’s happening, it’s starting to react and understand what exactly is happening in it right now.

97960-131216-penguinLet the laundry list begin:  Medium oils, very sherried but somehow not a sherry bomb, dried and sugared dates, cracked oat bran, new rubber umbrella (a la from the closet of The Penguin), chili powder with hints cooked, un-spiced pumpkin.

All in all, for 69.5% ABV, it’s nice to know that I’m not dead (yet).

Finish Long and now with hints of menthol and a bowl of those dried and sugared dates I tasted.

In sum   I love the size of Bruichladdich’s balls.

In this day of sought after, highly up-sellable, Feis Ile bottlings, Bruichladdich dared to release one that I would have thought many would be both afraid to buy and afraid to post on auction sites.  69.5% ABV, Quadruple distilled 7yo juice?!  I mean, come on…

Here’s the thing.  It sold out.  Heck, I bought a bottle (Thanks again to my buddy Matt).  It’s being sold on auction sites, too.

My hope is that these bottles do terribly on these auction sites.  Dudes, stop trying to make money and drink the juice because, I’ll tell you, it’s damn good.  Yes, you may lose the ability to reproduce after a dram or two but hey… it’s… ummm… Ok, I have nothing after that comment.  But if you sell your bottle, you’re missing out on good whisky.  For those that buy a bottle on auction, open it and do so immediately.  Open and and drink it with lots of friends.  You’ll be happy you did.

Glenfarclas 1953 Single Cask

 

Highlands Region – 47.2% ABV – $9479.71 | £5995

I’m going to keep the typing down to a minimum because, as you’ll see below, I’ve hand written this post and all of the tasting notes to accompany it.  It was suggested to me by a good friend to write the notes as if I was actually in 1953 so, I grabbed a pencil and paper and, viola!

What I am about to review is the oldest whisky to EVER be released by Glenfarclas.  A 58 year old whisky, this was distilled in 1953 and is one of 4 cask of its age – the oldest in all of Glenfarclas’ stock.

The single cask rendered just about 400 bottles and all of them are available exclusively through Master of Malt.

A 1953 Glenfarclas, 58 years old… I have very lucky taste buds and they are all thankful.  Very thankful.  I mention it in my review but a HUGE thanks goes out to the folks at Master of Malt, George Grant of Glenfarclas and Michal Kowalski for the generous sample!

And now, the review – there are two jpgs you can click on to view the pages in full size on a PDF if the type is too small or difficult to read – the PDFs are about 8mb each so they may take a couple of moments to download for viewing:

Brora 30yr 2009 release

Highlands region (Brora is now mothballed, used as a visitors center for Clynelish) – 53.2%ABV – £245 – not available in the US – Master of Malt has it here.

Brora has quite a history and is a malt that is very sought after.  Serge Valentin (of Whiskyfun! fame), a true Brora devotee, wrote a great piece on the history of Brora here on Connosr.

Connosr, by the way, is a wonderful and vibrant whisky community.  If you’re not a part of it yet, sign up here.

It was based on Serge’s passionate recommendation that I looked further into Brora.  Thank you Serge!

Thanks to Master of Malt, I was able to choose this as a whisky blogger’s freebee from their Drinks by the Dram selection as long as I posted on it.  Thank you Master of Malt!

Ok, enough of the plugs, let’s get to work…

On the nose Light and soft, yet upfront with notes of peat smoke and a good deal of smoked salt.

Herbal tea – chamomile mostly.

Medicinal – almost reminds me of fresh band-aids.

The peat is ever present here and there’s a peppery prickliness to this.

Even under these peaty & medicine notes I can detect some fruits – banana (peel) & peach skins.

A good deal of vanilla that somehow went undetected until about a minute into nosing this.

On the mouth Creamy entry followed by fire – very hot stuff!

Hotter than I expected at 53.2%.

Let’s try this again and see if I need to add a wee bit of water…

Apples – fresh ones at that – and etrog (like a lemon, less intense yet much more fragrant).

Very waxy and still medicinal.

The herby/grassy quality I got on the nose carries through here.

“All-sorts” licorice candies.

Honey mustard.

Less smoky on the palate as compared to the nose.

Did I mention this is delicious?

Some dried fruits in there, mostly fig.

Finish Mint notes appear, some almond & a tad more licorice.

Lingering.

In sum My first Brora and, I’m in love.  The style of this whisky is quite unique.  I love the older, more elegant peat in this.  This is black tie whisky.  I’d love to pair this stuff with some nice chocolates.  A treat, through & through!

Eades Double Malt – Double Post – Speyside & Highland expressions

Moving forward with my vatted malts and blended whiskies series; moving on with the Eades Double Malts.  Last week I posted about their great vatted Islay expression.  I thought, seeing as these are “Double Malts” (the combination of two wine cask finished single malts into one expression) that I’d do a double post today – two different Eades Double Malt expressions.

So, what’s left in their line?  We’ve got a Double Malt Highland expression which is comprised of 50% Clynelish (a 10yr single malt finished in a Chateau LaFitte Bordeaux cask) and 50% Ben Nevis (another 10yr single malt finished in a Grenache Blanc Cask).  We also have their Speyside expression which is 70% Dufftown (a 12yr finished in Red Zinfandel) and 30% Mortlach (a 15yr beauty finished in a Callejo Tempranillo cask).

Special thanks goes out (again) to Pat of the Virginia Distilling Company for the samples!

Let’s start with the Highland Malt:

A Highland vatting of Clynelish & Ben Nevis – 46%ABV – 750ml – $70

On the nose — And odd yet interesting nose we have here…

Off the bat, notes of a wet cinder block.

Malt vinegar & chocolate.

Both vinegar & chocolate notes are slight – as if they were watered down in some way.

Buttermilk biscuits (malty, buttery).

Unripened pears.

Strong vanilla and oaky notes that, given the combination, are reminiscent of a bourbon (or the sweet result of a heavily charred barrel).

Soured milk (perhaps this is the vinegar note better realized?)

On the mouth — Very sweet with notes of english toffees.

Hot cinnamon on pears.

Nutmeg spice (back to that sweet bourbony feel).

Something sweet yet earthy in here.

Finish — Medium length.  Caramels, nicely salted.

In sum — Hmmm… perhaps, like the make-up, I’m a bit 50-50 on this one.

There’s a lot going on with the nose but once sipped on, the palate gets somewhat narrowed down (or funneled) into something a bit more focused.

It sounds like a nice thing but I was hoping for a little joyride like I was given with the nose on this one.

Now for the Speyside:

A Speyside vatting of Dufftown & Mortlach – 46%ABV – 750ml – $70

On the nose — Big, thick nose filled with dates and dark chocolates.

More dried fruits, juicy and nicely chewy (chewy like figs).

Salty and slightly smoked.

Stewed prunes and canned prunes.

Almonds via marzipan.

A dusty attic with no-longer-being-used furniture.

Very happy with this nose, thank you muchly.

On the mouth — Nice mouth feel.

The prunes regain the life they once had and turn back into plums.

That smoke creeps back.

My tongue gets licked back by light hints of leather and perhaps freshly dried tobacco leaf.

After becoming plums, said fruits then get distilled turning into a fairly hot slivovitz.

My mouth is now happy as well.

Finish — Medium length filled with melting chocolates.

In sum — A nice cold night dram.  Sit back and enjoy.