Tag Archives: Green Tea

Amrut Fusion

India – 50%ABV – $60 | £34 | €39

A mixture of non-peated Indian barley and peated Scottish barley.  Bottled at 50% ABV, this is some smokin’ hot stuff.

I would have written something super fun and funny as a lead up to my review of this whisky but, Peter from The Casks beat me to it – a must read!

Perhaps what I can offer are some alternate fusions that are just plain silly: Christmukkah, George Lucas and Star Wars Ep 1, 2 & 3, L. Ron Hubbard & religion…

Can you think of anymore silly fusions?  My favorite one will win you a 5cl sample of Eades Islay Double Malt.  Leave your ideas in the comments section of this post.

OK.  Onto a fusion that I think may have actually worked out pretty darned well:

On the nose Damp leaves of both the autumnal variety and teas (think Sencha green tea or perhaps Gyokuro).

Smouldering logs in the distance.

Also, very barn-yardy to me.

Beyond this we find a mixed fruit tin filled, mostly, with pineapple.

Butterfingers candy bar.

With water: Slight nuttiness and something creamy or, better yet, soft – like sniffing marshmallows with nutmeg on them.

On the mouth Hotter than I expected!

Yes, it’s at 50% but I’ve had no issues sipping on cask strength whiskies (SMWS expressions come to mind) without this complaint.

Increasingly peppery.

Fruits are back.

With water: Still a bit hot on the edges of the tongue but down the center I get a creaminess.

Oranges & apricot jam (reminiscent of Sauternes wine).

Still very pepper-ladden.

Finish Long, burnt, peppery, fruit.

Hints of dark chocolates.

In sum A very nice dram that is well balanced and fairly exciting.  I’d love to taste this as part of a blind tasting.  Complex, no doubt.  I do have to say though, that of the five Amruts I’ve had their standard, unpeated 46% ABV whisky is my fave.

Special thanks goes out to Raj at Purple Valley Imports for the sample (also, thanks to Gal of Whisky Israel who sent me a sample.  Lucky me, I got to review and dissect this whisky as well as just sit back and enjoy a nice dram of it).

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”.

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 sumWell 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.

La-la-la, The Magical Mystery Tour!

Did you know that all of us Jews know one another?  Oh sure, it’s mostly true!  And if we don’t know them, we came pick them out of a crowd – I call it “Jewdar”.  “Jewdar” is a radar for Jews just as Gaydar is a radar for Gay folk.

Ok, I’m really just kidding.  It is true, however, that Gal Granov from Whisky Israel and I do know each other.  He and I are good whisky buddies (even though we’re thousands of miles away from one another).  Gal and I started doing some whisk(e)y sample trading and on our last trade we thought it’d be a good idea if we each sent over a “Mystery Dram”.

A dram that A) didn’t cost a whole lot of money and B) is something that neither of us have had before.  The idea is to try and figure out, at the very least, who distilled the mystery dram in question.  No hints, no nothing.  We had to uncover the mystery using only two tools – our nose and tongue.

As you can see below, we tried to make this as mysterious as possible (you’ll note that the Glencairn shown below has a Glenmorangie logo on it.  This is not giving away and hints.  It’s not a Glenmo.  I just love Glenmorangie whiskies so much, I had to have my very own Glenmorangie Glencairn glass.  Seriously.):

So again, no hints, no nothing.  Let’s see how I did:

On the nose A very floral nose, house-planty if you will… Soapy scents and some orange, perhaps a little strawberry too.  There’s a nice little peat backbone here but it’s not overwhelming by any means…  Some curried tomatoes (man… now I want some Indian food!).

Well, I already have an inkling as to what it is but I may want a to chose a Life Line before I blurt out my answer, I better taste it…

On the mouth The peat is much larger here and it’s a bit dirty.  The mouth feel is quite nice.  Oily, just as I like it.  Sweet.  Simple syrup, salty, green tea… I’m not sure of the ABV but, the attack is not huge here so I’m guessing 43%.

Finish Sort of a short and thin finish with some orange soapiness coming back.

In sum Well, my guess on this (which is mostly based on the nose with some of the palate elements to help me fill in the some of the clues) is that this is a Bowmore.  It’s not the 12.  This I know.  But it’s got to be a Bowmore.

I liked it but didn’t love it.  This, to me, is the type of whisky that I’d keep on my shelf (and yes, I’d like to have a bottle of this on my shelf – at all times really) for those moments when you just didn’t know what to pour.  “It’s just a Thursday night so, I’m not going to pour my Glenmorangie Quarter Century” or, “It’s way too hot out, there’s no way I’m breaking out my Lagavulin 16yr DE”, etc…  This is that whisky that can always fill the void.  You don’t need to decide to grab it.  You just grab, open, pour, sniff, sip, swallow, repeat.

I did contact Gal to see if I was right about it being a Bowmore.  Lo and behold, I was right (Woo Hoo!!).  So, which one is it?

The Bowmore Legend.

You should check and see how Gal fared with the mystery dram I sent him – here’s the link.