Tag Archives: Lemons

An everyday dram, Caol Ila, Let's celebrate!, Master of Malt

Single Cask, 30yo Caol Ila bottled by Master of Malt

Islay region – Master of Malt Exclusive Single Cask bottling limited to 154 bottles – 57.4%ABV – £99 | €111

Yay!  The whole “get a free sample of whisky using the JSMWS sample code at the Master of Malt website during checkout” works (details on that program can be found here).  I’m not here to push Master of Malt right now, not really.  I’m just reviewing one of their whiskies and letting you know how I ended up getting a sample of their new Caol Ila single cask whisky.

I am a patron of Master of Malt as well as Royal Mile Whiskies, The Whisky Exchange, SCOMA, Shoppers Vineyard, Abbey Whisky and many, many others… not trying to show favoritism here… I shop them all.  My whisky purchasing business gets spread all around as I want to help keep all of these stores up and running.

So, to continue with my story…

While spidering the MoM website, I uncovered some great deals so I took my own advise and used the “JSMWS sample” code in the shipping instructions during my last purchase to Master of Malt.  Lo and behold, what did I find in the box along side some Hanyu, Aberlour and Arran I bought?  A fun little 3ml sample of this 30yo Caol Ila single cask, that’s what!

So, it all worked out in the end.  I got some fancy whisky bottles and a shiny, bandy-new sample of Caol Ila.  Lucky for me because this is a well chosen cask of whisky!

On the nose — More smoky than expected with this one being as old as it is… perhaps it’s the pepper attack that grabs my nose’s attention which is then followed by a smoke burst that makes it seem more smokey than it actually is.

Let’s give this another go.  Incredibly fruity – sugared tropical fruits.

Vanilla creams and lemon pepper.

Tobacco and fig ice cream (topped with fresh figs) – hungry yet??

On the mouth — Soft – bloody f&%king soft entry (!!) and filled with salted sugary goodness.

Aged rum – this actually reminds me of some aged cask strength rums I’ve had.

Nowhere near as smoky as the nose suggested.

Smoked salt on pineapple (fried pineapple).

Peach Melba.  Fabulous.

Herbed incense.  Hot now, salty too.

Finish — Long, longer, silken and warm with peaches.

In sum — A luxurious Single Cask of Caol Ila.  Wonderfully composed, balanced and just a damn, damn tasty dram!  Powerful yet soft and elegant.  An any occasion dram – perhaps a dram to enjoy ASAP!  Before it sells out!

A World of Discovery, Port Ellen, Summertime

Signatory Port Ellen 1982, Bourbon Cask #1202, 26 years old

Islay region – 54.1% – $339 | £? | €?

An out of the blue voicemal:

Marshall (this voicemail is completely paraphrased): “Hey Joshua, Marshall here, just checking to see if you might want a sample pour of some Port Ellen the LASC just got”

I was busy setting up a tradeshow booth so I sent a text:

Joshua: “As ‘The Dude’ would say: Does the Pope shit in the woods? Hell yes!”

The back and forth goes on from there but there are too many expletives and references to “Jewish English” that would make my reproducing of the entire transcript too risque for the JSMWS blog.  No shit.

Special thanks to Marshall and the LASC for the “bad-a$$ F&#$ing great pour” sent to me!

On the nose — Lemon soap suds & sweaty canvas sneakers.

Bright smoke.  Burning, salty driftwood.

Chamomile tea and a bushel of hay on a very, very humid summer’s day.

After a while the bourbon influence is very noticeable with scents of cinnamon and vanilla even fresh corn.

After this, it gets a bit dank and dewy.

On the mouth — The ABV is barely… wait a sec.  Wow, this is really…really heating up on me.

Oh crap!  This goes from oily, soft and sweet then onto being thin, hot and fiery in a matter of 6-7 seconds…

Let’s have another go at this:  Grassy, earthy, flinty, almost electric.

It starts off with freshly bitten plum then moves into pink lemonade.

This is evolving with every single sip.

Soapy, like on the nose and growing into sugary tart Sweetarts.

Honeyed teas and salted, baked lemons.

Finish — Lasting and evolving, hot, spicy and lemony sweet.

In sum — Nicely balanced.  I really dug the way the flavors exploded and evolved with every second.  A late summer’s night dram if you have a shit ton of cash to spare!  Very enjoyable.  For the $$ tag on this one, I can spend less on another whisky that can also be enjoyed on a late summer’s night.

All You Need Is Love, Angry, Ardbeg

Ardbeg Supernova, 2010 Edition “SN2010”

Islay region – 60.1%ABV – $130 | £80 | €92

A couple of nights ago I mentioned to the folks in a post on the Friends of the Jewish Single Malt Whisky Society Facebook page that I finally got around to reviewing the Ardbeg Supernova SN2010.

What seemed like it could have popped up 2.3 seconds before I posted my announcement, my friend Jason from the Guid Scotch Drink blog commented saying “‘Bout bloody time. 2011 will be along here shortly!”

Point taken.  Yeah, I’m a bit late on this but there are reasons for that.   To be very honest with you, it’s taken me many, many tastings to actually appreciate this stuff.  I’m not sure if I had a series of “off nights” where my nose was not working correctly or perhaps I was not in the right mood… Not sure.  I can tell you this is intense whisky – and deserves 100% of your attention.

On the nose — Knock your socks off peat smoke, iodine and grapefruit or pomelo.

Lemon custard and buttery pie crust.

I am reminded of the show Alice with the head “chef” Mel cooking bacon while, and perhaps this is just a false memory, smoking a cigarette – match those two scents and that’s what I’m getting here.

Also salted pork and nori wraps.

On the mouth — Soft and oily mouth feel with a strong bite of alcohol.

We’ll keep this to tiny sips… A bit tough to get past the heat, peat and lemons (strong with the lemons) but, it is a bit spellbinding.

Some red berries are in there as well.

Dry, dry cardboard and sugared rhubarb.

More on the lemons and a bit on the grapefruits – marmalades and candies rinds.  Yum!!

Wet ropes, fishing rubbers and salted caramels.

Lively yet not “young” – this seems to be bottled at maturity.

Vanilla now and a good deal of it.

Finish — Long, hot and filled with a new note of plums (think slivovitz).

In sum — The good news is: I loved this whisky.  Bright and energizing and balanced wonderfully between the fruits, drying qualities, salt and smoke.

The bad news is, as mentioned above: it’s taken me 66% of my bottle to come to this conclusion.  Is it me or the whisky… tough to tell.  It’s highly upfront and potent.

Overall, insanely enjoyable but it was hard to break through and unravel all of its many joys…  One to drink when you’re pissed off!  Its a mood changer for sure!

Let’s pray Jason is right – let’s hope there is a 2011 version of this whisky.

One of my favorite reviews of this whisky was given by Sarah Bergfeld (long time guest contributor to Guid Scotch Drink) – her review of the Supernova SN2010 (plus other Ardbegs) can be read here.

Bruichladdich, Cold Winter, Let's celebrate!

Bruichladdich Octomore 2.1

Islay region — 62.50%ABV – $130 | £97 | €112

There’s a lot to be said about this whisky but much of it is going to come out from the whisky itself.

What I can tell you before we get into the actual review of it is that it’s a big furry bear of a whisky; chock full of a lot more than I expected (to be very honest with you).

When this whisky first came out I was a bit skeptical.  I thought that Bruichladdich’s coming out with the biggest, peatiest whisky on the market was nothing more than a “who’s got the biggest whisky schvanse” marketing ploy and nothing more.  I think I was wrong.  Dead wrong.

I think I’m going to skip to the chase here on this whisky…

On the nose — Nice and fruity – pears, rhubarb, licorice, soured and sweetened milk (again, baby vomit – it must be a young Bruichladdich thing), lemony, white lithium grease, oh yeah, some peaty smokiness…

For having a peat level of 10 trillion parts per million (OK, it’s really 140ppm), it’s not the burning cauldron of brimstone I expected.

A bit young and fiery, filled with salt and spit (like a young Ricky Hatton, if he were a whisky) – with water the menthol kicks in as does an immense brush fire.

Reminds me of the time when I was 8 years old and burned down my local woods while playing with matches.  Light a match, blow it out.  Light a match, blow it out.  Look down and, wham-o, my shoes are on fire!  I ran away intact.  I wish I could say the same for the woods…

On the mouth — Wham, bam thank you ma’am!

I just got bitch slapped by this ‘laddich!

The ABV is making its presence known…  Hot!

However, the mouth feel is great, oily, chewy… nice, nice, nice.

Buttery biscuits, ashes, licorice, more ashes.

With water: it just got that much chewier and now creamy;

with water, this is a true treat.

Apples arrive and so does caramel (fantastic combination).

Delicious, chewlicious, peatlicious.

Finish — On and on, creamy, peaty and fruity…

In sum — I love it when I’m proved wrong.  This is a great whisky that has MUCH more to offer that peat & smoke.  A lovely stunner with the sweet, sour, fruits, smoke, chewiness, etc…  Especially given the price, this is one to treat yourself with (preferably during the winter time).

A big thanks goes out to Gal of Whisky Israel for this sample.  Gal did a side by side (or head to head, however you want to look at it) of the Octomore 2.1 & 2.2 – click here for his good thoughts on these Octomores.

Cold Winter, Kilchoman

The Jewish Single Malt Whisky Society vs. Kilchoman Binny’s Single Cask vs. Kilchoman Royal Mile Whiskies Single Cask

Dear readers, I’d like to introduce you to the new kid in town: Kilchoman.

Kilchoman is Islay’s newest/youngest distillery with whiskies currently no older than 3 years of age.  Their style is similar to that of the heavier/smokier/peatier whiskies that come from Islay.  It’s actually the first distillery to be built on Islay in 124 years or so.  Also, the folks at Kilchoman grow their own barley (the distillery is set on a farm, by the by…) as well as malt their own barely in the tradition floor malting way.

So, what do we have today?  Two whiskies.  Both single casks.  Both cask strength.  One is from Binny’s out of Chicago then other is from Royal Mile Whiskies out of the UK.  A big thanks goes out to David H. for the sample. You may remember David from his guest post many months back regarding his trip to Scotland.

Binny’s Single Cask (ex-bourbon) – 61.1%ABV

On the nose — A one-two-three combination punch of heat and soot and lemons.  This whisky is going to put up a fight.  Cool, cool.

Let’s see what you got, punk!

Wet cardboard?  What?  You got more?

Oh, some interesting notes of sassafras and even a bit of agave.  Braggart!

What else?

Banana peels, pie crusts and green apples.   Hmpf, now you’re just showing off.  Let give you a taste.

On the mouth — Whoa, hot-head…  slow down!  This is our first date!  Don’t make me tame you with water.  I will and don’t think I won’t.  I put you into this glass, I can drink you out!

Let’s start again.

Oh, you’re just a sweetie at heart aren’t you?  I’m tasting sugared lemon hard candies and some salted butter cookies.

Listen, you’re from Scotland, not the tropics… put the toasted coconut shreds away, will you?

Finish — You’re medium in length (you are only three after all, nothing to be ashamed of) but you offer up a nice bit of pepper in the finish.

Well met.  Well met.  Good form!

Royal Mile Whiskies (ex-bourbon) 61.7%ABV

On the nose — Ok, you wanna start some $#!+ too?  Let’s see what you’re made of, whipper-snapper!

Oh, you’re a bit of a softy.  Nothing like you’re punk-ass brother.

Melted butter and perhaps a few notes of chocolate fudge.

Also, no offense but, you’re a nut!  Walnut to be exact…

You’re peaty, just like your brother but you also wreak of wax and green olives.

On the mouth — What in the world am I tasting here?  You’re a bit of a shape shifter.

Soot and tea and sweet powdered candies (pixie six and fun dip).

Marmalade & toast, you’re trying to butter me up now, aren’t you?

Finish — Smarties.  Medium length and sugary.

In sum — This was a fight to the finish.  Aside from me, I have to say that the Royal Mile Whiskies single cask was easily the victor here.  A whisky that seems to be mature beyond it’s mere three year life span.

Each whisky is nice in it’s own way but I wish I had a full bottle of the Royal Mile Whiskies one…  Both of these will put a spring in your step and give you the energy you need to face the cold winter!

As an aside, after I wrote this post up I realized that Jeff at Scotchhobbyist.com had already done a Kilchoman vs. Kilchoman post (albeit two different ones than I just did).  His post and tasting notes are fantastic, be sure to check his review out!