I’m going to limit the preamble in today’s review because the whisky is going to be better than anything I have to say.
Let me quickly say, however, that Abbey Whisky seems to be on to something here, and that something is choosing good casks of whisky to bottle. First they released a 17yo Caperdonich and now they have this 23yo peated Bunnahabhain.
Peated Bunnahabhain can be hit or miss but this one, good people, is a total hit. Check it:
On the nose – Peated Bunnahabhain is *so* peated Bunnahabhain. Quite unique.
Peppery upfront but the peat is soft which I am guessing is due to the 23 years in the refill bourbon cask.
Smoked and dried granny smith apples. Bit-o-Honey candies (a wonderful honey and nutty mix of flavors).
Wildflower greens (minus the flowers) gives this whisky a very late summery feel.
A touch of pool water here as well.
Though bottled at 44% ABV, the peppery quality gives it a touch of sting in the nose.
Heavily salted Tomato Juice (like the V8 Spicy Hot stuff). So far so yummy.
On the mouth – Soft, delicate and nowhere near as peaty on the mouth as it was on the nose.
Very vegetal (as the nose suggested) with hints of lemon, minus any sugar that might be associated with lemons.
Medicinal and Listerine like but in a very comforting way. Those wildflower greens are gone but the flowers make themselves know.
This is, ummm, lovely stuff and it begins to grow in intensity as the finish nears.
Finish – Lovely spice and great Islay character. The finish sticks to your gullet and you’re happy for that!
In sum – One of the better, older, peated Bunnys I’ve ever had. Like grilled peanut butter and jelly on seeded rye bread, all of pieces go together so well for me. I sort of wish I had a full bottle to open and share with friends in a single night. We’ll finish together in a few hours. Yeah, it’s that good.
Special thanks to MS of Abbey Whisky for the surprise sample!
Highlands region – 53.5%ABV – US only — Price: unknown at this point.
Many of us here in the states have not heard of the Exclusive Malts or The Creative Whisky Company who are responsible for bottling this selection of single casks. The Exclusive Malts range is a new range to the US brought to this side of the pond by the fine folks at ImpEx Beverages.
So, what makes this line of whiskies so special? I’d say it comes down to David Stirk, owner of The Creative Whisky Company, and his ability to consistently choose and bottle fine and fun casks of whisky, both young and old. In the UK and EU, Mr. Stirk is known for bottling good hooch; I’m just glad that he and ImpEx are working together to bring some of these bottlings our way.
I was sent 5 samples in all from ImpEx (thanks again!) and we will launch the review of the Exclusive Malts range with this 15yo Clynelish. Bottled at cask strength and matured in what I assume is an ex-bourbon cask – the bottle simply says “aged in oak.”
On to the review; begin the begin:
On the nose – Quite a classic representation of Clynelish – waxy smelling, a touch of smoke, lemon bars and paraffin. Bright wood spice nose – a house in the framing stage of being built – fresh sawn wood.
A touch of mild mustard seed. Actually, if one could figure out a way to candy mustard seeds, I imagine it’d smell a bit like this.
Fresh tropical fruits and some crushed pecans (sans any bitter nut skin). Boy, nut skin just sounds wrong – forget I even mentioned nut skin. Seriously, stop with the nut skin!! *Why* are you obsessing…
MOVING ON!
Some warmed caramel or perhaps the caramel from a Milky Way bar.
On the mouth – Oh, hell yes. Warming and oily mouth feel. Much of what we got on the nose with a touch of hayseed to boot.
Waxy, spicy (not overly so)… Actually, the spice is increasing here — if you’ve ever had Dailuaine, the level of spice is similar to Dailuaine. Very nice.
Plastic candy wrappers, wax wrappers for vanilla caramels.
Finish – From mouth coating and oily to a medium length, slightly drying finish (like biting into a red grape seed).
In sum – Here is where knowing how to bottle a good cask at the right time pays off. This is a great whisky that’s both easy going but also has wonderful levels of complexity to it. At 53.5% ABV, it’s not hot at all… very approachable and perfect for a weekend morning pick-me-up. Start your day with this one (so long as you’re not driving or operating heavy machinery… or have to vote).
Speyside region – 55.8%ABV – Pricing is TBD. Will update this post as soon as I have more information.
One of the upsides to being a whisky reviewer is that now and again whisky shows up to my door. Cool, right?
Sometimes the whisky is in sample form, sometimes it’s my own purchase. Both scenarios do a fantastic job of setting my lovely wife’s eyes a’rollin. Oh boy, *more* whisky.
A common question posed by me to my wife: “Did the whisky fairy arrive today?”
I quite enjoy it when the answer is “yes.”
Occasionally, one of my daughters will tell me as I walk in the door, “Hey daddy. Surprise, surprise, more whisky.”
I love my daughters. They really know how to bust my butt with the snark of a 22 year old. You’d never think they were 3 & 5.
…so one day, not too long ago, I received a completely unsolicited sample of this 1975 Speyburn single cask from Lucas D saying: Enjoy! Let me know what you think.
In addition to the “enjoy the sample” bit, he gave me the following information on this whisky:
“The whisky comes from a single mature Spanish oak sherry butt acquired from Pedro Domecq – the oldest Bodega in Jerez founded in 1730. The cask was most likely used to mature Pedro Ximenez sherry. This helps to explain its exceptionally dark colour, at 20 Lovibond (45.9 EBC) it is one of the darker naturally coloured Scotch whiskies out there. The sample was drawn at the distillery in March 2012 and the ABV is 55.8% (!).”
Well, thank you Lucas for the sample. It’s much appreciated!
Here are my thoughts:
On the nose – The initial offering from the nose on this whisky is that of pen ink (from a ball point) and summer pool water.
Fresh pulled garden greens, a salty smelling nose.
Fired apples (granny smith) and cherry stones here as well. More apples yet in sauce-form with brown spices and burnt sugar.
It’s a wild nose here as it straddles the line between real and artificial (man-made) scents and does so fairly well.
With water some notes of a Cadbury Fruit and Nut bar say hello.
On the mouth – Whoa, this is a hot one!
Chocolate chunks (dark) and fresh black pepper. Cinnamon and walnuts, shells and all. Let’s add water. A bit too hot for me.
Much better with water – and a decent mouthfeel to boot!
Black strap molasses, drunken raisins and chocolates. Sugar cookies and sugary butter cookies.
Nutty – hazelnuts, walnuts, no salt, crushed into a paste and sweetened (with some vanilla added in for good measure).
Finish – Long and peppery (with lasting heat).
In sum – It’s nice to drink history. I was only 2 years old when this was distilled. That in and of itself is a bit mind boggling. All of the parts were there and in the right places. I think some of the heat detracted from the overall experience (even with water) but pair this with some nice Stilton cheese and/or 70%+ cacao chocolate and you just might find yourself in a little place I like to call “Heaven.”
Who in the who is Kininvie?! If you’re an American, chances are, this is a very valid question.
Kininvie is a distillery owned by William Grant & Sons (same folks that own The Balvenie, Glenfiddich, Hudson Real American Whiskey, Tullamore Dew, Grant’s blend and a few other whiskies & spirits companies). Kininvie is one of the key components in the Monkey Shoulder vatted malt, I mean, blended malt whisky.
It’s pretty rare that the Kininvie distillery releases a single malt. In fact, I think there have only been about 3 or 4 bottlings to date (Mr. Sammy Simmons, if you see this post, feel free to correct me here…). So, when they do release a single malt, being the rare birds that they are, you can imagine that they’d command a high price like the one given here (£650!!)
A big thanks goes out to Marshall N and a few others at the LASC for getting me this sample! These guys are always treating me to some fine stuff and they need to be thanked. So, consider yourselves thanked (and expect some more thanks down the road).
Matured in first fill sherry (type of sherry is unknown to me) casks – let’s taste this one…
On the nose — Here we have all things one might associate with autumn – roasted nuts right off the county fair nut kiosk.
Carrot cake less the cream cheese frosting.
Dried fruits (apricot, sugar dried dates) and brazil nuts (N.V.T.S., NVTS!).
French vanilla latte with a cinnamon dusting on the frothy head.
Very drying nose – some woody influence here as well.
On the mouth — Intensely drying entry that makes the mouth water to counteract the dry.
Fresh cocoa beans. Spicy, woody and now even more spice.
A touch of orange peel and also a lot of what I got on the nose.
Creme brule, burnt sugary top and all.
Finish — A touch of clove, vanilla a sugared carrots
In sum — Insanely lucky to have had a chance to taste this stuff. All of the scents and flavors did a good job of playing to the yearly Fall-Fever I get (most people get Spring-Fever, I get Fall-Fever…). The one detractor I found in it was the dry attack right from the get-go which affected the mouthfeel. This aside, the smells and flavors were so, so nice. Good luck finding a bottle! I’ve found a source with The Whisky Exchange: they’re both rare & expensive (£650!!)
In the end, this made me really want some Balvenie 21 Portwood (one of my faves) so, I poured a bit, relaxed and discovered that life can be good.
Before the year is out, I wanted to make sure that I post up my reviews of two of my favorite whiskies I tasted this year. Both are in their thirties and are from a single ex-sherry cask. The Glen Grant was bottled by Duncan Taylor back in 2007 and the Glenglassaugh is an OB and is the first in a new set of releases entitled: “The Chosen Few“.
The first bottle in "The Chosen Few" series - Ronnie chose a damn fine cask of whisky - 35yo Sherry cask
You might my mentioning a little detail about Glenglassaugh’s “The Chosen Few” series a little while back. As a reminder (and so as to toot my own horn):
When looking to name this series of single cask bottlings, Ronnie Routledge posted a contest on the Friends of Glenglassaugh Facebook page looking for a name for the range and yours truly (that’s me, Joshua Hatton, by the way) picked the winning name: The Chosen Few.
Even if I hadn’t had the winning name I still would have chosen this whisky as one of my favorites for 2011:
Glenglassaugh – Highland region – The Chosen Few – Ronnie Routledge – 49.6%ABV – £290 | $450
On the nose – There’s a good mix of interesting things going on in here. A wood paneled pantry full of powdered sweets on a hot and humid summer’s day.
Lemony sugared pinwheels (or perhaps candied lemons – I love finding this note; you should try one sometime) as well as bruised, or perhaps, overripe peaches.
Tinned pineapple, walnut shells and huge notes of juicy mango. More tropical that I expected.
Some wisps of smoke in the background (??).
My grandparent’s afghan from their finished basement storage somewhere around 1984.
You can smell the age here but it doesn’t smell old or tired in anyway. All of those candied notes balance off the wood panel & stored afghan scents I got (which are not bad notes at all. Left unbalanced by the sweetness well, then it’d be a different story…). Lovely nose.
On the mouth – Fantastic attack with a great combination of youthful fizziness (a seeming effervescence) and a strong sweetness (light fruit compote) without being cloying in anyway.
Licorice and spiced dried fruit pastries. This is yummy,yummy, yummy stuff!!
A second sip in and I notice that the tannins kick in pretty quickly but that dryness is accompanied by some of those powder sugar candies I got on the nose (as Spock would say, Fascinating).
Finish – Spicy and long on the finish. Wow, really long with notes of spiced berries and even some cranberry/ginger relish in there.
In sum – Complex, intriguing and so very balanced. Ronnie Routledge chose insanely well. I was so sad to see my sample go. I took my sweet time with it. If you have the funds, I suggest you pick up a bottle and start exploring.
Special thanks goes out to Iain over at dramperday.com for the sample. You can read his thoughts on this fine whisky right here (you’ll see that he LOVED it too).
Glen Grant – Speyside region – 51.5%ABV – Duncan Taylor Cask # 3480 1970/2007 – $299
On the nose — Forceful nose; like a high school senior boy after the prom.
Giving this just a little time to air out will make a difference, methinks.
Bitter cherries, cherry skins & stones/pits, prunes and potpourri.
Floral and bitter and deep inside notes of heated, over-cinnamoned apple sauce.
Oak furniture, fresh potting soil and party balloons.
A nicely sherried nose showing depth and age but I’m afraid that all of those bitter notes will prove over oaken on the palate. Let’s see…
On the mouth — I LOVE it when I’m wrong! All sorts going on in here but let’s start off with the fact that this has a a nice oily mouthfeel from the outset. Yes, it gets a bit dry but nowhere near as dry and oaky as I expected. Thank G-d!
Now, on with the flavor: Cherry Cola, honey reduction, Sweet cherry pie filling (minus the pie crust), the taste of the smell of potpourri, baked pear and solid rolled cinnamon bark.
No sign of sulphur, match sticks in this one.
Holiday brown bread and boozy raisins, walnuts and some dark chocolates.
Finish — Long, spiced, really long… warming and soothing, oak and warmed butter biscuits.
In sum — A fantastic single cask of whisky! This one surprised me. I was truly expecting an over oaken old fuddy-duddy but no. There’s a ton of personality and balance in here. A well chosen cask!
Special thanks goes out to Mike W for the sample!!
Islay region – 44%ABV – £80 (only available from Abbey Whisky)
Smoked and dried granny smith apples. Bit-o-Honey candies (a wonderful honey and nutty mix of flavors).
Heavily salted Tomato Juice (like the V8 Spicy Hot stuff). So far so yummy.
Medicinal and Listerine like but in a very comforting way. Those wildflower greens are gone but the flowers make themselves know.
