Tag Archives: onions

A World of Discovery, Speyside Distillery

Old Malt Cask 20yo Speyside

 

OMC-Speyside-1Speyside region – 50% ABV – from a single Oloroso Sherry Butt, 150 bottles for the US.  Not sure who got the rest of the bottles from this butt… Maybe a UK/EU Bottling at 700ml?

This whisky reminds me of the theme song to Spielberg’s old cartoon (that I LOVED as a kid/teenager), Tiny Toons.

Here we have single cask of whisky matured in an Oloroso Sherry butt.  What would we usually expect from sherry wood?:  Notes of dried fruits, leather, chocolate, brown spices, cherry stones, cola syrup, etc…  Deep and dark, sometimes cloyingly sweet flavors.

But this cask is breaking all of the rules!

“So here’s Acme Acres,
It’s a whole wide world apart,
Our home sweet home,
It stands alone,
A cartoon work of art!
The scripts were rejected,
Expect the unexpected
On tiny toon adventures
It’s about to start!”

OMC-Speyside-2On the nose –  A wonderfully peppery nose that has hints of coastal grasses, medicinal throat lozenges, model glue and diaper cream.

A hint of peat perhaps – not smoky at all but an interesting waft of peat and vegetality.

OMC-Speyside-3Onion crisps (Funyuns™) malt grist and vinegar.  A touch of honey and citrus comes to the fore.

Not an every day sort of nose for me but I am really digging the components.  Well put together so far and above all, interesting.  Let us carry on, wayward son!

On the mouth –  Much more restrained and fruity than expected.

OMC-Speyside-4That coastal element comes out again (again with the grasses and now salty beach stones) and reminds me a bit of what I love about the Laddie Ten.

Loads of white pepper and a gooseberry sourness to boot.  More onion crisps and a hint of adobo spice.

OMC-Speyside-5Very malty, this one.  Like a malt beverage cut with 2% white cranberry juice.

Mouth feel is like flat soda.

Finish – The flavors dissipate pretty quickly but some zing remains on the tongue.

In sum – A very interesting whisky that would likely do well in a tasting of many different whiskies.  Not my favorite Speyside bottling but the nose get extra points for uniqueness.

It’s whiskies like this that get me excited when looking to explore deeper within a distillery to see what it can offer.  This helps to show why single casks are so unique and sometimes quite special.  Or, in this case, odd and a ton of fun.

Special thanks to the folks at ISW for the official sample!

A World of Discovery, All You Need Is Love, Arran, Summertime

Arran Peacock – Vintage 1996

Islands region – 46%ABV – £42 | €50

The Arran Peacock made some big noise when it was released.  It seemed as though every blogger and whisky writer from here to there tasted it, loved it, wrote about.  I thought it might be a good idea to do the same but then second guessed it.  I wanted to be the Johnny-come-lately to the party and post my review AFTER all this precious fluid was sold out.  No, not really.  I just made a funny.

Truth be told, I’ve had a sample of this whisky for some time and shame on me for not tasting and posting about this stuff sooner.  This is very nice.  So nice that Jim Murray, in his 2011 Whisky Bible, awarded it the Best Single Malt Scotch 11-15 years old with a whopping 96pts out of 100.  Not to shabby!

A special thanks goes out to Jason of Guid Scotch Drink for the sample!

So, what does Joshua Hatton, author of the Whisky Torah think about this stuff?  Read on.

On the nose — Oh, you big sweetie!  Aren’t you just filled with all sorts of fun candies?

Did you just come back from trick-or-treating?  Well, this is surely no trick – it’s quite the treat!

Strawberry & raspberry pixie stix.

A full roll of smartees and a pack of pineapple lifesavers.

Vanilla is right there.

Some plastic shopping bags (I get this in whiskies every now and again, huh).

On the mouth — Pow! Big caramels upfront followed by golden delicious apples.

Pineapple, white pepper and chloroseptic.

All of these notes hit me at the same time.

The mouthfeel is peppery and abrasive.

Yellow onion.

Lemon custard.

Finish –– Short but with lasting pepper.

In sum — Everything is in it’s right place.  A mid day dram, summery and sweet.  Smell the roses.  Revel in all the small things that makes life so beautiful.

A special thanks goes out to Jason of Guid Scotch Drink for the sample!

Autumn, Bowmore, Need To Bundle Up

Bowmore 1992 Bordeaux Finish

Islay region – 53.5%ABV – 700ml bottle – Limited Edition, 1,800 bottles – £60 | €68

This is going to be a quick post.  I’ve got to get up at 2:30 tomorrow morning.  I’m flying out to Anaheim for a trade show (one of the things I truly love about my job).  While I’m out there I’m getting a chance to meet with one of my regular readers – we’re going to taste us some fine whiskies!  Ok, to the Bowmore:

I’ve got to be honest, my first experience with Bowmore was nearly my last.  It was their 12yr old expression and I had it during an Islay tasting.  We tasted the following whiskies that night: Bowmore 12yr, Bruichladdich “Rocks”, Laphroaig 15yr & Ardbeg 10yr.

Looking back, I guess The Bowmore did not stand a chance against the other three Islay expressions.  To add insult to injury, we broke out a little Lagavulin 16yr (which, in my opinion kicks the a$$ of most of the standard expressions out there, be they Islay or no).

Ok, enough crap-talking because I made the very-very smart decision to revisit The Bowmore.  First, I tried out the Master of Malt 26yr single cask exclusive (you can read my review here, and you can buy it here).

Then, I received a nice sample from my friend “O.K.” of The Bowmore 1992 Bordeaux Finish 53.5%.  I tried this Bordeaux finished Bowmore right after the 26yr Master of Malt expression – a world of difference (can you say understatement?).

Here we go:

On the Nose — Quite musky (think 70’s hippy oil meets mafioso cologne bath.

This is a strong nose!), quite smokey (but not like campfire smoke, this is very sophisticated smoke), fruity & winey, quite drying, cured meats, oily

On the mouth — Perfect strength at 53.5%, very tannic/drying mouth feel, Italian sausages and glycerin soap, slightly smokey, onions and kale

Finish — Very vegetal and the drying continues, more meats and a slight effervescence – Oh, some of those fruits from the nose came back.

In sum — I’m happy I made a return to The Bowmore.  It’s obvious that they’ve got some very interesting whiskies.  I’m looking forward to more Bowmore!  I’m going to make a point of trying the Bowmore 12yr again.  Alone this time to see how it stands up by itself.  That post will come within the next few months.

Autumn, Cold Winter, Mortlach

Mortlach Sherry butt – a meat lovers whisky

Speyside Region – 58%ABV – 70cl bottle – €85 (could not find a UK source and at 70cl rather than 750ml, you’ll never find this in the US)

First off, a special thank you to OK for this sample!

About 21 years ago, at the ripe old age of 15, I started really getting into a band from England called the Smiths.

Morrissey, the amazingly flamboyant front man of the group, had a strong effect on me as well as my other friends around the time.  It was quite amazing really.  During a Smiths concert (or Morrissey concert, when he went solo), men and women, girls and boys would throw flowers onto the stage, run up there and hug and kiss Morrissey – like he was a modern-day gay Jesus or something.  While I never threw flowers or jumped on stage to hug and kiss him I did listen to his lyrics quite attentively.  They really stuck in and made an impact on me – Come on I was an impressionable 15yr kid!!

Well, it was the 1985 album, and the title track from it, “Meat is Murder“, which started me on my vegetarian kick.

I’ve been a vegetarian ever since.  While I’m not preaching my beliefs anymore, I still keep the lifestyle and feel quite healthy for it; 21 years later.

Tasting this next whisky really brought back memories for me!  You see, before I became an herbivore, I was quite the omnivore with serious, SERIOUS carnivorous leanings.  Steak, tongue, pastrami, fish, corned beef, chicken, turkey, venison… You name it, if it was made of meat, I would eat!

As mentioned in a previous post, I am only 3 years into tasting whiskies.  This one, the Mortlach Sherry butt (tee-hee) from the C&S Dram Collection, is quite new to me.  Not just this expression or brand of whisky but more the style.  As my friend Oli from Whisky Ratings calls it, it’s the Oxtail soup style of whisky.  Perfect for a vege-ma-tarian, right??  Let’s taste!

On the nose – Grandma Betty’s Passover Brisket, Beef Gravy, Fried Onions and potatoes (think home-fries at a Greek diner), daisies, dates & figs and turpentine – very drying nose

Palate — Tannic beyond belief! With water, french onion soup and a lot of what I got on the nosing.  A bit grassy and earthy (with the water only)

Finish — Long & meaty, still drying and then, after sometime (maybe a minute or so) I get a little bit of marzipan.

John Holmes

In sum – While I am amazed at what true artisans can accomplish with water, barley, a sherry butt and time, this puppy is not up my alley.  The flavors are all there.  They are just flavors I prefer not to drink.  Not because it’s so meaty and I’m a vegetarian.  I loved and miss the taste of meats I just would never drink my meat.