Tag Archives: Orangey

A World of Discovery, All You Need Is Love, Autumn, Cold Winter, Glenmorangie, Let's celebrate!, Need To Bundle Up, Refreshed, Springtime, Summertime, Takin' It Easy

Glenmorangie Signet – Wonderfully different yet so quintessentially Glenmo!

Glenmorangie Signet

Highlands region – 46%ABV – 750ml bottle – $150–200 | £110 | €134

Hi, my name is Joshua and I loves me some Glenmorangie.  But, let’s back up a little bit, shall we?

Growing up I was a fat kid.  Yeah, that’s me with the man-boy boobs and the feathered cow-lick on the left there.  We’re looking at 1984 – 1985 or so.  I was 11 or 12.  This is the summer I started getting into the Dead Kennedys and got hooked on The Goonies (can’t you just picture me doing the truffle-shuffle?) and Back to the Future.

Why do I bring this up and what does it have to do with Glenmorangie?

Well, it was the summer of 1985 where I ate ‘G-d knows how many peaches’ in one sitting after watching the Cool Hand Luke 50 egg scene just to see how many I could eat (I never did vomit, by the way).  We had 10 peaches and yes, I ate them all (shit, look at that picture of me!).  You see, I love peaches & nectarines.  Always have.  I actually prefer nectarine (they’re like peaches that got a Brazilian wax).

“Dear Joshua, what does this have to do with Glenmorangie?”  Well, I’ll tell you.  Ardbeg is known for peat & lemons.  The Balvenie has their “honeyed” notes.  And, Glenmorangie is known for it’s, among other notes, peach notes.  It’s all coming together now, right?  Love for peaches, love for Glenmorangie… see??

Ok, its a stretch.  I needed a chance to show fat Josh (yeah, right) so, there you go.  Let’s review this.

On the nose – Aero milk chocolate bars.

Wonderful scents of paraffin wax.

Whiffs of recently extinguished candles.

Notes of ripe lush oranges and freshly brewed coffee.

Stewed figs and prune juice.

Underneath all of this lies the juicy peach notes (seeeeee!) that I always search for when having a Glenmorangie.

Finally, some great blasts of pipe smoke (how did I not detect this right off).

On the mouth – Oh, G-d damn.  Brilliant and warming notes of melting chocolate chips with bits of cookie attached.

Whole milk and steamy lattes.

Fine dry wine.

Like some Clarets I’ve had – soft but tannic.

The mouth feel is right up my alley, lush.

Walnut shells and cherry skins.

Finish – Zucchini bread and/or carrot cake with walnuts minus the cream cheese frosting.

There’s a drying nuttiness that pops up about 45 seconds after the swallow.

Yes, this is a nice, long finish!!

In sum – I’ve had many-many a Glenmorangie in my whisky tasting life.  Of all the whiskies I’ve had, I’ve had more expressions of Glenmorangie than any other brand of whisk(e)y.  This expression was as much un-like a Glenmorangie as it was like the quintessential Glenmorangie.  Brilliantly different yet so dead on.  Beyond this, it’s unlike any other whisky I’ve ever had.  A bit of a conundrum but, that’s a good thing.  Kudos/Bravo Glenmorangie and Dr. Bill Lumsden!  If you have the money, this is most likely one of the nicest every day drinkers for you to have.  It’s that good.

A World of Discovery, Refreshed, Tuthilltown

Happy America Day! (plus a Tuthilltown Hudson single malt whiskey review)

Hey y’all – I thought I’d wish my American compadres a Happy Forth of July!  And, in a strange way, wish our northernly neighbors a belated Happy Canada Day.  How are the two connected?  Well, they are connected in many ways, I’m sure, but the only one I care about right now is whiskey!

Recently, I tried Tuthilltown Spirit’s Hudson Single Malt Whiskey.  A single malt that uses 100% Canadian malted barley.  That’s right, the US and Canada joining schwartzes is the best way I can think of – to make great New York whiskey.

Straight to the review now:

Upstate New York, USA — 46%ABV — 375ml bottle – $40 (no non-USA distribution that I am currently aware of though the Tuthilltown Spirits group is now a proud member of the William Grant & Sons family)

On the nose – There’s a huge damp quality to this nose; almost like damp laundry (clean cotton notes for sure).

Sweet honeyed carrots and parsnips.

It actually almost has a corn like quality to it though this IS a single malt with no grain influence.  Must be the interaction with those cute small barrels they use.

Cinnamon (hot cinnamon, like big red chewing gum, not cinnamon as with apples or pears) and candied nuts.

On the mouth – Big cinnamon attack!  The final notes I detected in the nose ramped up with a Big Red freshness that lasted right through to the palate.

Brown sugar sweetness and orangey Jaffe Cakes.  Clove cigarettes.

Finish – A blast of oak and biscuits, quite numbing even at 46%.  My mouth usually only gets this way after a cask strength whisk(e)y (50% or more).

In sum – This is a pick-me-up sort of whiskey.  A nice way to start the day (if that’s your sort of thing) but, most importantly, a nice way to say Happy Birthday America; you sweet & spicy thang you!  And, Happy Canada Day (albeit a few days late) to my kanuckian brothers & sistas to the north!

Autumn, Blind Tastings, Springtime

Rick’s Mystery Dram series – Week 2 of 10 – Sample #2

Ah yes, Rick’s mystery dram series continues.  As a refresher: I am not Rick, my name is Joshua.  Rick is a loyal JSMWS blog reader who challenged me to a mystery dram /blind taste testing.  There are 10 drams in all and I decided to spread the challenge over 10 weeks.

So, how did I get the samples?  Initially we were going to do a sample trade through the mail but when I found out I was going to be traveling near to wear Rick lives, I suggested we meet for a dram or two and do the trade then and there.

Here are the samples Rick provided:

Rick suggested we meet at a whisky bar called “The Daily Pint” which is in Santa Monica California.  If you’re ever in the area, check it out.  If you do plan to go, bring A LOT of cash – this is one pricey whisky bar!!

So the planning of the meeting was easy.  As part of my job, I travel for work travel for work and had a trip planned already to the LA area so we knew the date and the time was easy to figure.  Rick found The Daily Pint so, we had the place.  What was hard (for me) was finding the damn place!  I think I circled the block about 5 times before Rick finally called to ask where I was.

I passed the place each of the five times I circled the block but, in truth, I should have seen it off the bat as G-d himself was telling me where to look.  Yes folks, right next to The Daily Pint was “Adonai Cleaners” – Dry Cleaning:

As a side note, and for any and all non-Jews out there who may not know, one of many the Hebrew names for G-d is “Adonai” (others are: YHWH (the unpronounceable name of G-d not to be mis-pronounced as Yahweh or Jehovah), Shechina, Elohim, Shadai, the list can go on – if interested, check out this wikipedia page on the Names of G-d in Judaism).

Back to the whisky-story at hand — I told Rick that if I had even the slightest inkling as to what this week’s dram was that I’d take a guess.  Well, I don’t so I wont.  I’ll let you, the good reader, try to figure it out.  Even if you want to take a shot in the dark, please enter your guess in the comments section.  Rick will post the answer this Friday or Saturday (June 4th or 5th, 2010).

OK, onto the tasting – this one is a mystery to me for sure!

On the nose — Perfect for Memorial Day – another American whiskey.  The nose is similar to the dram in the first mystery dram but not at strong.  A bit more corn here (think creamed corn), green apples, fresh cut wood

On the mouth — Hmmm, a bit flat here or should I say, smooth?  Not smooth good, smooth as in “where’s the beef?”.  Not an amazingly strong attack so I’m guessing this is more like 45-47%ABV, A touch grassy (maybe some wheat influence)?  Ginger, grape soda.  

Nutmeg and clove (spicy but subtle in a way… as if these notes want to make more of an appearance but are not being allowed to.  Like a kid who really wants to play piano but his/her dad wants him/her to play tennis instead – subdued and could/should be more than allowed).

Finish — Spice and burn on the sides and back of my tongue, flat cola (the flavor of, not the feel of).

In sum — Great promise on the nose but flavor fell flat for me.  Sorry Rick.  I was not pleased or very impressed with this one.

Here are the clues:

Strong nose with some obvious corn notes and apples and fresh cut wood (Timber!!)

Palate is subdued but has some interesting grape soda notes, ginger and (I’m guessing) wheat influence.

Standard ABV of 45% (90 proof)

For last week’s “Rick’s Mystery Dram” post along with what the answer was, click here.

All You Need Is Love, Arran, Autumn, Cold Winter, Master of Malt, Need To Bundle Up, Springtime

Master of Malt – Drinks by the Drams plus one review – The Master of Malt 12yr Arran Single Cask

Master of Malt

In case you are not familiar, Master of Malt is a spirits shop based in East Sussex, UK.  “MoM” (as may people lovingly refer to them as) specializes in the sales of malt whisky (be it Scotch, Irish, American, Japanese, Swedish, Australian and Kiwi, Welsh, Indian or Canadian) – they do it all.  They’re also getting into other fine spirits such as Rums, Gin, Vodka, etc…

These men and women are true Masters!

Something new for Master of Malt, and the wide world of whisky sales in general, is their innovation of selling 3cl sized samples of many of their whiskies!  They now offer, not just for the distillery owned bottles, but samples of their exclusive bottlings as well.  Very smart on their part if’n you ask me.  The program is called “Drinks by the Dram” and they have many whisky expression available for you to try (for a small fee) before you buy the full bottle.  Click here to check out their offering.

I got my hands on some of their samples (mainly of their exclusive expressions) and… do these samples look cool or what?  Even my wife thought they were “cute”.

Being that I have about 10 or 12 of these samples sitting at home, I thought that I should start opening, tasting and reviewing these cuties.  So I will get them into my regular rotation and see if I can review a new Master of Malt expression every Tuesday (for the next 10-12 weeks).

Just a note here: when I refer to the “Master of Malt expressions”, I want you to know that these are not simply whisky blends that they concoct.  No, these (or, at least many of them) are single cask, cask strength whiskies.  So when they come out with a new bottle, chances are there’s 200-400 bottles per chosen cask, and once those bottles are gone, you’ll never see them again.  These MoM bottlings are truly unique.

Here is a review of their 26yr Bowmore I did a short while back – amazing stuff!

With regards to the samples in question, and in the “spirit” of full disclosure, I will tell you that these 3cl sweeties were gifted to me by Master of Malt for analytical and reviewing purposes.  My guess is that most of these whiskies are going to be quite nice but, if I find one I don’t care for, I will say so (heck, just look at the first Bruichladdich review I did).  These are unbiased and independent reviews.

Master of Malt Arran 12yr

Without further ado, I now begin my weekly review of the Master of Malt exclusive bottlings (or the samples thereof):

Islands region – Master of Malt Exclusive Single Cask Arran 12yr – 54.7%ABV –  700ml bottle – £45 (as stated above, you can also get a 3cl sample of this one)

On the nose — Big nose, soapy (not like Bowmore but soapy still, castile?), apples, sandalwood and ocean breeze, tamarind juice and a touch of smoke (my imagination?)


On the mouth — Big chewy caramels!  A touch of chocolate (milk), orange, fantastic.

Can’t get past the caramels; I don’t want to actually (this reminds me as to why I seek out the caramel squares in a box of chocolates).

Finish — Decent length, the milky caramel goodness remains, you’d never know this is a cask strength Arran, warming but not burning in any way.

In sum –– The palate and finish are delectably delicious, the balance is slightly off (from the nose to the palate/finish) but the palate and finish by themselves make up for it in ways you would not believe!

This would be a nice springtime whisky but could also warm you up in the Autumn and winter seasons.

A World of Discovery, Autumn, Highland Park, Springtime

MacKillop’s Choice Highland Park Single Cask 1981/2006 – Independent bottling

Islands – 56.3%ABV – 700ml bottle – Price ?? I could not find this bottle available at any of the shops I frequent – Thanks to “O.K.” for the sample! (Note: the picture shown is for the 1985 version, not the 1981 as I had tasted)

This will be sort of a shorter review today.  Or at least, the lead up to the actual tasting.  Truth be told, this one took a lot out of me.  The whisky (specifically, the nose) was quite demanding and I’m not sure I was up to the challenge.  Yes, I think I gave it a fair shake (or maybe I gave myself the shake) but it took a while for all to be revealed.

They say good things come to those who wait.  Maybe I was too impatient.  You can decide for yourself…

On the nose — Man, this whisky needs some time to open up.  A few minutes and some nice cherry notes are revealed along with an overall saltiness to it – quite oceanic but at high tide, not a fishy low tide type ocean scent to it.

The nose is brisk and has just a mere hint of smoke (think pipe tobbaco – fragrant).  A few extra minutes and the nose opens more giving me some nice orange notes (Mineola to be exact, very tart).  With a few drops of water some buttery notes come out and it get ever so floral.  I love this nose but I had to dig and wait quite a bit for the scents to show themselves.

On the mouth — Hold on here, this is quite a departure from the nose.  The flavors are not subtle here, you don’t have to work quite as hard – fresh grassy notes and bitter fruits, a good amount of pepper (think cayenne with out the burn).

I think I need to add some water here (it did wonders for the nose) — the mouth feel gets chewy and some white pepper comes out as does something quite sweet thought I can’t put my finger on it.

Finish — A long finish.  The orangey notes remain as does the pepper.

In sum — Part of me felt like a paranormal investigator here.  I knew I had a “spirit” nearby but the nose made me want to scream “Show Yourself!!”  Thank G-d for the palate and finish though, it really came through.  In the end, a nice single cask whisky but I’m not sure it was worth all the trouble.