Tag Archives: Slight smoke

A World of Discovery, Let's celebrate!, Springbank

Springbank 15yo — visiting what has become one of my favorite whiskies.

 

Springbank 15 year old single malt scotch whiskyRegion — Campbeltown — 46% ABV

Springbank 15yo is a whisky that I find myself revisiting over and over and over again.  I think it’s perhaps one of my favorite whiskies, like… ever.

While I may revisit it many times over, I’ve not revisited it from a let-me-disect-it-and-post-it-on-my-blog point of view.  I just spend a lot of time enjoying it.  Isn’t that what whisky is all about anyway? Enjoyment?

The last time I reviewed Springbank 15yo was June 17, 2011

So, here we are almost 4 years later.  Let’s see what the 2015 version is like.

On the nose — Lots of lime and orange marmalade (mostly orange) at first but it’s got a veil of peat it’s hiding behind.

Springbank 15yo Scotch WhiskyBlue slate wet with rain water and a stick of hard and powdered chewing gum you found from that package of Topps baseball cards released in 1980-something.

A hint of mint but a good dose of coastal breeze and dying beach grass.

Springbank 15yo Scotch WhiskyOn the mouth — Chewy and thick with bold notes of Duerr’s coarse cut orange marmalade.

A touch of peat is present but so is some now-cold potpouri.

There’s a touch of oak to let you know you’re dealing with a 15yo whisky but the oak’s true impression upon the juice is that of dark fruits, spiced citrus drops and still more marmalade.

Oh, and burning sticks as we reach the now drying finish.

Springbank 15yo Scotch WhiskyFinish — Drying and pleasant with a good deal of orange spice with the tiniest hint of clove.

In sum — What’s difficult to explain about this whisky — about all Springbank whiskies — it’s how unique the spirit itself is.  Yes, there are lots of notes here that you’ll find in other whiskies but you’ll never taste a more unique spirit than Springbank.  It’s too difficult to put it into words, sorry.  If you’ve never had Springbank before, it’s worth seeking out.

If I could, I would likely drink the $(*& out of this whisky every single day.  It’s that good.

Autumn, Glenburgie, Need To Bundle Up

Speed dating with… whisk(e)y! Episode 4: Chieftain’s 14yo Glenburgie 1998

 

Speyside region – 56.9% ABV – $120Chieftain's Glenburgie

Hey!  It’s been a while since I went on a whisk(e)y speed date!

I guess Kilchoman’s 3rd edition of 100% Islay took up a good chunk of my time.  You will be missed, baby.  But, onward and upward.

It wasn’t meant to be, you and me.  I have a date with this here Glenburgie.

The shadchanim told me they have cask strength Speysider with lots of promise and I just “need to meet her!”

Let’s see… are we meant to be?

GlenburgieOn the nose (Date # 1) –  Wow, what a mixture of scents hitting me from all around!  Let’s start off with a light toastiness that is verging on lightly peated with hints of almonds.

With a burst of pumpkin spices (cardamom, nutmeg and ginger), this is quite autumnal.  Add to this some boiled and baked apples with a dash or three of cinnamon, for good measure…  Who needs a sweater when you have this whisky?

GlenburgieWow, I just thought of a term I haven’t thought of since high school: sweater melons.  Jeez, young boys comes up with the silliest of terms…  Sorry ladies!  It’s the kind of term that makes you cringe a little, isn’t it?

There’s a lovely pungency that seems to be sherry cask driven.  Also, salted licorice.  So far, so yum.

Ah, sherry, what a lovey girl she be!

GlenburgieOn the mouth (Date # 2 This girl is intriguing and she has yet to tell me “hey buddy, my eyes are up here!”) – Big and spicy, verging on hot but I do not see a need to reach for water.  Quite salty with anise seed and damp licorice root.

Jalepeno pickled pineapple and a hint of clean pool water.  Great mouth feel (in case you were wondering).  Barbecued and stewed carrots.

Finish (Date # 3: The deciding factor) – Long and spicy with a gooseberry burst-type tartness.

In sum (The decision) –  I enjoy her spirit and over all, am overjoyed to have dated a fall-type whisky that wasn’t over-sherried or over oaked (read: totally full of herself).  We shall date again.  Now to find a theater that is showing The Goonies…

Special thanks to the folks at ImpEx for the sample!

Bruichladdich, Takin' It Easy

Two whiskies from Bruichladdich that I’ve been meaning to review since… 2010!

 

For the most part, I try not to be a slacker.  In fact, I am a real go-get-em, gung-ho guy with a ton of sticktoitiveness.  For the most part that is…

Somehow, someway, I’ve been sitting on a few samples from Bruichladdich (as well as samples from a few other distilleries) for quite a while now.  And by “quite a while” I mean like 2 or 3 years.  That’s a long time, right?  Right.  No better time than the present to review them though, right?  Right.

So what do we have today?  Firstly, we have “Redder Still;” part of the Blacker/Golder/Redder series from the lads and lasses at laddie.  Second is a 1992 (distilled in 1992, that is) sherry release from them – the Fino Cask.

Redder Still is matured in Château Lafleur Pomerol wine casks and the Fino Cask is matured in, well, Fino casks.  The former is bottled at 50.4% ABV (with 4000 bottles released) and the Fino was bottled at 46% ABV – 6000 bottles in that release.

Here are my thoughts on these two:

Bruichladdich Redder StillBruichladdich Redder Still – 50.4% ABV

Bruichladdich Redder StillOn the nose –  My immediate impression is that of paraffin wax and red wine gums.

Incredibly soft on the nose. If I could apply an attribute to this nose that was not in the realm of scents, I would say this noses like a cotton ball.

Salted and ground mustard seed meet lager beer.  Quite malty.

Am I detecting smoke here?  I think so.

Not very winey at all considering this was matured in Château Lafleur (Pomerol, red wine cask – nothing to do with Fleur Delacour, mind you) casks.  Really soft peat — looking for the wine notes but, none here really.  Not yet.

Wait a sec, red currant jams and cracked black pepper.  Moving on because this smells yummy and I want to taste now.

On the mouth – Quite sweet upfront.  Sugary sweet, in fact.  Oily moth feel with an effervescence toward the back and sides of the tongue.

Bruichladdich Redder StillPlums (prunes, too! Elderly plums, as it were) and smoke and more wine gums and peppery yet all of this is not forceful in anyway.

Much more winey after a few sips but is still very much whisky.  Smoke is present in the mouth and it gets quite drying as we get to the finish.

Finish – Short… a bit abrupt.

In sum – Compared to the *AMAZING* Blacker Still, this pales. Taken out of that family of Blacker/Golder/Redder, the Redder Still is a nice-nosed whisky!  I quite enjoy it actually.  The flavors work well together too however they’re a bit like a boy scared to ask a girl to hold his hand.  I feel this whisky should man up a bit in the flavor impact department but it does not.

Thinking back to that nose though… yum, yum, yum!

Bruichladdich Fino SherryBruichladdich 1992 Fino Cask – 46% ABV

On the nose –  Quite noticeably a Bruichladdich with a salty coastal element that’s reminiscent of their old 90’s 15yo.

Noses of yellow chilis and the sweetness of Scotch Bonnet peppers (before you bite into one and it burns your dad gum head off!).

Bruichladdich Fino SherryA touch of sulfur and turmeric.  I think this is the first time I smelled Deviled Eggs in a whisky!  Guess what, it’s subtleness work here!

Some damp cardboard and sugared papaya (fresh, not dried).  Soft black licorice.

On the mouth – Wow, the fino influence is right there and pretty dang lovely.  Nutty, very nutty.  Salted almond and pecan, fig paste and dried banana.

Anise seed, black licorice (again, though, salted this time), window putty.

At 46% it has enough attack to it as well as nice oils allowing for a good mouthfeel.

Bruichladdich Fino SherrySweet pecan pie and black strap molasses (treacle for the Brits out there).  Quite a satisfying whisky so far!

Finish – Increasing sherried goodness, melted caramel and a touch of rum cake.

In sum – This is one fine Bruichladdich!  the scent, flavors, mouthfeel, finish, etc… all works out.  Very nicely balanced with the sweet, salty, slight pepper.  Very much a dessert whisky.  Worth you seeking out, in my opinion!

 

Glenlivet, Refreshed, Summertime

The Glenlivet Alpha [Dawg] invades my mouth and sense and I share my opinions with you. Fun!

 

Highlands region – 50% ABV – About $150.  Good luck finding some!  Only 3350 bottles were made available.

So, what in the blue $#%@ is Glenlivet Alpha?!  Well, there were a lot of people wanting to know just that.  Glenlivet, those sneaky little buggers, decided to make this whisky a big ‘ol secret: bottle the whisky in a black bottle with zero info, packaging came with zero info and there what, guess what?  Zero info around the web as to what this whisky was all about.

So, what do we know?  It’s bottles at 50% ABV which means there is no chill filtration needed.  And, at only 3350 bottles and this being sort of a special one-off and coming in a black bottles, I am guessing no caramel coloring.

So, that’s really all we know about this whisky.

What about the name?  Alpha?  Hmmm… Alpha *is* the first letter in the Greek alpha (hey, there’s that word again) bet.  (not to be confuse with Aleph or Aleph Bet).  First?  First fill?  But first fill what?  Bourbon, I’d guess from the lighter color.

So, here in the whisky blogging world there were a lot of cranky bloggers upset with Glenlivet that A) they charged so much for a NAS (no age statement) whisky and B) this expensive bottle of whisky came with ZERO information!  I’ll come right out and tell you that I was one of those crotchety bloggers.  Big price for a NAS whisky with zero information.  I was upset but I was also intrigued.

What intrigued me more is I came to find out this week that Glenlivet were going to do a big reveal on the whisky.  That I liked!  I like, too, the fact that Glenlivet seemed to be getting out of their comfort zone of 12yo, 15yo, 18yo, 21yo, etc… and decided to do something a bit whacky!  Good on ye, G’livet!

So, I tasted this whisky right before the big reveal.  I will post the reveal below my notes but, let’s see what I get:

On the nose –  Highly malty with a sweet and tangy quality to it.  Perhaps just a whiff of smoke?  Either there’s are good deal of refill barrels in the mix allowing a stronger spirit quality to come through or there is a higher proportion of young whiskies in here.

Glenlivet-1This bright and vibrant.  Light lemons (or orange) and pear, more lemons than pear.  There’s some black pepper in here, too.  It’s fun and refreshing so far!

I do detect some older, more wood influenced whisky in here.  Smaller casks?  Nah, methinks older whisky is a component.  Maybe some Cognac cask maturation in here?  Hmmm, not sure.  Must sip.

On the mouth – A very viscous mouth feel but a touch hot.  The malt carries through as does that hint of smoke I got on the nose.

I think I change my mind about the Cognac cask influence.  I change my mind about the smoke too.  This is a dodgy duck!

Glenlivet-3Notes of star fruit, unripened mango and fresh rain.  Yummy stuff!  The heat is gone after the 2nd sip, btw.  Highly sweet and malty!  Is there some Bere barley in this make up?

I know the Nadurra was with Triumph barley.  Maybe this is a them delving into different barley with less active casks?  Whatever it is, it’s delicious.

Glenlivet-2Finish – Lasting, peppery, toffee-like, sweet and malty.

In sum – If the price was lower and if there were more than 3350 bottles, I’d say this is an everyday, easy drinker!  This was a fun experiment to get people’s minds working and getting them to think about the whisky.  I am glad that there will be a reveal as to the make up of the whisky because if there weren’t, if this were all no-info marketing, it’d be a big joke without a punchline.  Kudos to Glenlivet, I say.  Kudos!

Keys to the Clan, Let's celebrate!

Keys to the Clan – 50ml mini bottles of Single Malt Scotch Whisky – and now, to taste the whisky!

 

KeyToTheClans_Smith+Macleod+CameronA couple of weeks back you might remember me waxing on about the Keys to the Clan minis program (programme, for my friends on the other side of the pond).

Here’s the link to the post, just in case you missed it.

In short, there have been 48 different Clan minis released into the US market and our friends over at ImpEx were kind enough to send me three minis.  All from a different clan.

Thanks to ImpEx, SF and EK for the samples!

Being a New Englander and basically growing up knowing this and that person who knew or was related in some way to the Kennedy family (as in JFK, RFK and Teddy of the famous Chappaquiddick incident) and having a life-long crush on Jackie Kennedy Onnassis… I decided to open the Kennedy mini.

Note: all of the minis contain the same juice, I just wanted to drink a Kennedy under the table.  

Here are my notes:

keys-to-the-clan-kennedy-whisky-1On the nose –  Young yet pleasant.  I know it says single malt but it almost has the vibrancy of a nicer high-malt-content blended Scotch whisky; orange creamsicle, pears, sherbet and the slightest hint of smoke.  (The smoke could be my imagination playing tricks on me.)

keys-to-the-clan-kennedy-whisky-2A bit of pineapple cake in here as well and then some sugary angel food cake.  This is quite the dessert-like dram so far.

All this fruit makes me think of Balblair a bit, to be honest.

On the mouth – As to be expected with 40% ABV, there’s very little attack upon entry which is just fine for the newbie whisky drinker as it’s quite fruity and very approachable (no burn).

That touch of smoke returns, yet the fruit doesn’t go away.  But now there’s something sour in here that I can’t quite place my finger on.  Not offensive, just sour-like.

keys-to-the-clan-kennedy-whisky-3Oat cakes lead us in to the finish…

Finish – Shortish finish with slight pepper and that sour element I caught on the palate.

In sum – While this is not really a “sit and ponder” sort of whisky, it holds it’s own well enough.

keys-to-the-clan-kennedy-whisky-4All I can picture is 200 Kennedys at a wedding or something like that and toasting to the husband and bride.

Mazel Tov, I mean, Kampai, I mean Slainte!!