Tag Archives: Sweet

A World of Discovery, Glen Grant, Glenglassaugh, Let's celebrate!

Two of the best “Thirty-Somethings” I’ve had in 2011 – One is a 35yo Glenglassaugh and the other a 37yo Glen Grant

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).

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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!!

Glenglassaugh, Let's celebrate!, Takin' It Easy

Sharing is caring – Glenglassaugh’s “The First Cask”

Highland region – 59.1% ABV – £90 – Distillery only bottling (though available through the distillery’s online store until it’s sold out) – 650 bottles.

Who does this?  Who reopens a distillery, gets it’s up and running (a long & difficult process), fills the first cask, and then instead of holding that cask for years and years to make major beau coup bucks/quid say… 18-30 years from now, he releases the whisky only three years into maturation.

Stuart Nickerson does, that’s who.

And while, truth be told, I initially thought the idea was a crazy one… I think the move did a really great job of saying “Thank You!” to all of us who have been supporting the distillery and waiting with baited breath for it to release its first whisky in about twenty-five years.

Thank you, Mr. Nickerson, for releasing Glenglassaugh’s first baby.

While the move to release the First Cask might have been a maverick one I would submit, too, that the make up of the cask is also a maverick move.  The “First Cask” is not just whisky that’s stayed in that single cask for 3 years to then be bottled.  No.  Instead, Mr. Nickerson concocted an interesting maturation recipe to help give this whisky its unusual flavor profile.  Here is the description straight from the distillery itself:

“The very first cask, a refill butt, that was filled on that “first cask filling day in 2008” was emptied and refilled into 2 smaller casks on the 16th December 2010. These smaller casks were a first fill ex-Pedro Ximenez (PX) sherry hogshead and a first-fill ex-Palo Cortado sherry hogshead. On the 16th September 2011 the whiskies were returned from these two casks into the original butt and are now marrying  for a period of exactly three months.”

That’s quite a journey in such a short period of time for this first distillate to be matured!  What it has done to the whisky is even more interesting…

On the nose –  Massive, massive waves of fruit and mostly of the tinned variety with a fairly clear focus on the halved cherries and the heavy syrup those fruits swim about in.

What seems to be evident is the natural fruitiness of the Glenglassaugh spirit is being amplified with the unusual choice of casks and maturation.

Pickled walnuts and perfumed tobacco leaves/cigars.

Yeah… all of the scents are, for lack of a better term, “chunked up” (and made moreish), I think, by the casking journey of the whisky.

On the mouth –  Vanilla cream soda and orange drink powder.

Sweet and fruity and now we’re back to those tinned fruits…

Clementine, cherries and papaya…  Puckering stuff.

Slightly oily yet quick to an effervescence and then over to a drying quality with ever increasing spice and powerful sweetness.

Tobacco floats over the tongue as do young mangoes.

Finish – Pickled walnuts (again), long and effervescent still.

In sum – So. Very. Drinkable.  Restraint is needed; it’s right up my alley.

Yes, this is young stuff but it’s got a depth beyond its 3 years.  So nice to see that the spirit quality shines through yet the wood influence (three different types of sherry influence) is so strong that it makes you think this is an older dram than what’s in your glass.  If you have a bottle or can get a bottle (they will ship to the USA, btw)… drink the stuff.  Yes, it’s the first cask from the new ownership but it was shared for a reason – to enjoy; not to lie dormant.

Other thoughts on the First Cask from Glenglassaugh:

Iain over at Dramperday.com seems to have enjoyed it.

Jason at guidscotchdrink.com clearly finds the stuff as drinkable as I do.

Dark Corner, Summertime, Takin' It Easy

Dark Corner Moonshine – A review with one part Corn Whiskey and a few parts Americana

America – South Carolina – 50%ABV – $38 – currently sold at the distillery only.

It’s that time of year again (well, at least is was a few days ago…) when we Americans all get together as friends, families, congregations, etc… to celebrate Thanksgiving.  I do my best to not think of all of the horrific historical stuff that ties into this holiday or the countless, flightless gobble-gobblers that get gobbled up in the form of legs, giblets, sandwiches, stews, etc…

Instead I focus on what matters in life.  Not the football, not the food or the drink.  It’s the friends and family.  Thanksgiving is a wonderful time when (at least in my family) everybody gets along and shows love for one another.

It’s also a time when we as a nation come together and listen to Alice’s Restaurant over and over again.  Or perhaps we’ll watch The Wizard of Oz together.  Maybe even a listening of some Bonnie ‘prince’ Billy while you hang out by the fireplace sipping on cheap merlot and riesling.  Thanksgiving is all about togetherness.

America has a long history of making whiskey – predominantly rye and/or corn whiskey.  Being that my favorite American/secular holiday is just behind us, I thought I’d review an American whiskey/moonshine.  That Moonshine is from Dark Corner out of Greenville South Carolina – “South Carolina’s First Legal Moonshine”.

Dark Corner has a single small still that’s really quite beautiful to look at (to your left).  I had a conversation with Joe Fenten (one of Dark Corner’s two founders – the other gentleman being Richard Wagner) and he gave me some insight into how they distil their moonshine:

“We do what I like to call a 1.5 times distillation. Since we have an 80 gallon pot (very small) we do 5 beer stripping runs over 5 days. We make a very conservative hearts cut on these runs and collect the hearts for later use. We then take the heads and tails from the 5 runs and re-run them through the still for a spirits run on the 6th day. We then make a precise hearts cut and blend that with our hearts from the 5 previous runs. Essentially you are mixing 100 proof hearts (15 gallons) with 150 proof hearts (15 gallons). You get full flavor lows plus smooth highs and the end result is like cool mountain creek water.

Keep in mind Greenville was voted best tasting water in America this year and beat out sources of water in the Rockies! We are very proud to use this water in our hand-spirited whiskey. The Dark Corner is home to 1/3 of the water provided to the whole upcountry of South Carolina. It’s named the North Saluda Reservoir and is one of the most pristine bodies of water in America.”

Good water, small batch, attention to distilling detail, let’s see what comes of it.  Let’s pour some:

On the nose –  Huge (!!) corn on the nose accompanied by a nice amount of spice.

Very light citrus note (etrog?).

Various crushed pepper seeds.  Am really enjoying the movie popcorn quality to this nose on this moonshine.

On the mouth – Warming and buttery – buttery movie popcorn (or buttered popcorn flavored Jelly Belly jelly beans).

Decent mouthfeel.  Some nice viscosity.  Not super chewy but very satisfying (making me want to sip more and more).

The spice stays on the tip of the tongue and the mouth starts to dry out a touch.

Finish – Nice, long and drying finish with lasting notes of buttered popcorn.

In sum – A simple, and somewhat one-dimensional, yet satisfying whiskey.  Something that can be sipped on at anytime but I suggest it as a late summer weekend dram after you’ve worked on your lawn all day – it’s very easy going and smooth even at 50% ABV (and you should use the finger hole provided to sip it straight from jug!  Once you’ve finished the bottle, you can use it to start your own jug band with Emmet Otter).  This is a solid new make spirit/moonshine that would work magic in a new charred oak barrel.

Special thanks goes out to Joe Fenten for the sample!

An everyday dram, Glenfarclas, Summertime

Buy good whisky at a great price while donating to a charitable cause? Could it get anymore “feel good ” than that?

Highlands region – 53%ABV – £39.99

There’s something really good about feeling really good about… stuff.  You see, I do not believe in altruism.  Mother Theresa was an AMAZING woman that did so many wonderful things for the needy.  But no one can tell me that she did not feel good about all of the work she did; or perhaps feel motherly toward many of the people who counted on her and those that worked with her.  It feels good to do good and there’s nothing wrong with that.

So… do you want to feel good about helping people (and get some good whisky in the process)?

Master of Malt teamed up with Glenfarclas to choose two ex-oloroso sherry casks to marry up (mix together), bottle up and then sell.  This 9yo whisky, bottled at cask strength (53% ABV) is selling at Master of Malt for only £39.99 and £10 of each sale (basically 25%) goes to Movember who fund The Prostate Cancer Foundation and Livestrong as well as help to create awareness on Men’s Cancer Issues.  You can read more on Movember’s Global Action Plan here.

This being said, I did my part by purchasing a couple of these “Movember” Glenfarclas bottles from Master of Malt.  Thankfully, the whisky inside the bottle is pretty damn good (and a steal at only £39.99!)

On the nose –  Out of the gate the nose is hot and sharp; angular (if you can apply that to a scent).  Not the soft sherried nose you’d come to expect from most Glenfarclas whiskies.

It is a very “sherried” nose however…  Think sugared prunes, potting soil, gingerbread men and a shit ton spice and spice cakes.

Some rubbery notes in there too (party balloons).

With water the scent becomes… inviting, round, big and plump.  Sort of like all of those butts Sir Mix A Lot always raps about.

On the mouth – Hot in the mouth with a big spice attack.  Let’s try this again… Yeah, still hot, will add water in a sec.  Let’s talk mouthfeel though:  Sort of thin but flavor packed (almost like a barrel proof bourbon attack – very strong in heat and flavor).

Waiter, may I have some water please?  Just two droppers full.  Thanks.

As I suspected, water is the key.  Still a bit hot but much more tolerable and the mouth feel gets nice and big.  Water is to this whisky as a fluffer is to Ron Jeremy (that’s it with the sexy stuff, promise!).

Orange and spice and everything nice.  Vanilla is huge here.

Finish – Very dry finish, long with spice drops.

In sum – It’s a whacky/wild little ‘farclas. It’s sort of like the “cool” kid in the room that’s maybe not as cool as everybody thinks he is but because everybody thinks he’s cool, he’s just that much cooler…  Maybe like Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High.  Ok, enough with the tangent.

At £40, this cask strength whisky is a total steal and just the fact that £10 of that goes to Movember for men’s cancer charities… THAT’S cool!  A bit of Tzedakah and Tikkun Olam all in one!  Get a bottle or two before they sell out.

Click here to buy a bottle and don’t forget to use the term “JSMWS sample” in the delivery instructions portion of the shopping cart – Master of Malt will ship you a free dram of whisky if you do.

I can’t believe I mixed Mother Theresa in with Sir Mix A Lot, Ron Jeremy and Jeff Spicoli.  My apologies if I offended anyone.

Special thanks to Master of Malt for the sample!  I’m now working on bottle #1 from the two I bought 🙂

Glenfarclas, I'd not drink this one if I were you..., Need To Bundle Up

Glenfarclas 1974 and a good friend

Highlands region – 57.5%ABV – $189

A few weeks ago, while on a trip to Chicago, I met up with my good friend Jason Johnstone-Yellin (of guidscotchdrink.com) and during this time we sat a spell at Lady Gregory’s.  A cool Irish pub with a decent dinner menu (actually, a really great menu if you’re not a vegetarian) and a Whisk(e)y & Beer menu that was… not too shabby!

The tough thing is, for whisky anoraks/reviewers/bloggers like Jason and I, well… we’ve tasted A LOT of whisky.  As an idea or hint; when Jason and I were in Scotland this past August with our friends and tour guests, in 7 days alone, we tasted 134 different whiskies (yes, we counted and kept track).  Not everybody does, I understand this.  In fact we talked about it during our time at Lady Gregory’s (how crazy, ridiculous and awesome it is to get to taste so much whisky).  This being said, while I call the Whisk(e)y menu “not too shabby”, for most it’s an amazing whisky list!  Over 200 whiskies if memory serves.

While going over the list we found two whiskies in particular that really intrigued us so we had to try them/review them together.  The first is this Glenfarclas that’s being reviewed today and the other is a Laphroaig that I’ll post up in a couple of weeks.

As mentioned, we reviewed this whisky together so the notes are combined notes from our experience.

Color — Sunlight on a mahogany chair

On the nose — Attic stored afghans (not the people), cinnamon, candied apples, burnt caramel, mahogany, cherry stones/pits, fresh suburban rain, baked granola bars (freshly toasted oats, oven baked raisin notes, warm honey).

On the mouth — WOOD, lots of wood. Hot, overstewed prunes, the spirit character is a bit lost here.

Finish — Moderate to long, sweet and astringent/bitter cherry juice, continues to dry out the mouth

In sum — It was cool taste a whisky that was almost as old as I am but in the end, the real treat was to spend some time and bullshit with a good friend.