Tag Archives: Waxy

Exclusive Malts – Clynelish 15yo – 53.5%ABV

 

ClynelishHighlands 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:

Clynelish-1On 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.

Clynelish-2Fresh 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.

Clynelish-3On 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.

Clynelish-4Plastic 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).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

nut skin.

21yo Old Malt Cask Cragganmore bottle for the Loch and K(e)y Society. A Juio’s exculsive.

 

The bottle shown is not the actual bottle but, close enough.
The bottle shown is not the actual bottle but, close enough. Click the picture to be brought to Julio’s site. Contact them for more info.

Speyside region – 52.2% ABV – $99 (for now) and sold exclusively through Julio’s in Westboro, MA.

Here we are again; reviewing a store exclusive single cask of whisky.

If you live in the Northeast of the US, chances are you’ve heard of or frequent Julio’s in Westboro, MA.

Store owner and Keeper of the Quaich, Ryan Maloney, is known for having perhaps the most whisky-centric stores in our neck of the woods.  He also has his own whisky society called the Loch and K(e)y Society and bottles whisk(e)y for them on a very regular basis.  Loch and K(e)y are the first and only group to ever have a cask of Balvenie bottled exclusively for them.  (I had a taste once and it was a yummy, yummy thing).

I visited Julio’s a couple of weeks ago to pick up a bottle of George T Stagg and Ryan was nice enough to give me a taste of today’s whisky.  This is a cask of Cragganmore that he personally chose to bottle.

I fell in love with it almost immediately and when he told me it was only $99, I had to get a bottle.  Hey, it was my birthday.  How could I not buy myself a bottle?

So today, I’m reviewing one of my birthday whiskies (happy birthday, again, to me):

On the nose –  A charming start with whiffs of *faint* smoke and lavender.

CRAGGANMORE-21-OLD-MALT-CASK-JULIOS-2Quite clean and bright with lightly spiced Bartlett pears.  Applewood and unscented candle wax.

Heavenly, and decidedly malty.

I have to say, this nose is really, really good.  Again, clean and fruity and very, very confident.

CRAGGANMORE-21-OLD-MALT-CASK-JULIOS-3On the mouth – Loads of malted barley and very chewy.

Lively and oily, honied and spiced.

Still quite fruity with touches of light citrus.

CRAGGANMORE-21-OLD-MALT-CASK-JULIOS-4Hints of salt but not brine and now some hints of Limon.

Getting back to what I said before, this is a very confident whisky.  Drying and slightly smokey toward the finish.

Finish – A spritz of citrus, a dash of spice and some malt.  It goes on for a good bit here.

In sum – The more I think about this one the more I agree with the thought in my head that this is not the most complex whisky in the world. (My apologies for the horrible, run-on-like, structure of the preceding sentence.)

However, it’s not simple at all.  It’s easily understood and hides very little from you.

This is in my top ten list as one of the finer whiskies I’ve had this year from a rock-solid-satisfying-whisky standpoint.  If there were ever a self-actualized whisky, it would be this one.

Islay distilleries explained thru Rock and Roll comparisons – Part 7 – Lagavulin and my review of their 30yo expression

Islay distilleries and their whiskies explained through Rock and Roll – Part VII (of VIII)

One of life’s true treats – Lagavulin Islay single malt whisky!

Lagavulin was actually my gateway whisky.  G-d bless him, one of my synagogue’s congregants (recently turned rabbi and now leads his own congregation) used to take whisky bottles to services quite a lot – usually for our “Kabbalat Shabbat” Friday evening service for our post-worship “oneg.”

Well, one night he brought a bottle of Lagavulin 16yo and damn, if I didn’t fall in love straight away!  The sweet smoke, the campfire… I loved it and, wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am, that set me off on my whisky adventure and I never looked back.

I was going to hold this review as the final Islay/Rock review but decided to do it now because, well, it’s my blog and I decide to make an executive decision.  Also, I reviewed the below whisky nearly a year and a half ago and I should have posted it… a year and a half ago!

We’re nearly there.  Six down and today is the seventh Islay/Rock review and then only one more to go (can you guess which one that is?).  Here’s what’s been reviewed in this series to date:

  1. Part one:Bruichladdich as The Sex Pistols
  2. Part two: Ardbeg as Slayer
  3. Part three: Caol Ila as The 80′s (They get their very own decade!)
  4. Part four:Bowmore as David Bowie
  5. Part five: Kilchoman as the Jackson Five (somewhat fitting, in retrospect, with them both bearing the number five).
  6. Part six: Bunnahabhain as R.E.M.

Today we’re reviewing:

Lagavulin 30yo bottled at 52.6% ABVYou can find a bottle here at The Whisky Exchange for £1295 or here for €499 (now sold out at the €499 price).

On the nose — Well, I smelled the stuff from two feet away (I ordered this whisky at a bar in Seattle – can’t remember the name of the bar, sorry).

Jamming my nose into it further and yup, no doubt about it, it’s Lagavulin!

Floral, smoky and even fruity.

Notes of peach and rhubarb.

Salted caramels and a touch waxy.

Fragrant oils.  The smell of a well used wood panel study.

Rolos – chocolatey.

Less campfire smoke than what I’m used to with the 16yr.

On the Mouth — Hot fire-fueled fruits.

Think golden raisin and apricots.  Golden fruits abound.

Waxiness from the nose translated to the taste however, the mouth feel is not as supple as the standard 16yo expression.

Light & fresh green herbs and lightly honeyed.

The wood is well integrated adding layered notes of vanilla and coconut.

Finish — A wild flower field on fire.  More coconut and lasting vanilla.

In sum — The Balance is superb!  Not what I expected (of course, I was expecting some sherry influence as with the 16yr but then again, I knew *nothing* about this whisky before it was put in front of me).  However, it was just plain lovely.  Well worth the $$ I shelled out for the ample dram.

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Lagavulin – The Band!

Is it any surprise that Lagavulin is the Led Zeppelin of Islay whisky?  The rock band powerhouse is the Islay powerhouse.

Like Led Zeppelin (the “Coda” album and the song “The Bridge” excepted), I can not think of one release that didn’t wow me in some way.

Think of the very successful Distiller’s Edition (some of which are legendary) and their great, 12yo cask strength yearly release.  Again, cracking stuff!  Lagavulin rocks and seems to have hit after hit after hit.

Is it the quality spirit, the cask choices… both?  Who knows.  But, like Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham, when you mix the spirit of Lagavulin and mature it in their chosen casks, it’s pure magic.

Good work, Lagavulin.  Like the unparalleled Led Zeppelin, there is no whisky like you!

Compass Box – Spice Tree “The Second Coming”

Blended Malt whiskies from the Highlands – 46%ABV – $58 | £35 | €41

There a great story behind the Compass Box Spice Tree and why there needed to be a “Second Coming” of the blend.  You see, this whisky was, at one time, deemed illegal by the SWA due to some interesting and innovative casking practices for this whisky.

To release this new version, Compass Box had to make some tweaks to how the whisky was extra-matured.  Compass Box being Compass Box, the tweaks were made but quality was not adversely effected.  Compass Box explains their new, updated (and now legal) maturing process:

“Over the past three years we have developed a new maturation process which yields similar if not superior results to our previous method, and this new process is something the SWA can’t take any issue with.

As in the past, The Spice Tree is 100% malt whisky sourced from northern Highland distilleries, (notably and primarily malt whisky distilled at the Clynelish distillery). The primary maturation is in a mix of first-fill and refill American oak.

What is different is the secondary maturation. Rather than using inner stave inserts, as we did for the original Spice Tree, we rack the whisky into barrels with heavily toasted new French oak heads. We have created a method for getting a super heavy toast on the cask heads which imparts a flavour profile similar to the flat staves used for the original Spice Tree. We use oak with three different levels of toasting on the barrel heads, thus allowing us to blend the resultant whiskies to create additional layers of complexity. This secondary maturation lasts as long as two years.”

Sounds interesting, right??

On the noseInner tire tubes lead to orange zest and cloves.

Biscuits and blackberry bramble.

Some quick hints of dry sherry then an interesting blend of ginger beer and cream soda ride up my nose using the aforementioned inner tire tube.

Hint of soft yet dry red wine.

On the mouth Big, waxy, chewy and insanely appetizing.

There’s a reason this is called the spice tree; you name it – ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg are all joining schwartzes here.

It’s as if those spices are being mixed in a cup of orange vanilla cream.

Cherry tarts.

As we get closer to the finish, there’s an oakiness that comes through.

Finish Long and oaken with ever lasting hints of vanilla and cherry.

In sum A lovely after dinner sipper that’s got a decent nose but shines like a diamond in the tasting of it.  An instant favorite for me but I could see this being almost too spiced and sweet for some people.  This is as ‘in-your-face’ as a bourbon yet NOTHING like a bourbon (it is Scotch malt whisky after all).  For bourbon drinkers, this could be a gateway whisky for you into the wide world of Scotch malt whisky.

While I found the Compass Box Hedonism to be my favorite blended whisky of 2010, I think I would have had made a different choice if I reviewed this one last year.

Special thanks goes out to Robin R for the sample!

There are a lot of good reviews out there for this whisky but I thought I’d bring your attention to this one from the Malt Impostor(s) – I love their reviews <jedi mind trick> and so do you </jedi mind trick>

Angel’s Envy – Release 10/10 – Port Finished – Straight Kentucky Bourbon

Kentucky Straight Bourbon – finished in ex-port barrels – 43.3%ABV – 750ml – $49.99 (yet to be released)

So, yesterday I posted up my interview with Wesley Henderson, COO of Louisville Distilling Co., producers of what I am about to review – Angel’s Envy Bourbon.

I’ve been in contact with Wes for the past few months, tracking the progress of Angel’s Envy.  Initially, Angel’s Envy was to be released on October 10, 2010 (10.10.10).  I’m sure many dollars were spent on marketing which included this cool and unusual release date.  However, the whiskey was not released on time.  Was this because balls were dropped or because deadlines were missed sourcing bottles, corks, etc…?  No.  And actually, they didn’t miss the deadline – they passed on it.  As Wes explained to me, Lincoln Henderson (Wesley’s dad and creator of this whiskey) felt the whiskey was just not ready to be bottled.

This is not just a whiskey expression, this is an expression of Lincoln Henderson.  If he’s says the whiskey isn’t ready, it’s not ready.

Well, earlier this week I received a finalized sample from Wes (thanks again!).  Let’s see if this whiskey is ready for mass bottling and mass consumption…

On the nose Noses quite different than your standard bourbon.  What I’m initially grabbed by is the softness to this whisky.

If I could compare smelling this to a feel, I’d say it’s like squeezing a marshmallow (with your nostrils).

Is it the lower ABV or the port finish?

Let’s go back to it – raisin scented wax candles, paraffin smooth.

Orange brandy or, brandy soaked oranges.

Cinnamon Drakes brand coffee cakes!!

A joy to nose, very elegant.

Perhaps a little dark chocolate, too?

On the mouth Wow, interesting mouth feel – juicy yet a bit thin.

Spicy raisin notes.

More dark chocolate – more pronounced here as compared to the nose.

Very decedent.

Getting some golden delicious apple notes (albeit with a good amount of cinnamon and perhaps slightly baked).

Finish Medium in length filled with spiced berried (you name it, red & blue, they’re in there).

In sum A really well designed expression.  All of the parts fit quite nicely.  Well balanced and with every sip I sort of felt like I was treating myself to something special.  Like I said – decedent.

Quite the celebratory whiskey but, at the price point, you can treat yourself perhaps more often than you should.

Thankfully, I have another dram’s worth of this nectar which I will enjoy tonight for Shabbat, and will then wait patiently until I can buy a bottle from my local bottle shop.