E-report #15 - Yes, I still drink whisky (Part II)
Date: Fri, 27 July, 2001 To
help keep track, with this update I've started numbering my new malts as I pass the half way mark in the 52 Challenge.13. Clynelish 1991 10 yo Signatory (bourbon barrel). 43.0% abv.
Malty nose, sweet and mildly astringent, a hint of brown sugar.
Bitter/sour mouth drying. A sweetness in the throat that develops into an unpleasant finish. A strange, very long finish that tastes like vomit. Not before bedtime.
Nominal score 68 14. Rosebank 1990 10 yo Signatory. 43.0% abv.
Almost colourless; just a hint of green. Mild but malty nose. Sweet, but definitely no sherry. A bit green and chemically. Develops a grassy
flavour.
Nominal score 72 15. Glen Grant nas. 40.0% abv.
Malty nose. Wheat, aquatic plants, sweetish malt. Alcoholic but not spirity. Empty glass is a sweet minty evergreen. This is my second best bang for the
buck ever. Bought it for $10.00 US in Panama Duty Free.
Nominal score 65 16. Tomintoul Glenlivet 12 yo. 43.0% abv.
Nose grassy, malty with a bit of wood and dry grain. Warm, but not spirity at all.
Palate bitter becoming peppery then bitter again. A bit astringent. Some sweetness develops in the back of the roof of the mouth. A medium length finish that fades to grass. With water the nose is somewhat diminished with dry
grain and malt. The palate is spicy and malty and still a bit astringent but the bitterness becomes a hot spice. The diluted finish fades to nothing.
Nominal score 63 17. Royal Lochnagar 12 yo. 40% abv.
Nose fruity with licorice and a minty feel but not scent. I can feel the licorice almost sweet in my throat. Palate is smokey sherry. Sweetish but a bit astringent. Gets some malt in the middle. Quite hot in the throat and spicy on
the tongue. A smokey finish. With water the nose is malty and smokey with some sweetness. The palate is now quite sweet, but still smokey and a bit spicy. There is a nice licorice feel in the middle like a mild and fruity
northern Islay. The finish is nice and long. Fruit and sherry with a bit of malt.
Nominal score 76 18. Old Pulteney 12 yo. 40.0% abv.
The nose is malty and a touch estery. A hint of ozone or
bleach. Palate is sweet with grain and nuts. Warm and sweet. Mildly spicy then hot, rich and creamy. Stays hot then becomes peppery in the middle. A slightly bitter undertone. Stays quite sweet in the
mouth and back of the throat. The finish is long and sweet, the empty glass, slightly sweet. Mmm, nummy. A good test of my palate. By chance I tasted this one a second time a month later and came up with
almost exactly the same notes.
Nominal score 80 19. Glen Garioch 8 yo. 40.0% abv.
Nose has raisins, shoe leather, fruit and sherry. A hint of smoke.
The palate is perfumy, soapy with lacquer and a bit of
spice in the back of the throat. The finish is short of slightly sour malt.
Nominal score 73 20. Imperial 1979 G&M. 40.0% abv.
Nose - alcohol, grass, slightly musty with just a passing hint of wood.
Palate is sweet, a bit spicy and mouth filling with a metallic feel on the teeth. Not very complex, but it gets sweeter with each sip. The finish is long
and sweet.
Nominal score 71 21. Linkwood 15 yo G&M. 40.0% abv.
The nose is warming with wood esters. A splendid mix of ever-developing flavours including smokiness, sweetness, raw mushroom, apple
juice, citrus fruit, nuts/almonds, and caramel. The nose develops progressively over time.
Palate is sweet, slightly astringent with some wood and caramel and a pleasant bitterness in the throat. Finish is sweet and fading.
Nominal score 75 22. Mortlach 10 yo Scottish Wildlife. 43.0% abv.
Nose is fruity, woody with a touch of tobacco and a touch of honey. Over time the honey increases. Palate is malty, sweet, spicy then quite spicy.
Not as rich as other Mortlachs I've tried. The empty glass smells like caramel.
Nominal score 77 23. Speyburn 10 yo. 40.0% abv.
Nose has a slight smokey pungency. Palate is initially almost tasteless then
warm with very mild spice. It becomes slightly metallic with a passing hint of smoke. It's mildly astringent. A bit malty in the middle with a touch of green hay. Pleasant, but no bite. A very mild whisky. The finish fades quickly
on a slightly sweet malty note.
Nominal score 68 XX. Springbank 10 yo. 46% abv.
(Bonus malt; already tasted so it doesn't count for 52 challenge)
Nose fresh, grassy, tobacco, a malty sweetness; a hint of
licorice. Palate rich, sweet and spicy. Very warming. Overall a bit disappointing given all the hype it gets.
Nominal score 82 And now on to Odd-Ball Whiskies I Have Known. Since the 52 Challenge is really a (very pleasant)
training exercise I thought I would venture into some odd-ball whiskies from strange places that may or may not be trying to be Scotland. Picked up some rather oddball notes. My favourite was Sullivans Cove (no apostrophes in
Tasmania?) and the hands down loser was Viskijs Alexsandrs, a liqueur-like dram that the liquorist put considerable effort into telling me not to buy. She was right. 24. Latvijas Viskijs Alexsandrs. 40.0% abv.
A
novel whisky I found in Latvia. I think it's a single malt rye. Fermented and distilled from Latvian rye in 1993, it has absolutely no familiar rye notes. The nose contains cereal, pablum and lacks the spicy note of Canadian
rye whisky. It is sweet and estery but disappears quickly. Palate is cotton candy, nutty marzipan, drambuie, sweet like a liqueur - too sweet. It's a bit spicy and hot. Tastes green, a bit off. It develops a spicy middle then fades
to a saccharine sweetness. Reminds me of a glass of drambuie with a sweet licorice cigar soaking in it. The only whisky I've ever thrown down the drain. After 4 drams, final score 45 25.
Clontarf Single Malt Irish Whiskey. 40.0% abv.
Nose has all the advertised vanilla and more. Very grassy, malty and fresh. An almost marshmallowy sweetness. Palate begins sweet and malty. Cloying and creamy. Develops some
strong spice - almost peppery, especially on the side of the tongue. There is a slight metallic feel in the middle and it finishes on sweet cereal. Exactly as described on the label except with a negative connotation. This
malt is crap. "Mellowed through Atlantic Irish oak charcoal".
Why?? To remove all the flavour??
The barrels used in this exceptionally bad Irish Whiskey were "specially selected by the Master Taster".
Let's hope he stays out of Scotland. This whiskey comes in a neat package of three stacking 200 ml bottles that look like a single bottle. Each of the three contains a different whiskey - a crappy blend, a second so so blend with a
mysterious rye note and the crappy single malt described above. Not worth the $20.00 US I paid for it, but it looks neat.
Nominal score 52 26. Glen Breton Rare Canadian Malt Whisky. 40.0% abv.
A sweet malty
musty beginning which quickly fades to an alcohol tingling. Quickly becomes flavourless with almost no finish. There is a caramel-like overtone throughout. No complexity at all. Like cotton candy it's gone in an instant. LCBO sold
out of 50 cases in one day and the next weekend I saw a couple of forlorn Cape Bretoners searching the shelves for it. Cape Bretoners, like Scotsmen, never really leave home. At $80 CDN it's way too expensive but I suspect
the distillery could sell as much of this as they could make to Ontario's ex-patriots from The Cape.
Nominal score 65 27. Redbreast 12 yo Pure Pot Still Irish Whiskey. 40% abv.
This dark coppery gold whiskey is
not related at all to Clontarf. The nose is grassy and malty with a hint of skunk. Pleasant. The palate is malty and spicy with a hint of bitterness. It becomes slightly metallic in the middle. There is an evergreen pine needle
start then a bit of a burn. OK but not great. The finish is long with a slight bitterness. It leaves a pleasant malty taste and a slippery mouth feel.
Nominal score 67 28. Ankara Malt Viski 5 yo. 43% abv.
This Turkish single malt is a real find. Lex Kraaijeveld of Celtic Malts
(
http://www.celticmalts.com/journal-intro.htm) told me about it only a couple of hours before I left for Turkey. I searched for it for a week and finally got a bottle
through a local, then discovered cases of it at the airport on my way out. Not fabulous, but a good solid whisky, it could do well in export. A medium golden colour, this malt has a spirity, estery, malty nose that is entirely
lacking in smoke.
There is a sweetness though it's not heavy. Over time the nose develops a mint candy cane note along with malt vinegar that melts into dill pickle juice. It sounds bizarre, but it's really quite pleasant.
Throughout there is a non-smoke muddiness. The palate is sweet and peppery. Though nothing does pepper like Talisker, this one is a bit hot and quite emphatic. The spirit was a flaw in the nose, but it does not emerge in the
palate. Some real warmth and sweetness develops in the middle as does lots of burning spice. It becomes grassy towards the end with perhaps a hint of fresh hay.
The medium to long finish is quite entertaining as it
continues to change and develop until it disappears. It moves from pepper through grass, candy to mustiness then ends sweet and malty. I liked it so much I bought a second bottle then ended up giving it to my dad for his birthday.
As $6.50 per bottle I doubt that Ankara will ever ever be displaced as my all-time best bang for the buck.
Only available in 'Turkey you say? Pity!
Nominal score 7429. Tasmania's
Old Hobart Pure single malt. (NAS.) 40% abv.
My wife picked this up for me in Australia and I find it, again, quite an education as it has new and unfamiliar notes. The nose is round (whatever that really means) with a
musty, smokeless, medicinal smell. It seems just slightly off. There is a citrus note here but it is lost and turns to rotten fruit when nosed after the Sullivans Cove I sampled at the same time. (Love my wife!!). I suspect
the fruity notes originate in the same place as both whiskies come from the same distillery. This unique note led me initially to wonder if these were simply different expressions of the same whisky, but in-depth evaluation
suggests otherwise. The element of rotten fruit persists in Old Hobart but is not found in SC. The palate starts with burnt sugar, tropical spice and a fair bit of hot but tasteless spice inside musty, fruity notes. The finish
fades out into a mild fruitiness.
Nominal score 70 30. Sullivans Cove Australian Premium Single Malt Whisky nas. 40% abv.
My favourite of the odd-balls. Nose has a very unique, very citrus waft. Maybe
grapefruit with just a hint of an off-note. No smoke at all, but so fruity and really quite delightful. Some strange tropical fruit notes. The citrus notes dominate the palate. Initially there are flashes of fresh
fruits and liqueurs which settle in on grapefruit with the same sweet/sour feelings at the back of the tongue. This ain't Scotch, but it's really quite pleasant. It develops a mild spiciness then hints of peppermint and
caramel. The finish fades and the citrus disappears into a hint of malt. The glass decanter is probably the nicest on my shelf, but it is spoiled by having a plastic insert rather than traditional ground glass. Still it's a
whisky and bottle I will display with pride.
Nominal score 77 That's it for now. Coming next update?
Well, I'll start with Glenfarclas 105 then on to new challenges. Davin - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - E-report #14 - Yes, I still drink whisky
Date: Sat, 14 July, 2001 Hi fellow Malt Mad,This is a crazy travel year for me, and I still have major mouse arm, hence my recent silence. Many more
malts tasted including some odd ones. Ankara from Turkey (not too bad and at $6.50 a major bargain), Clontarf from Ireland (this comes in a strange package that includes 3 different whiskies in stacked bottles made to look like
they are in one bottle. The single malt is only ok, the gold blend is crap but the black label blend is not so bad if you like rye whisky.), and Aleksjandr a single rye from Latvia that tastes like nothing more than Drambuie
with a licorice cigar in it. New malts include Royal Lochnagar (liked it), Imperial (ok) and a host of others. I hope to get a decent update, prepared before I'm off again in September. Davin - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - E-report #13 - February & March Malt Update
Date: Sun, 01 April, 2001 Beginning with this update, I am using a proper nosing glass, purchased as Cadenheads for nosing my malts, and a proper tasting
glass for, well, you know what for. Most of these malts have been tasted 3 times, usually on consecutive evenings. I'm hoping in weeks to come to do some head to heads and tasting panels with my new malts, but for now
the punishing grind of the 52 Challenge is unrelenting.Ardbeg 1975 Connoisseurs Choice - 40% - Provisional Score: 88
A nice Ardbeg, and noticeably better than the CC Ardbeg 1978. In turn, it can't quite
measure up to the distillery bottled 1975. Compared to the Ardbeg 17yo, the smoke of the CC 1975 dominates, but next to the Ardbeg 10 it simply disappears.
Nose: Smoke and Vicks menthol, rich, full, clove oil.
With water becomes sweet and sour, smoky with a little sweetness. Muddy and medicinal.
Palate: Smoke and mud; rich muddy middle. With water: smoky and warm;
spicy and tingly in the mouth. Richer and more flavourful than the 1978.
Finish: Long and medicinal.
Empty glass: Smokey, barn smell, ,medicinal, sweet and musty. Ardbeg 1978 Connoisseurs Choice
- 40% - Provisional Score: 84
This is the CC 1975 only less so. A bit of a disappointment after the 1975, but hey, it's an Ardbeg, and still has a lot to offer.
Nose: Smoke, rich, full, develops a bit of
mud. With water it stays rich and smoky with a bit more muddy and medicinal tones.
Palate: Smokey with a bit of earth. Becomes spicy and hot. Mud in the middle. Sweeter than the 1975. With
water it is smoky, but less so than the 1975. It is also less powerful than its older brother, and somewhat sweet in the middle.
Finish: Long and smoky.
Empty Glass: Dry grain, smoke, sharper than 1975, sweet. Glenfiddich Solera Reserve 15yo - 40% - Provisional Score: 73
Nose: Sweet, fudge with a hint of gunpowder. Sourish, wood. Over time the
gunpowder becomes more pronounced and I like it.
Palate: Feels like it's going to be bitter, but it isn't. Hot and very spicy. The spice slowly concentrates on the tongue and the mouth becomes slippery.
Peppery. Leaves your mouth feeling like you've put too much pepper on your food. Sweet with a brief hint of metal.
Finish: Medium length, hot and spicy, becoming mildly woody.
Empty glass: Sweet, faint hint of fudge. Glenfiddich Ancient Reserve 18yo - 40% - Provisional score: 71
Nose: Fresh, dusty, grass, some spirit, some malt. Many subtle smells – tobacco, apples, green apple,
fruitcake, peat.
Palate: Briefly bitter. Hot and warming, Not much body at first, then slippery. Spice quickly fades. Not as sweet as the 15yo.
Finish: Medium length, fades to nothing.
Empty Glass: Sweetish, not much smell. Glenallachie 1991 Sherry /Cask, Signatory - 43% abv.
Natural colour – dark yellow apple juice. Initial impression: A disappointing hiss rather than a plunk when the
bottle was first opened, but then came the strong and wonderful scent of honey, beeswax and sweet wood. My hopes were high for something to match the greatness of the Balvenies.
Nose: Esters, warm, sweet spice.
A nice sharp spice in the nose. Heavy white clover honey smell develops into a milder honey then becomes floral.
Adding water makes it spirity and estery but the honey remains.
Palate: Sweet, very hot and
spicy. I think this is the hottest malt I have tried yet. Quite astringent. There is an initial flash of spirit, but it never returns. The initial sweetness is short-lived and quickly turns quite hot.
Lots of hot spice all over the tongue and mouth. With water it remains hot and spicy but a metallic, cheesy bitterness develops. It is mildly astringent. The spice becomes peppery, which it is not in the undiluted
dram.
Finish: Medium in length, spicy and hot, then fading.
Empty glass: Maple sugar, pine soap.
Initially I scored this malt at 78, but it just didn't live up to the initial impressions, nor does it become
complex or lingering. Nominal score: 72. Caol Ila 15 yo Flora and Fauna - 43% abv
(Well fauna actually – it's got a sea lion on the label)
Initial impression – mmm woody and smoky, nuts and tobacco.
Nose: Yes, smoky but not overpowering. Chemicals. A malty freshness. Kippers. Subdued Islay sweetness. Develops into a typical Islay smokiness. Water reduces the smokiness.
Palate: Sweet
and smoky. A milder, subtler but still southern Islay with a wonderful peat smoke when you breathe out through your nose. Creosote. A bit spicy and tongue tingling. With water a bit of bitterness.
Still warming, spicy and smokey.
Finish: Long, warm, Islay smoke.
Empty glass: musty, earthy, medicinal.
Nominal score: 81 Bowmore 21 yo – 43% abv
Initial impression: Nutty, peanut skins and smoke.
Nose: Strong, alcohol, subtle smokiness, hint of licorice. There are lots of suggestions of scents that I just can't place. Sour pipe tobacco. The
smoke is way in the background and tobacco up front. The tobacco smell lingers in your nose for four or five breathes. A little bit of wood – tobacco box. I expected a lot more wood in a 21 year old whisky.
This is a very pleasant nosing whisky so take your time before you taste. With water a musty round sweet and heavy licorice emerges. Flashes of sweet and sour and the wood disappears from the nose.
Taste: Sweet
and medicinal, smokey. Warming. Very spicy on the tip of the tongue. Hints of woodiness. This is a great whisky and one in which the complexity is just seductive. What next??? best describes the
experience as the whisky develops in the glass and in your mouth. With water, more sweetness and a transient, slightly oily feel. A nice warm mouth feel.
Finish: A pleasing, long and somewhat smoky middles
fades into sweet and powerful licorice then to mouth-filling warm smoke. It's unusual the way the smoke grows, as it's fairly muted in the beginning. It's a longish finish that finally just fades away.
Empty glass: Sweet tobacco, spit on a hot stove.
Nominal score: 93 (man, that's right up there with my favourite Ardbegs.)
Still to come this month: MacAllan 7yo and Clynelish from Signatory. It's month 3 of the
52 Challenge and I'm still on track. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - E-Report #12: New Years Resolutions
Date: Thu, 01 February, 2001 New Years resolutions, you know those promises you make on January 1 and forget by about the fifteenth. Well this year my
resolution was to taste a new malt every week. To add some incentive I issued a challenge to the Malt Madness team to join me. I figure if Michael Jackson can taste 500 malts in a year, we can taste at least 52 that are
new to us. To qualify the malt must be new to the taster, some kind of tasting notes must be made, and a provisional score (subject to future validation and adjustment) must be assigned. I won't say who took up the
challenge, but there are several of us in on it now. For January my new malts are Strathisla 1985 from Gordon and MacPhail; Arran nas; Milroys Talisker 1988 8yo, Littlemill nas; and Lochindaal 10yo.
Strathisla 1985, Gordon and MacPhail 40% - Provisional score: 80
An Quaich ordered in some miniatures for Christmas and I bought a mixed case of Strathisla 1985 and Glentauchers 1979. Though the cheaper of the
two, the Strathisla is most certainly the superior malt. It's rich, sweet and has a nice, coating, mouth-filling feel.
Nose: Malt, wood, dusty green hay and dried grain. Nutty. Dry and dusty then sweet,
floral, honey. The nose develops slowly and very obviously over time, becoming sweeter and maltier and ending up with a hint of brown sugar. With water the nose is grassy and grainy with lots of malt and hints of honey
and wood.
Palate: Very sweet and mildly woody, oily, warm but not spicy until the middle when a warming minty tingle appears. A brief, passing bitterness that develops into tobacco then damp earth. With water
it's sweet and malty, spicier, with a slippery mouth feel and a hint of grass.
Finish: Long, sweet malt and wood. Slippery.
Empty glass: cocoa, nuts, wood and fudge. Arran nas, distillery bottling
, 43% - Provisional score: 75
Having tried the 2 year old Arran spirit, I didn't have very high hopes for this one. The two year old had been a very chemical tasting concoction, and at cask strength not
particularly enjoyable. The nas was a pleasant surprise. A few years in oak had worked off the acetone edges leaving a sweet, malty whisky. Malt Madness surfer and Toronto malt aficionado, John Di Marco had drawn
my attention to the Arran whisky in an e-mail in which he wondered about its island qualities. Well, I could remember no smoke in the 2 year old spirit, and found none in the mature whisky either. Arran is not typical
of island malts, being much maltier and lacking any overt peat smoke. No doubt the folks at Arran have plans to bring out a more mature version as time goes by. Given the tremendous improvement between the two year old
and this nas version, which is probably less than 5 years old, we can only wait for bigger and better things to come.
Nose: Malty cereal, sweet floral esters.
Palate: Quite sweet, smooth and warming, but not too
spicy at first. Subsequent sips become hotter and spicier. The mouth feel is a bit oily. With water it's sweet and malty with a brief spiciness.
Finish: Just fades out sweetly.
Empty glass: Sweet and sour. A new aroma for me: rye crisps. Talisker 1988, 8yo, from Milroys, 45% - Provisional Score: 91
Wow, this is great whisky. If the already boisterous 10 year
old distillery bottling could be any friskier, Milroys have found the casks to prove it. In a head to head with the 10 year old distillery bottling, the Milroys 8yo was much paler in colour, almost clear. Smokier than
the 10yo and not as sweet, it had a distinct hint of bitter chocolate. In a head to head with Ardbeg 17 the Milroys 8yo was smokier and sweeter and the Ardbeg smelled sour after nosing the Talisker. Head to head with
the sweet, malty Arran, the Milroys Talisker was also sweet, and even more so when water was added.
Nose: Smokey, sweet, flowery and dry. Medicinal with a licorice undertone. Very Islay-like. After adding
water it becomes very sweet with milder smoke and antiseptic.
Palate: Spicy and sweet then very hot. Smokey. Spicy, peppery; gets hotter and smokier in the middle. Medicinal and smoky with an Islay
air. Bitter chocolate. Smokier than the 10yo. With water it is quite sweet with muted but developing smoke.
Finish: Smoky, medium-long. Cigarette ashes.
Empty Glass: Smoke and musty medicine.
This is good whisky. Littlemill nas Distillery Bottling, 40% - Provisional Score: 82
Lowland whiskies have a reputation for being light, but in the case of
Littlemill, that does not mean flavourless. This is an interesting and unique whisky and I recommend it highly, if only for the second sip when malted milk flashes across your upper lip, then lingers and lingers on the
palate.
Nose: Dry and dusty then floral and sweet. Develops into flowers and honey then even later, green apples. With water it's oily, estery and sweet with a hint of nutmeg or egg nog. Maybe
minty, like creamy mints. A hint of dry hay.
Palate: Sweet, mild, delicate, chocolate and malt. Oily. On the second sip it's creamy, like malted milk. This is the first time I've tasted this flavour
in a malt and it is very unusual, especially on the upper lip. Water brings out the malted milk and adds a further hint of spice, but overall I prefer it neat.
Finish: It just slowly fades out. Lochindaal 10yo
43% - Provisional Score: 73
I had heard rumours of a new Islay distillery called Lochindaal, so when I came across it, I had to try it. First sip, and I knew something was up. It tasted just like
Bruichladdich. A quick reference to "the literature" confirmed that it was not a new distillery at all, but an independent bottling of the same old Bruichladdich the distillery supplies (in Canada at least) at
40%. So, for a second tasting I tried a head to head with the Bruichladdich, which was just a little bit fresher and more flavourful.
Nose: Initially very malty, then dusty and malty. Dry grain, a bit fruity
and estery. Fruitcake, sweet and sweet and sour. With water it's green and grassy with a few whiffs of smoke. Drier than the Bruichladdich.
Palate: A bit sweet, like cereal. Pepper develops in the
middle. With water it's more flavourful. Woody with a slight hint of peat smoke when breathing out. Bitter chocolate follows initial sweetness. A bit spicy in the middle with the flavour of black pepper.
Finish: Long and woody.
Empty glass: Sweet with a touch of wood. That's one month down, eleven to go. Coming in February two Connoisseurs Choice Ardbegs, the 1975 and 1978, and two others yet undecided.
Davin - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -<<< 1999
<<< 2000 |
