The end of 2023 and beginning of 2024 have both been very slow in terms of my whisky adventure: I've almost exclusively been draining old stocks, and drinking a lot more wine and beer and other spirits. I do have about 4-5 bottles to post soon, but the major update relates to an event for independent bottler Single Cask Nation that I attended on February 17th at the Jack Rose Saloon.
Single Cask Nation, formerly J&J Spirits, is the brainchild of Jason Johnstone-Yellin and Joshua Hatton, and renowned in the Scotch single malt world as the bottlers of some truly outstanding drams. Recently they sold the company to Artisanal Spirits, the parent company that owns the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) and JG Thompson. Jason and Josh will still be making the picks, and directing the show, but there will likely be some unusual repercussions down the road.
This event at Jack Rose (and thanks to Bill Thomas, the owner, for facilitating this!) featured Josh and Jason presenting six of the earliest and best whiskies they've ever bottled. Here is the lineup, plus some tasting notes:
-12 year Glen Moray: From the second outturn ever back in 2012: reminiscent of the SMWS Glen Morays in that it has tons of complex sugar cookie and custard notes, with some herbs and berries mixed in. Rich stuff, almost like a heady cognac.
-13 year Cooley: one of only a few Irish whisky releases they've had - they said there is a surprisingly weak market for independently bottled Irish stuff.
To demonstrate, they asked for any diehard Irish whisky fans to raise their hands; out of 42 attendees, only 2 did. This whisky, finished in refill Oloroso, is full of tropical fruits and brown sugar, almond, maple, and is a little musty. Very long finish. Best part was a truly velvety mouthfeel.
-12 year Arran (Pinot cask): The story told about this bottle was that Jason grew up in Ayrshire, just over the Firth of Clyde from Arran, and when they were launching Single Cask Nation, the Arran distillery called them and said something akin to "we want to be for you what Glenfarclas is to the SMWS" ... so they went and tried a few Pinot cask-aged Arrans, and were blown away.
Normally, they said, they really dislike wine casks - they said it almost always changes the core spirit in a fundamental way - but these were perfect marriages. They bought this one, the sixth (?) cask.
Huge nose on it: dry red wine, yeast, grape skins, very floral, strong malt backbone, with a rather shy palate that eventually builds into beautiful stone fruit and rich, caramel-ish toasted oak. Lovely and surprisingly subtle, supple stuff.
-Dalmore 12 year (PX sherry): Jason said out of the 250 bottles they've released, this is his least favorite - he said it's too unidimensional for him. Josh noted in reply that it remains one of the whiskies they get asked about the most.
It's an insane grape bomb - almost like a solera brandy: red grapes, grape Nerds, wet shag tobacco, PX sherry for days. Josh half-joked that there was still a gallon or two of PX sherry still in the cask and it was "cloudy as hell." Just a rich, wild grape explosion. Both Josh and Jason sort of implied that Dalmore has a spirit on the weaker side that requires a strong cask to steer it in a good direction.
-Benriach 17 year (Peated): This was actually my least favorite of the night - I got burnt popcorn, moss, dead leaves, very "wet forest floor" ... the palate was a bit bigger, with peat, apple core, burnt wood, vanilla, iodine, earth, tree bark. Adding water added menthol cigarettes, orchard fruit, dunnage warehouse, burnt toast. Melon, pear, tea on the finish, which was the best part. Super complex, but not attractive for me. Really funky and unusual, though.
-Josh strongly suggested keeping an eye on the Infrequent Flyers Bottling Company, which was started by the owner of BenRiach (Alisdair Walker); although it hasn't come to the USA yet, hopefully it will. He said everything he's tried from them has been stellar. He also expressed wry frustration that when Alisdair Walker decided to start a bottling company, he simultaneously stopped selling his best casks.
-Laphroaig 6 yr - Holy moses, what a nose on this thing. Reminds me of the Jack Rose single cask Laphroaig pick from last year: VERY potent lemon peel, lime, lime zest, ash, earth, smoke, salt, yet clean as hell, layered, and refined. Palate followed the nose and added white wine, lime soda, sand (!), and rubber/iodine. Finish was, weirdly, like a baguette with lemon juice, burned in the oven. Some meat, like pork shoulder. Chocolate, tea, salmon, charcoal, just layers on layers. Very impressive.
-Then, a surprise final dram: A 14 year Glen Grant, matured in sherry. Nose was like candy - Starburst, sour fruit, vanilla exstract, some soft leather, malt, old oak. Very well balanced. Berries and cream on the palate, bright cherry like Luxardo, caramel, mik chocolate, etc.
They ended with a discussion of what things will look like now that Artisinal Spirits owns them. They said they will still be running the SCN show and making the picks, but they will have additional avenues to release bottles now (they estimate 80 a year). They really hope they don't end up in competition with SMWS for any particular cask, and don't know what would happen if that comes up. They noted there are 20,000 casks on the market at any given time, so the chances are low. They also note that their preferences don't overlap too much with SMWS except in a few limited cases.
Basically it sounded like selling to Artisinal Spirits stabilized both companies - it provided a steady infusion of invested capital for SCN, and provides a wide array of new hand-picked spirits for Artisinal. There was a question about whether SMWS would push out some of their casks through SCN, which they said wasn't the plan unless the cask was exceptional. Etc. etc.
-They also noted their favorite upcoming release for 2024 is a 25 year Ardmore (!), and to jump on it when it drops because it's the best Ardmore they've ever had. So, there's that.
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