Talisker 10 Year (Second Take)

Boy, do I love Talisker. This is easily one of my top three Scotches, ever. I last reviewed this over three years ago, and it was LONG overdue for a return look. 

Bowmore 15 Year 'The Darkest'

When I think of "sherried Islay Scotch," this is definitely not the first, second, or third bottle that comes to my mind. I've long wanted to try this 15-year-old Bowmore offering - the standard 12-year expression aged an additional three years in Oloroso sherry casks, bottled at 43% ABV. The price is a little prohibitive - hovering between $75 and 90 depending on what shop you are frequenting - but I happened upon a good sale and splurged. 

This seems to be surprisingly divisive.

Ardbeg An Oa Release Party, Washington DC, at Jack Rose Saloon

A member of the Ardbeg Committee, I received an email from the local Ardbeg representative inviting me to Jack Rose Saloon tonight (9/23/17) to celebrate the release of the newest Ardbeg expression, An Oa (which I recently picked up and reviewed). 

Tomintoul 10 Year

Thanks to inscrutable liquor store metrics, Tomintoul 10 Year is on sale at virtually every shop in Washington D.C. this month, generally around $30. That puts it squarely in the "eh, what the hell" range of purchases. 

Springbank 10 Year

Ah, now here is a whisky I've been dying to review. I first had Springbank - probably the best-known of the current Campbeltown distilleries - about four years ago. I actually started with their heavily-peated Longrow CV expression, which I thought was very good, comparable to Ardbeg Corryvreckan, which is high praise indeed. I've still never found the unpeated and triple-distilled Hazelburn in the wild. But the core expression - Springbank's own 10 Year - is a really eccentric, complex, subtle, and interesting whisky.

Speyburn 10 Year

This was a remainder bin selection at a liquor store that was moving a lot of inventory for very cheap - in the $25 bin was Johnnie Walker Rye, Johnnie Walker Double Black, and Speyburn 10 Year. All in what I would term the "easy drinking" category.

Ardbeg An Oa (NAS)

It's finally here! The new fourth permanent installation in the Ardbeg lineup, An Oa ("Ahn Oh") is among us at last. An Oa is named for the Mull of Oa, a southern peninsula on Islay. I have been calling, emailing, and polling every liquor store in the Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia area trying to get my hands on this. At last, randomly, I did a lunchtime google search and found it advertised in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, at Potomac Wine and Spirits. The salesman was completely nonchalant, but noted that they had been flying off the shelves far faster than they had estimated. 

Deanston 12 Year

Deanston is a distillery I knew almost nothing about until I found this bottle on sale ($35). It's a Highland whisky, made by a small crew of ten men, and owned by the same company that owns Bunnahabhain and Tobermory and Black Bottle blended. I happen to love Bunnhabhain, so this is of particular interest. 

Lost Distillery Company: Gerston (Archivist Collection)

I found another great offering from the Lost Distillery Company: the Archivist Collection bottle of their recreation of the distillery of Gerston. Gerston, when it was open, would have been the northernmost Highland distillery - located in Halkirk, it would have been farther even than Old Pulteney or Clynelish. 

Ardbeg 10 Year (Third Take)

As I prepare for the arrival of the new Ardbeg - called An Oa ("An Oh") - I am revisiting the other three core expressions from the distillery, Ten Year, Uigeadail, and Corryvreckan. I realized that I had sampled my beloved Ten Year fairly recently, but at a pretty poor bar that served the dregs of a bottle in a giant widemouth tumbler, like I was some kind of riverboat gambler guzzling rye before cheating some rubes at poker in a dark and smokey saloon.

Great King Street: Artist's Blend

This brand, Great King Street, is part of the Compass Box empire. The idea behind it is, I think, to bring great affordable blends back to the global hordes who love Scotch whisky - to fight the evil bottles of J&B and Dewar's and Cutty Sark that ruin and besmirch the good name of Scotch in liquor cabinets everywhere - all at a reasonable price. 

Longmorn 16 Year

This is one from the archives - I actually drafted this review back in 2014, when a friend gave me the final few drams of his bottle of Longmorn 16 - it was the first bottle he purchased for more than $100. My notes languished in my email until I decided to clean out my inbox this weekend. 

Longmorn is a Speyside distillery, located near Benriach (founded by the same man, John Duff) and Linkwood and Glen Elgin, and under the current Pernod Ricard ownership it has attempted to position itself as an ultra-premium product.

Glen Scotia Victoriana (NAS)

I was lucky enough to sample this elegant Campbeltown whisky at my favorite liquor store, Arrowine in Washington DC.  Every Thursday they do a liquor tasting, and on the menu today was this intriguing Glen Scotia. 

Campbeltown is the smallest region of Scotch whisky, with only three distilleries at present: Springbank, Glengyle, and Glen Scotia. The region is located on the long southwestern peninsula called the Mull of Kintyre, and is located close to the isles of Islay and Jura; Campbeltown itself is a small town near the end of the peninsula.  

Ardbeg Corryvreckan (Second Take)

Oh, Ardbeg. How I love thee. Corryvreckan is actually my second favorite, after Uigeadail, but is a tremendous whisky in its own right. I acquired a bottle during a nice sale, and thought I would revisit this powerful Islay brew. 

Corryvreckan was originally a "Committee Release," Ardbeg's fan club offering, and it replaced a beloved dram, Airigh Nam Beist, in 2009. Corryvreckan was supposed to be a limited release, but has continued unabated to this day. 

Lost Distillery Company: Lossit (Classic Selection)

The Lost Distillery Company (link here) is a company in the vein of Compass Box - premium quality blends of single malt scotch. However, they have a very specific ambition: as their name implies, they attempt to recreate long lost single malts by doing very extensive research and then blending whiskies together to approximate what the original might have been like. 

In the case of Lossit, an Islay distillery that stopped production in 1862 (!), I can't imagine there are any bottles left, so they must have really had their job cut out for them. Their website says they take ten different factors into account - things like ingredients, equipment, production method, location, etc. - when attempting to recreate something like Lossit, so theoretically this bottle uses single malts that draw from the same waters, the same type of barley from the same locations, use the same type of still, etc. 

ScotchTalk Vol. 5: The NAS Debate

NAS ("No Age Statement") refers to whiskies that decline to provide an age statement (10 years, 12 years, et al) for reasons that remain under intense debate. As a reminder, Scottish law requires that if a whisky distiller provides the age of a whisky, it must provide the age of the youngest whisky in the bottle. As many have noted, a bottle might contain 99% 50-year whisky and 1% 3-year whisky, and yet it must be marketed as a 3-year whisky. Which is misleading in its own way, and a little ridiculous. 

Caol Ila 12 Year (Second Take)

Here is another one that deserves a second look. When I first discovered Islay whisky, I did the usual triumvirate - Ardbeg, Laphroaig, Lagavulin - and then branched out in the expected manner - Bowmore, Bruichladdich, Kilchoman, Caol Ila, Bunnahabhain. 

Of the second set, Caol Ila (Cool EE-lah) was a big winner, and something of a surprise, since I'd only ever heard about it in terms of its mammoth output capacity. 6,500,000 liters!

SPECIAL: Brennivin 80th Anniversary Edition

This isn't technically a whisky. But it IS finished in Islay whisky casks for four months, and is interesting enough in its own right to be covered here. And, as far as I can determine, this is among the only reviews of the 80th Anniversary edition of Brennivin on the net!

Some backstory: lately I've been tearing through the novels of Icelandic mystery author Arnoldur Indridason, who is right up there in the pantheon of modern Nordic authors for me. Starting with the first novel published here, Jar City, I've been knocking his books down like dominoes, one after the next.

In his books, many characters drink the national spirit of Iceland, Brennivin - the name means "burning wine," which is a fantastic name for any spirit. Iceland had prohibition just like the United States did, in fact starting even earlier in 1915; but there was a partial repeal in 1935 for spirits only - and Brennivin was the first spirit out of the gate to get back in the game. 

Bowmore 12 Year

Before now, I've had only the most basic Bowmore offering, the Bowmore Legend that I reviewed some time ago, and found a little thin and one-note, but still liked anyway. Since then I've always been curious about the aged expressions, especially since I've met multiple whisky drinkers who espouse strong, positive opinions of them.

Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban (12 Year)

This was a total shot in the dark. I was at the liquor store with a million sales going on, and I had to either choose to revisit an old friend (Oban, Ardbeg, Aberlour, Glendronach) or try something totally new. 

The blog demanded fresh blood!! I have had about half of the current offerings from Glenmorangie, but not the port finished Quinta Ruben (the word means Ruby Farm, in a combination of Gaelic and Portuguese).

Ardbeg 10 (Second Take)

Next up in my series of second takes on previous reviews of mine is the core expression of my favorite distillery, Islay's Ardbeg. I actually intended my next review to be Talisker 10, but the bar I went to only had an ancient bottle of Talisker with two fingers left of liquid... Seemed like a bad bet.

Laphroaig Select Cask (NAS)

This new offering from Laphroaig has been very hotly debated, both on the internet and in person. When buying this bottle, the clerk even told me that the managers regret ordering it - apparently people pick it up, Google reviews on their phones, and promptly put it back down. It inspires violent opinion. 

Lagavulin 16 (Second Take)

While re-reading some of my old reviews, the one that struck me the most as needing revising was Lagavulin's 16-year core expression. My initial review finds a lot of sweetness, even a lemon citrus element... well, I've had a LOT of Lagavulin in the intervening years, and since then I don't remember much of a lemon scent, or really much sweetness at all. So I thought I would give this one a new look, much as I recently took a second glance at Talisker Storm. 

Talisker Storm (Second Take)

I recently found another good price on a bottle of Talisker Storm ($40) at a liquor store that's going out of business, and wanted to give the bottle another go after almost three years since I barely remembered what it was like.

Talisker Storm has been generating a lot of negative opinions across the net - virtually everyone agrees it is a fraction of the quality of the standard Ten Year, but often costs the same, or even more. Not a smart marketing plan.

Black Bottle (Blend, post-2013)

Black Bottle was known for decades as "the peaty blend," made up of bits of all the Islay distilleries. However, as of 2013 or so, after various changes in ownership, they changed the blend around, with the result that there is now a pronounced Highland/Speyside emphasis, with a greatly reduced peat character, all of which is provided by Bunnahabhain. This is a review of the new formulation of Black Bottle, since I can't find a dusty forgotten bottle of the old stuff for the life of me. 

Kilchoman PX Finish Single Cask 2016 (Cask #680)

Here is another big winner from last October's Kilchoman tasting. I bought this the moment I tasted it. Hugely rewarding dram, this is a single cask release (as the bottle declares proudly in blood red font) finished in Pedro Ximenez sherry casks. Pedro Ximenez is a very very sweet grape, and results in a extremely sweet sherry. A better explanation than I could provide is found in this review of the same cask release. 

Balcones Texas Single Malt (NAS)

Balcones was sold to me as "Scotch, just made in Waco, Texas." This isn't really that bad of a description... it has all the complexity of a young cask-strength single malt Speyside or Highland, but a certain twang of its own.

This has won more awards than I can shake a stick at. The website advertises Jim Murray as saying this needs "chewing," which is a fantastically accurate word for this. It's a thick, layered whisky with a lot going on, even at nuclear cask strength (which often wipes out any subtlety from a young whisky).

Kilchoman Machir Bay (2016 East Coast Tour Edition)

I acquired a bottle of this rare and lovely whisky after attending Kilchoman's 2016 East Coast Tour - the second-to-last stop was at my favorite DC liquor store, Arrowine. I picked up three different bottles on the tour (the other two will be reviewed in due course), and this bottle was the first I polished off. One of only about 200 bottles made.

Basically, this is their regular Machir Bay presentation, but bottled at cask strength (58.4% abv). No Age Statement, which isn't unusual. Non chill-filtered, no coloring. Distilled in pot still from 100% malted barley, grown on-site, and aged in ex-bourbon (Buffalo Trace) and ex-oloroso sherry barrels. 

Nose: Lovely. Thick smoke mixes with hints of malt, rock candy and/or taffy, and fresh ground pepper. Very very full nose. 

Mouthfeel: Big mouth on this one. Very full, viscous. The cask strength alcohol content probably responsible for some of this, of course. 

Palate: Very mellow, in a surprisingly woodland way - herbal and vegetal, rather than oceanic and briny. Freshcut grass, harvested straw, some indistinct dried herbs, alongside sweet malt, vanilla from the oak, some very subdued red fruit, and of course the smoke - which is, intriguingly, not so big in the mouth as it was on the nose. 

The peat is actually rather tame on the tongue - this one won't leave a campfire on your palate for hours afterward. The sherry influence is in the background, a supporting player, while the bourbon influence is much more forward, but they are fairly balanced in the mix. The high alcohol content never overpowers, although it's a muscular dram, to be sure. 

Finish: Very long. This is where the peat smoke really appears - it gains strength (or, maybe, fails to weaken?) as all the other flavors recede. The final result is smoke wrapped around peppered, honeyed bacon. 

Verdict: A wonderful offering from Kilchoman. Like everything I've had from them, the quality is top notch, the flavor is second to none, and there is a lot of depth paired with a very easy drinkability. I don't know how many bottles of this are still floating around out there - mine was consumed fairly rapidly - but buy it if you can find it. I'll be on the next tour, without any doubt. 

Old Pulteney 12 Year

No one seems to agree about Old Pulteney! It's well-known now that Jim Murray praised this distillery to the skies, and he rated the 21 year expression as best world whiskey in 2012, but every review I read seems different from the last. Some say cinnamon forward, some say salt for days, some say banana, some say none of the above.

Old Pulteney hails from Wick, Scotland - making it a Highland, from the northernmost mainland distillery, as far as I can tell.

Kilchoman Whiskey Tasting (2016 East Coast Tour)

Thanks to the great folks over at Arrowine.com, I attended a wonderful weekend whiskey tasting hosted by the Kilchoman distillery - the most recent on Islay (2005). I greatly enjoyed their Machir Bay  and 100% Islay  bottlings, and as soon as I heard the word "Kilchoman," I eagerly signed up. 

The tasting was a fantastic expereince - I sat in a small room at RIS without about a dozen other Scotch drinkers, and sampled 7 drams of excellent whiskey. At the end of the day I was given a Glencairn glass with the Kilchoman logo, and a great T-shirt with the Kilchoman 2016 East Coast Tour information on it. Kilchoman has made themselves a fan (not from swag, but from excellent whisky).

Aberlour 10 Year

This is the third of the three Scotches I sampled on a remote beach in Northwest Madagascar. The other two (Talisker 57 Degrees North and Johnnie Walker Green Label) I had first, and were outstanding. Running my eye down the bar's row of Scotch, I saw only one bottle I hadn't had - Aberlour 10 Year. 

Johnnie Walker Green Label (15 Year)

This is the first Johnnie Walker blend I'm reviewing, but far from the first one I've tasted. In fact, it's pretty easy to make the claim that Johnnie Walker blends are the single most available Scotch blends in the world - you can find Red Label in virtually every bar, and over the years I've had (and will review) Red, Black, Double Black, Gold, and Blue Label. 

Green Label is my favorite.

Talisker 57 Degrees North (NAS)

Hello from Madagascar! I'm on the far side of the world but still knee-deep in the Scotch game. Well, ankle-deep - although I have to say that I'm impressed by the Scotch lineup in the 9th-poorest country in the world. Vodka, gin, bourbon are all bare bones here. Rhum is the local staple, and heavily available in a wide variety of flavored options (most notably coffee, vanilla, cinnamon, and a number of tropical fruits like coconut and lychee). 

Bunnahabhain Toiteach (NAS)

After trying and liking a bottle of the core 12 Year expression by Islay distiller Bunnahabhain, I was eager and curious to try their peated bottle, the no-age-statement Toiteach (and apparently pronounced "toe chack" and meaning Smoky - a good sign). I bought a bottle as a birthday present for a new friend, who very kindly shared a glass with me, and I immediately wrote down my impressions to register here. 

Kilchoman 100% (4th Edition, NAS)

I got my hands on another bottling from Kilchoman, one of my new favorite distilleries (and the youngest on Islay). This one is "100% Islay," which is made from barley grown at the distillery, along with water found on their land - therefore every stage of the process is tightly controlled, and completely original to Kilchoman. 

This particular Fourth Edition is five years old, aged in first fill bourbon barrels and bottled at a nice stiff 50%. No artificial coloring and no chill filtering either. 

ScotchTalk Vol. 4: "Taste"

Taste is a strange sense, and perhaps the most subjective.

Most people can agree on the scent of an apple, or perfume, or the ocean when they encounter it blindfolded. Most people can differentiate touch between soft and hard, knobby and smooth, etc., to a very surprisingly minute degree. Most people can detect almost infinitely small gradients of color, and generally agree what is pleasing to observe and what isn't (within reasonable limits). 

Bunnahabhain 12 Year

Ah... my journey through Islay is complete. Bunnahabhain ("Boo-nah-HAH-van," meaning Foot of the River) was the last distillery on my list - from Ardbeg to Kilholmen, Bruichladdich to Lagavulin, Laphroaig to Bowmore, Caol Ila to Bunnahabhain. The distillery dates to at least 1881, and the area is apparently well known for shipwrecks (according to Wikipedia), which lends a nice sinister aspect. The bottle is curiously shaped and designed, and decidedly old-fashioned. 

ScotchTalk Vol. 3 - Japan Tops the List

Dear Readers, I point a finger to this article in Fortune: 

http://fortune.com/2014/11/04/the-best-whisky-in-the-world-isnt-scottish

which notes that the latest edition of Jim Murray's Scotch Bible (2015), a sherry cask Yamazaki single malt from Suntory tops the list, and nothing from Scotland even cracked the top five (!!). 

Many whisky bloggers and drinkers have seen this coming for some time. Scotch distillers have been moving away from transparent age-dated offerings, instead deciding to release opaque batches with clever names but without age statements. 

Macallan 12 Year Sherry Oak

Macallan's fall from grace - or at least the supposed fall from grace - or, that is, their continued and heavily debated thrust to position themselves as one of the great elite Scotch brands through intense advertising, perhaps deceptively - is something that has spawned thousands of words across the internet. I think MaltMadness does a particularly good job explaining some of the core problems. I personally have yet to meet a Scotch drinker who really liked any of their new and much-promoted Fine Oak line. 

Ardmore Traditional Cask (NAS)

Sorry for the delay, dear readers - laid low with bad pneumonia since the last post. Not being able to breathe, taste, or smell anything really puts a damper on whisky drinking, let me tell you. But the night before I was stricken with lung plague I had a dram of this Ardmore at a bar, and was very favorably impressed. 

Macallan 10 Year Fine Oak

This is the first "real" single malt Scotch I purchased for myself, for the express purpose of sipping and learning and appreciating. It was on sale at a local liquor store for a price I then considered "reasonable" - $36 or so - and when seeing it against the value of the other Macallan bottlings (whose pricing has no real upper limits, it would seem), it appeared to be a steal. 

The Balvenie Caribbean Cask (14 Year)

This was my introduction to The Balvenie - a distiller whose every Speyside expression seems to garner glowing reviews from professional reviewers and casual drinkers alike. I have had a handful of their whiskies, and am fairly chomping at the bit to try a few of the older, more expensive varieties (I'm looking at you, PortWood 21 Year). 

Light or heavy, Speyside whiskies are known for their sweetness, and this is something that the folks at The Balvenie seem to specialize in - a very rich, endless sweetness that is never cloying or sticks in your teeth. Instead they present a light, dancing sweetness that has facets and details and rewards patience. 

Bruichladdich The Laddie (10 Year)

I just attended a great cookout this last weekend, and the host of the manor was a great aficionado of single malt Scotch. In fact, I invited him to pen some guest reviews - and if I'm lucky, he'll even post about his trip to several distilleries in Scotland, with pictures and the works. 

The one whisky in his cabinet I had never had was Bruichladdich The Laddie, their 10 Year unpeated expression. Coming from the same folks who make Port Charlotte and Octomore, I was mightily intrigued by their "standard" flavor profile, which you might expect to underlie all the other expressions. 

Hakushu 12 Year

Ahhhh.... now we come to the first whisky I truly dislike. And I really wish I didn't - the Hakushu 12 Year is from the same company (Suntory) that presents the fabulous, vaunted Hibiki 12 Year blend and the delicious, well-put-together Yamazaki 12. 

Like Hibiki and Yamazaki, of course, this isn't technically Scotch. But this is the closest Scotch analog of any whisky not made in Scotland, by a landslide. 

anCnoc 12 Year

Before you ask, it's pronounced "a-nock," and comes from the Knockdhu distillery ("nock-DOO") in the village of Knock, somewhere in Aberdeenshire. This makes it a Highland Scotch, generally known for sweet, richly honeyed whiskies. 

ScotchTalk Vol. 2: Oxidation

Oxidation... oooh, sounds sciencey.

Don't worry, no didactic lectures, formulae, or math here. I'm an arts person. But I do want to address a serious drinker's problem: oxidation, aka Booze Rot or Hooch Death.

Most people know that once opened a bottle of wine has a very finite lifespan. After a day or two - unless the air is pumped out of the open bottle using a vacuum system or something like it - it goes flat, loses flavor, and eventually becomes unpalatably gross. 

Lagavulin 16 Year

Ah, finally I get to Lagavulin. Considered by many to be THE Islay Scotch, it's the favorite single malt of many a refined drinker. I first had this delicious beauty at a birthday party in a small apartment on Capital Hill, drinking with a pilot who generously shared his bottle. I was instantly enamored. It's dangerously easy to drink and bottles tend to empty themselves all too quickly.

Bruichladdich Rocks (NAS)

We've covered a bottle from Port Charlotte already, the heavily peated imprint from Islay distiller Bruichladdich ("Brook-LAH-dee"). Yesterday I had a chance to sample this unusual bottle - Bruichladdich Rocks, an "un-peated" Islay single malt. Rocks is but one of a three-part set from Bruichladdich, the other two being the simply named Peat and Waves. I usually like creative and/or descriptive marketing, but this is perhaps not quite enough for me to get a firm hold on. 

Laphroaig Triple Wood

I am slowly, steadily working my way through Laphroaig's entire range of whiskies... and what a glorious ride it's been so far! This is my wife's favorite distillery, and for good reason - one of the great Islay standard bearers, every whisky they make is rich with full flavors - iodine, maritime flavors (seaweed, minerality, salt), rich vanilla, rich oak... and those are the baseline flavors, not counting their special offerings... like the Triple Wood. 

Kilchoman Machir Bay (2013 bottling)

Spoiler alert: This whisky is a big winner. A big, big winner. I sure hope someone from Kilchoman is reading tonight. 

Kilchoman is, by a large margin, the newest distillery on Islay. While you might ask "Hey, what about Bruichladdich?" (like I did), Bruichladdich was actually founded in 1881 and active for years and years, and only closed for a small window in the late 1990s. 

Kilchoman, however, was freshly founded, built from the ground up, in 2005. And apparently the "C" is silent (hence the giant "H" on the package?). As their website notes, it's a very small distillery, and built on a farm (hence the "Islay's Farm Distillery" on the box and bottle), which means that they grow their own barley. Talk about quality control.

ScotchTalk Vol. 1: Sherry

Welcome to Volume One of ScotchTalk, the space I reserve for non-review related subjects. Today: sherry.

Sherry is a big deal in the Scotch world. Sometime around 150 years ago distilleries discovered that aging their whisky in ex-sherry casks lent a richer, positively luscious flavor. And they've been doing it ever since. Now many a bottle proudly features "matured in oloroso sherry casks" or "aged exclusively in ex-sherry casks" or a similar statement.

By totally random chance, about a year ago - just before I got into single malt Scotch in a big way - I went through a huge sherry phase. It remains my favorite wine by a large margin - I prefer a glass of amontillado above any red or white wine I'm offered.

Laphroaig 18 Year

I was very curious about Laphroaig 18 Year, as I love all their younger offerings, and it's rather difficult to find near me. What does a long-aged Islay taste like, I wondered? 

Auchentoshan 12 Year

Wow, and I thought I liked the Auchentoshan Classic! This is instantly delicious whisky. To review: Auchentoshan is probably the most prominent of the remaining Lowland distilleries, all their whisky is triple distilled (like most Irish whisky).