Usually I kind of like Auchentoshan. By that I mean that there have been bottlings that I really enjoy and there are some I like less. I don’t think I have tried many Auchentoshan that it outright disliked. Maybe the 2012 version of their Valinch.

Heartwood is at the lower end of their new releases with it being a sherry finish, while Springwood is a bourbon matured whisky. The rest ramps up in price and fits different profiles.

Auchentoshan Heartwood. Image from Whiskybase.

Sniff:
You really notice its youth right away, since it is a very spirity whisky. There is a certain cookie like sweetness and slight bitter marmalade scent. I also get hints of sweet lemon. It’s very very light and for some reason not really my cup of tea. Almond and lemon merengue pie (which I do like).

Sip:
The palate is surprisingly full for such a light and young whisky. Summery with fruit and spirit. A bit gin-like. Again the lemon and almond combination is going on and I’m liking the palate better than the nose, so far. There’s some allspice too.

Swallow:
The finish is again spirity and the sherry casks show a bit of that rather typical mustiness here. Fruit, cloves and other parts of allspice, almond, lemon.

At first I was very disappointed with this whisky. The nose still doesn’t sit right with me. The palate and finish do fix some of the complaints I have, but since I usually nose a whisky rather long I am not a huge fan. It’s a nice whisky and it’s probably rather cheap, so you’re not in the hole for too much if you don’t like it. It’s not bad, but I’m not buying it either.

Auchentoshan Heartwood, 43%, sherry finished, € 33 for a full liter!

Why? Supposedly this is young Lagavulin. I love Lagavulin. From tasting this ‘standard’ version I am able to say that it is a very good possibility. Entirely sure I am not (as Yoda would say). I might need to test it with a gas chromatographer alongside a Lagavulin. I believe the Whiskykoning did that once to test Smokehead (supposedly young Ardbeg).

Finlaggan Old Reserve at Master of Malt

Sniff:
Tea and smoke with sweet dried peaches and apricots. It’s very gentle with some orange, orange peel and oak. It does have a hint of mustiness with a touch of sherry too.

Sip:
The palate is smooth, peppery with smoke. It feels rather thin and this is where the 40% abv starts playing its part. It does have a slightly bitter edge and some peppery heat. Orange peel and oak as well.

Swallow:
The finish keeps on being gentle with smoke and wood. There’s some orange and tea here as well as some pepper. The slight mustiness is back again which has a hint of wet clay. It reminded me of the crawl space under our house.

Well, what to say. For € 25 it is a very, very decent dram. If you want to build a collection on a small budget this will certainly help and you’ll get a tasty whisky as well. Apart from that 40% is way too low in alcohol and I think this would be much better at 46%. I am curious to taste the cask strength version and since it’s only € 40 I just might pick that up someday.

Finlaggan Old Reserve, 40%, shouldn’t set you back more than € 30.

Imperial had been closed for quite a few years until it was demolished a short while ago. Apparently they are going to build a new distillery on the same site to get more much needed capacity at Chivas Brothers.

16 year old Imperial from Whisky Shop Dufftown

Sniff:
Sweet, warm apple crumble with vanilla custard on top. There is some allspice with a big pinch of cloves in there. The oak is very timid, but definetly present as well. Weirdly enough, this Imperial also tastes like much older grain whisky.

Sip:
Thick and syrupy, with hints of golden syrup or maple syrup. Slightly drying because of the ABV. I get a small fizzy feeling on the palate too. The sharpness of 57.4% kicks in rather late. There’s the slightest hint of white pepper for extra spice but mostly it’s vanilla, pound cake, lemon curd and oak.

Swallow:
The finish continues down the taken path. Pretty simple but definetly tasty. The character of the spirit is a bit more prominent as the oak influence wanes a little bit.

This is a very nice pick by Michael Lord from Whisky Shop Dufftown. At £ 60 it’s fairly affordable too, for a single cask whisky from a closed distillery bottled as a private release. Adds up, right? Anyway, it has some definete grain whisky likeness but in a good way. A bit more depth maybe. Deliciously fruity and sweet.

Imperial 16, 1994-2011, 57.4%, Bottled for The Whisky Shop Dufftown – Gordon & MacPhail Exclusive. Still available at WSD!

Lewis is one of the Outer Hebrides and doesn’t have much going for it unless you want calm and peace at the cost of barely being able to do grocery shopping. Of course, I’d like to visit the place, but I don’t think it’s going to happen anytime soon.

Anyway, let’s just try this whisky! I picked up a sample from a bottle on the table at Maltstock since I was curious to it.

The Spirit of Lewis – Abhainn Dearg. Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
Aargh…. I already know I am not going to like this one. It’s incredibly young and spirity, and while that is not necessarily an issue, it is here. There’s the scent of rotting wood and wet dirt, with vanilla custard and spirit. The spirit is not the new make, but the stuff you use to fuel a burner, the blue stuff. It’s incredibly feinty and heavy with shoe polish and oil.

Sip:
I did manage to take a sip, but it continues in a much similar fashion of raw spirit, rotting wood and just not enough age by far. I can’t even seem to pick up the vanilla anymore.

Swallow:
Here there are minerals in the mix suddenly. I think it has to do with the muddy scent I got earlier. The spirit and wood flavours are here too.

I threw the rest of the glass out. While I love everyone who builds a distillery for their efforts and love for the product and process, I think the guys in Lewis have a long, long way to go.

Abhainn Dearg – Spirit of Lewis, 40%, cask # 102010, by now it is worth around € 122, but I don’t know the price of newer releases.

Ledaig is the peated brand of Tobermory. The produce it in the same distillery but have, much like Springbank, decided to name their peated brand differently to clearly mark the different product.

Usually I am not a huge fan of the Ledaig and Tobermory whiskies, especially not the current releases that I’ve tried. Apparently the 1973 Ledaigs are incredibly good, but I have not been fortunate to taste one of those yet. For some reason most bottlers currently think Ledaig is done at 5 to 10 years of age, but I often disagree. Let’s see what this one brings us.

Ledaig 8, Daily Drams. Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
It smells like very clean Ardbeg. The same scents of grass, straw and daisies are here, with a significant amount of peat. Pretty smoky with vanilla and salt and quite some alcohol burn.

Sip:
The palate continues as expected with a rather big blast of alcohol and peppery heat at first. The smoke is pretty coarse and dry. Very sharp with alcohol, vanilla, grass and salt. And I get the distinct impression of the grass that grows on the sand dunes on the beach (Marram of Sand reed according to the interwebs).

Swallow:
The finish is all of a sudden rather gentle and short. The vanilla is back but the grass flavours fade first. The smoke is here again too and again it tastes very clean.

I traded this bottle for a sample of Highland Park 18 (an old bottling) because the original owner didn’t like it at all. I’m not a huge fan either, but it is one of the more acceptable Ledaigs I’ve recently (the last two years or so) tried. At least it’s not one of those incredibly young sherried ones that smell like decaying cattle.

Ledaig 8, 61%, 2001-2010, Daily Drams. Used to cost around € 40.

Anyway, this was the penultimate release of Springbank 21 with another one in 2004. After that it went quiet around Springbank, especially the 21. Until the rerelease in 2011 that was. There’s about as much time between these releases, but the last two years they’ve done an annual one and since 2004 they’ve changed about everything: labels, boxing, bottles and, most importantly, style.

By the colour of it I’d say there are more sherry casks in this blend than in the modern ones. Other than that we can’t say much since little information is given.

Springbank 21, available at De Whiskykoning. Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
It’s surprisingly fresh at first, with peaches among other tropical fruits. Mostly the standard combination of peaches and plums. It also has that old fashioned farmy Springbank note with wood and something musty added to it. It’s full and creamy with caramel, fudge and milk chocolate.

Sip:
The palate is a little bit sharp at first but still the full richness as expected by the nose. The caramel has turned a little bitter here but not overly so. Fudge here again, but the farmy note turns more to hay. The fruit is still present but more subdued with the bitterness changing the peach to peach stones. Mind you, the bitterness is not overpowering at all, but a rather nice touch to the complexity of the whisky.

Swallow:
The finish is long and full, with bitter fruit like star anise. The hay, oak and caramel are back as well. Wood, fudge, and some more straight forward sherry notes.

This whisky is an excercise in balance. Apart from the fact that I would ‘like’ to taste something like this at cask strength, I can’t even find that a fault since at 46% it is so utterly delicious. The complexity is stunning and there is something new to find at every sniff or sip.

If you can try a whisky like this at some point, please do yourself a favour and do it. It’ll set you back a rather significant amount of money (€ 400-500 or so at least), but it’s worth it.

Springbank 21, 1998 release, mostly available in auctions where prices are climbing rapidly over the last year or so.

The added fun for me is that you can barely get anything else from Canadian Club or Crown Royal in The Netherlands which means we don’t have a clue to what Canadian whisky is about. This series remedies that a little bit.

Yesterday’s discussion was mostly about the current state of Canadian whisky based on history. What would have happened if the Americans weren’t so in love with Canadian whisky and if prohibition had not happened. Also some other questions came by, of course, and it turned out to be a very interesting evening.

The whisky then:

Alberta Premium Dark Horse

Sniff:
It has a weird scent at first, overly sweet and rather cloying. Then I start getting plums, minerals, some rubber and basalt. Also spent matches, thick brown sugar with hints of bitter lemon and lemon curd. There’s also a bitterness that tastes a bit plant-like. Someone said hops, but that didn’t quite cut it for me. After a while I get some licorice and salmiac.

Sip:
The sweetness is really thick, almost liqueur-like. There’s also some spice but at first, it’s mostly syrupy with caramel sauce, brown sugar and molasses. Plum juice, vanilla and red cinnamon, and maple syrup. It builds up some added heat after a few seconds.

Swallow:
The finish throws the plums around a lot more still, and has the first real note of rye for me. Very typical. Here I start getting more floral hints that others picked up earlier. It’s fairly long and very different.

I don’t think I have had a whisky before that tasted like this, which makes me kind of like it. The combination of regular (column still) rye and pot still rye, the mix of ages and the high use of rye might have something to do with this all.

The thickness and sweetness makes it taste like a liqueur, but it still has enough depth and kick to make it very interesting. I like this one a bit better than last week’s Lot No. 40. Add the fact that this stuff is $ 30 in Canada and it’s even more incredible.

Alberta Premium Dark Horse, 45%, Alberta Distillers. Not available outside Canada.

Anyway, you don’t come across sherried Pulteneys all that often, unless you can find the travel retail lighthouse series, or the previous series with boat numbers. I remember those not being all that awesome, those boat ones.

This 17 year old comes from a refill butt that was rather active, if the colour is any indication. I picked it up on a whim when visiting The Old Pipe, a liquor store with a huge whisky selection that I haven’t visited for way too long. They now have a beer shop as well as the port and whisky emporium.

Old Pulteney. Image knicked from WhiskyIsrael.co.il

Sniff:
Fruity, waxy, resinous with a tiny hint of rubber. The rubber wears off when you let it breathe for a few minutes. Then I get orange and sherry notes with leaher and furniture polish.

Sip:
Sharp on my lips, but rather gentle further down the hatch. It does build up some heat though, with pepper, and a rich sweetness. Tropical fruit with wood, leather, pine resin and furniture polish again. Also some white pepper for heat.

Swallow:
The finish is very smooth too, with a tiny amount of white pepper that fades slowly. The fruitiness is gone quickly with dry wood and leather lingering longer. Strangely enough, I get some fresh herbs all of a sudden, mint maybe.

At first I wasn’t too big a fan of this one and it sat quietly gathering dust on my shelf. Since I picked it up for notes and some random whisky drinking, it has started to dwindle quickly, since it is a rather tasty dram. Nothing life changing of course, but one of the better sherried Pulteneys I’ve had.

Old Pulteney 1991-2009, 56.7%, cask 3643 – G&M Reserve for Van Wees. Used to cost about € 70 I think.

Samples available.

While ale casks are all but unheard of, I understand why they do it, since they should have plenty of those lying around the premises. What I also like is that they didn’t use any caramel colouring (lovingly called ‘brown dye’ by Ralfy), nor was the whisky whisky chill filtered before bottling. It looks like they got all their pawns in the right place to become a distillery too.

Dutchsky

Sniff:
There is a weird acidity that I normally associate with Geuze beers (this might be because of the beer barrel, or because the beer barrel use is highly suggestive). There’s a touch of oak and vanilla, yeast and lemon. Shammy leather but also something like wet newspaper or carpet. Strange.

Sip:
Very gentle and smooth with a feeling of carbonization to it. Creamy with hints of pepper that turns a bit dry with vanilla, fanta, lemon and beer.

Swallow:
Here that wet carpet thingy turns more to linoleum with lemon, yeast and wax.

I’m having trouble liking this whisky. The paper/carpet/linoleum is not something I enjoy and I’m not sure what causes these flavours. Maybe the cask wasn’t as empty as expected, or there was yeast in there still. Anyway, it’s a nice gimmick and I really, really applaude one of my favourite breweries getting into distilling. I am, however, glad that I didn’t buy a full bottle.

Dutchsky, 3yo, 43%, beer barrel aged, barrel #1 is available at Drinks & Gifts at € 49.95, but she also sells samples for around € 10

I tried it a few months ago when I took the bottle to Maltstock (where only one person drank a glass of it) and then I thought it was a very one dimensional ‘sal ammoniac’ flavour. It’s used in the Netherlands to flavour liquorice. It’s a very acquierd taste which I have never seem to have acquired. I thought to give it a whirl to see what it really is about.

Ambassador Deluxe Scotch Whisky

Sniff:
Very light with scents of grain and a hint of chemicals, probabkly the sal ammoniac thingy (we call it salmiak). It does have a hidden layer of slight complexity and warmth. The complexity can also be read as: there is more than just the chemical bit.

Sip:
Gentle and young, with a hint of cream. That salmiak thingy is back again too, with liquorice and I get the feeling some sherry casks are involved in this blend too. It does have some fruity flavours hidden around somewhere. Also vanilla, white pepper, but all very thin.

Swallow:
The finish isn’t too bad either, with creamy vanilla, summery and light with a hint of earthiness.

Well, what can I say. It’s not a bad whisky. It’s just very uninteresting, or at least on par with regular blends. I prefer this to JW red, but I prefer almost everything to that. Not a bad buy for about € 25 or so.

Is it that staple from the 1980s? Maybe, I think so but it is lighter than most blends from that era that I’ve tried. Still a pretty good representation.

Ambassador, 40%, bottled +/- 1985. Should be around € 30 in auctions.