Secret Speyside 13, 2009-2023, Hogshead 200929, 53.2% – Wu Dram Clan

Posted on 28 November 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

This undisclosed peated BenRiach was released at the same time as the Smögen from recently, but without the 91 point score at Whiskyfun, and therefore less fanfare to go with it. As a result of that, this one is actually still for sale in Germany, Denmark and Austria.

Image from Whiskybase

Officially this is not a BenRiach, of course, but it surprisingly is a single malt. So no tea-spooning things happening here. The fact that it is from Speyside and it is peated doesn’t unequivocally tell us it is BenRiach, but there are few other options, and even less after tasting it. So let’s do exactly that!

Sniff:
The peat is pretty distinguishable, but there still is a lot of barley coming forward. Apple, pineapple, orange. Quite a bit of fruit, even though the barley stays front and center.

Sip:
The palate is dry, with biting, peppery peat, and dry barley. Pineapple skin, apple seeds, some oak and slightly salty smoke.

Swallow:
The finish has ash, soot, a fireplace with wood smoke. Also earthy peat and some heather. Less fruity than the palate.

This is a far better whisky than you’d normally expect from a ‘random’ 13 year old Speyside dram. There are lots of fruity notes, which really help. The peat seems well integrated with the other flavors and the distillery character is still noticeable. A recommended whisky, again. But which Wu Dram Clan whisky isn’t…

88/100

Available through various retailers starting at € 108

Also, matching the label to the distillery helps to figure out where this one comes from…

Image from Iberowine.com
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Deanston 10, 2012-2023, 2nd Fill Oloroso Hogshead, 51% – WTF Utrecht

Posted on 27 November 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Even though I didn’t go to the WTF I got a bottle of this. Mostly because Thijs was very enthusiastic about it. Of course, that went straight into a bottle-share, since I simply can’t keep everything for myself for a variety of reasons (space, money, having only one liver, not necessarily in that order).

When I emptied my share yesterday, I wanted to check whether or not I had already written tasting notes, since things have been a bit chaotic at home recently. Because of that I found out that WTF has already bottled a Deanston as their festival bottling in 2021. Back then it didn’t impress me too much, mostly because of the problem Deanston often has: It lacks a bit of character. It’s a blind canvas on which the cask has full reign. This one, supposedly, is different.

Image from Whiskybase

Let’s find out!

Sniff:
There’s a lot of fruit and barley on the nose. Some wood spices as well as oak. Dried apple, pound cake with no vanilla. A bit of mango and apricot jam too.

Sip:
The palate brings a little bit of heat. Some chilis, sawdust, apricot stones. Quite a bitter note if you let it sit for a while. Apple cores, pear skin.

Swallow:
The finish is more dry than the palate. After that the sweeter pastry notes and clean oak come through.

This is quite lovely indeed! There’s a lot of fruitiness that is well balanced with oak and barley notes. It seems this one had significantly more character when going in the cask than the earlier release had. Or maybe the cask wasn’t as active. Either way, it makes for a very good whisky for a very decent price!

88/100

Currently available at Whiskybase for € 75 and it’s well worth that amount!

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Smögen 9, 2014-2023, Ex-Four Roses Bourbon Barrel 14, 59.8% – Wu Dram Clan

Posted on 24 November 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Thijs described his review as ‘mustard after the meal’. That is a Dutch saying meaning that you’re late in such a way that there’s no use anymore. Another saying for that is ‘eggs after Easter’.

Image from Wu Dram Clan

But here I am reviewing this another four days later than Thijs. Of course, with Serge having reviewed this a couple of days before I got my sample in, there was no way that I was going to be on time for a review before it sold out. A 91 point review from Serge (not listed, somehow), 89 from Ruben and another 91 from Thijs made me quite enthusiastic to get to it, and so I did.

Smögen is a Swedish distillery that is known for making crisp, peaty whiskies (at least they are to me). I don’t have too much experience with their product but I do have a sample lined up somewhere, from Berry Bros. & Rudd second release of The Nordic Casks.

This one selling out instantly is a bit of a bummer, but there should be another sister cask coming my way from Kirsch and Wu Dram together. Not 91 points from Serge, but 90 and that is still quite the score!

Let’s find out whether my palate agrees with the aforementioned dudes.

Sniff:
Extremely clean peat. Very fruity with apple, pear and star fruit. Some lemon as well. Fresh tropical fruits, greenish peat with smoldering mosses and plants.

Sip:
The palate brings a lot of heat. Dryness, chili pepper, wood shavings. It mellows after a little while, but has lots of coastal notes and lemon. Very, very clean, and not unlike some Port Ellen I’ve had.

Swallow:
A very long and gentle finish, with lemon, shammey leather, coastal smoke.

This, in a way, reminds me of some of the cleaner Port Ellens that were distilled in the early eighties. It doesn’t have the age and maturity, but it does have a similar note of lemon and chamois/shammy leather. On top of that, there’s a huge fruitiness and incredibly ‘precise’ smokiness to it. This truly is a tremendous dram and I regret not getting one even more after trying it…

90/100

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Daftmill 12, 2007-2019, First Fill Bourbon Barrels, 46%

Posted on 23 November 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer
Image from Whiskybase

This Winter Batch Release from 2019 was the final sample in the Blind Tasting Competition. After 11 other samples we had to close it out, and somehow the math didn’t help to get to the correct ABV.

The style of the whisky was a Lowlands one to me. I did go for the wrong distillery, but at least there were some points involved!

Sniff:
A very light and rather floral aroma. Dried meadow flowers like poppies and such. Straw, a bit of cream, barley (oat milk?). Lemon candies too, or maybe it’s more like lime instead of lemon. A slightly funky note of hessian too.

Sip:
Again, I get that weird combination of lime and cream. With a bit of moldy oak, hessian, rotting wood. After a minute or so, there’s some white pepper. Oak shavings and sawdust, barley husks, flour. Slightly buttery too.

Swallow:
The finish continues down the same notes with white pepper, dry barley, flour and that creamy note. It’s not overly long, but there is some stuff that lingers.

Because of the creamy, barley driven style with hints of funky hessian I went for Bladnoch. Which does mean it’s a true Lowlands whisky, but a more modern one as it turns out.

I really enjoyed this one and it makes me want to get stuck in with my bottle of Daftmill, even though that is a different one. Lovely stuff, this!

88/100

Available at Best of Wines for € 350. There is quite a bit of ‘exclusivity’ in the price…

To wrap up the Blind Tasting Competition of 2023, I have to say that I had another lovely time trying to figure out these samples. I still suck at it, but I do enjoy doing it.

Unfortunately my calendar for November was rather full so I only got to try 6 of the 12 samples with my friend JPH. I have to keep in mind to plan for the BTC next year… Of course, not filling in my guess for 3 or 4 samples didn’t help my score in the end, but I would still not have gotten anywhere near the top of the list.

Still, for those who are doubting whether to join this competition next year, please do. It’s awesome and lots of fun!

Keep an eye on this page, come September/October.

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Caol Ila 15, 2007-2022, PX Sherry Butt Finish, 54.6% – Douglas Laing’s Old Particular

Posted on 22 November 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

The second to last day of the Blind Tasting Competition brings us back to Islay, and another re-tasting. I have no idea what happened here, and why I didn’t get any of the typical smoky notes that are normal for the distillery, and that I really enjoy too.

So, you guessed it. I was completely off. But I still think this must have been a weird day for me in the competition to be this far off. I went for a Glentauchers in the end, because of the strange funky notes, and the intensity of the whisky. I also went for a far lower score than I gave this in my initial review of the whisky.

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
There’s dried mango and almonds in this one, a hint of orange as well. Quite a bit of oak, garden mulch, tree bark, old and wet casks. Behind it all I get a note of minerals and slate. After a couple of minutes, after having tried it, I start getting a note of chocolate as well, but also beef broth.

Sip:
Initially the palate starts slightly sweet, but turns towards more bitterness quickly. Syrupy with mango, a bit of browned butter, cough syrup. Yeasty sherry, sawdust, cherry stones. A weird and volatile concoction of flavors.

Swallow:
A slightly rubbery mouthfeel remains, but again with dried mango, papaya, a bit yeasty. Some oak too, but not a lot.

Of course, it’s been a year since I reviewed this, but I still figured I remembered this one quite well. I fondly keep checking whether or not a bottle pops up at a decent price, and would even consider buying at a slightly higher price because I loved it so much. Now I doubt this, but let’s chalk this one up to me being an idiot, having an off day and the sample or glass changing the whisky compared to when it comes from the bottle.

85/100

Still available at Best of Wines for € 200

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Annandale 4, 2017-2022, STR + French Red Wine Cask, 58.8%

Posted on 21 November 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Well, this might be the first Annandale I’ve had that is under 60% ABV, albeit not by much. Day 10 of the Blind Tasting Competition brings us to the southernmost part of the Scottish Lowlands.

So far, I’ve only had a couple of whiskies from this young distillery, and so far I’ve not really been a fan. Most of them were noticeably young, the oak was quite forced onto the whisky by having a way too active cask for a rather gently flavored spirit. Add to that the rocket-fuel like ABV and you’re in for a ride, although not one I enjoy too much.

Image from Whiskybase

Let’s see where this one takes us!

Sniff:
A light whiff of smoke, some gentle sherry with a bit of salinity behind it. Dried fruits with peaches and apricots. Figs as well, and straw.

Sip:
The palate is quite dry with freshly cracked black pepper and melba toast. There’s quite some chili pepper bite, with apricots, dates and cherry stones. A bit of a bitterness is there, like brazil nuts. Straw and oak as well.

Swallow:
The finish brings back the smokiness from the nose, but is a little bit more intense. Quite long, with some bite and the bitterness from the palate. No fruitiness to speak of remains.

I figured this to be a sherry cask, but I had no idea about the distillery. There wasn’t much distillery character to be found, I figured, and that made me pick a fairly random Tomatin of some age. Due to the cask being quite present, I estimated 12 years of maturing, which is WAY too much in this case.

The whisky is quite nice, especially considering my rant at the beginning of this post. I am curious to see where Annandale keeps going in the future, but I do hope they’ve put some spirit in refill bourbon!

A lovely combination of heat, dried fruits and slightly bitter notes. All things I enjoy!

87/100

This one is still available from Best of Wines for € 115.74

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Kilkerran 16, Release 22/124, 46%

Posted on 20 November 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

These 16 year old Kilkerrans never really work for me. I’ve tried several different version, I think I’ve had the 2020, 2021 and 2022 versions now, and none of them scored very high in my book. They’re decent, absolutely not a bad dram, but not a high-scoring whisky either. And that coming from a Campbeltown distillery that follows the same distilling procedure as Springbank, more or less.

Image from Whiskybase

This one was tried on day 9 of the Blind Tasting Competition. Of course I scored zero points, I did not, at any point, associate this with a Campbeltown whisky.

Sniff:
Very dry on the nose. Dry oak shavings, some moss and green tree bark. Barley husks and some roasted coconut. A little bit of vanilla, and some apple.

Sip:
The palate is bone dry with heaps of white pepper. Dry oak shavings, apples and a bit of brittle caramel, pear, coconut husk.

Swallow:
The finish is more barley and bread, slightly thin towards the end.

Because of it being a rather green dram, I went towards distilleries like Teaninich and Glen Elgin. Of course it couldn’t be further from the truth.

The whisky is a decent dram, much like I wrote earlier. It’s not great, but it’s far from bad either. A bit middle of the road, and compared to what is coming from Campbeltown, I don’t think I’ll ever pick this over the Springbank 10.

84/100

Still available from Best of Wines for € 100

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Bunnahabhain Mòine 15, 2005-2021, PX Finish, 55.3% – The Duchess

Posted on 17 November 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Things are getting a bit embarrassing. The eighth dram in the Blind Tasting Competition was one I also had recently, I wrote tasting notes to it this summer. Admittedly, it’s been a bit longer than I thought it was, but the option of it being this Duchess bottling never even crossed my mind…

Image from Best of Wines

Tasting notes for the blind assessment are rather different to the initial ones. That might be because of the sample, my nose behaving differently or a plethora of other reasons. It goes to show that tasting notes as they appear on the internet are only a snapshot, and I don’t think they can be anything else.

Sniff:
A whiff of smoke and quite a bit of dry oak. After a short while a bit of a bacon like scent pops up. Barley, and a bit of coastal note. Some dried apples.

Sip:
The palate is fierce with chili heat, leather and barley. And bacon. There definitely is a smoky meat thing going on here, but not hugely smoky.

Swallow:
A warming finish that goes a bit dry towards the end. More bacon and smoke, some caramelized brown sugar.

The barbecue-y notes are quite nice, but quite unexpected for both this whisky and this distillery in general. I do like it, but somehow I liked it quite a bit better when I tasted it a couple of months ago!

Still a highly recommended bottle, though!

86/100

Available at Best of Wines for € 168.19

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Ardnamurchan 8, 2014-2022, Ex Bourbon Barrel CK.154, 59.5% – OB for The Netherlands

Posted on 16 November 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

I really like that there are more and more bottlings done for The Netherlands. It seems we finally have gotten our space on the global whisky map! This Ardnamurchan is one of them that came out last year. I didn’t pick one up, for the simple reason that you cannot buy everything that comes out. And believe me, I tried. According to my wife at least.

A Highlands distillery, that sort-of-recently opened on the west coast. Run by the same people behind the Adelphi brand of independent bottlings, they have started to make a great spirit. So far, almost all bottlings are very popular, even at a very young age. The oldest ones, so far, are 8 years old, so this cask must have been put aside around the beginning.

It’s the eighth bottling in the Blind Tasting Competition, so we’re going in with no information, except that it’s not an Islay dram. But with this being an unpeated Ardnamurchan, that link was difficult at best.

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
Banana, pastry cream, heaps of vanilla. A bit of American oak. Not a very big whisky.

Sip:
Quite fierce, with white pepper and dry oak. Vanilla, a certain creaminess and a bit of wax. Some honey too.

Swallow:
The finish stays quite tingly, with black pepper. After that it mellows to vanilla and cream.

I went for a Speyside one with this bottling. Mostly due to the cask forward vanilla approach. Technically that can come from anywhere, but with Speyside being the largest area in terms of distilleries, that seemed like the safest bet.

I had literally no idea what this could be, so completely random I went for a 12 year old BenRiach. Of course, that results in no points at all, but I’m getting rather used to that by now.

The whisky itself is one of the most generic Ardnamurchans I’ve had to date. Therefore I also find it one of the most uninteresting ones. Of course, the quality of the spirit is there, but it’s rather exchangeable with, let’s say, random BenRiach…

83/100

Sold out by now, but it used to go for € 121 at Best of Wines

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Ardbeg BizarreBQ, Experimental Barbecue Casks, 50.9%

Posted on 15 November 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer
Image from Whiskybase

Another retasting, so it turned out. On the sixth day of BTC, Best of Wines gave to me, a sample of the Ardbeg BizarreBQ release. The 2023 release of another slightly freaky approach to what they usually do.

More information on what it’s all about can be found in the initial tasting I did of this dram, some two months ago.

Sniff:
Orange, tea, smoke and brine. It really smells like Lagavulin, but I’ve been known to get the Islay style wrong. Some banana, toffee, vanilla.

Sip:
The palate shows the same sizeable peatiness, and a hint of tea, wood and sea weed.

Swallow:
Not an overly long finish, but a hint of slightly pithy orange again.

I figured this was Lagavulin 16, the regular one. I didn’t pick up on the alcohol, or the slight differences between the two drams. Maybe that’s why I liked it so much initially, since I’m quite partial to Lagavulin. So, with this coming in at about the same price, it seems rather justified to be asking that. A really solid Islay whisky, this one. I love the massive smoky notes, and the fact that that is not all there is.

86/100

It’s no longer available at Best of Wines, but can be found elsewhere.

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