Tomatin Whisky Meets Sherry, Oloroso edition

Posted on 12 November 2015 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

The Whisky Meets Sherry set contains a whisky from Tomatin distillery, distilled on September 22, 2000 and bottled on February 23, 2015. It’s been recasked on September 17, 2012 for further maturation in an Oloroso sherry cask. The ABV is 57.9%

The sherry in the set is an Oloroso sherry VORS matured for 30 years in the exact same sherry cask at Bodegas Tradicion, and bottled at 20% abv.

This set came out paired with a Pedro Ximénez set which will be reviewed tomorrow (I hope). That also contains a whisky and a sherry, but is obviously quite different.

It was released hot on the heels of the Tomatin Contrast set and with last year’s Cuatro still in our memory (from seeing it in shops, not from drinking. Somehow I skipped that one) I think Tomatin is quickly gaining momentum with their sherry matured whiskies. At least, they are becoming more and more popular with me!

Next Friday I will be visiting the distillery with a couple of whisky loving friends, so I hope to get some more knowledge about this once-biggest distillery of Scotland.

The whisky then!

Tomatin, 14yo, 2000-2015, finished in sherry casks for almost 3 years. 57.9%

The nose is quite sweet with lots of baking spices. Speculaas and peperkoek. Some dates and dried figs too. Quite fruity but with a surprising lightness and freshness to it. The palate is quite sharp (not strange at almost 58%), sweet and very spicy. Black pepper, ginger, clove. The same as on the nose, and the dates are back too. The finish is rich with mostly dates and sweetness. Not overly long.

Oloroso, Bodegas Tradicion, 30 years old, 20%

The sherry is quite typical of an Oloroso, as far as I know. It just does everything a little bit better. Slightly salty and because of that, very fresh and crisp. Surprisingly light on the oak, after thirty years inside of that. Fruit, plums. Also sweetness with fudge and caramel.

A collaboration bewteen the Tomatin Distillery and Bodegas Tradicion. BEWTEEN!

It’s very interesting to see where some of the Oloroso maturation flavors come from. However, I still find it more interesting the sherry isn’t much more clear in the whisky.

There’s some very defining flavors in Oloroso, even some that you’re taking for granted and that don’t stand out like a slight nuttiness. Those aren’t represented in the whisky, or at least not in such a way that my flawed palate can pick up.

Anyway, it’s a great set, this. The sherry is lovely, and the whisky is too. Normally 35/37.5cl should be enough. I did a bottle share with it so I only had some 5 cl of each, which is a little short. I should’ve kept 10!

Massive kudos to Tomatin, by the way, for doing things like this and giving us a chance to analyse whisky a little bit more. Now, here’s to hoping there’ll be a fino, manzanilla, amontillado, palo cortado set coming along soon. And then a bourbon one, of course!

Tomatin, 14yo, 2000-2015, finished in sherry casks for almost 3 years. 57.9% and Oloroso, Bodegas Tradicion, 30 years old, 20%. Available for € 95 at Whiskysite.nl

 

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Beer up!

Posted on 9 November 2015 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

I’ve not blogged on Friday and today is going to be a weird one too.

My internet at home is down for some reason and I’ve been away for the weekend. Writing reviews on my phone is not something I look forward to so, I’m not sure how this is going to pan out until it’s fixed.

Anyway, last week I finally got around to sampling all open bottle-shares. Most of the participants have received emails about it, and if not, it’ll happen soon.

Paid parcels will be shipped this week, I hope.

During the weekend we went to the Ardennes (again) to celebrate my mum’s sixtieth. Obviously beers were had, although there aren’t any proper liquor shops around that area, so I was limited to supermarket stock. Luckily, Belgian supermarkets have a nice selection of brews.

They had quite a few nice sour beers (a new fancy of mine) available, so I stocked up on that as well. I’ll have stuff to drink and I also need to start selecting stuff for longer maturation in our crawlspace.

I’ve been drinking a lot of beers from Loch Ness Brewery. I got a couple of the whisky cask aged beers from Jon Beach (of Fiddler’s fame) for reviewing, so a post on those will be showing up shortly.

Also, tonight I’m hosting a whisky tasting at my father-in-law’s place for his golf buddies.

On Friday I’m going to De Whiskykoning for the annual peat tasting. I’ve completely booked that last year and it’s me and a load of friends going.

Apart from that, I’m continuously looking forward to Scotland next week. Weather is going to be shite, but I’m not going to be held back by that!

Went here. Didn’t find any. Deception.

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Tomatin 20, 1993-2013, 51.5% – Douglas Laing’s Old Particular

Posted on 5 November 2015 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Tomatin is a distillery that has been on my radar for a couple of months now. I don’t know why I never paid attention to it before, but ever since I’m about to go visit them (in two weeks) I’ve been watching them.

Of course, the awesome concept releases of the Contrast set, followed by the Whisky meets Sherry sets help. I should have started to pay attention when their Cuatro series came out, a while ago.

Anyway, I’ve been trying some samples here and there, and this one was sent to me by Ben Cops. It’s a 20 year old from Old Particular. The 51.5% is not cask strength, since Old Particular doesn’t do that for some reason. The whisky was matured in a refill hogshead, which is not surprising if you see the color, or taste the liquid.

Image from Whiskybase

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
The nose is very austere and clean. Some oak, but not much. The alcohol and the austerity give it an almost chemical scent. Slightly waxy too, with gentle hints of clove, fresh leaves and iron.

Sip:
The palate is very dry and slightly spicy. Austere again, as well as waxy. Candles, and crisp herbs. Slightly sweet with oak and vanilla.

Swallow:
The finish is very lovely with light hints of vanilla, sweet wax and some pear.

The austerity manifests as hints of iron, slate and some minerals. Like a mountain stream, banked with rocks. It’s an interesting profile which usually indicates longer maturation is a very passive cask. I think 20 years in a cask that did mellow the spirit but did not impart much wood flavors counts as exactly that.

It’s not a whisky for everyone, I think. It’s a very specific profile that I can enjoy, but not one I want to drink on a daily basis. This kind of whisky would be very welcome on the shelf, but it’d be there for a long, long time.

So, good, but not easy. I think I have a Tomatin that fits this profile in my own collection, and I might review that soon. Interesting stuff!

Tomatin 20, 1993-2013, 51.5%, Douglas Laing’s Old Particular. Available at Best of Whisky for € 110

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A trip to Jerez

Posted on 4 November 2015 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Belgian blogger Ruben Luyten has been blogging about whisky for ages (here), but since a couple of years he also has a sherry blog. I don’t know where he gets the time or the constitution to keep that up, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Since this week is International Sherry Week he teamed up with a couple of bodegas around Jerez de la Frontera and organized two Sherry Twitter Tastings. I was part of the first one on Monday (November 2nd) and we tried five different sherries.

I won’t go into detail about the bodega and production process, simply because I barely know anything about it. I will put up the link to Ruben’s review. He’s got more information there.

Soluqua Manzanilla Pasada (15%, Barón, 1o years old)

The first sherry is a Manzanilla. From the previous Twitter Tasting last year, I remember this to be a quite salty drink. I was surprised to not find that salt on the nose, since there was a lot of oaky sweetness. Quite some yeast too, and straw. Doyenne pears (others said quince, but I don’t know these) and maple syrup. Quite sugary. Honey covered peanuts too and a slightly fatty scent as well. A light touch of salt in the background, after a while.

The palate is a lot more acidic and salty than the nose. I get cashew nuts and the yeast again. Very dry on the palate as well as in the finish. The finish has pear skins, yeast and salt.

Ruben’s review.

Amontillado (18%, Gutiérrez Colosía)

On the nose there a light salinity again, with old oak and even some cork (in a good way). Slightly bitter caramel with treacle and mocha. Roasted almonds and those honeyed peanuts again.

The palate is more crisp and less sweet. Roasted almonds and blackened pastry. Peanut, honey, cashew nuts, pear, yeast and salt. And it’s very, very dry. The finish is long and shows the same profile as the palate, with dryness and salinity leading the way.

Ruben’s review.

Oloroso Emperator Eugenia (20%, Lustau)

This is an entirely different cup of tea compared to the previous ones. There’s a lot more nuts and fruit here, and it’s very sweet. Sweet strawberry, tawny port and nuts. Quite soft on the oak, figs, raisins and toffee.

The palate is a bit lighter than I expected and the salinity of the previous two is gone too. Raisins and a light bitterness, Brazil nuts and quite drying. The finish is almost savory and a lot less sweet. Earthy with autumn leaves.

Ruben’s review.

Isabela Cream (17.5%, Valdespino)

This is, once more, entirely different. We’re entering the realm of the thick and sweet sherries now. There’s oak and caramel on the nose, with toffee and lots of mocha. Sweet, but still a bit ‘quiet’. Lots of oak, with the dryness that it sometimes gives. Sweet, well aged balsamic vinegar and dry aged beef.

The palate tastes like raisins and strawberries. There’s balsamic vinegar with oak and a light drying effect. Farmy and earthy, with stewed beef. A bit Mortlach-y.

Ruben’s review.

Pedro Ximénez Don Guido V.O.S. (18%, Williams & Humbert)

Even though I sort of know what to expect, I’m surprised by how good this is. Very sweet, and I almost have to spoon it out of the sample bottle, that thick. Mountains of raisins on the nose, with vanilla ice cream (or is that just wishful thinking?). Some oak, sweet licorice, and a hint of balsamic vinegar again.

The palate is, not surprisingly, very sweet with raisins and sugar syrup. Figs, licorice, some vanilla and pastry. I also get ginger in the background.

Ruben’s review.

Obviously, now I have to say something opinion-y.

Let’s start by saying that Ruben picked a group of very interesting drinks, and even thought the Twitter Tastings are always quite chaotic, it was easy to follow and a great experience. Well done!

The sherries were all good. I think the only one that didn’t shine as bright as the others was the Amontillado. While a tasty drink it didn’t have the extreme dry salinity of the Manzanilla, and the nutty flavors were overshadowed by the Oloroso. It kept the middle ground between those two and therefore didn’t shine in itself.

The Oloroso was very, very good with lovely flavors that make me understand some sherry cask matured whiskies a little bit better.

My favorites of the night were the other three. The Manzanilla because it was such a rollercoaster of a sherry. The nose was very sweet and highly influenced by the oak. The palate showed the more predictable salinity and dryness of the wine. A great combination of flavors that I really enjoyed.

The Isabela Cream has a bit of a bad name and is regarded as grandmother’s drink. I tend to disagree if it is of this kind of quality. The still rather light wine in combination with the beefy goodness, with balsamic vinegar works very well for me. I absolutely loved it.

The PX was the PX. A great way of rounding off a tasting like this with something that shows depth and richness. This, while still being a lovely drink that everybody loves. And with reason. Absolutely gorgeous.

Thanks Ruben, much obliged. It was a great night, with great drinks.

Now, to find me a bottle of all of them…

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Images of Bartstown, 53.2% – Malts of Scotland

Posted on 3 November 2015 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Images of Bartstown is a bourbon whiskey from Malts of Scotland. What’s weird is that it’s neither a malt, nor is it from Scotland. Also, Bartstown should be Bardstown, so there’s a typo there.

Since they’ve also released a whole bunch of Heaven Hill whiskeys in the same period, it stands to chance that this is another Heaven Hill whiskey. It’s not said on the bottle, nor is it said at what age it was bottled or which vintage it is.

While those ‘Images of’ series supposedly are very good, I do regret they don’t put more information on the label. Especially with independent bottlers I think it’s a shame they also fall for the no-info-pitfall and hope customers buy their whisky regardless.

I said ‘supposedly’, because I’ve not tried many of them. I keep planning to do a bottle-share with Malts of Scotland whiskies again, but something always comes up.

Anyway, Images of Bartstown.

Image from Whiskybase

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
The nose of this bourbon is classic bourbon, albeit quite a bit stronger. It’s very rich and full with hints of oak, caramel and corn syrup. I also get some autumn leaves and a hint of mint. Cigars in the background.

Sip:
On the palate I find caramel and vanilla. Also the oak and the mint, with popcorn and the autumn leaves again. Some chili heat with spices (high rye bourbon?) and a touch of charcoal.

Swallow:
The finish has burnt oak with corn and mint. It’s rich and long.

Initially I wasn’t overjoyed as it turned out to be a rather straight forward bourbon without many flavors or scents to set it apart from anything else. Then the autumnal flavors set in and I changed my mind.

I love the combination of fallen leaves, cigars and mint. On the palate the added rye spices, popcorn and charcoal work really, really well.

I think this is a young bourbon, so the oak is never overly strong and it could do with a bit more depth. Although, with this bottle only costing € 50, I think the price is right for it. I just might try to remember it when ordering next…

Images of Bartstown, 53.2%, 278 bottles, Malts of Scotland. Available for € 49.95 at Van Zuylen

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Eigashima 5yo, Kiri Cask, 58% – OB for Gaia Flow

Posted on 2 November 2015 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

I had to look up what kind of Cask a Kiri cask is, but it turns out to be a Japanese white wine cask. This whisky was finished in that for two years, after maturing for the first three years in a European oak hogshead. A quite interesting but strange combination of casks, if I’ve ever seen one.

It was a tad more difficult to find this cask, since the ever trustworthy resource Whiskybase doesn’t have this one listed. Apparently that still happens as well (although I knew that since half the pending Willett bottle share isn’t listed either).

This cask was bottled for Gaia Flow, which seems to be a Japanese booze company. Not entirely sure what they do, their ‘About Us’ page mostly states that they ‘developer the culture of liquors in Japan’. Whatever that means.

Sniff:
The nose is full and rich. It’s got a light, but sharp sherry influence with plums and oak. Mostly baking spices which turn a little yeasty after a few seconds. Apart from that not much is happening.

Sip:
The palate is sweet with that light sharpness again. Fruit and lots of oak. Spices, black pepper and chili pepper. Bread and mocha.

Swallow:
The finish has lots of sherry, and has some hints of iron, slate, cocoa and mezcal. A very interesting combination of flavors.

At the first sniff I wasn’t overjoyed by this whisky and expected a bit of a downer like the White Oak 5 year old I tried earlier. Luckily, this one builds and builds and it improves with some time in the glass.

Also, the palate and finish are much better than the nose made me expect. Especially the surprise hints of mezcal and minerals on the finish were a positive surprise. The palate caught me off guard with the hint of mocha.

It seems the combination of European oak (whether or not it actually contained sherry is unclear) and Japanese white wine casks works very well, I think. I’m surprised to find all these lovely flavors in a whisky that’s just five years old. I am quite happy that they state the age, though.

At € 38, this thing is a steal!

Eigashima 5yo, Kiri Cask, 58%, OB for Gaia Flow. Original RRP was just € 38 (for 50cl)

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White Oak 5yo, Single Sherry Cask 5117, 50%

Posted on 30 October 2015 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

When I sold my last bottle of Hanyu a while ago I agreed upon a partial trade as well as moneys. Luckily, when I went to drop off the bottle BP just got a lot of new Japanese whiskies in. Apparently he’s very big on that and a large chunk of his collection consists of Japanese whiskies.

A sample of many of these was taken home and I’ve been slowly working my way through them. This five year old Akashi bottling was part of that set. It’s a single cask for the Japanese market consisting of 1000 bottles from sherry cask 5117. The cask is made of Spanish Oak, which is a rarity nowadays.

I’ve tried White Oak bottlings in the past at events and I really liked them so I was kind of excited to try this one.

Image from Whiskybase

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
The nose gives away that this is a rather young spirit. Some sweet lemon and a very light wood influence. At some point I thought to get a whiff of peat, but that might have been a figment of my imagination. Some sulfur and leather too.

Sip:
The palate is gentle at first, but after a few seconds it gets sharper with some white pepper. There’s barely any oak influence to have refined the spirit, although there is some vanilla. It’s creamy, greasy almost with some oily feel to it. A tad milky and some garden herbs like thyme and rosemary.

Swallow:
The finish is rather long and smooth. A tad sweet, like a dessert wine. Creamy too.

Well. What to say? I’m not a fan of this whisky. The nose is slightly off with that sulfur note (it’s not the good kind of sulfur that I most times like). The palate is better, but hugely inconsistent with the spirity notes not being refined by the oak yet, but the almost fatty notes don’t sit well with me.

I think this one has just been bottled at too young an age. With a couple of years some of the weird notes could maybe have been integrated more fully into a more consistent whisky with fewer off notes.

Still, it’s nice to try this, even just to know that not all Japanese whisky is worth the hundreds of euros paid for it.

White Oak 5yo, Single Cask 5117, Spanish Oak (sherry cask), Akashi series, 50%. This used to cost some € 85 for a 50cl bottle, but has gone up in price since its release.

Posted in - Japanese Whisky, Eigashima, White Oak | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

GlenDronach 1995, 19yo, PX Puncheon, 55.4% – OB for The Whisky Exchange

Posted on 29 October 2015 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

This GlenDronach was released a little while before TWE’s The Whisky Show together with the BenRiach I already reviewed. That BenRiach was a great dram and I saw a reviewer of this GlenDronach also being quite enthusiastic.

It does seem, however, that the GlenDronach hype is waning a bit. I expected this one to be sold out by now, but it’s not. The same goes for a private release done for Whiskybase. Both are acceptably priced in the current climate, but both are still available after quite a few weeks.

While I have not tried the Whiskybase one, it’s fair to say it’s a quite good whisky. It’s been selected by a couple of guys who have a rather good track record. TWE also has a good track record, so that’s saying something. Let’s dive in!

Sniff:
There is a LOT of sherry on the nose. So much so that it’s on the brink of totally overpowering the whisky. Lots of chocolates and raisins, and quite heavy on the dates as well. Candied cherries too. It’s very sweet, maybe a little too sweet. Not sharp at all.

Sip:
The palate is more drying than I expected, but that’s welcoming after the sweetness of the nose. I get notes of roasted hazelnuts, with chocolate. Or actually, raw cocoa. Dates, raisins, cherries. Sweet and woody, cedar like even.

Swallow:
The finish veers away from the palate by adding big notes of espresso and the accompanying light bitterness. Raisins and cherries.

Well. Damn. This is a really great whisky. The sherry is truly massive, in such a way that there’s almost too much of it. Luckily there’s just enough whisky to combat the sherry to a stalemate. The fruit flavors aren’t all that typical, the addition of the cherry notes is really great. I especially love that bit.

Add to that that the woody notes go towards the dryness of cedar instead of plain oak. The cocoa and coffee notes work very well with these other flavors.

Gal preferred the BenRiach, but I don’t think I have a clear winner of these two. Both are great for different reasons. Now if only someone bought my Bowmore Devil’s Casks so I could afford these…

GlenDronach 1995, 19yo, PX Puncheon, 55.4%, Cask 4028, OB for The Whisky Exchange. Available for £ 110

Full disclosure: I got this sample for free from The Whisky Exchange. That doesn’t influence my review though.

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Anon. Batch 1, 13yo, 51.5% – Abbey Whisky

Posted on 28 October 2015 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Anon. (with the period, apparently) is an undisclosed single malt from Abbey Whisky’s ‘The Rare Casks’ releases. It’s been available for a while now and they sent me a sample a little while ago. It’s about time I reviewed it.

There’s no indicator to where it comes from apart it being from ‘one of Scotlands finest distilleries’, which could mean anything. It’s been bottled at 13 years old, at cask strength. Of those 13 years, the last half year was spent in an Oloroso sherry cask.

There are only 90 bottles available at £ 54 (€ 75), which is quite an acceptable price for a 13 year old single cask whisky.

Sniff:
Quite high on the alcohol at first and (therefore) smells a bit younger than it actually is. There’s some spices on the nose, but in a slightly weird way. European oak on the nose and the slightly yeasty Oloroso scent. Some peach and apricot.

Sip:
The palate is a lot more gentle than the initial whiff from the glass. It’s also a lot sweeter than the nose made me expect. Peach and apricot again. Quite sweet with soft oak notes. Quite straight forward sherry notes.

Swallow:
The finish ramps up the sherry a bit. It’s a tad short with peach, apricot. The Oloroso is present again, but in a more sweet, fruity way than before (where it had that yeasty note).

This is an interesting dram. The Oloroso note is surprisingly strong for a finish of just a couple of months. It happens with other whiskies too, but I expected there to be less sherry notes. It’s nice that it really has that Oloroso note (which I describe as yeasty and European oak, but that might as well be American), and is not generically fruity.

What I’m missing is some depth. I feel that the finishing cask has attributed a lot of flavor to the final whisky, but it also has overpowered the spirit a little bit. But, it’s still a good dram that I wouldn’t be disappointed with, had I bought it.

Anon. Batch 1, 13yo, 51.5%, Abbey Whisky’s Rare Casks. Available for £ 54

Full disclosure: I got this free sample from Abbey Whisky. Thanks guys!

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A week in Dorset

Posted on 27 October 2015 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Since blogging about the rather awesome (but pricy) Littlemill 25, I’ve not blogged a thing. Instead, I went on holiday to England to see what Dorset is all about. I brought my iPad and my bluetooth keyboard for blogging, but I couldn’t be bothered, to be honest.

I drank one dram of whisky in that entire week, which was nice. It was an unlabeled sample so there won’t be a review. Not a clue to what it was. I also poured another one but that was not to my liking, so that ended up in the sink.

So, Dorset. We went with the family and friends. Seven of us in total to a nice cottage just outside of Winterborne Stickland, which is near Blandford. Quite central but in such a location that driving is not optional, but mandatory.

I want to focus this post on the beers and ciders I had, since that is what this blog is about. Let’s keep the family info to: We saw Durdle Door, the Jurassic Coast, Bath, Stonehenge, Monkey World and Corfe Castle. It was great.

In Blandford there’s a brewery called Hall & Woodhouse which has been brewing since 1777. We didn’t do a tour since it didn’t fit the schedule of being near, having kids that would tolerate an hour of non-kid-stuff and time constraints. We did try a LOAD of their beers.

The highlights were the Limited Editions for 2014 and 2015 (The Wicked Wyvern and The Shapwick Monster). The IPA is nice and some others were too. They also had a huge miss with Golden Glory which I thought was lager and peach juice. Also the Blandford Flyer didn’t sit well with me (ginger infused lager).

After coming from Monkey World I stopped at Sunny Republic Brewing Company in Winterborne Kingston. The kids were asleep in the car so I just hopped in for some beers. I came away with two growlers with Hop Dog (their American IPA, which is pretty good) and Black Swan, a low ABV porter that is lovely. The brewery wasn’t open for the public at that time but the owner did show me around. In 15 minutes I tasted three beers, saw the brewery and had two growlers tapped. It was good.

We planned to go to some cider places too, but that shamefully didn’t work out. We did try some good ones from the local Tesco though. Old Rosie Cloudy Cider and Aspall’s Premier Cru are both awesome (we bought a load to take home too) and some others were less good to not good at all.

In short. Things were good and well lubricated. Dorset is awesome and I loved the quiet there. I can imagining retiring there.

Findings:

  • Beer is good
  • Cider is good too
  • I love English pubs
  • I like fish & chips
  • Beer should not contain peach juice
  • Marks & Spencer has a fine beer selection
  • Tesco’s varies between stores
  • Those big pint bottles in England are good for sharing

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