Westward Single Barrel, Cask 392, 62.5% – OB for WTF Utrecht 2022

Posted on 26 October 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

So, this year there’s a rather amazing Deanston. Last year there were two Single Barrel Westward bottlings. This cask strength one and a Stout cask that I still need to review too.

This one clocks in at a massive 62.5% ABV, so not a dram to start your evening with. Generally, I kind of like Norbert’s picks, so my expectations were quite high for this one. I know he loves his American whiskies and I’m really glad he’s been able to get some of these more limited editions into The Netherlands too. It’s not often that something like that happens.

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
There are a lot of big, sweet notes happening here. Charcoal and barbecue pork marinade. Grains too, and there’s a different take on oak maturation than I’m used to from Scotch. The insanely high ABV is not quite noticeable right away.

Sip:
The palate does show the ABV, though. It’s rather hot and spicy, still with the barbecue notes from the nose. Charcoal, sweet marinade, caramelized brown sugar, caramel apples, oak and grain.

Swallow:
The finish needs to wait a little while before properly showing up. The palate just gets too hot and takes some time to settle down, but there certainly are some lovely flavors that linger. There’s a woody sweetness with a typical American style to them. Very different than Scotch. Lots of grain, lots of caramel, but not overly sweet.

With this whisky probably only being a few years old, it’s quite remarkable how singular it already is. Westward is really doing their own thing, and this one has a surprising depth and maturity to it. Very enjoyable indeed!

86/100

Still available in The Netherlands for about € 90, although Ace Drinks has it for € 82

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Bowmore 20, 1995-2015, Bourbon Cask 0079, 46% – Cooper’s Choice

Posted on 25 October 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

I don’t think I’ve ever made this a secret, but I do love Bowmore. Especially from the mid-nineties. You don’t read about that too often, since that shit is unaffordable by now. Luckily, I got this sample from EH/EE a while ago, and I have some other reviews lined up of similar vintages (although I believe these others are from 1997, which is a slightly less awesome vintage).

Cooper’s Choice is always a bit sketchy. They’ve had awesome bottlings over the years, but they also sometimes bottle garbage like Tormore matured in both Calvados AND Laphroaig casks. Yes I do have that bottle, for an AA (Apples and Alcohol) tasting two years ago. Never touched it since. But, there is also this one.

Image from Whiskybase

Let’s see where this one lands!

Sniff:
Ooooh, yes. This is a Bowmore alright! It has that familiar and strangely appealing note of ammonia and lemon and peat smoke. It’s slightly acidic, quite high in salinity and a little bit sea-weedy.

Sip:
The palate continues down the same road. There’s a lime like acidity, as well as a sea spray in Bowmore’s harbour. There’s heat like white pepper, with some dry sawdust. The ammonia, that’s the magic that takes Bowmore from good to great.

Swallow:
The finish linger quite a while but shows a bit more sweetness than the nose and palate did. Acidic, salty, briny, with barley and oak and smoke. And, of course, that ammonia note. Or cat pee, of whatever you like to call it.

It’s such a strange thing to have ammonia (not entirely unlike cat pee, somehow) as a tasting note and love it. It is also the one thing that makes Bowmore rise above many other distilleries, and especially the very early vintages, as well as the mid-nineties.

90/100

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Couvreur Pale Single Single, 12yo, Fino cask, 45%

Posted on 24 October 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

My friend RvB often goes to the Morvan region of Burgundy in France for holiday reasons. In Autun, there’s a rather awesome bottle shop that has an extended whisky selection. So, every now and then a bottle comes this way, and they tend to be Couvreur things, since that’s a sort of local bottler there.

Image from Whiskybase

This Pale Single Single is supposed to be matured in a Fino sherry cask, although the Fino part is not on the label. And yes, they get to say ‘produced in France’, since the finishing is done locally. It also doesn’t say it’s scotch, although it it. Couvreur has good relations with Highland Park, Laphroaig, Glen Garioch and one distillery I cannot remember. And of course, they just might pick up the odd parcel of booze from other distilleries.

Sniff:
Funky sherry with steeped barley, almost oatmeal like. Pear, buttery chardonnay, soft oak. A minor chalky note in the background. Notes of apple start to appear after a few minutes.

Sip:
Gentle on the arrival with a pastry sweetness. Some vanilla, but also slightly funky on the dry sherry notes. Cork, tree bark, oak sawdust.

Swallow:
The finish has a surprising bite, but mellows quickly. Baked pear, tree bark, mulch, dry sherry.

They call this a Floral Malt Whisky, but I’m not necessarily picking up on direct notes of flowers. Although there might be flowers that smell like the things I did find… Anyway, this is a very decent whisky that is thoroughly enjoyable, even though it might not be fantastic.

85/100

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Crown Royal XR LaSalle, 40%

Posted on 23 October 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

It’s a bit of an issue, right? When an Extra Rare bottling that currently goes from anywhere between € 160 to over € 1000 still only score between 81 and 82 points on average.

Massive brands like this, that don’t generally do too many special releases (but according to other scored whiskies, sure can do something truly special) go into this fancy range with different packaging and the explicitly stating the distillate is from the now closed LaSalle distillery, without really taking a good look at who they’re marketing this too… It’s a thing for fanatics like me. Although, maybe I’m still not the targeted demography and I’m just completely missing the point.

Image from Whiskybase

So, apart from it being from ‘the other’ distillery for Crown Royal, I don’t think it’s overly special. Let’s see what tasting it brings.

Sniff:
Glue, oak, and a whiff of rye spices. There’s quite a bit of sweetness like vanilla and pastry cream. Some baked apple too.

Sip:
The palate tingles a little bit with hints of freshly cracked black pepper and sawdust. Quite dry, rye spices, grist. In the background there’s some sweetness, but far less than expected.

Swallow:
The finish is similar to the palate, slightly sweeter but less focused on the spices.

A decent crown royal, and I found it a bit better than the really old one I tried for last week’s review. Still, I’ve not been swayed into buying anything from this brand in the future. Especially not at prices like this one goes for.

82/100

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Crown Royal 10, 40%, bottled in 1973

Posted on 19 October 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Ancient Canadian hooch!

Generally, I don’t pay a lot of attention to Canadian whisky. That has almost 100% to do with the fact that their ‘rye’ category is a bit of a catch all for grain distillates with possible additions of other stuff, and even that the rye term doesn’t mean an awful lot.

Of course, I’m over-generalizing, but with stuff being almost unavailable here anyway, and scores on Whiskybase being very low on average, I’m not thrilled. Last year, when at Toronto airport the most highly rated whiskies still only scored about 82 or 83 points on average.

Sure, I can go into bottle shops and pick up something a bit more exclusive and less marketed there, but that would mean going for check-in luggage and add a significant price tag for something random…

Image from Whiskybase

Anyway, this one came from MvZ (if memory serves) and was also used in a tasting during the Covid period. I wrote the review a while ago but am only getting around to posting it now.

Sniff:
Sweet and spicy, but very gentle. Orange pith, oak and a liqueur like sweetness. Hints of barley, but very timid.

Sip:
The palate still is quite sweet, a bit too sweet. Luckily, the spices are present too. They’re a bit generic with some black pepper. Orange liqueur, with a touch pithy bitterness.

Swallow:
The finish is the same. A bit of pepper for spiciness. Slightly more spicy than before.

All in all it’s a bit bland for a 10 year old whisky, especially after almost 50 years of bottle ‘aging’. It’s not a surprise that it’s on the sweet side either, but it doesn’t make for a drinking experience I’m overly fond of. Very generic.

79/100

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Armorik 2010-2015, Wine Oak Cask 8047, 53.9% – OB for WIN

Posted on 18 October 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Whisky Import Nederland celebrates their 18th birthday this year, and here I am reviewing a bottle I’ve had since their tenth anniversary. This is one of those things that I bought but wasn’t overly thrilled with, so it got a little bit forgotten.

And some things should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for three quarters of a decade the bottle passed out of all knowledge.

Anyway, I tend to like whisky from Brittany / Bretagne. I’ve gone through several bottles already and have some others lined up that I should get around to at some point. Sure, it has to do with having some awesome summer holidays there, over the last couple of years, but apart from that I think they are doing something quite right in the north-western part of France.

This one, however, comes from a wine cask. And that is stretching things for any distillery. Add to that that it’s only five years old, and things tend to get quite weird. But, let’s see if that assumption and memory was correct. Maybe time and oxygen in a bottle really helped this one!

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
Even though it’s only five years old, it has a certain maturity to it. The wine cask is rather obvious, and makes the spirit behind it rather generic (or obscures it, so to say). Initially there’s quite some sweetness before the more nutty, bitter and fruity notes come through.

Sip:
The palate is surprisingly gentle, but does quickly add a bit of a black grape skin and seed bitterness. It’s quite dry and with that bitterness it becomes a bit twig like instead of woody. The bitter notes keep building, and in combination with the also building alcohol heat it becomes rather hot.

Swallow:
The finish initially has that lingering bitterness but that quickly mellows to a bit of a fruit cake note with baked cherries and stewed red fruits. Still rather oaky and far more mature than it’s five years have any right to give it.

In the end, it’s quite a bit more mature than a generic five year old whisky, but it’s also rather one dimensional. I’m not sure if it’s the spirit or that it is the cask instead, but the wine like dryness and bitter notes go full frontal.

In my memory this one was far less enjoyable and I’ve been unjustly harsh for this one. It’s actually a rather nice dram with enough force to be more than just a very fortified wine.

83/100

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Wardhead 23, 1997-2020, 52.1% – Michiel Wigman

Posted on 17 October 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

As far as blended malts go, this one keeps things very close. It’s 99.999% Glenfiddich with a teaspoon of Balvenie, if that has even been added and not only stated to have been added. Anyway, it’s not the first Wardhead, and hopefully it won’t be the last either. Or Fiddichside, I’ll take either one!

Image from Whiskybase

Michiel Wigman bottled this almost three years ago and since I was a participant back then, I automatically got a bottle and an invoice. While I loved getting the bottles, the surprise invoices were not really my cup of tea…

Sniff:
Lots of classical notes with straw, barley, vanilla and oak. It’s quite dry with fruity notes of apple and pear. A whiff of orange zest too. Tangerines, more and more fruit as it opens up.

Sip:
A dry palate, with initially lots of things like barley, oak shavings, an apple seed bitterness. There’s an orange bitterness too, but that kicks in a little bit later. Citrus, zest, some hessian too.

Swallow:
The finish is pretty long with lots of the same dry notes as the palate. Very long even, with a citrus seed bitterness. The pear and apple are left behind, and hessian and tobacco leaves are added.

If you want sort-of affordable classic whiskies like older Glenfiddich, this one is a very good one. Surprisingly, it’s still available at Best of Whiskies for € 175. I love that it’s not overly sweet and shows a lot of different smaller flavors to be discovered. It’s like a careful composition of subtlety.

89/100

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Kilkerran 8 from Bourbon and Sherry casks, 55.8% and 57.5%

Posted on 16 October 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

So, these became available earlier this year, but they’re not from the same batch. The Bourbon cask matured one is from Batch 8, the other one from Batch 9. A bit weird, but with the Dutch importer of Springbank, you never know what’s going to happen.

Of course, these bottles were shared in my bottle-share group and were received quite enthusiastically. So, my remainder of the bottles wasn’t that big but I did manage to finish them yesterday. A sizeable glass from each to create a bit more shelf space and make sure the whisky doesn’t over-oxidize…

Kilkerran 8, Bourbon Cask, Batch 8, 55.8%

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
Very coastal with lots of basalt and granite. But, also, lots of coconut. There’s crisp barley, marram grass and sand.

Sip:
The palate arrives gently, but builds up to a chili heat quite quickly. Not a lot of oak, but there is barley, some Campbeltown funkiness, coconut husks, slightly oily.

Swallow:
A massive finish. Slightly less crisp, with more bread like notes. Still very coastal, but the coast with an oil rig close by. So it’s oily, with grainy notes, some oak, a slightly twig like bitterness too.

While I expected to love this one more than the sherry cask, I didn’t. It’s seriously good whisky, but it is slightly lacking in complexity, compared to others like the 12 year old, or in this case, the sherry cask.

87/100

Kilkerran 8, Sherry Cask, Batch 9, 57.5%

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
This starts off very funky with massive amounts of leather and dates. Engine oil, olive oil too. Quite a funky one indeed. There’s some wood, raisins and plums, dark dried fruit.

Sip:
The palate has some hot chili peppers on arrival, with some sharp oaky notes. There’s dark dried fruits, but also some mint. It’s not all dark notes. Leather, oil, raisins, twigs.

Swallow:
The finish is largely similar to the nose but starts with a bit of an afterburner. It mellows quickly and has notes of oak and a hint of coastal salinity. Otherwise there’s a puree of plums, dates and raisins.

This is a very typical whisky from Springbank’s distilling regime, even though it’s from the neighbouring distillery. You notice that they’re doing virtually the same thing in both places. The oily notes are great and thoroughly enjoyable, especially since it’s not only that but the dark fruity notes are huge too. This is big stuff.

88/100

Apparently, both (bourbon and sherry) whiskies are still available in the secondary market at very reasonable prices, or in Denmark…

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County Antrim 17, 2004-2021, Bourbon Barrels, 46% – The Ultimate

Posted on 13 October 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

It’s been a while since I tried anything by The Ultimate. It’s a series from Dutch whisky importer, shop and bottler Van Wees in Amersfoort, and they are well known for their affordable bottlings (generally).

This one is no exception, with a 17 year old Bushmills clocking in at just € 80. It was released earlier this month at Van Wees’ own Pot Still Festival, and was received quite enthusiastically. As a result it has started to sell out very quickly, but I was lucky enough to be just in time to get a bottle at my local bottle shop Drinks & Gifts.

Funny, by the way, that this is the first Bushmills from Van Wees, even though they’ve been proudly showing the distillery on the label since The Ultimate’s inception.

Image from Whiskybase

Two years ago Van Wees celebrated their 100th anniversary with some nice bottlings. This year they were celebrating Han Van Wees’ 60th anniversary in the business. With that many years under their belt, they must be doing something right! And even so, I have only been to the shop once, and the festival two or three times. Maybe I should rectify this next year…

Sniff:
It’s typically sweet like you’d expect from a Bushmills of a decent age, and the wine gums are starting to show up as well. There’s green malt, sugary muesli, some vanilla, fresh grass and a floral hint too.

Sip:
The palate is largely similar but shows a little bit more barley notes. Porridge even, and some oak as well. So, the age of the whisky is noticeable. A whiff of green herbs and white pepper try to balance the pastry sweetness, but don’t completely get there.

Swallow:
The finish is surprisingly dry, with more herbs, barley and oak. The sweetness doesn’t completely go away, but it’s pushed back a bit more than expected. A touch of white pepper, oak, barley.

A nice and dangerously drinkable whisky. It’s a bit sweet compared to my normal picks, but it’s not as sweet as some (mostly older) Irish whiskies I’ve had.

At the original price, I recommend you get a bottle if you can!

88/100

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Waterford The Cuvée 1.1, 4 years old, 50%

Posted on 12 October 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

With Waterford being all over the place a few years ago, it seems like things have quieted down a little bit. Initially, I was really thrilled by the concept of the single estate whiskies. I still am, but when batch 2 followed rather quickly on batch 1 and suddenly there were dozens of bottlings to keep up with, I got a bit of a Bruichladdich around 2008 vibe and lost interest.

A shame, because the concept and approach to whisky making like this is really awesome. There’s just no way of keeping up. Also, my personal preference would be to not use sweet wine casks, and go for refill bourbon to let the differences in spirit show themselves more.

Image from Whiskybase

Anyway, apart from batch 2, which I still have to get through, and the Heritage Hunter, another awesome concept, there’s this Cuvée. A mix of different estates to form a more consistent whisky from batch to batch (I assume).

Sniff:
Quite grainy, with a dessert wine sweetness in the background. Green malt as well, but mostly heaps of barley.

Sip:
The palate packs quite a punch. Lots of dry grainy notes, lots of black pepper. There’s a grapeseed bitterness too.

Swallow:
The finish is a bit less expressive, and not very long. There’s some grain and wood, a very light bitterness.

It fits nicely in the range of Waterford whiskies, but it doesn’t stand out anywhere. Add to that that it misses the uniqueness of single estate whiskies and I kind of lose interest. Of course, keep in mind that if this is an entry point into what Waterford is doing it is a very fine example. But it also defeats the entire approach.

On top of that, it’s a nice whisky, but not a great one.

83/100

Available at Waterford for € 80, or in various shops in Europe for about € 60.

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