The guys at the Cask Strength whisky blog have been making a name for themselves for the last couple of years or so. The started bottling whisky, their blog went professional and now they’ve also got a book out.
Let’s start with a rant first (keep reading if you’re here for more positive stuff). In our club magazine that came out last week I wrote a piece about indie press (bloggers, club magazines and such) being the last place you have left for unbridled opinion on all things whisky. I feel that a lot of professional ‘journalism’ is quickly turning into PR regurgitation.
Much in the way that The Whisky Sponge wrote yesterday: “Whisky Magazine accidentally prints an article criticising Talisker Storm. The following issue is a 137 page apology.”.
By this, I assume, the writer means that there is no criticism allowed in professional publications in fear of losing goodwill (and ad money). I feel this also happened with, among others, the cask strength whisky blog. It’s just not as edgy as it used to be and steers clear of any opinionated writing.
With that in mind I was a bit wary of their book ‘Distilled’. The press releases stated that it takes a look at the world wide industry of distilled spirits. This, in itself, could be interesting if done right. It could also be the most boring read the universe has ever seen.
It turned out to be the former. It’s very well written (something that Jeil and Noel can be trusted with) and reads like it’s a nice and fluid conversation instead of dry info about which spirit is made of what crop.
There’s a fine line between being too basic by not giving enough information and being concise with it in a way that sparks your interest. In most chapters, the gents managed to inspire interest. As in, the only reason I’m not buying a shitload of mezcal right now is that I promised my wife I wouldn’t spend any money anytime soon since I kind of went overboard in the last quarter.
How I got a book I was so skeptical about is another thing. I had it shortlisted for ‘stuff to order when I run out of booze books’ with a Dutch kind of Amazon like website. My wife logged in to buy me a Sinterklaas present and thought this one looked nicest. So initially I was a bit worried about having wasted € 20, but I was wrong. So, thanks Anneke, for getting me this!
Mainly the chapters about mezcal and tequila, shochu, and brandy (Calvados for some reason) have really sparked my interest and I now want to diverge from whisky some more into all kinds of random distillates and I imagine myself having a cocktail bar’s worth of assorted spirits behind me when I type this. I know I’m now going to do a mezcal bottle share next year.
Another complaint might be they’re too ‘hipster’
This is turning into one of the most weird book reviews ever but let’s get back to what’s written:
They have neatly turned the book into a spirit by spirit walk through of the world. A chapter per category which is concise, and has information on regional differences, production methods and indie producers. It also contains a list of ten different species of each category which are worthy of seeking out.
How Master of Malt and the authors have not paired up for tasting sets is a mystery to me.
The only thing that felt slightly superfluous was the rattling off of ‘not so much to say about’ spirits towards the end of the book. There are some tiny chapters on stuff that is hardly interesting to talk about because of the incredible limited availability or it’s limited flavor that it feels like your just waiting for the book to end.
Keep in mind this is only about 10 pages or so and the rest is very good to read. Maybe to us whisky geeks the chapter on whisky is a bit too short. Initially I expected to say it the other way around in which the info would be too long since we already know it all. In this case however, the info is good, and I feel they haven’t given the different types (bourbon, rye, malt) enough lime light.
So, what I’m trying to say here is that if you have some € 20 to spare, and are interested in reading about different kinds of booze, this is the book for you! Get it.
Usually I would write more end-of-year lists in the dark days of a waning December. This year, apart from not too much booze related events happening due to my family’s growth of 33%, I also didn’t focus a lot on non-whisky stuff. I didn’t properly review beers, but I had some good ones. The same goes for gin, vodka and my unfulfilled fascination with absinthe.
I had a plan to spend less money on whisky and more on absinthe to get emerged in that little niche world too, but in the end it didn’t happen since, well, I just don’t know where to start. Especially with absinthe, which not a sane person drinks neat many days of the week. There’s a ritual and I don’t have the equipment. Neither do I have the inclination or room to buy a fountain or a freezer for the vast amount of ice needed.
Since I’m currently reading ‘Distilled’ by Neil Ridley and Joel Harrison I got reminded of the fact that I like a lot of other distillates too. After a tequila & mezcal tasting I joined a couple of years ago I intended to buy some of that, but as you might have guessed that didn’t happen either. I intend to change that in the coming year.
Luckily most of these bottles are gone by now.
Back to the open bottles. Instead of writing another list of stuff I think you should spend money on, I decided to write an update on the ‘lower the amount of oxidizing booze in my cabinet’ project that my wife generally refers to as the ‘you’re drinking too much again’ excuse.
In March of 2013 I wrote that I had some 110 open bottles and had killed quite a few in a recent flurry of finishing heels/tails/ends/bottoms. I set myself up for an annual target of remaining open bottles to keep my collection a bit more versatile. Also, with the family expanding I needed the room in which it was all stored for other purposes. Mostly a crib, wardrobes, diapers, and other infant related crap.
That year I set the the target at 80. I got to 92. This year I set the target to 65 and by now I’ve gotten to 64, with at least one more to be ended before Thursday. Success! Glory! Space! Rainbows and unicorns!
Well, not space. I kid myself in this, because I don’t count stuff that’s not whisky. I have amassed quite a bit of that in gin, absinthe, cocktails bits and bobs. You know, stuff you want for some inexplicable reason.
Random booze. Quite some untouched and bought without much consideration
Anyway, I currently have 64 bottles of whisky open. Technically that is a bit of an outdated count because of the FEW Spirits bottle-share, but those count as samples, and they’ll be gone soon enough. My target for the coming year is going to be set at 40. That’s only a decrease of 24, but the average level of liquid inside the bottle is slightly higher than it was at the beginning of last year, plus I want to open some of my stash in the coming months.
Luckily, sample sales have picked up slightly so that might also help. In the end, which I expect to happen somewhere in 2016, I want to end up with two shelves of open bottles. One with whisky, and one with other stuff.
The envisioned space my open bottles would need
By estimating shelf space I should set a target for 24 open bottles of whisky in total. That’s three rows of eight bottles. It feels like a vastly more sane number than the 140 I started with somewhere halfway through 2012 when I did a proper count.
By the way, what helps tremendously in finishing bottles are the following things, that I plan to do a bit more of next year:
Invite people over for a drink. Drinking with friends is better than having to tell yourself you’re not drinking alone because the cat is home too.
Buy less craft beer. I love the stuff but with the distillate fascination growing ever more rampant I just can’t afford it. I wrote about that before too.
I started doing my end-of-year lists yesterday with the music one. I love doing that since it makes me reconsider what I’m listening to for a large part of every day, and everybody else does their lists first so I get to listen to lots of good music that I might have missed.
The whisky one is, obviously, the most important one to do. At least for me it is since this wee blog is technically still a whisky blog. Of course, I dabble in beer and other spirits occasionally, but most of the booze described here is whisky.
This list should consist of the most memorable whiskies I’ve had this year that were also released this year. I limited it to releases from 2014 just to limit myself in my options, since otherwise there would be no end to it.
Contrary to what the mainstream press wants you to believe, there still is an awesome lot of whisky coming from Scotland. So much so that my 15-whisky list contains only one non-Scotch. By looking back I noticed that I had almost no bourbons or ryes that were actually released this year. On top of that, I missed out on quite some new releases compared to previous years and I spent most of my time drinking samples from earlier releases. I also drank quite some hooch from my own collection to get through some of those way-too-long-standing bottles.
Another realization I made in 2014 is where my personal Single Malt sweet spot is. Of course, I love the occasional 66 year old Glen Grant, and some 5 year old Kilchomans can be awesome too. But, in the end most of the whiskies I love most are somewhere between 10 and 20 years old. Variety in that age category is highest. There is no shortage there yet, so prices are fairly acceptable and, most importantly, I feel the balance between spirit and oak is best.
There are some exceptions but I think my list, and not only this year’s edition, reflects that. I do have to place a slight footnote: Most bottles of whisky that I actually bought are still unopened since I have way too many open bottles still. That stops quite some whiskies from being in this list like the supposedly great Benromach 10yo 100 Proof, the new Arran Orkney Bere Cask Strength, Springbank ‘To the Manor Born’ and Lim Eiling’s 22 year old Irish Single Malt. It’s a bummer for now, but I couldn’t justify popping any more corks with my annual target of open bottles in mind.
Anyway, here goes nothing! Oh, the list is chronological based on blog posts.
Karuizawa 1984, 56.8%, cask 3663 for The Whisky Exchange: The first whisky that was allocated by lottery and the popularity it seems to have warrants that. Apart from being ridiculously collectible, it’s also incredibly delicious. Close to or maybe even the best Karuizawa I have ever tried. Mostly because it shows all the fierceness of Karuizawa, at a slightly lower ABV and there’s a slight dirtiness that I haven’t found before. Gorgeous.
(Currently some € 1500/€ 2000 in auctions)
Mortlach 1986 ‘Spiced Champurrado’, 58.2% for SMWS: An old bourbon matured Mortlach that I should have let go, from a financial perspective. But with Mortlach going the way it goes I wanted an oldie. And this one ticks all the boxes for me with its meatiness and huge, huge flavor. Surprisingly, at only a fraction of the price of official bottlings, it’s still available.
(Currently available from www.smws.co.uk for £ 126)
Macallan 15, 52.3% for Darkness!: A PX finished Macallan that I didn’t expect to be this ridiculously good. The PX isn’t as pronounced which results in a very ‘old Littlemill and then some’ richness. Lots of flavors of bread, barley and oak. I think this might still be available in some places. Like in Krommenie. Unfortunately, it’s far from cheap.
(Currenlty some € 145 for 50cl, I believe. Available at Drinks & Gifts)
Candid, 49% by Michel Couvreur: A NAS whisky from Bouze-les-Beaune in France. I picked it up after visiting Couvreur’s awesome cellars and having a great interview with Jean Arnoud Frantzen there. This one shows lots of bitter and pithy fruit with a succulent sherry layer on it. A minor hint of smoke to tie it all together. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but I loved it!
(Available in Germany for € 73.50)
Clynelish 10yo, 2003 ‘Le Trou Normand’, 61.4% for SMWS: I got a sample of this after it had sold out from SMWS in the United Kingdom. It’s a shame but it proves again that SMWS does have some great young-ish casks in store. It’s hot with spices but there’s also a lot of unexpected fruit.
(Sold out, but used to cost some £ 48)
Glen Grant 66yo, 1948-2014, 46.4% for Wealth Solutions: This is the oldest whisky I’ve ever tried. Properly ancient by Scotch standards. Even though it’s this old there was a lot of deliciousness to it and it wasn’t overpowered by the oak. And even though this is delicious every now and then, I do think at such an age the whisky tends to become rather ‘generic’. I don’t mean to disrespect the elderly, but at some point I doubt whether or not the distillery character prevails after this much time in oak.
(The price was not disclosed, but keeping previous releases in mind this should clock in at a hefty € 10,000. Yes. Ten grand)
The General, 53.4% by Compass Box: One of only two blended whiskies on my list, and even with other years added to it, it’s a rare occurrence. I think it’ll be limited to Compass Box whiskies for a long time and this year it sure is. This one packs a punch. A big one. This shows all the ‘old whisky’ goodness you want with lots of oak, cigars and varnish notes, but at an increased ABV. While this was rather expensive (some € 250 if I recall) I wish I had gotten myself a bottle. With more recent releases in mind I’ve come to understand I can trust Compass Box with my money.
Longrow Red 11yo, Fresh Port Casks, 51.8%: This one just worked. It’s heavily influenced by the Port casks, obviously, but with the peat it balances out nicely. The flavors are huge, by the way, but again, balanced nicely. Still available if I’m not mistaken, at a very affordable € 60.
Arran White Wizard, 14yo, 1999-2014, 56.7% by Gordon & MacPhail: I’ve not properly reviewed it yet, but I sure tried it a couple of times. Arran seems to have come into its own this year with many great releases by all kinds of bottlers and themselves. This one, from a bourbon cask, shows an almost Lochside like fruitiness, and sold out instantly. I was lucky to get one, and I wish I had gotten more.
(Sold out before it hit the shelves, but it cost some € 75)
Caol Ila 18yo, 1996-2014, 62.2% for the Masterpieces series of The Whisky Exchange: One of the best Caol Ilas I’ve had in a long time. It’s ABV scorches your mouth but it’s worth it. The distillery’s famous oiliness and flavor of pastry cream and milk are here, with quite a dollop of peat and alcohol. This one just works.
(Sold out, it used to cost £ 90)
Clynelish 18yo, 50.6% for Speciality Drinks Ltd.: Did I ever mention I love Clynelish? And sherried Clynelish can go wrong, but when done right it’s great. This one is done very, very right. It has the waxiness, the oak, the resin. Also, there’s a lot, and I mean a LOT!, of fruit. This one is gorgeous, and I should have gotten a case.
(Sold out, it used to cost £ 75)
Great King Street, Glasgow Blend, 43%: The second blended whisky in the list. This one might not be strictly ‘the best’ whisky of the year. It is one of the most memorable though. I didn’t see it coming with the regular GKS, and its Glasgow counterpart gave me the same surprise. It’s a really really tasty dram and it’s in here because it’s one of the most affordable and drinkable things to come out this year. This’ll set you back just some € 30 or so.
Benromach 10, 43%: Another one of those very cheap bottles. I think if you calculate it, it’s even cheaper per centiliter than the GKS, it clocks in at some € 40 (the GKS is 50cl, and this is 70cl). This is a newish whisky that could as well come from the 1960s. It shows such an old caliber of whisky that I have not seen before in a current release. Keep an eye on Ralfy’s Youtube channel for an upcoming review. I bet he can describe it much more detail than I can. Or, just buy a bottle and enjoy it. Then buy another one.
Bowmore Devil’s Casks II, 10yo, 56.3%: A lot has been written about the Devil’s Casks. What it boils down to is that this is a peated sherried whisky. The peat is quite present up to a diesel fume level, and the sherry is rather insane too. This is a love it or hate it dram, and certainly a love or adore it bottle from an investor’s perspective. Unfortunately those bottle flippers kept me from getting one, which I still regret. Bummer. I’ll make sure to get one next year.
(Auctions at some € 300 currently)
Lagavulin Feis Ile 2014, 19yo, 54.7%: A weird difference between sample and bottle occured, but if I take the bottle version I tried last month in mind this one is simply epic. Up to a level of the old Lagavulin 21 that is still in my top 5 drams ever. This one comes close. Superb whisky.
(Auctions at some € 300 currently)
So that’s it. My 15 favorite whiskies of the year. One Japanese one and the rest is all Scottish. Generally I would have expected to have at least some bourbons in there. And rye of course. Sadly, I slacked a little bit in that area this year. I did spend some money in the category but I didn’t open any new ones except for the recent FEW Spirits bottle share but I haven’t tried those.
And as last year, this is no definite list. I missed so many whiskies it’s almost a library like archive here. Contrary to some other blogs I don’t review things as they come out. I know I should focus on that more and that might happen in a couple years when my open bottle amount has decreased enough to occasionally open a new one. In a kind of ‘first world problems’ way I’m very much looking forward to that!
In last year’s music post I said I hoped to be paying more attention to my list then, since I kind of screwed up on the 2012 list. I think I did slightly better last year, but it’s hard to say since 2014 brought so much new music that I barely had time to keep up with it all.
My 2014 playlist in Spotify contains some 45 records, and I am sure I missed quite a few. I even deleted the ones I felt only slightly disappointed with (looking at you, De Kift, Angus and Julia Stone, and others!). There are records in there that I don’t listen to since they don’t add anything to my existing collection/playlist/experiences (the West of Memphis soundtrack by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis and the new Leonard Cohen record come to mind).
When I sat down to select the top ten records of the year it turned out to be slightly harder than I expected. Not so much to sift through the records, but to limit them to ten. The top 4 or 5 or so is easy to select but slightly harder to order. Then come some 15 records that could all fill out the top 10. Tough choices!
The general feel of the year is that I became a redneck. Or more precisely, I listened to more country music than I’ve ever done before. My excuse would be to state that the kind of country music I like is a little more modern and slightly less backward than you’d expect, but who am I kidding.
Still, my favorite albums consist of more than just redneck guitar picking with some pretty vile rock music, some lovely songstresses, and all kinds of things from all over the indie spectrum. While indie is a bit of a screwed up name, with almost all undefinable crap gathered in it and it varying from country to techno, more or less. Still somewhere in the middle sits a lot of the tunes I like.
#10 Marissa Nadler – July
Marissa Nadler is a singer songwriter that I’ve been listening to for years, but generally her earlier records (from before my top lists) are higher on my ranking. Until this one. Finally she’s made it into my top ten list. Not such an accomplishment for her (as in, I don’t think she cares about my list), but I’m very happy with it.
#9 Gem Club – In Roses
This is a bit of a weird one. I find Gem Club’s record very ambient and soothing, which sometimes helps quiet things down in my head when things go to crap at work. This just trickles forward with songs becoming one big stretch of record for some 45 minutes. Lovely. Well made.
#8 Swans – To Be Kind
If the Gem Club record is ambient, this one is more like a two hour punch in the face. This one’s loud, but also kind of organic. Songs vary from 5 to 32 minutes in length and most lyrics are hard to follow. I just love how Michael Gira does that with Swans. It’s actually fairly dark and also works well at work, but just to get slightly more on edge!
#7 Angel Olsen – Burn Your Fire For No Witness
Maybe the most indie record of this list, together with the #1 spot. Angel Olsen has a voice that might take some getting used to, and the record can hardly be called consistent, but it sure is fun with every song touching a different kind of indie music. Some slow and singer-songwriter-esque, others more towards punk. Well done!
#6 St. Paul and the Broken Bones – Half The City
This was my second biggest surprise of the year. St. Paul and the Broken Bones doesn’t look like a band I would enjoy and I’m not even sure how I found out about them. But, as it turns out, preachers’ sons / bank tellers can become very good soul singers. It’s even more surprising when it turns out to be a 20-something white kid. A great record with a certain sixties soul feel to it.
#5 Sturgill Simpson – Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
My redneck record of the year. I didn’t expect to like this one but for some reason I tried multiple times. Mostly because I kept seeing raving reviews about it on different sites. After about three or four tries I got it and haven’t looked back since. The songwriting is pretty good and Simpson’s voice fits the bill. It’s also quite catchy.
This is the division point. The above records were picked from a list with the ‘what else came out this year that I really, really liked’ category. The following four were the ones that I clearly wanted to be the top four.
#4 Hiss Golden Messenger – Lateness of Dancers
A good old ‘Americana’ record. This sits in the dead center of indie, country and singer-songwriter. It’s not loud, it’s actually fairly gentle and even though it took me a while to get the hang of this too, I keep putting this on more and more still. Highly recommended
#3 My Brightest Diamond – This Is My Hand
Every time My Brightest Diamond releases a record I listen to it. Every time it doesn’t get me. Until now. This one stuck right from the get-go. The vocals fit the music better than they did before, and the music is very well orchestrated. Even though it can be quite bombastic at times, it still has a very personal feel to it, and I like that.
#2 Andrew Bird – Things Are Really Great Here, Sort Of…
This record got a lot of flack when it came out. It consists of Andrew Bird covering The Handsome Family. All songs are from one band very well known for their great songwriting. And known to me for their inability to properly sing. Not sure what it is with The Handsome Family, but I just can’t listen to it. Except the intro for True Detective. It got flack because ‘they’ said that because the songs are so personal, they shouldn’t be covered and the songs lost their emotion. Not for me. I loved it.
Anyway, Andrew Bird is someone with a rather good voice, but who generally writes uninteresting songs (personal opinion here…) so the combination is cleverly done. The songs are all ridiculously sad and depressing and deals mostly with death, loss and longing, and the following depression. “Sometimes I flap my arm like a hummingbird, just to remind myself I never fly”. That kind of stuff.
I absolutely love this. Also because the songs are very personal and narrative. If you listen to these songs, you start to think you know the person who wrote them a little bit. That kind of intimacy seems to get me this year.
#1 St. Vincent – St. Vincent
And then there’s this. Annie Clark’s new record. I loved her previous one. When looking back I do not understand why it is not higher in my list of that year (#5 I believe). This one might not have songs as catchy as those but they’re superbly written. And Annie Clark is a ridiculously good guitarist too, which helps a lot. I also have developed a soft spot for her after seeing the live show in Amsterdam a couple of years ago. That was awesome.
I think the epicness of her previous record helped this one up too since there are quite a few songs of her in my favorites list on Spotify and somehow they pop up often. So, the thought of St. Vincent is never far off.
What is a good selling point is that this record came out pretty early in the year and I’m still listening to it a lot. Great stuff!
Here’s a playlist of the above ten records for Spotify:
Then the rest. There were so many records that I thought would make the top ten until they were simply forced out by the vast amount of great music that was released this year. The other records in my list, in no particular order. All are recommended listening, although they aren’t as good as the ones I mentioned above.
Interpol
El Pintor
Ryan Adams
Ryan Adams
alt-J
This Is All Yours
Old Crow Medicine Show
Remedy
Future Islands
Singles
Damien Jurado
Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son
Wovenhand
Refractory Obdurate
Beck
Morning Phase
The Antlers
Familiars
Chet Faker
Built on Glass
Hurray for the Riff Raff
Small Town Heroes
Hundred Waters
The Moon Rang Like A Bell
And then there’s the rest that I didn’t consider for a top 10 spot, but is still pretty good listening in its own right:
Kishi Bashi
Lighght
Willie Nelson
Band of Brothers
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
West of Memphis OST
Zammuto
Anchor
Jenny Lewis
The Voyager
The War On Drugs
Lost in the Dream
Strand of Oaks
HEAL
Israel Nash
Israel Nash’s Rain Plans
Jack White
Lazaretto
Damon Albarn
Everyday Robots
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
Give The People What They Want
Merchandise
After the End
Missy Higgins
Oz
Alela Diane
About Farewell
Liz Green
Haul Away!
Joan as Police Woman
The Classic
Sharon van Etten
Are We There
First Aid Kit
Stay Gold
FKA twigs
LP1
O’Death
Out Of Hands We Go
She & Him
Classics
Luluc
Passerby
Lana del Rey
Ultraviolence
It’s funny that most of the records I bought during the year are not in the top ten. Some or not in the second list either and just dangle below everything else in the last stretch of cool music. I should just not buy records until the end of the year, it seems!
Oh, and the playlist of my complete 2014 playlist:
When I first saw this sample I thought the chaps at Master of Malt had devised some new brand again. Some spin-off from the True Blood tv-show and this was their test batch…
True Blood. Tasted and assessed.
Master of Malt and their infinite number of spin-off brands released this Cherry Brandy a little while ago and I got it in their freely dispensed Christmas Crackers pack. While I drank those with others I didn’t take any notes, but they stashed a Cracker in my order of FEW bottles (reviews of that will follow) so I did have a spare one enjoy and assess in one of the rare quiet moments I have.
I don’t have much to say about it except maybe that it is not made by distilling cherries, but rather making a brandy and macerating cherries in it. While this made me raise my eyebrows (I know some distillers like St. George in Alameda distill their fruits for their brandy), this is still a massive step up from regular cherry brandies that consist of neutral alcohol and artificial flavoring.
Still, this review will, of course, not be too in-depth, since I have no experience with cherry brandy or the likes. I just thought it nice for a change of pace to get it out there.
Cherry Brandy Liqueur
Sniff:
Well. Cherries, obviously. Massively so. Sour cherries I’d even say. Those slightly chewy ones you sometimes get in ice cream. Far behind that you can also pick up a sporadic hint of something else, which would be the brandy, I’d say.
Sip:
Well. Cherries, obviously. Massively so. It’s far thicker than I expected. I do get more brandy notes now, but they are quickly covered by cherries again. It has an almost cough-syrup like consistency. I also get some minor wood notes and some spices that might be cherry stones. It’s very dessert-like.
Swallow:
Well. Cherries, obviously. Massively so. And everything I wrote down for the palate can be rehashed here. It does have quite a long aftertaste, but that thins slightly so it’s more cherry-lemonade like.
The color of this is blood red, hence my remark at the beginning of this post. It’s tasty, and it’s sticky. It would work fantastically in desserts I think. And probably in some cocktails as well, but Ben Ellefsen will probably tell you something about that at some point, if he hasn’t already.
Tasty stuff. Not too expensive either, but for me, having a whole bottle of this would be a bit much unless I would find other uses than ‘drinking it neat’ for it. It’s just a bit much on the cherry front.
So here it goes. Before I go into full year-review-mode I wanted to get this under my belt so I can add it to my lists, if it turns out Jim Murray is on to something. He called this his whisky of the year 2014 and ranked it highest in his most recent Whisky Bible.
I must say I stopped buying the Whisky Bible some years ago and have never done anything with his ratings, but I do sometimes value his tasting notes. Those have helped my guide my purchases in the heyday of my whisky enthusiasm.
His rating, the actual score he gives a dram, are obviously arbitrary. That’s the whole point. What I dislike is that it’s just his score and there is no counterweight. No general consensus. Also, he kind of ruined it to me when he kept putting Ardbeg on the top spot in the years following his involvement with the distillery.
Also, what doesn’t help is the way he acts when hosting tastings. I’ve heard it from many folks through the years, but Oliver Klimek wrote it down nicely. His rampant complaining about sulphur in whisky has gotten quite old too, so I more or less stopped reading his writings. Another nail in the coffin was the 95 point rating of Jameson. The regular Jameson that is. Seems a bit much to me. It’s a nice dram, but just that, nice.
So, this Yamazaki then. I got a sample from Maltstock Teun, so huge thanks there, since I missed out on it when it was still gathering dust on the shelves of shops. Prices have soared since it was ranked #1 publicly. I still get to try it thanks to Teun, and I love him for it.
Yamazaki is a hugely popular distillery with annual price increases doing nothing to tame the speed at which their whiskies sell. In the last three years or so, the price tag on their staple 18 year old has more than doubled and it’s still going strong. Contrary to many other distilleries that try to sneak in their price increases they neatly announce them beforehand. I’m not sure if that is because of increased sales just before the increase hits, or just the normal way of doing business in the land of the rising sun.
Yamazaki Sherry Cask 2013. Long gone.
Sniff:
There’s sherry for sure. And lots of oak. It feels slightly less woody than their 18 year old I think. It’s probably a bit younger. There’s a slight vegetal / savory note to it as well. A very light bitterness as well as the sweetness of dates and dried plums. A tiny hint of struck matches. It is a quite sweet scent in general.
Sip:
The palate is surprisingly smooth at first with a minor bite of chili pepper coming right after that. The oak is rather prominent and makes for a very dry mouth feel. The sherry is slightly more spicy than on the nose with ginger and some hot cinnamon flavors leading the way. The sweetness clings to your tongue too, mostly on the sides. It has the same fruitiness as I found on the nose. Dates and dried prunes. Maybe candied cherries.
Swallow:
The finish suddenly shows hints of leather and much more cherries than on the palate. It’s like it’s a full migration from the palate to here. But this also makes it slightly inconsistent in my book. Not necessarily in a bad way now, since all parts are rather lovely. The finish lasts long with the oak being present, but pushed back to the cherries and Christmas cake spiciness (Christmas cake, how appropriate!).
So, yes, this is a tasty dram. But no, it’s not the best whisky of the year to me. It’s not even in my top five or top ten. This might be my skepticism taking a step forward, but I think I’ve had quite some better drams this year. Also in the same price category.
The cherries on the finish are lovely, but I would have loved seeing more of them on the palate and on the nose. The vegetal note of the nose doesn’t come back on the palate and therefore the whisky just shifts once too often for me.
Still, if I could get this for the original price of some € 80 (I think I remember it costing this) I might be tempted. It’s worth that. Currently prices have skyrocketed to some € 700 or more with samples being offered for sale at € 50 per 3cl. That’s just a couple of notches too far.
It’s time to start wrapping up the year with all the semi-obligatory year’s end lists. Those will follow over the coming week. There’ll be a list of my favorite music, whisky, events, other booze and whatever comes to mind. Of course, a sort of bucket list for 2015 will also follow soon.
Today, however, I’m looking at the Blind Tasting Competition of 2014. Last year I was fifth from the bottom or so. A hugely depressing result with more days than not of getting the low mark of zero points.
This year it was bad, but not that bad. I ended up in the top half of the competition which, admittedly, might not be that much of an improvement since last year’s playing field was a lot smaller.
Of course, not all whiskies were as awesome as could be and I know I differ quite a bit from other participants in my list of favorite drams. I know many folks loved the GlenDronach and the Balblair, which were far from my favorite drams. This is an opinion based on tasting it only once and not sitting down with the whisky for a couple of drams. But then again, that’s how most opinions on this (and most other whisky blogs) are formed.
My favorite drams, in no particular order:
Day 18: Imperial 18 by Signatory, for Asta Morris. A dram that tastes like it is much, much older than the 18 years it is. There are so many notes that you also find in 40+ year old Glenfarclases and Glen Grants that I find this a hugely impressive whisky. Also, there’s an unexpected note of well balanced gin/juniper, which makes for a very interesting combination.
Day 17: Lagavulin Feis Ile 2014. Very unexpected in both appearance as in flavor. I have no idea whether or not it’s true, but many tasters thought it was not consistent with when they tried it before. Still, it was a very good whisky and I look forward to tasting it some more when I pop my own bottle.
Day 12: Glen Keith 20, by The Perfect Dram. A surprise bourbon cask, since my notes indicated sherry for sure. Still, some old bourbon casks do this, somehow. This one showed quite a bit more complexity than I expected and I guessed the age to be a tad higher than the 20 years on the label. I loved this one.
Day 10: Balmenach 8yo by the SMWS. One of the youngest drams in the competition. The fresh bourbon cask resulted in many tropical fruit flavors and although there wasn’t much oak present, there was more depth than I would have expected. Great fruit, massively powerful and intense. I wish I could get a bottle of it!
Day 7: Bowmore Devil’s Casks II. Not everyone’s cup of tea but the hugely powerful sherry results in notes of bitterness and diesel engines, on top of fruit, oak and all kinds of other Bowmore-y goodness. Loved this.
Day 5: Benromach 10. Although I didn’t directly recognize it, I did love it. As I did during my earlier review. Very old fashioned with much more scents and flavors no longer found in its contemporaries.
Day 2: Glen Garioch from Kintra Whisky. A Dutch bottler that picked this very weird and vegetal cask. It took a sip or two to get your head around but it is very rewarding and a look at what whisky can also be. This is not a profile encountered often, and even less encounters are of this profile done right.
Day 1: Longmorn 16 from The Ultimate. One of the four casks (I think) bottled by The Ultimate last year of 16 year old Longmorn. I tried one which turned me off but this one was more complex and less ‘just sherry’ than my previous try. Quite liked this one too.
If I had to pick one or two, it’d turn out to be the Imperial and the Bowmore. Also the Lagavulin and Glen Keith. I’m not very good at counting.
So, quite a few were good, about half even. Some others were uninteresting, and just a few were plain bad, in my opinion. I didn’t care one bit for the Lochside and Balvenie, Ledaig and Blair Athol. Still, it’s nice to try stuff like this every once in a while.
I’m definitely part of this competition again next year and if Ewald doesn’t get too desperate about sampling and shipping, I’ll do my best to make it an even more international event. I heard from some of the folks abroad that they’re joining again next year too. Good fun!
So, the final night of this year’s Blind Tasting Competition is upon us. This year, like last year I’ve sucked. This year, unlike last year, there we no ridiculous casks like Lepanto Brandy cask matured Deanston and no ancient ‘nobody knows these whiskies’ Strathislas bottled in 1975.
That’s one benefit of there being so many contestants. Also, it proves that I still don’t know squat in the way distillery characters show themselves in whisky. My only excuse for this is that I don’t drink whisky that way. I assess a whisky based on flavor and I decide if I like it. There is no comparison to others of the same distillery. No search for common denominators.
At this point I could state that I’m going to add the search for those in my assessments in the future ‘for improvement in competition for benefit to score in competition’ (read in a Borat like voice). I also know I won’t do that and I will have forgotten that in tomorrow’s review.
So, I still needed some points to get to the top half of the final rankings. Then this pops up.
Imperial 18 for Asta Morris. Image from Whiskybase
Sniff:
This smells very ‘mature’. The oak is very well integrated with the spirit. I think there’s a tiny hint of smoke in the background, with some straw. There’s a gin-like scent in the background, which probably is juniper. The well integrated oak reminds me of some really old Glenfarclas I’ve had once. I’m not sure whether this is a high or low ABV dram yet.
Sip:
The palate also has quite some maturity to it, but more oak and strength than I expected. The oak tastes old, with some wood spices. Cinnamon, clove, ginger, and some other ‘herbs de provence’. There’s some fruit syrup behind this all, maybe some lychee, a touch of pineapple and some apple.
There’s a hint of tonic too. And gin on the nose. Fun times. Menthol, slightly bitter and tingling. Some simple syrup, and some fruits. Mostly spices though.
Swallow:
The finish is gorgeous with generous oak, but it’s all in a gentle way. Some menthol, a very gentle smoke behind it. It’s long, and gentle.
This tastes familiar, like old Clynelish or something like that. I’ve had Inchgower that tastes like this too. Very mature, very generous. Very delicious.
This, as it’s supposed to be on the closing night of the competition trumps everything we’ve had before. It’s a shame I have no sense to what it is. By my estimate it has some 50% ABV, and I guess it’s about 25 years old. Maybe older, but I’m not sure.
After trying to figure out possible moves by Ewald, as another way to approach the end of this competition, I spent some time looking up bottlings. In the end I picked an Inchgower that was released last year since it more or less seems to fit this flavor profile that I’ve encountered before. Of course, it could be a million other things.
I don’t think it’s a Clynelish since that has been the final dram of the competition before. I settle on a 23 year old Inchgower bottled for The Whisky Agency.
Upon revealing that this was an Imperial at ‘just’ 18 years old my first thought was “Yes, of course, that explains the gin-like flavour and scent’. But, since I really enjoy (good) gin, I think this is an utterly delicious dram. What happened next was clicketyclick, and a bottle was ordered.
I just had to have this. It is by far the best Imperial I’ve had and at an acceptable price. I think it an added bonus that it was bottled by Signatory for Asta Morris. Not sure why, I’ve never met Bert B., but I think he’s a nice guy and has a nose for quality.
Oh, points! I got some. 20 for region and 14 for ABV, which made me just crawl to spot 34 of 72. I made it into the top half! Barely, but I did it. Lucky me!
Imperial 18yo, 1995-2014, 52.4%, Signatory for Asta Morris. Still available at Jurgen’s Whiskyhuis for € 99. This might go quick after yesterday.
Yesterday I printed the labels. Tonight I filled the samples. At least most of them, on both accounts.
I used a printer I didn’t know and didn’t want to ruin labels so I printed page one only. After checking I printed the rest. Or so I thought. Of course, me being me, I printed page one again and ended up with a bunch of useless stickers and missing the rest. That will be corrected tomorrow.
I also forgot to get 5cl sample bottles for the That Boutique-y Whisky Company samples so I’m going to rush through some samples over Christmas to get those. (Tough life, right?)
Here’s an update in pictures:
I just LOVE their labels. They look awesome.
The White Dog sure smells nice. I’ve not tasted it yet but the scent already got me. It smells just like a distillery so purely based on associative levels, it scores big time!
One remains unsampled. I’ll remedy that after some more drinking.
Still some issues with margins on the printer I used so I’ll pick another for the next set of labels. Progressive insight, or something like that.
Yesterday I missed out on the idea of points, which was a strangely calm experience, and rather satisfactory. At least I didn’t screw up as massively as before.
Today is the penultimate dram of this year’s competition and I only got around to it in the nick of time. At the moment of filling in the results my WiFi broke and the website to do stuff on is not very responsive on mobile (there is no way of getting to the ‘score’ drop down, for example). So I barely managed to fill in something on my phone to try and stop my free fall towards the bottom of the rankings.
Lagavulin Feis Ile 2014. Image from Whiskybase
Sniff:
There’s salty peat. The good kind. It’s lovely with some really sharp grassy notes. There’s also a hint of pastry cream and milk.
The oak is rather faint, but certainly present. The fun thing is that the scent is sharp but not because of the alcohol. At least, not on the nose.
Sip:
The palate has a bit of power to it, but the whisky itself is very light. Again the slightly thin milky note, with some tiny vanilla and salt behind it. The alcohol is present and there’s some dry oak too. With wood shavings.
Swallow:
The finish is really smoky. The smoke was there before but not as prominent. Here the grassy and floral notes are here too, but it’s all gentle.
It’s not overly long but I have the feeling it comes with some age.
It feels like this is an old Caol Ila. I think it’s at cask strength, but at some age it mellows and this feels like it makes sense. It reminds me of some early 80s Caol Ilas I had last year and the timidness of the smoke points me in that direction.
In the end I guessed it was the 1982 Caol Ila bottled for the 500th bottling of The Ultimate. That seems like something Ewald could pick as ‘the expensive one’ in the competition.
It turns out to be the 2014 Feis Ile bottling of Lagavulin. Which hugely surprised me since I generally don’t get those milky notes in Lagavulin, and there’s more weight to their spirit generally. By a look at the results I can say that this came as a surprise to everyone, since nobody got this one right, and I think most participants have at least tasted this whisky in the last couple of months.
I am really curious to sit down for this one again from my own bottle at some point. I have the feeling that sampling this has caused some weird effect on the whisky and I know some others feel the same way about it.
Still, it was already a delicious dram, just one I didn’t expect to be in there and the palate took me to the different side of Islay. At least I got some points for ABV and region! That’s something!
With that in mind I was a bit wary of their book ‘Distilled’. The press releases stated that it takes a look at the world wide industry of distilled spirits. This, in itself, could be interesting if done right. It could also be the most boring read the universe has ever seen.
Malt Fascination 