Malt Fascination

Glenmorangie distillery

Posted on 30 June 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

While we were at Balblair we decided right then and there to try and visit Glenmorangie too. A simple phone call later and we were booked for the 12 o’clock tour. It being just a ten minute drive from where we were we had time enough to do the tour, pour samples and drive over to Glenmorangie.

Upon arrival we were told to go to the shop and pay for the tour and then wait because the shop attendant would also do the tour and ‘she’d be right over’. That took about 20 minutes since her shop-attending-replacement took some extra time in getting lunch.

Anyway, the tour started with the bull crap guidelines of not being allowed to take pictures because of the fire hazard ‘with all the alcohol in the air’. I expected it, but I am still surprised by the level of bullcrap it is. Honestly, if there would be so much alcohol vapor in the areas that are not even the still room, the place would be shut down by Her Majesty’s Health and Safety department.

Glenmorangie, from the parking lot

Anyway, the distillery looks like it was made for tourists with broad walkways, large areas to stand when the equipment is described and explained. The still room can really be compared to a cathedral, and that was where the ‘no picture policy’ was most regrettable.

A short stroll later we were in one of the warehouses where we were allowed to smell a few casks. A regular bourbon barrel and a port pipe were opened for a whiff, and both smelled utterly delicious. I’d have loved to try the port cask at cask strength.

The tasting was a dram of the Lasanta. What I found most surprising is that the full 100% of their product is sold as single malt and none goes to blenders.

What stands out most is that it’s really a tourist hot spot, and there are no more in depth tours than the standard which, with all the tourists there lacks even the most simple specialist terms. There was talk of sugar water, fermentation vessels and not of wort and washbacks.

Glenmorangie, from the back

I’d have loved to walk around a bit more and take some pictures without the tour guide telling me not to, but that was just not in the cards. It’s a lovely place, and a stunningly beautiful distillery. The product is great too, but a more in depth tour and tasting would have been nice!

Concluding and not to be a total ass about the place:

+ The place is beautiful
+ They make great whisky
+ They aim at tourists and succeed to about 100% in what they want to do
+ The tour is suitable for families

– For a more in depth look you don’t have to go there unless you can arrange another tour
– The no photo policy should go out the window
– A lot of over simplification during the tour

Posted in - Distillery, Glenmorangie | Tagged Glenmorangie | 1 Comment

A mental note about money – part II

Posted on 27 June 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Another ‘public’ mental note about booze and spending.

I was on holiday in Scotland recently and I had set myself a rather strict booze budget. I had to cheat in the Lagavulin 18 that Jon Beach picked up for me on Feis Ile, but that worked out since I didn’t really pick it up at a distillery or anything. It was a bottle I had bought ‘before’.

When buying the BenRiach 27, 1984 Port finish I spent half my budget which meant the rest of the holiday was more or less a dry spell. Apart from a moment of doubt at Balblair about their Distillery Only it felt rather okay to not spend anything.

In the last couple of months I’ve noticed that this indifferentness has increased in my mind. When new bottles come out I usually went in to a ‘I have to taste that and want to buy as many as possible’ frenzy. That doesn’t happen anymore. Now it’s more like ‘hmm, it would be nice if I can get a sip of that somewhere’ mode.

This has gone as far as me cancelling two memberships: One for the King’s Court Whisky Society in Haarlem and one for the SMWS.

The first is a nice club with some nice people with kind of okay tastings to which I never went. I was a member but apart from me getting a rather expensive newsletter the money was wasted. The latter is the same, apart from that I got their Unfiltered magazine a couple of times per year. I haven’t bought a bottle from the SMWS since the Glenugie (99.12) came out over a year ago.

It also extends to other bits of my life where I want to clean up the attic more and sell a lot of books, all DVDs, some comics and such: Decluttering.

I’ve been pruning my spending for a few months and value events more than bottles at the moment. So, more tastings and a few festivals, going to bars (that’s more or less all the beer I drink, nowadays) and such. It feels kind of nice.

When I spend, however, I find that apart from some excesses I get more satisfaction from cheaper bottles. I always get a feeling of pride if I manage to pick up a good whisk(e)y at € 50 instead of 100. It’s not really difficult to find something tasty when you have money to spend. To do so on a budget is a lot harder, but all the more satisfactory.

I want to say something about ‘this saving me money’, but spending over a grand on booze every year isn’t really something that saves anyone money.

Apart from it ‘costing me less’, it also gives me some peace of mind.

Posted in - News and Announcements | 1 Comment

Balblair distillery

Posted on 25 June 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

The second distillery we visited properly was Balblair. Ever since the Twitter tastings they have done through Alembic Comms/Edinburgh Whisky Blog I love the distillery. For some reason it is one I have never picked up though. Initially I was planning on buying the distillery only there too, but with the expensive BenRiach I bought, and the Aberlour one I picked up, I couldn’t spend € 90 on a random (and untasted) whisky anymore.

Balblair distillery

Anyway, the tour itself was rather nice. Initially they said Anneke and Ot couldn’t enter the facility, but when we arrived it was not so big a problem. Only the still room was not advised since it’s fairly hot in there.

The setting of the distillery is lovely with the railroad between Inverness and Thurso right next to it. I read up on Balblair before I went in Alfred Barnard’s book from 1885, and it said the distillery used gravity instead of pumps. Everything started high up the hill and the entire process went down from there. Smart, but no longer the case since they rebuilt the entire plant in 1893 and moved it down the hill in its entirety.

The cramped still room

The current distillery is also over 100 years old and that is ‘the new one’. Anyway, wooden washbacks, and three stills. One wash still and two spirit stills of which the second one is not used ever. It is sitting there from 1969 when it was last used, but now it is not even hooked up to piping. They probably told me, but I don’t remember whether they used it for triple distillation or just as an extra spirit still. They haven’t removed it since that would mean serious reconstruction of the still house, just to get it out.

Of the 26000 casks on site not even 20% is going to be released as single malt whisky, almost everything goes towards blenders. They do release some single malt of course and since a few years ago they work with vintages and release new ones everytime one sells out. Of course, this works more or less the same as age statements, but it gives you a bit more information. the 1997 vintage contains only whisky from 1997, instead of a 12 year old where the youngest whisky is stated.

Casks at Balblair

All in all, a very lovely place to visit, close to Tain and a better experience than Glenmorangie (tour report soon). It’s a quiet place without many people visiting, since it is quite a bit of the beaten path.

Since I was driving, Julie was incredibly kind to let me pour my samples into bottles and helped by writing the labels (in a way I can’t myself: legible). Anneke couldn’t properly visit the still room and didn’t take samples so we weren’t charged for her. Superbly nice!

Posted in - Distillery, Balblair | Tagged Balblair | 3 Comments

The rest of the day in Speyside

Posted on 22 June 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Apart from our kick-ass tour at BenRiach distillery we spent the rest of the day driving through the countryside. I was planning on visiting Macallan and Aberlour. The latter as much for their supposedly stunning bottling as for the distillery.

When coming from Inverness it takes a while before you start seeing any distilleries (not until Elgin, more or less) but the fun started earlier when I found out we were on Millburn Road and I could start looking out for that now restaurant.

We spotted Millburn early (hard to miss if you know what to look for) but then it was on the shoulders of the Scottish countryside to entertain us, and while more gentle and ‘cute’ than the Highlands, Speyside is a pretty nice area to drive through. After seeing a road sign pointing to Benromach, Glen Moray and Dallas Dhu I knew we were getting into Whisky Country. We had an hour to spare so a stop at Glen Moray was added to the plans. Not for a tour, mind, that would take too long.

The stills at Glen Moray

The folks at Glen Moray are of the friendliest kind and didn’t mind me taking pictures of anything. I could just walk into a warehouse and take a picture and the same went for the still room. “As long as you don’t get in the way”. The shop still had their 30 year old (without the case) at a whopping £ 110 discount so I took one bottle for me and a few for friends. I also found a 20cl bottle of their peated spirit which was too interesting to pass up.

The casks were making me thirsty

After the tour at BenRiach we continued south towards Aberlour. On the way you drive past lots of other distilleries, especially since we took a slight detour in the direction of Strathisla.

At Macallan distillery there wasn’t much to do unless you take the tour. The shop has lots to offer but no distillery only bottlings. Technically they had the coronation bottling but that was over my entire budget, and since I had blown most of my budget on the BenRiach Port finish…

We drove to Aberlour distillery after that and had a short stroll around the premises without entering the buildings. The weather had turned a little bit less good so not as many doors were open. The shop offered many interesting things. They have their bourbon and sherry cask bottlings, but also a celebratory bottling of some kind that was supposedly getting very collectible. Unfortunately for their daily turnover I am a drinker and not an investor, so I went for the regular distillery only, the bourbon cask. I had a taste of the sherry cask and that is an absolutely stunning whisky.

Aberlour

After Aberlour we tried a visit to The Mashtun for a quick bite before the drive home, but their restaurant wasn’t open yet. We gave the wee one a bottle and left again. The drive home took us past some of the southern Speyside distilleries so we saw Glenfarclas, Tormore and some others.

Posted in - Distillery, Aberlour, BenRiach, Glen Moray, Macallan, Millburn | Tagged Aberlour, BenRiach, Glen Moray, Macallan, Millburn | Leave a comment

A tour of BenRiach distillery

Posted on 19 June 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

BenRiach has started doing tours of their distillery not long ago. To book a tour you have to do more than just turn up at the distillery. Booking ahead and being with at least a group of four people is necessary. I thought to email the distillery anyway, since I’d really like to see the inner workings of a distillery which whiskies I like so much. Luckily for me another group had booked for the week I was in the area and I could join them.

BenRiach

When we arrived at the distillery I met Ewan George and he was okay with Anneke and Ot joining the tour too, as long as Anneke walked out if Ot started crying or being annoying for the others. No problem there, she usually is rather quiet.

To my confusion and surprise when the tour started we were greated by Ronnie Routledge. The name rang a bell, but not with BenRiach in combination, but since The BenRiach Company had just bought Glenglassaugh (I wonder when it will become GlenGlassaugh) he just happened to be around. As he said himself: “I have been made redundant but Billie wants to keep me on anyway. I just have to find something to do”.

BenRiach’s malt floor

Although he had only been at BenRiach for a short while he knew a lot about the process and we started the tour on the malt floor. That thing is used for only a few weeks per year to peat the barley for the peated BenRiachs. No surprise to find it empty on the day we were there. That did, however, give us the chance to see everything and walk through the kiln!

The kiln from the inside

After that it was the standard round of mashtuns, washbacks and stills. The washbacks are stainless less, so I wanted to know if Ronnie thinks that makes a difference. Some distilleries tell you it does, other don’t. Ronnie Routledge thinks it doesn’t make a difference since the bacteria in the wood that are supposed to make a difference will all die after each fill when the washback is steam cleaned. Makes sense, right?

The stills at BenRiach

Oh yeah. We also tasted the wash and it was rather drinkable compared to what I’m used to. Very malty of course, but also still a bit sweet.

The stills are aligned nicely and were running when we were in the still room. A nice, hot and humid experience and Anneke kept Ot away for a bit in a somewhat cooler area.

After looking around in the still house another very important part of the tour started, the warehouses! Even though the warehouses are all duty free we were allowed to enter and have a few drams. A lovely experience with drams that will be reviewed in more depth later.

Before heading there we were able to taste the unpeated newmake that happened to be around in the filling store. The talk Ronnie had about 67% of BenRiach’s output going to blenders was rather enlightening. Things like “for blending you use crap wood, since you only using it for aging. The good wood is used for single malts and flavour”. The ‘crap wood’ bit is a quote.

BenRiach 1975, straight from the cask

Suffice to say we started with a 1975 refill sherry butt, then an 8 year old claret cask (probably refill), a 14 year old with a PX finish since 2011, 8 year old peated malt from a bourbon cask and a five year old virgin oak cask.

Regretably I don’t have a sample of the 1975, but believe me when I say it was good. Not as good as some 1976s or the Asta Morris 1975, but very good nonetheless.

After a few drams it was time for a wrap up and we headed into the distillery office where they set up a wee shop. I happened to find this baby, at the original price. I just had to buy it and blow my entire whisky budget on the first day of the trip…

What I didn’t know by the way, is that Longmorn is just behind BenRiach and uses the same driveway. We were a bit early for the tour so we walked around there for a bit as well.

Longmorn Distillery

Posted in - Distillery, BenRiach | Tagged BenRiach | 5 Comments

No post today

Posted on 18 June 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

We’ve returned from our family holiday to Scotland yesterday and since I have to start working again today it’s kind of hectic. Therefore today will not have a proper post and I will try to get back into it this evening.

Balblair Distillery

The upcoming posts will be about BenRiach, Balblair, Glenmorangie, Talisker and ‘A Day at Fiddler’s’. Of course, there will be a general ‘holiday wrap-up’ too without a proper theme, just a summary of reasons why Scotland is one of the best countries in the world to go on holiday to.

Posted in - News and Announcements | Leave a comment

Brasserie Les 3 Fourquets

Posted on 14 June 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

A few weeks ago our friends and us went away on our annual weekend full of booze, food and games. Last year the games mostly happened inside since the weather turned out to be shit, but this year was significantly better. Unfortunately, for some reason my stomach had a car-sickness flashback to when I astually was car sick, about 20+ years ago.

This of course also happened on the day we visited Brasserie Les 3 Fourquets in Gouvy. It was about a 45 minute drive through the Ardennes’ back country with only a small stretch of highway in it, so I had a blast…

Anyway, the brewery is a micro brewery that produces beers called Lupulus (blonde and brune, plus some seasonals and commisioned brews). The location is in the small town of Gouvy and sits in a renovated farm house. A beautiful place with a great view of the hills, a nicely built tasting room which is going to be a regular bar in the near future. Those guys are really going somewhere.

The tour guide showed us around and made me think of Ted Benneke (for the Breaking Bad fans out there). His story was concise and he knew everything there was to know about the place. Statistics, history, future plans, how to brew, temperatures, everything.

Lupulus

The brewery was founded by Pierre Gobron, who also started La Chouffe in Achouffe. He probably got into money when that brewery was sold to Duvel Moortgat.

This facility produces 5300 hectoliters per year but they will be expanding soon. Some larger lagering tanks will be installed and their storage capacity will increase which will officially take them out of the micro brewery category. They will still be rather small though.

The wolf on the logo comes from Lupulus meaning ‘young humble wolf’ and since hops in latin are Humulus Lupulus the link was easily made.

Since I felt like crap I didn’t taste much, we also had to drive back and I wanted to keep everything in…

Posted in - Beer | Tagged Les 3 Fourquets, Les Trois Fourquets, Lupulus | Leave a comment

Brouwerij De Prael

Posted on 13 June 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

In April my wife and I planned a day in Amsterdam. We visited brouwerij De Prael in the city and went of a nice dinner for two afterwards. Dinner was great with wine, pintxos and other dishes. What I wanted to write about today was the brewery tour.

Brouwerij De Prael much like De 7 Deugden works with employability-challenged people. That ranges from people with a criminal record, a mental disability to lawyers recovering from a burn out. That makes that they employ more people than they would strictly need if they did things otherwise, but I very much applaud the way they do things now. More places should do this I think.

De Prael’s mash tanks

Anyway, they produce about 3000 liters or beer per week, since fermentation takes about a week and they have three 1000 liter tanks for that. For such a tiny place in one of the oldest parts of Amsterdam that still is rather remarkable.

They have air filtration systems since there are many people living around the place and those people don’t really like to live in the smell of a brewery. Apart from that, the setup is rather comparable to most tiny breweries.

The tour guide looked more like a biker than a brewery volunteer and IT guy, but that didn’t hamper anything. What did hamper everything was the sheer lack of fact checking that was going on.

De Prael’s lagering tanks

It started with “All our malts come from a small maltster in Germany” when there were only bags lying around that had a huge “Product of Belgium” stamp on them. I find such things weird, especially when it’s not just an error, it’s plain to see for everyone. Honest mistake, no problem.

Then the story about yeast started. According to our guide, yeast is only a catalyst and does not produce alcohol by itself. The wort itself does that by fermenting the sugar. The yeast is just there to help things a bit. Also yeast is a plant product, not an organism and it doesn’t multiply. 1 kilo goes in, 1 kilo comes out.

When someone bluntly asked (not me this time) why every other brewery says differently, it was because they are wrong.

I got annoyed. My wife got annoyed. If we wouldn’t have been on the other side of the premises we would have walked off at this point, since we had seen all equipment and didn’t feel like listening to such bullcrap any longer.

De Prael’s beers

Afterwards I think I should have said something but I was too baffled and polite to do so.

The beers we tasted in the tasting room were nice. We had a package deal with four tasters in it. I would have loved for them to poor some more limited editions instead of the usual suspects, but I couldn’t complain.

Posted in - Beer | Tagged Brouwerij De Prael, De Prael | Leave a comment

Adnams Spirit of Broadside, 3 yo, 43%

Posted on 12 June 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Adnams is an English brewer famous for their variety of beer and the quality of it. Apparently. It’s one of those brewers that you never see in shops in The Netherlands, at least I haven’t come across it yet.

Anyway, this distilled bitter is aged for three years and with their other spirits that have been produced regularly, you could easily say that they’re trying their hand at distilling the way American craft distillers do it. By producing everything from vodka, to eau-de-vie, whisky and whatever comes in between.

Adnams Spirit of Broadside at The Whisky Exchange

Sniff:
Very very malty at first. And young, but more in a cheerful, youthful way than that it is raw and unrefined. Spicy with cinnamon, pepper and toasted oak. There’s chestnuts and other nuts. I get a slight hint of cardboard and staggeringly massive quantities of banana. Banana, banana and more banana.

Sip:
Gentle, smooth and warm. Fruity with peach, banana and black pepper. Mostly sweet spices like allspice. Quite fresh and youthful again with a spicy edge. Oh, and then it continues on like banana and banana bread.

Swallow:
Oh, wait, is that banana? Strange. Toffee, wood and allspice. The finish isn’t too long but has nice hints of bread and honey.

For a three year old ‘trial’ from a brewer, I am quite enthusiastic about it. There’s quite a bit of flavour and enough to keep it interesting for a while. The huge banana notes were a bit of a surprise and have the risk of it becoming boring quite quickly. But, at not even € 40 it’s pretty cheap for a craft product from an upstart distillery.

Adnams Spirit of Broadside, Distilled bitter, 43%, 3 years old, £ 33.95 at The Whisky Exchange.

Thanks to Billy Abbott for the sample!

Posted in - Other Spirits | Tagged Adnams | 2 Comments

Lagavulin Distiller’s Edition, 1991-2007, 43%

Posted on 11 June 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

I got this baby on Warsaw airport when I came home from a work trip to Minsk, Belarus. That seems ages ago, and it is since I have had 2 different jobs since. I paid about € 75 for a liter which was a very good deal in that day and age. I believe the price was higher for the normal bottling in shops back then.

Anyway, the Lagavulin Distiller’s Edition is a Lagavulin of roughly the same age as their standard bottling of 16 years old, but finished in very active Pedro Ximinez casks for a couple of months. The difference those casks make in that little time is rather tremendous.

Lagavulin Distiller’s Edition at Master of Malt

Sniff:
Cigars and oranges at first. Some orange juice too, with peat smoke and tea (lapsang souchong). Due to the low ABV and the fact that this has been airing off for a couple of years it’s very light and maybe a tad thin. There’s quite a bit of malt present too but apart from those excesses, it’s rather a lot like Lagavulin 16.

Sip:
Ful and rich and sweet. Also a little dry with again the slightly bitter tea notes. Orange juice again and the cigars are present too. Scented smoke that is, with peat in there too. The palate has quite a lot of crushed black pepper and oak.

Swallow:
The finish continues down the same path with similar flavours, but added to the mix I get ripe cherries!

That this is rather sherried compared to the only lightly sherried regular edition is clear from the get go. I would love it if they upped this variety to 46% to see what that does since it does feel a little thin. While this is still a very tasty whisky the years in an opened container haven’t helped and I remember this being better than it is now. It still is a damn fine dram, however.

What I do think though, is that this nice dram is a good diversion from the regular Lagavulin, but I still prefer that one to the PX finished Distiller’s Edition.

Lagavulin Distiller’s Edition is available most everywhere at prices of around € 70 to € 85. Master of Malt has is fairly cheap.

Posted in Lagavulin | Tagged Distiller's Edition, Lagavulin | 1 Comment

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