Boxes Blend, 40.9% – Master of Malt

Posted on 5 April 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Boxes Blend is a whisky put together by none other than Athlete bassist Carey Willets. The blend is named after his new solo project, an electro pop adventure that’s already garnering some great reviews.

I had never heard of the band, or the bassist. Not a problem for sure, because this blog is about the whisky. I got this sample from Master of Malt a couple of weeks ago and was hoping to review it a bit sooner, but with all the samples lined up, I am having trouble finding the right time for all of them.

Anyway, there isn’t any info on the contents of this blend, nor on the malt to grain ratio. So, let’s just dive in, shall we?

Boxes Blend at Master of Malt

Boxes Blend at Master of Malt

Sniff:
More aromatic than I expected. A gentle but rather nice scent surrounds my spot on the couch as soon as I poured this (The scent is coming from the glass, before you start commenting). Slightly smoky but in a less coarse way than JW Black, for example. There is some sherried character in there, with fruit and sweetness. The wood influence is a bit coarse, but I usually find that in blends for some reason. Also some spices with pepper, cinnamon and clove. Honey as well. Rather complex, so to say.

Sip:
On the palate it starts off thin, but gains some viscosity quickly. Wood spices, light and not too sweet. Weirdly enough, the spicy flavours are rather timid, but that is still the dominating flavour.

Swallow:
The finish is long and gently spicy with a certain charcoal like smokiness, and again the wood spices.

I think this whisky is nicest on the nose. It’s not bad after but I don’t find it as interesting as I had hoped. For some reason I am having trouble valueing blended whiskies properly since I usually feel the individual spirits are more or less cancelled out against each other.

Anyway, this is a more than good effort, and especially the complex nose is delicious. The palate and finish are nice too.

Boxes Blend, 40.9%, Master of Malt, also available from their shop of course, at £ 55.95

Thanks to Master of Malt for the official sample!

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Auchentoshan Solera, 48%

Posted on 4 April 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

My first sip of the new Travel Retail Auchentoshans, and I start at the high end of the range. I have samples of (I believe) Heartwood and Springwood sitting in my cupboard waiting to be explored.

The Solera is a bit of a strange bottling. There’s no age and barely any other information apart that it’s finished on PX sherry casks. The colour betrays that a little bit since there isn’t much else that can get a whisky this orange.

I’m not even sure whether or not this whisky is made using a Solera system. That means, having a really big vat and topping it up with new casks whenever you have drawn some bottles. It is used in the sherry industry and in some small segments of the whisky world too. Glenfiddich uses it for their 15 year old Solera.

Auchentoshan Solera

Auchentoshan Solera

Sniff:
The PX sherry is abundant right away! Lots of fruit, banana, orange, raisins and sweet sherry. I also get a bit of a creamy, caramely butter scent with milk chocolate.

Sip:
Sweet and gently fruity. Dry with orange and chocolate, those wedges you buy in a good Belgian chocolate shop. Thick and syrupy, with light tropical fruits too.

Swallow:
The finish continues down this path but it, if possible, even more fruity. Again with the milk chocolate, butter caramel and orange.

This is, however you put it, absolutely delicious Auchentoshan. I don’t get much of the original distillery character, that is overpowered by the cask. However, in this case I like it nonetheless. The orange fruity notes are absolutely stunning and right in my alley.

Drawback, it’s kind of expensive. I don’t mind paying for whisky but I do like some information and with this one, apart from being finished in PX casks, there is absolutely no info at all. I find that weird.

This concludes our series of the Spring Tasting at De Whiskykoning. A really great whisky tasting of some new and some old Lowlands drams. This Auchentoshan Solera won top honours for me, with a good runner up in the Littlemill. Thanks Rob, for hosting this!

Auchentoshan Solera, 48%, PX sherry casks, € 169 at De Whiskykoning.

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Glenkinchie 19yo, 1987-2007, 45% – Gordon & MacPhail Secret Stills

Posted on 3 April 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

The Secret Stills series by Gordon & MacPhail is one for bottlings that are not allowed to bear the distiller’s name. Luckily those bottlings usually have some indicative description that makes you aware from which stills the spirit dripped. In this case the town of Pencaitland is mentioned, which makes ‘5.1’ translate to the first bottling of Glenkinchie this series has brought. The numbering is kind of knicked from what the SMWS does, I guess.

Anyway, Glenkinchie is a Lowlands distillery of which you don’t find many indie bottlings. This is only the second I have ever tried I think, the first one being a 33 year old Dewar Rattray. The distillery is nice to visit and close-ish to Edinburgh, which makes it a tourist attraction. The tour is okay too, but none too spectacular. They do/did sell a rather kick-ass Distillery Only bottling.

Secret Stills 5.1 - Glenkinchie 1987

Secret Stills 5.1 – Glenkinchie 1987

Sniff:
Sweet tropical fruit with raisins and sherry. Dusty with old wood and dusty concrete. Also some grass, lemon rind. Crisp and slightly acidic.

Sip:
Reasonably sharp, more so than you’d expect for a 45% bottling. Dry, woody and slightly fruity again. Grass and some spices which give a warming effecit, but also some chili heat, peach, lychee, raisins and sherry.

Swallow:
The finish is full, reasonably peppery with chocolate and praline.

A complex dram which offers way more than the regular distillery bottling. It’s also quite a bit older of course but depending on where you get this, it’s very fairly priced. At De Whiskykoning it’s more expensive than it needs to be, but then again, I have not seen these bottlings in The Netherlands before so that accounts for something.

Secret Stills 5.1, Glenkinchie, 19yo, 1987-2007, Gordon & MacPhail. € 112.50 at De Whiskykoning.

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Littlemill 21, 46%

Posted on 2 April 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

An official bottling from Littlemill? I didn’t even know these existed anymore! Especially not in these dinky ship decanters. Anyway, Littlemill was described as the underdog of the Lowlands during the tasting, a distillery that was always a bit sad.

Most people I know have a love-it or hate-it relationship with Littlemill, but with the vast amount of bottlings popping up last year there were some rather kick-ass ones. This bottling isn’t one of the surprising heavily sherried ones, or a sharp and really strong bourbon cask. It’s a rather regular Littlemill.

Littlemill 21

Littlemill 21

Sniff:
It smells a bit like there were some sherry casks involved in the blending of this wee bottle.  A full plate of wheat porridge (typical Littlemill if you ask me). Malt, some gentle spices, dried tropical fruits and grilled pineapple. Also some sweet Indian curry.

Sip:
Gently spicy again, with vanilla and coconut. By coconut I mean the hairy outside of a coconut and not the white fruit inside. Slightly peppery but it goes more gentle quick. It’s a bit dry too, with hints of wood and chalk.

Swallow:
The finish is surprising with hints of After Eight sweets, meaning chocolate and mint. I also get the hints of porridge again with a touch of hay.

This is a delicious whisky. You do have to like the really malty flavour of the described porridge, but the sherry sweetness in the background is really stunning. Truly gorgeous.

Unfortunately, it was released and available at some € 125 at first, but it went up really fast. At a recent auction it netted about € 400 according to Rob Stevens, the Whiskykoning himself. I found it online in Belgium for € 275 but at most places it has sold a while ago. Quite strange if you consider there were 3000 bottles available! The shop put the one bottle they got in the tasting, so I am truly grateful for that!

Littlemill 21, 46%, 3000 btls., used to be around € 125.

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Linlithgow 28yo, 1982-2010, 46% – The Ultimate

Posted on 1 April 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

The third whisky was a Linlithgow, or St. Magdalene. The current appartment building was known by both names as was not uncommon in bygone eras. This one was bottled by Dutch bottler The Ultimate. In a previous Lowlands tasting we had a St. Magdalene too, but as the final dram of the show. That one was cask strength and this one is not, so it was placed earlier.

The Ultimate, to me, is known for highly affordable bottlings, but the price and quality reflect one another. Not that that is a bad thing, since most other bottlers are getting more ridiculously expensive by the minute. So, I do support them and have tasted some truly great whisky from their stable, at prices that made me think it was a typo. A 20 year old Highland Park, from a sherry cask for € 50? A 43 year old Glenfarclas for € 125? Don’t mind if I do!

Linlithgow 1982 by The Ultimate, available at De Whiskykoning

Linlithgow 1982 by The Ultimate, available at De Whiskykoning

Sniff:
Very not typical for what I know of Linlithgow. Walnuts and hazelnuts. Pear, and something old and dusty. Old wood and wet warehouses. Weirdly enough, after a few minutes I get a strong hint of potato chips (crinkle cut).

Sip:
It’s very, very gentle with hints of pepper and a slightly bitter flavour of walnuts again. Sweet, dry and some wood influence too, but not too much. The pepper gets more prominent after a couple of seconds.

Swallow:
The finish is rather different. I get sticky vanilla hints and more sugary sweetness. It’s like this is an entirely different cask. I finally get the typical Lowlands grassy notes along with some poppy.

While I usually enjoy a whisky that gets off the beaten path, this one is a bit far off. It’s not necessarily a whisky that I don’t like but I would prefer a whisky in this price range to display the reason why I would buy a St. Magdalene by giving me more St. Magdalene-y flavour notes. Also, while it is bottled at 46%, I feel it tastes too gentle and should’ve been left at cask strenght.

Apart from that, a rather nice whisky and it does showcase that St. Magdalene was rather inconsistent and therefore this has a different flavour profile. Fun, but not greatness.

The label says it was matured in a wine treated butt, which I find strange. This could mean sherry since often you read ‘sherry wine’ in articles and it technically is a fortified wine. It also could mean the put 500 litres of sauvignon blanc in it before putting the whisky in. It might explain the strange flavour, though!

Linlithgow 28, 1982-2010, 46%, The Ultimate, available at De Whiskykoning for € 152.

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Bladnoch 10, 1992-2002, 58.5% – James MacArthur’s

Posted on 31 March 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

The second whisky in the Spring Tasting at De Whiskykoning was another Bladnoch, distilled in more or less the same period, but bottled ten years ago, at cask strength. When this came out it received a silver medal from the IWSC which was nice for Bladnoch, since they had just rebooted their operation in the Scottish Lowlands.

Bladnoch 10, 58.5%, James MacArthur's

Bladnoch 10, 58.5%, James MacArthur’s

Sniff:
Very closed at first, but incredibly clean. Light and grassy, with a sharp alcohol bite and hints of vanilla and white oak.

Sip:
Sharp, juicy fruit with apples and grapes. Grass, vanilla and I have the feeling I am getting coriander or coriander seeds or so.

Swallow:
The finish is again sharp, but has more pepper in it than I expected. The grass flavours turn towards hay and barley shoots.

Not that much to say, since it’s a very straight forward whisky with a not too large flavour profile. Since it is so clean and easy to determine what you taste it actually turns out to be a very drinkable and nice whisky.

Luckily for me, I bought a bottle of this a few years ago and had just started to drink it a few weeks ago, which means I can enjoy this one for a few months to come. And there are samples available.

Bladnoch 10, 1992-2002, 58.5% – James MacArthur’s. It used to cost somewhere around € 50 I guess.

Samples available.

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Bladnoch 20, 46%

Posted on 30 March 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

This first whisky in yesterday’s “Spring Whisky Tasting” at De Whiskykoning was the Bladnoch 20. A rather good start to just about any tasting to start with some 20 year old stuff.

Bladnoch is a bit of a strange distillery which produces barely any whisky compared to the big boys. In a recent article by David Driscoll I read that they haven’t been producing anything at all for the last three years because of some familial infighting. I haven’t been able to confirm this but I guess it is true, since he’s been to the distillery last week.

Anyway, let’s get cracking.

Bladnoch 20 at De Whiskykoning

Bladnoch 20 at De Whiskykoning

Sniff:
Malty and dusty with grass and fresh apples. I also get dry twigs and nutmeg. The alcohol is rather apparent even though it’s bottled at 46%. There’s quite a bit of spirit influence still here after 20 years in oak. I guess it wasn’t made up of many fresh fill bourbon casks. After about half an hour it starts to get more vanilla and fudge notes before breaking apart.

Sip:
Rather peppery and lots of malt again. Very grassy with grass, hay and barley. Fairly dry with quite a bit of bitter woodiness.

Swallow:
The finish is back to the maltiness again, and grass, and refill oak, and apples. So actually, it’s not very surprising and very consistent.

Conclusion: It’s a nice whisky and for a 20 year old OB at € 65 it’s kind of a steal. It is not a whisky that’s going to change anything though. So, nice but not great. Which is kind of typical of Bladnoch if you ask me. There have been some rather kick-ass ones but those are mostly single casks from other bottlers.

Bladnoch 20, 46%, OB, available at De Whiskykoning at € 65.

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Upcoming events

Posted on 29 March 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Since this autumn I was mostly preoccupied with becoming a daddy, I didn’t visit too many festivals and events. Now spring is supposed to be in the air, I am trying to rectify that and there is quite a bit on the agenda.

This post will not be more than a list of things I am visiting and the rough time schedule for that.

  • 29-09-2013: Spring tasting at De Whiskykoning. 6 Lowlands whiskies in a row. Auchentoshan Solera, Bladnoch OB 20yo, Littlemill OB 21yo, Bladnoch 1992-2002 by James MacArthur, Linlithgow 1982 The Ultimate and Secret Stills 5.1
  • 02-04-2013: Morrisson Bowmore Twitter Tasting. A selection of cask strength samples from recent released from Bowmore, Auchentoshan and Glen Garioch.
  • 07-04-2013: GlenDronach afternoon in Hilversum. A delegation of our club went to GlenDronach to select the new club bottling. For the people who couldn’t go Nils organised this afternoon. Big-ass BYO tasting.
  • 19-04-2013: Christmas tasting at De Whiskykoning. He hosts his Christmas tasting at Christmas, and the leftovers are tasted again a few months after for those who couldn’t make it. With the weather being what it is, it doesn’t seem strange at all. Naked Grouse,  Auchroisk 30yo, Dalwhinnie 25yo, Springbank 21 from 2012, Lagavulin 21yo and Kilchoman 2007!
  • 27-04-2013: Limburg Whisky Fair! Very much looking forward to this Mekka of whisky festivals.
  • Then our holiday to Scotland! I really can’t wait for this to start. Every minute in waiting is one too long… We’re staying near Loch Ness and on Skye so a visit to Talisker and Fiddler’s is already planned!
  • 03-08-2013: Blog Birthday Bash. This wee blog turns three then and I want to celebrate again with barbecue and booze. Might have to make it slightly bigger this year, but I don’t know how yet.
  • 06 to 08-09-2013: Maltstock. Be there!
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Hakushu 18, 43.5%

Posted on 28 March 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

I have had this bottle in my collection for about 4 years, I think. Therefore, and since it was dwindling not too fast at the end I thought it time to empty it. Part three of this week’s empty-bottle-project.

Not much to say about the bottling, but the distillery is massive. Automatically rotating cask machines that transport the casks through the warehouse so they all mature in a similar way and the upper and lower levels don’t differ too much. I believe their warehouses are supposed to hold half a million casks.

Hakushu 18 at The Whisky Exchange

Hakushu 18 at The Whisky Exchange

Sniff:
Sandalwood at first, with a good dollop of sherry. Not too thick or too dry but very well balanced between fruit, wood, dryness and malt. Based on scent I’d say there are some mizunara casks in there too, hence the sandalwood. Not sure though. I get fresh orange wedges, coffee, cocoa and cinnamon.

Sip:
Lots of wood again, as well as fruit. Dried tropical fruits and fresh citrus fruits. A great combination. Quite meaty too, with a hint of chili peppers while still being friendly on the palate.

Swallow:
The finish has a sudden boost of the sandalwood notes, before that evaporates and leaves a regular more oaky note. Some malt, and cocoa notes before it fades. That doesn’t take too long, but the way.

It doesn’t happen that often that I really, really like a whisky below 46% but this one handles it very well. The balance between the flavours is stunning without it getting too boring or level. My guess is this is a mix of American oak, European oak (definetly) and some Mizunara oak.

The only drawback of this stuff is that it is getting more expensive rapidly. I bought my bottle at € 85 at a not too cheap shop, now I see it at € 125 at the normally somewhat cheaper stores. The same happened with Yamazaki 18 of course, and in both cases it is still a great buy.

Hakushu 18, OB, 43.5%, available at The Whisky Exchange at £ 105.

Posted in - Japanese Whisky, Hakushu | Tagged | 2 Comments

Clynelish 15, 1997-2012, 53.5% – The Whiskyman

Posted on 27 March 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

The Whiskyman is a Belgian bottler of supposedly fine malts. He is very popular there, but in The Netherlands I have not seen his bottles yet, apart from this one which I ordered in Belgium…

He has a few different labels from this very austere white label (love it!) to the more gypsy -like ‘music’ labels with titles like ‘While my whisky gently weeps’. This cask was bottled under two different labels, together with Whiskysite.nl / De Druiventuin. A Dutch whisky shop based out of Leiden, with a vast collection. They released it for their festival last year.

Clynelish 1997 by The Whiskyman

Clynelish 1997 by The Whiskyman

Sniff:
Warm and spirit-driven. Slightly salty, hay, shaved oak staves. Also sawdust which made me want to sneeze a bit. Dusty with warm vanilla custard and banana crumble. Also some white fruits and earth floors in a dunnage warehouse. After a few minutes the typical Clynelish waxiness starts to set in. The style is more that of furniture or leather wax than beeswax.

Sip:
Warming again, with vanilla and oak. Very sharp at first but mellows down if you give it a couple of minutes in the glass. Pepper, salt, chilis. Also some crisp fruit; grapes, fresh apples. Nutmeg, liquorice and cloves after that.

Swallow:
The finish stays sharp and spirity but with a clear wood influence. Spicy with toasted white oak.

I just read that it came from a refill sherry hogshead. I think this whisky makes a case for the fact that the wood matters more than the previous contents, especially after a few fillings.

I guess, but I am not sure, that the wood used is American oak since I get more of those flavours than anything else. I also love that the spirit of Clynelish is very present here and makes itself known without the wood ruling everything.

To me, this is an absolutely stunning dram. I had to get used to it at first because it was very sharp when I first opened it, but now it is maybe my favourite 1997 Clynelish. The Master of Malt version is also stunning but in a different way. These whiskies are rather different.

Funnily enough, both labels (The Whiskyman and Whiskysite.nl) are available from whiskysite.nl.

Clynelish 1997-2012, 15 years old, 53.5%, Refill sherry hogshead, The Whiskyman or Whiskysite.nl, available at whiskysite.nl for € 59.99

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