Malt Fascination

Bowmore 2000-2009, 56.5% – Berry Brothers & Rudd for Whisky Live Leiden 2009

Posted on 26 March 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

One of the few festival bottlings I’ve bought when I went to Whisky Live Leiden (now The Hague). This young Bowmore is from the period that is generally not associated with FWP (French Whore Perfume) you typically find in Bowmores from the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s.

There isn’t much to say. I think the festival had two casks bottled for the event and I bought only one. Whether or not that had to do with money or me being too late to buy both and one had already sold out I can’t remember.

Bowmore 2000-2009, Berry Brothers & Rudd

Sniff:
I get heather and straw with quite some salty smoke. There’s a hint of fish in there as well, or maybe fishing ships. Slightly floral with biscuits and lots of lemon curd. Lemon pie, merengue, cheese cake, you name it. Rather sugary and creamy too. Pretty sweet.

Sip:
Lots of fresh lemon with most of the hints I sniffed on the nose returning. Straw, wood, pepper. Rather sharp too, and sweet again.

Swallow:
The finish is consistent as well and not too long. It’s rather warming with again, heaps of lemon and vanilla cream. Some wood as well.

This isn’t a complex dram. It is, however, highly consistent, well balanced and rather delici0ous. I tasted some other 2000 Bowmores from bourbon casks bottled by BBR but this still is my favourite of that age. I believe Whisky Import Netherlands had a 12 year old last year which was also fairly stunning but most of the ones I tried were too simple, too sweet and not nearly as intrigueing.

Sadly, all gone, as is my bottle. I might have to track down one of those new WIN bottles.

Bowmore 2000-2009, 9 years old, cask 800112, 56.6%, Berry Brothers & Rudd. No longer available but it cost me € 50.

Open bottles

Posted on 25 March 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

No, this is not another lure to get you to buy stuff from me.

Yesterday on Twitter we got into a discussion about a sane amount of bottles to have open at any given moment. Generally there are two lines of thought in this: All of your bottles or around 20.

I know some people (and used to be one) that belong to the group that just pops the cork of anything they buy. Going so far that Mister Maltstock Teun has more open bottles than a general ‘whisky specialist shop’ has in stock at a given moment. You can see what he has available here.

I used to do that too until about two years ago. I found that some bottles of which the last heel I had been saving for a special moment had gone completely flat, leaving me with a barely drinkable whisky. That was an entirely different special moment than I had envisioned.

This week’s mini project

On the other end of the spectrum I find a lot of my whisky friends that keep up to 20 or 30 bottles open at the same time. This keeps you finishing bottles instead of hanging on to oxidizing booze, and keeps your collection in a constant state of mutation.

I feel the latter group is a more sane approach and keeps your booze in better quality. Therefore I am moving toward this group, but it is a slow process. I started last year with about 140 open bottles, some of which had been open for five years.

The biggest drawback however, is that you have to be disciplined with your newest acquisitions and wait for your collection to decrease before opening it.

Since I started finishing bottles off (I call them mini-projects) I have gotten it down to approximately 110 by now and want to get it to 80 by the end of the year. Lowering the count by 30 each year gives me the opportunity to still taste other stuff, have a few tastings from my collection of open bottles and open the occasional new bottle.

Last year's bottoms up Also, it gives me a reachable target and a fun tasting with some friends to look forward to somewhere in November or December. Last year I planned a bottoms-up tasting in March, but everybody brought leftovers so we ended up finishing more of their bottles than mine. Maybe I was a bit too ambitious too with my 30-something bottles on the table.

I just might have to do two of these leftover nights this year. Else, I just realized, I only get to my envisioned target by 2015, which is way too far ahead to even contemplate.

Posted in - News and Announcements | 5 Comments

Mount Gay, 12 years old, 53.7% – Duncan Taylor

Posted on 23 March 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

The last in these four rum reviews. I don’t know why I put them in this order, but this one as a last one seems right, since it’s the youngest. Young spirits tend to have a lot of impact, although the oldest one in this batch also kicked my taste buds’ but.

Mount Gay 12 year old at Single Malts Direct

Sniff:
In this one there is a LOT of cask influence. Therefore it tastes a lot like a virgin oak whisky, since I barely get the spirit. Rumsky? Whim? Behind the layers of oak I find some demerara and molasses. Lots of white oak and vanilla with some wood spices.

Sip:
The palate offers a strange (to me) combination of oak and rum. Rather spicy with red chilis, vanilla and sweet wood spices like cloves. The sweetness is held back by the woody bitterness. Dry and almost only oak on the tongue.

Swallow:
The finish is sharp, again because of the woodiness. Quite some vanilla.

This is a strange one. I really like the woody flavours this way, but I find the spirit itself is completely obliterated by it. Therefore it could be any sweet spirit in an incredibly active cask.

Having said that, it still is a rather tasty drink that I’ll be happy to finish my sample of!

Mount Gay, Barbados, 2000-2012, 12 years old, Duncan Taylor, 53.7%. It’s available at Single Malts Direct for £ 67.

Thanks to Duncan Taylor and Karen for the sample!

Posted in - Other Spirits | Tagged Caribbean, Duncan Taylor, Mount Gay, Rum | Leave a comment

Bellevue, 14 year old, 52.3% – Duncan Taylor

Posted on 22 March 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Another rum from another country. Bellevue distillery is located on the isle of Mary Galante in Guadeloupe which means not a lot, but it could be (it doesn’t say) that this is a ‘rum agricole’. That means that the rum is made from sugar cane juice instead of molasses.

This one is a single cask from cask number four. Also bottled at cask strenght at 52.3 abv isn’t too strong. Whether or not it’s early landed I don’t know. There isn’t much information on the label.

Early landed means that it has been shipped to the United Kingdom years before bottling, in cask, so it matures longer in the UK. This is done because the temperatures in the Caribbean are so high that the rate of evaporation is really high. In the Caribbean it’s tough to make a 20 year old rum. Maybe even a 14 year old…

Bellevue Guadeloupe 1998 at Single Malts Direct

Sniff:
Sweet and floral, this is very different to any other rum I’ve had. Roses, sugar water and golden syrup. There also some bitter spiciness with wood. The flowers and some of the spices make this one rather fresh.

Sip:
Thick and sugary with pepper, bitter wood, and some spices. Pink peppercorns and mint or basil. Rather crisp again, but the flowers are a bit held back.

Swallow:
The finish is very light, especially compared to the 20 year old from Hampden. Sugar and golden syrup and the roses are back here. The finish is rather long and it gets a little dry towards the end.

This is a delicious rum. It’s a lot more floral and therefore a bit more fragile than the Caribbean blend. It’s very light and summery. Absolutely gorgeous.

Bellevue, Guadeloupe, 1998-2012, 14 years old, Duncan Taylor, 52.3%. It’s available at Single Malts Direct for £ 83.

Thanks to Duncan Taylor and Karen for the sample!

Posted in - Other Spirits | Tagged Bellevue, Caribbean, Duncan Taylor, Guadeloupe, Rum | 4 Comments

Hampden, 22 year old, 52.9% – Duncan Taylor

Posted on 21 March 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Hampden you say? There is no such distillery in the known whisk(e)y world!

That is correct. Hampden is a rum distillery in/on Jamaica. Duncan Taylor made this blend out of their product with the youngest ingredient being 22 years old. This is rather old for a rum in my book. The rum is a blend of 10 casks and came out at 52.9% abv.

Yesterday I wrote about me not liking old rums. Let’s see if this one already qualifies as one.

Hampden 1990 – Duncan Taylor

Sniff:
Yes it does. At first sniff I wrote down “WTF”, while I actually know what’s going on. It’s an old rum. They tend to smell and taste like marmite. I don’t like marmite, but let’s give this one a fair shot, shall we?

There’s a certain smell of stewed beef and beef stock with lots of rotting wood. I also get that same chemical sweetness that I found in the previous one, and artificial sweetener. The combination of beef, wood and sweetness is not necessarily bad, but that marmite variety is what I don’t like.

Sip:
Very dry and sharp. Because of the high alcohol content it doesn’t feel all that sweet and thick. There’s also dry wood, crushed pepper and the molasses sweetness of rum in general.

Swallow:
The finish is turning a little bitter, it’s long and gives more hints of molasses and sugar. The sweet fruity sugariness is getting bigger and this reduces the marmite flavours too.

So, in the end, I’m not a fan, but this rum certainly has it’s redeeming qualities over the marmite and yeast extract flavours. At 22 years old it’s getting too old for me, but I know for a fact that if you like old rums, this might be a very good one!

Hampden, Jamaica, 1990-2012, 22 years old, Duncan Taylor, 52.9%. It’s available at Single Malts Direct for £ 110.

Thanks to Duncan Taylor and Karen for the sample!

Posted in - Other Spirits | Tagged Caribbean, Duncan Taylor, Hampden, Jamaica, Rum | 1 Comment

Caribbean Blend, 1996, 16 years old, 46% – Duncan Taylor

Posted on 20 March 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Recently Karen Law from Duncan Taylor asked if I was willing to receive samples for review and after my confirmation and address details she told me a bunch of rum samples were in the mail. That was unexpected! Both the kind of booze and the speed with which they acted. I didn’t even know Duncan Taylor also bottled rum!

They are putting their known high standards into their rums as well, so no colouring and no filtration of any kind and of course, aged in oak casks. While I don’t know how regulations are for rum aging, I know that aging itself is optional. This one is 16 years old which is fairly old for a rum.

Caribbean Blend – Duncan Taylor

Sniff:
Incredibly aromatic with lots of sugar, molasses and a certain spiciness. The wood influence is very different than I’m used to in whisky. There’s some freshness with mint. I do taste some chemical alcohol but in a good way (weird, I know). The spices manifest as soy sauce and sesame paste. It’s not too sweet because of that.

Sip:
Lighter and sharper than I expected with a bit of bite. Not extremely sweet with nice woody notes, slightly spicy and less crisp than the nose. I think I get nutmeg and cloves, it has some golden syrup too. The spices are on the road to becoming marmite/vegemite like which happens in some old rums. Thank God they’re not there yet!

Swallow:
The finish clearly is bittersweet. Long with something a little musty, moldy even.

This is a delicious rum guys! I really love that it isn’t a simple sweet alcohol drink but actually has some flavour to it. Luckily it’s not over aged which can make a rum really spicy like marmite. I really don’t like that. I found such flavours in some 30+ year old rums I tasted from Berry Brothers and Rudd. While they have some spectacular rums too, those old ones weren’t for me.

Caribbean Blend, 1996, 16 years old, 46%, Duncan Taylor.

Thanks to Duncan Taylor and Karen for the sample!

Posted in - Other Spirits | Tagged Caribbean, Duncan Taylor, Rum | Leave a comment

GlenDronach 1995, PX Puncheon, 56.6%, The Whisky Exchange Exclusive

Posted on 19 March 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Yesterday a not so surprise package dropped on the doormat with a sample of this new private bottling of GlenDronach. Billy from The Whisky Exchange mailed me that if it arrived early I had to keep my mouth shut until it was on the website, which was fairly easy with the sample arriving after The Whisky Exchange published their newest release.

We all know GlenDronach, we all know Pedro Ximinez casks, but a PX Puncheon is something I’ve onle come across once with another GlenDronach PX. I’m not a huge fan of that one.

Combine all those factors and I had two chances: I would really love this dram, or I would consider it sherry with a whisky finish and that’s something I don’t like. Let’s see what’s what.

GlenDronach 1995 at The Whisky Exchange

Sniff:
Lots of sherry (duh) with an equal lot of tropical fruit. There is a lot of different kinds of fruit in here and I had a hard time pinpointing them. Peach, mango and some prunes for sure. Some raisins. Also sandalwood, tea and cocoa. Some caffe latte and after a few minutes I start getting an increasing note of oranges dipped in chocolate. Also tangerines by the way,

Sip:
Warming and it pretends to start burning your tongue, but it doesn’t. There is wood, leather and furniture polish. The orange is back as well in combination with some chili pepper. Mole! There’s quite a lot going on before it gets a bit dry after thirty seconds or so.

Swallow:
In the finish it burns a short while with black pepper and chilis, oak and sandalwood. The fruitiness is here too but more subdued by chocolate and coffee.

I think I have to retaste my other GlenDronach PX Puncheon. This stuff at least, is delicious. There is a lot going on and I clearly get the whisky undertones in the wood and fruitiness. I do think I have to revisit to get more of the distillery character, but I am also starting to think that those thick fruity tones with cocoa and coffee are the distillery character. I didn’t get much hints of barley and such, but I’m not missing them here.

I just might have to order this one!

GlenDronach 1995-2012, 17 years old, Pedro Ximinez Puncheon, Private bottling for The Whisky Exchange, 56.6%, cask 4682. Available at TWE for £ 69.95

Official sample provided by The Whisky Exchange. Thanks!

Posted in GlenDronach | Tagged GlenDronach, Pedro Ximinez, PX, The Whisky Exchange | 4 Comments

Bushmills Black Bush

Posted on 17 March 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Since the entire planet seems to celebrate this Irish holiday, what better opportunity to have a Bushmills? Or maybe opportunity should be replaced by excuse. Anyway, like I need an excuse for booze.

Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated by all ages.

Black Bush is 80 percent malt whisky and 20 percent other stuff. On their website it doesn’t say if it’s grain or Irish pot still or so. A combination of Oloroso butts and bourbon barrels is used for maturation up to seven years. Not too old, but who needs age if the booze is good, right?

Bushmills Black Bush

Sniff:
Sweet grain and sherry influence. The sherry manifests as fruit and a dry nuttiness. The wood influence is there but in the background. Caramel, honey and fudge scents too. Rather light, and just a tad dry. Very gentle indeed!

After a few minutes it becomes more honeyed even and goes in the direction of Drambuie and other liqueurs. I can see this convincing non-whiskey drinkers to the faith as well!

Sip:
Sweet and gentle with a tiny peppery tingle in your cheek. It gets a bit more bite, but only a little bit. A fruity and honeyed sweetness, very much like fruit pastry with a honey glaze on it. Peach and tinned peach flavours too, to be more precise on the fruity bit.

Swallow:
The finish isn’t too long but tasty with more sweetness and bite. The honey and tinned peach flavours remain. The finish goes a bit pithy, a bit dry. Not bad and it gives it a bit more depth.

For a bottle that doesn’t even set you back € 30 for a liter, this is damn tasty. They promote it as a mixer in cocktails and I can see that working too, if you’re going for a rather sweet cocktail.

It’s available almost everywhere, but my link goes to Master of Malt. As a thank for using their images, for example.

Black Bush, Bushmills OB, 40%, € 25.09 for 0.7l.

Thanks to Gert-Jan for the sample and Johanna McInnis for the idea of massive bloggery.

Other Flash-mob bloggers:

Posted in - Irish Whiskey, Bushmills | Tagged Bushmills, Irish Whiskey | 3 Comments

Bruichladdich Black Art 1, 1989-2009, 19yo, 51.1%

Posted on 17 March 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

To continue the Bruichladdich series here I decided to delve into my whisky cabinet and get some bottles out. I finished most of my Bruichladdichs last year to get my open bottle count down. They had been sitting there for years and there wasn’t much left so it wouldn’t get any better anyway. Back then I finished the 17 year old and the Resurrection Dram.

This first batch of the Black Art is one that has been in the cabinet since its release in 2009. I bought it right away since I found it a very appealing thought to have an older Bruichladdich with all kinds of masterful casks in the mix. Let’s see how that turns out, shall we?

Bruichladdich Black Art Batch 1

Sniff:
The first sniff is rather coarse and thin, and dry. Quite some tannins in there I guess. The influence of the wine casks (red wine most likely) is clear with a typical wine note and red fruits too. It takes a while to come into its own but it does get a bit thicker and more aromatic. It does stay a little bit ‘weird’ however. Sugared strawberries, stewed red fruits and raisins.

Sip:
The flavour is very gentle initially but it gets some oomph quickly. Sharp and peppery with almost no wood flavours. It does have the dryness of wood and red wine though. Red fruits again, but not as juicy as I expected. Dried strawberries which aren’t too sweet.

Swallow:
The finish is fruity with, again, lots of red fruits. There’s also a tiny hint of sweet, aged balsamic vinegar which goes nicely with the strawberry flavour that’s present here as well. Rather long too.

It has lots of fruit flavours but it lacks a certain complexity. What I miss most, though, is the typical ‘whisky’ flavours of oak and barley. I feel the red wine casks have overpowered this dram.

In batch three I really liked the nose but it went down from there, where in this one I find there is no real up to begin with. It’s nice booze, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not a € 85 bottle of whisky worth. If you’d have said it was an aged strawberry brandy I’d have believed you.

Bruichladdich Black Art 1, 1989-2009, 19yo, 51.1%, used to cost around € 85.

Posted in Bruichladdich | Tagged Black Art, Bruichladdich | Leave a comment

Bruichladdich Black Art 3, 1989-2012, 48.7%

Posted on 15 March 2013 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

The final dram in last week’s Twitter Tasting was one that I was rather skeptical about. The Black Art range was once announced as the replacement of the Blacker Still, but it didn’t really get up to that level. As far as I know it’s a mix or unusual and usual casks including bourbon, sherry and some wine casks too.

I have bought the first batch some years ago but that remains barely touched. I found I wasn’t fond of it. The guys from Living Room Whisky sent me a sample of the second batch. I’ll try to review those soon, maybe even this weekend so we have a proper head to head to head.

At twenty two years old this is the only whisky in the Twitter Tasting that has any old stock from before the reopening in 2001 in it. Even more so, it is only old stock and there is no new distillate in there.

Bruichladdich Black Art 3

Sniff:
I get tawny port wine at first, with heaps of fruits. Raisins, dried prunes. Some white oak, sticky toffee pudding (so dates too), a touch of salt, mint and waxed leather. This definetly is a cask driven whisky so I don’t get much of the initial spirit at all. Hard to compare to the others since it’s so different. Some sour cherries, balsamic vinegar and it certainly reminds me of Meantime’s Chocolate Porter. So thick chocolate ganache and porter.

Sip:
The whisky gets a bit more leeway here, instead of the cask. Chocolate and porter continue, anise, dry red cherries and even some fenugreek. Like fenugreek might be used in French cheese. Some toasted oak and peat without the smoke. A little dry and bitter. There’s sweet fruitiness going on as well with strawberry jam, forest fruit jam and orange marmalade. Dark Chocolate. All this is rather thick and tastes like it’s a sauce instead of a whisky. Some dry tannins in there too.

Swallow:
The finish is long and dry with lots of fruit again. I get a tobacco note too which I didn’t get before. Very unconventional but there’s something that I don’t like too. I think it’s a bit too dry and it loses the juiciness of the fruits too much compared to the palate.

This is a very strange whisky. I get the Black Art association. But what do I think? The nose is fantastic with all those fruits and spices battling for top honours. After that it goes into a quick decline. The fruitiness and spices get weirder and weirder with more and more flavours in there that I don’t enjoy.

So a strange one indeed. Very promising and I could honestly nose this for hours. It’s utterly delicious there. The palate is less so and I started to doubt the deliciousness there. The finish is way out there. I just can’t wrap my head around it. As Steffen Brauner said on Twitter: The nose is delicious but then I lose interest.

I just keep thinking that I really really prefer Bruichladdich’s new products to their old stock, althought I’ve had quite some stunners from that range too. A lot of indies, and some official bottlings like the 40 year old (made more delicious by drinking it at the distillery).

Bruichladdich Black Art 3, 1989-2012, 48.7%, hard to get but should be around € 120.

Thanks to The Whisky Wire and Bruichladdich for the official sample!

Posted in Bruichladdich | Tagged Black Art, Bruichladdich, Twitter Tasting | 4 Comments

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