Malt Fascination

Last Friday we (Anneke, 8 friends and me) went out for dinner. We do that every now and then and while we usually do dinner at one of our places we decided to go out this time. We had been talking about going to Hielander for about three years, but for some reason never got around to it. Now was the time, finally.

The restaurant itself is a sight to behold. Traditionally pub-like decoration and several hundred whiskies line the walls. Guns and swords decorate tables and ceiling.

As usual with our wee bunch of lads and lasses we were late. And being a ‘guided’ dinner everyone else in the restaurant was waiting for us (sorry, everyone). We started at about 7 o’clock with the first whisky and the first course. Haggis with Wemyss’ Spice King. Most of us never had Haggis before so that was interesting! The Haggis was pretty spicy and the Spice King whisky fitted wonderfully well with it. On the palate it didn’t do much but the nose and finish were prolonging the magic.

The second course was a creamed truffle soup with a glass of Benromach to go with it. The Benromach was bottled for the Craighellachie Hotel, but I don’t remember what the brand was. The soup was terrific and full of earthy flavours. The whisky was rather smooth, but combined nicely to give the it that extra boost. After that it was time for Wullie‘s famous smoked salmon. He poured a rather terrific Bowmore 11 by Hart Brothers with it. A smoky whisky with smoked salmon is an easy pick, but the whisky was terrific although I mostly forgot about it while eating the salmon. That good.

The main course was duck breast with a sweet sauce, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. To my surprise he poured a single cask Connemara Irish Whiskey with it. I cheated a little and started with the whisky before the duck was served and got nice wood and pineapple flavours. Very fruity. The duck was cooked to perfection too.

Dessert was my least favourite course, a Scottish trifle. I’m not too big a fan of those and was silently hoping he made Cranachan. The whisky (Auchentoshan 12) was rather nice but was overpowered by the dessert’s sweetness.

After that coffee and a Glenlivet 13, bottled by Adelphi for the Ben Nevis club. A damn fine whisky with heaps of flavour. I might be wanting this one for my collection! Of course we talked a lot about Wullie’s festival next week, whisky in general and had wee tastes of some other Ben Nevis Club bottlings (Laphroaig, Springbank, Mortlach). I really wished we had more time because I wanted a glass of that Springbank, but our train was leaving and since there was snow a week before, Dutch public transport was still in panic mode.

Five star dinner for sure! Maybe not the finesse of French haute cuisine, but this is more my style of great dinner. With good drinks, good food, good friends. Highly recommended.

I’ll post some pictures if I can get any from my friends.

De Druiventuin is a liquor shop in Leiden that I had known about for a couple of years, but had never visited yet. They run a website called Whiskysite.nl. Last week they threw a message on Facebook that they had massive discounts on BenRiach and GlenDronach single casks. I didn’t wait a second and bought myself a nice 1976 BenRiach (cask 8795). Instead of having Jack (who runs the shop) send it to me, I decided to go and pick it up last Saturday.

The shop itself is not just a whisky shop, but a more general booze shop. There are massive amounts of wine and liqueurs, port, sherry, mixers, you name it. Through a door in the back you enter Valhalla, though. I don’t know how many bottles there are, but a 1000 would be an estimate. Loads of collector’s editions, special packagings, independent bottlers that you can hardly find anywhere else in The Netherlands.

All kinds of rare stuff was just lying around. The new Chichibu 3 year old, Karuizawa Noh series, Glenlivet 70 year old, Glenmorangie Pride, you name it. Of course, to the slight dismay of Anneke who joined me on my trip there, we talked shop for about an hour and a half. New bottlings, price changes, packaging gimmicks.

Of course, I also tasted a couple of drams of things he had open anyway. Glenmorangie Artein, in my opinion the best in the private range from Glenmorangie (next to the Finealta and Sonnalta), and the new Longmorn 23 from Whisky Import Nederland’s own series ‘First Cask’. Beautiful stuff and very fairly priced at € 100.

In the end I wound up buying another Single Cask BenRiach, this time from 1981. I just couldn’t resist and I feel an evening coming up when I’ll be doing a BenRiach vertical tasting

Definetly a five star shop!

A few years ago Glenmorangie revamped their entire line with new bottles and a few new finishes to replace the older ones. While all of them are pretty good, for the finishes my preference has always gone to the Nectar d’Or. It’s their regular 10 year old whisky which has had an addictional two years in Sauternes casks. The other (Port and Sherry) are pretty decent too, but a bit more generic in my opinion.

I read recently that apart from this Nectar d’Or there also is a fifteen year old which has been in the Sauternes casks for five years, but I haven’t been able to try that one yet.

Nose:
Sweet and fruity with a thickness like a dessert wine. Barley, a hint of cleaning products, caramel and the fruit tones get bigger and bigger. Papaya, mango, white grapes and sweet pears.

Taste:
The flavour and palate are a little more simple with light white pepper and tropical fruits. Although it’s only 46% and the bottle has been open for a few years, it still has some punch to it. I like the taste, but the nose is more impressive.

Finish:
This is very good. Sweet and spicy, a little dessert wine thickness here as well, sirupy with many tropical fruits and more ‘local’ fruits as well. The pears and grapes are definetly back. It doesn’t last too long but it’s also a bit more spicy than the earlier parts of tasting this.

A very decent whisky for a very decent price. It should be available anywhere and I can recommend this one. The fruit bomb idea for this whisky might have been ahead of their time a bit, since that type of whisky became very popular in the last two or three years, and this one had been around for a while then.

Glenmorangie Nectar d’Or, 46%, available at De Whiskykoning for € 50, and more internationally at Master of Malt.

Yesterday was the day for the second Mackmyra Twitter tasting. After a few delays by the organization (vacations and meetings getting in the way) it finally happened, about a month late. Luckily, whisky keeps.

There was a small prize for the one who guessed most expressions right, but I’m not sure I would get any. The tasting notes are here, I will update the post once I know which is which!

The tasting was also to get some word of mouth (or word of keyboard) on their new distillery. The guys in Sweden built a brand new gravitational distillery to increase their capacity enormously. Gravitational means that all ingredients are hauled up and then work their way down through the process. No pumps apart from getting everything to the starting point.

The tasting was organized by Colin Campbell and Angela D’Orazio (Mackmyra’s master blender)

Mackmyra #1 (new make): ‘Vit Hund’
Pretty sweet like most new makes are. This one had some vegetable notes with green beans and potatoes. There is a spiciness with some bitter orange peel and nutmeg. The palate is a bit sweeter still and a bit warmer with canned pears, syrup and dirt (earthy). The potatoes are back but in a deep fried with skins way. Lots of banana and other fruits. The finish has some very-like spiciness, quite sharp and the pepper really lingers.

Note: this is a three star rating for a spirit. If compared to regular whisky, it would rate lower.

Mackmyra #2: Special ’07
Quite youngish on the nose with lemon and vanilla, a little touch of wood, barley sugar and some light spices. After a minute it shows more vanilla and it gets more creamy too. Banana bread and apple and cinnamon cake. I also get a hint of salt. The palate is a lot less sweet with much more spices. A bit of fruit, quite some barley, a very full flavour with bisquits. A minute later I get After Eight chocolates and liquorice too. The finish is quite sharp and again has those rye spices. Quite long and spicy!

Mackmyra #3: Moment Rimfrost
This is a strange one. Between the bourbon cask flavours of vanilla, aceton, green apple peels I also get nuts and raisins, and a hint of iron and nougat too. The taste is quite closed but it does taste like a refill cask was used. Iron, slate, some wet wood and a kind of a hidden sweetness that is lingering on the border of my flavour perception. The finish again has that hint of aceton which is followed by vanilla, lemon and nutmeg.

Mackmyra 4: Moment Norrsken
This one continues where the last one ends. It has a similar profile at first, albeit sharper. Some minerals, iron, basalt, vanilla. Then it tastes a bit younger all of a sudden, but with caramel, aceton and a little Bowmore like with some pears. The palate is a little flat and it takes a while before the fruits show up and it takes a while before the fruits appear. Grilled fruit with blackened edges, straw and vanilla. The finish has some wood and is quite long. The aceton makes it all taste rather young with some chalk as well

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Mackmyra #5: (Smoky 30-lit Ex-sherry 3yo)
What the fuck is this? That was my first reaction. A strange peatiness and massive sherry notes. Burned wood, very heavy with tea and coffee scents. Then some black fruits, charcoal and vegemite, nougat and hazelnut. That’s just the nose. The palate is quite heavy, jura-like with wet burned logs, smoke, a heavy fruitiness, syrup, sherry, tea, coffee. Quite feinty with barbeque hints on the finish. Like fat dripping of bacon and catching fire. It lingers forever. Damn, this is good.

Unfortunately, this was a cask sample and not to be bottled yet. Apparently, I can get the cask, but not a bottle.

This email went out yesterday to all Bottle-Sharers. I feel they’ve had time to react, and there are still a few spots open. So now things go public!

After the last Bottle-Share, which was a great success if I may say so, it’s time to start thinking about another one! This time things will be a little bit differen, since I don’t have a clue which bottles will be in it yet. This happens because it’s rather hard to get The Whisky Agency bottles in The Netherlands. However, I have a supplier that sends me a list every now and then, and we’ll be waiting for that. I expect a new list within the next few weeks.

So, what’s going to happen this time? You can email (or Facebook, or Twitter) me if you want to participate and as soon as the list comes out, I’ll select a couple of interesting bottles. Of course, the selection will be sent to you right away as well. The drawback of this is, of course, that I’m not exactly sure when bottles will be delivered or sent. I’ll try to get a nice variety of regions, casks and strengths.

What are the rules:

– The costs will NOT exceed € 90
– It will be 9 or 10 samples of 5 cl
– I’ll update everyone as we’ll go along

There are 26 spots available, but if they don’t fill up, it will go down to 13. I’ve tried doing two sets before (SMWS) and I ended up with € 500 worth of whisky sitting in my cabinet. Payment is only necessary after the samples have been indicated so you can back out if you really hate the selection. This will, of course, allow someone on the back-up list to enter, or kick out a dozen others…

First come, first serve!

Another left over I got from Elise to try. To be honest, these are more or less my first encounter with Douglas of Drumlanrig. A rather unknown branche of Douglas Laing. Their Old Malt Cask and Old & Rare series get way more marketing publicity. Douglas of Drumlanrig is often regarded as the cheaper version of the others.

Nose:
Vanilla, wood and straw. Rather thick and sweet with lemon curd. The entirety doesn’t really show its youth which is very nice. The vanilla becomes more prominent after a little while.

Taste:
A little sharp at first but that soon becomes more gentle. The vanilla and sweet woodiness are here too, but there is an addition of liquorice and maybe even a hint of salmiac. Not too special here.

Finish:
The finish is nice but not very long. The sweetness of the wood and vanilla are back, with a little grassiness and some cereals too.

To be honest, this one has me in doubt. On one hand there is nothing special about it. A regular bourbon cask whisky. But at that, it does what it’s supposed to do very very well. I would not regret it if I had a bottle of this, but it’s not something that has you running to the store. A very decent whisky.

Linkwood 12, Douglas of Drumlanrig, 05-1997 – 01-2010, bourbon barrel, 46%, cask #5750. Can’t find it in shops anymore, but my guess is that it was around € 40.

Thanks Elise!

Last Saturday, Jolanda opened the new shop for Drinks & Gifts officially. While I was supposed to be in Krakow for the weekend, the ‘heavy’ snowfall prohibited that and our flight was cancelled. So, I could just walk the 300 meters to the new shop and see how it ended up. Of course, it wasn’t my first time there, but an official opening is always nice!

At about 1 PM we were all chased out of the shop to go stand in the cold for the grand opening. A local government official held a little speech and after that Jolanda cut the ribbon and the party could get underway.

For me the most interesting moment was when I started talking to Hans Bol from Whisky Import Nederland and he let me taste the Macduff 2000 bottled by David Stirk, especially for Drinks & Gifts.

A very interesting dram with a bit of its youth showing, but enough flavour to compensate for that. A little fruity sweet with ginger and salmiac. It goes very well with a bit of aged Dutch cheese so it almost felt like it was specially distilled and aged for the Netherlands. A more in depth review will follow, but get your hands on one of the 120 bottles while you can!

Over the course of the last month I have, of course, tasted some beers every now and then. Here’s a short list of the best ones:

Flying Dog – Wild Dog Barrel Aged Gonzo
Maybe a bit expensive, but one of the most interesting stouts of the last couple of weeks. Loads of flavour going on!

Flying Dog – Kujo
Espresso Stout, a real wake-up call. Trying this again very soon!

Meantime – Chocolate Porter
A true chocolate delight. Also some bay leaf flavoured liquorice, but very intense.

Great Divide – Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti
A beer that’ll take you all night to work through (massive bottles do that) but chocolate, coffee, cayenne pepper and very good stout make for a great combination!

De Molen – Bommen & Granaten
A dessert beer if I ever had one! Takes some getting used to, but very good, and very different. I can see this going with some pudding!

De Molen – Rasputin Bruichladdich Barrel Aged
Another barrel aged stout from De Molen. They really know how to make such beers.

BrewDog – Tokyo Intergalactic Stout
And another barrel aged stout, BrewDog this time. Haven’t had much BrewDog lately, but this stuff is just bloody amazing! A real kicker at 18.2% ABV. This took me a while to finish.

Most of these beers are available at Drinks & Gifts in Krommenie.

Clan Denny is one of the brands of Douglas Laing. Douglas Laing is an independent bottler that has a lot of ranges of bottles on the market like Old Malt Cask, Provenance, Douglas of Drumlanrig, Old & Rare, Big Peat and some others.

Clan Denny exists in two ways, the Single Grain whiskies and two Blended Malts. As a thank you for helping out the importer on Saturday evening of the Whisky Live Den Haag festival I got some ‘left overs’ sent home to try myself. This Blended Malt is one of them, and as you expect, it consists of Islay malts.

Nose:
Old wood smoke with an underlying youth in the whisky. Rather young and a little one dimensional. It does improve a bit if you give it a couple of minutes to breathe. Salty, grassy and heathery peat are all present, with some vanilla in the background.

Taste:
The palate is rather sharp, especially for dram at 46%. The grassiness is present as well but a bit richer than it was on the nose. Creamy with a bit of a greasy palate.

Finish:
The finish is quite short with a short revival after a few seconds. After that, the grassiness is king again.

What can I say? It’s definetly not a bad whisky, but on the other hand I don’t find it all that interesting either. The youth is rather pronounced and there isn’t much depth to explore. A very nice entry level dram, but I would put my money on a Caol Ila 12 or Laphroaig Quarter Cask. They’re at the same price level anyway.

Clan Denny Islay, Blended Malt, Douglas Laing, 46%, available at DH17 slijterijen for € 35.99.

Thanks to Elise (who used to work at Wine World Holland) for the sample!

Apart from the Snow Phoenix, it has been at least 5 years since I tried a Glenfiddich. For some reason the brand was my entrance to the world of whisky and after tasting some others than the 12 year old at the last Whisky Festival Noord-Brabant I decided I didn’t really enjoy the whiskies.

Last year I ordered some samples from Master of Malt and they mixed up my Macallan 18 with Glenfiddich 18. Of course, them being the cool guys they are, they corrected the mistake, but let me keep my sample.

Nose:
Very light and gentle, but very fruity with lots of warm apple. Wood, caramel and hints of vanilla and cinnamon. A very, very gentle nose, but very luxurious.

Taste:
The flavour profile is very similar to the nose although it starts of as a bit thin. The 40% ABV is on the low side for an 18 year old. It does build up some flavour, but no burn whatsoever. Apple, sweet pear and I think I’m tasting white oak. It’s probably a blend of sherry and bourbon casks.

Finish:
The finish is reasonably long and very nice. The caramel apple is here as well, but it does become a bit sweeter and more sugary.

This is a very standard single malt, brandwise. Massive distillery, biggest brand, biggest marketing budget or close to it. I expected the whisky to be more bland, more ‘less opposable’ to appeal to more people. It probably does, but it still is a pretty good dram. The whisky is very well constructed and a lot better than it was a few years ago.

I do find ‘Ancient Reserve’ a bit presumtuous, though. 18 is not THAT old.

Glenfiddich 18 Ancient Reserve, 40%, available everywhere but you shouldn’t pay more than € 50.