Malt Fascination

This Glenfarclas 8 year old is a regular bottling by Glenfarclas, done in 2007. It doesn’t use their standard dumpy shaped bottles, but a long regular bottle instead. Also, the label is slightly different with vertical lines in the back instead of plain white. With the lettering it always reminds me of baseball shirts.

I bought this bottle to show the great difference in taste it makes whether a whisky is young or old. It stood next to the Glenfarclas 25 and the difference was massive.

Nose:
Greasy sherry with a sharp edge. The first idea I get is that this whisky has been tampered with, I don’t know why but it feels like the sherry aroma is ‘added’ to the whisky. Dried fruits and stewed pears. Sweet port wine with a slight scent of cinnamon, vanilla and other sweet spices. Nuts maybe?

Taste:
The flavours need a while to come up. I get the feeling of it being tampered with again. Is this a sherry finish? Some sherry, but it feels like its hiding something. Again, a rather greasy feel with light milk chocolate and a buttery fudge.

Finish:
The finish has that same greasyness again, but lacks a bit in complexity. Its not bad, mind you, with canned fruit salad and again, a rather port-like feel.

This is a very strange whisky. Compared to older Glenfarclas’ I tasted this one does come off as young. Nothing wrong there, it is young. And, as you can see, there are a lot of flavours there to be explored, but for some reason I kept getting the feeling that something was a bit off. Its still not a bad whisky, just a bit of a weird one.

Glenfarclas 8, 2007, Used to cost around € 30 at the Whiskykoning, but I think I got the last bottle.

Nose: 6
Taste: 7
Finish: 6
Overal experience: 6
Price/quality: +1

Total: 26 points

Since the revamp of the Fettercairn brand, I’d still not tasted any of the dandy looking new bottles. I recently changed that by buying a sample of the Fettercairn Fior. The other new releases with similar bottles are a 24 year old, a 30 and a 40 year old. Those come with a rather hefty price tag, so no notes on them (yet).

Nose:
I get the sweetness of overripe banana, but also some kind of moldy sweatiness. A bit of alcohol is in there too. A very heavy character, which I expected from the distillery, but I’m not sure I like it in this way.

Taste:
This whisky is a bit more fierce on the palate, and much improved over the nose. The sweatiness is gone, and in its place come the heavy notes of leather and polished saddles. A hint of smoke is present too.

Finish:
Weird. Its very light from an intensity point of view, but the flavours are those of a very heavy profile. Leather and sweet thick fruits. Also a gentle touch of wood.

What a strange whisky. There are aspects I like but also some I don’t, which do not sit in accordance with each other. I think it could have done with 46%, to get some more oomph in there. The flavours are there to support it. I never bought a Fettercairn without tasting it, and this one hasn’t changed that outlook.

Fettercairn Fior, 42%, available at Master of Malt for € 40.

Nose: 3
Taste: 6
Finish: 5
Overal experience: 5
Price/quality: 0

Total: 19 points

Another one of the Bruichladdich brands. I am wondering when the first SMWS Octomore’s will be released! Port Charlotte is a whisky brand by Bruichladdich based on classic Islay style and the fact that there once was a Port Charlotte distillery near the town of Bruichladdich.

This one was released in the previous outtake of the SMWS in the BeNeLux, at 6 years of age they called it ‘Send out an SOS!’.

Nose:
Salt, ropes, sea weed and a fishing harbour. Classic Islay style with mountains of peat in it. Sweet peatiness, heather and a touch of lemon as well.

Taste:
Dry and peppery, incredibly fierce. Quite the dram… My tongue turned into sand paper. Heather and peat and a lot heavier than I expected. Its a bit of dilemma between a young whisky in alcohol, but the flavours go for an older one. Maybe even 10 or 12 year old.

Finish:
The finish is a little tarry with a lemon hint. Briny and a storm at the beach. Again the heathery peat, salt and a little medicinal.

This is a true peaty Islay dram. Another Port Charlotte that lives up to the name without it being tampered with. No weird wine finish or ACE as they call it. Just punch to the jaw peated whisky. Quite great, actually

127.6, Port Charlotte (Bruichladdich), August 2003, 6 years old,  65.2%, SMWS, It’s long gone by now, but I guess it was about € 80?…

Nose: 8
Taste: 7
Finish: 8
Overal experience: 9
Price/quality: 0

Total: 32 points

This SMWS bottling is a 20 year old Mortlach from 1989, matured in a First Fill Sherry Butt. Mortlach usually works rather well with Sherry casks, so I expected quite something from this little sample I got. This one is called ‘Spiritual Ascension’.

Nose:
The first thing I got was candied orange peels, like in English marmalade. A heavy full blast of sherry follows. Those fruity Christmas cakes are present too. Sugared cherries and plums. Lots of fruity goodness!

Taste:
Quite fierce on the palate. Sweet and light spices with dried fruits and sticky toffee pudding. Also some leather and some wood.

Finish:
The finish has more of the traditional sherry goodness I expected with again lots of dried fruit. Quite some wood again as well. Sweet citrus, like those orange peels I got at first.

This is a tremendous dram. I didn’t rate it at first, I only wrote tasting notes, but by reading the notes again, I really want it! Terrific stuff, so it does right by the Mortlach standards. Especially older Mortlach.

76.75, Mortlach, August 1989-2010,  58.5%, SMWS, € 100 at the SMWS shop, but by the time you read this, it might have been sold out…

Nose: 9
Taste: 8
Finish: 9
Overal experience: 9
Price/quality: +1

Total: 36 points

Another dram I had at my dad-in-law’s place. Another one I wasn’t too impressed with ages ago, but I just had to try it again, before it was all gone. This Cragganmore is part of Murray McDavid’s Range, from the Mission Gold series to be exact. It being MMD, you’re bound for some odd finishes. This one is finished in a bourbon cask, but I don’t recall what it matured in before.

Nose:
Lots of vanilla with creme brulee, and warm sweet dough. The fresh bourbon influence is very pronounced, and I think I’m glad it hasn’t spent more time in that cask. It would have been overkill.

Taste:
The taste is very sharp and very dry at first. The dryness lingers, but the sharpness fades, luckily. After that you get lots of fresh American Oak and quite some sweet citrus.

Finish:
The finish is long and sweet, with clove and warm vanilla cream. Also, freshly baked sponge cake.

This is a rather well done dram. I liked it a lot more than I remembered. There is a slight oddity because of the finish, but that is something you can put your money on with MMD. The alcohol is more pronounced than I expected but the fresh bourbon has boosted the flavours quite a bit. Not too complex though.

Cragganmore 22, 1985-2007, Murray McDavid Mission Gold, 56.6%, € 96 at House of Whisky.

Nose: 7
Taste: 7
Finish: 8
Overal experience: 7
Price/quality: 0

Total: 29 points

Alc-Hem-Ist, or Alchemist, is a bottler with probably the most hideous bottles available. Its a rather small company that doesn’t limit itself to bottling whisky, but I’ve seen some Calvados and Cognac from the same label as well.

My father in law had this one sitting around and after not being too impressed with it, I decided to write some tasting notes after all.

Nose:
Wet wood, of the white oak kind. There’s quite a lot of dry peat going on, with salty heather. The typical Caol Ila milkiness is there as well, together with some smoke.

Taste:
The taste shows a little more of the cask with some wood again, and a touch of vanilla. The peatiness and smoke is still there too.

Finish:
Quite fierce, unexpectedly so. It does fade very quickly, though. A hint of vanilla, loads of peat and not as smoky as I expected. The finish is more Ardbeg-ish.

A bit of a weird dram. I like it better than I remember it, but its still not a terrific glass of whisky. It started off like a regular Caol Ila, but the end of it was more like Ardbeg, with the peat and smoke bomb.

Caol Ila 10, October 1996 – September 2007, Alchemist, 46%.

Nose: 5
Taste: 4
Finish: 4
Overal experience: 4
Price/quality: 0

Total: 17 points

It had been a while since I hosted a tasting for people I didn’t know. Before this blog there was a different site at www.maltfascination.nl through which a friend and I hosted whisky tastings. We hadn’t received any requests for months until we redirected the homepage to my blog and then, all of a sudden, the requests came in. The sub pages were still available in Google, apparently.

The theme was to taste a few differences in the main characteristics of Scotch whisky: Age, casks and peat. Usually, there is a ‘tour of Scotland’ for first-timers, but with there being more exceptions to ‘regional tastes’ every month, I decided that wouldn’t be as much fun.

The whiskies I planned at first were a little different than the ones I ended up with, since the group of people in the tasting kept growing and there wasn’t enough in some of my bottles… In the end, the whiskies tasted were:

• Age: Glenfarclas 8 and Glenfarclas 25
• Casks: Tamdhu OB and Tamdhu 6 Sherry cask by The Ultimate
• Peat: Caol Ila Unpeated 10 and The Ileach Cask Strength

None of the guys present knew much about whisky and I got good questions about whisky, the production process, distilleries, and all kinds of related items.

The Tamdhu Sherry Cask and Glenfarclas 25 were the most popular drams by far and I guess I could have emptied the bottles right then and there, but I did want to go home at 11 PM, still had an hour and a half of driving to do.

It was good fun to do a tasting again like this. I just might have to get back into that.

I did put together a small presentation which showed the production process and some nice pictures. But when I took the beamer out of the case, the power cord wasn’t there, so that didn’t really work out. Bummer.

Yesterday a big but almost weightless box arrived in the mail. I couldn’t remember ordering any bottles, but I have been known to overlook things. Those usually make for nice surprises…

These were a couple of samples from the Whisky Exchange of one recently released Rosebank, and a yet to be released Port Askaig ‘Harbour’. I couldn’t really wait, but I also had a couple of samples in from Master of Malt recently, so I decided to do a bit of both…

Reviews to the other drams will pop-up soon, but here goes the Rosebank.

Nose:
Straw and dried flowers, although its not pot-pourri-ish. A little sharp, but that has to do with the gentle flavours. There is a certain bourbon cask influence, or something that tastes like it at least. Not overly big on vanilla and coconut, but both are present. Buttercups too?

Taste:
Very smooth and gentle. Quite some vanilla, more than I expected, but I’m not afraid of vanilla. There’s also a light kind of cereal flavour here.

Finish:
The finish is quite long and smooth. Vanilla, flowers, straw.

This is a damn fine Rosebank. Over the last couple of years I had gotten less and less charmed by not-cask-strength Rosebanks so I was a bit afraid this would be too watered down as well. Luckily, it handles it very well. One of the smoothest ones I’ve recently tasted but it made me understand my love for Rosebank again! Goody, and I believe already gone from the Whisky Exchange. Well, they don’t show up in the search results…

Rosebank 19, 46%, 1991, Single Malts of Scotland, about €85 at the Whisky Exchange.

Nose: 9
Taste: 8
Finish: 8
Overal experience: 9
Price/quality: +2

Total: 36 points

Glen Mhor is no longer existing Highland Distillery. It was closed in the big downturn in 1983, when loads of Diageo plants were shut down. Since its closure it has unfortunately been demolished and a supermarket now sits in the site. They used to have their own Saladin maltings that were used until 1980.

I picked up a sample of this at the ‘Otopoets’ tasting in Hilversum. This is a big annual BYO tasting held by Dick de Jong and the Usquebaugh Society. Unfortunately, I didn’t get around to tasting all the goodness people brought to the table. Of some bottles I drew a sample.

Nose:
I get the feeling that this kind of dram is a typical Highland style whisky. I get a rather chalky and fresh nose, with vanilla, dried flowers and something sharp in the background. There also is a definite note of vanilla present. A slight hint of cardboard too.

With the typicalness (right…)  I mean that I find this style of whisky in lots of older Highland distilleries, like Glenesk, other Glen Mhors and Balblair displays some of these characteristics sometimes too.

Taste:
Light vanilla, biscuits, sweet and creamy. Something flowery again. There’s also some fruitiness that I didn’t discover in the nose. Not tropical and heavy, but more like pear and white grapes.

Finish:
The finish isn’t really long and more of the same I got on the palate. This is not a bad thing.

Its a good whisky, an old whisky, but not a spectacular whisky. I would pick up a bottle at the right price, though. I am in to these flavour profiles, even though there is a cardboardy note somewhere.

Glen Mhor 8, 40%, 75cl, bottled before 1993, Gordon & MacPhail Retro label. You might find it at Whisky Auction. Its not too expensive.

Nose: 8
Taste: 7
Finish: 6
Overal experience: 7
Price/quality: +1

Total: 29 points

This is a bottle of terrific Springbank I’ve had sitting around almost emptied for a while. After last Friday’s bottoms up tasting I only had about a dram left, so I thought it time to finish it tonight. I had something to celebrate…

Nose:
The  nose starts with a massive and full scent, about a yard from the glass you could smell it very well. Loads of sherry, wet European oak, the complete collection of dried fruits. Plums, peaches, apples. Also coffee and chocolate. Some anise gives it a rather fresh edge as well.

Taste:
A woody dryness but still light. The taste is full, with quite some wood and spices. Nutmeg. Not as fruity as the nose made me expect but it does get a little cloying later on.

Finish:
The finish makes you tingle all the way. You feel it going down to your stomach. Lots of good woodiness, spices and tropical fruit. Fresh juicy peaches and caramel.

This is one of the best drams I’ve recently had. The only remark I can think of is that they should have bottled it at a few percent ABV more. All the flavours you expect from an old sherry matured whisky are present and in massive quantities. Terrific stuff!

Springbank 28, Dun Bheagan, 48%, Single Cask, 1974-2002. Its € 205 at the Whiskykoning in Den Bosch.

Nose: 10
Taste: 8
Finish: 9
Overal experience: 10
Price/quality: +2

Total: 39 points