Malt Fascination

The GlenDronach was one of the first whisky brands to completely restyle their image and renew their core range a few years ago. It has been a hype to do that over the last couple of years, with mixed success in my opinion. This one was released at the same time as the new 18 year old Allardice and were both given high scores at Serge Valentin’s Whiskyfun.

Nose:
Some old fashioned leathery notes and European oak woodiness.  After a while the whisky shows banana and caramel. A lot of sherry notes, but not overpowering.

Taste:
The taste is a bit more sharp than I expected. Some sherry influences and an oily mouthfeel. Not too exciting, but still a staple of a good sherry whisky.

Finish:
The finish is not overly complex or long, but very good balancing act between fruit, wood and whisky flavours. After a bit sweet citrus fruit shows up!

A very well produced sherry whisky that is a benchmark for many others, or it should be. There is a lot of influence from the cask but the whisky is still a proper whisky, unless the 14 year old Single Cask.

GlenDronach 15 Revival, 46%, +/- 45 euros. Generally available at mose liquor shops.

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

Total: 37 points

A while ago a friend of mine gave me a sample of Johnnie Walker Gold Label. Although I am usually not a fan of those humongously big brands like Johnnie Walker, I am of course willing to give it a go.

Nose:
Some fruit, some cereal, a little light. Some vanilla and you smell right away that it is a blended whisky. The combination of single malt and grain whisky smells are rather obvious. More so than I am used to. Nothing really special happening.

Taste:
The flavour is a bit more spicy than I expected after the rather bland nose. Apart from the spicyness nothing much happens. Its all a bit restrained. Some sweetness that comes off as a bit artificial. After a while I think I pick up some dried apple.

Finish:
The finish is rather short and actually, quite boring. No new flavours, no unexpected tastes, just more of the same before it suddenly disappears.

The Johnnie Walker is the 18 year old of the range, but it does not live up to its increased price and age. There should be more complexity and maybe a higher percentage of single malt in there. I’d recommend the Black Label over this, and many single malts over the price of this one!

Johnnie Walker Gold Label, 18 yo blended whisky. Prices differ a bit and range from 40 to 70 euros. Its available at Master of Malt.

Nose: 5
Taste: 4
Finish: 2
Overall experience: 2
Price/quality: 0

Total: 11 points

The guys from the excellent Edinburgh Whisky Blog have just announced a new Twitter tasting. This will be a tasting of some anCnoc samples, the third Inver House distillery in row to host a Twitter Tasting.

I expected something like this to happen since the manager of anCnoc joined Twitter yesterday, which is also what happened just before the previous two tastings of Old Pulteney and Balblair.

If you are quick and drop them a ‘I’d like to join the Twitter tasting’, you might be in time to participate!

The tasting takes place on February 24th, at 7pm GMT, or 8pm in most of Europe.

UPDATE: The twitter account is not run by the distillery manager, but the assistent distillery manager, Alistair Reid.

The Nikka All Malt is not a whisky that ever grabbed my attention. I ordered a sample from Master of Malt because the whisky is noted in Ian Buxton’s ‘101 whiskies to try before you die’.

The funny thing of this whisky is that it is not really a blend and not really a blended malt. It is made with Yoichi and Miyagikyo whiskies, and a malt whisky produced in a Coffey still. Because of that still type it is not a single malt, but not a blend, since it is not really made with grain whisky.

Nose:
COCONUT, COCONUT, COCONUT, I feel like Donkey Kong getting hammered! There is also some milkyness, lemon and very light vanilla. All of that is overpowered by the coconut, or did I mention that already?

Taste:
The taste is very smooth and creamy. There is some cereal flavour too. After a while the taste becomes a bit cardboardy. Also, the taste is rather predictable with all those standard bourbon cask flavours showing up.

Finish:
The vanilla and cream is present again. The coconut is still here but less prominent than in the nose. The finish doesn’t last very long.

This is a pretty reasonable whisky, nothing wrong with it but it is rather simple. The coconut on the nose was a heavy hitter but after that, nothing exciting or unexpected happened.

Nikka All Malt, 40%, +/- 30 euros, available at Master of Malt.

Nose: 5
Taste: 4
Finish: 4
Overall experience: 4
Price/Quality: +2

Total: 19 points

The Macallan 10 Cask Strength is a whisky that usually is released with almost no publicity and press coverage. This year was no different, and I would never have thought about it until a bottle of it was samples by a local liquor shop. The owner samples a bottle of what comes in every now and then. After that, 7 10cl samples are available, of course at a fraction of the regular bottle’s price.

Nose:
An attack on your nose starts immediately. There is a lot of alcohol in there and while you don’t directly smell it, you certainly notice it by the burn in it. Also there are hints of red forest fruit, mostly strawberries and raspberries.

Taste:
On the palate, the alcohol continues its assault and a drop of water is wanted here. Apart from that alcohol burn, the taste is rather gentle, also with a lot of fruit.

Finish:
With the sheer amount of alcohol, I expected to feel something going down and that is exactly what happens. Finally some more whisky related notes appear with some leather and cereal.

The description of this whisky would be ‘nice’. Its not a tremendously good dram, but there is nothing wrong with it either. The fruity notes are quite delicious, but apart from that not too much is happening here. I would be bummed about having bought a bottle, but it might get a little boring after a while.

Macallan 10, Cask Strength, 2010 release, 58.6%. Available at around 50 euros from Drinks & Gifts.

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

Total: 27

This is an old Port Ellen, mostly because it was Bottled in 2000. The year of distilling was 1981, which made me interested since its one from my year of birth! I bought it of a friend of mine, Bram van Glabbeek, a few years ago to celebrate my birthday.

Nose:
Full sherry with some red fruit, burnt heather and a reasonably heavy smell. Although, there is also something crisp, like mint or anise.

Taste:
A full flavour, although I think it would be better at cask strength. Not too thin, though, and a tad drying. In the taste I also find light red fruit, strawberry and some cherry. Also, the peat is much more prominent here than it was on the nose.

Finish:
The finish is a bit more spicy than I expected, I’d call it strawberries and balsamic vinegar.

This is a very nice Port Ellen, not typical, since most of them are a bit lighter in flavour and have more pronounced peat smoke. All aspects of the whisky are pretty complex and balanced and it makes for a nice wintertime dram.

Port Ellen, 1981, 18 years, 46%, Douglas McGibbon’s Provenance, +/- 125 euro.

Nose: 8
Taste: 8
Finish: 8
Overall experience: 8
Price/quality: +1

Total: 33 points

I have decided to switch (back) to blogging in English. I realized after polling on Twitter, Facebook and some other sources of hits that many of my blog’s visitors can’t read Dutch or that the Dutch are not put off by blogging in English.

Since I like to have all my (international) friends read my blog as well I like to switch to English and see what happens. It might backfire since there is always the possibility of losing all my Dutch followers, but we’ll see what happens.

This if, of course, a trial. I will monitor what happens on my blog and measure reactions, hits and response on Twitter and Facebook for a couple of months and then I decide if I will continue in English or switch back to Dutch.

A while ago on John Hansell‘s site (www.whatdoesjohnknow.com), an extremely good review of the new Buffalo Trace Antique Collection was published. In Europe, these bottles are very hard to come by, especially if you want them all from the same annual release. If you find them, you still have to be able to pay for them!

Of course, the first thing that comes to my mind is to put them all in a Bottle-Share! Because this is about ‘only’ five whiskies the Bottle-Share is a bit earlier than I planned, since I wanted to do a Bottle-Share somewhere at the end of March.

Unfortunately, it seems impossible to get the five bottles from one year, so I opted for the next best thing: A bottle of all five releases, but from different years. This was possible at Master of Malt. I emphasize was, since one of them has already sold out since I ordered it. At least two of the bottles are from the 2010 release!

Participation in this Bottle-Share is €47.50 and for that money you get a 5cl sample of all five the whiskies. I am making no profit whatsoever, so I think you’ll be hard pressed to get those samples cheaper elsewhere (excluding the USA, of course).

As with every Bottle-Share the participants of previous editions (this is the third edition) get a heads up before I publish this on my blog. After that, it is on a first come, first serve basis. At the moment, only three spots are available, so give me an e-mail, tweet, facebook poke or whatever quick!

PS: The regular (slightly bigger) Bottle-Share I had planned for March will be pushed back a little bit and I will send out e-mails for that around the end of March. I have not figured out a theme for the Bottle-Share yet.

Een enorm sterke Amrut op 63% gebotteld voor het 10 jarig jubileum van The Whisky Exchange. Niet voor de poes, maar gezien ik tot nu toe wel enthousiast ben over bijna alle Amruts (behalve de Amrut 100). Deze was dus het proberen waard, vooral omdat deze voorbij kwam in een The Whisky Exchange Bottle-Share van ‘Gedeelde Vreugde’. Dat is een Belgische sample club.

Geur:
Vrij spirit-y. Oftewel, hij smaakt alsof de whisky maar amper rijping heeft ondergaan, ondanks dat ie flink wat kleur heeft gekregen in de paar jaar dat de whisky in het vat gezeten heeft. Ook is er een wat notige ondertoon.

Smaak:
De smaak is iets rijper. Een flinke kruidige ondertoon met houtachtige kruiden, maar ook echt alsof je de moutvloer ruikt. Echt granig, zonder dat het op deeg lijkt. Het onbewerkte natte graan.

Finish:
Hier is dat nieuwe stook smaakje weer terug. Het doet een beetje aan alsof er aardappels gestookt zijn, terwijl dat natuurlijk niet zo is. Door de alcohol is zowel de smaak als de afdronk ontzettend droog.

In tegenstelling tot andere Amruts heeft deze niet een snelle rijping ondergaan, tenminste, zo lijkt het. De kleur is er wel, in de smaak is het er wel, maar in de geur en de afdronk is er iets wat me ontzettend tegenstaat. Dat nieuwe spirit-achtige is leuk als je nieuwe spirit drinkt, maar in een whisky die normaal op deze leeftijd (meestal ongeveer 3 tot 5 jaar) dat totaal mist.

Amrut, The Whisky Exchange, 63%, +/- 55 euro. Deze whisky is uiteraard te koop bij The Whisky Exchange, maar Van Zuylen heeft hem ook!

Geur: 0
Smaak: 3
Afdronk: 1
Ervaring: 1
Prijs/Kwaliteit: -1

Totaal: 4 punten

Tijdens een bezoekje aan Dick de Jong kwam Fettercairn ter sprake en maakte ik het moedige statement dat Fettercairn gemiddeld flink tegenvalt. Uiteraard wilde Dick het tegendeel bewijzen en kreeg ik een sampletje van een 34 jaar oude Fettercairn van The Whisky Agency mee naar huis. Een leuke vergelijking met de 33 jaar oude van Old Malt Cask dus!

Geur:
Het begint in dezelfde richting als die van Old Malt Cask, maar dan allemaal net iets subtieler. De leeftijd is hier duidelijk te ruiken. Het ruikt ‘oud’. Veel leer, boenwas, parketolie en zwaar nat hout. Het ruikt een beetje alsof je bij een meubelmaker zit.

Smaak:
De smaak biedt niet veel meer dan de neus, met wederom die ouderwetse smaken. Het gekke is dat het allemaal wel goed in balans is. Ik had niet verwacht hier enthousiast over te zijn, maar het is toch eigenlijk wel lekker. Ook komt er iets licht bitters door van sinaasappel of grapefruit.

Finish:
De finish is ook flink beinvloed door het europees eiken waar de whisky op gelagerd is. Daardoor lijkt het haast wel een Japanse whisky. Ook hier komt de sinaasappel door, meer nog dan in de smaak.

Deze whisky is er niet een voor mensen die van zachte whisky houden. Erg fel met flinke smaken en uitschieters naar hout en leer. Het duurt vrij lang voor er wat fruitigheid bij komt kijken, maar dat is wel een aangename verrassing. De balans is stukken beter dan bij de Old Malt Cask variant. Die heb ik voor de grap ook nog even geroken, maar dan is dit toch duidelijk wel een betere botteling!

Fettercairn 34, 1975-2009, The Whisky Agency, 57%.

Geur: 7
Smaak: 8
Afdronk: 8
Ervaring: 8
Prijs/Kwaliteit: ? = 0

Totaal: 31 punten