Unnamed Orkney 16, 2006-2022, Refill Butt DRU17/A65#4, 46% – The Ultimate

Posted on 6 March 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

It’s been a while since I tried anything by The Ultimate. Generally I don’t really buy into the brand since I often find the whisky a little bit lackluster. Often bottled too young, under ten years old. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the combination of the distilleries, and the age, and the fact that I’ve been let down by quite a few from this bottler don’t make me jump up when something new is released.

Image from Whiskybase

However, undisclosed Orkney, AKA Highland Park, is a bit of a difference. In this case I got a sample from a friend, although I was eyeing this bottle myself as well. As in, 16 year old Highland Park for just a blip over € 50 is a steal in any case, and I don’t think Highland Park makes whiskies that are bad enough to be disappointing at that price point.

Sniff:
Light sherry, light peat smoke. Peaches, heather, lighter dried fruits. Very coastal, and very typical of Highland Park. Quite a bit of oak, dried fruits, marram grass.

Sip:
A bit of bite with chili heat. There’s oak, pepper, a slight bitter note with peach stones and almonds. Salinity and reeds, dried grass, sherry.

Swallow:
The finish is very gentle with wood, peach and heather. A bit of smoke, but not sea-weed-y. Quite sweet with hints of sherry and a bit of peach syrup.

A bit on the sweet side, but lovely flavors. I love, as expected, that there’s a whiff of Highland peat and heather to counter the sweetness a little bit. If that wasn’t there, this review would have panned out differently.

But, lovely fruitiness, lovely mix of distillery and cask characters. Good stuff!

87/100

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Taking Flight with the Springbank Stallions

Posted on 4 March 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Steady contributor Tom went to Campbeltown in January, and of course, he did a nice write-up for us/you/me! Let’s see what this tasting is about, in which they tasted the first sixteen (!) Society bottlings!

Bram van Glabbeek of WhiskyNerds fame is in most whisky circles renowned for his knowledge of and passion for Springbank. As part of the Springbank Stallions he puts his name under memorable get-togethers with connoisseurs and whisky lovers from all over Europe. Coordinated by organizer and passionate host Johan Andersson, the Stallions gathered in January 2023 to taste the first 16 bottlings of the Springbank Society. As a participant of this tasting, these are my impressions. These notes are based on two successive 2-hour tastings, eight expressions in both flights, and taken from 1,5 cl samples. The scores are far from secured in controlled environment (quite the opposite actually…).

The tasting was guided by Bram and Ranald Watson, Director of Sales and Marketing at J&A Mitchell.

  1. Springbank 8 yo – 56 % (fresh sherry hogshead)
    Starts with a distinct rum note. Also a nice note of vinegar. A nice woody influence. Exceptionally smooth and balanced. According to some experienced tasters, this developed very well in the bottle.
    Score: 89 points. (25 pounds when it was released…)
  2. Springbank 22 yo – 46 % (bourbon)
    After the fat sherry of the opening whisky this one feels extremely thin, delicate, like seeing a ballet dancer perform after a kickboxing match. Both are excellent. Bit more shy on the nose, but fresh and raisiny.
    Score: 90 points
  3. Longrow 8 yo – 59,9 % (refill sherry butt)
    A bottle that most remember as being quite sulphury. I don’t detect it now, which is good news. Clean peat with a layer of sweetness. The taste is much more impressive. Dark chocolate, good smoke, mint but all rather integrated so nothing gets dominant. Bit harsh, but water helps.
    Score: 87 points.
  4. Hazelburn 8 yo – 58,7 % (refill sherry butt)
    When you once picked it up, the rum note keeps popping up in the three sherry casks that we had thus far. We agree there is indeed quite a strong consistency, no matter which spirit went in there. With water this dram releases a nice fruity character, but the overall impression is that it is a bit dry and as a result harsh.
    Score: 85 points.
  5. Springbank 14 yo – 55,3 % (bourbon hogshead)
    I would expect to turn towards a more classic Springbank with chalk and wet pebbles. This leans toward spicy bitter notes, chocolate, and quite a nice dash of vanilla in there. Interesting, a strong oily note in the finish. The stuff dreams are made of.
    Score: 91 points
  6. Springbank 9 yo – 60,2 % (fresh rum butt)
    Very drinkable at this high abv. Nosing is a bit more difficult but the classic fruity notes are there. I love the mellow banana flavors of this one, and if you’re patient enough the Springbank character does come through. This is fun to play with.
    Score: 87 points.
  7. Springbank 17 yo – 51,5 % (port hogshead)
    Full maturation in a port hogshead. Now that is frightening… but somehow it works. It has a broad spectrum of red fruits and no bad off notes. Or maybe, on the finish there is a sulphury note but I am not bothered by it. It adds a nice edge on an otherwise fruity dram. Complex and not for the faint of heart.
    Score: 90 points.
  8. Springbank 11 yo – 48,7 % (sherry butt + hogshead)
    A special Society bottling for the 180th anniversary of Springbank. Cask 18 and cask 28 were vatted. You figure out where you have to be in 2028. This is a rather nutty expression. A tad bitter but very fulfilling. Not a true highlight, almost a daily dram.
    Score: 86 points.
  9. Longrow 12 yo – 57,6 % (Fino sherry butt)
    Dark color for a Fino. Good classic grapes on the nose. The peat and sherry make for an almost toxic mix resulting in meaty notes. Clean and smooth finish. The vintage comes from a time the distillers started maturing more stuff in different sherry casks, not only oloroso. This Fino is very muscled. Good stuff.
    Score: 91 points.
  10. Hazelburn 8 – 55,7 % (fresh bourbon barrel)
    Rather light after the sherry violence. It does have a nice clean feel to it, underlining that bourbon maturation is as good as it gets for Campbeltown malts. Nice soft fruits, vanilla, good kick on the finish.
    Score: 85 points.
  11. Springbank 14 yo – 57,1 % (sherry pipe)
    Nobody knows what a sherry pipe is but the result is a rather red-fruity character. Vintage 1995 and nobody wrote down any details about the cask. That’s probably why it got bottled for the Society. The nerds like this. With water a bit more unbalanced. It’s good, not great.
    Score: 85 points.
  12. Springbank 11 yo – 57,9 % (recharred sherry butt, local barley)
    The first Local Barley Springbank since the 1960s to be bottled. This has an incredible freshness to it, despite the re-charred character of the cask. Also crispy bacon, leaving no doubt about the cask impact on the spirit. Again a meaty example with a rather burned, caramel finish. I am a bit split on this one. Lots of off notes too, and good sides as well, so it depends on mood.
    Score: 88 points.
  13. Longrow 10 yo – 53,9 % (fresh sherry butt)
    Nice dark chocolate character, the Latin American kind. Dark pepper, good peat, all in perfect balance. It goes into a fight with you, and you don’t mind losing. Perfect in its straightforwardness. Love it.
    Score: 90 points.
  14. Springbank 14 yo – 55,7 % (port butt and refill bourbon butt)
    Don’t ask me about these weird cask names and sizes. Springbank does not mind mingling it up a bit. Anyway, it’s rather rubbery in character and I have trouble enjoying it. For masochists only.
    Score: 82 points.
  15. Springbank 15 yo – 56,5 % (refill bourbon & fresh madeira)
    Five years finish in madeira. Still very recognizable Springbank but the finish puts a nice layer on it. Doesn’t feel very integrated but still manages to make impact.
    Score: 88 points.
  16. Springbank 12 yo – 53,5 % (fresh port)
    The port cask (a hogshead apparently) doesn’t really feel. It leaves a bitter chocolate footprint. As is true for all Society bottlings, they are very fragrant. Nice sweetness to this one. Chocolate on the finish. The integration is fabulous. Good end to this tasting.
    Score: 89 points.

So there, that was round 1, to be continued in 2024 for another 16 expressions. We concluded this mammoth tasting with a sample of the newest Society bottling, which will be a 5 years old Springbank at 100 proof. Very reminiscent of the new make we tasted earlier straight from the still. Fruity and fresh, not hiding its youth but proudly displaying it. A bold decision that will certainly stir opinion upon release!

About Tom van Engelen

Tom is a whisky enthusiast since the beginning of this millennium, not only savoring the taste of the drink but also the soul of it. Malt whisky from Scotland therefor remains his favorite focus. As former editor of the oldest Dutch whisky magazine he found a passion in writing about whisky too, with a mild preference for the nostalgic. He lives between the big rivers of the Netherlands with his wife Dasha, daughter Sasha and cat Amour.

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Caperdonich 25, 1997-2022, Hogshead 30900, 56.2% – The Duchess

Posted on 3 March 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

With a couple of rum releases that are coming up on this here blog soon, and now this Caperdonich, it seems that The Duchess is back at it in regard to bottling quality booze! I’m not sure if it was my wrong perception, but it seemed to quiet down from the Naarden bottler.

But now, all of a sudden, there’s this 25 year old single malt from a distillery that has been closed for 21 years. Quite a decent age, and it seems the whisky from this era of ‘Glen Grant 2’ is improving with time, since initially those Caperdonichs were not regarded with awe, a decade or so ago.

Image from Best of Wines

Of course, the label is done by Hans Dillesse once again, and this time the bottling has gone into the ‘Game & Wildlife Series’. The fifth whisky to go into this range, after a Bunnahabhain, Ailsa Bay, Ben Nevis and a Glenallachie.

Sniff:
There’s a maturity, even though it’s still a rather light whisky. Lots of white oak and some fruit. There’s some old pear, baked apple, a hint of banana too. Quite a ‘fruit pie’ sweetness, so tinned peaches too.

Sip:
The palate isn’t overly sharp although there’s a bit of white pepper. Quite some dry oak shavings, and lots of fruit. Far more than on the nose, or slightly more fresh. Peach, pear, baked apples. Some baking spices too, but not too strong. Toasted oak, and some molasses like sweetness.

Swallow:
The finish is very classical with lots of oak, old white oak. Peach and apple and pear, some cinnamon and caramel. Fruit pie, with classical barley and oak notes.

I love how gentle this one has gotten in 25 years. Even though the alcohol percentage is still quite high, it arrives very smoothly and never really bites. It’s a complex whisky that has improved with age, to show lovely fruity notes on a rustic backdrop. I think rustic is a good word for this whisky. It never is modern in any way!

90/100

Available at Best of Wines (and some other shops) for € 500 (It’s a closed distillery, after all)

Thanks for the sample, Best of Wines!

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Balblair 8, 2012-2021, Refill Sherry Hogshead 3237, 57.3% – Kintra Whisky

Posted on 2 March 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Kintra used to be a rather well known Dutch bottler. Well known amongst whisky geeks that is, but still. But, and it’s anything but illogical, Erik Molenaar has been focusing on his Wagging Finger distillery in Deventer ever since that got up and running. More so than on the bottling side of things.

With an eye for quality and the rising prices of everything whisky-related, this looks like a smart change of perspective to me!

Two years ago he did release some bottles. A couple of them with The Whisky Mercenary from Belgium, and two of them by himself. This is one of them. I think the other one will follow tomorrow.

Image from Whiskybase

Ever since re-visiting Balblair distillery in October, I’ve been going through this bottle a little bit more quickly than before. And yes, this is another one that was bought during covid for the ‘Stay the Fuck Home’ tastings.

Last weekend, during a couple of days in the Ardennes with my in-laws it was time to finish the bottle, among quite a few others, to downsize my collection of open bottles a little bit. Of course, a visit to Shoppingcenter Massen counteracted that a little bit, but still. Net progress was made in that regard!

Sniff:
Oloroso sherry and a lot of strong alcohol. More oak thsn I’d expect for an eight year old dram. Very sweet with notes of pound cake, soaked in orange liqueur.

Sip:
Again, a lot of alcohol, with the heat tgat cones with it. It does show what we would call ‘dirty sherry’. A bit of clowing sweetness, pencils, orange syrup, slightly funky sherry notes.

Swallow:
Lots of funky sherry again, lots of moldy hessian and old, wet oak.

It’s not really a typical Balblair, since the cask influence is quite strong and trumps the spirit. However, it’s a very nice whisky. Not overly complex, but with a bit more funkiness than normal. And I like that funkiness.

86/100

Still for sale in The Netherlands and going between € 60 and € 70

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Ledaig 13, 2008-2021, PX Sherry Quarter Cask, 50% – Claxton’s Exploration Series

Posted on 21 February 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

This Ledaig, the peated version of Tobermory on the Isle of Mull, was bottled for the Netherlands, just under two years ago. Immediately upon release it started scoring really high marks, which isn’t too surprising for an affordable whisky that is both peated and matured on a sherry cask.

Of course, as has been part of the introduction of many a review here, this was initially bought for the ‘Stay the Fuck at Home’ tastings’. A tasting like that was done with about 10 people and that doesn’t exactly empty a bottle.

Some samples were sold, after the tasting, as was the modus operandi at the time. With this being a peated and sherried whisky, I didn’t want to go through the entire bottle by doing that so I kept a bit for myself. By now the level of whisky is nearing the bottom of the bottle, and with a weekend away in sight, it’s high time for a review!

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
Well, this definitely is sherry and peat. The sweeter PX style, not overly complex. The peat is of a rather coastal style, with a briny quality to it. Quite some oak and dark dried fruits.

Sip:
The palate is rather gentle. I guess the ABV is held in check by the rather pushed oak influence. It’s quite sweet with dried dates and prunes. Sooty and briny smoke, lots of soft oak and a syrupy sweetness.

Swallow:
The finish has a bit more bite, but only a bit. Quite some sherry and oak again, really amped up compared to what you’d expect of a 13 year old whisky.

So, generally, sherry and peat is a really good combination. It doesn’t work in all situations, but in the ones that it does, it’s really good. Generally, though, it makes for good whisky, but not the most complex whisky. Especially when said whisky isn’t thirty years old. It tends to be fairly straight forward, but very tasty at the same time.

This one is no exception in that regard. It does what is says on the tin and it does it very well. Of course, this sold out rather quickly, but I wouldn’t even have been upset if I had gotten two bottles! It’s a lovely drinking whisky with a not-too-high ABV and lovely flavors. A very well selected cask by High Spirits, and one I’ll gladly finish with my in-laws soon!

88/100

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Talisker 8 and 11, the Special Releases from 2021 and 2022

Posted on 20 February 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

I kind of like Talisker. Always have, probably always will. However, I don’t like ‘everything’ Talisker. As in, their NAS releases, Storm, Dark Storm, Port Ruighe, Skye and probably some others that I can’t remember from the top of my head are a bit pointless to me. Of course, they sell, so there’s a market for them, but I just can’t really give a crap.

Now then, when they release a special one in autumn, like Diageo does every year, and there’s sort-of-affordable Talisker in the mix, I tend to pick up a bottle for sharing. This is how I ended up with both the 2021 and 2022 release.

Coincidentally to me, I didn’t realize their peating approaches were opposites for these releases, one is from heavily peated stocks, and the other from a significantly lighter approach.

That sounds like a nice head-to-head, so here it goes!

Talisker 8, Heavily Peated Refill Casks, 59.7% – Special Release 2021

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
There’s quite some vanilla from the start. After that, there’s brine and, strangely, a hint of aniseed and licorice. Warming smoke and oak, with a gentle sweet touch.

Sip:
It bites with the high ABV, and the typical note of black pepper is present too. A sharp oakiness, and a sharp sort of smoke.

Swallow:
The finish ramps up the coastal flavors and salinity hugely. A lot of brine, sandy beaches and salt.

While this is a nice enough whisky, I’m a bit confused by it. It’s a bit like Talisker is trying to imitate Ardbeg or Ledaig, with the amped up peating levels. It doesn’t really suit the style all that well. I think the whisky itself is a bit too subtle for the peating levels. The massive ABV doesn’t really help either, and makes for a rather hot and peppery whisky. Still, as said, nice enough. It still is quite Talisker like and the note of aniseed on the nose was nice!

86/100

Still available for about € 90-ish

Talisker 11, Lightly Peated Stocks, 55.1% – Special Release 2022

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
A very subtle smokiness, which (maybe this is inverted from reality) reminds me of Torabhaig. The smokiness is quite light and a bit more crisp than in regular Talisker. Some salinity, smoldering embers, marram grass and wet tree bark. Some ash too.

Sip:
The palate is quite dry and spicy. There’s white pepper, oak shavings, straw. The smokiness is here too. Even though it’s supposed to be lightly peated, it tastes like it’s ‘differently peated’. Embers, marram grass, quite coastal, but also rather foresty.

Swallow:
The finish is more mellow than I expected. Still dry, and there’s definitely some bite left. It’s also a bit more spirity, which is anything but a bad thing. Peat, earthy notes. Marram grass and washed up trees.

This lower level of smokiness suits the whisky much better, as does the slightly less hot ABV. There’s more room for the spirit to give more nuanced notes, and makes it more representative of the Isle of Skye. More foresty notes, more wood like and such. It still retains the coastal notes as well, and that makes for a nice combination of flavors!

88/100

Available for about € 110

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Glen Moray 11, 2008-2020, Refill Oloroso Puncheon, 64.9% – SMWS (‘Stirs your soul’)

Posted on 17 February 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Whether it stirs your soul or puts a blowtorch to it is to be seen. A whisky at 65% alcohol is not something to take lightly, and especially not as a first dram of the day. Of course, I didn’t, luckily the ABV was on the sample’s label.

Image from Whiskybase

Glen Moray is a bit of an interesting one. Depending on which way the coin falls it can be a lovely fruity dram with a lot of depth, but it can also be a fairly generic whisky that could be anything.

I know, in the past, that SMWS bottled some really good whiskies from Glen Moray, but that was years ago and those were 30+ years old. This is a very different beasty. Let’s find out.

Sniff:
Burnt toast with apricot jam. Roasty and fruity scents, so to say. A very gentle spirit that leaves all the room for the cask. A hint of cheese, and candle wax too.

Sip:
Well, that ABV sure is there, even after a couple of drams. Holy shit. Roasty notes with a lot of boozy heat, and some fairly generic fruitiness. Some sherry notes, slightly yeasty, but mostly some fruit.

Swallow:
The finish is gone almost immediately. The flavors linger at about 5% of their initial intensity.

Weird stuff. Probably a too active cask for longer maturation, but way too strong to be ‘tasty’. The alcohol trumps everything else that the cask didn’t take care of. As in, a lot of suppression of flavors happens, and there’s just not much happening except for heat.

80/100

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Ardmore 24, 1997-2022, Hogshead 901451, 49.6% – WhiskyNerds

Posted on 16 February 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

There’s a few bottlers out there that get me all excited when a new release is announced. I guess the main two of those are WhiskyNerds and Wu Dram Clan. And yes, they are both doing more or less the same thing, with the same approach to whisky, so that’s not overly surprising.

But, with these two bottlers you can (for now…) guarantee they only bottle booze that they think is amazing. There’s no level of ‘we just happened to own these casks, so we bottled them’, which seems to be a thing with many of their competitors.

When they already got me excited for a new release, and it also turns out to be a properly aged Ardmore, I twice as giddy. Ardmore is one of those distilleries that everyone ignored a decade or so ago, but they have been gaining momentum over the last couple of years. Interestingly, and as with some other distilleries, you have to look at independent bottlers for the interesting stuff. There are official Ardmores, but I can’t remember when anyone cared about those.

So, this one, at 24 years old!

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
This is quite a multi layered start to the dram! Apart from there being a mild sweetness, it also has a more green aroma. Reine claude/greengage jam, moss, dry heather. A slightly sandy aroma too. There’s definitely oak on the nose as well, but no dry sharpness. Very mellow and very nuanced. The very light smoky note is dark and sooty, with a hint of engine oil too.

Sip:
The palate arrives very gently, but does bring the lightest hint of a white pepper bite. Warm oak, flaky pastry, slightly burnt caramel. Greengage jam again, with hints of moss and freshly cut grass. The green tufts on top of strawberries. It’s quite syrupy, with a hint of oily smoke. Olive oil, instead of engine oil now.

Swallow:
The finish shows a little bit more of the smoky notes that were there earlier. Still quite oily, but I can’t decide between olive oil and engine oil. So, both, then! A green fruitiness, with greengage, strawberry leaves, a little bit of baked apple peel.

As expected, this is a rather complex dram. I would have been very surprised if this was some smoke forward belter that operates on just one or two layers. There’s a fruity side, it never ignores its ingredients and origin, and the smoke has mutated in that strange, oily thing that’s present throughout. Absolutely epic.

Now, where to get € 300 from, because I want one.

92/100

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Mannochmore 12, 2010-2022, Black Isle Imperial Stout Cask, 50% – Thompson Brothers

Posted on 15 February 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

When this was released last year, I felt I had to do a bottle-share with a couple of its compatriots. Especially since this has all the statistics of a very interesting whisky

  • I tend to like the whiskies bottled by Paul and Simon Thompson
  • I tend to like Mannochmore
  • I like the beers from Black Isle Brewery
  • The ABV is slightly elevated without being napalm

All these things sound good to me! Also, at 12 years old it was aged acceptably and the price wasn’t too high either. That’s far from a given, nowadays.

Image from Whiskybase

So, let’s see if this works out!

Sniff:
Very spirity with the sweet notes of alcohol. Very spirity indeed. I also don’t get much of the stout. Not a lot of barley, not a lot of roasted malt. Strange.

Sip:
Again, almost like its new spirit, with a bit of alcohol sweetness. There is a bit of white pepper, and a bitterness that I don’t attribute to the malt of stout beers.

Swallow:
There is a bit of oak that I didn’t find before. Also some creamy richness that’s new. Suddenly the cask is making a wee dent, but it’s still mostly raw spirit in a lazy cask.

Well, it didn’t. Work out that is. It is like the cask barely influenced the whisky at all, except maybe to remove some barley notes. There are some different variables, but I wasn’t too far from thinking this tasted like a cask aged vodka. Rather flat, not a lot of oak. I can’t detect what the beer cask has done to the whisky.

In short, this was absolutely not my cup of tea. Nor was it my glass of whisky.

Let’s hope that there are more experiments like this, but with a better outcome. The concept of a strong stout beer cask with a whisky that leaves room for it still sounds good, in my book!

78/100

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Clynelish 17, 1997-2014, Hogshead, 46% – Wemyss

Posted on 14 February 2023 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

This whisky is called ‘Sweet and Sour Chutney’. I like Clynelish, and I like Indian food. Sounds good to me!

What also helps is that this line of whiskies from Wemyss is generally pretty good, and 1997 was an exceptional vintage for Clynelish too. All good things.

This was a single cask release done 9 years ago for ‘Whisky Lovers in France’, which is a club or something I’ve never heard about. Even Google doesn’t tell me much, so I guess this is something from the past.

The bottle was bought in auction, during lockdown. In the end I didn’t end up using it in a tasting, if I remember correctly, but I did sell quite a few samples (up to a level that I had only a 6cl sample left for myself).

Image from Whiskybase

What I always find interesting about bottles like this is that there were 345 drawn from the cask, but it’s only been rated on Whiskybase 5 times, with six people having it in their collection. Although, even that comes with a caveat, since 3 of the 5 raters rated it from my samples, and two of the people who have it in their collection are me and a friend who manages his samples through there too.

Sniff:
Quite a strong nose for a whisky at 46%. There is definitely something spicy and sour going on. Some pickled mango, too. Really chutney like! Although, generally chutney doesn’t have oak and barley and the Clynelish waxiness, that this whisky does have…

Sip:
The palate is surprisingly dry compared to what I expected. Lots of chaff and straw, with some freshly cracked black pepper too. The acidity, or sourness, is still present in a very fruity way. Again, not unlike pickled mango. With a bit of time the black pepper becomes more prominent.

Swallow:
There aren’t many surprises on the finish. The pepper is far less pronounced and the slight acidity lingers a bit.

It’s not a high scoring whisky on Whiskybase, clocking in just under 86 points. It’s fine, but not high scoring. I think it deserves a little bit more, although I also realize that the strange acidic palate is not for everyone. I did like it, and it did give me a rather unique tasting experience which I quite enjoy too.

87/100

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