French Brandy 28, 1993-2022, 47% – Michiel Wiman, Precious Moments

Posted on 2 November 2022 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

The Precious Moments series is one of many series that Michiel Wigman has running at the moment. At least, if some things turn out to be series. Anyway, ‘Precious Moments’ is and after last year’s (yet to be reviewed) Caroni, there now is a French Brandy.

Technically this would classify as a Cognac, except for the fact that it matured in England for a while and that disqualifies it from that category. So, French Brandy it is.

Image from Dutch Whisky Connection

Initially I was a bit shocked by the € 235 price tag for something that is not a Cognac, simply assuming it was some kind of a random find from a distillery in France not in a region that classifies as something. But, with the situation around the name cleared up, it makes a lot more sense.

After tasting it, it made even more sense…

Sniff:
A very rich and gentle nose with a typical Cognac/Armagnac fruitiness, but with a hint of peppermint in the background. Lots of wood, a some copper. Wild peach liqueur, lychees, banana.

Sip:
The palate brings a bit of a peppery bite, with white and black pepper. Wild peaches, without the liqueur bit now. Other light tropical fruits like that, like lychees. Like on the nose, a bit of a banana-like sweetness.

Swallow:
The finish continues down the same line. I feel like there’s some other fruit in this mix, than just grapes. There’s a very different sweetness to it than I’m used to. The note of copper is back too.

I don’t feel like I’m doing this justice, but it’s absolutely gorgeous. Much better than many much older brandies. When trying this I wasn’t aware of the Cognac categorization and that sent me in the wrong direction. However, in the end it’s a very interesting things that defies most typical categories.

It’s a more rich and complex than I’m used to from regularly available Cognacs. It’s also far more elegant and gentle than most Armagnacs. It is way more in line with the current wave of single cask Cognacs that have been coming out for the last couple of years, which makes sense because this is one too.

The light fruitiness, the layered richness with more crisp hints to keep it from becoming too heavy, it all works. This is a very, very good drink indeed!

91/100

Available here for € 235

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Skara Brae 16, 2005-2021, Bourbon cask 22, 57% – Cooper’s Choice

Posted on 1 November 2022 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Skara Brae automatically involved the islands of Orkney, even if it wasn’t mentioned on the label. It’s the 4000 year old settlement uncovered on the ‘mainland’ of Orkney.

Image from Whiskybase

And with this being an undisclosed Orkney whisky, we can safely state that this is a Highland Park, as are (unofficially) all the others. A friend of mine picked up this bottle when it was discounted recently, and shared some samples of it. With me being a bit of a Highland Park fanatic, I picked one up and tried it.

Even if it is just to find out how it compares to the other recent ones that I’ve been trying (here, here and here). I rated those very highly, so apart from being a fan of the style, the bar is pretty high too.

Sniff:
Slightly on the sweet side with hints of vanilla and pastry. A whiff of smoke and straw. Marram grass and a bit of a briny coastal note. Some apples, pears and white grapes. Roasty oak and porridge too.

Sip:
The palate is surprisingly strong and spicy. There’s a lot of chili heat with other flavors pushed to the background. Straw and oak shavings after that. Apples, unripe pears, a bit of a grape seed bitterness. Coastal salinity too, very briny.

Swallow:
The finish holds the middle between the palate and the nose. There’s some peppery sharpness but the pastry like sweetness of the nose is present too.

Decent stuff, but compared to the other recent Secret Orkneys, this is rather boring. It shows the things I like so much about the other ones, but very marginally. There’s just a bit too much sweetness and it somehow tastes a bit hot compared to the others.

85/100

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Hazelburn 11, 2007-2019, Re-Charred Bourbon Barrels, 54.2% – Springbank Society

Posted on 27 October 2022 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

This is one with a bit of history. I ordered it from the Society back in 2019, and even though I tried arranging pick-up or delivery quite a few times, it never actually happened. I was only able to pick it up last March when visiting Mark Watt in Campbeltown.

Luckily, one of my friends was clever enough to point out I should check before we drove off, and so it was during lunch at a local pub I found out they had given me the wrong bottle. Back to the Cadenhead shop in Campebletown once more!

Image from Whiskybase

Anyway, after getting this back home I made some samples, and a little while after that I sat down to actually taste this.

Sniff:
There’s oak and barley. And, surprisingly for a re-char cask, not too much wood. Caramel apples, coastal salinity and some hessian. Candied lemon and baked apple too.

Sip:
Dry, quite sharp, with notes of straw, barley and grist. Apple, sweetened lemon, coconut.

Swallow:
A warming finish. Slightly sweet with apple compote, sand biscuits. A very long and gentle finish.

I generally am not too keen on Hazelburn whiskies. I’ve had quite a few that just didn’t sit well with me, even though I tend to absolutely adore Springbank and Longrow. With them coming from the same distillery and the same still I still find that surprising.

This one, though, is very very good. It’s a very straight forward dram with the wood not being forced too much. As said, surprising for a re-char cask, they tend to go all in on the oak. I love how it’s a very old fashioned dram, it somehow is soothing because of it!

88/100

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Secret Islay 20, 2002-2022, Sherry cask, 53.1% – Earlskine

Posted on 24 October 2022 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

After the first batch of Earlskine whiskies, there is now a new bottling. This time it is an undisclosed Islay whisky, with some hints on the label that leave exactly one option. So, there’s little guessing there.

I like that I don’t have to guess. In the end it’s the taste that counts most, but I’m a geek and I like data. So, I tend to steer away from NAS bottlings with more made up nonsense on the label than actual information.

This one, apart from not publicly displaying the distillery name contains all that info, so I’m a happy camper. Age, vintage, cask type, the works.

Now, back to what matters most!

Sniff:
A nice and mature peated whisky. Quite light in its profile with a lemony smokiness. Apart from the smoke being a bit more intense, I would have guessed this was a Bowmore. There are some bakery notes with vanilla and pastry cream, puff pastry and dried lemon.

Sip:
The palate has a syrupy texture and is quite strong on the alcohol and a white pepper heat. Dry with smoke, oak and straw. Crusty bread and less sweet than the nose was. After a couple of seconds the heat dissipates, and a more barley forward, with that lemony smoke, appears.

Swallow:
The finish is super gentle, with smoke and lemon, barley and straw. It’s not overly long, but rather good and flavorful.

So, with the hints pointing at 1816, this must be a Lagavulin. Based on flavor I would have guessed either Laphroaig or Bowmore, but the numbers don’t match. Then again, I have had undisclosed Islays that were supposed to be Lagavulin from around the same vintage with the same profile.

So, how is it? Any good? Hell yes. I love that is shows depth instead of just punchiness which seems to be the main angle for modern Islay whiskies of lesser age. Islay and proper maturation go a long way, but generally it’s way out my reach. This one, apparently clocking in under 200 euros is within reach for a special occasion bottling. Especially considering that this is a 20 year old Islay whisky.

89/100

This whisky will be available later this week, mostly in Germany.

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Glentauchers 16, 2006-2022, Refill Bourbon Barrel 703712, 58.6% – Gordon & MacPhail for Whiskybase

Posted on 23 October 2022 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

The 15th anniversary of Whiskybase is a thing that should be celebrated. Not just from a commercial perspective, but also because I feel like Whiskybase has significantly changed the whisky landscape since its inception a decade and a half ago.

Not all of that change is good, I think. I love the platform, and happily manage my collection there. However, with prices from all over the world being entered into a system, it also means that prices are maintained on a global level. When one shop goes up, another will quickly follow.

This is not something that is Whiskybase’s fault or something. If it wasn’t the company from Rotterdam, it would have been someone else, so it was inevitable. It’s just that they’re the subject of this post.

Image from Whiskybase

Anyway, back to the celebration. This sixteen year old Glentauchers, bottled FOR Whiskybase and not BY them, comes from the warehouses of Gordon & MacPhail. A fairly straight forward approach with refill bourbon cask maturation, from a distillery that has a lot of different faces. Let’s find which face is shown this time!

Sniff:
Barley and straw at first, but there’s a custard-y richness too. It’s not too much focused on the vanilla, though. There’s candied lemon, a whiff of aniseed, twigs and some woody herbs like rosemary.

Sip:
The palate has a bit of sharpness, mostly wood and alcohol. Not necessarily peppery, but spices and herbs, and citrus fruits. Lemon pith and candied lemon segments, a bit of aniseed seeds. Later on there is some apple skins and fresh juice too.

Swallow:
The finish is a bit more dry but still keeps the richness. More straw and barley, oak and a bit of lemon pith. Quite a long finish that becomes slightly more sweet and slightly more lemon-curdy towards the end.

I love that they went with refill bourbon for this whisky. It shows a rather restrained profile, with a nice bit of fruitiness and some powerful wood and barley notes too. All in all it’s a very good whisky, with a nice bit of depth and lovely flavors. It’s not showing a lot of vanilla and not too much sweetness. Very good stuff!

89/100

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Dailuaine 14, 2004, 1st Fill Oloroso Hogshead, 57.9% – SMWS (41.124, Weighty but Welcoming)

Posted on 20 October 2022 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Yup, another one of those weirdly named SMWS bottlings. I got this one in auction little over a year ago, in the last throes of lockdown after lockdown. Based on the ratings on Whiskybase I think I used this one in a tasting, since all the usual suspects seem to have left their mark.

Dailuaine, lately an either very funky, or rather waxy whisky, and based on the fact that it didn’t used to be that, a bit of a changeling distillery. Generally what comes out of the place is rather nice, but you can’t really know what the style of the whisky is going to be before you try it (or read a review somewhere).

Let’s see where this one sits!

Sniff:
A fairly typical sherry cask for people who love sherry casks. There is a lot of dried fruits, with plums, dates and apricots. Marzipan too. Very cask driven, because there are virtually no notes of the actual spirit.

Sip:
The palate is quite dry and brings a bit of sweetness from the dried fruit. There’s quite some peppery heat, dry oak shavings. The fruit from the nose is well pronounced too, and shows up after a few seconds.

Swallow:
There is a lot of sherry on the finish too, like lots. Not an overly long finish fully focused on the cask influence of dried fruits.

Lovely flavors but distillery character is completely missing. Not that I would actually know Dailuaine that well, but it’s just cask.

86/100

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Caol Ila 15, 2007-2022, PX Sherry Butt Finish, 54.6% – Douglas Laing’s Old Particular

Posted on 13 October 2022 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

This bottling, from the Dutch Dram Masters series, is a brand new one. It just came out a few days ago and somehow it grabbed my attention, unlike a lot of Islay whiskies nowadays. Pretty labelling helps, but other than that I can’t really say why it has that ‘je ne sais quoi’.

Image from De Monnik, the importer in NL for Old Particular

Interestingly, Caol Ila is the one distillery that really kick started my love affair with whisky. Of course, we had the obligatory Glenfiddich 12 and a miniature of Oban, Talisker and Glenlivet, but the first ‘big’ whisky I bought was a bottle of Caol Ila 18.

So, even though bottles have become few and far between over the last couple of years (something about Islay whisky, it’s popularity and accompanying price tag), I always hope one of these bottles will take me back to those early years, a little under 20 years ago.

Let’s see how nostalgic we can get with this one!

Image from Whiskybase

The typical milky, diesely scent of Caol Ila. Smoky, with engine grease and almond milk. Even though it’s a dark whisky, the sherry plays second fiddle. A whiff of mint among some date paste. Salty, tarry harbor scents too.

Sip:
Not too sharp an arrival with just a bit of a peppery bite. Here there’s more dry sherry, with almonds and cherry stones. Dates, tar and a sharp spiciness.

Swallow:
A gentle finish with the spiciness of black pepper instead of the heat of chilies. A bitter sherry note, almonds, spices, quite long and smoky.

Yes, yes, yes! It has those classical Caol Ila notes of engine grease and thick cream. But also, it’s not one of those massively barbecue-y drams that sometimes are just too sherry-cask-driven. I think the fact that this is a finished whisky instead of having matured for the full 15 years is very good.

So, man, I love this dram. And yes, there might be a point in its score for nostalgic reasons, but it just does everything well. There’s definitely smoke, but it’s not all there is. There’s definitely sherry but there’s also room for the distillery character. There’s coastal notes and hints of wood and a bit of straw. It just works.

On top of all that, it seems that this cask was handled with some restraint. And that’s not a common thing nowadays. I think that that is the most awesome thing about it. It’s layered, like a parfait, or an onion.

90/100

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Glentauchers 2008-2021, Sherry cask, 52.3% – Michiel Wigman ‘They Inspired III’

Posted on 11 October 2022 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Another second for Michiel Wigman, this time a Glentauchers. The previous one was a younger port cask, and this time it has a few more years, and a different maturation. Personally, I accept that there are tremendous Port casks available for a lot of distilleries, but I always find them a bit risky without having tasted them, or have read some reviews of reviewers that I know align in preference and taste.

Not so with sherry casks. There’s a huge variety of sherry casks and I tend to be quite tolerant to a bit of sulfur in a whisky. Also, the style of sherry cask that more or less takes over the entire whisky is hugely popular but doesn’t sit too well with me. As in, I like to be able to actually recognize some qualities of whisky in it.

Glentauchers seems to be a whisky that is quite readily available to bottlers, and has a huge range of different styles. It might be a whisky that simply highlights the cask it was bottled in, or one that changes a lot when maturing. Anyway, it’s a bit like a box of chocolates…

Sniff:
A very heavy, and rather funky nose. There is dry, moldy fruit with leather and shoe polish. “Fluffy” dates, so to say. Quite gentle, but incredibly heavy as well. Some baking spices in the background. It fits Glentauchers. Later on, I get a surprise hit of baked apples too.

Sip:
The palate is quite gentle, with a more traditional flavor profile. Dried fruit and baking spices. Some black pepper, cloves and some cinnamon. It’s very interesting how this is a 52% whisky and has virtually no heat or burn at all.

Swallow:
The finish is a bit warmer, with a slightly more dry, barley focused flavor. Rather long, and there’s a lingering flavor that I somehow recognize as slightly too moldy French cheese.

There’s a funky sharpness, that works really well in cheeses, but not so much in fruit. However, as a dram it’s rather enjoyable and is well balanced between distillate and cask, nature and nurture so to say. Well picked by Michiel, and still available at Dutch Whisky Connection

88/100

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Tomatin 21, bottled in 2020, Travel Retail Exclusive, 46%

Posted on 9 October 2022 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Another COVID leftover. This one, like many others, was bought to be part of a tasting. At this point, I’m not even sure that ever happened, but the bottle did end up in my collection during lockdown.

Anyway, Tomatin can be good, but can also be insanely boring. This one did have good ratings on Whiskybase, and quite some votes, so I was rather confident going in. First Fill Bourbon Barrels generally sits rather well with me, especially with some age to it.

Sniff:
A bit of an Indian Summer whisky, with lots of yellow fruit and warm barley. Bread, pound cake, barley, apples, pear. In the background there’s a whiff of aniseed too.

Sip:
Dry barley and dried apple at the front. Some white pepper, white bread and a bit of vanilla custard. Less crisp and bright than the nose. Ripe, sweet and dried yellow fruit.

Swallow:
The finish is slightly less fruity, and more bready, white bread and white pepper. Not overly long.

There is not much about this whisky that is surprising. What is there is exactly what you expect to be there, but luckily the execution is quite spot on. Some vanilla, but mostly bready, barley driven notes backed-up by yellow fruit from the bourbon casks.

With this, at 21 years old and with a nice maturity to it, coming in at little over € 100, it’s quite a good buy. Compared to what whisky of this age generally costs nowadays, I think there’s little harm in this one. Good stuff!

87/100

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Secret Orkney 2007-2022, 50.8% – Michiel Wigman ‘They Inspired III’

Posted on 7 October 2022 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

In the 2022 series of They Inspired we find the second Secret Orkney bottling done by Michiel Wigman. Also, it is yet another Secret Orkney after several releases that have been done over the last couple of months by familiar bottlers like Whisky Nerds and Wu Dram Clan. This is the youngest of the three so far, but only by a year.

This year, ‘They Inspired’ consists of whisky icons, once more painted by Hans Dilesse. The Secret Orkney shows the face of Sukhinder Singh, who was the face of The Whisky Exchange since it started a few decades ago.

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
With the slight smoky note, there’s an interesting whiff of diesel. But, diesel in the harbor, because there’s a hint of tar and salinity too. Green apples, barley and straw. Old lemons and some marram grass.

Sip:
The palate is a bit more sweet than the nose was. There’s a syrupy note, with a different kind of apple too. Still rather barley driven, and after a few seconds a pretty strong note of white pepper starts showing up. A very small whiff of smoke, but with dry straw and old grass. Pears too.

Swallow:
The finish brings back that diesel fume, in combination with a bit more maritime notes than the palate had. Tar, ropes, salinity.

I’m not sure if a personal preference can be called a bias, but I do tend to like these Secret Orkney, also known as Highland Park, whiskies. Then again, because expectations are so high, the slightest flaw might stand out like a sore thumb.

In this case, it doesn’t though, since it is a really good whisky. The palate was a touch more sweet than the ‘Nerds and Wu Dram versions, but the whiff of diesel throughout pulls a lot of weight. All in all, a very good whisky. The added fact that this is still available at € 135 is a bonus. Highly recommended!

89/100

Available here

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