Tomatin 21, 1st Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrels, 46% – OB for Travel Retail

Posted on 11 August 2021 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

With things being as they are, this seems a completely random bottle to buy, but somehow I did buy it. I planned to use it last year, in a tasting of some sort, but ended up not doing that for whatever reason. That’s something that happens when you need six whiskies for a tasting, but buy eight.

Anyway, properly aged Tomatin, at a decent ABV. I’m still not sure whether or not the ‘Travel Retail Exclusive’ should be seen as an invitation or a warning. Brands like to brandish statements like that, but in general, Travel Retail whiskies are pretty shit. Or at least, prices tend to be pretty shit.

Tomatin then. A weird distillery if there ever was one. A massive plant with a reasonably low output compared to what they have room for, or what they produced 40 years ago. They went down from 22 stills to 12 in the eighties, due to a lack in demand, and the awful state of most of the stills. Some necks were held up by ropes, because the copper had gotten so thin they’d cave in under their own weight. Or so the stillman told me in 2015.

Image from Whiskybase

This specific whisky then:

Sniff:
Initially quite light, with a lot of pastry notes. It’s predictably light, as a Tomatin should be. Hints of vanilla, some herbs and spices too. Oak, dried thyme and rosemary, but also a hint of sweeter baking spices.

Sip:
The palate stays rather light, maybe even a tad less rich than the nose. There are more hints of pepper now, with white pepper for some heat. Dry oak shavings, dried spices and herbs. It suggests a sweeter undertone of vanilla and puff pastry, with baked apples and sugar. You know it’s there and you can almost taste it, but it’s holding off until the finish.

Swallow:
The dryness is far less, and so is the pepper. The sweetness of baked apple and puff pastry comes through as expected. It’s a bit less sweet than I expected though.

Very deep for such a light whisky. Highly enjoyable and not a simple dram after all. I’m not even put off by the vanilla that permeates the entire experience.

The simplicity of my tasting notes doesn’t do the complexity of the whisky justice.

88/100

Available for € 145 at Whiskybase

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Bimber, 2020, Bourbon cask, 58.9% – OB for The Netherlands

Posted on 10 August 2021 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Pay attention: this is a review to (and a rant about) the first Bimber for The Netherlands, not the second one released in summer 2021.

There’s a problem here. I like to address it in my own, rambling way. Or at least, I have a problem with something, and that something is the perceived value of whisky like Bimber.

Bimber is getting rave reviews all over the internet. And by rave reviews I mean reviews that all state something like ‘It’s ridiculously good for a three year old whisky’. And it is. It is ridiculously good for a three year old whisky. Let’s get that out of the way.

When this stuff gets released, it sells for € 125-ish.

One hundred and twenty-five Euros for a 3 year old whisky. Let that sink in.

I understand that if you want to make a high quality product you have to charge extra. In this case I expect they go for the best equipment and the best raw materials, both casks and ingredients, and therefore there’s some leeway when pricing a bottle of whisky.

I also understand that when a new distillery releases their first batch of products (or in this case, the first 130 different bottlings in 2 years…) there’s a certain amount of hype around it, and that also results in people wanting to pay a little bit more for a bottle.

What I don’t understand is why stuff that scores an average of 86-and-change on Whiskybase is able to charge 200% of what they’re supposed to charge, and people KEEP buying into that.

How is it that, while everyone keeps complaining about whisky prices, everyone also validates these prices by buying 3 year old whisky at € 125?

You can a much better bottle of whisky at that price. You can get two better bottles of whisky at that price. And it’ll have some age to it as well. I’m at a loss here.

The worst part of this is that I fell for it as well. I got the first bottle for The Netherlands, and I got the secone one too. Although I’m not opening it, after having tasted the first one.

Sniff:
Young and with a lot of sweetness from oak and alcohol. Apples, pears, french bread and vanilla and pastry cream.

Sip:
Pretty sharp, with lots of alcohol heat. Some oak based vanilla flavor, with some white pepper popping up later on.

Swallow:
The finish shows its youth, with more focus on green malts and alcohol sweetness. Some peppery spice, a bit of vanilla and strangely, something fish like.

Honestly, as I said before, it’s very good for just a three year old. Impressive good FOR A THREE YEAR OLD. It’s not very good compared to many similarly priced but older whiskies. It’s probably not even that impressive compard to many cheaper independent bottlings at cask strength.

But, apart from it being very well made, it’s not overly interesting. There’s nothing unique about this whisky, except that it punches a little bit above it’s weight (unless you take the price into account, because then it doesn’t).

Of course, people want to taste this, but I suggest getting a sample of it, and not a bottle.

85/100

Available at wildly varying prices.

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Dalmore 11, 2001-2012, Virgin European Cask 6984, 52.1% – Creative Whisky Company

Posted on 9 August 2021 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Even though the Creative Whisky Company no longer exists, their bottlings are still around and in quite some cases, still rather affordable. This one, even though it’s been out there for nine years and was well received, is still available in Germany for under € 70.

Back in the day I tried this one at some tasting here or there, and I remember being quite enthusiastic about it. And recently it popped up in a share somewhere and I got another sample, to see where it sits the better part of a decade later.

Image from Whiskybase

It’s from the ‘Exclusive Casks’ series by CWC, and that means that it’s a finished whisky. It also is a Dalmore, and those weren’t frequent back then, and they are less so now. The official bottlings are generally either pretty shit, too expensive, or both, so this is a nice surprise in that matter too.

Sniff:
Massive notes of oak. Fresh oak shavings, and spirity whisky. Alcohol, oak, light fruit and some puff pastry. Loads of barley, and it’s like old grass.

Sip:
Fresh oak, with a lot of white pepper. Quite some bite, with hay and straw, oak shavings, dead moss, mud.

Swallow:
Lots of spirit again,much more like the nose. Green barley, hay, grass.

That it is finished in a virgin oak cask is noticeable, but that it is European Oak at that I missed. Still, there’s quite a lot happening and it has a nice focus on the more spicy side of things. On the nose there’s some sweetness and while it’s not completely gone later on, it does get toned down a bit, and that’s a good thing.

A rather enjoyable dram, better than most Dalmores at this price point, so recommended because of that. It might not be the best representation of what Dalmore normally is about, though.

86/100

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Ardmore 19, 1992-2011, Bourbon cask 9464, 49.3% – Single Malts of Scotland

Posted on 5 August 2021 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer
Image from Whiskybase

Yup, another Ardmore. I love it. The fact that it’s a peated whisky that tastes different than the most famous peated whiskies from Islay, and that they don’t push the peat to the brink of the ashtray sits very well with me.

Then, when SMOS releases one, I tend to pay attention. The Whisky Exchange / Speciality Drinks Ltd. / Elixir Distillers are known for their high quality bottlings, and these Single Malts of Scotland releases tend to be acceptably priced too. As in, not ridiculously expensive, compared to some other highly regarded brands.

Sniff:
Distinctly smoke, but surprisingly fatty. Chimney soot, smoked cheese. Quite some heather, and some salinity too.

Sip:
Intense with papery ash, soot. Some oak, burnt heather, rosemary, other herbs. Slightly creamy, lemon balm, some smoke too, but mostly sooty.

Swallow:
A gentle and long finish, a grainy note is there that wasn’t very pronounced before. Smoky, sooty, some oak and quite some burnt herbs.

And this one does things quite right. A rather unique approach to peated whisky, and therefore a rather unique whisky. It shows the ingredients in barley, oak and smoke. I like that it’s dry with some weird notes withouth turning too sweet. Very, very good stuff.

88/100

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Tomatin 16, 2001-2017, Bourbon cask 1153, 52.5% – Cooper’s Choice

Posted on 4 August 2021 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Tomatin is one of those distilleries that makes rather okay whisky, never bad, but also not often stellar. However, they do some very interesting things every now and then. They did a range of different sherry casks a few years ago, their Decades bottlings are quite good and the combination of a whisky and the accompanying sherry (both a PX and an Oloroso set came out) were awesome.

Image from Whiskybase

However, the most consistent part of Tomatin is their quite good bourbon cask whiskies. Their spirit is well made, in a rather cool distillery, so that helps too.

So, when a sample of this bourbon cask was offered from a bottle-share, I got a sample and hoped for this to be very good. The reviews on Whiskybase weren’t overly promising, but I don’t always agree with those. Let’s see where this one lands.

Sniff:
Tinned pineapple and thinner. Some acidity, barley, and a dusting of icing sugar. Becomes a bit more toast-like after a few seconds.

Sip:
The palate has some peppery heat, and quite some oak shavings. The fruit flavors are more in the background. Very oak-driven. White pepper, black pepper, some licorice.

Swallow:
The dry flavors come through, but get more mingled with the sweeter scents from the nose. Pineapple and pear-compote with oak shavings, straw and barley.

It’s quite cask driven, but there’s not too much vanilla to be found. It’s a tad sweet, so if that’s your thing, you’ll probably like this. I do enjoy the whisky too, and I love the fruitiness, but the sweetness is a bit much and that takes it down a notch or two.

86/100

Still available in Austria for € 99

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Ben Nevis 19, 1999-2018, 46.5% – WhiskyBroker

Posted on 3 August 2021 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

WhiskyBroker is one of the more affordable bottlers out there, together with brands like The Ultimate and such. The brand started its existence when the Bladnoch Forum bottlings stopped, which also was a rather erratic, but always affordable bottler.

The erraticness hasn’t changed, prices are still quite okay too, even the website is still quite hard to navigate. Great service though, even when I got a completely smashed package with this one in it, they nicely replaced everything that was broken.

Image from Whiskybase

Anyway, properly aged Ben Nevis, from a mix of casks, from an erratic bottler. And an erratic distillery, although that seems to be more and more consistent in more recent years.

Sniff:
Wood and malt, with slightly funky hints of vanilla. Gentle, some pastry cream and a strange combination of leather and tree bark.

Sip:
The palate continues down the same street, mostly. It still has the funky vanilla, but is a lot more dry. Coarse wood flavors, cracked leather.

Swallow:
The finish is seamless with the palate, and the slightly bitter oak and spice works well with the vanilla.

This is an interesting one to rate. It’s never a bad dram, and the funkiness teeters on the brink of ‘too weird’. It’s quite unlike any Ben Nevis I’ve tried in recent years, which makes it a lot more like Ben Nevis a decade or so ago.

Having said that, I quite enjoyed going through my bottle, but it’s not a ‘great’ dram. It’s not bad either, it’s just a tad weird. So it suits the bottler and the reputation of Ben Nevis a few years ago.

86/100

Available in the secondary market for € 160, at the time of writing. That’s too much though.

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Glen Elgin 1998-2014, Sherry casks, 46% – Gordon & MacPhail

Posted on 2 August 2021 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Generally, I consider Glen Elgin to be a nice and gentle whisky, with fruity notes and some nice freshness to it. In the back of my sample cupboard I found this 15 year old (or 16) from Gordon & MacPhail that I got from the bottler years ago. Seven years, likely.

These random sample bottles are great for on holiday, since I don’t intend to reuse to bottles and I can finish them in one go. A nice clean-up session, if you will.

Image from Whiskybase

So, a very renowned bottler bottling something from sherry casks, at a reasonable age. Sounds good, right?

Sniff:
Lots of grain and sweeter citrus fruits. Dusty barley with a dusting of oak sawdust. Orchard fruits with a slightly bitter hint of apple seeds.

Sip:
Barley, cracked black pepper corns, dry oak. Some lemon, the pulp, the seeds and the pith. Dry, old apples, red citrus, oak.

Swallow:
The finish is very similar to the palate with the balance between fruit, spice and oak being very well done.

I didn’t get any of the sherry cask notes I was expected. However, I liked this whisky anyway. It has the expected fruity notes, some bitter notes and quite some oak influence. A combination of flavors that work well.

It’s still available for some € 115, which isn’t exactly cheap, but it’s also an older bottling. I do expect, though, that you can get this profile from Glen Elgin a bit cheaper.

87/100

Thanks to G&M for the sample, and sorry for the ridiculously late review…

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Hampden 8yo vs Hampden LROK

Posted on 30 July 2021 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Hampden is a Jamaican rum distillery, and apart from profiting from the rum renaissance that’s been happening ever since whisky got so ridiculously expensive, they’ve been producing quality hooch for years.

What’s more interesting from a geek’s perspective is that they also produce a limited distillate called “Light Rum Owen Kelly”. But what does this mean, I hear you asking…

Well, that bit of information is a bit harder to come by. Practically all websites state that this is a low-ester rum. While I initially read somewhere this is a high ester rum, and therefore fruity, some research indicates that this is actually rather low giving more room to fruity notes instead of the more funky notes often found in rum. This is achieved by a difference in the distilling process and/or fermentation.

However, why this is, how this is and exact numbers are harder to come by. There’s a lot of information on this website, though. I might have to dive deeper into this, though, to reach a higher level of understanding what the actual fuck I’m on about.

Having said that, the initial thing to go by is taste. And to do that properly I didn’t only get the LROK bottling, but also a regular one for comparison.

Hampden 8yo, 46%

Sniff:
Lots of sugar cane, the green kind. Also molasses. A dry and spicy mix of oak, slightly acidic with resin and some over- and underripe fruits. Green banana with sweet mango.

Sip:
Oak and molasses, with the dry, green hint of sugarcane and reed. Quite strong for the abv, some red chili pepper. Astringent and fruity at the same time.

Swallow:
The finish mellows, but does bring done more chilis. Dry oak, dry cane, sweet molasses with burnt sugary caramel. Green banana too.

Rather good, but not a very deep and conforting rum. More challenging than comforting, so to say.

84/100

Hampden 2010-2021 LROK, 47%

Sniff:
Very different than the regular one, a lot more chemical. Chemicals like cleaning agent, but also lemon, lime, grapefruit. Strange, but very interesting.

Sip:
Again light, but with an interesting hint of white chocolate and lemon. Grapefruit pith, lemon seeds but also some sweeter orange. Oak, sugarcane and grass too.

Swallow:
The finish brings a whiff of charcoal, and stays with the lemons and oranges. Quite a long finish.

It’s very different and a lot more interesting than the regular Hampden. Or any other rum I’ve tried over the last few years, actually. It doesn’t make it the best thing, but interesting nonetheless.

87/100

Both rums are available from Passie voor Whisky

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Rosebank 21, 1992-2014, 55.3%

Posted on 29 July 2021 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Rosebank… One of the first closed distilleries I tried, and one I didn’t buy enough of in the past. It’s become such a rarity now, even more so because the quality is quite patchy.

Official bottlings and most things released by Old Malt Cask and SMWS are pretty good, but there’s a whole slew of 10 year olds by Signatory that were almost like alcoholic water.

This official release from 2014’s Special Releases by Diageo currently sets you back some € 1500, and for that price you’d have to travel. Luckily I was able to get a sample and try it.

On a side note: Currently reconstruction of Rosebank distillery is happening, although I’m a tad skeptical to what they are going to release in a few decades time. The entire distillery is newly built and apart from the brand name and some approximation of the distilling process, it’s going to be a different process.

Image from Whiskybase

I’m curious to find out, and I expect that they’re going to try and be as close as possible, but 100% similar is not going to happen. Although, I’d be quite glad with an 80% overlap, I guess.

Sniff:
Strangely, it starts off with a hint of glue, before getting a bit more typically grassy. Hints of wildflowers and strawberries, hay and grass. It needs a bit of time to open up. After a few minutes of rest it does go more in the direction of hay and dried flowers, but the note of vanilla pops up, which I didn’t get before.

Sip:
The palate starts with some vanilla, before the slightly more astringent floral notes kick in. It has some honey sweetness, quite a lot of white pepper for heat, and oaky dryness after that. Straw more than hay, dried flowers.

Swallow:
The finish starts with vanilla again, but that quickly gets taken over by some apply and straw. Strawberries, pepper and oak.

Not the most typical Rosebank, I think. It’s a bit more fruity and less floral than I remember them. Of course, it’s been quite a while since Rosebank releases are few and far between, and when they show up, they’re way out of my league.

90/100

Available randomly.

Thanks to Fred B. for the sample!

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Scapa 20, 2000-2021, Refill Sherry Hogshead 1096, 55.3% – Gordon & MacPhail

Posted on 28 July 2021 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer
Scapa 2000 GM

It’s been years since I reviewd or tasted a Scapa. The ‘other’ Orkney distillery that doesn’t have famous official bottlings and is quite a rarity for independents too. All undisclosed Orkney whiskies are supposed to be Highland Park, and after tasting this and another Scapa recently, that only strengthens that belief.

However, in early spring I suddenly found myself in the possession of two bottles of Scapa. My first two bottles of this distillery, to be precise. A review of the other one will follow at some point, but let’s do this modern sherry bottle from Gordon & MacPhail’s Connoisseur’s Choice rnage now.

20 years old a sherry cask sure left a color to this, even though it was a refill cask. It’s not dark as cola but there’s no mistaking it. Let’s find out if that translates to the palate too!

Sniff:
Lots of baking spices with black pepper, ground ginger and clove. Quite spicy, but also an interesting scent of honey glazed ham, somehow. It becomes a little bit more sweet with some time. Not unlike gingerbread.

Sip:
The palate starts with that same flavor of honey glazed ham, but with spicy sherry and some dry peppery heat. Dry oak, lots of spices and gingerbread. There’s also a bit of a chocolatey sweetness, with some syrupy thickness.

Swallow:
The finish is slightly more typical for a sherry cask whisky, but it keeps the slightly meaty edge to it. Quite a long finish that sticks with cocoa powder, honey and spices.

The distillery character is quite trumped by the whisky, or maybe that’s Scapa’s trick, that they provide a canvas for the cask.

It’s quite unliky virtually all whiskies I’ve had in recent memory, and because it’s a very tasty thing, I am quite liking this. More than I expected to like anything that is so cask driven.

88/100

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