I’m not sure if it is me, but I had the idea Hart Brothers was a bottler from years ago that had more or less ceased to bring out new bottlings. Until last year that was, since there suddenly was that GlenDronach Sherry cask for the Netherlands.
Apparantly, when I think a little bit harder, I realize I’m quite wrong since I also had a bottle of Bowmore that I bought after tasting it at Hielander some years ago. So, Hart Brothers never really left, but they didn’t get much attention either. At least, not in The Netherlands.
Anyway, now there’s this Balmenach, from a first fill sherry butt. I’ve not had many Balmenachs over the years, but I do fondly remember an SMWS one at a ridiculous ABV that I found really good.
Image from Whiskybase
Sniff: This strangely smells like a very young brandy from virgin oak instead of a 13 year old whisky from sherry casks. Lots of fruit distillate, with quite some hints of copper. Fresh oak with some ginger-like spiciness.
Sip: The palate brings more typical whisky flavors, with a very and peppery dryness, as well as oloroso spiciness. It’s quite hot for a whisky at ‘just’ 53%, with chili peppers. There’s a slight bitterness that combines with dried prunes. After a little while it gets a bit more syrupy and thick, and sweet.
Swallow: The combination of the palate and the nose makes the finish. The sweetness and fruit from the palate and the brandy like dryness from the nose. It works quite well here.
I really have to think about whether I like this whisky or not. In a way, it’s not bad, but it’s also not what you would expect from any whisky, especially not a scotch. If tasted blind, I would have guessed it to be some weird French distillate instead of a single malt scotch.
Individually, there’s something to say for the nose, the palate and the finish, but especially between the nose and the palate, there’s just a huge gap in flavors. That makes it a very unbalanced dram.
In short, it’s not bad, but it doesn’t make any sense. If I want a sherry cask matured whisky, this is not what I mean.
As far as bottlers go, The Whisky Agency operates in the top layer of them. There’s some others up there, but not many. So, when a joint bottling with Heads & Tails came out, I got a little bit thrileld.
In part because ‘Secret Highlands’ have been good the last couple of years, and in part because their previous joint bottling with the Canadians was rather awesome. I’m not entirely sure why I’ve never reviewed that here, but the notes must have gotten lost in a pile somewhere.
Anyway, a 12 year old. Sort-of affordable at € 90. Bourbon cask. All sounds good to me.
Sniff: Very light, with some chalk, a touch of vanilla and some minerals. A bit of dried pineapple and a tin of boiled candy.
Sip: The palate adds a bit of sweetness and some white pepper. A bit more vanilla than before.
Swallow: On the finish it gets a little bit more weighty, a bit richer. Some oak, vanilla custard, biscuits, and white pepper.
I bottle-shared most of this bottle and then used the remainder in a tasting, so when I sat down for it I had just tried in a line-up the night before. In the tasting this didn’t do anything, and on it’s own it’s only slightly better.
You really have to work for some flavors to come out and if you don’t it’s just too bland a whisky. A bit of a shame, really, but it’s just not very good.
Last year RvB shared this Benromach. He’s quite a fan of the distillery so he went to some length to get a bottle from Germany, since German shops aren’t normally allowed to ship to The Netherlands.
Something about open borders within the EU, except when there’s a penny lost in excise.
Anyway, a fresh sherry cask for the German market. That is bound to be intense. Our eastern neighbours tend to favor the big, dark sherry bombs in general. So let’s see if this is good, or has crossed over into the realm of ridicule!
Sniff: Thick, leathery sherry. Lots of baking spices, lots of prunes and cherries. The sweet funkiness of Benromach, with a whiff of smoke.
Sip: Sharp and intense, with a lot of spicy sweetness, lots of dried fruit and a bitter note. Funky with notes of leather, hessian, baking spices, cherry, cherry stones, the works.
Swallow: A rich finish, but not overly long. Thick, big flavors, syrupy, spicy, fruity. Like the palate.
Well, let’s start by saying this is an incredible dram. It’s insanely rich and heavy with lots of feinty notes that make Benromach great! Let’s also mention that there’s absolutely no subtlety within this whisky. It’s clunky, it’s a punch in the face. But a punch with lots of great flavors.
It’s almost like it takes a small part of what sherry casks can bring to a whisky and amplified it. As in, dried fruit and baking spices remain, and lighter notes that bring more complexity have been removed. And what was left is amped up to 11.
When cleaning out some ‘flagged’ emails from my mailbox I realized I still have some unpublished stuff from Tom van Engelen, waiting for release on this wee blog.
So, this time (or actually, last summer) Tom wrote some stuff about a Lagavulin and what he thinks is a Lagavulin. Let’s dive in!
“Laggan Mill” is in a way what the name of arguably the most famous whisky distillery on Islay stands for. It is also a name to put on independent bottlings of Lagavulin. It is a rare treat to have a Lagavulin in the glass that is not the well known 16 Years Old flagship or one of the variations (an 8 and 12 years old and a Distillers Edition). But the tide is also turning. We already got a travel retail expression at 10 years of age which was good, not perfect. And there is also this weird little “Offerman Edition”, bottled at 11 years of age, which I will review today. But first, let’s warm up with an independently bottled single cask from Lagavulin.
Sniff: Of course, you can never be sure this IS actually Lagavulin, but the aromas coming from the glass make it a no-brainer for me. This is Lagavulin as the Ardbeg Wee Beastie was supposed to be: fierce, peaty, strong. Very, very reminiscent of the regular 8 years old. An excellent balance between the abundant peat bog after drizzling rain and the sweetness brought by the vanilla.
Sip: Soft and supple on the tongue, making it an oily experience and a delight to let it just circle around in the mouth. I always loved the “limited” 8 Years Old of the 200th anniversary in 2016 (haven’t tasted the regular one that was added to the core range). This single cask is an even more outspoken expression of it. Sadly we don’t know the age of this beauty, but I am guessing it’s between 6 and 8 years old.
Swallow: Like swallowing distilled seawater, no other words for it. Very clean, delicately salty and maybe a bit short. But yeah, this is very pure stuff. I brings me back to one of my first visits to Islay, where Iain McArthur would let you taste a sample of young Lagavulin straight from the cask, and you would get down on your knees and beg for a whole bottle of it. Cooper’s Choice delivered.
Good old spirit driven whisky, and in this case from one of the best distilleries in the world. I immediately bought two bottles of this (at € 46,50 each, a true steal). I think I had the last two of them from the Whiskybase Shop, because the link stopped working after that…
89/100
Damn, this review was supposed to be about the Offerman Edition! It now has a lot to live up to. Without further ado, here it is. Made up from, as far as I could discover with Google, ex-bourbon filled and rejuvenated bourbon casks. See how stories can distract?
Sniff: Hmm, very closed up, even though I opened the sample I was able to acquire from our good friend Norbert quite some time before starting the tasting. A very tame expression to say the least. Nice to enjoy with a book next to a fireside. It’s more on dark inland smells, mud and grassy elements. A “land” cask instead of a “sea” cask, like the Laggan Mill so clearly is? Interesting. (Warning: don’t add water, it drowns.)
Sip: Spicy and dominant on chocolate notes. A little harsh even though the abv is pleasant enough. Yeah, this is clearly a “darker” Lagavulin, a distant relative of some of the less outspoken Feis Ile expressions (the 2018 edition comes to mind). The different casks used in the vatting do add the complexity that the Laggan Mill misses, but also loses a little enthusiasm. One sip of this is enough to knock you off your feet, like a boxer, who then leans over you and advises you to stay down.
Swallow: The balance of the whole package is amazing. Whoever gets to create the batches of Lagavulin must be a king … just like this malt is now described the King of Islay. It goes down warming and friendly, with a classic peaty afterburn that brings back memories of older classics. This is a worthy addition to the range. If it ever becomes available on the European market I will definitely add it to the collection. If the retailer manages to keep it affordable, that is.
I love the sheer enthusiasm that I found in the Laggan Mill, so take the scores with a pinch of (sea) salt; the former is so up my alley that the latter could not win today. Both Lagavulins are highly recommended!
I’m a writer in a variety of fields and have a soft spot for whisky, mainly malt, mainly from Scotland. In other times I enjoyed a stint as editor-in-chief of one of the first whisky magazines in the world. When not sipping a good glass I like to write some more, read, watch 007 movies or listen Bowie music. I’m engaged to Dasha, I have a sweet daughter and I live somewhere between the big rivers in the middle of The Netherlands.
Contrary to my normal modus operandi, I’m actually ahead in tasting this whisky. Of course that is no coincidence, since the release of this review was more or less requested to be a little ahead of the actual release of the whisky. (Happy to oblige!)
Ben Nevis has been on a winning streak the last couple of years. So has The Duchess. Even so, my instinctive apprehension kicked in when I heard this was going to be a wine cask. This happened, quite obviously, because wine casks tend to be not-so-good at best.
Of course there are exceptions, but those confirm the rule instead of change it. So, a 10 year old one, from a red wine cask… But then again, it’s from The Duchess and they have been creating name for themselves to be a high quality bottler. Not unlike WhiskyNerds and Wu-Dram Clan.
So, let’s dive in and see where this one sits!
Sniff: Lots of barley with brioche toast. Red fruits like strawberries and cherries, a whiff of hessian and dunnage warehouses.
Sip: The palate brings quite some chili heat, with roasted barley, bitter almonds and dried red fruits. Toasted oak, black pepper, strawberry juice, a whiff or rhubarb.
Swallow: The finish is a bit richer, weightier. With red fruits, hessian, brioche.
Well, apart from me liking this quite a bit, it’s interesting to analize what’s happening. Because based on the flavors I encountered when tasting this, I would have guessed this to be a port cask if I would have tasted it blind. It’s not as light as a Shiraz would suggest.
Another benefit of that is it lacks the tannins often accompanying wine cask finished whisky. It’s not an overly dry whisky, and it doesn’t have the typical wine cask astringency. There’s a lot of fruit and brioche notes that give it just enough sweetness, and just enough depth.
This bottling was released some two or three months ago by Stefan van der Boog (BOOGieman), from Passie voor Whisky. And as I do when new and sort-of affordably Highland Parks are released, I buy a bottle for sharing and one of the #StayTheFuckHome tastings I’ve been hosting over the last year.
I decided to keep about 30 centiliters for myself and the tasting and that resulted in my having only about 4 cl to myself, since the tasting was quite a full one. We tried it last Friday, and on Saturday I decided to taste the last sip and empty the bottle before it evaporates too much.
I already knew I liked the whisky. I expected to like the whisky before I even tried it since the combination of some decent age, Highland Park and a bourbon cask generally works well (to me). So during the tasting I realized it again and decided to give it a bit more attention the next day. It’s always a bit sketchy to write tasting notes during an actual tasting, since your palate isn’t as clean as you want it to be. Also, with 12 other folks in the session you might get a bit too many suggestions.
Anyway, here’s my thoughts:
Sniff: Lots of coastal notes with basalt, salinity, sand, marram grass. A whiff of smoke and vanilla. The notes of heather increase with a bit of time. Hessian, old wood, dry wood spices and tree bark.
Sip: The palate brings dry wood spices and tree bark. Coastal notes with sand and some brine. Charcoal, and heather. A minor note of honey sweetness.
Swallow: The finish carries on down the same vein, with a bit more heather honey, a bit more earthiness, and a bit less coastal notes. Quite a big whisky.
This is as typical a Highland Park as you can get with all the expected flavors showing up in varying levels of intensity. I liked that the heather is quite pronounced, since that’s not always the case over the last couple of years.
With this coming in at € 140 I doubt you can do much better from this distillery at that price. Especially from the official bottlings you’ll be glad to find a 12 year old at that price. Highly recommended!
I am trying (and often failing) to go for quality over quantity. With all the #StayTheFuckHome Tastings of the last year the amount of bottles has grown significantly, and while that’s not the only reason for it, it is a good one.
Also, when you don’t buy as much random stuff left and right, there might eventually be enough whisky budget left to buy that one bottle that you really, really want, instead of spending it on things that just happen to pop up on my Facebook feed.
And yes, I should not read newsletters and not look at Facebook feeds since you get triggered and you prefer to take things slower and find whiskies by more targeted searching instead of what a marketing agency pushes in your face <BREATHE> but it’s so much fun to try all these random things even though you end up with overflowing shelves and cupboards start buckling under the weight you put on them (not kidding, by the way).
Image from Whiskybase
Anyway, a FORTY-SEVEN year old single malt from Speyside, from a highly commended bottler. A bottle of this sets you back € 800, which is out of my league even if I would start saving money for more luxurious stuff. However, a sample was available and I bought one. 5cl of this for the price of an entire bottle of Lagavulin 16. It better be good!
Sniff: Very gentle and highly complex. There’s no shortage of oak, but it’s also not overpowering. Semi-dried fruit. Not the rich sweetness, but also not crisp freshness. Old apples, dried peaches. Some oak spice, sawdust. A small note of nutmeg and clove.
Sip: The palate is quite dense. Dry oaky sawdust, barley husks, oak shavings. Slightly roasty with some roasted almonds and toast. Dried apples and peaches, some baking spices. It does build up with some black pepper, but it never gets hot. Baked fruit, peach juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove.
Swallow: The finish is, not surprisingly, very gentle with lots of fruits and quite some spices. Dried apples, peach cobbler, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove. Very long, slightly drying and fruity.
Awesome stuff, this. Absolutely gorgeous with everything happening all the time. Fruit, spices, oak. Great maturity, with all the complexity that comes with it. The oak hasn’t completely overpowered it, luckily.
It was about 5 years ago that a lot of distilleries on the south coast of Islay celebrated their bicentennial. And by a lot I mean all three of them.
Lagavulin released their 8 year old which I thought was pretty shit. Laphroaig released their 15 year old which I thought was rather great.
Now I finally write a review to Ardbeg’s take on a 200th birthday. I wrote the review quite a while ago, but decided to finally publish my notes. No particular reason, just because I found them…
Image from Whiskybase
Ardbeg Perpetuum is a combination of bourbon and sherry casks. This, at least, is good. No weird wine casks or some cask from a 200 year old rotten tree taken from a peat bog next to the distillery or something. Also not a toothpick with whisky that’s been to space, or such nonsense.
Sniff: Gentle and smoky. There’s some grass and straw. Fairly simple, with oak, and a hint of dry white wine. A bit sauvignon blanc like.
Sip: Sharper than the nose made me expect. A bit of alcohol, wood and straw. Smoky of course with hints of salt and sea weed.
Swallow: Quite some oak and largely the same flavors as on the palate.
Well, I’m not sure what happened here. Even reading my tasting notes makes me want to take a nap, and I guess that’s how I feel about the whisky. It’s not actually bad, but it’s just very, very boring. There’s nothing happening here that makes me want to drink this instead of either the regular 10 years old, the Corryvreckan or the Uigeadail.
Especially that last one, which is a lot cheaper than the Perpetuum, is a stellar whisky. So, no, I wouldn’t pay twice the money for something as forgettable as this.
It’s been a while since I wrote these tasting notes, but it’s Springbank and Springbank is not something to just forget about and not review it.
Image from Whiskybase
I am a self-professed Springbank Fanboy, although I don’t even buy that much of the stuff. At least, not as much as some others in the IAAS Facebook group. But of course, there’s always a bigger fish, right?
So, a 14 year old Springbank at cask strength that’s only 47.7%? I guess it was either a very porous cask, or maybe even a leaky one. Generally I would expect this age to be around 56% or so, sometimes even higher.
Let’s see where this leads us!
Sniff: Fairly straight forward Springbank. Fairly ‘safe’ too. Straw, grass, some oak, a whiff of smoke and lots of barley. Although it doesn’t have the oiliness and not the depth, it does remind me of some past Local Barley releases (the modern ones).
Sip: A bit more fiery than I expected. Some dry grassy notes, with dry oak and some black pepper. Slightly salty with a hint of vanilla custard.
Swallow: Slightly drier, but very warming. A bit more oak, some straw and a bit of a salty tang.
While this is a good whisky, as far as Springbank goes it’s quite a bit less impressive than I expected. It does tick most of the typical boxes, but it misses a bit of the oiliness and the funkiness that life Springbank whisky to a different level.
It’s no secret that I love Bowmore. It’s one of those distilleries that I enjoy from the young to the old releases, although most older releases are way out of my league.
What I also love(d) are the series they did in the semi-recent past. There were the Devil’s Casks, but also the Tempest series. These were released about a decade ago and unfortunately discontinued.
When these came out, they cost around € 60, and even though they’ve gone up significantly, I still think they’re quite worth the € 120 that this one goes for now.
Sniff: Typical Bowmore with all it’s lemony brine and slightly ammonium like smokiness. Some hessian, but rather light with a lot of grassy floral notes.
Sip: Sharp as a starter 😉 Light, lots of barley, lemon drizzle cake, but also grass and parma violets. Smoke, salt, heaps of coastal notes.
Swallow: The freshness, lemon, flowers, slight salinity with the smoke and varley notes linger.
Epic stuff! It does everything that Bowmore is supposed to do. It has that weird ammonium-like undertone, but also the brine and lemon and smoke that makes for a fantastic combination of flavors.
Malt Fascination 