Ardlair seems to be more of a thing, the last couple of years. It’s a second brand from Ardmore distillery in which they do not peat their barley before distilling. So unpeated Ardmore, instead of the regular stuff.
Image from Robert Graham 1874
This version at 9 years old was finished in a St. Emilion wine cask, from the Bordeaux region of France. I’m curious to see where this goes, since wine casks (as said quite a few times before) can be quite sketchy.
Sniff: This must not have been the most active cask, since the nose gives away a LOT of spirit. Fresh alcohol with hints of copper and fruit. Virtually no woody notes to be found. New make spirit is usually rather sweet, and therefore this one is as well.
Sip: The palate is a lot sharper than you’d expect from a 50% dram. The wine cask comes through a little bit on the tongue, with tannic hints of grapes and some rancio. There is quite some dryness, and it’s far less spiritiy than the nose was.
Swallow: The finish shows more cask influence than the palate did. So, apparently the woody notes builds. It’s rather long with a hint of copper as well.
The Ardmore I’m used to is not like this. Even if you disregard the lack of peat. I guess the cask wasn’t overly active and that has given the spirit far less impact that I’d expect from an already young nine years old. This, I think, is one of those rather sketchy wine casks. Not a bad dram, but not my cup of tea either.
This one isn’t even out yet! Supposedly, if things to right, it will be in three weeks though!
A 26 year old BenRiach is always something interesting, but the PX finish makes it a bit of an oddball. Generally, whiskies of this age aren’t finished anymore, but in this case they decided to do so. It makes me wonder what the reasoning behind it is!
Anyway, a nice badger on the label, of course done by Hans Dillesse, bottled at 100 proof (the Imperial one) which also is interesting. A very high ABV for the age, I think.
Sniff: Barley and chocolate, some straw and a gentle note of oak behind it all. Slightly honeyed and soft, but with a charcoal like tinge too. There’s definitely some sherry in this one, but it’s not overpowering or strong. It’s married well with the spirit.
Sip: The palate, even though it’s a 100 proof dram, is gentle. There’s a little bit of bite of course, but surprisingly little. There’s oak, straw, barley and a bitter note of fruit stones like dates and cherries.
Swallow: The finish shows the sherry a little bit more with notes of dried fruits, and that hint of bitterness accompanies the fruity sweetness. Some barley and honey too.
I have to admit I was a bit skeptical when I read the label of my sample and it stated that it was a PX finish. My skepticism was unwarranted though, because this is a very lovely dram. It’s well balanced, with lots of nice flavors and a bitter note for depth and morishness. I’m very glad the sweetness has been kept in check!
89/100
It will be available on February 9th at Best of Wines for € 399
So, a spirit. At 42 years old. Because it slipped below 40% and therefore cannot be called whisky. And yet, we’re reviewing it, since it’s not that often that we get things this old anymore.
There is no information on where this one comes from, in regard to the distillate, before someone starts typing ‘it’s from the Campbeltown Malts Festival’… There is information on the fact that it has been blended on the label, so at least we know that!
Sniff: Raisin bread, sweet dough, dates. A hint of coffee and mole, oak (European?). A bit closed, but with quite some gentle aging.
Sip: The palate is gentle with some baking spices. Almond flour, cinnamon and clove. Ground tree bark, sawdust. Raisins and dates in the background.
Swallow: The finish is a bit thin, the same notes as before. Just all a bit diminished.
When I tried this I only knew the Whiskybase number, and therefore had no idea about the age or the very low ABV. It does show a bit in the nose. It’s diminished, and understated. It is, however, still a rather tasty thing to try, even though it feels a little bit muted.
I’m just not as big a fan as some others, as it seems.
Since this bottle was added to Whiskybase by my whisky buddy Erik, I presume the sample also came from him. Memory gets foggy with all these samples, and all this alcohol (making that joke before anyone else does).
Generally I really like Bruichladdich and Port Charlotte. Octomore, not so much, but Bruichladdich is a distillery I have highly ranked. However, that is mostly in regard to their bourbon and sherry casks and slightly less so with their plethora of weird wine casks. Of course, there has been good booze from those as well, but it’s far less reliable.
Let’s see where this one ends up. I tried it blind, with only a Whiskybase ID on the label, so that makes the assessment as honest as I can, I think.
Sniff: This smells very young. There are definitely some notes that hopefully will iron out with some more maturation time. Very feinty, wet hessian, soil and some crude oil. Some gasoline/petrol like scent too. Strange. A bit of a pickled walnuts kind of sherry going on as well?
Sip: The palate has a flavor of warm walnuts. There’s a dry heat coming through right after that, but with the heaviness of a sherry cask, a bit of brine, some smoke too. A certain ‘rot’ sweetness after a while.
Swallow: The finish continues mostly down the same line. There are notes of feinty diesel or petrol. Quite heavy on the backdrop of a sherry cask with hints of walnuts and hessian.
As wine casks tend to go, this one is a bit weird. It smells far younger than it is, and is very funky. With Campbeltown having anything to do with it, that’s not overly surprising in hindsight, but still. The wine casks manifests in a strange way with a vinegary approach of nuttiness. The slightly industrial notes are quite nice, but that’s also not overly surprising from someone who tends to enjoy Islay drams.
The 22 year old one is a bottling by Wu Dram Clan, which makes my expectations go way up to begin with. The age doesn’t bring it down either. Then the other one is a three year old from Habitation Velier, which also is a renowned brand of rums.
Apart from it being from Jamaica, I don’t know much about rum at all. Maybe I should get RvB in here at some point to write more in depth articles about that.
Habitation Velier Long Pond STC❤️E 3, 2019, 60%
Image from Best of Wines
Sniff: Very chemical and feinty. Lots of petrol and engine grease. Quite green with grass and sugarcane. A hint of cocoa in the background.
Sip: The palate is quite a bit heavier, and bone dry. Sawdust, some sugarcane and an almost painful heat.
Swallow: The finish mellows quickly, and slightly sweeter than the nose and palate. The green notes are gone, and the dryness too.
I don’t dislike the flavors at all, but the 60% ABV in combination with the young age makes this a drink that I find way too hot.
Many others (most?) seem to like this much more than I do. Maybe I’m just getting old and prefer things a bit more gentle…
83/100
Wu Dram Clan Long Pond LPS 22, 2001, 56.3%
Image from Wu Dram Clan
Sniff: Even though the ABV isn’t that high, this does smell like rocket fuel at the beginning. It’s massively funky, but just shy of being too much for me. A bit ‘clunky’ and there is no subtlety to be found. Molasses and overripe mango, slightly burnt brown sugar and kerosene.
Sip: The palate brings that fuel note again, but slightly toned down. There’s more room for oak and molasses. There’s a heat with spicy notes, wood spices, mostly. Quite dry, with caramelized brown sugar, some sugar cane juice and more and more oak if you let it swim.
Swallow: The finish goes straight back to the notes of kerosene, diesel fumes, massively funky again. The wood is as prominent as it was on the palate with more spices and ripe tropical fruit.
So, even though this is not even 4% less alcohol, the fact that it has spent way more time in a cask makes the alcohol a lot mellower, and far more integrated with the rest of the liquid. Lovely flavors, that are still quite industrial, but damn, what a dram!
Over the last couple of years I’ve not been buying much non-whisky spirits. Of course there has been the occasional rum and a bottle of Mezcal, but other than that, things are few and far between.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t enough to go through from years gone, but bottles not gone. This Marquis de la Pomme Calvados is one of these bottles. I got this one in 2021 for sharing purposes, but mostly because it’s insanely old and old Calvados is awesome.
Back then, things like this went for about € 150, at Slijterij Vonk in Zaandam. A good things about really good bottle shops that don’t necessarily focus on whisky is that there’s stuff like this to be found on dusty shelves.
Anyway, I decided yesterday was a good moment to finally finish my bottle with a rather massive dram. And of course, I hadn’t written tasting notes yet, so that still had to be done too.
Sniff: Rich, very apple forward for such an old Calvados, and with a hint of iron. There’s oak and apple wood, a little bit of vanilla too.
Sip: A very gentle palate, with dry woodiness. A hint of cork, lots of oak, dry apples, but still crisp. A hint of black pepper, iron and copper. A very small note of something industrial in the background.
Swallow: A long and still dry finish, lots of wood, apples. Iron and copper, copper polish too.
This is exactly why older spirits can be so awesome. Luckily the very long time in oak hasn’t taken over the spirit completely, and the long time in a bottle with oxygen hasn’t over-oxidized the spirit either. The combination of wood and apples works really well, and all the other flavors are just a bonus. Great stuff!
Apparently the Cadenhead’s Club exists for 10 years. In that time there have been a couple of bottlings, although the last few were unable to be shipped to the Netherlands, or prohibitively expensive to have shipped and allowed into the country.
Luckily, Cadenhead and Springbank have found a solution for that with a regular importer, which is something more companies in the UK should look into, I think.
Anyway, at the end of last year this pack of 3 20cl sherry finished drams was released and it arrived around Christmas. The majority of it was sampled for friends, and yesterday I finished my bit. The benefit of not having a lot for yourself is that my shelf is finally getting a little bit more empty, which means there’s more room for either bottles, or board games, or Magic: the Gathering cards.
Ben Nevis 10, 2012-2023, Oloroso Hogshead Finish, 53.7%
Image from Whiskybase
This one has had a sherry finish for just under three years, and already it’s as dark as my soul. I’m glad they didn’t use such a cask for a full maturation, because I don’t think it would resemble whisky anymore after a decade or so.
Sniff: Strangely, the first thing that comes to mind is the tasting room at De Whiskykoning when I smell this. A very old fashioned scent with oak, old carpet and a a not entirely dry area. Humidity in old buildings, and such. There is a hint of chocolate here, but it’s backed up with fruity notes of orange and lemon.
Sip: The palate is quite gentle at first, but turns dry after about ten seconds. There are notes of milk chocolate, hazelnuts, a dusting of chili pepper, a slight hint of cork (the dryness). It gets a bit more mild after a minute and there are notes of dried fruit and bitterness, with barley and oak.
Swallow: The finish goes back to fruit, chocolate, chocolate milk. There is a sort of bite remaining that keeps nipping, but in a nice way for the end of the night. Hints of orange, lemon, tangerine.
While the cask definitely rules supreme here, there are some nice notes of citrus fruits that are not uncommon for Ben Nevis. A very drinkable dram, but a bit too much cask influence to score higher than it does.
86/100
(Glen) Ord 15, 2008-2023, Pedro Ximénez Finish, 53.4%
Image from Whiskybase
Another one with three years of sherry finishing or ‘Additional Cask Enhancement’ as some distillers call it. This one is a little bit older so there should be a tad more of the spirit distinguishable here. Let’s dive in!
Sniff: The sherry manifests in a massive nose of chocolate and a hit of espresso. So, mocha. A hint of cherries, dates, plums. Dark, sweet fruits. Interestingly, it’s quite bourbon like. Not bourbon cask, but bourbon itself.
Sip: The palate arrives with a gentleness, and a strange sense of it being chilled (which it is not). It turns dry and adds some chili pepper as well as dark chocolate, strong coffee, dry oak. It’s very cask driven.
Swallow: The finish is bone dry with hints of bitter fruit stones, chocolate, walnuts, mocha. Lots of lovely notes with a hint of bitterness to be a bit more interesting.
Again, not much distillery character to be found, but the dram is dangerously drinkable. Even though it’s been bottled at cask strength, it is not a fierce dram at all, although there is some bitterness throughout. That is something I like, though. This one is hard to score because it doesn’t show the distillery at all, but it is a rather tasty thing to quaff. Does drinkabilty make it score higher, or does the lack of ‘interestingness’ make it score a bit lower?
87/100
Caol Ila 11, 2012-2023, Palo Cortado Finish, 52.7%
Image from Whiskybase
Interestingly, they opted to go for the shortest finish with the least impactful sherry. That is already quite noticeable from the color. Compared to the other two, this one definitely is pale. Almost bourbon cask pale, you might say.
Sniff: Even though it is not overly old, it does smell like an older style of Caol Ila. It reminds me of the gentle sherry influence of the official Caol Ila of some 20 years ago when I started getting into whisky. There’s a lot of sweeter smoky notes too. Engine grease, cream, something green not unlike mezcal as well.
Sip: The palate is quite gentle, but turns rather dry after a few seconds. It’s dry peat, earthy, and shows oak shavings, sawdust, but a hint of metal as well. Iron shavings or something like that. Some sand, salt, straw and barley. The sherry reveals itself in a nutty dryness, almond flour, cherry stones.
Swallow: The finish is warming and stays dry. Leathery in texture or mouthfeel, and a long finish. The dry notes stay for a long name with oak and barley. Some nuttiness too, much like the palate. Interestingly, the smoke is almost completely gone.
I’m a bit of a sucker for the drier kind of sherries that are used for whisky maturation. I generally keep an eye out for Fino and Manzanilla matured drams, and Palo Cortado is on my radar as well. In this case it leaves a lot more room for the distillery character, and with the trip down memory lane towards the early days of whisky enjoyment, I really enjoyed this one!
Yesterday we had the first post of Tom’s visit to Dornoch distillery, and some samples that he tried more recently. Today there are a couple more. Let’s dive straight in!
We continue our tasting of some fine Dornoch single malt whisky samples, with two vintage 2018 expressions. These are exciting times, because these whiskies will at one point be ‘old Dornoch’, as the Thompson brothers got permission to build a £7 million, eco-friendly distillery complex at Dornoch. There was a hiccup since the planned location is vulnerable to flooding, but apparently they worked it all out. So, here we raise a glass to being flooding by excellent Highland whisky in an already beloved authentic style.
Image by Fulco Bakker
Dornoch 4, 2018-2022, First Fill Bourbon Octave 90, 55.91%
Image from Whiskybase
Sniff: Candied wood sticks. The smell of chewing on your pencil when you were still in high school. Forest for the trees, trees on their own, yeah… lots of wood! Covered in a sugary layer. With water a clear vanilla burst.
Sip: Very balanced and solid mouthfeel. I remember the expressions from 2017 felt very oily and thick, but this feels more progressed, like the Thompson brothers tried something else which gave this a more – dare I say – commercial appearance. I was a bit frightened by the aromas that this would be a wood attack, but instead it has this heathery quality that I love in Highland whisky like Tomatin. With water an interesting development, towards strawberry Schogetten.
Swallow: Clean and solid. That sums up this expression, quite simply. Water is not recommended but it helps you find a nice, dry barely note.
85/100
Maybe a bit one-dimensional, but extremely good in what it promises.
Dornoch 4, 2018-2022, First Fill Bourbon Octave 97, 56.3%
Image from Whiskybase
Sniff: A familiar note of nail varnish that I have found in previous samples. Extremely candied impressions, like walking at the Summer carnival on a hot night. Vanilla, pencil shavings, and a nice dry malt tone as a basis. More delicate fruits after adding some water.
Sip: Strong on wood spices but contrary to the previous sample this does have this more oily mouthfeel that makes you feel you are drinking old school whisky. The wood is cloying however, so we added a drop of water. Brings balance, but that never seems to be a problem with Dornoch whisky, but also we enjoy cinnamon and coffee with sugar.
Swallow: Rewarding swallow, all on the woody notes.
86/100
All good and straightforward, but can’t help and conclude the 2017 vintages were more daring whiskies.
Image by Fulco Bakker
About Tom van Engelen
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 married to Dasha, I have a sweet daughter and I live somewhere between the big rivers in the middle of The Netherlands.
It’s time for some catching up to do. I still have this, and one other guest post by Tom waiting to be published, so let’s do one today and try to not wait too long with the other one (which has been sitting in my inbox since the dawn of creation).
It’s a two part post, so this one is for today. The other one is for tomorrow.
Dornoch Distillery is, in my mind, after visiting the site in 2019, that quaint little operation in an old fire station in the back garden of Dornoch Castle. The Thompson brothers quietly doing their thing, creating new old-fashioned whisky like real nerds, without any pressure or purpose other than to fully enjoy it. Since the first few releases of Dornoch single malt whisky, we know these men and their output are a force to be reckoned with. This harking back to old days and old methods of whisky making is what a certain group of nerds crave for, and the Thompson brothers deliver. Availability is a problem of course, so limited is the supply that it is very hard to get your hand on a bottle. My cabinet filled up with no less than 4 samples, and we will taste them in two flights. Today on the menu: sister casks from 2017!
Photo by Fulco Bakker
Dornoch 2017-2022 for Dominiek Bouckaert, First Fill Bourbon Octave, 53,8%
Image from Whiskybase
The name Dominiek Bouckart makes me think of one of my favorite bottlings of Tomatin 1976. Let us see if this Dornoch has this extremely fruity character as well! This is cask #9.
Sniff: This is truly amazing, and it might be just the power of suggestion, but there is a fruitiness coming from the glass that is not too far removed from legendary BenRiach and Tomatin from golden vintages! There is also a hint of nail polish remover. Then the fruit returns, overripe tangerines mostly. Very abundant and balanced, truly lovely. Water reveals the core ingredient of malted barley, which adds a layered complexity.
Sip: The mouthfeel is very big, like sticky toffee pudding. Coating the entire mouth. The wood influence from the octave cask is prominent, bordering on over the top, but it works. Lots of herbal impressions and definitely orange juice. Underlying is a robust Highland character that I have come to look for in whisky, since I feel it is a disappearing aspect in modern-day whisky. A drop of water makes the whisky more bitter tasting, here is where you feel the wood too much.
Swallow: Equally sticky and lingering, almost insane, such maturity in a young whisky. Very clean.
88/100
Only a 2 cl sample, but wishing for a bottle.
Dornoch 2017-2022 for the Scottish market, First Fill Bourbon Octave, 55,91%
Image from Whiskybase
This bottling was filled from cask #13. Poured the samples a little while before tasting, and the glasses are just screaming to be picked up and relished.
Sniff: This one has a hard time following the Belgian one, with less fruit and more on a chemical note. Those wet nails again, just colored bright red. Nice on the lady, less so in the glass. Almost a grain whisky. Digging a little deeper I get some pine needles on dry forest floor. Certainly a more “serious” face on this sample. With water, funnily enough, the reverse effect compared to the previous sample. Now fruity notes do come out to seduce.
Sip: More oily than sticky this time, and the wood is much more present. This is the beauty of whisky maturation. These whisky’s are optically exactly the same, but in the glass quite different. The wood was more active and puts a pronounced dark chocolate stamp on this particular Dornoch. Water brings more balance and this nice tropical fruit note.
Swallow: Mostly on dark coffee and chocolate notes, very woody. With water it becomes smooth and sophisticated.
84/100
An extremely schizophrenic dram, water making all the difference.
Photo by Fulco Bakker
About Tom van Engelen
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 married to Dasha, I have a sweet daughter and I live somewhere between the big rivers in the middle of The Netherlands.
I’ve reviewed this set before, almost a decade ago. Back then I wrote short notes on both the sherry and the whisky, but this time I’m only looking at the whisky side of things. I rebought these last year because I remembered being really thrilled with these sets, and they were significantly discounted at the time.
Of course I did a share with part of it, and then took my time drinking the whisky and the sherry. In case of the whisky, it’s not much of a problem, but with the sherry (especially the Oloroso) I don’t think it helped the booze at all.
The idea of the set is that you get a whisky from Tomatin, that has aged in casks similar to the ones that the sherry came out of. So a PX sherry with a PX matured whisky, and the same for Oloroso. Another bit of geekery, like yesterday’s wood drying differences.
Sniff: A gentle nose with lots of barley and straw, and the oloroso cask is right behind it. After while there are some dried fruits, dates and apricots. Slightly jammy, but fairly straight forward in general.
Sip: Savoury and sweet. Sweet with dried fruits, savoury with dry oak, straw, yeast. Some fig jam, barley. Some chili heat too.
Swallow: More dried fruits, more fig jam, slightly sweeter than the nose and palate.
Nice, but fairly generic. The combination with the sherry is what makes it fun. Interestingly, I remembered the whisky much more fondly than I can rate it now. Maybe I’ve gotten even more spoiled, or my palate developed (that’s two sides of the same coin…). It’s not a bad dram in the slightest, but I would have expected more cask influence, especially if you’re trying to highlight exactly that.
Then again, this conclusion is largely similar to what I thought 8 years ago.
85/100
Tomatin 13, 2002-2015, Pedro Ximénez cask 36130, 53.4%
Image from Whiskybase
Sniff: There is a LOT of sherry, and a very sweet style at that. Lots of dark dried fruits and syrupy richness. Dates, plums, figs, sweet oranges.
Sip: Very similar to the nose, but with quite a bit of bite from the alcohol. Dark fruits with a hint of orange.
Swallow: A long and sweet finish. Lots of dark syrup with dates, plums, figs.
So, in a way the whisky is similarly generic as the Oloroso cask is, but there is a lot more sherry influence here. Not entirely surprising with a PX sherry, those tend to be heavy hitters when used for maturing whisky. The spirit itself plays second fiddle, but that might just be the distillery style. As with the previous one, a decent dram but not overly memorable.
Once more the conclusion is similar to November 2015. The Oloroso might be interesting for longer, but in a quick tasting, this stands out more.
85/100
I think, if I’d re-read the tasting notes before ordering the bottles, I might have skipped them. Then again, the old sherry that came with them made up for a bit. That’s still a rather lovely drink and something I should really look into more…
Malt Fascination 