Love and hate for Lagavulin

Posted on 30 April 2018 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

That’s some title, isn’t it? Hate is quite overstated, but I have to lure unsuspecting readers in some way, don’t I?

Anyway, the third and last distillery we toured while on Islay a few weeks ago was Lagavulin. I did the tour back in 2010 as well, on my first trip to Islay and Scotland. The tour was followed by the Warehouse Demonstration. Back then they only did this on Thursdays, while it’s been amped up to every weekday now.

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My love for Lagavulin started really early in my whisky drinking days when my father-in-law bought the regular 16 year old, based on Jim Murray’s 92 points for it. Ever since I have absolutely loved every expression I tasted, with an exception for the eight year old that’s been on the market for the last two years. Compared to their other expressions, that stuff is peated water to me. It lacks the depth and complexity that makes the whisky so great in other expressions.

However, that’s not what the charged title of this post gets it’s ‘hate’ from.

Back in 2010 I found the distillery tour at Lagavulin only so-so. I had done some tours by then (Glengoyne, Arran, Springbank, Bowmore, Ardbeg and, I think, Laphroaig). Then the distillery that has a huge name to live up to does such a pedestrian tour, it’s a disappointment. I remember it more as a ‘quick look’ tour in which things were tuned to explain whisky making to the absolute novice instead of going a little bit more in depth and getting to know the distillery better.

When we visited this year, I warned my friends for this. We really wanted to do the warehouse demonstration, though, so we booked the tour anyway. We shouldn’t have. Unless you’re very keen on ‘still spotting’, Lagavulin is not a distillery for a tour.

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Back then, we could walk around the premises a little bit for a picture and a ‘feel’ for the distillery. Even that has been taken down to ‘we’re walking to the warehouse wall with the letters on it and will be going back to the visitor center in five minutes’. A lot of numbers are thrown around in regard to washback sizes, mashtuns and their waters, still sizes, but I find myself very short on fucks to give about these exact numbers. I want stories, history, tales about quirks that make Lagavulin stand out from everything else.

There’s none of that to be found.

20180411_104516.jpgThen, after the tour, if you booked it right, you get to do the Warehouse Demonstration. Not sure why it’s not called a Warehouse Tasting, but that’s what it is. A tasting more often than not done my Iain McArthur. That wee man is an absolute legend!

After a couple of minutes with him in the warehouse, the whiskies don’t really matter anymore. He’s hugely entertaining and picks up the slack from the tour. There’s history about him, the island, Lagavulin and everything. He jokes around, makes fun of the participants and himself. And he also happens to pour some of the most amazing drams.

As with everything on our trip, I didn’t take notes, but I remember the 20 and 25 year old whiskies, both from sherry casks. The 20 was a bit more vibrant and upbeat where the 25 was already becoming an older gentleman. Timid, even. Then there was a cask sample from a 1982 cask. Back in the slender years when distilleries only operated a few days per week and lots of them were on the verge of closing. Now THAT is a 20180411_121112.jpgwhisky. The peat is toned down and the wood is turned up, but the complexity is vast and the ‘ancientness’ of it was more akin to whiskies from the sixties and seventies. Damn…

As you might expect, everything is forgiven after a tasting like that.

Just keep in mind that when touring Lagavulin, you’ll be getting the tourist tour. I wouldn’t go as far as calling it a waste of time, but there’s other things to do on the island, like walking up to and climbing the remains of Dunyvaig Castle.

Now, where’s that bottle of amazing Distillery Only they had?

 

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Bunnahabhain, 2018

Posted on 23 April 2018 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

Exactly two weeks ago was the day we visited Bunnahabhain Distillery. I did visit it before in 2010, but I didn’t do a tour back then. There wasn’t enough time during our stay on Islay to also take in the east coast of this glorious island.

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One old beast in front of another

To change things up, we did go there this time. It’s the only Islay distillery I hadn’t visited that was on the plan for this year, but somehow I wasn’t expecting too much. After all, I know what the place looks like…

We had dinner at the Bowmore Hotel, and before we sat down we had a beer at the bar there. Some random guy started talking to us, mainly by shouting loudly that our choice of beer wasn’t to his preference: “IT’S PISH!”

After that we talked whisky, and his comment on Bunnahabhain, apart from it being his favorite distillery on the island was:

“You won’t take your Jewish granny to Bunnahabhain!”

Luckily, none of us had our Jewish granny with us that week, so we were good to go.

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We booked the Warehouse 9 Experience, since the main goal was to properly experience distilleries and do tastings of stuff we can’t get anywhere else. So, straight from the cask is as good as it’s going to get.

20180409_091124.jpgAfter we took a few pictures around the premises we walked into the badly signposted visitor center. There was one guy with us on the tour who didn’t say a word during the entire ordeal. He cycled to the distillery for it, and after the five pound tour he cycled away again. Let’s say he took a very different approach to experiencing Islay than we did.

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The tour of the distillery was great. Sarah Ferguson toured us around the premises, with information, stories and a joke every now and then. To say the distillery looks very different to the well polished rooms at other places is an understatement. However, that does make this feel like a slightly more genuine experience. You really are walking through a production facility. Because of this I’m not entirely sure about the major investments Distel (the parent company) is going to make to improve the visitor facilities in the coming years. A new visitor center might help, but ‘luxury cottages’ and ‘mobile beach huts’ doesn’t really sit well with me.

It was good to see, though, that the distillery still runs on people. All the electronic equipment is just measuring things and not automating production. People produce the whisky, with a lot of tools that have been there for decades, if not longer.

And, I have to say this, even though the place looks a bit rough around the edges (and the center), it’s still quite gorgeous to see. It has it’s own charm, with all the different styles of buildings, the rather impractical layout of the place and the casks just lying around near the entrance to the site.

The tasting we had afterwards was… How to say this… Intense. Sarah guided us through a lot of different whiskies very professionally, even though there was just us and she didn’t have to stay in line.

“I often use the F-word like a comma.”

We could relate and we had an epic time on a Monday morning. Let’s say it took the chill from our bones. Luckily our Designated Survivor took sample bottles, because none of us was fit to drive after, let alone allowed to.

20180409_103248.jpgThe tasting consisted of five sizeable drams of various cask strength samples. There were bourbon casks, peated whiskies, a Marsala cask, a wine cask and two Manzanilla casks. At least the wine cask, Marsala cask and Manzanilla casks were available as 20cl in most cases and 70cl for the Marsala one.

As with all the tastings, I didn’t take any notes, but let’s say that all whiskies were at least very good. I’m generally not a huge fan of peated Bunnahabhain, but with the Marsala cask it worked very well. The wine cask was good for a wine cask, but the ones that stole the show for me were the Manzanilla ones. Those were BIG whiskies. I bought 20cl of each of them, and I am very much looking forward to getting to know these whiskies a lot better.

All in all, I have to say I had an ace experience that morning. Only to be nicely topped off by a great burger in Port Askaig, and a nice walk through some peat bogs on Jura. Who needs walking paths, anyway?

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The Jura bit was highlighted by:

  • “Sure, the ordnance map says there’s no trail, but I bet there is”
  • “See that fence, there must be a proper way of getting over that”
  • My pants tearing (because of said fence crossing)
  • FV sinking knee deep in peat (literally)
  • Walking by Jura without the slightest inclination to go in
  • Being very surprised how many cars fit on that tiny ferry
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Caroni 20yo, 1998-2018, 64.6% – The Duchess

Posted on 20 April 2018 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

The guys at The Duchess seem to be on the rum train! I talked to Nils about this and he told this was mostly due to availability. The whisky market is booming and therefore caskes are scarce. With rum this is starting to happen but nowhere near the same level of franticness yet. So, like last time, rum it is!

Caroni is always a name that triggers people since it is a closed distillery that finally shut its doors in 2002, after the Trinidad government sold a huge chunk of shares (49%) to Rum Distillers Limited in 2001. Apparently they wanted to get the distillery out of the way.

What I know of Caroni rums, based on the few I’ve tried over the years is that they produce a very heavy and strong spirit that, after long maturation like this one (and the one I tried at Cadenhead’s last week) are very appealing to whisky drinkers. Deep, layered flavors with a lot of oak influence. Sounds good right?

30742192_1069475999878738_1427633763252174848_nSniff:
It’s a true and rather sweet rum with a lot of oak. Very dry (maybe the insanely high ABV?) with hints of dried tobacco leaves. Deep flavors of waxed oak, some spices and crusty dark bread. Somehow, even a bit of whipped cream.

Sip:
The palate is sharp and dry, but even though this is over 64%, it doesn’t taste THAT sharp. There still is a lot of alcohol of course, but that heat is offset by oak, sweet molasses and slightly bitter tobacco leaves. Very autumnal with old oak, furniture wax. That creaminess from the nose is present here too.

Swallow:
On the finish, the spiciness is getting a bit more in the spotlight, with pink peppercorns and wood flavors, some chili pepper, but a lot more gentle than before.

Honestly, without trying too hard, I figured I should be drinking this on a hot day, on a porch in a rocking chair. Something I normally associate with bourbon.

The sweetness with the wood spices is very reminiscent of America’s national spirit, although it is of a lighter profile than some of those heavy hitting bourbons (like Knob Creek, for example).

All in all this is one of the best rums I’ve ever had, although it’s hard to compare to some. For example, Diageo’s Zacapa is a tremendous rum too, it’s such a different beast that focuses more on smoothness and sweetness than on oak and depth, like this one does.

In hindsight it might have been wrong to close the Caroni distillery. Much like Brora, for example.

91/100

Caroni 20yo, 1998-2018, 64.6%, The Duchess ‘The Trinidad’. Available from Best of Whiskies for € 195

Thanks again, Nils, for the awesome sample!

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Clynelish 10yo, 2003-2014, 60.5% – SMWS (26.98, Lively as an Electric Acrobat)

Posted on 18 April 2018 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

I have absolutely no idea what they mean with a name like “Lively as an Electric Acrobat” or how the SMWS thinks that works for marketing purposes. Then again, they are a members-only club which means they don’t have to market their individual whiskies as much, I guess.

When I bought this, I forgot about it when it was with a friend in the UK. Then I ran out of money and he took it off my hands. Then, a year or two later I re-bought it from him. Weird things.

Anyway, I love Clynelish, I doubt that’s a secret. I don’t generally mind when they’re young, but it generally gets better with age. With 1996 and 1997 being great years for the distillery, I wondered how a younger one would turn out, since I don’t try those as often.

Now I know.

smws_genericSniff:
An active bourbon cask, if you ask me. Coconut and sweet citrus. The typical Clynelish waxiness is there, but I doubt you’d find it if you weren’t looking. It’s insanely sharp and very numbing. Later I get crisp vanilla and rosemary custard.

Sip:
SHARP. It’s like drinking razors. It’s sweet because of the alcohol and there’s certainly some oak influence. It’s idiotically sharp, sharper than many a dram at higher ABV I had. My tongue is in shock and it takes a while before I can actually taste anything again. After a while I get some fatty, waxy notes with vanilla and it does get a little bit easier.

Swallow:
The finish mellows quickly, thank God. The vanilla and slightly fatty texture lingers. The rosemary custard I found on the nose returns.

Well. This is a tough one. Both to drink and to rate. I think it’s way too sharp, and that’s not just the ABV. I think the cask imparted some flavors onto the spirit, but I doubt it did much to mellow it. This whisky tastes way sharper than a 60.5% whisky should.

Apart from that, there’s some nice flavors, but it’s not deep and a tad generic. Luckily there’s a bit of a waxy note happening as a redeeming factor. All in all, I’m not a fan.

Quite funny, since Gal is.

80/100

Clynelish 10yo, 2003-2014, 1st Fill Bourbon cask, 60.5%, SMWS, 26.98, Lively as an Electric Acrobat

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Bowmore, 2018

Posted on 16 April 2018 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

It’s been a bit more than a week since I wrote a post on this here blog. The reason for this was announced in some posts on a Bunnahabhain and a Lagavulin, I was on Islay last week.

A long planned trip with my friends to the holy grail of peated whisky. The last time we were in Scotland we already started planning an ‘expedition’ like this, and contrary to that one, we actually wanted to see some of the surroundings from outside the car. We wanted to see Islay.

So, contrary to many people’s expectations we only planned one distillery visit per day, but decided to go (almost) all out on those. A tour in the morning, a tasting right after. Lunch to cool down and then some sightseeing.

On Monday we visited Bunnahabhain and did some walking on Jura. On Tuesday it was Bowmore’s turn and a small round trip between Ballygrant and Keills. On Wednesday we toured and tasted Lagavulin and drove around the western leg of the island.

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The tour at Bowmore, we did the Vaults Secret Tasting Tour, is a great one. My wife and I toured the distillery in 2010 and loved it. Unfortunately, back then there was a bit of a drought and the distillery didn’t have enough water to malt any barley. This time the malting floors and the Kiln were in use so we made barley angels at 50 degrees Celsius.

Our tour guide, Lauren, took us around the distillery and allowed us plenty of time for pictures, questions and random wandering around. She even put up with our bad jokes and chimed in herself with a quip or two:

“The water from the lade is brown, because it runs through peat bogs. It’s not because it’s sewage or something. That is what Caol Ila uses…”

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Before, during and after the tour we tried some whiskies, obviously. I didn’t take any notes. I thought not being an uber geek for once seemed the better option, so you have to forgive me for not having a proper review of a recent 11 year old Bowmore Hand Filled from a sherry cask, last year’s 27 year old Port Cask from Feis Ile and the Vaults Edition (this one will follow later).

What I do  have is a tasting note on the 10cl sample of a 1999 bourbon cask that was included in the tour ticket (either a bourbon or sherry cask, I picked the bourbon one). It does warrant a bit of an explanation though. But first, tasting notes.

Bowmore 1999-2018, Bourbon cask 1462, 53.4% – Handfilled by me, at the distillery on April 10th, 2018.

Sniff:
On the nose I got a good whack of dry smoke, with an earthy, peaty background. Some smoked tea, but not as heavy as Lapsang Souchong. Lots of yellow fruit too, apple, dried pineapple. Later it gets more and more grassy, with straw, heather and marram grass. Rather salty as well.

Sip:
The palate is more dry than the nose made me expect, but most people know I love a dry whisky, so that’s great. Slightly less fruity, although the apple is still noticeable. Hay, grass, oak and apple peels. Not too sharp, but very intense. The smoke is a bit sharp.

Swallow:
The finish is very consistent with the palate. Lots of peat and earthy flavors. Smoke, oak, straw, hay. Lots of fruit too, and slightly more bitter than before. So that suits the pineapple, and dry apple too.

90/100

Obviously it’s great. A nineties Bowmore from a bourbon cask is (almost always) something that gets me going. I love that this is a slightly atypical one in its intensity and peatiness. That is also where the explanation kicks in.

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Obviously, if you get into contact with a certain scent or flavor a lot, you can get immune to it. When walking through the town of Bowmore, there sometimes is a mist of peat smoke coming from the distillery that’s fogging up the streets. Also, when you start doing barley angels in the kiln, you smell of smoke afterwards.

Because of that, when I tasted this whisky in the No. 1 Vaults, I didn’t really pick up on the peat at all. I thought it was a very gently, very fruity Bowmore that was even slightly less peaty than I’m used to. Boy was I wrong.

I gave a sip to my father-in-law, last Saturday, and he figured it was too peaty for Bowmore as well, and went to Ardbeg or Laphroaig for his guess. And yet here we are. Bowmore in a different guise. Still, an epic dram though.

Also, when a bung is being hammered back in a cask, really tightly, by a female tour guide while she exclaims ‘I like to make it hard for people’, it’s apparently inappropriate to immediately blurt out ‘That’s what she said!’.

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Lagavulin Feis Ile 2017, 16yo, Moscatel Cask, 56.1%

Posted on 4 April 2018 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

In exactly seven days I’ll be at Lagavulin Distillery swith TT, FV and JE. We’ll be doing the tour and follow that up with the Warehouse Demonstration (if you look to your left, the thing you see there is a warehouse. Bye bye).

Hopefully the tasting will be hosted by Iain ‘Pinky’ MacArthur, similar to when I was there in 2010. They guy has been with Lagavulin for about five decades, which is an unimaginable amount of time, if you ask me. I am very much looking forward to it, as I am sure you can imagine.

To get in the mood, I decided to finish the tail end of my bottle of Lagavulin Feis Ile from last year. It’s a Moscatel cask, which (in an Islay dram) I generally combine with Caol Ila and their Distillers Edition. It was one of my first Islay whiskies, about 13 years ago or so.

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Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
Smooth on the arrival, and sweetly peaty. Quite earthy and dry as well. Vanilla, pear, but also the crispness of star fruit and white grapes. Later the oak starts coming through, and there’s a slightly nutty sweetness happening too.

 

Sip:
It’s a lot smoother than you generally expect from a cask strength Islay whisky. Rather gently, smooth and sweet, but there still is some sharpness. I’d say it’s a malty sharpness, somehow. A bit of a fatty, nutty texture afterwards. Some oak, earthiness and peat smoke, but more gently peaty than regular Lagavulin. Some sweet fruits too, pear, maybe even some raisins.

Swallow:
The finish is a lot more peaty than the palate. Almost like the 12 year old Cask Strength releases, although it does miss some of that one’s bite. The nuttiness and sweet fruits are present again, and after a while rather pronounced.

It’s a more sweet expression of Lagavulin than I’m used to, so I write that down to the Moscatel wood. Somehow, I find it a rather nutty whisky, which is not something I’m used to of either Lagavulin or Moscatel. The flavour of grapes is not too surprising when you realize this is a wine cask. Good stuff, and rather different than regular Lagavulin, which is nice for such a one off bottling.

89/100

Lagavulin Feis Ile 2017, 16yo, Moscatel Cask, 56.1%. Available through Whiskybase for some 165 euros.

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Bunnahabhain 1987-2014, 26yo, Sherry butt, 49.8% – Berry Brothers and Rudd

Posted on 2 April 2018 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

In seven days I’ll be at Bunnahabhain Distillery, or maybe I’ve just left to go have lunch somewhere. We’ve planned the tour and warehouse tasting and I’m looking forward a lot. I’ve only ever been at the distillery without doing the tour, so a trip with my mates to Islay was the perfect excuse to fix that ‘not having done the tour’ bit.

This 1987 Bunnahabhain, which is a great year for Bunnahabhain by the way, was a dram I first tried at my Blog Birthday Bash in 2014, courtesy of Teun (of Maltstock fame). Since then I’ve tried several from this vintage, and while all of them were great, I doubt any came close to this one. It’s a splendid dram and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to do a proper review of it.

A surprise Bunnahabhain. Very good, very fruity.

Sniff:
On the nose there’s a lot of fruit, and a lot of malt as well. Rather coastal. Sweet apples, but also some mango and peach. The malty notes come around like shortbread and butter biscuit. Lots of different scents, and even a slightly oily scent.

Sip:
The palate is slightly sharper than the below 50% ABV made me expect. Dry oak, with a texture of butter or oil. Butter biscuit, shortbread, apple, peach. Some lighter notes of herbs and spices later on.

Swallow:
The finish is very gentle, sweet and long. The fruits and the more coastal notes (sand, some salinity) last longest. Also the buttery shortbread notes linger.

You know when you think you know a distillery’s character and in most occassions you only find some of the characteristics that makes you love that distillery in a dram? Yes? This one ticks all the boxes when I think of Bunnahabhain. Lots of malt, fruit, coastal notes. Some oak as well, but not too much. Luckily this isn’t one of those heavily peated distillates. Somehow, the ‘really good’ peated Bunnahabhains are few and far between. Somehow it just doesn’t really thrills me. But this one… Damn.

91/100

Bunnahabhain 1987-2014, 26yo, Sherry butt 2462, 49.8%, Berry Brothers and Rudd

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FEW 3yo, 2013-2016, 63.4% – SMWS (B4.3 – Full Flavour Behaviour)

Posted on 29 March 2018 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

It struck me as kind of funny that one of the few (pun intended) American whiskeys the SMWS bottles has a name with two words that are spelled in a distinctly English way.

So, I got a big share of this, and it took me a while to get started on it, but after that it was gone fairly quickly. And not only because I don’t want too many open sample bottles standing around on my shelf.

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Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
It’s a very raw bourbon. Dry, sharp and spicy, with lots of grains. Typically FEW, or maybe ‘new wave bourbon’ instead. Tree bark, crusty bread, salted caramel and a campfire. So, charcoal, burning embers and that kind of stuff.

Sip:
Sharp, like on the nose. Sharp oak, sharp grains, sharp spiciness. Kind clunky with lots of oak. It doesn’t mellow over time, so it stays sharp and dry. Again, typically FEW, with tree bark and charcoal.

Swallow:
Very warming, almost glowing, with a significant afterburner. Charcoal, embers, dry, sharp and oaky.

I find this whiskey typically true of the FEW style, but contrary to some other brands that are in this style bracket, they seem to pull it off. It makes for a very interesting, and dangerously drinkable whiskey, without ever being boring.

Somehow, I noticed that this was a strong whiskey, but I would never have guessed that this was over 60%. I’d have guessed some 55% or so. Quite the difference.

But, after all is said and done. This is one of those whiskeys that, if you bought it, you won’t regret it since it’s really good and really drinkable. However, it is completely in line with other FEW products and therefore utterly predictable (predictably good too). That means it’s not so exclusive to FEW that you’d want to spend the significant uptick in price that the SMWS charges for it.

The current market price for this is some € 230, which is just ridiculous. I’d wait till a new cask strength release from FEW drops and comes in at € 80 or so.

85/100

FEW 3yo, 2013-2016, 63.4%, SMWS, B4.3 – Full Flavour Behaviour

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Two sherried Bowmores: Elements of Islay Bw7, The Four Isle Solera

Posted on 25 March 2018 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

When Ruben posted his review to The Four: Isle Solera by Woodwinters I knew I wanted some of that. And with Elements of Islay’s Bw7 for sale as well, a bottle share was quickly taking shape.

I even shared two bottles of each, such was the popularity of these whiskies. I wasn’t overly surprised by that since I know there’s a lot of guys in my group that love the sherry and peat combination. And with these two whiskies both having some decent age to them, popularity ramped.

I quickly tried them after I got my hands on them. Something I can’t say for all things I think I need to bottle-share (cough Jura One and All cough). Especially with a trip to Islay coming up in two weeks I wanted to get my peat on!

bw7-elements-of-islay-bowmore-whisky1Bowmore Bw7, 2001-2017, Sherry Butts, 53.2% – Elements of Islay

The peat is very intense on the nose, more so that I’d expect from Bowmore. The sherry is too, I’d say this is more in the range of those insane Port Charlottes than any other distillery on Islay. Wood smoke, peat, soil. Lots of fruit too, with plums, apricot, but also stewed strawberry and rhubarb. Later I get some aniseed, some leather and shoe polish.

The palate is fairly sharp with lots and lots of fruit. Red fruit like strawberry, but as on the nose there’s plum and apricot too. Rather dry with a lot of oak, fiery smoke and flint. Peat, salt, tar. Quite a ‘clunky’ whisky. Dry leather and shoe polish again, with some cigarettes.

The finish is a bit hotter at the start than the palate was, but is mostly dry and oaky. Less fruit, but there’s still smoke and ash, tar and even some browned butter.

In a way all these flavors are amazing, but it’s just a bit of a jumble to be honest. I really like it, but it’s not very refined. Very clunky, boorish maybe.

87/100

woodwinters-isle-solera-16-year-old-whiskyBowmore 16yo, bottled in 2016, Sherry Cask, 58.1%, The Four – Isle Solera – Woodwinters

Compared to the Bw7 (I tasted this one after that) it’s a bit more timid, even though the ABV is a bit higher. Menthol cigarettes, a light smoke with hints of sandalwood. Almost Japanese in style. Furniture polish, soft oak, some fruit like plums and date.

The palate is where the ABV kicks in, but it does stay more balanced somehow. It’s dry with cherry stones, almond and a lot of oak. Some coal smoke, charcoal, pencil shavings, menthol, date and plum.

The finish is more typically like Bowmore with a bit of orangy citrus, sherry and oak. Smoke and richness, with a bit of a coarse smokiness like cigarettes. Dates and plum.

Well, Ruben was right to get people enthousiastic about this. It’s a cracking dram of which I wouldn’t have mind to have a whole bottle to myself. The balance is stunning and I love hose the cedar and sandalwood scents are coming through. Epic stuff.

91/100

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Hazelburn 18, 1997-2015, Leaky Sherry Butt, 54.4% – Duty Paid Sample for The Sprinbank Society

Posted on 21 March 2018 by Sjoerd de Haan-Kramer

This is a bit of a weird one. Initially, this cask was selected by attendees of the Springbank Whisky Festival in 2015, to be bottled as a Springbank Society bottling. However, the cask was almost empty when they wanted to bottle it, because it leaked. A different cask was selected and this cask was bottled for the attendees of the tasting instead of the Springbank Society.

Through a bottle share club I’m in I was able to get my hands on a sample of this, and recently I decided to try it, even if it was just to get through some of the sort-of-random samples I’d collected over the years.

Anyway, an 18 year old Hazelburn, that’s about as old as they were back then. Of course, we’re a couple of years down the line nown and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a 21 year old popping up this year. 21 Seems to be the sweet spot for a lot of Springbank releases.

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Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
Lots of oak, more than you’d expect from an 18 year old. This might be because of the leakage, which tends to concentrate wood influences in the remaining booze. It’s warming and intense. Toasted bread, lots of fruit, cherry, blackberry, almond, cherry stones. Crusty bread and slightly funky scents too. It’s a weird combination of freshness, funkiness and lightness.

Sip:
The palate is intense, but also crisp and dry. Funky, like a ‘real’ Springbank. Moldy and earthy, with dunnage warehouses, almond and hazelnut. Dry with old oak.

Swallow:
The finish mellows quickly, but still has some bite to it. Dry, lots of old oak and funky earthiness. The flavors you’d expect from the old warehouses at Springbank.

When the ‘Leaky cask’ was advertised, I expected some wacky, out of balance whisky with lots of oak driven flavors. Combine that with this being a Springbank and from a sherry butt and you start expecting funky mushrooms, moldy warehouses and lots of heavy fruit.

It delivers on all fronts. And it does so in great order. The out-of-balanceness of the whisky keeps it just shy of absolute greatness but if the society releases casks like this more often, I’d be a happy camper.

At the time of writing there’s only one bottle available through the Whiskybase Marketplace, for a whopping 400 euros. That’s a bit steep, if you ask me.

88/100

Hazelburn 18, 1997-2015, Leaky Refill Sherry Butt, Rotation 1013, Warehouse 15, 54.4%, Duty Paid Sample for The Sprinbank Society

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