27/04/2014 Youtube

dom666 listens to his music on Youtube, in a bid to be young, in and cool. This one is about marrying drams with songs (in English or French) by means of a good pun. Failing that, a bad one will do.
The suspects: JD, adc, ruckus, dom666, PSc, JS, kruuk2 and myself.

Stevie Springwood - Higher Love

Auchentoshan Springwood (40%, OB Exclusively for the Global Traveller, Bourbon casks) (JD): an alternative is Kylie Minogue - The Auchentoshan. Nose: green and vanilla-flavoured. Very good aperitive dram, great to start with on an empty stomach. Mouth: fresh and lively, with the slight bitterness of spring plants (I was not influenced by the name, honestly!) Finish: a tad drying, not challenging, yet pleasant. Green wood (hazelnut tree) and faint milk chocolate.

The following covers the next three drams.
Guns 'n Rosebank - Blad, Blad, Bladnoch and Mannochmore (because Dylan cannot sing it)

Rosebank 17yo 1991/2009 (46%, Speciality Drinks Single Malts of Scotland, Barrel C#2206, 259b) (JS): nose: the beauty of the Lowlands in a glass. Honey, meadow flowers, orchard fruit; this is formidable. Caramel (adc), chemicals, solvents (adc), citrus drops, candied, exotic fruit (pineapple, papaya). Not a fruit bomb, yet fruity enough. Mouth: sweet like honey, extremely quaffable. Finish: smooth and comforting, honeyed, flowery again, with a touch of coffee at the very end. 9/10


Bladnoch 1987/1999 (40%, Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseurs Choice) (JS): nose: sherry-like caramel, weathered leather and shoe polish. Roasted hazelnuts, roasted walnuts (JD), varnish. Apple peels and dried lemongrass (adc). Mouth: easy when it comes to the ABV. Flat cola and cough syrup. Finish: wood, some sherry influence. It seems pleasant, today, much more so than previous times. 6/10

In the middle of the song, food is served: bread rolls, blood and dried sausages (including a Parmesan-coated one), cheeses (including a mighty Herve), sirop de Liège, meat balls, pâtés -- including a cracking mousse de canard, which prompts kruuk2 to do his own interpretation of La Danse Des Mousses De Canard

64.40 22yo 1990/2012 Gingery heat and oaky tannins (53.7%, SMWS Society Single Cask, Refill Bourbon Barrel, 172b) (me): nose: lots of sawdust, ginger splinters, cedar wood, coconut and mud. Mouth: slightly stripping, to tell the truth; polished coconut shells and a bit of varnish. Finish: coconut-filled milk chocolate (Bounty, then), cedar wood sheets, broomsticks. Drying (not overly so) and very good. A big hit and a lovely dram. 8/10

A combination known for its lethal effect on hotel rooms...
...and guests

Sylvie Vartan - La plus Balvenie pour aller danser

Balvenie 21yo Port Wood (40%, OB) (kruuk2): others take the Rum Wood to compare, I do not. Nose: swimming pool (JD), salty, briny, then moves towards polished furniture and dried fruit. Mouth: Dijon mustard and a vague acidity. Finish: a touch of jam (the port influence, probably), lots of pepper and some acidity again.

After I note that the salty, dried sausage is very hard, dom666 jokes that I am training for the forthcoming couques de Dinant.

Lou & The Hollywood Bananahabhain - Deanston, Deanston covers the next two drams

Bunnahabhain 29yo 1979/2009 (44.8%, Speciality Drinks Single Malts Of Scotland, Bourbon Barrel, C#28811, 205b) (dom666): nose: wood and banana, chewing gum. Mouth: oooh! dear. A nice, almost rummy banana juice with a certain bitterness and an overall dry feel. Finish: long, fiery and banana-y. Lovely. 8/10

Deanston 17yo (40%, OB, Amontillado casks, ca 2000) (dom666): nose: flat cola, diluted cough syrup, boiled sweets and the stringent and meaty side of sherry. Mouth: sweet, sweet, sweet. Gummy bears with some mocha chocolate. Finish: a vague, green bitterness and a blend of OXO broth and milk chocolate. 7/10

We reminisce of the previous tasting in this very venue:

tOMoH: "We drank JD's two favourite whiskies."
JD: "Laphroaig 1974, Bowmore 1968. Too expensive."
tOMoH: "The others are paying. You should enjoy them."
PSc: "That is a Walloon thing, that. He is Flemish, so he wouldn't know."

Smashing Pumpkins - (Imperial) 1979

Imperial 1979/1998 (40%, Gordon & MacPhail, IH/BDH) (PSc): nose: sea water (JD), bison herb (adc, who still thinks of Zubrowka vodka), coffee, caramel, then OXO broth. Mouth: much better than the nose -- balanced chocolate and fine mocha, well rounded. Finish: some wood, lots of caramel. A fine dram, though the nose does not do it for me. 6/10

Glen Morayhead - One Night in Springbangkok + The Latin Rascals - Arabian Knights are covered by the next two

Glen Morayhead - One Night in Springbangkok

35.59 39yo 1971/2011 Arabian Nights (40.9%, SMWS Society Single Cask, Refill Bourbon Hogshead, 74b) (me): nose: brine, pickles, old leather sofas, cigar boxes, all very vivid. Wood undergrowth, dried fern. Mouth: honey, orange juice (the texture, most of all), a fantastic balance. Gentle spices (garam masala, ground cumin). Finish: an old man's dram -- a fireplace in the other room, tobacco and ashes, cedar wood, cigar boxes, burning cedar branches and noble, dark beer (Belgian, of course). Capital dram, this! 9/10

Springbank 18yo b.2009 (46%, OB, 09/131) (me): nose: very shy, after the old one. Some faded tobacco, old leather seats in a convertible car. JD finds it quite medicinal. Mouth: now, it is back. Dark cherries, dried fruit, red chilli. Finish: red chilli, red capsicum, super long and pleasant, powerful without being invading. It does not shine so brightly, today, but I will be sad when it is gone. 8/10

Belinda Carlisle - Bunnahabhain is a Place on Earth

Bunnahabhain 42yo 1968/2011 (43.8%, Whisky-Faessle/Whiskybase) (the group): nose: red fruit and lovely dunnage warehouse, paint (JD). Varnish indeed -- this is close to a grain, today. Mouth: a superb balance of dunnage warehouse, plants and dark fruit. Finish: blackberry, blueberry, blackcurrant and a faint bitterness again -- odd for a 42 year-old. JD does not care for it (too grain-like for him), while PSc, who has not tried it before, likes it. Yay. 9/10

Line Renaud - Glencadam au Canada

Hands on the buzzer...

Glencadam 34yo 1977/2012 (56.8%, Douglas Laing Old & Rare A Platinum Selection, Sherry Butt, 287b) (dom666): This one was a shining star at Whisky Show, last year. Great to get to try it again. Nose: marzipan, flat cola and cold cough syrup. Overcooked croissant dough too. A farmyard whiff in the back. Mouth: superbly chocolaty, sticky, dense as fuck and balanced. Finish: this is a dessert wine, very dense again and full of very dark chocolate. It delivers a taste of lichen stuck on wood. Will have to try it again, yet I can safely say this is great. 9/10


Telex - Amrut pour de Nouvelles Aventures

Amrut 4yo 2009/2013 (62.8%, OB for Europe, ex-Bourbon American Oak Barrel C#3448) (ruckus): everyone is curious about this one. Firstly, we do not get Indian whiskies very often at these tastings. Secondly, we all have a bit of disbelief for it (prejudices, eh?) Thirdly, we had to put it in late in the line-up as it is so... undiluted! At a mere 62.8%, it is bound to become the choice alcopop for prepubescent girls around the world. Nose: marzipan (JD), unlikely woody, considering it is four years old. It smells toasted. And yes, the cask was toasted. Mouth: warm! Spicy. It becomes drying after a while and the 63% show. Finish: dark chocolate, invading and coating, but very well made. The strength is a little too obvious, perhaps. I forget to try it with water. This could have been "le dernier pour l'Amrut," but there are two more to go. 7/10

Georges Brassens - Les SaPort d'Hélène or Roch Voisine - Ellen

Port Ellen 28yo 1979/2007 Seventh Release (53.8%, OB, 5274b) (adc): we have not had a PE in a while and this is the first official bottling for the group. Nose: cockles, winkles, a fishing port, bullrush, bacon (JD), bacon chocolate (adc -- yes, it exists), kelp, wet mud, lichen, salt marshes and fishing nets. Mouth: we are on the beach. Kelp and sea spray aplenty, winkles, seaweed, then lots of light caramel takes over. Cured meat also rolls on the tongue. Finish: peat now speaks more openly. It is refined, but peaty, long and hot. A great Port Ellen indeed. 9/10

TLC - Ain't 2 Proud 2 Ardbeg

Ardbeg Corryvreckan (57.1%, OB, ca 2014) (JD): nose: tons of ash, burnt wood, burnt ginger bread, lemon juice. Mouth: hot and spicy (yes, those notes are succinct). Finish: super dark cherries on a very burnt griddled pie. 8/10

I finish a glass of Deanston 17, which still holds water, even after those monumental drams we just had.

Oh! and pie.

Excellent tasting, with good food, drams of an outstanding quality and terrible puns ahoy. We disband on the early side, as tomorrow is a school night for most.

La Cité Ardente