17/08/2018 Clearing the shelf #21

The Ardmore 20yo 1996/2017 (49.3%, OB, 1st Fill Bourbon Casks & ex-Islay Casks, L723657A): nose: stagnant water and a camp fire in the damp countryside. This one is ideal to accompany today's wet weather. Peat smoke, a wet bothy, brown toast, logs, resting near the fire place. This is warm and comforting. "One to savour near a stream, foamy and brown with peat," says adc. Gas and cabbage water -- it is vegetative peat, rather than diesel or seashells. Smoked ham, maybe. After a sip, the nose has pencil erasers. Mouth: soft and honeyed at first, it soon reveals horsepower... and a dollop of lemon-scented soap. Grapefruit skins, lemon drops, creamy soap, barbecued meat (pork or poultry), barbecued grapefruit. Finish: the soap recedes, leaving but caramelised honey, lemon juice and waves of refined smoke. Ink, melon skins and smoked Parma ham, lemon-stuffed milk chocolate, cold embers, wet wood. This is lovely, in the right weather. 8/10 (Thanks for the sample, OF)

Jura 10yo 2007/2017 (46%, Langside Distillers Hepburn's Choice, Refill Hogshead, 420b): nose: is that decaying berries, or cured meat? "Kumquat and pear mix," says adc. I find it closer to partridge or pheasant myself, plucked and waiting to be prepared. Sauce grand'veneur, red-wine vinegar... This smells horrible, to tell the truth. A whiff of smoke, rotting elderberry. The smoke grows and hides the other notes -- which is a good thing, in this case. Smoked mackerel, smoked haddock, kippers, and then the wine note comes back. Dry Jaffa Cakes (notice I do not refer to PiM's, this time!) Mouth: wine, wine, wine, wine vinegar, decaying berries, overripe plums. The palate is thin and wine-y, astringent, though that is sort of balanced by some pear juice. Peach skins in red wine, sangria. Finish: simple, it plays back some of the notes of the nose, namely : plums and vinegar. It is acidic, with a drop of milk chocolate. Drinkable, yet far from blinding. 5/10 (Thanks for the sample, Bishlouk)

Highland Park 17yo (58.1%, private cask sample, b. ca 2018): nose: burnt wood, moist earth, turf, a heather hearth (I am pretty sure that is self-suggestion), a cast-iron cauldron that has spent too long on the live flame, and in which the vegetable soup has caked near the bottom. Of the trademark honey, I do not detect much -- and if there is any, it is caramelised. Mouth: hot, gently smoky, with burnt grass, dry hay. This has the heat of the industrial revolution! Burning coal, molten honey, heather, not quite in bloom yet, petrol, warm metal. It never tastes of diesel or hot engines, however. A soft medicinal touch -- gauze. Finish: yep, coal, embers, hot honey, peat fire, ashes. Heather honey and caramelised blackberry jam, too. This is a powerful, no-nonsense, light peater. Good, but but lacks complexity and finesse to score higher. 7/10 (Thanks for the sample, Bishlouk)

15/08/2018 A couple of drams in Huy

35.59 39yo d.1971 Arabian nights (40.9%, SMWS Society Single Cask, Refill ex-Bourbon Hogshead, 74b): we are losing a close friend, today (this bottle). Nose: dusty wood and dusty fruit, with peach and ground peach stone, crystallised kumquat, then furniture polish, plum skins, encaustic and wood wax. There might be a touch of very faint straw too, paraffin wax, waxy flower petals (roses, I would wager). Some breathing allows it to release juicy apricots and the softest Virginia tobacco. The waxy tone becomes stronger and stronger, the further down the glass. Mouth: very mellow, yet not tired whatsoever, it has similar waxy fruit (peach, apricot) and furniture polish, as well a rose-petal jam. It feels gently bitter, with apricot stones and encaustic again, apricot compote, softly caramelised. The texture is thin, milky and, well, mellow. It is bizarrely waxy too, yet not coating. Behind the wax, the palate reveals tame, but clear spent wick. Finish: marvelous chocolate shavings sprinkled on top of rose-petal jam, augmented with a pinch of mild tobacco on the polished dashboard of a Jaguar MkV. Fruity jams and sweets (kumquat, quince drops, pineapple cubes), tobacco, cedar wood and wax. This is really stunning. A bottle I will greatly miss. 9/10

Bladnoch 26yo 1990/2017 (49%, Cadenhead Authentic Collection 175th Anniversary, Bourbon Hogshead, 246b, 17/120): nose: ganache, says adc. Noticeably more floral than the Glen Moray, it has mirabelle plum, tulips, buttercup, and then, suddenly, marzipan appears. Cork, satsuma, mandarin peel, green wood (hazel?), unripe quince. Pomelo skins show up after the first sip, with maybe some herbs?... Lemon thyme is my guess, lemon mint, curry leaves and kombava leaves. Mouth: this one is punchy and citrus-y, though not aggressive. The mouth has pomelo, lemonade, bitter kombava leaves, olive oil, lime zest. The label advertises melon -- perhaps there is unripe, green melon skin indeed, but I reckon that is merely suggestions. In any case, the texture is that of of thick-ish lemonade. Finish: a weird combination of chocolate shavings and citrus-y lemonade... that works a treat! Lime leaves, a squeeze of pomelo juice, lime zest, lime-filled, dark-chocolate pralines, lime drops, lemon marmalade on toast. This is exquisite. Immediate pleasure for lemon aficionados. 9/10

12/08/2018 What is an encyclopedia?

Yep, another book review. This one is a big one too: at 6.4kg, it is probably the heaviest book on tOMoH's shelves. It was sold at the Whisky Show Old & Rare this year, and sell it did! Sold out in record time. It was probably the best place to sell it, of course, what with all the world's geeks assembled in one single space for a weekender. Every one of those geeks noted how large and heavy the object is, and wondered how they would be able to travel back with it.
No doubt most will have returned home with the book intact, possibly sacrificing a couple of bottles in the process, that could not be carried.

The book in question is Emmanuel Dron, Collecting Scotch Whisky, An Illustrated Encyclopedia Volume I, 19th & 20th Century, self-published.

Impressions?

Well, at almost nine hundred pages, it took a little over a month's evenings to read it, cover to cover. See, if the volume is thick and heavy, it is mostly full of images, with comparatively little text.

The short version is this: although it stems from passion, it sometimes comes across as a vanity project. The topic of this book really is: "Here is my collection and these are my mates, who also have formidable collections."

As such, it works beautifully. However, it is called, and aspires to be, an encyclopedia. As an encyclopedia, it falls short in several ways.

If you are annoyed with my review already, you will probably not like what follows. I am a hopeless perfectionist hidden behind a keyboard and the convenient anonymity that t'Interwebs grants us all.
Take the below with a pinch of salt... and get over it.

Still there? Let's go!

The book's structure is not very rigorous

• Sometimes, Dron writes about a bottler, sometimes about an individual (Signatory Vintage vs. Ernesto Mainardi, who has bottled under several company names, i.e. several bottlers)
• The distinction between bottler and importer would deserve more explanation. It becomes particularly confusing where an importer became a "bottler" in their own right, yet still had to go through a physical bottler, because that importer/"bottler" was not based in Scotland
• Several bottles are shown multiple times, under the different sections (bottler, importer and collection, for example)
• Elsewhere, the author explains that, in the United States, Corti Bros and Whyte & Whyte were very important, early actors. In the section about US bottlers, the reader can find many pages on the Corti Bros offerings, niente on Whyte & Whyte. The latter is partially and counter-intuitively covered in the section about English bottlers, seeing as a Bristol-based company did the physical bottling for Whyte & Whyte. Duthie from Aberdeen did the physical bottling for Corti Bros, yet the Corti bottlings do appear in the US section regardless. That double-standard simply seems inconsistent and confusing

The author does not stick to his own rules

The volume is explicitly meant to deal with bottles from the nineteenth and twentieth century, yet there are a number of exceptions: many bottles from post-2000 are shown "for the sake of continuity." Usually with a disclaimer, but still.

There are more than one factual errors

For example, the author claims the bottler First Cask did not pass the 1990s. Firstly, First Cask is a collection, not a bottler: the bottler is Direct Wines Ltd.; secondly, my First Cask bottlings from 2013 say otherwise.

The book is crippled with spelling mistakes and inaccurate captions

"Copper's Choice" instead of "Cooper's Choice," "Clynelish 1966" under a picture of Jura 1966, "Macallan 1973" when the label clearly reads 1976 are but a few examples. It reads as though there was no proofreading of the finished product, or the proofreader read the text without the pictures. There are also common words which are incorrectly spelled and that any word processor will have underlined. The icing on the cake is Dron's insistence on writing "Macphail," even under an order form clearly signed "MacPhail." That is MacPhail from Gordon & MacPhail, only one of the most well-known names in the whole industry.

This
is annoying.

Generally speaking, the level of language is pretty poor

Yes, I do realise English is not Dron's mother tongue, but he chose it for his Encyclopedia. For the record, it is not mine either. More than once, I had to do a literal translation into French to understand what a sentence in the book meant.

The writing style does not work for me

The author takes shortcuts, assumes he will be understood and struggles to convey his passion via the stark accuracy geeks tend to display when debating their favourite subject (guilty as charged!) In that regards, it is on par with Ulf Buxrud's RMS book or Brossart's Brora book: lots of interesting, insightful information, but the presentation is not the best -- or, at least, it does not work for me.

For an encyclopedia, it has gaps

It has lots of pictures of bottles and lists of releases, which is in keeping with the spirit of an encyclopedia, but if the point was to show all the existing bottlings (according to the definitions on thefreedictionary.com, an encyclopedia deals with a subject exhaustively), then it is incomplete, sometimes admittedly ("Hard to list them all, as there are so many," "There is also another version at 43%" etc.) The most striking illustration is the "definitive" list of old Irish whiskeys bottled by Cadenhead in 1991 for their 150th Anniversary Commemoration collection that contains "all" said bottlings... except for a couple that are pictured in the same section of the book.

The very idea of an encyclopedia as a book is outdated

As Emmanuel Dron rightly points out, it is almost impossible to be exhaustive on a subject that is decades old and for which there are mostly no reliable records. Exhaustive lists of bottlings today belong in online databases, where any missing reference can be added by another contributor. Cue whiskogs (RIP), whiskybase, connosr and others.

A bottle of Rare MossTowie looking at a family picture

What is the verdict, then?

The above probably all reads rather negative, I know. This is a thoroughly enjoyable book all the same, mind you. It contains, in no particular order:

• Excellent pages on how to spot fakes and how to date a bottle
• Enlightening and entertaining interviews (of which Diego Sandrin's is possibly the best, again -- read his interview on scotchwhisky.com for a cathartic moment)
• Old newsletters and price lists to provide a good giggle (or a good facepalm, depending on which angle you look at them from)
• Many, many pieces of information thus far unknown to me, pieced together over twenty years of collecting and forging relationships with influential people of that world

Really, it is a good book, if one sees it as a collection of pretty pictures to show off a collection. Is that a bad thing? Of course not. Every collector wants to show off their collection; otherwise, what is the point? However, showing off a collection an encyclopedia does not make. Both Zagatti books, The Best Collection of Malt Scotch Whisky and The Best Collection of Malt Whiskies and Whiskeys Part Two, Formagrafica Edizione, carefully avoided that trap. This one walks straight into it.

In terms of encyclopedia and in the humble opinion of someone who has not written a book, Dron probably had better focused on a narrower scope for this first volume. There is too much in this book and, as a result, a lot of it is wishy-washy. A book focusing on Italian bottlers would have been more adequate to develop even further what is already the richest section of the current work. In fact, I had the fairly clear impression the author started his journey wanting to write a book about Samaroli, then widened the scope... and probably ran out of time to polish some sections before the February festival, which was the big launch.

By all means, read it and make your own opinion. Buy it, even. But if you are like me, a nitpicking perfectionist, almost unable to see the large contribution for the small flaws, you will likely be annoyed by petty details.

Now, I want to stick to my own unspoken rule of not posting anything here without a tasting note. I will therefore taste a whisky; an Italian bottling from the 1980s that appears in the aforementioned book.

Rare MossTowie 18yo (40%, Gordon & MacPhail for Sestante, b.1980s): the label does not state it, but it was bottled by Gordon & Macphail MacPhail for Sestante, as confirmed by il Signor Mainardi, founder of Sestante, in the book. I do not know of any Mosstowie bottled earlier than the ones in this series. That makes the "Rare" adjective of this particular one rather fitting -- you know, as opposed to "Common" MossTowie. No idea why they capitalised the 'T' in Mosstowie. Nose: light and biscuit-y, the nose has custard cream, cream soda, kumquat, boiled apple peel, cider in the making, Dundee cake, all sorts of jams and waxy plants. Shortly afterwards, it becomes "darker," with whiffs of treacle, raspberry jelly and then, pipe tobacco, plum liqueur and polished mahogany. Finally, cardboard and shaving foam manifest themselves. Mouth: the palate is soft, with apricot juice, a drop of lukewarm cider, tinned-pineapple syrup, Macadamia-nut butter, lots of soft, juicy plums and polished desks. A bit later on, at second sip, malted milk seems to appear too, not overpowering at all. In fact, this is civilised and elegant. Finish: meow! The finish shows plum liqueur, with the thickness and the creaminess of molten butter, or almond butter. A discreet touch of wood, butterscotch, creamy custard, fresh figs, tamarind purée, Christmas cake, Chinotto, melted milk chocolate, milk-chocolate coulis, even, and a drop of squashed raspberry. This is pretty sweet, without ever crossing the boundaries of the unacceptable. I would say it contains E150, unfortunately, though I have no way to prove it. Regardless, it is a cracking dram, well worth procuring. 8/10

Bah! Let us have another.

Bruichladdich 19yo 1989/2009 (46%, Signatory Vintage for Direct Wines Ltd. First Cask, C#90, b#87, L09/205): if one needed proof that First Cask did, in fact, survive the turn of the millennium, here it is. Nose: very fresh, with seaspray, green-grape juice, crisp apple, yet also some butterscotch. Soon, it has baking soda, a few drops of strawberry juice, lemonade, pineapple cubes, kiwi skins, warm cushions on a rocking chair, left in the sunny conservatory. After a minute or five, citrus shows up more prominently (satsuma peels, pomelo), toasted bread, and still that wonderful, crisp apple. Is it a whisper of smoke, in the back? Yes. That and sweaty socks. Mouth: acidic without being astringent, it has lemon juice, apple peels, custard powder, mead, pineapple cubes, crystallised oranges, mixed peel. Peppermint, maybe, lemonade again, mojito, tangerine, baked banana, Chardonnay. The banana grows in intensity, ending up coating the whole palate -- which is delightful... if one likes banana. I do. Finish: violet boiled sweets. It is the first time this dram gives me that impression, I think, but it is very clear, today! Once that dissipates, it is back to the fruity onslaught, with lime, grapefruit, dried apricot, dried-mango slices, bubble gum, some sort of citrus-y fudge, tablet. Baked banana is here again, perhaps sprinkled with droplets of rum. This is a light, ester-y and fruity number, not extraordinarily complex, but superb nonetheless. Again, well worth tracking down. 8/10

05/08/2018 Clearing the shelf #20

Another tale of three morning drams -- this is pretty much the only time where drinking whisky analytically is possible, in this heatwave. It is great fun, too. :-)

Later than usual, I know.
Had to do some ironing

Ben Nevis 12yo 1996/2009 (46%, The Vintage Malt Whisky Co. The Coopers Choice, Refill Butt, C#817, 428b): it dawned on me last month that I have never reviewed this properly. I opened it years ago, and the level went down dramatically, recently, so it is now or never, really. Nose: despite the butt being a refill, this has a clear wine influence on the nose -- although that could just as well be the Ben Nevis character: I have always found it rather wine-y. Here, we have fortified wine and game sauce -- a whole game casserole, in fact, with seasonal mushrooms and all. There is also a distinctly cereal-y character to this nose, with roasted oats. Further, it has dairy (as in: warm milk, rotten milk) and overripe, decaying plums. Actually, this is very plummy. Dry earth and mouse droppings, in the back, fresh tobacco, even some wax, late in the game -- let us call them waxy plums, then. Mouth: soft and easy, it is salty, creamy in texture, with warm, wet sands, farm-y earth, roasted oats here too, dried hops and dried-mango slices. So dry, in fact, that the fruity side is almost absent, leaving only the chewy, rubber-like touch. Stewed rhubarb makes a late appearance, bitter marmalade and Selkirk bannock. Finish: warm, it has milk chocolate, half a teaspoon of coffee grounds to the bottle, cocoa butter, dried-mango slices (again, the mouthfeel, more than the fruity taste), a drop of fortified wine and liqueur pralines. In June, jazzpianofingers thought it was close to a Brora. I am not so sure about that, but it is a very decent drop. Perhaps just a little bitter to score higher. 7/10

Speaking of Brora...

Brora 21yo d.1982 (46%, Direct Wines Ltd. First Cask, C#279, b#343): nose: this one is immediately more complex and mysterious, with dunnage warehouse, lots of seal wax, candle wax, citrus peel, melon skin, vegetable oil (sunflower, canola), and also nuts (hazelnut, macadamia, skinless Brazil nuts), before coming back to wax, with waxy apricot, waxy plum skin, crystallised Chinese gooseberry and honey-glazed chestnut. Later, blotting paper and drying ink join the fun, alongside paraffin wax and rubber boots. Mouth: here too, it is a deluge of wax, with seal wax at the forefront, electric cables, plastic buckets, Rumtopf, iron tonic, polished wood (as in: a faded piece of polished furniture). The texture is creamy enough, and it certainly does not feel watery, at 46%. Thick apricot juice, peach nectar, chocolate-y mouse (for fans of the Ronnies). Finish: oooh! What a lovely combination of crystallised apricot, canola oil, raspberry oil (if such a thing exists), and fresh, glossy paper, hot off the press. It soon turns chaff-like and husky, with seed mix and jam. Jam-coated seed mix? Ah! why not. Maybe, there is a whisper of cocoa butter and dried figs, too. This covers many aspects of the flavour spectrum, perfectly integrated to deliver something that is better than the sum of its parts. 9/10

Littlemill 28yo (50.5%, Robert Graham Treasurer Selection, C#99, 230b): nose: a whiff of powerful glue, quickly overtaken by an avalanche of citrus and tropical fruits: tangerine, pink grapefruit, satsumas, lime, guava, golden passion fruit, pineapple, Chinese gooseberry, almond, regular gooseberry in a pie casing, sprinkled with powdered sugar -- that'll be a gooseberry pie, then, eh? It also has pear shavings, crisp apple, fresh paint, lemon marmalade... A proper avalanche, I tell you! Yellow fruits soon join in, with soft, mellow peach and ripe apricot. Some green is here too, namely fir tree and pine needles (little of that), lilac, and gorse. How do you spell: 'Phwoar?' Mouth: citric on the tongue too, with lime, acidic grapefruit, pomelo, barely-ripe gooseberry, white peach, tinned pineapple, squashed Chinese gooseberry, acidic and fruity, lemonade, apple peels, lemon marmalade, fig and baking soda. Finish: all the goodness from the mouth and nose are still there, making sure one does not forget their greatness. Grapefruit, lime, tinned pineapple, crisp-apple shavings, Chinese gooseberry, banana rum, satsuma, tangerine, pomelo and lemonade. Well, this is obviously bursting with citrus-y flavours. Tropical fruits are more timid, at this point, though still almost perceptible: guava, papaya and pomegranate. Peach is still there, and a drop of milk-chocolate coulis completes the picture, to augment the fruit. This is simply wonderful. I stick to my opinion that it is one of the best (if not the best) Littlemill ever bottled. At the very least, it is the best I have tried. 10/10

31/07/2018 Blind tasting at Cadenhead's

Under the impression this is going to be the August outturn, ten-or-so of the regulars show up for a blind tasting of old and new, with some unreleased stuff thrown in for good measure. SW knows how to welcome guests. So well, in fact, that we are all offered a mystery sample bottle. To boot, Cameron McGeachy joins the lot, halfway through the evening.

On to the show.

The food has had a face-lift

Dram #1
Nose: citrus-y, it has lemon drizzle and green-tea bags. Mouth: fresh, with mint, tarragon and fennel (the official notes got that spot on, despite SW's gently deriding them). Finish: dried apple shavings, dry wood. This is good. Lots of guesses, all wrong. Glenrothes-Glenlivet 21yo 1996/2018 (50.9%, Cadenhead Small Batch, 3 x Bourbon Hogsheads, 990b) 7/10

Dram #2
Nose: ample and floral, it is rich and complex, which hints at a rather old whisky. Mouth: powerful, acidic, though still flowery. Finish: big, powerful, acidic and chocolate-y. Nice again. Linkwood-Glenlivet 30yo 1987/2018 (57.2%, Cadenhead Authentic Collection, Refill Sherry Butt, 480b) 7/10

Dram #3
Nose: nutty, with apricot stones, including some shards of fruit flesh. Mouth: a bit flinty and green, drying and very acidic. Young? Finish: soft, fruity, floral. Apricot, peach and peach again. Good, if sometimes a bit green. Linkwood-Glenlivet 11yo 2006/2018 (59.3%, Cadenhead Small Batch, Bourbon Hogshead, 294b) 7/10

Cunning to put a young Linkwood after the old Linkwood. It confused everyone.

Glenallachie-Glenlivet 25yo 1992/2018 (56%, Cadenhead Small Batch, 2 x Bourbon Hogsheads, 540b): somehow, this one is not poured blind. Nose: raisins, green grapes and fruit soda. Mouth: big, muscular, brimming with dark grapes. Finish: more fruit, as well as some gently drying wood. This proves the most popular tonight, with MSo reminding the party at every subsequent dram that he liked this one best. Only JS is not so enthusiastic. 8/10

Dram #5
Nose: dry vine, then it opens up to reveal... bread. Olive bread, to be precise. Mouth: tickles, with gentle fruit and Cayenne pepper. Finish: now, the fruit explodes, with tinned pineapple and juicy grapes. Several guesses, including rum. All incorrect. Cognac Grande Champagne Grosperrin 32yo b.2018 (52.8%, Cadenhead Cognac, 384b) 7/10

Dram #6
Nose: hay, a lawn, after six weeks of drought. The second whiff has light peat smoke. Mouth: warm, it has straw and a veil of smoke, here too. Finish: finally, I understand why everyone else finds it so smoky; lots of peat and soot, at this stage. The reveal is a surprise, because I have had this many times, but do not recognise it anyway. Kilkerran 8yo (55.7%, OB, b.11/2017) 7/10

Ladyburn 43yo (unknown ABV, Sirius cask sample, Sherry Cask Finish): another non-blind one. No point calling: it is not available. Nose: strawberry custard on shortbread, custard-cream biscuits, Mouth: mellow and soft, sweet, it has a gently drying, dunnage-warehouse touch that I like. Finish: sugar tart, flan pie, caramelised sugar and... a hint of smoke! Very nice. 8/10

Dram #8
Nose: embers, coal dust, lots of peat smoke, old tools in the garden shed, engine oil, diesel. Mouth: more oily engines, diesel, smoke and old tools. Finish: consistent with the nose and the mouth, it has more peat, smoke, engines etc. Rather nice, this. The English Whisky Company 8yo b.2018 (61.9%, Cadenhead World Whiskies, Bourbon Hogshead, 228b) 7/10

Longrow 18yo b.2017 (46%, OB, 17/150): this became available again, after the company found cases of it that had never been paid for by the business that had ordered them. Nose: blackcurrant, or cherries, in fact, and soaked cork. Mouth: rancio, wine-soaked cork and grape pips. Finish: similar notes -- rancio, wine-soaked cork, grape skins and pips. Nice, but it suffers from the sequence. The English was much stronger and smokier, smothering this one. 7/10

SW pours Macduff 29yo 1989/2018 (55.1%, Cadenhead Authentic Collection, Refill Sherry Butt, 390b) to all who want it. I have had enough for tonight.

Nice little session. The cheeses were the highlight for me, but all the drams were good too.