31/01/2024 StilL 630

If it feels like we had this only a couple of days ago, it is because we did (a couple of couples of days ago, really). It is American, and that is a good excuse to have it today, on the last day of tOMoH's version of Dryanuary (no Single Malt Scotch Whisky). The eagle-eyed reader will have noticed two exceptions to that adventure, namely on the 17th and on the 27th. Live with it. TOMoH does.

As outlined the other day, StilL 630 has a full range dedicated to collaborations with (local) breweries. This is the seventh of those collaborations, and it is 4Hands' Absence of Light, distilled, then matured "for at least a year."

StilL 630 1yo Presence of Darkness (40.5%, OB Beer Collaboration Series VII, Oak Barrels, B#2, b#524): nose: oddly enough, it is full-on rye whiskey and/or Irn Bru. I say 'oddly', because it is distilled beer, therefore barley, not rye. Underneath that bombastic bouquet, we find teak furniture, drinks cabinets, oiled shelves, and polished dashboards. Then, it is dried citrus peels galore, a mix of pink grapefruit, blush orange, and Red Shaddock, peels so dried they are crispy, but floating in a bowl of teak oil. That citrus points more and more insistently at beer, India Pale Ale, to be precise, fruitier and juicier, balancing promises of acidity and bitterness. I swear I can smell hops in this, even! The second nose confirms the first, and sprinkles sawdust over it all. Some of that dust is ash, in fact. Phwoar! One can smell the foam of a freshly-poured IPA without much recourse to one's imagination. Astonishing. Mouth: the attack is, again, very much like an IPA's, fruity and bitter like citrus peels. Swirling it around the mouth helps teak furniture come back via retro-nasal olfaction, but all the tongue captures is bitter pink-grapefruit peels, and unripe blush-orange juice. Only time bathing the mouth allows woody notes to surface more clearly -- teak oil and iroko pencil cases. The second sip cranks up the acidity, and we have cherry-flavoured cola rubbing elbows with blush-orange segments, augmented with a drop of teak oil or carbonyl, for good measure. Finish: the arrival has an unexpected dash of coffee spilled on a teak shelf. That merely clears the runway for the now well-known citrus peels to take off. Again, we have pink grapefruit, blush orange, and Red Shaddock. The finish is noticeably less woody (a drop of teak oil, still), but beer becomes more obvious -- not just extrapolated from the citrus notes, but from a lingering cereal-y barley-mash bitterness. It lasts a while too! The second gulp is sweeter and positively tastes like cola (cherry flavoured again, probably). There is not much acidity to speak of, at this point; instead, we find a softly-bitter note reminiscent of mahogany shelves, and moist draff at the death. This is very good. One year old? 'kin 'ell! 7/10 (Thanks for the dram, JS)

30/01/2024 Cooley (or is it?)

Time to review this well-known (and mislabelled) Bushmills (literature tells us Cooley did not have pot stills, in 1988), after we tried it again, casually, at the weekend.

117.3 25yo 1988/2013 Hubba-bubba, mango and monstera (58.5%, SMWS Society Single Cask, 1st Fill ex-Bourbon Barrel, 199b): nose: it is still as explosive, with a hefty metallic touch, and loads of herbs. Aside the freshly-oiled circular blade of a ham-slicing machine, it has a huge dried-sage influence, as well as softer notes of verbena, gentian, tarragon, and thyme. Cured cold cuts follow: pastrami, herb-crusted cooked ham, lemon thyme on cold meat loaf. All that parts like the Red Sea to make room for fruits, of course. Kumquat foliage, candied tangerine segments, smoked oranges, and tinned mangoes. Indeed, although the fruit is unstoppable and undeniable, it does not totally shake off the metal side; it stays close to tin, aluminium, or zinc, as if mango had been left to rot in a tin can, or had been cut on a zinc countertop. It works a treat. The second nose promises the creaminess of warm custard -- a vanilla custard made richer by the addition of juicy fruits, naturally. It also has a whisper of faded tan leather. Time seems to make it milkier and milkier, be it oat "milk" or cow's. Herb-cured fruits are never too far, however, and we soon see more lovely mangoes and peaches, with a pinch of dried marjoram. Lastly, we have cut persimmon covered in chocolate paste. Yum! Mouth: ha! ha! Metal may still be present on the palate, but it is mainly a fruity affair, now. Juicy kumquats and satsumas, augmented with a generous offering of cracked black pepper, buzz off as soon as one starts chewing on this: that unleashes mad slaps of sliced mangoes, something that becomes ridiculously hypnotic in seconds. We pick up citrus greenery through the back (Kaffir lime leaves, kumquat foliage), but the rest of the mouth is invaded by warm mango cubes riding on an oily texture (teak oil, linseed oil). The second sip is more clearly acidic, and attacks the gums, slowly but surely slimming them down. Once they wake up, from that slight shock, we go back to our regular programme, i.e. mangoes. This time, those mangoes are accompanied by diced papaya and juicy, freshly-plucked jackfruit. It is still herbaceous, yet less-boldly so -- now a pinch of dried herbs, rather than foliage branches. Finish: the relatively-high strength works perfectly. Even after keeping it in the mouth for several minutes, it loses none of its potency, and it slaps booty relentlessly. Impressive. What we taste is in line with the nose and the palate; a frank and metallic fruitiness, punctuated by all manners of dried herbs. Mango, satsuma, kumquat, peach, grapefruit foliage, oregano, thyme, rosemary, lemon sage... and tin cans, albeit less pronounced than earlier. The second gulp adds a drop of wood varnish so overrun by candied fruits it is easy to miss. Peach slices, dripping with pouring honey, mango cubes dipped in stem-ginger syrup, chopped apricots doused in Golden Syrup. The whole is topped with a selection of herbes de Provence (lemon thyme, oregano, dried sage, dried tarragon), discreet enough to let the fruits shine. And shine they do! Brightly! They turn yellower and more acidic in subsequent sips, mangoes slowly morphing into mirabelle plums and canary melons. As that happens, tin cans and milk-chocolate paste observe from afar. This remains a masterpiece. 10/10

27/01/2024 Burns' Night 2024: Fear of the Dark (Part 2)

Continued from Part 1.

The soundtrack: the Old Man of Huy - Fear Of The Dark

 

Under adc's pressure, the first cake enters

We just talked about Glenrothes... Bishlouk tells the story of Byeway, an African servant whose ghost allegedly haunts the Glenrothes distillery, a scary story in itself. He also talks about a song by Whisky Dick called Afraid of the Dark, which is unrelated, and I cannot find a reference to.

Glenrothes 19yo 1997/2016 (53.7%, Claxton The Single Cask, Sherry Butt, C#1610-7154, 669b, b#554) (Bishlouk): nose: delicate burnt rubber, and shoe polish, as well as musky fox skins rubbed in dirt. Mouth: warm, drying, spicy, it has black cumin and nigella seeds, charry and desiccating. Finish: burnt rubber, burnt liquorice, charred nigella seeds. This is properly desiccating, great at what it does, but not more my kind of profile tonight than it was when we had in May. 6/10

STL [looking up Bishlouk's long notes on Whiskybase]: "You were a poet, then."

tOMoH: "That's why he brought a Claxton. To go poet-poet."

Generous pours too

Jokes abound about Claxton's bottle format, likened to a perfume bottle, or a crystal decanter.

kruuk2: "Connais pas, ça, Claxton."

tOMoH: "Pourtant, ils font pas mal de bruit. Leurs sorties font des entrées en fanfare."

(I will not translate)

The crystal-decanter comparison leads to Dark Crystal.

ruckus: "Y avait pas une série Dark Crystal, aussi?"

Bishlouk: "Ouais, c'était nul. J'adorais le film, j'ai regardé la série, je me suis dit: "Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça?'"

tOMoH: "Non! Qu'est-ce que Skeksès."

(Again, I will not translate.)

tOMoH reminds everyone that he had brought SC 73 to the latest tasting with this group, because it is matured in a beer cask, probably a blonde-beer cask -- a James Blonde-beer cask. We ended up not trying it then. Tonight, we are definitely having it, because it is as likely to have matured in a dark-beer cask. Ha!

SC 73 10yo b.2023 (58.2%, SMWS The Society Cask, 1st Fill ex-Wasted Degrees Table Beer Quarter Cask Finish) (tOMoH): nose: honey and citrus (sonicvince), cake (Psycho, who also finds it warm and comforting). It is an explosion of sparkling joy to me, close to a fruity fizzy drink. Mouth: extremely drying, pumped with lactic acid. Psycho discovers apple-and-lemon cake. Finish: an agreeable sweetness (red71), or a desiccating profile (kruuk2). It is as divisive as ever: I enjoy it as much as before (well, a little less, based on scores), Bishlouk hates it. 7/10

STL: "You're hard."

Bishlouk: "You like when I'm hard."

STL: "It's rarer and rarer."

For the next bottle, kruuk2 tells us that Macduff distillery is in the shadow of the nearby lighthouse, in a permanent semi-darkness. This undisclosed grain was bottled to celebrate that.

The Observatory 20yo b.2022 (40%, The Observatory Company Signature Series, L23101ZAB03) (kruuk2): allegedly distilled at Macduff, which is dubious, since Macduff does not have a column still. Of course, it could be a non-100%-malted-barley mash distilled in pot stills. Information is so scarce we will not know tonight. Nose: linseed oil (sonicvince), fabric, linen, burlap, hazelnut paste, faint coffee, drowned in milk. Mouth: (not cough) syrup (ruckus), salted caramel butter (STL). kruuk2 finds it watery. It is indeed soft as hell, and perhaps suffers from the sequence, a little. Finish: creamy, it is caramel flan, plain and simple. Here is one to try in different circumstances. 6/10

tOMoH: "At 40%, after those monsters, I'm afraid it won't shine."

adc: "Of course, it won't! It's in the shadow."

red71: "C'est tout doux, tout aqueux."

Bishlouk: "Non, ça, c'est un chat."

(Another one I will not translate.)

The second cake enters, courtesy of STL (well, his daughter, really)

Bishlouk: "A small piece like JS's, that's enough."

sonicvince: "They're all the same size."

This size

tOMoH notes that we had the next bottling a couple of years ago, but it is in theme, so we will have a repeat. Also, it is excellent, so no-one will complain. It has to do with the naval supremacy the Ukrainians acquired in the Black Sea (the dark reference). To avoid detection, communication about weapons delivery were coded, and the Ukrainians and Brits used whisky references. They would talk about a cargo of Glenfiddich and a delivery of Glenmorangie. Read more in this article.

Glenmorangie 23yo d.1963 (43%, OB distributed by Wilmerink & Muller, Oloroso Sherry Casks Finish) (group): I will endeavour to spend more time with this another time. For now, it seems to brings a certain evidence. It is merely 43%, it is delicate, but by no means fragile, perfectly brought into the spotlight by the preceding grain, which skilfully acted as a palate cleanser. Ensues a big discussion about where to fit a bottle like this in a line-up. Anywhere is as good an idea as it is a bad one, really -- both for this dram, and for whatever comes before or after. The only thing to say tonight is that it is head and shoulders above the rest. I will finish my dram around six hours from now, and it will still slap. 10/10

Coffee is served, which helps some stay awake (sleepy eyes all around the table), but messes the sense for the next dram.

tOMoH: "JS would like to suggest a theme for a future  tasting: Enter the Dragon."

ruckus: "I have the shirt, already."

adc presents a fear-inducing whisky -- a Scare-pa.

kruuk2: "Scapa moyen que tu nous serves un verre?"

Scapa 12yo 2009/2022 (48.2% OB Distillery Exclusive, First Fill American Oak Barrels, 1998b, b#226, LKNS 2095) (adc): nose: a lick of coffee (or is it the cups on the table?), caramelised puffed rice, hot metal, and warm haybales. Mouth: it tingles joyously, almost sparkly (Psycho), giving a clear-ish sweetness (red71), or a saltiness (kruuk2). It is pretty drying, seemingly much stronger than the modest advertised ABV. The second sip has a lot of citric acidity. Finish: warming and chocolate-y, teeming with melted chocolate paste, milky chicory infusion, and chocolate mousse made with milk chocolate. Excellent drop. 8/10

We talk about the size of the line-up and the time it is.

tOMoH: "Six left. Normal. You don't get to 6am by finishing at 2am."

ruckus: "what does one do, when they're afraid of the dark?"

"One turns the light on!"

Linkwood 12yo 2010/2022 (58%, Keeble Cask Fragrant Drops imported by Perfectdram, Fresh Tokaji Barrel, C#3001290, 260b) (ruckus): nose: rancio-y to the max, then musky, with wet cat and toasted white bread. We find a hot moka pot, after a while, then it turns earthy. Oloroso, no doubt. Mouth: muscular, drying, hairy. 'Stripping' would be too strong a word, but it certainly cleanses the teeth. Finish: it is a good sherried whisky, but it is pretty brutal. Subsequent sips are less incredibly violent, but it remains bold, all in all. A huge Oloroso-sherry-matured whisky. 7/10

The third cake enters

We fail to kill it entirely. Too stuffed

I try, though

The next dram's name, Poit Dhubh, means Black Stills. Suitably dark. Also, it is in tainted glass.

Poit Dhubh 30yo b.2006 (43%, Pràban na Linne 30th Anniversary Edition, b#230) (tOMoH): nose: silt, salty samphire, and a clear sweetness too. We have a lot of very-dry wax, which is quite heady -- in a good way. Mouth: Psycho finds it rough, and, indeed, it is a little stripping, akin to chewing on toothpaste -- a smoky toothpaste. Finish: astonishingly bold, at 43%, and after the Linkwood beast. It has dried sage, smoky and herbaceous. I am beyond good notes (full notes are here). This is very good. 8/10

JS's next dram is a shoo-in: the collection is called Darkness.

Springbank 21yo (46.5%, Atom Supplies Darkness Limited Edition, Oloroso Sherry Octaves Finish, b#115) (JS): nose: mulled wine (cloves, cinnamon sticks), and lots of yellow fruits -- plums, kumquats, mirabelle plums, perhaps even yellow maracuja. Obviously, it has some Sherry too, but that is actually tamer than expected. Mouth: a lot more desiccating than anticipated, it has ground peach stones that still had bits of fruit flesh attached when they were ground, and overripe lychee. Finish: mellow, it hides its ABV perfectly, and balances a clear rubber with mango peels and other fruits. What a discovery this is! 9/10

Bishlouk escapes in the cold.

Psycho digs deep into his sack of puns, and gives us a Highland Dark.

Highland Park 25yo b.2004 (50.7%, OB, Sherry Casks) (Psycho): nose: it is drier than the Springbank, but otherwise not that dissimilar. Smoky orange rinds, grilled pineapples, and leather pouches. It grows drier with time, giving dried plum skins. Mouth: noble, the palate offers smoky caramelised marmalade, a lick of rubber, shoe polish, and, if there are fruits, it is smoked plums, and smoked mixed peel. Finish: leathery, it is now a little too dry, perhaps. Still, all in all, we all love this.  I find it more to my taste than dom666's, that we had four years ago. 8/10

STL tells us the badge on the next bottle is the only part of the packaging that is black. When he opened the box the badge fell down. STL does not know why. Maybe it was afraid, in its dark box.

Kilchoman Fino Sherry Cask Matured b.2023 (50%, OB Limited Edition, Fino Sherry Casks, 15650b, 23/32) (STL): nose: well, it carries the Kilchoman DNA without shame. Buckets of mud, silt, burnt wood. Later, we have burnt chocolate, and toasted panettone crust sprinkled with ether. Mouth: fleeting salted anchovies (Psycho), and charcoal (sonicvince). It is punchy, yet it has a fruitiness to it; squashed strawberries in a muddy yoghurt. Finish: full of Kilchoman's markers again, with muddy strawberry yoghurt, and smashed banana. Repeated sipping dials up the smoke, and it is grilled sausages and TCP. Scratch that! Iso Betadine. This would be hard for me to enjoy in large quantities, but it is a good dram in this context. 7/10

adc bids goodbye.

red71 and sonicvince miraculously remembered a conversation they had at the latest tasting in November, and both brought their respective version of Laphroaig Quarter Cask -- bottled fifteen years-or-so apart. They are not in theme*, and I am starting to feel the numbers, so it will be brief.

(*) Well, red71 claims it is not in theme, whereas sonicvince will explain in a couple of days that he brought this bottle out of "fear of the dark eye [he] would get from red71 if [he] forgot to bring this Quarter Cask."

red71 [to Psycho]: "Did you go for a smoke?"

Psycho: "Yes."

tOMoH: "When I sniff my Laphroaig, I smell your mouth."

Laphroaig Quarter Cask b.2022 (48%, OB, Ex-Bourbon First Fill Quarter Casks Finish, L2 228SB1 2275) (red71): dry, softly medicinal, and strangely sweet on the tongue. 7/10

vs.

Laphroaig Quarter Cask (48%, OB, Double Cask Matured, L027257C) (sonicvince): it is pretty similar, yet it has a fleeting glimpse of some tropical fruit (mango?) and a pinch of ash. The mouth is mild, if medicinal, with a juicy finish. 8/10

Psycho: "Un des deux a plus de corps au nez."

tOMoH: "De cor au pied."

red71: "De cojones."

(I will not translate.)

With the official line-up completed (earlier than other years, we seem to all notice), we slowly retire to the sofas and armchairs, where we enjoy the usual suspects. We start with...

North British 45yo 1963/2009 (50.7%, Signatory Vintage Rare Reserve, Hogsheads, C#117362 + 117363 + 117365, 290b, b#19)

At 4:20, Iron Maiden - Fear Of The Dark plays at last.

I finish my dram of Glenmorangie, whilst most of the others have Glenburgie 1983/2011 (56.3%, Berry Bros & Rudd Berrys' Own Selection, C#9806) (notes here). sonicvince calls it a night, visibly exhausted.

We follow up with a drop of 117.3 25yo 1988/2013 Hubba-bubba mango and monstera (58.5%, SMWS Society Single Cask, 1st Fill ex-Bourbon Barrel, 199b)

STL: "117.3. What is that? A longitude?"

Next and last is the mighty Port Charlotte 14yo 2002/2017 (60.1%, The Creative Whisky Company The Exclusive Malts, Sherry Hogshead, C#1140, 228b)

The soundtrack: noizaddict - Man to Men

Drams of the day:

Psycho: Glengoyne

ruckus: Tomatin + Bruichladdich Cadenhead

kruuk2: Springbank

JS: Bruichladdich Cadenhead + Littlemill

STL: Bruichladdich Cadenhead + Littlemill

red71: Knockando + Highland Park + Scapa

tOMoH: Glenmorangie aside, Knockando + Springbank

adc: Bruichladdich Cadenhead + Scapa

sonicvince: Glenmorangie aside, Littlemill + Knockando

Bishlouk: Glenmorangie

It was a stressful day, to an extent, because I ended up doing more in the kitchen than in the previous four or five years, and, frankly, I felt out of practice.

Also, I had a slight headache throughout, but the company and laughter helped me overlook or disregard it.

As STL and red71 await their cab (it is thirty
minutes late), the survivors improvise a sweets
tasting: Sugus vs. Fruit-Tella

In the end, it was a brilliant edition of Burns' Night. The twentieth anniversary of that yearly celebration of ours (the nineteenth occurrence, since two were missed, one due to COVID-19).

We discuss how far we have come, over the past twenty years; what we used to drink then, what we drink now, how ambitious the line-ups have grown, who came and went, who is still there. We all wonder what the next twenty years will bring; what our lot will be, from a health perspective, who will still be there ("dom666 will be dead," someone exclaims as a joke), what we will be able to afford, etc. During the night, several called for an It Was Better Before theme, which JS supports: unveiling things we bought a long time ago, took for granted, and that we could no longer afford, were we to buy them now.

We disband at 6:20. 

The fourth cake helps us recover, the following day

27/01/2024 Burns' Night 2024: Fear of the Dark (Part 1)

A theme suggested by STL two years ago, on his first attendance. We forgot last year, but tonight is the night.

Frankly, it was hard to select both the whiskies and the music: so many possibilities! We will just have to use this theme again.

Gaija sadly cannot make it, this year, on account of one of his mates celebrating his birthday, today. As if that bloke was not going to celebrate another birthday next year. Tsk.

dom666 calls off on the day: he has caught every respiratory illness that ends in -itis.

dom666: "J'ai attrapé toutes les maladies respiratoires en -ite."

tOMoH: "Covite?"

STL: "La bite?"

That leaves Psycho, adc, JS, kruuk2, ruckus, STL, red71, sonicvince, Bishlouk and yours, truly. And we are well up for it!

Just as well, because there is a lot of work

The soundtrack: noizaddict - Fear of the Darkside

sonicvince tells us that the series Peaky Blinder takes place after the First World War, and that the men in it are all shell-shocked, afraid of the dark, and all.

Peaky Blinder (40%, Sadler's, Bourbon Casks) (sonicvince): nose: toothpaste (Psycho, who specifies: Signal+). I find it rubbery, with marzipan emerging in the long run. sonicvince finds wet sands on a construction site. Mouth: peppery (Bishlouk), and acidic (adc and kruuk2). Shortly, all find it easy and watery, yet it carries some marzipan again. Finish: fairly short and rubbery, it prolongs the marzipan-y touch, somewhat. It has some wax, and the aftertaste is chewy and a half. This reminds me of The Pogues, and is as adequate a set opener as that one. 7/10

JS starts off explaining that the next one is aged in a cask that previously contained 4Hands' Absence of Light beer, from St Louis, Missouri. Quickly, she corrects that: it is actually that beer, distilled and aged.

StilL 630 1yo Presence of Darkness (40.5%, OB Beer Collaboration Series VII, Oak Barrels, B#2, b#524) (JS): nose: quite herbal, it plays with botanical herbs to a marvellous effect. Underdone crusty bread, maybe overripe fruit (sonicvince), cooked cereals (Psycho), violet boiled sweets (sonicvince), Barbour grease, and the sweat of a mechanic. Mouth: flat Irn Bru, all sorts of herbs in soda, or other soft drinks. Finish: yeasty, rye-like. It is mellow and sweet, teeming with sweet corn and Custard Cream biscuits. Rightly welcomed by all. 7/10

Appetisers, courtesy of red71

Bishlouk: "Ça manque un peu de couilles, en bouche." [It lacks balls on the palate, a bit.]

Everyone: "?"

Bishlouk: "I was very flexible, as a baby."

Psycho [later]: "On the palate, on the other hand..."

tOMoH: "...it lacks balls, a bit?"

sonicvince introduces the next one, and observes the box looks a bit like a casket. Someone in a casket, he tells us, is trapped in the dark.

kruuk2: "C'est l'hiver. Il fait sombre jusque tard. On le remarque surtout quand on se lève tôt-l'matin."

It requires the Rescue Rangers

Tomatin Decades b.2011 (46%, OB, Bourbon & Sherry Casks, L030556, 9000b) (sonicvince): nose: without surprise, it is a fruity number, with a tropical aspect, and more orchard fruits: unripe Grany Smith apples, hard pears, Cameo apples (sonicvince) -- well, all sorts of apples, but we all agree that it is indeed apples. STL adds caramelised quince, kruuk2 notices compote. It gains vanilla with time. Mouth: a lovely fruitiness, yet it is quite peppery and sharp too, not unlike rocket leaves. The second sip is chalkier, chewy and plaster-y. In the long run, crushed Aspirin comes up, as do citrus fruits. Finish: long, fruity again, much more intense than its predecessor. We have chalky apples, and crushed Aspirin Junior tablets. This is very good, despite my dreary notes. 8/10

STL [about Bishlouk's joke]: "Écoute, je ne t'écoute plus!" [Listen, I'm not listening to you anymore!]

Soup enters. A delicious leek-and-chickpea soup that no-one takes photos of.

sonicvince goes occult, and introduces Black Art -- because STL, who built the line-up, clearly wants him done and gone by 22:00.

Bruichladdich 21yo 1989/2010 Black Art 02.2 (49.7%, OB, American & European Oak Casks, 6000b, 10/264) (sonicvince): nose: it smells like grapes, almost vine (Psycho). adc pictures an old, dusty notebook with a felt cover. I find it leathery, with old moccasins, cedar wood, and figs, dried to a state where they are indistinguishable from boot soles. Mouth: winy on the tongue, tannic, but also dry and full of rancio and fox's skin. It remains well pleasant, but it is obviously marked by the wine casks it was matured in. Finish: long, Madeira-like, musky, augmented with cracked black pepper too. The aftertaste reminds sonicvince of coffee. We had this, ahem, thirteen years ago, before this blog existed. It was sonicvince's first participation, and he was not so keen on it. I remember thinking it was not really my profile. We both enjoy it much more, tonight. 7/10

The soundtrack: ruckus: Fear of the Dark

 

Main course enters.

Haggises (vegetarian and meat)

Carrot, turnip and potato purée (bottom)

Potato and mushroom gratin (top)

Parsnip, turnip, carrot, and rosemary tray bake

Psycho takes the stage to say that, when one is young, one tends to like horror stories and a good fright. When he was young, he continues, he liked Stephen King's Tommy-Knock-ers-ando.

Knockando 25yo 1980/2005 (48.3%, Duncan Taylor Rare Auld, C#1908, 260b, b#10) (Psycho): nose: interestingly concentrated and explosive, with lemon curd, lemon-drizzle cake, and a spoonful of turfy grass. It turns yeastier, over time, almost fizzy. Mouth: mellow, quaffable, yet it has a small dose of soft gingery paste. Then, we detect crushed Custard Cream biscuits, and lemon-drizzle cake, as well as a few grains of salt, on the tip of the tongue. Finish: very long, it has dried tangerine peels and salt again. This is as formidable as I remembered it. An unassuming, yet reliable deliverer. Formidable. And now sadly empty. 9/10

red71 tells us that the producer of the song Fear of the Dark is called Martin Birch-laddich.

Bruichladdich 20yo 1993/2013 (51.6%, Cadenhead Small Batch, Bourbon Hogsheads, 738b, 13/346) (red71): nose: cereals (red71), conifer (adc), dried figs (adc). I find it cereal-y indeed, with a clear note of cardboard. Mouth: citrus (adc), clementines. It is citric indeed, with lemon-drizzle crumbs sprinkled on oats. Cardboard gains ground on the palate, in subsequent sips, augmenting a dollop of custard. Finish: intense and powerful, it has a lovely, gingery custard. Another stonking Bruich by this renowned  Campbeltown bottler. 8/10

Bishlouk shows us a bottle that, he says, is not really in theme, but it is on its last leg, and he wants to finish it. Looking closer, he realises the picture on the label is rather gloomy. Good enough for us.

Littlemill 24yo 1989/2014 (51.7%, Whisky-Doris, Bourbon Hogshead, C#32, 357b, b#109) (Bishlouk): nose: strikingly, it is a continuation of the Bruichladdich, with custard cream, crushed Aspirin, and a pinch of ash. Mouth: oh! yeah, it has that Littlemill crushed Aspirin alright, then a lot of buttery yellow fruits, namely mangoes, plums and nectarines. Finish: fruits aplenty (the same mangoes, plums and nectarines). I struggle to put words on what I taste, but this is very, very good. 9/10

red71 [to Psycho]: "What is funny is that, since you went for a smoke, when you talk to me, I have smoke in my glass. It doesn't bother me. I like that."

tOMoH [to Psycho]: "When you talk to me, please look at red71, because it bothers me."

Psycho shows us a Douglas Laing Old Particular with an unusual black (dark) label.

Glengoyne 15yo 2005/2021 (58.4%, Douglas Laing Old Particular for Master of Malt, Refill Bourbon Cask, C#14639) (Psycho): nose: tangerines left out on the countertop for a few days, and turning less fragrant as a result. We also have mixed peel soaked in cold water. Mouth: jammy, but also quite intense, with cracked green pepper, and dried chives. Finish: powerful, softly acidic, it is fruity and softly bitter -- cut kakis and longans, topped with a dusting of grated chalk. The latter dissipates, over time. We had this expression previously. It is still as good. 7/10

kruuk2 produces D.R.K.N.S.S., which, tOMoH points out, is Walloon for: DRoK, Nenni, SééS!

D.R.K.N.S.S. (46%, Asta Morris, Sherry Cask, B#2, 601b, b#446) (kruuk2): nose: wood and sap (adc), liquorice (sonicvince). It smells like a simple and generic sherry-casked whisky, which, of course, it is. Caramelising butter grows in power. Mouth: Objectively speaking, it is a little thin, but it gives orange peels, sizzling in browned butter. That is pleasantly reminiscent of Glenrothes. Finish: dark chocolate (Bishlouk), PiM's (remember: the posh version of, and inspiration for Jaffa cakes)... It is a continuation of the caramelised mixed peel from the palate, now made more appealing to these Belgians with the addition of dark chocolate. 6/10

Read on here.

25/01/2024 Toasting the Bard

'tis the night again. The come and go quickly, do they not?

Glen Moray 10yo (40%, A.D. Rattray Whiskies of Distinction, b. ca. 2020): it is unclear if this is a rebottled official bottling, or a genuine Rattray selection. A.D. Rattray bottled a 10yo Glen Moray in 2019 for Whighams Edinburgh (C#5678), but the few details given on this sample do not match. Nose: woah! Pot-pourri has never been this clear. It is a heady blend of dried flowers, cinnamon sticks, and cloves, rose petals morphing from dried to plush and velvety, and dried apple slices. It has a whiff of cut forsythia too, reaching the end of its vase life, and wilting. Behind that comes hardened modelling wax, left out for long enough to have gone a little stale, then blooming bushes (brambles). Fifteen-twenty minutes in, it acquires a certain fruitiness, with cut orchard fruit coming to the fore. The second nose has dried watercolour, which is a logical extension of modelling wax, I suppose. Mouth: young and somewhat brash, honestly. Even at 40%, the alcohol does not feel terribly-well integrated, and the whole resembles chewing on a ball of plasticine that would have macerated in malt vinegar. Much more than that, one would be hard pressed to find. The second sip is fresher, and less vinegar-y. It somehow reminds me of windscreen defroster spray. That has its charm, for some. I like it in general, but not sure I do in whisky. Finish: quite similar to the palate in that it does not have a harmonious alcohol integration, and it plays the vinegar-y plasticine card as if nothing else mattered (there is no metal here, you power-ballad enthusiasts). The following gulps are in line, though they add a spoonful of grated milk chocolate as a bonus. It makes me think of the blue (aniseed?) chocolate sold in Venice, for whatever reason (see picture). A promising nose, but it is disappointing from then onward. It is simple, uninteresting, and not very well made, if not at all disgusting. 6/10 (Thanks for the sample, A.D. Rattray)

22/01/2024 Bielle

Bielle 8yo d.2003 Marie-Galante (53.9%, OB Brut de Fût): nose: as close to a grain whisky as it gets, this nose has oil paint, paint thinner, solvents of all kinds, and glue aplenty (wood, plastic, all-purpose). If it was not so windy, I may open a window, and a queue would form outside, made up of disenfranchised, glue-sniffing youths looking for a cheap high. Little would they know that this rum is probably not that cheap... Anyway, we also have oily mahogany cabinets, or iroko shelves, coconut oil, Brazil-nut oil, kluwak-nut oil, and other dark-nut oils, until tiny tins of modelling paint pick up (navy blue, gunmetal, matte black; very much military-airplane in terms of colours). There may be dried pineapple slices, but one has to look hard to find them. The second nose has crème brûlée, the top still smoking from being torched, and fruit slices in a coarse, hard-plastic containers left in the sun (white-and orange (vintage French) Tupperware bottles and lunch boxes from the 1980s). Later nosing brings a baking tray, loaded with boule loaves, coming out of the oven (oooh!), and somehow smelling a little plastic-y. Mouth: it is a mellow attack, against all odds, yet it develops a drying touch fairly quickly. Fruit-tree wood, cut last season, and drying since, which has acquired a gingery, galangal-y spiciness, without getting rid of a certain fruity sweetness entirely. Ginger-powder-coated dried pineapple slices, orange peels so dry they may as well be crisps, and a mix of wood oil and turpentine via retro-nasal olfaction. The more one chews on this, the more intense modelling paint grows. The second sip dials up a clear plastic-y vibe that flirts with melted plastic (Tupperware, or thin electric cables). That plastic ends up dominating all else, with a mere pinch of caramelised Demerara sugar to try and balance it. Finish: dark, dark, dark, and woody, woody, woody. If it is not quite ebony, it does not fall too far short of it. Teak, mahogany, iroko, and kluwak nuts combined, with a drop of pressed dried-pineapple juice -- although it is oily, it is not juicy. Repeated sipping brings a certain minty freshness: lint, tar, liquorice bootlaces, and spearmint, chewy, long, and rather pleasant, probably similar to gnawing the cable of a headset. Not that I do (or recommend doing) that. The final impression if of having ingested a large mug of acrylic paint. Odd. 7/10 (Thanks for the sample, OB)

17/01/2024 Adelphi 30th Anniversary

A virtual commercial tasting hosted by Luvian's St Andrews shop to celebrate the release of Adelphi's selection of single-cask bottlings for their thirtieth anniversary. Has it really been that long?

The hosts are Archie McDiarmid (for Luvian's) and Antonia Bruce (for Adelphi).

Clynelish 12yo 2011/2023 (58.3%, Adelphi Selection, 1st Fill American Standard Barrel, C#800305, 208b)

Nose: an easy Clynelish, well waxy, full of plasticine, modelling wax, and a vague, musky cloud. It also has plums and leather, perhaps.
Mouth: "spirit-forward," to say something stupid. It is lively on the tongue, a tad leafy, with a drop of ink, and leather beaten by the sun. It is actually suede, or sheep's skin, rather than leather. AMcD mentions musky apples, which I agree with.
Finish: inky at first, it soon welcomes lots and lots of warm plasticine, and, indeed, fermenting (mouldy) tart apples and cinnamon splinters.
Comment: it is okay. A decent sipper. 7/10

Imperial 27yo 1996/2023 (52.4%, Adelphi Limited, Refill American Standard Barrel, C#3411, 187b)

Nose: obviously a lot older, deeper, and more refined. Warm crusty bread and lovely bakery shenanigans. Incredibly, that is soon matched by mussels in broth. Fleeting, but still! We go back to bakery and confectionary in no time, with biscuits stealing the show.
Mouth: sharp, it has a gingery cedar wood note, unripe hazelnut, plant stems (tulips?), and cinnamon-ginger bubble gum (Boules Magiques, obviously).
Finish: creamy, cinnamon-y, it offers Custard Cream biscuits, yellow tulip petals, and vanilla-sugar-augmented whipped cream.
Comment: I love this. It will remain my favourite tonight. With an RRP of 560 GBP, I will also come out of my usual reserve, and call it badly priced. 8/10

Benrinnes 12yo 2011/2023 (52%, Adelphi Selection, 1st Fill Oloroso Sherry Hogshead, C#301624, 302b)

Nose: simultaneously creamy and winy, it displays wine sauce, roast beef, sloe berries (AB), patina-encrusted coppe dell'amicizia, and walnut purée.
Mouth: woah! Very meaty on the palate, with pastrami and other cured meats, a noticeable alcohol bite, and a coating dusty fruitiness (earthy elderberry, unripe blackcurrant) akin to rancio. It is like licking the inside of a solera!
Finish: mellow and short (if warming), this has more of the coating elderberry mentioned before, and dry earth. Dark fruits end up taking over, slowly but surely.
Comment: nothing special. 7/10

Akkeshi 3yo 2018/2023 (57.8%, Adelphi Selection, 1st Fill ex-Bourbon American Standard Barrel, C#1011, 253b)

Nose: heavily peated in a Staoisha style. Rich, greasy, oily peat. That gets a tad drier with a few seconds' breathing, with dark earth, ink, muck, and a lick of juicy manure to prevent it becoming too dry.
Mouth: initially chewy, it soon becomes rather thin, with Kaffir lime leaves (AB), smoked potting soil, and hot sands as the noticeable markers.
Finish: Oolong tea, pu-erh, charred pineapple, and the clay floor of a warehouse.
Comment: very interesting drop. We are told the barley for this was smoked with imported peat; it was distilled in 2018, and Akkeshi only received permission to dig peat from the local peat bog in 2020. Also, whisky must not leave Japan in oak, so it was transferred to a plastic container, then was stranded by the worldwide lockdown of 2020. That is why it is a three-year-old bottled five years after it was distilled. 7/10

Ardnamurchan 9yo 2014/2023 (56.2%, Adelphi Limited, 1st Fill Pedro Ximénez Hogshead, C#240, 320b)

Nose: PX alright! Sweet and enticing, almost heady. Dried dates and figs, raisins, sultanas, quince paste out of a tube, and fruit jellies.
Mouth: extremely drying, stripping. Chenin blanc, split granite, and a drop of ink. Following the generous nose, it is quite the surprise.
Finish: what a lovely fruitiness, in this finish! It is full of sultanas and dried dates.
Comment: simple, with a challenging palate, and a great finish. It was put in this position to be close to the Caol Ila, hence why the last three drams are peaty/non-peaty/peaty. In tOMoH's opinion, it is a sequence mistake. 8/10

Caol Ila 7yo 2016/2023 (58.5%, Adelphi Selection, 1st Fill Oloroso Sherry Hogshead, C#26580, 256b)

Nose: hot sands, and the breath of a smoking-and-drinking grown man in the morning (yup, that unpleasant). In addition, we have burning mud, sand after a black tide, and Mezcal (AB).
Mouth: muddy, inky, petrolic, though not in a pleasant way. Black-tide sands, murky water, oil-stained cockles. It is bitter, even acrid. It would be sooty, if it did not feel so wet and muddy. AB notes capers; I agree.
Finish: more black sands (petrol, not tar), and mud, interlaced with bitumen. We even detect preserved lemons, dipped into crude oil.
Comment: AB wonders if the information about the cask is a mistake, since it is so pale, and bears no obvious influence from a Sherry cask. Either way, I am not a fan of this, to say the least. It has no complexity, and I do not care much for the one note it plays. 6/10

Glad to have taken part, pleased to have been able to try those whiskies, but honestly, I struggle to fully enjoy a tasting like this. There is no interaction between the tasters and the hosts, the hosts talk constantly (some of the information given was interesting, while some felt improvised, with "kind of" used three or four times per sentence, as punctuation), and read tasting notes before each dram that were written up prior. All that makes it hard for me to focus on the qualities of the whiskies and make up my own opinion. To put it differently, it would probably have been better suited to a Youtube shindig than a Zoom tasting. Also, at fifteen minutes per dram, it feels too rushed for my preference; it is merely enough to decide whether to purchase or not -- something that is incredibly unrewarding when there are between zero and two of each bottle available to purchase, for a group of twenty tasters.

On that note:

AB: "Luvian's is lucky, they got two bottles. Shop allocations vary between one and two bottles at most. It is difficult, we do not know what to do."
AMcD: "Where can one find Adelphi's products?"
AB: "We are present in forty countries."

If one assumes a dozen shops in each of those countries, is it ever a surprise that those shops cannot get more than one or two bottles of a release? It comes across as poor calculation destined to make everyone angry, in tOMoH's opinion. Not that anyone is asking him.