As another year comes to an end, let me not look back and reflect on the past year. Only the drams for this blog, thank you!
Craigellachie d.1971 (40%, Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseurs Choice, b.1980s): nose: almost-auburn nail varnish and brine, for a moment. Seconds later, chocolate-coated cherries appear, cuberdons sweets, waxy on the outside, gooey on the inside, polished cherry-wood furniture, a whisper of new rubber, flat cola, lukewarm cola sweets and sticky toffee pudding. Treacle banana bread too, to finish with gently-burnt cake crust. I am ready to bet this bottle has caramel added to it. As I tilt the glass, the back nose has a faint note that reminds me of Cambus -- pineapple? Mouth: well, here is the answer to my question; the tongue definitely picks up pineapple, maybe with a few drops of pink-grapefruit juice thrown in for good measure. Next to that are caramel flan, butterscotch, whisky in mocha, burnt cake and liquorice allsorts. The dominant characteristics are indeed fruit acidity and toasted goodness. Roasted malt, a pinch of coffee grounds, cocoa powder, yet also treacle and burnt caramel. Repeated sipping cranks up the heat, with ginger powder, asa foetida and piment d'Espelette. Finish: to call it stripping or coating would be inaccurate, yet it it certainly leaves a lasting impression. Acidic tinned-pineapple juice shaves a layer of moisture off of one's jowls, which is as pleasant as it is surprising, for a 40% whisky that has been in an eighty-percent-empty bottle for... erm... six and a half years. The second sip welcomes a dollop of dark-chocolate coulis, perhaps dark-chocolate truffles, with lots of cocoa powder, and liquorice allsorts. The finish is rather spicy too, with similar piment d'Espelette and ginger powder, yet, this time, it is augmented with powdered cinnamon too. Very nice! 8/10
Craigellachie 13yo (46.3%, OB, b. ca 2018): nose: strong scents of marzipan and plasticine that immediately make me think of The Pogues. Watercolour, plastic buckets, rubber boots, all that before it thankfully evolves towards milk chocolate -- a white-wine-cured milk chocolate. Makes no sense? You don't make no sense, bruv! Pencil eraser, fudge, chewy chocolate praline (gianduja, probably?), toffee and warm logs by the fire (fruit tree, obviously). Mouth: candied pear slices, served alongside toffee, and a glass of fruity white wine -- it might even be a Maitrank, or Beaumes de Venise, actually. Chewy banana sweets, stewed pears... Say! This is rather fruity. That is before the pencil eraser catches up, and the plastic-y touches (rubber boots and plastic buckets) come back, baked, almost sulphury (bakelite). Then, grapefruit peels come clean up the mess, chewy, waxy and a little bitter. Finish: weird. The cooked fruits are here (pears, bananas), fruity wines too, but, all of a sudden, a burnt note storms the scene: scorched plastic, burnt rubber. Then, it goes back to the beginning, with plasticine and wax. The finish is shortish. It leaves a soft bitterness in the mouth, similar to that left by citrus zest. This is good, but it does not seem to have much in common with the previous dram, other than the plastic. 7/10
Craigellachie-Glenlivet 19yo 1962/1982 (80° Proof, Cadenhead): nose: well, it is a completely different story, but considering it is from the pre-reconstruction Craigellachie, it is hardly surprising; after all, we are virtually at a different distillery. First thing to note is that this is smoky. Oh! not the peat onslaught that one finds in today's Islay youngsters, mind. No! Delicate, refined smoke. It only works as a supporting act, here. Smoky jams (mirabelle plums, lemon marmalade) and compotes (pear, apple, pineapple). The juxtaposition of that fruity side and the smoky scent that comes from a cast-iron bucket of soot is fantastic. Char-grilled grapefruit segments -- wait! Out of nowhere, the (scorched-)plastic note we met in the previous two drams comes into play, mingling with the smoky lemon marmalade. What an amazing nose this is! Ashy, grapefruit-scented hand wash adds to the picture. Later on, hazel shavings join, and a faded soft-leather note too. Mostly, the star remains the smoky marmalade. Mouth: smoky lemon marmalade alright. Scorched plastic? Check. On the other hand, the soot is more pronounced, here -- much more pronounced. The mouth has a freshly bitter touch, even if it does not quite seem to be plastic -- Bakelite, perhaps? Electric cables? The texture is not particularly thick; one might even call it thin... until one realises one is still chewing on smoky, waxy grapefruit peels, after all that time. Or is that the leather pouch that carried the fruits home? In any case, it is excellent. Finish: very long, with an emphasis on that bitter note from the palate. It is Bakelite indeed, and it is not on its own: roasted aniseed spent coffee grounds and liquorice roots are to be found in this finish, and make for a toasty impression. Not only that, however: soot, smoked marmalade, smoked citrus (grapefruits, lemons and unripe oranges) all come back in full form to kick some bouteille. The permanent waltz of fruit, smoke and hard plastic is simply mesmerising. Ace, if my impression is seemingly quite different from our first encounter. 9/10 (Thanks for the dram, JS)
44.53 22yo d.1989 Lip-smacking, chewy and chunky (51.5%, SMWS Society Single Cask, Refill ex-Bourbon Hogshead, 279b): nose: despite being distilled almost twenty-seven years later than Cadenhead's dumpy, the similarity is striking, at first nosing. Soot, refined smoke and marmalade are the driving forces again, and they are forces to be reckoned with! In terms of fruit, this one has satsumas, clementines and kumquats added to the mix of citrus, all peppered with a pinch of coal dust. Moreover, this one has rose water, overripe persimmon, melting into a fruity goo, and some kind of gingery strawberry chalk, which is most unusual. Smoked-strawberry jam, cold cranberry compote (perhaps not as sad as it reads) and a sort of wood paste too. Time turns this nose deeper, with blackcurrant cough drops, haystacks and buttery pot-pourri (I know) in the back of the sinuses. The second nose reveals a definite woodier side, with wood paste and ginger yoghurt. Mouth: assertive, not aggressive, the mouth has green chilli, green pepper, green capsicum, and the same softly-smoked marmalade as the nose. The soot is present too, mildly bitter and probably desiccating, in the long run, balanced by peppermint-y blackcurrant cough drops -- or is it blackberry? Elderberry liqueur, smoked bog myrtles, bramble smoke from a gardener's bonfire, coffee grounds and liquorice roots, parchment foil, crumbling after it has been in the oven several times, ginger-powder-sprinkled slices of dried orange. Finish: here is perhaps where this dram loses steam, a little. It is a nice finish, with soot, liquorice laces and smoked elderberry; it simply does not attain the grandeur of the nose and palate (or of the previous dram). Smoked mint, ginger shavings, wasabi, aniseed, dried banana slices, dipped in spices. In fact, the more one sips it, the more the fruit re-appears: blood oranges, smoked satsumas, candied apples. It does not gain and kind of glorious exuberance, but that certainly gives it a welcome evolution, with even a faint bitterness, as if someone had sprinkled chopped green chilli on Bakelite, after dunking it in marmalade. I think I like this even better than previously. When it comes to scoring, it presents a challenge. I had it at 8, initially. Accepting that not everything is at its best at the same time (the nose shines brightest early on, the finish takes a while to reach its peak), I will go higher. 9/10 (Thanks for the dram, JS)
Happy New Year!
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