Chilly temperatures lasted until the first weekend of June, when a morning run with gloves and a snood still held the promise of feeling like an ice cube by the end.
Fast forward one week, and we have hit thirty degrees, even though summer has not officially started yet.
To acknowledge this contrast, PS, cavalier66, JS and I meet up to have a tasting. BA sadly calls off in the morning, stricken with hay fever. The theme is simple: dog days of summer. Funnily enough, we do not meet in Barking.
cavalier66 has had breakfast, for once, but he still brings yummy nibbles.
PS introduces a blended malt with a dog on the label -- one bottled by Dog-las Laing. He says he keeps saying how good blends can be, so he decided he should start buying and sharing some.
Sweet Wee Scallywag (46%, Douglas Laing Small Batch Release, Sherry Butts & Bourbon Hogsheads, b. ca 2022) (PS): nose: caramel, pastrami, nail varnish, oily dark wood, and the promise of Chinese five spice. Mouth: the palate has the bitterness of dark wood, and the spices that go with it. Ground cloves, shaved cassia bark, ground mace. The second sip has its fair share of caramel too. Finish: cocoa powder, treacle-tarred cinnamon sticks, and caramel again. As PS says, the spiciness builds up over time, and turns pretty intense (JS). A pretty good blended malt. 7/10
We decide to skip the two collie-burns: there is so much to try, and it is discouragingly hot, already. The Copper Dog meets the same fate.
PS stays on the blended-malt path, and introduces the Dog Star -- the Saint Seya fans will, of course, remember Sirius de Canis. I know I do.
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| From the best anime series of all time |
Sirius 31yo 1988/2019 (43.1%, North Star Spirits, First Fill Bourbon Barrels, B#1, 3582b, b#1033) (PS): nose: seal wax, candle wax, and even spent wick. Out of nowhere, Turkish delights, chewy sweets, dusted with confectionary sugar. It is fruity and juicy, yet also waxy to the end. We see yellow fruits upon second nosing. Finish: waxy and coating, it has bits of spent wick floating in that excellent waxy-fruit bath. Full notes here. It feels perhaps even better today. 8/10
cavalier66 presents a Daftmill, "because dogs are daft, and they smell like they spent the day at the mill," I quickly add. No, it is because this is a summer distillation.
Daftmill 2010/2021 Summer Batch Release (46%, OB, 25 x First Fill Bourbon Barrels, 6250b) (cavalier66): nose: lemon bonbons (PS), sherbet (cavalier66), Mint Crumbles, spearmint leaf (PS), lemon mint, calamansi leaf -- it is minty and leafy, in other words. It even gives an impression of burnt-vanilla-flavoured edible paper, which is rather unusual. Mouth: fresh and actually refreshing, with pomelo juice, limoncello, lemon custard, it is unctuous without being cloying, creamy, not thick (single cream, then), and fruity and a half. Finish: long, fresh, lively, zingy, this is a perfect summer dram alright, clean, fruity, and plainly enjoyable, with a hint of caramel flan too. 8/10
JS presents a Glentauchers, a distillery that was designed by architect Charles C. Dog, famous for his pagoda kilns.
Glentauchers 24yo d.1976 (46%, Direct Wines Ltd. First Cask, C#7652, b#248) (JS): nose: old, Calvados-y, sour apple (cavalier66), tangy (JS). I find unripe plum, then Virginia tobacco, and green-citrus leaves. The second nose has pomelo and calamansi, oroblanco and yuzu. Mouth: strawberry (PS), tons of ashy warehouse floor. It is quite chalky, today, and gingery on the tongue (bone-dry ginger shavings). The second sip has industrial smoke from the 1800s. Finish: some funk in the back, fruity dung (cavalier66), "sourness turns to dung, as so often happens in life" (cavalier66). Long, citrus-y, and that means fruity, not particularly acidic. This hits the spot, today. Full notes here. 9/10
We talk about WhiskyLovingPianist, who recently moved to France.
cavalier66: "Maybe he's at a time of his life when he wants to take a risk."
JS: "What's he got to lose?"
tOMoH: "Limoges. What's he got Limoges."
cavalier66 sings the Grease song Summer Nights:
Summer lovin' happened so fast
I met a girl crazy for me
Met a boy cute as can be
Summer days driftin' away
To ah, oh, those summer nights
Uh well-a well-a well-a huh!
Tullamore, Tullamore
Did you get very far?
We all agree that a Tullamore would be entirely inappropriate in this heat, but make a mental note to reuse that one in future.
PS produces an SMWS bottling with 'summer' in the title.
G1.13 36yo d.1978 Summer Fete and flower shows (56.2%, SMWS Society Single Cask, Refill ex-Bourbon Hogshead, 188b) (PS): nose: "afternoon tea, with jam scones, lemon cake, a vicar giving out raffle prizes, and a murder in there, somewhere, Agatha-Christie style" (PS). It is indeed full of lemon-drizzle cake. A bit later on, we have some oily tobacco too. It certainly has more horsepower than anything else we have had, so far. Dark currants appear, timidly. Mouth: vanilla-y lemon-drizzle cake, Mentos pudding (I imagine) and chalky (Korean) pear. Finish: oooh! It attacks the gums, very minty and gel-like in texture (minty gel, of course), limoncello and lime lacquer. It has a lovely grassy touch too. I like me a good grain, and this delivers. I am bound to have tried this when it came out, and indeed, I did. I seem to have been disappointed then, not today. 8/10
tOMoH presents Le-dog, distilled at Toby-mory distillery.
Ledaig 6yo 1972/1979 (70° Proof, Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseur's Choice) (tOMoH): nose: cereal dust (PS) and peppermint (PS). I have coal dust and crumbly peat, though it turns farmyard-y over time -- a dusty farmyard in the summer, that is. Mouth: cavalier66 finds the plastic element he still finds in modern Ledaig. It is vegetal and metallic, with Verdigris and some perfume (JS picks up lavender and violet). The texture is rather thin ("not at all oily," says cavalier66), and it certainly has vase water. Finish: metallic (cavalier66 + JS), bicycle clips (PS), disintegrated medicine capsules (JS). I have algae, and steel boilers full of soot and coal dust. JS notes a metallic sweetness, and is not taken by it, today. Neither is cavalier66. I am. Full notes here. 9/10
PS [about a recent SMWS Inchgower]: "'Onion tart and young white wine,' which is either an SMWS name, or Nigel Farage's new kink."
cavalier66 brought the next one because it is a thirty-year-old, and, yesterday, we hit thirty degrees for the first time this year.
Jura 30yo 1990/2020 (46.33%, Thompson Bros., Refill American Oak Hogshead, 186b) (cavalier66): nose: I immediately picture fruity sweets and plush cushions. It smells oily (cavalier66), it has quite a bit of funk, with some leather and brown, dried citrus peel. That citrus develops, and we have plump tangerine, then plasticine. Further nosing reveals a whiff of black smoke too. Mouth: pink-peppercorn shavings on tangerine segments, and -- what is this? Tropical fruits! Mango, papaya, kaki come storming in. Later on, that turns into mango skins and plasticine, which is to say: still fruity, but also waxier. Finish: it gives me a bit of a buzz, at first. Over time, we see buckets of fruits, or wheelbarrows, actually, with the galvanised steel appearing loud and clear. Then, tropical fruits grow more and more prominent. This is amazing, today! Better than the first time we had it, we all agree. 9/10
tOMoH [singing to the well-know Modern Talking tune]: "Heavy sherry lady."
cavalier66 explains that the Baby-Boomers constantly reminded us that it was already warm (or warmer, they claimed) in the 1970s. [Let us clear up any doubt: today's climate is warmer and drier than it was in the 1970s -- or indeed in human history.)
A Speyside Distillery 38yo 1977/2015 (47%, Whisky-Doris, Sherry Butt, C#25, 578b) (cavalier66): nose: transport-cask Sherry (PS), leather, tobacco pouches (PS), rolling tobacco, marmalade spread on a slice of wood (watch your teeth!), a bunch of twigs, porridge, with a dollop of pan-seared honey. Mouth: melted butter, salted caramel, toffee, caramelised lemon cake and pound cake all ride on an oily texture. Finish: "a moment of sherbet" (PS), a drop of nail varnish, or wood oil, and glazed ripe berries. It is distinctly bitter too, if not overpoweringly so. From the second sip onwards, orchard fruits and mud appear faintly. 8/10
PS [citing South African government advice that, in fact, originated in California]: "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down."
We skip the Convalmore Rare Malts. It is already a stretch, as far as I am concerned, and we all start to feel the combined effects of heat and alcohol. At least, I do -- I am exhausted. One more.
JS brings a light dram into the spotlight: a Link-woof.
Linkwood 11yo 1984 (60.5%, James Mac Arthur Fine Malt Selection) (JS): nose: straw and faded leather, pineapple chamomile. It has rubbing alcohol, on top of the leather, and unripe apple, after a while. Even later, as one tilts the glass, overripe persimmon pokes its head. Mouth: powerful, but also very fruity, this is like an apple-flavoured engine grease applied onto a steel plate. It grows so strong it feels as though it will pull teeth out of their sockets. Subsequent sips are more tolerable, and just as fruity. Finish: again, orchard fruits, a lick of cold, bitter metal, and crystallised raspberries. This is really good. Looking forward to spending more time with it soon. 8/10
The clock shows a reasonable time, the temperature is also more reasonable, now, but I am rinsed. We disband.
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