14/05/2021 Whisky-Online Auctions' First Cask tasting Part 3

Third and final act of this Whisky-Online Auctions triptych dedicated to First Cask. Tim Roberts, Wayne and Harrison Ormerod chair from aback, whilst Lee 'Connas' Connor presents.

As the previous times, I try these superficially, keeping enough to spend more time with each dram at a later date.

Linlithgow 24yo d.1975 (46%, Direct Wines Ltd. First Cask, C#96/3/4): nose: haha! Verdigris, lichen on old wood, sugar, oozing through staves and crystallising, then a farm-y wave. That is right: there is definitely muddy peat, in there. Mouth: all is more gentle, here, with yellow flowers, yet also some limestone. A faint whiff of smoke wraps the whole. Finish: big, wide and a little austere. This has the same herbaceous and mineral profile of the nose (lichen and crystallising sugar), with crushed gravel, now. The audience reckons pencil, and I do see the connection, in that it feels softly waxy and has a gentle wood bitterness. I reckon we peaked too soon. 9/10

Connas found a newspaper clip about a court case
that involves St Magdalene whisky being stolen

Glenlivet 24yo 1976/2001 (46%, Direct Wines Ltd. First Cask, C#5527): nose: wax, apple peelings, a pinch of cinnamon, pear-scented varnish, and a cloud of sawdust. Mouth: an acidic attack that also has fierce pomelo and combava adding a gorgeous, fruity touch. Perhaps bergamot too? Finish: very long, fruity, citrus-y again (lime, pomelo), and a bit bitter, in a crushed-aspirin sort of way. The death sees an unexpected red-fruit Calippo flavour too. 8/10

Connas: "It's quite wood-forward on the nose."

Macallan 20yo 1975/1995 (46%, Direct Wines Ltd. First Cask, C#8899): nose: sherbet, chalky raspberry candy, crushed tablets (I am struggling to pinpoint the accurate name). Later, pear and peach appear amongst the chalky tablets. "Parma violet?" asks HO; "Pez?" asks JS; "Smarties?" JS continues (referring to the US incarnation, a tablet candy). She is pretty close, in that it makes me think of those candy necklace (candy-raver alert!) The exact thing, however, is Dextro Energy tablets, vaguely fruity and chalky as fook. Mouth: yes, this is sweet and a little chalky again, with sherbet and fruit-tree wood. It becomes quite woody over time, with a definite bitterness to complement wild (rasp)berries. Finish: orange joins the raspberry, yet this also has cassia bark and fruit green tea. It is a little too astringent and bitter for my taste, even if it is not flawed either. Further sips are fruitier -- and I like them better for it than the first. 7/10

TR: "I'm finding most of the drams quite bitter. It's the wood, I guess..."
WO: "And the dodgy plastic caps!" :-)

Glen Grant 20yo d.1976 (46%, Direct Wines Ltd. First Cask, C#2880): nose: wormwood and old shelves, an old kitchen table that has recently had a lick of varnish, burnt caramel, treacle and a pinch of coffee grounds. Mouth: oily and compact, this has lots of caramel, crème brûlée, mocha, tiramisù, even. Actually, it goes as far as treacle, come to think of it. Finish: mildly toasted flavours surface, here, with mocha, burnt caramel, black-sesame paste and chewing tobacco. It is creamy alright, but that feeling is drowned by the toasted notes, which, for all their omnipresence, do not quite deliver aniseed or nigella seeds. Perhaps a bit too much for me, this. I preferred it C#2886. 7/10

Connas talks about maturation. He has a couple of good slides about the solera system that is so widely used in Spain's bodegas.

Highland Park 20yo d.1974 (46%, Direct Wines Ltd. First Cask, C#4329): nose: dried apricot slices and chlorophyll chewing gum. That dissipates quickly to leave a very shy nose -- I find a little lavender gum, but I reckon that is suggestion, base on the provenance. The nose does grow in intensity, thankfully, with lovely lavender and a delicate smoke. Mouth: perfect balance, with a bit of citrus, the thinnest veil of smoke, and the trademark heather. Lemonade becomes more prominent with each sip too. Finish: gently toasted, this has burning brambles, yet also a herbal liqueur and lemonade. Yes: lime and pomelo lemonade, which, really, we should call lime-onade and pomelade. The finish does retain a certain bitterness, which will prevent a higher score, tonight. 8/10

Connas introduces the next dram as, "the Beast of Speyside, meaty and sometimes willingly sulphur-y."

Mortlach 22yo d.1975 (46%, Direct Wines Ltd. First Cask, C#6257): nose: great! It is a light, fruity Mortlach. Citrus-y and ethereal, it has  ground cardamom rubbing feathers with apple mint and crystallised apple slices. Mouth: fresh, sweet and fruity, this is teeming with candied fruit. There is also a gentle chalkiness to it, though that is not a bother, at such a low level. Finish: a soft bitterness that is soon eclipsed by waves and waves of lovely fruit candy. Very nice. Boiled sweets, hibiscus (Connas), fruit drops. 9/10

Connas [I paraphrase]: "I reckon it is the only whisky tonight I could have identified blind."
tOMoH: "You introduced this as the Beast of Speyside and meaty. This has nothing of those characteristics..."

Connas: "You're right, but it has Mortlach's texture."

Ardbeg 19yo d.1974 (46%, Direct Wines Ltd. First Cask for The Sunday Times Wine Club, C#4380): nose: ash and eternal darkness. This has tar, old ropes, tapenade, cut turf bricks, drying on a stack, sphagnum moss and the shroud of an old ship. Mouth: smoked seashells, tarry, smoked whelks, boat-engine diesel... This is firmly petrolic indeed, very much like the 1974 we had recently. Finish: smoked mussel shells and kelp, more diesel and tar. Unfortunately, and just as it was with the Port Ellen on the first night, the dilution is very perceptible, here -- the only one tonight in which it is. For that, it loses a point. It may seem unfair, but life is unfair. 8/10

Short notes. It is late. I will come back to it later. It is a killer dram, without a doubt. It might not be C#2738 (few things are), but it is obviously from the same bloodline and I love it.

The Linlithgow is the overwhelming winner of tonight's popularity contest; it certainly is mine. One person preferred the Macallan, one liked the Highland Park best, a couple of votes go to the Mortlach, another couple to the Glen Grant, and, much to my surprise, not a single vote goes to the Ardbeg.

Quality night, with more interaction and better banter than on the second tasting. If my scores are to be believed, this line-up one had the weakest drams, despite having the most impressive list of names, but it was just as interesting as the other two evenings, really. That comforts me in my opinion that there is not a dud in that collection.

14/05/2021 Crabbie

Crabbie 28yo d.1992 (45.5%, John Crabbie & Co. Single Cask, Bourbon Cask, 260b): a reliable source tells us this is from a famous distillery in the Livet valley. Nose: it has the delicate malted barley and sweet lemonade that I have come to associate with a Speysider in its mid-twenties. It has caramel flan, lemongrass or combava leaves, lime and pomelo peel, as well as a drop of lemon tonic. There is something darker too, maybe cola residue, at the bottom of a glass that has dried overnight, yet also ground sumac and ground mace. The second nose has paper paste and a dryness that borders on chalky, now, still with that citrus-y touch. Mouth: strangely bitter and chewy, both of which are reminiscent of soft rubber. Citrus soon enters the dance: first lime, then pomelo peels (the fruits it comes from barely ripe) and a ladle of bitter, salty lemon tonic. This mouth is totally unexpected; the freshness of the nose has morphed into something almost too concentrated for me. It is lime-Schweppes margaritas, bitter, acidic and salty, with a fruity hue in the background. It becomes more pleasant as the palate gets accustomed to it. Lastly, a pinch of red-chilli powder sets the tongue alight. Finish: that fruity hue shines brighter, here, with glowing pomelo and lime wedges on salt-frosted cocktail glasses of tequila and citrus tonic. Again: bitter, acidic, salty and with a (more obvious, now) fruity background. The second sip brings tropical fruits forward (carambola and giant granadilla), which prompts me to review my initial score. Due to its originality and the tropical factor, this cannot be less than 8/10 (Thanks for the sample, SA and JW)

10/05/2021 Bruichladdich

Bruichladdich 26yo 1994/2020 Black Art (45.1%, OB, B#08.1, 12000b): nose: an unusual cocktail of melted iron and red wine. Chaff, hay, desert dirt, tennis court, dry grapes (I want to say Malbec, but I would be talking out of my arse), joined by super-dark berries (closer to Merlot, then, eh?), brambles and a dollop of modelling clay, painted black. Although the wine is well present, it is nowhere near as invading as it was in the previous editions I have tasted. The nose turns warm and waxy, in the long run, and it allows redder fruits to emerge, slowly and timidly: strawberries at first, bilberries, cranberries and even blackberries. All that is still accompanied by hues of waxy clay and joined by a pinch of salt. The second nose brings some flavours to the table (somewhere between lilac and gorse flowers) and a glob of wax. Mouth: well, this behaves like a red wine on the tongue. Clay, hay, dried grape skins, and a lovely spiciness that grows in intensity (ground cinnamon and cloves). In hindsight, it is reminiscent of mulled wine, if less warm and less heady. The second sip is all warm wax, coating, chewy and gently drying, whilst the third adds a layer of blue mould (the dusty kind that grows on dairy), interlaced with no-less-mouldy berries. Finish: it is clear in the finish that this is whisky alright, with blonde barley caressing pineapple slices and nutty custard, whilst also retaining some of the wine-induced elements (and ditching others). Here are earth and berries, yet none of the tannins. It is a long finish that seems to sparkle more intensely over time, and it reminds me of red sparkling wine, perhaps Fragolino, though not quite that. In any case, it is subtle, almost discreet, despite it being 45.1%. Very likely, that subtle character is what stops this becoming tiresome (I found previous Black Art expressions very tiresome), but it is slightly disconcerting, in the beginning. Still, I find this a huge improvement on some of the earlier incarnations. 7/10 (Thanks for the sample, SA and JW) 7/10

06/05/2021 Ardmore again

66.92 9yo 2007/2016 Simply delicious (57.6%, SMWS Society Single Cask, Refill ex-Bourbon Barrel, 24b): nose: a deep peat bog, moist and spongy, topped with strawberry jam. It is a farm-y type of peat, wet farm; farmyard and farm paths after the rain, muddy fields under the rising spring sun, even some (freshly-dropped) manure. It seems to emit chalk too, though that might be the sugar from the strawberry jam starting to set. Redcurrant jelly and gooseberry coulis almost completely mask new leather boots, and there is a drop of rubbing alcohol too. The second nose hints at plasticine -- a kind of plasticine that would smell like dried, tropical fruit. That is right: I now get mango paste. Finally, watercolour (brown, if you must know) and cucumber peel round off the nose. If anything, water amplifies the rubbery dried fruit, and puts it in a velvet purse, until plasticine and watercolour smother all that effortlessly. Mouth: punchy at cask strength, it has a hefty cassia-bark note and cracked black pepper to complement the strawberry jam. Thirty seconds in, muddy boots rock up, meaning rubber, crusted earth and leather, splashed with lemon juice -- odd and unexpected, but efficient. Plasticine shows up with the second sip, punctuated by fiery black pepper, ground cardamom, dried mango slices and dried apricots, perhaps. Toasted elements come into the spotlight, in the long run -- black cumin seeds, black sesame seeds and burning earth. Water dilutes the rubber almost beyond recognition (almost!) and dials up the chemical fruit (pineapple drops). Finish: similar notes in the finish, with lemon, leather, earth/mud, soft rubber, strawberry jam. Soon, the mud catches fire, and it becomes closer to scorched earth or clay in the oven oven, despite the humidity never really disappearing. Repeated sipping reveals lemon or lime juice, dried-mango paste and plasticine, stale pineapple cubes, cold cigar butts in an ashtray... and swimming-pool water (I guess that means chlorine), as unexpected as it is warming. I was wondering where the peat had gone; water brings it back from the dead, subtle, subdued, yet ever present, and carrying lovely, juicy pineapple chunks, and the most minute melted milk chocolate. This is excellent. 8/10

04/05/2021 The Founder's Tale

Dear reader,

You may  recall that, over a year and a half ago, tOMoH and friends attended an SMWS event during which the SMWS founder, Phillip 'Pip' Hills, talked about the early days of the SMWS and other adventures of his. You may also recall that the event left a bitter taste, for the value for money was lower than it was north of the border, and the drams offered were seemingly random drams available from the bar at the time. Finally, you will remember Hills was promoting his new book, which we all received a copy of on the night.

Well, tOMoH finished reading the book. No, it did not take him a year and a half. It took him a year and a half to start it, then a few days to devour it.

Let us get this out of the way: Pip Hills's The Founder's Tale: A Good Idea and a Glass of Malt, Birlinn, 2019, is not a book about whisky. As The Way of Whisky, it is a book about life, which happens to mention whisky with some frequency. Indeed, it is an autobiography, or, more accurately, selected excerpts from the life of Pip Hills. And what a life!

Here is the entertaining tale of a man who turns out to be a resourceful adventurer; he seems to have travelled everywhere on the planet, can build or repair anything with only minimal or makeshift tooling and has done both those things within the financial constraints that apply to any regular person. If this book were made into a television series, it would probably rival MacGyver.

What is more, it is not just the content that is good: Hills is a talented storyteller, and an excellent writer. His style captivated me, as the stories filled me with disbelief, made me laugh wholeheartedly, and shed a tear in the space of three pages.

Along the chapters, we encounter a number of colourful, larger-than-life characters, and situations so implausible that they simply cannot be made up. The book tells how the author came to own his famous Lagonda (and, incidentally, how much he paid for it), several boats, casks of whisky (of course) and various companies, as well as the parts that his many friends played. It also tells the fortunes and misfortunes that go along with each of those. It is honest in portraying the charismatic main protagonist as someone who, in more ways than one, flies by the seat of his pants (or "think[s] on [his] feet," as he says himself). Indeed, Pip Hills comes across as a character who, faced with a challenge, embraces the chance to grow; someone who, when seeing an opportunity, seizes it. In other words: he makes lemonade with the lemons that life sends his way. A refreshing take on the famous: "Where do you see yourself in five years?" interview question.

Nevertheless, the man is very lucid regarding his luck. He acknowledges that the circumstances were very different in the early-1980s and that he foresaw a market that, at the time, virtually did not exist in the UK. There are some advantages to being a trailblazer, and this tale illustrates that perfectly.

This work is also a humbling life lesson, as one inevitably compares the author's life to their own. Few are those who can look back and say they have achieved as much as Pip Hills. Fewer still do so with the modesty that common decency requires.

After my encounter with the author, my simplistic analysis was: posh Edinburgher buys whisky for his posher mates; his mates tell their mates; things grow out of control; the SMWS is born.

Humble pie has been eaten, and that hasty judgement has had to be revised. Based on the book, it is apparent that Pip Hills is not exactly rich and never was; he is simply in that category of people whose relation to money encourages them to spend it as it comes in. He does/did count some affluent people amongst the seemingly infinite pool of friends he maintains, but not all of them are/were.

I sincerely hope the book is made into a cartoon one day -- each chapter an episode. There are a lot of inspiring lessons in there for all to learn, and treated with such humour and candour that the whole is accessible to all.

If the above was not clear, tOMoH recommends the book.

What else but an ancient SMWS bottling to punctuate that?

18.15 35yo 1966/2001 Curry powder and dark rum (67.5%, SMWS Society Cask Old Masters Collection, Sherry Cask): nose: as bold and muscular as the colour and ABV might lead one to think. This has camphor, cypress resin, wood polish by the bucket, rich-but-dry earth, sawn redwood, naphtha and, generally speaking, it gives the feeling of walking into a sawmill, or a dense-forest clearing. Blackcurrant and myrtles emerge, after a wee while, served on a wet-card plate. I detect a bowl of warm porridge in the next room, grapefruit zest and teak oil. Yes, it invariably comes back to heavy, heady woody notes, which, of course, is great for those who are into that sort of things (I am). It is relatively clear that this powerful spirit attacked the wood with a pickaxe and extracted loads from it! Woodworm and crushed walnut shells, wood polish, maybe even shoe polish. The second nose turns up the meatiness one may associate with an Oloroso maturation (there is no indication on the label that that is the case, but it seems rather obvious), and it has pastrami, for a fleeting moment. Then, the wood comes back, softly bitter, in the fashion of Gingerino or Chinotto. With water, it becomes total grapefruit, with desiccated zest spilled on a plain table partly eaten by woodworm. The diluted nose definitely has garam masala, too. Mouth: surprisingly approachable, at first, it gives an unexpected fruitiness, again in the form of grapefruit. Oh! it is acidic alright. The immense horsepower soon catches up, and so does the wood factor. Redwood oil, gently bitter, encaustic, sawn (dried) logs, garam masala, ground mace, ground ginger, nutmeg, amchur (mango powder) and (desiccated) grapefruit zest is never far behind. Spectacular. Water increases the grapefruit-like acidity, while the sawn logs and other wood elements become mere backing instruments. Finish: again, it feels surprisingly moderate, and it is only after ten seconds or so that the warmth becomes apparent -- once one's body realises there is a gaping hole where one's digestive system used to be, presumably... ;-) This finish blends the acidic sweetness of fruits (without surprise, grapefruit is still prominent, pink grapefruit, yet also pineapple) and the bitterness of woody undertones (ground avocado stone comes to mind). The second sip sees yoghurt tame the wood, a gingery type of yoghurt, and even melted chocolate of the bitter sort. A bowl of melted dark chocolate, punctuated by grapefruit zest, grated ginger and a drop of cypress sap. Water turns that on its head, and wood takes over -- a derelict sawmill, in which the cut logs and sawdust have not been touched for decades, nutmeg, amchur, and grapefruit, taking it easy in the back, its acidity almost completely swapped for the bitterness of its skin. Formidable. Uncompromising. Love it. 9/10