Whisky Online Blog

All nostrils have been pronounced clear so I have decided today to celebrate with a couple of drams that I’ve been holding on to for sometime. Namely these…

A dodgy photo but you get the idea

I remembered I had these samples after I mentioned Bunnahabhain briefly in yesterday’s post, seeing as I’ve been whisky starved for the last two weeks I decided I should probably break my fast with appropriate sensory overload. I have a big soft spot for Bunnahabhain, I always felt it was one of those rare distilleries that produced a very distinctive make without relying on big peating levels. Although Bunnahabhain as we know it today has only really existed since 1963 when the distillery stopped producing peated spirit. Incidentally, if anyone has a sample/bottle of Bunnahabhain distilled before this era then… well we should talk. Anyway, I love these old Bunnas, I think its a spirit that can age really beautifully so I’m pretty excited by these two.

Bunnahabhain 1975 35yo. Adelphi. 157 bottles. Cask no 456. 51.8%. 70cl.

Colour: Honey

Nose: Starts on big whiffs of wax polish, menthol sweets, dry spicy oak, fresh sawdust and raisins. There are also some glorious fruit characters that you just don’t get in younger whiskies, lots of ripe bananas, tinned pineapple and dried apricots. There are also some quite specific notes of licorice, cloves and anise. Its obviously old but its kept a wonderful freshness about it, I’d be really interested to know where this cask matured. There are those big sinewy, nutty, honey and salty aromas after a while, typical Bunnahabhain character, all of a sudden fresh strawberries, it just seems to keep on getting fresher and livelier. What a harmonious and well balanced nose, will the palate hold up… ? With water: some fresh vanilla, banoffee pie and something slightly earthy and medicinal, akin to Antica Formula or another really high class red vermouth.

Palate: More fresh strawberry fruit and lots of smooth, clean, spicy oak character. It has that wonderful savory, mouthwatering saline edge to it that is common in these old Bunnahabhains and in other coastal whiskies. Its beautifully dry with loads of crystalized fruit and nutty, dundee cake flavours. Citrus, honey, maybe a tiny hint of wood smoke and more zingy saltiness. The oak is definitely big but its so well integrated and kept in check by the distillery character and the fruitiness that it never becomes too much or too dominating, its really well composed. With water: Water turns it into a huge, ballsy, coastal salt bomb. Its really incredibly lively now, masses of sea air, atlantic freshness and some really clean citrus notes, lemon and honey, like a great hot toddy.

Finish: Long, drying with yet more of these lemon, honey and salt notes, just beautiful…

Comments: Just absolutely top notch old Bunnahabhain, really classy whisky. Its beautiful with and without water, you could really have a lot of fun with a water glass and pipette here if you had a whole bottle of the stuff. However, it would be perilously easy to quaff vast flagons of it.

Score: 91/100

I did not realise when I took this picture how utterly awful and out of focus it was. For this I am very sorry, just drink a few drams to correct your vision and bring it into focus.

Bunnahabhain 1968 41yo. Adelphi. 719 Bottles. Cask Numbers: 12461/3. 41.2%. 70cl.

This is from the same vintage that produced the legendary ‘Auld Acquaintance’ bottling so I am doing my best to settle my high expectations.

Colour: Polished copper

Nose: Lovely rounded, rich, unctuous sherry but there is still a glimmer of saltiness at the back keeping the sherry in balance. It gives the immediate impression of a malt that has been captured just at the moment before it disappeared into the grasp of the wood never to return. Lots of cocoa, dry, nutty oak notes and again those notes of ripe banana. Very clean, flawless sherry, its not as complex or astonishing as some of the official Bunnahabhains from the same vintages but its wonderfully balanced and attractive whisky. The sherry is rich but not dominating an the distillery character has retained its voice very nicely. Stewed fruits and toffee apples now with baked pears and something like custard.

Palate: Very gentle delivery, lovely soft, velvety sherry flavour, walnut oil and a combination of rancio, pipe tobacco and some earthy, raisin qualities. Drying but not at all cloying, quite a beautiful oily mouthfeel as well, with flavours of olive oil towards the back of the palate. I suspect the naturally low strength has a lot to answer for here, the fragility of this whisky is beautiful and quite charming. Its so soft, there are no edges anywhere, no bitterness or chalkiness, no brutal tannins, just lovely soft, chocolatey, fruit flavours. The distillery character is a little more hidden on the palate but there is still a definite freshness about it and that nutty, honey thing is still there only now its much more delicate. This is really growing on me.

Finish: Very long indeed, it fades in a grand and stately fashion, dignified to the last. Leaves a warming, menthol feel in the mouth.

Comments: Like the 1975, this is a whisky that you could very easily drink far to much of. Every part of it is easy but it still remains fascinating, balanced and compelling to drink. These old Bunnahabhains are fantastic value drams if you ask me, they could easily knock lumps out of other big named, premium priced distillery bottlings. Well done to Adelphi for bottling these great casks at such fair prices and well done to the lads at the distillery in the 60s and 70s who made the stuff. No need to score this one any different, they’re both in the same league.

Score: 91/100

and now…

The amateur blending olympics strikes again! A vatting of both bottlings…

This may be silly and borderline sacrilege but it is always fun. On the nose its just brilliant, its a pure concentration of the best aspects of both malts, all the richness from the sherry in the 1968 and all the fresh saltiness of the 1975. Bags of character, oily, fruity, nutty, even slightly meaty as well now. The palate has the same knock out combination effect, just delicious. If I had to score it I might be tempted to go as high as 92 for this vatting, interesting. Anyway, these Bunnahabhains were fantastic, go forth a try them yourself.

Well I’m back from my holidays and I was going to start up again with a tasting but sadly I am still shaking off the after effects of the man-lurgie. Hopefully tomorrow will bring clear noses and fresh palates but in the meantime we can while away the time with some meandering cinematic musings, namely around the film Lawn Dogs.

Lawn Dogs is one of those rare things, a great wee film. Its the sort of film you sit down to watch and as it unfolds you quickly start to wonder why you haven’t seen or heard of it before. It wasn’t particularly obscure when it was released but for some reason or another it has slipped out of people’s collective mind with the passing of time. Maybe its the fact that it touches on some quite thorny issues and does so in a wholly uncompromising way. It is also an unashamedly intellectual, imaginative and emotional film, a funny, complex and ultimately tragic modern fable. One of those films that restores any cinematic faith that might have been recently shaken free by a trip to see 2012 or Transformers 2. You watch with that glowing sense of joy that you have stumbled across a hidden gem, something you can then take further joy in sharing with someone else, watching them glow with the same rush of discovery.

It is ultimately quite a sad film in many ways, even the most private and joyous moments between the two central characters are set against a dark, invisible social backdrop that bears down increasingly upon them. The film laments the failing of human relationships and the ruinous victory of ignorance and narrowness of mind over love and understanding. It also turns in a heart rending expose of the pain of growing up and coming to terms with the fantasy crushing reality of adult life. It is poignant but funny and beautiful in its execution.

Queen Of The Moorlands 1997 heavily peated Bunnahabhain, hits you in the face like a shovel of peat that's been marinading in oloroso sherry overnight.

Those films like Lawn Dogs that have that ‘hidden gem’ quality to them have a natural affinity with the whisky lover’s mentality, we’re always on the lookout for new, obscure, undiscovered glories. That sense of excitement when a whisky takes us completely by surprise, it can’t really happen with many obvious drams, if we’re presented with an old single cask Ardbeg or an early Macallan 18yo for example, we’re obviously expecting great things. Its when we get the rug pulled from under our feet by a random Braeval or Edradour (ok maybe not an Edradour), whiskies that are not always the most earth shattering posses the greatest potential to wow us when they really shine. Bunnahabhain, in all honesty, perhaps belongs more to the former category than the latter but it can be variable. Anyway one of the last drams I had that really surprised me was a Bunnhabhain. I tried it at a tasting during the Islay festival in May, it was the Queen Of The Moorlands festival bottling, a heavily peated 1997 Bunna from a sherry hogshead. It had that wonderful flavour that you can only get in whisky when you combine massive peat with thick, heavy sherry character. It was sweet, oily, briny and full of that wonderful medicinal sarsaparilla character. Sometimes the best things in life are those that take us by surprise and whisky is no exception.

So I have gone on holiday only to find myself stricken with a hefty case of snuffly cold and a blocked nose. Any worse and it is in danger of morphing into a lower to intermediate grade of man-flu. Its frustrating because where I am in the Pyrénées is very beautiful and I had intended to indulge in the delights of the local Jurançon wines. I already visited the beautiful Domaine Cauhapé yesterday and tasted a selection of their dry whites (Jurançon sec) and the more famous sweet wines (Jurançon Moelleux), they were simple, aromatic and delicious wines that allowed the terroir to shine with great vibrancy. Sadly this cold has temporarily arrested any further tasting possibilities. What’s more I don’t even have any whisky here for medicinal purposes, short of going out and buying some, but I’d rather be spending my money on local produce than something I can get at home.

One of this year's less inspiring holiday snaps. Not one for the slide show.

However it did make me think about the idea of whisky as a medicinal concoction. The obvious use is the Hot Toddy, something I would be tucking into right now if I had some whisky to hand. I remember my dad making me a Hot Toddy for the first time when I was about ten, I’m not sure if I was ill or if my dad just though it was about time for me to start drinking Hot Toddies. I’m grateful nevertheless as I love them. The problem is that having a cold magnifies the desire to have a wee dram but unfortunately your sensory capacity for appreciating said dram is usually at an all time low. So here is my current wish list for (reasonably) inexpensive, head cold zapping whiskies. Ones that have enough power to shine through and good capacity for melting and unblocking stuffed up noggins. In reverse order they are:

no5: Clynelish 14yo

Its big, its bold, its an old school Highlander and its 46%. There is also something honeyish about it that, combined with the natural peaty elements towards the finish, make it one half Hot Toddy already. Plenty of wafting flavour to help clear the airways and a good oily texture that you can close your eyes and imagine is some sort of old fashioned medicine that your Granny might spoon feed you under a certain amount of duress. Thus leading to a possible beneficial placebo effect.

no 4: Aberlour A’bunadh

It had to be on here, sooner or later someone will probably suggest this as a restorative tipple. Its mighty, its powerful, it has enough alcohol to eat the hull of a submarine and enough flavour that it registers on seismographs whenever a dram is poured. Enough said.

no 3: Springbank 10yo 100 Proof

I love this little bastard. For me its much better than the new 12yo cask strength that has sadly replaced it. Driven largely by refill casks it is one of the most old school whiskies currently produced. Oily, waxy, coastal, brimming with flavours of peppered mackerel and subtle peat all wrapped up in a snot dissolving 57% alcohol. Its a no brainer for the conk-blocked connoisseur.

no 2: Longrow 10yo 100 Proof

The next step up from the Springbank, its logical follow up, if at first the light artillery hasn’t shifted those pesky commie germs then you bring out the big guns. The smoking bonfire on the beach, the peat ridden, seaweed sodden lump, the Springbank special forces that is Longrow 100 proof. Its heavier than its Springbank counterpart and less complex, its flavours are more compact and direct, its a peaty bulldozer, ready to bring down those phlegmy barricades.

and finally…

no 1: Lagavulin 12yo

When you’ve tried everything, when gargling hot salt water just doesn’t seem to work anymore, when it feels like there’s an unruly pig setting up residence in your sinuses and holding frat parties, then there’s only one whisky to help you. Lagavulin 12yo: the ‘Mr T’ of head cold-curing drams. Its like drinking a smoothie concocted of engine oil, seaweed and salt n vinegar crisps. A veritable peat bog of flavour lays siege to the gunk fortress in your nose while the immense alcohol quietly rounds up all germs and has them unfussily shot in the back of the head. Its a winer and definitely my choice of whisky if I have a cold. Sadly, as was established at the start of this post, I don’t got not whisky here. So if anyone is passing through this particular vicinity of Souther France before Saturday and finds themselves overburdened with any of the above drams then… you know what to do.