Whisky Online Blog

After a long run of nothing but tastings on the blog I feel increasingly inclined to return to my roots a little more. Maybe it’s something to do with it being a new year, who knows? I think nothing but tastings and reviews can become a little dry over time and it’s always nice to mix things up a bit. I haven’t written about film for a quite some time on these pages. In fact I haven’t given ‘film’ in its own right the attention it deserves, or that I have always felt compelled to bestow upon it, in my day to day life this past year. I was busy being in other places, then I was busy thinking constantly about whisky from the moment I returned (when am I not though), and then there were the inevitable distractions provided by music and all the people, instruments, gigs and sessions that come lashed to and spinning with it. So I have neglected my other great passion in life this past year, that of cinema going, film gorging and general celluloidial ravagings. I didn’t see nearly as many films as I would have liked and I missed many that I wanted to see, I’m still catching up quite a bit. There are a number that I did see that I found particularly profound and brilliant and these are the ones I feel compelled to write about in the coming days/weeks. One of the best films I saw was at a cinema in New York. It was a modern cinema, the kind that feels more like a sweet shop that just happens to show films. An old building that stands vacant and sad in the noise of the city, its innards and soul lobotomised by merchandise and hollowed by the spoons of profit margins. But a cinema nonetheless, one that still had the decency to switch out its lights and play a film with the correct focus and an audio track pitched in sensitive synchronisation with the picture. The film I saw was The Guard.

The Guard was directed by John Michael McDonagh, the brother of Martin McDonagh the man behind the equally great film In Bruges. Fittingly the films themselves feel like siblings in many ways. The spirals of philosophy, ruminations on human nature and wide open endings all lurking beneath a blackly comedic veneer are cornerstones of both films. As is Brendan Gleeson, a man with a face like the inside of a kettle and the ability to automatically improve any film by 22% simply by being in it. He’s a man we’re more accustomed to seeing in supporting roles, flexing is characterful jowls and munching down huge chunks of scenery while pasty famous people flounder attempting to wrench whole scenes back from his loot sack. So it is a rare treat to see him carrying a film here, and carry is no understatement. The film is brimming with fantastic actors giving brilliantly nuanced turns, Don Cheadle, Liam Cunningham, Mark Strong, David Wilmot and Fionnula Flanagan all deserve special mention here. But it is Gleeson’s film entirely, he moves through it with a majestic and glorious waddle, creating in his wake a character of extremes, wit, nuance, charm and complexity. He plays Sergeant Gerry Doyle, a police officer who’s chief concerns are, in no particular order, laziness, prostitutes, harvesting drugs from deceased boy racers, healthy disregard for rules and regulations and casual racism. The film hinges around his dealings with an FBI agent (Cheadle) who arrives in town to investigate drug trafficking, and their subsequent investigation. The plot is almost an excuse around which to hang the characters and their various virtues and vices, each of them offering a window or a mirror into a different corner of humanity.

Brendan Gleeson as Gerry Boyle in The Guard

The greatness of the film lies in the unknowable gaps between performance and moment, those hidden niches of the film where it somehow becomes even greater than the sum of its parts. I saw it in a room full of happy, popcorn chugging Americans in the heat of a New York summer evening. I’ve never been to Ireland but the common ground between the characters of Irish and Scottish people and their landscapes made me a little thirsty for home. But perhaps the film’s greatest power is its most simple and obvious one, it is achingly funny. It treads a fine line between crudity, wit and character driven comedy that is wonderful enough but, best of all, it doesn’t pander to an audience, it has a great awareness of where audiences are these days in terms of humour. The film lays out a smorgasbord of political in-correctness and instead of shying away from the obvious race jokes, swearing and lunacy, it embraces them. It’s the extreme teasing kind of humour shared between friends comfortable enough to call each other the foulest names under the sun and relish every exchange. It’s a rare film that manages to avoid all the pitfalls of crassness in these kinds of humour and retain its deeper streak of nobility, warmth and genuine connection with its spectators. At least that’s what I imagine happened in European cinemas, the American audience I shared it with gasped at the mention of the word cunt.

I normally find a whisky to match the film or song I’m nattering about in these kinds of posts. In the case of The Guard I’d much rather pick an Irish whiskey, the film really does have a strong Irish identity and I’d like to doth my dram to that but sadly I have zero examples of Irish distilling to hand. So we’ll just have a completely unconnected and pointless tasting instead with a sample that landed on my desk this morning, one that I’ve been quite excited about now for some time…. a new dark sherried Caol Ila. Islay is pretty close to Ireland right…?

Thanks to Hasse for the sample and Magnus for providing such an easily stealable photo on facetube.

Caol Ila 2000-2011. G&M Exclusive for Magnus Fagerstrom & Slainte. Fresh sherry hogshead. 302 bottles. 57.9%. 70cl.

A big thankyou to Hasse for sending me this sample.

Colour: Indian Rosewood

Nose: Sharp at first and full of smoky bacon, puy lentils, tcp, bandages, buckets of hot tar, menthol, toothpaste, hints of molasses, demerara and muscovado sugars and brown bread. Quite a powerhouse of a nose and very far from shy, an extroverted Caol Ila. Develops these wonderful notes of crushed mint leaf, mint julep and mojito (not that I’d say this was ideal mixing whisky). The alcohol softens quite nicely after a little time and more of these smoky bacon, meaty sherry notes come through with hints of green peppercorns in brine, medicine, fish nets, motor oil and quite a modern sherry quality. That’s not to say the sherry is dirty, it has more of this very modern, thick meaty character to it. Quite dense, sinewy, earthy and robust with notes of struck flints and fruit resin (what?). Lets try with water… with water it becomes much more elegant with a surprisingly complex medicinal structure and a richer earthy quality. A little more classical maybe, the peat and the sherry really are perfectly integrated now.

Palate: Neat it is no less big than on the nose. Initially a big sweet peatiness comes through with more sea salt, smoked bacon, fried pancetta, aspirin, turmeric, hessian, concentrated peat oils, damp sackcloth, glazed cherries, cocoa and cola cubes. The sweetness is quite fascinating, it’s almost greasy in its manifestation with a few more slightly dirty/earthy qualities coming through now. Notes of beef jerky, erasers, pencil lead and cannabis. With water: now there is more earthy, leathery, meaty qualities, it becomes much drier and these notes of salt are still pronounced but joined in droves by mineral notes, lemon juice, camphor, mixed spices, liquorice, touches of lavender and wood smoke. There is a prevailing dirtiness in the background that is a borderline hindrance for me.

Finish: Long, drying, salty and full of earthy, herbaceous, chocoaltey sherry and some green chewy peats.

Comments: Not as great as I was hoping from the darkness of the colour but this is still an excellent whisky with a great integration between distillate and cask, or peat and sherry to be more blunt about it. Sherried Caol Ilas are bloody hard to find and can be spectacular (James MacArthur London Scottish anyone?) this is not up to those standards but it is a great dram and if you’re in the mood for something big and flavoursome then you could do a lot worse than this beast. I think two or three more years in cask would probably have propelled it past 90. If G&M still have any of these sherry hoggies maybe they could sit on a few of them for a while and trckle them out from 15 onwards? I know I know, just an idea.

Score: 87/100

Well that wasn’t particularly suited to the film I suspect but it was a great dram and as such would probably go fine with The Guard if you happen to be out of Redbreast. Not that matching whiskies to films should be taken too seriously mind you. I’ll let you into a little secret, don’t tell anyone this by the way, we’ll keep it just between ourselves, but the thing is, this whole matching whiskies to films or songs business, well, it’s just a bit of silly fun really. I know, shocking right? Remember not to tell anyone, I don’t want to loose street cred now.

This image from the Vancouver riots seems somehow appropriate for 2011. Almost makes me wish I'd been there. Almost makes me wish it (probably) wasn't photoshopped.

By any measure this has been a tumultuous year, 2012 has a lot to live up to it seems. It’s going to need more than the Olympics and a pile of hogwash about the end of the Mayan calender to compete with what 2011 has thrown at our feet. The Arab spring, an increasingly introverted and suicidal Euro, the UK Economy being run by a bunch of public school boys who still don’t understand why the general population can’t simply inherit some money to ease their financial quibbles. In Britain we had riots, marches, fury, extensive government cuts and a Scottish government of increasing popularity making good their promise and laying the framework for the potential dismantling of the UK. In America they had their own economic woes, they had less money than Apple at one point, and then there was the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Europe finally caved and went begging to China for spare cash, everyone’s favourite EU leader Berlusconi sadly had to go due to his country managing to have some kind of anti-economy based solely on under age prostitution, ‘Bunga Bunga’ parties, whisky faking and bribery. Angela Merkel proved herself to be the Girl Guide of Europe, David Cameron failed to deny he was a Synthetic Android from the Alien film franchise and Nicholas Sarkozy remained short. China continued to become massiver and massiver and to ignore ever increasing grumbles about its rather lax attitude towards human rights, after all who cares what others think when you have that much disposable income. Greece finally collapsed after years of reliance on an economy based solely on plate breaking and Ireland still writhes in the grip of the great cappuccino famine of 2011. This was also the year of the phone hacking scandal where Rupert Murdoch and his underlings managed to create the buck that never stops. Dictators of the world fell like playing cards in a wind tunnel this year, who can forget the blood lusty, yet satisfying way Colonel Gaddafi was gunned down in the streen, HA! Happy times. The most recent one though was North Korea’s comedy miniature despot Kim Jong-il who died, we can only assume from reading his official biography, from the fact that he never defecated. An impressive feat although it did explain why he spoke utter shit for most of his life. His copycat fat son is everyone’s favourite to win Despots On Ice 2012. Oh, and Bin Laden got shot in the head by Navy Seals. Apparently the reason he wasn’t forcibly extracted back to US soil to stand trial was that he was defending himself with automatic loaded wives, or something like that according to a memo from the CIA. So, a tumultuous year all in all.

But what about the year in Whisky? Well as the above image suggests it was a very good  year for publicity stunts. Dalmore, Macallan, Glenfiddich, Old Pulteney, they all clambered over each other, slavering at the gums like hounds of the baskerville with marketing diplomas. Desperate to conquer the squalid back pages of the press with their fetid little bling bottlings, or to tell us that Jim Murray, the greatest gift to whisky since domestic violence, had endorsed their product with his latest super score. There were other things afoot in whisky as well with the ‘world’ whiskies starting to finally gain the recognition they deserve. People continued to complain about the Ardbeg Committee with staggering levels of naivety, as if it was actually supposed to be some kind of exclusive country club instead of a big, oily marketing engine that runs on raw, self perpetuating nonsense. Maybe in 2012 people will actually stop complaining and realise that it is the way it is and they can’t help it so just stop approaching me at festivals and complaining to me because I happened to work at the distillery for two summers while at uni as if that somehow means I can just call up someone at Moet Hennessey and ‘have a wee word’. Gosh it feels good to get things off your chest. In related Ardbeggy news, the great blender Rachel Barrie left Glenmorangie and headed to the Bowmore/Glen Garioch/Auchentoshan stable and proceeded to say some very encouraging things about future production methods, although I’m still waiting for a reply to a comment I made on her facebook status about doing some more peated Glen Garioch, time will tell. The rush for Port Ellen 11th release drove consumers into a frenzy of mindless violence that ended in further outbreaks of rioting throughout the whisky shops of Europe. Lady Gaga got five cases though.  Whiskyfun turned 9 this year on July 28th, selfishly only 8 days after my own birthday thereby overshadowing that event in the whisky calender for so many people. I’ll get you yet Valentin (shakes fist). There has been much speculation over what Serge will do once Whiskyfun turns 10. However we all know he will convert the site into an online scores auctioneering base where companies bid thousands of euros (or francs depending on how things are looking come August) a time for whatever score he is offering that week. The first score will be 98 points and we know Inverhouse are already putting together a bid for their new non-aged, Iron Bru finished An Cnoc. Good times ahead.

The Hadron Collider, a big player in the whisky scene of 2012? Also don't do what I just did and run a google image search for 'Large Hardon Collider' by mistake.

So what does 2012 hold for whisky? I suspect we will see even higher prices, more fakes, the pointlessness of the ‘most expensive bottle ever sold’ war will spiral into the cosmic belly button of utter despair and consume all who dare venture near, like a black hole of fat, sweaty bollocks. The German Independent Bottling market will continue to blossom providing the best whiskies and the best prices. Kilchoman will continue to get better with age. Richard Patterson will host a tasting in the Large Hadron Collider. Ralfy will move to Sky One. Joel and Neil from caskstrength.net will open for the Pope at Glastonbury. Fred and Stuart Laing will merge into a single, two-headed person like Zaphod Beeblebrox from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The Port Ellen 12th release will be released in the style of Red Cross aid parcels in Ethiopia. UN soldiers will throw armfuls of them into baying crowds of angry whisky lovers armed to the teeth with pitchforks and ipads and just hope for the best while a representative from Diageo looks on via a satellite link up and calmly motions to his minions to begin ‘phase 2′. The Olympic opening ceremony will be sponsored by Bruichladdich, Jim McEwan and Boris Johnson will open the show with a beginners guide to Coopering. Octomore will be peated to 1 trillion ppm thus causing a tear in the space time continuum and creating what is known as a ‘phenolic irregularity’. Dave Broom will be the new Doctor Who companion and Martine Nouet will be the new Doctor Who. Daftmill will buy Diageo, George Osborne will retire from politics and re-open Brora with his vast personal fortune and Nick Clegg, finally overwhelmed by his spineless guilt, will commit suicide live on national television by downing a thousand miniatures of Edradour. So an exciting year for us all to look forward to.

Be sure to tune in for Nick Clegg's 'dram with destiny' in 2012.

On a personal note it is difficult to comment too succinctly on a  year that was racked by so much intensity, belt tightening, death and downright misery, purely because for me it was far and away the best year of my life. I travelled and made some of the best friends I’ve ever had, I found a great new job, moved into the best flat I’ve ever lived in with the best flatmate I’ve ever had and I’m in a position where things seem to be looking up. I am, in short, incredibly lucky and I try to realise it every day. So the final tasting of 2011 will be one themed around starting as you mean to go on, at least for as long as possible, I’m not sure how many more great Brora tastings I’ll be able to do..? A worrying thought indeed.

Brora 1970-2002. 32yo. Douglas Laing ‘Old & Rare’. 58.4%. 70cl. 

Huge thanks to Wayne for opening this beauty.

Colour: Straw Gold

Nose: Why do other distilleries bother making peated whisky? This is just another typically perfect early Brora. A myriad of farmyard, industrial, coastal and medical qualities with farminess taking the initial lead. Just beautiful! Opens up slowly with lemon skins, oils, mineral notes, pebbles, sea salt, camphor and tar. Sea air, brine, coal and a perfect underlying waxiness. It’s definitely leaning more towards coastal guises now. Lots of sea spray, lime juice, olive oil, seaweed, white flowers, sandalwood and tcp. It’s just massively fresh and vibrant. Just stunning, lets see if water can improve it even further… With water it just becomes almost hyper coastal, like raw sea water and oysters. Lemon juice, raw peat smoke, old kilns, iodine.

Palate: Massively oily on delivery, like boiler sheds, thick green peats, tar, peat oil, drying medicinal notes, smoked cereals, sea water, green olives in brine, hay, hessian and treacle. Smoked vanilla (?), chilli oatcakes, black pepper, Riesling, melted butter and chopped chives. Shellfish, crab meat, smoked mussels, fresh lemon juice, cured ham and more salt. With water: a really luxurious, elegant peat comes through now, loads of olive oil, bonfire smoke, burning grass, wax, smoked cereals, peppered mackerel and some wonderfully farmy notes of engine oil and horse stables.

Finish: Very long with drying peat smoke, wax, cereals, tar, white pepper, burnt toast, camphor and fish oil.

Comments: Another incredibly Brora, I think the 1970 and 71s were not quite as stellar as the 72s in my opinion. It seems like they were still experimenting and constantly tweaking the recipe, in 1972 they must have got things very right. However, this is all relative as this one is still galaxies ahead of most modern peated malts.

Score: 94/100

Brora 1972-1995. 22yo. OB Rare Malts. 61.6%. 70cl.

This is one of several truly legendary early Broras from the Rare Malts series.

Colour: Gold

Nose: Ouch! The word beast could have been invented for this one. Imagine a peat, honey, salt and turpentine smoothy and you’re not far off. Quite closed even after a long time in glass, aggressive and difficult but even with all that grumpy, miserly austerity it is still quite beautiful. Struck flints, big, raw mineral notes, hay, horse stables, burnt grass and old petrol cans. A true powerhouse whisky. I think we’ll add a bit of water straight away… with a little water it starts to freshen out a bit, salt, lemons, limes and a nice manure quality all start to make themselves felt. Becomes intensely ‘Brora’ with a huge farminess and notes of coal fires, seaweed, parsley and wax. Lets try another little bit of water: it actually got even better, now its super fresh, leafy, smoky and very medicinal. A stunning and perfect mix of all the classic Brora characters. This is one of those whiskies that swims like a fish, it absolutely needs careful time with water to bloom, but when it does, my god it’s magnificent.

Palate: Neat it is an aggressive bag of gravel, wet earth, green, concentrated peat oil and feisty minerals. Some farmyard hints of stables, hay, horses and tar then muesli, rope, wet leaves, coal and mercurochrome. With a first dilution… wow, a perfect profile, all on minty, leafy peats, all kinds of wax, a dazzling array of coastal notes and different oils. Perfect but lets try a little more water anyway… the peat gets even oilier, almost simmering like an old Ardbeg, oily, fat and mouth coating with a wonderfully farmy dirtiness. Superlative notes of seaweed, tar, tcp, bread, olive oil, brine, anchovies, kippers, black and green peppercorns, hummus, matchsticks and more salt. It’s quite incredible really, we’d best stop.

Finish: Ask me in 2013 how it’s coming along

Comments: I’ve wanted to taste this one for a long long time and, thanks to the generosity of Mr Brora (aka Serge) at D-Day I was finally able to. All I can say is these bottles are now expensive for a very good reason, they’re fucking brilliant whisky. Water is essential with this one, even adding it in increments it seems to change drastically with each new dilution. You could literally play for days if you had a full bottle, adding a little water, then a bit more whisky, seeing just how epic you could make it, mind the ‘ground zero’ of perfection if you like. There’s nothing being made anywhere in the world today in my opinion that can hold a candle to this kind of whisky. Maybe for 2012 the industry could look to the past a bit more for future inspiration.

Score: 96/100

Whatever happens next year I hope you can all become happier, wiser and more aware in everything you do and achieve. Enjoy the simple things in life, strive to make things better for yourself and all those around you. And above all, don’t take things too seriously.

Happy Hogmanay from all of us here at Whisky Online. Slante!

Angus. 31/12/2011

Here’s a wee tasting to bridge the wilderness between Christmas and New Year. Do you remember a few years ago when the mention of the name Benriach would conjure up images of a cheap 10yo ridden with porridge, cardboard and chlorophyll? Yes, funny how things change isn’t it…

We’ll jump around in ascending order of strength between the golden years of 1975, 76 and 77.

Note: Due to hard drive issues, and excessive laziness, there are no pictures for this tasting. I will probably update the post with pictures as soon as I can. Sorry. Here’s a compensatory photo of the distillery that I liberated from someone else’s website….

Benriach 1977-2009. 31yo. OB. Cask 3798. Virgin Oak Hoggie. 292 Bottles. 43.1%. 70cl.

Colour: Copper

Nose: Unexpectedly this one starts all on thick woody accents but it’s all very clean, super polished wood with some lovely notes of varnish, raisins, cognac, putty and resin. After time a delicate trademark tropical character starts to spill through that works wonders with the woodier aspects of the nose, rather like tropical varnish. Notes of apple peelings, kumquats, kiwi and green banana. Then hints of demerara sugar, freshly baked bread and a touch of black tea. Lots of different jams, pine sap and wax jackets. Lovely.

Palate: Surprisingly syrupy and luscious on delivery, not at all overly tannic or extracted, lots of bananas, leafy notes, pine needles, tropical fruit syrups, mead, tarry honey, nectar, more of these super clean wood notes and light medicinal rummy notes. Very pleasant and quite mentholated with notes of mint tea, greengages, hessian and graphite oil coming forth. Very nice, light and not overly oaky at all.

Finsih: Slightly more drying now but that syrupy sweetness remains in place and the whole has a rather elegant fade. Mixed feelings about weather it wants to be a Whisky, a Brandy or a Rum.

Comments: I was expecting oak city but I ended up somewhere in the suburbs near fruit count. Not the best but super drinkable and very pleasant. A little too syrupy in parts but there was quite a bit going on, enough to keep it constantly entertaining.

Score: 86/100

Benriach 1976-2009. 33yo. OB for The Whisky Fair. Cask 3558. Hogshead. 103 bottles. 46.2 %. 70cl.

Colour: Light gold

Nose: Woo, now we’re talking, straight away this is a big pile of tropical fruit, honey and cereals. A real fruit bomb. Lots of kumquats, mangos, lychee, kiwi, banana and tinned pineapple. Hints of melba toast, kir royale, buttered croissant, warm fudge, muesli and vanilla sponge cake. Then orange blossom, peaches, orange bitters and lemons. A fantastic, fresh and lively nose.

Palate: Green and tropical fruits with a secretive bite of oak in the background that keeps the balance between uber-freshness and age perfectly tight knit. Hints of white pepper, minerals, camphor, fruit oils, hazelnuts, brioche, more of these wonderful warm bread flavours, pencil lead, some simmering spice and more orange notes.

Finish: Long, tropical, gently drying, aromatic, spicy and lively. Great.

Comments: Very typical 76 Benriach, wonderfully vibrant fruit character and brilliantly fresh.

Score: 91/100

Benriach 1976 34yo OB. Cask 3033. 48.2%. 70cl.

Colour: Gold

Nose: This one is even fatter at first with a really luxurious and quite expansive tropical quality. Behind all the fruit salad is a slight dustiness which is very pleasant and hints at age. Some creaminess, polish, wax, tart berry fruit notes, nutmeg, coconut and various fruit syrups. Quite beautiful really. Starts to display these elegant mentholated notes of eucalyptus and mint with turkish delight, lychee and spice in the background.

Palate: If anything the tropical notes are even more intense on the palate, super fruity, waxy, drying, syrupy, green, mentholated and fresh. Just brilliant. Loads of little fruity and honeyed complexities with a perfect balance between fruit and oak. The oak lends it that beautiful dusty, delicately drying and ever so slightly chocoaltey quality that in turn magnifies the fruit’s intensity and lusher aspects. Notes of plum jam, vanilla cream, mango sorbet, mixed nuts, eucalyptus oil and some soft herbal notes.

Finish: Long, tropical, slightly drying, soft, chocolatey and honeyed. Fantastic.

Comments: This is exactly the sort of cask that made everyone go WHAAAAAAAT!?!?! a few years ago.

Score: 92/100

Benriach 1977-2011. 34yo. Adelphi. 217 bottles. 48.6%. 70cl. 

Colour: Bronze

Nose: This is much more akin to the first one with its big woodiness, rich buttery notes and quiet fruit, although I’m pretty sure it’s not from a virgin oak cask, maybe the diminished fruitiness is partly a ‘vintage’ effect. It goes through a similar transition of varnish, sawdust, pine sap and pencil shavings into elegant notes of honey, light tropical notes, green fruits, damson jam, dried cereals and some industrial notes of coal and wax. Very pleasant so far with a slightly bigger and more complex profile than the first one which it most closely resembles. Honeysuckle, green tea, lemon grass and mint.

Palate: Green fruit syrups at first then quite a bit of dark chocolate, cocoa power, some very mentholated woody notes, furniture polish, touches of tobacco and rancio and something like fig jam or fig rolls. The wood feels a bit much here but there are still some very beautiful parts to it. Cornflour, honey, black tea, cola cubes, mead, turmeric, hessian and black pepper. Very nice but the creeping astringency of the wood is becoming tricky.

Finish: A bit too woody now but still has great length.

Comments: Some parts were very beautiful, especially on the nose but the palate was just a bit too woody for my liking, too long in cask I think. Also I think it suffered a bit in comparison to the last 1976, it seems that after 76 Benriach really did loose quite a bit of its fruity vibrancy.

Score: 85/100

Benriach 1976 30yo OB. Cask 3557. 222 Bottles. 53%. 70cl. 

Colour: Honey – Gold

Nose: This one is very much in the same vein as cask 3033 only the higher alcohol masks a little of the fruits intensity and it come across as a bit more closed initially. There are still some very beautiful notes of nectarines, mangoes, peach puree and honeycomb though. After a couple of minutes it begins to open up even more with buttered toast and all kinds of oily cereal notes. The tropical notes grow heavier and more excessive with time, another stunning old Benriach fruit bomb in other words. With water: now we have a perfect balance between luscious tropical notes, varnished hardwood and cereals with background notes of green peppercorns and brown sugar.

Palate: Neat the first impressions are of honeysuckle, orange liqueur, herb syrups (?) and a slow burning tropical fruit presence that grows slowly to engage the whole palate. Some of these lovely spice notes as well such as warm cumin, toasted coriander seeds, turmeric and cloves. With water: water brings out a creamier side to the tropical flavours and softens the whole thing down, lots of soft peppery notes, wet leaves, earthy qualities and hints of wild mushrooms, mango and fresh guavas.

Finish: Long and filled with a tropical fruit salad infused with orange blossom, salted chocolate, vanilla cream, cereals, toast, butter, herbs and fruit syrups. Glorious.

Comments: Another spectacular 1976.

Score: 92/100

Benriach 1975 35yo OB. Sherry Hogshead. Cask 7227. 57%. 70cl. 

Colour: Gold

Nose: The sudden leap in strength is quite apparent, this is certainly not as immediately open as the previous casks. The first impressions are of rich cereals, thick tropical fruit syrups and coal dust, this one is indeed a touch more industrial than the others, vintage again or just idiosyncrasies of strength? Goes on with some very lovely notes of vanilla cream, fresh butter, chopped parsley and more of these typical bready notes. It has to be said there is a real olfactory consistency between a lot of these casks, hallmarks of a strong distillery character. With water: now it becomes a nice even mix of cereal, toast, honey, green and tropical fruits.

Palate: This one starts of fresh breads and pastry with the tropical elements more subdued and floating up slowly from the background, although they are certainly distinctive. Bitter orange marmalade, wood shavings, pencil lead, greengages, wet grains, grass, honey drizzled over vanilla ice cream and licks of camphor. With water: just the same as on the nose, more of everything in perfect balance, great and clear fruit qualities with brilliant, slightly drying notes of wood, cereal, orange bitters and various oils.

Finish: Huge tropical note on the swallow with lashings of mead, slight saltiness, sweet oak, bitter chocoalte, touches of peppermint and a long toasty fade.

Comments: Not as extravagant as the 76s but perhaps a bit more classy maybe? Anyway, it doesn’t matter because in terms of sheer quality there is really very little between them, they’re both fantastic years for Benriach it seems.

Score: 92/100

Benriach 1975 29yo OB. Cask 7211. 59.1%. 70cl. 

Colour: Straw

Nose: This one is even more closed up and peppery than the others. Give it a couple of minutes though to get past the knot of alcohol and that familiar tropical wave come out thick and fast. This one does feel a bit younger after the last one which was a 35yo. The fruit in this one feels thicker, more syrupy and inexplicably younger with more minerals, wax and hints of salt wrapped around it. Smoky bacon, cured ham, hessian, dunnage, camphor and stables all help to make this a much more rugged and farmy example of the make. It’s globally much bigger and less fussy than the others with persistent and refreshing stony quality to it. With water: this is interesting, it almost got less fruity and more austere which is quite contrary. These mineral and wax notes are enhanced and complimented with more putty, graphite oil, wet pebbles, mead and olive oil. With time it does indeed become more and more tropical to the point where it is nudging those 1976 levels. An intricate, stunning and ever evolving nose.

Palate: Big fat buttery notes at first, touches of wood, greenery, grass, minerals, tropical fruits, baked cereals, burnt toast, peaches, apricots and hay. Quite a different profile on the palate from the others, one that feels very tied to its younger age. Quite a potent beast when neat, those mineral qualities are still very present and make it much more austere than the others. More wax, white fruits, wile flowers, petrol, Riesling and meady notes. This is much more old style in comparison to the others (although they are all pretty old style in comparison to today’s Benriach). These waxy and mineral notes are growing ever more distinct in quite a beautiful way. With water: these wonderful old style notes of mineral, pebble, wax, paint, chalk, white fruit and cereal are all still abundant but these creeping tropical notes are still fluttering about everywhere. Truly compelling.

Finish: Long, austere, gripping, occasionally drying and salty other times tropical and honeyed. Beautiful.

Comments: This is quite a fascinating dram. I get the impression tasting it that it was bottled right on the cusp in a transitional phase, moving from being a younger style, more austere, old style, waxy highland malt to an older, more relaxed, luscious and tropical Benriach as we’ve come to know and love. Very fascinating! I actually like this one a bit more as I think it shows just a bit more complexity than the others. Maybe 1976 is the popular vintage at Benriach but for my money 75 seems a bit more interesting. Great stuff.

Score: 93/100