Whisky Online Blog

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

Laphroaig 15 red label.... 'Hello!'

You may or may not know but my day job is as the whisky and wine specialist at a Glasgow based auction house called Mulberry Bank. When I took the job earlier this year I was very keen to instigate pre-sale tastings. Auction houses are generally quite stuffy places, lots of beards, shadows, dark corners, tweed jackets, crusty diamond earrings dangling from crustier ears and dust. Thankfully our auction house is the opposite, open, bright, spacious and, unsurprisingly, a pleasantly calm shade of mulberry. I was keen to embrace and promote whisky as something for drinking rather than as mere collectable tokens of profit. This was the inspiration behind putting together tastings that focus on old style, rare and antique bottlings. Last Friday we had our first of these pre-sale tastings, my tasting notes from the bottles we opened are below. It may have been my own tasting but without wanting to sound big headed I think it was one of the best line-ups for any UK based tasting this year. Ok that did sound big headed, but the point is essentially that in the uk these kind of bottles rarely feature in whisky tastings. It speaks volumes about the appreciation gap between UK based and continental whisky aficionados. There are good reasons for this. Firstly the majority of the ‘old bottlings’, many of which are amongst the greatest whiskies ever bottled, were largely done for Italy and various other continental European markets. Also the majority of people connected with whisky in Scotland work in the industry and as such are naturally more concerned with current market products. They shy away from talking about the fact that their whiskies have changed over the years, or bottle ageing, or any of the other issues that  these kinds of tastings unearth and serious whisky nerds tend to concern themselves with. So with that in mind I was keen to try and do a few old style tastings in Scotland. 

Glenmorangie 10yo. OB. 1980-1990. Single cask number: 4318. 60%. 75cl.

An old series of single cask, cask strength bottlings that are now becoming quite rare.

Colour: Gold

Nose: A nice balance between the old and the new. Clearly from a fresh bourbon cask with its aromas of linseed oil, vanilla pods, honeycomb, nutmeg and rice pudding. A very fresh and quite inviting profile that, even at cask strength, is in no way aggressive or overly hot. With time it begins to unveil notes of eucalyptus, fresh parsley, tinned chickpeas, graphite oil and a little fragrant wax. Open up further with orange liqueurs, marmalade, fragile spices and some fresh garden fruits. Really lovely development and a profile that I would describe as very classically Glenmorangie. That is fragrantly spicy, aromatic and elegant, not really a proper highlander in style but not a speysider either, something more individual between the two. Anyway I think you would be hard pressed to find a Glenmorangie these days that has this kind of aromatic complexity. Lets add water… With water it develops beautifully on green tea, wild flowers, minerals, more of these very natural and nuanced vanilla tones and some soft heathery notes. Hints of white pepper, flints, cereals, buttered toast and lilies. Wonderful stuff.

Palate: At full strength this is a big minty, spicy and oily whisky, loads of character and a big mouthfeel. Lots of sweet flavours on top of a more drying, soft tannic sensation. Excellent composure. Leafy and fresh with notes of soot, olive oil, earl grey tea, liquorice, mead, toasted brioche, fresh butter and spicy pumpkin soup. A rare example of a perfect bourbon matured winter dram, warming, balanced and with great depth of flavour. A lovely peppery quality as well that keeps you on your toes. With water: brilliant. A rich, spicy and fantastically concentrated dram, lots of green and earthy complexity and some quite resinous qualities as well. The balance between wood and spirit seems just about perfect.

Finish: Long, slightly mentholated, spicy, a little farmy, oily and with traces of minerals.

Comments: Glenmorangie are probably the leading exponents of modern wood technology these days but I think they have gone too far in that direction and the character of their great distillate has been lost. This is by far the best Glenmorangie I have tasted in years, it shows beautiful complexity, personality, development and balance. Clearly from a relatively active bourbon cask but not one that is so rigorously designed and controlled as to force the spirit into some kind of unified, souless conformity. This bottling shows just how good a fresh bourbon cask can be with Glenmorangie when the balance is struck right and the distillate is a allowed a little more free expression. Is this an extinct style of Glenmorangie?

Score: 91/100

Bowmore 12yo OB. Brown dumpy. Rotation late 1970s/early 1980s. Plastic screw cap. 40%. 75cl.

There are many versions of this one around, almost all seem to be very good.

Colour: Gold

Nose: A little tight at first but it is a freshly opened bottle. Lets give it a couple of minutes. Ahh now it speaks, typically lush tropical notes although its more focues on tinned fruits rather that the fresh fleshy kind. Lots of syrupy tinned pineapples, passion fruit puree and guava with hints of honeysuckle and a wonderfully resinous background saltiness. Those coastal notes become more and more dominant, dried seaweed, licks of brine, some lemon wax, wet pebbles and finally some very fragrant peat oils and wildflowers. A lovely mix of soft peat, mineral, coastal and tropical notes. Very typical of these old official Bowmores and not a speck of perfume in sight.

Palate: Big for 40%! Very salty, almost like burned salt, tropical fruits again, fresh ones this time, camphor, peat smoke, some very stony mineral notes, like licking wet salty granite. Brown bread, some yeasty gueze beer notes, sharp citrus juice, pineapple, citrus rind, limoncello and hospital gauze. Quite an acrid and powerful profile, very direct and not too easy but undeniably classy and quite beautiful as well. Again we’re very far away from the 80s perfumery style. More subtle floral notes of white flowers and honeysuckle come through after a while, then something like salted honey. Quite an intriguing palate, very entertaining.

Finish: Good length, very warming and full of fragrant smoke, heather and seaweed flavours, more minerals, flowers, salts and fruits. Great.

Comments: These old Bowmore dumpy OB bottlings are not hard to find and are generally all fantastic, I’ve never had a bad one.

Score: 91/100

Bowmore 21yo. OB. Seagull Label. Rotation early-mid 1990s. Batch code: L482A. 43%. 70cl.

The old 21yo bottlings were almost all stunners. If I’m not mistaken the last ‘vintage’ 12yo was the 1973. Which means this one was probably bottled around 1994/95. Anyway, it was certainly distilled in the early 1970s so were in very safe territory.

Colour: Light Amber

Nose: Quite a bit of polished sherry at first which is a bit surprising. Again a freshly opened bottle may take a while to open up. It quickly opens onto all kinds of soft, fleshy tropical fruit aromas, a big exotic fruit salad with background notes of creosote, freshly poured tar, old rope, hessian, some beautifully rich ‘aged’ qualities and fresh peaches. Really beautiful and ever so slightly understated which only adds to the charm. After time some soft notes of bonfire smoke, violets, sultanas and other dried fruits begin to come through. This is a beautifully composed nose and a style that I really adore, proper old school Bowmore. Further delicate notes of medicine, lychee, lemon skins and wax. Wonderful.

Palate: Big, drying, saline, resinous and very fruity, like a tropical fruit juice. A fantastically nervous balance between drying salty and coastal notes and big lush tropical characters. More of these great notes of seaweed, wax, tar, minerals, orange peel, lemon oil, some smoked cereals and oily medical notes like a suggestion of tcp. Still quite resinous and camphory on one side and immensely fresh, breezy and tropical on the other, a real multifaceted dram. Gets a little minty after time with also some more drying herbal qualities, like a rosemary eau de vie or something equally bizarre. Lemon thyme, wet pebbles and bitter chocolate.

Finish: Super long, clean, drying, very tropical and lively, wakes you up brilliantly. Leaves a salty crust around your gums (in a good way).

Comments: The 21yo bottlings were always superior to the 25′s in my wee opinion. This is maybe not as majestic as some of the earlier ‘vintage’ 21′s but this is still brilliant and delicious whisky.

Score: 92/100

Glenlochy 1969-1994. 25yo Rare Malts OB. 62.2% 75cl. 

From one of the very first batches of Rare Malts released back in 1994. Like many of the early batches this was a low outrun bottling and there are several different examples at varying strengths. All of them are now particularly hard to find.

Colour: Straw

Nose: Thick and quite astoundingly creamy on the nose at first, like some kind of vanilla infused motor oil. Notes of riesling, white pepper, petrol, cut grass, olive oil, lemon wax, pebbles, white fruits and minerals. Quite expressive at cask strength with surprisingly non intrusive alcohol. Becomes typically old highland and farmy with some wonderful notes of hay, stables and sheeps wool. With water: it beacame kind of ‘wider’ although it is still quite austere with lots of mineral and oily qualities. Dunnage, wet earth, soft peat, a touch of salt and more farmy notes. This is no easy whisky but it is still wonderfully creamy, quite an old style charmer.

Palate: Big and drying with notes of roast chestnuts, eucalyptus, white truffle oil, wild mushrooms, vegetal notes and some very savoury cereal notes. A little quiet and closed on the palate at full strength, lets try with water…  more of these creamy notes now, luxuriously creamy in fact but now with a huge herbal quality as well, like a dry herbal liqueur. A little medicinal as well with more mushroomy notes but also some fresher flavours of lemons and bay leaves. Quite light for a Glenlochy but still very elegant, austere, old style and complex.

Finish: Long, leafy, oily and mineral with notes of graphite oil, baked cereals, malted barley, vanilla cream and black tea.

Comments: I adore Glenlochy and this doesn’t disappoint, it’s a little lighter than I was expecting, old Glenlochys from this era are often a little more ‘extreme’. But this is a delightfully elegant and charming old style malt. Glenlochy is always a joy to drink, one of the most consistent of the silent distilleries.

91/100

Laphroaig 15yo OB. Red 15 label ‘Unblended’. Cork seal. Rotation mid 1980s. UK market. 40%. 75cl. 

Colour: Light gold

Nose: A cavalcade of tropical fruits, bandages, oysters, seaweed, antiseptic, iodine and creosote. What a blinding nose! The topical character is super intense and the peat a little quieter than normal, you might well mistake this for an old 60s Bowmore given it blind. It evolves further with notes of lemon wax, coal, camphor, sea air and yet more intense tropical complexity. Just simply stunning, the kind of fruit quality that simply does not exist in modern whisky.

Palate: Powerful at 40% as only Laphroaig can be. Drying, dusty seaweed notes with masses of tropical fruit salad over the top. Crushed sea salt, fresh top quality espresso, dark chocoalte, devastatingly quaffable, you could demolish a bottle of this in an hour with a couple of whisky chums by your side. Burnt peat, bonfire smoke, green fruits as well, moss, charcoal, barbecue sauce, tar, tcp, mouthwash, fresh mint, eucalyptus oils, Tunes throat sweets, dried herbs, many different kinds of tea, milk and Euthymol toothpaste. Lets stop this madness.

Finish: Hugely medicinal, drying, coastal and endless with a gloriously oily and green fading peat quality.

Comments: If I had to pick a distillery that has undergone the greatest extremes of change in character due to the modernisation of its production process then I’d pick Laphroaig. I’d love to see the guys at Laphroaig who insist their whisky hasn’t changed over the years taste something like this next to the current 10yo. It could almost be from a different distillery.

Score: 94/100

Balvenie-Glenlivet ‘As We Get It’. Macfarlane, Bruce & Co Ltd Inverness. Rotation early 1970s (around 1971/72). 105.2 Proof. 26 2/3 floz (75.7cl).

This was one of the earliest bottlings under the ‘As We Get It’ banner, a title that has been used by several different companies over the years. Macfarlane, Bruce & Co were the first if I’m not mistaken. There are several versions of this one floating around, most are fantastic so I have high hopes for this one.

Colour: White wine

Nose: Unmistakeably old school despite the heat of the high alcohol at first sniffing. A sackful of minerals, wet rocks, flints, all kinds of wax, white flowers, toasted cereals, lemon juice, turpentine and sheeps wool. Gun oil , steel wool, salt, sawdust and some quite pungent farmyard aromas as well. This is very close so some old Clynelish white label with its huge but stunningly beautiful austerity. Big notes of petrol and buttered toast, another one of these old style malts that smells very much like a great aged Riesling. Hints of silage, stables, motor oil and other oily industrial characters. And all this without even adding water! Lets try that now… water doesn’t change it too much, it just somehow becomes oilier, wider and richer. The waxy qualities become more fragrant and there are more of these notes of grass, citrus and wildflowers. It keeps on developing though, you could sit with this for hours probably.

Palate: Neat: this is a huge whisky, immensely waxy, oily, petroly, gree, flinty, oddly coastal and fat. Touches of camphor, medicine, peat, more massive oily notes and some beautifully smatterings of green and citrus fruits. About as extreme in this old style as it is possible to get, super clean but also very grumpy, difficult and wild, not at all sexy, swish or easy like so many modern malts. God I love this. More notes of flowers, hay, muesli, porridge, boiled grains, coal, masses of waxy mineral notes, butterscotch and tablet. If you like this extreme old style akin to old pre-Brora Clynelish then you’ll adore this. With water: it becomes a bit more savoury and bready but there are still these beautiful flourishes of old school sweetness, fresh malt, slight vegetality and notes of mashed potatoes. It’s still massively waxy, mineral and austere.

Finish: Super long, buttery, fat, oily, laden with white fruits, hessian, sheeps wool, hay, metallic notes, more wax, flints and cereals.

Comments: What a brilliant dram! It might as well be from another planet compared to modern Speysiders, let alone modern young Balvenies. The level on this bottle and the screw cap seal were both perfect which means that this whisky is probably as close as is possible to how it was when it was bottled. Combine that with that fact that it is almost certainly a very young whisky, certainly younger than 10, and it has come from very ‘quiet’ wood and you have an invaluable window onto a long departed style of distillate. These characters just aren’t found in modern Scottish whisky making sadly. Of course this style isn’t for everyone but I adore it and I think this is a particularly stunning example. What the hell did they do at Balvenie to eradicate such a distinctive character?!

Score: 94/100

People begin to take their seats for the tasting.

If you are one of the lucky people who attended this tasting and are wondering where the infamous Highland Park tasting notes are then rest assured they have been made but I’m holding them back for a particularly stellar christmas tasting that I am in the process of putting together.

As for the rest of you who didn’t go, this was just the first of what will hopefully be many tastings. The next auction is scheduled for March 28th so the pre-sale tasting will almost certainly be around about the 27th. Keep your diaries free and make a point of being in Glasgow then because if you thought this one was brilliant then just wait till you see what we’ll be tasting next time.

This article has taken so long to come about because when I originally wrote it I was in the latter stages of a 56 hour Greyhound bus trip from Kentucky to California using the poor wifi that the bus kindly provided. Sadly as I was finishing it the wifi froze up and my internet crashed, these two forces combined meant that I lost all my work. So I have only recently summoned the will power to write the whole damn thing again. Life on the road I suppose.

So after last week’s delve into the transition period of the late 80s/early 90s, a time when Bowmore went from being seemingly used by the Chuckle Brothers to make Chanel no 5, to making world class whisky, lets look at some examples of the spirit as it moves deeper into the nineties. As was discussed last time, there were clearly changes at Bowmore in the late 80s as the company realised that the maturing distillate from the late 70s clearly had ‘issues’. Something in the production was tinkered with and the results, that we can see now in an increasing number of stunning bottlings, continue to be fantastic. The spirt from 1989-1993 seems to be beautifully coastal and elegantly medicinal with lots of citrus, dry peat, soft farmy qualities and occasional austerity. However, there were further changes afoot. If you can taste a few examples from before and after 1994 you’ll notice that the peat intensifies in the make after this time. This coincides with a neat trick that Bowmore started using at their maltings around 94. Instead of burning peat in the full brick form, as it is cut from the turf, they began to crumble up the dried bricks into a loose consistency like a chunky peat breakfast cereal. The theory behind this was that burning the peat in this form was much more economical and effective as it releases a great deal more of the Phenols, Guaicols and Creosoles, the natural chemical compounds released during kilning from the peat which stick to the husk of the drying malt and give all the celebrated flavours and aromas of smoke, medicine and peat. It has been very effective as the character of the spirit seems to have become much thicker and oilier with much more pronounced peat characteristics.

However, as was mused upon last time, there are all kinds of possibilities that may have contributed to this, changes made during fermentation, malting, distillation and maturation can all have huge implications for the distillery character somewhere down the line. There is also the question of whether Bowmore uses enough of its own malt in the production process for this nifty technique of peat crumbling to make a difference. I heard a few years ago that the percentage used was 40%, this is impressively high for such a big distillery and definitely enough to make a difference, but it may well have been partly due to the imagination or misunderstanding of an over eager tour guide. What’s for sure is that the malt they get from commercial maltsters will not be produced in this same way but will be peated in the traditional fashion. The problem lies in not having open, accurate and detailed information on the production techniques of the distillery for the past decades. What is otherwise known as evidence/data/information/research documents, all the things I lack to hand which I would require to prevent this article slipping even further into wild speculation. What we do know is that Bowmore has undergone some fascinating changes over the past two decades and tasting them is probably the most enjoyable form of ‘research’ we can engage in. So without further ado…

Bowmore 18yo. OB. 2010. 43%. 70cl.

Colour: Light Amber

Nose: Very nice and expressive at first nosing. Clean and coastal in a very precise way and very exemplary of that early 90s Bowmore style but there is also that quite distinctive sherried Bowmore element as well that can be intermittently spectacular or badly flawed. Happily here it seems to work very nicely. Lots of supple, dry earthy peat with wet leaves, mushrooms, fresh paint, putty, some very soft and attractive fruitiness that’s slightly green and lots of sub aromas like black tea, camphor, olive oil, fruit syrups and resin. The fruit comes through as notes of fresh guava and even some tiny tropical hints of tinned pineapple and passion fruit, a tiny nod to the great sixties style. A really great nose so far, very together with a clear and quite enchanting development. There are a few of these slightly ‘80s’ aromas like floral soaps and fragrant lavender but they are very slight and they seem to work as background players, they also become harder to spot over time as the fruit, peat and sherry notes grow more prominent and expressive. Quite good for only 43%, it really seems to develop wonderfully, now showing some lovely notes of cocoa powder and espresso with a sort of green vegetality (is that a word?).

Palate: If the nose is coastal then this is farmy in the same pristine and direct way. Very earthy, more drying chewy peat and big notes of soot and coal with bags of dark chocolate, ground coffee and some oily medicinal notes in the background. The sherry seems to work really well here., it has integrated with the distillery character brilliantly I think, everything is on display and in balance with the rest. Still quite drying, leafy and earthy with peat oils, some gristy, mashy phenols and very nice medical notes of tcp, bandages and mouthwash.

Finish: Warming and with a good length, echoes of medicine, peat, salt and garden fruits, all on those earthier qualities in other words.

Comments: This bottling seems to have really found its feet in recent years and is a great example of just how good Bowmore has become again thankfully. The sherry works beautifully I think, nothing is too intense, it’s just a wonderfully balanced and highly expressive style of Islay malt, and one of the best official 18yo bottlings around these days if you ask me.

Score: 90/100

Sadly I don’t have a picture for the next bottling but seeing as it is from Douglas Laing’s somewhat silly ‘Premier Barrel’ range I think we can all imagine what it looks like. Also we could probably all do without an avalanche of aloof, alliterative adjective, association and awful articulation.

Bowmore. 13yo. Douglas Laing. Premier Barrel. 46%. 70cl.

I remember writing notes for a 9yo Bowmore in this series by DL that was brilliant (90/100) so I have fairly high expectations with this one…

Colour: White wine

Nose: This one is much harsher and rawer at first nosing with notes of white fruits, sherbet, a whole bucket of lemon juice and some sweet costal zing in the background. Also quite a bit of obvious cask influence with vanilla and cocoanut notes coming through. Settles down after some time with notes of seaweed, a very modern, oily kind of peatiness that is reminiscent of some recent, first fill bourbon matured Ardbegs. Sea salt, under ripe gooseberries and more sweetish lemon notes follow on but there’s not much else happening. It’s clean and fairly flawless whisky that has obviously been in a good cask but it just seems to lack personality. It doesn’t necessarily feel like a Bowmore, more like just a good generic Islay malt. Lets see if any magic will happen on the palate…

Palate: Medicine, white fruits, peat, lemons lime, some minerals and lots of refreshing coastal notes but again this just tastes like a good Islay malt. Given blind there isn’t much distillery character here, it could be a Caol Ila in some ways or a peated Bunnahabhain in others. Some green notes of grass, nettles and peppery watercress come after a while. There are also some interesting notes of bubblegum and that ever present granite like harshness at the back that prevents it from being perfectly drinkable.

Finish: Surprisingly short with green, turfy peat, some woodsmoke and a little salt.

Comments: Perhaps the cask wasn’t as good as I thought here, there has obviously been an influence but it seems disjointed, perhaps it needed another 10 years in cask? It’s a decent dram but pretty uninspiring, and sadly not much use as an example of latter 90s Bowmore as it lacks distillery character. It’s a shame because there are so many great examples from this distillery distilled around the same time

Score: 79/100

Lets try something a bit different…

Bowmore 1995/2010. Speciality Drinks for The London Whisky Show 2010. Sherry Hogshead. 56.6%. 70cl.

Colour: Mahogany

Nose: Chocolate, fudge, butterscotch and tar with a lick of rubber come through initially, this is followed by quite some green fruits like greengages and kumquats with wet earth, sea salt, creosote and old rope, very nice so far. It’s one of these earthy and boisterous meetings of sherry and peat with a little dirtiness that, while it may be a turn off to others, I think really works in this one. Now notes of mint, old boot leather, polish, candle wax and burned raisins with a little more coastal zing and some notes of ripe melon. I like this a lot so far. With water it changes in an interesting way by becoming much more orangey and leafy with drying notes of pipe smoke, forest and something sweetish like winegums.

Palate: Big, dry, tarry, earthy and nutty. Lots of notes of toasted almonds, a little marzipan, coal, creosote, cola cubes, mint tea and rubber bands. Smoked meats, dried herbs, lots of seasoning notes like salt, black pepper and wholegrain mustard. This is a mighty potent Bowmore. With water: big notes of kippers, orange liqueur, medicine, peat and some more slightly rubbery notes.

Finsih: The finish is pretty long, all on metal polish, menthol, cola cubes, brine and sarsaparilla.

Comments: There are quite a few examples of 1990s Bowmore out of sherry these days and they don’t all work despite the winning combination that peat and sherry usually are. However, although this dram will probably be very divisive, for me it really works. I think those ‘dirty’ qualities are just the right side of acceptable and they actually seem to enhance the whisky, making it more difficult to pin down, more interesting and more complex. If you have a great sensitivity to those rubbery or matchstick notes then you will probably find fault with this whisky but it’s one of those things that boils down purely to personal taste. I like a little dirt in my whisky now and again and I think this is an example where the whole thing came together nicely. Well done to Speciality Drinks for selecting this one.

Score: 90/100