Whisky Online Blog

Here are a couple of Laddies I picked up at the Whisky Show in London the other week. I am very fond of naked, natural Bruichladdich when it gets a little age behind it and all that lovely coastal, fruity duality comes shining forth, so lets hope these wont disappoint.

'MCMLXXVII', the first in Bruichladdich's new 'catchy title' series. Look out next moth for the 'Mr McEwan's Mobile Mid-Atlantic Medical Misfit Masochist's Monolith Edition: Alliteration Finish'.

Bruichladdich ‘MCMLXXVII’. 1977, 32yo OB. 47.4%. 844 bottles. 70cl.

Colour: Delicate Gold (whatever that means)

Nose: Ahh… seventies Bruichladdich! It’s amazing how so few malts can carry the maturity of age and still retain such an invigorating freshness. The nose is almost reminiscent of an old early seventies Clynelish. Lots of coastal attributes, citrus, seaweed, wet pebbles, flints, minerals, heather and sea salt. Then the fruits start to come through, lots of guavas, papaya, pomegranate, slightly green banana, lychee and some white flowers with a little vanilla dancing about. There is even something slightly smoky, like very dry, delicately acrid struck flints. Lamp oil and hessian now, becomes a little industrial with these notes of old boiler sheds and furniture wax. Still deliriously fresh, like standing on a blustery shore after a stormy night. Like the Ardbeg 72 yesterday, this is really evocative of the place it was made.

Palate: Sharp and very pristine on the palate, oily with a big citrus bite and full on minerality. Interesting hints of sunflower seeds, dates, muesli and freshly baked bread. Clear and aridly dry coastal flavours now, very saline and delicately floral. The oiliness becomes very gentle and the crisp saltiness becomes pretty intense but it’s balanced by some lovely green fruitiness and flavours of sandalwood, lanolin, fleeting lavender and a little sootiness. This practically defines the words ‘fresh’ and ‘coastal’.

Finish: Long and drying with citrus rind, grease, waxiness, more minerals and salt.

Comments: I remember trying a cask of 1977 Bruichladdich at the distillery back in 2006. I remember it being good then but perhaps not this good. This is a dram that’s really worth paying attention to, there’s a lot in there to reward a fresh palate. I think this really has benefitted from an Island maturation.

Score: 91/100

Last year's multivintage 'DNA' bottling. Let's see if it can stand the salty might of the 1977.

Bruichalddich DNA. OB. 36yo, bottled 2009. Multivinatage late 60s/ early 70s. 41%. 70cl. Finished in Le Pin Pomerol red wine casks (sadly).

Colour: Amber

Nose: Lots of nicely aged fruit character and some lovely big oiliness but without the same intense coastal freshness of the 77, probably due to more intense wood activity. The wine influence is quite subdued for now thankfully and what come through are some lovely stewed fruits, sultanas, marzipan, demerara sugars, aged rum and a little boot polish. Cranberry juice, a little salty zing, paraffin, nutmeg, cocoanut and some nice pecan aromas. Very nice nose, fragile but quite balanced and with an beguiling complexity about it.

Palate: A little more obvious wine influence here, quite a bit sharper than expected with some hints of berry fruit, and redcurrant jam. More citric cranberry flavours, nutmeg and walnut oil with some nice notes of mocha and bitter dark chocolate. Biscotti, a little cinnamon and more jam flavours, good gentle development here even if the wine and wood influence is a little awkward and clumsy on the palate. Final notes of sawdust and fresh pine needles. A Christmasy dram perhaps?

Finish: Not the longest but quite compact and reveals a nice freshness even after many years and a wine cask to contend with.

Comments: The impression I get from drinking this whisky is that it was a good enough dram to withstand being in a wine cask, rather than the wine cask actually contributing anything positive to it. Anyway, it’s very nice Bruichladdich that carries the distillery character quite charmingly while being very drinkable to boot.

Score: 87/100

If Whisky Magazine did an award for most audacious shit stirrer then Bruichladdich might well win. Hell I’m even giving them publicity as I write these words, their heavily peated spell has evidently worked on me too, I feel like I’ve been ACE’d in marketing. I used to get a lot more hot under the collar about Bruichladdich and their ‘ways’ but now I’m older and drunker so I don’t care about these things so much anymore. People get wound up by all this controversy, but if we take a long hard look at these things, doesn’t it just make life a little more fun. We love having something to rant about, how often have these staves in the side brought people together over a dram, given additional support to conversations that are in serious danger of straying out of whisky territory and into topics that might, god forbid, invite real people to contribute something.

Jim McEwan prepares his masterpiece; the 8yo, organic barley, hex-distillled, irn bru finished, 'Lush Edition'.

Now having said all that the whiskies I’m tasting today are not among the hardcore ‘controversy’ range. Port Charlotte and Octomore have both cased a stir but nothing quite like the relentless programme of wine cask finishes (additional cask devolution) or the infamous X4. You may remember this as the spirit that was used to power a toy racing car by James May and Oz Clark on the occasion that the pair of half witted dunder-pillocks visited the distillery for their utterly pointless, borderline offensive, booze programme. A show in which two middle aged, semi alcoholics, stagger round britain with a caravan in tow, ask insulting and stupid questions of the various interesting people they meet and usually end up pissed in a ditch, inevitably breaking their caravan in an hilarious and completely unscripted way. Who says British television in dumbing down. Anyway, I digress. As I was saying, the peated side of things at Bruichladdich are fairly safe by comparison to their more outlandish liquid fandangos. The only thing I would say against them is, as usual, their prices are a big pile of horse manure, charging over eighty pounds for a 5yo whisky is… well just plain wrong. But hey, I’m not in charge of these things, I’m just Bloggy MacBloggerson from Bloggsvile and I don’t know squat diddly blog.

The new 'non vintage' Port Charlotte.

This is the new Port Charlotte, now a ‘multi vintage’, presumably meaning they’re trying to stretch it out by bunging lots of younger stuff in the mix. After a successful run of PC’s 5 through 8 this should be the spirit coming properly of age. I must say, I adore Port Charlotte, its not true of all the bottlings but a surprising number of them have been quite stunning. They seem to combine very old school Islay freshness with remarkable maturity for their age. Some of the wee Bloodtub bottlings that have been done by private cask owners have been utterly beautiful, if you don’t believe me ask Gordon Homer, who does the fantastic Spirit Of Islay site, to give you a taste of his. Anyway needless to say I’m excited to taste this newbie.

Port Charlotte ‘An Turas Mor’. OB. 46%. 70cl. 100% American oak maturation (so it says).

Colour: Light Honey

Nose: Big straight peat over lots of oiliness, engine oil, old boilers and a little waxy. It immediately has that quality I love in a peated whisky, a perfect balance of coastal, industrial and farmy characters. There are some lovely lemony, sharp, mineral seashore aromas with the industrial oiliness and something like old stables and barns. A real mix of qualities so far. There are some quite soft green fruit characters and a lick of sweet vanilla from the bourbon, everything in its place though, nothing dominates too much. Given time the nose starts to reveal more complexities, walnut oil, furniture polish, a little mint leaf and even some coconut. Its amazing how Port Charlotte can have such a definite peat quality but little in the way of medicinal character, very unusual for something peated as high as 40ppm.

Palate: Dusty straw, damp sackcloth, old oily rags and lots of young, green, gristy peat. A little more soft sweetness on the palate with vanilla cream and custard flavours being quite prominent. Not so much happening on the palate yet… I might add water though I don’t normally for 46% drams. Not too much development with water, its softer but there still isn’t much fruit. Its very tightly composed and flavoursome but it doesn’t deliver the kind of complexity the nose was suggesting. Still very tasty and drinkable though, I can imagine this disappearing down the necks of a few poker players over the course of an evening.

Finish: Medium to long length with more young, grassy, turfy peat flavours and some citrus and lanolin elements as well.

Comments: I like it but not quite as much as some of the other stellar bottlings, the nose was very enchanting but the palate let it down a little in my book. This is still very good though and at around £35 this is an excellent access category Port Charlotte. I suspect this will be a really popular bottling given time.

Score: 85/100

Now peated to 1 Google Plex ppm.

Ok so the Octomore is maybe a little bit more difficult to come to terms with than the PC. The idea of doing the world’s most heavily peated spirit is fine, why not it sounds like fun. The complaint often heard is that they’ve taken things a little to seriously at Bruichladdich and unfortunately the prices for these official Octomores tend to reflect this. I’ll not argue with that sentiment, however I would pause for thought over the also often heard criticism that the spirit’s quality is poor. I thought the official releases so far have been very interesting, and in the case of the 2.1 release, downright delicious. The problem is all this hooha about peating levels has distracted us from just taking the whisky on taste value. There is a lot of chatter about Octomore, and even more since Supernova came on the scene, about peat levels, which is higher, how accurate are they? Well in all probability the accuracy is a little dubious. There are two main systems used for measuring peat levels in whisky, colometric analyses and HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) both of which, in a very loose definition, are based on measuring the amount of light absorbed by the various phenol compounds. However they can both give highly different results, I’ve seen various peating levels banded around for Octomore over the past years, one as high as 300ppm, I suspect they promote whichever result comes out higher, with this latest release its 152 ppm (apparently). This is all relative however as, at the end of the day, it is the way this heavily peated malt is processed at the distillery that will make the most difference. The way the initial peat flavour is moulded and sculpted by the vast and variable potential of milling, mashing, fermenting, distilling and maturing. It is also highly unlikely they acheive such high phenolic levels by burning just peat, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was sulphur being burned as well as peat in order to cram a few more compounds into those husks. From a personal perspective I don’t care too much what the actual ppm is, the proof is in the peat or the peat is in the pudding? Whatever it is they say…

Octomore 3/152. 5yo. OB. 59%. 70cl.

Colour: Straw

Nose: Big slavering buckets of molten peat. Its really dense, oily, smoky and peaty, the peat really is intense, pure and quite chiseled. Lets give it some time… Half an hour later and its really opened up very nicely. Now its reeking of seashore character, really salty, tangy and coastal, lots of wet pebbles on a beach and fresh oysters with lemon juice. Underneath that there are some vegetal components to it, mashed potatoes and steamed veg, then some sooty, coal aromas follow. It virtually defines clean, pristine young whisky, its beautifully balanced. If there are any impurities still in this young spirit then the immense peat is doing a very good job of masking them.

Palate: Good delivery, oily and surprisingly gentle, it seems to be the flavours doing all the talking rather than the alcohol. Still very clean and perfectly poised. At first it is almost acridly dry, like a heavily peated desert, but little touches of sweet vanilla show through after a while, but they are really dominated by the earthiness of the peat. Some lovely mentholated character towards the back of the palate after a while. More coastal character and a really sharp saltiness around the sides of the tongue. The peat is almost leathery in its texture, this really is a meal in a glass. The ultimate late night dram.

Finish: Long. Yet more dry, earthy peat. Some bonfire smoke, a little salty citrus rind and some clean, invigorating white pepper.

Comments: I forgot to add water. Leaving all the peat politics to one side for a moment, this is a great dram. Its not overly complex but it is beautifully balanced. The peat, while undeniably huge, is not overpowering, it is focused and deliciously concentrated. Obviously you have to like peaty whiskies but for those who do this should be a winner. While life would be boring if every whisky was created with such extremes in mind, occasionally its nice to celebrate excess. Well done Bruichladdich, I’m really looking forward to trying this same spirit when its fifteen and beyond.

Score: 90/100

Cinema Paradiso is one of those films that everyone remembers. Its the sort of epic, passion infused, sumptuous narrative that reeks of masterpiece. Its a kind of cinema that I think really doesn’t exist outside Europe, sure there are many life affirming films from many parts of the world, its just something about the sheer celebratory joy of this film that is so unmistakably… continental.

One of many famous images from the film.

Taken from a critical standpoint this is, on the surface, a film that is probably overly long, over indulgent, shamelessly sentimental and melodramatic. In short, its not without its flaws, its just very difficult to care about any of them. When I was at university, I did four years of Film and Television studies. Four years of analysing films and learning to deconstruct every shot and frame to wring meaning from a complex canvas of dialogue, music, mise en scene and narrative. You learn to read a film, it becomes second nature and after this it is difficult to switch it off, even during something as disposable as Transformers 2 you can still find yourself subconsciously deconstructing what’s going on. This is not as annoying as it sounds, for me it adds to the richness of the film experience but it is something that is almost impossible to loose. Cinema Paradiso is one of the rare films where I find myself just getting lost in the film, I often react against a film’s attempts to pull me in but with Cinema Paradiso the joy is in letting go, surrendering to the film and being dragged down into it.

The film is basically an unashamed celebration of the joys of cinema and film. It is a love story on many levels, romantic love, love of cinema, love of life, family and, perhaps most crucially, friendship. It is long and sprawling but its length is so liberally filled with moments of overwhelming beauty you can’t help but become caught up in its narrative. It is really a film that is defined by its moments, whether they are single, beautifully realised shots or tiny classic scenes that brim with wit and pathos. Its beauty is in the sum of its parts and its greatness is in the majestic skill with which it weaves those smaller parts together so seamlessly. It is one of those rarest of films, one that revels in beauty and joy, there is no bitterness, no cynicism, no hyper-stylised excuses for lack of substance, it is simply masterful, joyous story telling. If you can make it to the end scene in the cinema with the kissing montage without shedding a tear you should see a doctor about the shard of ice in your heart.

This delicious Bruichladdich is just one of many utterly mind blowing Italian bottlings from the seventies and eighties.

It seems appropriate that such a masterful piece of cinema should hail from Italy, especially when considering matching it with a whisky. I say this because Italy, during the 1970s and 80s probably had a higher and more consistent stream of world class bottlings done for it that any other country at any time. Samaroli, Intertrade and Sestante, to name but a few, between them managed to import some of the greatest whiskies yet known to man. It was a stroke of ingenuity and foresight that was largely thanks to a pioneering whisky enthusiast named Edward Giaccone who imported some utterly stunning casks (particularly some legendary Clynelish). Of course others soon followed of which the most famous is undoubtedly Mr Silvano Samaroli. I recommend here the Bruichladdich, shown above, because it is a fantastic example of beautiful, old school, life-affirmingly good whisky. However you could pick almost any of the Samaroli bottlings from the late seventies and eighties, he selected stunning examples from Bowmore and Glen Ord for his glorious ‘Bouquet’ series, wonderful aged speysiders like Glen Moray, Strathisla and Glen Grant, top class Ardbegs and not forgetting the 1967 black sherried Laphroaig. These were whiskies that give you the same overwhelming sense of joy that is to be found in the film. Some whiskies are so spellbinding with their depth of flavour, balance, complexity and seemingly endless and multifaceted characters that they offer something of an affirmation that life can, on that rare occasion, be fucking marvelous. Obviously many of these whiskies are neither cheap nor common these days but this is to be expected. If you do want to try them then the best bet is, as usual in these cases, to check the multitude of rare dram stands at some of the more serious festivals in Europe. Still, its always worth keeping an eye out for the occasional bargain bottle here and there, you never know, there are always hidden gems to be found gathering dust on obscure shelves in the darker rural recesses of the continent. These are drams that truly make life worth living and liquid worth drinking. Just remember, if you do happen to crack one of these bottles open, make sure you have some sound friends around to help you send it on its way.