Whisky Online Blog

There has been a lot of high praise for the Caol Ila ‘Managers’ Choice’ cask that Diageo released earlier this year. It has received some very high scores from very distinguished whisky scribblers which is rare for any youngish, modern single cask these days. So I’m very interested to try it today and, considering its reputation, I think we’ll make things a little harder for it and put it up against something that might prove stiffer competition than the official cask strength that I previously had in mind for this session. Anyway chocks away and may the best dram win. Lets do it in ascending order of strength.

Caol Ila 1982-2010 28yo. Adelphi. 193 bottles. 56%. 70cl.

Colour: Bright straw

Nose: Textbook early eighties, aged Caol Ila, lots of smoked green tea, lemon syrup, wet pebbles, seashore, tincture, green apples and lime juice. Really beautiful pristine, pin sharp profile on the nose, unmistakably Caol Ila. Hints of fresh Lobster and Crab meat with fish sticks and seaweed, this stuff reeks of coastal characters. Develops some really lovely minerality along with more notes of pebbles, manure and stables. Like in the best aged peated malts that slight farminess comes in and balances out the coastal aspects beautifully. There is no harshness on this nose at all, it’s so easy on the nostrils, remarkable considering the strength. With water out comes all kinds of different tea aromas and hints of lemon juice, chamomile, nettles and damp sackcloth. This is quite a delicate Caol Ila methinks.

Palate: Brilliant white peat, immediately evolving into ash, soot, tar, chlorine, cough medicine and earth. Not as expressive as the nose so lets add water… Much better, drying notes of mercurochrome, lanolin, oysters, some flecks of white stone fruits, grapes, granny smith apples and slightly under rip pears. Very sharp and straight profile on the palate, very tightly composed. Lovely bubblegum flavours start to spring through towards the finish after sometime.

Finish: Medium-long and ashy with lots of sharp lemon juice, salt and faint bready traces.

Comments: The nose was stunning but the palate didn’t quite deliver as much as was promised, which is seemingly a pandemic issue amongst older whiskies. Anyway it is still a phenomenally drinkable and delicious whisky. The aged, old school Islay malt is a virtually distinct beast in the saner price categories but this seemingly inexhaustible supply of great old Caol Ilas continue to be excellent and affordable from almost all the various bottlers. Long may they continue to emerge.

Score: 89/100

Caol Ila Managers’ Choice. OB. 1997-2009. cask no 14185. 366 bottles. ex sherry hoggie. 58%. 70cl.

Colour: Gold

Nose: What strikes first is a very surprising, soft, sweetish phenolic aroma which slowly gives way to lots of antiseptic, germoline, gauze, gentian root, iodine, kippers and tar. The sherry seems to have done a good job of giving the whole thing a rich, velvety, oily robe and providing apparent maturity beyond its years. Feels quite thick and weighty in the nostrils. Fragrant traces of flowers and lanolin soap with a little marzipan, old rope, kreel nets and hints of root beer. With water it becomes a little more old school with some more lush fruitiness coming to join all the more typical characters. Smells much older than it is.

Palate: Pow! Lots of camphor, old herb liqueurs, hessian, dunnage, leather, lamp oil, all kinds of delicate medicinal tones and big notes of spice. With water comes lots of dried herbs, old rope, tar, camphor, iodine, paraffin, sackcloth and traces of marmalade. Sarsaparilla, root beer, lots of medicine and white pepper. Great!

Finish: Loooong! A big mouth-coating fug of fruity peat hangs around with a beautiful drying medicinal sensation and more herbaceous notes.

Comments: This stuff holds up to the best of them and is certainly worthy of much high praise indeed. A great Caol Ila and a great example of fine cask selection. I think Caol Ila might just be the most consistent distillate on the planet, it takes real skill to bottle a bad Caol Ila, you really have to be doing something spectacularly wrong.

Score: 91/100

Glengoyne, "untainted by humility or common-sense."

I like Glengoyne, it’s one of those spirits that seems to age to fruit laced perfection between 28-38 years while younger expressions often display a spicy, flavoursome verve. In short: frequently delicious, often complex, always entertaining whisky. However, for me there is one nigglesome thing about Glengoyne that is written on every bloody bottle and that is the self-aggrandising slogan “untainted by the harshness of peat smoke”. Now I am not a peat-freak, I’ve tried to cultivate a healthy appreciation for all styles of whisky/key, so it really pisses me off when I see this kind of snobbishness lofted around by the distillery owners themselves (surely snobbery is our department?). It’s not all that common thankfully, most whiskies are refreshingly modest in their packaging, but just occasionally this sort of gushing, nonsensical crap can squeeze through and Glengoyne have long been one of the worst offenders. Here is an example from the blurb that is printed on the back of the seventeen year old bottling:

“Unlike most other single malt whiskies, Glengoyne has traditionally dried its malted barley using only warm air. This ensures that there is no overwhelming peat smoke in the finished malt. The result is a subtle, complex and generally more satisfying whisky is which all of the delicate flavours are fully expressed.”

Indulge me for a moment while I analyze a few tidbits from this blurbery. First up is the use of the word ‘traditionally’. I think you’ll find Mr Glengoyne that ‘traditionally’, ie over 100 years ago for arguments sake, almost all barley would have been dried with some kind of peat, wood or coal, thus deriving some phenolic traces from the resulting smoke and fumes. If you are fortunate enough to taste any whisky produced before WW2 you’ll be hard pressed to find anything without obvious traces of peat. Completely air dried barley is a more modern phenomena. Secondly, the “generally more satisfying” comment, or massive sweeping generalisation to be more precise. Surely this is entirely down to mood and taste? If on a gentle summers evening with friends I am offered a Glengoyne as an aperitif before dinner I’m sure it would capture the essence of the moment like few other malts could. However if I arrive at a warm fireplace in a welcoming bar in the dead of winter after trekking twelve miles through a soul-shredding, sub-zero blizzard, covered in the frozen blood of the wounded deer to which I had to administer a mercy killing, things will be somewhat different. In those circumstances my first thoughts are not “Man I really fancy something delicately floral with a wealth of subtle malty complexities.” No, I want something with enough peat to turn my ear wax flammable and cause tufts of sphagnum moss to start sprouting through my beard!

Peat, sometimes there's no such thing as too much.

Now as fantastic as some Glengoyne bottlings are I think they need to be taken down a peg or two with this whole peat malarkey. So here is a list of peated whiskies that I think almost all serious whisky lovers would probably rate higher in terms of quality and complexity than almost all Glengoynes. Ever. So there!

Endless Ardbeg bottlings distilled before 1977.

A plethora of Legendary Laphroaigs from pre 1978.

Countless Bowmores distilled pre 1974

Almost all Broras from before the mid seventies.

Several legendary Port Ellens

Many of the Longrow bottlings from 1973/1974

Some phenomenal casks of Glen Garioch from the late sixties/early seventies.

Almost any old Lagavulin 12yo white label.

Many fantastic old bottlings of Talisker.

Not to mention some stunning expressions of Highland Park, 1972 Ledaig, Ardmore and Caol Ila that benefit enormously from varying degrees of peat.

Obviously that is a very personal list but it is also a list that covers many of the most desirable and expensive bottlings in the world, bottlings that have become so for a very good reason. I’ll wager a single bottle of Laphroaig 10yo from the fifties would be worth more to most people than almost any Glengoyne you could think of. This is because maybe there is something about the greatest examples of peated whisky, the way they manage to retain all the subtleties of malt and fruit but with so much more, something that truly hooks peoples hearts and minds. I feel a bit bad after all that, I’m being a little unfair to Glengoyne, please remember I love the whisky, I just hate the anti peat comments. Glengoyne isn’t untainted by peat smoke, it’s just unpeated, in the same way that Lagavulin is not ‘enhanced by peat smoke’. While I wouldn’t like to see Glengoyne’s character change, I also wouldn’t like to see every other distillery making unpeated spirit as well. Variety is the spice of life and Glengoyne’s patter reads like some kind of warped whisky racism.

Glengoyne 40yo, good whisky but if only it had a little more peat. (just kidding)

I think having ranted about poor Glengoyne for so long it’s now time to redress the balance and say something much more positive about their great whisky. I tried the new(ish) 40yo in London recently and loved it but I’ve only just gotten round to writing notes for it.

Glengoyne 40yo. OB. 1968-2009. Single sherry butt. 250 bottles. 45.9%. 70cl.

Colour: Old Tokaji

Nose: High polished antique sherry with lots of bubbly fruits underneath and some remarkably fresh notes of crisp green apples and fresh limes. Hints of honeysuckle, toffee, wild flowers, cereal and butterscotch. This is really typical of these great old Glengoynes and their uber fruit style. Now there are notes of beeswax, marzipan, pear liqueur, old books, sultanas, many fruit syrups and cordials with a really gentle custardy/vanilla undertone. Lovely complexity to the nose, lets see if the palate can keep up…

Palate: Big, round, fruity and intensely concentrated, massive notes of orange liqueur, seville orange marmalade, milk chocolate, pine resin, menthol, tobacco leaf and more orange rind. This is really orangey whisky, the futures bright for Glengoyne (sorry!). Now comes greengages, more sultanas and raisins, kumquats, lychee and mulling spices. Hints of wood, spice and hessian follow with a lovely drying tinge at the end.

Finish: Long and filled with all the same fruity complexity and resinous, mouth-coating glee.

Comments: Great old whisky, we’ll forget the price for now but it is fantastic old Glengoyne with all the distillery’s trademark complexity and fruit. Considering what the 17yo has to say about the evils of peat I wonder if as you go up the Glengoyne range the older and more expensive the whiskies become the more vicious the denouncements of peat become. So on the 21yo it states “None of that brown boggy shit in this whisky” and next year’s 40yo will simply state “FUCK ALL PEAT!!!!! WORSHIP THE GOD OF NAKED MALT!!!!” Or something along those lines anyway. The Glengoyne marketing guys can have that idea for free. All I ask in return is a case of Laphroaig. And £1 million.

Score: 92/100

On the 22^nd of October we we’re fortunate enough to be invited to the Scottish launch of Diageo’s 2010 special releases. The event took place at the beautiful Blair Athol distillery just outside Pitlochry in Perthshire. I wont go into too many of the giddy details but needless to say the dinner, the drams and the hotel were all wonderful and we’re grateful to Diageo for the invite and their warm hospitality. Luckily I was able to ‘liberate’ samples of each release in order to write some more detailed notes on each one. So without further waffling ado and in no particular order, here are my notes for the 2010 special releases.

(please note these were not tried all at once but individually or in pairs over the course of a few days)

Glen Spey 21yo. Special release 1989-2010 OB. 50.4%. 70cl

Colour: Amber

Nose: There is a really dusty, full, fresh bourbon aroma here. Lots of vanilla cream, cocoanut, crème brulee and some custard, also toffee, caramelised oatmeal and natural caramel. Quite chocolatey with hints of pine resin (retsina?)  and some ‘forest after a rainstorm’ freshness in the background, after a while this becomes more like air freshener and looses some of it’s natural qualities. There is a little spiciness but it is very gentle and not at all dominating, very clean fresh American oak character but it is also very sweet and intense. Now some fresh oranges and hints of coriander marmalade.

Palate: Very sweet and very modern on delivery. Loads of rich vanilla and wood vanilins, then spicy and cloyingly sweet with a high concentration of fresh bourbon characteristics. If you like bourbon/sweet whisky/vanilla then you’ll love this. No obvious flaws at all in the profile so far, the flavours are a little lopsided and concentrated but it’s otherwise a flawless example of this extreme, modern style, a very acquired taste I would say. Now quite creamy and foamy with candy floss, toasted marshmallows, butter, bitter oak, cereals and cloves.

Finish: Medium to long in length but becoming quite astringent, leaves behind a real sticky sweetness.

Comments: This one is really only for fans of first fill bourbon maturation and very sweet whiskies. Its not to my taste at all, for me it lacks a little complexity and balance but I think it’s a very good example of a sweeter, more modern profile.

Score: 83/100

Caol Ila 12yo. Special Release 2010. ‘Unpeated Style’ OB. 57.6%. 70cl.

Colour: White Wine.

Nose: Amusingly peaty for an ‘unpeated style’ Caol Ila. Lots going on here, green malt, pleasingly grainy at first becoming richer with time, also gristy and oily with quite an industrial, mechanical theme going on. Very delicate medicinal hints of mercurochrome, bandages and germoline, classic Caol Ila aromas but here they are much more subdued and delicate. Also something quite vegetal like hints of a good quality reposado tequila. Mashy, boiled potatoes, cereal and some sooty, coal tar soap aromas, also slightly waxy and grassy, this nose is great!

Palate: Immediate big notes of oily, green, smoky malt, very savory whisky, there is a delicate sweetness to the whole affair but it feels like the wood is very much playing a supporting role here. Again more mashy and some really big vegetal qualities, that streak of peat gives it some very distinctive Mezcal qualites. Buttered toast, gentian root, geraniums and more floral, flowery freshness about it after a little time. There is something slightly dirty in there as well but it’s great, it adds a real earthiness to those vegetal flavours, a really unique angle on Caol Ila if you ask me.

Finish: Long and oily developing more earthy, sooty notes and some citrus freshness as well. Great!

Comments: This year’s release of unpeated Caol Ila is considerably lower in strength than previous releases. I was told by one of the Diageo managers that this is because for a while they were suffering a brief shortage of casks and started filling at full strength without diluting the spirit. So that solves that mystery, so much for all our late night heated discussions about casks being stored at the tops of rack warehouses and the like.  This is one of the best releases of this style of Caol Ila so far in my humble opinion, this should be brilliant after 30 years in bottle.

Score: 90/100

Glenkinchie 20yo. Special Releases 1990-2010. OB. 55.1%. 70cl.

Colour: Pale Gold

Nose: Smells somehow much older than it is but simultaneously incredibly fresh. Newly cut grass, sweet oak, green apples, beeswax, honeycomb, like so many other light spirits Glenkinchie seems to come alive with a bit of age behind it, this leaves the standard 12yo in the dust.  Now some ripe pears, bananas, pineapple and juicy fruit chewing gum, great early morning whisky. It’s really fresh and lively but there is no denying its maturity, it seems perfectly aged. A hint of spice in the background.

Palate: At full strength the attack is big but tethered by some very lovely honeysuckle and delicate vanilla notes. More grassiness and green fruit with a hint of minerality as well. Then some really well infused spiciness and tanned leather, hints of old books and floral aspects like dandelions. A little water brings some drier elements to the fore, more white fruit, hessian, some nail polish and cocoanut.

Finish: Quite long and sweet, fading honey, clean vanilla, oak and some glimmers of green fruits.

Comments: I really think Glenkinchie comes alive with age, this is a great, natural example of the make. Good, tasty whisky.

Score: 89/100

Cragganmore 21yo. Special releases 1989-2010. OB. 56%. 70cl.

Colour: Straw.

Nose: Big whiffs of damp straw, steel wool, some damp sawdust, workshops, honeysuckle and even some green and delicately tropical fruit notes underneath everything. Furniture polish (there’s a definite hint of Mr sheen about it) and hints of fresh vanilla as well. After a while it starts to become a little grassy and mentholated, wears its age very deftly. More vanilla and homemade custard, quite creamy now but still very fresh, bananas and pears with some apricot jam in the background. Very typical, a very ‘Diageo’ profile so far in my book. With water it suddenly becomes all aromatic and herbaceous with garden fruits and olive oil, still very attractive.

Palate: Big delivery with a dense bundle of hot, white peppery alcohol. Fizzy sherbert, candy floss, hints of liquorice and turpentine. This could have been one of the Rare Malts series so easily. Needs water methinks… still pretty lively with water, plenty of drying spicy qualities and clean, delicate oaky tones. Something quite leathery and meaty after a while, a bit Mortlachy maybe? This is quite a robust Cragganmore, now there is lots of chewy, sinewy malted barley all over the joint, quite earthy and farmy too. Finally a little herbaceous with some chives and rosemary, interesting.

Finish: Long and malty with a gentle honey/spice kick and some green fruitiness.

Comments: I like this Cragganmore, it’s very much in keeping with the other Special Releases from this distillery. I would say for me it’s better than the 17yo but not quite as good as the 10yo or the old 29yo. Still a flawlessly constructed dram all the same though.

Score: 89/100

Auchroisk 20yo. Special Releases 2010. OB. 58.1%. 70cl.

Colour: Honey.

Nose: Earthy and oily with hints of green olives and pastry. Then becoming suggestively sweet with hints of anise and Pernod. Some clean malty, honey notes emerge but otherwise this nose is a bit quiet. Lets give it some time… starts to develop these oily facets very gently, goes off on tangents of olive oil and engine oil, very delicate farmy notes and stables. Now some notes of tinned lychees in syrup start to emerge along with some bubblegum and buttered toast. This is quite a tricky whisky. With water there are some very light notes of hessian and paraffin and the vanilla is a little louder but still quite closed and shy.

Palate: Massively alcoholic at full strength, almost painfully so. Some hints of very dead wood and dried cocoanut shavings with a fleeting marzipan nuttiness but otherwise quite closed. Needs water. Now there is some very attractive, delicate green fruitiness, grassy with more metallic notes, quite steely. This is immensely austere and unsexy, now there are minerals, bizarre notes of fresh pasta and olive oil, maybe something a little dank as well, its not quite cardboard but its something found in an old damp attic for sure. A little zesty lemon rind as well and some flinty, white flowers.

Finish: Austere, and difficult, leaves quite a long drying, borderline astringent sensation in the mouth.

Comments: I didn’t like this when I tried it at the launch, I’m really glad I took a sample away because to get the most from it you really need time and patience. It’s a very difficult, austere and sexless whisky, in fact I’d say it was very grumpy and curmudgeonly. Anyway I like it more after a proper try but its not a session dram at all, charmingly bad tempered and austere but very difficult. Needs a little water.

Score: 88/100

Lagavulin 12yo. Special Releases 2010. OB. 56.5%. 70cl.

Colour: White wine

Nose: Peat oil, dry seaweed and delicate vanilla with bags of coastal character. Seashore, wet pebbles, fresh oysters with lemon juice, clean saltiness, all the classic coastal aromas in spades. Now there is that industrial oiliness coming through as well like in all the best modern peated malts. It’s really balanced. Old hay bales and farmy stables with hints of manure and grass. This is unmistakably 12yo Lagavulin. Some really controlled medicinal nuances as well, gentian root, bandages, hospitals and a whiff of bleach. There are also some suggestions of old Kreel nets and rope kicking about in there.

Palate: Big, oily peat laden delivery, clean and dry with only a suggestion of vanilla sweetness round the edges. A little smoky, like a bonfire on a beach but its not a dominant part of the profile, the main concentration is very much in keeping with the peat and coastal elements of the nose. Minerals, pebbles and flints, like sucking a lump of granite dipped in lemon juice. Hints of salt and vinegar with soy sauce and limejuice, even at full strength its quite drinkable despite its epic flavours. Towards the swallow there are some really earthy, sooty phenols, coal, wet peat and mulchy leaves. Big, tarry creosols as well.

Finish: Long and oily, oily, oily. With more granite

Comments: Brilliant, as usual. But then what did you expect from Lagavulin 12?

Score: 91/100

Brora 30yo. Special Releases 2010. OB. 54.3%. 70cl.

Colour: Gold

Nose: Waxy, oily coal and hints of hessian, damp sackcloth and dunnage warehouses. Lots of minerals, all kinds of white stone fruits and honey. This smells just like a 72 Clynelish. Aloe vera, citrus and some fresh grassy smoke with some really fragrant, gentle coastal attributes. On the nose this is nowhere near as big as previous official releases of Brora but it is intensely old school, fruity, complicated and unsexy. You really need time to get to grips with it. Some really soft, oily phenols in the background.

Palate: We are still a lot closer to a 1972 Clynelish than a classic Brora in style. There are loads of beautiful waxy, honey complexities on the palate initially with tiny hints of lavender, more peat than the nose suggested but still full of white fruit and coastal freshness. Seaweed, salt, lemon zest, engine oil, some very salty porridge that your Gran might have kept in a drawer and served with a trowel. White flowers and fragrant soaps with a lick of spice. It just keeps continuing with endless combinations and tangents of all these classic old Highland characteristics.

Finish: Long, oily, waxy, difficult and very old school. Final hints of flints and burned toast.

Comments: The stock that’s gone into this current 30yo is obviously from the much later era of 1979/1980 Brora as the peat is really tender and diminished in this example, it really tastes just like an early seventies Clynelish. However that is not to detract from it, this is still beautifully old style, difficult, unsexy and wonderfully complex whisky. Spend time with this one, it’s a perfect example of a dead highland style and as such is a truly rewarding whisky.

Score 92/100

Talisker 30yo. Special Releases 2010. OB. 57.3%. 70cl.

Colour: Gold

Nose: Intensely sea-fresh, delicate twists of white pepper, wholegrain mustard and bags of soft green and white fruits. Kelp, preserved lemons, tar and some really beautiful old peat oils simmering in the background. Lots of mineral and granite like flint qualities, beautifully balanced between delicate oily sweetness and pristine, dry, coastal aromas. Briny notes of smoked mussels and fresh shellfish, then something moreish and savory like leeks frying in butter and cullen skink. After a while it even starts to become slightly tropical.

Palate: Classic Talisker, big and peppery. Earthy, oily peat, grassy smoke, more saline, preserved lemon notes and eucalyptus oil. This is another one that seems to open up beautifully with time. Green tea, earl grey, kippers, more fat, greasy oiliness, old rope, kiwis and green apples. Another flawlessly clean and pristine profile that just seems to keep on developing these beautiful sub-flavours. After time there is more spice, some subtle old wood astringency and a tiny nugget of vanilla.

Finish: Long and full of salt, oily kippers, white pepper and floral/coastal freshness.

Comments: Like the regular releases of Lagavulin 12yo these 30yo Taliskers are just brilliant every time. A wonderful example of how phenols can generate power and fragility in equal measure as a whisky ages. Beautifully balanced, complex whisky.

Score: 92/100

Port Ellen 31yo. Special Releases 1978-2010. 54.6%. 70cl.

Colour: Straw.

Nose:  Quite austere, drying and mineral on first nosing with an interesting dirty/green fruit combo. Lots of salty coastal notes mingling with fresh lemon juice and some sooty, dusty, old attic must. White flowers and a sharp gooseberry acid like quality, a very austere nose this one. Delicate whiffs of antiseptic, iodine, swimming pools and putty. Quite a straight, sharp peatiness going on with delicate notes of smoked tea, dried herbs and cured ham. Like the Talisker and the Brora this Port Ellen opens up very nicely given plenty of time.

Palate: Quite a stinging saltiness at first giving way very rapidly to lots of green tea, hot smoked salmon, leather and some more dirty, earthy fruit. Some crisp, smoky cereal malt flavours appear slowly with more coastal, flowery freshness as well. Now there is buttery pastries (croissants, brioche), lime curd, motor oil and acrylic. Quite a difficult Port Ellen, we found at the tasting it came alive very nicely with blue cheese but on its own it remains quite a stubborn creature.

Finish: Quite long but very gentle, fades slowly with drying and delicate flavours of smoked tea and tarry rope. Also a big, thick meatiness remains that seems to come from nowhere.

Comments: There is no denying this is a quality Port Ellen and it’s always a privilege to taste an example at this age but its not quite as stellar as the 3^rd or the mighty 9^th release in my book. However it remains a very rewarding dram for those with time on their hands.

Score: 90/100

Definiely time for a nap after all that.

So what have we learned? Well I liked the Talisker and the Brora best but that’s no surprise. The Caol Ila was brilliantly unusual and surprising and the Lagavulin is as great as always. The others are all commendable apart from the Glen Spey but that’s as much a personal thing as anything else. There should be no shortage of new tasting notes in the coming month as I’ve just received a huge haul of interesting new samples and I’ll be attending the Whisky Show in London next week so I’ll probably gather a fair few liquid trinkets there as well. If you’re going to the show then hopefully I’ll see you there. Slante!