Whisky Online Blog

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! What do you mean not funny?! HAHAHAHAH! Well it amused me.

So, yes, Glen Ord. This is another residual tasting from D-Day. A rather fascinating old official 5yo along with a much more recent offering from Douglas Laing. The fact that Glen Ord is not a popular dram perhaps says something about modern tastes. People do seem easily seduced by the sweetness of modern ‘populist’ whiskies. More ‘difficult’ distillates such as Glen Ord seem like hard sell nowadays. With its fragrant waxiness, light coastal qualities and elegant herbaceous aspects, it is not a distillate that comes easily to most palates. Or is it? Whenever I host a tasting, which isn’t too often these days admittedly, but whenever I do I go to great lengths to make sure there is something like a Glen Ord, a Clynelish or a Springbank in the mix alongside your Glenmorangies, Glenlivets or Macallans. If people know about these kinds of differences and get to experience them then they will often go for the more tricky or elegant dram over the sweet one. Maybe it’s the familiar pitfall of modern culture where people are quite happy to be told what to drink rather than discover it for themselves. Perhaps an explanation of Jim Murray’s continued success in certain corners of the market. Remember when Glen Ord was sold as a deal with the Classic Malts series about ten years ago in the old oval green label packaging. They couldn’t give the stuff away. A shame considering it is a better spirit than at least half the whiskies they chose for the classic malts series. Anyway, I’m not really complaining, under appreciation helps keeps the prices down and that suits me fine.

Glen Ord 5yo OB. 43%. 75cl. 1970s. Italian Import. 

This is another of the many drams that came my way courtesy of Olivier over the D-Day weekend. Merci Olivier.

Colour: Pale white wine

Nose: Typically old style and very Glen Ord with these lovely delicate notes of honeyed wax, honeycomb, struck flints, wild flowers, a pinch of salt and dried cereals. Quite petroly and drying with a fragrant smoky herbal quality, very akin to some mid aged classy Riesling in some ways. Miles away from any modern distillates, very approachable, bottle ageing has probably helped a great deal here. Touches of vanilla, rice pudding, eucalyptus toothpaste, porridge, grass and some very fine minerals.

Palate: Very soft and drying delivery but not lacking in punch or strength, rather more silky washing over of the palate. Lots of flavour concentration, all on seashore notes, wax, buttered toast with honey, more floral aspects, cooking oil, burnt almonds, caraway seeds and herb liqueurs. Quite extraordinarily drinkable. Given this blind you would never say it was a five year old whisky. Admittedly there are probably much older casks in the vatting as was pretty typical back in the (good) old days. It’s a perfect example of this old highland style that I love, you just cannot find this kind of whisky being made anywhere in Scotland these days. Leaves you with a very watery mouth, a whole bottle of this would easily disappear over the course of a night, hugely moreish and satisfying.

Finish: Medium and with more intricate herbal touches, notes of tarragon and sorrel with more caraway, nutmeg and toast notes. Some lemon drops knocking about in there somewhere too.

Comments: Just another brilliant old style bottling. I love it. These bottlings show up from time to time and aren’t particularly expensive. Buy one if you see it, buy it and drink it.

Score: 91/100

Glen Ord 14yo. Douglas Laing. OMC. 50%. 70cl. (from an official sample so no pic sorry)

Colour: Pale white wine (virtually the same as the 5yo)

Nose: A world apart, much more modern (although still slightly old style by modern standards if you see what I mean), lots more wood noise with vanilla cream, dessicated coconut and pear drops. There are some pleasant but tiny touches of wax and minerals along with pollen, lilies, lychee sorbet, gin, some resinous camphor notes and tea. Opens up quite nicely after some time, it’s not as distinctive as the 5yo by any means but it is a very pleasant nose in its own right. Notes of truffle oil, sour dough, a little chilli pepper and white chocolate.

Palate: Quite pleasantly spicy, medium dry and a little fruity with some very pleasant, savoury notes of brown bread, branston pickle oddly enough and good cheese Gouda perhaps? Not cheesy in a bad way mind you. Quite a big and rich Glen Ord, more herbal liqueur notes, a character that seems to be a Glen Ord signature. Notes of Kummel, soda bread, yeast, white fruits, apple peelings, flints and some pleasant mineral qualities. Very tasty stuff.

Finish: Long, bready, savoury, biscuity and delicately fruity with garden fruits, white flowers and some more soft vanilla sweetness.

Comments: Its a very good kind of modern whisky as far as I’m concerned, one that still retains quite a few more aromatic, old style qualities. Very drinkable again.

Score: 84/100

You might have noticed, or possibly not, in fact I suspect not, I suspect that the absence of this blog for the past two months has come as neither burden nor emptiness in the operation of your lives. But you ‘might’ have noticed that this is the first post I’m writing since August. There is one very good reason for this and that is that I had my laptop stolen.

Farewell old friend. Enjoy your new life in one of Oakland's many misery soaked crack dens.

The story is not worth repeating at any great length here, suffice to say it involved a hippy commune in the bay area of California, a pointless police report and the sum of £200 pounds from my insurance company that somehow felt this was adequate remuneration for a £1600 Macbook Pro. I am not a material person by any means but this was a very useful tool, especially for writing purposes, so sadly all blogging activity dropped off to nil. However, I am now returned from travels, tired but glad to be home and happy to see once again friends, family and Scotland. There will be, in the coming weeks, several retrospective blog posts that deal with certain aspects of my adventures in American drinking culture, these include my trip to Kentucky and my ruminations on the cult of US micro-brewing amongst various other rants, raves and drunken meanderings. But for now I am glad to be home after what I can easily describe as the best year of my life so far, a fact that calls for a celebratory tasting of some magnitude. So without further ado lets kick off with a couple of drams that have cased quite a stir in recent times…

I stole this image from G&M's shiny website. I'm sure they don't mind. If they do mind then they should consider how much more annoying it would have been if I'd stolen one of their laptops instead of just a wee digital photo.

Glenlivet 1940-2010. 70yo. G&M Generations. Fresh Sherry Butt (transport cask). 45.9%. 70cl. 

Colour: Light Mahogany

Nose: At first there is plenty oak but it is hyper-clean with a lot of fresh eucalyptus character and aroma oils, some very light background phenols arise quickly as well. Very subtle but there is still some nice complexity even after all these years, notes of dandelions, fir trees, honeysuckle, fresh melon, tangerine liqueur, very light whiffs of dried herbs du provence. Big notes of camphor and resin also come through which is so typical of this wartime/pre-war style of whisky. The age here seems to have magnified the lighter, more elegant aspects of this ancient style of whisky making. The usual rich, concentrated and oily aspects seem to have been calmed and subdued by the extra years. More honey notes such as old mead arise, the development isn’t too great but the profile is very elegant and quite beautiful. The oak is definitely there but it is polished and brilliantly clean, never cloying or arid. Lets drink…

Palate: Wow. Ok at first the delivery is hugely oaky with literally tons of wood derived spice notes but this is quickly followed by a very green fruitiness of greengages, ripe bananas, apple pie, golden syrup, demerara sugar and more melon notes. Very intense in the mouth and really impressive for the strength. Oily, concentrated and quite a powehouse compared to the nose but it is still quite different from many other wartime distillates that it is possible to try. It seems age really has done something ‘different’ to this one. Background notes of ancient peat, oily phenols, a little saline minerality, crystalised ginger and lemon rind. Then more rustic notes of hessian and dunnage, paraffin, buttered toast, muesli and brioche all flicker about. A great complexity for such an old whisky.

Finish: Medium to long and full of spice, mocha, oak, more toasty notes, a little dark chocolate bitterness, cocoa powder and eventually a fading green fruitiness again.

Comments: Several other commentators have already stated that it is very difficult to score a 70 year old malt, it is almost a different set of organoleptic rules, never mind the intense emotional problems involved with tasting something so ancient. I will say that I have tasted plenty 50 year olds and several 60+ drams in my time and this gives them all a run for their money. Certainly for the age it is hugely impressive. Parts of it are worth beyond what I will score it but I think, in a real turn up for the books as far as old malts are concerned, the palate is worth more than the nose in this instance and that will balance out the score a bit. So it’s…

Score: 91/100

Let’s see if the Mortlach can beat it…

Once again I pinched this one from G&M's lovely website. Thankyou G&M.

Mortlach 1938-2008. 70yo. G&M Generations. Fresh Sherry Hogshead. 46.1%. 70cl. 

Colour: Rosewood

Nose: This one is quite a bit richer on the nose, dark fruits like figs and dates come first then some big notes of polished furniture and typically clean oak (like in the Glenlivet but more subdued). The fruit is much more direct here, there are hardly any of the phenolic qualities that appear in the Glenlivet, presumably because it was a pre-war distillate and coal was still available for malting purposes. Very lush and very polished, a beautiful nose, hints of ancient cognag and old demerara rums, quite raisiny with notes of stewed fruits, balsamico and dried wild mushrooms. Develops some notes of putty and turpentine with something a little antiseptic in the background. Quite a stunning and very rich nose, it seems the age didn’t subdue these old pre-war attributes so much in this one, the potency seems quite alive on the nose. The oak starts to get bigger now, more antique furniture aspects with lots of old wax polish and resin. Very beautiful.

Palate: The delivery here is not quite as powerful as the Glenlivet, very thick oak and dark fruits at first, the oak is a little too clying in this one perhaps. But there are some stunning notes of ancient rum, rancio, pipe tobacco, leather, green bananas and more old wild mushroom vegetal qualities. There is also quite an intense earthiness with more old balsamico notes and mint liqueur. Big notes of eucalyptus, mead, listerine mouthwash, some little flacks of creosote and old rope, prune juice and camphor. The palate on this one seems to dance around a fair bit suggesting it was really absolutely on the brink in the cask, any older and it probably would have gone to pieces very quickly. The balance is not as poised and masterly as the Glenlivet but the highs are a little more wild and somehow make up for the slightly lower lows. If any of that makes sense. Mores spice and chocoalte after time with notes of maraschino cherries and espresso.

Finsih: Quite long with an odd fragrant quality, more chocolate, fig rolls, dates, camphor, resin and big shiny oak notes. An ancient workshop in a glass.

Comments: Yet again it’s the emotion that’s the problem here. It’s a rare and wonderful privilege to taste such an ancient spirit. Just thinking about the changes that have happened across the globe while this one sat in it’s little wooden caravan for seven decades is, as you might say at university, ‘a real mind-fuck’. I think this one is not quite as technical ‘good’ as the Glenlivet, it is not quite as balanced or complex so it gets a lower mark for that reason but really there is equal joy in drinking both of them. They are amazing whiskies.

Score: 89/100

And now… THE SACRELIDGE…An equal vatting of both (don’t kill me).

Nose: Hugely fruity and oaky in unison, like an epic showdown between the two flavour profiles. More resiny, more saline, more fruity, more phenolic and more spicy. As usual with this ind of experiment the best of both casks seems to have come through.

Palate: Big and powerful on the palate again, lots of damsons, chocolate, huge polished, spicy oak. More camphor and reisnous qualities, everything is just magnified.

Finish: Long and complex. A bit of everything.

Comments: It’s interesting how people often talk about oak in older whiskies in a negative light but I think these whiskies both show oak in it’s best light, beautifully elegant, polished, super clean, rich, spicy and wonderfully flavoursome. True that the quality of casks these days is never really in the same league as the ones they were using back then, particularly in terms of sherry. But I think these whiskies are great examples of how oak can be really beautiful as a bold and important flavour in whisky. I’d probably score this little vatting 92/100 so the answer is very clear, buy one bottle of each and mix together.

A huge thankyou to Nick for giving me these samples. Now I just have to hope G&M don’t release a third 70yo thereby ruining the ‘completism’ of this little tasting.

As a bonus here’s a little song from 1976 by Scottish duo Gallagher & Lyle (whom you may or may not remember). The themes juxtapose either of these drams quite nicely I think. It’s also one of the songs I’ve had stuck in my head since I heard it again during my last few weeks of traveling. Very appropriate sentiment I think in this fast paced and materialistic day and age. Sorry about the daft surfing footage but versions are thin on the tube of you.

Lets start our festive malt porn festival with some remnants of the notorious ‘Birthday sessions’ in Alsace last month. Today we’ll do three different malts all distilled in 1960 and bottled at under twenty five years of age, so plenty old school production characters to enjoy and plenty time in glass to mellow, should be fun. First up…

Linkwood 1960-1985. Gordon & McPhail for Sestante. 40%. 75cl.

Colour: Bright Straw

Nose: Wax, old shoe polish and beautifully delicate metallic notes that signify a bit of OBE. Resin, orange peel, a little grassiness and some lovely mineral qualities. This reminds be of the old Aberlour dumpy 8yo bottlings from the early seventies, only a little more fragile and intricate perhaps. Notes of pear liqueur, blossom, honeysuckle and darjeeling tea. The nose is quite antique and fragile but the aromas are really poised and beautiful. Grows a little more flinty and austere with time.

Palate: Big waxy and grassy combo in the mouth, not disappointing at 40% at all. Green fruits, minerals, hessian, camphor and some really soft spices. No trace of tiredness and it lives up surprisingly well to the nose. Great waxy and flinty qualities, this dram carries a really enthralling austerity about it. Quite consistent with the nose with all its resinous flavors, also notes of green peppercorns, cocoa, biscotti and freshly baked bread.

Finish: Good length but not too long. All on bitter orange marmalade, wax, a little menthol and minerals.

Comments: This was bottled in 1985, the year I was born. So 1985 is a good year for Champagne, self-important Scottish whisky bloggers, Alsacian wines and bottled whiskies. It was a bad year for distilled whiskies and miners. I think when my 30th comes around in 2015 I’ll celebrate by opening whiskies that were bottled in my year of birth rather than distilled. This is a beautiful and very drinkable old Linkwood.

Score: 90/100

Highland Park 1960. 18yo. OB. 43%. 75cl.

Colour: Dark Amber

Nose: Bloody Hell! This is so beautiful. Peat, gorgeous, delicate, phenolic, lush peat with utterly perfect sherry integrated all around it. This reminds me of a slightly delicate, very old style Ardbeg. Rooty, earthy, thick, unctuous, raisiny, medicinal… Ok I’m not going to go through the aromas, its just brilliant.

Palate: Now on the palate there is less obvious peat and more gloriously clean and vibrant sherry. Beautifully dry and mineraly with notes of figs, plum jam, oily, rooty phenols, cloves, dunnage warehouses and incredibly fresh coastal notes as well. Greengages, kumquats, lychees, peppercorns, old dessert wines, seville oranges. My god this is amazing. Ok enough of this.

Finish: Censored!

Comments: I knew this would be good, but I wasn’t quite prepared for this. The nose is stunning and what’s even more incredible is that the palate lives up to it. I was thinking of saving this and comparing it to the current OB 18yo, I’m kind of glad I didn’t, I think it would have been very unfair on the current bottling.

Score: 94/100

Glenlivet 1960-1981. 21yo. OB for Nadi Fiori. 54.6%. 75cl.

Colour: Teak

Nose: We’re in serious sherry territory here. Loads of sweet, immensely clean, classical sherry characters. Bags of stewed fruits, glazed nuts, dundee cake, old brandies, delicate spices, all kinds of flints and minerals, green fruits and, after time, some wonderfully old school waxiness. The nose is really soft and immense, you wouldn’t believe it was above 54%, it feels like 46 in the nostrils. With water: Wow! Water really magnifies all the mineral, hessian and waxy qualities, it becomes drying, chocolatey and even slightly honied with notes of heather, beeswax and hints of flowers.

Palate: Wonderfully rich, oily, vinous, jammy, waxy and fruit laden. Old candied fruits, dried fruits, figs, apricots, all kinds of orange notes, dark chocolate. Although the sherry is big and full you can still tell this is an old school whisky, the characters of the distillate are still evident and the balance is near perfect. Beautiful notes of old liqueurs, both fruit and herb varieties, little vegetal aspects and some really oily notes of camphor and paraffin. With water: we’re in fruit city and Mr Orange is the mayor! Luscious fruits, mineral and waxy notes all over the shop, glorious. Background notes of bread, nutmeg, vanilla, mocha and flints.

Finish: Massive and full of all the same stuff I said above.

Comments: I had the great privilege to meet Nadi Fiori (the man behind Intertrade and High Spirits) this year on Islay, he is nothing short of a living legend, one of the old school Italian bottlers who was dealing with stuff like this in a time when many of us were still drinking Bells and coke, or in my case, weren’t even born. A time when the old school Italians like Nadi and Samaroli corresponded with the Scottish distillery via post. Hats off to him for selecting such incredible bottlings that, in these days of modern mass production, are fast becoming time capsules. What a great dram this is.

Score: 93/100

Enormous thanks is due again to Serge Valentin, I wouldn’t have been able to taste these great drams if it wasn’t for his generosity.

Ok I’m still thirsty, that Glenlivet has put me in the mood for something more, although I’m skeptical as to what could possibly stand up to the immensity of the Glenlivet and HP…

Glenlivet 39yo 1968-2008. Duncan Taylor ‘Lonach’. 41.4%. 70cl.

Lets try this random sample I had in my stash as a ‘wind down’ dram. Lets not judge it too intensely.

Colour: White wine

Nose: Malty, porridgy, a little grainy but also very pleasantly fruity, lots of white and stone fruits, flowers, tea, herbs, at first it’s a bit of a shock to the system after such immense old glories but given a little time it becomes really attractive and delicate. Charming integration of honey, fruits, cereals and subtle aged qualities. Still impressively fresh for such an age and low strength. I always love naturally low strength whiskies, something about the natural oxidisation process in the cask brings out some really wonderful fruit characters.

Palate: A little weakish at first but then explodes with loads of beautiful green fruits, gentle spices, menthol and cold tea. Some gentle minerality, more green maltiness, some grassiness, cloves, Edinburgh rock, eucalyptus, Earl Grey tea, just delicious, perilously drinkable old malt.

Finish: Surprisingly long and rich, full of green fruits with menthol and slight metallic notes.

Comments: What a big surprise and how amazing that it stood its ground next to the other heavy hitters. This is a perfect example of an old malt for drinking and enjoying, hats off to Duncan Taylor for selecting and bottling at such a sensible price. Great stuff, it’s not the most complex old dram but it makes up for it with great concentration of flavour and a complete lack of overtly woody interference or astringency. Just like when a great musician chooses the notes not to play as much as the ones they do play, the same principle goes with a good cask.

Score: 90/100

Tomorrow we’ll get even more ridiculous.