Whisky Online Blog

It’s no great secret in whisky circles these days how brilliant Longmorn can be. An oily and rugged distillate that benefitted from direct fired distillation until the year 2000, it can develop over time the most glorious fruit character. I think it is among a handful of distilleries that are capable of serious aging and if you get a chance to try some of these older Longmorns from the early seventies or before then go for it because they’re almost all brilliant and will inevitably, one day, be gone.

Longmorn 1964-1994 30yo. Signatory. Cask 324. 150 bottles. 43%. 70cl.

I did an on the hoof, somewhat over enthusiastic (possibly tipsy) video review of this one for the good folks at connosr when I was at the whisky show in London a few weeks back, lets do it some real justice today.

Colour: Straw

Nose: Very old school, smells like some of these old 8 and 10yo malts bottled in the early seventies and sixties, think old G&M Longmorn 10yo or dumpy Aberlour 8yo. I wonder if this has gathered some OBE since being bottled in 1994. Lots of minerals and all kinds of delicate fruits, greengages, guavas, dried mango, white flowers and a little gentle lamp oil and camphor. This is very delicate, I suspect that it was reduced to 43% before bottling. Now some cereal and hessian notes with elements of muesli, honey and buttered toast, obviously a breakfast whisky this one. Great flickers of clean flints and stones.

Palate: Really soft delivery full of minerals, a little vanilla cream, some very pleasant metallic notes (quite OBEish really). Caraway seeds, liquorice, cumin, green bananas, nutmeg and rice pudding. Really gentle texture in the mouth, this one tip toes across the palate. It has a really attractive dry, floral austerity about it. Like an old riesling that’s just at the end of its prime before it starts to decline. Fresh butter and olive oil now, beautiful.

Finish: Medium to long with lots of green tea, dried fruits, tropical fruits and more metallic mineral qualities.

Comments: This one is tough because it feels a tad weakish overall, I suspect that time in the bottle has done that to it. However it is beautifully understated, perfectly balanced and the flavours are pure, old school class. I love it but I suspect that bottles may vary, some may be even better than this one if they’ve kept their intensity a little better. Anyway pretty much same score as in London, minus one point in the cold, analytical light of day.

Score: 91/100

Longmorn 1964-2010, 46yo. G&M Private Collection. Fresh sherry Hogshead. Cask 1534. 164 bottles. 51.9%. 70cl.

Colour: Very dark treacle.

Nose: Immensely polished, pure and intense sherry at first, it doesn’t cloy the nostrils though, rather it sort of bathes them in a thick fug of dundee cake, stewed fruits, concentrated dark treacle, dark rum, caramelised brown sugar and high quality furniture polish. Further notes of antique shops, old books, old leather, cigar tobacco and big dollops of chocolate, resin, mocha, cocoa and freshly chopped walnuts. This is a pretty stupendous sherry cask, the kind that almost certainly doesn’t exist any more. Now we get down to fresh earth, leaf mulch, mushrooms, hints of cannabis resin, black tea and rancio. If you like sherry you’ll probably die for this nose. With water there are a few more fresh leaves and notes of espresso, more chocolate and caramel.

Palate: Very big arrival, massive notes of apples baked in cinnamon, treacle, bitter dark chocolate, tobacco, prunes and big clean woody notes. Very tannic round the sides of the mouth, this is a stupendous sherry cask but it’s maybe a bit active for my liking. Lets try with a little water… that’s softened the tannins quite a bit and brought out lots of roasted coffee beans, more dark chocolate, truffle oil, concentrated dried fruits, candied peel and orange muscat.

Finish: Long and packed full of dark chocolate, aged tokaji, espresso, mixed nuts and some big tannins.

Comments: Well you have to like sherry. I’m not the biggest fan of immense sherry in the world but this is very impressive, the cask is absolutely flawless and it really is a great whisky. I’m not sure I could drink too much of it as the tannins become just a bit too cloying after the first dram. If you like your sherry big, dark, polished and intense then this is for you. The nose is stupendous neat but the palate is better with water so pour two glasses, one for sniffing one for sipping.

Score: 91/100

Longmorn 1978-2010, 31yo. Speciality Drinks, ‘Masterpiece’ Series. Bourbon cask. 135 bottles. 58%. 70cl.

Colour: Amber

Nose:  This is not as distinctively Longmorn as some of the early seventies casks floating about, it’s more a low key, very well aged highland style nose. Vanilla, damp sackcloth, old books, caramel, creme brulee, some dried herbs and a few hints of petrol and minerals with a little background waxiness. With time some white flowers and Longmornesque green fruits begin to emerge, greengages, pineapple, bananas and notes of buttery digestive biscuits. With water it becomes much oilier and fruitier, it’s much more recognisable as Longmorn now. Hints of fresh butter, candle wax, spice, Cointreau, candied peel, strawberries and cream and some confectionary sweetness.

Palate: Big notes of hessian, sweet vanilla, woody spices and several kinds of oil. Quite pleasantly sweet with some very nice supple fruits in the background balancing things out a bit. Toasted cocoanut, chocolate McVites, marshmallows, apple sourz, mandarins, orange marmalade, coriander seeds and a bit of alcoholic prickle. With water there’s big spice, baked bananas, fresh custard, flowers, sweet oak and some hints of old dessert wine.

Flinish: Medium to long and focused on these reduced characters of old desert wine and dried fruits.

Comments: I tasted these in ascending order of strength but the first two were pretty stellar whiskies and I feel this may have suffered a tad by latter comparison. Having said that this is a very good whisky and an interesting snapshot into the life and times of latter seventies Longmorn. I wouldn’t say it’s a masterpiece, but it is damn good whisky. Excellent cask selection methinks.

Score: 88/100

I spend a lot of time thinking about whisky, until this morning I didn’t consider this unhealthy. You see I had a dream last night, it was a whisky dream but not what you might imagine it to be. Sadly I was not gently bobbing around Laphroaig bay, born aloft the back of an old sherry butt navigated by two of the stunning mermaids from the old Bowmore ads. I was not drifting with the wind in my hair, sipping a large dram of the Laphroaig 19yo 1966 G&M for intertrade. Not avidly enthralled as an old warehouseman spun great yarns about days gone by while pouring lashings of Malt Mill into an ever expanding magic tasting glass. No this was a much darker kind of whisky dream. I dreamt that I was in an unnameable but familiar and claustrophobically busy whisky festival and I was in a heated debate with none other than Richard Patterson about the influence of polyphenols on whisky in wooden solera vats. Scary stuff but it doesn’t stop there. The problem was every point I tried to argue I always picked the wrong side, I knew I was wrong, I was screaming at myself inside my own crazed dream head that I was talking baloney, Richard was getting increasingly angry with my belligerent arguing and the more I tried to get away the tighter the crowds moved in around. Before I woke up I was trying to persuade Dream Patterson that Bourbon casks were made of charcoal and he proved me wrong by taking me inside a giant hogshead that he pulled from his pocket. I think the moral of this story is that it is maybe not a good idea to drink too much cask strength Dalmore at a fancy dress party before going to bed when you have a twelve hour shift the next morning.

Killer Distiller? Or, Bill the Blender? Daniel Day-Lewis takes on his toughest role yet.

Anyway Whyte & Makay have evidently been operating some kind of whisky version of the film Inception (in this film Richard Patterson will obviously be played by Daniel Day-Lewis) and they have successfully sown the seeds of today’s tasting, namely Fettercairn. Old Fettercairn is a distillery that has seen more than it’s fair share of hatred, there seems to be very few who have much in the way of praise for it but there are seemingly quite a few interesting independent versions coming out these days, many of them pretty delicious. So with this in mind I thought it was time to have a crack at the new(ish) official releases which were launched last year with a nifty makeover. Lets start with the Fior.

The Fior is a mixture of mostly 14-15yo sherried and bourbon matured Fet with a dollop of heavily peated 5yo thrown in for good measure. Let’s try it.

Fettercairn Fior. OB. NAS. 42%. 70cl. Limited to 1500 cases bottled 2009.

Colour: Maple Syrup.

Nose: It’s the sherry that comes through initially. Lots of nuts and dried fruits with a something a little leafy as well. Something a little aggressive and acrylic on the nose, like a tang of acid in the nostrils. This is quite a meaty distillate with hints of beef stock and oxo cubes, there is a nice suggestion of something oily and farmy as well.

Palate: It’s a little insipid at first, grassy, slightly waxy and a hint of butyric. Then nice notes of tobacco and cereal start to emerge, some jam characters from the sherry and more earthy meaty qualities. It feels like the peated stock has given it an extra slightly rustic dimension which I quite like but on the whole it’s not particularly inspiring. Hints of gunpowder and bonfire towards the end.

Finish: Medium to short in length with some more dried fruit and a whiff of peat.

Comments: It’s decent whisky, not brilliant but certainly perfectly drinkable and a good introduction to the basic Highland style for beginners.

Score: 77/100

Fettercairn 30yo. OB 2009. 43.3%. 70cl.

Colour: Golden Syrup.

Nose: Completely different, very intensely honeyed at first, quite sweet aromas of honeysuckle and good demerara rum. Changes into fruit syrups and lots of green fruit and lychee aromas. Candied fruit, lemon cheesecake and lime curd. Very nice nose, simple but fruity and expressive.

Palate: This is wierd. There is something beautifully mentholated trying to shine here but it is surrounded by lots of wet cardboard and dank flavours of rotting orange peel and old erasers. This lifts after a while and there is more fruit character but that sense of mustiness and dead wood never really leaves. Honey and lots more meatiness, this meat quality is a really a Fettercairn trademark. Still really wierd.

Finish: Long with more dankness and honey competing, meat, bitter oak and drying astringency.

Comments: Hard to call, I don’t think it’s a flawed whisky I think it’s just that Fettercairn can be a really weird distillate. A big shame in many ways because the nose promised so much, though it isn’t undrinkable by any means.

Score: 73/100

Fettercairn 40yo. OB 2009. 40%. 70cl. Matured in Apostoles palo cortado sherry casks. 463 bottles.

Colour: Bronze.

Nose: Well even after 40 years there is still a distinct meatiness, along with lots of lovely fresh, clean sherry as well thankfully. Nutty and chocolatey like a Snickers bar, or a Marathon Bar as they would have been called back then. Old tanned leather and more oxo cubes with old dried fruits that you’d find in muesli. Little flourishes of mint and eucalyptus belie the age of the whisky but also the quality of the wood on display here. Some nice hints of spice come through with the oak.

Palate: A little tired, has some of the same dank qualities of the 30yo but it’s all much more restrained here. Lots of old darjeeling tea and mint leaf, some cannabis resin oddly enough (maybe they were smoking something when they distilled these whiskies) and some sweet sticky PX style raisiny notes. A nice but very fragile smokiness starts to emerge and blossom very nicely with the fruit. It feels like a very delicate dram on the palate, over the hill I suspect. Big meatiness again towards the back along with quite a few tannins round the edges. Like an over-cooked Chateau Musar or something, this might be nice with a game dish if you’re into whisky and food matching.

Finish: Long but fragile, lots of mint, meat, leather, cold tea and some struck flints.

Comments: While this is very nice whisky I get the impression that Fettercairn’s big, meaty distillate doesn’t really age too well. It reminds me of some of those old G&M CC bottlings from the seventies that are so fragile from big old bottle effect. I think this and the 30yo both have elements to their respective characters that makes them feel like whiskies that have suffered some detrimental bottle aging effects. Which is very odd seeing as they were both bottled last year. Anyway I know some people really rave about this bottling so maybe it’s just me, I must be dreaming!

Score: 83/100

Sweet dreams…

I haven’t posted anything for a while and the reason for this is that I have been heavily engaged in extensive and exhausting ‘research’ as of late. I am just returned/recovered from the Whisky Show and needless to say I had a blast down in that big old concrete and glass pancake they call London. Congratulations and the dothing of all kinds of headgear are in order for the good people at TWE and Speciality Drinks who organiised the event, it was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone there that I spoke to.

Happy punters in the early hours of the afternoon at the fabulous Brewery venue.

One of the highlights of the show was the review pod, run by the good people at connosr, where you could review your favourite (or most hated) drams of the day on camera. It made for some quite entertaining nuggets of olfactory rumination over the course of two days, the collection features such luminaries as Serge from whiskyfun, Joel and Neil from caskstrength and even some gibberish from a lunatic in a kilt. Check them out here.

Of course I did my fair share of sample bagging while I was there. As a professional blogger obviously my goal was to sift carefully though all the bottlings on offer at the show and carefully select a mix of interesting new releases and fairly priced bottlings along with a balance of official and independent examples, with just a smattering of premium drams. Sadly my attempts to do this amounted to little more than catastrophic failure as I was seduced by ridiculously premium drams one after the other. I was a common sight, dashing about filling my sample bottles with every drop of amazing, rare and expensive liquid I could get my grubby mits on. So instead of measured, useful tasting notes in the coming weeks, expect to be bombarded with a torrent of gushing, praise packed, ridiculously over the top tasting prose. I was truly guilty of filling my boots, but what the hell, I’m a whisky lover, isn’t that an excuse for most things..? Anyway here are two of the most stellar offerings at the show, a pair of ancient Glen Grants.

Another in Gordon and MacPhail's seemingly inexhaustible supply of incredible old speysiders.

Glen Grant 1948-2006. 58yo. Gordon & MacPhail. 40%. 70cl.

Colour: Dull Gold

Nose: Immensely fragrant notes of wax polish, old smoked tea, antique shops, leather, old books, cigar tobacco and painfully fragile phenols. This is one of those utterly classy old school aromas that seems to come through so beautifully at this lower strength. Hints of aged sauternes and old liqueur with really pristine crystallized fruit. Just brilliant.

Palate: Feels like a bigger strength than 40, wonderfully dry and mineral with smoky tea flavours again and beautiful dry fruit. Hints of liquorice, lots of menthol and more really delicate peat, already a little metalic edge in there as well. Tastes like most pre-war bottlings from the same distillery. You could drink yards of this stuff it’s so gentle.

Finish: Incredibly delicate with orange muscat and more metallic notes. Tiptoes away like a ghost.

Comments: This is beautiful but also incredibly delicate whisky, I think this one really would have benefitted from being bottled at full strength but we know that will never happen with G&M. Anyway it may not be the best old Glen Grant ever but it’s still utterly glorious.

Score: 91/100

A very inviting 1954 Glen Grant by MacLeods.

Glen Grant 1954. 50yo. MacLeod’s. Bottle 37/100. Cask no: 3612. 42.2%. 70cl.

Colour: Amber

Nose: Much fresher and fruitier than the G&M. Lots of green and tropical fruit syrups with hints of fresh butter and candyfloss on top. Big notes of fresh mango, guava and chocolate limes, then some hints of older qualities like furniture polish and beeswax. Becomes more mentholated with time, getting more like the G&M in some parts but still much fresher and without the same peat qualities. This nose is amazingly fresh for fifty years old, the oak is so balanced.

Palate: Lots of menthol, toothpaste and chewing gum, with really ethereal fruit qualities. More fruit syrup flavours and big chunky fruitiness, mangos and lychees with hints of rosewater, this is becoming like a great old Gewürztraminer. Amazingly there is almost no overbearing oak whatsoever, a little soapiness comes through after a while but it is of the very fragrant, floral kind. Also hints of cherries, really gentle spice and cocoanut, this gets more and more complex all the time. Hessian, steel wool, soot, motor oil… ok enough enough. This is getting crazy.

Finish: Long, waxy and intense, a real mouth-coating fanfare.

Comments: If ever there was a whisky that showed just how amazing Glen Grant can be when properly aged then this is it! Is it worth the hefty price tag? Who cares, it’s beautiful.

Score: 94/100

No doubt there will be more useless Malt Porn to follow in the coming days. Slante!