Whisky Online Blog

Good whisky is thin on the ground in South America, it is also uncommon in Latin American, the USA and Canada, at least it was on my travel budget. So, barring the odd bottle of 1930s rotation White Horse, there was little to be found outside what I got in my care packages from home. I don’t like the phrase care package, it makes me sound like an interminable middle class little oik who can’t bear to be away from The Guardian, Mummy and his modest cellar of vintage malt whisky. Whilst I am an interminable middle class wee oik, I am not any of the latter things (although I did miss my Mum on several occasions). So while I did not, and will not, complain about the absence of tasty whisky, there were occasions when I missed having a good dram with my friends, and, more to the point, missed my friends full stop. Thankfully they dutifully saw fit during these times of lonesomeness to inform me of their latest drinking adventures. “Tonight Angus… I’ll be drinking 1955 Highland Park!” and so and so on. It was bad enough catching up with whiskyfun each week without having my appetite tormented with tales and images of overseas merriment and drammery. This is one of the problems with facebook, it’s useful for communication but it is also a tool of international showingoffness. Still, it was all a bit of lighthearted fun, I am not a vengeful or bitter man by any means. So, on a completely unrelated note, I present today’s tasting… MWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!!!

Ardbeg 1972-2009. 36yo Douglas Laing Old & Rare. Ref: OAR0072. 44.7%. 70cl. 

Colour: Light Gold

Nose: Leafy peat, seaweed and bonfires at first nosing, classic 72 Ardbeg but lighter, probably due to those extra years of age. Little notes of blueberries amongst all those familiar peat oils, iodine, sea spray, tar and fish nets. Herb liqueurs, sarsaparilla root, coal, gentian and peated mead if such a thing exists. The peat is sweet and concentrated beautifully with those slightly burnt seashore notes, it’s not the greatest 72 Ardbeg but by most other whisky standards it’s still off the chart. Gets a little mentholated with notes of dried mint and eucalyptus oil, then rope, dunnage and kiln rooms.

Palate: Wow, fantastic attack for the strength, lashings of peat oils, seawater, oysters, lemon juice, root beer, thick smoky notes, burned wood, seaweed and a drying ember like quality to it. I haven’t had an old Ardbeg for a while, you really forget how fucking brilliant these old whiskies are. What a delivery of flavour. Now earthy and leafy with notes of moss, soil, more cereals and farmy aspects with a slight leathery quality. Some notes of cured ham and then more eucalyptus and herbal liqueurs. Just fantastic, no need to go on…

Finish: Long, elegant and oily, not as intense as the rest but beautifully soft with lightly toasted peat notes and medicinal flavours lingering on for a long time…

Comments: I’ve had a few quite old Ardbegs now, in my experience they all seem to fade away past 32 years but this is beautiful. A real winner. Still brilliantly composed and classic in every way.

Score: 93/100

Ardbeg 1975-2004 29yo. Douglas Laing O&R. Sherry Hogshead. 255 Bottles. 47.3%. 70cl. 

Colour: Mahogany

Nose: It’s a different kind of Ardbeg from the 72, the sherry and peat combination leaps out at you like an angry bundle of kippers. The difference in style from the 72 refill hoggie is very striking when you set them together. Little wonder people are still enthralled by this era of Ardbeg, it was brilliant in almost any cask type. This one is just that, brilliant at first nosing, kippers, wax, fat peat oils, muscovado sugar, smoked dates (?), hessian, coal, huge notes of tar and rope, more of those eccentric root beer medicinal notes that seem to be a hallmark of heavy sherried Ardbegs from the 70s. Underneath that there is some green fruit and spices with some clean salty notes and smoky bacon. Another stunner of a nose.

Palate: A mouthful of hot antiseptic and tar, some very lovely notes of liquid smoke, biscuits, savoury breads, smoked and peppered mackerel, dried herbs and herbal liqueurs. Then glazed cherries, icing sugar, gingerbread, old leather and mixed spice. The palate is very concise with the nose, lots of complexity and the flavours are all wonderfully integrated together. More liquorice and seaweed with notes of lemon wax and creosote starting to come through along with flavours of herbal toothpaste and tincture. Again there is no point in continuing, this is just brilliant old Ardbeg…

Finish: Long, sharply peaty and beautifully medicinal with fading seashore notes.

Comments: Not really necessary.

Score: 93/100

Ardbeg 1991-2011. 19yo. Malts Of Scotland for Hotel Beero. Sherry Hogshead. Cask 11003. 240 Bottles. 48.4%. 70cl. 

This is a new and destined to be very rare bottling that has just been done for Geert Beero and his lovely hotel in Oostende, Belgium. If you go and stay at the hotel you can buy a bottle (or 2) but I suspect they won’t be there for long.

Colour: Dark Rosewood.

Nose: It’s very different from the 70s casks but this is still and old school style. Very earthy and organic with a much more lush and verdant fruit character running through it. Still those notes of root beer are there and a beautifully subtle background medicinal character. Then after some time we get more of these lovely dried herbaceous notes with wet leaves, green fruits, earl grey tea and even some wonderful aged characteristics of old cognac and rancio. Touches of aged balsamico as well, this treads a wonderfully fine line between 70s style Ardbeg and early 90s style, in fact it’s very hard to know where to draw the lines between the two in this whisky, they are so well blurred and integrated. After this more classical notes of tar, kippers, rope, creosote and seaweed, gets more and more old school the longer you nose it for.

Palate: Huge, fat, oily sherry and peat qualities, just wonderful delivery all on prune juice, dates, walnut oil, embrocations, toothpaste, tcp, iodine, tar, earth, grass and underlying cereals. Notes of fresh wash, cocoa powder, camphor, eucalyptus, gummi bears and many medicinal complexities. What a great dram. More herbal liqueur notes, rose water, lychee, coal, soot, mouthwash and graphite oil. Let stop this madness.

Finish: Long and very earthy with the sweetness returning towards the end. All kinds of fanfare flavours to be found in this.

Comments: To be honest when I tried this the first time around I rushed it and wasn’t as impressed as I should have been. This is a total stunner in my opinion. Proof, if any were really needed, that Ardbeg didn’t have just one great era of production. Not to mention the quality of the cask as well, the sherry is perfect in this, not an off note to be found, a rare thing indeed these days, and what a find. Congratulations to Geert for bottling such a brilliant whisky.

Score: 93/100

Ardbeg 1975-1995. 19yo. Cadenhead’s. Sherry Hogshead. US market bottling. 49.7%. 75cl. 

Colour: Tazmanian Honey

Nose: A different and dirtier beast than the others, this one is hugely tarry but also more ‘unclean’ as it were, with notes of struck matches and rubber but set against the background of huge oily phenols and Ardbegy peat they feel quite well controlled and integrated. Not sour or over powering like they often do in modern whiskies. It develops with big coastal notes of fresh sea shore, sandalwood, lemon rind, fresh oysters, wet pebbles and minerals. Lots of wet earth notes, green, mushy peat characters and wet grains. A very wet dram this by the smell of things. Dunnage and damp sackcloth with notes of iron filings and cut grass over deeper notes of rust, black pudding and slightly rotten orange peel. This is a strange Ardbeg, all these dirty complexities make it seem much more like a Port Ellen, in fact given this bling I would definitely gone for Port Ellen over Ardbeg.

Palate: First up it’s notes of fresh coffee, milk chocolate, mixed nuts, halls throat sweets and brine. It’s a big whisky but it is almost like a non-dram with its lack of distillery identity, like a beautiful person in disguise for an unknowable reason. More bucket loads of tar, germoline, oil boilers, hessian, damp earth, horse stables, sweat, herbs and rope. Quite a mixed bag of stuff this one, hard to know what to make of it. Very enjoyable but also very strange.

Finish: Long, earthy, dirty, wild, blustery and oily. Lots of coastal notes, rubber, lemon drops, some honey and lingering grisly phenols.

Comments: This is clearly an Ardbeg that was raised a Port Ellen, some sort of sex change style scenario that could win it it’s own documentary mini series on channel four. I really like it but I think on a technical note I cant go too high due to the undeniable dirty notes. Still, a schizophrenic dram with a multitude of personalities that tastes fantastic even if it drags you all over the place. They don’t make whisky like this anymore, a whole galaxy away from boring.

Score: 91/100

Ardbeg 1991 18yo. Douglas Laing OMC. cask 5449. Bourbon Hogshead. 316 bottles. 50%. 70cl.

Colour: White wine

Nose: Classic early 90s profile. Soft phenols, grass, pine sap, creosote, tar, kreel nets, crab meat, fresh lemon juice on oysters, chopped parsley, sage and mercurochrome. Lots of further medicinal complexities start to develop with notes of tincture, bandages, gauze, mouthwash and tcp. Some very clean and invigorating coastal notes of minerals, wet pebbles, seashore, seaweed, sea salt and shellfish. Very classical and very taught, clean composition, super fresh as well, quite reminiscent of the official 1990 bottlings.

Palate: At first some very curious notes of milk chocolate but these quickly give way to seaweed, smoked cereals, kippers, lemon oil, beeswax, turpentine, peated porridge (please someone invent that soon!), mouthwash and herbal liqueurs. Again this is very consistent with the official 1990 bottlings, lots of pine air freshener, touches of heather and floral soaps, sea salty crystals and a little red wine vinegar. In fact you could pour this over your fish and chips no problem, although I probably wouldn’t.

Finish: Long and resinous with oily peat, green phenols, porridge, grass, seaweed, minerals and more citrus oils.

Comments: Great 90s Ardbeg, completely typical of the style.

Score: 90/100

Now lets do the obligatory mental vatting…

All five together…

Nose: It’s obviously the 70s that speak loudest here, it’s a veritable festival of extrmes. Peat, tar, phenols, salt, medicine, cereals… it’s just brilliant

Palate: All the best bits from the bourbon and sherry versions have managed to balance out pretty well. As is usually the case with these things when you mix brilliant whiskies together you get… brilliant whiskies. Here they’ve managed to just magnify the intensity of the distillery character perfectly.

Finish: Gently bulldozes your palate till midnight…

What brilliant tasting. Dedicated to all my whisky friends, without whom I’d never have smiled so much during the longer, darker and duller moments of my travels.

There isn’t much that needs to be said about this tasting. Two Macallan, both distilled and bottled in the distillery’s glory days. I’ll not vent spleen, nor waste our time by going on about fine oak, cask deterioration, fibbing, fakes, modernisation or marketing bollocks. I’m sure you already have plenty of your own opinions on such matters (and quite right too).

Macallan 25yo OB. 1957-1983 ‘Anniversary Malt’. 43%. 75cl.

Colour: Polished Mahogany

Nose: It’s at that perfect age where you get equally huge aromas of old furniture shops and intense fruits. This one has both in spades, many notes of beeswax, wood polish and then layers and layers of soft, fresh fruits. Greengages, pomegranates, ripe bananas, peaches, apricots, mangoes, mirabelle, pineapple, the list goes on. There is a sticky raisiny sweetness underneath as well, flickers of PX sherry, rancio, old leather bound books and treacle sponge. It’s one of those aroma profiles that really doesn’t exist anymore and can only come from the combination of old style distillate and perfect sherry casks. Develops more down the lines of bitter chocoalte, cocoa, espresso and tarmac after a short while. Brilliant.

Palate: Big, chewy and mouth-coating delivery, tons of figs, dates, prunes and all kinds of concentrated dark fruit flavours, more espresso, roast coffee, super dark chocoalte, cocoa leaves and hessian. After that some luxurious notes of old armagnacs, demerara rums, menthol, dundee cake, glazed fruits and maraschino. You could drink litres of this stuff quite easily despite the potency of the sherry aspects. Develops notes of game and aged burgundy, more huge clean and very polished sherry notes as well. What a dazzling whisky.

Finish: Long and full of cured meaty notes, wood spice, touches of smoke, more pleasing bitter edges and a fruity finale.

Comments: It’s hard to say much of anything about these old bottlings. They’re just brilliant and that’s that.

Score: 93/100

Macallan 10yo ‘full proof’ OB. Rotation 1980 for Giovinette & Figli Milano. 57%. 75cl. 

It’s often quite interesting to jump from aged old style to younger high strength old style malts so this should be fun.

Colour: Dark Rosewood

Nose: Obviously younger and more potent than the 25yo but it’s the same quality of sherry in terms of pin-sharp cleanliness and aromatic intensity as far as I’m concerned. A wonderful invigorating fruitiness at first that suggests the best of youth and maturity simultaneously, then we get more notes of simmering spice, clean wood, resin, coal dust, chimneys, wax, a little eucalyptus and orange cough drops. This is a big whisky but it is surprisingly open and gentle even at full strength. Develops little notes of offal and herbs with putty and fruit conserves. Very interesting and very subtle developments, not suffering from comparison to the 25 at all which I think is very impressive. With water: loads of wood spice now, cinnamon, cloves, orange bitters and dried herbs. Still quite lively but also pretty composed and complex.

Palate: Ahh, so that’s where all the alcohol was hiding, strawberry liqueur, gunpowder, woodsmoke, pipe tobacco, dried mushrooms and earth at first sipping but then it gets fresher with notes of crushed mint, eucalyptus oil, cherries, cashew nuts, a little coriander and prune juice. A big whisky but not overpowering by any means, lets add water now… It got somehow oilier and wider with more notes of oil, coal, green olives, damp earth, stewed fruits, molasses and soda bread. A nice savoury note running through it with more very pleasant mushroom and game qualities, notes of aged madeira and dark brown sugar.

Finish: Long and full of sweet notes like icing sugar, baked rhubarb, natural caramel and more lingering woody and spicy notes.

Comments: It’s not quite up there with the 25yo but it is a fantastic youthful Macallan that could also be twice it’s age in parts. It has moments where you think there is a slight dirty quality beginning to emerge but then it goes somewhere else entirely, becoming instead more vegetal, sweeter or richer. Excellent cask selection and very entertaining whisky.

Score: 91/100

A vatting of the two… is that what you’re thinking?

Lets just say it was pretty breathtaking and leave it at that.

Now that I’ve just typed that title it occurs to me that it is exactly the sort of name that might be given to an official Bruichladdich bottling these days, perhaps someone will read this and be inspired (wishful thinking Angus). Anyway, today I have gathered together three very different indie Bruichladdichs that descend in age and ascend in strength (which is not as often the case as you may think). Like it’s alliterative neighbour Bowmore from across Loch Indaal, Bruichladdich is also a distillery with some distinctive eras of flavour separation. Although not as extreme as the Bowmore example the evidence is there in bottle for all to taste. Lush, green, coastal and elegant in the 60s and 70s, the style that built it’s reputation, difficult in the 80s and 90s, and now emerging, new, fascinating and better and better with each older bottling. So lets try something from each of those ‘eras’ if you will. First up, it’s something truly unusual…

Bruichladdich 1971-2010 39yo. Private Cask. 39%. 70 & 5cl. Sample from 5cl. 

If I am right (which it is entirely possible I’m not) then the last bottling done below the official bottling strength of 40% was a cask of 1949 Macallan bottled by Signatory in the late 80s which was at 37.9%. I’m not aware of any others since then. Obviously you can get around this wee law by simply removing the word ‘whisky’ from your label. But it is interesting that few people bother to do it, considerable numbers of casks do inevitably dip below this strength, many are simply vatted or, horrors, disgorged. It seems a shame as naturally low cask strength drams can often be fascinating and delicious. If anyone knows of other bottlings/bottlers that have done this then please let me know.

Colour: Rich Gold

Nose: Dense and lusciously fruity at first nosing, loads of melons, greengages, ripe bananas and grapefruit, typical early seventies Bruichladdich. There is also some dusty maltiness in there that hints at oxidisation which would undoubtedly start to happen to such a low strength spirit after so long. A crisp coastal salty note as well with underground notes of preserved lemon, oysters, camphor, pine resin and something like fresh butter. A very fresh and invigorating nose, quite reminiscent of the glorious 1970 OB. Fresh crab meat, pink grapefruit and more coastal zing. This nose positively sings. I think this is clearly from a very ‘tired’ cask but sometimes that is exactly what a distillate needs for a long maturation life and I think this is one of those drams that really proves the point. Lets see if the palate can hold up to the spectacular nose.

Palate: On the palate it is definitely a little weak but there are some wonderful notes of polished oak, cereals, green tea, wet rocks, minerals, wood resins, a touch of spice and seaweed. More green fruits as well, loads of apples, pears, kumquats and grapefruit. Quite liqueur like as well with some concentrated notes of fruit syrups and herbs. There are a few weakish notes of cardboard right at the back which suggest it has become a little too tired but the rest is remarkably fresh. It seems that the high age and low strength has helped it and hindered it in different ways.

Finish: Sadly it is very short and a little weakish but there are some very nice flavours of salt, oak and tea lingering around with some fading fruits.

Comments: This is a whisky that is full of extremes. On one hand it is quite clearly a little tired but on the other it has an absolutely beautiful nose and it’s highs are very high indeed. A difficult one but very fascinating to taste all the same.

Score: 84/100 (but the nose was worth 94)

This next one is a Douglas Laing sample of which I have box loads thanks to Wayne’s stashing abilities. However it also means that I have no photograph, you’ll just have to use your imaginations. (This will probably be a frequent recurrence in in the coming year due to the sheer quantity of DL samples I have accrued.)

Bruichladdich 15yo. Douglas Laing Old Malt Cask. ref: OMC 1610. 50%. 70cl.

This is from the very inconsistent era in the early 90s.

Colour: White wine

Nose: Obviously younger, rawer and more punchy but this one has some very nice citrus, saline and cereal notes, not immature at all. There is some nice fruit as well but it is different and more austere than the 71. Lots of white fruits, stone fruits, white flowers, seaspray and minerals. Very nice actually. A little more sweetness here as well which is to be expected but it is very gentle and nicely integrated with subtle notes of vanilla cream and candy floss. After time some greener notes of seaweed, grass and melon start to emerge. Quite a classic laddie profile this one, thus destroying my theory of the ‘dodgy’ middle years. Never mind.

Palate: Quite concise at first with some fresh notes of herbs, a little lavender, salt, citrus juices, chamomile tea, quite herbal on the palate really. Cereals, mashed potatoes, lots of mashy vegetal qualities in general. Again this is classic refill cask characteristics, this is exactly the sort of cask that the distillery would have felt compelled to ‘ACE’ in some godawful wine cask, kudos to Douglas Laing for giving us the lovely naked spirit. Goes on with a little honey, sweet white wine, water crackers, quite an odd balance between sweet and savoury here.

Finish: Medium and very herbaceous with notes of milk, wet pebbles, minerals, white fruits and hessian.

Comments: Good mid aged Bruichladdich. Plenty of distillery character and quite coastal. A little lack of personality overall perhaps but still very decent stuff.

Score: 83/100

Bruichladdich 2001-2011, 10yo. Queen Of The Moorlands/Whisky Online. Sherry Hoggie no: 312. 200 bottles. 62.5%. 70cl.

This is a new bottling that we did in conjunction with David Wood and his excellent Queen Of The Moorlands label. As far as I know this is the first independent bottling of the new Bruichladdich spirit distilled since 2001 (please let me know if that’s wrong). Everyone is saying deservedly great things about the new 10yo bottling (notes coming here very soon) so it will be interesting to try this full sherried indi variant.

Colour: Old Mahogany

Nose: If you were to have a boiling smoothie of sticky toffee pudding, treacle and melted fudge squirted up your nostrils it might be of a similar sensation to nosing this whisky. After a little rest time in the glass it calms down and we get a whole churn of fresh butter along with more notes of fudge sauce, massive notes of farmyard, hay, horse stables, cured meats, this is meatier than the meatiest Mortlach. Then we get herbs, wet earth, leather, soil and lots of spice. There is a slight dirtiness to it but the kind that works more in a rustic and earthy way. It also gets quieter and cleaner with some breathing time. This really is a huge whisky, after more time a lovely coastal edge starts to develop as well, water is obligatory here so lets see what happens… Now it becomes saltier and unusually quite mentholated for such a young whisky, then more meaty notes like cold roast beef and horseradish. There are also more leafy notes and more fruits, then medicine, a little grass and something like seawed. This is actually a very beautiful nose now. With a little water it became much easier and quite Bruichladdie-esque.

Palate: Neat the delivery is understandably a bit hot, volcanic even, with notes of wet leaves, mulch, hummus, pebbles, stewed fruits, baked apples, brown sugar, caramel, more fudge and slightly larger dirty note, this time manifested as earth, mushrooms and a touch of matchsticks. Some will find this level of dirtiness too much but I actually really enjoy it, although this whisky is not necessarily an easy one. Lets add water and stave off any further tongue erosion… With water, still quite strong and intense, really oily and almost kippery with some distinctive medicinal notes like bandage and ointment. Was Bruichladdich still doing lightly peated malt at this point? It’s only the 312th cask. This is a monster of a whisky. With further water reduction it gets finally a bit lighter and much more medicinal, fruity and nutty with some big chunks of chocolate floating about in there. Still a touch of dirtiness but water really calms that down a fair bit.

Finish: Long, fat, sweet, rich and quite blustery with coastal, nutty, sweet and medical notes all vying for attention.

Comments: When I first tried this, and I did several times before sitting down to write these notes, I was never too sure about it, it is clearly a monstrous whisky, massively powerful and alive with flavour, but I thought it was maybe too dirty in places or too extreme in others, or sometimes a little one-dimensional. It just goes to show how some whiskies really need time and attention to show their best, this is definitely one of those malts that has many of its complexities cloaked by the high alcohol. It really needs time and patience (as well as plenty water) to let it come out of its shell and show to its full potential. I also noticed that when I opened the bottle it was more closed than it is now that there are a few inches out of it and the liquid inside has had more of a chance to ‘freshen up’ as it were. Perhaps the answer is to decant this one? It’s definitely one of those bottles that, with a few decades of ageing in glass, should easily go past 90 points. My advice, don’t rush this whisky and don’t have too many other drams around it, just pour a large one, pull up the water jug and sit down with it for a good hour or so. It should suit storms, hurricanes, long winters, rainy afternoons, bar room brawls, scout camping trips, zombie apocalypses and nights by the fire. Hats off to David and Wayne for bottling this one, but the real glory must go to the team at Bruichladdich for making such a brilliant spirit.

Score: 89/100 (I know this is technically and ‘in house’ bottling of sorts but I really do think this is classy stuff.