Whisky Online Blog

I was fortunate enough to be in the Scotch Malt Whisky Society Vaults in Leith, Edinburgh yesterday. Everything seemed pretty normal, it was exceptionally relaxed, there were legions of bottles behind the bar, there was Haggis on the menu, all as it should be at the SMWS. However something caught my eye, a line of bottles all familiar but a bit out of place. To cut all the nonsense short it was a a row of first bottlings from certain distilleries, the difference being these were not in the display case but behind the bar. First bottlings by the society are notoriously hard to track down. The early ones were almost all consumed and rarely collected or stashed away. In the early days I’m sure few people bought multiple bottles or thought to keep hold of their purchases. This makes finding the very early bottlings exceptionally difficult. So I was pretty excited to see these ones open and available. I got quite a bit more excited when I learned which distilleries two of them were from.

St Magdalene SMWS 49.1. November 1975-October 1987. 64.6%. 75cl. Screw cap. 

Colour: Straw Gold

Nose: Typically difficult, closed and unsurprisingly spirity at first. Not particularly aggressive, just very quiet, grumpy almost. After time it starts to show a little fresh cut grass and pin sharp notes of lemon juice. Starting to open up more now with notes of butter, old riesling and quite a wonderful silky waxy streak as well. Becomes also quite leafy and herbaceous with notes of sorrel, sage and bay leaf. With water: Now it’s alive with stone fruits, super lush notes of peaches, nectarines, plums, white flowers, greengages and green apples. There are also some light hints of eucalyptus, cereals and petrol, very rieslingesque this one. A really beautiful, old style nose that keeps dancing around.

Palate: Quite a buldozer at full strength but it carries some fantastic notes of lamp oil, wet pebbles, minerals, motor oil and old canvas. Then cocoa, over-stewed black tea, mints and something quite carbolic. Devastatingly unsexy and difficult but charmingly so, clearly needs quite a bit of time though, not to mention water… With water it becomes more about honey, wax paper, mead, more drying qualities, cereals, buttered toast and lots of ashy minerals. Something like smoked butter and burnt almonds as well. It’s not as glorious as the nose due to its extreme difficulty but it’s such a huge personality.

Finish: Long. All on toasted cereals, butter, dried herbs, mineral notes and oil.

Comments: It’s always a huge privilege to taste early society bottlings but to taste the first edition St Magdalene is on a different emotional plain entirely. This style of whisky is really up my street but it’s a hugely personal preference, the whisky itself remains excessively difficult and almost uncooperative. For this reason I won’t technically go above 90, but if you like this extreme old style then you’ll adore this one. It’s one of those cases where the beauty is in the mouth of the taster.

Score: 88/100

Brora SMWS 61.1. July 1976-January 1989. 63.6%. 75cl. Screw cap.

This was the first ever bottling of the Brora distillate that was made at the old Clynelish distillery from 1969-1983. Examples of this age are otherwise non existent so, needless to say, I’m pretty thrilled to try this one.

Colour: Straw Gold.

Nose: Hyper clean medicinal notes at first with a really elegant background farminess. Then big notes of bandages, tincture, oysters, lemon juice, mercurochrome and fresh limes. Super clean, pristine peat, the kind that draws in industrial, farmyard, coastal and medical qualities in perfect balance. A feat that only Brora seems to be able to pull of. Further notes of eucalyptus oil, petrol, dunnage and tar. There is also something incredibly fresh about it, notes of wet leaves and brine give it a kind of supercharged freshness. With water: It doesn’t change too much, it just seems to to soften slightly and become even more coastal. Notes of sea breeze, sea weed, lemon thyme, chives, smoked mussels and wet grains, a touch more smoke as well. Utterly stunning!

Palate: At full strength this is almost like peat jam! Hugely thick, oily, waxy and fat! Lots of motor oil, candle wax, tar and phenols, ashy, drying phenols and peaty sweetness as well. Very compelling. Coal soap, more tar, iodine, TCP, muesli, floral blossom notes, juniper, gin and then smoke and wood resin. This is powerhouse stuff that somehow manages to be incredibly drinkable at full strength. Let’s try with water all the same. With water: Oh God! Unbelievably the peat gets even bigger, but at the same time also sort of stretched out and more complex. It feels like a much bigger dram with water (which I wouldn’t have thought possible given its potency when neat). Fat, luscious minerals, flowers, tar, garden fruits, more medicine… lets stop this madness.

Finish: Have you ever seen The Neverending Story?

Comments: I can’t tell what a privilege it is to taste Brora at such a young age, evidently it was already in the realms of greatness in its early teens. This bottling is yet more proof, if any were needed, that Brora is probably one of the most distinctive and personality laden malts in the world. It is also interesting to note that they were clearly still producing very heavily peated batches in 1976. Anyway, this one is a magnificent whisky.

Score: 94/100

A huge thankyou to Nick from the Society for these drams.

If you get a chance to go to the Society vaults in Leith I strongly recommend you do, apart from the stunning array of bottlings to try there is also an incredibly useful and informative collection on display of all the first edition bottles from their archives. It really is worth checking out. What stuck me the other day, whilst looking at many of them for the first time, was that so many were in fact very young and super strong whiskies, like the pair above. It seems they didn’t begin to bottle much older casks until the late 1980s/early 1990s. In other words, great time capsules for those fortunate enough to try them. Keep your eyes peeled.

The elusive 1.1 (An 8yo Glenfarclas)

Today I’ve decided to go through a few odds and ends in my sample cupboard that find themselves without same-still partners. In keeping with the festive theme of ridiculously delicious whiskies they should all be ridiculously delicious. (hopefully)

Glenury Royal 1966-1979. 13yo. Cadenheads Dumpy. 46%. 75cl.

Colour: Amber

Nose: Very fresh and full of old style fruitiness, tutti frutti chewing gum, kumquats, greengages, apples, ripe bananas, pineapple, apricot jam, custard, a little metallic note of steel wool and a few more flecks of very attractive OBE. It’s also slightly coastal in parts, little hints of salt here and there with minerals and hessian in the background.

Palate: Green fruits and spices with a really delicate wedge of oak in there too. Jam, sawdust, opal fruits, tea tree oil, feels older than 13 but that’s probably time in bottle that has done that. Really mouth coating and engaging whisky, not an edge on it anywhere but it still manages to speak to every part of the palate. Big warming spiciness in the back with notes of old polish, new carpet, floor wax and varnish.

Finish: Gentle and warming with woody spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. Slightly gingery as well.

Comments: Lovely fruity old Glenury Royal. Another great lost distillery, another emotional treat.

Score: 89/100

Glen Elgin-Glenlivet. 1965-79. 14yo. Cadenheads for Samaroli. 360 bottles. 80 proof. 75cl.

This was one of the first ever series of Samaroli bottlings. It was opened in Alsace last month for our friend Patrick’s birthday which fell, fittingly enough, on D-Day.

Colour: Teak

Nose: Wild, potent, oily sherry. Pristine notes of stewed fruits, putty, minerals, raisins stewed in Cognac, blood oranges, tiny hints of medicine and tincture with camphor and olive oil. Wholegrain mustard, watercress, black olives, some earthy notes of mushrooms and dried fruit peel. A perfect old sherry cask as is the case with so many of these old bottlings. Walnuts, pecans, banana bread, brown sugar, lots going on here.

Palate: Very soft delivery with some musty notes of dried orange peel, old cupboards, mulling spices, Reciotto wine, dried mango, dark chocolate, a few tannins round the gums, little mineral notes and mushrooms. Quite a gentle sherry giant this, the musty notes are actually very nice, feels like a long forgotten relic in an attic somewhere. Cloves, wax, soot, nutmeg, cold black tea, rice pudding, orange muscat, orange bitters, an old fashioned cocktail, a little menthol and eucalyptus. Very pleasant sherry, not as overpowering as I remember it, given time in the glass it really softens out and becomes quite decadent.

Finish: Quite long and chocolatey with nourishing tannins and notes of balsamico, mushrooms, more mulling spices and hints of sweet red wine.

Comments: One for the decanter with all its statesmanlike olfactory swaggering. Alternatively, if you’re an anarchist, you could make an interesting seasonal variant on mulled wine. Although I don’t know any anarchists that could afford to make mulled wine with old Samaroli bottlings.

Score: 91/100

Ok so I left my picture of this bottle at home on my other hard drive. So until I can update it this one that I stole err borrowed from Whiskyfun will have to suffice. (sorry Serge)

Longmorn 1964-1992. 28yo. Cheiftan’s Choice Single Highland Malt. 50%. 70cl.

This bottling was one of the old Cheiftans series from the early nineties, it doesn’t say Longmorn on the label but we were reliably informed that it is indeed Longmorn in the bottle. There was also a rather stunning 30yo Lowlander that we tried in Harry’s Bar in Paris a couple of years back, we thought it was either Rosebank or St Magdalene but the Jury’s still out on that one.

Colour: Yellowy straw like colour ???

Nose: Ahhh, yesss! Big buttery, oily and fragrant old Longmorn, full of fruits and minerals, like a great old Riesling or something. Lots of lychees, honeysuckle, milk, olive oil, potpourri, dried herbs, really luscious notes of vanilla and ripe pears. Greengages, kumquats, green apples, white flowers, mint, Kummel, Advokat and spicy hints of toasted cumin. What a great old nose!

Palate: Really oily and full on fruitiness here, typical old Longmorn, gloriously lush and intense fruits of all kinds, in fact I can’t be bothered to list them. If I have to write ‘greengages’ one more time I’ll go spare. Hazelnuts, coal, olive oil, hummus, old tea, tequila, a fleck of medicine, cloves, salt and a really lean streak of perfect oak.

Finish: Long, oily, fruity and immensely satisfying.

Comments: Great old Longmorn, this really reminds me in many ways on the old 1964 Signatory bottling I tried recently only more oily. Why can’t people make this kind of whisky anymore? (A rhetorical question by the way, sadly we all know the stupid answers by now). Anyway, gorgeous, fruit bomb material it is!

Score: 92/100

Benriach 1976-2007. 30yo. OB. Port Pipe (Port Finish). 649 bottles. Cask no: 4469. 55.5%. 70cl.

Colour: Rosewood

Nose: Hessian, smoke and tropical fruits at first. Then a wonderful mix of antiseptic and raisins, lots of different fruits, little sooty and waxy notes and some really fat notes of apricots and mangoes. I love these old Benriachs, they can be so stunningly fruity and this one is no exception. Little spicy flecks with mineral notes, coal tar soap, old rope, kippers, cured ham, hospitals, TCP and germoline. With water notes of orange juice, metal, more meatiness and gentian root emerge.

Palate: Ok this is really sweet all of a sudden, excessively so in fact. God Damn finishes!!! Notes of barbeque sauce, kiwis, marmalade, chili pepper, gun flints, medicine, Ribena, Lilt. Lets see if water helps this sugarsome madness… It’s still gob-rapingly sweet! Really thick and viscus notes of molasses, cane sugar, earth, campari, cheap orange liqueurs and marsala.

Finish: Cloying, spicy and (you guessed it) sweet!

Comments: Ok the nose was fantastic for me but the palate really let it down. I’m not going to say anything too sweeping about finishes here and now except to say that they are the scourge of good whisky,the root of all evil and the vinous, crappy, wine-caked downfall of the collective human soul! But I’d better stop before I make any sweeping generalisations or over-exaggerations. Anyway I love Benriach, many of the old casks they have released have been fruity wunderkinds. I wish we could have tried this cask without finishing, the nose was really promising but the palate just felt overwhelmed. What a waste…

Score: 79/100

That feels like a bad way to end one of our supposedly festive olfactory overloads, lets see what else lurks in yonder samples cupboard…

Lets try this sample that I gleamed from the great Glasgow Whisky Show back in November. Sadly I have no picture for it as it was a sample miniature that the very generous Frances from Dewar Rattray had under the table.

Tomintoul 1967-2010. 43yo. Dewar Rattray. Cask no: 3557. 123 bottles. 44.3%. 75cl.

Colour: Rich straw

Nose: Mmmmm… fruit! This is much better, lots of stewed apples and ripe bananas with all kinds of other lovely delicate fruit aromas, the kind that only seem to come out in naturally low strength old malts, ones that have had many years of glacially slow oxidization in cask. Ripe pear flesh, satsumas, star fruit, sultanas, green tea, milk chocolate and yet more greengages.

Palate: Lovely drying oak and bags of soft fruits, great balance and poise, quite a delicate malt but one that has obviously been nurtured in a very good cask. Not the most complex beast but the flavours are all very beautiful, clean and well controlled. Hints of butter and aromatic moroccan spices with further notes of dried herbs, menthol and camphor.

Finish: Medium to long with more notes of green bananas, grapes, wild flowers, drying oak, spice and a little waxiness.

Comments: Lovely, old, unassuming Tomintoul, one of the more reliable ‘T’ distilleries. It isn’t the most earth shattering beast but it sure is drinkable and incredibly charming.

Score 89/100

Tomorrow: strap yourselves in for a Glen Grantathon!

Glenlochy is one of those distilleries that is rapidly plummeting into the abyss of obscurity, slowly drizzling out of the malt nerd’s consciousness like the last cloudy dregs of an old bottling being emptied into it’s final quaffing vessel. This is a great shame as it sits proudly alongside names like St Magdalene, Glenugie, Coleburn, Millburn and Glen Albyn as a distillery that offers old style, ballsy, difficult, highland distillate. I haven’t tried too many Glenlochys so I’m always cheered to try two from the same vintage like this.

Glenlochy 1980-2010. 29yo. Signatory. Hogshead no: 2649. 265 bottles. 52.8%. 70cl.

Colour: Rich Chardonnay.

Nose: Quite hot at first nosing but all the familiar old style notes of lemon juice, fresh grass, paint, big minerality, petrol and white fruit are there. The nose really reminds me of the last Glenlochy I tried for this blog, the super strong 13yo 1974 for Sestante, a good example of distillery identity poking through. More notes of hay, truffle oil and light vegetal hints of turnip mash. With water it becomes very fragrant with notes of lanolin, sandalwood, delicate spices, grains and hessian. Really pleasant. A little manure as well after a while.

Palate: Neat the palate is big, oily and waxy at first with lots of drying qualities. Very herbaceous and green with more grassiness, camphor, various oils and garden fruits, now granite, flints and more minerals. With water it becomes very resinous, massive notes of pine sap, beeswax, sheep’s wool, loads of drying minerality and flinty pebble notes. A little citrus zing but otherwise very austere becoming more and more difficult with time which is unusual.

Finish: Medium to long and very oily and waxy.

Comments: Great old Glenlochy, exactly what I look for in these old style whiskies. I suspect after another 20-3o years in glass this one will open up some more complexities and jump into the 90+ bracket, but for now it’s…

Score: 89/100

Glenlochy 1980-2006. 26yo. Scotch Malt Whisky Society. 62.15. Hogshead. 59.2%. 70cl. (sorry no picture but it’s SMWS, you can imagine)

Colour: Pale gold

Nose: Very similar to the Signatory but with more honey, more wax and a little more vanilla, richer on the nose at first. Gives up lots of the same mineral and grassy qualities as the Sig bottling, these really seem to be Glenlochy trademarks. Spices, cereal, porridge, muesli, real breakfast whisky this stuff, also hints of pink grapefruit and farmyards. With water it gives up more stony qualities of graphite, gravel, pencil shavings and wet earth. Becomes very fresh after a a few moments with notes of forest flora, flowers and rosewater.

Palate: Gristy and oily with lots more green fruit than the Sig bottling, apples, pears, greengages, lemons, this one really wears its alcohol very deftly, it’s surprisingly quaffable. Buttered toast, more cereals, and that mashed vegetal note again. Becomes a little earthy and menthol with a touch of clean wood smoke after a while. With water there is a whole heap of grassiness with wet leaves, engine oil, yeast, brown bread and coal.

Finish: Similar length as before but more lemony and a little sharper.

Comments: See above, it’s very similar whisky. It is really interesting to try two very similar casks like this, you really get a handle of the distilleries character, and it’s a character I love. Again this should improve quite a lot over a couple of decades in glass.

Score: 89/100