Whisky Online Blog

I have already written about my love for both St Magdalene and Lochside so they need little reintroduction from me here. These are another couple of samples I liberated from whisky fringe (courtesy of  the very generous folks at Douglas Laing). Suffice to say that I thought it might be interesting to do a little head to head with these two whiskies as they both represent quite old school ‘Highland Style’ whiskies. I know St Mag is technically a lowlander but its complex, often very dry and minerally house style really reminds me of these oily, waxy old highland style spirits. Likewise Lochside seems to display this character quite often as well albeit with a perhaps a little more expressive fruitiness. Anyway I love both of them and, both being closed, they are sadly missed. Both samples are from the very latter eras of production in their respective histories so I suspect that they may not shine as brightly as older examples but who knows? I’m still excited to try them both.

The Lochside 1991. Pale yet inviting. Like an albino supermodel?

Lochside 1991 18yo. Douglas Laing OMC. 289 bottles. 50%. 70cl. Refill Hoggie.

Colour: Straw gold.

Nose: Immediately flinty, slightly mentholated and fruity with some lovely clean malt underneath. There are hints of that classic Lochside tropical fruit character coming out now, bits of melon, mango and pineapple, a delicate fruit salad really. Some tart citrus aromas as well, very delicate and beautifully composed nose this. It doesn’t seem to develop too much further but what is there holds together really beautifully and is so aromatically delicious that it doesn’t really matter, a minimalist poem of a nose. Some delicate wisps of oily hessian and coal now, also something like waxy honeycomb as well. A fragrant floral aspect develops after a while as well. I wouldn’t want to touch this with water, it seems so fragile yet composed.

Palate: Very dry and savory on the palate at first with freshly baked whole meal bread and lemon rind. Then becomes delicately sweet towards the swallow. Seville orange marmalade and some simmering spices, there is also a slightly unfortunate flavour of rotting orange peel but its not too overpowering, in fact given time it disappears. There are also some rather pleasant flavours of nutmeg and delicate vanilla, pastry, licorice and a slight herbaciousness. My only real qualm is that it lacks more of that Lochside trademark fruitiness.

Finish: medium length but quite warming and leaves a pleasant dry fruitiness behind.

Comments: I feel the palate let this one down a bit but the nose is still gorgeous. A pleasant Lochside that shows snapshots of its glorious past and just how amazing it can be when it wants to be. I suspect like all distilleries it suffered from the modernisations of the late seventies and eighties. Anyway I think its worth…

Score: 88/100 (mostly for the nose)

The St Mag 1982. This one looks rather inviting too but I can't think of anymore supermodel analogies. Or maybe I just don't want to?

St Magdalene 1982 26yo. Douglas Laing OMC. 511 bottles. 50%. 70cl. Refill Butt.

Colour: Pale gold

Nose: Rich, oily and pungent with grassy and nettle like aromas, almost like a sauvignon. Wonderful mineral and fruit complexity. Sweet peas, orange blossom, engine oil, gasoline, paraffin wax, its just laden with aroma this one. Its becomes even more aromatic the more time you give it, now almost more like a Riesling with some dense honied and gentle tropical notes. Damp sheep’s wool, farminess and something slightly coastal as well, citrus and sea-breezes. Porridge oats and other cereals, a clean toastiness with just a scraping of butter. Some aged characteristics also like old books, leather armchairs and a little tobacco leaf. Enough of this, its great, time to taste it…

Palate: Its just a big bucket of oil and fruit really. Very rich and mouth-coating with a beautiful dryness and minerality. Lots of orange blossom, honeysuckle and more petrol characters. Flinty but also delicately honied and slightly briny as well. This is a difficult one to handle and keep track of but boy is it worth it. There is that beautiful preserved lemon waxiness and olive oil combo that is common in these old school whiskies, then more lean maltiness and cereal character. Its also slightly meaty in a bizarre move sideways. Just great whisky.

Finish: Long, drying, fruity, oily, aromatic and beautiful.

Comments: This is a perfect example of a more old school, highland style of whisky. It is a million miles away from what we are told these days is a ‘traditional Lowland style’. This whisky would chew up a modern Glenkinchie or Auchentoshan like wet rice crackers. Its big, its oily, its very fruity and its dry, it tastes like old sheep fanks and engine oil, its just beautiful. However it is also incredibly unsexy, a difficult style of whisky to know what to do with and a difficult whisky full stop. Its the kind of whisky that makes you work for its nuances, its austere and difficult to know, it demands something of the drinker. For me this is why I love these kinds of whisky, they energize the mind as well as the palate and bring out a greater shared experience between those who drink it. Its quite moving to taste these spirits because they aren’t really made like this anymore and as they become rarer and fade away, they just seem to taste better every time.

Score: 91/100

Today we’ll do something a bit different, a proper full tasting and a music pairing. Ok I’ll admit its not a particularly earth shattering development on my already established formats but hey, its sunday and I’m just a crazy guy! Today we will be tasting a rather inviting looking Rosebank. Of all the Lowlanders that have been lost/almost lost in recent decades it seems to be Rosebank that is most lamented. I always felt St Magdalene was a greater loss personally but that’s not to say I don’t get misty eyes occasionally over a fine Rosebank. I think the problem is that Rosebank has garnered itself a bit of a reputation for greatness and, especially now that there is an ever increasing stream of independent bottlings popping up, it struggles sometimes to live up to this image. Having said all that nit-picky nonsense, it still remains a beautiful and quite unique malt. Certainly the choice of Glenkinchie in favour of Rosebank was a decision laced with criminality. Well done Diageo, lets have nice pretty distillery that all the nice tourists can come and take nice pretty photos of. Never mind the fact that its whisky tastes like grass juice with a personality phobia (most of the time). Anyway on with the tasting.

The Rosebank in current olfactory question.

Rosebank 1990. 19yo. cask no 5082 refill butt. 444 bottles. Douglas Laing OMC. 50% vol. 70cl.

Colour: Lemon gold.

Nose: A little closed at first, notes of lavender, citrus and wax polish. Becomes quickly very fragrant, white flowers, fresh grass, meadows and some beautiful delicate waxiness. Maybe a little coal tar soap and lanolin, there is something slightly oily and pleasantly soapy about it. The nose feels a little fragile but otherwise very together and expressive, quite beautiful even if not overly complex.

Palate: Hot, prickly and spicy with quite a lot of sharp astringency, feels like a very aggressive, difficult delivery. Not particularly pleasant, lets try it with water. Ok with water its easier and fruitier but there is still quite some astringency. The waxiness picks up again after a while and more floral character as on the nose. Some more delicate spiciness now with something unusual like milk chocolate. This is quite a difficult dram to be honest, not undrinkable or unenjoyable but its making you work for the good stuff. After a while once the water has marinaded a bit it starts to loosen up and get a bit easier but its still a little masochistic.

Finish: Medium length with good oily after-texture (is there such a thing?) Spicy and sharp again with something a little cardboardy in the background and even maybe a hint of butyric.

Comments: err…weird. Not sure what to make of this one, the nose was lovely but the palate was a bit bonkers and angry. For me its a little imbalanced but still entertaining in a ‘mad’ sort of way.

Score: 80/100

Ok this was unexpected and puts me in a bit of a predicament as I now have to find some music to match such a tricky whisky. Its not unpalatable by any means but its certainly an acquired taste and not something suitable for session dramming. Its the sort of whisky you pour when you want to stay sharp and maybe you need to think. Maybe you are angry with yourself, maybe its been a bad day and you’re beating yourself up about something. This is a dram for odd and specific occasions. It doesn’t fit in with the usual to and fro, the common tick tock motion of life, its a wildcard, a madcap rather than a nightcap. So lets have some madcap music courtesy of Mr Zappa.

Frank Zappa there with Stinkfoot, live in 1974. A mystical guitar player, nightmarish claymation imagery ‘solo’, a traveling circus for a band and the sum total is: some kind of genius. Music to rouse you from dark moods and stormy days, without madness there can be no sanity and sometimes sanity needs a night off, Zappa and reckless Rosebanks are evidently for those nights.

Folk folk folk. You might think that Scotch Whisky’s natural musical alliance lies with folk music, just as you might imagine bourbon’s does with the blues. I think this is wrong but it isn’t going to stop me folksing it up a bit today. Its yet another gentle sunny day in Glasgow, one of those afternoons where all you want to do is drift in and out of the day on the wings of dreamy acoustic melodies, where the haze of the city and its sounds remain just a distant aural canvas.

Roy Harper there with Forever. Roy Harper is one of those songwriters that you feel has slipped under the radar a little more than they deserve over the years. Many of the musicians and big names love him and know who he is, Led Zeppelin payed him tribute with Hats Off To Roy Harper, yet he remains a somewhat elusive artist in the public consciousness at large. This is a great shame as he has a wealth of dreamy folk music that runs literally right out of his fingertips and into you nervous system, and you don’t even need to be stoned to dig it to the full. Forever is probably my favorite song of Roy’s, there is something about the dreamy, circular perfection of the melody, the way it floats and glides so effortlessly like an echo in water. It is a simple love song but it really is one of the better examples of what folk can be, it overcomes its own potential cliches to be something beautiful in its own right, something standalone. It is, in other words, a perfect sunny afternoon ballad, one to get lost to and dream to, one to snooze or dram quietly over. Speaking of which we need a whisky, one that is summery, but also etherial and elusive, one that engages you in a slightly otherworldly fashion like the song. Also, crucially, one that we could put ice in without being shot by the Nerderati, it is summer after all and whisky has to work hard to be refreshing in the heat. Anyway I’d say Bladnoch.

Bladnoch: more citrus fresh than a bottle of Flash and better value than an all you can drink season ticket to Wetherspoon's.

This is the new 20yo single cask just released by the distillery, leaving aside the fact that, like all their releases, it tears up the rule book on fair pricing, lets focus on what’s in the bottle. It is classic Bladnoch, that is to say, very citrusy, buttery and elegant, grassy fresh and quite ‘lowlandy’ if such a term even exists. It really is a summer dram and it could also take a cube of ice I dare say. I’ve always loved Bladnoch, it feels like the underdog, its one of the few distilleries that manages to produce a distinctive and entertaining whisky without the use of peat or elaborate distillation methods. It could easily go with the next track also but I’ll try and find something else, if for nothing else then to stop myself drifting ever further into the realms of laziness.

I admit a great personal attachment to this song, it was one of my earliest memories of music, hearing my Dad play it on Guitar. I have always loved Borderland by Archie Fisher, it speaks of escape, of travel, of a love for the outdoors, of freedom. Archie sings it with resonance and a profound sense of honesty, you can hear how much the sentiment chimes with him. Its not the hippy tinged dreamscape of Forever but a much more rootsy, down to earth affair. He sings of being old and lost in brooding cities, of crowd given anonymity, he sings about something we can all fall victim to from time to time; the occasional wretchedness of the city. Its a song that resonates deeply with its listener, its just a shame that not many people have heard it. As such we need a whisky with a little more grit, a whisky that packs more of a punch, emotionally as well as texturally.

St Magdalene, a great loss.

St Magdalene is easily one of my favourite distilleries, or maybe I should say whiskies, the distillery is long gone these days, dull flats now standing in its stead. It is not a lowlander in the way we are asked to think of Lowland whiskies these days, as light and refreshing and zippy. It is an austere, dry, beautifully oily and minerally affair, a whisky that carries poignancy and flavour in equal measure. It is also a fitting spirit to accompany the song, its not quite in the Borderlands itself but it isn’t far and the granite like austerity and complexity of the spirit seems to affect the palate in the same way the song affects the ears. They are both meaningful diversions in an otherwise meaningless, lazy sunny day. There are still a few bottlings of St Magdalene kicking about but the Douglas Laing offerings are always consistent and of a high quality, and above all they express the distillery character quite well. So put on Borderland by Archie Fisher and close your eyes with a mouthful of the Saint and let it all carry you away from whatever corner of whatever city you happen to be in.