Post by Rolling Thunder on Dec 19, 2015 20:25:13 GMT -5
So, these are my tasting notes, restaurant reviews, and generally spiteful thoughts on other things better men have spent far more time creating, than I will tearing down.
Whisky:
Aberfeldy 12: So far, is proving to be a very pleasant, classic Highland dram. Quite smooth, but still with a raw edge and burn to it, it's quite easy to drink. Pleasantly sweet and fruity. Worth around the £25-30 mark. Does well for being matured in the oak casks, definitely has something different to it.
Aberlour 12: A light, fruity Highland, pleasantly easy to drink but not particularly stunning.
Arran 10: A very pleasant dram. Fruity, smooth, very creamy, with just a hint of maritime notes to remind you of it's island heritage.
Ardberg 10: A very subtle Islay, with just a hint of peat and phenol, not particular smokey. Wonderfully delicate, but a bit expensive for what it is at £47 a bottle, and edged out by the cheaper-and-superior Caol Ila.
Auchentoshan American Oak: Honestly? Barely worth £20. Incredibly simple flavour of vanilla and more vanilla, raw alcohol edge. Okay if you really like bourbon. Mixes well with ginger beer.
Auchentoshan Heartwood: A wonderfully sherried expression of Auchentoshans classic malt, this whisky has a lot to offer; complex, rich, fruity nose that leads on to an equally delightful flavour; full of rich flavours.
Balvennie 12, Doublewood: Excellent. Vanilla, sweet, smooth, gentle with just a hint of roughness. An extravagant example of a good Speyside.
Balvennie 14, Carribean Cask: God-tier. £42? Worth every penny. Best unpeated whisky I've ever hand. Sweet. So sweet. So splendidly rich and full, without being overpowering, the full mellowness of the rum soaking into the beautifully matured malt.
Bowmore 12: Yup. Just yup. Smokey, hint of phenols, lighter than Laphroig but heavier than the Caol Ila. Pairs beautifully with the Balvennie as a tasting partner.
Bowmore Small Batch: Huh. Initial tastings suggest a lighter, smoother but less complex version of the Bowmore 12. Drinkable, gently smokey, no phenols, slightly bitter edge. Drinkable and agreeable at £25.
Bowmore Black Rock : A fantastic blend of sherry cask and prayed malt, at a fantastic price point. Inexpensive, a gorgeous, sherried nose, and a palatte blending smoothed out phenols and wonderful fruit flavours.
Bowmore 15 Darkest: Initial tastings have proven pleasant, though disappointing for the price point. Seems to have lost some of complexity of the 12 in the process, with the sherry richness masking out the smokiness of the peat . Further tasting suggests that, while a perfectly pleasant dram, it really lacks any quality to justify it's £55 price mark.
Yeah, easy drinking stuff. Smooth, sweet, smokey, but for £55 I bloody expect more.
Bunnahabhain 12: Utterly dismal. A £20 whisky in a £35 package. Harsh, but lacking in any real complexity; heavy bodied without anything to show for it in tastes (you could vaguely taste the too-old barrels it had been aged in), slightly peaty, no real sweetness or distinctive tastes beyond that. Mellowed with a teaspoon of water but certainly not worth writing home about.
Caol Ila 12: Glorious Islay magic. Light, gentle, pleasantly easy peatsmoke with little phenol tastes, a good sipping dram. Bit of smoke, bit of sea air, bit of the smooth sweetness more characteristic of a Highland. Best Islay for quality.
Clynelish 14: Holy fornicate. Oban got beaten. A brinier, more complex West Highland, with strong notes of sea air in the ageing of the barrel. An absolute favourite; and £10 a bottle cheaper than the Oban. Buy it.
Dalwhinnie 15: The gentle malt? Nah. Sweet initial taste, peppery aftertaste. Good, solid Highland, with a pleasant bite of a body. Decently drinkable.
Deanston 12: Another classic Highland; indeed, along with the Victoriana and the Aberfeldy 12, this is one I'd call a "Scotch-drinkers Scotch". It dispenses with peat, undue sweetness or trickery, and delivers a satisfying, complex and archetypal experience; a wonderfully spicy, full-bodied palette, peppery, with a smooth, lingering aftertaste of the spices.
Deveron 12 (of MacDuff): A bit of a disappointment. Fruity, yes, sherried, yes, but has a bit of a bitter taste on the mid-palatte, and is rather disappointing for the price point.
Glenkinchie 12: Grassy, a touch bitter, but full of complex, sweet-and-floral flavours. Quintessentially Edinburgh. Has that wonderful, cut-grass aroma of the Lowlands.
GlenLivet 12: This is my baseline. Medium in every sense, I've drank a lot in my lifetime and still can't figure her out. I find it fairly heavy-bodied, but not unpleasantly so, and it has the mellow richness of a Highland.
Glenlivet Founders Reserve: A full Founders vs. 12 review is coming.
GlenLivet 15, French Oak: Tastes like the decking on HMS Temeraire. Really wanted to like it, one of the first higher-end malts I tried for myself, and was interesting at times, but honest to god it's just OAK with more OAK.
Glenlivet 18: Dangerously smooth, almost too sweet and easy to drink. It just invites you to take in more, and doesn't really ask too much thinking of it. Bit much for £60.
Glen Scotia, Victoriana: Huh. A magnificent, complex beast of oil, toffee and raw ethanol, with the wonderful, burnt-toffee edge of the freshly-charred casks spoiling the palate wonderfully. Excellent stuff. Genuinely worth £75 a bottle.
Highland Park 12: Gold standard for affordable malts. Honeyed, a touch briney, with a pleasant, peppery aftertaste.
Knockando Season 12: Initially seemed disappointingly sharp, but has really grown on me of recent. A light, fruity dram with a hint of sharpness, slightly oily, followed by a classic toffee aftertaste.
Laphroig 10: A pleasant middle road between the full bore of Lagevullan and the softness of Bowmore. Laden with smoke, a pleasant taste of phenols that linger on the palatte and improve with drinking.
Laphroig Select: The unaged, bourbon cask-matured version of Laphroig. Moderately inferior; smooth, soft, pleasantly smokey, but without the phenol complexities of the oak-aged 10 year old. Hint of citruses notes, as is common with bourbon-matured malts.
Laphroig Quarter Cask: See the 10, but with the complexity dialled to 11. Full, slightly more mellow, but all the more rewarding for the stronger, harsher flavours, the stronger phenols and sweeter malt blending together to form something with a certain...je ne se quais?
A deep, complex bouquet of peat. The soft taste of mountain water, laced with a rich, subtle caramel tone, and and the classic, long kiss of slightly bitter phenols, ethanol, and the smoke of the peat fire, lingering on my tongue.
Leonard Cohen is playing in the background. "Hallelujah".
Laphroig Triple Wood: Huh. Smooth, sweet initial taste, a complex mid-pallate of sweet vanilla and biscuity sherry, and a lingering kiss of peat. Expensive for what it is, but dangerously easy drinking.
Macallan 1824 Gold: An interesting beastie. Sweet, with a kind of burnt, flavour, somewhere between toast and cinder toffee, with a slightly sharp, astringent/bitter aftertaste.
Negative note: The quality control on the bottles must be poor, as the fornicating cork has started disintegrating. Into the scotch.
Oban, 14 Year Old: Huh. Not what I expected at all. Gentle. Really gentle. Smooth, a barest hint of sea air, quite fruity. Probably too complex for my palate. Good, maybe not £48 good.
Old Pultney 12: Sea air, pepper, salt. Bit rough, likely needs ageing, but decent enough.
Scapa 16: Heather honey, sea air and fire. Beautiful, and a true siren song, forever on the edge of perception.
Scapa Skiren: Oddly, a more substantive, cheaper offering; stronger notes of sea air, heather, honey and general Orcadian-ness. Not dissimilar to Highland Park, but a touch sweeter and maltier.
Springbank 10: Huh. Not really worth £35. I can taste the oily, greasy style characteristic of Campbeltown malts, but it's just too unrefined, needs more ageing. The 12 will likely be better. And equally overpriced.
Strathisla 12: I was initially very sceptical of this. But I've warmed to it. Not worth £35, will pick up when reduced to £30. Has some complexities that I've definitely missed/forgotten, but I tend to miss the subtler points of Highland malts, despite their making up the bulk of my drinking.
Singleton 12: Good. Bloody good. The definitive Speyside, only outclassed by the Balvennie
Singleton: Spey Cascade: Huh. Pretty simple, dangerously easy to drink, mellow, agreeable and sweet, but not much more to it.
Tomatin 12: A sweet, sherried dram, with the rich, cake-like sweetness of the sherry coming through to the fore, and a fruity, light taste at the end.
Tomintoul 16: A challenger to the Balvennie! Beautifully smooth, sweet speyside, with a rich caramel-to-toffee flavour that just tempts you in and keeps you in a Nirvana of sweet, gentle alcohol. Up there with the Balvennie 14 in quality, but a touch more expensive at £50 per bottle, and very different; a classic, oak-aged malt.
Market conclusions:
"American Oakism": At the moment, it seems there is a glut of distillers producing an unaged whisky, matured in bourbon casks. Having sampled the Auchentoshan, Laphroig, Bowmore, Glenlivet and Singleton (Lowland, 2 Islays, Highland and Speyside) versions of these, my conclusions are:
First/second fill bourbon casks must be fornicateing cheap, because everyone is doing it.
They do produce a pleasant, vanilla smoothness to the whisky that you do not get from the standard oak casks.
That said, these unaged, bourbon-matured versions are uniformly inferior to the standard expressions. The bourbon cask maturation seems to smooth out a lot of the complexities in the whisky; in particular, the unpeated whiskies seem to suffer badly, with their subtler notes lost in the mix. They aren't strictly bad (well, except the Founders Reserve, which is just fornicateing dire).
Distilleries which do fewer products - From Oban, with it's exactly one whisky, to Tobemory and Caol Ila and Lagavullan, tend to produce really interesting, characterful whiskies, and they are worth the premium.
Whisky:
Aberfeldy 12: So far, is proving to be a very pleasant, classic Highland dram. Quite smooth, but still with a raw edge and burn to it, it's quite easy to drink. Pleasantly sweet and fruity. Worth around the £25-30 mark. Does well for being matured in the oak casks, definitely has something different to it.
Aberlour 12: A light, fruity Highland, pleasantly easy to drink but not particularly stunning.
Arran 10: A very pleasant dram. Fruity, smooth, very creamy, with just a hint of maritime notes to remind you of it's island heritage.
Ardberg 10: A very subtle Islay, with just a hint of peat and phenol, not particular smokey. Wonderfully delicate, but a bit expensive for what it is at £47 a bottle, and edged out by the cheaper-and-superior Caol Ila.
Auchentoshan American Oak: Honestly? Barely worth £20. Incredibly simple flavour of vanilla and more vanilla, raw alcohol edge. Okay if you really like bourbon. Mixes well with ginger beer.
Auchentoshan Heartwood: A wonderfully sherried expression of Auchentoshans classic malt, this whisky has a lot to offer; complex, rich, fruity nose that leads on to an equally delightful flavour; full of rich flavours.
Balvennie 12, Doublewood: Excellent. Vanilla, sweet, smooth, gentle with just a hint of roughness. An extravagant example of a good Speyside.
Balvennie 14, Carribean Cask: God-tier. £42? Worth every penny. Best unpeated whisky I've ever hand. Sweet. So sweet. So splendidly rich and full, without being overpowering, the full mellowness of the rum soaking into the beautifully matured malt.
Bowmore 12: Yup. Just yup. Smokey, hint of phenols, lighter than Laphroig but heavier than the Caol Ila. Pairs beautifully with the Balvennie as a tasting partner.
Bowmore Small Batch: Huh. Initial tastings suggest a lighter, smoother but less complex version of the Bowmore 12. Drinkable, gently smokey, no phenols, slightly bitter edge. Drinkable and agreeable at £25.
Bowmore Black Rock : A fantastic blend of sherry cask and prayed malt, at a fantastic price point. Inexpensive, a gorgeous, sherried nose, and a palatte blending smoothed out phenols and wonderful fruit flavours.
Bowmore 15 Darkest: Initial tastings have proven pleasant, though disappointing for the price point. Seems to have lost some of complexity of the 12 in the process, with the sherry richness masking out the smokiness of the peat . Further tasting suggests that, while a perfectly pleasant dram, it really lacks any quality to justify it's £55 price mark.
Yeah, easy drinking stuff. Smooth, sweet, smokey, but for £55 I bloody expect more.
Bunnahabhain 12: Utterly dismal. A £20 whisky in a £35 package. Harsh, but lacking in any real complexity; heavy bodied without anything to show for it in tastes (you could vaguely taste the too-old barrels it had been aged in), slightly peaty, no real sweetness or distinctive tastes beyond that. Mellowed with a teaspoon of water but certainly not worth writing home about.
Caol Ila 12: Glorious Islay magic. Light, gentle, pleasantly easy peatsmoke with little phenol tastes, a good sipping dram. Bit of smoke, bit of sea air, bit of the smooth sweetness more characteristic of a Highland. Best Islay for quality.
Clynelish 14: Holy fornicate. Oban got beaten. A brinier, more complex West Highland, with strong notes of sea air in the ageing of the barrel. An absolute favourite; and £10 a bottle cheaper than the Oban. Buy it.
Dalwhinnie 15: The gentle malt? Nah. Sweet initial taste, peppery aftertaste. Good, solid Highland, with a pleasant bite of a body. Decently drinkable.
Deanston 12: Another classic Highland; indeed, along with the Victoriana and the Aberfeldy 12, this is one I'd call a "Scotch-drinkers Scotch". It dispenses with peat, undue sweetness or trickery, and delivers a satisfying, complex and archetypal experience; a wonderfully spicy, full-bodied palette, peppery, with a smooth, lingering aftertaste of the spices.
Deveron 12 (of MacDuff): A bit of a disappointment. Fruity, yes, sherried, yes, but has a bit of a bitter taste on the mid-palatte, and is rather disappointing for the price point.
Glenkinchie 12: Grassy, a touch bitter, but full of complex, sweet-and-floral flavours. Quintessentially Edinburgh. Has that wonderful, cut-grass aroma of the Lowlands.
GlenLivet 12: This is my baseline. Medium in every sense, I've drank a lot in my lifetime and still can't figure her out. I find it fairly heavy-bodied, but not unpleasantly so, and it has the mellow richness of a Highland.
Glenlivet Founders Reserve: A full Founders vs. 12 review is coming.
GlenLivet 15, French Oak: Tastes like the decking on HMS Temeraire. Really wanted to like it, one of the first higher-end malts I tried for myself, and was interesting at times, but honest to god it's just OAK with more OAK.
Glenlivet 18: Dangerously smooth, almost too sweet and easy to drink. It just invites you to take in more, and doesn't really ask too much thinking of it. Bit much for £60.
Glen Scotia, Victoriana: Huh. A magnificent, complex beast of oil, toffee and raw ethanol, with the wonderful, burnt-toffee edge of the freshly-charred casks spoiling the palate wonderfully. Excellent stuff. Genuinely worth £75 a bottle.
Highland Park 12: Gold standard for affordable malts. Honeyed, a touch briney, with a pleasant, peppery aftertaste.
Knockando Season 12: Initially seemed disappointingly sharp, but has really grown on me of recent. A light, fruity dram with a hint of sharpness, slightly oily, followed by a classic toffee aftertaste.
Laphroig 10: A pleasant middle road between the full bore of Lagevullan and the softness of Bowmore. Laden with smoke, a pleasant taste of phenols that linger on the palatte and improve with drinking.
Laphroig Select: The unaged, bourbon cask-matured version of Laphroig. Moderately inferior; smooth, soft, pleasantly smokey, but without the phenol complexities of the oak-aged 10 year old. Hint of citruses notes, as is common with bourbon-matured malts.
Laphroig Quarter Cask: See the 10, but with the complexity dialled to 11. Full, slightly more mellow, but all the more rewarding for the stronger, harsher flavours, the stronger phenols and sweeter malt blending together to form something with a certain...je ne se quais?
A deep, complex bouquet of peat. The soft taste of mountain water, laced with a rich, subtle caramel tone, and and the classic, long kiss of slightly bitter phenols, ethanol, and the smoke of the peat fire, lingering on my tongue.
Leonard Cohen is playing in the background. "Hallelujah".
Laphroig Triple Wood: Huh. Smooth, sweet initial taste, a complex mid-pallate of sweet vanilla and biscuity sherry, and a lingering kiss of peat. Expensive for what it is, but dangerously easy drinking.
Macallan 1824 Gold: An interesting beastie. Sweet, with a kind of burnt, flavour, somewhere between toast and cinder toffee, with a slightly sharp, astringent/bitter aftertaste.
Negative note: The quality control on the bottles must be poor, as the fornicating cork has started disintegrating. Into the scotch.
Oban, 14 Year Old: Huh. Not what I expected at all. Gentle. Really gentle. Smooth, a barest hint of sea air, quite fruity. Probably too complex for my palate. Good, maybe not £48 good.
Old Pultney 12: Sea air, pepper, salt. Bit rough, likely needs ageing, but decent enough.
Scapa 16: Heather honey, sea air and fire. Beautiful, and a true siren song, forever on the edge of perception.
Scapa Skiren: Oddly, a more substantive, cheaper offering; stronger notes of sea air, heather, honey and general Orcadian-ness. Not dissimilar to Highland Park, but a touch sweeter and maltier.
Springbank 10: Huh. Not really worth £35. I can taste the oily, greasy style characteristic of Campbeltown malts, but it's just too unrefined, needs more ageing. The 12 will likely be better. And equally overpriced.
Strathisla 12: I was initially very sceptical of this. But I've warmed to it. Not worth £35, will pick up when reduced to £30. Has some complexities that I've definitely missed/forgotten, but I tend to miss the subtler points of Highland malts, despite their making up the bulk of my drinking.
Singleton 12: Good. Bloody good. The definitive Speyside, only outclassed by the Balvennie
Singleton: Spey Cascade: Huh. Pretty simple, dangerously easy to drink, mellow, agreeable and sweet, but not much more to it.
Tomatin 12: A sweet, sherried dram, with the rich, cake-like sweetness of the sherry coming through to the fore, and a fruity, light taste at the end.
Tomintoul 16: A challenger to the Balvennie! Beautifully smooth, sweet speyside, with a rich caramel-to-toffee flavour that just tempts you in and keeps you in a Nirvana of sweet, gentle alcohol. Up there with the Balvennie 14 in quality, but a touch more expensive at £50 per bottle, and very different; a classic, oak-aged malt.
Market conclusions:
"American Oakism": At the moment, it seems there is a glut of distillers producing an unaged whisky, matured in bourbon casks. Having sampled the Auchentoshan, Laphroig, Bowmore, Glenlivet and Singleton (Lowland, 2 Islays, Highland and Speyside) versions of these, my conclusions are:
First/second fill bourbon casks must be fornicateing cheap, because everyone is doing it.
They do produce a pleasant, vanilla smoothness to the whisky that you do not get from the standard oak casks.
That said, these unaged, bourbon-matured versions are uniformly inferior to the standard expressions. The bourbon cask maturation seems to smooth out a lot of the complexities in the whisky; in particular, the unpeated whiskies seem to suffer badly, with their subtler notes lost in the mix. They aren't strictly bad (well, except the Founders Reserve, which is just fornicateing dire).
Distilleries which do fewer products - From Oban, with it's exactly one whisky, to Tobemory and Caol Ila and Lagavullan, tend to produce really interesting, characterful whiskies, and they are worth the premium.