Springbank 15 Rum Wood Whisky Review!

A 15-year old Springbank that was fully matured in rum casks? Gimme gimme!

Following on from the delicious Springbank 14-year old Bourbon Wood that was released in late 2017 (reviewed here), there's a new arrival in the 'wood' range from this undeniably old-school Campbeltown distillery. There are a few differences, aside from the cask type of course, between these two bottlings. While the Bourbon Wood was fully matured in both first-fill and refill ex-bourbon barrels, this Rum Wood expression only states that it was matured in rum barrels, which means they were probably first-fill, since Springbank aren't afraid to declare if a cask was refill. The big difference though is that the Rum Wood does not seem to have been bottled at cask strength, weighing in at 51.0% ABV, while the Bourbon Wood was cask strength at 55.8%. That said, this is one very exciting malt. It was only released in August this year, so it won't be in Australia until early 2020, but I was lucky enough to trade samples with a fellow whisky geek who ordered a bottle direct from the UK. As I mentioned in that Bourbon Wood review linked above, these bottlings are a continuation of the "wood finish" range from this small Campbeltown distillery, but they've had a face-lift to bring them into line with the current Springbank packaging. This range has previously included some very exotic cask types such as Calvados (apple brandy) and Gaja Barolo (Spanish red wine) casks, among many others. So it'll be very interesting to see what comes along in future, but personally this rum cask-matured example is extremely exciting, and I've been looking forward to trying it since pictures first started appearing on social media.

Why am I so excited for this release? Well, for three reasons really. Firstly, because rum cask maturation & finishing is becoming more popular in single malts, and it seems to work! Most of the examples that I've tasted to date have been very good. Secondly, because despite having one of the most diverse ranges of exotic cask maturation & finishing, this is a first for Springbank. While they've released rum cask finished whiskies before, and there have been a few of the mysterious and elusive "cage bottlings" that were matured in rum casks, this is a standard albeit limited release that was 100% fully-matured in rum casks, and this is the first time they've done such a thing. And thirdly, because I've been lucky enough to taste one of those aforementioned Springbank cage bottlings that was matured in a second-fill rum cask, and it was completely and utterly brilliant. The dirty, funky Campbeltown spirit mixed with the funky brown sugar & tropical fruit from the rum cask created a truly brilliant whisky experience. So I have high hopes for this one! Actually, hold on, let's add a fourth reason, which is simply because I'm a huge Springbank fan, and I can't get enough of their whisky. Now you may notice that they haven't specified the type of rum casks used, or where they came from. That could be down to a few different reasons. There a may have been a mix of different casks of different origins in the vatting, or the supplier of the casks may not want those details made public, or finally that they simply don't know any specifics, other than the fact that they were rum casks. Personally I'm betting it's a mix of reason one and reason three. This situation is nothing new though, many rum cask-finished or -matured whiskies do not state which type of rum those casks previously held, or where they came from, most likely for one or more of those same three reasons.

Springbank Distillery produces three different single malts under the one roof. They are the un-peated and triple-distilled Hazelburn, and the heavily-peated (to 50-55 ppm, but don't expect an Islay-type experience) and double-distilled Longrow, and finally the namesake Springbank malt, that is distilled 2.5-times, and distilled from lightly-peated malt (peated to 15 ppm) - all of which happens at the distillery, aside from the growing of the barley itself. From malting, to milling, to mashing, fermenting and distilling, maturation and bottling, it all happens in this seemingly eclectic group of old stone buildings hidden in the middle of Campbeltown centre. Hazelburn and Longrow spirits each make up 10% of the distillery's production, with the namesake Springbank taking up the remaining 80% - and with an annual production capacity of just 750,000 litres, there really isn't that much of this precious liquid to go around. So when they manage to release 9,000 bottles of a limited bottling like this, it tends to sell out very quickly around the world. As mentioned, this whisky hasn't landed in Australia yet and from all reports it isn't expected until early 2020 (boo!), but it's essentially completely sold out in Britain and Europe already. So when it does land down under, don't expect it to last very long! So, a 15-year old Springbank that was fully matured in rum casks, before being bottled at 51.0% ABV. Being a product of Springbank Distillery of course means that it is non-chill filtered and naturally coloured. Very exciting, so let's get to it!

Springbank 15 Year Old Rum Wood, 51.0%. Campbeltown, Scotland.
Fully-matured in un-named rum casks, presumably first-fill. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 9,000 bottles.

Colour: Gold.

Nose: Surprisingly mild to start with, white some white pepper, sweet cream cheese, a little flint and a light ashy & cold smoke. With time & warmth it becomes more typically Springbank, but none of those notes go away. The farmyard & dunnage warehouse "funk" is there, but it's definitely a milder version than usual, they're not in the forefront. There's also some red apple, menthol, and a brown sugar caramel.

Texture: Medium weight. Very oily, sweet and lightly funky. No spirit-y heat at all. 

Taste: Sweet and surprisingly light again, but it's still a Springbank. More red apple and sweet cream cheese. White pepper and cold ashy smoke again, and some rum funk shows itself - tropical fruit, old olive oil, dry grass, a little leather and flinty menthol. The earthy & funky dunnage notes are there, but they're a supporting act in this dram.

Finish: Medium length. More white pepper & sweet cream cheese, a little vanilla pod, more grassy & flinty notes. Then more ashy cold smoke, a little dry wood and more of that brown sugar caramel.

Score: 3.5 out of 5.

Notes: Ah, Springbank. Is there anything they can't do? It's not as funky or dirty as I expected, but it's a very tasty whisky! While it's a lighter & sweeter style of Springbank, the typical funk is still there, although it's more subdued and in the background than you might expect from this Campbeltown staple. It's extremely well balanced too, nothing is dominant or overwhelming, and it's extremely easy drinking at 51% ABV - could this be a summer's day Springbank? I think so, and I'll gladly volunteer to test that hypothesis. As with everything that Springbank touch there's plenty of character here, and it's a nice new side to the distillery, with a lighter, more balanced and almost refreshing experience compared to the darker, dirtier and funkier examples like the 12 Cask Strength.

I'm thinking that cage bottling set me up with the wrong expectations here, because on it's own merit this is a seriously tasty whisky. The nature of those cage bottlings is that they're a one-off, and they're completely unique, so I should've known better. This Rum Wood expression should definitely be on your radar, and I can't wait for it to finally turn up in Australia.

Cheers!

Ledaig Oloroso Cask 2004 Whisky Review!

A distillery-exclusive cask sample, to be exact!

This nondescript little 200ml bottle was a must-buy on my second pilgrimage to Scotland, which included a trip to the Isle of Mull and of course it's only distillery, Tobermory. After nosing and tasting this one I couldn't leave without it, but I should've bought a dozen. Not that I had the luggage space or weight allowance to do so, of course, but you get my point! I've previously reviewed the second cask sample that they had for sale at the time, a red wine cask-matured Tobermory, here, and it was brilliant as well, although completely different in character of course. It was very fruity, sweet and high strength at 62%, while this Ledaig is more mellow, but deeper and darker in character. The distillery was in the midst of it's two-year production shutdown at the time of our visit, which involved a lot of major maintenance, including replacing two of the stills and four of their wooden washbacks. In fact the distillery only resumed production earlier this year, and they're still planning to replace their other two stills - this time without shutting down completely. While it's never quite the same to visit a distillery during what they call "silent season" when they aren't producing spirit, Tobermory were still open for tours and tastings, so not all was lost and it was definitely worth the half-hour ferry trip from Oban. In fact the island and the namesake town of Tobermory, complete with it's famous multi-coloured houses around the harbour, were well worth the trip on their own, even without the resident distillery taken into account!

Tobermory Distillery is in the area of the town previously-named Ledaig (pronounced "Le-Chayg" or "Le-Chig"), and the distillery originally bore the same name from 1798 (although it wasn't officially licensed until 1823) all the way through to 1979, when it was re-named Tobermory. It's not quite that simple though, because this distillery has been through some very rough patches in it's 220-year history. In fact it has been shut down / mothballed for almost half of it's life! It first closed in 1837, not even 40 years after being founded and only 14 after being licensed, and was closed for a whopping 41 years. It was then purchased by DCL, a precursor of today's Diageo, in 1916, who then also closed it down for another 40 year period in 1930, before being purchased by a shipping conglomerate in 1972 who went bankrupt three years later. The distillery was then purchased by a property group who re-opened it under the name Tobermory, but that only lasted three years, subsequently closing again for another 11 years and resulting in the distillery warehouses being converted into apartments. You certainly would not have wanted to be a distillery employee during those times! Thankfully Burn Stewart purchased the distillery in 1993, giving some much-needed stability, and since the purchase of that company by South African corporation Distell in 2013 it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. In fact Distell seem to be heavily investing in their three Scotch whisky distilleries (Deanston & Bunnahabhain being the others) with major repair, maintenance and general face-lifting work underway. Which in Bunnahabhain's case was very sorely needed!

The distillery re-vitalised the Ledaig name in 2007, giving the moniker to their peated spirit, while the un-peated brand remained Tobermory. If you were to look at all of that tumultuous history you could be forgiven for assuming that the distillery wasn't anything special, but that's certainly not the case. In fact if you ask me it's one of the best examples of an Island single malt with a nice coastal influence and weighty, almost "funky" & dirty spirit character, particularly in the case of the peated malts. Ledaig is peated to around 35 ppm on the malted barley, sourced from commercial maltings on the mainland, and is a worthy competitor for the peated malts coming from Islay. This particular Ledaig is a cask strength cask sample that has been fully-matured in a single first-fill Oloroso sherry cask for 14 years, before being bottled at 53.4% in late 2018. None of the single malts from Tobermory are chill filtered or artificially coloured, and this is no exception - great stuff! The Ledaig spirit seems to work very well with sherry casks, including the 18-year old official bottling (reviewed here) which is finished in Oloroso casks, and the best example that I've tasted to date would be this 10-year old cask strength single cask from Signatory Vintage. So let's see if this cask sample from the distillery can beat it!

Ledaig 2004 Oloroso cask, 53.4%. Tobermory, Isle of Mull, Scotland.
Distillery exclusive 200ml hand-filled cask sample, fully-matured in a single Oloroso sherry cask, bottled late 2018. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Dark amber.

Nose: Dirty, funky Ledaig yummy-ness. Deep, muddy, damp peat, lanolin (sheepswool oil / grease), rum & raisin ice cream, engine oil & dirty old bearing grease - or even saw-blade oil-based coolant. Then lovely "rancio" (nutty, leathery, fermented / cured salami) old sherry. A nutty & crumbly vintage cheddar. Sweet & spicy cured pork and dusty, damp old wood - like a dirty old barnyard. Some dried raspberry & dark chocolate. Yes please!

Texture: Beautiful. Medium weight, ashy, dirty & muddy. No spirit-y heat at all.

Taste: Dirty, spicy & ashy. More deep, muddy peat, a few dirty old seashells, and more dark chocolate. Dry ashy & spicy smoke, more lovely nutty "rancio" old sherry & cured pork, more crumbly vintage cheddar, more dried raspberry and some sweet date syrup with a touch of sea salt. Again, yes please!

Finish: Long. A little liquorice and ginger spice behind that ashy & spicy smoke, then more lanolin, more old wooden farm buildings and dirty old grease. That muddy peat and sweet raisins again, plus some orange peel and engine oil.

Score: 4 out of 5.

Notes: Delicious dram. It does slightly remind me of the standard Ledaig 18-year old, but with more sherry and loads more "funk". This is easily one of the dirtiest Ledaigs that I've had in quite some time! That lanolin and farmyard note is very enjoyable, although this would not be a whisky for the newcomer - you need to be fan of the dirtier, more characterful malts to appreciate something like this Ledaig. This malt really does give you an image of an old sheep farm on a damp Hebridean island - like the Isle of Mull, for example! It could possibly be confused with a similarly-aged Longrow, which is high praise, but it's a little deeper & darker, and it's very well balanced between the muddy peat, dirty & funky farmyard notes and that great old sherry cask. If you're a fan of this style of malt, line up something like this Ledaig alongside a sherry-matured cask strength Longrow and a sherry-matured cask strength Benromach. I guarantee you'll be in for one hell of a ride!

I do wish sherry-matured Ledaigs were easier to come by, especially when served at cask strength, because they can be utterly fantastic. This really is an under-rated peated single malt that easily stands up to the heavyweights from Islay and Campbeltown. Unfortunately this is now the last liquid souvenir that I have from our trip to Mull, and yes, I definitely think I should've bought a dozen...

Cheers!

Signatory Vintage Caol Ila Whisky Review!

A single first-fill bourbon cask Caol Ila, bottled at cask strength. This dram has been described to me as a worthy challenger to the delicious Port Askaig 100 Proof, so the level of anticipation is quite high!

Selected by Melbourne's The Whisky Company, who are the Australian importer & distributor for independent bottlers (and Edradour owners) Signatory Vintage, this single cask was only sold in Australia, both directly through The Whisky Company themselves, and through Single Malt Whisky Club Australia (singlemalt.com.au - that'll be easy to remember!) as their malt of the month. Established in 2005 and founded by whisky fans Brad Wright and Andy Anderson, the free-to-join SMWCA - for short - is essentially a subscription service that selects one bottling of whisky each month, and then sends it out to their members - with an opt-out option for each bottling via email, of course. Those bottlings have ranged from lesser-known independent bottlings, to small-batch Australian single malts, to rarely-seen whiskies from "new world" distilleries, and of course plenty of very tasty single malts from Scotland. As far as I'm aware the SMWCA was the first service of its type in Australia, and let's remember that our whisky 'scene' would have been very different back in 2005 - whereas it is now at an all-time high, back then you would not have seen anywhere near the relatively huge range of single malts available that we enjoy today. So it would've taken quite a lot of  brainpower and original thinking - and no doubt also quite a lot of whisky - to launch this sort of operation back then.

This Caol Ila is something out of the norm for the SMWCA, though, because this is a cask strength, single cask, heavily peated single malt from the largest distillery on the glorious Isle of Islay. At the relatively young age of nine years, 312 bottles were yielded by this single first-fill ex-bourbon hogshead (re-coopered 250-litre cask), and as is the case with all single cask bottlings, once it's gone, it can never be repeated. It's not a very common thing to find a Caol Ila that has been matured in a first-fill cask either, most - particularly the official bottlings from owners Diageo - spend their years in refill casks, whether they are destined to be blended away in mass-market blended whiskies like Johnnie Walker, or bottled as a single malt. Likewise most of those official bottlings are bottled at 43% ABV, and are chill filtered and occasionally also artificially coloured. There are some exceptions, but unless you're lucky enough to snag a bottle of the distillery's annual Feis Ile or Distillery Exclusive bottlings or the un-peated expressions that are part of the annual Special Releases, you're probably going to need to turn to the independent bottlers for your high-strength Caol Ila salvation. Thankfully it's quite an easy thing to find a good quality independent bottling of Caol Ila, with bottlers like Gordon & MacPhail and Signatory Vintage regularly releasing cask strength expressions from the distillery, as do some of the smaller companies, often in different cask types and with more natural presentation as well.

Caol Ila is often seen as a softer, more gentle entry into Islay's peated malts, and for the standard 12-year old official bottling that's true, but there are certainly exceptions. When bottled at cask strength and without chill filtration or added colouring, this unglamorous (see above photo) and often under-appreciated workhorse of a distillery - producing around four million litres of spirit per year - is certainly capable of producing some absolutely outstanding single malts. It's trademark grassy & malty character, alongside a softer style of peat and smoke offer a lighter and more approachable style than is often showcased by some of the other Ileachs - including its stablemate Lagavulin. But rest assured, this is still very much an Islay whisky. As an interesting aside, both of those Diageo distilleries use exactly the same malted barley, peated to 35 ppm and of course sourced from the company's Port Ellen Maltings, but the resulting malts are remarkably different. That's largely down to the different fermentation times, the size, shape, design and fill level of their stills, and the cut points used during the distillation runs, among other factors. On paper this 9-year old single cask bottling at 57.2% ABV offers one of the best opportunities to see just what Caol Ila can do when it's allowed to shine. Before you ask though, this whisky has already completely sold out from singlemalt.com.au / SMWCA, who kindly provided the sample for this review. So unless you grabbed a bottle yourself, you'll just have to sit back & enjoy the ride!

Signatory Vintage 9-year old Caol Ila single cask, 57.2%. Islay, Scotland.
Distilled 10/2009, matured in a single first-fill ex-bourbon hogshead, bottled 10/2018. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 312 bottles, exclusive to Australia.

Colour: White wine, very pale - and beautiful for it!

Nose: Yep, it's cask strength Caol Ila alright! Grassy, softly peaty and sweet - but that's a spirit sweetness, not a cask sweetness. There's some lovely fresh malted barley on show, a little vanilla and some sawdust from the cask, a herbal & grassy smoke, and a decent touch of aniseed.

Texture: Medium weight, with plenty of distillery character. Soft & warming with only a little heat.

Taste: Nice, of course! An earthy peaty-ness, much more obvious here than on the nose, but it fades quickly and is replaced by that herbal smoke, more aniseed and those grassy malted barley notes. More sweet spirit with a bit of baked vanilla custard and some buttery oak behind it. Echos of a couple of dried strawberries around the edges too.

Finish: Long. A big pinch of black pepper first, then that aniseed again which also comes back later on. Sawdust again, or maybe pencil shavings, and that lovely golden malted barley grassy-ness - not something often seen in heavily peated malts. A slight hint of meatyness too - like a touch of vegemite. More aniseed, black pepper & grassy spirit to finish.

Score: 3.5 out of 5.

Notes: Tasty stuff, as expected! It's surprisingly malt-forward and spirit-driven for a first-fill cask, in fact I'm not sure you'd pick it for a first-fill - and it's all the better for it! There are definitely shades of the aforementioned Port Askaig 100 Proof here - they're both from the same distillery after all - but this is a sweeter and more rounded malt with more cask influence (the Askaig being refill casks), and more aniseed & pepper. And before you go searching, yes, I gave both the same score! This Signatory bottling is definitely a great example of young, spirit-forward cask strength Caol Ila, with a good balance to it as well. This was clearly a well-chosen single cask, and sold (past tense) at quite a reasonable price no less.

If you've tried the standard 12-year old Caol Ila expression but would like some more power, do yourself a favour and find a bottling like this. They really show a different side to this quiet giant of an Islay distillery, and it's a side that isn't shown often enough!

Cheers!

Ardbeg Traigh Bhan Whisky Review!

The first age statement Ardbeg core range release in a long time, and one that at first glance - and I'm hoping - could echo the brilliance of the long-departed Airigh Nam Beist. Exciting stuff!

It seems these days that for every Ardbeg fan there are two very vocal Ardbeg haters. For such a brilliant distillery, they certainly get more than their fair share of criticism, mainly from the "old guard" of whisky drinkers that think we're still in the last decade, or even the last century. The industry has changed, as it has many times in the past, and it has reached new record highs because of it. The main tired old argument is that non-age statement (NAS) whiskies aren't as good as age statement whiskies, which of course is complete crap. Yes, some of the component whiskies are probably younger than the older expressions that they often replace, and yes, it's nice to know how old a whisky is, but does that omission alone make them inferior? Absolutely not. Ardbeg seem to take the brunt of this attack, which is surprising when you consider that they were certainly not the first Islay distillery to produce an NAS whisky, and they've stuck to their guns with the ever-reliable 10-year old flagship expression. We should also remember that while NAS whiskies may seem new to some, they're far & away not a new thing. In fact in the long-term scheme of things it's really the age statement whiskies that are the new thing.

Ardbeg are probably an easy target because prior to the release of the "Twenty Something" series and the very tasty 21-year old a few years ago, there was only one age statement whisky in their line-up (the 10-year old), including the rest of their core range, the delicious Uigeadail and Corryvreckan and the more recent An Oa, and the annual Ardbeg Day and other committee releases. Far more importantly to myself, Ardbeg do not chill filter or artificially colour anything in their range, and they generally bottle at 46% and above, and prefer releasing "married" fully-matured whiskies rather than the more common short-term cask finishing - which would likely be one of the reasons for their lack of age statements. So when all of those other boxes are ticked with each & every release, I can easily forgive the lack of a number on the front label!

All of that has changed with the arrival of this new release. Named Traigh Bhan (pronounced Tri-Van) after the beach on the western coast of Islay, this new 19-year old expression is going to be an annual small batch release, and is matured in ex-bourbon and ex-Oloroso sherry casks. What I do find curious is why they chose to go with a 19-year age statement rather than the more common 18. Did the whisky need that extra year of maturation? Or was that simply the age of the youngest component casks in the recipe and therefore what had to be the age statement by default? The batch code declares that the youngest component casks were distilled in 2000, less than three years after the distillery was re-opened under the current owners - and for that reason we can safely assume that there aren't a huge amount of much older casks in the mix. What is also interesting is that they're calling this whisky a core range release, which normally refers to an expression being constantly available, when this is actually an annual small-batch release, and they've already declared that each batch is going to vary in its cask recipe and also its strength. But let's forget all that, the proof is in the pudding!

An Ardbeg of this age level - if you can find one that is - can be truly excellent, and I'm hoping this release takes me back to the brilliant Airigh Nam Beist that was bottled annually in 2006, 2007 and 2008 (all from 1990 distillation) before being discontinued. But Airigh Nam Beist was fully matured in first-fill bourbon casks and was bottled at 46%, whereas Traigh Bhan was matured in both bourbon and Oloroso sherry casks, both fully-matured and then married rather than being finished, and is bottled at the rather strange strength of 46.2%. As with almost all Ardbeg releases there is no mention of how many bottles were released, so we can safely assume that it was a reasonably large figure. By the way the sample for this review came from a generous fellow whisky nerd, so there's absolutely no bias here - well, other than being a self-confessed Ardbeg fan! Something that Ardbeg and Moet-Hennessy Australia need to be commended for is the lack of delays in getting their special releases to the other side of the planet in time for the official release date. That doesn't happen very often in Australia, in fact I can't think of a single other brand that accomplishes it. We're usually left to wait for 3-12 months before we receive a new release, by which time the initial worldwide buzz has often dissipated, and it also opens the door for parallel importers. So that's great to see, and it's very much appreciated Ardbeg!

The distillery has a very useful page setup on their website which explains this whisky in a little more detail, including how to interpret the batch code, which in this case is the rather lengthy TB/01-15.03.00/19.MH. Which decodes to Traigh Bhan, Batch 01, youngest component distilled 15/03/2000, 19-years old, Mickey Heads (Ardbeg Distillery Manager). This was a relatively expensive release in Australia, coming in at $299-320 AUD, although Moet-Hennessy Australia should again be commended for keeping in step with the international pricing. For reference that figure is around double the AUD asking price of the venerable 18-year old core range bottlings from the likes of Talisker & Glendronach, but those aren't limited, small batch or yearly releases, and an older age-stated Ardbeg was never going to be a cheap bottle of whisky. Is it worth it? Well, it's an Ardbeg, so most likely yes! But there's only one way to find out...

Ardbeg Traigh Bhan 19-year old, 46.2%. Islay, Scotland. 
Youngest component distilled 15/03/2000, matured in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Medium gold, a shade darker than the Ten.

Nose: A softer & rounder Ardbeg, as expected of course. Sweet charred / BBQ'd pineapple, black pepper, sweet lemon drops and a bit of black jellybean (aniseed). A soft drying salinity, and a hint of dried strawberry, plus a touch of muddy peat and the tar & old (natural) rope that Ardbeg does so well.

Texture: Medium weight, soft & sweet initially but then turns spicy & drying. Only a slight touch of heat.

Taste: More BBQ pineapple and black pepper, plus some smoked paprika, sweet lemon drops again, and some drying dark chilli chocolate. More old rope and a little coastal minerality, like damp volcanic rock or flint.

Finish: Short-medium length. More dark chilli chocolate and  black pepper, a bit of soft leather, and a touch of past-ripe banana. Dried strawberries again, and more black jellybean under some spicy & buttery old oak.

Score: 3.5 out of 5. Almost a 4, but not quite.

Notes: Another tasty Ardbeg. It's definitely a softer & rounder style, particularly on the peat side of things, but it's also quite a spicy & peppery one - as in flavour, not alcohol heat, with plenty of chilli chocolate and black pepper. The Ardbeg sweetness & citrus is there on the nose & palate, and that charred pineapple note is very nice, but it does get a little subdued on the finish which is where the spice takes over. I'd have to say that it's not on the level of the legendary Airigh Nam Beist, but it's still a very enjoyable dram. It's definitely a softer Ardbeg, and I can only imagine how great it would be at cask strength, but I can completely understand why they would bottle this one at 46% instead. If you're a fan of Ardbeg Ten you'll find this one familiar in overall style, and I'm betting you'll enjoy it - as I did. And an Ardbeg of this age is undeniably quite a special thing.

So is / was it worth the asking price? For an Ardbeg fan, yes, I think it is / was. As with all of their limited releases it'll inevitably be compared with the Ten, Uigeadail and Corryvreckan, which still offer great value, but as with all of their limited releases such comparisons are basically pointless. They're very different whiskies, and are a different style of Ardbeg that is still very worthy of their cult following.

Cheers!

Talisker Storm Whisky Review!

Storm was the first in the range of recently launched non-age statement Taliskers, hitting the shelves back in 2013. It's been a few years since I last tasted it, so this'll be fun!

Talisker Distillery, located in the village of Carbost on the Isle of Skye, produces some excellent whisky. The 10 Year Old, 18 Year Old and higher strength 57 North are tasty and dependable drams, and the 8 Year Old Cask Strength from 2018's Special Releases was fantastic. You would think that five core range bottlings (including the yearly Distiller's Edition and 25-year old) and the occasional limited release would be enough, and it would be for many distilleries. But Talisker go way beyond that, adding the non-age statement Skye, Storm, Port Ruighe, Dark Storm and Neist Point expressions to that line-up. In fairness the latter two are travel retail / duty free exclusive, but there are also a few older releases above all of these that I haven't included in the list. All of which adds up to a massive range of single malts for what is a medium-sized distillery that produces around two-three million litres of spirit (no official figures are available) per year. But that's not all folks, Talisker malt whisky is also a major component of quite a few blended whiskies, most famously the Johnnie Walker range - particularly Black Label. The distillery's marketing department is certainly kept busy, or maybe the marketing department is keeping the distillery team busy!

As part of Diageo's Classic Malts the distillery gets plenty of time in the limelight, and although Lagavulin isn't far behind these days Talisker would still have to be the most well-known of the  bunch. Adding to that fame is the "Made by the Sea" tagline, and the fact that despite being overwhelmingly matured on the Scottish mainland rather than on Skye, many of the distillery's whiskies do have an undeniable maritime / coastal character. Some more than others, though. Another point that adds to that fame is the reasonable pricing of the venerable 10-year old expression, which has been around for a long, long time now and can be seen sitting on the back bar in pretty much any decent bar or pub around the world. That sort of market penetration gives a product quite the following over time, and each time the distillery releases a new younger bottling the whisky world holds their breath, pitchforks at the ready, awaiting the news that the 10-year old has been discontinued. But - touch wood - it hasn't happened yet, and the 10-year old is still a dependable single malt that can be found for a reasonable price, albeit significantly higher than it was a few years ago, since it now has to sit above a couple of those newer non-age statement bottlings that I mentioned above. If you ask me Talisker has always been a great introductory light-medium peated whisky, but it seems that some feel differently, thinking it too intense for the novice palate, which they addressed by introducing milder and more tame expressions. And many other distilleries have done the same in the last few years.

That said, that may not be the case here. The idea behind Talisker Storm is that it's "an intense Talisker, with a profoundly maritime character". Which translates to it being more intense than the venerable 10-year old, and to achieve that they've used a mix of refill and rejuvenated (shaved & re-toasted or re-charred) American oak casks - so probably all of the ex-bourbon variety - of different ages. Thankfully they've largely stuck to their traditional bottling strength of 45.8% ABV in this expression, and most of their bottlings for that matter, but on the flip-side the vast majority of Talisker whisky is chill filtered and pumped full of E150a artificial colouring, and Storm is no exception to that. After being rather disappointed with the non-age statement Game of Thrones Talisker bottling (House Greyjoy, reviewed here), and not being a huge fan of the travel retail expression Dark Storm, both of which were partly- or fully-matured in heavily charred refill ex-bourbon casks, I'm interested to see how this one fares. Will this Talisker be more of a Talisker? Or will this 'Storm' turn out to be more of a light breeze? Time to find out...

Talisker Storm, NAS, 45.8%. Skye, Scotland.
Matured in rejuvenated (shaved & re-toasted / re-charred) and refill ex-bourbon casks. Chill filtered, artificially coloured.

Colour: Amber-gold. Does look paler than the 10-year old actually, possibly less added colouring?

Nose: A little flat and bitter to start with. Salted caramel, some baked apple and marzipan. The Talisker salt & pepper are there, but they're a little muted and there's much more salt than there is pepper. Some damp wood, or even driftwood comes through with extra time, as does some stewed stone fruit with a slight bitter note behind it.

Texture: There's that intensity that they were talking about, wouldn't have guessed that from the nose. Light-medium weight, relatively clean but with a little peat & chilli spice.

Taste: A little sour, more salt and pepper here, plus that salted caramel, and dry charred oak rather than the damp driftwood. There's a nice dry earthy peat to this Talisker, plus a solid pinch of dry chilli flakes, and a very slight iodine note.

Finish: Medium length. There's more of that bitterness here, plus a little tangy sourness. Charred fresh oak and a little pepper, and that dry earthy peat adds a little more depth. Slight bitter liquorice and stewed stone fruit to finish, and that slight iodine note again.

Score: 2.5 out of 5. Not miles away from a 3 though.

Notes: I do get the extra intensity in the Storm compared to the standard 10-year old, but overall this is still quite a mild whisky. Which is fine of course, but an Islay and/or cask strength drinker won't find this to be an intense dram and could be a little disappointed after reading the marketing blurb. But it does have a decent depth of flavour for what is a relatively lightly peated, crowd-pleasing malt. If it had been non-chill filtered and perhaps slightly higher strength then things would've been turned up a notch, but the distillery has stuck to their guns on both counts. It does have that notable maritime influence that a lot of the more recent NAS Taliskers (particularly the 'Skye' expression) are missing, and there's more of the pepper & peat that Talisker fans tend to look for. Storm is priced around 10% below the 10-year old in Australia, which is probably the right level for it, but the 10 often dips under that when it's on special, so it would be my pick between the two in that scenario.

If you're wanting an actual intense Talisker, you'll be better served by the 57 North. Well, assuming you can't find last year's 8-year old Cask Strength special release, that is. Despite being considerably more expensive, if you're after more volume of flavour and intensity the 57N is the bottling to go for. And the higher strength (57%) justifies the price jump. Which reminds me, the recent announcement of Diageo's Special Releases for 2019 included a 15-year old cask strength Talisker, and although the details are yet to be shared, if the aforementioned 8-year old is anything to go by the 15 will not be one to miss. Exciting stuff!

Cheers!

Octomore Farm 9 Year Old Whisky Review!

A private (and technically independent) single cask bottling of 9-year old Octomore! This should be very interesting!

I say technically independent, because this whisky was still distilled, matured and bottled at Bruichladdich Distillery on Islay, so it's more of a private bottling than a typical independent bottling. What we have here is a single cask Octomore, named after James Brown's Octomore farm where the Islay-grown barley used for the _.3 expressions comes from, and where the water source for Octomore is located. The farm is a couple of miles south of the distillery in the village of Port Charlotte, which is also where the old Loch Indaal Distillery warehouses, owned & used by Bruichladdich, are located. As you can probably guess these casks are owned by James Brown himself (the Islay farmer, not the soul singer!), and they're sold & distributed by Derek Mather, the owner of Artisan restaurant in Wishaw (south of Glasgow) and a die-hard Bruichladdich fanatic. As far as I can find there have only been a few bottlings of Octomore Farm released, all single casks at cask strength, and all from ex-bourbon casks, and you'll find a bottling of Bruichladdich's 50 ppm spirit, named LochIndaal and basically never seen as an official bottling, under the same name. Bruichladdich officially bottle three different single malts, the un-peated Bruichladdich, the heavily-peated (40 ppm) Port Charlotte, and the super-heavily peated Octomore. But if you dig further into the independent and more obscure official bottlings you'll also find the LochIndaal spirit which is slightly more heavily peated than the heavily peated Port Charlottes. As far as I'm aware, aside from a mysterious 'Futures' bottling and a single distillery-exclusive Valinch bottling, all other Lochindaal bottlings have been private casks or independent bottlings. Forgive the digression there, let's get back to it!

Octomore typically uses super-heavily peated malted barley sourced from Bairds Maltings in Inverness, although the Octomore _.3 expressions (there have been four bottlings to date) have used Islay-grown barley which is transported to Inverness for malting, and sent back to Bruichladdich to make Octomore. Each batch of malt varies in it's peaty-ness, with the highest so far measuring in at a whopping 309.1 ppm which was responsible for the delicious Octomore 8.3. The second highest was the original Islay barley Octomore, the fantastic 6.3 that weighed in at 258 ppm and was released back in late 2014. That little beauty is still my favourite Octomore bottling to date, and it just so happens that the Octomore Farm bottling we're looking at today was distilled from that same batch of Octomore Farm-grown barley, peated to that same huge number of 258 ppm measured on the malt. It was also distilled in the same year (and probably the same distillation runs) in 2009, but rather than being bottled at 5 years of age it was left sleeping in it's single bourbon barrel-home for a further four years, before being bottled in 2018. That little factoid is also very exciting, because during the Bruichladdich warehouse tasting that I attended on my second Islay pilgrimage in 2018 one of the three casks tasted was an Octomore 6.3 'remnant' that had been left in the cask for nine years, and it was absolutely incredible. Quite possibly the best Octomore that I've ever tasted, in fact. On paper this private bottling should be along those same lines, so I have very high hopes for this one!

So, this Octomore Farm private bottling is a 9-year old single ex-bourbon cask, distilled from Islay barley peated to 258 ppm, and bottled at a cask strength of 61.8%. Being a Bruichladdich product (kind of) it is of course non-chill filtered and naturally coloured. The sample for this review came from a fellow whisky nerd who ordered a bottle of this very rare whisky while living in Europe, and was generous enough to share it on a recent trip back to Australia. Exciting stuff!

Octomore Farm 9-year old Octomore private bottling, 61.8%. Islay, Scotland.
Distilled Feb 2009 from Islay barley peated to 258 ppm, matured in single ex-bourbon barrel #336, bottled Mar 2018. Cask strength, non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Medium-gold.

Nose: Interesting! It's fresh, sweet & sour, and very malty. And surprisingly subtle! There's crumbly, chalky, earthy peat, fizzy lemon squash, a bit of aniseed - maybe fennel seed, actually (perfume-y aniseed-like flavour but fresher & lighter than liquorice). That trademark 'laddie lactic sweetness is there too, like a lightly sweetened cream cheese.

Texture: Heavy weight, very thick & rich, and peaty of course. There's a bit of heat, but this is a 9-year old whisky at nearly 62%, so that's to be expected.

Taste: Big & peaty, but again it's fresh, sweet & sour, and remarkably malty. More fizzy soft drink but it reminds me more of cola here rather than lemon. Some red chilli heat, more fennel, and a huge chunky, bitter, earthy peat that isn't going anywhere.

Finish: Long, of course! That big chunky, earthy peat is still there, as expected, and so is that aniseed / fennel seed, and a beautiful gristy, smoky malty-ness. Slight vanilla, some blow-torched bitter lemon peel, that fizzy freshness again, and some lemon cream cheese cake frosting / icing.

Score: 4.5 out of 5.

Notes: Whoa, this is fantastic! Really, really good stuff. Call me crazy, but it does very much remind me of Octomore 6.3 - which is high praise- and that 9-year old "cask remnant" 6.3 from last year's warehouse tasting at the distillery. Which does make sense, but I didn't really expect it for some reason. There are some differences though, a bit more heat and a bit less cask influence in this bottling I'd say, but it's absolutely delicious regardless. This is a purist's Octomore, with no fancy cask finishing or exotic wine casks to be seen, just a beautiful peaty spirit with loads of Octomore and Bruichladdich character. There's a surprising amount of distillery character here actually - surprising because of the massive peat levels in play - and that remarkable fresh, malty, almost "clean" flavour that is present in this super-heavily peated whisky at nearly 62%. Which is the magic of Octomore of course, right here in plain sight. This single cask has reminded me just how fantastic 6.3 was, and now is, with a few more years of maturation under its belt. What a treat!

Needless to say, if you're a fan of this style of malt and you manage to stumble across a bottle of this Octomore Farm variant, you're going to want to buy it. And if you don't, I will! Very well done to all of those responsible for this fantastic whisky. Please keep 'em coming, and if you could make them just a little easier to get in Australia, well that'd be great too!

Cheers!

Where is Whisky Headed?

Whisky production is something of a gamble. You don't want to produce too little or you'll run out of stock, and you don't want to produce too much - you'll need to sell it at some point! When you choose how many casks to buy or how many casks to fill for a future release you're looking eight, ten, fifteen or twenty years into the future, and taking a gamble on how the market will look when that particular cask or particular whisky is ready for release. If someone were to invent a working crystal ball I'm sure the whisky industry would be a major customer. We're in the middle of a huge whisky boom at the moment, but it can't last forever, and that's been shown quite a few times in the past - sometimes to devastating effect. The tastes and preferences of the masses can change on a whim, and while most of us whisky die-hards will always be there and wouldn't dream about switching to anything else, it's important to remember that we're not enough to sustain an industry. While we're a fast-growing sector at the moment, in the overall scheme of things we're still a small fish in a big pond as far as volume goes. You'd think it would be better to have too much than to not have enough, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that if you were looking at the state of the Japanese whisky industry over the last few years. But that's only true to a certain extent as prices are driven down, profits are cut and compromises are made. It can also lead to a drop in quality, not necessarily by those involved in the initial wave of success, but often by the newcomers who are cashing in on the "boom". And some are really "cashing" in more than others, if you catch my drift - the word greed comes to mind! Some of those newcomers also take shortcuts and compromise their products, or even defraud their customers outright, which can result in the entire local industry being tarnished. A certain Tasmanian distillery comes to mind there, and while its new owners are trying to right the wrongs (and I commend them for it), it's going to take a lot of time and a lot of effort to overcome the past issues. If they can be overcome at all...

Now under new ownership, thankfully...

There have been a surprising number of major crashes in the whisky industry in relatively-recent times, most recently in the early 1980s, and there are many who believe that we're heading towards another in the near future. If you were to look at the long-term performance of whisky on a graph it would resemble a roller coaster, and both the climbs and dives will have gotten steeper every time. We're currently on a very steep climb, probably a record one. New distilleries are popping up all over the planet on an almost-weekly basis, including here in Australia, as interested parties want to get a piece of the pie while it's hot. But the pie may be cooling at a faster rate than many think, and it's quite likely that there will be a few left without a chair when the music stops. Aside from huge investments from the large multi-national corporations, including some new distilleries with astronomical production capacities, we also have a huge influx of small "craft" malt distilleries opening all over the planet, all searching for their unique selling point and attempting to carve out their niche in a market that is very likely heading towards saturation. The current state of the Australian gin industry comes to mind here, where there are dozens-upon-dozens of new brands popping up, with many relying on unique packaging and/or clever marketing to get them in the retailer's doors and onto the customer's shelves. Some are small and independent, and some are only presented as such, including quite a few that arguably do not actually produce their own product, or at least many that do not produce the base ingredient of their own product. And gin can largely get away with that, because it's often re-distilled anyway, but you may be surprised to learn that a similar problem is beginning to affect the whisky scene. Or rather that it's beginning to be uncovered in the whisky scene - it's been happening for years.

In some cases loopholes in the regulations of certain countries are being exploited. A good example is the relatively recent influx of "Japanese" whisky which is not actually Japanese, or at best not 100% Japanese. While I'm sure this sort of thing is happening elsewhere, it does seem particularly prevalent in Japan at the moment, no doubt spurred by the frankly ridiculous demand for "Japanese Scotch" as novice and newcomer consumers - and investors who are already too late - jump on the bandwagon to get their hands on the flavour of the month. For a country with such a deep-rooted belief in being honourable and respectful, there are a surprising amount of companies that in my opinion are not being honest with their customers, either by omission, or by lying outright, or by targeting the ignorant by very closely copying the packaging and designs of successful brands. Or a mix of all three. I'm referring to the "Japanese" blended whiskies that are quickly appearing out of thin air, and are not distilling their own whisky. "So what?", you might think, "that's what independent bottlers do!". And you'd be right, but in this case it's a little different. If you purchased a bottle of whisky that was clearly labelled as Scotch, which actually contained American whisky / whiskey, or you purchased a bottle of Australian whisky that actually contained Scotch whisky, would you be happy with your purchase? Well that is exactly what's happening with many of these "Japanese" products at the moment. Scotch whisky, whether purchased as new make spirit or mature whisky, is being purchased by Japanese companies and shipped to Japan in bulk, and is being sold as Japanese whisky, when in reality it was either not produced in Japan at all, or was only partly-produced in Japan. I'm not going to single out any particular brands here - note that I haven't said "distilleries" - and there are plenty of examples around. Certain "Japanese" brands have been doing this for a long time - particularly those that also own Scotch whisky distilleries - but it's becoming much more prevalent today. Luckily there are plans afoot to get this loophole closed, understandably spearheaded by those respectable companies that were responsible for the current success of Japanese whisky, but until that happens there is a very real danger of the entire industry being damaged by this practice. And that could be very damaging at a time when investments are being made and production is being ramped up to meet massive new demand. This sort of thing has occurred in the Scotch industry in the past, most famously in Campbeltown in the late nineteenth century. At the time that resulted in the region's over twenty distilleries dropping like flies, and massively damaging the town and surrounding areas.

This sort of thing isn't unique to Japan of course, it's commonplace in many established whisky industries, particularly in Ireland and America, where those brands are often referred to as non-distiller producers. The difference is that those brands generally don't claim to be distilling their products, and they're sourcing spirit that is at least made in the same region or at least the same country, and spirit that complies with the relevant regulations of that country. There have been a few that essentially mislead their customers by claiming to make their own whisky, again either by omission or by misleading wording (calling themselves a distillery when they did not make their own product) - including one recent and deservedly controversial example in mainland Australia - but the vaguery of the whisky regulations in some parts of the world doesn't help. There's also the bigger question of when whisky is actually 'made'. Is it made when it comes off the still as new make spirit, where it cannot legally be called whisky? Or is it made when it has spent two or three years (depending on local regulations) maturing in casks? It's almost a "the chicken or the egg" question. In my opinion the answer is the egg, or rather the new make spirit, because the eventual result cannot exist without that first stage, and if the initial requirements (particularly the permitted cereal grains and the maximum distillation strength) are not met, then the end product after those two or three years of maturation is still not whisky. Which again reminds me of the very-shady past practices of that certain Tasmanian distillery...

So what to do about all of this? In my mind there's no question that stronger regulations are needed, particularly in these relatively "new world" whisky producing nations, as a first step. Then those regulations need to be actively enforced. And that's ranging from the base ingredients (preferably cereal grains) permitted, to any additives permitted (preferably none!), to labelling requirements and country of origin requirements. The majority of the quality producers around the world tend to follow the Scotch whisky regulations anyway, so why not simply copy those regulations and implement them in these new world countries? That would help to weed out some of the shady types, and help the local industries regulate themselves, with a little help from regulatory bodies or customs oversight needed (but no increased duty rates, thank you very much). It would also put the international whisky producers on an even playing field with what will always be the dominant team in the game. And don't think that such a move would stifle innovation. Even those Scotch whisky regulations, the most recent version of which was implemented by the Scotch Whisky Association in 2009, can be amended - as they were just this year with regards to permitted cask types. Even without the amendments, the potential for innovation within those regulations is almost limitless. And they still do what they were intended to do, which is to ensure that Scotch whisky produced in Scotland is actually whisky, and they're protecting the entire Scotch whisky industry from potential risks and potential damage in the process. I'd even argue that those regulations help form the backbone of the industry. And a strong backbone is crucial for supporting both short- and long-term growth. So where's the harm in that?

As for the rest, until those crystal balls finally hit the market we'll just have to enjoy the climb, savour the fresh air and enjoy the views from these new heights. I don't see things slowing down just yet, but what goes up...

Cheers!