Longrow Rundlets & Kilderkins Whisky Review!

As much as I love their whisky, I'm not a particularly big fan of Springbank's packaging. Aside from using the coolest 'S' in the business as their logo, the rest of the design & presentation is usually a little lacking compared to their more flashy rivals. But then that's also part of their charm! That all changed with the Rundlets & Kilderkins series though, and this one might just be the prettiest Springbank bottle yet! Of course, packaging & presentation doesn't appear anywhere on the list of requirements for making good whisky, but it doesn't hurt. And with the beautiful gleaming metal badge/label on these Rundlets & Kilderkins (R&K for short) bottlings, I can overlook those flimsy open-faced outer boxes! It also helps that they're cask strength bottlings of Springbank's whisky, of course...

So let's answer the obvious question: just what the hell are "rundlets" and "kilderkins"? They're small casks! While the 125-litre quarter casks are generally the smallest casks used by most large whisky distilleries, these are considerably smaller. According to a couple of sources, a rundlet (traditionally used to mature wine) is around 68-litres in capacity, while a kilderkin (mostly used to mature beer) is around 82-litres in capacity. So they're both significantly smaller than your average 200-litre ex-bourbon cask, which means they're giving much more cask and wood influence to the maturing spirit than the full-sized versions would in the same period of time. The rundlet & kilderkin casks used by Springbank in these releases were re-coopered down from full-sized casks, but I can't find any concrete information about those cask's previous contents.

There were three releases in the 'Rundlets & Kilderkins' series, all bottled at cask strength. The lightly peated and 2.5-times distilled Springbank release was the first, bottled in early 2012 at just over 10 years of age and limited to 9,000 bottles, which is now impossible to find outside of auctions (at exorbitant prices). And it's reported to be excellent. Next came the heavily peated and double-distilled Longrow release that I'm reviewing today, bottled in early 2013 at just over 11 years of age, and again limited to 9,000 bottles. It's now also very difficult to find outside of those aforementioned auctions. The third release, which as you can probably guess was under the un-peated and triple-distilled Hazelburn banner, was released in 2014 at just over 10 years of age, and was limited to 12,000 bottles. That one is a little easier to find, at least in Australia, probably because of the larger release, and the smaller following that Hazelburn commands compared to its stable-mates. 

While they're all relatively young whiskies, they do punch well above their weight thanks to the increased wood contact from those smaller casks. Looking at Laphroaig's quarter cask bottling for example, which is only finished in the 125-litre casks for around seven months, that whisky has a totally different character to the standard 10-year old, with more sweetness, vanilla and oaky flavours all coming from that short finishing in the smaller casks, so full-term maturation in casks that are smaller again will make a massive difference to the finished whisky. The Longrow that I'm reviewing here was bottled at a cask strength of 51.7% at the end of those 11 years, and like all single malts from Springbank, is naturally coloured and non-chill filtered. Let's get stuck in!

Longrow Rundlets & Kilderkins, 11 years old, 51.7%. Campbeltown, Scotland.

Springbank Distillery, heavily peated. Fully matured in re-coopered small rundlet and kilderkin casks, approx. 68-litres and 80-litres respectively. 9000 bottles, non-chill filtered and naturally coloured.

Colour: Amber. 

Nose: Yummy! Opening up slowly but very nicely. Sweet honeyed lemon peel, a little earthy peat and that tasty Campbeltown "funk", like damp, dank dunnage warehouses, fresh mushrooms and grassy damp farmyards. Love it. Some sweet, ripe, musty white grapes too. Lightly waxy sweet pineapple and sour stone fruit. Salted natural licorice & earthy salted caramel comes out with more time. 

Texture: Medium weight, farmyard-funky & spicy. A little heat as well, but not unpleasant at all. 

Taste: A big whack of earthy, dirty peat, much more prominent here than it was on the nose. Subsides to a big handful of wood spices and peppery oak, then some more sweet grape and more of that grassy farmyard note. A little chocolate as well. 

Finish: Medium length. Still peaty & spicy, cinnamon & nutmeg especially, and there's still plenty of that grassy farmyard note. More of that salted natural licorice from the nose, but it's more prominent here. Stewed stone fruits with a spiced toffee sauce, then wood smoke comes along to wrap things up.

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: A lovely whisky, although it's quite the spice bomb! It reminds me a little of Ardbeg Kelpie committee release in that way actually, but not as confronting. Loving that strong licorice note in this Longrow, plus that dirty, earthy, musty peat and the sweet grape, all mixed in with the Campbeltown farmyards. The small casks have definitely done their job here, but they've also left behind a big whack of spice that I don't recall getting in a Springbank or Longrow before. I certainly don't remember encountering it in the Hazelburn Rundlets & Kilderkins, but that's to be expected since they're completely different whiskies. I'd love to know what type of casks they re-coopered into the smaller rundlet & kilderkin casks for this one, since I'm not entirely convinced they were your typical ex-bourbon casks!

Other than this one, my favourite Longrows so far are still the "Red" series. I haven't tried the Port cask or the recent Malbec versions yet, but the Cabernet and Shiraz versions were very good. And I'm not just saying that because they used Australian wine casks! While we're talking about Longrow & Campbeltown, I should give this little gem a shout out:

What we have here is a Campbeltown blended malt from Cadenhead's, the oldest independent bottler in Scotland, who are owned by J&A Mitchell, who also own Springbank and Glengyle (Kilkerran) distilleries. Cadenhead's have a shop on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh (among others), and in this amazing whisky shop you'll find a few casks up against the wall. They're separated by region, with one for each of the major Scotch whisky regions, and you can hand bottle your own blended malt, at cask strength, right there in the shop! The kicker though is the price. I (stupidly) chose a 200ml bottle thanks to a shortage of luggage space, and it cost me a ridiculously low sum of 14 pounds! For a 58.7% ABV blended malt (no grain whisky here), that reportedly contains mostly Longrow whisky. Either way, it's bloody delicious, and a serious bargain! I'll be saving some more space in my luggage for a bigger version on the next trip, because it really is that good. If you're headed to Edinburgh or Campbeltown, I highly recommend you stop in at Cadenheads and grab a bottle! 

Cheers!

Heartwood Darkest Before Dawn Whisky Review!

More Tasmanian whisky magic from the mad alchemist Mr. H, the man behind Tasmanian independent bottler Heartwood. Yes please!

Fear of missing out (FOMO) is a big motivator in the whisky enthusiast's world. We see new "limited releases" and "special editions" from our favourite distilleries & producers, and we need them in our hands immediately. And when one of your favourite producers only releases 200-300 bottles (or less) of each bottling, that fear becomes much more urgent. Such a low volume producer with such a cult following can't really keep up with demand, and all recent Heartwood releases have sold out within days. Luckily I didn't miss out on this particular release, but I've missed out on plenty since, and believe me, that pain is real. Especially after eventually tasting those missed bottlings! The man himself is well aware of this demand though, and is counteracting it with his other venture Tasmanian Independent Bottlers (TIB). There have been a few TIB whiskies released so far, at lower prices and lower strengths (46-49% to date), for pricing and approach-ability reasons, than Heartwood bottlings.

What's seriously impressive is that Mr. H has stuck to his guns through all of this increased demand and attention, and even through offers to buy the business (let's just hope that never happens, it could never, and would never be the same). All Heartwood releases have been bottled at their natural cask strength, totally unadulterated with no chill filtration or added colouring, and with plenty of information printed right there on the label. Where possible anyway, since some of those releases have had very complicated upbringings. He also doesn't shy away from sharing his whisky's plights on social media, and is completely open and honest about the struggles that he & his whiskies go through before they're ready to wear the Heartwood label. For example, the whisky that I'm reviewing tonight was initially "a little recalcitrant", in Mr. H's own words. It was brought into line by being locked in the "hot box" for a couple of weeks after decanting, and being repeatedly & savagely beaten with a large paddle. Having seen both the paddle and hot box (which is a much warmer room of the Heartwood bond store building) in action during this incredible visit, I can only imagine that the whiskies being subjected to this... encouragement... are soon in a hurry to shape-up and toe the line! More info on the story behind Heartwood & Mr. H can be found here and here in the write-ups from my previous visits to the Heartwood inner sanctum, which were almost... spiritual... experiences!

On the menu tonight is Heartwood Darkest Before Dawn. This is a single cask bottling that was distilled at Lark Distillery in May 2009 using only their very-lightly peated malt, peated to around 7 ppm using Tasmanian highland peat, which is very light itself, with re-wet barley that had already been malted for "just a touch" of smoke as Bill Lark says. The new make spirit was then filled into an Oloroso sherry cask, where it spent approximately 8.5 years making itself at home, before being bottled at a cask strength of 64% ABV in November 2017, without any of that chill filtration or added colouring nonsense. Cask number LD559 yielded 242 bottles, and sold out in a matter of days. The sample for this review came from a very generous fellow whisky lover, and I now owe him one serious sample!

Heartwood Darkest Before Dawn, 8 years old, 64%. Tasmania, Australia.
Distilled at Lark Distillery May 2009, very lightly peated, matured in a single first-fill Oloroso sherry cask, cask number LD559. Bottled November 2017. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 242 bottles.

Colour: Dark red amber / dark rust.

Nose: Sweet & fruity, and delicious. Dark, buttery & nutty toasted oak, cough drops, raspberry jam and some scorched eucalyptus bark. Some plum jam as well, and roasted nuts - maybe chestnuts? Something a little cheesy as well, in a good way, like a sweet cream cheese. Yep, mixed berry cheesecake actually, including the crumb. Wow, that's a new one!

Texture: Massive. Medium weight, and a little fire-y (it's 64%, remember), but packed with flavour.

Taste: Big & spicy, a little hot on entry, and a little astringent. Dryer than the nose as well. Some dried & blow-torched raspberries, more dark toasted oak with a little ginger. Some mild coffee syrup and sweet cream.

Finish: Medium-long length. Dry, oaky and hot initially, with more burnt eucalyptus. Then becoming sweeter with more raspberry & plum jams, some ginger and a little wood spice, coffee grounds and more cough drops. A little buttery pastry and more sweet cream towards the end.

Score: 4 out of 5.

Notes: Very tasty stuff, as always from Heartwood. The nose is absolutely fantastic on this one, and it's definitely the highlight of the experience for me. It's complex and very interesting, which is impressive when you remember that this is an eight year old whisky at a massive strength. The spirit has really stood up well against that sherry cask too, which is yet another testament to Mr. H's skill. The palate is also delicious here, but for me at least it doesn't quite live up to the fantastic nose. It's definitely a little hot too, but again, for an eight year old whisky at 64% ABV (higher than the filling strength of most new make spirit!), that's to be expected, and it would be far more so from plenty of other producers.

Darkest Before Dawn still has that burnt eucalyptus note that I find in most of the good Lark whiskies at high strength, but that very nice berry cheesecake note is a new one for me! Very interesting, and challenging, as every Heartwood should be, and usually is. Yummy. I'm an unashamed Heartwood fan boy of course, but if you like your drams to be high strength and full of flavour, you'll have to get your hands on a dram of one of these! Not a bottle mind you, just a dram. That way there might be a few more bottles left for the rest of us...

Cheers!

Octomore 8.3 Whisky Review!

There's a new victor in Bruichladdich's ppm arms race! We've entered a whole new realm of peating levels here, and I don't think this one will be beaten any time soon.

In case you've been living under a rock for the last nine or so years, Octomore is Bruichladdich's super-heavily peated whisky, which completely dominates the upper echelon of the world's peatiest whiskies. In fact the only real challenger was Ardbeg's now-departed Supernova series, which measured in at a relatively low "over 100 ppm" (parts per million phenols), but was still a peaty beast of a dram, although the latter two releases were significantly softer thanks to a lower bottling strength, higher age and the addition of more sherry casks in the vattings. Octomore on the other hand has smashed it out of the park on numerous occasions, from the 169 ppm 5.1, to the 208 ppm 7.1 & 7.2, and the mighty previous king, the magnificent 6.3 Islay Barley which weighed in at a whopping 258 ppm. But this new 8.3 release, part of the "Masterclass Edition" 8-series which was released in 2017, has turned it up to 11 and taken the crown for itself, with no plans to relinquish the title. The Islay barley for this bottling weighed in at an almost-beyond belief 309 ppm! For a bit of reference here, Ardbeg's regular malt measures up at 55 ppm, and Caol Ila & Lagavulin's at 35 ppm. But don't think that this Octomore tastes 6-times as peaty as those, because it's not that simple!

It's important to remember that the ppm numbers don't tell the whole story. Far from it, in fact. It's a handy marketing tool, and it's basically the only objective scale that we have for quantifying how peaty a whisky is without tasting it (which then becomes subjective), but it can be a little misunderstood. Not by the industry or the distilleries of course, but by a size-able portion of their customers. For starters, the ppm (parts per million) level of phenolic compounds is measured on the malted barley, which then has to go through milling, mashing, fermentation, distillation and maturation before it can be bottled as whisky. As a very rough guide, most younger peated whiskies lose around 60-70% of their peat influence between the initial measurement of the barley and the bottled liquid. But that final figure and the level of peat influence in the final product can vary depending on a huge number of factors, from where the peat itself was sourced to the size & shape of the stills, and the cut points during distillation, and many, many others. Those factors are why Octomore and other heavily-peated drams often don't taste as vastly different as the numbers might lead you to believe. In the case of most Octomores, largely thanks to Bruichladdich's careful & slow production, tall stills and excellent cask management these are surprisingly mature and disarming whiskies that drink well beyond their (generally) 5 years of maturation. But rest assured, they're certainly very peaty, and this new king is not shy!

The 8-series Octomores have been a bit of a departure from the norm, in that three of the four bottlings are 8-years old, and they've all had rather complicated upbringings as far as cask maturation goes. In the case of 8.3, the casks used for maturation (not finishing) were a combination of 56% American oak ex-bourbon casks, and 44% European oak ex-red wine casks, from the Pauillac, Ventoux, Rhone and Burgundy regions of France. It was distilled in 2011 from barley harvested the year prior at James Brown's Octomore farm, down the road from Bruichladdich. That barley was then malted at Bairds in Inverness, which resulted in that incredible figure of 309 ppm. The whisky was then bottled at 5-years of age at a strength of 61.2%, of course is non-chill filtered and naturally coloured like all Bruichladdich, with a total of 18,000 bottles released. One more departure is that this is the first _.3 Octomore to ditch the white outer tin and toe the line with the rest of the series, which is a little strange, but they've kept the beautiful frosted glass bottle that is exclusive to the _.3 Octomores and the magnificent OBA, so we can forgive them for that.

The 8-series Octomores are just starting to officially appear in Australia now, with more on the way, but I was lucky enough to grab a bottle from the distillery (and I should have grabbed two) during my pilgrimage last year, and I'll be lining up for more when they finally arrive! The sample for this review came from a generous fellow whisky nerd who also picked up a bottle from the distillery last year. This is going to be epic...

Octomore 8.3, 5-years old, 61.2%. Bruichladdich, Islay, Scotland.
Distilled 2011 from Islay barley grown on Octomore farm in 2010, peated to 309 ppm. Fully matured (not finished) in 56% ex-bourbon casks and 44% ex-French red wine casks. Non-chill filtered, naturally coloured, 18,000 bottles.

Colour: Gold.

Nose: Sweet, creamy and herbal. Lightly medicinal as well. Smoky salted toffee, a surprisingly subtle dry, earthy peat, some fatty smoked bacon and a couple of newly opened bandages. Sweet vanilla cream, drying seaweed, and subtle sweet stone fruits. Apricot, plum and a little cherry jam. A surprisingly soft nose for the age and ABV, like many Octomores!

Texture: Wonderful. Medium weight, creamy, sweet and densely peaty. No spirit heat whatsoever.

Taste: Lovely. A big explosion of bitter, crumbly, earthy and spicy peat, with a lovely creamy and fruity sweetness behind. More sweet vanilla cream, some spicy, ashy and herbal smoke, a little rock salt, and more sweet stone fruit jam.

Finish: Long, and immense. Actually make that very, very long. Massively peaty, spicy and creamy initially, the peat tapers a little but lasts for eons, and it's still lightly bitter, earthy, crumbly and spicy. There's salty sea breezes, more freshly opened bandages, some herbal and leathery smoke, and that lovely Bruichladdich lactic dairy note comes out of hiding, with a little farmyard-y barley note alongside, and that stone fruit comes out again further on along with a nice ashy smoke. Delicious.

Score: 4.5 out of 5.

Notes: Outstanding. Wonderful. Delicious. What a dram. I'm not really sure if it's noticeably peatier than the previous title holder (Octomore 6.3), but that light bitterness in the peat is new, so maybe it is. And I love it! There's plenty of character to it as well, those stone fruit jammy notes, stemming from the wine casks I'd say, and that sweet vanilla cream really work well alongside that massive peaty-ness. Those wine casks do seem to have dampened Bruichladdich's sour lactic farmyard-y calling-card a little, but they're still there, as is the barley in the finish, which is pretty amazing for such a hugely peated whisky. It's nicely balanced and surprisingly (relatively) light for such a peaty beast. The magic of Bruichladdich right there! Absolutely love it.

There's plenty of complexity going on underneath and alongside that peaty explosion on the palate, and the softness and sweetness on the nose is disarming and quite charming, it doesn't give the game away before the whisky has had the chance to do its thing on the palate. Another outstanding Islay barley Octomore. I'm ranking it very slightly under the mighty 6.3 for my favourite Octomore to date, but it's a close thing. Folks, if you're an Octomore fan, this is a must buy. It won't be cheap of course, but you're going to want one.

Cheers!

Bowmore 12 Year Old (Older Bottling) Whisky Review!

Modern Bowmore 12-year old is a pleasant enough light-to-medium peated dram, but I have the rare chance to try an older version, bottled around 2006. This'll be interesting!

While Bowmore's core range of official bottlings these days tend to be a middle-of-the-road take on Islay malt, the older bottlings were known to be lighter and very fruity whiskies that still have a very large following from collectors and high-roller buyers. The famous Black Bowmore from 1993, for example, now commands astronomical prices and is becoming very difficult to find, and the same goes for the follow-up versions. But Bowmores from around the same era, particularly those bottled in the mid-late 1990s through to the early 2000s, were notorious for something less appealing: FWP. That's not a technical distillation technique or an old-school malting process, it's actually a tasting note, coined by some American malt fans. It stands for "French Whore Perfume"!

FWP refers to the strong floral lavender / violet notes that can be found in many Bowmores that were distilled towards the late 1980s to early 1990s. I've only encountered something akin to this in an older bottle of Bowmore 18, and it was certainly off-putting, reminiscent of cheap strongly floral soap, but it was not undrinkable, but that may have been a mild case. The flavour has also been likened to the English confectionery Parma Violets, which I've also had the misfortune of tasting. Not good! There's nothing wrong with floral notes in a whisky, nor mildly-soapy notes, but the combination of strong notes of both can be unpleasant to some (most) tasters.

Obviously the vast majority of Bowmores that we come across today will be free of this unpleasantness, since the problem seems to have been solved in the bottled product towards the early 2000s. I've only experienced it the once, and even then I can't be certain because it's such a subjective thing, which makes it quite hard to judge. What we can be sure of is that Bowmore do make some excellent whiskies, particularly at cask strength like the Tempest (Dorus Mor for those in the U.S.) and Devil's Cask series, and of course the hand-filled bottlings available at the distillery (I've been lucky enough to review one here), and the 15-year old 'Darkest' is a great beginner's introduction to peated & sherried whiskies.

So why am I talking about the apparent problems in some of the older bottlings? Because I have a sample from an older bottling to review! Specifically a Bowmore 12-year old that was bottled around 2006 according to the owner's research, which means it was distilled around 1994. So it could possibly still have a little of those lavender floral notes, but it's unlikely to have any of the overwhelming FWP notes that have unfortunately put some people off Bowmore. Bowmore's core bottlings from this era, which ran from the early 90s to the early-mid 2000s, are known as "screen print label" bottlings after their pretty labels. I can't find any major differences in production processes or methods between then and now, but the key difference here is that this older version of the 12-year old was bottled at 43%, whereas the modern / current version of the 12-year old is down to 40% ABV. That will certainly make a difference, although both bottlings have added colouring and are chill filtered. Let's go back in time...

Bowmore 12-year old, old bottling, 43%. Islay, Scotland.
Bottled circa 2006, known as "screen print label" bottling. Chill filtered, added colouring.

Colour: Amber. There's still some E150a, but it does seem lighter than the modern version.

Nose: Light & soft, a little closed off at first but relaxes with some warmth. Coal dust / chimney soot, some dusty stewed fruits with some lighter tropical fruit in the mix, and a little of the dried sweetened grapefruit that I get from some ex-bourbon Bowmores, but it comes & goes in this case. There's a very light floral soapy-ness (but that could be partly mental as well), a little earth and a metallic note with more time in the glass.

Texture: Light weight, lightly oily. A touch of heat, but not unpleasant by any means.

Taste: Light & sweet, more of that coal dust / chimney soot, and more of that lovely sweet dried grapefruit. This does remind me of a (very) toned down Bowmore Tempest actually. There's a little metallic bitterness further on, plus some apple and a light floral sweetness.

Finish: Short. Spicy and quite astringent to start with, then some dried citrus, more metallic bitterness and a little cocoa powder. Oxidised (browned) red apples and some dusty cinnamon powder, and a little gristy malt at the end.

Score: 3 out of 5.

Notes: It's quite a light and subtle dram this, maybe even fragile, and it's certainly less peaty and less barley-forward than I find the modern Bowmore 12 to be. The copper / metallic bitterness is toned down as well, which is nice. It'd make for a pleasant summer's day dram, with enough slightly unusual notes to keep things interesting. I definitely do prefer this older bottling to the current Bowmore 12. It's less peaty, but also sweeter and much more fruity, without the copper flavour that I find in the modern version. In fact it reminds me of a (very) toned down Tempest (Dorus Mor in the USA) 10-year old expression, which is cask strength, and is a very different whisky from the current 12 year old.

There's no question that the extra 3% ABV has helped hide a few off-notes and turn the volume up a little, although it doesn't seem to have helped the texture or the finish too much. Perhaps there was also a higher portion of the floor-malted barley going into these older bottlings as well? Or, my guess is that there might have been a few more first-fill ex-bourbon casks in the mix in those days, when distilleries had far less pressure on their output than they do know, and single malts weren't as prevalent. But that's only a guess. It's certainly one to try if you come across a bottle somewhere.

Cheers!