Glendronach 1992 16 Year Old Single Cask Whisky Review!

Yes, those numbers are correct. This is an old one! A 16-year old single cask Glendronach, bottled in 2009, from the very first batch of single cask official bottlings!

Glendronach's single cask releases have changed quite a bit over the years. Well obviously the character, flavour and quality all varies with individual bottlings, as is the nature of single casks. But much like the distillery's core range they've also changed in style and approach, with vatting, re-racking and cask finishing (both declared and potentially undeclared) occurring and with more younger releases in the batches, and there have been quite a few releases that are notably lighter on the sherry influence than was previously the case. Obviously the massive increase in global demand for sherry casks has a part to play there, and so does the distillery closure from 1996-2002 that has been a major thorn in this booming distillery's side over the last five years or so. Along with its siblings Benriach and Glenglassaugh the distillery has also undergone a change of ownership, from private ownership under Billy Walker & Co. to corporate ownership under American company Brown Forman in 2016. There was also a change of master distiller / master blender in there too, with Rachel Barrie taking the reigns from Billy Walker soon after the sale of the distillery. Naturally there's also an increased demand for whisky in general now, particularly for high-end whisky in the last two years or so which has to also play a part, and has seen certain casks in these batches being sent only to certain markets and/or regions. So it's understandable that there would have to be changes in the way things were & are done, after all we are talking about over a decade of time now and the world is now a very different place, with another 15 batches of single cask Glendronachs released in the meantime. Other cask types have also worked their way in there more recently, from slight deviations like port casks to major swerves like virgin oak maturation, which again I'd assume to be loosely related to the huge demand on sherry casks and the massive price increase that goes along with it. 

Speaking of which, we have to wonder where it's going to stop. Sherry casks are now seriously expensive, and demand still outweighs supply. Sherry-heavy distilleries and brands have all increased their pricing substantially in order to cover some of this increase, and in many cases they have also changed in style and character - whether that be less sherry influence, or younger whisky, or both. Let's also remember that these are sherry "seasoned" casks, where they have held sherry for a relatively short period of time, usually two years or less, before that sherry is tipped out and the cask is shipped to the whisky producer / distillery for filling with whisky / spirit. The natural thing that'll happen is that seasoning time will become shorter, resulting in less influence from the wine and more influence from the wood itself during maturation. Shortcuts will be taken by the cooperages and/or bodegas in order to sell more casks, and the only real alternative to avoid this is to use other cask types. Distilleries that only a few years ago were loudly & proudly only maturing in ex-sherry casks are these days releasing other cask types, including of course ex-bourbon, resulting in a completely different whisky to what that distillery or brand's customer were used to. This is also why we've seen other cask types become more popular, such as madeira, port, rum, sauternes, non-fortified wine, and the rest. It was also probably a major factor in the Scotch Whisky Association's revising of their regulations governing permitted cask types, where previously they had to be considered "traditional", but are now allowed to travel much further afield - to Mexico, for example. This is no bad thing, and only allows for more innovation and experimentation. Even when talking Glendronach, we've already seen small amounts of madeira, sauternes and port casks come to market, and I'm sure there'll be more to follow. The consumers and customers will just have to adapt! Will we see a Mezcal cask Glendronach in future? Now that'd be an interesting thing!

But I'm digressing, this particular single cask Glendronach pre-dates all of that drama. When this bottling was released in 2009, in the first ever batch of Glendronach single cask releases no less, Billy Walker and his consortium had only owned the distillery for less than a year. The distillery had been revived from its moth-balled slumber in 2002 under Allied Distillers, and was then purchased by Pernod Ricard in 2006, and prior to the re-opening the distillery's malting floors had been decommissioned, while in 2005 the four pot stills had been converted from direct-fire external heating to indirect internal steam heating, which of course meant major changes to the spirit character. If you've tasted a pre-closure Glendronach and then a 2006 distillation or newer it's impossible to argue that the spirit itself hasn't changed in character. When Billy & Co. came along in 2008 they secured quite a large amount of maturing stock in the deal, and set to work releasing new core range bottlings and revitalising the presentation standards by bottling at a minimum of 43% ABV, but more often at 46% without any chill filtration or added colouring, then selecting the "cream of the crop" to be bottled at cask strength as a single cask release. And I think it's safe to say that some of those releases have been amongst the greatest sherry cask single malts that we (or at least I) have seen in modern times. In this particular case, we have a 16-year old single Oloroso sherry butt, distilled in November 1992 and bottled in July 2009, with a yield of 598 bottles at a strength of 57.2% ABV. Obviously it's also non-chill filtered and no artificial colouring has been added. If memory serves this is the oldest Glendronach I've tasted to date in terms of the year of bottling, but it's a relatively young example at "only" 16 years of age. So, let's see how this little blast from the (recent) past goes, shall we? 

Glendronach 1992 16-year old single cask, 57.2%. Highlands, Scotland.

Cask #1140, distilled November 1992, matured in a single Oloroso sherry butt, bottled July 2009. Batch 1 of Glendronach's single cask releases. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 598 bottles. 

Colour: Dark rusty red. 

Nose: Rich, sweet and syrupy. A sherry bomb, of course! Dark chocolate mousse, well-spiced plum pudding with brandy sauce. Orange rind & brown sugar. "Rancio" around the edges with cured meats, aged balsamic vinegar and earthy mushroom. A fistful of roasted nuts too - hazelnut and walnut in particular. Touch of spent coffee grounds and musty old wood further in. 

Texture: Medium weight. Full-flavoured, rich & syrupy. Not quite as sweet as the nose suggested, but it's far from dry! No heat at all but a slight bitter astringency. 

Taste: Spicy plum pudding with brandy sauce again. Orange rind and more roasted nuts, earthy mushroom and aged balsamic. More wood spices, brown sugar and a touch of treacle, or even molasses. Touch of rum & raisin ice cream (with slight vanilla) as well.

Finish: Long length. Slightly brighter and lighter here initially with tinned cherries in syrup, some marzipan and stewed dates. Then balsamic again, a little ginger, and more orange rind - maybe blood orange here in fact, there's more bitterness. Slightly astringent with more dark chocolate to finish. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Big, rich, full-flavoured & massively sherried. But also not a one-trick pony like some of the modern sherry bombs are. It's very interesting to try a younger 16-year old version of these single cask releases that is still heavily sherried like the 24-28 year old casks are in the more recent batches of single cask Glendronachs. I'm not sure if it's worlds better than they are, but it's different. A little brighter perhaps, and also heavier on the cask influence, or at least more aggressively sherried. Plenty of power, and possibly the sweetest Oloroso cask Glendronach single cask that I've tried to date, where the older more recent examples tend to be less sweet and more spicy & wood-driven. I don't mind that sweetness though, in fact I tend to prefer the PX single casks from Glendronach by a small margin. 

This is a great big sherry bomb that is well suited to Christmas time - maybe more so in the northern hemisphere though, currently 35 degrees C here in Brisbane as I write this, with plenty of humidity as well. Thank god for air conditioning!  

There's something bittersweet about tasting this 16-year old single cask from 2009. The single casks will be getting back to that sort of age now, on the other side of the distillery's closure from 1996-2004. But those contemporary equivalents will not be like this. No floor-malted barley and thus no trace of peat, and no direct fired stills, and the availability of quality sherry casks like this is pretty much dead & gone. Much like the core range bottlings from Glendronach I'm sure they'll still be good whiskies, but much like those core range bottlings they'll certainly be different. They're still the kings of sherry cask whiskies if you ask me, particularly in the single cask releases. 

Cheers!

Redbreast 21 Year Old Whiskey Review!

It's been a while between Irish whiskey reviews. In fact it's been a while between Irish whiskeys for this reviewer - particularly of the single pot still variety. They're just not something that I seek out, generally. But this 21-year old Redbreast could change that!

In my experience, Irish whiskeys can be great, but they're often not. The core range bottlings from the likes of Jameson, Bushmills, and Tullamore blends generally don't float my boat, with low bottling strengths and lighter, more grain-driven character. And while the likes of Teeling, Connemara and co. are more characterful examples if you ask me, they're also leaning towards the Scottish style than what most of us expect when we're looking at an Irish dram; they're mostly double-distilled rather than triple-distilled, most of their offerings are single malts, and in a couple of cases they're even lightly peated. On the other hand, Redbreast is a brand that I haven't had much experience with so far. I've tried the entry level 12-year old and 15-year old, but that's it. So this 21-year old example is quite the interesting proposition, being a well-aged single pot still Irish whiskey, being matured in first-fill bourbon and Oloroso sherry casks, and perhaps most importantly being bottled at 46% ABV and non-chill filtered. Unfortunately I can't find any word on artificial colouring, and looking at this whiskey in the glass it could go either way. But we can forgive that since at least the other two boxes on our wishlist, strength and filtration, have been ticked. Being a 21-year old whiskey at 46% in 2021 this is not a cheap proposition, but it's still quite reasonably priced at around $350-400 AUD down under. It also seems to be quite scarce, like most of the popular whiskies & whiskeys around the world that are enjoying the current explosion in demand, which of course is also affecting pricing in many cases. Thankfully many of our local importers, distributors & retailers have resisted increasing their prices beyond their normal mark-up, while those who have jumped on the chance to drastically boost their profit margins - a.k.a. price gouging - are sticking out like sore thumbs. Hopefully that all settles down as the world slowly returns to some semblance of normality, but who knows!

Since this is my first review of a single pot still Irish whiskey, and my first review of a Redbreast, we have a few things to cover. Firstly, there is no Redbreast Distillery. This is a brand of whiskey produced by Midleton Distillery, the massive complex that is located in County Cork near the western coast of southern Ireland. And when I say massive, we're talking about a production capacity of over 65-million litres of spirit per year, through three large pot stills and three column stills - so roughly three-times the maximum output of the recently-expanded Glenlivet Distillery in Scotland, although it still pales in comparison with the huge grain whisky plants - the largest of which, Diageo's Cameronbridge plant, produces well over 100-million litres of grain spirit per year. Midleton Distillery is also responsible for Jameson, Powers, Writers Tears, Irishman, Red/Yellow/Green Spot, Method & Madness and also the namesake Midleton brand, among others, and a few of those brands are not under the ownership of Midleton's corporate overseers, Pernod Ricard, which would make those independent bottlings. That's all a bit of a strange concept from a Scotch whisky perspective, and is more similar to the practices of the bourbon / American whiskey industry, where much like in Ireland a handful of huge distilleries produce multiple brands of whiskey - Buffalo Trace Distillery, for example, produces around twenty different brands, all with multiple SKUs, at the one distillery. And that's not including the myriad of brands that are 'non-distiller producers' a.k.a. independent bottlers also sourcing their whiskey from the same place. And that's much the same as in Ireland, even more so in fact when you consider that as recently as the 1980s there were only two whiskey distilleries in the country. That has changed more recently with over 40 distilleries now active, and many of those being smaller and more "craft" oriented than the large corporate operations. On the other side of that coin, many of these more recently-commissioned distilleries are being opened by companies & brands that are already established with spirit and product that is sourced from elsewhere. But in the continuing market boom they have made the move to build their own distilleries, generally with a view to eventually move their entire operations there, moving away from their "sourced" whiskey. Teeling, Hyde and Tullamore D.E.W come to mind there, but there are quite a few other examples.

The other part of this Redbreast that is a bit of a strange concept from a Scotch whisky perspective would be the term 'single pot still'. Despite the name they're generally not actually produced in one single pot still - rather they're produced at a single distillery like a single malt or single grain whisky. Despite the efforts of the double-distilled single malts that I mentioned above, this style of whiskey has almost become synonymous with Irish whiskey to the casual observer, and Midleton Distillery is the largest producer of pot still Irish whiskey, while also producing blended whiskeys and occasionally also single malts in-house. So breaking down the terms, this is an Irish whiskey that has been distilled in pot stills at one single distillery, but it's not a single malt because there is both malted and unmalted (a.k.a. 'raw' or 'green') barley in the grain recipe / mash bill. The historical reason for this (partial) move away from malted barley was to avoid the English taxes that were placed on malted grains in Britain, and it was also a cheaper ingredient to produce, but it also resulted in a clearer point of difference between the Irish style and that traditionally made over the water in Scotland. Thus the term 'single pot still', which is sometimes also named 'pure pot still' or merely 'pot still whiskey' when the spirit is not produced at one distillery, became exclusive to Irish whiskey, although many of the older brands turned to cheaper and lighter blended whiskies & whiskeys when demand shifted that way. Redbreast is one of the oldest single pot still Irish whiskey brands, dating back to 1912, albeit with a few changes over that time - the original producer of the spirit, Jameson's Bow Street Distillery, closed in 1971, and there was a brief dalliance with producing a blended whiskey under the Redbreast name, before the brand's temporary death in 1985. The name & brand was subsequently sold to Irish Distillers (now owned by Pernod Ricard), before it was re-launched in 1991. The 21-year old expression that we're looking at today first launched in 2013, and if memory serves this is the oldest Irish whiskey that I've tasted to date. The sample for this review came from a generous fellow-whisky nerd. Right, let's get to it, shall we?

Redbreast 21-year old, 46%. County Cork, Ireland.

Single pot still Irish whiskey, produced from both unmalted and malted barley, triple distilled in pot stills at Midleton Distillery. Matured in first-fill ex-bourbon and ex-Oloroso sherry casks. Non-chill filtered, colouring unknown. 

Colour: Amber gold. 

Nose: Nutty, creamy and spicy. Dry, grassy, spicy grain, almost reminiscent of rye spiciness. Creamy with touches of vanilla and slightly-acidic dark cherry. Warm baking spices (cinnamon, clove & aniseed) and a little burnt caramel - verging on bitter. Baked stone fruit. Quite oaky as well, freshly toasted & sawn new wood. 

Texture: Light-medium weight. Richly fruity, creamy & spicy. Brighter than the nose suggested. Very slight touch of heat, pleasant. 

Taste: Creamy vanilla, maybe creamy vanilla fudge. Passionfruit curd too, but neither is overtly sweet. Fresh wood and dark, lightly burnt caramel. Those baking spices again but more the cinnamon & aniseed now. Touch of dried orange and roasted nuts. Fresh nectarine, white peach and a touch of fresh passionfruit, maybe a little under-ripe mango as well, all topped off with fresh double cream. 

Finish: Short-medium length. More passionfruit, touch of under-ripe mango, burnt caramel and fresh toasted wood. Fresh cream again with vanilla and a lighter touch of cinnamon. Stewed stone fruit & dark cherry - maybe cherry stones, actually. Touch of burnt caramel and that dry grassy grain character show through again towards the end. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Surprisingly bright & fresh on the palate. While the nose suggested a drier, grain-driven spicy and woody dram, the palate gives a lovely zesty bright fruitiness that is quite refreshing, and fresher in style than the age statement would have you expect. The grain, oak and spice do still show themselves on the palate, but it's all balanced off thanks to the fresh stone fruit and creaminess that cut through that nicely. The lightly burnt caramel note is a little off-putting though and doesn't quite gel with the rest of the notes in the smell & taste, but thankfully it doesn't get in the way too much. 

Certainly a quality whiskey with good character and a lovely fresh fruitiness, a touch dull on the nose perhaps but that bright fruity character on the palate saves the show with ease. All told I'm not sure that I'd pick it as a 21-year old whiskey, but that could be down to the triple-distillation and particularly the unmalted grain, keeping things lighter & fresher than might be expected at this age.

It's refreshing and quite important to try these different whiskies / whiskeys and other spirits every now & then, helping to keep things fresh and keep the palate interested. And a single pot still Irish whiskey does give a refreshing change without straying too far from the comfort zone. Certainly worth trying if you haven't had the pleasure - think I'll have to track down a dram of Redbreast Cask Strength now, that'll make for a great comparison!

Cheers!

Balvenie 12 Year Old Whisky Review!

Every now and then you feel like a light and relatively easy dram, without completely sacrificing flavour. This entry-level Balvenie will do nicely!

Balvenie, or "The" Balvenie as it's officially known, is a large & high-profile distillery in the town of Dufftown, Speyside that was originally founded in 1892. Their 6-million litre annual production capacity puts them in between their two William Grant & Sons neighbours & stablemates, the giant Glenfiddich and the smaller and much lesser known Kininvie. All are located on the same massive WG&S site found to the north-east of Dufftown. An interesting side-note there, Kininvie Distillery is actually only a still house, their mash tun and washbacks are housed inside Balvenie's buildings, which is a little unusual in Scotland, but it's still considered to be made "on site" and they are operated separately. There are a few other examples of malt distilleries being located within larger plants, another one being Ailsa Bay, another WG&S distillery which is found inside the huge Girvan grain distillery, so Kininvie's situation isn't actually that strange. Balvenie is certainly the malt enthusiasts' choice of the three William Grant's spirits, although there's not a huge amount of Kininvie out there to choose from since it's mainly used for blends and "teaspooned" blended malts that are sold to independent bottlers - where a dash of Kininvie is added to a batch of Glenfiddich or Balvenie to prevent the buyer using the distillery name and bottling it as a single malt. There have been a few single malt official bottlings of Kininvie, but they tend to be older whiskies that were distilled in the early-1990s, not long after the distillery was founded. If memory serves only one of these was sold in Australia, and it was a 23-year old that was bottled just under 43% - and interestingly, only in a 350ml half-bottle! 

Despite being so close to each other, Balvenie, Glenfiddich and Kininvie do produce very different spirits. All three are blended together to result in Monkey Shoulder blended malt, and they're also blended with grain whisky to produce the Grant's blended whiskies. Balvenie is arguably the richer and weightier of the three whiskies, probably thanks to their shorter & fatter stills, and possibly also the floor-malted barley, which is actually lightly peated to around 5 ppm. But don't go looking for any smoke in the regular releases, since those malt floors only contribute around 15% of the distillery's malt. There have been a couple of peated Balvenies released more recently though, and since 2002 there's been one week of each distilling season / year where the distillery uses 100% peated barley in the malt floors. The floor-malted barley is also grown on the distillery's farm, named Balvenie Mains, a thousand-acre farm near the distillery, which is a very unusual thing for a distillery of this size and capacity. Also unusual for a distillery of this size is the fact that they still have their own on-site cooperage for the building & repair of their casks, and they also keep a coppersmith around for repairs & maintenance on their eleven pot stills and the other associated equipment. All of this means that there's only one step of the production process carried out off-site: the bottling stage, which takes place in a centralised William Grant's facility near Glasgow. The vast majority of Balvenie's expressions do carry age statements, with the youngest of the range being 12 years, all the way through to 50 years old - although that one will set you back a whopping $50,000 AUD!

There are two industry figureheads that are widely contributed with having pioneered the practice of cask finishing, a.k.a wood finishing, or double maturation, or extra maturation, or secondary maturation, or additional cask enhancement, whatever you want to call it. Those two are Glenmorangie's Bill Lumsden, and David Stewart, Balvenie's 'Malt Master' who started working at the distillery in 1962, and started playing around with cask finishing in the early 1980s. The first bottled result of that pioneering work was released back in 1993, when this Balvenie 12-year old Double Wood first hit the shelves. It's matured in refill ex-bourbon casks - the labelling actually says "traditional whisky oak", which I'd assume probably means refill American oak - for at least 12-years, then finished for up to 9 months in European oak ex-sherry casks. It's then moved into massive wooden marrying vats which are too large to be counted as part of maturation, called "tuns", for the vatting to marry together for an additional 3-4 months prior to bottling. As a quick digression, Balvenie pay homage to these large vats by releasing one of the few NAS bottlings in their line-up on a semi-regular basis : the TUN series, which while not cheap at over $500 AUD are still my picks of the Balvenie range - chiefly because they're bottled at a higher strength. Balvenie 12 is bottled at the minimum legal strength of 40% ABV, and is chill filtered and artificially coloured. It's currently the entry-level Balvenie expression, and typically sells for between $90 and $105 AUD, which isn't exactly cheap - particularly considering the low ABV - but is still reasonable in today's market. A 25th anniversary edition was also released in late 2018, but it was identical to the standard bottling in every way, save for a small maroon stripe being added to the outer packaging and the front label of the bottle. Let's get to it!

Balvenie 12-year old Double Wood, 40%. Speyside, Scotland.
Matured in "traditional whisky oak"- probably refill ex-bourbon casks for at least 12-years, finished in European oak sherry casks for up to 9 months. Chill filtered, artificially coloured.

Colour: Amber.

Nose: Light & sweet. Red apples, lighter bitter oak & slightly burnt caramel, dried raspberries, and a little dry dusty malt. Sweet watery / diluted honey, vanilla bean, and soft wood spices - cinnamon & nutmeg.

Texture: Light weight, easy drinking. Not as sweet as the nose suggested, with more spices. Not a hot whisky, but it is a little raw & spirit-y.

Taste: Dry spices - warm cinnamon, nutmeg, more dried raspberries, dusty malt and lightly bitter oak - think pencil shavings. More diluted honey behind.

Finish: Medium length. Floral sweetness, black pepper, more red apples. Sweeter here again, with vanilla sugar, honey and more pencil shavings.

Score: 2.5 out of 5. But only just. 

Notes: An easy, relatively un-challenging dram that still has a decent amount of flavour and character. Which is sometimes just what the doctor ordered. Yes it'd be better at 43-46% and without the chill filtration and colouring, but that's not really what this whisky is about. It's not quite aimed at that crowd (by which I mean: us!), and it is Balvenie's entry-level single malt after all, and for an early foray into single malts it's an ideal typical Speysider without too many surprises or curveballs. This one makes for a good palate calibrator, or a mood-setter, and it'd hold up to being thrown into a highball as well. I would say though that it's a little too expensive for where it sits - I'm guessing it's priced that way to help separate it from the same company's Monkey Shoulder blended and the long-standing Glenfiddich 12, which is around $20 AUD less expensive. But this Balvenie should be sitting a little lower if you ask me.

That said, the 12-year old Double Wood is still my pick of the Balvenie core range - yes, even the much-lauded Caribbean Cask 14-year old which has personally never floated my boat. And I much prefer this 12-year old to the overpriced and now discontinued 17-year old, despite that older version being bottled at a more acceptable 43% ABV. Which may be a bit of a surprise, since the 17 is generally well-regarded, but that's how my palate sees it, and it's certainly also how my wallet sees it! 

Cheers!

Ardbeg 8 Year Old For Discussion Whisky Review!

A new Ardbeg named "For Discussion"? Well OK then, if you insist!

An affordable, age statement Ardbeg at a decent strength is always difficult to resist. But I was a little deterred by 2020's Wee Beastie, the 5-year old Ardbeg which some seem to love but I personally found disappointing. Sure, it's OK for the price point overall. But it's the same price as Ardbeg 10-year old, or at least it is here in Australia, and the Ten is still one of the best value core range single malts on the market. Despite being the same strength the Ten offers vastly more depth and complexity than Wee Beastie, and is also one of the more consistent whiskies out there when it comes to the level of quality that it offers. I can see what they were going for with the 5-year old of course; a younger, more spirit-led and smokier expression, and the same approach has worked brilliantly for the likes of Lagavulin 8 vs. 16, but in my opinion Wee Beastie missed the mark, and I suspect just hadn't spent enough time in casks, or at least in the right casks. Other Islay distilleries such as Kilchoman and Bruichladdich are consistently putting out whiskies at similar ages that absolutely eclipse the 5-year old Ardbeg in every category, albeit at slightly higher prices, but then both are made by significantly smaller distilleries. Whiskies of these young ages can be outstanding drams, but it's always important to remember that age is just a number, and that number doesn't necessarily equate to maturity or quality. There are a huge number of variables involved, from the spirit itself to the casks used and just about everything in between, so there's no rule to be broken here. But it's a fact that good quality casks, whether first-fill or refill, play a huge role in the final character and depth of a young whisky, regardless of which distillery produced them. 

Despite all that, when this 8-year old Ardbeg "For Discussion" I was instantly excited to get my hands on a bottle. European reviews seemed mixed, and it was a lengthy wait before stock arrived in Australia - lengthier than usual thanks to COVID, of course. But an age statement Ardbeg bottled at just over 50% ABV, especially one that hits the Australian market at a surprisingly reasonable price - circa $120 AUD, which is quite incredible really - was always going to find it's way through my door. Not only was it sold direct to Ardbeg committee members through Moet Hennessy Australia, it was also released to some retailers, so there certainly seems to be a good amount of stock available locally. There are also semi-official murmurings and snippets (including one from Bill Lumsden himself) that this Ardbeg was fully matured in ex-sherry casks, although I'd say all or at least most of them would've been refill casks - but that's no bad thing, not at all. If true that's an interesting point of difference here, because the flagship 10-year old is fully matured in first-fill and refill ex-bourbon casks, and the last age statement 8-year old Ardbeg that was released, the delicious third "Path to Peaty Maturity" bottling titled "Almost There", was fully matured in first-fill ex-bourbon casks. Well actually Almost There didn't have an exact age statement, but it had a year of distillation of 1998 and a year of bottling of 2007, making it a minimum age of 8-years old. There have been a few sherry cask influenced Ardbegs released over the years, such as the venerable but variable Uigeadail, and 2016's Dark Cove, and most of the more recent releases including Wee Beastie and An Oa have reportedly had some sherry casks in the mix - although you'll struggle to find any real sherry influence in either of those. But an Ardbeg that has been fully- and wholly-matured in ex-sherry casks is quite the rare thing, particularly in the form of an official bottling. So this is quite the interesting proposition!

I know I mention this almost every time I review a limited release Ardbeg that comes to Australia, but credit must again be given to Moet Hennessy Australia for releasing this limited bottling at an extremely reasonable price, and for bringing it to the ever-thirsty Australian Ardbeg fans in decent numbers. They could quite easily have charged a significantly higher price (like they do for their older whiskies - the third batch of the 19-year old Traigh Bhan is now $420 AUD), but instead they've kept it at a level where it is affordable for the average whisky enthusiast. Which means more of these bottles will be opened, shared and enjoyed - just as a whisky named "For Discussion" should be! That name by the way harkens back to the early days of the Ardbeg Committee and the plain-labelled committee releases from the early 2000s that are now the stuff of legend, and of course command legendary prices if they do appear for resale. Bottlings such as Very Young, Young Uigeadail a.k.a. "The Oogling", and the pre-release / advance release of Alligator that were far more limited than the more contemporary committee releases and were actually exclusive to the committee's members. The text on the labelling of this new 8-year old, giving only basic tasting notes and little information written in the style of meeting minutes, also harkens back to those early days of the Committee where the booklets were sent out and were written like meeting minutes - they also came with a temporary tattoo, which was actually pretty cool and made for some great pranks! So, an 8-year old Ardbeg, semi-officially matured in ex-sherry casks, bottled at 50.8% ABV - so not cask strength, but definitely nothing to sneeze at. It's also naturally coloured and non-chill filtered, as is the case with all Ardbeg single malts, although sadly the former point is no longer printed on the packaging like it used to be. That's enough discussion, it's time for a dram!

Ardbeg 8-Year Old "For Discussion", 50.8%. Islay, Scotland.

Semi-officially stated to be fully matured in ex-sherry casks, presumably refill. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Pale gold. I'd say one shade darker than the 10yo. 

Nose: Lovely. Fatty & salty smoked bacon, dark chocolate, thick tar, touches of fresh oily fish and spent coffee grounds. Sweet vanilla cream with thick salted caramel and a touch of grilled banana - so make that banoffee pie, but much lighter on the banana than they usually are. Lovely fresh touches of aniseed, gristy (floury) malt, warm sea salt and dried pineapple. 

Texture: Medium weight. Fatty and slightly creamy. Sweet and peaty, well balanced. Very slight heat, very pleasant.

Taste: Sweet, salty & nicely peaty. More salty & fatty smoked bacon but it's verging on burnt this time. Black pepper, thick tar, and that sweet vanilla cream. Salted caramel, ashy peat smoke, dried banana & pineapple around the edges. Lovely smoky, gristy malt and aniseed freshness again, with lightly bitter dark chocolate. 

Finish: Medium-long length. Fatty smoked bacon again, more black pepper, and lovely smoked ham baked with a little honey & orange. Light ashy peat smoke, aniseed again and a slight vegetal / herbal touch. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Delicious Ardbeg! After my slight disappointment with the 5-year old Wee Beastie I wasn't quite sure what to expect here, but this 8-year old is on an entirely different level if you ask me. There's far more depth, more character and a better balance here than its younger core range cousin. For discussion is a winner! There isn't a huge overt sherry influence to be found, but again that's no bad thing - and the smell & taste has me believing the semi-official semi-rumours that it was matured in refill sherry casks. The bacon and ham notes in this whisky already had me convinced, but there's also a shade of Uigeadail here that could be hinting at the source of some of those refill sherry casks. That's our speculation, mind you! The 8-year old is also not as "bright" in style as I would expect from an ex-bourbon cask Ardbeg. They also tend to be quite fruity and less pungent than this 8-year old. 

But that's all guesswork really, at the end of the day what actually matters is the smell & taste of the whisky itself, and there's plenty of both to be found in this dram. This is a great example of a younger whisky that is fresh & lively on one hand, and also mature & characterful on the other. Ardbeg 8 "For Discussion" was an absolute bargain at the original retail pricing, even here in Australia - which is not something we can say very often these days. Let's hope that low pricing and also the good amount of stock means that this whisky is opened & enjoyed and then discussed at length, rather than being flipped on auction sites or collecting dust (like the 19-year old will be at its new price). Let's also hope that this 8-year old Ardbeg isn't a one-off! Well done to Ardbeg & Moet Hennessy Australia. Highly recommended.

Cheers!

Port Charlotte First Cut Whisky Review!

Haven't heard of this one? Well I can't say I'm surprised, even some of the Bruichladdich die-hards haven't! This is actually the first Port Charlotte Feis Ile bottling, from way back in 2007!

First cut, ladies & gents, as in the first spirit cut on the first distillation run of the heavily peated Port Charlotte spirit at Bruichladdich Distillery. This Port Charlotte single malt was distilled on the 28th of May 2001, day one of Port Charlotte distillation and only shortly after the distillery had finally been rescued & resurrected. But that's not all folks, this was also the 2007 Feis Ile / Islay Festival bottling, released on Bruichladdich's day of the festival on the 27th of May 2007, which makes it a 5-year old whisky. If you cast your mind back to the early days of Port Charlotte, there was another five-year old whisky released around the same time, the now-legendary PC5, the first Port Charlotte released, which I've reviewed here along with the equally-legendary PC6. There are some major differences between PC5 and this First Cut bottling though, starting with the fact that PC5 was bottled in the second-half of 2006, so while both are 5-years old, PC5 is considerably younger than First Cut, and is also higher in strength and is a much larger release - 63.5% ABV and 6,000 bottles for PC5, compared to 61.5% and only 950 bottles for First Cut. But that's where things get a little confusing - First Cut has a cask number printed right there on the label, cask #007, which I would take to mean that this was a single cask bottling, and the label also states that it was matured in ex-bourbon. But, the label also states that there were 950 bottles released! Even with the Valinch-spec 500ml bottles taken into account, that would mean 475-litres of 5-year old whisky from a single ex-bourbon cask, which obviously isn't possible. There'd have to be at least two ex-bourbon hogsheads (250-litre casks) in the vatting for those numbers to make sense, without much room for angel's share / evaporation or "in-drink" - the spirit being absorbed into the wood - over the nearly 6-years of maturation. Quite the mystery, and it piqued my curiosity...

So I decided to find out! Research from the usual channels came back with nothing, it was too small of a bottling and bottled too early in this distillery's modern history for any deep-dives. So I reached out to Chloe Wood, Bruichladdich's Brand Ambassador for the Asia Pacific region, in case she could shed any light on this mysterious little bottling. I've met Chloe a few times now and already knew she would help as much as she could, but I also never expected the depth of the investigation she'd start, or the lengths that she would go to in order to find some answers! Many, if not most, brands or distilleries would have simply brushed off my enquiries, and I'm sure a few would've ignored my requests altogether - remembering that this whisky was bottled 14-years ago in relatively tiny numbers, and the distillery has also gone through a change of ownership and a number of major staff changes since then. But not so with Chloe or Bruichladdich. The outstanding level of honesty, modesty, service and responsiveness that both Chloe and the 'laddie team provide are second to none, and is a large part of why I and many others love this distillery so much - although the fact that they make brilliant whisky also helps! After a lengthy investigation Chloe has uncovered that Port Charlotte First Cut was actually mis-labelled. It was originally intended to be a single cask bottling, but the distillery team at the time realised that they were going to need more of it since 2007's Islay Festival was going to coincide with the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of the Port Charlotte Distillery, which was then side-lined in 2008 during the global financial crisis, although Bruichladdich still use the original warehouses from Loch Indaal Distillery. So in the end three casks were actually chosen for this bottling, all from the first distillation runs of Port Charlotte spirit, but it was too late to change the labels that had already been printed over on the mainland, so the cask number remained - that was part one of the mystery solved! But Chloe had gone above & beyond, to the point where she found the original vatting sheet from way back in 2007. And part two of the mystery surrounding this whisky involved it's surprisingly dark (natural) colour considering it's youth, and the smell & taste which were completely different to any bourbon cask Port Charlotte that I've encountered to date. And Chloe also solved this mystery, although she wasn't alone - help came from the first-hand knowledge of none other than Lynne McEwan, Bruichladdich's Global Marketing Manager and daughter of Jim McEwan, and Simon Coughlin, now CEO of Remy Cointreau's Whisky Unit, and formerly CEO of Bruichladdich. So this investigation went all the way to the top! And it turns out, aside from the number of casks used in the vatting it was also discovered that Port Charlotte First Cut was actually taken from ex-sherry casks, not ex-bourbon cask/s as printed on the label! 

Bruichladdich was a very different place back in 2007. Under private ownership and still very much in the early days of the distillery's success that we now know, finances were extremely tight, with minimal amounts of whisky from their own distillation runs ready for bottling. While there were a magnitude of different releases around at the time, the vast majority of those were obviously distilled under the site's previous owners, and in many cases also needed "cask enhancement" - laddie speak for cask finishing - to get them up to the desired standard, which is not a cheap exercise. The wider whisky industry was also a different animal to what it is today, with the gigantic spike in demand and popularity (that we're still in now) yet to hit it's stride. So it's completely understandable that an error on the label couldn't be corrected in time for this release - if they had waited and delayed there would've been no Feis Ile bottling that year, and thousands of disappointed visitors & pilgrims would've been gathering up their flaming torches & pitchforks and marching on the distillery's famous wrought iron gates. Obviously these errors are also a freak occurrence, such a thing would never happen today - in fact I highly doubt it's ever happened since! Again, the level of honesty, modesty and responsiveness here is exceptional, and I have to give a big thanks to Chloe and the team for getting to the bottom of this for me!

Most Port Charlotte releases contain wine casks to some extent, either as part of the vatting, or as a cask finish / additional cask enhancement. The distillery's long-standing penchant for ex-wine casks is a huge factor there of course, and I'd guess that it was also a way of differentiating Port Charlotte from the work of the other Islay distilleries, particularly during the days when it was packaged in the same bottles and tins as the unpeated Bruichladdich whiskies, and as a result was getting somewhat "lost in the noise" and was living in the shadows. But they were almost all red wine casks, and an ex-sherry cask matured Port Charlotte is still quite the rare beast, with only a few distillery-exclusive Valinch / Cask Exploration bottlings coming to mind - remembering that 2020's OLC:01 release (which Australia missed out on, sadly!) was only finished in sherry casks rather than being fully-matured. The main reason for this is the distillery's insistence on only using the highest quality sherry casks, to the point where they only source them from one single bodega (sherry producer) in Spain. These days with the re-branding and re-launching of Port Charlotte the brand has reached new heights and is finally getting the long-awaited attention that it deserves, and the wine cask involvement is still a major point of difference to the other Islay stalwarts, particularly in terms of their Port Charlotte core range and regular/annual release bottlings. So, a 5-year old cask strength Port Charlotte, from three ex-sherry cask/s, and bottled at cask strength of 61.5% for Feis Ile 2007. The sample for this review came from a generous fellow whisky nerd who was lucky enough to grab one of these rarities at an overseas auction. Extremely exciting!

Port Charlotte "First Cut", 5-year old, 61.5%. Islay, Scotland.

Distilled 5/2001, matured in bottled 5/2007 for Feis Ile 2007. Matured in ex-sherry casks (bottles are mis-labelled, see above). Non-chill filtered, natural colour, 950 bottles. 

Colour: Amber. 

Nose: Buttery, rich & deep. Does tingle the nose hairs at 61.5%, but that's to be expected! Rich vanilla butter cake frosting, with a little lemon. Fresh aniseed, thick maple syrup, and golden pound cake (rich & dense vanilla and butter cake). Lovely ashy wood smoke, decent pinch of sea salt and some muddy seaweed. Soft earthy peat, lemon zest and a touch of mocha coffee syrup further in, topped off by a floral icing sugar sweetness. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight, oily & buttery, rich and warming. Full of flavour. Touch of heat, but barely noticeable. 

Taste: Rich, buttery arrival with more butter cake frosting, thick maple syrup and a dash of that mocha coffee syrup. Then drying ashy wood smoke followed by chunky, earthy peat and butter toffee fudge - almost Scottish tablet, but with more butter. Lemon rind and aniseed in behind. 

Finish: Long length. Make that very long. More ashy wood smoke and chunky earthy peat, waves of chocolate cake icing, fresh lemon zest and floral icing sugar. More toffee butter fudge and rich vanilla bean. Slight touch of sheep's wool (lanolin) and slighter touch of earthen farmyard/dunnage floors. 

Score: 4.5 out of 5. 

Notes: What a stunner! Incredible depth and richness for a 5-6 year old whisky. The peat is also surprisingly tame for a youthful heavily peated Islay malt, and there's no chance I would pick this as a 5-year old whisky had it been served blind. In fact I'd probably peg it somewhere between 8- and 10-years, at a guess. This is a totally different whisky to the slightly younger, but still 5-years old, PC5 that preceded it. PC5 is raw and punchy, a coastal, smoky brute in comparison with this cleaner, deeper and richer Feis Ile bottling. Even compared to my favourite Port Charlotte to date, the partly Madeira cask-matured PC6, this First Cut bottling is cleaner and calmer, and it's not far off the amazing richness of that slightly older sibling. In fact, I don't think I could pick a winner between the two! It's also vastly different to the modern Port Charlotte bottlings, this is a slightly cleaner whisky in style, with far less of that BBQ smoke and farmyard-y character that has become the brand's calling card, particularly in the more spirit-forward examples.

This First Cut Port Charlotte must have been a freak cask/s, young ex-sherry casks with loads of character and flavour. And I can certainly see why they chose this as a Feis Ile bottling. An extremely special whisky, one hell of a "blast from the past". And I love it! 

Thanks to the anonymous donour for the sample of this delicious whisky, and to Chloe, Lynne, Simon & the wider team from Bruichladdich for their help.

Cheers!

Bunnahabhain 2008 Manzanilla Cask Whisky Review!

A drier, nutty, salty whisky that has been fully matured in a dry, nutty, salty sherry cask? Yes please!

Bunnahabhain, or Bunna' for short, doesn't get the fanfare of the other Islay distilleries, and certainly isn't one of the "sexy" brands. But it still has a loyal following - and for good reason. As one of the two Islay distilleries that are mostly producing unpeated whisky, they're already something of an outlier, and even more of an underdog in comparison with the other mostly-unpeated Islay distillery, Bruichladdich. Bunnahabhain tend to be quieter and more reserved than most in their marketing, something that is also shared with Tobermory and Deanston, the other two Scotch whisky distilleries in parent company Distell's portfolio - which is soon to be purchased by Heineken. But while their presence may be more reserved, the whiskies they produce are often anything but quiet. Leaving aside the peated Moine spirit that the distillery also produces, the unpeated Bunnahabhains tend to be drier, spicier, more nutty and more austere than most, and the official bottlings tend to lean towards sherry cask maturation which can help to boost those characteristics. But they also produce a wide range of exotic cask finishings and maturations, both as Feis Ile / Islay Festival bottlings, and distillery exclusive single casks, and as limited releases that are more generally available. The likes of Brandy, Port and Marsala casks, and also PX, Amontillado and Palo Cortado sherry casks have all been released relatively recently, including this little number that we're looking at today, which is an 11-year old unpeated Bunnahabhain that has been fully matured, not finished, in Manzanilla sherry casks. Sadly most of these limited releases have not been officially imported into Australia, but a recent change of distributorship saw The Whisky List bring in a decent amount of the stuff, including the 18- and 25-year olds that also haven't been seen down under for quite some time. 

After Palo Cortado, Manzanilla sherry casks would have to be the second-rarest in the Scotch whisky industry. While real sherry can only be produced in the Jerez region of southern Spain, Manzanilla is even more specific since it must be produced in the area of the seaside city of Sanlucar de Barrameda, which forms the northern tip of the "sherry triangle", the area in Andalucía that is officially permitted to use the term "sherry". Sanlucar de Barrameda has a milder climate with higher humidity than elsewhere in the sherry triangle, which affects the natural yeast layer, known as the flor, under which the pale & dry varieties of sherry are aged. That process is known as biological ageing, while the darker and in some cases sweeter wines are produced through oxidative ageing, where that yeast layer is killed off at an early stage. The result is a very dry (often less than 1g of sugar per litre of wine), nutty, floral and saline fortified wine. The pale sherry varieties are far less common in whisky production than Oloroso or PX sherries - or more often Oloroso or PX style wines - and are more often actual ex-bodega sherry casks that have been used to mature sherry, rather than the far more common 'sherry seasoned' casks that are used for almost all distilleries. As far as out beloved Islay goes, or even in Scotch whisky for that matter, apart from Ardbeg's epic 2013 Ardbog Feis Ile / Ardbeg Day bottling, I'm not aware of any that have used Manzanilla sherry casks to any noticeable extent, with one exception: the mostly-unpeated Islay underdog that is Bunnahabhain!  

I effectively bought this bottle untested, although I had read a few European and American reviews in the past and looked longingly at the photos from the other side of the planet. The price here in Australia of around $220 AUD is not insubstantial, but for a high strength limited release Bunnahabhain that is fully matured in exotic casks, that's certainly not unreasonable. But I did have one thing to go on, since this is not the first example of a Manzanilla cask-matured Bunnahabhain that I've come across. The first example was a 200ml 'Warehouse No.9' distillery exclusive single cask bottling that a mate picked up from the distillery itself, and that whisky was magical. So when this limited release surprisingly popped up, 18 months after it was bottled, I had to grab a bottle. And it didn't take long for curiosity to get the better of me, and the cork was popped! Like many of the more austere and/or challenging styles of malt whisky, particularly when bottled at high strength, this bottle has changed substantially in the month or so since it was first opened, with first impressions containing a definite whiff of sulphur, and seeming a little flat and jumbled in smell & taste. But within a week or so it was developing very nicely. Never fully judge, or even review, a whisky on fresh opening or on the "neck pour", folks, particularly if you're having it neat! There's no mention of whether this Bunnahabhain was bottled at cask strength or if it was reduced slightly, and at 52.3% ABV it could go either way, but it's certainly plenty of strength regardless. What is mentioned though is that it is non-chill filtered and natural colour, distilled in July 2008, matured in warehouse no.9 and bottled in May 2020. Let's do it!

Bunnahabhain 2008 Manzanilla Cask Matured, 11-year old, 52.3%. Islay, Scotland.

Distilled 7/2008, fully matured in Manzanilla sherry casks, bottled 5/2020. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Bronze. 

Nose: Big, dirty & funky. Loads of well-salted roasted nuts (hazelnut & walnut especially, plus a couple of almonds), dried sultanas and currants, and crushed aspirin pills/tablets. Rich dark salted caramel that is verging on burnt, with flashes of fresh dates, dark treacle toffee and a couple of honey roasted peanuts. Dirty engine oils and burnt/charred black pepper, touches of rubber and old bacon grease. 

Texture: Heavy weight, rich & flavoursome & dirty. Slight astringency & good bitterness, and no heat. 

Taste: Rich with more salted roasted nuts, thick date syrup, dried sultanas and currants again. Touch of that overcooked salted caramel (verging on burnt), bitter & earthy coffee grounds. Slight white wine-y acidity from the Manzanilla adding freshness. 

Finish: Long length. Raisin toast (spiced) with a touch of brown butter, a fresh & astringent saltiness with noticeable touches of that Manzanilla acidity. Bitter burnt black pepper & charred wood, more roasted nuts and that almost-burnt salted caramel. 

Score: 4 out of 5. On the lower side, though. 

Notes: It's a big, dirty, funky whisky, and some of the sulphur-sensitive will probably disagree with my score. But, now that it's had enough breathing time after opening the bottle, the richness and depth on offer here make for a delicious whisky. And it would (and it will) make for a delicious Christmas whisky. Big nutty, salty, caramel & dried fruit flavours that are working very well with Bunnahabhain's nutty, spicy, salty spirit, and there's a great balance between sweet & savoury. Now I'm personally not particularly sensitive to sulphur, although I have had a couple of whiskies in the past that I found extremely unpleasant or even actually undrinkable (which I won't name), but I don't mind or even enjoy a touch of that dirty sulphur character in general (Longrow 14-year old sherry cask, or some Benromach, Kilkerran and Springbank sherry casks for example). And on first opening this Bunnahabhain was headed in the wrong direction there. But it's settled down and opened up very well, that flatness has gone, and while there's still a touch of sulphur on the nose it's well integrated now and the other notes & flavours will make you forget about that quite quickly. 

Bunnahabhain is not a shy spirit, and it could easily have overpowered the more delicate Manzanilla casks - as many whiskies that are matured in these paler sherry casks do. But that delicate, acidic, floral, nutty & salty sherry has worked very well in this case. Not on the level of brilliance that the hand-filled 200ml cask sample had, of course, but for $220 AUD or so and for something different from this distillery, this Bunna' is a big yes from me. 

Cheers!

Laphroaig 1991 23 Year Old Whisky Review!

After the recent sad news of John Campbell's decision to step down as Laphroaig's Distillery Manager, and given that he personally selected the casks used in this bottling, the time is right to review this special Laphroaig!

The legendary John Campbell is officially Laphroaig's longest-serving Distillery Manager, spending over 27-years at the distillery including 16-years at the helm, and is also the first Islay native, a.k.a. Ileach, to manage the distillery in it's 205-year history. I've been lucky enough to meet John a few times, mostly during his last visit to Australia back in late-2015 (more details and interview here), but also on his home turf during my last visit to the distillery in 2018. This softly-spoken, relaxed and humble Ileach has taken Laphroaig to new heights over that time, and has also been responsible for some truly brilliant whiskies during his tenure, particularly the Cairdeas releases and some of the other limited bottlings, including the subject of this review! But he has made the difficult decision to permanently relocate to the mainland to be closer to his family, and to take up a new role with a smaller independent distillery that is being kept under wraps until John officially steps down in November 2021. It's easy to forget just how remote Islay actually is, since the island is such a large part of the Scotch whisky world and seems like paradise to visitors, but a regular 4~5-hour commute just to visit one's own family on the mainland would get tiresome, particularly with ferries and flights being cancelled due to weather or taken out of action due to maintenance. So it's a very understandable decision, albeit a sad one. So on behalf of myself and the other peat-heads, slainte John and thanks for your hard work and the sacrifices that you've made over the years to keep our glasses full of peaty goodness. We'll all be watching this next step in your career with great interest!

Islay's most famous distillery needs no introduction of course, but older Laphroaigs tend to be very different from what you might expect. Yes the peatiness tends to recede and the whisky tends to become softer and more refined, that's to be expected with older peated whiskies. Older Laphroaigs of 21+ years of age can also take on a floral sweetness, often with more fruitiness and citrus and a brighter general character in comparison with their younger stablemates. For example, if you were to the 10-year old, or even the cask strength 10-year old, and then the 25-year old, without looking at the labels you'd be forgiven for thinking they were from completely different distilleries. But the more obvious examples of that change in character tend to be mostly from refill casks, while sherry casks, particularly when first-fill, seem to stave (pun intended) off that change, but it's also down to cask selection - the 15-year old and the Highgrove independent bottlings show that softer character at earlier ages, purely down to cask selection and presentation. Bottlings like the old 18-year old and the NAS replacement 'Lore' tend to be in the middle ground. Today's whisky will be an interesting test, since it's towards the lower end of that age scale, but mostly because it's a mix of refill hogsheads and first-fill sherry hogsheads, both of the 250-litre variety. Regardless, it's a cask strength Laphroaig. There's a very good chance that it's going to be tasty! 

On to the whisky at hand. This is a limited release 1991-vintage Laphroaig that was mainly sold to the German market when it was released back in 2014, with a substantial 5,000 numbered bottles released. Thankfully some stock found it's way to retail in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, and naturally some of those 5,000 bottles then subsequently made their way on to the secondary market. If you do manage to find a bottle on one of the usual auction sites, you'll be looking at around 400-pounds. Once the buyer's premium, shipping, duty and customs charges are taken into account, that's going to be well over $1,000 AUD here in Australia. Not a cheap proposition, and substantially higher than the 'regular' 25-year old Laphroaigs, but that's to be expected with a highly-regarded bottle on the secondary market. The timing for this release was curious too, since it could've instead been one of the 200th anniversary bottlings that hit the shelves in 2015, including the now-legendary 2015 Cairdeas and the 32-year old.  This 23-year old has been matured in a combination of first-fill ex-sherry and refill hogsheads, and was bottled at a cask strength of 52.6% ABV without chill filtration or added colouring. The sample for this review came in a swap with a generous fellow-whisky nerd, and both he and a couple of others have hinted that this is one of their favourite Laphroaigs to date, so the anticipation levels are high! Let's get to it. 

Laphroaig 1991 23-year old, 52.6%. Islay, Scotland.

Matured in ex-sherry and refill hogsheads, bottled 2014 at cask strength. Non-chill filtered, natural colour, 5,000 bottles. 

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Fresh & zesty initially, peaty & coastal. Loads of fresh lemon zest, slightly herbal, damp muddy sand and wet rock. Touches of warm tar, ink and drying seaweed. Then new leather, white pepper and a little mushroom. Then sweet stewed stone fruit, vanilla bean and honey, fresh wood with a touch of ash. 

Texture: Medium weight. Peaty & peppery, sweet & rich. Slight touch of heat. 

Taste: Sweet vanilla bean, almost custard, then peppery, ashy peat, touch of tar and dried red chilli. Toffee and dried fruit behind - stone fruit with lemon juice, then leathery drying seaweed. 

Finish: Medium length. Spicy chilli flakes and peppery, ashy peat. Softens and fades quite quickly into floral vanilla bean sweetness, bitter lemon, then turning dry, peppery, woody and astringent with a little soft ashy peat in the background. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Some interesting contrasts here! This whisky does not sit still. The nose in particular is excellent, and while the palate and finish can't compete with the depth and complexity that the nose offers, it doesn't disappoint. There are hints of that softer, sweeter, floral side of Laphroaig, but the main player is the coastal peatiness and vanilla, alongside drying white pepper. A surprising amount of wood influence as well, and I'm guessing the sherry casks were American oak owing to that hefty vanilla. But then it is also 23-years old! This Laphroaig certainly seems more "modern" in character compared to the recent batches of the 25-year old and some of the older bottlings that I've tried, although few of those have first-fill casks in the mix so that's understandable. The drying peppery note in the later stages of the finish is surprising and quite different, but it doesn't dampen the experience, astringency and dryness can be enjoyable in the right dram, where there's enough character and peaty and/or sweet flavours to carry it, which is the case here. 

That said, given the prices that this 23-year old now commands on the secondary market, I'd be reaching for one of the 25-year olds instead - particularly the 2013 and 2016 batches which both show that floral, fruity, citrus-y side that older Laphroaigs are renowned for. But then, if this 23-year old were to offer the same sort of experience as the regular 25-year old batches, what would've been the point? 

Let's all wish John Campbell all the best in his new role, and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of him soon!

Cheers!

Bunnahabhain Cruach Mhona Whisky Review!

A travel-exclusive Bunnahabhain with a difference - Cruach Mhona in Gaelic translates to 'Peat Stack' in English. Yes, as you've probably guessed by now, it's heavily peated!

Although they're becoming more common these days, peated Bunnahabhains are still something of an oddity. As one of the two Islay distilleries mainly producing unpeated single malt, those unpeated offerings continue to get the attention, while the peated expressions don't enjoy the 'exposure' of equivalent whiskies from the other Islay distilleries - which could be partly due to the fact that their names are all but unpronounceable to the English speaker! Aside from a few limited releases at cask strength and the annual Feis Ile bottlings that are released under the Moine label (which are generally excellent), there are only two peated expressions in the distillery's core range: Ceobanach, meaning 'Smoky Mist', and Toiteach A Dha, meaning 'Smoky Two' - very imaginative, that name must've been chosen on a Friday afternoon! I'm yet to try the latter, but the former - reviewed here - is delicious, and certainly lives up to it's name. Both of those are bottled at 46.3% ABV. Then there's the one peated travel-exclusive, Cruach Mhona, which is bottled at 50% ABV, and in a 1-litre bottle as well. Even in the midst of the pandemic, there is no shortage of travel retail / duty free exclusive bottlings that are decidedly average. Add some pretty packaging and fancy buzzwords to your slower-moving stock and minimal factual information ("matured in oak casks" is still my favourite - that's a legal requirement for all Scotch whisky, remember), and you've got yourself a travel retail bottling. Not so with this Bunnahabhain, though, because this is one of the few travel exclusive hidden gems at this price point - and if you ask me it's a step above its unpeated duty free stable mate, the wine cask-finished Eirigh Na Greine. Outside of travel retail, this one can be found online for around $150 AUD, or if you're managing to travel overseas it'll be around $110 AUD. And that's for a 1-litre bottle at 50% ABV, remember. Oh, and it's non-chill filtered and naturally coloured. Not bad!

Bunnahabhain is a funny one. It's the most remote of the Islay distilleries and the most difficult to access, involving a surprisingly long drive down a single track road with only a couple of passing places, and involving driving straight past the driveways for both Caol Ila and now Ardnahoe. Once you do get there, though, the atmosphere and - if you're lucky with the weather - the view are stunning, with a pebbled shoreline looking straight across the Sound of Islay to Jura and its famous mountains. Bunnahabhain is still in the midst of a massive refurbishment - progress was delayed by world events, of course - including a new visitor's centre, but also the removal of some of the distillery's shorefront warehouses, although apparently the majority of spirit will still be matured on Islay, and the conversion of eight of the old cottages & houses into holiday accommodation. Bunnahabhain has always been a little rundown and 'unkempt' in appearance, so I can understand why it was overdue for a refresh, but that rough & tumble appearance was also part of the distillery's charm, with a stark difference in comparison to some of the more 'polished' Islay distilleries. So it'll be interesting to see how this renovation goes and if any character has been lost when the project is completed. 

We don't see many of their limited release official bottlings in Australia, but it's hard to leave your average corporate liquor retailer without tripping over the 12-year old. Don't get me wrong, that's a decent whisky when on special for around $90-100 AUD, and it's still the distillery's flagship bottling despite a few reportedly forgettable non-age statement offerings trying to push it off the pedestal - as is the trend for all of the larger Islay distilleries these days. There are plenty of independent bottlings out there though, with both peated and unpeated Bunnahabhains from the likes of Gordon & MacPhail and Signatory Vintage, plus cask strength offerings from smaller bottlers like the SMWS and Elements of Islay being held in high regard. Most of the unpeated bottlings are matured in refill or first-fill sherry casks, and even the official bottlings tend to go with refill sherry or refill casks in their unpeated malts, while it's the peated Bunnahabhains that are more often matured in first-fill or refill ex-bourbon casks. While the sherry casks do seem to work well with the Bunnahabhain spirit, when was the last time you saw an unpeated first-fill or refill ex-bourbon cask from the distillery? They're something of a rarity. Having said that, there's no solid information out there regarding what casks Cruach Mhona has been matured in. So we can safely assume that it was refill ex-bourbon casks, but it could be otherwise. So, Cruach Mhona - meaning Peat Stacks - is a travel exclusive (but not so exclusive during plague times!) , heavily peated, bottled at 50% ABV and presented in a 1-litre bottle. Let's see how it stacks up!

Bunnahabhain Cruach Mhona, NAS, 50%. Islay, Scotland.

Travel exclusive (but now more widely available), heavily peated, 1-litre bottle. Non-chill filtered & natural colour.

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Creamy, nutty, peaty. Dry ashy smoke, dry-roasted nuts, bitter dried lemon and a touch of ginger. Vanilla cream and pineapple - alternating between ripe and sour. Black pepper and quite a bit of charred wood. 

Texture: Medium weight. Oily, creamy and peaty. Warming with a touch of heat - it's at 50%, after all. 

Taste: Creamy and peaty - very creamy in fact! More dry ashy smoke, smoked chilli flakes and bitter dried lemon. Smoked vanilla and more charred wood, which heads towards bitterness. 

Finish: Medium length. Hints of that pineapple from the nose, more ginger and more smoked chilli flakes as well. Dry, chunky, earthy peat. Smoked vanilla, and some bitter chocolate orange, then creamy peat to finish. 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: Pleasant, easy-drinking peated Bunnahabhain that fits in well with the other Islays around this price point. It's not the most complex whisky around, and it does sit on the drier side of Islay, but an easy-drinking peated dram is a nice thing to have in the arsenal - provided you like peat, of course. In general retail this Bunnahabhain is more expensive than the entry-level drams from the other Islays, and it sits in the range of Ardbeg Uigeadail, Kilchoman Loch Gorm and a myriad of independent Islay bottlings (Port Askaig 100 Proof, for example) that can offer more "bang for buck" in terms of character and complexity. But none of those are in 1-litre bottles, which does have to be taken into account! That's the advantage of being intended for duty free only, I suppose, and it's the same situation with Laphroaig PX. Both are absolute bargains at their duty free pricing, but when they're released to general retail - which is a common thing these days - they become more expensive than the competition, until you factor in the extra 300ml of whisky in the bottle. Between the three regularly produced Bunnahabhains, Ceobanach, Cruach Mhona and Toiteach, I'd be reaching for the Ceobanach first. But again, that doesn't come in a litre bottle, and it's "only" bottled at 46.3%. So if you like a larger bottle and a higher ABV, perhaps with a little less complexity, you may feel differently!

Peated Bunnahabhains do fly under the radars of most whisky drinkers, and even those of most Islay fans. And much like Bruichladdich, that's largely because the distilleries are renowned for their unpeated mainstays, which get most of the attention because they're great quality, but also because they're the two unpeated Islay whiskies. When peat comes into the equation those distilleries are taking on the larger brands with their dedicated followings, which is a tougher fight. But when given the attention they're due, both from the distillery and parent company and their customers, the peated offerings from both distilleries can be fantastic. Port Charlotte is a great example which has really exploded in popularity since it was relaunched a few years ago, and it often gets more attention now than the same distillery's marketing behemoth that is Octomore. Maybe we'll see a similar re-launch from Bunnahabhain in future? But they do like to play the quiet achiever, so perhaps not, and we do love them for it.  

Cheers!

Cragganmore 20 Year Old Whisky Review!

The cask strength 20-year old Cragganmore from owner Diageo's 2020 Special Releases, and it's a relative bargain - if you can still find it!

I absolutely loved the cask strength peated Cragganmore 12-year old from the previous year's releases (reviewed here). In my opinion it was the hidden gem of the 2019 Special Releases, and despite being the first peated Cragganmore officially released it was very reasonably priced, offering brilliant value for money. As far as I can remember that was the first peated Speyside single malt that Diageo have released in modern times, made all the more special by the distillery's worm tub condensers and the fact that it was bottled at cask strength. I'm sure we'll see more peated releases from the distillery in future, but for the 2020 Special Releases they reverted back to the unpeated whisky that the distillery is known for, and there's no Cragganmore in the 2021 batch of releases that recently launched in Britain and will likely arrive here in mid-2022. Stocks of the 2020 releases are dwindling rapidly, but at the time of writing can still be found in Australia, mostly at the larger branches of our largest liquor retailer. Pricing on this Cragganmore is/was around $220 AUD, which is very reasonable for a cask strength 20-year old limited release in this day & age. I suppose we can thank the lesser-known distillery name for that, since it doesn't have the popularity and "sexy-ness" of the other names in the Diageo stables - for example, the 21-year old Mortlach from the same year's special releases is at the opposite end of the spectrum, selling for five-times that amount at around $1,100 AUD. 

There was some confusion surrounding the casks that were used in this release, as there has been with a few other examples of Diageo's Special Releases over the years - the 15-year old Talisker from 2019 for example (reviewed here), which was reported by quite a few PR agencies, press releases and bloggers to be matured in virgin oak casks. But that didn't sound right to me, and turned out to be entirely incorrect since it was actually matured in freshly charred (a.k.a. re-charred) refill American oak casks. And quite a few on the interweb have done the same with this 20-year old Cragganmore, reporting that it was matured in both refill casks and "new fresh-charred American oak casks", with "new" referring to virgin oak. And again, that didn't sound right to me - just like I couldn't see Diageo filling Talisker into virgin oak casks for fifteen years of maturation, I really can't see Diageo maturing a Cragganmore in virgin oak casks for two decades, even if it was only a component part of the final vatting. A short finishing period or a component part of a much younger release perhaps (2019's 11-year old Cardhu for example), but spending fifteen to twenty years in charred virgin oak, even in a cold & damp dunnage warehouse in Scotland, would be likely to overwhelm the spirit character and distillery character of just about any whisky - and I'm trying to resist the urge to mention bourbon here! Such a practice would defeat the purpose of releasing the whisky in the first place, particularly in the case of Diageo's Special Release program where the idea is to showcase the distilleries in a different way to their core range, if only by bottling them at higher strengths and with more natural presentation. And, just like the aforementioned Talisker 15-year old, it turns out that once again this whisky was not fully- or partly-matured in charred virgin oak casks, but rather in refill casks, some of which were freshly re-charred. Phew, that's a relief.  

Not everyone got it wrong of course, and I certainly don't think I'm the whisky industry's knight in shining armour, but plenty did, and I'm glad they were mistaken! Why? Because we want that Cragganmore spirit character and distillery character to still be present in this whisky, even at the substantial age of 20-years. The distillery's unusual flat-topped spirit stills with their downward-angled lyne arms, intentionally run quicker than usual to reduce copper contact and reflux, and the traditional worm tub condensers that are fitted to all four stills, give Cragganmore a deeper, richer, spicier texture than most of the neighbouring Speyside distilleries. This is not quite a meaty, dirty or sulphurous spirit like that of Mortlach, Craigellachie or Benrinnes, which are also equipped with worm tubs, but the extra depth and richness of the Cragganmore spirit that is intentionally a little rough around the edges - especially when served up at cask strength - has a great character to it, and those edges do generally become more rounded with each year of maturation. In fact if memory serves this is the second-oldest official bottling (i.e. from Diageo) of Cragganmore that we've seen to date, only beaten by the 25-year old Special Release from 2014. So, a 20-year old Cragganmore, unpeated, matured in refill casks and bottled at a cask strength of 55.8% ABV, without added colouring or chill filtration. The sample for this review came from a generous fellow-whisky nerd. Shall we?

Cragganmore 20-year old Cask Strength, 55.8%. Speyside, Scotland.

2020 Diageo Special Releases. Unpeated, matured in refill casks, some of which were re-charred. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Malty, lightly fruity & honeyed, spicy. Dry gristy (dusty) malt, touch of savoury honey-roasted nuts and a hefty pinch of pepper. Orange oil, freshly polished wooden furniture, and unsweetened bubble gum, the old cornflour-dusted pink stuff. Slight floral touches around the edges as well. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight, quite oily, spicy. Lightly drying & astringent. Some heat, needs substantial breathing time, but calms down nicely. 

Taste: Big pinch of pepper again, olive oil, more bubble gum and polished/varnished wood. Drying wood spices, and dried red chilli. Dried orange peel and malty biscuits - rich tea biscuits? 

Finish: Medium length. Drying astringency with some pepper and chilli, touch of pencil shavings. Orange oil again. Dry, gristy, biscuity malt and those savoury honey-roasted nuts again to finish. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: It's a spicy little number, both in terms of flavour and also spirit-y heat, even after substantial breathing time. But it certainly has the flavour and texture to carry that heat & spice and the result is very enjoyable. It's also quite a dry & biscuit-y malt, which I do enjoy, especially when it's in a viscous, oily dram like this Cragganmore. It'll probably calm down after even more breathing time, since the owner tells me it was rather hot & closed-off to begin with, but it's definitely showing itself well now. That slight roughness just adds to the character, and it's not distracting or annoying - largely thanks to the texture and flavour that are there in spades. Probably not ideal for a relative newcomer, though, heading towards the challenging whisky territory - no bad thing!

This 20-year old certainly isn't on the level of the 2019 peated 12-year old, but that's hardly a fair comparison. Both have been very reasonably priced for the quality and character that they offer, and this is certainly a worthy purchase if you manage to find one sitting on a shelf before they're all gone. 

Cheers!